Gordon Forgey

“While we’re young” is a phrase the PGA has used to encourage faster play on golf courses.

It has some applicability to Whitman County government.

After years of problems, missteps and lack of progress, Whitman County has hired experts to help fix the financial accounting deficiencies in the courthouse.

The consulting firm has analyzed the county’s accounting system and processes. The group will make recommendations on how to fix them in a formal report.

This situation involves a bit of history. For years, the county has not been able to generate complete, accurate and reliable financial reports. So, several years ago, it purchased New World accounting software. That precipitated delays, tremendous expense and a shakeup in staffing.

Still, financial reporting did not meet even the minimum standards for state auditors, and the county lost its preferential credit rating because the financial reporting was so incomplete.

For all the time and all the effort and all the money thrown at this problem, very little has actually been accomplished.

There is enough blame to go around, but part of the problem may be the very structure of county government itself. Department heads are elected. They claim the same voter mandate as the commissioners. They have their own authority.

This structure does not necessarily make for efficiency or even cooperation. Take for instance the time the auditor refused to meet with the commissioners to address these very same financial issues.

There is, however, one last ditch solution. Some counties have a hired manager working with hired department managers overseen by an elected board of commissioners. Changing county structure is a long, serious process, but, at the present pace, it might not take any longer than working through the chronic problems facing the county.

Taxpayers have waited long enough.

One way or another this needs to be solved.

Come on, county. While we’re young.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher