| Editorial |
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| Why are we voting on county clerk, others? |
Now that the ballots have been mailed and some returned for the Oregon primary election, we have a question to pose to our readers: Why in the world are voters being asked to decide the fate of some of these offices? Take, for example, the Yamhill County clerk. The clerk is responsible for many things that, were he or she working for, say, the city of Newberg, would be the responsibility of a paid employee. Instead, every four years the voters are charged with electing a clerk, as well as a tax assessor, district attorney, circuit court judges, etc. In the interest of efficiency and getting the best person, these jobs should be paid positions that go through the standard hiring process for any county job. Is it that these positions are more important than others? That hardly seems possible since the county administrator, the person responsible for overseeing many of the county departments, is a position for hire. Perhaps it's just custom that has brought us to this point. We imagine, sometime in the distant past, the state required the county be set up in such a way that judges, sheriffs, clerks, assessors, DA's and others were to be elected to office. If that's the case it's time to discard the past and begin living in the 21st Century. We believe that except for county commissioner and judges (who should be appointed by the governor), all county positions should be hired employees that are answerable to the commission. That will streamline the system and let the voters concentrate on electing qualified people. |