Commissioners Fred Messerle and Cam Parry both applied for their interim positions claiming to qualified and ready for the job. During their respective interviews neither one hinted at wanting to change the number of commissioners, or wanting to hire an executive or of relying on select advisory committees revamp and restructure departments. Quite the contrary, Parry wanted a regular ‘cafe with the commissioners’ and Messerle talked about being open and transparent and in both instances I am willing to wager both interim commissioners, with the paternal guidance of Bob Main, believe that they are being open and transparent.
Only after they were appointed did their respective agendas begin to emerge. Parry began by immediately insulting and criticizing the employees, the department heads and all the commissioners before him. He is very subtle, of course, and oh so gentle and sweet about it but also speaks with authority, as if he is now an undisputed expert on how a county government should operate. “This county is still operating in the 1950s,” he declares but fails to offer any examples.
When I recently queried Parry about what he means when he says the county needs to be run like a business and what business model he believes the county should use, he eventually admitted that the county just needs to do more strategic planning. Again, there is an implied insult that the county has not heretofore done any long term planning but this may not be true. Randy Sanne has reviewed the last audited financial statement for the county and Coos County presently has more than $54 million in cash reserves and investments. Think what you will about government operations but Coos County is in a much stronger position than our neighbors Curry and Jackson County and clearly, some planning had to be done to put this much money aside for a ‘rainy day’.
It could probably be argued that those funds are for public services prepaid by the taxpayer. Services that are now being withheld from the public by virtue of cuts and employee layoffs implemented by this commission. Most economists agree that reducing spending during a down economy only weakens the economy further. Long term strategies that include layoffs should include a fiscal impact analysis. Did our business minded commissioners really think through the impact of layoffs and service reductions against possibly tapping into the reserve to help maintain services while other revenue sources can be found?
Messerle effectively admitted within barely a breath of having been appointed that he required guidance and requested $75,000 be set aside to hire a consultant to advise the commissioners on how to govern. Further he requested the formation of advisory committees to cover forestry, governance and structure and set about appointing individuals associated with SCDC, FONSI and the Chamber of Commerce, groups which have been tied to or promoted some of Coos County’s biggest economic development failures. Why
One of the interesting things about watching national politics is to look for local parallels. Why, for example, did Obama retain most of the same defense and economic advisers used by the Bush administration? Why elect someone new without something new? The formation of these advisory committees rings eerily similar to the new “Super Congress” in which a total of twelve Senators and House members, six each from both main parties (no independents, I guess) will make decisions regarding future budget cuts. The real aim of the Super Congress is to take the heat off the House and Senate during elections by claiming, “oh, well I had little choice, the committee decided that.”
Bob Main tried to convince me that Messerle was chosen by the selection committee and continues to try and convince public broadcasting viewers that he had nothing to do with the picks of either Parry or Messerle. Nobody is buying it and for those who worked so hard to elect Main and bring about real change on the commission, he has been a huge disappointment that will not be forgotten next election. So now we have a set of identical triplets, all white male conservative Republicans, two of which aren’t even elected, leading the county toward a path of conservative anti-government simplistic knee-jerk reactions to very complex problems.
So what are they up to with these committees? Why not hold public hearings first and form committees later? Part of the answer may be in a curious remark made by Parry in May, during a regular BOC meeting. “We only have one shot at this,” he said. The “this” was never defined and the commissioners may not even know themselves instead preferring to leave it up to their friends on the committees. One thing is clear, they believe they have to ram something through before the end of their term next year.
Alan, did you see the chart M posted regarding who pays what in this county? It looked to me that business interests in this county are not paying their fair share. Why don’t we do away with the tax-free zones and start taxing corporations equal if not more for using our land and water?
Seems fair to me, instead of trying to drown your own government. Funny how those who seem to despise their own government try so hard to be part OF it.
How about fairing up the taxes in the county before we let you guys in the pool?
I’m with Gene on this one. These guys have presided over nothing but major economic howlers all at the public’s cost. Barton should hide his head in shame. How many of these committee members have any actual government experience? Being fat cat business hopefuls doesn’t make them qualified to define what is broken much less to fix it.
If trying to help means stacking bogus committees with SCDC members, then yes you all should get more public stoning if this is what you think stoning is. Being a member of SCDC sets you in the camp of known conspirators and corrupt individuals who take tax dollars for their own personal gain, period. The group you appear to associate yourself with has zero credibility with providing anything useful for the county or this community.You should disband your committees and lets see Main,Parry, and Messerle do the job, not pass the buck.
No one is stoning anyone for trying to help or stoning anyone period. The committees, by virtue of how they have been formed MUST comply with public meeting law, period. If these were ad hoc groups getting together at hearings scattered around the county there would be much more flexibility with a much wider perspective of the problems.
Again, the drop box could hold a copy of the new testament and it would still have to be accessible to the public so that the public knows what your committee is working with as it formulates its recommendations. This is not a criticism of people’s sincere intentions to help the county it is simply a matter of law. Disbanding the formal committee structure in favor of an ad hoc group getting together to formulate a proposal for the board would be just as effective without the risk of breaking the law. Happily, others are doing just that
I believe the intent of creating these committees now is to avoid knee-jerk decision making, which is exactly what we’ll see if we wait until next year to address these issues. And as a reminder: the committees are well-intentioned citizens who have volunteered their time and energies to assist the county in developing a business model that will sustain county services within this current economic climate and beyond. We have no other “agenda” other than to help our county. We do not have and will not have proprietary information in our Dropbox and everything that is there today is public domain information that anyone can download at anytime outside of the Dropbox. I hope, for the sake of my fellow committee members, that they will be spared the usual public stoning for trying to help.
Alan, I am not sure where it is written that ‘rainy day’ funds are set aside for natural disasters, however, in the event a natural disaster occurs, as they have in the past, application is made for federal assistance. Further, no one is suggesting dipping into rainy day funds without a long term strategy, i.e. increasing revenue, etc..
The county has had ten years to prepare for the loss of the O&C payments and like other non O&C counties could legally have raised property taxes 3% per year, done away with costly and non profitable urban renewal districts and enterprise zones and fairly reassessed industrial timberland to name just a few things.
Knee jerk cuts at the last minute are not the only alternatives available.
The rainy day fund is for a rainy day. And a rainy day is a devastating forest fire, flood, tsunami, earthquake, etc. This economic climate is beginning to look more like the status quo than a “downturn” and it would behove all levels of government to come to terms with this reality. Spending this money now and in future years to close a budget gap would be a reckless gamble of the taxpayer’s money. The Feds are successfully destroying the dollar, so that rainy day fund will, in real terms, be worth much less six months from now than it is today. Even less a year from now. We can no longer afford to run our governments on wishful thinking and fuzzy math. If our county can sustain a healthy balance sheet then we’ll be one of the few in the state – perhaps the country – that will have one.
The road department receives funds from Federal Forest and from Coos Bay Wagon Road. A few years ago it totaled $1.2 Million, this year is is only $528 thousand and if there is no restoration of funds there will be no income in 2013.
The road dept doesn’t receive funds from timber money
Most of the money in the LGIP is set aside for specific projects, but there is some that is “in the savings account”. Just like with your personal accounts, you have to have money set aside. The Road Department was trying to do that when they laid off employees; if nothing had been done at that time, they would have had to lay off even more once the timber money is really gone. But, Bob Main, in his quest to “get back at the Road Dept.”, said the Road Department should spend their reserve now, even though the General Fund has many millions in their reserve. What’s good for the goose, in Main’s opinion, isn’t necessarily what’s good for the gander.
What does Bob have against the Road Dept? Or is it “who” at the Rd Dept?
it is an investment fund, not much different than a savings account
Local government investment pool? What exactly does that entail? Looks like the same kind of tricky sheet you would throw together to get a NINJA loan.