County commissioner position 2: Sandy Cassanelli vs. Harry Mackin
From our weekly issue dated October 08, 2008
Candidate Sandy Cassenelli
Drawn from personal experience while investigating the potential for public and educational access television in the county, commissioner candidate Sandy Cassanelli expresses a great deal of distrust for county government.
“My big thing is it’s very hard for the public to get information on finances in Josephine County. I have been asking for an itemization of this PEG (Public, Education & Government) account for the last six years. Getting information from the courthouse is very hard, and when you do get it, you have to pay dearly for it.”
“I believe we need full public fiscal disclosure and I will oppose any new tax or fee increase until we have full disclosure,” Cassanelli says.
To that end, while she voices support for the sheriff, she’s “absolutely” opposed to the proposed tax districts for county law enforcement funding.
“Last year we had the public safety tax levy which was defeated resoundingly,” she says. “This year we have the budget hearing where Commissioner Raffenburg pointed out that budgets for other departments were increased while the public safety budget was decreased.” This, she feels, created a “crisis” during the last budget cycle in order to push the tax district plan.
Cassanelli wants to increase transparency in the functioning of county government, and has stated that she’d like to televise every meeting, not only the weekly business sessions (WBS).
“I feel that a lot of decisions are made way before the WBS is televised, a lot happens in the conference room, and I want to televise all those meetings,” she says. “That way the public can more easily scrutinize their elected officials.”
Still running counter to her opponent’s positions, she also is opposed to a county administrator position, which she describes as another layer of bureaucracy between the people and their government.
“What was proposed in the past by Mr. Mackin was defeated by 65 percent of the votes,” she says. “Basically a county manager is appointed by the commissioners rather than elected by the people. Under our current system if a commissioner is doing a bad job, we can recall him.
“Commissioners come and go, but it would be very hard to get rid of a county manager. I think it gives too much power and control to one person.” Besides, she says “If you believe the commissioners are so stupid that they can’t run day-to-day operations of the county, how are those same stupid people going to hire a county manager and oversee his performance?”
Cassanelli says she seeks to bring “accountability, transparency, responsiveness to the community,” stating that,
“If you have people with integrity and they have a servant’s heart, it really doesn’t matter what form of government you have. A good person could go in with any form of government we have and make it work.
Drawn from personal experience while investigating the potential for public and educational access television in the county, commissioner candidate Sandy Cassanelli expresses a great deal of distrust for county government.
“My big thing is it’s very hard for the public to get information on finances in Josephine County. I have been asking for an itemization of this PEG (Public, Education & Government) account for the last six years. Getting information from the courthouse is very hard, and when you do get it, you have to pay dearly for it.”
“I believe we need full public fiscal disclosure and I will oppose any new tax or fee increase until we have full disclosure,” Cassanelli says.
To that end, while she voices support for the sheriff, she’s “absolutely” opposed to the proposed tax districts for county law enforcement funding.
“Last year we had the public safety tax levy which was defeated resoundingly,” she says. “This year we have the budget hearing where Commissioner Raffenburg pointed out that budgets for other departments were increased while the public safety budget was decreased.” This, she feels, created a “crisis” during the last budget cycle in order to push the tax district plan.
Cassanelli wants to increase transparency in the functioning of county government, and has stated that she’d like to televise every meeting, not only the weekly business sessions (WBS).
“I feel that a lot of decisions are made way before the WBS is televised, a lot happens in the conference room, and I want to televise all those meetings,” she says. “That way the public can more easily scrutinize their elected officials.”
Still running counter to her opponent’s positions, she also is opposed to a county administrator position, which she describes as another layer of bureaucracy between the people and their government.
“What was proposed in the past by Mr. Mackin was defeated by 65 percent of the votes,” she says. “Basically a county manager is appointed by the commissioners rather than elected by the people. Under our current system if a commissioner is doing a bad job, we can recall him.
“Commissioners come and go, but it would be very hard to get rid of a county manager. I think it gives too much power and control to one person.” Besides, she says “If you believe the commissioners are so stupid that they can’t run day-to-day operations of the county, how are those same stupid people going to hire a county manager and oversee his performance?”
Cassanelli says she seeks to bring “accountability, transparency, responsiveness to the community,” stating that,
“If you have people with integrity and they have a servant’s heart, it really doesn’t matter what form of government you have. A good person could go in with any form of government we have and make it work.
“If you have people who don’t have a lot of integrity, it won’t help anything to change the structure. I think the quality of the people elected is the issue we have.”
Click here to learn more about how you can tell us what you think
Advertisement:
