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Show N "i ' Lame duck officials shouldn't be able to vote Kditor: There ought to he a law against out -going defeated elected officials from enacting, or acting on, any legislation which affects future government, without getting the input and recommendations of the newly elected officials who are going to replace them. It used to be common courtesy to invite the newly elected officials to sit in and become acquainted with Iheir new position, so that a smooth transition could take place. Two of our county commissioners were defeated this past year, but they were very active and influent in-fluent ia1 in enacting laws before ; they left office. Right after the election in November, they hurriedly pushed through the Traverse Ridge agreement and service district. They rushed into completing plans and bonding for the new state-county state-county building complex. They worked on the 1987 budget, ignoring any outside suggestions. The public meeting was a farce. They voted to raise the salary of Dr. Miner, a cousin of Commissioner Miner, to $69,000 per year. A last minute agreement with Mountain Bell for an enhanced 911 emergency service took place just one hour before the new commissioners com-missioners were sworn into office. Orem City is already providing a 911 emergency service for Utah County. There is now a new enhanced system which will provide the address and telephone number of the person making the emergency call so that the accuracy and response time can be shortened. shor-tened. Mountain Bell is proposing five stations throughout the county, manned by personnel on a seven-day, seven-day, 24-hour basis. This new system evidently cannot be put into service for two years, but we will be paying Mountain Bell 50 cents per month now to ensure that the money will be there when needed. I believe this is probably a needed improvement which we should have, but I do not see the necessity of manning five stations with personnel, salaries and benefits. The present system in Orem is doing a very commendable job and I believe with the new enhanced feature it would be an even belter and workable system for our county. It would be a lot less ex pensive to the taxpayer, but very much improved and adequate. I hope that our new commissioners com-missioners will review all the actions ac-tions of our past commissioners with a view to reducing county expenses and eliminate the necessity of raising property taxes any higher. This all points up to me the necessity for a change in county government so that we have more representation on the commission. Two people should not have the power to control decisions of a three-member commission. We should have a five or seven member council representing the whole county. --R.L. Wright Orem |
