vision2020
Re: Optional Forms County Gov't
As I mentioned before, it is easy to get me to respond to almost anything,
and the questions Bob raises deserve answers.
1. As to Latah County's ability to hire a competent county manager:
Moscow has had a stable, effective city manager system, even though its
population is only about two thirds of the County's. I see no reason to
believe the County could not achieve the same results.
2. As to the need to elect knowledgeable county commissioners under the
new system, Bob is exactly right that the need to elect good
commissioners is great under the new system. But the attention that can
be paid by a citizen to each commissioner's race is greater under the new
system than under the current system, where most of us have to divide our
attention between the commissioners and other officers.
Bob is, however, wrong when he says that good commissioners
should be able to do the administration of the "row offices" directly
under the current system.
Under the current system, the Commissioners do not have the legal
authority to administer the row offices--they only have the budget power.
This is one of the things that leads, in almost all Idaho counties, to the
recurring conflicts between row officers and county commissioners.
For example, when the former sheriff was firing officers for political
reasons and getting the
County sued left and right, there was no power that the Commissioners had
to stop the firings and limit the liability of the county and its
taxpayers, even though it was the Commissioners who would have to find the
tax money to pay for the lawsuits. This is the sort of problem the new
system of clear accountability will end.
Moreover, actually doing the nuts and bolts job of administration is
different from setting policy and overseeing things to make sure
administration and service delivery is done well. I disagree with Bob
that just because a commissioner needs to know what is going on in the
departments that the commissioners board as a collective group is the best
entity to do administration. Administration by committee is often not
very good, and it distracts the commissioners from what should be their
real jobs: policy and oversight.
3. The transition period is six months, not sixty days, and since
it can begin 30 days after the election, it is effectively seven months.
See Idaho Code. 31-5006. This should be enough time to get things up and
running.
It's true that the transition provisions of the state law are not
the smooothest available. But a couple of bumps in the transition should
not deter us from adopting a system that will be better in the long term.
Kenneth S. Gallant
Moscow, Idaho 83844-2322 USA
208-885-6541 (phone)
208-885-4628 (fax)
gallantk@uidaho.edu
On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, Carol Alexander wrote:
> Concerning the discussion to the county manager form of government I believe that a few more points need to be brought out.
> 1.The small size of Latah county is going to attract two types of candidates for the manager position:
> a) Someone who is looking for experience before moving on, the most likely candidate, or
> b) someone who is so grossly incompetent that you couldn't afford
> to hire them.
> My feeling is that the first type won't be staying more than 18-36 months
> and that the management expertise and professional administration that this change is supposed to bring will rarely develop. A manager that is more concerned with their resume than with the long term interests of the county is not someone that appeals to me.
>
> 2. Changing to a manager form does not preclude the citizenry from having to select knowledgable, competent commissioners. Since the commissioners would be responsible for hiring the manager and evaluating the job performance they still need to have a good working knowledge of what is going on in the departments. If they have that information they should be able to do the administration themselves.
>
> 3) On a practical note , state law requires that the change take place within 60 days after the decision of the electorate. How do you realistically expect the commissioners to conduct a proper search, hire a manager, and have that person hire the new department heads during the holiday season with no budgeted money?
> Bob Hassoldt
> Kendrick
> hassoldt@moscow.com
>
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