The Missing Piece

This past week Ben introduced his "Ben's Fiscal Fitness Diet." It is his plan for slimming down county expenses and putting the pinch on expenditures. No campaign should act like a government in waiting, so administrative detail is left to the moment of taking office. However, Ben's plan provides a clear strategy with concrete goals.  

He advocates a comprehensive performance review with the intention of trimming 5% from county expenditures. Additionally, Ben proposes five additional initiatiaves that would yield cost savings which are undetermined. 

So there you have it; cuts that should amount to at least 5%, and the voters are invited to hold him to it. 

Crockett's plan? So far as I can tell there is no specific objective he's willing to share. However, in an appearance before the Young Republicans a few weeks ago he proposed a method for downsizing county government. He would give retired businessmen the power to streamline county agencies without the participation of the bureaucrats held accountable for the success of those agencies. 

That's right, he would specifically exclude county managers from the restructuring process. 

It does sound crazy, giving a retired NuSkin executive the power to transform the county jail, but that crazyness speaks to a fundamental point about Mark Crockett.

He poses as an experienced business executive, but that's not who or what he is. He's a business consultant who dances into town with cost saving theories. Then he gives an agency or a department a quick review before offering a power point presentation that calls for butchering programs with which he has no experience and could never manage. 

Once he's safely out of town he sends an invoice for a nice fat fee. However, Crockett plays no part in actually executing these proposals. By the time someone needs to be held accountable, Mark Crockett is ancient history. 

However, this "consultant" criticized Ben's cost saving initiative. In the Trib he was quoted as saying, "70 to 80 percent of the time these efforts fail [because] they are really complicated... If you're going to reform a nearly $1 billion budget you should have the skill set to do that. And that's what I have."

No, that's not the skill set Mark Crockett has.

The skill set required to make any initiative succeed is called leadership. So what, besides an absence of accountability in his business background, argues against Crockett's claims of successful leadership?

• He's a one term member of the county council turned out of office by an opponent with no political experience
• Most of the Republican city mayors in Salt Lake County have endorsed Ben McAdams
• The current Republican members ot the county council repudiate Crockett's depiction of county finances

Yes, Crockett has plenty of experience advocating radical proposals, but where is his track record in building consensus, achieving results, and accepting accountability?

That, dear voter, is the missing piece.