Daily Times on Wicomico Department of Law
The Daily Times’ Susan Parker delivers another well written editorial this morning regarding the newly established Wicomico County Department of Law. While I don’t disagree with her logic, I believe that emphasis was misplaced on two particular points.
The City Council in Salisbury, in its typical fashion of neglecting to
take up issues that really matter in a decaying city, has been
passionately debating the billable hours of its city solicitor.
No work of a city council is more important than making sure that taxpayers’ money is properly spent. The “issues that really matter” to a municipal government invariably involve spending money. In order to make sure that this money is available, a council SHOULD make sure that they are not flushing tax dollars down one of the black holes so well known to exist in Salisbury.
Parker also states (referring to the creation of a full-time County Attorney’s office):
They will have to be sure, however, that they prove to the public that
they haven’t created yet another money-consuming bureaucracy.
Implementation of the county executive system has already added
substantial costs to the county government; the public is entitled to
see some benefit from that spending.
Susan is absolutely correct. And while she does mention the pension liability. which I have discussed so much recently, earlier in her piece, not enough emphasis is placed on the great unknown. The TOTAL cost of the department, including the estimated cost of subsidizing County Attorney Ed Baker’s pension needs to be publicly discussed and debated.
While I would have preferred that Parker had chimed in on this matter PRIOR to the adoption of Wicomico County’s FY 2009 budget, at least the public can benefit from such a well written argument, if only for future reference.
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