Don’t run your business like the county

In my column of July 3  I said, “Let there be no mistake about it, this county has been mismanaged.”
I took some criticism for saying that. I also received some praise for saying what many people in the county have been thinking for a long time.
News articles in this newspaper the past two weeks justify what I said. It’s September and the county has no idea where it stands financially.
I say “county” since I don’t actually know who to blame. There’s probably enough blame to go around.
Obviously the commissioners deserve some and former County Clerk/Auditor Seth Oveson deserves a great deal of the blame.
To be fair, the problem probably requires a complex explanation and while I don’t blame Oveson exclusively, I do blame him significantly.
It would be interesting to hear from him.
There was a time, not too many years ago when the county was in good financial shape. Even after the recession of 2008, Carbon County was doing fine.
That has all changed. We have elected people for the wrong reasons.
We have elected people who don’t know what they’re doing.
We have elected people who just don’t care.
And that’s the bottom line. In order for someone to do a good job, he or she must care about the job.
It’s time for that to change. We will have an opportunity very soon to elect two new county commissioners and a county clerk/auditor.
We must be sure those we elect will be diligent about running the county the way it should be run. There can be no more excuses.
Finances are arguably the most important aspect of governing. Because without a proper accounting, no other business can be done.
Imagine a private business whose manager has more important things to do than run the business. Maybe he’s a salesperson for another business or maybe he’s running another business that’s more important. Maybe he’s just plain incompetent.
How long is a business like that going to exist?
It’s time to elect officials for the right reason. That reason can only be to manage this county and do the very best he can do for the people of this county. That must be a full-time commitment, not a job someone does on the side.
I feel for Seth Marsing. He has inherited a situation no official should ever inherit.
Is he the right person to shoulder this responsibility?
Maybe someone should ask him.