The future of Wicomico County begins tomorrow! At 11:30 AM, Tuesday, Wicomico County will witness the swearing-in of its second County Executive – Bob Culver. While Culver can seize upon several opportunities, he faces a great number of steep hurdles. Is he up to the task? We hope so.
Show Me the Money
More than most places, the relationship between Wicomico County government and its citizens focuses on money. We have the revenue cap. Voters seem to believe that taxes can be cut, perhaps ad infinitum, with little or no impact on services. As with most localities, the bureaucracy at the local Board of Education (WCBOE) equates quantity of money spent with quality of education. For the last several years Wicomico’s county council has refused to cut spending requested by the outgoing county executive while that same County Executive has refused to trim the county payroll despite cutting back on services. Rather than maintain its existing physical plant, the local Board of Ed wants to build more schools and the county government (both executive and council) have acquiesced. Wicomico County keeps borrowing while debt and pension obligations keep growing. Despite the wishful thinking of some, there are no easy solutions.
We would suggest Mr. Culver attack low hanging fruit first; while planning for the more difficult tasks ahead:
- Cut the Budget NOW!
- Require Accountability from the Board of Education
- Implement Zero-Based Budgeting
- Make Voters a Part of the Solution
- Pension Reform
- Grow the Local Economy
8 comments:
Dismiss people who are part of the previous administration unless he is 100% certain of their dedication to his administration! the public trust, and finding better ways. Otherwise, they will spend the next 4 years working with Jim Ireton, Laura Mitchell, Jake Day and others to sabotage him. Bob's term will be up and he will have spent all his time putting out the fires they start rather than changing things for the better.
Get rid of Melissa Holland. She is a direct pipeline to Wayne Strausburg and Rick Pollitt's staff.
Number one should be "Cut the spending NOW!". Cut the budget and give some of it back to the taxpayers in the county the next year. That will also take care of number three.
For number two, the portion of the funding that comes from the county needs to be transparent and audited by the county...to the penny! the portion that comes from the state should get the same request from Governor Hogan!
Referendums got this style of government instituted and the revenue cap installed - the people can and will participate - keep them informed and don't try to hide anything from them (Norm GoneWay is a perfect example in his obfuscational elected school board bill).
Bob needs to determine those department heads who will be loyal to him and those who will continue down the same old path as they have been traveling for years. He has some very capable ones in place but there has to be mutual respect between Bob and them. Best wishes Bob.
The county sure does know how to waste money. In September the county spent almost 3 days covering Rip-Wil Dr. with Gravel.
First off Rip-Wil is a 25 MPH Cul De Sac and there wasn't any pot holes or dangers on the road. No one understood why it was suddenly being covered with gravel.
Worst part of that was that even at 25 MPH the rocks buncing up on my cars were taking small chips out of the paint. Also the kids who road their bicycles on the street were having the effect of driving marbles and it was less safe than it was before.
Then suddenly in late October the county came by and swept all the gravel away. Now there is piles of gravel pushed to the side of the road.
What point was there to spend the money and resources to lay gravel that no one wanted and then turn around to just remove it one month later ?
Maybe I am missing something to this but it just did not make any sense at all.
Take the credit cards away from THE BOE.
9:31-Agreed,but Culver knows where to start,and without a proper starting point any subsequent accomplishments are an illusion.If he can even put the fires out in his first term I will definitely vote for him again.
Absolutely agree with taking away the BOE's credit cards.
Post a Comment