Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Internal fighting overshadows Roanoke County Board of Supervisors business
A Roanoke County supervisor questions the residency of another member of the board.
An internal battle on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors surfaced Tuesday after a 3-2 vote against a proposal to advance a plan to replace the aging Glenvar Library.
Butch Church, who represents the Catawba District, made accusations to a reporter that Hollins Supervisor Richard Flora, who voted against the library measure, doesn’t actually live in the district he represents.
Flora was one of three supervisors who voted against Church’s motion to begin spending money on design work for a new library to replace the 31-year-old facility. Only Supervisor Charlotte Moore joined to support his motion.
Flora, along with Supervisors Mike Altizer and Joe McNamara, argued that because the county didn’t have a funding stream set up to complete a new facility, it should wait before beginning formal planning on the project.
In an interview after Tuesday’s board meeting, Church said that Flora has been living primarily at a residence across the street from his in the Catawba District.
Church said he plans to “challenge every 3-2 vote that has happened in the last three years,” based on his assertion that Flora hasn’t been living in the district he represents.
Flora denied that he has lived anywhere but in the apartment he has rented in a complex off Williamson Road inside the Hollins District since 1996.
He said Church has been raising questions about his residence for some time, but denied that he lives anywhere else.
“He’s going to find himself with a defamation of character suit,” Flora said of Church. While Flora does own property in Craig County, where he works as the county administrator, and in South Carolina, he said an apartment near Hollins is his permanent and legal address.
Church contends that Flora spends most nights in a house across the street from his in a subdivision in North Roanoke County.
While the political battle flared up afterward, the board did conduct county business at its regular meeting Tuesday.
In what both staff and elected officials said was a surprise, the county ended the fiscal year with a surplus of just over $4.4 million, after a year of significant belt-tightening throughout virtually every county department.
Almost $2.9 million in unexpected revenues came in — almost all a result of a less-than-expected drop in personal property tax revenues — and county departments trimmed another $1.5 million from their spending. The total general fund budget was $194 million.
McNamara suggested that $1 million of that be transferred back to the Roanoke County School Board, which had returned that amount to the county earlier this year when the schools received unexpected federal stimulus funds and it appeared the county’s budget would be tighter.
Although Brent Robertson, director of management and budget, conceded it was “the largest miss in personal property tax estimates that I can recall,” he said a miscalculation in the other direction would have been worse.
With the downward revision of revenue projections earlier this year, “we could have still been around $4 million in the hole.”
Budget forecasting has been very difficult during the current economic climate, he said.
The board also heard of a dramatic increase in applications for public assistance through the county’s department of social services, which requested an additional $35,000 in county funds for the current fiscal year.
That would be combined with $121,000 in state money and $17,000 from Salem, which shares the department’s services, to fund four new positions, including one supervisor.
The board will take up that request at its next meeting.
Butch Church, who represents the Catawba District, made accusations to a reporter that Hollins Supervisor Richard Flora, who voted against the library measure, doesn’t actually live in the district he represents.
Flora was one of three supervisors who voted against Church’s motion to begin spending money on design work for a new library to replace the 31-year-old facility. Only Supervisor Charlotte Moore joined to support his motion.
Flora, along with Supervisors Mike Altizer and Joe McNamara, argued that because the county didn’t have a funding stream set up to complete a new facility, it should wait before beginning formal planning on the project.
In an interview after Tuesday’s board meeting, Church said that Flora has been living primarily at a residence across the street from his in the Catawba District.
Church said he plans to “challenge every 3-2 vote that has happened in the last three years,” based on his assertion that Flora hasn’t been living in the district he represents.
Flora denied that he has lived anywhere but in the apartment he has rented in a complex off Williamson Road inside the Hollins District since 1996.
He said Church has been raising questions about his residence for some time, but denied that he lives anywhere else.
“He’s going to find himself with a defamation of character suit,” Flora said of Church. While Flora does own property in Craig County, where he works as the county administrator, and in South Carolina, he said an apartment near Hollins is his permanent and legal address.
Church contends that Flora spends most nights in a house across the street from his in a subdivision in North Roanoke County.
While the political battle flared up afterward, the board did conduct county business at its regular meeting Tuesday.
In what both staff and elected officials said was a surprise, the county ended the fiscal year with a surplus of just over $4.4 million, after a year of significant belt-tightening throughout virtually every county department.
Almost $2.9 million in unexpected revenues came in — almost all a result of a less-than-expected drop in personal property tax revenues — and county departments trimmed another $1.5 million from their spending. The total general fund budget was $194 million.
McNamara suggested that $1 million of that be transferred back to the Roanoke County School Board, which had returned that amount to the county earlier this year when the schools received unexpected federal stimulus funds and it appeared the county’s budget would be tighter.
Although Brent Robertson, director of management and budget, conceded it was “the largest miss in personal property tax estimates that I can recall,” he said a miscalculation in the other direction would have been worse.
With the downward revision of revenue projections earlier this year, “we could have still been around $4 million in the hole.”
Budget forecasting has been very difficult during the current economic climate, he said.
The board also heard of a dramatic increase in applications for public assistance through the county’s department of social services, which requested an additional $35,000 in county funds for the current fiscal year.
That would be combined with $121,000 in state money and $17,000 from Salem, which shares the department’s services, to fund four new positions, including one supervisor.
The board will take up that request at its next meeting.
