Have you ever said something so monumentally stupid, so mind-numbingly insensitive that you want to crawl under a rock and hide? If you’re lucky, those slip-ups are private. But in the case of Madera Supervisor David Rogers, not only did he say something epically dumb; he said it multiple times— in public— in front of video cameras.
“I’d like to point out to the general public… most of you don’t have to run for a year and spend $50K to get this position,” said Supervisor David Rogers. “So it’s uh, it takes a lot of work to be in this dais and be in this position…”
Once Supervisors Rogers started his roll, there was no stopping him.
“I don’t expect people to target me because they think I need to take a reduction in pay. I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going to.”
Supervisor Rogers’ remarkably ignorant comments have earned him a dunce cap. And we have the video in this article to prove it.
Background:
This supervisorial foot-in-mouth moment came after several current and former county employees complained about a proposed 16.9% increase in salary for the vacant Auditor-Controller position.
These county employees, speaking for the first three minutes of the video, have either been forced into early retirement or have absorbed a 10% reduction in pay. They had the audacity to ask the Board of Supervisors to NOT approve the raise at the expense of county employee morale and out of fairness.
How dare they.
Supervisor Rogers’ Response can be broken into two sections. The first, from minutes 3:20 to 4:40, was actual, fact-based reasoning as to why the Board felt it necessary to approve the raise. But at 4:41, the wheels came off the wagon. The rationale then became a tirade. And for just under the next three minutes, Supervisor Rogers proves he isn’t worth the $50,000 he spent to win his seat on the board.
“You’re not in the same position I’m in. When you have to run every four years and spend $50k, then come and talk to me. It will be a different situation.”
Here’s a recommendation for Supervisor Rogers:
Resign and ask for a refund. If sitting on the dais is such an inconvenience; if being asked to take a pay cut or apply a doctrine of fairness is so unacceptably displeasing; if you resent the fact that you CHOSE to run for the board, and spend both the $50,000 and year campaigning, then do your County a favor and leave.
It would be in the County’s best interest to give you a refund of your $50,000 and pay for a special election to place someone in the District 2 Seat who cares about and understands public service.
At least fellow Supervisor Ronn Diminici understands:
“As one supervisor, I don’t have a problem with people coming up here and whether I agree with them or don’t agree with them, they have a right to speak,” said Diminici. “No disrespect to you, Mr. Rogers, but I don’t like to see the public put down because they choose to say how they feel. This is America, they have the right to say what they feel.”
It’s a little less than two weeks until the next Supervisor meetings. Let’s see if Rogers does the barest-minimum of the right thing and apologizes. One can only hope.