Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 3, 1993 TAG: 9309290304
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Koch's plan compares to the operation of a railroad. Only the engineer is allowed to drive the locomotive and is fully responsible for its operations. Industry has learned that to operate successfully is to delegate authority as far down the organization scale as possible, and then to hold managers fully accountable.
Managing one of Virginia Tech's engineering departments for 22 years, and having had a similar assignment during World War II in procurement of war material, convinced me to localize managerial responsibility. No general fights a war in the field by relaying orders made only in the Pentagon. He needs to issue his own to meet local constraints as these develop in his theater of operations. Nor can any university president operate a successful educational program if constrained by too many directives. They could direct their institution far more effectively if they were responsible for allocating all the school's funds for operation, salaries, capital outlay, etc.
Furthermore, they could do far better if allowed to roll over unspent funds in any biennium and save them for expensive laboratory equipment. Lacking that privilege they feel compelled to spend all their allotment by June 30, and for trivia if delivery schedules cannot guarantee shipment by then.
I remember an incident in the '50s when the computer age was dawning. Departmental allocations were divided between capital outlay, replacement and operation. The department had no capital-outlay funds, but needed an analog computer desperately to keep Tech's engineering curricula at least abreast of those at other leading schools. I placed the order for an $86,000 analog computer at a bargain price of $28,000, charging it to the replacement fund. Bureaucracy in Richmond refused to process the order unless specifying the item already owned that I was replacing. So I satisfied them that a $1 wooden slide rule that the college bought in World War II was the computer in question. Actually, it was! I regretted embarrassing the bureaucracy. Incidents like that would never happen in a well-managed organization where responsibility is delegated to managers at local sites. Managers should be forewarned, of course, that they must conduct a successful operation, or reminded that their successor will.
All that Virginia's vast educational system needs to get better is for those who set its standards to trust those they appoint to carry them out. Let them remember that only the field commander can see the target and only the dough-boy pulls the trigger, not the general in the Pentagon.
Members of the General Assembly and the Council of Higher Education should harken to Koch's advice.
DAN H. PLETTA
Professor Emeritus
Virginia Tech
BLACKSBURG
\ Bowers, Harvey should resign
AS A CONCERNED citizen of the valley, I would like to express my thoughts about what Mayor Bowers and Councilman James Harvey are trying to do in Roanoke and the county. It seems they want to take away every thing that the people have worked for - the county, the gas company. They even want to tear down the fences around the schools. The city cannot take care of what it now has. The people should ask for Bowers' and Harvey's resignation and make Bev Fitzpatrick the mayor.
As far as criticizing Dick Cranwell, we need a few more like him to speak out. If the county and Vinton wanted consolidation, they would have gotten it long ago.
RUFUS E. HALL
VINTON
\ In Roanoke, the people spoke
NOW THAT the Roanoke Gas controversy seems to be settled, it's time for all of us to stop and think about what we have learned.
First and foremost, the citizens of Roanoke and surrounding areas proved that the elected official will heed the demands of citizens if only we will speak up.
Second, voters I talked to felt we did not need government taking over a private business.
We need to make our feelings known, not only to our local officials but also to state and federal officials. If enough people speak up, they will listen and do what the people want - or we replace them in the next election.
CHARLES H. DROSTE
ROANOKE
\ Corporate welfare in Roanoke
WHY CANDIDATES target our lowest common denominator and politically friendless - the welfare recipient - is a mystery, when so many substantiative matters need attention.
Equally mysterious is why corporate welfare, on the other hand, apparently enjoys wide public approval or is ignored by most of us. For example, when Hotel Roanoke, a former tax-revenue-producing commercial business, became a loser, ownership was transferred to the taxpayer by Norfolk Southern Corp. by using the Virginia Tech device.
Corporate welfare, unlike individual welfare, goes on forever.
WILLIAM N. GILES
TROUTVILLE
\ Deficit reduction doesn't figure
AFTER ALL the sound and fury, Clintonomics will add $1.4 trillion to the national debt. That sums up President Clinton's so-called deficit-reduction plan, which is really the highest taxes in history - $255.3 billion - plus higher debt, spending cuts later, if at all, and more broken promises.
A whopping 80 percent of all promised spending cuts do not occur until 1997 and 1998, which is conveniently two years after Clinton's term is over and he leaves office. There are no cuts in 1993, no cuts in 1994, only $4.3 billion in 1995 and $19.6 billion in 1996. Less than $24 billion through 1996, out of a total deficit of, by then, $693 billion!
Clinton and the Democrats in Congress promised us $1 in spending cuts for every $1 in new taxes, or parity. Over the next five years, they will deliver to us $2.13 in new taxes for every $1 in spending cuts. In 1994, for example, we'll get $33 billion in new taxes and no spending cuts. In 1995, $10.66 in taxes for every $1 in spending cuts.
They claim reductions from projected spending of $255 billion. Of this amount, $44 billion are reductions already required under the 1990 budget deal, and another $52.6 billion represents savings expected from lower interest rates on the national debt, which may not materialize. It's all smoke and mirrors.
These figures are reported from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which also reports that 9th District Congressman Rick Boucher voted for adoption of the budget. Let's keep this in mind when election time rolls around.
BOBBY MAY
HURLEY
\ What if he had succeeded?
MANY people are familiar with the Ana Rosa Rodriquez case - the baby who survived a botched abortion with one arm severed at the shoulder. The doctor who tried to abort her has now been tried and convicted of botching an abortion and is now dubbed "The Butcher of Avenue A."
Does it seem ironic that had the doctor been successful in aborting Baby Ana, he not only would have avoided going to jail, but would still be performing abortions? Because the baby lived, he committed a crime. An abortionist who finishes the job is not a butcher or a convict but an esteemed pregnancy terminator.
Does this tell us how really sick a society is when people prattle about "choice" and "rights" in rationalizing the wholesale slaughter - 1.4 million babies each year in the United States alone - of the most vulnerable human beings?
It's no wonder we see younger and younger offenders practicing violence against others when we have such a poor regard for human life.
JANE DREYER
HARDY
\ Gilmore has the better record
THIS FALL Virginia voters will face a choice between Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Gilmore from Henrico County, and Bill Dolan, an attorney, from Arlington.
Mary Sue Terry racked up a miserable record as attorney general. Using her office as a bully pulpit instead of performing her duties, she now whines about rising crime rate, which was her job to control for the past seven years. After seven years of laughable law enforcement, it's time for a serious attorney general.
Gilmore has a proven record as a prosecutor, having won all 13 murder cases he's tried. Dolan's one attempt at prosecuting a forgery case was won, costing $313,000, and the verdict was later overturned. He's chanting the same mantra of "understanding" that we've heard before. Government's No. 1 priority is to provide for a secure society, as crime-free as possible. Do you trust a prosecutor with a proven record, or a pretender with a higher office in mind?
PAUL PETERSON
CHRISTIANSBURG
by CNB