County Adminstrator Cancels Budget Workshop
July 22, 2010
July 22, 2010
During the BCC meeting on 7/20, Commissioners Vana and Aaronson requested a budget workshop to be held on 8/31, to include the constitutional officers (such as the Sheriff) in a discussion of cross-organization efficiency. The public was to be invited, specifically TAB.
Today, after a good-faith effort on the part of Administrator Wiseman to set up the meeting, it was announced that the workshop has been canceled. For various reasons, the constitutionals could not (or declined to) participate. Each had a different reason and/or comment:
- Sheriff Bradshaw “.. cannot attend and he indicated that he did not think it was appropriate to send a substitute“.
- Supervisor of Elections Bucher was willing to attend but because of the proximity to the primary election, may be busy if there are recounts.
- Tax Collector Gannon, while willing to participate, suggested that the Commissioners visit her facility first and discuss if she could not assume some of the county’s programs and do them more efficiently. She also noted: “I do not want to meet in the Chambers. If we are to look at this from a team or partnership approach frankly I don’t think the Chambers is conducive to creating that atmosphere“.
- Clerk and Comptroller Bock said that her office is already very efficient and thought the Commissioners should visit her facility before “before setting a date to discuss “potential organizational efficiencies”“.
- Property Appraiser Nikolits, whose budget is less than 5% of PBSO, thought there was no point to the meeting unless the Sheriff agreed to participate. He went on to say: “Aside from the Sheriff, I have not heard any complaints about the budgets of the Constitutional Offices. If his budget is the issue, perhaps the BCC should deal with the problem.“
We at TAB see this reluctance to cooperate as a drawback to the current structure of county government. Regardless of whether this meeting is rescheduled, TAB is considering plans to hold its own workshop with members of the public and any county officers or staff that would like to participate in a citizen’s forum.
The text of the Administrators memo is below:
Administrator Wiseman
From: Robert Weisman
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 8:55 AM
To:
Cc:
Subject: Proposed Workshop with Constitutional Officers
We have now received responses from all of the Constitutional Officers that we invited to the proposed workshop on August 31. The responses ranged from timing conflicts that would prevent attendance to suggestions that the format/location be changed to requests that the Commissioners visit offices to view operations, etc.
In light of the preceding, and after discussion with Chairman Aaronson, I am canceling the workshop. We will re-consider timing and format for a future date. Commissioners may wish to individually take up the offers that have been made for visits.