Feedback: Elected officials should do their jobs
July 3, 2008 · Updated 9:58 PM
In his Jan. 24 letter, Bud Ulman made a statement concerning commissioners that I found interesting: I feel that we should not hire advisory organizations to do the job that the commissioners were elected to do.
I agree with Mr. Ulman, but would like to further suggest that the statement is perhaps broader in scope. It would appear that it is applicable to "all elected officials" and not just "commissioners." It seems that consultants are used far too often (at large fees, I might add) when it would appear that the project in question could and should be within the purview of an elected official's job description or by default. An example comes to mind, hiring a consulting firm to come up with a city mission statement. With the civilian and military management expertise locally, I would think that someone would be happy to do it for free. How about, To provide fiscally sound city management for Oak Harbor. Just a thought.
Before hiring consultants, someone should be asking, is this not something we were elected to do? It might just save some of the precious tax dollars that some of our elected officials are so often saying we are short of.
Gary Warden
Coupeville
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