On The Mark: Jump from the frying pan into the fire

Have you ever had a piece of Scotch tape stick to your finger and when you try to shake it off it just doesn't want to go away? That must be what this idea of charter government is like.

No matter how many times it is brought up and dismissed, it keeps coming back. Whether this issue gets any legs this time will certainly be debated until we are all about to scream. The reasons why it is desired by some folks are somewhat interesting.

One application of this form of government gathers all the various offices of the county together under one umbrella with the thought that consolidating will save taxpayers money. Of course any savings will be highly dependent upon whose umbrella everyone is gathered under.

There are, as might be expected, many pros and cons to charter government. This is not something new and actually is utilized in many other municipalities in Florida. Some of those other municipalities may have had good reasons for switching their forms of government but the question is going to be — does Collier County have a good reason?

Generally when we think of county government our first impression is our board of county commissioners. Under their control we have the county manager and the various county departments like transportation, utilities and developmental services to name a few.

Then there are independently elected "constitutional" officers who do not fall under the operational or administrative control of county commissioners. These are the tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, the sheriff and the clerk of courts. While these offices all must go to commissioners for budget allocations, overall they operate their offices independently and free of the administrative bureaucracy that runs the rest of our county departments.

Guy Carlton is our tax collector. We do not hear anything about inefficiencies, delays, or problems within his offices. In fact, every year he returns money to the budget coffers due to his effective administration.

Likewise with Abe Skinner our property appraiser. His office just keeps on running like that Energizer Bunny, serving the people of this county hassle free. Jennifer Edwards our election supervisor is the same way, nothing is broken and nothing will be.

Sheriff Don Hunter certainly gets his share of headlines and occasionally clashes with the county manager and the board over budget funding but that only means he is doing his job by maintaining his dedication to making this county safer for all of us. Sure he uses a lot of money, but I would certainly rather see our tax dollars spent on law enforcement than having $2 million plus spent to remodel the lobby at the county's developmental services building or a similar non-essential expenditure.

And last, but certainly not least, is our Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock, the independent watchdog for the taxpayers of this county. How independent would his office be under the county manager or county commission? Without independence, it would be like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. His office not only oversees and demands that every dollar be accounted for; he also manages the many millions of dollars that flow through county coffers in a manner that returns the highest interest earnings possible, thus reducing our tax needs.

If there is a need for charter government, it certainly cannot be because our independent constitutional offices are run inefficiently.

Now, if the rest of the county is run inefficiently and needs to change, fine, but those that are not broken certainly do not need fixing.