Budget's not a "mess" -- Yet

    Carroll County's financial isn't the "mess" that Richard Rothschild is quoted as saying it is, but it could be if they don't stop messing with it.
    The previous board, with good help from staff, handed them a top-rated financial status among American governments.
     Yes, they also inherited challenges. First of all, it's a perfectly good idea to revisit the community investment plan to see if some projects can be delayed until revenues pick up again. And by all means, take a look at future hiring and benefits packages to see if anything needs to be changed in the longer term.
     But the new commissioners would have more credibility -- with informed citizens as well as paid staff -- if they listened to people who know more than they do about just about everything that concerns government. These folks are not only not asking for staff input enough, they're ignoring advice when it's offered.
     They'd also have more credibility if they did things less for show and more for substance. Hypocrisy tends to undermine faith.
     If they think they have a mess now, wait until they have to deal with the consequences of a required super majority vote to raise money for necessary spending.
    Just because you think that government spending should be reduced does not mean that you can ignore facts. The facts are that some spending is why you have a government in the first place, because if you left it up to a totally populist or democratic process, no one would collect taxes but everyone would insist on having roads and schools and police and fire/emergency services.
    Robert Burke, the county comptroller, tried to tell them that and they acted like they didn't believe him. If he and Ted Zaleski have no standing, what about Steve Powell, chief of staff?  Surely, he can't be sitting back and letting these five walk off a cliff with irrevocable damage to the county. Or maybe he has spoken up and was told to back off.
     This group wants to show people they're in charge, and their obvious confusion is already an embarrassment.
     Absolutism and single-minded, Johnny One-Note theories about how to run a government will not bear up under reality.
     Words and actions are not in sync. This group said they would not hire special assistants, but four people, including two new hires, have been assigned so far as  "coordinators", one to each commissioner, and another is to be named.
     They will tell you these are not special assistants, and they are not assigned to the commissioners. They are coordinators, and they are assigned to Steve Powell, who in turn assigned one each to a commissioner.
     I guess if you white-wash the barn, you can claim you didn't spend any money on paint.
     They claim to have reduced staff, and in truth, I recommended during last year's budget planning that special assistants be removed from the rolls and the work be divided among three existing clerks.
    These commissioners were going to clean house, cut and slash, reduce staff, but so far, they've only reduced staff by one. They fired one director, and the county clerk; others lost titles but still do the same jobs. The previous board released four employees whose jobs had been threatened by the incoming commissioners, so that left them with few moves to make. So, Carole Hammen, human resources director, who had only 17 months to go to retirement, was apparently sacrificed on the altar of we-told-you-we-would.
     The county clerk, Kathy Rauschenberg, was also fired, but they'll tell you it was just part of a restructuring of government. She was replaced by Shawn Reese, a transfer from another department, and an ally of commissioner Robin Frazier in Frazier's previous term in office.
     Problem is, the transfer has been given clerk status, collects the higher salary, but reportedly does not take -- or read -- short-hand, and as a result, can't transcribe minutes of the last months' meetings taken by ousted clerk, Kathy Rauschenberg. They have to bring in hired help to do that. Someone was not looking ahead.
    But then these are conservatives, good and true. Looking ahead and vision are not their calling card. They want to keep things where they are, or go back.
    Then there is the problem they're having with the planning job. Turns out it's more necessary, and more complicated, than they thought, and though Rothschild is opposed to planning and zoning of any kind, Haven Shoemaker's old side-kick from his Hampstead days, Ken Decker, may fill the bill. They've had contract talks with him, but he wants a lot, and then there is the image thing of hiring cronies.
    I think a comment was made the other day that they will not hire cronies, like the previous board. They'll bring a new style to county government and appoint search committees to look at key positions before hiring.
     That's a good idea, but it's not new. The boards I served on had committees for all key positions except chief of staff. We had advice on hirings of the economic development director, comptroller, parks and recreations director and public information director.
     It's not what you say, it's what you do.