While commissioners have generally done a good job of being pennywise, all too often they have been pound foolish. For example, while the merits of a new building can be debated, if we do build it, it needs to be properly built. Unfortunately, the county failed to do so which resulted in the Board of Elections suing the commissioners. Things like this require our county prosecutor to recuse himself and forces our tax dollars to be spent on outside lawyers, and for the county to fix the mistakes they made in the initial build. This lack of attention to detail in order to save a few pennies easily costs us tens of thousands of dollars.
It's the 21st century and technology is everywhere. Posting minutes online or relying on local reporting for commissioners meetings is insufficient. There is no reason we can't broadcast meetings online via YouTube where people can watch them if they are not able to Thursday mornings. This can be done virtually for free, and for a nominal fee be done with fairly decent quality. Portage county has already been doing this for years.
The communication between county offices appears to be abysmal. Lack of communication all too often forces our county prosecutor to recuse himself because different parts of county government need to sue each other. The $770k tax bill dropped on the Metzenbaum Center is something that could have been resolved months earlier with communication, but now the Commissioners and Auditor are in opposition, so the prosecutor must recuse himself, forcing tax dollars away from county needs, and potentially forcing a cut in services for those who depend on Metzenbaum.
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