Chesterfield boards continue to butt heads

THE LETTERSRead correspondence between the chairmen of the School Board and Board of Supervisors

On the heels of a touchy-at-times budget process, elected officials for Chesterfield County and its school system are still having trouble seeing eye to eye.

The two School Board representatives on a joint committee with the Board of Supervisors recently pulled out, citing a lack of progress on key issues. The long-standing committee was re-established last year to allow members of the boards to communicate more closely, but it produced little clarity.

"Right now it's not working as well as we had hoped that it would," said School Board Chairman Marshall W. Trammell Jr., who serves on the four-member committee with Vice Chairman David Wyman.

Trammell, who announced at the end of the June 1 meeting that the School Board would no longer participate, said he felt the bodies could better communicate through the county's budget and audit committee and in joint meetings between the boards.

Personality differences were clearly an issue in the group's struggles, punctuated at an April meeting by a lengthy and heated exchange between Supervisor Marleen K. Durfee and Trammell on how business should be conducted.

Dorothy A. Jaeckle, the other county supervisor on the panel, said she was disappointed with the School Board's decision, feeling the committee could delve more deeply into topics than the other groups.

"It was very surprising to me," she said, adding that she felt this month's meeting had been productive. "Part of our role as elected officials is to learn to work out personality conflicts. You don't really have a choice. You can't pick and choose who you want to get along with."

But Wyman said progress was a rarity at the seven meetings the group has held since July 2008.

"For whatever reason, the actual output of the liaison committee was unproductive. We spent, unfortunately, inordinate amounts of time talking about agendas and past history and really didn't come to any substantive actions," he said, adding that he felt the joint meeting in May was more effective.

But county leaders are not convinced that abandoning the committee is in the county's interest or sends the right message to residents.

"The Board of Supervisors is unanimous in feeling that the current committee structure is an effective way of communicating on issues," Chairman A.S. "Art" Warren said. "It allows us to address specific issues in an atmosphere that should promote consistency and cooperation, and we need to foster that whenever possible."

Durfee agreed, noting that the liaison committee needed to work alongside the budget and audit panel.

"Both committees play a vital role in the process, and because of the complexities of the issues and challenges we face in the county, no one committee can do it alone," she said.

"At times, there will be differing perspectives and tough questions to be answered. However, each committee has been given its charge," she added. "It is incumbent upon us as leaders to separate one's identity from ideas, do the best job within the committees we serve and do the work on behalf of the citizens of this county."

But Trammell said the School Board could not justify the expense of time and resources when the group seemed to be at an impasse.

"When we commit to those meetings, it's not just two members from each board, but you're committing staff from both the county as well as the School Board. I'm just cognizant of people's time, and it's not productive when you're not seeing tangible results," he said.

There was friction between the two bodies during this year's budget cycle over spending, particularly on capital projects. Supervisors repeatedly requested more detailed information, but school officials say they were never able to determine what exactly the county wanted to see.

"It was very difficult for us to get a real sense of where the entire Board of Supervisors was coming from," Trammell said. "We kept hearing different things from different people, but it was very hard to get a clear picture of the direction of the board as a whole. Each person had a different issue."

Jaeckle said sorting such issues out was what the liaison committee was created to do and the reason it should continue to meet.

"I don't think the Board of Supervisors should have a say in the School Board's decision-making. However, I do think we should have an understanding of their decisionmaking," she said. "If they had pure taxing authority, that would not be necessary. But since we have fiscal responsibility, it's important that we know what's going on."

One School Board member has volunteered to do his part to keep the committee alive.

"I don't have any problem stepping up," U. Omarh Rajah said. "We want to make sure that the public gets the sense that we're working together."

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .