04/13/2006: "EDITORIAL"

Controversy Continues On Salary Appointment

When the County Council turned down an obvious best choice for the Human Resources slot on the newly appointed Salary Commission, and instead followed Councilman Myhr's recommendation, based on his knowledge as a member of the board of directors of OPALCO, to go to the second level of possible candidates, and select the general manager of OPALCO, they may not have realized how that action would look to the voters. Based on the letters to the Editor, and the talk in the court house and on the street, it has not been viewed in a kind light.

The Council has not been shy about expressing their view that the passing of the Charter was not something they were in favor of, and notwithstanding their public statements that, now that the Charter is the law, they intend to follow it, and to implement it as quickly as possible; and in Myhr's words, to do so as transparently as possible, what has become most transparent is the Council's desire to retain their salaries at the level they currently are, and from the beginning they have resisted, and argued against, the advice of others as to how the salary commission should be appointed.

The passing over of candidate Pam Nichols, a retired career executive of the human resource management section of an inter-national corporation, for the currently employed manager of OPALCO, has come as a shock to many. Instead of Nichols, as the first choice of the County Administrator, Mr. Cornelius, his second choice, has been selected by the Council to sit on a commission to determine the salary of the County Council, one of which -Myhr- is also one of Cornelius' OPALCO board members. This action by the Council is hard to see as anything other than an in-your-face rejection of the rhetoric that the Council gives voice to, but fails to listen to.

We hope the Council will back-up on this one, thank Mr. Cornelius for his willingness to serve, and appoint the person who has the most experience, and the time necessary to dedicate to the job. We also hope the Council will start to get down to county business, and leave the politics, and their disappointment that the Charter passed, behind them. They have been in denial long enough, and it is past time for them to concentrate on the public's business, and not their own desires and personal agendas.