Reason to do it shouldn’t matter
Whether Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp is taking a signal from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency or doing it because he is a conservative, any effort to slash waste in government should be applauded.
However, we also agree with one point made by the mayor’s persistent critic, Hamilton County Commissioner David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, that the effort “should be standard procedure.”
If, indeed, Wamp is a conservative, and we believe he is, he should always be looking for efficiencies. One of his first actions after being mayor — his rejection of a costly built-out dais to accommodate him for county commission meetings — proves that he is.
The standard procedure that Sharpe mentioned should include subjects such as office supplies and cellphone usage that Wamp mentioned during his presentation to the commission earlier this week. But Wamp went on to cite use of county property, government office space leases, county government vacancies and contracts. They are more complicated and may require more sensitive handling but are no less important in a more efficient government.