MISSOURI WATCH: HASSLE ON THE HINKSON

Now is an appropriate moment for elected officials to give serious study to the state's hodgepodge commission system, given the hopefully limited damage that has been done to one of our most cherished institutions, Missouri University.

Far too many comments on the proposed dismissal of M.U.'s Columbia campus chancellor, Dr. Charles Kiesler, revealed a lack of understanding of how state government works, or more accurately, how it is expected to work. Some of the comments have been so far off the wall that they suggested partisan intent, although the partisans would no doubt decry the injection of politics were it to come from any other source.

To understand the commission form adopted in part by the framers of the 1945 Constitution and altered and expanded from time to time by both the General Assembly and the voters, one needs to appreciate the need for nonpartisan governance in several sensitive areas. Although it is not an absolute cure, the commission form offers a reasonable alternative to partisan rule of every activity of state government.

For example, the partisan excesses of building state highways to favor the politically advantaged led to an early voter decision to place that phase of government under a presumably non-partisan citizen commission. It should be noted that even this solution has its drawbacks, since commission members represent various sections of the state and there is a natural tendency to push for hometown or home region improvements in exchange for an agreement with other commissioners who are following the same objective. Thus it is possible to view elaborate road improvements in cities around the state that have been favored with commission representation.

The matter of education, again viewed as a subject better left unpolitical, has most often been spared the ugliness of partisanship, although all of its areas, from kindergarten to graduate school, have faced issues that bordered on the political, or at the very least, ideological. Thus the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, as well as the vast array of public-supported colleges and universities, have been supervised, in varying degrees, by presumably bipartisan citizens, who hopefully, although not always successfully, master the details of overseeing huge and complex educational delivery systems. Thus we have a State School Board for DESE and boards of curators or regents for state colleges and universities. These boards are designed to provide citizen overview of tax-supported institutions and assist the professionals in their duties by providing not administrative chores but, hopefully, helpful strategies for improvement.

Other presumed oversight bodies provide similar roles for the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Conservation. It is difficult to politicize either of these agencies, yet the political talent for doing so exists. Since all of these commission agencies are difficult to administer, the ability to politicize is diminished, providing that well-known blessing in disguise.

The Kiesler affair was, and remains, an internal personnel matter, which may come as a surprise to Missourians who have discussed the administrative pros and cons of an individual few know with details that are not always accurate. Indeed, virtually all of the discussion has avoided solutions, while some of it has centered on the deadly P word and that stands for politics. A politically motivated columnist who recently discussed the brouhaha provided readers with exactly three misstatements in just a single column, but that has often been par for the course.

Critics of the parties involved most often display less logic than loss of memory. The overall director of all Missouri University campuses is an able president, Dr. George Russell. The official who recommends and in many ways controls the amount of money available for higher education in the state is the governor. These two are the realistic, legal decision makers. Those who legally dispense funds are legislators. Those who suffer from turmoil are students seeking the best education the state is willing to provide. Everyone else is on the sidelines, not out shouting inconsequences on the playing field.

It is not asking too much to suggest that both the executive and legislative branches of government undertake a serious study of the commission system. It won't be as much fun as throwing partisan brickbats, but it will be much more instructive and beneficial for the people who pay the bills.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.