Yesterday, the board voted 5-4 to change three committee-of-the-whole meetings from their currently scheduled time of 7:30 in the morning to an evening session 7PM.  This was done presumably to encourage public participation in the meetings, and provide a schedule that is more accommodating to others who might be interested in running for county commission, yet continue to have ‘day jobs’.

I voted against it.

It might seem to go against the logic for someone to go against having the meetings at a later time of the day, when that person, specifically me, would like to see more public involvement.  Indeed I have been more encouraging of input from those in the county, and have as a matter of course in my activism, attempted to get more people involved in the entire process of community politics.

The promise of more becoming involved by this successful vote has a fatal flaw however.  It assumes that EVERYONE in our community works a day job.  The Grand Traverse County BOC currently has 7:30AM committee meetings for 3 of its 4 monthly scheduled gatherings. The first Wednesday is Public Health & Safety, the second Wednesday Resource Management, and the third is Ways & Means.  The final Wednesday evening meeting is where final decisions are made including the recommendations by these ‘committees of the whole.’

Presumably, the move to 7PM every Wednesday would foster more participation by the public because of work scheduling.  Most people may work in the daytime, but a move that eliminates ALL of the morning full board meetings now results in NO availability for evening workers to participate other than letter writing or phone calls.

It defeats the intent, as it takes the ‘mix’ of full board from 3 in the morning and the final vote in the evening session on the last Wednesday, to all meetings in the evening with no mix or accommodations for attendance by evening workers.  As it was, those people who work in the evenings had SOME ability to be a part of the process before, now they will have none.

The argument for having more availability to prospective commission candidates is also MOOT, as there are more activities that occupy a day’s time than simply the full board meetings.  Commissioners have a far busier schedule than one might think.  To be truthful, the level of community involvement to do the job properly, was not something I had expected to be as time consuming.  It is,  and it is also more rewarding than I could have imagined.

But it may well exclude those who cannot schedule their own day.  Employees of certain businesses might well have a hard time making their work and time on the commission scheduling effective.  One side (the employer) or the other (the voter) could suffer. It is what it is.

As things go, these types of things require a bit more thinking through to discover the net effect of the actual decision.  In this case, I had at first considered the evening meetings to be the best course for participation, and after considering all factors, discovered this not to be the case.

$190,000 is what the county spent.. to determine that we need to offer more in wages to our employees.  Not  a little more, but amounts that outstrip obvious necessary amounts to keep a qualified workforce, and also amounts that reflect a total disregard for the current economic crisis the county and other local governments face.

The callous disregard for the taxpayer is evident when commissioners, instead of paying $190,000 for an outside firm to evaluate particular positions in county government, could look at the long lines of folks WAITING for county jobs and make a pretty quick assessment on whether compensation is adequate.  Does it not make sense that a demand for those positions means they are desirable already, and at the given wage rate?

Apparently the “experts” did not think so:

The board ordered a study in 2007 to be crafted by The Segal Company. It was meant to outline new job classifications for more than 500 county employees, and to compare their wages and benefits to similar organizations.

But Segal used an incorrect methodology for wage comparisons, a committee of local human resources experts from public and private institutions found.

The Segal study called for raises from $5,000 up to $40,000 per-year for some department heads and managers, while hourly employees would see increases around $1,000 or less.

The reality that Michigan is enjoying a stated 14% unemployment rate, that may well translate into over 20% when factoring in those who have given up, should provide a realistic look at all levels of positions that the county has to offer.  This study that was A. Irresponsibly chartered with taxpayer money and B. makes claims that wages are too low, can be nothing but flawed in this type of environment.

The county threw good money away, to reach an unacceptable solution, to a non existent problem.

More on this as it develops.