published: Friday, September 03, 2010

Serving the public?

Editor:

Politicians and highly paid bureaucrats seem to always claim to be "serving the public". My beliefs are that only the military personnel under the rank of major and the police and firemen are the only ones actually serving the public. They put their lives in danger and do it for little pay.

A service man or woman can not just quit or resign to take a higher paying job; they must complete their term of enlistment. Notice how many politicians leave their position to take multimillion jobs with the big corporations that they had been serving.

I would say that anyone who claims to be serving the public, and not putting their lives in danger would have to be receiving pay less than the median household income of where they live. Most volunteers meet that criteria, many I know give their time and efforts free, and take what they do very seriously, but certainly not the ones getting paid excessively, like the Red Cross leaders, for example.

Eighty percent of the politicians serve their political party, people who contribute to their campaign funds or people in position to benefit from their decisions and are willing to repay in what ever way for that decision. Some don't even try to disguise it.

I am looking forward to see which local politician creates a new position for a commissioner who will be out of a government job around the November election day.

Another example, and I don't believe it was a coincidence that Mr. (Michael) Wright ordered Mr. (Ken) Wheeler to fire or order a resignation of two people. He did this on a Monday and on Tuesday morning a motion was made to fire Mr. Wright.

I see some disciplinary action was taken on the two men and Mr. Wheeler, but in my opinion it was not enough.

Refusing an order of a superior in government or the private sector is ground for dismissal. I was surprised that any thing was done, let alone a suspension. I believe that the three persons who voted to dismiss Mr. Wright should resign, immediately.

When you end up in fifth place in the voting, that sends a strong message that the public, aka as the citizens, no longer wants that person to "serve the public".

Mr. (Charles) Bryan set the bar very high on how to run an elective office. So far he is one of very few I have seen that really believed in serving the citizens.

The new commissioners elected in November need to fully understand their job. The terms I heard during the primary that many quoted ... common sense, serve the public, integrity and character ... need to be taken seriously. That way, maybe, just maybe, the Good Ole Boys Club will dissipate. Way too many incidents have happened that permanent correction action needs to be taken. If it means someone losing their job, so be it.

The leaders of this county need to learn about profound knowledge. Several corporations hired me to teach facility managers Profound Knowledge via Total Quality Management courses. I would like to do a capability analysis on Highlands County departments. I would do it just for a percentage of what I would save the taxpayers, and yes there would be jobs combined and or eliminated.

Comments? Send to weclagg@strato.net.

William E. Clagg

Lake Placid