The time is now for voters to pass the Nov. 6 ballot measure that would provide Kootenai County with an organizational structure that would make county government more efficient and effective and responsive to the residents of Kootenai County. The time is now to follow the recommendations of 1997 and 2005 independent citizen commissions which both recommended a commission/manager form of county government. The time is now to provide a county organizational structure and professional management desperately needed by an organization the size and complexity of Kootenai County with a $70,000,000 budget and over 700 employees. The time is now to provide a county organizational structure that will allow Kootenai County to respond to future fiscal challenges and reduce expenses in the near term by at least $1,000,000. The time is now to provide the county an organizational structure similar to all other large, public, non-profit and business organizations in the country and to replace the current dysfunctional structure.

The current county commissioners have placed this measure on the ballot which is authorized by the Idaho Constitution, and by statute enacted by the Idaho Legislature in 1996 providing for different forms of county government. Finally, as recommended by two citizen commissions, we have a chance to vote on streamlining and modernizing Kootenai County government.

With the new form, the three county commissioners would continue to be elected by the public. However the Clerk, Assessor, Treasurer and Coroner would become appointive offices. The four officials would be hired by a new County Manager. The County Manager would be hired by the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and serve at their pleasure. All of these people would be hired based on their education, experience and past professional performance and would not be filled by people seeking a political office with no previous requirements needed to run for the position!

This change to a new form of county government will make the way we govern ourselves better in a number of positive ways-but the three most important are these:

* More efficient, productive government producing when fully implemented estimated cost savings of at least $1,000,000 ANNUALLY!

* More accountable officials

* More opportunity for citizens to serve as County Commissioners

Let's talk about each of these in turn.

Cost Savings. The new form of government will involve several major changes. First, the current three full-time commissioners will transition to part time. Their remaining responsibilities would become primarily policy. By doing so, we estimate a 50 percent reduction of current salary that works out to be a savings of about $106,000.

A new position of County Manager (or some like title) will be created at an estimated additional estimated cost of $125,000. Currently there are four "Chief Deputies" serving the administrative offices of the Treasurer, Clerk, Assessor and Coroner. We think this number can be reduced by at least two in the new commission manager form of government for a savings of about $120,000 annually.

The largest savings come from operating a more efficient and productive organization. The current budget for the offices of Treasurer, Clerk, Assessor, Coroner and BOCC will be in excess of $50,000,000 for 2013. This figure does not include one-time capital expenditures or the budgets of the elected Sheriff and Prosecutor. Both of those offices will continue to be elected by the public.

We project savings at a conservative 2 percent will generate a total savings in excess of $1,000,000 annually. These savings will result from the Professional Manager (just like in any other private or public entity) being able to best manage resources of the county to produce maximum efficiencies at the lowest costs - something very hard to do now when the various elected officials are not accountable to the BOCC and are very protective of their own fiefdoms.

Accountability. Much has been written already by the opposition to this change of government that not electing these four administrative offices and giving administrative responsibilities to the Manager somehow makes county government less "accountable." Just the opposite is true! Frankly, the way things are today there is a lack of accountability in the way the county government functions. Consider these facts:

These officials' duties are primarily administrative and largely dictated by Idaho Statute. They have little in the way of policy making ability. They do not have any budget responsibilities other than asking the BOCC for money to run their departments. Once they get the money, they are not responsible to the BOCC on how they spend it (or waste it). If they are doing a poor or sub-par job the only recourse to remove them comes about once every four years at election time and then, as history shows, often no changes are made as these elected politicians take on the role of career bureaucrat. For example, note in the last 34 years we have had only two coroners.

Commissioner Green tells the story that he often gets calls from citizens who have a complaint about how they were treated by one of these officials' departments. When they ask to speak to the elected administrator's "boss," Commissioner Green tells them that you (the caller) are their boss -often much to the caller's unpleasant surprise. Consider the alternative to the above description. I.E. a poor performing official appointed by a Manager can be removed by the Manager and replaced with a new, qualified one without waiting four years!

Allow more citizens to participate as County Commissioners. Currently the position of Commissioner is a full-time job. As such, people with jobs, careers, small businesses, etc. are precluded from running for the positions. If the job of a commissioner was part-time, the same as a school board trustee or city council member, then many more very qualified people would likely be interested in serving on the BOCC. Thus we would greatly deepen the applicant pool for the commissioner role.

Remember that what is being proposed by the ballot measure is not an untried, radical new way of running an organization - especially the size of Kootenai County. In Kootenai County alone think of all the examples - the school districts, North Idaho College, Kootenai Medical Center - all have part-time boards who in turn hire professional managers to run the administrative aspects of their organization. These professionals serve at the pleasure of the respective board and are responsible for hiring qualified individuals to be their chief financial officers, auditors, chief operations officers, etc.

Finally let us leave you with this thought: Suppose you had the opportunity to start from scratch and design a system of governance to run an organization with 700 employees and over $70,000,000 in revenues annually. Would you design the operation to function with full-time board members charged with oversight of the day-to-day operations of the organization (even though those elected may not have the background and experience necessary to run such an organization)? Would you then have their various key administrative officers also elected, thus making them largely independent of the oversight of the Board? Would you stipulate that no requirements in terms of education, experience, etc. would be necessary for the people filling these administrative offices? We think not!

Please vote on Nov. 6 to adopt the commission-manager form of government.

Joe Morris and Jon Hippler are co-chairs of Streamline Kootenai County.

Jon Hipplerand Joe Morris

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