One of the biggest complaints I hear from the current commission is just how difficult it is to run the county without being able to consult with one another about the “nuts and bolts” of running the county without violating public meetings law. An argument could be made that solutions to this obstruction can be found by a) letting the department heads do their jobs, and provide them with spending authority and let them manage their own budgets so the commissioners aren’t dealing with nuts and bolts and b) hold more public meetings, like every week instead of twice a month. The commissioner used to meet once a week and if they really want to just talk shop this would be a perfect venue to do so.
Commissioner Parry spoke at the most recent governance advisory committee meeting and revealed his persistent and studied disconnect regarding the difference between public administration, i.e. running the county and business management, i.e. running Apple Computer. [Begins at 27:15]
Below is a word cloud and the transcript of Parry’s comments. Maybe someone else can make sense out of it but perhaps one of the problems with the county is Parry talks a lot but he doesn’t really say anything.
Committee member: Can we have an opportunity to talk with the commissioners specifically about the findings?
Parry: Certainly, you could absolutely talk to them individually, certainly you could talk to them publicly.. it is um, I would imagine.. what I have heard, its my understanding that the structure committee will be making a presentation to the board probably in January at some point, that’s kind of what I have heard that they are thinking about doing. Um, it all boils down to, you and I talked many times before we got rolling on this and its, how do we figure out a way to better serve the people, I mean there’s two separate things, there is a lot of overlap certainly in what you guys will recommend but then also you’re going to be making your own very clean, separate recommendations about actual governance. What is that going to look like? Is that going to stay three commissioners? Or go to a five-commissioner model? Um, the easiest way I can tell you what we have to deal with every day is the other day the amount of attorneys I had to talk to just to relay messages to the other commissioners on things we are working on that are just, they are not, um, it’s just things to move forward. We are talking general business information that the other commissioners need to know just so they can make a good decision. I can’t sit down, I can’t go Bob, I can’t go Fred here’s what we are dealing with, I have to call Oubonh I have to call our research… What I am talking about is just, you know these are not huge, all encompassing policies, they are the nuts and bolts things you need to do just to move the county along on a day to day basis, and its really… I was talking to somebody about it the other day and I said its like if Apple had three regional presidents but they could only talk to each other at shareholders’ meetings. Because, yeah you have the big policy stuff that happens then but you just have the basic nuts and bolts stuff that you need to find a way to move along and facilitate and I think the one thing that I got out of that presentation too… and I have seen that ever since I have been appointed is, um, finding someway to establish long term continuity for everybody. I mean its hard for the whole county, for the citizenry is the biggest thing, if you have all these herculean… I mean gosh we have been through horrible things you just never even envision happening to a county losing two commissioners but it showed was a void there was in continuity. I mean in the first two weeks that I was here I realized that Nikki was really go to, she was our county encyclopedia… right, there is just so much, and there is so much that you need to know, I mean as a commissioner about how we historically handle all this because otherwise then you are in a world of hurt if you don’t know how we’ve been doing things so I know it doesn’t help to get any closer to where you need to go but certainly, whatever you recommend that continuity for everybody, every person in the county is critical.
Hope I didn’t spoil your dinner. 🙂 Makes you wonder why he really bowed out of the race.
Perish the thought! Getting queasy just thinking about it.
For all anyone knows, two, or all three Commissioner’s speak on the phone every night without any public involvement. The phone company doesn’t track or disclose local land line calls without a warrant or a court order. Who would know? It will all get sorted out as soon as Cam becomes the new County Adminsitrator.
I read your stuff daily but never comment. This is toooo good to pass. Parry was advertised as a former big time newspaper editor. He is also advertised as a person who writes grany requests for clients. He has lost whatever skills he had. Grile was Coos Bay City manager before getting fired.
Thank you to you both ! These cock-a-roaches don’t want the light shown on their little plan. Kudos to all of you who are helping us exterminate those keeping this county from moving forward. It’s amazing to me how many “locals” have been supporting this crap for four decades now, and they will rant and rail against anyone, and I mean anyone, who speaks up about why they’ve allowed themselves to get crapped on decade after decade. They hate you for even questioning these con artists. Stockholm Syndrome .
About Air service, FORE, golf anyone. Is there not a correlation between golf season for high rollers and the cancellation and resumption of Air service to Barton International. Just something to think about.
The problem with our current lot of unelected and inexperienced Commissioners letting SCDC thugs take over and “overhaul” the county can be best explained by example. Look at what a fine job some of these same individuals have done with our airport.
We used to have an excellent air carrier service here. It was easy to book flights and also connecting flights with the larger air carriers. That all ended when they brought in these United puddle jumpers. Service went down and delayed flights and/or canceled flights went up along with tons of other hassles. Now here we go again because these guys never learn from their past mistakes, nor do they ever do their homework.
http://theworldlink.com/news/local/united-to-end-service-from-north-bend-to-portland/article_3c16b0ca-30c4-11e1-97ba-0019bb2963f4.html
This has actually become a detriment to our area at this point as it is now faster, cheaper and a lot less hassle just to book a flight out of Eugene and make the drive.
What does this say about our area and what kind of impression do you think this gives us with potential future business developers?
These guys now have this warped idea that changing our county to home rule with a county manager will be the answer to all our county woes. It won’t. Those of us that have lived here long enough have experienced why that will be the case. Look at the past history and conflicts that have occurred with some of the managers at the City of Coos Bay, the City of North Bend and the Port.
So keep it up boys, show the world what a bunch of buffoons we have here so more books can be written. I can already hear the keyboards clicking for Part II of “Plundertown USA” or is it, “The Job Messiahs” or maybe, “Free Lunch”…perhaps all three?
A lot of people who have lived here a long time and who have experienced what works and what doesn’t could be very helpful, but for goodness sakes, don’t have any public meetings where you actually take the time to listen to the people you are supposed to be serving.
Excellent breakdown, Reminder… if you can stomach it watch the structure advisory committee meeting where Barton goes from “the county has cut to the bone and can’t cut any more” to “there is plenty of slop in the budget to pay for manager”… Thank goodness for Coos Media Center for recording all these meetings. http://coosmediacenter.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=b602bf92ca03041a6a8d8f51d6721b36
Summary: a lot of nervous laughter about the commissioners exposing their calendars, That’s not what was being requested, It was not your future calendar, but rather what you built for the county, and what you did in a month. Your works should be apparent, not listed as working on health issues and other county matters.
So the chair said he will work with JJ, and Jon and write their joint recommendations, before they have any to present to themselves. That what SCDC does.
Good pointed questions by the audience, with a consensus, that a survey be put to the commissioners, about what they do. It goes from 1 month of their activities as a coos county commissioner to 1 day,(easier to cherry pick a day, to show how busy they are on county business). The SCDC part of this commission, tries to blur the next step, as to whether we get their work report before or after the joint recommendation from the committees. Nice try.
By 1:19:30, its become pretty apparent that Terry and the young man have prevailed, and the rest are suggesting they return the ball to the other committee, to see if they can formulate a better, or different strategy, to FIX this county.
The young guy is not a croney and not on board with Tom,Cam, and the commander, and advises them to do what they can internally to fix what can be fixed, before they impose more layers of bureaucratic cover on the citizens of Coos County, He is more right than even Terry at this point, but at around 1:11, the push for the SCDC agenda, begins anew.
By 1:09:30, Terry’s logic seems to be prevailing, then around 1:10:30, someone(was it Cam), reminds her that everything is on the table. We will have to see how often they(Bill,Cam, and the Commander) have to try and reign her in. This is very interesting, folks.
They appear to be struggling with the lone mouse at the table.
At 1:06 you will see the push back towards hiring a new individual, not what Terry was advocating for(someone on the county payroll), she thought she had the commander on her side at that time in the meeting, but I think he was just pushing for them to realize that he,him,was sitting right under their nose, and ready to take command, the former city manager and others in the room are aware of what he’s trying to do.
A coup within a coup?
Well I don’t have a professional degree or anything, but isn’t this supposed to be what their public meetings are for? Why is this so complicated for them? Us? They should bring their “talked to’s” to the board meeting and discuss it in front of the public, then make their decisions and vote, right? Why the hell is that so hard for them to do? Because they don’t want US to know who they are talking to at all !
There is no more discussion in public going on. Just talking, explaining. Talk in front of us you wankers, we pay your damn salary, not Boz Barton.
That former city manager at 1:02:30 says something about the dept. heads not liking the letters he wrote for them, and that they shouldn’t have signed those letters. Why would they put their signatures on letters he wrote for them? That sounds like coercion, by upper management to me. How many times did that happen while he worked for the county? It may have been legal, but ethical?
I don’t even know his name, but his intent is obvious.
He was never the Mayor. Coos Bay City Manager for a while, after his time with the County.
The time at the County was in the sex crazed seventies.
Just saying.
One hour into this meeting, and its more than apparent that the Commander wants the job to command. The typist wants to be very careful about how they DO this, but they will DO this. The young guy believes the human resource dept., is inept, and could probably clear up a lot of the staff issues,he’s right. The commissioner is trying to box in and hold the corners from slipping off topic, with his Technic of participation. The one to watch is the old former mayor of coos bay, he’s doing his best to sway the group towards the goal of Barton. Its interesting to see the cat(former mayor)and mouse(the county clerk)game being played out before the camera. Didnt that mayor leave office on a recall or some other form of scandal?
I see Jon Barton being channeled at that table, by that man, and Cam. Cam has bigger fish to fry than to do the job that a commissioner should be expected to do.
At least we get to watch this coup being played out.
appearing incompetent at the thing your not doing, unfortunately gives credence to the idea of hiring a competent person(CEO), just the ammo the group needs to sell their product to the public.
This county is not a corporation,YET. We need to elect our government, not suffer it.
Transparent government, we have it now, otherwise we would not be able to see what SCDC is doing. If they get their CEO, transparency will be gone, sayonara, adios, goodbye. We will have what the port has, Bosses, Parachutes, and Fraud. Legally of course.
Cam Quote: I can tell you what we have to deal with every day is the other day the amount of attorneys I had to talk to just to relay messages to the other commissioners on things we are working on that are just, they are not, um, it’s just things to move forward.
Did you see the emergency brake go off in his mind right at that point?
Each has a different part to play in applying the overall SCDC agenda. Each has a different specialty and credentials to help accomplish the overall SCDC agenda.
The reason they(BOC) all look so incompetent at being a county commissioner is because they are not doing the job at all. They are busy building a new kind of county government, one handed to them on a platter by SCDC. When that’s all your doing, your going to appear incompetent at the thing your not doing.
What I got out of that word chew, was that Al and Jon are going to “publicly” present their “product”(CEO), after Jan 15th.(he knew before the other group announced why it would have to be after the 15th). The other SCDC staffed committee just needs to decide if they only want three board members, or will five create more protection for SCDC. He has trouble explaining that their communications are all going through these SCDC members they’ve been partnered with, and he would rather be able to call Fred directly, because the messages are getting crossed up by having to go through too many middlemen.His brain seems to stop his mouth in mid sentence, because he gets dangerously close to telling more truth than the group wants the public to know.