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Local governments are losing the bubble. They are hotbeds of anger, deceit, paranoia, and power games. Local appointed officials are stressed beyond their useful limits. They are over worked and unappreciated.

Imagine having a twenty-million dollar budget to be responsible for, a staff of 50 or so, responsibility for the public safety, street maintenance, construction, safe drinking water, waste water treatment, an airport, a cemetery and a park system. You are expected to be available to the public when they need you. You have a boss who is the CEO. You answer, with your boss to the City Council and a passel of committees. You are expected to be able to provide funding for projects that can’t be supported by local taxes and somebody wants to talk to you about getting a speed bump in front of their house that just happens to be on a major arterial street.

Imagine you have all that to deal with and a contract to be signed by the Mayor that will get a street project constructed. Imagine that in that contract is the provision for paying a backhoe operator more than you make because of the prevailing wage law. It happens.

The answer isn’t more pay, even though that would be a helpful step. The answer is in the stupid laws that have under educated, inexperienced and power motivated elected officials making decisions they have no business making. Financial disclosure and term limits have removed the experienced, successful, service oriented people of our communities from eligibility. Those who can do the job have been sidelined because they don’t think their personal finances are everyone’s business or because they served out their term under term limits. Too many who now fill the trusted elected positions in our communities are jealous of the people they hire to manage a government they, themselves can’t understand.

The people of this country can no longer point their finger at appointed officials, blaming them for the mess their dog made, then elect someone because they did a term as president of the PTA to straighten things out.

Hear hear!

Clint, it sounds as though you are intimately familiar with this process. What part of the country are you in?

I've met some fantastic people in our local governments. I think some of them are in the same plight as teachers: long hours, over-burdened, and extremely underpaid. Others - well - they have no business being there.

It’s good to hear someone express an understanding for the problem. I’m in the Northwest and I’ve had enough experience in local government to be pretty sure I understand the issues. I definitely agree that there are a lot of great people working for local government and some of the finest people I know serve in elected positions.

It really isn’t the money. There isn’t any parity with the private sector but I believe that is the way it should be. Public servants, be they City Managers or Kindergarten Teachers, should make less than they could if they were in the market place. The same goes for Doctors and Lawyers. These professions should be filled with people who have a passion for what they do that is greater than their passion for money. They should be taken care of and paid well but there should always be a sacrifice that separates those who serve from their heart, from those who trade an hour of time for pay. It is honorable to trade time for pay or a product for pay but there has always been the need for those who are paid by doing what they have a passion for.

On the other hand, if people are willing to serve and sacrifice to do it, there should be appreciation for the effort. Those who sacrifice should be loved by society for what they do. That is really all a true servant wants. They will gladly drive the ten year old car and live in a modest home if they know they are appreciated. Today, we have lost the ability to see value in those terms, so money has become the measure.

City Councils and School Boards have too many people on them who lack wisdom. There are too many who are there to satisfy their egos. In many cases, they are jealous of or angry with those who they will make policy for. Their words reflect their distain and their policies contain their biases. They don’t know how to love the servants they have responsibility for. They have been elected from a field of eligible candidates that has been purged of wisdom by term limits and financial disclosure requirements.

"If you cannot take the heat get out!" Wonderful, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Cliché answers to difficult problems. Too many people get out just because it’s hot rather than stay and try to make a difference.

I talk about the role of the elected folks because they bear the ultimate responsibility. Granted, there are a lot of problems within the career ranks but to solve them you have to start at the top.