Just Jack | Are we getting our money’s worth from our county commissioners?

Published 10:12 am Friday, January 29, 2010

One of the critical questions an employer asks himself each time he conducts an employee performance review is “Am I getting my money’s worth from the employee?” The same approach is appropriate in nonprofit organizations with paid employees.

Civil service employees face the same decision-making process, although they do have some greater protection against firing, except in the case of a directed reduction in force. Even then, as with most unionized employees, individual workers enjoy certain protection based on longevity in the job and firing decisions are not necessarily based on performance alone.

Elected officials rarely have the question asked of their performance and are nearly immune to firing except on the periodic schedule of the election cycle, when the discussion turns to the incumbent’s record.

The question about value of service and actually demonstrating positive benefit to the citizens, equal to or greater than the cost of their employment, never seems to come up. In fact, it is probable that most voters don’t have any idea what an elected official actually makes in salary, benefits, and other perks.

That probability is mirrored by the lack of understanding on the part of most voters about exactly what it is we hired the elected official to do. Apparently ignorance of any standard against which performance might be measured or cost assessed is acceptable. Would you accept the same conditions if the person worked directly for you, if you signed the paycheck and their performance had direct impact on your take-home pay?

It may be time to revisit the relationship you have with your elected officials because they do work for you. Over a four-year period, the cost for one Kitsap County Commissioner, salary and benefits, is about half a million dollars. The perks that go along with the job, like office space, administrative assistants, and travel add that much more.

In return, we really don’t ask much of them for their paycheck. We think they should oversee the administrative functions performed by government, provide some general guidance on development and infrastructure in the county.

Over the past four years Kitsap has not controlled spending properly. Promises of balanced budgets are little more than dreams. We have decisions made that have cost small business people a lot of money with no direct benefit. We have seen negative economic growth in the county but no relaxation in the regulations or policies that are contrary to positive growth.

We have spent millions of dollars on revision of existing regulations without ever defining what was wrong with existing regulations or what specific problem the regulations were intended to fix. Great ideas have failed but not been revisited. Fees have increased without increase in service. We have a government that functions 80 percent of the time but which has cost us more each year. Transportation is not one bit better and, in some cases, considerably worse. The number of commissions and boards, once on the decline, is again growing to provide “citizen input” to the commissioners.

So, “Are you getting your money’s worth?” If not, what are you going to do about it?