King out of touch with job responsibilities

Dear editor;

Apparently, Doug King doesn't bother to review any of the minutes of the county commissioners or he would never have said, "$35,364 per year is too much to go to weekly meetings."

This seems to imply that the commissioners attend only four meetings per month, which is as far from the truth as you can get.

As of the last minutes posted, Sept. 22, the commissioners had met on 51 occasions in 2008 and this does not reflect the extent of their efforts and involvement besides meetings.

It would serve King well to be better informed of current issues facing the commissioners, as I do, with him going to www.elmorecounty.org and educating himself as to what problems face this county.

Anyone reading these minutes on a regular basis knows that our commissioners are earning their salaries for what often amounts to a thankless job.

If King thinks that $35,364 is out of line, he needs to take a look at what some of the other Elmore County official's salaries are or where $35,364 ranks for major counties across the state for commissioners.

King thinks he could have the commissioner's salaries cut and use those funds to hire a full time manager/econonic developer. Obviously, he has no idea of what the salary would be for such a person.

King would likely have to totally eliminate the salaries of at least two of the commissioners to pull this off. This is going out of the hole backwards and ultimately would only raise taxes to support this idea!

Presently, the commissioners bring in and pay for additional expertise on an "as is needed" basis and this has worked well at minimal cost. More Elmore County taxes from King's ideas are totally unacceptable!

Do you want elected commissioners making your decisions for Elmore County or do you want some "appointee" making them for you? You can always recall and dispose of a bad commissioner but try getting rid of a bad employee on contract and you are staring at the cost of lawsuits.

King's idea of having a full-time commissioner at the courthouse is a totally ineffective proposition too. One commissioner, on their own, has no authority to address problems or make decisions related to the statute-assigned duties of county commissioners in the State of Idaho.

How can King expect proper decisions to be made with two of the three commissioners "working only part time" at a job now demanding full-time attention by all three? This idea begs for costly bad decisions and wasted tax money.

Doug King is out of touch with what today's responsibilities and work loads are for an Elmore County commissioner. Forget party lines and politics. Cast your vote for somebody that knows what is going, has the experience, is realistic, and will continue to serve Elmore County properly. Vote for Larry Rose.

A.C. Likes