The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-30

lieve in the first place, that the pres
ent system is wasteful and de-
moralizing that almost any change
anybody could think of would be for
the better. Certainly reduction in
the number of county officers would
be in the right direction. believe
that in practically any scheme of
county government now in effect 1t
would be found that numerous offices
should be consolidated, so as to reduce
substantially the county expenses, and
so as to give the officer some real
work of importance to do, and this
of itself would increase his effective
ness; and so as to give the voters
greater interest in selecting a good
man for the office and a far better
opportunity to make an intelligent
| selection.
But beyond that it seems to be that
we ought to regard a large part of the
functions of the county government
as being practically a business prop
osition, to render for the people of the
county certain services in the most
efficient and satisfactory manner at
the least expense, and, therefore, the
county government ought to be or
ganized along business lines. L be
I lieve there could be adapted to county
government some of the important
forms of city government, whether
thru a small county commission, or
/ thru county manager.
/ Make Officials Responsible.
IF we could reach the point in
| county government where some one
/ officer could be regarded as charged
with the enforcement of all laws, and
where some other one officer could
be looked to as the head of the ad-
ministration of all the business af-
! fairs of the county and all the serv-
| ices which the county is expected to
render to it's inhabitants or any class
of them we could reach a point
where these officers would become
far more effective than the average
| county officer is at present and we
would also reach a point where the
public would gradually get into the
| habit of expecting to have things done
in the right way, and of showing eff
fective resentment when things were
done the wrong way.
Terms Too Short.
zone curious feature in county gov
eminent and it unfortunately pre-
walls il our system in every other
sort of government is that officers
/ hold their offices for short terms
and during these terms they cannot
| be removed from office except under
extraordinary conditions, and at the
end of those terms they have to stand
for reelection. The result of this is
that if inefficient man gets into
public office he stays there until the
end of his term. because the processes
! of removal are rarely successful ex-
| cept where you can show criminal
conduct. Inc 1acL InaC an O1I1cer
isn't capable of serving the public eff
ficiently, never seems to be regarded
as a ground for removal. On the 9TH
er hand, an efficient man at the end
of a short term has to devote a large
part of the time to persuading the
public that he ought not to be turned
out of office. The logical plan would
be to select for public office a man
! who is believed to be fitted for it, and
to let him remain there for a long
term of years, but subject at any time
to be recalled by the power which put
him there-upon a showing of inef-
ficiency.
For my part, 1 would far rather
have public officer hold office for a
| long time, subject to a power of re-
call, than to have him in office with
out any power of recall, and have him
and the public both subject to the bur-
den of another election at the expira-
ton of a short term.
eff a system could be devised where
by the number of officers elected by
the people were reduced to 2, or 4
in the county, these officers could be
made adequately responsive to the
wishes of the people by being SUBJ
jected to a reasonable plan of rcca IL |:
on the other hand, all the rest of the
public work in the county would be
done by persons appointed by the
elective officers, and of course these
persons SO appointed should be subject
to removal by the appointing power.
In this way, a responsiveness TO
the people and sense of responsible
ity for performing effective work
condition of dissipated responsibility