A power play is developing at the Douglas County Courthouse, one that could end up stripping county residents of their ability to choose directly who collects their taxes, enforces their laws, prosecutes their cases, documents their land transfers or counts their votes.

The push — being formulated by Craig Weinaug, county administrator, at the request of county commissioners — is part of a drive to make the government more “professional,” possibly by changing its fundamental structures.

Offices that have been occupied by election winners since 1868 — county treasurer, sheriff, district attorney, register of deeds and clerk — could be turned over instead to hired employees, answerable to Weinaug as administrator rather than the voters themselves.

Supporters say such a shift could make government more efficient, more productive, more professional.

“I would like to see a more business-type atmosphere,” said Dennis Wilson, a railroad engineer who grows frustrated with a shortage of lunch-hour staffing at the treasurer’s office.

But opponents argue that such a reorganization could spawn political turmoil, disturb functional operations or undermine grass-roots democracy.

“I’d rather have the people have the say,” said Tina Lowery, who brought her 1-month-old son, Demarkus, to the courthouse last week to pay taxes on her new Dodge Caravan. “They (administrators) may or may not pick who the people want. They may be biased.

“If it’s a mistake, I’d rather the people make it rather than some guy upstairs. I’d rather take that chance.”

County commissioners say they aren’t yet committed to make a change, but they’re more than willing to talk about it. The fact that they’ve just laid off employees, cut services and postponed projects to fill a $1.75 million budget hole this year only gives the push more urgency.

“For everything there is a time,” said Bob Johnson, commission chairman and leader of the discussion drive. “We ought to take advantages of opportunities to make things more efficient.”

¢ 6News video: Officials considering change in county government¢ Memo from County Administrator Craig Weinaug

Added Commissioner Jere McElhaney: “We just can’t have the good ol’ boy system anymore. … We’re going to have to make some changes. Our government’s too big.”

Fearful intrigue

Commissioner Charles Jones, the commission’s lone Democrat, said a county retooling likely would mean appointing an advisory committee to study the entire concept of government. The committee could consider making elections nonpartisan, merging police and sheriff’s services or even combining city and county governments, similar to what has occurred in Wyandotte County.

“It’s both intriguing and scary,” Jones said. “Once you give a committee carte blanche, what you get may be different from what you expected. We’re sort of assuming we can control the outcome, and I’m not sure that’s true.”

Such discussions have been floating around the second floor of the courthouse for more than a year, but the movement made it into writing last week. At the request of commissioners, Weinaug put together a memo that outlines the background and process for government reorganizations, such as those in Wyandotte County and Johnson County.

Driving the push, Jones said, is the job performance and attitude of Pat Wells, county treasurer. Wells’ office received criticism in recent years from the county’s auditors, prompting commissioners to form a committee to oversee investments of the county’s millions of dollars in idle funds.

Last month, commissioners grew increasingly exasperated when Wells refused to support the commission’s efforts to close a treasurer’s satellite office in Baldwin but retain the services at Baldwin City Hall. Citing support from the Kansas Association of County Treasurers, Wells said she would rather see the services eliminated in Baldwin than handled by employees outside her control.

The office closed Feb. 14, but the frustration lingers.

“Under my idea, you wouldn’t have a situation like we had with the Baldwin office and the treasurer,” Johnson said. “We’d have people in Douglas County who were working for the best interest of the Douglas County taxpayers and a little less concerned about a state association.”

While the sheriff and district attorney likely would remain as elected offices, the treasurer would not. Instead, the treasurer would be hired by Weinaug just as the director of public works, director of zoning and codes, and director of emergency management are today.

Service accountability

Weinaug said the shift would allow an administrator to hire “the best professionals” to assume responsibility for offices that — despite their elective lineage — largely operate outside the political realm.

“Right now, if one of the administrative officials who is elected is somebody who doesn’t show up for work, rarely shows up for work or doesn’t do the job, there’s not a darn thing you can do about it as a voter until four years later, until the next election,” Weinaug said. “There’s not anything you can do.

“This (reorganization) brings up the possibility of making county government more accountable in such a way that all the officials are accountable every day for competent, courteous good service.”

Jones, meanwhile, said Weinaug and others were using the strained relationship with Wells to sell something that may not be a good bargain.

“There’s some management concerns and some customer-service issues that we’re aware of,” Jones said. “However, because she’s an elected official, it’s difficult for us to really do anything to resolve the problem.

“This seems like a pretty sweeping and drastic way to resolve that specific problem.”

For her part, Wells has heard such talk before. During meetings with her statewide association, someone always seems to bring up the bubbling talk of switching from elected treasurers to those hired by an administrator.

Wells admits that she “worries” about such talk at the county courthouse, but that doesn’t mean the discussion should be stifled.

“You have to let the people decide what they want in county government,” said Wells, elected to her post in 1996 and 2000. “If they want it appointed or elected, it should be the people’s choice — not the commission’s choice, or the administrator’s choice, but the people’s choice.”

Extended process

Changing the county’s governmental structure could not occur overnight.

The county likely would need to get enabling legislation passed by the Kansas Legislature, something Weinaug said likely would have to wait until next year. An advisory committee could study the issues to prepare for a legislative resolution, but any final decision would be left to county voters in the form of a referendum.

“Each community decides its own destiny, and it needs to go to a vote of its own people,” said Judy Moler, general counsel and legislative services director for the Kansas Association of Counties. “It’s up to the wisdom of the voters.”

Patty Jaimes, who in 1980 won her first of six elections to become county clerk, said she didn’t have a read on how voters would react to a reorganization plan. But she does worry about the prospect of concentrating more power in Weinaug’s hands, driving another wedge between the people who run government and the voters themselves.

“In my opinion, the elected official is responsive to the general public — more so than the administration,” Jaimes said. “The appointed person would be a ‘yes’ person (to the administration).”

Johnson, now in his third year as a commissioner, said he was looking forward to the upcoming discussions about a potential reorganization.

“For me,” he said, “it’s one of the reasons someone like me gets elected. You ought to ask the questions: Is there a better way? Have we looked into it? Are we willing to consider it?

“It’s the spirit that made this country what it is. It ought to be the spirit to make it better in the future.”