It’s perhaps worth a chuckle to discover the Benton County Quorum Court may be forced to add $10,000 to its budget that pays for its meetings.
Isn’t this a panel dominated by small government Republicans? Yet the panel expects it will need to grow its meeting budget for 2013 from $99,949 to $109,949. The proposal to do that will be considered Thursday evening.
The county’s 15 justices of the peace are paid a flat $350 per month for full Quorum Court or Committee of the Whole meetings, but members of Quorum Court committees get $100 per meeting they attend.
They’re also paid 56.5 cents per mile when they travel on county business.
Is this some indication of excessive government? Not at all. It reflects the challenging nature of the issues these elected officials are wrestling with in 2013. When there are serious needs in a county and a group of elected officials highly committed to less government, it’s naturally going to take a good deal of time to work out solutions.
The issues? There’s the debate over how to use about $12 million in new state revenue for roads over the next 10 years and whether to front-load a road improvement plan with expenditures on the promise of the future revenue? No easy answer there.
Members have also worked to revise the county’s planning and development regulations, and personnel reorganizations in several departments.
They’ve also had extensive debates over how to ensure rural Benton County residents will get a response from ambulance services and how county tax revenue will pay for that assurance.
There’s also talks about building a new county courts facility, either downtown or out by the county jail.
Even (perhaps especially) in a county that wants small government, governing takes time.
These are critically important issues that affect people’s lives. It’s far better to pay for a few “extra” meetings to make sure government is doing what it needs to do as well as it possibly can.
Government decision-making can be a bit messy and inefficient. It’s the nature of compromise and collaboration. When issues are so complex, the only solution is putting everyone in a room and hashing it out.
WASHINGTON COUNTY PANEL AGREES TO END MEETINGS
While Benton County officials wrestle with an abundance of meetings, it’s refreshing in Washington County to see a panel that pushed its own self-destruct button after recognizing its work was done.
The Washington County Animal Concerns Advisory Board recently voted to discontinue meeting, having accomplished the chores it was charged to do. This volunteer panel was crucial in the planning for a new county-run animal shelter that opened last September.
Although there are still many operational issues remaining with the shelter, that job rests largely on county staff with annual budgeting by the elected Quorum Court.
It’s refreshing to see a government panel that can admit its job is done and not start looking for more to delve into.
Traditionally, government panels, like taxes, tend to never go away. We appreciate the job these folks did on behalf of Washington County’s citizens and their reasonable approach to ending their activity once the job was done.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 06/25/2013