Mailbag: Everyone responsible for safety on the road

Make no mistake, the new color code for the evacuation orders does not change this one bit (“Storm forces more to flee,” Feb. 27). Some nameless, faceless bureaucrat will decide when and if the homeowner will be allowed to return to his home. How much credibility does this bureaucrat have when one of the latest rounds of “mandatory evacuations” was called because of a rain that left two-hundredths of an inch of water? Or, ordering the evacuation of a home not in any danger, but only because the road to it may be blocked.

It is clear that the orders for “mandatory evacuation” are not based on sound reasoning and logic. These orders were described by the sheriff’s spokeswoman as an “inconvenience.” I disagree.

I believe that when the government issues these evacuation orders on such flimsy excuses as have been done recently, this “inconvenience” reaches the level of a taking under the U.S. Constitution. Such taking does not have to be permanent or complete.

Perhaps if the bureaucrats who are making these orders had to write a check for the cost of this “inconvenience,” a bit more reason and logic might be employed before citizens are barricaded out of their homes.

I have lived in this city since before it was a city, and I have never heard the level of dissatisfaction with public services and local government that I have heard in the last few months. The Forest Service, Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department, Public Works and the City Council have all been the subject of intensely negative feelings and discussions.

JAMES K. KILL

La Cañada Flintridge