Most people, I believe, support the idea that public service is a good thing. It may have fallen out of favor recently as we have started “draining the swamp” in Washington. Nevertheless, I am confident that most Americans still rally around the idea that public (government) service and good public servants help us all.
As an example, we have two public organizations in Chautauqua County which require leadership. One employs a CEO who is paid approximately $160,000 a year, has an employment contract, a good benefit package, supervises 158 employees, has a regular work week and administers a $25.5 million budget. The other organization has a CEO with no employment contract, who makes $95,000 per year, administers a $273 million budget, supervises 1200 employees and works a regular work week plus is required to attend virtually non-stop evening and week-end meetings/events with constituents.
If one of your children were seeking employment and wanted a CEO position in the public sector in our area… which job would you recommend they take? I would imagine that for most people it would be a “no-brainer.” You would recommend the job with higher pay, fewer employees, a smaller budget and more free time.
So what does this boil down to in Chautauqua County? In this particular case, it would mean that you would recommend the position of Superintendent of the Southwestern Central School system vs. that of becoming the County Executive as being the best employment option for one of your kids. As a matter of fact, it might even evoke the thought of “who in their right mind” would even want to be the Chief Executive of Chautauqua County?
Who in their right mind would even want to be Chief Executive of Chautauqua County?
This all, of course, is becoming relevant because our current County Executive, Vince Horrigan, has announced that he is not running for re-election. Most of us, I believe, feel fortunate that Mr. Horrigan has been our county leader for the past four years. He is a retired Air Force Officer who has worked hard on our behalf to stabilize county finances, encourage investment in sewer and water infrastructure, and promote job growth in the county. But the larger question is: how long are we going to be able to find good people to run for this job? Something is out-of-kilter in how we value this leadership position.
Years ago, I was involved in the decision to create a County Charter form of government with an elected County Executive. We debated having the Executive be an appointed official but thought, at the time, that accountability to the voters should be the over-riding concern… and the voters approved direct election of the Executive in adopting the County Charter. However, I am having second thoughts now about that decision.
Something is out-of-kilter in how we value this leadership position.
Maybe the County should implement a structure more aligned to that in the private sector. You could have a Board of Directors (the legislature) who are responsible to the Shareholders (the voters), and the Board would appoint a CEO (the County Executive) to run the day-to-day affairs of the County. At least, it seems to me, this system might be more appealing to those who want to commit to being a CEO in a position of public service. It shouldn’t be that the position of School Superintendent (of which there are 17 in Chautauqua County) should be so much more appealing than that of the County Executive who is responsible for the largest portion of our non-school, governmental functions.
Rolland Kidder
Stow, NY
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