11/28/2006: "Damned If They Do; Damned If They Don't"

By Gordy Petersen

It appears that the three sitting council members can't do anything right when it comes to the Charter. They will never be able to satisfy some "home rule" proponents who advocated a "revenue neutral" Charter.

Whether you agree or not with all the costs attributed to the Charter the fact is that the Charter calls for changes that are expensive to implement. It is not "revenue neutral". Many of the costs are real. And so is the finger pointing.

The former Commissioners (now Council members) were criticized because they were not expert professional managers. They were told that they were incapable of doing that part of their job. They offered a solution by proposing to hire an Administrator.

Because they actually spent the money as planned for a professional Administrator and staff and attributed that cost to the Charter they are criticized for doing something "unfair" because they were going to spend that money anyway. Even though the Charter required this expenditure some think the cost should be blamed on some hidden agenda of the Council.

If they had not provided an office and staff for the Administrator they would have been accused of undermining the will of the people. Because they did they are accused of causing the costs to go up so they can blame it on the Charter.

If the Charter costs money to implement it is their fault because it was supposed to be "revenue neutral". If they had done nothing to facilitate the implementation of the Charter they would have been accused of incompetence and intentionally setting-up the new government to fail.

The fact is that Charter costs are significant. It was misleading to say that the Charter would reduce the cost of government. Some Freeholders are in denial about this fact. Therefore it must be the fault of the old Council because they "opposed the Charter and have a vested interest to see that it is not successful." They are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

If the people want to reduce the cost of government they need to begin now. Shame on us if the proposed budget gets approved "as is". I challenge the new Council members to step up and put the brakes on spending as soon as possible.