INC NEWS - Where are tax dollars are going

[TheOcean1 at aol.com]

While I agree that we MUST (not should!) hold our elected officials  
accountable, sometimes the situation isn't as clear as this one.
 
If the City were to hand another loan program to Anita Bennett, then I'd be  
the first to grab a pitch fork. And this Durham Regional Financial situation  
seems pretty easy to have seen coming, but that's not always the case.
 
Being diligent with our tax dollars isn't an easy job, but they knew that  
when they ran for office. A simple Google search would have prevented egg on  
their faces in this case.
 
But in a few cases, waste might occur through zero fault of our  government.
Cases like this might be few and far between, but I know of a 60 year old  
nonprofit that went from awesome to awful, in the course of one year.
 
That nonprofit receives very little from the City in the way of funding,  but 
should we fault our elected officials for funding something with a long  
track record of success? They can't always know the current shape of every  
organization with whom they deal, as much as we wish they could.
 
So to be fair, Self Help clearly would have been a better choice of  partners 
here, but if they had quietly fallen apart just before the announcement  went 
out..... well, you can't blame the City for having faith in their good  track 
record.
 
I appreciate these exceptions are few and far between, but to be fair, we  
must recognize they do exist.
 
Bill Anderson
 
In a message dated 9/28/2006 9:52:55 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
jdag at clappresearch.com writes:

 
I agree we should  hold our elected officials accountable.  
But we need to  remember that the elected officials (most of them) have full 
time employment  in other jobs. They need to be able to depend on the 
executive staff and other  “full time” city staff to keep them fully informed on key 
issues. They also  need to be able to depend on city staff to properly manage 
the day-to-day  workings of government so the elected officials don’t have to 
micromanage  (which, I think, some of them do). If the elected officials find 
out that city  staff is not keeping them appropriately up to speed, or that 
the staff is not  properly handling the day-to-day workings, then they should 
take appropriate  action.  
Keep in mind that the  City Council only hires and fires a few top level 
staff. So, they have to  depend on those people to take appropriate action when  
needed. 
If we find out that  elected officials are not appropriately holding staff 
accountable, when they  know things aren’t going well, then we have the 
opportunity to change that at  election time. In my opinion, that’s the beautiful 
thing about our form of  government. 
 
  
____________________________________
 
From:  inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org] On 
Behalf Of Regina  deLacy
Sent: Thursday,  September 28, 2006 7:51 AM
To: Caleb Southern
Cc: inc-list at durhaminc.org
Subject: Re: INC NEWS - Where are tax  dollars are going
What would you have the elected officials do in order  to keep this from 
happening again?  How would a new set of elected  officials change the procedures 
of unelected employees?

There needs to  be a plan for better oversight, not just a chorus of, "Work 
harder! Do  Better!"

- Regina

Caleb Southern wrote:   
What do you propose we do?
    

 
Hold our elected officials accountable. Don't let them pass the buck (to
city staff). Tell them what our real priorities are. And remember this at
election time.
 
You can email city council at:
_council at durhamnc.gov_ (mailto:council at durhamnc.gov) 
 
Caleb





 


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