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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992                   TAG: 9203190446
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEW POLICY

BEGINNING with Republican Linwood Holton's 1970-1974 administration, most Virginia governors have made an effort to appoint at least some minorities and women to the high-visibility, top ranks of Virginia government. Many blacks and women have served in Cabinet-level posts.

But within certain agencies a glass ceiling remains, under which capable minorities and women may work but with little chance of advancement to higher-paying, senior positions. At some shops - most notably, Virginia State Police headquarters - the glass ceiling has been reinforced by the practice of reserving promotions for those within the agency's own ranks.

Now the glass ceiling may be cracked a little, by a personnel policy implemented today by the Wilder administration. It will prohibit limiting promotions to those already on an agency's or the state's payroll. Jobs will be advertised to the general public.

State police are understandably skittish. Theirs is a proud agency that, in the military tradition, puts all troopers through a rigorous basic-training program, helping to foster its esprit de corps. Officials are concerned morale problems will develop if the agency's own troopers are routinely passed over. Because of such concerns, the Wilder administration has agreed to a feasibility study before starting open recruitment in the state police.

Still, the fact remains: The state law-enforcement agency's track record for hiring and promoting minorities and women could stand improving. Currently, blacks and women make up only about 10 percent of its 1,074 sworn positions.

State police efforts to correct imbalances were hindered when an affirmative-action plan, in place since 1988, was determined by the attorney general's office to be in violation of the 1991 Civil Rights Act. This should not be used as an excuse for the agency to drag its heels.

The point of the new policy is simply to expand the pool of qualified individuals that can apply for state jobs. As Dorthula Powell-Woodson, Wilder's director of the Department of Personnel and Training, put it: "Every job in the state is funded by taxpayers." Why not be fair and let them apply when jobs come open?

Indeed. Why shouldn't well-trained and experienced members of local police departments or, perhaps, Virginians facing early retirement from military service have the opportunity to take their talents into the upper ranks of the state police?

If the new policy makes state government a little more open and diverse, and a little less of an ingrown old boys' network, so much the better.

by CNB