Opinion Editorial

Abdicate

intransitive verb

1. To relinquish (power or responsibility) formally.
2. To relinquish formally a high office or responsibility.
3. To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity.

Muddy frame

When I wrote the last paragraph of Part I, I may not been clear in what I’m going to talk about here. This is not a hit piece on the county manager, nor am I suggesting he be terminated. That type of decision rests singularly in the hands of the commissioners.  

Since the focus of this post is the “deep county,” when I’m speaking about abdication, accountability, and responsibility, think of county staff that are impeding the commissioners’ will. Slow-walking decisions into action or possibly into the trash can has been the power exercised by employees throughout recorded history.

It’s important to remember that this post is primarily based on the input of two sitting commissioners, senior staff, and persons close to each.

Egyptian pharaoh

One of the earliest examples of employees slow-walking decisions by their superiors can be seen during the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE). Akhenaten, known for his radical religious and political reforms, sought to establish a monotheistic religion centered around worshipping the sun god Aten. Many of the priests and officials in charge of implementing the pharaoh’s policies deliberately slowed down the decision-making process or needed help with executing his orders.

Same as before

So there you have it, nothing has changed; as employees, we’re still slow walking anything we disagree with. As leaders and managers, we can reduce and bring an end to slow walking. Leaders control the process through written deadlines for specific accomplishment of the task, project, or action. Employees will see this as micromanagement. The key to deadlines is you now have a metric by which you can grade employees on the most crucial factor of their job: accomplishment.

Participation prize

The problem often found in government is that employees are rewarded for poor performance. Even if they never accomplish the tasks given, there is a Christmas bonus every year. As leaders, we have to enforce performance standards, counsel, document failure, build performance plans, and, when all else fails, terminate the employee.

Cheap seats

I want to break down county government as I see it here from the cheap seats. All county employees are “responsible” for carrying out the responsibilities of their jobs. The county department heads are “accountable” for not only their actions in the performance of their jobs but that of employees in their department, too. Accountability continues after the department heads, who all report to the county manager. The county manager has ultimate accountability. But, if accountability isn’t exercised, it doesn’t exist, and the organization will reflect such.

Accountable to who

Moving up the line, we find the county manager accountable to the board of commissioners. The buck stops there, and this is where my frustration is with the commissioners I’ve spoken to. If county staff are slow-walking, then it’s the county manager who should be holding a department head accountable. Lastly, if a county manager can’t manage the department heads, commissioners must hold the county manager responsible and accountable.  

I’m done here.

In closing, anytime employees are not given metrics their job performance can be evaluated against; you end up with performance evaluations that serve little purpose. This is where abdications come in. When commissioners abdicate their responsibility to direct county staff with specific deadlines, foot-dragging will occur, and our tax dollars may not be well-spent.  I recommend implementing performance evaluation metrics and establishing a culture of accountability.