Funny thing happened during Tuesday's meeting of the Clay County Commission. Not funny ha, ha. Not funny, as in amusing of any kind. It was more the embarrassing kind of funny.
Happened during a discussion about Code Enforcement, and how Clay County levies fines, then reduces them, and the whole process of trying to get local folks to keep their property up to code.
It was funny how that discussion included and quickly discounted the County Attorney's input. Funny how it did completely ignore the apparently-stunned professional being paid to run Code Enforcement. Funny how the discussion managed to include Commissioners getting a close-up and personal look at a photograph of yard that needed mowing.
Like I said, it was the embarrasing kind of funny that elicits a giggle to break the tension. Same kind of funny Clay County folks have seen far too often when watching their elected officials at work.
The biggest weapon the county has to make sure property owners are up to code is a system of daily fines for each violation. It can add up quickly. Not long ago, once an owner got the property back in shape, the Code Enforcement Board adopt the Rodney King approach to governance. It wanted us all to just get along and would recommend that fines be reduced to whatever taxpayers' expenses were while Code Enforcement worked the case. The BCC would then approve the often substantial reductions as a matter of routine. But a few folks, including me back then, thought the process of fining and routinely reducing the fine seemed a little, well, funny.
So, the County Commission's reaction to realizing that "that's the way we've always done it" isn't really a good reason to keep doing it that way, was to hire a lawyer, handsomely paid at taxpayer expense as always, to serve as a Special Magistrate. So property owners who might be unhappy with having to pay back taxpayers for Code Enforcement's expenses could appeal even that fine. Of course, as always, the County Commissioners reserved ultimate authority for themselves, so the Special Magistrate's decision also has to be approved by the BCC before it becomes official.
That final BCC authority, of course, gives property owners another level to appeal their fines, which are already reduced as a matter of routine. Yet last Tuesday, the members of the County Commission spent 35 minutes of their time retrying one case that had already been heard in detail once by the expensive Special Magistrate.
State law, by the way, already provides a means for property owners to appeal Code Enforcement fines and decisions. So the Special Magistrate is just a redundant service. An expensive redundant government service. That's bad enough, but with the way the County Commission conducts its funny business, the expensive, redundant Special Magistrate is little more than an advisor with no authority, who can be ignored on any BCC whim.
Funny how our County Commissioners always talk about how they understand what their job is and that micromanaging isn't part of it, but they're looking at photographs and making decisions about tall grass. Obviously, they still don't get it.