Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511130068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Democrats have reclaimed control of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors after four years of Republican rule.
Yet the only thing the shift in power after Tuesday's election is sure to change is who will get to hang the title of chairman before his name, supervisors say.
"The only specific action that might be affected is the election of the chair and vice chair," Supervisor Lee Eddy said.
That means Chairman Fuzzy Minnix's stint in the board's middle seat won't be long-lived. Minnix is a Republican, and the party with the majority typically gains the position.
"I do not think the balance from going from three to two Republicans and from two to three Democrats will make a difference,'' said Catawba District Supervisor-elect Spike Harrison. "I've been saying all along that I don't think local issues follow party lines."
Fellow Democratic Supervisor Bob Johnson agrees. However, he says he hopes Harrison's election will have some effect on the board's direction.
"I don't think it's party affiliations as much as it is the personalities involved," Johnson says. "I think it's about time you got the micromanagement, for the lack of a better term, of some members of the board removed. ... We shouldn't delve into the minutiae or the counting of screws in the budget process."
Johnson wouldn't name names, but outgoing Catawba District Supervisor Ed Kohinke would.
Kohinke, who did not seek re-election after a falling-out with the Republican Party, says his rejection of a hands-on approach to governance may be "what aligned me with Bob [Johnson] and Harry [Nickens]. Fuzzy and Lee are great people, but they're also micromanagers."
It was Kohinke's tendency to vote with Nickens and Johnson that prompted a letter of criticism from local Republicans and Kohinke's eventual resignation from the GOP.
"We are not full-time people, and none of us are experts in public administration. That's why we hire people like [county administrator] Elmer Hodge," Kohinke says.
Nickens, however, says there is some value to the varying styles of management that are on the board.
"If you look at the five personalities, you have everything from total hands-off to getting overly involved. But no one voted for the county administrator or the county assessor. ... So I don't see us completely abandoning that responsibility" of running the government, Nickens says.
If, however, a supervisor becomes "overly zealous," the board can vote to have the staff refuse certain requests from that person. However, in his 13 years on the board, Nickens says he's seen that happen only once.
Johnson says he doesn't want that to happen again. If it does, he believes the votes are there to thwart a supervisor's involvement in daily affairs and constant requests for more information.
Harrison "is a government teacher, so he understands how government should work, and maybe he can teach us something about how we should be doing things," Johnson says.
Kohinke adds: "I don't see Spike as a micromanager. He won't have the time between the phone calls, the meetings and his job."
Kohinke has kept a log of all of the phone calls he's received from county residents since he was elected four years ago. The total is about 2,000.
Harrison's presence also will make the board education-heavy. Nickens is a college administrator and former Roanoke County School Board chairman, while Johnson is a former teacher and teachers' lobbyist. He now heads a real estate company.
The Glenvar High School teacher has promised, however, that he would not advocate a teacher pay raise while he is in office. And Nickens argues that even if someone did make the case for a huge pay increase for county teachers, all county employees would get the same salary raise because of a "gentleman's agreement" the county has had for the past four years.
Eddy says regardless of party and other affiliations, supervisors tend to vote their conscience.
That accounts for the varying ways supervisors have voted during the four years of a Republican majority.
Take a look at how the vote shook out on these high-profile decisions:
On last year's cat ordinance, which requires county residents to license their cats, the board split 4-1. Nickens was the dissenter.
In September, the board forwarded a resolution to the Virginia Department of Transportation regarding U.S. 221 improvements. The board recommended keeping the proposed road improvements north of Back Creek. The vote was 3-2, with Eddy and Kohinke on the losing side.
Also in September, the board refused to authorize a bond sale for air-conditioning Cave Spring Junior High School. The vote went 3-1, with Minnix on the losing side. Nickens was not present at the meeting.
"We vote together 95 percent of the time," Johnson says. "There are those who would argue that those are consent agendas and procedural matters, but on many critical issues we've had some 4-1 votes."
The next few months promise equally difficult decisions for supervisors to make, including: how to increase cooperation with other local governments; how to follow through with suggestions raised in the county's visioning process; and how to update the county's comprehensive plan.
But perhaps the most highly charged issue Harrison and the others will face is the future of schools in the southwestern part of the county. Harrison has said that he would support a bond referendum for any proposed project for a new Cave Spring High School.
by CNB