Atherton: Higher fees raise big-picture questions

Does the rather odd remark at the near end of this article concerning Public Records requests reflect in some way , the Almanac's frustration in it's effort to obtain Town documents??-- or will the concept of ECONOMY--become a new reason for skimpy reporting on Atherton???

$400 to erect a banner at Marsh and Middlefield? Come on!
Oh I get it. First they call the "union" sign erection agency. $100 ka-ching! Then they send out a union sign placement inspector with survey equipment, $100 ka-ching! Then the union sign erection scheduler ($40 ka-ching, ) schedules the union laborer to actually do the erecting. Then the actual sign erector appears to take the hour to erect the sign. $160 ka-ching!
Now my tax payer money saving idea is to have 2 unemployed teens who are looking for a job locally to hang the dang sign. Probably costs only $100 total. Couple of ladders and 2 orange vests and there you go! This is called Common Sense, which apparently we've lost track of.

I'd be happy to charge only $300 to hang the signs.