Trego's Mountain Ear

This article will describe some of the theories – and I’m going to begin with Laurence Peter’s concept, which he humbly termed “The Peter Principle.”  It was a new concept during my second year of college – which means I have had a long professional life to examine his theory.

“Incompetence plus incompetence equals incompetence.” ~ Laurence J. Peter

His book – The Peter Principle is available for a free download at https://epdf.pub/the-peter-principle.html  and is definitely worth downloading and reading.

Now if we look at Lincoln County’s road departments, there isn’t so much hierarchy (and the Peter Principle is based on hierarchy).  If they need an engineer or a hydrologist, they go outside the department’s hierarchy.  On this pyramid example, our county road department hierarchies are pretty much confined to levels 5 and 6.  In a flat organization, there isn’t much opportunity to be promoted to your level of incompetence.

On the other hand, the Health Department is a lot more hierarchical – but not every employee starts at level 6.  A beginning sanitarian has to have a bachelor’s degree in environmental health.  The next level – getting past the sanitarian in training takes a year of experience and passing a standardized test.  The next hoop is completing a correspondence school master’s degree – I’ve seen the Hoop’s signature line showing that behind her name – surprising me, since I’m used to doctorates coming behind the name.

Not a big deal, but you can see that there is a three step hierarchy that is basically achieved by breathing for 12 months and passing some correspondence classes.  It’s a lot easier to achieve your level of incompetence in the county’s health department than it is in the Sheriff’s office or county roads.  On the other hand, the Clerk and Recorder, or the County Treasurer are both elected to run their departments. 

The Peter Corollary is that, if a hierarchical institution lasts long enough, every position will be filled by an incompetent.  The thing is, as a county, we don’t make a point of hiring the best and the brightest – this 2014 chart shows where different majors average scores were on the Scholastic Aptitude Test:

Then, after our Health Department employees complete their year of training they have an opportunity to transfer out to a county where the wages are higher – but Lincoln County tends to go for internal promotions.  Lincoln County is fighting a lot of trends if it wants the best and the brightest for the county health department.   Unfortunately, there are occasions where we need the best and brightest there . . . and we have a crew of midwits. 

Then there is the Dilbert Principle – “companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management (generally middle management), in order to limit the amount of damage they are capable of doing.”  I don’t believe it applies to Lincoln County Government.

The relevant portion of Parkinson’s Law is that “the number of workers within public administration, bureaucracy or officialdom tends to grow, regardless of the amount of work to be done. This was attributed mainly to two factors: that officials want subordinates, not rivals, and that officials make work for each other.

The only solution I see is the County 57 movement.  Secession from Libby may be the answer.