Last month, City Council found out that city administrator Tom Haglund had continued merrily giving so-called merit raises even though he had been told to cut costs across the board. Thirty-one employees received raises totaling $130,000 while the city slid into the red.

Former city administrator Jay Baksa says that routine merit raises are standard practice in Gilroy and at other government agencies in the Bay Area. Similarly, current city administrator Tom Haglund says he was merely perpetuating Gilroy's policy.

The City Council directed Mr. Haglund to stop giving merit raises for the time being. Now union reps are calling this action an illegal freeze on merit raises. They are threatening to sue. So city council will be holding a closed-door meeting to discuss policy change.

I wish I could call this whole scenario unbelievable or incredible. Unfortunately, it is entirely believable that a government bureaucrat will continue giving raises while tax revenue disappears. It is completely credible that unions will threaten lawsuits while unemployment surges.

Government bureaucrats and unions always want more money. When the economy can support spending, they spend like drunken sailors. And now that the economy has tanked, they fight like caged rats over the dregs.

In other news, council has decided 6-1 against Craig Gartman's proposal to bring all four unions, the City Council, city officials, and residents into a huge brainstorming session for budget proposals. Both Councilman Dion Bracco and AFSCME representative Tina Acree said it would just be "a pissing match" between the unions.

I guess Gartman's hope that union members could act like civilized, adult human beings in considering options to weather this economic downturn is unrealistic. I certainly trust union rep Acree's judgment when it comes to predicting how her group members will behave.

The one good thing about the economic downturn is that it is causing scrutiny of the sacred cows of government bureaucracy. Alas, so far, there is no sign that government agencies are actually going to be trimmed. Instead, we have bailouts and so-called stimulus packages that seem likely to jointly destroy the last vestige of private enterprise in this country.

These are interesting times, in the sense of the Chinese proverb. These times have all the horrid fascination of a cannibal feast. Too bad our economy is the corpse.

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I have not managed to find time to track down any actual information about the six measures on the ballot for the May 19 special election. When I do, I will be guided by a few principles.

If it raises taxes, I will vote against it. If it lowers taxes, I will vote for it.

If it increases gerrymandering, I will vote against it.

If it increases ballot box budgeting, I will vote against it.

Unlike Lisa Pampuch, I think the gubernatorial recall election of 2003 was a marvelous thing. I just think the wrong man won. We had a choice between another tax-and-spend liberal Democrat, a tax-and-spend liberal Republican-In-Name-Only, and a fiscal conservative, Tom McClintock.

I voted for the fiscal conservative; Lisa cannot remember who she voted for. The RINO won, and surprise! he is acting like a liberal tax-and-spend RINO.

That is the wonderful thing about democracy: we get exactly the government we deserve. So long as people keep voting for good-looking, pie-in-the-sky politicians who promise to tax the rich and give the bread and circuses to voters, we are going to get bigger government bureaucracies and higher taxes.

So long as we expect the government to take care of us, and the more money and power we give them, the more likely they are to oppress us.

The more we gut the military, the more vulnerable we are to our enemies.

Cynthia Walker Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every Friday.