Members of the governance and structure advisory committees keep assuring the public that they aren’t going to be making any decisions that affect the citizens of Coos County. We are told the committee will only be making recommendations and the decision making they say, will be left entirely up to the commissioners who can presumably choose to ignore their findings. Technically, whereas the committee formed to select commissioner Fred Messerle was “empowered”, at least on some level, to make the choice for a new commissioner, any changes will require a vote of at least two commissioners but it is obvious the committees expect to have an influence the board and it is reasonable for the voters to expect the same.
In the end, however, just as the outcome of the commissioner selection committees was predetermined, these committees are just a sham, a smokescreen and charade to enable the Coos County Board of Commissioners to pull off an unpopular political coup and defer the blame. Despite the best efforts of The World newspaper to legitimize these committees and their grade school level analyses there is nothing legitimate about what is happening at the county.
While I blame Bob Main 100% for the appointments of Cam Parry and Fred Messerle, two right wing ideologues, to join him on the board I am not 100% certain it is working out exactly the way he thought it would. Even though he voted to go along with these committees he may not have thought it all the way through because if Parry and Messerle vote to hire an executive to administer the county Main will be forced to relinquish some of the authority vested in him by the voters, (and for which he is paid), to this new CEO. Main, who I understand is a double dipper, along with the other commissioners may be expected to take a pay cut.
Anyone who has done business with the county already knows about the interdepartmental communication problems, it didn’t take a committee to ferret that out. Anyone who has ever tried to track down a commissioner knows they don’t spend any time on public administration. Parry is up in the stratosphere chasing carbon credits and Messerle is plodding back and forth to his ranch and Main, well, no one actually has any clue what he does because he doesn’t often do it at the courthouse and closely guards his calendar. I am filing a public records request for all three commissioners calendars and their expense reports but encourage others to do so as well. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what we pay them for?
In the end, even if Coos County is able to entice and afford a highly qualified and dynamic and professional public administrator the county will still need competent, qualified and honest commissioners that the voters can trust.
My understanding is that the board could hire an executive without a vote of the people but to add two commissioners or move to a home rule system would require a vote. It is actually a pretty fuzzy matter should the commissioners choose to relinquish the job (at least one of them) was elected for and swore and oath to uphold. Do they then recant that oath, or take a new one?
Last I checked only Bob has filed to run and perhaps the other two plan to stay just long enough to do this and then move on to greener pastures
They want to privatize government Den, every bit of it they can. They hate government, they want to “drown it in a bathtub”, in MY opinion.
The committees are just a part of the plan, you know, the citizens’ fresh new ideas. Rubbish. They want to prvatize the entire thing, then cut wages, gut the unions, and walk away.
I just wish they all had the courage to move to Haiti, a righties wet dream, no government regulations or control at all. But they don’t have what it takes to do so, so they will fight like hell to get INTO governent, then destroy it on their way OUT.
Pretty much the way I see it. They’re just playing games, thinking you are too stooopid to notice what they are doing.
They subscribe to the Americans For Prosperity crowd, further right than the Tea Baggers, these guys really do want to privatize all of government, education, waste, roads, pretty much everything. Including Veterans Benefits, they want to put them in a 401K style program. Because that’s worked so well for the US worker. It’s kind of like the Chamber of Consorts wants to run the county, and will if the citizens don’t start paying attention.
Only two will vote that way, IMO, but wouldn’t it require a vote of the people?
I, As yet do not understand the advantage of a administrator system over the current 3 commissioners. The cost for an administrator, plus the benefit pkg. will be about the same as having three paid commissioners. When the administrator is let go early there are the additional benefit pkg. all the property tax payers have to pay.
So why are the 3, now, going to vote themselves out of a job.