Torrance Count Road Wars

According to community rumors, the road department and a self proclaimed county staffer posting on YouTube meeting clips, a road war has been declared on the Torrance County Commission. What started the war? In a two to one vote, the Commission approved increased services for county road A001 and the contingent acceptance of a portion of subdivision road A102.

Has the first volley been fired?  If the six road requests shown on the commission agenda for November 14th are any indicator, the answer may be yes. At the time of the vote, it was very apparent that staff was against action on either road. Staff was backed up by county attorney Dennis Wallin, staff member Annette Ortiz, and Commissioner Leanne Tapia, all talking about an undisclosed ordinance that didn’t appear to be available at the meeting. I requested that the ordinance be posted on the counties web site so that all of us could see it but as of the time of this writing no copy has been made available.

According to our anonymous county staffer, commission decisions on A001 and A102 will severely burden the road department – doubtful as district three vacated several miles of roads over the past few years, and these two roads do not equal mileage lost.

Are people unhappy with the road department? I would suggest that people are unhappy with the lack of quality roads in the county not the road department. Complaints of manpower and money shortages are ongoing issues with county government that I believe are self inflicted through years of poor fiscal management.

I support the invitation to citizens to petition the commission on roads or any other issue, that is the correct process. For those petitioners openly solicited by county staffers and members of the road department you will have the opportunity of due process., however, assumptions that the vote on A001 and A102 forces the commission to accept all roads are false – the Commission retains the power to table, approve or deny any request for each individual petitioner.

Should members of the public or staff be unhappy with any decision of the Commission they retain the short term options of making their request again, law suit or the longer term option of not re-electing them.

Wallowing in fear and negativity leaves no room for progress nor does staff campaigning against commission decisions to cause uproar in order to full fill a self proclaimed prophecy. Should county employee’s have the right to an opinion, you bet, however, any power plays by county employees used to exert control or to manipulate the county commission should be at a minimum, grounds for reprimand or at the maximum, grounds for dismissal.

It will be interesting to see how our commission will deal with staff campaigns disputing commission decisions but more importantly, how the commission will deal with issues of roads. The timing economically isn’t the greatest, but the long over due discussion and review on how the county will meet one of their primary duties, our roads, has started.

To those in government service please remember, a question is not a personal attack, a suggestion is not a coo, a request is the right of the public, commission decisions are not staff’s domain.

To the public, please consider attending commission meetings, take advantage of meeting video on YouTube and contact your commissioner to let them know your thoughts. Citizen participation is required for a good functioning government.

For those interested in viewing the meeting clips and comments below them for A001 and A102 please use the links below. Also, please feel free to comment on this or any other post on my blog – your real name would be greatly appreciated.

Contingent Acceptance of CR A102, Hummingbird Road - Torrance County Commission 10-24-2012   (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkVuAFp4g4Q)

Absher Road Maintenance Increased - Torrance County Commission 10-24-2012 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCgeZdueXMo)