During the public hearings for the county’s proposed governance ordinance less than fifteen people bothered to submit spoken or written comments to the commissioners and better than half of those were opposed or critical of the change. (Those speaking in favor of the ordinance had been members of the governance advisory committee). Undaunted by the lack of enthusiasm the board moved to place the matter before the voters this November. This week the Coos County Republican Central Committee was not only unenthusiastic it was hostile to the idea. [Begins 1:02:20] or skip ahead to the Grile grilling beginning at [1:27:00]
Coupled with other conjectural evidence it seems that only the handpicked governance and structure advisory committee members are driving this philosophical change and the board is acquiescing to their demands while ignoring everyone else. Parry may have rightly recognized that without support from both the public and the staff any governance change will fail but putting it to a public vote is just a bit of theater to save face. Unfortunately, putting the ordinance on the ballot now, rushed and incomplete, with no actual cost breakdown or implementation strategy is a disservice to everyone and will do nothing to dust off the damage he has done to his reputation since taking office. [Hint to Parry: Improve your character and your image will follow suit]
This zealous group was opposed to destroying the solid waste site and giving the County to Waste Management. The BOC had two opposing opinions by licensed professionals and failed to get a third opinion to validate either original opinion. Then, with little notice, the site was scrapped.
Demolishing the site may have been in the public interest, but we will never know because both opinions, of equal weight, did not agree on the condition. There was no estimate of repair cost. There was no estimate of replacement cost. There were many numbers tossed about without any substantial support. The transfer station became the reality. Now we will still have to pay for dealing with the trash, plus, a nice profit for Waste Management.
This zealous group also wanted Waste Management to be billed for their short hauls that helped create the financial problems at the solid waste site. That has not happened.
All of this solid waste action was done long before the $1000 invoice question came to light. Now this group is trying to get that small money, but big issue settled. I don’t think the dollar amount is as much the issue as the process that created the expense. There is a need for additional explanation when this is paid. The illusion of favoritism is on the horizon.
The County structure is not broken. The current structure is not doing the job in the public’s best interest. The issue is leadership not structure. Adding an administrator is not an all-encompassing panacea.
I have lived through a large County that went from the Commissioner’s having responsibility to an Administrator/Agency management concept. Expenses climbed and delays magnified. The admin office was unable to make the simplest of decisions. The Commissioners made no decisions before the administrator had presented the issue to them. Everything was held up until the administrator got around to deciding and then had the board deal with his “suggestions”. Coos County isn’t big enough to benefit from management by delay
Why aren’t the Commissioners dealing with the problems? 1. A small group of zealous citizens politicize a $1000 invoice while a $7 million dollar investment goes south. That’s a colossal waste of everyone’s time. 2. One Commissioner – Bob Main – insists that the County has no problems. In fact, I doubt that Bob was even aware of the Solid Waste facility condition. If he was, why wasn’t he thumping the desk, demanding something be done? 3. The structure is broken – it’s not designed to allow problems to be fixed. We’ve been saying this over, and over, and over again. You can’t fix organization problems when the people in charge can’t – or won’t – communicate. 4. Behind the scenes, Fred Messerle swapped IT with Bob Main – who couldn’t wait to get his hands on Corrections. Fred is quietly and systematically fixing the IT department. Meanwhile, our County judges gave Main a smack-down for trying to raid their surplus budget – saved for a drug treatment center – on behalf of Sheriff Zanni.
Give credit where credit if due.
And Rickey – Lane County isn’t in financial trouble because they have an Administrator. Schools aren’t in financial trouble because they have an Administrator. If you think the County can continue to function well in this declining economic environment, that’s OK – but I think it is YOU that needs to provide some examples in which organizations function well without someone in charge. This is not cutting edge stuff. Find one Harvard case study that says businesses and organizations will function better without leadership.
Dear Anonymouse: You got it right. Messerle and his surrogates have been complaining for more than a year. Frick and Frack, aka Messerle and Parry, have had every opportunity to remedy every problem that they believe exists. They could have implemented every change advocted by “Al”. During 18 months, what have they accomplished other than dividing this community, and pissing off a few older ladies to the point that they have spent their golden years survival monies to give us a new charter. Frick and frack must go soon.
Ok guys, If “Al” knows all this stuff like:
“Do you think that consultant is going to tell us we were wrong about Solid Waste? Do you think he’s going to tell the public that the Parks Dept. wouldn’t benefit from on-line registration? Do you think he’s going to ignore that uncollected property tax? Do you think he’s going to give the IT structure an A+? And what about all those employees who are going to tell him that they’re afraid to speak up, or make changes, or care. ”
Why aren’t the three Commissioner’s dealing with the problems?
It takes a motion and second to confront the problem and the same money that seems to be there for an Administrator to fix things. Come on Commissioners, man up and deal with the real issues. We do not need more quality reports.
Instead of paying a consultant maybe we ought to pay the money to deal with the problems.
More meetings, pretty forms, nice words, studies and such won’t fix anything.
Al it’s time for you to either present the facts or quit pushing it down the people’s throats Al the school districts use the form of government that you proposed how is that working not very well la e county uses it to explain to the citizens of coos county how the administrator has kept lane county in financial shape they are worse off then we are they have less jail beds less deputies per capita then us did the administrator take a pay cut no so why would we want the same system
Fred’s hiring an outside consultant to tell you more of what we already did. Do you think that consultant is going to tell us we were wrong about Solid Waste? Do you think he’s going to tell the public that the Parks Dept. wouldn’t benefit from on-line registration? Do you think he’s going to ignore that uncollected property tax? Do you think he’s going to give the IT structure an A+? And what about all those employees who are going to tell him that they’re afraid to speak up, or make changes, or care.
Oh. And how did we come up with all this great information?
The employees told us.
Anyone want to tell all the employees they’re “irrelevant” or that they lack “credibility”?
“An Administrator may not save us from financial hard times, but an experienced Administrator would certainly make our remaining dollars go further and longer.”
Evidence please? Proof?
Why do you refuse to answer their questions if you’re so sure about it?
You REFUSE , time after time.
“Mary called us “stupid”.” al. (waa waa waa, bleating like a little baby, come on al, we save that for “later”, wink wink)
You should thank her, I don’t know anyone else as smart as she is, who can actually speak to you without a whole lot of F words being involved.
What whiners.
Apparently even Fred acknowledges the structure report has no validity because he now wants a professor from PSU to come and prepare a new one. I for one would like to see a PSU report so we can do a side-by-side comparison of a professional academician vs low level hijackers
Al, stop fooling yourself that anyone believes anything in the structure report. Everyone saw through it and stop believing that you or Slater or Barton have any credibility anymore
All the reasons are right there in the Structure Committee report, Linkski. We predicted big maintenance costs out at Solid Waste (Mary called us “stupid”.) We told the taxpayers that a mounting pile of uncollected property tax was sitting in the collector’s office due to thin headcount – estimated to be between $500k and a million. It’s probably higher now. No one has done anything about that. Why? Because every time the Commissioners try to get something done, a small group of self-serving citizens blow it out of proportion compared to..say..a $7m dollar waste facility loss.
County and State governments are finally realizing that money is finite – with the exception of the the Feds, who are printing it with impunity. Governments who don’t run like a business run in the red. They also go broke (see Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, San Bernadino, Moffett, Westfall, Central Falls, etc.). To argue whether or not any functional organization needs a boss is a waste of time. If you don’t think the County needs someone in charge, the there’s nothing I’m going to say that will change your mind.
An Administrator may not save us from financial hard times, but an experienced Administrator would certainly make our remaining dollars go further and longer.
And Rickey – lots and lots of money may hide a lot of operational warts, but it won’t make them go away. And the more the County’s dollars get stretched, the more the warts will be exposed. Wishful thinking is not going to solve anything. So we can do one of two things: stick with the status quo which will be continued inefficiency, employee frustration, zero cross-departmental communication and collaberation, an impotent BOC, screaming citizens who can’t understand why nothing changes, eventual layoffs and departmental shutdowns.
Or not.
Sorry al, This is not Stockton or San Bernadino….. Your “facts” don’t don’t really apply here.
It is too bad that the current commissioners Don’t have the balls to get rid of the Department Managers that are doing such a bad job.
And are they doing that bad ? Okay, the Planning Department screwed up With the Coles, But wasn’t that Commissioner sCams doings ?
Your talk is getting old, San Bernadino is calling for your help.
The question has been ask to this group if this model work why is lane county , our schools and our cities in such bad financial shape why do school have building in such poor shape . The problem is not as much about structure but is all about money . So as long as the fed and state government gives less money each year we will continue to have problems. If we were to put the effort into finding stable funding source. Then we would not even be having this discussion and agin I would like to thank the fore thought of the forestry fund to help out on rainy days .and no mining leases are not long term funding for the county but are a one time deal where the forest are a renewable resource
Hey bloggers, who broke Al’s windows?
Heck – let’s just keep our current model. The US is headed for a financial cliff, the State is headed for a financial cliff, why should our County be any different? Why would we want to do something that actually might avert a Curry/Lane-like meltdown? Why would we want to do something that actually might make a difference? Let’s pretend we don’t have any problems and that we’re not really dipping into our reserves. Main says we don’t have a problems. Gurney says we don’t have a problem. And that’s all we need! We just need someone to tell us the obvious isn’t really there – and POOF! All our worries will go away. Let’s just keep the status quo and stay stupid.
al, explain how Lane County, that has a County Manager, and assistant, is better/worse shape than Coos County………
My thinking, is that you could hire 5-7 Deputies for the $$$ you are going to waste on your project.
Man up and tell us with actual facts.
Remember fellow citizens, this is an advisory vote. If the majority votes against the county administrator, if we also elect the “dream team” of Messerle, Cribbins Sweet or Bishop, or any combination of two, all who favor hiring an adminsitrator, we will still probably get an admisbnitrator. (Note Cribbins is all over the place and after more than a year of studying the subject, the last we heard from her is that she is uncertain if she likes the idea or not.) If all decisions are that difficult for her, nothing will be accomplished during the next two years. The only certain way to stop this madness is to elect Gurney and Main.