Citizen Editorial: A Few Suggestions For Our Mason County Commissioners....

1. Close the newly formed Central Operations Department. This department is designed to oversee departments that we currently compensate our County Commissioners to oversee. Additionally, these departments have highly paid Directors and Budget Managers. If these individuals are not doing the job that they are being paid to do, find someone who will! As for as our commissioners, if you do not know how to do the job ...or if you do not want to do the job...DO NOT run for office. Reading and understanding a governmental budget, managing high level staff and adopting policies and procedures are very basic skills for someone who claims to have the experience that you have outlined in your campaign flyers. If you now realize that you do not know what you thought you did, take a class! Just DO NOT hire someone else to do the job we are paying you to do!

2. Redirect the sales tax dollars that our voters approved to services for the mentally ill and away from administrative salaries as our voters intended.

3. If you do not know….ask someone who does. Take the time needed to make the best possible decision.

4. Develop a culture of trust. An environment where no one is more important than someone else and where no one’s contributions are more valuable. Refuse to accept bullying. Most importantly from your leadership staff where I can attest it currently exists.

5. Remember nothing good is accomplished alone. Refrain from distributing campaign flyers that list everything “you did” while in office, as chances are that there was someone else involved.

6. Focus of the future. We live in a changing world and while our county’s history is important we expect you to remain current in your thinking. Your job is to represent all of us. This includes newcomers as well as individuals with a history in our community. It also includes individuals in spite of their economic status.

7. Develop a policy for transparent decision making. This includes the development and expenditure of every facet of the county’s budget. As County Commissioners, it is your job to set an example for every other department with-in the county. As importantly, as Commissioners, it is your responsibility to develop a pattern of working TOGETHER for the benefit of our community. That said, once a decision is made, it is individually and collectively your responsibility to support that decision. Attempting to skirt responsibility by claiming to have voted for/against something is NEVER acceptable. You asked for our trust and support when you ran for office…now earn it!

8. At all times, maintain as your focus, "Service to the Public". Remember....it is our money that you are spending! It is also our community that has to live with your "oops we made a mistake" mentality!

9. Work with instead of against the community, your fellow elected officials and the county’s staff as a whole to discover what is best for our community. Recognize and immediately develop a system for gathering input prior to any further decisions being made, as it is clearly due to your current "short sighted" and "heavy handed" approach that we now have a dysfunctional as well as adversarial agency that we proudly (?) call "Mason County Government".

Bonnie Miller, Hoodsport
July 2, 2014