Note: “Mr. Big” is a current employee of the City of Roanoke. His name has been altered to protect his/her identity.
Roanoke City Council has a bad habit of not doing their job. As with most government entities, there are politics involved, but in our case no one knows who is on the right and who is on the left. One thing is for sure, City Council is not in the business of coming up with their own ideas. Leave it to Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham to come up with the ideas, good or bad, and City Council just waves the magic wand. There are very few exceptions to this rule.
In June 2008 the City of Roanoke closed two neighborhood fitness centers in NW & SE Roanoke.
Roanoke City Council is in despair. Mayor David Bowers ran for his position because he thought he could make a difference; he can’t. Not up against the solid back room politics of former Mayor Nelson Harris and the remaining “For The City” ticket of Gwen Mason and David Trinkle. However, they aren’t the only ones in tune with the back room dealings of City Council, all of them are guilty by association. What is Council afraid of? That City residents will think they can make a decision and vote on their own? During the Harris years, it seemed as though every vote was unanimously “yea” or “nay”.
Nonsense.Let us see the vote. Council members are scared to vote against something when they know they are going to lose. Who cares? The citizens who elect them care. We want to see them vote, not hear about them tucking tail in the back room meeting and not fighting for their position. Even if you are going to lose you have to vote to show your constituents what you believe. I have heard many times from Council members they voted one way or another because they didn’t have the votes to win. They sided with the opposition to appear as though they went with the majority. I do not agree with this thought process.
I think we would have a lot better luck electing high schoolers for the City Council. I am sure there are local government groups and organizations in our high schools. Let us elect them to the positions. They have more common sense, are not corrupt, and will actually be around to see what fallout there are from decisions made today.
Sign them up, I will vote for them. I will run their campaign. I am sure they will enjoy the Roanoke City Council salary and perks while they are in school.
Their first order of business should be replacing Darlene Burcham with a new city manager. Darlene is damaged goods if you are seeking to hand the power back to City Council where it belongs.
After all, the City Manager’s role is to implement municipal policy for, and at the mercy of, City Council.
If you are a current or former Roanoke City employee, and you’d like to contribute your own story, we’d love to hear from you and promise to protect your anonymity. You can also post a comment anywhere on this blog and use an alias instead of your real name; just let us know in your comment that you’re a city employee.
Our current city manager is indeed a major problem. Few in city government seem willing to disagree with her pronouncements for fear of their jobs. And the Council is too split in its politics and policies to present a united front aimed at reining her in.
I cannot understand why Roanoke has to go looking beyond the city, beyond the valley, often beyond the state to find candidates for top government and school board spots. The search committees and professional head-hunting firms employed are expensive in themselves. And we all too often end up with someone like Burcham or the much unlamented Frank Tota who only saw a stop in Roanoke as one more step to a bigger and better job elsewhere.
What’s wrong with promoting the people who have acted as assistants and deputies, people who have in many cases served in those roles for years or decades and know what the top job demands? Of course, we should allow anyone to apply, but why go out of the way and pay sizable fees to give outsiders preference?
Are the long-settled people here devoid of fresh ideas and approaches? Are they not as capable and caring as those from other jurisdictions? Personally, I think someone who has lived in this area for years is more likely to understand what residents want and what resources are realistically available to give it to them.
Right now, my wife and I are tired of living in what has become proportionately the highest-taxed political entity in the state and are giving thought to leaving. I wonder if that kind of feeling by others folks accounts for why the population of Roanoke continues to shrink?
The cost of city services goes UP and UP and UP but the quality of service goes DOWN.
Maybe if our tax dollars provided something important, like getting rid of the SLUMS AND CRIME here in our city, then the population wouldn’t be declining so badly.
Nobody wants to live in a city over-run with crime and run by corrupt “officials”.
A post under the finance category of my website.
Top Tax-Exempt Properties = $2 Million
If taxed at $1.19 per 100 assessed value Roanoke City’s the top 4 tax exempt properties would yield over $2 million dollars to the City’s coffers.
The top 4 (from Roanoke City Annual Report – Commissioner of the Revenue) – They pay ZERO :
Carilion Healthcare – assessed at $122,025,109
Times-World Corp. – assessed at $22,222,284
Maple Leaf Bakery – assessed at $26,398,843
BLC Corp. (Lease Co.) – assessed at $11,903,564
TOTAL rounded: $182,000,000 /100 X 1.19 = $2.16 million
There are others that could be added to this as pointed out by The Roanoker Magazine. Just think in these economic times what $2 million would do. I don’t see any of them rushing to save any of the eliminated or reduced services not the least being RCPS.