COMMISSIONERS AND HERDING CATS
Can we all get along? The immortal words of the late Los Angeles beating victim Rodney King come to mind after the Hamilton County Commission’s latest snipe-fest about discretionary spending and alleged media influence.
A county in good fiscal shape should be running like a welloiled machine, but the six Republicans and two Democrats on the nine-member board (with one vacancy) have made getting some things done more like — to use the title of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s book — “herding cats.”
That’s not to say the eight members — or majority of six Republicans — always will think alike. They won’t. But they — at least the Republicans — should think about what the party traditionally has stood for: smaller government, less spending, more personal responsibility.
The culprit at the source of the recent disagreement is the annual $100,000 in discretionary spending commissioners were granted for many years. Instead of being considered a serendipity, it became an addiction.
Now, as the remaining money is spent down in drips and drabs, Commissioner Joe Graham’s principled “present” vote on money being requested by other commissioners from the county’s reserve fund has resulted in a lack of support for a project Graham backed.
Commissioner Randy Fairbanks, for his part, explained his lack of support for Graham in a 12-minute harangue that included accusing Graham of driving media scrutiny, complaining about being “roasted” in an editorial on this page about alcohol sales in parks (in which he wasn’t mentioned) and stating media “henchman” had made attacks against him and his wife.
We believe all of these arguments are unintended consequences of discretionary spending, which ended when funds for it weren’t included in the 2017 budget. Funds weren’t included in the 2016 budget, either, but a majority of commissioners voted to pull the money from the county’s rainy day fund, then overrode Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger when he vetoed the vote.
Although district “wants” — as opposed to “needs” or “emergencies” — crop up throughout the year, we hope commissioners will swallow their desire for “credit” that discretionary spending can give them and in the future make their “needs” known before the creation of the annual county budget. If a “need” has wider community impact, it has a better chance of being included in the budget.
Otherwise, we hope commissioners can work together on the use of discretionary funds, take the time to understand why fellow commissioners vote the way they do or find alternate funding sources — private, municipal, grants, etc. — to get what their district needs.
Herding cats is never pretty, and often people get hurt.