Sunday, July 26, 2009

Good Executive, Bad Executive

It was recently announced by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk that Dane County was able to secure a large state grant to help with their paratransit needs:
The state grant will help the county schedule and coordinate rides for those with special needs, help more people in need of transportation assistance, and be a one-stop shop for those in need of information and/or referrals for transportation programs.

The new state grant funded position will also oversee work by county purchase of service agencies to help people with disabilities better access public transit and accompany seniors on bus routes until riders are comfortable with taking transit. They will also help them with trip planning and safety awareness so they’re better able to use public transportation more independently.
On the other hand, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who wants to be governor, recently announced that he wants to slash transit routes and raise fares, as well as slash services to the disabled and elderly.

I think I'm starting to feel county executive envy. Why can't we have a good one too?

6 comments:

  1. Why can't Milwaukee have a good County Exec? We probably could, if we eliminated the elected position of County Executive and replaced it with an administrator retained by the Board. The voting public makes a very bad search committee for identifying the best candidate to fill a job that requires an advanced administrative skill set and managerial talent.

    If the position of county executive were directly and exclusively accountable to the County Board, the odds are good that a qualified candidate could be found to focus on doing the job, and doing it well. If the person failed to do the job as required, he or she could be fired and replaced more quickly than the election cycle permits, and with less of the accompanying political turmoil that we've seen so often over the past twenty years here in Milwaukee.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NealB-

    And what if the board turns bad? As you pointed out, the public does not always make a good search committee. Instead of the board we have now, what if we had more Cesarzes or Rices on it? The best administrator would still have to follow their orders, even if it was to muck things up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If the board turns bad, they'll be run out of office and replaced, as we saw here not too long ago either by recall or the regular election cycle. The County Executive position though is much more easily "bought" by corporate interests that aren't locally based and so could care less about the people that actually live in Milwaukee County.

    I think what you're really asking is "what if the voters turn bad?" I think it's the voters turning bad that got us Scott Walker. Despite this, the Board has been able to avert the worst damage that Walker's tried to do. You see what I'm saying.

    Let me ask you one. What if, after the demise of Ament, the Exec position were abolished the Board had the power to retain a county manager to ensure that county government functions were carried out? I don't think they would have appointed Scott Walker.

    Our little county government doesn't need an elected lord to use the county as its personal feifdom. It's still a cute idea in broader contexts (governors for states, the president of the US), but having a powerful executive that functions as a co-equal branch to the Board is top-heavy. At the level of county governance it's all about delivery of services and maintenance of infrastructure. It needs to be carried out as efficiently as possible. As Scott Walker has proved, the position of County Executive can and will be co-opted by those that would benefit from the failure of county government; namely, those that would profit from massive privatization of county resources. I don't believe a board-manager system has the same pitfall.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Under the current board, it probably wouldn't have the same problems, but then again, the problem isn't the office, it's the office holder.

    But there is too great a risk of the majority of the board being filled with the wrong people. This risk grows greater if the board is shrunk and gives the suburbs an unfair majority on the board. The no money will get into the inner city where it is needed the most.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree that the number of board members must not be reduced. The board functions well, and always has as far as I can remember (back to the 70s), because its members are accountable to voters in their districts.

    Have you read Bruce Murphy's take on this question in his column dated 7/21? He makes the points I was trying to make much better than I did. Here's the link: http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/murphyslaw (the title of the column is Kill the County Exec?)

    The county exec was always meant to function as an administrator that carries out the business of the county. It's not supposed to be a political power center in its own right but that's exactly what happened when Scott Walker was elected seven years ago. Maybe Scott Walker is an aberration and another like him will never promoted to office by monied interests again, but when you look at what's happened in Supreme Court races here in Wisconsin the last two elections, it seems unlikely to me that the wealthy will ever again permit low-hanging fruit like the County Exec's office to go without a huge fight. I'd rather take the office out of the equation and go back to letting the board call the shots the way they did before 1960 when the office of County Executive was created.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I will admit you make some compelling points. But I remember reading in a local paper up north a few weeks ago about how board supervisers (Waupaca County) would sometimes get so caught up in their own area of expertise (i.e. parks, transit, health and human needs, etc) that this would cause a lot of infighting and delay any real progress. An effective county exec would be a good foil against that.

    But I will not deny that we would have to be on guard against the monied special interests corrupting the elections.

    ReplyDelete