Visits the Past and Sees the Future

Dateline: October 9, 2007

Event: A regular meeting of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors

Location: The old Southview Elementary School Gymnasium.

Reporter Time Travels: Visits the Past and Sees the Future

The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors (BOS) went through a regular meeting with normal reports and witty banter for about an hour Tuesday afternoon. For me, it was an exhilarating meeting. For the first time in 35 years, I was back in my old elementary school. The board was seated just in front of the stage that I stood on to sing “Zip-a-die Doo-dah” during a PTA show in 1968. Of course, signs of the old gym have long since been covered by an extensive make-over the building received when it was converted into the county public safety building. Now retired from that service, the building is mostly abandoned and awaiting its fate (MSRCCC@SV?). The supervisors are meeting there while their regular space at the county administration building is renovated.

You can read the details of the meeting in Cody Lowe’s Roanoke Times article from Wednesday October 10. He captured most of the important details of the meeting. I will share my thoughts and impressions of that meeting in this space.

After the main meeting was over and before the supervisors took a break before beginning the “work sessions,” board chairman Joe McNamara walked past me and asked me what brought me to the meeting. I’ve known Joe for many years now having taught two of his children in elementary school, and I’ve always respected him as a parent and as a level-headed public servant. I might disagree with him on political affiliations, but I believe Joe has his heart in the right place concerning schools. So I told him that in my capacity as RCEA President, I thought it was my duty to be at as many public meetings as possible (or words to that effect). He accepted that and moved on.

Joining me yesterday at the meeting was RCEA member Sherry Foti. She is one of a band of RCEA members who have answered the call to attend BOS meetings this year. Our goal is to attend every Board of Supervisor meeting so that we can have first-hand knowledge of issues that will dramatically impact education in our schools. We also want the supervisors to know that we are there and will be there every time. The RCEA is the largest employee group in Roanoke County. Education employees are the county’s largest employee group. Additionally, RCPS employees are one of the largest employee groups in the entire Roanoke Valley, only third behind Carilion and Anthem. Children are the greatest resource and investment responsibility the county has. We want the supervisors to understand all of those things, and our presence at the meetings is a positive step in that direction.

Before the work session, each supervisor had the opportunity to give a report to the board. Generally, each person took time to talk about the various events they have attended over the past two weeks. Butch Church did that, too. Then he launched into a political attack on Jerry Custer, one of two people challenging him for BOS in November. He accused Custer of contacting police to search for his missing campaign signs and threatening the police with no pay raise if they didn’t find the wayward signs. Frankly, I only knew what he was talking about after I read the newspaper article the next morning. At the time, I had no idea what Mr. Church was talking about. He seemed to be enraged about something, but what he was saying made no sense to me. I did find it interesting that the news hounds from NewsChannel 10 “On Your Side” just happened to show up a few minutes before Mr. Church’s tirade and left shortly thereafter. Perhaps, Mr. Custer’s strong election bid is beginning to worry Mr. Church.

The supervisors covered four issues in the work session. The first was a report by Diane Hyatt on the upcoming sale of bonds to cover the cost of all of the county capital projects. In case you don’t know, the county plans, in addition to the $28 million renovation of Northside High, to build a $28 million multigenerational recreation center, build a $17 million library, build a $10 million fire/rescue station, install a $8 police/emergency radio system, and extend a water line to the Franklin County line along Rt 220 for $2 million. Funding for these projects hasn’t really been explained to me in terms I can understand, but it seems the supervisors plan to cover these expenses through a $58 million bond issue in either December or spring. One point that Joe McNamara kept making that seemingly fell on deaf ears with staff was that the original funding plan that I didn’t understand was based on a 6% interest rate. However, interest rates are currently set at 4.7%. He seemed to suggest that the whole project would therefore cost less than originally planned. Keep in mind that the more money that projects like these cost, the harder it will be for schools to get the monies they need for vital programs and initiatives.

Lawyer Mahoney (county attorney) then brought up the latest efforts of the state to pass a “Homestead Exemption.” The exemption will allow any citizen to go to Oklahoma and stake a claim to up to 100 acres of prime real estate. Wait a minute…that was the Homestead Act. Right. The Homestead Exemption, if passed and approved, will allow local governments to exempt up to 20% of a homeowner’s real estate tax on their permanent residence. In order to become law and legal, this measure must be voted for affirmatively in the upcoming General Assembly and then be placed on the ballot next November for consideration as a state constitutional amendment. If it passes, localities may choose to invoke the rule.

The problems with this constitutional amendment are many and varied. First, Roanoke County already does not assess property at 100% of value. It’s more like 83%. Dropping taxes another 20% would be like a double break. Institution of this break would cause the county to lose about $13 million annually. Of that, about $1.76 million would come straight out of the school budget based on current projections. Board member Altizer said that this would force the BOS to completely “rewrite the [budget] agreement in place now between the school board and the board of supervisors.” Suffice to say, our county education budget would be forced to radically change if that were to happen after next year. That would seriously jeopardize our hopes of completing a “living wage” campaign for our support staff and our efforts to raise pay for county teachers to the state then national average.

The third issue was the status of the Governor’s budget cuts. The Governor has proclaimed that Virginia is about $613 million short on revenue collection this budget year and cuts need to be made. He has proposed cutting about $300 million from various non-public school education services and making up the rest from the state’s “Rainy Day Fund.” (I heard this morning that he may be overstating the shortfall by about $500 million!). While K-12 public education has not been touched yet, $8.8 million in surplus literary loan money (money pool to be borrowed from for new school construction) will be used to help pay state shares of VRS for employees. The RCPS BOS are worried that the state will come back in December requiring a higher local match of funds. They are also concerned that this issue will carry over to the next budget cycle.

The fourth thing discussed was fire code amendments. To be honest, I listened to that for a moment or two then left.

I’m very pleased that we’ve gotten a cadre of dedicated RCEA members to attend the Board of Supervisor meetings. I would encourage any other members who wish to join the fun to email me at Newt999@gmail.com.

thom ryder