First of two parts
Every year, Lake County commissioners elect a chair, who is expected to shape the future and lead the government. The chair for the coming year is to be Commissioner Leslie Campione, who also served in that capacity the past year.
In suggesting that Campione serve a second term in the leadership role, newly elected Commissioner Tim Sullivan said, "We're in tough times, and I believe some continuation is important."
The commissioner is wrong. Continuity is important only when a leader has been successful, not simply when times are tough. And Campione has not been successful.
She dealt the county an unnecessary financial blow when she threw aside months of meticulous budget planning and irresponsibly led the effort to balance the county budget using reserves.
Worse, she naively threatened the existence of the publicly owned ambulance service and made similar noises about taking over the jail from the sheriff. Result: Employees of Lake Emergency Medical Services unionized, and jail employees will be voting on a union in the next 60 days.
Lake will be feeling the financially painful effects of Campione's clumsy "leadership" for years to come.
By her own account, her successes are actions such as hosting meetings to talk about the economy, visiting businesses and creating zones for trade.
But she really made her mark with the public when it came to sorting out county spending priorities.
Let's look at Campione's role in the budget fiasco.
For months, commissioners worked to craft a balanced budget. Everything seemed on track until just a few days before the September vote, when Campione flip-flopped.
She led three other commissioners — who should have resisted — to balance the budget with about $4.4 million from the county's savings account. At the time, Campione, a Republican, declared that she would call meetings for commissioners to start cutting spending. Theoretically, the result would be that the county wouldn't really have to dip into reserves — or at least not much.
Recently, however, the purpose of those meetings suddenly changed. The new goal was to work on the budget for the next fiscal year, not the one being balanced by the savings account.
How reckless and dramatically un-Republican.
Campione said in an email that she changed her mind about the fiscal 2012-13 budget after more than six months of meetings because she learned that the proposed tax rate would mean higher taxes for most people and businesses. She said she thought that the drop in valuations would have offset any rate increase.
She said she'll continue to try to reduce the current budget.
However, she said, "cuts are difficult to make due to funding from outside sources … based on an entire fiscal year, and residents need sufficient notice to make adjustments when certain services are reduced."
That's government gobbledygook for "it ain't gonna happen." Really? Then why did she suggest it in the first place? It seems the answer is inexperience.
Her lack of understanding of government and the culture of people who work in it burst forth twice in a single meeting in September when she said the county "had to" consider privatization of EMS and wondered aloud whether Lake could save money by taking over the jail, setting in motion unionization efforts.
What she failed to take into account is how battered government employees feel. Jobs have been repeatedly cut, and no one has received a raise in years. They're frightened and nervous.
