Outgoing commissioner Fred Messerle released the final recommendations from the National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC) at Portland State University today. For those who don’t remember, NPCC offered a limited but free review of county government and administrative issues through the Association of Oregon Counties. The program is headed by a former city administrator and not surprisingly the document wants to support converting to an administrator model except that the report is forced to acknowledge the administrator ordinance advisory vote, “Measure 6-144 failed by a large margin”.
The report sidesteps around public objection to hiring an administrator by suggesting a novel solution. “We are not recommending that the Board proceed with the hiring of a County Administrator”, and risk the ire of the public coming down on the commission write the authors grudgingly. “But we are recommending that you consider hiring a Chief Administrative Officer who would also be the Department Director of Administrative Services. Essentially this would move you a step closer to a County Administrator, but would not be the same as Measure 6-144 which failed”. So there you have it, just change the title of the administrator to “director” and the problem is solved.
Read the 33 page report plus 75 pages of appendices here Combined Review of Selected Admininstrative Issues for Coos County Government with Recommendations Condensed
Thank you for yet another brilliant and thoughtful response, Themguys. A five year old could muster more intellect. Once again, now that you’ve joined the fray with your rambling, incomprehensible responses, I’ll exit this discussion. You bore me.
Thank you for that “expert” career evaluation. Both Barton and I will give it all the consideration it deserves.
As for the Administrator position, the rationale for hiring one just keeps on comin’…
Example: the County IT manager recently went before the Board of Commissioners and asked for $100+k for the necessary equipment to back up critical county data and records. Two Commissioners knew what they didn’t know and trusted the IT manager and Presidio – a $1.3 billion+ SI – to make the right decisions in getting the County’s data center up to par. One Commissioner – the same one that wanted to run the County on Linux – pretended to know more than the IT manager and Presidio combined and proceeded to humiliate her publicly. He then exhacerbated the absurd by going on the Jim Bice show a few days later and insinuating that the County could back up its records on a $300 Lacie drive. Oddly, he was the liaison for the IT department for the first three years of his first term – three years in which little to nothing was done to support that department. I assume his only intent was to make both the IT manager and Messerle look like a fools for actually taking steps to clean up the mess. Bizarre. Now, I’m no data center expert but I do know this: is it unequivocally and technically impossible to back up 22 servers, almost 400 PCs, an antiquated AS400 and sundry servers and operating systems on a $300 portable hard drive.
And that is yet another reason we can add to a long and growing list for hiring an Administrator: to protect the good employees like the IT staff from the ridiculous and preposterous which, it appears, we will be subjected to for another four years.
No one is buying what you are selling
You carry a big bag full of assumptions.
Amazing little al, funny how you boys find a rat in every dept when it’s conveniant isn”t it? Old fred got somebody in IT? Mighty handy how that works for the teat suckers among us. Who IS that IT person anyway, al who is so eager to assist you and Messerlie ? I have no idea. Help please? A promotion in the offering? Before the ‘outrage’ appears, please understand little al and Fish Breath Walrrus, you bought an Oregon politician in Salem for a measly $5,000 to put a good man out of competition, a dept. head in Coos County must go for a very paltry sum, we all know nothing is sacred in your world, or illegal evidently.
This community thanks you M, for exposing the blatant manipulation of Coos County, and it’s funds. Anybody know why paying a pol. $5,000 for a vote is NOT ILLEGAL?
My opinion only, of course.
Ahhh…I see. You prefer to ignore the obvious (and the experts) in hopes of supporting your pretentious claims that the County does not need an Administrator because it is running like a well-oiled machine, while at the same time spending your days writing about how the County is a mess and its management are all incompetent baffoons.
Makes sense.
The only pretentiousness going on here is from you, Al, when you try to pass yourself off as an expert on anything from IT to how governments should work to even being a successful CEO. All anyone knows about you and Barton is what you have told us but neither of you have demonstrated any prowess at anything except spinning a sales pitch and playing dirty pool.
I think Al being an Ex Spurt himself would know one when he sees one… Must be miserable to be caught up in a game of inches!
” spending your days writing about how the County is a mess and its management are all incompetent baffoons.”
I believe M has made it very clear who the baffoons are here al, and it ain’t the working folks. It’s you and your merry band of sharlatans who tell the voters and tax payers you clowns are the job creators, all the while winking and nodding at one another as you call your working class neighbors names and redicule them because they aren’t smart enough to do what you and SCDC etc. have figured out to do? Which is “money for nothing”, you know it, we know it and we just have to work hard to educate the local workers to whom is keeping them living in the Anus of Oregon. And hopefully we will be able to do so. Every county worker who reads this has to know your idea is to eliminate their jobs, period. You don’t want to help, you want to gut government entirely, so funds go directly to your private business. Stop the charade al, no one here is buying your bullshit.
Poor little al, he still thinks paid shills are experts. Have you chosen who’s skirt you’ll hide behind now al?
More experts recommend an Adminstrator? What a surprise.
Experts??? We haven’t heard from any experts yet.
Sounds like Whip Cream on Dog Shit…
Sure, just call that jackass a racehorse and we hapless voters will never know the difference
good simile, wish I had used it
Two months ago the voters soundly rejected Measure 6-144 that called for hiring a County Administrator. So now the wise guys are thinking they will just change the title to Chief Administrative Officer/Department Director of Administrative Services, and go ahead and hire their county administrator. Isn’t that clever of them?
In a war against democracy there are no innocent bystanders, but there are many cowardly victims.
Maybe these guys think that being hired commissioner just means that you get to sit in a big chair, bang a gavel , collect your paycheck, and let someone else do the real job of helping the county function. I can see how they would think that, since Cam and Fred did that so well.
County Administrator is not the same as Chief Administrative Officer. That sounds like the kind of hair splitting teenagers like to do after they realize they are acquiring a better vocabulary than their parents, and they just might have a chance of getting one over on the old folks.
The new board has a chance of making the impression that they are not completely controlled by SCDC and their goal of privatizing the whole county, using the BOC as the tool to get it done. This would be a stupid move on their part. The non-believers will just get more arrows for their quiver to be used in the next election. If its not too late.
I’m hoping a least one of them will show some guts and realize that’s their job that they are trying to farm out, and they were elected to perform the job they would hire someone else to do.
As John Arbuckle always said (for those of you who remember old TV commercials) you get what you pay for. This was free and overpriced at that. Take your report with you when you leave Messy.