By now you’ve likely heard about the drama this week at the county regarding budget cuts and restructuring county departments and how no one wants to lose our local dispatch center.
It’s true that the commissioners have some difficult decisions to make, and anyone who has ever tried to balance a budget does not envy them that task. However, knee-jerk reactions rarely turn out well in the end.
In all of the comments from the public, two stand out to me. Former Town Manager Sharon Day and Undersheriff Jeremy Muxlow both suggested the commissioners should slow down, take a minute to breathe, and plan on dipping into the county’s $17.7 million in General Fund reserves to balance the 2021 budget. That would allow for an entire year to discuss restructuring departments, considering layoffs, rewriting job descriptions, gutting departments and trimming actual fat from the budget. After all, isn’t that what reserves are for?
What’s the rush?
Never. Miss. A. Work. Session.
I missed the work sessions last week. So did 99.9% of you. While I will be the first person to encourage public participation and attendance at local meetings, the next time I hear an elected representative complain about the lack of public participation, I may feel compelled to remind them their constituents have jobs and families, and can’t attend every work session and meeting, particularly when they’re held during the day.
What would be extremely helpful, particularly when those work sessions generate the kind of tumult that ensued this week, would be to have those work sessions recorded and posted, the same way the regular meetings are recorded and posted.
I asked our County Clerk specifically if the work sessions from last week were recorded, after Commissioner Rector told the crowd they could listen to them online in both Monday and Tuesday’s meetings, hoping an exception had been made for those budget work sessions. Nope. Work sessions aren’t recorded. I don’t know why, since that’s when the majority of the discussion and debate takes place, and it would further improve transparency.
