Press Talk: There’s still a ways to go for us

These characters have run roughshod over us, ignoring logic and good sense, putting their cronies in high-paying positions and doing stuff that has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The charter will dramatically weaken their authority. It will add two more voices to the commission and it will allow the county administrator to manage county workers without constant interference from — mostly — Madore.

Why not in the clear yet?

But having a new government structure in place does not guarantee better service. No matter what structure you have, if the wrong people are running the show, we’ll have issues.

Republican Jeanne Stewart — who will win a tight race for the open seat on the board — is a strong-willed, intelligent woman. Stewart — and all of her supporters — argued strongly that she would be an independent voice and would not blindly follow Madore as Mielke has. She will be able to prove that now.

When our editorial board interviewed Stewart before the election, I was struck at how much better composed she was than she had been in the past. And even when I disagreed with her positions, I was impressed with how she supported them.

Two more spots

In the upcoming months we will be adding two more spots to the commission (it will be called a council then.) Many surely will argue and debate what that final council composition should look like.

For my money that new council could lean conservative. Why? Because our county leans conservative. The key will be who those conservatives are.

There are plenty of moderate conservatives out there who could well represent us. I was thinking — for example — that retiring Republican Sheriff Garry Lucas would be perfect on this new council. He was a strong supporter of the charter and could keep the M&M boys in check.

The county manager

Another key role in our new form of government will be played by the county manager. As noted, he will have more authority than before. Madore — who desperately campaigned against the charter — likened this new position to that of a dictator. Let’s see if he changes his tune now that the election is over. And he just might, because the likely new county manager will be our current county administrator, Mark McCauley.

My hope is that McCauley hasn’t grown too close to the M&M boys. A recent email he wrote to Madore and Mielke (and temporary Commissioner Ed Barnes) is disconcerting at best.

The county auditor’s office had just completed an examination of one of Madore’s goofy ideas that eliminated fees for development of new businesses. Madore’s hope was this would create a building frenzy, which would greatly increase business taxes, which would make up for the development fees the county no longer was collecting.

Voodoo economics.

The report — as expected — was highly critical of the program because it was costing us — taxpayers — a bunch of money. We are having to make up the difference because builders aren’t paying the fee. Of course the timing of the release of this report was — ah — terrible in Madore’s mind. It was coming out right before the vote on the charter, which he hated.

When McCauley saw the critical preliminary report, he knew it meant trouble. And here was his email that I mentioned.

“I expect the media to have a feeding frenzy over this report. We should discuss how to respond.”

Really?

Well whatever the discussion was, it resulted in a convenient delay until after the election. Madore said he needed more time to respond to the report. Honest!

People in high public places should be less concerned about how to spin a response to a critical report and more concerned about serving the real bosses: The community.

Unbecoming.

So are we out of the woods yet? I don’t think so.