County study recommendations should be rejected

Editor,

I am chair of the Lake County Local Government Review Study Commission and am a member of the Lake County Citizens for Fair and Open Government.

There are two ballot issues that the study commission adopted for you, the voters, to consider on the November ballot:

First issue is that all candidates for local office be non-partisan. I oppose this primarily because of the rapid growth of this county. As our county grows, we are not going to know each other personally as some have indicated is currently the case. In Missoula they have found that non-partisan elections have not expanded the number of candidates or increased voter involvement in the issues.

A recent letter to the editor (9-26-06 Missoulian) indicates that the Missoula study commission is supporting partisan elections for local office, as they have determined that the reality is that we do not have time to get to know all the candidates. We get involved with our busy lives and so we fall back on the ideologies of the candidates parties when making our voting decisions. Party designation is one of the ways we can determine some basic premises about our candidates

The second issue that the Lake County Government Study Commission adopted is election of county commissioners by district only. I strongly oppose this ballot issue as I feel we should all have a vote for all commissioners as they all make decisions that affect each and every one of us. Each decision can affect your pocket book, your services and the type of community you live in.

If this measure passes, you will only vote for the your district's commissioner every six years. That is a long time not to have a say in who represents you in county government. How can this improve current government and make it more responsive to the people if only a one-third of the county votes for each commissioner? They manage the whole county.

Bonnie Mueller

Ronan