PAGE 10 - INTER-COUNTY LEADER - NEWS SECTION - A - MARCH 14, 2012
Smaller Polk County Board? by Gregg Westigard Leader staff writer BALSAM LAKE – Polk County voters will decide on Tuesday, April 3, whether the size of the Polk County Board should be reduced from 23 members to 15 members. If the binding referendum passes, the smaller board would be elected in April 2014. The referendum is the only countywide, contested issue, aside from the Republican presidential preference primary, since many county board and school board elections are uncontested. The referendum was placed on the ballot by a petition drive in 2011. A state law says that after a new census and after the county board has established new district lines as a result of that census, electors have to petition for a referendum to decrease the size of a county board. Voters have one chance to reduce the board every 10 years. If the referendum passes, the newly elected county board would adopt new district lines that would eliminate about one third of the present districts. Each of the new districts would cover a larger area and include a larger population. The new districts would still be distributed across the county in proportion to the population, so the percentage of seats for the different areas of the county would not change. If the referendum is defeated, the county board itself could still reduce the size of the board by resolution one time before the next census. However, there can only be one reduction in board size each 10 years, and once reduced, the number of board members cannot be increased until the next census. A primer on the referendum The Leader asked two people, Herschel Brown and Rick Scoglio, to prepare presentations on why you should vote yes or no on April 3. Brown has been an advocate for keeping the county board at 23 members. Scoglio led the petition drive for a smaller board. Scoglio and Brown were each offered space to present their views and each of them decided how to use that space. The statements each of them gathered were not edited by the Leader. The Leader will print responses and rebuttals to these presentations in next week’s paper.
Why vote yes and reduce the size of the Polk County Board (statements gathered by Rick Scoglio)
Jeff Peterson, Luck I will be voting for the referendum because I think the current number is unnecessarily cumbersome. There are far larger organizations and businesses run with far fewer directors. It’s something of a myth that the present number puts supervisors in closer contact with their constituents. The fact is, most supervisors receive precious little feedback from the people living in their districts. Slightly larger districts would not signifiJeff Peterson cantly impair a supervisor’s ability to stay in touch. Another benefit (hopefully) of larger districts might be that we have fewer uncontested elections. I always hate to see people run unopposed.
Rick Scoglio Size matters – a Polk County Board size reduction binding referendum is coming to a ballot near you next month on the April 3 election. It will be asking voters for approval of changing the size of the board from 23 to 15. It really should be a no-brainer no matter which side of the political spectrum you come from. Conservatives simply see bloated big government and want to reduce it. Liberals see a county board “nickel and diming” departments, cutting budgets, cutting personnel, even cutting entire programs, yet are unwilling to even make a token cut to themselves. Us LibertarRick Scoglio ians always see just too much government and would like a chance to reduce anything. Only a statist seems to always like the status quo. St. Croix County has double our population with a much smaller board. Milwaukee County has almost 1 million people, yet they have a smaller board than we do, and they are looking to reduce it further. Are we that much better represented? I think not. Will we save money with a reduction? Yes, but at first glance not a significant amount. With the addition of a qualified county administrator, there is now little to do for current board members. Most are now simply sitting and listening to reports. Committees are being reorganized so there will be fewer needs for supervisor input and fewer meetings. The compensation savings of the supervisors will not be that great, but the ancillary costs of less meetings and fewer supervisors will add up quickly. Departments have far greater things to do than to entertain 23 supervisors at a minimum monthly basis for hours at a time. Preparation time and paperwork alone should save thousands at a time when every penny counts. We are talking about what is the most efficient way of governance. Our form of government, even at the county level, is a republic and not a democracy. The number of people elected officials represent should not matter if they are correctly, efficiently and knowledgeably representing their constituents. Doing their “job.” The current board had the opportunity to do the right thing and make a reduction in their size even if it was only a token reduction of two supervisors. They did not really even entertain such a reduction with many of them arrogantly believing they are protecting their “jobs” as supervisors. This is a civic duty and not a job. This is why I am running for a seat on the county board. I supported Supervisor Sample, and since he decided to not run again, I felt it was my duty to finish what I started and to oversee a reorganization of the board from 23 to 15. We are asking departments to dig deep and find ways of saving and/or cutting. The least the board could do was to lead by example and make some cuts to themselves. They did not, so now we the voters have that chance on April 3. Bob Blake, rural Frederic I find it interesting that self-proclaimed, hard-core conservatives, most of whom were of the opinion that the county board was too large when they were running for their seats, would now be advocating for the “progressive” argument that “bigger government is better” at the local level – but bad at the state or national level. The question, I think, is, can county government function as well with 15 people in charge as it can with 23? The answer is clearly yes. A few years ago during one
two-year session of the county board, two responsible budgets were adopted, a tremendous amount of good was accomplished in informing the public about the huge meth crisis that was swamping the county, a state-of-the-art emergency communication system was built within the allocated project budget, several high-level administrative position vacancies were “created” and then Bob Blake filled and all with people who did an infinitely better job than their predecessors – all accomplished in a two-year period when the majority of the board was dedicated and committed to making government work better and more efficiently. That board was followed by a board that was so collectively inept that no one has ever been able to describe to me a single positive outcome of that two-year session. If you have a majority of good people on the board good things can happen, and if you don’t it will be a predictable disaster and that will be the case whether there at 23 or 15 members on the board. Reducing the size reduces the likelihood of dealing with what is happening right now. People creating committees with overlapping or unclear responsibilities meeting time after time to no positive outcome. Right now there is the personnel committee, the organizational committee, the transition committee and the administrative committee all meeting without a clear vision of their purpose and butting heads over their conflicting or overlapping responsibilities. There is an aging committee, a health committee, a human services committee and a nursing home committee – all meeting to review reports and nod their heads in approval and collecting per diems and mileage. These areas could all become one committee that would only meet as needed instead of four committees meeting monthly. There would be fewer board members interrupting department work attempting to find nuggets of irrelevant information so they can appear to be important. The creation of the county administrator has eliminated the administrative oversight responsibilities that previous boards had. The size of the board should reflect this reduced level of responsibility for the county board. Give a 15-member board a try – if it doesn’t work we can reduce it further! If you are an administrator and you want a good decision you don’t increase the size of the group – you improve the quality of the information they have.
See Polk County Board, next page
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