Supervisors Must Put Faith in Wisdom of the Electorate : Government should strive to reconnect citizens, politics. Constituents are likely to accept tough solutions if kept informed.

In the sudden zeal for restructuring Orange County government, let’s be careful not to equate restructuring with reform.

The essential reforms needed are attitudinal, not structural. Officials who failed to recognize and assume their fiduciary responsibility for the public’s money need new resolve to master their job.

Secondly, they need to show faith in the good sense and decency of an informed electorate by making county government more open and inclusive. They need to create a political environment which welcomes public participation and provides the means for constructive discussion.

An angry and disillusioned citizenry will not be mollified by the current flurry of restructuring proposals, nor by attempts to find scapegoats. County leaders would do well to read and take to heart a 1991 Kettering Foundation report. The same message came from focus groups all over the country: People are fed up with politics and feel impotent because they have been shut out of the decision-making process. The report concluded that so-called reforms that focus on lawmaking will not address our underlying problems. “The challenge before us today,” they wrote, “is to reconnect citizens and politics--to find a place for citizens in the political process. We must find ways for citizens to form a public voice on policy issues and for public officials to hear that public voice.”

Orange County could use its own set of focus groups in every supervisorial district. Decisions to change from a general law to a charter form of government and to privatize county services--even to change to an appointed treasurer--should not be made without an open and honest dialogue with the electorate on these moves.

And some workshops at budget time that examine the premises and assumptions that drive budget decisions would result in a more understandable budget that would reflect the priorities of the electorate.

The time has even come to talk about the “T” word. Is there a politician anywhere willing to risk being honest with the electorate about taxes? If they dared, they might find out that the public would be willing to pay to protect the quality of life, to have our libraries open full time, to have our parks and recreation facilities maintained at high quality and that the county bailout shouldn’t be made by throwing the more powerless members of the county “family” overboard.

The nonpartisan League of Women Voters has learned over its 75-year history that people of all parties usually can reach consensus on the most complex issues when they have access to solid, factual information. Most people want to be fair, but when uninformed they are often misled by political demagoguery.

Our current crisis demonstrates that elected officials, well-intentioned or not, can make serious mistakes. Before being led into changes that might turn out to be further bad judgment, the public should insist on knowing all the facts and options.

The Board of Supervisors needs to put its faith in the collective common sense and fairness of an informed electorate and provide ample opportunities for citizen input before decisions are made. If they do, Orange County may someday be known as the place where a successful model of a working democracy was built from the rubble of a financial crisis.