November 29, 2007
By: Sid Riley
This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items that are impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope that you will read the column regularly and that it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
The primary focus of this week’s column is the new bureaucracy being created as the county creates an emergency response function, and the future costs we will have to bear because of it.
Before I begin, let me first state that through this dissertation I in no manner intend to be critical of the Emergency Operations Director, Rodney Andreason. I feel that he has approached his new role with energy, eagerness, and a sense of devotion to the job he has been given.
However, I do direct criticism at the manner in which our state politicians and bureaucracies have dealt with the state wide emergency response system they have forced upon counties, and to some extent I am critical of the manner in which our local officials, elected and unelected, have responded to state demands.
The rush to create a statewide bureaucracy dedicated to controlling emergency (primarily hurricane related) situations was born from the political and social disasters created in New Orleans by hurricane Katrina. The lack of performance by the City, Local, State, and Federal bureaucracies in dealing with that situation struck fear in the heart of every politician and bureaucrat in the nation. Thus was born the concept of a state wide emergency response system, and the new bureaucracy that bears its name.
A state wide, coordinated approach with well trained directors for dealing with wide area emergencies and evacuations is a good idea. Also, increasing the awareness of the public and increased training of those responders that would be involved in dealing with the problem is also a good idea. Even having a designated and well trained Emergency Response Director within each county bureaucracy is also reasonable.
What the state has done wrong is, as usual, they have failed to recognize the differences between the exposed, heavily populated counties of central and southern Florida from an inland, sparsely populated county like ours. In my opinion, implementing an organizational approach that fills the needs of South Florida will result in a costly "overkill" for Jackson County – and ultimately it will result in wasted additional tax dollars being sucked from our pockets.
In order to get the new organization in place, the State created a big pot of "grant" money (please do not forget that "grant" is another clever name for "tax") to pay for the initial set-up costs, including most of the costs associated with creating a facility for the new "cane-a-crats". This easy money was dangled before the local authorities to quickly quiet any resistance they might have to begin the new system.
In my opinion, if the need for assuring public safety during hurricane threats in our area had been approached from a frugal, well thought out approach, the state would have left enough flexibility in their demands for counties to properly match the areas need to the associated costs.
First , I do not feel that our situation justifies a separate, costly function housed in a new, shiny building, working as a new organizational element separate from the other parts of the county organization. As I understand the rules at this time, if a state of emergency is ever declared for Jackson County, the Emergency Operations Director would assume full control over all of the Sheriff’s deputies and organization, all municipal police departments, and all EMT functions. He in effect would become the "Dictator of Jackson County", and would have absolute control and authority of all county functions.
Now this concept may sound good in a Tallahassee bureaucratic presentation, but in my opinion it creates a potential situation ripe with conflict, confusion and resentment between county functions. I can not picture a strong sheriff stepping back and letting someone else come in, sit at his desk and begin to issue orders to his deputies.
For our county, I believe that the new director position should have been created within the existing organization for the County Sheriff. He should work immediately under the Sheriff, and would implement the additional measures, training, and planning that are justified to assure our citizens are properly directed during such an emergency. This approach would have filled our needs and would have held the associated costs to a minimum.
As to the need for building a new two million dollar building for this Director and his future staff to roost in while they wait for a storm to come, I feel is a total waste of tax money. First, as previously stated, I feel the function should have been integrated into the Sheriff’s department, but if it is set apart in a separate structure we certainly have enough empty building space available without building something additional with public money.
I feel a good option would have been to repair the damaged Sykes building at the Marianna Airpark. It appears that approximately 70% of this structure could be salvaged by constructing a new building wall on the west side, and repairing the remainder. This would result in a building that is much larger than the one being built, at a cost that I would estimate at half of the cost of the new, small building they are putting up, and would eliminate an existing eyesore and problem at the airpark.
But NO! The state dangled construction grant money in front of our planners and commissioners, and they quickly took the bait. They should have gone to Tallahassee with a presentation of what the Sykes building could offer and the reduced costs figure, and perhaps they could have found a State official willing to save some money.
"If we don’t get the grant money…someone else will!", or "We get it free. It is being paid for by the State through grants" was the response I got from our county leaders. They were insensitive to any other approach or attempting to make wiser use of tax funds…local or state.
So we are about to get a new, expensive building built to house our Emergency Operations Director and his staff. They will create their own world of requirements and paper shuffling exercises…but in reality most of what they will be doing is a waste of time. They will sit and wait and hope for a hurricane to come by, and be in a role similar to that of the Maytag repair man.
Now, I promise to not rave on this subject again ……..for several months.
RUDAMENTS: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
1. I congratulate our Commissioners and Chuck Hatcher, who is in charge of the recycling department for their decision to create a procedure for citizens of Jackson County to dispose of old appliances without waiting for the Waste Management crew to allow it on a twice a year basis. This convenience will help prevent a lot of back yard eyesores and illegal disposals in sink holes.
2. I encourage all customers of our friendly local utility, Florida Public Utilities, to voice their opposition to the outlandish 43% rate hike they are lobbying to push through their buddies at the Public Services Commission. Go to the meeting and express your outrage at this greedy utility taking an added $5,000,000 away from it’s customers next year.
3. The severe water shortage has caused me to raise another question about those beautiful, expensive "mosquito breeding ponds" (water retention) that the EPA has created and our code-a-crats gleefully enforce. The question is this – If we build ponds so that during a rain the water is "held" and allowed to percolate into the ground and enter the underground water system after being filtered in its downward migration, …..doesn’t this reduce the amount of surface run off water that would normally fill our streams and rivers and worsen the situation?
4. I want to express my congratulations to Louie Harris for his new role at Chipola, and to express my gratitude for the fine job he did while filling the role of City Manager for Marianna. At the rate Chipola is grabbing grant money and throwing up buildings, his involvement in grants and project management will undoubtedly save some money that would otherwise be wasted. Good Luck, Louie!
Well, that is enough for this week. Remember, election time is approaching. This is an opportunity for us to consolidate our voting power and to begin to get some people elected that will dedicate themselves to saving money instead of just playing the same ole spending games. Do this, and you will be "Getting It Right!!"
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