Charter Review Proposition 2 proposes that County Council members manage the operations of the county.
In 2005, the freeholders heard testimony that the very system that Prop 2 is proposing was badly flawed and that we needed a separation of powers like we have at the state and national levels.
The present commission says that separation of powers is an “overreaction” and wants us to return to the system where department heads would have a multi-headed boss.
How many bosses would you like to work for? One is usually plenty.
The commission itself admits that the structure they are recommending could be problematic: “the elimination of the artificial separation of powers between individual Council members and staff could expose staff to direct supervision by Council members. Such direct supervision in the past has on occasion placed inappropriate pressure upon department heads and staff, resulting in impairment rather than improvement of their performance.”
The commission claims it has “solved” the problem by requiring that: “No individual County Council member shall direct or discipline, or threaten to direct or discipline, any County employee, whether department head, supervisor, or volunteer, unless such direction or disciplinary action, or warning concerning such direction or disciplinary action, has first been duly approved by a majority of the County Council.”
Anyone who has worked in any organization knows that such a “rule” has no real meaning. We all know who our bosses are. We know that bosses can make our lives miserable if they choose to do so (whether they vote on it or not) and we don’t want to get fired by ticking any of them off.
It is, at best, naive to think that department heads and staff will not be intimidated and confused if they have multiple bosses. We had that very problem here before the freeholders and the voters successfully addressed it in 2005, when they proposed the present system of separation of powers. Why would we vote to go back to such a failed system of governance?
Please vote “No” on Charter Review Propositions 1 and 2.
Art Lange/Orcas Island
