Today's Letters: Cronies won't get tough job done

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published September 4, 2007

Re: Kuhl testing the job market Aug. 29 story

County Administrator Gary Kuhl was quoted as saying, "I guess the truth of the matter is I'm not sure I have the skills to resolve all the issues."

It's not his fault.

As usual, the Hernando County commissioners have taken the route only they feel comfortable with and hired someone they get along with, rather than the dynamic corporate leader who can swing the ugly ax swiftly and truly to reduce the size of county government to an acceptable level and price.

The commissioners are incapable of hiring the caliber of person required to perform these tasks, as they are Weeble people, rocking wildly on their round bottoms to stay vertical while the SS Hernando is sinking.

Next election, when the commissioners start being replaced with hopefully more credentialed and gutsy professionals, is there any hope of hiring a new "fall guy" who turns into the "terminator" and does what is needed, not the emotional wobbling of the politicians in office here.

Hire a much younger professional looking for a reputation of success, and not a near-retirement or already retired manager, like they have settled for before. Retirement is not a goal, it is a condition.

If these commissioners were smart, they would somehow replace county engineer Charles Mixson with Kuhl. Kuhl appears to be a very well-rounded professional engineer, and that's something we really need - fast. And it pays almost the same wage with less hassle.

Maybe Mixson will try the administrator's position for more money? He's good at spending and the commissioners apparently love him.

Excuses, excuses.

Doug Adams, Spring Hill

Talk is cheap, but changes are few

I've been watching Jennifer Sullivan's Green Party presentations of films at local libraries in Hernando County with great interest because she allows presentations of progressive agendas to suggest that business and industry in our capitalist democracy are going helter-skelter in the brash and bold pollution of our environment, in the interest of profit.

I've been watching letters to the editors by scores of local advisers offering solutions for tightening budgets in city and county government, with great emphasis on having wages equal to private-sector enterprises in the right-to-work state of Florida.

Workers here can be dismissed from their jobs at the whim of employers who may pay a qualified electrician for residential construction some $7 to $12 an hour when, a few states north, the same work would pay $32 an hour.

I've been watching a good-looking, smiling Gov. Charlie Crist throw the gauntlet to the conservative Legislature in Florida for tax reduction to home-owners that could save them the cost of a six-pack of Coke or Pepsi every other day, for a savings of $600 to $1,000 a year on property tax for most, at the sacrifice of competent government services for roads, infrastructure, expansion of the tax base, and for the safety, health and welfare of most in the community who are among the elder population, or even those with children who rely on local community promise for their children's futures.

I've been watching the lemminglike parade to the cliff by people drawn into the issues overwhelmed by tough times, an economy on the brink and standard pitches that government does not work well, but business and industry in our capitalistic society offer solutions at low wages, few benefits, no pensions and part-time employment at dollar-to-dollar wages, allowed in the continuing benevolence of business to provide work to our desperate work force.

I've been watching with curious misgivings that not only ordinary people offering their advice, but also the flurry of business leaders giving their best shot for charter government, joining city and county government and admonishing salaries for directors of local government, but without a wince when salaries of CEOs of industry and Wall Street capture perks and wages in multimillions because profits are sustained in their favorite stocks.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Deron Mikal, Brooksville

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[Last modified September 3, 2007, 20:11:05]