From budgets to human resources, Boone County
government must change
COLUMBIA, 10/29/10 (Commentary) -- I
about spit out my coffee when Columbia Missourian columnist George
Kennedy implied that Boone County Commission candidate Ed
Robb was being "un-statesmanlike" for doing what Kennedy normally
does -- questioning the status quo.
That was right before Trib publisher Hank
Waters chided Robb for "criticizing a competent incumbency," and
promptly endorsed his opponent for guarding a status quo Waters has many reasons
to embrace.
County Hall's "competent incumbency" brought this comment
-- about Boone County Commissioners -- from maintenance supervisor Ken Roberts,
forced out of his job in 2006 just a year before retirement
over a petty, Commission-driven scandal.
"They’re not organized, they
don’t plan ahead, and then they get in some kind of
crisis situation and they want me to save them. Save them I
did. I just didn’t take time to save myself."
The budgetary status quo had County Commissioners buying
the building that once housed Jerry’s School of Hairstyling at
217 N. Ninth St. for $262,500, then -- with no plans for it -- turning around
and selling it a few months later to attorney Bob Murray.
The fiscal status quo had County
Commissioners "freezing" county employee salaries.
And crying poverty:
While sitting on hefty
reserves:
And hoping to fill vacant property they
spent millions to buy with no plan:
And (now infamously) scrapping with that guy in
Georgia over scrap metal:
Strange days
Calling Robb's campaign "the
strangest this year," Mr. Kennedy (below) took issue with the former state rep
"questioning the workloads" and "criticizing the
abilities of the county officials he’ll have to work with if he
wins."
But I've never heard Robb make anything personal. In
fact, he
told the Tribune that "all county officeholders are 'quality
people' and that he has no complaints about the service they provide."
His workload questions boiled down to state law.
By definition, elected county officials are "part
time." But in Boone, they earn full-time salaries of $82,000 and up, much
higher than the state average, and problematic when Commissioners refuse even
modest salary increases for the average County employee.
"Of course, Robb's a Republican, and they’re all
Democrats," Mr. Kennedy noted. "But partisanship hasn’t – up til now – played
much of a role in the conduct of Boone County government."
That's because, with rare exception, every elected
official in Boone County has called himself or herself a Democrat. Like many of
us, Mr. Kennedy likes the Democrat party's guiding mantra -- help the average
working person, help those who can't help themselves, make government work for
the little guy and gal.
But that's hardly been happening in the halls of Boone
County government in recent years, and by implying
that Ed Robb's challenge to decades-long single-party supremacy
is "un-statesmanlike," Mr. Kennedy naively assumes that the label "Democrat"
means as much to our elected officials as it does to him.
In too many cases, it doesn't. That it takes a vocal
member of an opposing party to bring this point home is what politics in America
is -- or should be -- all about.
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