Lawrence County reform proposals are flawed

Lawrence County reform proposals are flawed
EDITOR:
I am writing to protest a proposed reform of county government in Lawrence County, Pa. This so-called reform is a farce deliberately put together to increase the size of the Lawrence County government to a fiscally unacceptable level to the county's taxpayers.
Replacing three county commissioners with seven county council members and a county manager appointed by the council is no bargain to taxpayers because the new manager will be answerable only to the seven-member council.
The council and the manager will need a large number of assistants, aides and secretaries to free them from the burden of tedious paperwork. This unknown number of support personnel will not come cheap to the taxpayers, who will have to pay their salaries and benefits. And all those public employees will join a union to protect them from dismissal by the council or manager.
Another reason to oppose this reform is the fact that under the new council/manager system all county row offices formerly elected, such as district attorney, sheriff, treasurer, register and recorder, prothonotary and clerk of courts, coroner and two jury commissioners, will be answerable to the council, not the taxpayers. The reform will replace elected county row officers with politically appointed officials.
JOHN W. BISER III
Edinburg
Market won't rebound until faith is restored
EDITOR:
In my opinion, the stock market and the economy are in a very deep slump because the public has lost faith in the CEOs and CFOs of many major companies and cannot trust that they have not stolen the company funds and the investors' futures.
Anyone who works for a public owned stock company is an employee of the company, whether he is the president or mailroom clerk. He has the legal and moral obligation to do his best to do the job at an agreed-to payment. This is written into his contract of employment. The same goes for those who are running the company, they are employees of the company. Hidden stock options, creative accounting, bonuses, aggressive fund accounting, is stealing and no different than a stock clerk selling something and putting the money in his pocket. This applies to all the officers and board of directors. Their action is no different than a crew or shift stealing from the company and stockholders.
Our country, I am sure, is full of hard working, dedicated managers of most of the public owned stock companies, and the bad apples have created a mistrust of all companies. They have done more damage than 9/11 has ever done. If we want to protect our country from "terrorists" then we had better start with those few who have stolen billions from the investors, caused a loss of faith in our system and endangered the very root of our economy. Starting a war will not boost our economy and will divert attention from these crooks. Putting our home grown "terrorists" in jail will.
GEORGE HOLKO
Warren
McDonald mixes messages
EDITOR:
I would really like someone to explain something to me. I lived my whole life, until I was married, in McDonald, Ohio, a very nice little town in which to bring up a family.
Going into McDonald on Marshall Road, the speed limit is 25 mph, which is fine. But going out of McDonald, the speed limit is 35 mph on the side road.
Are they trying to say, come into McDonald, slow and careful, but get out fast?
This doesn't make sense to me. Is this a speed trap or what?
SHIRLEY GRIFFITHS
Youngstown