I have a couple of observations to share about Fairfield County Council’s Monday night meeting, and all of them beg the question: ‘What were our council members thinking to offer County Administrator only a 5-month contract? After all, Taylor is the architect of the current and outstanding improvements being made in the county. That great disappointment aside, let me talk about the good things that came out of the meeting.
First, congratulations to Administrator Taylor and his superb finance team headed by Finance Director Anne Bass. A virtually clean audit report is certainly something to celebrate, especially within the context of all the obstacles presented by the pandemic. Certainly, their excellent follow up to the previous audit report enhances citizens’ confidence in our county’s fiscal management.
Second and equally important is how impressively Director Bass displayed her thorough command of her area of responsibility as well as her knowledgeable, patient, and poised response to the plethora of mostly rudimentary questions posed by some members of council.
Third, it is clear council has work to do. Further financial training is clearly in order based upon the questions asked last night and in many previous meetings. Once all council members are financially trained, hopefully they can move forward, updating the county procurement manual since it is council who is in charge of setting policy, as Councilman Pauley pointed out at the meeting.
Fourth and most important, one has to question the judgement and motivation of those on council who voted to offer Administrator Taylor only a five-month contract after a meeting that highlighted our strong administrative team. Let’s hope council will make a collective u-turn before they actually drive over the cliff.
Apparently the misguided 4 do not want transparency and public input, but the time to allow citizens to attend the meetings the meetings is long past due, at least in limited numbers.
Randy Bright
Ridgeway
