Earth to Hillsboro - Get it Right!

Ahh.  The day after the council meeting is always better than the day before.  Monday night was the most disappointing Council meeting I have ever attended.  So disappointing, in fact, that I was compelled to leave when it became clear that reason and logic would not prevail. 

Forty-six bills and resolutions were posted on the agenda with numbers that did not follow the naming convention adopted years ago by the council, by the commissioners or perhaps even the judges who preceded them. 

I know this has been followed strictly for at least the past two years - but that did not matter to the council Monday. 

What is a naming convention?  It is a simple method of tracking documents used by legislatures, courts and businesses across this country and around the world. Numbers associated with bills are not randomly selected - they are purposely selected following a prescribed pattern.  This is the cornerstone of professional document management and a tool of efficient storage, retrieval and security.  For the Jefferson County Council, the adopted legislation naming convention is a series of six digits and a dash. 

For example, a bill introduced in February of this year might be numbered “12-0201.”  This number indicates that the bill was introduced in the year, 2012, in the second month (February) and that it was the first bill introduced in that month. 

Last night’s agenda included 46 items with incorrect legislation numbers.  These numbers all began with 12-01, indicating to future readers that these should have been introduced in January, not on February 14. 

The items on the agenda are legal documents.  Having these mislabeled would be similar to having the wrong address on the deed to your property or the incorrect VIN on your car title or registration and, in the case of the items on the agenda can lead to long and expensive court battles that will be paid for by our taxes.  

Section 3.5.10 of the Charter states that “The County Executive must prepare an agenda for every meeting of the County Council…. The form of the agenda must conform to the procedural rules adopted by the County Council as provided in this Charter”. 

The Council’s Rules of Procedure allow the council to remove or amend agenda items that do not conform to the rules.  During the meeting last night, I brought this to the attention of the council and our county counselor acknowledged the problem.  Despite this, a majority of the council chose to pass the agenda without correcting obvious defects in the bills and resolutions.  What they chose to do was willful, wanton and simply wrong.  I applaud Councilmen Groeteke and Bickowski for listening, understanding and voting with my motion to amend the bills.  When that motion failed, they voted with me to remove the bills – but the majority of members did not.

It is unfortunate that the majority of the council wanted to pass bills with obvious defects.  I cannot be a part of passing a bill that I know is wrong, so I left.  The drafters of the charter chose to have two separate and equal governmental arms.  These checks and balances are necessary for a free society.  When members of the council whip out a rubber stamp and pretend they’ve been given a lobotomy, they ignore the whole purpose of the Charter and the essence of their responsibility to the people they represent.  The people of Jefferson County deserve better.

Agree? Disagree? Read Turmoil Over Misnumbered Jefferson County Bills, Watch the Video, then take the poll at the bottom.

Read County Executive Ken Waller's response to Reuter's criticism in a letter to the editor he wrote to Patch.