Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 27, 1993 TAG: 9309270159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Roanoke Mayor David Bowers insists he can feel the political landscape shifting as he pursues his one-man campaign to revive talk of merging city and county.
But a new poll suggests Bowers may be mistaking a few loose grains of sand for a political earthquake.
A poll commissioned by the Roanoke Times & World-News finds that 58 percent of those surveyed in Roanoke County remain opposed to consolidation, while 26 percent support combining governments - numbers that show a slight erosion in the county's adamant opposition to merger.
Moreover, four of every five county voters who say they're opposed to merger say there's nothing that will change their minds - a major obstacle to anyone promoting a change in the valley's system of local government.
However, the poll finds that state Sen. Brandon Bell's proposal that the city and county merge economic development offices would stand a better chance - at least if the matter were left to voters to decide.
The poll, conducted Sept. 8-16 by University Consultants of Roanoke, asked voters in both the city and county which, if any, of six government functions they'd be willing to merge: police, firefighting, schools, economic development, parks and recreation, and libraries.
City residents say they'd be willing to merge all six. That's not surprising, given the city's longstanding willingness to merge its entire government with the county's.
The poll shows county voters would be willing to merge four of the six services: economic development; parks and recreation; libraries; and, perhaps most curious of all, firefighting.
Pollster Charles Houston - a Virginia Western Community College statistician who heads University Consultants - cautions that the county's enthusiasm for merging its Fire Department with the city's is tentative at best, with a bare majority of 53 percent voicing support.
He says many citizens may not be aware of the difficulties entailed in combining the city's system of paid firefighters with the county's mostly volunteer fire stations. That 53 percent support might not hold up under the give-and-take of a public debate, he says.
But the pollster also suggests that concern over the volunteers' response times may be driving a majority of those county voters surveyed to embrace a merger of fire departments.
Some voters contacted by the poll complained about the county's slow response time to two well-publicized fires: February's blaze at the Holiday Inn-Salem and the fatal fire at Shenandoah Homes in 1989.
By contrast, the poll shows clear and enthusiastic support for merging the county's and city's economic development offices. In the city, 71 percent of those surveyed back the idea; in the county, 67 percent agree.
Bell says the poll might help him revive his call for setting up a single economic development office for the Roanoke Valley.
"When I proposed it [in March]," Bell says, "I was hoping several local elected officials would put forth an olive branch and see what the city and county could to do bring this to the table."
None did.
"There was some interest in Roanoke County, but none at all in Roanoke city," says Bell, whose district covers the city and most of the county.
"I would hope citizens in the city would demand something of their elected officials," Bell says. He suggests the state might offer incentives to localities that merge certain services. "We can have all the incentives we want; but if there's not any interest [from local elected officials], it doesn't do any good."
Bowers and Fuzzy Minnix, the chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, say they're willing to discuss the idea of merging economic development - although their words suggest a breakthrough isn't imminent.
"It's got to be something more than just one office," Bowers says.
"I think we'll always need an in-house person to take care of negotiations" with new companies, Minnix says.
Nevertheless, Houston says, the survey suggests that a piecemeal approach to consolidation stands a better chance than trying to press for an all-or-nothing merger.
"You ought to give up consolidation and go over here and start talking about what services we can do together," Houston says. "People are willing to deal with some of these issues."
Bowers, who says he's "always an optimist," insists the poll validates his belief that county residents are starting to change their mind about merger.
His evidence? In 1990, county voters went against merger by 72 percent to 28 percent. But the poll shows the yes vote has remained fairly constant at 26 percent, while the no vote has declined to 58 percent.
Houston says there's a reason for this. His polling finds voters in the Windsor Hills district are warming to the idea of merger. A majority there now back consolidation, Houston says.
But Windsor Hills - whose voters tend to be older, more affluent, and, most important of all, less likely to have kids in school - has always been more receptive to the idea than other parts of the county.
And Windsor Hills' willingness to embrace merger appears to be an isolated phenomenon, Houston says. "Windsor Hills would pass it, but Catawba and Vinton and Hollins would slaughter it," he says.
Minnix believes that, if merger were again put to a vote, "the negatives would begin," and those counted undecided in the poll would again vote no. "You'd wind up with the same results as before," Minnix says.
Nevertheless, Bowers champions the poll as great news.
"We've come up 14 points," he says. "I'm thrilled."
He believes if it weren't for the controversy over the city's attempted takeover of Roanoke Gas Co. in August, the poll might have found the county's opposition to merger weakened even more.
Bowers has contended that county voters are more willing to consider merger than they were in 1990 because they're more aware of the economic problems facing the valley.
But the poll found that concern over the valley's slow-growth economy hasn't influenced many voters' thinking on merger.
Of those who say they support merger, only 16 percent in both city and county say they back consolidation because they think it would spur the valley's economy.
Only 4 percent of merger supporters in the county and only 5 percent in the city say they want consolidation because they think it would save money.
In fact, the poll had a hard time figuring out just why merger supporters think they way they do.
About half of those surveyed who back merger cite "other" reasons for their support. Apparently, it's the lure of logic - they think merger just makes sense, Houston says. Many of those surveyed volunteer complaints about the "bickering" and "squabbling" among valley governments, Houston says.
In other findings:
There's not much support in either the city or the county for the city to give up its charter and be absorbed into Roanoke County. In the city, 61 percent say no. In the county, 59 percent think that is a bad idea.
Bowers can claim he's got the backing of city residents to pursue merger; 51 percent say they back his campaign, while 32 percent say no.
That's a majority, but not much of one, Houston cautions. "He does not have a mandate to go out and do that. He's just borderline."
However, there doesn't seem much immediate prospect that Bowers can persuade county voters to change their minds on merger.
In the county, 82 percent of those surveyed say Bowers' efforts have made no difference to them; 14 percent say it has made them less likely to support merger. Only 4 percent say it has made them more likely to support consolidation.
"Clearly, we've got some work to do," Bowers says.
About this poll
This poll was conducted Sept. 8-16 by University Consultants of Roanoke. The poll interviewed two separate samples of almost 400 people each in the city and the county. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
by CNB