ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 10, 1994                   TAG: 9402150259
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BALLOT CLUTTER

UNLIKE some states, Virginia doesn't make everything from dogcatcher to Supreme Court justice an elected position. Indeed, only three non-legislative jobs in state government - governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general - are elective. Which is just fine.

At the local level, though, the short ballot and its attendant virtues - focused accountability and clarity of voter choice - are less evident. That's because of the five elected constitutional officers found in most cities and counties: sheriff, commissioner of revenue, treasurer, commonwealth's attorney and circuit court clerk.

Are the constitutional elective offices (so named because they are provided for by Article VII, Section 4 of the Virginia Constitution) anachronisms?

Surely some of them are. These jobs are administrative, often requiring specialized knowledge and skills, rather than policy-making. But because they're elective, the pool of candidates who otherwise would qualify for them is severely constrained politically and geographically.

Also, in localities big enough to warrant career prosecutors, professional finance directors and police departments, the independent constitutional offices may reflect unnecessary duplication.

The General Assembly has allowed localities a measure of discretion over the existence and powers of the constitutional offices. A few years ago, for example, Roanoke County voters approved establishment of a police department with an appointed chief to take over law-enforcement duties from the sheriff's department, whose principal tasks now are to run the jail and serve court papers. A handful of localities has eliminated the treasurer's and commissioner of revenue's offices.

But if that is a trend, it's been a very slow one. Individual localities and also the state - which pays a healthy share of the costs of constitutional offices - should look hard at whether and under what circumstances these offices should be eliminated.

Keywords:
POLITICS 


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