Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 17, 1995 TAG: 9510170038
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But the election also is a contest of wills between two courthouse legends: 23-year Republican Treasurer Ellis Meredith in St. Clair's corner, and 43-year Democratic commissioner Robertine Jordan backing Miller, her chief deputy for 16 years.
Meredith, who is running unopposed for a seventh term, has been making the case for St. Clair from the moment he nominated her last spring.
The day of the Republican mass meeting, he charged that St. Clair had saved a taxpayer $1,000 by catching an error made by Jordan's staff. Jordan, who retires in December, said her staff member, not St. Clair, caught the error first.
Last month, a newspaper ad for St. Clair featured a Meredith endorsement letter beside criticism of four points of current policy in the commissioner's office. A week later, Jordan responded in an ad for Miller, rebutting the four points.
Miller and St. Clair are competing for one of Montgomery County's five constitutional offices. The commissioner of revenue collects and maintains county personal property assessments, maintains real estate records and maps and administers the land-use taxation and real estate tax relief programs for the elderly and disabled. She also collects state income tax returns. The Montgomery commissioner's annual salary is $55,508, the same as the treasurer's.
The treasurer, in contrast, is responsible for the collection, custody and disbursement of county funds. He sends out tax tickets in the late fall based on assessment books prepared by the commissioner.
Now, Meredith has opened a new front. In an interview last week, he said Jordan was late in filing the legally required book of personal property assessments, which in turn has put the pinch on his staff to prepare the winter tax tickets in time.
Meredith said when he didn't receive the personal property book by Sept. 1, as required by law, he called Danny M. Payne, the state tax commissioner.
Jordan then asked for and received an extension until Sept. 25. She made that deadline, Meredith said, but last week informed his office that there were errors in the book because people who had disposed of cars were assessed as if they still owned them.
"I find it a little ridiculous when they have this magnitude of error and three of her people are down at Democratic headquarters working," Meredith said.
St. Clair, an accountant in the treasurer's office for 11 years, sees this as another reason that voters should pull the lever for her. "This is an example of why they need leadership in that office, and a change in leadership," St. Clair said. She also said she'd seen commissioner's office staff reviewing campaign maps in the office.
Jordan answers Meredith's charges with three points: first, she normally files the personal property book later than Sept. 1 at the treasurer's request to ensure it has the most updated data; second, the errors were the result of new computer software being used by the county's data processing department; and third, if Meredith wanted the personal property book sooner than usual, he should have either called or just walked across the hallway between their offices and asked.
"I didn't feel like it was my place to call her," Meredith said.
Moreover, Jordan said, none of her staff members are working at Democratic headquarters, except for two women who have gone at lunch hour to open the Christiansburg office. Also, Miller said, no employees are campaigning at the office. Staff members have been going out after 5 p.m. Wednesdays to campaign on their own time, she said.
Jordan said her staff recognized the problem with the computer software in August. "We worked evenings, Saturdays, trying to get it resolved," Jordan said. "We've had data errors before, but we've always worked with data [processing] and the treasurer's office because it's something you can't avoid."
Jordan called it regrettable that the two offices are being embroiled in a political squabble. "We're trying to be nice, but it's getting harder and harder," she said.
"I bear them no ill will," Meredith said. "I don't have any personal vendetta. But when these delays are made, people blame the treasurer."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB