In the exercise of these duties the county manager would have power to examine witnesses, take testimony under oath and make examination of the affairs of any office. Inasmuch as the constitution of New York State requires the election by the people of the sheriff, district attorney, county clerk and register, the method of choosing these officers could not be affected by statute. The Alameda County plan referred to in the preceding chapter provides for a city-and-county manager who would have charge not only of county administration but of the execution of the policies of the several constituent boroughs. Such are a few definite proposals for fundamental political reconstruction of the county. Recalling, again, the low estate of our _city_ governments, a decade since, the hope for an early and thoroughgoing betterment of the county system, in the department of fundamental structure, would seem to be not altogether vain. [21] November, 1912. [22] Otho G. Cartwright, Director of Westchester County Research Bureau. [23] For text see Appendix, pp. 251-256. CHAPTER XVIII SCIENTIFIC ADMINISTRATION Better county government, however, involves a good deal more than a mere skeleton of organization. It is not enough to provide the means for fixing responsibility in a general though fundamental sense, in officers who are conspicuous and powerful. That is the beginning of efficiency. And yet “responsibility” in its greater refinements, in its more intimate applications, is precisely the key to what all the various prophets of better government and public administration are preaching. Turn on the light! That is what the Short Ballot movement proposes by the more sweeping fundamental changes in the structure. Turning on the light is also essence of the doctrine of better accounting, better auditing, better budget making, better purchasing and the whole tendency to greater publicity in the conduct of public affairs.