Dayhoff Soundtrack: Dean Minnich: Should commissioners make policy, or try to run ev...

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Dean Minnich: Should commissioners make policy, or try to run ev...

Dean Minnich: Should commissioners make policy, or try to run ev...: " Look for some significant retooling in the office the Carroll County Commissioners, as the board seeks to put peopl..."

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 2011

Should commissioners make policy, or try to run everything?

Look for some significant retooling in the office the Carroll County Commissioners, as the board seeks to put people in place to take orders, rather than advise elected leaders.

This will mark the most significant difference between this board and prior one, which relied on information from senior staff and outside consultants to make policy, then turned the work over to the professionals and county employees.

This new board has been consistently sending signals that it will take charge. Haven Shoemaker, as a candidate, promised to clean house. Richard Rothschild and Robin Frazier have made no secret of their intentions to down-size government and the services the county provides. Doug Howard, despite his difficulties making the Carroll Area Transit work on the funds provided, commented that the five new commissioners have sufficient business skills to divide responsibilities among themselves and run the departments that are now administered by professional directors.

The morale in the county office building is at its lowest since the last time Frazier had an office there, apparently the results of micro-managing and inconsistent signals from the commissioners' office. Word is that Steve Powell, who as chief of staff for the previous board of commissioners was at the top of the chain of command, is now left out of policy meetings held by the commissioners directly with senior staffers... http://www.deanminnich.com/2011/01/should-commissioners-make-policy-or-try.html

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