Sunday, April 12, 2009
Enough heat to melt asphalt
Elizabeth Strother
Recent columns
- For those who have too little
- Time to gather mountain views
- Our blind spot on roads
- Following the money trail
From the RoundTable blog
Roanoke City Council has taken a lot of grief over the years for in-fighting and dithering that has made it look clownish on occasion -- a look that, on occasion, it more than earned.
Often, though, what the public is seeing is not a bunch of dopes thrashing around in a political mosh pit, but democracy as it is bound to look at times, given the city's at-large representation.
Every council member has to sweat every hot-button issue, with no ward lines to hide behind. Each will be held accountable by voters citywide -- and residents who are hopping mad are always sure to turn out.
Different constituencies with conflicting demands can make for shifting alliances and keep decisions simmering for years, sometimes to boil over in a volatile political mess a la Victory Stadium.
Contrast this with the local governing body in Roanoke County, where each member of the board of supervisors is elected by magisterial district. On Election Day, each supervisor is answerable only to his or her constituents.
A controversial decision is easier to make, and to stand by, if it has riled up residents of only one district, freeing supervisors from other parts of the county to consider the issues objectively -- or at least in a way divorced from their own political fates.
Residents of the Glenvar area evidently hope to change this dynamic when the board takes up a construction company's request later this month to rezone the old Salem water treatment plant for heavy industry to allow an asphalt plant on the site.
Many of the letters we've received from opponents of the project have a common theme -- an appeal, really, to county residents outside of Glenvar's Catawba District asking them to take up the fight as their own.
"We must all stay united because your neighborhood could be next," reads one. And another: "We are willing to help those who help us -- whether it be in an upcoming election or in a battle to stop this from being forced into another community."
Opponents must hope to gain at least one more supervisor's vote. Residents already have the promise of Catawba Supervisor Butch Church that he will oppose the rezoning, as well as that of the board's lone Democrat, Charlotte Moore. A third "no" vote is needed to prevail on the five-member board, and it is not assured, at least not yet.
Opponents want supervisors who represent the other districts to feel political heat, and the officials reportedly are hearing from some constituents. Whether the campaign will be effective is unclear -- whether it should be is equally so.
The plant is in easy sight of Glenvar's school complex and down the road from a retirement center. Opponents of the proposed asphalt plant say they want to protect the health of society's most vulnerable, its young and its old -- and not just Glenvar's. Kids from all over play sports at Glenvar; retirees can move in from anywhere.
And if this plant site is blocked, opponents pledge they will help keep it out of other Roanoke County neighborhoods.
The whole strategy leaves me wondering what success would look like, if there would be a place for a new asphalt plant anywhere in the county near the location the construction company says it needs to be.
Or, if every part of the county is politically off-limits, are other jurisdictions thought to be more appropriate -- and willing?
The opponents' populist strategy is smart and pragmatic. They want to engineer a decision that's responsive to their interests despite the constraints of separate magisterial districts. Whether that would be in the best interests of the county, the Roanoke Valley or the larger region is not so easily known.
There are two ways to look at representative democracy: with the expectation that elected officials will do the bidding of "the people," as determined by the most vocal interest group; or with the expectation that elected officials will weigh all sides and decide what is in the best interest of the community as a whole.
I have more confidence in the latter model. "The people" have the final word at the next election, and they're not always right even then. Over time, though, things seem to straighten themselves out.
Of course, governing bodies engage in both styles, and wisely so. Sometimes officialdom loses touch and needs shaking up. Sometimes it listens too much.
Good governance requires more than keeping an ear out for the vox populi.
Strother is a member of The Roanoke Times editorial board.
