The Price of Incompetence in Chehalis County
The local press takes the county commissioners to task for allegedly mismanaging public funds and obscuring delinquent tax revenue.
Six thousand two hundred and ninety three dollars of public funds have been deducted from the delinquent tax collections of this county and retained as fees without, it seems, authority of law. It is right that the public interests in this money be protected by every lawful means. Instead, two of our county commissioners, through no dishonesty of purpose, but rather an overweening desire to be economical, become penny wise and pound foolish. Without pretense of legal learning, the commissioners pit themselves against one of the brightest legal minds in the county in passing upon a statement of facts whose apparent fairness of terms effectually hides the absence of the most weighty contention on the part of the county: that of the $6,203 retained as attorneys' fees, $4,291 has been deducted from the taxes collected in cash in cases other than those in which the fee claimed accrued. Commissioner Autzen, believing that the people's interest in these delinquent taxes were not receiving proper care at the hands of the authorized agents of the public, entered a vigorous protest.
“A turkey gobbler minus tail feathers, a rooster with vocal organs out of gear, a newspaper without an opinion, each may fill a limited sphere of usefulness.”
Local government transparency and fiscal mismanagement have been recurring themes in Grays Harbor politics for over a century. The paper's critique of officials who are 'penny wise and pound foolish' remains a standard jab in modern municipal budget battles.
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