optional forms of government

["bill london" <bill_london@hotmail.com>]

I read Ken Gallant's essay on the optional forms of county government in 
the Daily News (Oct.16).  While I applaud Ken and the study commission 
and their work on this subject, I disagree with their suggestion.

Ken supports rearranging Latah County government, basically adding a 
paid manager hired by the commissioners and making the sheriff, assessor 
and other "row officers" appointments of the manager, not elected 
officials.

Ken claims such a change would be more efficient.  Unfortunately, 
democracy has its inefficiencies, tied to the need for checks and 
balances between various centers of power.  It's those checks and 
balances that are lost in Ken's proposal.  I think that the efficiencies 
of county government that would be gained by consolidating power as he 
suggests would be overwhelmed by the opportunities for abuses of that 
power.

Ken clearly states that the manager would be a creature of the board of 
commissioners, responsible to the board and serving at their pleasure.  
While the goal may be to find a non-partisan high-quality administrator 
(what salary will we be willing to pay to attract such a person?), the 
manager could easily turn out to be a toady who quickly does the 
commissioners' bidding.

I personally can easily imagine a Latah County Board of Commissioners 
where 2 of the 3 commissioners distrust the public process, make a habit 
of awarding county contracts to friends without public bidding, and 
effectively shut the third commissioner out of decision-making.  Under 
the proposal on the ballot next month, those two individuals will have 
the absolute authority to appoint the county manager and through the 
manager virtually every county official.  That's much too autocratic for 
my tastes.

Sorry, Ken, I just don't like this proposal.  I would rather change the 
state law to include the right of counties to set standards of 
professionalism for their sheriff and other elected officials. 

BL 

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