Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1926-08-12
REORGANIZATION
co. GOVERNMENT
Business Managers for Count are
Among Reforms Suggeste G.
Commission

Tying of county governr under
competent official famil ith busi-
ness managers, budget purchas-
ing agents was recon- led by the
commission on county ernment of
the State Association of County
Commissioners here tonight. The re-
port, written by DR.. E. c. Brooks,
chairman of the commission appoint
ed by Governor Mclean at the re-
quest of the last convention, was pre-
sented the county government COM
mittee of the association by E. P
Spurill, of Rocky Mount, and will be
given the full convention tomorrow.
The report is the outgrowth of
feeling among the commissioners that
county government methods should be
improved. This feeling took definite
form at the last session of the asso-
citation and the governor was request
ed to aid by appointing represen-
tative commission to study the mat
ter. The report,lit is said will be the
basis of legislation to be presented to
the 1927 general assembly designed
to improve county government meth
ods.
Digging thoroughly into the whole
problem of county government the
commission points out in its 5000
word report that the greatest reform
is needed in the fiscal management of
counties. Progress, it declares, in
this respect has not kept pace with
the improvement in the machinery
for rendering service either to the
county individually or to society of
the county as whole. Saying that
the amount of service that may be
rendered the citizens of any county is
dependent primarily upon the resour-
ces of the county and the business
methods and practices employed" the
| report points out that many North
Carolina counties have fallen short in
their services because of defective
systems of government rather than
| lack of resources.
There are seven functions that
every county must safeguard if it's
operations are to be successful, de-
clared the report. They are: D
maintaining unity in the official
family of county in fiscal manage
merit; (2) preserving the taxables of
county; (3) collecting the revenue
fairly and justly; (Q safeguarding
the revenue through proper account
ing; (5) safeguarding the expendi-
lures through budget control and a
central purchasing agent; co. protect
ing Che physical property of the coun-
ty, and (O providing properly the
administration of justice.
In rounding it's report the COM
mission presents these functions of
the county giving the defects which
invariably appear where they are not
properly safeguarded and offers sug-
gestions for safeguarding them. The
suggestions are taken from a number
OF counties where they have been
tried and found effective, the report
points out.
The fiscal management and unity
of the official family has fallen
snort in most counties, declared the
commission, because the officials
have little or no conception of the
total value of service to be rendered
and duplication of effort and a dis
proportiona.e &c Distribution = yen4,.
Moreover, "there is a diffusion of au-
thority, lack of concerted programs
for county endeavor and curtailment
of authority and d gni, which right
fully belongs to the commissioners.
Likewise, under these circumstances
it is impossible for the commission
ers to control the budget of receipts
and expenditures, and delegations of
people are served as they appear
monthly and found as appropriated as
delegates come and go.
When there is no unity of manage
ment in many cases, declares the COM
mission, which has investigated sys-
TENS in the majority of counties in
the state, counties frequently spend
special tax funds for general purposes
and general funds for special tax pur-
pses while some counties do not even
know how much it costs to operate
their government.
The commission recommends that
unity in the official family in fiscal
management may be maintained by
centering administrative authority in
business manager, appointed by
and acting for the board. He may be
chairman of the board or he NAV be
the auditor; by requiring all boards
that expend public funds to account
to the board of county commissioners
for all funds received and expended;
by giving the commissioners authority
to select all administrative offices,
such as auditors, collectors of revenue
and the like; by careful administra-
tion of a county budget and CEN
tralized accounting of all funds and
purchases.
The commission gave Pitt, New
Hanover and Buncombe counties as
axamnleS of unifiad fiscal mapaUo