Friday, March 07, 2008
Editorial: Hodge will leave a job well done
Roanoke County's top administrator has left a good mark on the county and the region.
From the RoundTable blog
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Elmer Hodge says he'll be retiring at the end of June. Roanoke County will be losing a smart, strong and able administrator. And in a way, so will the rest of the Roanoke Valley. Hodge helped the valley grow up.
When he arrived, the county was transforming itself from a mostly rural to a largely urban locality, and suffering the adolescent-like pains and angst of growth. Working relationships with Roanoke city ranged from strained to nonexistent. For the good of all, that had to change.
The Roanoke Valley is one metropolitan area fragmented into several political pieces. The valley's two major players -- city and county -- have to work cooperatively on regional needs. That's a given today, but it wasn't when Hodge arrived. Local governments guarded their prerogatives possessively and treated each other as competitors, not partners.
Hodge would be the first to acknowledge that he did not make "regionalism" a byword all by himself. But he helped.
He said Wednesday "the timing is great" for his departure. That's debatable. But the timing of his arrival an amazing 22 years ago could not have been more fortuitous.
He relates how, as the newly hired administrator back in 1985, he was still in Chesterfield County when he learned the Roanoke Valley was being inundated by what turned out to be a historic flood. He hitched rides with the state police to get here.
He saw how hard and how well people worked in a crisis --but also how political divisions created problems in responding, and how development decisions in one area had an impact in others.
He first saw the Roanoke Valley amid rushing floodwaters that stopped at no political boundary; he saw the valley as a whole.
The county got an administrator who was ready to lead it in the direction it needed to go, unencumbered by old wounds and suspicions.
Hodge not only advanced regional solutions to meet growing infrastructure and service needs. He helped the county govern itself more efficiently and professionally. On his watch, public safety responsibility shifted from a sheriff's department to a police department, a mark of the county's continuing transition from rural to urban.
Hodge has his detractors. But his own criticism of his tenure is the most apt: that the county has not done a better job protecting its moutainsides and ridgelines from development. Virginia's constitution hamstrings regulatory efforts. But perhaps his successor can find a way to do more.
All in all, when Hodge leaves his post, he will leave the county, and the valley, a better place than he found it. For that, he deserves many thanks.
