Op-ed: Deep thoughts on a tractor in Trout Creek

As I was working on one of my old tractors (it’s a Farmall 806 for the curious) I began cussing the engineers who designed it, as I have many times in the past. Why, oh why would anyone put a bolt in an almost, but not quite, inaccessible place? How do they expect people to work on this thing without becoming homicidal? Remember the cars of the 1970s that had to have the engine partially removed from the vehicle to change the sparkplugs? I know that they are well intentioned people who only want to design a machine that works well, but couldn’t they have adult supervision from a mechanic who actually has to work on them?

I have also heard contractors voice similar complaints about architects.  In fact, it seems that there is often no collaboration between the designers of something and the people who will be working on it. Same with the people who design forms and the people who have to fill them out. I often thought that the process should be reversed; the people who were supposed to fill the form out should design it, and the people who were supposed to design it should have to fill it out, although I have to say that there has been a marked improvement in that area.

It also, I began to realize, is similar to a legislator writing laws; they know what they want to do, they know how they want it to work, but when it is finally signed into law, will it do what they thought it would do? In Montana, state legislators are not professionals. It’s a citizen legislature and there is no aptitude test other than being able to get elected. Being a legislator is one of the few important positions that does not require any ability test or prior experience as a prerequisite to getting the job. Another one is being a parent.

Years ago there was a very important bill to fix the Workers Compensation system. It went through the legislative process and was signed into law by the Governor. Shortly after it became law, it was discovered that it contained a forty million dollar error. In a futile attempt to prevent that from happening, the Governor’s aide hurried down to the Secretary of State’s office to get the bill back. On being told that it was now law, and couldn’t be returned, he asked if he couldn’t just use some “white out” on it. No to that as well, and the Legislature had to meet in a Special Session to fix it.

A lawyer once complained to me, “Those guys in Helena don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t understand the law.”

So, just to gig him a little, I said, “It’s not their job to understand the law, it’s their job to write it. It’s up to you lawyers to figure it out.”

Well, this topic is getting a long way from working on a tractor, so I think I’ll get back to something else that offers a challenge. I know I can get to that bolt on the Farmall somehow, but why they put it there is beyond me. 

Jim Elliott is a former state senator