@Avi K
Please don’t put words in my mouth or decide that I am supporting a particular view.
I am elected in local government, This doesn’t mean that I believe services should be as local as possible.
I speak to CT. A small state composed of only 169 municipalities. We did away with County Government back about 50 years ago.
I am in the forefront in the call for regional government and services. We don’t need 150+ Chiefs of Police (some towns don’t have their own police but a resident state trooper), we don’t need 150+ Fire Chiefs and Fire Marshals. We don’t need independent Health Departments and Boards of Education in every little town. We already have a few regional school systems and more are in order to save millions of tax dollars. What I’d really like is for one statewide Board of Education to exist with uniform pay for employees, and equal spending on students…no more individual fiefdoms. Our Town hosts the regional waste treatment and transfer station for 3 towns..no need for duplicative facilities.
As for your comment about not being paid and conflicts of interest. No elected official in our town may do business with the town, nor may an immediate family member or the official have a management position of ownership position in a company doing business with or lobbying the town.
Towns of less than 50,000 population could ill afford to pay what amounts to a living to 20+ members of their legislative body. In fact our town has only 4 paid elected officials, two full time and two part time.