Friday, December 12, 2008

A clever comeback but poor policy

At the previous Monmouth County Freeholder meeting, Democrat John D'Amico sandbagged the Republican majority when he objected to the reapointment of the county auditors. Since they won the election and control of the Board come January, the Democrats have been making noise about the Republicans "burrowing" their political appointees thereby preventing the Democrats from giving those jobs to their cronies.

The Republicans responded last night by proposing that politics be taken out of the process of appointing department heads and professional contracts by giving the power to fill those positions to the County Administrator. The Democrats squealed and then quickly started horse trading, agreeing to let Republicans appoint certain county lawyers in exchange for dropping the proposal to give the Administrator the power of the purse.

The GOP ploy was a clever comeback but would have been bad policy. Monmouth County would have been known as the Czech Republic. Not that a Czech Republic would have been so bad, Administrator Bob Czech is doing a good job. However future Administrators might not be as good and the people's elected representatives, the Freeholders, may find themselves powerless to make necessary personnel changes.

Republican Freeholder Director Lillian Burry ran a bi-partisan ship. Partisanship was injected into the Freeholders' business only after the Democrats won the election. One would expect Director designate Barbara McMorrow to be bi-partisan based on her record and temperament. However, she will be under pressure from her party to be partisan. She is up for re-election next fall. It will be interesting to see how she leads the board. Partisanship would be more entertaining and make for better blogging, but bi-partisanship would probably yield better governance.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You bet bi-partisan would be better for everyone in Monmouth County. But remember the pay -to- play shenanigans of the republicans?? Doesn't give anyone any confidence that anything the republicans do is bi-partisan. Don't insult the intelligence of the voters of Monmouth County with this BS..we know better than that. As for the Czeck republic....his performance in Middletown was indicative of his political persuasion and where his allegiance will lie. Time has come to realize the people are no longer happy with government in their towns,their counties or their state and are voting to get rid of incumbent politicians regardless of the party they represent. Career politicians should be shown the door and all of the trappings they bring with them. Monmouth County is no different and hopefully the Attorney General's office will stop the current efforts of the republicans as has been done with their efforts to control the Board of Elections in the county. All of this is dirty politics and should be defeated. This is not a solely republican world and it's time that the republicans learned that.

Anonymous said...

please, and this is not Lilian bashing, but everyone expects Barb to be far more fair and even handed then Lilian was. Forget about bi-partisan, if you were a Republican that did not dance to the director's tune you were out.

Anonymous said...

That makes two,former and current,directors that bullied the others if all accounts are accurate. Looking forward to a "refreshing change" when Barbara becomes director. Have been hoping for this for two years !!!

Anonymous said...

The Republicans had their chance and they f#@ked up BIG TIME.
Now let's see how the other side does. Quit your crying and deal with it. It's a brand new day.

Anonymous said...

little discussed is how great it is that bill barham wimped out of running again. bullies are wimps anyway deep inside but it is great to see him gone

Anonymous said...

most think Bill was tired of the petty BS and walked away after doing his civic duty. Unfortunately only the clowns keep running again and again...

Anonymous said...

And who are the clowns referred to here???? Maybe it's time for many of the republicans to remember who they were elected to serve wouldn't you say ???? Change is what the people on Monmouth County are voting for....make no mistake about it !!!