A Lesson on Government from George Lang: how things are supposed to work
Below is an example of how local government is supposed to work—at least as a sample of the type of debate that should transpire between the participants. This is true no matter what kind of government is presented, whether it is a school board, a group of trustees for a township which is the example below, or a city council—the elected representatives are supposed to argue and hash out issues with passionate narrative in order to arrive at a proper conclusion. In the example provided, West Chester Trustee George Lang argues against the proposal of trustee Cathy Stoker, and Lee Wong who are voting in favor of a contract renewal with the Fraternal Order of Police that has very lucrative benefits included. Many of the employees being discussed make very close to six figures a year. CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW MUCH AND WHO THEY ARE (there’s over 80 comments on that link that are very entertaining). So the employees are already well compensated, and this new contract more than insures more of the same behavior, which Lang argues West Chester may find balancing a budget will be difficult in the coming years. Watch for yourself:
George Lang was outvoted 2 to 1, but he still went to the trouble to make the public argument for the good of West Chester, and this is why it’s important to vote in favor of more representatives like Lang at election time. In West Chester, Cathy and Lee’s seats are coming up for re-election, so there is a chance for West Chester to vote big spenders like those two trustees out of office in favor of managers who will behave more like George Lang.
The trend in most political organizations such as school boards, trustees and city councils is to try to achieve group consensus and this is where politics fails. When the members of the governing body are more concerned about winning a popularity contest, or being accepted by the other governing members, the chance for spirited debate is effectively squashed, and does not happen very often. In Lang’s situation of course his position will not make him popular with the public sector unions, but he is not concerned about those kinds of things—he is trying to manage the impact of the contracts cost against the ability of the tax payers of West Chester to pay the bill without tax increases, which is how the process is supposed to work.
Ultimately the video above reveals a much more sinister evil that is at the heart of every government deal involving any public sector union, and illustrates why school boards and other management organizations lose control of their costs—third-party arbitration. In the video Cathy Stoker discusses that if the contract is not accepted by the trustees that a third-party will be called in to resolve the dispute and force the hand of the trustees against their will. This third-party arbitration is exactly why school boards do not have the stomachs to fight teacher unions to manage their costs, because the union will force the dispute into arbitration and trump the elected school board. School boards don’t want to be trumped, so they go along with whatever teacher unions’ support to avoid the third-party embarrassment.
The same threat is present when involving fire fighter unions, and police unions. In West Chester, Cathy Stoker showed in the video that she is very concerned about third-party arbitration forcing upon them costs that exceed the contract they are agreeing to, while George Lang suggests that the trustees should force the issue into arbitration and fight it out in an effort to save the costs against the tax payers of West Chester. Lang knows that if they lose their arbitration hearing, he would then have the leverage in the media to blame the arbitration process for the high taxes imposed by the third-party. So he is willing to roll the dice, whereas Stocker and Wong aren’t. But at least the debate happened and all three trustees didn’t mindlessly accept the contract without spirited discussion.
When electing these kinds of politicians it is more beneficial to elect fighters instead of people who will just lie down and say “uncle” in the face of third-party arbitration. It is this threat that drives up the cost of all these public sector workers with teachers, fire fighters, and police departments. Public sector unions should be illegal, and third-party arbitration by un-elected officials should also be illegal. The laws that protect this system are a travesty against the tax payers. But thank God not all politicians are mindless “yes men” who just go through the political motions so they can have the social popularity of a name-plate upon their desks. Some politicians like George Lang actually try to manage the costs that impact his community, which is what he was elected to do.
For those reading this who are my community neighbors thinking of running for an office there are three school board seats coming up at Lakota, two seats coming up for the West Chester Trustees, and Liberty Twp has some seats coming up, it would be advisable for you to run for one of those seats. If you need help getting in touch with people who can help with money to run for office, then feel free to contact me, and I’ll put you in touch with those who can help with your campaigns—because I’d like to see more people like George Lang in these local positions fighting on behalf of the tax payers in the years to come. That is the key to solving many of our future problems circulating around sustaining community growth and maintaining a positive economic future, electing politicians locally who will actually do the job as well as George Lang does.
On the other side, an example of how the job is done poorly can be seen in the video below.
See the difference? No wonder Detroit is broke and looks the way it does.
Rich Hoffman
