ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604230031
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: New River Journal
At a Town Council candidates' forum two weeks ago in Christiansburg, one theme seemed to predominate: communication.
Many Christiansburg residents, from the sound of it, believe council members aren't doing a very good job of letting the people know what's up with their local government, or of listening to the public.
That complaint may have more to do with politics and the upcoming election, or with continued dissatisfaction over the town's secondhand recreation center plans, than with reality. But it is not an uncommon complaint about government at all levels.
The traditional means of gauging public opinion are cut and dried: when you're running for office, you walk door to door and talk with potential voters; when you're in office, you take telephone calls, read letters, run into people at the grocery store.
If you're longtime state Sen. Madison Marye, you might visit a few of your favorite barbershops and chew the fat (and maybe tell a humorous "Uncle Billy" story, too).
Or, if you're Montgomery County Supervisor Ira Long, you might meet every morning for breakfast at the Hardee's with your old Prices Fork buddies and fellow retirees from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant to talk over things.
One New River Valley elected official has found a new way to supplement the traditional means.
Since late January, Montgomery County School Board member Jim Klagge has created an electronic-mail network of 350 people for back-and-forth exchanges on the major issues before the School Board.
All Montgomery School Board members and some supervisors have e-mail addresses. But Klagge's network (reached at jklaggebev.net) is unique in local politics, to the best of my knowledge.
Klagge sent out detailed dispatches during the recently concluded county budget process to update readers on the progress of the School Board's proposed spending increase before the Board of Supervisors (the School Board proposes and the Board of Supervisors disposes by setting the tax rates to pay for the spending).
In the end, the School Board lost that fight when the supervisors agreed to just a 1-cent tax increase. But Klagge saw a small victory in at least one aspect: three of the pro-tax-increase speakers at the March 21 budget public hearing had come out at his electronic and personal requests.
"Either there really is little support for new taxes in a majority of districts in the county, or we haven't yet gotten people sufficiently involved in the political process," Klagge wrote in an April 4 dispatch. "I'm trying to look at this as a long-term process - not something that will be changed in one or two years."
Klagge also has used the new medium to pass on information about the contentious Riner school land purchase and on what should be done about aging Blacksburg Middle School.
In one memorable message, he outlined how any one of the three options for the Blacksburg school (a new building on a new site; renovations on the existing building; or a new building on the current site) could be backed up with solid arguments. To make the point, he relayed thoughtful, lengthy dispatches from Glen Earthman, Jack Davis and Chris Wakely, all of whom work at Virginia Tech in some capacity.
He said he's also received much short, immediate feedback from people who might not have been comfortable simply picking up the telephone and calling him.
The e-mail exchange lends itself perfectly to Blacksburg and Virginia Tech, which has an unusually high concentration of personal computers and people who can afford them and know how to use them. It also has a highly publicized local access to e-mail and the Internet through the Blacksburg Electronic Village. It is probably not a realistic model - for some time to come - for less "wired" parts of the New River Valley, where computers are only beginning to make inroads into homes.
And Klagge is under no illusion that his network is anything more than a new, additional means of talking with the people he represents. "The e-mail thing certainly does not take the place of other kinds of contacts," said the Tech philosophy professor. "E-mail just adds another option to communication because it's kind of easy."
Brian Kelley is The Roanoke Times' assistant New River editor. The bureau's shared e-mail address is current@bev.net. If you would like to respond, please specify his name in the subject line. Or write to P.O. Box 540, Christiansburg, Va. 24073
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CITY COUNCILby CNB