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I found out you can feel pride and disappointment at the same time in regard to two recent Leader stories about Jefferson County.

There was Peggy Scott’s story on the Jefferson County Bicentennial Committee and its plans for a year full of events to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the county. Imagine, we’ve been through two centuries of the good, the bad and the ugly in local politics. Jefferson County is actually 32 months older than the state of Missouri.

A few pages later, Tracey Bruce reported on the county hiring Strategic Capitol Consulting, a Chesterfield lobbying firm, to represent the county’s interests in the Missouri General Assembly.

That’s right. Your county government is paying $42,000 this year to Steve Tilley, SCC founder and former speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, for Tilley, a Republican, to lobby state lawmakers.

I thought only private companies or associations hired lobbyists, who, by definition, wield influence for special-interest groups.

So, Jefferson County has become a special-interest group. Since when does one level of government need a hired gun to exert influence on another level of government?

Think of it: Our county’s public servants got by for 200 years without a lobbyist in either the territorial government (1818-1821) or at the state Capitol. How did they manage?

Jefferson County has eyes, ears and voices in Jefferson City that don’t cost it a cent. They’re called legislators. We have nine – seven representatives and two senators. Of Missouri’s 114 counties, only five (St. Louis, Jackson, St. Charles, Greene and Clay) have greater representation in Jefferson City.

Any state legislator worth his or her $35,915 salary (plus $113 in daily expense money) had, by golly, better know what issues, policies and proposed laws affect the counties and cities in his or her district.

Arnold is piggybacking on the county’s move by adding $2,000 a month to SCC’s paycheck for lobbying. “Hey, if it’s good for the county…”

David Courtway is Jefferson County’s director of administration. Let’s examine the rationale he gave for hiring SCC.

■ Item: “We need boots on the ground. We’re quite a distance from Jefferson City. They (the SCC lobbyists) can attend hearings where bills are being discussed.”

Our legislators know the way to the Capitol. During the session, January to May, they’re there four days a week (they get Fridays and weekends off to catch up), making laws. You may not like their political views, but they are doing their jobs and are accountable to the voters back home – unlike lobbyists.

■ Item: “It’s hard for us to keep on top of and track that many bills.”

There’s this wonderful device called a computer. It connects to an even more amazing thing called the internet, which contains websites for both the Missouri House and Senate. Those sites offer multiple ways to track every piece of legislation through every step of the sausage-making process, including live coverage of floor debates in real time. All free of charge. Wonders!

■ Item: “This allows us to know immediately about proposed legislation and to get in a position to propose legislation. We have a network of people to plead our case.”

Pardon my redundancy, but that reads verbatim like the job description of a state legislator. Someone in this picture is not necessary. At $42,000 per legislative session, that’s about $600 a day of redundant.

Arnold City Administrator Bryan Richison offered this explanation for the city’s two-grand-per-month tab with SCC: “We thought there was a need and we were not having our voice heard in Jefferson City.”

Pick up the phone, Bryan. Rep. Rob Vescovo (a Republican representing District 112, which includes Arnold) can be reached at 573-751-3607. And he lives in the Arnold ZIP code. Sen. Paul Wieland (Republican of District 22) lives right down the road in Imperial. He’s at 573-751-1492. These folks have voice mail and email, too.

I am reminded of one of the most famous lines from the movies, uttered by the prison boss (played by Strother Martin) in “Cool Hand Luke”: “What we’ve got here is – failure to communicate.”

I haven’t even touched on the questionable ethics trailing behind Steve Tilley. The former optometrist from Perryville resigned from his House seat on Aug. 13, 2012, five months before his term-limited end. Exactly 17 days later, he opened SCC for business.

In most states, that would be illegal. In fact, if he tried to do that today in Missouri, it would be illegal. But until 2016 our fair state had no “revolving door” law mandating a waiting period before ex-legislators-turned-lobbyists could cozy up to their former colleagues.

Even the law we have now is only a six-month limit. A majority in the General Assembly wants to lengthen that to the one year or two years enacted in most other states. (House Bill 1822, sponsored by Rep. Joe Adams, Democrat of University City, would set it at two years.) But somehow real ethics reform in Jefferson City keeps dying in the jump from the House to the Senate. Maybe this year it will make it to the finish line.

That’s something we can all lobby for.

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