Commissioners John Sweet and Melissa Cribbins are keen to accomplish at least two things within the next two years. One is to install a finance director/administrator and the second is to do away with the current liaison system in favor of interdepartmental work groups which would meet with all three commissioners, at least once a month. The new position is meant to fill duties currently held by Treasurer Mary Barton who does not plan to run again in 2016. The latter construct is represented in The World today as a way to “streamline County government”.
During a presentation given by DA Paul Fraser and Public Health Director Ginger Swan, members of the steering committee formed to evaluate changes to how the departments relate to the board, Swan announced that the committee would recommend doing away with the liaison system currently in place. Presently, each commissioner is a assigned to individual departments to help facilitate the will of the board as well as to act as a conduit between the public and the departments. As an example, if a citizen has a problem with their roads or the road department they can contact any commissioner but typically reach out to the department’s board liaison.
Sweet, in an interview with KCBY views the liaison system a bit differently. Apparently, he feels the system somehow limits his authority to just one third of the departments. “I don’t think that I’m elected to run one-third of the county, nor is Melissa, nor is Bob,”he said. “Under this new concept we would each have face time on a regularly scheduled basis with all of the department heads.” Since each department is constrained by a budget that is approved by the budget committee and the board of commissioners, and must appear before the board to obtain approval for any extraordinary issues or expense requirements that exceed approved spending limits Sweet’s reasoning appears more than a little spurious. Watch the video clip above and form your own opinions.
Having work groups meet on a regular basis would offer the public an extra opportunity to learn how the county works and see how the departments work together but may also present a logistical nightmare. Technically, each meeting is a public meeting because all three commissioners are expected to attend and therefore must be properly noticed and minutes have to be taken and schedules aligned and staff time taken from other duties now dedicated to the work group. The paper calls this streamlining but it is hard to see how this is so.
Swan’s announcement that the committee would recommend doing away with the liaison system came as a surprise to audience members who had attended the work sessions as no one could recall any consensus being reached on this issue. Curiously, KCBY showed up for Tuesday’s meeting and I quickly scanned the agenda to see what prompted the station to attend but nothing really stood out. After the meeting, John Sweet met the reporter and for what appeared to be a prearranged interview, part of which is quoted above. The interview may have contained other components but both The World and KCBY have focused upon the liaison matter and I am trying to ascertain who invited KCBY to the meeting and why. If the station was invited specifically to discuss the liaison changes then clearly, whomever proffered the invitation knew in advance the topic of doing away with the liaison assignments would be discussed and coordinated the media to help prime the public, even before it has been voted upon.
Whether these organizational changes are beneficial or not they still do not solve the underlying revenue reductions facing the county within the next two years.
“MANAGEMENT BY COMMITTEE” This allows unqualified Officials to Delegate their Responsibilies and Delegate the Blame, instead of Learning the Job and Knowing the People. Without Learning from their mistakes, County Government will get much worse. Bob Arnold North Bend
I don’t expect Mr. Soper with one year experience as a lawyer to know all Oregon law. I don’t expect Cribbins with five years experience as a lawyer, all tribal law, to know all Oregon law. But I do expect Sweet, chairman of the board of commissioners, to be getting sound legal counsel. In addition to what you have posted here, the World paper has a lengthy listing of how committees would be organized (recommended by the DA and the Mental Health lady) and how reporting to the board by organizations would be accomplished.
What I don’t understand, in addition to Mr. Wiley’s remarks, is why Sweet is ignoring the law. ORS is most clear. The electeed Assessor, Treasurer, County Clerk, DA, Surveyor, etc., DO NOT report to the county commissioners in any way except that the commissiners have some budget leverage. They do report to the pople and by charter they keep the board informed. The commissioners fix the number of deputies in each (elected) organization and they fix the number of employees (generally done at budget negotiation time). The deputies and employees serve at the pleasure of the elected official (only).
So, seems to me “liaison” is proper and reporting administratively through committee or through a finance director / county administrator to the commissioners is wrong. What say you Mr. Sweet? How is ORS different than I have stated? And, while you are at it, where are the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a finance director and staff coming from; nothing will offset those costs?
To date this group still have not addressed the real problem. The problem is funding. It seems to me they want to grow the size of our government . Their answer to fixing our problem is to hire more administrators rather than looking at long term solutions . The government should not be in the business of creating jobs but should be creating a business friendly environment .
“… The government should not be in the business of creating jobs but should be creating a business friendly environment”
Why? And what does that mean?