Red Phone, I was left with some old American flags when I bought
my house. They are not in good shape and cannot be flown. I know
there is a proper way to dispose of the flag, I just cannot
remember. Do you know anything about this?
”
“Red Phone, I was left with some old American flags when I bought my house. They are not in good shape and cannot be flown. I know there is a proper way to dispose of the flag, I just cannot remember. Do you know anything about this?”
& Red Phone: Dear Patriotic American, there are a couple of things you can do to properly dispose of your old flags. First, you can take them to the Veteran’s Building, 76 W. 6th St., Gilroy. The number there is (408) 842-4913. Or, you can contact Boy Scout Troop 792, and there are several ways to do that. Go to www.gilroyscouting.org, click on flag retirement and fill out the online form and hit send. They will make arrangements to pick up the flag. You can also contact them via e-mail at tr******@***oo.com or call 842-2526.
Good caller, hope that answers your question.
Raise money by issuing tickets
“All we have been hearing recently is that the city and county need more money. If they need more money I have a solution. Pull more people over for talking on their cell phones without a hands free device. This will raise the revenue of the city and county. I always see people getting away with this law. We need to act.”
& Red Phone: Dear Pull ’em Over, Red Phone answered this question a few months ago, and while on the surface it appears to be a good idea, it would take an inordinate amount of officers writing tickets to make a dent in the city’s deficit, now at $775,000.
For example, the local jurisdiction where a ticket is issued receives 89 percent of the base fine, not the additional penalties, fees and assessments, which can add up to 280 percent of the base fine. Therefore a violation with a $100 base fine actually costs the violator $456 plus money for traffic school; however, out of the $456, the local jurisdiction receives about $88, or just 19 percent of the sum of fines, penalties, and fees. The department has 37 sworn officers, but some of those are watch commanders and detectives who rarely write traffic citations. So, if we take the 20 officers assigned to patrol the city and put them solely on traffic patrol, each officer would have to write 440 tickets a year, which comes out to about two every work day. And while that seems reasonable, it would mean taking those officers off more important duties, such as catching real criminals. Red Phone believes there are other ways to balance the budget, and that means seeing our local governments and tax supported agencies becoming leaner and more efficient.
Hope that answers your question, good caller.
