Clark County commissioners are correct to explore consolidation and elimination of advisory boards in hopes of reducing the $1.4 million spent annually to accommodate such groups. We just wish the commissioners were more aggressive and more expeditious than to just approve a pilot program to achieve such efficiencies. Under any circumstances, a million and a half bucks is a huge amount in a county this size, and the magnitude of the money becomes even greater when you consider the county budget has been cut by $62 million in recent years and 270 positions were eliminated.
As Stephanie Rice reported in a Sunday Columbian story, county employees are recommending that the commissioners consider reducing the 50-plus task forces that exist in just five departments: Environmental Services, Community Development, Community Planning, Community Services and Public Works. Although advisory board members are volunteers, the bulk of the expense to taxpayers is the number of county employees required to attend the meetings: an estimated 28,000 hours of staff time, and many of those hours are overtime. The meetings usually are attended by three staff members.
Make no mistake, public input is crucial. It’s the bedrock of the democratic process, and there’s an abundance of local expertise for county commissioners to hear and heed. But a recent presentation by Environmental Services Director Kevin Gray and Karen Streeter, an Environmental Services manager, describes a few of the problems that have been allowed to grow through the years: “unclear missions, duplicating or overlapping tasks, obsolete goals and an overall drain on staff resources” — all while the meter is running on taxpayers’ dollars.
The pilot program will merge three groups — the nine-member Solid Waste Advisory Board, nine-member Clean Water Commission and five-member Noxious Weed Control — into a single Clark County Council on the Environment. But here’s where the well-intentioned effort loses steam: Even though there will be fewer meetings, all 23 of the combined members will continue to serve.