Home // Opinion // Opinion Columnists // Kevin Blaum

A new chart for new course in the Valley Kevin Blaum In the Arena

Sunday December 13, 2009 | 12:00 AM

DISAPPOINTED? Last week began with high expectations for what the Luzerne County Government Study Commission might do on Wednesday evening.

Not to be ignored, however, the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board was lurking in the bushes, preparing to pounce, swear in its new cubs and elect a board president. While much of the community was abuzz with soaring anticipation for the impending announcement on home rule, the school board stuck a pin in it and brought us all back to earth with a resounding thud.

On Monday, the school board reappointed its only sitting member under indictment to the presidency of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District. The board’s action knocked the wind out of everyone who read the stunning front-page article. It was painful to read. Every word delivered a powerful blow to the Valley’s mid-section. It was a gratuitous cheap shot our people did not deserve. Athletes often get ejected for lesser displays of poor judgment.

On Wednesday, however, the Government Study Commission stood up and voted to scrap our county government and to begin drafting a new county constitution for presentation to the voters next fall. It is a very large undertaking and failure, this time, must not be an option.

A new constitution must be put on paper, advertised by the end of summer and placed before the voters on Nov. 2, 2010. Commission members have only nine months to create a high-quality document. Needless to say, they haven’t a moment to waste.

Creating a system of governance that actually works is far more difficult than simply deciding we need one. I believe it was Anita Humes and three other Marines stationed at Camp LeJeune in 1963 who said it’s “Easier Said than Done.”

But the necessary first step was taken as the commission stood tall for the people they were elected to serve. Their vote to alter our entire system of county government was seismic and unanimous.

On Monday the vote for president of the school board, the man who will lead thousands of young and impressionable minds into a new decade of education, was 6-1 with two abstentions.

Who were the “profiles in courage” that abstained on such an important and timely matter? They were new board member Robert Corcoran and veteran Lynn Evans. Perhaps they now feel as sick as the voters do since learning of their first official action of the new term. I never met anyone who “abstained” and later felt good about their vote. Worse, their non-vote has been indelibly recorded in the annals of school board history.

It is also true that I never met anyone who rose on behalf of their constituents to cast a vote of character who did not feel wonderful. On Monday, only school director Maryanne Toole stood up for you and said, “no.” Hers was the lone dissenting vote.

While there is widespread disappointment with the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board, the government study commission saved the week. These 11 individuals, exercising power unlike anything they could previously imagine, have just chartered a daring course for a new beginning.

It is a 10-month voyage. The days will be heated, the nights long and the seas will get plenty rough. Delivering us to a good and safe harbor by journey’s end will be a constant test of their skill and dedication. They are 11 good public servants. There are more just like them. Maryanne Toole makes 12.

Do I hear 13?