Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 10, 1990                   TAG: 9004100412
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT                                LENGTH: Medium

FRANKLIN OFFICIAL DENIES PAY BIAS/ BROOKS SAYS HE OPPOSED DRIVER RAISE

Brooks said he expressed displeasure with the plan to Franklin County School Superintendent Len Gereau a day or two before a crucial budget meeting last week.

Brooks said the plan to give a raise only to the 11 drivers would be unfair to bus drivers not getting the raise. "I was upset about it."

But Gereau said Monday he could not recall a telephone conversation with Brooks before the April 3 budget workshop.

At issue is whether Brooks lobbied on behalf of an added pay raise for a small group of employees that included his wife, Ann.

In a story last week, the Roanoke Times & World-News quoted two Franklin County school officials as saying that Brooks had pressed them to restore raises to the 11 school bus drivers.

However, the two officials said Monday that their published remarks on the controversy had been taken out of context.

School Board Chairman Jack Newbill and Assistant Superintendent Wesley Naff said they never meant to suggest that Brooks had lobbied for a raise for only the 11 bus drivers.

Newbill and Naff said in separate interviews Monday that Brooks had contacted them about paying more money to all of county bus drivers who have yet to reach the top of the county's pay scale. "I have no disagreement with what Mike [Brooks] says about having lobbied for all the drivers," Naff said.

The pay issue arose last month, when the county's 109 part-time bus drivers voted for retirement benefits instead of a 5 percent pay raise next year.

The decision upset about 40 lower-paid bus drivers, particularly a group of 11 that had been scheduled to receive a $2,000 longevity raise next fall.

Brooks said Monday he had agreed to take up the bus drivers' cause, lobbying school officials to close the gap between the pay of starting drivers and veteran drivers and to take into account the number of hours each driver works per day.

The current pay system, which pays each driver a flat daily fee, unfairly enriches the drivers with short routes while penalizing drivers with longer routes, Brooks said.

School officials responded with a plan to reduce the number of steps in the pay scale - a plan that next year would benefit only the 11 bus drivers scheduled for the longevity raise.

Brooks said Monday he was not satisfied with the plan because it ignored the pleas of the 30 other junior bus drivers. "That's not fair to the taxpayers, and that's certainly not fair to the bus drivers," he said.

Nonetheless, Brooks did not voice any objections to the plan when school officials presented it at the April 3 budget workshop. Brooks said he did not speak out for fear that he could not back up his criticism of the plan without his notes, which he had left at home.

Moreover, Brooks contended that Gereau had told him before the meeting that efforts to rectify pay inequities would be hurt if the issue were to be aired in the press. "They said we can handle it, but it will take some time," Brooks said.

Gereau said he could not recall talking with Brooks about the pay issue in the day or two before the meeting. But Gereau said he was aware that Brooks had been concerned about the pay all bus drivers were receiving, not just a small group.

Brooks said he had made his opposition to the plan perfectly clear. "I told them that I certainly couldn't go along with that," Brooks said. "People would say that I was lobbying just for my wife. I'm not stupid."