Mitchell Oakley: Elected officials, bureaucrats aren't helping the public

Have you ever asked questions of elected officials only to be told to check with a bureaucrat for the answers?

Have you then encountered bureaucrats who sidestep those questions with excuses to put you off to another day or simply stonewall you as long as possible?

Have you encountered elected officials who either don’t know what is going on in the area to which they were elected or pretend they’ve never heard of the topic to which you may be referring? Do you find all this frustrating?

After 40 years as a full-time newspaperman and the last 13 as a freelance columnist, I have learned to smell out the stink quickly, only to see no real accountability against either a bureaucrat or the elected official.

We (I use this word collectively) turn around and vote for the same individuals all over again. Those individuals continue to know little, answer little and allow bureaucrats to do exactly as they wish.

Sadly, citizens experience this same mistreatment. Their concerns are mostly ignored. Their questions go unanswered. And above all, the government at every level continues to levy and collect taxes from the taxpayers.

Please understand my writing this week is a general opinion I have developed over a long span of time. There are many outstanding government employees who serve the public admirably. Sadly, there are those who do not. I believe some of their actions are getting worse.

I recall telling a bureaucrat once that I needed a copy of a public record he was holding. He claimed it to be outside the public records law. My response is that our newspaper could take him and his agency to court. His reply was that by the time that would occur, he would have held the public record for as long as he needed to. For you see, even if found in our company’s favor, there would have been no retribution to the employee or his agency.

Bureaucrats seem to think everyone, including elected officials, work for them. And it’s very clear to me that the elected seem to like it that way because they can steer clear of controversy so they can get re-elected term after term.

Have you looked at televised Congressional hearings? What I have seen has amazed me. Bureaucrats are questioned quite intensely by the elected class. Much of the time those being questioned duck and dive any real answers to questions. Some go before Congress and outright lie and nothing happens to them. It’s obvious that there is little to no incentive to tell the truth if there are no legal consequences.

We have seen the House of Representatives impeach the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and a “breach of public trust” stemming from the invasion of illegal aliens at the southern border. Guess what? It marks the first time in 150 years that a cabinet secretary has been impeached. Yet, nothing will happen to him. Why? Because the Senate, under Democratic control, will not take up the matter. Mayorkas is a symbol of a bureaucrat who does exactly what he wants to, including flouting the immigration law of the land.

Over the years, Congress has passed laws that protect bureaucrats from firings. Even states and local governments make it difficult to manage a workforce competently because of employee protections. Even now, the Biden administration has passed rules that will make it even harder to fire federal bureaucrats. He is doing it to keep a new president from cutting the workforce. It is wrong because elected officials should retain the authority of determining the size of the workforce on every level of government.

In Pitt County I read the posts of folks on Facebook who were angred by the recent re-evaluation when property values skyrocketed. Comments repeatedly said the county should make certain there is a “revenue neutral” budget. Effectively that means holding the revenue level the same as in the county’s 2023-24 budget.

My comment on one thread was simple. Why revenue neutral? We should be talking negative revenue because all levels of government need to have the fat cut. Yet, we elect people who don’t have the nerve to even suggest cuts.

It’s good business to look at every aspect of a budget and see if there are areas that can be trimmed or completely cut. That’s what elected officials should be doing at budget time, not sitting there like bumps on logs and nodding their heads “yes” to every bureaucratic proposal.

Our system of government was set up for the elected to hire only those necessary to take direction and operate government in the best interests of the citizenry. Bureaucrats should be subservient to the people and to the elected. That means when questions are asked of either bureaucrats or the elected, the people get immediate answers.

It also means that the elected should be busy researching and educating themselves so they can make intelligent decisions on their own while doing the jobs they were elected to do. Sitting back in a board room with a rubber stamp is not what they were elected to do.