It has become apparent to this blogger that some things in Havre need to change. The news is full of stories about this government entity or that fighting yet another government entity. Allot of these problems are caused by party politics. The Democrats hate the Republicans and vice-versa. If someone from one party had a good idea for the good of Havre you could be assured that someone from the opposition party would oppose it. This just never made any sense to me. We all live and pay taxes here in Havre. I am as political as the next person and will argue and put in my 2-cents worth until the cows come home. However, once the election is over I go back believing we should work together for the good of the community until the next election when we can be “partisan” again supporting out chosen candidate.
Now I have come to realize that it is not only party politics that cause the problems. It is apparent that our elected officials don’t work together either. The whole county courthouse is Democrat, yet I have heard several of the Democrat leaders from the City Council offer views of disdain about their fellow Democrat officials at the county. This surprised me because I have assumed all these years that the various officials stuck together as political party members. Apparently rivalry and jealousy between City and County government is also alive and well. Over the years we have seen many examples of this bickering between our elected officials, such as the swimming pool controversy, location and control of the law enforcement dispatch, responsibility issues with the maintenance of certain roads and streets, and etc. When one of these bureaucratic blunderers does finally reach a decision it is more often than not, reached in one of those “Top Secret” deals such as the school board regularly does. Do these people forget that the taxpayers pay taxes to support ALL of these competing government bureaucracies? I for one am sick of my tax dollars being wasted by people that can’t work together and would agree that every single one of them should be voted out, regardless of party affiliation.
What I have not heard in all these controversies is any mention of a possible consolidation of government. What would be wrong with having a city-county government? You could hire an actual professionally trained City-County manager that could be an expert instead of the elected dim bulbs we presently see in office. The dim bulbs could still be elected as City-County commissioners and still be over-paid at the current two-hundred dollars per month. We could eliminate the salary of the Mayor and three commissioners plus their insurance and benefits thus more than save enough to hire a professional manager. We could also then combine dispatch, ambulance, swimming pool, road maintenance, law enforcement, and on and on. Just combining the positions of those that are duplicate Chiefs/Department heads could conceivably save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars
What is your opinion of at least looking into a non-partisan Consolidated City-County Government?
I think a good place to start would be to get it on the ballot. We infact need non-partisan races for a start. It just might change the way things are run in our fair city. But I believe it is a ballot issue and we need people to move forward to get this done. We cannot wait for our elected officials to do this as they are happy with the status quo. So if it is change that we want and I believe the majority are looking for a change, then we as a people need to get it started.
ReplyDeleteI think consolidation is a great idea and the money-savings alone ought to be enough to get intelligent Havreites on board!! What is the next step and when do we start???
ReplyDeleteI'd sign a petition. Heck I'd even work a table getting others to sign. I'd love to cut the pay of the county commissioners.
ReplyDeleteIf consolodation is the best practice, then why doesn't everyone do it? Butte/Silver Bow, Anaconda are the only ones I know of. It sounds good on the surface, but I think there are more cons than pros when you really dig into it.
ReplyDeleteTeh consolidation process might be a tough battle but I believe it would save money and stop the duplication of services. The issue at hand though I believe in my humble oppinion is to get non-partisan races on the ballot and let the people decide how they want there canidates to run. My lord when it comes to this issue Havre is a dinosaur living in the past. I think there are only a few other communities that have partisan races. We need to move to the 21 century and stop this D and R bickering and move Havre forward in a more simplistic manner.
ReplyDeleteCity/County Government is most certainly the way to go, no more egos running what does and doesn't get done.
ReplyDeleteA city manager/planner would solve so many issues that Havre has and help with a plan to repair our infrastructure.
To begin the process perhaps a citizens action committee could get the ball rolling
I think this is a good idea and like cruzerc90 said, lets get it on the ballot! I hate the bickering and I hate the dim wits that call themselves county commissioners. They DO NOT know how to manage money and that is quite evident by the projects they have their mits into, for example, the front steps of the courthouse (how many times they going to do and redo those?) and most recently lets look at the basement of the courthouse. If nobody has been down there, they should go take a look. The commissioners have put more of our tax dollars to work. Top of the Line everything and by the way, nobody was able to move into the Taj MaHall until just recently. After sparing no expense down there, they probably didn't have enough money to turn on the lights. Consolidate and hire someone who knows how to manage money.
ReplyDeleteYour ignorance is blatant, and indicated over and over as you make contradictory statements. Indeed, let's vote all the elected officials out of office; I am sure there are many critics out there willing to step up to the plate to run government. You obviously haven't been watching city government with an observant eye over the last few years, as everything has been absolutely bipartisan in word and deed. Consolidation may indeed be a good idea, and there is bipartisan consensus to study it. Make your blog smarter and less vitriolic, and we may have a place to start the dialogue.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf consolodation is the best practice, then why doesn't everyone do it? Butte/Silver Bow, Anaconda are the only ones I know of. It sounds good on the surface, but I think there are more cons than pros when you really dig into it.
Good question. The answer is that there has to be an appetite for change and it has to make sense to taxpayers. That is not always the case. Most Counties have multiple cities and geographic areas requiring services. The one thing that links Havre/Hill Co. which is similar to both Butte/Silver Bow and Anaconda/Deer Lodge is our governmental organization. Havre and Hingham are the only incorporated cities in Hill Co., even Rudyard which is larger than Hingham is not incorporated.
Havre also is nearly 60% of Hill Co. as far as population is concerned. So all this begs the question, is it necessary that the City and County duplicate services such as dispatch, policing, roads, etc? Not really.
Finally in response to Cruzerc90, I agree completely. Non-Partisan local races is important for Havre's future. At some point we will run short of eligible/gullible candidates to share their talent and non-partisan seats would encourage more folks to get involved. Keep in mind working on alternative forms of government takes time and does not have to be done all at once. A Charter form of government could help achieve many of the goals other users on this site have mentioned and could provide a stepping stone to ultimately approving consolidation. Lets get to work on this project, I'm game!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteYour ignorance is blatant, and indicated over and over as you make contradictory statements. Indeed, let's vote all the elected officials out of office; I am sure there are many critics out there willing to step up to the plate to run government. You obviously haven't been watching city government with an observant eye over the last few years, as everything has been absolutely bipartisan in word and deed. Consolidation may indeed be a good idea, and there is bipartisan consensus to study it. Make your blog smarter and less vitriolic, and we may have a place to start the dialogue.
You are correct Anonymous that for the most part nearly all of what we have been doing at the City, for better or worse, has been bipartisan. But the correct term should be non-partisan because quite frankly at no time has anything of a partisan nature come up on a City agenda. The only thing that is partisan for us is the letter behind our name and the elections that placed us in our seats. I guess that's the difference between campaigning for office and governing. Politics on the local level is mostly about personality and that's where most of the controversies stem. So I don't agree anonymous that these others bloggers are ignorant, its just a difference in perspective. I support non-partisanship on the local level to advance the local agenda by expanding the scope of candidates and raising the discussion above petty partisan politics.
Thanks Havre Daily Corrector for a great place to vent and discuss ideas.
I believe that local politics should be party free. I like the idea of consolitation. This would take the POWER struggle out of it at least between the two goverments. I like this site. Mike Badgley
ReplyDelete