What Tom Mowle Will Bring to El Paso County as Clerk and Recorder, Part 3: Accountability
Accountability
I believe government answers to the people. Its offices must be run efficiently and effectively, always aware that its “income” is provided by the people. My Public Trustee Office is doing the double the work it did in 2006, and it is doing it with fewer staff and at lower cost. When I discovered that one of my predecessors had imposed an excessive fee, I eliminated it and refunded this year’s charges. The Commissioners were very angry about this, as they had skimmed $200,000 from this fee in 2008. It’s not their money. The money belongs to the property owners of El Paso County.
Being accountable also means answering for your record in office. I was shocked at the disarray I found in the County, compared to what I had seen in 20 years in the military. There were no clear pay scales, no common performance appraisals, and no plan for addressing critical operating needs. County operations survive thanks to the dedication of the line workers and some of the managers and supervisors – despite the lack of overall leadership. Now those officeholders want to evade term limits by swapping offices. Don’t reward poor performance. Elect new leadership.
When I am Clerk and Recorder, I will eliminate waste and inefficiency in that office. I will make sure most people are doing the work, not supervising other people’s work. I will use the free market to reduce expenses, and I will contract for commercial services rather than doing work in-house. By efficiently using the money from fees, I will increase the excess available for the County General Fund, reducing the tax burden in the county. But I will never overcharge for services, even if the Commissioners want me to.
