This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE.

 

Should our County government be changed?

 

It seems that a group has been meeting and working on setting up a charter change that apparently would change the County Commissioner system.

 

I reserve judgment on such a move until it is made public, although I have suggested in the past that the north and south portions of our county do deserve better representation on the County Court.

 

In stating that he does not intend to run again, Commissioner Bill Brown cited as a part of his reason disagreement with the other two Commissioners, apparently in philosophy as well as different issues.

That took me back a few years to the late 70s when I was first appointed a County Commissioner to replace Ray Thorne who had accepted a state position.

 

At that time the county board was involved in a number of issues including our land use problem.   The late Commissioner Lloyd Gift was a strong voice on behalf of the Road department of the county, and had views that we other two commissioners disagreed with.   However a real division came when I suggested that we divided the county departments up into three segments, keeping related segments together.

Up until that time the only real contact we had with the counties 33 departments was a monthly meeting. 

Other than  that we knew little about the workings of the various departments unless we were discussing budgets or a special project.

 

Commissioner Gift accused us of making decisions behind his back, a charge which was untrue.   I pointed out to him that he was hard of hearing and that the issues such as the one I mentioned had been thoroughly  discussed at our regular morning meetings.

 

At any rate, I still have a copy of the cartoon in the Herald and News that shows the three of us battling each other.  That gave a very false impression because the three of us did agree on most issues.   I haven’t followed closely all the current meetings of the Commissioners, but it does seem that Commissioner Brown is on the dissenting side a number of times.

 

It would be my hope that in any change of the County Board that at least one Commissioner must be elected from the northern part of the county so that places like Chemult, Crescent and Gilchrist among others would have a direct voice on county deliberations.

 

That would also be true for the south end of the county and should include Merrill, Malin, Bonanza, Bly and others.

 

We’ll have to see what eventually is proposed.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.

 Click to Listen to this "View"

 

Text Box:   This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE. Should our County government be changed? It seems that a group has been meeting and working on setting up a charter change that apparently would change the County Commissioner system. I reserve judgment on such a move until it is made public, although I have suggested in the past that the north and south portions of our county do deserve better representation on the County Court. In stating that he does not intend to run again, Commissioner Bill Brown cited as a part of his reason disagreement with the other two Commissioners, apparently in philosophy as well as different issues. That took me back a few years to the late 70s when I was first appointed a County Commissioner to replace Ray Thorne who had accepted a state position. At that time the county board was involved in a number of issues including our land use problem.   The late Commissioner Lloyd Gift was a strong voice on behalf of the Road department of the county, and had views that we other two commissioners disagreed with.   However a real division came when I suggested that we divided the county departments up into three segments, keeping related segments together. Up until that time the only real contact we had with the counties 33 departments was a monthly meeting.  Other than  that we knew little about the workings of the various departments unless we were discussing budgets or a special project. Commissioner Gift accused us of making decisions behind his back, a charge which was untrue.   I pointed out to him that he was hard of hearing and that the issues such as the one I mentioned had been thoroughly  discussed at our regular morning meetings. At any rate, I still have a copy of the cartoon in the Herald and News that shows the three of us battling each other.  That gave a very false impression because the three of us did agree on most issues.   I haven’t followed closely all the current meetings of the Commissioners, but it does seem that Commissioner Brown is on the dissenting side a number of times. It would be my hope that in any change of the County Board that at least one Commissioner must be elected from the northern part of the county so that places like Chemult, Crescent and Gilchrist among others would have a direct voice on county deliberations. That would also be true for the south end of the county and should include Merrill, Malin, Bonanza, Bly and others. We’ll have to see what eventually is proposed. This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.    

Text Box: 12/06/07