ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997 TAG: 9704040052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: |By JOEL TURNER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Don Terp has a new issue in his campaign for the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors: county officials who live, vote and pay taxes in another jurisdiction.
His first target: School Superintendent Deanna Gordon.
"She controls the largest part of the county budget, but she pays [most of her] taxes in Bedford County," Terp said. "It's ludicrous."
Terp, a candidate for the Hollins District seat in the November election, said top county officials should live in the county.
"What fiscal responsibility do they have if they don't live and pay taxes in Roanoke County?" he asked. "It's imperative that they understand the impact of their big-spending plans."
Terp said he will also make an issue of other high-level county officials who live in neighboring jurisdictions.
But Bob Johnson, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said Terp is trying to create issues when he has none.
Johnson, who represents the Hollins District and is expected to seek re-election, said Gordon has lived in the same house for more 30 years. She started as a teacher and rose through the ranks to become superintendent three years ago.
Johnson said Gordon's situation is not the same as if she had been hired from outside the school system and chosen to live outside the county.
Terp, who helped defeat a county school bond issue last year, contends that Gordon's house sits in Roanoke County but she pays taxes on it in Bedford County, which has a lower real estate tax rate.
John Birckhead, Roanoke County real estate assessor, said tax records show Gordon's house is in Bedford County and is being taxed in the proper jurisdiction.
Birckhead said the precise location of the county boundary is fuzzy in several areas because no recent surveys have been made, but that tax maps and an aerial photograph taken for a countywide reappraisal of property indicate that Gordon's house is on the Bedford County side, he said.
Gordon and her husband, Edward, live on Staton Drive near the Blue Ridge Parkway east of Vinton.
The boundary for Roanoke and Bedford counties splits their property, which includes a vacant parcel on the west side of their house.
They pay real estate taxes to Bedford County on the house and lot that it rests on. They pay taxes to Roanoke County for the rest of their land.
The location of a boundary sign on Staton Drive gives the impression that the house is on the Roanoke County side. Terp says a survey map shows that most of the house is on the Roanoke County side.
But Birckhead and Gordon said the sign does not accurately mark the boundary. Birckhead said it apparently was placed near Gordon's driveway to avoid cluttering her front yard and detracting from the house's appearance.
Gordon said she has never pretended to live in Roanoke County. Gordon and her husband vote in Bedford County and have a Bedford County automobile decal.
The house was built when she was a Roanoke County teacher. The couple bought the vacant property in 1963 and planned to build a house on the Roanoke County side.
But the land in Roanoke County would not percolate for a septic tank, so they built the house farther east on the Bedford County side in 1966, she said.
The couple later bought more vacant land in Roanoke County on the west side of the house.
Gordon said the School Board knew her official residence was in Bedford County when she was named superintendent. State law does not require superintendents to live within the locality where they are employed.
School Board member Jerry Canada said Gordon offered to move into Roanoke County when she was being considered for superintendent.
"She raised the issue with us and said if there was a problem, she would move," Canada said. "We didn't see it as a problem, and we thought it would be ridiculous to require someone to move who had lived in the same place so long."
Johnson said the Board of Supervisors does not have a policy requiring top county officials to live in the county. But he said he would expect officials such as the county administrator and police chief to choose to live in the county if, unlike Gordon, they have not risen through the ranks with a long-standing residence outside the county.
''I think [Gordon's] case is different, and I think county residents understand that," Johnson said. "I think you'll see a lot of podium pounding by [Terp] during the campaign."
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/THE ROANOKE TIMES. The sign near Roanokeby CNBCounty School Superintendent Deanna Gordon's home seems to say the
house is in Roanoke County. Graphic: MAP BY RT.