Supervision: Perhaps there should be a way to evaluate boards' effectiveness

State Sen. Charlie Albertson's recent attempt to control the divisiveness and downright paralyzing bickering among Duplin County leaders has succeeded in doing one thing -- uniting both the school board and county commissioners in one mission -- their desire to defeat his proposal.

But Albertson's idea to influence the number of board members -- or the power of their votes -- spawns an interesting idea.

Perhaps there should -- officially -- be someone who can keep their eyes on county leaders who spend more time bickering than actually finding any substantive way to improve the futures of their constituents.

Their local newspapers probably could contribute all sorts of examples.

That way, when they get out of control, there would be someone around to rein them in -- and to take action to make sure they stick to the game plan and get their jobs done.

Of course, there is always the old-fashioned way, at the voting booth, but wouldn't it be kind of interesting to have someone whose job it was to measure the effectiveness and "do-nothing" quotient of everyone who holds a leadership position in local governments?

Some will yield really good results -- people who show not only common sense, but a determination not to let political garbage interfere with getting their jobs done. Others will show that they do not really understand what they are supposed to accomplish.

And if the ombudsman idea worked at the county level, wouldn't you love to see the same oversight in place at the state level?

Just imagine what we might find there.

Published in Editorials on April 6, 2009 10:37 AM