No Subject

[STEPHEN C. COOKE]

The ballot proposal on the optional forms of county government before the 
citizens of Latah County is a choice between the status quo (the 
Commissioners + six "row officer") and the (Commissioners + manager w/ 
appointed row officers) form of county government. The voter must choose 
one or the other.
Under the current "Commissioners plus six" system of county government, 
three elected county commissioners (Tom Spangler, Harry DeWitt, and Loreca 
Stauber) are responsible for the general governance of the county including 
policy and administrative processes. The six other elected officials 
(sheriff, prosecuting attorney, coroner, assessor, clerk, and treasurer or 
"row officers") are responsible for the administration of their respective 
departments and carry out the duties prescribed by law.
Eight of the nine members of the Latah County Optional Forms of Government 
Study Commission are recommending the Commissioner-manager form government. 
The majority of the Study Commission has proposed that the three elected 
commissioners appoint a county manager. The Commissioners would take care 
of policy matters and the manager would handle the administrative duties 
and appoint the Clerks of the Commission and Court, the Treasurer-Assessor, 
Sheriff, Coroner, and Civil Attorney. The Prosecuting Attorney would still 
be an elected office.
The majority of the Study Commission believes these changes are needed for 
the following reasons. First, the clear lines of authority of the 
Commissioner-manager form of government would resolve conflicts within 
county government. Second, the Commissioners could focus on broad policy 
issues and leave administrative details to the manager. Finally, the 
appointed officials would be responsive to the citizens since the County 
Commissioners could fire them without waiting for an election.
. I would suggest the following criteria when thinking about the Optional 
Forms of Government proposal. The principles of democracy that make sense 
to me include the following. First, majority rules should be balanced 
against the protection of minority rights. To promote majority rules, there 
should be a balance of elected and appointed officials as a means of 
combining political values with expert skills. The rights of the individual 
should be protected against undue government intrusion. The best way to 
protect minority right and those of the individual are to separate and 
provide checks and balances in the judicial, legislative and executive 
functions of government.
The Commissioners + six row officers form of government co-mingles 
legislative with executive powers in the role of the commissioners. The six 
row officers provide some balance between the executive and legislative 
functions however. The absence of a single person responsible for overall 
administration results in a common property problem. This is the key 
problem that the suggested Commissioner-manager form of government is 
trying to address.
There are a number of compounding effects from recent events and state 
requirements. The recent problems in the county sheriff's office suggest a 
need for a way to provide for over all direction of county government. 
Also, the recall effort for Commissioners who tried to raise Commissioner's 
salaries suggests that the voters do not what the Commissioners to be full 
time administrators. The State's Open Meetings law prohibits any two of the 
Commissioners from talking to each other since it would constitute a 
majority (supermajority of the members). Finally, the Term limits law 
require a turnover in professional staff that would leave the county 
looking for qualified personnel at the highest and most technically trained 
levels of county government.
The proposed Commission-manager form of government would reduce the number 
of elected officials at the county level from 9 to 4. It would increase 
majority rule, while reducing minority rights. With only three 
Commissioners, one party would always have a super-majority. The 
streamlined effect would make it possible to go in one direction much 
faster. How will minority rights be protected? The executive function would 
not be accountable to the electorate. Power for the legislative and 
executive would be answerable to two Commissioners, who have sufficient 
power to make all decisions.
The Study Commission's proposal is good at promoting majority rule and poor 
at protecting minority right. It is my opinion, the Achilles heel of the 
Study Commission's proposal is that it keeps the number of county 
commissioners at three. More Commissioners are needed to reflect the 
diversity of opinion of the community and thereby protect minority rights. 
With the additional two or five commissioner, individual members would have 
the added advantage of being able to discuss county business with each 
other and not violate the Open Meeting law. If the current system is an 
extreme of keeping too many officials elected and to few appointed (9 
elected, 0 appointed) then the opposite can be said of the Study 
Commissions' proposal (4 elected, 7 appointed). I would suggest more nearly 
a balance of elected and appointed officials, i.e., 6-9 elected and 6-7 
elected. If the manager were changed to an elected executive then the 
division of power between the executive and legislative would be complete
My reading of American history suggests that you can trust a well informed 
electorate to make the right decisions. A democracy works because we are 
smarter as a group than we are as individuals. Until we have a proposal the 
takes advantage of the strength in numbers in decision making by expanding 
the number of County Commissioners to five or seven, I would recommend that 
we stay with the current Commissioners plus six form of county government 
in Latah County.