Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993 TAG: 9302110221
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
TRUMBO CALLS OFF SALARY BILL
State Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, said he will not go forward with a bill to lift the cap on city school board salaries until the Radford City Council and School Board reach an agreement on the issue.Monday night, Radford council members publicly criticized a bill Trumbo introduced at the request of Radford School Board Chairman John McPhail that would have raised the legislatively set ceiling on city School Board members salaries to $3,600 a year from the current $1,200.
Council members were not aggravated so much by the size of the cap as by the fact that they were not consulted.
Part of the problem, said City Councilman Robert Nicholson, is that council members misunderstood the procedure used in Virginia to set the school board salaries.
It would have helped if council had been notified beforehand, Nicholson said. "In all defense of Mr. Trumbo, he was very much the innocent party."
Mayor Tom Starnes said, "Probably neither the senator nor School Board officials really were aware of the concern that would be expressed by council."
Council initially saw the bill as another effort by the state to order spending by the locality, he said.
It also made a difference to Trumbo that the School Board had not voted on McPhail's letter with the request to raise the cap.
"Without an official vote of the board, I don't think that I can proceed," he said.
He has handled similar requests from other localities to raise their salary limits and this is the first time he has run into a problem, Trumbo said.
The Radford city manager's office contacted him to let him know that a letter was on the way, objecting to his bill to lift the cap, Trumbo said. The letter also suggests that Trumbo contact council in the future on local matters.
Trumbo said he plans to tell McPhail that he does not want to get caught in the middle of the "discussion" of the issue between the City Council and the School Board. The board and council need to resolve their differences before he can consider pursuing the legislation, Trumbo said.
McPhail said Tuesday that he planned to talk with Starnes about the salary cap. The cap has not been raised in a long time and council's objections may have resulted from the fact that current council members aren't familiar with the process, he said.
The School Board sets its own salary, not the council. Just because the cap would be raised to $3,600 doesn't mean the board would vote to pay itself that much, McPhail said.
Board members currently get $1,200 but when McPhail came on the board in 1977 the yearly pay was $240.
The higher cap leaves the board some room to maneuver without having to return to the General Assembly every time there's a salary increase to raise the cap. "To me it's more realistic to set an upward limit," McPhail said.
The General Assembly sets salary caps for the pay of local school board members apparently without any regard to the size of a school system. Some local governments also approve a supplement for their school board chairman but Radford does not.
Floyd County's cap is $3,000 but board members are paid $2,100 and the chairman $2,400. Montgomery County's cap is $1,800, which is what board members are paid with the chairman getting $2,300.
The cap in Pulaski County is $1,800 but board members are paid $900 yearly. Giles County's members are paid $2,400, the same as the cap, and the chairman gets $2,300.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993