News / Clark County News

Press Talk: Clark County’s funny money

By Lou Brancaccio, Columbian Editor

Published: March 7, 2015, 12:00am

Looking for funny money? Try the government.

Funny money.

By definition, it’s when a person or entity has little need to worry about spending. There is either so much money lying around or the stream of cash is so unending, you don’t care how much anything costs or whether it’s even worth the price.

There are pockets where money like this exists.

Hollywood is a good example. There is so much entertainment money flowing there, working stiffs practically have to take out loans to buy a cup of joe.

In Santa Monica — where the movie stars live and I worked for a few years — it was almost impossible for that city’s police officers to actually live there.

Silicon Valley — in the San Jose/San Francisco area — is the same.

And that brings us to government, where funny money is everywhere. Because there is a steady — almost endless — stream of money coming into government, the folks we elect don’t have to act in a normal way. It’s like someone suddenly hitting the lottery and saying, “I don’t need that $17,000, 14-carat white gold diamond-studded baby pacifier but … why not.”

The latest antics we’ve heard about is the $150,000 county councilors have agreed to spend — if needed — with a Web design company for our very own Environmental Services Department.

Wait? You’re thinking you might remember reading something about this county department?

Good memory! Yes, that is the very same department that county Councilors David Madore and Tom Mielke snuck their buddy Boss Hogg Benton in to run.

Benton, also known as state Sen. Don Benton, gobbled up the $100,000-plus job even though he’s mostly known for gobbling up free lunches from lobbyists.

So what’s going on with spending $150,000 on outside help to improve five environmental websites the county has? It really is a bit of a head-scratcher. After all, the county has an army of IT personnel. You’d think they could handle this. The county also pays an army of public relations types. If the IT folks need any creative ideas, they certainly could help.

But remember, it’s funny money.

There’s another reason why this expenditure makes no sense. And I find it quite compelling. Here goes:

Nobody cares.

Now, that’s not to say nobody cares about the environment. Most of us do. The point is nobody cares to go to the county website to look up stuff about the environment.

The county was kind enough to supply me with some usage numbers on the five environmental websites this $150,000 could go to. When you total their Web traffic, here’s how many visits on average there were each day in 2014: 83.

What the …

If you were looking for a number for the entire year, it’s about 30,000 visits. As a comparison — a little bit apples and oranges — The Columbian’s website gets 30,000 visits … in one day.

And remember, this $150,000 is above and beyond whatever county staffers might put into it.

Because the county doesn’t really need to pay much attention to things like “Does it make any sense?,” it broke the cardinal rule of website building:

“If you build it, they won’t always come.”

Many a private business — including newspapers — have learned this the hard way. One cannot assume simply because you have good information on your website that users will come to you for that information. And the biggest problem most local websites have in attracting visitors?

Someone named Mr. Google.

You see if residents want info on how to compost, they ain’t going to the county. They’re going to Google.

Unfortunately, unlike private businesses, the return on investment is not a player when it comes to things like county websites. If the government needs to spend a boatload of money to get 83 visits each day to five environmental websites … let’s do it!

After all, it’s only funny money.

What the …

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