ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993                   TAG: 9305140111
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CONSOLIDATE, AND DO IT IN PUBLIC

The time has come to speak of many things, among them, cabbage heads and would-be kings.

Our Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and School Board were to meet in executive session to discuss the consolidation of the fiscal functions, something this writer stumped for during his tenure as a School Board member several years ago. I felt, and still feel, somewhat like John the Baptist on this issue, a voice crying in the wilderness!

Why was this session an executive session? Why is the people's business so secret that we can't participate, or at least observe the proceedings? Does anyone believe that any member of the School Board doesn't really know what the supervisors are talking about?

An accountant-auditor has recommended the consolidation. Bravo! The approximate savings of $400,000 he calculated would certainly do much more for the children of the county if put in classroom instruction rather than maintaining the duplicate fiscal functions at the school system.

People fear losing jobs, and that is certainly a concern to those people, but that was to be taken care of through attrition. The county and the board are not there to provide lifetime employment for members of the system, though sympathy for those displaced is understandable.

Question is, are we to fund an efficient system providing good education, while prudently using the resources of the people of the county as a whole? Let's drop duplicated functions, nepotism, cretinism and other quaint customs of the county system.

It seems the School Board doesn't want the financial-fiscal truth available to we the people. Better stewardship and openness will be the result of consolidation, whether the people in excess are RIF-ed or not! That is, provided good audit trails are maintained and good professional audits are made and responded to.

Some discipline is needed at the county level, too. Anyone remember the incident politely called gross over-stocking to the copier paper and the TV sets? This couldn't happen with proper procedures, authorization and follow-up by objective professional audit and by responding to the findings of the audits resolutely.

For heaven's sake, consolidate and begin to manage our county business as a business rather than a political grand duchy rife with buddies, relatives and hangers-on!\ Bob Anderson\ Blacksburg 


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