Your turn: Don't buy the lie about Winnebago County

Winnebago County government is functioning effectively.

The County’s financial condition is strong and elected officials are working cooperatively to address the many issues a county of our size faces on an ongoing basis. Much is being done to improve the lives of our citizens.

We have committed more funds to maintain our roads.

We have taken action to stabilize the River Bluff Nursing Home and ensure its continuing operation.

We are working to transform the long vacant Public Safety building into a Family Court Center and Police Training Facility.

We have invested in updating and expanding our Animal Services building.

We have invested in much needed repair to our Juvenile Detention Facility.

We are expanding economic development through infrastructure projects such as the water service extension to the west of I-39.

And, we have dedicated increased funding to the States Attorney’s office and Sheriff’s department to improvepublic safety.

The list of our successes is long. I have not mentioned them all.

But Board Member Jean Crosby would like the public to believe there is a problem.

Ms. Crosby is an advocate of the Executive Form of county government, where power is centralized in one elected individual who would have significant control over the entire county operation. That structure may work well with the right person in office but if the wrong person is elected chaos follows.

As the saying goes “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

We currently operate under the Township Form of county government. Power is vested in an elected board.

In order to take action, a majority of the board must be in agreement, no one individual can act alone. Policy is controlled by politicians and daily operational decisions are made by professionals. The Township Form of government protects against radical actions by government and creates stability for staff.

Ms. Crosby worked to place a referendum on the ballot so the voters could weigh in on their preferred form of government. Her referendum to adopt the Executive Form of county government failed.

Now that her time on the board is winding down, she wants one more chance to achieve her goal, either by another referendum or by delegating more authority to the chairman to control operations under our current system.

In committee, Ms. Crosby alleged there is a “shadow government” operating in Winnebago County. That language is dishonest. It implies that there is a sinister group who are pulling the strings of government. It is intended to mislead the public into believing that a nonexistent problem must be solved, and the solution is to change our form of government.

My message to the public is — don’t buy the lie.

Be objective in your evaluation of the current state of Winnebago County government.

Do we really want to go back to the days of fighting over who needs more power?

Our county government is functioning better now than at any time I have served on the Board. This is not the time to restructure our government.

Now is the time to take advantage of the stability that exists in our county government and continue to build our list of successful initiatives.

Paul Arena is a Winnebago County Board Member and Republican caucus chairman.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Don't buy the lie about Winnebago County