A few years back I was having a conversation with friend and now retired Lane County Commissioner, Pete Sorenson. Coos County, at that time, was trying to implement a county administrator model and since Lane County uses that system I thought I would pick his brain.
Sorenson explained that the “elites” always want the centralized authority system offered by a county administrator. It is easier for local oligarchs and plutocrats to sell their own projects or promote their own self serving agendas to an administrator. Once the administrator is sold on an idea, it’s then their job to present the proposed concept to the commission for approval.
Most administrators quickly learn how to manage their boards, commissions and councils. There’s an old joke that a district attorney can indict a ham sandwich if he really wants to and city managers and county administrators are just as capable of manipulating facts and details to achieve the desired end.
Utilizing city and county attorneys who are meant to advise on the legality of actions taken by a government body, an administrator/manager can present any scheme or hiring decisions in such a way that the council or board believes all the “professionals” have bought in giving the appearance of legitimacy to possibly unsophisticated elected officials. These officials then sign off, confident all the due diligence has already been done on their behalf.
A canny manipulator schmoozing with the local power brokers can easily present just enough information to an elected board to get approval for just about anything they want. All this makes the council-manager form of government a well lubricated machine enabling unelected public employees to effectively run their own personal fiefdom.
When well intentioned but otherwise inexperienced public citizens are elected to public office, all too quickly they are absorbed into the culture of the incumbent council and settle for relying on staff for due diligence on matters brought before the council. On the rare occasion when a council member shows some initiative and questions the narrative, they are often labeled troublemakers or deemed hard to work with by their peers. In other words, there is enormous pressure to be compliant and amiable rather than deliberative and responsible to constituents.
All of this is why the county electorate overwhelmingly voted against a county administrator in 2012.
Returning briefly to Coquille and some of its hiring decisions one has to ask why Chief Scott Sanders who is also interim city manager, is protecting a Brady cop, Doug Miller? 
Further, why did he recommended hiring a finance director with allegations of sexual abuse and harrassment? Surely, there are capable finance directors out there without all the baggage. More importantly, why is the city council accepting substandard staff?
