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Show Offidsfe 7dm kme WMn Logic' Behmd Comty Split kom MB Two officials with the Southeastern Utah Association of Governments contacted con-tacted the Times-Independent this week taking issue with statements made by Grand and San Jan County Commissioners Commission-ers after Grand County announced its intention to pull out of the AOG. Bill Dinehart, executive director of the AOG expressed his support for Grand County's decision to either look after its needs individually or form an association with San Juan County, if local citizens and elected officials agree this would prove more beneficial than maintaining the three county alliance. However, he feels statements made by several commissioners were, if not f without factual substance, at least misleading. Regarding Comm. Leo Burr's statement about "too much time on the road back and forth to Price," Dinehart said, "To my knowledge, Leo's only been up here once." He pointed out that county and city officials who are members of the AOG board only come to Price once a month for meetings. "I suggest, therefore, that that is kind of a misleading way of phrasing the situation," he said. "In actuality, it is more a situation of the staff traveling your direction." Board Makes Decisions Dinehart also felt a statement from San Juan County Commission Chairman Eddie Boyle regarding decision making was definitely misleading. Comm. Boyle had referred to "decisions. . .made by us, not by people in Price 180 to 200 miles away." "The fact is," Said Dinehart, "All decisions made here are made by a board that has representation from the counties. coun-ties. Comm. Boyle's statement is deliberately deliber-ately misleading. Decisions are not made by staff up here, but by the board." Regarding Comm. Boyle's reference to the Community Action Program Dinehart explained, "The association has nothing to do with CAP and has not for a long time." He expressed dismay at this apparent attempt "to capitalize on negative feelings in a variety of ways." Programs Most Important "The things you derive benefit from are the program offices, and these are local in each county," he said. Program offices include employment security, senior citizens, mental health, planned parenthood, etc. Dinehart contends, "the relative location of administrative offices is not the issue, it's the service delivery offices that are important." Dinehart also questioned San Juan County's stance regarding the AOG. He said, "about two months ago they applied for readmission to the association. associa-tion. The conditions under which they applied were unacceptable to the board, as they were asking for something of a special status. Grand County and Moab City representatives on the board voted against admission with special status conditions." "Although Commissioner (Calvin) Black appears to have a negative attitude now towards the AOG, two months ago he was sufficiently interested interest-ed that he was up here asking," he commented. Speaking to the role of regional , government, Dinehart said that association associa-tion staffs are developed to meet the peculiar needs of each area with the best expertise available for local government. "The State is not a manpower pool of experts," he said, "not local government experts." Manpower Program Harry Mangus, planner-director of the 3-county Manpower Program, felt this program has been operating in a very beneficial way to all involved. "We have been a delivery agency, and feel we have distributed funds and programs fairly and equitably among the counties we represent," he said. "Moab City Councilman Harold Jacobs has been our chairman, and has also represented us on the State Manpower Planning Council. He's done a good job. The Commissioners should think of these things before making a final decision." With respect to Comm. Calvin Black's statement that San Juan is running its Manpower Program with less administrative money than was used when the program was running through Price, Mr. Mangus stated: "I don't know where Comm. Black gets his information to make such comparisons. To my knowledge, he has never screened our office here to determine just what our administrative costs are." The Manpower Program in Grand County includes about 9 per cent in administrative staff costs, and this low percentage will be extremely difficult, if not impossible to beat if handled by the county, Dinehart predicted. Mangus explained, "We took the Manpower Program to San Juan to begin with, and trained the people who operate it. Those people were retained by San Juan, and I understand that even more have now been added to keep the program going. The point is, we were responsible for getting that program into San Juan in the first place, and they wouldn't have gotten it if it had not been for our four-county association." He concluded, "We need to remain together. On the practical side, we will lose funding if we don't. Aside from that, there are too many things we can accomplish jointly that can never be accomplished singly, therefore we need to stay together." |