The World Around You

Bob Lowry did some excellent investigative reporting in this morning’s Huntsville Times. The truly sad part is that anyone whose been around state government long knows this kind of thing happens all the time, and just because someone is a registered lobbyist doesn’t mean she wouldn’t bring some expertise to an agency. The state merit system is not the end-all of expertise and merit employees are not necessarily superior to the alternative. I would expect Mac MacArthur to be upset, as he is quoted in this article. Whether the rest of us should be, is a harder question to answer. There’s certainly something to be said for making sure these kind of arrangements are out in the open, but the construction of the merit system means competent managers will always be looking for alternatives. If folks spent less time being outraged and more time focusing on the unmet personnel needs of state government, this wouldn’t be such a large issue.

Allowing cities to install traffic cameras at stoplights could be one of “the issues” of the regular legislative session. This is a challenging issue for me, because there is a lot to be said for where the cameras are placed and how bias could play a role in that, but that is after the issue at hand. The issue at hand is whether the legislature should allow localities to make those decisions. I think they absolutely should.