Is Muskegon County a Titanic in the making?

Dear unnamed County Commissioner,

Thanks for the invite!

I found the entire 3 hours very interesting... and distressing.

Some observations:
1. Pat Steele's plea "somebody just tell me the rules" seemed to sum up a very serious problem. It went unanswered. Why?

A simple request from a department head to the elected commissioners for clarity should not be unique.

But it is..... in Muskegon county.

2. I understand that getting a consensus among 11 commissioners is a challenge so why not create a "gang of 6" or more outside of your meetings and produce a specific proposal? Is it legal? Maybe 2 groups of 3 each to arrive at a consensus? Maybe an e-mail proposal that would be sent around for comments? It would have been nice to see a specific plan presented to the group. Does one exist?

Please come up with a plan!

At least if there was a vote on a specific proposal, each commissioner would be forced to take a public stand.

If no plan exists, why do you meet?

Seriously.

Why is there NO PLAN to keep our county from bankruptcy?

If you cannot provide a plan for the financial rescue of our county, why don't you all resign?

3. I was surprised that department heads complained about communication.
It may be that many of their complaints are simple grousing but Pat Steele asked a simple, public question that seemed to have no answer.

I know that e-mail is impersonal but at least there is a way to track each communication.

Isn't your charge to communicate your (us taxpayers/voters) desires to the hardworking county employees?

If there is a communication problem and you can't fix it, what do we do?

4. Have you considered a county wide "town hall" meeting. The word bankruptcy was brought up today.

BANKRUPTCY!!!!!!!

Big word!

Maybe a "Muskegon County in Bankruptcy" meeting would get some attention. So far it seems few realize the financial disaster that seems to be our fate.

Don't you think someone needs to tell the people?

I'm sure that you've had many discussions of similar ideas.

But, if I may, another personal comment from a citizen of Muskegon and a taxpayer living in our wonderful county.

I sensed a very clear reluctance from most (not all) of the commissioners to address the giant iceberg that our Titanic of a county has just been warned of from the yardarm.

Today's discussions of how to spend the new "casino" money were, to me, a surreal imagination of the officers of the Titanic obsessing about the minutia of tomorrow's breakfast .... and at the same time complaining about the annoying tipping of the tables where they sat ... as everything and everyone was moments from disaster.

My fear of the "frog in the slowly boiling water" seems to be the unstated policy of our Muskegon County Commissioners to hide the disaster from the people until it is too late.

YOU ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO CAN PROTECT US FROM DISASTER!

Please tell me that I am wrong.

Gentlemen, I'm sure you all have faced far more substantial personal challenges in your long and successful lives..... and defeated them.

Is your legacy to be that of the officers Titanic?