TO THE EDITOR:

It baffles me how our county government is in such bad shape. Mismanaging state and federal funding through the county's Masters in Social Work (MSW) education program is an outrage. Local leaders are not doing their jobs.

In addition to the scrutiny in the local papers for years, now both metro newspapers have reported how dysfunctional Chisago County's government has become. Our commissioners sat back and did nothing for years and now we have a cloud of negativity hanging over our county. I can't believe the delay in taking corrective action. It took a state financial audit and a citizen protest of the board meeting at the government center for anything constructive to happen.

Commissioner Montzka was the only one who displayed any common sense when he asked the other commissioners to stop the program 2 years ago. The others did nothing to help. The program has since been halted -- finally -- when Commissioner Schultz who chaired the HHS (Health & Human Services) committee during this entire fiasco made a motion to end it. I ask why it took two years for county commissioners to fix the problem. All the while the money kept being spent. This is a great example of politicians doing the dance of side-stepping issues at our expense.

I think I know how to fix the problem. More people need to get involved in county politics. People need to go to meetings occasionally and see what their representatives are saying and how they are deciding. We know there's something wrong when county commissioner Gustafson asks in a huff (in words to this effect), "Are we going to let the people decide what we're going to do?" Perhaps this representative has forgotten that our elected officials are elected by the people for the people. It must indeed be the people who always decide the big issues before us.

Before the 2008 election I urge us all to get to some county meetings and to go to our own city council meetings so that we have a firsthand knowledge of ow well we are being represented. Nothing prepares us better for an election than to see how well the incumbents are doing their job. Clearly we have some commissioners who do not belong in office. I think our pocketbooks and our community's well-being will improve if we can make informed election decisions in 2008.

Carolyn Burnoski
North Branch