We have heard a lot from the structure advisory committee and the two interim commissioners about how time consuming and difficult it is that the commissioners cannot discuss county business outside of the public view. Both the governance and structure advisory committees seem to feel that hiring a manager or CEO to run the administrative matters at the county would provide a sort of workaround to this very vexing predicament that somehow is impairing the functionality of county services.
Just this week, Parry explained that he wasted a great deal of time each day maneuvering “basic” but apparently mission critical information to the other commissioners…
Its fairly circuitous what we have to do. As a matter of fact a big chunk of my afternoon was routing information back to the other commissioners this afternoon whether it had to go through HR or county counsel or just general… and interestingly enough everything today was just very basic, nothing earth shattering. How do we route it…?”
Parry voiced similar sentiments at a December committee meeting…
The easiest way, um, the easiest way I can tell you what we 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 that we’re working on that are just, they’re not.. um, its just things to move forward. We’re talking general business information the other commissioners need to know just so they can make a good decision… It’s like if, um, Apple had three regional presidents but they could only talk to each other at shareholders’ meetings…
This week, during a radio interview, Commissioner Messerle used Parry’s analogy saying “… you’ve got a $50 million dollar business with three CEOs and, uh, they can’t talk to each other unless they have a 24 hour notice on a meeting…” (Obviously, Parry and Messerle have been comparing talking points).
Governance advisory committee chairman, Bill Grile, asked Parry to provide a concrete example of how public meetings law impairs county efficiency. Grile wanted to know just how much time Parry was forced to waste each day “routing” information to the other commissioners in order to keep the county “moving forward”.
What we are hearing from these two commissioners is that day to day county business is impaired because somehow the departments can’t function properly unless commissioner A lets commissioner B know something on a daily basis. Now there is an obvious fix to this problem, if indeed critical decisions beyond the authority of the department heads must be made day to day, and that is to hold more public meetings. The BOC used to meet every week until Stufflebean decided there just wasn’t enough business to conduct each week and cut the meetings back to every other week.
Notwithstanding the fact that no one commissioner should be making unilateral decisions regarding county business it is clear that Parry and to some degree, Messerle, are claiming the commissioners need more time together view to discuss county business but apparently don’t want to wait for a public meeting.
This has to be nothing but spin. A cursory look at the last several agendas reveals no support that the county can’t move forward on a day to day basis unless the commissioners talk about business at the drop of hat. All this is spin to justify hiring a manager who presumably can run from one commissioner to the other and get a consensus without the bother of public partication.
Additionally, I wonder after reading the Lane County decision whether using intermediaries to distribute information to the other commissioners is even legal but assuming it is then why not just have the department heads drop the information off to all the commissioners? If Parry is so insecure he feels the need to consult with his fellow commissioners more often then just ask for regular work sessions, say every Wednesday, where they can sit and chat and the public is invited.
Finally, it has been reported that all three commissioners and their wives were regularly meeting for breakfast every Saturday up until last month at Tai’s Dynasty. The reader can make of that what they will
Hmmmm, obviously the problem is not the Commissioner’s doing County business.
The problem is the appointed Commissioner’s not wanting to allow the public to know anything about County business.
Cam Parry and Bob Main, were seen having breakfast again this morning. Assuming they did not talk about county business it still (to quote one of my favorite curmudgeons) looks bad….
It’s obvious not one of these three is qualified for their positions.
Finally Al is admitting the conspiracy, right in full public view, and free boat rides as well.
What do they do, when we’re not looking?
or
Do they Appear more in public, on private time, then they do at the bench on county business? Its a question of how is the public better served by that county time, vs, public bench time. If we’re in such dire straights(like curry county), then why don’t they hold more public meetings more often, instead they appoint you to fix us?
I “heard” they’re sneaking onto the Discovery for late night cruises, snacks and secret meetings!
Seriously – “covert” meetings at the very public Tai Dynasty???
This is a hoot.
You got it 100%. Those poor guys are over worked worked and under paid.
How about meeting twice a week or even every other day on “critical issues”, until they gets things under control, with our desperate “Curry” style of government.
Then they could settle into once a week meetings for “normal” stuff, when the “crisis” is over.
They need to learn how to do their “business” at the bench, even if they have to sit there more often.
Who was it again, that appointed these two appointees?