ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 TAG: 9704230054
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: rocky mount low - fourth in a series
The impact of petty vendettas, domineering council members and staff turnover spreads beyond town offices in Rocky Mount. Fourth in an editorial series.
ROCKY Mount town employees aren't the only ones hurt by municipal mismanagement.
Town residents, too, bear the burden of official favoritism and bungling.
For example, Councilman Arnold Dillon's shoulder practically sags under the chip he carries against Rocky Mount's downtown. This is in contrast with the North Main area, where he owns properties and has sought aggressively to guide spending and development.
North Main, the poorer section of town, deserves strong council representation after a long time without it. But Dillon and his council crony, Bobby Cundiff, have gone so far as to resist efforts to revive the downtown - in particular the work of a local citizens group, the Community Partnership for Revitalization.
How far have they gone? Dillon once questioned whether Susheela Shende, then the partnership's executive director, was qualified to promote town merchants' Christmas sales. She's a non-Christian, don't you know.
Last November, the partnership and American Electric Power jointly proposed removing overhead power lines in the heart of downtown. Decorative street lamps would be installed, complete with landscaping, at minimal cost to taxpayers.
Council was asked to chip in just $9,650 to complete a long-range plan that would open the door to state funding, possibly in the hundreds of thousands, for streetscape improvements. Though the plan was approved, Dillon amazingly opposed it.
His critics are politically motivated, Dillon insists. Some may be. But, more than the anti-downtown antics, his and other council members' efforts to micromanage town affairs have hurt Rocky Mount.
Dillon has been known to browbeat staff members, including the hapless town manager, to do his bidding. On one occasion, according to a witness, he drew his hand back as if to strike an employee.
Rocky Mount residents can find little comfort in the fact that, over the past two years, a majority of Finance Department employees have left. The town planner, who quit earlier this year, has yet to be replaced.
They may have left for better-paying jobs. But the work environment in town offices is hardly conducive to finding competent replacements - especially when council absurdly insists on doing the hiring itself. Ultimately, town operations suffer.
Dillon's crude interference may even have marred economic-development opportunities for the town. Developers abandoned Rocky Mount as a potential site for a country music theater. A Wal-Mart initially under consideration for inside the town ended up just outside town limits. Dillon's influence may not have been decisive, but in both cases he was unhelpfully over-involved.
Council members have been too personally involved, as well, in disputes with Franklin County over such matters as utility extensions and the provision of fire and rescue services. Feuding doesn't serve the town's long-term interests.
Neither does the prospect of a few overbearing councilmen consolidating their stranglehold on Rocky Mount's government.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB