Editorials

Cheers to organizers, volunteers and the more than 80,000 who attended the 33rd version of the annual Mushroom Mardi Gras.

Let’s see if this makes sense. The city’s recommended budget for the upcoming fiscal year adds nearly $2 million in services and two full-time positions, and the city has given raises to nearly all employees the past several years. Now they will be looking to reduce employee costs as negotiations with all three labor unions will begin soon.

If Proposition 29 is approved by California’s voters, the tax on cigarettes in the state will increase by $1 to $1.87 per pack. The additional tax revenue will be used to fund cancer research, smoking reduction programs and tobacco law enforcement. And that’s a good thing, whether the research is done in California or anywhere else.

Cheers to 1989 Live Oak High School grad Jill Sudduth Smith, who last Saturday was enshrined in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She won a gold medal in synchronized swimming team event at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, Ga.

Morgan Hill is currently drawing up a contract with Calfire to provide fire protection services to the city and it’s something other cities in the county should seriously consider.

As law enforcement investigators continue their search for missing teen Sierra LaMar, day after day, week after week, hundreds of volunteers continue to show up to help in the efforts coordinated by the KlaasKids Foundation. They search, they organize fundraisers and they continue to get the word out. The outpouring of support is heartening, and unprecedented.

The City Council made a procedural decision recently that – while legal and within its right – was a bit disturbing in its lack of transparency, something the council prides itself upon.

The recent news that 30 employees at City Hall are getting a raise is troubling on several fronts.

Cheers to the Cochrane Plaza Farmers Market that opened last month in the parking lot of the Cochrane Plaza shopping center, and boosts 32 registered vendors with the potential for 50, with a variety of colorful fruits, seasonal vegetables, flowers, honey and a farmers market favorite, fresh-popped kettle corn.

For more than two decades, hundreds of residents and avid hikers looked forward to the annual trek up El Toro mountain, known to longtime residents as Murphy’s Peak. But, the threat of a lawsuit has curtailed the hike for the second consecutive year.