Coos Media Center has the latest May 24, 2011, BOC budget work session and board meeting available online.
The commission has established two ill defined “exploratory” committees, one to presumably evaluate how the county departments operate and another to explore whether the county should restructure administratively. (At least that is what it sounds like, because they are so far very poorly defined). The committees may then call upon paid consultants to… well, do something to the tune of $75,000 or more. It was rightly argued from the audience that the commissioners are paid to do the very thing for which they want to hire outside consultants.
Messerle and Parry both emphasized that “we only have one shot at this”. The “this” is ill defined but appears to be a movement toward converting the county to some form of home rule that may or may not include five commissioners and a paid executive. More likely, it is a move toward privatizing as many public services as possible. (Read how privatizing school buses worked out in Yoncalla).
Messerle and Parry regard the formation of committees as a way of including the public in the process. One of the best ways to involve the public in local government is to hold public hearings. Rather than appointing a select group of citizens to a committee hold a series of public hearings on these matters and let the public really weigh in.
Messerle appears to be just casting out to the universe and offers no more specifics about county problems beyond “revenue is flat, cost of service is rising” and claims to have no clear path to solutions. “I have no idea what this will look like, I believe the discussion and the development of the process will shake that out. Frankly I don’t think I should, nobody should because we have to be open minded about this… my sense is the discussion will lead us to the answers”.
So we have two self professed “business guys” casting bromides to the wind about how to run a government. (Main, the only one with government experience, was not in attendance during the budget work session). Parry declares the county is run on a 1950s model but doesn’t offer any examples. Messerle makes a point of listing the differences between business and government, like government “only provides services” and has “no sales force to deal with”. (Thanks to Shawn Jennings for pointing out that government is not, in fact, a business).
Many thanks should be offered to budget panel member Don Peabody for calling out the lack of goals and specifics proffered by Messerle. “That’s a horrible attitude to take”, Peabody tells Messerle. “We are going to go spend $75,000 and we have no stated goals? We have no plan for how that money the county is going to spend is going to lead us to any goal. I’ve been on the street a long time and I’ve got to tell you that these type of consultant studies are a) not very successful and b) are a public relations nightmare especially in public (inaudible)… I will not support that”. (Yeah! Somebody should appoint Peabody to the feasibility study addicted Port commission).
Unfortunately, Peabody was but one vote and money has now been allocated to fund an idea gathering fishing trip that should be done through a series of public hearings held during the evening when more of the public are able to attend. The road advisory committee appears to be empowered with some decision making capabilities and there was talk of doing the same for some of these new committees. Governance by committees of non elected appointees is just another form of privatization.
Again, I repeat that government requires an entirely different decision making calculus than running a business.
Welcome to third world amaraka. They’re just picking at your bones now.
Well gee golly then “Ol Fred Messerle, you said you “hit the ground running”, are you now telling us you didn’t know where you were running TO? Gee Fred, that looks funny to me. I’m not buyin it Fred. You know exactly where you’re going, your wife and your brother paved the way for you , member? Just follow that light at the end of the tunnel, which is studded with the publics’ dollars crapped out by SCDC and The Port and The Railroad to Nowhere, and the gold company that will put our gold back into dump trucks and bury it, ‘cuz they installed state of the art machinery to spin out the gold and platinum, but they ain’t gonna use it, right? those guys paved it for you Fred. Running my old arse, stealth is more like it.
Here’s one for Cam and Fred and I don’t know where Main is, but is this really where we want to take Coos County? Just switch the names around a bit and there you are, government run by committees and studies:
05.31.11 – 10:54 AM
Is Our Children Learning?
by Abby Zimet
A new analysis shows New York’s Department of Education is spending $1 billion on “consultants” – including one who made $374,000 to help mid-level managers “adapt to change” from his home in Nova Scotia. DOE spending on outside consultants has soared 455%. Meanwhile, they are now laying off 4,100 teachers. Priorities, people.
What is wrong with these clowns thinking they have a handle on the governing of Coos County? Have they even visited all of the Departments they supervise? Andy did. Bob did. I guess we know who THEY represent!!
Maybe what they mean by “only one shot” is they aren’t certain they will be reelected. Instead of taking a “do no harm” approach during their interim status they are going for the gusto in the short time available to them.
Agreed, I was once a Republican. As for silliness, it is everywhere. Now you can’t dance at the Jefferson Memorial because one judge doesn’t believe it is solemn reverence for the champion of the first amendment.
Not all Republicans or former Republicans are alike. I eagerly await my ballot of May 2012. There should be at least 20 candidates to replace Parry and Messerle and Main. At least one will be an experienced county commissioner. The world has gone crazy. Even my one time leader – the pope – wants one world order – disolving governments except for the UN. If you want the epitome of silliness, check out http://www.charlotteobserver.com – search “Albermarle Road church fined $100 per branch for excessive tree cutting”. Its not LNG factories and pipelines and slaughterhouses. It’s their trees, on their property, properly pruned.
@dragon nicely put!
@themguys do not despair just yet. Admittedly it looks grim but “those guys” aren’t the only ones who can plan ahead
Since I’ve given up all hope of this county being anything more than it is right now, I’m just going to sit back and watch the show.
They are definitely up to something, and I agree, this ain’t happenin’ herky jerky at all. This is some slick stuff going down. I’m not quite sure yet what it is, but it’s definitely a plan. I’m more inclined to agree, this is some kind of movement to take control of the county once and for all. I think the Big Boys have had enough of you rabble in the streets. When Cam opened his mouth and started talking running the county “like a business” I went, Bingo, that’s it. What IT is ain’t exactly clear.
All of this is going down like they planned. Slick As Snot.
Does Messerle have an agenda? Are you kidding me? Watch the video of the May 24th Budget Committee meeting at http://coosmediacenter.pegcentral.com/. Start at 40 minutes, where Messerle says, “Well I’ve been waiting a long time to be able to talk.”
His agenda is the Republican agenda for America — take all power away from the people and concentrate it in their own hands. Messerle wants one-man rule. After the stacked committee offers its recommendations, unelected new guy Messerle will push hard for replacing the Board of Commissioners with a County Administrator and five part-time rubber stampers. And what about Cam Parry?
Cam is Messerle’s sock puppet. Remember Shari Lewis and Lambchop? Cam is Messerle’s Lambchop. But, what about Bob Main?
Bob who?
What seems clear to me is that the agenda was laid out probably before Nikki passed and possibly was part of the plan behind picking Parry.
The two appointed commissioners are place holders until the public can vote next year. They have received no mandate from the public to begin enacting sweeping changes and should just be holding the fort until an election.
Two things. If Messerle has “no idea what this will look like”, ie has no plan, what the hell did apply for the job for?
Next, does he really expect people to believe he doesn’t have a full blown agenda all laid out already?