ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997 TAG: 9704240055
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: rocky mount low - fifth in a series
Several steps can be taken to reform Rocky Mount government. In the end, it's up to voters to insist on taking them.
ANTIDOTES to the ills afflicting Rocky Mount government aren't hard to identify.
The challenge is to get them administered.
Town Council needs to:
Set, then stick to, a policy against nepotism and favoritism in hiring and services.
Make real the conversion to a council-manager form of government. Give the administration authority to implement council policies. And end council's preposterous insistence on hiring every town employee, including entry-level workers.
Cut out "executive sessions," except as strictly required and allowed under Virginia's Freedom of Information Act.
Review the town attorney's role. His advice to council is either bad or ignored. Either way, something needs to change.
Apologize to Pat Hooke and restore her town clerk's title.
Find a qualified finance director. Assure applicants that council won't request anything constituting a breach of fiduciary ethics.
Hire a town planner.
Strive to serve the entire town's interests. Embrace partnerships with residents trying to beautify the downtown and with county officials seeking regional cooperation.
Probe employees' grievances against Town Manager Mark Henne. Set limits and performance goals, and hold him accountable. But give him the room a town manager needs to do his job.
Can council be expected to do all this on its own? Of course not.
Arnold Dillon, Bobby Cundiff and Posey Dillon are but a minority on the seven-member council, but they dominate the mostly compliant or ineffectual others. Mayor Broaddus Shively plans to retire in 1998.
Then and until then, holding council accountable for healing the town's government is a task only voters can perform.
Its quiet Main Street, stately courthouse and well-kept residences lend Rocky Mount a congenial atmosphere. Shopkeepers still know their patrons. Neighbors still greet neighbors. Townspeople are lucky to live in such a civil place. They deserve a civil government, too.
But they'll need to work for it. If town officials get their act together, fine. If they don't, voters will need to separate, at the earliest opportunity, elected officials from their council seats.
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