Good local government necessarily requires an informed and knowledgeable electorate. To this end the efforts of the Local Government Study Commission should be focused on what provides adequate and easily acquired information upon which voters can make their decisions.
For this purpose I believe political party designation is a crucial, maybe even the most effective, and the easiest tool voters have in selecting candidates at election time. Political party designation provides a valuable insight into a candidate’s social, political and economic philosophy.
In any case, if a person objects to using party designation, the prospective candidate can always file for election as ‘Independent’. Ravalli County will benefit by retaining party designation for all policy making offices, including that of Sheriff.
Regarding three versus five County Commission seats, the relatively small money savings in salary and expenses which may be realized are more than offset by having five Commissioners working on County issues – i.e. broader knowledge, experience and wider voter representation. I cannot overly stress this latter aspect as having five Commissioners provides much greater opportunity for the public to interact with local government. After all the five-member Commission was predicated on these very criteria.
Another aspect of three vs. five Commissioners is the issue of ‘ex-parte’ communications wherein with three Commissioners two is a quorum and any two Commissioners would need a public meeting notice to speak to each other regarding County business. This constraint on communications is reduced significantly with five Commissioners.
Given that Ravalli County residents are voting on a form of government which will represent them for the next 10 years – a very important issue – it appears that having this all important election at primary-election time is an expediency rather than a necessity. Ravalli County voters should not be subjected to an expediency in their selection of a new form of government when voting at the time of the General Election will more than double voter scrutiny of proposed changes in County government (typically 35% turn out in primary elections vs. 75% turn out for General elections).
Susanna Pyron
Florence