Why boards butt heads over budgets

Powhatan County supervisors, School Board members and administrators have been trying to get together to resolve their differences for eight months, but even agreeing on a time, place and agenda has so far been elusive.

"Things have really deteriorated over the last two years," said School Board member Jason Moore of the relationship between the groups. "You have people talking past each other, the perspectives are different and the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing."

Supervisor Joe Walton agreed. "It's very unnatural to me, the inability for 12 people to sit down and discuss something where everyone benefits," he said.

But Powhatan is not alone.

When economic times are tough, so are relations between local governing bodies and their educational counterparts. Take, for example, two years' worth of head-butting in Chesterfield County.

Last year, the source of consternation was capital-improvement plans, with one school representative, Marshall W. Trammell Jr., quitting the joint liaison committee because he was frustrated with what he saw as a lack of progress.

While capital conflicts continue, this year the budget itself became the issue, with the school system facing drastic reductions in funding from the state and turning to local leaders to ease the pain.

Tensions culminated when Chesterfield School Board member U. Omarh Rajah suggested in a public meeting that the supervisors were lying to the public and called them "anti-youth" for their reluctance to provide additional funding to schools.

The supervisors ultimately returned $12 million in savings to the school system to help, but balked at raising the real estate tax rate as requested by school leaders.

"Let's face it, any time you have a limited resource and different groups vying for that limited resource, you're going to have periods where people aren't getting along," said Board of Supervisors Chairman Daniel A. Gecker. "In this case, tax dollars are the limited resource."

School Board member Trammell agreed that tension was natural but said it had spiked in recent years as the supervisors became more involved in the school system's budgeting.

"Where some of our frustration comes in is sometimes when we hear -- over the last couple of years -- that they want more information about how we do our budget," Trammell said.

He said school leaders provide as much detail as possible, but feels that the supervisors sometimes approach the point of micromanagement.

"Sometimes they find themselves making a value judgment without enough information," he said. "I wouldn't know how to try to second-guess their decision on mental health and all the services they provide. I wouldn't know more than to try to make a judgment on that than the man on the moon."

Walton said that in Powhatan, the main problem is the details -- or the lack thereof.

"In a recession, where you're pulling back on funds, you need good information," he said, adding that he never felt they received that level of clarity. "If you can't get numbers that add up forwards and backwards, you're lost in the wilderness."

Goochland County has had its share of tenuous moments this year, too.

During the county's budget adoption last month, Supervisor James W. Eads told School Board members that he had been disappointed in their budget process and had no faith in their ability to plan for next year.

School Board Chairman Maxwell G. Cisne was diplomatic, but said communication could improve in a county where the boards never hold joint meetings.

"Obviously, the budget crisis has caused everybody all kinds of grief," he said. "But there's constructive tension and there's tension that doesn't help much, and sometimes we both step over the line and that's not good."

One possible solution, some say, is taxing authority for schools. Virginia is among only nine states where no elected school boards have any ability to control taxes.

"I think the rhetoric would change if the School Board had taxing authority," Gecker said. "Having direct accountability for what you spend to the public puts you in a different position than when you're in the position of just being an advocate."

Gecker, who stopped short of advocating the change, did add, "It would cause there to be more interest in school board elections, and policy for schools would be set much more directly by the public than it is today."

The Virginia School Boards Association has lobbied for elected school board taxing authority since 1996, but to no avail.

"Right now, we have to grovel for all of our money," said Frank E. Barham, executive director for the group. "If school boards have taxing authority, the issue of relationships goes away."

Powhatan's Moore, who recently announced his candidacy for the county's Board of Supervisors, says he's opposed to the change.

"You've already got the federal government, the state government and the Board of Supervisors taking money out of your wallet," he said. "I don't think you need that extra person putting their hands in."

But Barham said the change would not add taxes, only change who administered them. He added that many states put tax increases to a public vote. "The great misnomer and fear perpetuated by those opposed is that it would be a school tax on top of an existing tax," he said.

Moore did concede that without that level of accountability, conflict was unavoidable. He went so far as to say that some school boards intentionally request more money than the local government can provide, knowing that the blame will fall on the elected leaders who hold the purse strings.

"That game has been played ever since you've had elected school boards," he said. "And you're always going to have that dogma of, 'We're doing it for the children, so it must be right,' Therefore, you're going to see people get a little reckless with how to spend money."

But not all school boards are elected in Virginia, unlike most other states. Some localities, such as Hanover County, have school boards appointed by the supervisors.

Sue Forbes Watson is in her 34th year on the Hanover School Board, which gets along famously with the Board of Supervisors. She said that system "allows and encourages the kind of . . . communication that is essential for positive working relationships."

Hanover School Board Chairman John F. Axselle III agreed, saying residents have one go-to representative for all issues, government or schools.

"It works," he said, using this year as an example. "There is a general attitude of a team approach. You don't always get what you want, but you understand why you didn't."

In Richmond, relations have improved in recent years since then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder evicted the School Board from its offices.

"In the city, I think you have a good working relationship with the City Council and the School Board," said City Council President Kathy C. Graziano. "Honestly, I think that began to develop when Wilder was in office. Wilder was so unsupportive of the School Board that there sort of was a natural bonding."

She said that has continued under Mayor Dwight C. Jones, who is a former School Board member.

School and county relations in Henrico County also have been amenable in recent years.

Lisa A. Marshall, the county's School Board chairwoman, attributed much of that to County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett and his relationship with both boards and the county's new superintendent, Patrick Russo.

"He's done an excellent job putting a cap on spending and conservatively estimating revenue," she said. "We're just thankful for the good management that the Board of Supervisors has given us, which has been very beneficial in this downturn."

Gecker agreed that overall relations often come down to the relationship between administrators on both sides.

"If the superintendent and the administrator have a relationship whereby they can reach agreement as to what the local share should be, then each of those parties will tell their respective boards that the deal is fair," he said. "That minimizes the likelihood that the boards will take shots at one another."

Walton envies Henrico's apparent harmony as leaders in Powhatan discuss via e-mail whether a moderator is necessary when and if they ever do get together.

"I'd love nothing more than to have a professional relationship," he said.

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or whester@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writers Juan Antonio Lizama and Holly Prestidge contributed to this report.