Thursday, June 18, 2009
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Is Rocky Mount headed in right direction?
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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The town of Rocky Mount is getting pinched like many other Virginia localities these days. In the fiscal year that begins July 1, the town anticipates an 11 percent drop in revenue.
Because of that, the Rocky Mount Town Council recently passed a $7.5 million budget that freezes town employees' pay, provides for no capital spending and reduces expenditures in supplies and materials across the board, Finance Director Linda Woody said.
It's what they didn't cut that has former three-term council member Arnold Dillon steaming mad.
Brace yourselves, readers: We're talking much more Mayberry than Manhattan here.
The Rocky Mount businessman, who left the council in 2000 and is no relation to Councilman Posey Dillon, is about as folksy as the sugar and corn-mash potion Franklin County is famous for.
You should know that Arnold Dillon and some other town council members were criticized for mismanagement in an unusual series of five editorials this newspaper published in 1997. Those blasted off with one titled "Something's Rotten in Rocky Mount."
Get him on the subject of town spending these days, though, and Dillon takes a deep breath and launches into a list of taxpayer-financed perks he says a recession-pinched government in a town of 4,500 should do without:
The summer picnic for employees at a local go-kart track that will cost $3,700.
A catered Christmas party for town employees, budgeted at $3,500.
An additional $30,700 in Christmas bonuses divided among the town's roughly 60 employees, a Rocky Mount tradition that's rare for a local government of nearly any size in this region. They start at $400 per employee and increase depending on years of service. (The council will vote in November on whether to pay them, depending on how revenues are doing at that time.)
About $28,000 for health and dental insurance (for four of the seven council members who elect to take that benefit). It alone costs taxpayers far more than the $280 monthly council members are paid for the part-time posts.
And taxpayer-underwritten health club memberships for town employees and council members (which may or may not be approved at an upcoming council meeting).
These may seem like small potatoes compared with $7.5 million in spending, but "when you put all this together, you're talking about big bucks," Dillon said.
Councilman John Lester laughed when I called him this week and inquired about Dillon's complaints. It was one of those small-town politics kinds of laughs.
"It's pretty contentious with him all the time," Lester said of Dillon, before suggesting Dillon would run for the council next year. (Dillon denies that.)
Regarding the summer picnic and Christmas party for Rocky Mount's hardworking employees, "Any time you can improve their morale, their motivation, it improves their performance," Lester said.
The spending that irks Dillon the most is the health insurance. The town didn't offer that to part-time council members back when Dillon served, and it never should have started, he said.
According to the budget, that benefit cost taxpayers a mere $572 in 2004. The cost has grown almost 4,800 percent since then.
Far larger local governments such as Roanoke and Franklin County offer health benefits for council members or supervisors. But Rocky Mount's own survey of 23 other Virginia localities with populations between 5,000 and 10,000 shows that 17 of them don't offer taxpayer-paid health insurance to part-time elected officials.
Thirteen of those jurisdictions pay their council members more, though not a lot.
"It's a good benefit," Lester said. "It certainly is from my standpoint. But I could get mine through my wife's job."
He added, "Mr. Dillon is much better at p---ing matches than I am. I can't even compete."
Does Dillon have a point? Is the Rocky Mount town budget a teapot perking more for the council and employees than for taxpayers?
Or is Dillon merely stirring up a minor tempest?
Or is Rocky Mount getting more like Boones Mill all the time?
