One sees that the Walworth County Board voted, 8-3, to recommend against an expansion of the board’s size. (The 8-3 vote included all eleven current board numbers.) See, Walworth County Board Opposes Member Increase.
This was the right decision — expanding the board because of politicians’ complaints of overwork at a time when too few have work was a bad idea. I’ve written in opposition to expansion before. See, Walworth County Board Sizes and Walworth County Today: Walworth County Wants Public Input on Board Size (politicians complaining about a large workload).
Membership of the Walworth County Board is voluntary, and those who think it’s too difficult should stop running for re-election, or resign even before their seats are up, if it’s all so difficult. There will be others who’ll choose to run, and serve, without grousing.
At the end of Ann Marie Ames’s story, she reports that
the board voted 6-5 in favor of continuing county support for the Walworth County Economic Development Alliance in the form of $50,000 in the county’s 2011 budget. The vote is advisory to Administrator Dave Bretl. The matter could come up again in September when Bretl proposes a 2011 budget to the board.
The alliance uses public and private money to promote businesses and administer grants and loans for business development.
That’s a big deal by itself — WCEDA has a bare majority in support from among the eleven on the board. There’s reason to be skeptical about WCEDA’s ability to make a difference. It won’t be the credentials of WCEDA’s new executive director, Douglas Wheaton, but practical accomplishments that will matter. The former executive director, Fred Burkhardt, did his successor no favors, and left Wheaton with a paltry legacy and diminished political support.