Madison County Council on Monday approved its budget for 2010, but only after bowing to wishes of one local official — and then refusing to hear from others.
County Prosecutor Tom Broderick came before the council and made his case for the reinstatement of a deputy prosecutor position that had been cut from the budget plan.
The council agreed to reinstate the position, but rejected a similar attempt by Sheriff Ron Richardson to save positions in his department. Superior Court Judge David Happe requested that the council give other department heads a chance to present arguments to save jobs in their departments.
But council president Bill Savage flatly rejected the request, saying, “There are no more positions that are going to be restored.”
That stinks.
One department head comes forward, makes a plea and is placated. Then others are refused the opportunity to state their cases? How arbitrary is that? It reeks of favoritism.
Council should have done one of two things after Broderick stated his case. Told him no, because council had already studied the situation closely enough. Or said yes and then opened a discussion that would engage all of the county department heads.
Of course, the very best decision related to the budget would have been to reduce expenses to the point that the recently approved 0.50 percentage point increase in the County Option Income Tax rate was unnecessary.
By the way, the council vote for the budget was 4-3, split evenly along party lines. Democrats voted for it; Republicans against.
Councilman Larry Crenshaw was the voice of reason. After Savage turned down Happe’s request, Crenshaw opined that either all county job cuts should be open to debate or the council should have closed the discussion entirely.
“How can you deny a judge or any other department head the same opportunity (that Broderick had)?” Crenshaw asked.
The answer: You shouldn’t.
