DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160001

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B14  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   72 lines

VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS SECOND GUESSING

Virginia Beach City Council voted unanimously last week to appoint a blue-ribbon committee to study the renovation needs of the city's schools. The membership list of the committee is impressive. It is chaired by retired Virginia Beach school Superintendent E. E. Brickell and peopled by educators, a builder and even a clergyman.

But the question remains: Why has the city decided to recruit a group of outsiders to perform jobs for which school and municipal workers are already being paid?

The school system has salaried staff in the office of Facilities and Construction who are charged with studying the needs of the district's aging school buildings and calculating the cost of such repairs. So far they have demonstrated a keen ability to rank the city's most decrepit school buildings according to need. The biggest problem they encounter is finding the funds to fix the physical plant.

There is also a standing School Board committee that oversees the needs of aging schools: the Architectural Engineering Selection Committee. It is made up of School Board members and other school system professionals.

The chairman of that committee, Donald F. Bennis, said this week that he was puzzled by the appointment of an oversight committee.

``I don't see why we need it,'' Bennis said. ``I doubt it will hurt, but I certainly have confidence in the people we already have who are studying the needs of the system.''

So do we.

In addition to school employees, the city has staffers who are charged with overseeing public building needs, and the city has an entire department dedicated to finance. Once the schools' renovation needs are ranked and cost estimates are drawn, there is ample expertise on city staff to draw up a referendum question for the November 1998 ballot.

In announcing the formation of this new committee, Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf noted that it would not discuss the bond referendum but would instead make recommendations on the renovations, to ensure the improvements ``enhance'' the education of the city's schoolchildren. According to Pilot staff writer John Murphy, the mayor said the committee will analyze cost estimates and the scope of the renovations.

We thought that was the job of school specialists and finance professionals who are already paid to study the buildings.

If the mayor is implying that school officials who are paid to do the work are not up to the job, perhaps City Council should call for the replacement of incompetent employees. Why add another layer of bureaucracy and another group to study the problem?

Surely the city isn't saying that all such infrastructure decisions will have to be outsourced to a committee. So perhaps it's getting a second opinion just because of the habitual antagonism and distrust between the city and schools. That's a sad commentary on the inability of the municipality to manage its essential business.

Or perhaps the city wants blue ribbon cover when the cost of dealing with aging infrastructure is high, as it will be, and necessitates a request that voters provide the wherewithal. If that's the motive, it suggests the city is unwilling or doubts its ability to sell the electorate on needed improvements. Also a sad commentary.

Of course, if an oversight committee is truly needed to safeguard the expenditure of public money, it would be on the city side of government that the concern should focus. With the bungled Community Services Board building purchase still fresh in the public's mind, many are questioning the oversight capabilities of city government. Someone was definitely asleep at the switch when a $12 million deal suddenly mushroomed to $19 million.

If anything, it is council and not the school system that has shown it could benefit from a panel of experts with ``impeccable credentials'' to guarantee that public money is spent in a judicious manner. Better, however, if those paid to transact the public's business do so. The reasons the city gives for needing outside consultants are unpersuasive and do not increase confidence.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu