Read in order

As a standalone piece, the story about Tuesday's Committee of 13 meeting highlights the confusion inherent at the county administration, but combined with other recent stories, it paints a drastically different picture.

The story in Wednesday's paper by Tabatha Hunter outlines this particular situation well. Millions of dollars spent on buildings and confusion over the direction the county is taking. The most telling passage is this one:

Many people who attended the meeting in support of the proposal to move the county Health Department into the Center for Nonprofits left the meeting following the committee’s decision to purchase the property on Runway Boulevard, feeling the committee had also decided not to move the Health Department.

The Health Department supporters clearly considered this a one-or-the-other deal, and with good reason. You must only go back as recently as Friday's paper and read this story to see that County Judge Dave Bisbee is already shifting taxes, at the detriment of the cities, to make ends meet. You can read this Tuesday story to see more on the reaction from the mayors. Now you return to the original story to see that the county is "spending nearly all of the money the county is expected to have in reserve during the next three years," and you can't help but wonder what funds the county can shift if the economy doesn't recover or if, as everyone suspects, the county loses a ton of revenue following the release of the 2010 census. It will have to move something around, because the reserves will be empty.

Despite the Justices of the Peace approving the proposals to forward them to committee. Hunter speculates that the building proposals will fail. For the sake of the county, I hope she's right.