Board Reduction myths cleared up
LTE to the Reporter to be printed soon

October 16, 2006

Dear Letter to the Editor,

I’d like to clear up some myths that have been put forward by those opposed to reduction.

The Committee to Protect Citizen Government PAC was formed to stop the referendum from passing. What are they trying to protect the government from? Citizens? Support for reducing the county board is widespread; 81 Fond du Lac County citizens circulated the petition to reduce the number of supervisors and 4,300 citizens signed the petition indicating they support reduction.

Its worth repeating, the national average county board or commission operates efficiently and effectively with five members, we have 36. Some complain that they would have to attend more committee meetings if the board was reduced, then reduce the number of committees. There currently are 39 committees, commissions and boards and we could reduce the number considerably. Some have citizen members; I’d like to see more volunteer citizens sit on our committees.

A lot of different people support reduction. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, current and prior county board members, the former county executive, city council members, homemakers, farmers, business people, and this list goes on. People from every corner of the county support reduction.

According to the Fond du Lac County Clerks office, the 2005 mileage and per diem payments to the county board totaled $90,268.85 or an average of $2,507 per member. Assuming we reduce the number of committees, then reducing by 18 members is a savings of $45,126 per year. Add reduced postage costs, reduced time by county staff trying to attend all the committee meetings, less printing costs, fewer committee meetings if the committee structure was reformed and reorganized, etc, and the savings would be higher. The savings could be high enough to hire another sheriffs deputy or other essential staff.

The workload of the average supervisor isn’t as strenuous as some might want you to think. I’m on two committees and attend the monthly board meeting and find my commitment to be four to seven hours a month. If the board was reduced, the time commitment could continue at this level if the committee structure is reformed and reorganized.

How many of you know who your supervisor is? Many people don’t. Supervisors are invisible to the average citizen and it can’t get any worse than it is now. If there were fewer of them, more people might actually know who their supervisor is. If more people knew their supervisor; the supervisor would be more accountable to the people.

Its Halloween time and those opposed to reduction are trying to scare the rural people by telling them they will lose representation. Hogwash. It’s illegal for one thing. Federal and State Law require each district to have fair and equal population sizes. The City of Fond du Lac currently is represented by 16 supervisors and the rural areas of the county have 20. Under the reduction plan the City of Fond du Lac would have 8 supervisors and the rural areas would have 10. This is the same ratio we have now. No one loses representation!

If we don’t reduce now, when will it happen? The county board can reduce itself after each census and they didn’t do it in 1980, 1990, or 2000. Now they want you to think they’ll do it in 2010. Many of us don’t think they will and that is why we find this non-partisan referendum on the November ballot, short and simple. If we all said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” we’d still be watching black and white TV and driving a Ford Model T.

Sam Meyer
Fond du Lac County Board Supervisor, District 34