Friday, August 25, 2006

County expansion still has a pulse


By STEVE BENSON
Express Staff Writer

A proposal to expand the Blaine County Commission from three members to five, killed on Tuesday, appears to have been resurrected.

The proposal, spearheaded by Commission Chairwoman Sarah Michael, would allow voters to decide if the county should expand its board. But to even be placed on the November 2006 ballot it needed the approval of at least one other commissioner. Commissioners Dennis Wright and Tom Bowman rejected the proposal.

On Thursday, Michael said she and Bowman reached an agreement and the proposal—in a slightly modified form—will be up for discussion again on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at 11 a.m. at the Old County Courthouse in Hailey.

Bowman said he changed his mind because under the revised proposal voters would also be asked if the county should hire a county manager.

The county was set to hire a county administrator, which is a different, less authoritative position than a manager, to assist the commission. Bowman felt expanding to five commissioners under those circumstances would be premature.

"The administrator serves at the whims of the county commissioners and is not a permanent position," Bowman said. "The whole problem with that is if the administrator doesn't work out, we could have five county commissioners without a (supervisor)."

A county manager would be a more professional, permanent position.

The system would foster a more stable form of government and gel with the recommendations of a county consultant hired to assess Blaine County's governmental structure last spring, Bowman added.




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