Where? Every County Courthouse in the State of Florida
By Sid Riley
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
“Across our state, elected county officials are skirting the “sunshine laws” which exist to assure public disclosure of all government affairs.”
A situation has been created through legislative action in Tallahassee over succeeding decades which in my opinion, needs to be corrected. The situation is enabling uncontrolled, unmonitored wasteful spending of millions of Florida taxpayer dollars each year.
A body of laws has been enacted by legislators in Tallahassee through the years which has effectively created a protective “wall of independence” for the Constitutional Officers within the county government which has become a shield that enables county employees who work in these offices to enjoy benefits, wages, and policies which are not available to other county employees. This creates an inequitable, unfair advantage for the privileged few who work in the Court House for a Constitutional Officer.
This condition has been attained through the effective influence of the combined lobbying associations which all have permanent offices located near the Capitol in Tallahassee. They wine, dine, promote, campaign for, and help selected legislators…..and expect favorable legislation which benefits the Constitutional Officers in return. That is how the system works in our state capitol. Each Constitutional Officers Association has one or more lawyers on staff to assist their membership with any legal issues they may encounter as they perform their elected tasks at the county level.
This creates a level of separation and unfair independence for the Constitutional Officers as they deal with the demands of the elected County Commissioners, who are charged with the ultimate responsibility for the affairs of the county government. They are given the responsibility for managing the budgets, policies, and expenditures of the Constitutional Offices, but find their ability to exercise direction and management of these functions taken away by the lobbyists and lawyers for those offices.
For example, for all other county employees a well defined job classification system with specific pay scales for each job class exist in the payroll policies manual. If a citizen wants to know what any employee is making, the information is readily available. Also, all raises, bonus payments, and policies relating to accrual and buy-back of vacation and sick days is clearly defined. It is all very public…..and is out in the sunshine for all to see.
However, the same is not true for employees working in many of the Constitutional Offices within the Court House. Their pay policies, bonus arrangements, vacation and sick day accrual rates, buy-back rules, and promotion criteria are all very separate from the county system, very departmentalized in format, and very secret! If you don’t believe me, just go into the County Administration office and ask what a grader operator is paid…then go across the street and ask what a specific person in a Constitutional Office is earning. Chances are good that in at least three of the offices you will not find the answer.
The inequities of this system have become more acute as County Commissioners have been forced to engage in cost cutting, austere management of available funds as a result of the current economic downturn. While the general county workforce has been forced to do without raises, or has been held to very minimal increases, the Constitutional Officers have been able to continue to award big bonuses and generous raises to their staffs. Very Unfair! Unfair to the other county workers who are being forced to sacrifice….Unfair to the County Commissioners who are supposed to be in control of wages….and Unfair to the Tax Payers who expect frugal management in these times.
Additionally, the lack of control over the budgets and expenditures of the Constitutional Offices opens the doorway for wasteful spending. I do not blame our existing county officers. The system was there before them. It is the way it always has been, and they are only following the procedures used by those who preceded them in their position. The opportunity to give special raises, bonuses, and benefits to their loyal staff members is there, their staff expects it, and they would be harshly criticized by their employees if they did not take advantage of their situation. The degree of secrecy over pay scales, bonus payments, revenues and expenditures, and amount of disparity from the policies and benefits which apply to the general population of county employees varies greatly between Constitutional office functions. Some of our Constitutional functions are letting the sunshine shine, while others are wearing a lot of sunscreen.
As a result, locally thousands of dollars are being spent wastefully, secretly, without controls, and usually well hidden from the sunshine….the cost quickly becomes millions of taxpayer dollars being spent. If you total the impact of this condition state wide, and consider all wasteful expenditures made by Constitutional Officers in every court house across Florida. Their “wall of legislative protection” is better than the strongest union contract in industry….it is based on laws gained for them by their lobby organizations!
The solution lies in public outcry forcing a reversal of this situation in Tallahassee. Constitutional Officers and the operation of their departments should be required to comply with the same rules and operating policies as the rest of county government. All county revenues and expenditures should be controlled by the elected County Commission. It is up to Marti Coley and Brad Drake, and their peers to stop these unfair, wasteful, and hidden areas of waste. I hope they will “Get it Right” by working to correct this situation.
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
● Our illustrious elected legislators are returning home from Washington to face hostile, angry constituents. In my opinion the people are not merely venting against the proposed socialization of our health care system. They are also venting against years and years of mismanagement which has eroded their lifetime savings, and is lowering their standard of living every day.
● Boyd is back in Florida from his time in the Disneyland world of wine and fine pork, known as Washington, D.C.. He will be in Marianna on August 19 at the Agricultural Center to face all of those local voters he ignored when he supported Nancy Pelosi and the Party leadership by voting for “Cap and Trade” and agreeing to the proposed socialized health plan. I will be there….hope you can come too.
● Please say a prayer for the soldiers and their families who are involved in our “international incidents” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.
“Across our state, elected county officials are skirting the “sunshine laws” which exist to assure public disclosure of all government affairs.”
A situation has been created through legislative action in Tallahassee over succeeding decades which in my opinion, needs to be corrected. The situation is enabling uncontrolled, unmonitored wasteful spending of millions of Florida taxpayer dollars each year.
A body of laws has been enacted by legislators in Tallahassee through the years which has effectively created a protective “wall of independence” for the Constitutional Officers within the county government which has become a shield that enables county employees who work in these offices to enjoy benefits, wages, and policies which are not available to other county employees. This creates an inequitable, unfair advantage for the privileged few who work in the Court House for a Constitutional Officer.
This condition has been attained through the effective influence of the combined lobbying associations which all have permanent offices located near the Capitol in Tallahassee. They wine, dine, promote, campaign for, and help selected legislators…..and expect favorable legislation which benefits the Constitutional Officers in return. That is how the system works in our state capitol. Each Constitutional Officers Association has one or more lawyers on staff to assist their membership with any legal issues they may encounter as they perform their elected tasks at the county level.
This creates a level of separation and unfair independence for the Constitutional Officers as they deal with the demands of the elected County Commissioners, who are charged with the ultimate responsibility for the affairs of the county government. They are given the responsibility for managing the budgets, policies, and expenditures of the Constitutional Offices, but find their ability to exercise direction and management of these functions taken away by the lobbyists and lawyers for those offices.
For example, for all other county employees a well defined job classification system with specific pay scales for each job class exist in the payroll policies manual. If a citizen wants to know what any employee is making, the information is readily available. Also, all raises, bonus payments, and policies relating to accrual and buy-back of vacation and sick days is clearly defined. It is all very public…..and is out in the sunshine for all to see.
However, the same is not true for employees working in many of the Constitutional Offices within the Court House. Their pay policies, bonus arrangements, vacation and sick day accrual rates, buy-back rules, and promotion criteria are all very separate from the county system, very departmentalized in format, and very secret! If you don’t believe me, just go into the County Administration office and ask what a grader operator is paid…then go across the street and ask what a specific person in a Constitutional Office is earning. Chances are good that in at least three of the offices you will not find the answer.
The inequities of this system have become more acute as County Commissioners have been forced to engage in cost cutting, austere management of available funds as a result of the current economic downturn. While the general county workforce has been forced to do without raises, or has been held to very minimal increases, the Constitutional Officers have been able to continue to award big bonuses and generous raises to their staffs. Very Unfair! Unfair to the other county workers who are being forced to sacrifice….Unfair to the County Commissioners who are supposed to be in control of wages….and Unfair to the Tax Payers who expect frugal management in these times.
Additionally, the lack of control over the budgets and expenditures of the Constitutional Offices opens the doorway for wasteful spending. I do not blame our existing county officers. The system was there before them. It is the way it always has been, and they are only following the procedures used by those who preceded them in their position. The opportunity to give special raises, bonuses, and benefits to their loyal staff members is there, their staff expects it, and they would be harshly criticized by their employees if they did not take advantage of their situation. The degree of secrecy over pay scales, bonus payments, revenues and expenditures, and amount of disparity from the policies and benefits which apply to the general population of county employees varies greatly between Constitutional office functions. Some of our Constitutional functions are letting the sunshine shine, while others are wearing a lot of sunscreen.
As a result, locally thousands of dollars are being spent wastefully, secretly, without controls, and usually well hidden from the sunshine….the cost quickly becomes millions of taxpayer dollars being spent. If you total the impact of this condition state wide, and consider all wasteful expenditures made by Constitutional Officers in every court house across Florida. Their “wall of legislative protection” is better than the strongest union contract in industry….it is based on laws gained for them by their lobby organizations!
The solution lies in public outcry forcing a reversal of this situation in Tallahassee. Constitutional Officers and the operation of their departments should be required to comply with the same rules and operating policies as the rest of county government. All county revenues and expenditures should be controlled by the elected County Commission. It is up to Marti Coley and Brad Drake, and their peers to stop these unfair, wasteful, and hidden areas of waste. I hope they will “Get it Right” by working to correct this situation.
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
● Our illustrious elected legislators are returning home from Washington to face hostile, angry constituents. In my opinion the people are not merely venting against the proposed socialization of our health care system. They are also venting against years and years of mismanagement which has eroded their lifetime savings, and is lowering their standard of living every day.
● Boyd is back in Florida from his time in the Disneyland world of wine and fine pork, known as Washington, D.C.. He will be in Marianna on August 19 at the Agricultural Center to face all of those local voters he ignored when he supported Nancy Pelosi and the Party leadership by voting for “Cap and Trade” and agreeing to the proposed socialized health plan. I will be there….hope you can come too.
● Please say a prayer for the soldiers and their families who are involved in our “international incidents” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.
No comments:
Post a Comment