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• E nt'd. • 411 vernmen . Most of us can a that the' primary� function ZINGER (cont'd.): go t� of county government is to operate a group of service° for • the public and the objective of the government would be to provide the required level and quality of service at the lowest coat. There is very little political. theory involved. Most of 'that is a straightforward job of determining what ser- ' • vices are required and what is the efficient way to provide these. I have dis- euosed this with Mr. Kcehnen and with some others here this evening. The trouble some feature of a political government is the rachet effect. The cost of running the government, or a department of the government, tends to go only up instead of - down because it is politically very difficult to cut costs, especially if you . talk to an elected official about cutting costs, he is very wary of this; Now, ' this is not the fault of the elected official, it is a feature ,of being,oituated in being elected. . My first proposal, I would strongly favor a city or county 'man- ager form of government because the job of operating a group of services effi- eiently is completely enalagous to a business operation, with one important excep- tion. It doesn't have the iron fist of the profit' or loss control hanging over it. . In all other ways it has the same job,' to provide services to the public at the least cost. If we had a county manager who --. a professional manager -- who would . • hire •and fire department heads and people working in the government and delegate . authority; and if we had a commission or board who would act as the policy making and objective setting group (I think an important part of my proposal is this: - that the board , or commission, when they decide what services they'want the county to render and how -- or what they want to spend), that they present this directive • to the county manager in the form of a public, printed, directive, once a year, or once every two years. The point is that it is.public. This is. the board's direct- ive to 'the manager. These are the objectives we want "you. •tor:achieve. Then the t;. public will. have the opportunity to evaluate, this directive and,, :therefore, decide - ' whether the board members are doing a good job. The other thing that the public is interested in is does the county manager achieve .these objectives or not? If • he doesn`t they will ask the board, what are you going to do.about it? It is important that the board very consciously and specifically and publicly ley.:down written objectives 'in dollars and cents in quantity of terms; what they want;.,.each N department to achieve during the budget period. Perhaps this could be achieved . under your so-called strong-mayor form. I would favor this if for acme reason we ,,. could not adopt the county manager I think the, next best thing would be a strong : mayor. He would have the power ,to hire and fire, the individual authority to 1 .. appoint and remove, and the board, in that case would be strictly legislative. They would lay down -- let's call it the budget--and then it is up to the strong n mayor or county manager to achieve it. If he .doesn't it is the responsibility of the board to remove him or to take any other corrective measures. The public, • '• � • has the opportunity to do two things; to review the public directive that the . '' board gives to the manager, and they have the opportunity to watch the county ' manager or strong mayor achieve these objectives. __~ • Now, the second proposal is also an attempt to gain some control over this rachet effect of costs always :increasing. A very well laid out budget is an essential part of good county government. This should come with whatever form of ,government we have. Assuming we are going to have a budget for all department "Operations, what I would like to see is what I would call a watchdog commission, ' or a budget commission. In other words, this is en autonomous agency not. coandcted . with the administration of the county, perhaps separately elected. . Their sole . job is to review the budget as presented and proposed to determine whether there • • . are any unnecessary expenditures or investments in it. Whether there are any ways that an operation of a particular department can be reduced. Whether there is any . . way to improve efficiency in the government. If these. people can find such a way to lower .costs -it is their responsibility -- I don't know if you want them to hold veto power over the budget -- but at least they should have a strong voice in •. .` • criticizing the budget and controlling it. The department head might know of ( - several ways- he can save money.- There are many ways to reduce labor and therefore J save money in the operation of the government. That means eliminating jobs in government, which most departments are extremely reluctant to do. However, ' the . oo-called watch dog commission would not be effected by the loss of jobs to as great an extent`as would department heads. I hope this will be the situation. Those are my'two proposals. 1.. Strong mayor or city manager ' form of government with a publicly, laid out cot of objectivea to meet, and . • some commission, or individual, or somebody or some autonomous group who reviews . and criticizes both the capital budget and extension budget and attempts to in- stall coat paving devices. No ono else in countygoverument is in a good position . . «19-