Over at the GazetteXtra.com, Greg Peck asks Should Walworth County Board Expand?. He notes that Dane County’s considering downsizing its county board, at a time that Walworth County officials (some, anyway) are pondering an expansion. (The Walworth County Board was recently downsized, but now some supervisors are complaining about too much work.)
Peck’s right to raise the question, and I know that my own view (more below) in answer is a minority view.
The Wisconsin State Journal addresses Dane County’s situation in a July 27th editorial.
The State Journallists and refutes the arguments against downsizing:
A host of supervisors oppose a significant reduction in the number of board seats because it would cost some incumbents their jobs.
That’s a lame excuse for the status quo.
Some supervisors complain about having to represent more people. But our elected officials shouldn’t be in the business of public service if they don’t like a lot of contact with constituents.
The silliest argument against significantly reducing the size of the Dane County Board is that it will create so much work for the remaining supervisors that they’ll have to serve – and be paid – as full-time workers.
This argument ignores that virtually every other county board in the nation has fewer members – the vast majority of whom are not full-time. If the rest of the nation can get its work done without an army of supervisors, Dane County should be able to. Unlike a lot of those counties, Dane County also has a full-time county executive.
I posted on Walworth County’s board recently, and opposed re-expansion of the Walworth County Board.
No one is required to serve on the Walworth County Board, and for a small county — far smaller than Dane County — the current total of eleven supervisors seems appropriate. (It’s a total that leaves each supervisor with fewer constituents than a member of the Assembly, and fewer responsibilities than an Assembly representatives, too.)
Some supervisors feel overworked. I am convinced that the best recourse for them is a return to private life. There will be others who’ll run, and serve, in their places.
I also oppose compensation for supervisors or, in my own small town, members of our common council. A Wisconsin county or city will have a paid executive, and other full-time employees; that’s enough. Politicians in cities and counties should not be paid.
Politicians at this level should never be compensated, but certainly not now, when cities and counties are cutting budgets. Those who cut a budget should feel the result first.
My view may seem severe, but I believe it’s a view that will produce a better politics.
It was, after all, the Vulcans who would announce their arrival with the greeting, “we come to serve.” It’s a fine expression. They didn’t walk into a room, and declare, “we come to serve, and while we’re at it, to take from taxpayers for that service.” I don’t know how Vulcans were paid in Star Trek, but if any showed up here, I very much doubt they’d hit up the residents of Walworth County.
Neither should those humans who serve here presently. I believe political service as a freely chosen, uncompensated task would lead to a better politics.