A friend of mine likes to say that “sheer terror is a great motivator”. And as various government entities deal with the worst recession in memory, those words ring particularly true for County Commissioners Al Carter, Mike Wilson, and Terry Willis. They have been managing a very thorough, deliberative, and I know personally gut-wrenching chore of reducing staff and considering reduction in county services across the board. The process has been very open and we citizens have been invited to offer suggestions to help. Amid the many ideas proposed, one that has not been discussed yet is to consider restructuring county government.
Currently, ours is a 1920s model of electing all department managers. This is an organizational structure that is overloaded with management, disperses responsibility over a number of departments, discourages cross training, and — because the political parties are involved in the selection process when a vacancy in a position occurs — allows political considerations to become a significant part in determining who will be chosen to run the department.
If I understand the 2009 county budget (issued prior to recent cuts), only about 35 of 239 full time employees in the general fund fall under the direct or indirect supervision of the County Commissioners. The rest are supervised by elected officials. I can’t imagine an organization that can be considered modern or efficient with such a dispersed chain of command. If you are disappointed with the overall effectiveness of the organization, don’t blame Al, Mike, or Terry.
It is impossible to manage any kind of organization where the supervisory positions are elected. I have no reason to be critical of the current elected Auditor, Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Coroner, Prosecutor, or Sheriff as I know most of them. However the system we are forced to endure is political. Mayors and city councils in Grays Harbor choose their chiefs of police, city attorneys, finance directors, fire chiefs, public works directors, and city administrators following rigorous selection processes involving interviews, background checks, and perhaps even polygraph and drug testing.
Does anyone really think that choosing management positions in a multi-million dollar organization should be decided by name familiarity, yard signs, and a campaign war chest to buy radio and newspaper advertising? These are, after all, administrative not policy making positions. Recognizing this over 25 years ago, Aberdeen and Hoquiam citizens chose to eliminate the elected positions and consolidate the operations of clerk and treasurer in to single finance departments. The result has been exceptional in both instances.
Today, Grays Harbor County is faced with the need to replace an elected manager — retiring County Coroner Ed Fleming. So how will his replacement be chosen? Will there be a discussion of consolidating that department with the Sheriff or Prosecutor’s office as in many counties? Will the position be advertised with interviews and background checks as the county would do with any entry level position? The answer of course is “no”.
Because the position is currently held by a Democrat, the Democrat Central Committee will present to the commissioners a ranked list of three candidates from whom the commissioners will have to make a selection. Is anyone in the county other than me wondering what the difference is between a Democrat and a Republican coroner? (Whimsically, one might wonder if a pro-life Republican might refuse to declare people dead?)
I have been asking these questions since the late 1970s when I unsuccessfully (thankfully) ran for County Coroner arguing that that position and others should be appointed and not be political. At the time, I was critical of the $6000 per year salary for the coroner which nowadays is close to the monthly salary for the position. Lane Youmans has had an exceptional career as a detective in the Sheriff’s department and is currently a top person in the coroner’s office. Do you suppose, despite his obvious credentials, that the Democrats would recommend him if he were a card-carrying Republican?
So how do we engage in a county-wide discussion of the County’s organizational structure and actually do something about it?
State law allows for a freeholder election in which citizens are chosen to study this and then make recommendations to the electorate for a final decision. A recommendation could be made to eliminate most of the elected positions. This would give the County Commissioners the ultimate authority to combine departments to increase efficiency and reduce costs. No managers would have a guaranteed 4 year job as they do now and replacements would be chosen based on competence rather than electability or loyalty to some political party.
Needless to say, this concept will receive criticism from some party regulars and incumbent office-holders and staffs. Uncertainty is not pleasant.
But the Commissioners need to be able to structure county government to provide a level of service that meets current needs and financial resources. And as stockholders in an organization with a $29,000,000+ budget and assets in the perhaps hundreds of millions beyond that, citizens are entitled to consider options to help out. That is, after all, what we have been asked to do.
Al, Mike, and Terry, “tear down this wall” of inefficiency and help lead our community on a much needed effort to modernize our county government. You sit at the top of the organizational chart and it is presumed that you are ultimately responsible for county government. You deserve this change as much as we do!!
Editor’s note: This article was previously published in The Daily World.
I couldn’t agree more with your commentary.