As we begin a new year the county legislature will be electing a new chairman. I may have the "swing vote" in what may be a contested election. While I am somewhat disappointed in the performance of the present chairman, I have no assurance that any of the other legislatures will do better.

 My complaint is that the present chairman acts as if he is in fact a county manager and conducts county affairs as if the county were a business enterprise. I believe that representative government ought not to be so structured. Whereas a business thrives by selling a popular product or service, a government gets its money whether it is popular or not. Whereas a chief executive officer does well to increase the scope of his organization, a public body can do this only by exacting greater taxes.

 This is the situation in which we now find ourselves. For several years, the county legislature has allowed the various departments to increase their scope in direct competition with other community organizations. Our taxes have been increasing exponentially in order to house and equip these bloated departments in a county that has not increased in population for many years.

 In just this past year the county hired an engineer to inspect sewage treatment systems, a service that was formerly performed by independent licensed engineers hired by the individual property owners. And recently the county, by local law, established the position of code enforcement officer and hired a person for that job. The public has been told that his authority is over county buildings only, but this is not specifically stated in the local law. (Nor is the Commissioner of Public Works identified as a person required to file an application for a building permit.)

 It would seem that our only recourse as taxpayers is to continue to vote the incumbents out until we have a county legislature willing to call a halt to the continued expansion of county government. I personally opposed both of the county expansions identified above to the degree that I was able.