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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994                   TAG: 9404290105
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14 EDITORIAL   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REORGANIZATION

STATE GOVERNMENT is like a big family's kitchen. By the time the dirty dishes from one meal have been washed and neatly put away in the cupboard, it's time to get them out again for the next meal.

Or so it is suggested by an article, "Virginia's Reorganization Experience: Lessons from the Past for the Future," which appeared in a recent News Letter of the Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

The article, by William Leighty and Ted Zoller, documents 12 major initiatives to get state government's kitchen in order. Just since 1960, these have included Gov. Lindsay Almond's Commission to Study the State Government; the General Assembly's 10-year (1958-1968) Commission for Economy in Government Expenditures; Gov. Linwood Holton's 1970 Governor's Management Study, known as the Zimmer Commission.

Also: the 1973 Commission on State Governmental Management, headed by Roanoke's former state Sen. William Hopkins and known as the Hopkins Commission; Gov. Charles Robb's 1982 Conference on Critical Re-evaluation; Gov. Gerald Baliles' 1986 Commission on Efficiency in Government; and Gov. Doug Wilder's 1990 Project Streamline.

Now Gov. George Allen, finding the dishes piled up again in the sink, has launched his Commission on Government Reform.

We're not sure about the lessons from the past for the future, but the Leighty-Zoller article provides a helpful hint. It quotes Richmond Times-Dispatch retired political reporter James Latimer as observing, "Either the state government defies reorganization, or it just won't stay reorganized."

Another possible explanation: too many cooks in the kitchen.

by CNB