Published: June 16, 2008 12:17 pm            

County needs to send a better message

Frankly, we were skeptical when the city and country created a joint communications director position, the job that Brooke Bennett has held for the past year. It seemed like a case of bureaucratic overkill, funded by taxpayer dollars.

We are even less impressed by the new arrangement made by county commissioners this week.

The commissioners voted 3-0 to pay Bennett up $20.20 per hour to continue doing their PR work, though Bennett is moving to Michigan. The county agreed to pay Bennett up to $21,000 this year and provide her a laptop computer to work on.

The position is supposed to be an interim one, but the county would have been better off simply moving aggressively to find a replacement, as the city is doing, or be eliminating the position altogether.

If Bennett’s job can be done successfully from hundreds of miles away, we have to wonder just how vital the job is.

Instead of mailing checks to Michigan, commissioners need to quickly review the communications director position and determine if it is worth funding, fully or on a part-time basis.

If it is, they need to hire someone in this community to do the job.

We do not believe taxpayers are currently getting enough bang for their buck. The communications director needs to do a lot more than issue short press releases about day-to-day operations.

Bennett, were she staying, is capable of doing more and her successor should be required to do so.

Otherwise, commissioners should make a real decision and eliminate the position.



The Daily Citizen

        

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