In this time of limited resources, I would urge police Chief George Gascón to meet with representatives of the Patrol Special Police toward possibly working in partnership with this organization to help address San Francisco’s safety needs. Patrol Special Police are the only private neighborhood policing service screened by background checks conducted by the S.F. Police Department, annually trained at the S.F. Police Academy and regulated by the Police Commission.
Patrol Special Police provide the only private safety service that is legally permitted to patrol The City’s streets and is on police-radio frequencies. They have been in existence since 1847 and are paid by private clients such as merchants, professionals, homeowners’ associations, residents, street-fair organizers and government agencies.
Patrol Special Police charge about $48 per hour as opposed to the off-duty police officer program, which charges up to $109 per hour.
Judi Iranyi, San Francisco
Card check is protection
Card-check recognition will not take away the right of workers to have a secret ballot election. It will give them back the choice between that or card check, just like President Franklin Roosevelt gave us. That way, employers will not have time to fire workers for spearheading the organizing effort, which is what they do now. They use the time it takes to schedule an election as an opportunity to fire those who are pro-union.
Mike Benardo, San Francisco
Paying for entitlement
With a 10 percent sales tax, I can quickly conclude that the $89.99 Mario Batali pancetta grill is really a $100 fry pan. But I am discouraged from including the tax as part of the cost. Instead, I am told that the tax buys social good, a separate item.
When more than one-third of our labor is demanded as the tax for social good, should we not then consider the true cost of entitlement?
Paul Burton, San Francisco
Bad deal on nuke storage
In a political payoff to Nevada’s beleaguered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, President Barack Obama canceled the Yucca Mountain project after $10 billion had been spent constructing a safe storage underground site for nuclear waste from 104 U.S. nuclear plants. Steven Chu, Obama’s energy secretary and a longtime science-based Yucca supporter, now backs this illogical cancellation based on politics.
Two months ago, Obama promised a “new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants.” Under law, no safe storage means no additional power plants. Utility customers have paid for safe nuclear storage since 1982. What we got is a $10 billion empty ditch that now requires filling under environmental law.
Jim Hartman, Berkeley
