"Charter Home Rule"

[david m]

this issue is on the ballot where i live, and i'm wondering what other people's opinions are.

i'm inclined to vote against it, as i believe it will create more beaurocracy and cost taxpayers more money....

[boysda]

need more details david. there are various incarnations of home rule charter legislation. i've worked with a lot of them. is this an allowance for a simple home rule charter form of government, that would allow a county or township to opt-out of the state's statutory framework for municipalities of a given size, and create their own governmental structure?

[david m]

yes....the county i live in currently has a 3 person county commission.....and they want to go to a charter govt with 7 elected council members and a county executive.

[boysda]

there are pros and cons to both sides. it really comes down to the size of your county, and the functions performed by the county. in some southern and midwestern states, the county performs a myriad of functions more traditionally performed in the northeast by a municipality. as a strong-executive form of government tends (in my experience) to operate more efficiently, with more accountability to the electorate,this argues in favor of the executive form of government. at the same time, strong executives over time tend to increase the size of the bureaucracy. where the county is smaller (somewhwere under 250-500 thousand), or performs less traditionally municipal functions, the commission form of government tends to work just fine.

the question really needs to be is your form of government working satisfactorily in its current incarnation? are the needs of the citizenry being met? if the answer is "yes", why change? once you change and grow your form of government, it will only get bigger.

[david m]

yep...that's what i was thinking (see first post).

we aren't that big....215,000 people if i remember correctly.