Equip new council to do its job well
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They can load materials needed for each meeting and archive them, too. Financial reports, budget proposals and the upcoming meeting’s agenda can be viewed in advance. They also get e-mails from both citizens and school officials as they are composed. This helps members stay focused on meeting issues and not on getting organized, pulling files, etc. The chairman of the school board is even able to make PowerPoint presentations during meetings.
When the new members of the Luzerne County Council take office in 2012, they also should use laptops for their work and meetings. This would make communications from the clerk of county council and from the chairperson more efficient, by giving the members time to prepare for discussions at the meeting.
For an example of how things can go wrong, at recent Sugar Notch Council meetings a lot of confusion was created by many miscues. First, the chairman tried to call a special meeting with only one day’s notice and no advertising. This set off a chain of events that the local newspapers and TV news covered. Then they held a meeting to pass the budget, without balancing it. At the next regular meeting, they tried to balance it by raising the personal income tax above 1 percent, which is not allowed by state law.
Finally, they passed a half-mill increase in the property tax, which did not close the gap completely. To say this process became a comedy of errors is kind.
Several years ago, I surveyed a dozen councils in Luzerne County to see if they would support a non-credit program of classes at Luzerne County Community College to help train new members and even upgrade skills of present council members. Only Edwardsville wanted it.
Let’s try and give the new county council members the tools they might need to succeed.
