Outside the Beltway: Cheboygan Drain Commissioner Fires Himself

Rory Cooper / June 25, 2009

In today’s edition of “Outside the Beltway,” where we semi-regularly post state and local stories of either conservatism at its best, or liberalism at its worst, we find conservatism at its best.

Dennis Lennox recently ran and was elected as the Cheboygan, Michigan, Drain Commissioner. His platform? Eliminating the job altogether. See, it turns out that Michigan law mandates that counties, such as Cheboygan, that have over 12,000 people must have a drain commissioner. The problem? Cheboygan doesn’t have any drains to regulate. So Dennis Lennox, realizing the absurdity of this situation, ran for the position so he could fire himself. He has chronicled his path towards smart government reform on his blog firedennis.com. (more…)