The Lake County Council Finance Committee took a bold step toward cost-cutting Tuesday, but it was a misstep. (Download document)

The committee unveiled a long list of recommendations, including cutting the payroll by 5 percent -- about 150 jobs.

But a closer examination of the cuts showed the cuts aren't distributed according to what the Good Government Initiative study by Maximus Inc. recommended.

Auditor Peggy Holinga Katona, Treasurer John Petalas and deputy clerk Christine Cid, who is also president of the Lake County President, are among the six people who served on the committee.

The Maximus study recommended eliminating the jobs of 20 full-time deputy auditors, 26 full-time deputy clerks and 26 full-time deputy treasurers. Why aren't those cuts included in the Finance Committee's proposal?

Instead, those departments would suffer only minor cuts. Yet the recommendations are heavy on the elimination of part-time jobs and jobs in the sheriff's department.

Among those ideas are eliminating five of the 11 positions from the county's crime lab and restricting sheriff's department patrols to unincorporated areas, cutting 10 positions. Those are major policy decisions that should be thoroughly discussed before any action is taken.

What role should the sheriff's department have in law enforcement in Lake County?

Often, the answer addresses the duplication of services. How many crime labs does the county need? Is the sheriff's marine unit necessary?

Instead, what guided the committee's report seemed to be whether Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez is a political ally, and the same could be said of other department heads as well.

The need to cut the county's budget by $15 million is clear. Some of the recommendations in the Finance Committee's report are good.

But use the Good Government Initiative as a template for change. Impartiality and uniformity, not politics, should drive the changes.