Utah Co. Commissioners Poised To Vote Pay Raises in Deficit Budget

With the 2011 Utah County budget still $2M short of being able to be in balance (see County Commission Notes 11/16/2010 page 1), County Commissioners led by Commissioner Ellertson are on track to vote a 2.3% pay increase for 700 county employees, or an approximate $6M expenditure when weighed over the next 10 years.

According to an article Wednesday by Daily Herald political reporter Joe Pyrah, the County plans to tap into reserves "to keep from raising taxes" as our county's debt load continues to pile up.

The Daily Herald itself courageously spoke up against the proposed pay hike in this morning's editorial:

Proposing a raise for government employees right now painfully highlights the element of coercion in taxes. Revenue for private business comes from customers who take money out of their pockets in a free market and spend it as they choose. By contrast, government just takes your money whether you agree to give or not. You have no choice.

Raising the pay of government employees on the backs of taxpayers who are getting no raises thus borders on the unethical. We don't recall any of the candidates for county commission in the recent campaign loudly proclaiming that, if elected, their priority would be to raise the compensation of all government employees. That one probably wouldn't fly back then. So why does anybody think it flies now? It shouldn't.

The Herald is right on the mark here with the "unethical" label, but even a step short of where I would take it: if you pass an irresponsible budget including pay increases when we can ill afford them, this is a de facto tax increase and unsound Republican government.

A Herald reader/commentor self-identified as "grumpydad" brought to light the conflict of interest issue I have personally sensed as a county delegate myself regarding county delegates who are also county employees: this group overwhelmingly votes in favor of Commissioners who raise county employee pay.

Are these people crazy!!!!??? What planet are they living in to give raises on the backs of the taxpayers? They keep collecting more and more of our money, and
stack the party caucuses with County employees (mostly deputies) to guarantee that they can keep getting elected and the deputies get all their special favors and raises from the Commissioners. This is a total racket. [emphasis mine; ed. sp.]

Perhaps then it is more than coincidence then that Commissioner Ellertson--the next Commissioner up for reelection--is the outspoken supporter of such raises. What the Commissioners should be discussing instead is whether pay cuts are necessary for us to meet our financial obligations.

With a final vote on the budget scheduled for Dec 14th, two days hence on Pearl Harbor Day Tuesday, December 7th, at 9am at the County Administration Building will mark the final opportunity for citizens (who aren't working at that time slot) to voice their opposition to these Utah County tax-increasing pay raises in the deficit budget.

Unearthing Phantom Democrats: A Search for Matheson and Utah County Commissioner Candidates

Jim Matheson, Phantom Democrat

"Phantom" Jim Matheson has been justifiably taking the heat for his lack of public appearances and contact. Bloggers with opposite political leanings have been justly taking note (Brian Halladay) (Glen Warchol).

Two months ago in a Salt Lake Tribune article by Matt Canham on this very issue, Matheson is recorded as countering the "phantom" label by asserting:

“I have been in front of the public all the time, with open questions, no script. Anyone can ask me any question they want”

Contrast this bold assertion with Matheson's performance when someone actually saw the Congressman and approached him with some legitimate questions as seen in the video below:

Keep in mind it was this selfsame "Phantom" Matheson who was the deciding controversial vote for adjournment last month instead of a budget or retaining tax cuts specifically stated so he could "go out and be with their constituents and hear from them." (KSL)

Hmm....I'm beginning to wonder if Jim Matheson really exists at all. Maybe he's like a Remington Steele where Democrats just use his recognizable surname to hang on to political power while the Claudia Wrights of the party do all the work in communicating to the district.

More Phantom Democrats Unearthed in Utah County

In April, I did a groundbreaking post on Utah County elected officials & candidates and their attendance at the Tuesday Utah County Commission meetings. With early voting starting this Tuesday, a followup was needed, see chart below:



The two Republican Utah County Commissioner candidates, Doug Witney and Gary Anderson, both attended the meetings with appropriateness: Anderson attended all excepting a pair of excused absences, Witney attended several so that he can hit the ground running when he wins.

As for the two Democrat candidates for Commissioner? As of the last available online minutes, either has yet to attend a single meeting for the entire calendar year! Why even bother running for office if you're not going to at least try and be public and informed? (For any corrections please comment below or see our profile for email address.)

Join me in electing Witney and Anderson as Utah County Commissioners.

Utah County Commissioner Mtng Attendance

This morning we attended our first ever Utah County Commissioner's Meeting. Since becoming a county delegate we figured it was our duty to go check out our elected Commissioners in action and see if things were running properly and now that the convention is over, we had a bit more time to do so.

Utah County is made up of three County Commissioners who meet Tuesday mornings at 9am. We're rather astonished that the meeting is at 9am when we like many are scheduled to work. Provo has its city council meetings at 7pm when we are more able to attend. We might be able to fathom the 9am meeting time if the meeting were rebroadcast: but there is no rebroadcast of Utah County Commissioner Meetings! We discovered the only venue currently available to citizens of the County for meeting review are agenda meeting notes posted online up to two weeks later after the meeting has taken place. In other words, the review-ability for our elected Commissioners is grossly deficient: THIS MUST BE FIXED!

At today's meeting, Commissioner Anderson was excused for health reasons and Commissioners White and Ellertson reviewed a rather non-controversial agenda approving all the items 2-0. Items of interest included Health Dept Director Miner talking about a aerial mosquito abatement program, a discussion on the Jordan River Commission to have the 18 jurisdictions split a $100K bill making the river a showcase for the state, and Richard Nance presenting the results of the clean-out-the-cabinet prescription drug reclamation of nearly 900 pounds of medication (see detailed Deseret News article).

The meeting also prompted us to chronicle the attendance of our elected officials at these meetings. Below is a spreadsheet using data extracted from the official minutes of the County Commissioner meetings for 2010 (for any corrections plz comment below or see our profile for email address):


From this data we gather the following interesting conclusions:

• Our County Commissioners all have superb attendance at these meetings. This is really crucial as there are only 3 to conduct business
• Joel Wright and Leon Frazier were the only two Commissioner candidates to have attended ANY Commissioner meeting in 2010. We were flabbergasted that Doug Witney had yet to attend any meeting yet was able to knock out the incumbent Steve White at Saturday's convention. We wonder if this glaring absence continues how in November either Republican Witney or Democrat Barratt are going to have any clue on what the issues are or of a smooth transition. We didn't see either at today's meeting nor was Mr. Wright present. We feel it unreasonable to expect perfect attendance during a campaign for a candidate running for County Commissioner, while we do expect some attendance.
• Our elected County Officials appear to be attending as they are able. We feel that all of our elected officials should be making periodic appearances whenever available at our County Commissioner meetings. We also feel there will be times when then have pressing conflicts and should not be viewed as having to attend every meeting. Furthermore, some positions may merit more frequent attendance than others. We feel all the current elected county officials are doing due diligence.

We plan on keeping track of and periodically disclose attendance at the County Commissioner Meeting as a way of doing our patriotic part to keep check on our government.