Recently Kathy George has been criticizing the idea of increasing the size of the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners from three to five members. Her three arguments are:
Kathy claims it will add an extra layer of bureaucracy. -- But it will not add another layer. It would just make the top layer of three larger by two representatives, to just five.
Today each Commissioner is elected at large, meaning each of the Commissioners represents all of the almost 100,000 residents. Yet even each Oregon House member represents fewer than 60,000 people . If Commissioners were elected by districts, they could represent about 20,000 people each, in between City Councilors and House representatives, reasonable for the size of the county relative to it's cities.
In reality, a five person Board would have the same number of layers as today. But with district representation, it would bring the commissionsers closer to the people.
Kathy claims it would be cost neutral only initially because there would be pressure to increase salaries over time. -- But this just as true today with three commissioners: inflation causes costs for the Board to go up, just like inflation does for costs everywhere. If they start from the same base, they go up the same amount.
In reality, there would be no change in the rate of growth.
Kathy claims it is best if Commissioners can’t talk to each other about what’s going on in the county except at formal public meetings.
Her claim seems absurd: what is so weird about the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners that they shouldn’t talk to each other, say, about what one of them learned at a community meeting with one of the others? Or ask a question about something one of the others knows more about? It works fine in the Newberg City Council of seven, the McMinnville City Council of six plus the mayor for seven, ... in fact almost all elected bodies have well more than three representatives and our democracy functions just fine, arguably much better.
If she really believes this, why hasn’t she campaigned to have Newberg City Council cut to three councilors, or the Oregon House and Senate to three each (boy that would save a lot of cost!)?
In reality, almost all government bodies have more than three people and function just fine and it would be better in Commissioners could talk to each other.
But worse, she has recently voted for the things she says she is against! Kathy voted for an extra layer in county government and for higher costs:
- She voted to move department heads from reporting directly to Commissioners to instead report to a new position of County Administrator who then reports to the Commissioners; and
- because she added more responsibilities to the Admistrator, she voted to increase the Administrator's salary by about $50,000 per year ... without reducing the Commissioners salaries even one dime!
So, Kathy has voted for an extra layer of bureaucracy and increased costs and she doesn’t think Commissioners should be able to talk to each other. But the five-Commissioner proposal wouldn't add a layer or costs and would allow Commissioners to talk to each other just like almost every other elected body in the state.
Increasing the size of the Board of Commissioners would bring substantial benefits to Yamhill County:
- two more voices for Yamhill County lobbying on the regional, state and federal funding levels, the source of about 30% of the Yamhill County budget;
- more diverse viewpoints can better navigate through the coexisting needs of farming/viticulture, small business, retirement community, and tourism as well as provide attention to environmental concerns and changing resource availability, such as water;
- reduce the likelihood of stalemates or just two people deciding key issues in the county if one of the commissioners has a conflict of interest;
- district representation would bring commissioners closer to the people, representing fewer at once;
- allow one-on-one conversations with each other, productively sharing ideas informally for initial feedback, just as other government bodies can do.
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