Playing partner

County Commissioner Tan Smiley’s remarks last week to Port St. Joe city commissioners contained lessons worth pondering as local government moves into a new decade, even if the fuel for those remarks was personal.

More on that later.

Smiley noted to commissioners, during their regular bi-monthly meeting, that people are hurting, that it is “crunch” time economically for so many and there is too much duplication in the county.

As City Commissioner Rex Buzzett agreed, there is a great deal of “redundancy” in the county.

Now, Smiley’s primary target was law enforcement, and a need to consolidate law enforcement in the county. He suggested that taxpayers were paying too much money for waging a war against crime that was not there.

That Smiley’s son was recently written a traffic ticket by a Port St. Joe officer, a fact left out by Smiley and inserted into the discussion after the meeting by Port St. Joe Police Chief David Barnes, undermines the message a bit.

However, not entirely, as what Smiley talked about during a lengthy dialogue is in significant measure what taxpayers are frustrated about – a gap in long-term thinking and decision-making among those they elected.

After all, it was no more than five years ago, prior to his election to office on the city commission, that the current mayor, then a private citizen, questioned the same thing, with different words, as Smiley: the money spent on the police force.

And let’s give Smiley a pass this time around for acting in a fashion that voters have clearly become fatigued, as evidenced in the last election, and that is excising a personal beef in public as an elected official.

Smiley started his remarks by saying he was present as a private citizen and not as a county commissioner, but the distinction is a tightrope.

The reality is that in a small county, once elected you are rarely able to be a private citizen in public. It is part of putting your name on the ballot.

That said, what Smiley was voicing is what many in the community have voiced for years and with the fear of sounding clichéd that could be summed up as “why can’t we all just get along.”

To hear that the city and county can’t sit down together and discuss issues of dire importance due to “personalities” as was stated last week is wildly unprofessional.

Nobody is asking the group to sit down for afternoon tea.

They are elected to serve the people and in this day and these economic times nobody is served by a division caused by “personalities.”

What Smiley said about people buckling under crushing utility bills is correct; there are people on fixed incomes and of less means than most who are struggling to keep the water flowing and the toilet flushed.

When Smiley questioned the salaries paid to top law enforcement officials in the county and city he was not only justified but could have tossed in a variety of other economic silos of government – county, municipal, school district – where high salaries in tough times make for good populist rhetoric.

And highlight the reality that local governments likely have not accomplished all they can in reducing spending and cutting duplicative or needless services.

Smiley is uniquely positioned to challenge the status quo.

He and Ward McDaniel, newly elected to the county commission in August, each campaigned on a desire to impact a change in how government operates in the county.

They each ran on a promise to rock the status quo, to offer new voices to the commission.

Now is the time to be heard.

Smiley and McDaniel should push vehemently for a joint workshop among the county, the school board and the two cities, Port St. Joe and Wewahitchka. Set a date, force a vote and stick to it.

If you don’t have the votes, make each commissioner explain their dissent, in public and for the record.

This public discussion, as occurred last week, about “personalities” and one entity not communicating in a timely fashion with the other is excuse making.

Get it done.

Among a variety of topics that should be discussed two stand out.

One is that from this point forward “personalities” are set aside for the sake of the county. If any elected official can not commit to professionally and collegially moving forward with those also elected to serve the people, they should get out or be forced out at the ballot box.

That is selfish and obstructionist behavior.

Secondly, the past is the past, for the history books if anybody should care to remember.

No longer does it matter what was said at a past meeting or anything else or whether so and so got along with so and so. There is only the present and the future.

This is, as Smiley noted, “crunch” time for everybody in the county. If it is true we learn from adversity the county’s residents are learning a whale of a lesson.

And Smiley, McDaniel and the remaining commissioners, county and city, should realize that residents are thirsty to see actions put to the kind of words Smiley was speaking last week to the Port St. Joe city commission.