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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994                   TAG: 9402140326
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHARTER EFFORT APPEARS UNLIKELY IN MONTGOMERY

During a Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night, Board of Supervisors member Henry Jablonski and County Attorney Roy Thorpe indicated the charter issue is going nowhere.

In Virginia, a charter is a document approved by the General Assembly that grants specific taxing, borrowing and other powers not otherwise allowed by state law.

While towns and cities have charters, only Roanoke and Chesterfield counties have obtained them since 1985 when the legislature allowed counties to do so.

The Montgomery planners discussed the issue because Supervisor Jim Moore raised the possibility of a charter during a December meeting and they wanted more information.

Thorpe initially brought up the charter issue because it would allow the county to set down how the school board transition would occur.

But that route appears to be unnecessary because part of the transition could be resolved by a bill introduced by state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville.

The bill would extend the terms of the Christiansburg and Blacksburg representatives to Jan. 1, 1998, when their seats would be abolished and the Montgomery School Board would have seven, instead of nine, members. The Senate has approved the bill and the House will take it up next week.

The current School Board includes appointees from the seven election districts plus the towns. Because the election districts include the towns, that means town residents are doubly represented, something that is not allowed because of the constitutional principle of one person, one vote.

School Board chairman Roy Vickers of Blacksburg and David Moore of Christiansburg currently hold the towns' seats.

The issue is complicated further because Moore is the only black member of the School Board, and Montgomery could run into problems if the U.S. Justice Department perceives that the transition plan has the effect of diluting black voting strength.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department reviews changes in voting plans by Virginia localities because of the state's history of racial discrimination.

But that also may be a nonissue because blacks account for just 4 percent of the population in Montgomery.

The other stumbling block to moving to an elected board is bringing the terms of school board members in sync with supervisors' elections, as required by state law. The Montgomery Supervisors have discussed ways to bring the terms into alignment, but only in closed session.

County voters last fall overwhelmingly approved changing from an appointed to an elected school board beginning in 1995.