Walworth County, where I Iive, voted to reduce the size of its county board of supervisors from 25 to 11, in 2007. I read today that at least one supervisor on the board now wants to talk about expanding the board again, because the smaller board size means more work for elected officials.
There’s a quick answer for politicians who claim that membership on a county board is too much work: don’t run again (or quit if you can’t wait until your term ends).
It’s not indentured servitude.
Really, it’s not.
Let’s make a quick comparison, using U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2009. In Wisconsin, there were about 5,654, 774 residents as of 2009, and the state had 99 legislators. In Walworth County, using those same population figures, there were 100,593 residents, and 11 supervisors.
For the state, that’s one legislator for each 57,118.93 residents, but for Walworth County it’s one supervisor for only 9,144.82 residents.
That’s not too many for a Walworth County supervisor to handle — it’s far less than a state legislator handles. Even if the number of residents is higher now than the 2009 estimate, it’s still a manageable number. The duties are more limited, too, than those of a state legislator. One ordinary person should be able to acquit himself or herself well.
Better still, if supervisors spent less time worrying about being overworked, and used that time actually to, well, work, they’d be even better off – and so would we.
See, Walworth County wants public input on board size — Walworth County Today.