County official wary of streamlining by state
Bangor Daily News, January 19, 2007
(excerpt) State plans to streamline county government actually will do the opposite in Aroostook County, according to a local official.
County Administrator Doug Beaulieu said Thursday that if two recommendations from a state advisory commission are implemented, they would undercut the county’s charter and create unwanted bureaucracy.
Not only would the plans increase the number of county commissioners, which Beaulieu said could create gridlock and longer meetings, they also would force the county to disregard its own charter and rights of "home rule."
Beaulieu said county commissioners during their Wednesday night meeting in Fort Kent discussed the details of the Intergovernmental Advisory Commission’s recently released recommendations to create greater efficiency across the state at the county level.
The IAC was created in 2005 to improve communication, cooperation and efficiencies within all three branches of government and provide state assistance to encourage regionalization.
Beaulieu said that while the recommendations may work for some counties, two of them just won’t work in Aroostook County.
One of the recommendations calls for increasing the number of county commissioners from three to seven. The change would be taken to a referendum vote, and if it didn’t pass, by default the number of commissioners would increase to five, Beaulieu said.
The other recommendation is to transform county finance committees into advisory entities. Those committees now give the final approval on county budgets.
Beaulieu said the first recommendation will only make Aroostook’s highly efficient government less efficient.
"If you were to increase the Legislature by 42 percent, would you have more efficiency?" he said.
(excerpt) State plans to streamline county government actually will do the opposite in Aroostook County, according to a local official.
County Administrator Doug Beaulieu said Thursday that if two recommendations from a state advisory commission are implemented, they would undercut the county’s charter and create unwanted bureaucracy.
Not only would the plans increase the number of county commissioners, which Beaulieu said could create gridlock and longer meetings, they also would force the county to disregard its own charter and rights of "home rule."
Beaulieu said county commissioners during their Wednesday night meeting in Fort Kent discussed the details of the Intergovernmental Advisory Commission’s recently released recommendations to create greater efficiency across the state at the county level.
The IAC was created in 2005 to improve communication, cooperation and efficiencies within all three branches of government and provide state assistance to encourage regionalization.
Beaulieu said that while the recommendations may work for some counties, two of them just won’t work in Aroostook County.
One of the recommendations calls for increasing the number of county commissioners from three to seven. The change would be taken to a referendum vote, and if it didn’t pass, by default the number of commissioners would increase to five, Beaulieu said.
The other recommendation is to transform county finance committees into advisory entities. Those committees now give the final approval on county budgets.
Beaulieu said the first recommendation will only make Aroostook’s highly efficient government less efficient.
"If you were to increase the Legislature by 42 percent, would you have more efficiency?" he said.
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