Ravalli County like all of levels of government is looking for ways to reduce expenditures. There is one way the commissioners could contribute to reducing expenditures. They could give up charging the taxpayers of the county 55 cents a mile for driving to and from work.
I’ve had a lot of positions. I never had a job where I was paid mileage for coming to and from work. Our County Commissioners have that peculiar perk. This is what each commissioner received for driving to and from their home to their place of employment.
Chilcott — $3,262, Foss — $1,677, Iman — $1,455, Kanenwisher $30, Stoltz $5,744. The grand total donated to them for coming to work for either ten or eleven months in 2011 was $12,168.
I’m not sure how this payment for going to and from work got started. I do think the budget conscious commissioners should pass an amendment to whatever document payment for coming to work is recorded in and renounce that portion of the document. Then they would be like the rest of us who go to work … we buy or own expensive gas.
It must be a peculiar perk to the office of Commissioner. I was county attorney for a term. I never got paid for driving to and from work. I don’t know of any other elected official who has such a sweet deal. If the commissioners give up this peculiar personal perk it might help make up for the cost of not being able to fire a clerk or two in the Justice Court, or paying an attorney for not working for two years.
John W. Robinson
Corvallis