Taking it down to the wire

OK, here’s the deal.

I’m in between internet providers. That’s a nice way of saying I'm wireless-less. Going into Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, I knew I’d be writing and posting at the Courthouse on its wi-fi. 

Major obstacle with that approach. It’s nearly 7:30 p.m. as I write this, and we haven’t yet had the Janet Barek discussion.

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It reminded me of the old Chronicle days, when I’d be sweating a late County Commission meeting up against my deadline.

A three-hour fire services budget public hearing threw off the timing of the entire day. I’m going to break that down on Thursday because citizens had a lot of interesting comments.

Today, though, it’s County Commission politics.

I’m going to whip through this so I can get the blog edited and posted before the bailiffs kick me out.

Just for fun, let’s try and guess what’ll happen based on the board’s approach today.

All five are getting along just fine. Conducting business as they should. Commissioner Janet Barek is taking her normal combative position, though she led the fire fee vote. 

Reading how the day is going, it would seem this Barek thing can stand down rather quickly if she humbles herself some. I still have a hard time believing commissioners will vote to declare a colleague guilty of violating county code without (a) an investigation and (b) an actual purpose for doing that other than to play gotcha.

And, finally at 7:30-ish, a vote: 4-1 against the resolution condemning Barek. Commissioner Jeff Kinnard was the lone yes vote. I'll have more about this on Thursday.

Also of interest:

— Kinnard wears earbuds to help his hearing. He mentioned it because folks on social media are speculating that Kinnard is zoning out with music, or he’s getting info fed to him through these earbuds.

— The board passed a quasi-judicial ordinance that requires commissioners to disclose all communications in a land-use case. The ordinance will clear up that annoying rule that prohibited citizens from speaking of pending zoning cases during regular board meetings.

— Commissioners delayed a vote on an ordinance suggestion from Chair Rebecca Bays that would have required them to communicate only with County Administrator Steve Howard or County Attorney Denise Dymond Lyn. They asked Lyn to tweak the language because it’s just too strict. 

While I certainly understand the idea that commissioners shouldn’t interfere with staffers, this ordinance was overkill. Commissioner Diana Finegan gave this real-life example: A water line bursts, water is flowing on a neighborhood street. The smart move is for Finegan to contact the Public Works director. This rule would require her to only contact Howard, who would pass the info on to who needed it. 

The idea is to stop commissioners from giving direction to the staff, cuz that is not their job. But when it gets so specific like that, we get what happened to me a few weeks ago.

The county has a public information officer. It requires media inquiries through that office. Nearly every government agency has a similar rule. I get it, and I respect the process.

But it can get a little strict. I heard something during a recent board meeting that spurred a very simple question. Not one where I’m asking for an opinion, more like a clarification. “What does this team mean?” One of those things.

During a break in the meeting, I approached a department director with a question. I almost didn’t hear when he turned to me and said I needed to ask that question of the PIO. The guy is literally standing right in front of me.

Government efficiency can become rather inefficient in a hurry. Commissioners want a rule that says they don’t interfere with the staff. But they don’t want a dumb rule just to have a rule.

This one will come back in a few meetings.

I apologize for the lack of links with today’s blog but the laptop was acting funky Tuesday evening, so it made sense to get it posted without any more issues.

What day is it? Wednesday? Cool. Enjoy it, friends.

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