WISE, Va. --
As
Wise County careens toward a possible local government shutdown, county agencies are talking about how they might function ? or not function ? in the absence of a county budget.
Clerk of
Circuit Court Jack Kennedy isn?t certain whether the county?s constitutional officers have the authority to keep their offices open if there?s no budget, so he?s asked
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for an opinion.
In a letter dated Friday, he asks
Cuccinelli to issue an opinion by June 30, the date at which the current fiscal year?s budget will run out.
?The clock is ticking to zero,?
Kennedy said Monday, explaining that if no action is taken this month by a divided
Wise County Board of Supervisors and an equally divided
Wise County School Board, disruption will be a certainty.
The county?s budget is hung up on its single largest portion, the school system?s spending plan.
The two boards are at odds over the controversial issue of school consolidation. The
School Board voted 5-3 earlier this year to proceed with a plan to consolidate the county?s three smaller high schools into the three larger ones.
That vote, along with a 5-3 vote to appoint a countywide tiebreaker for
School Board issues, came before a special election that set the board members back to a 4-4 divide, meaning any vote would end in a tie. The
Wise County Board of Supervisors is also split 4-4.
As the lawsuits over the issue pile up ?
Kennedy said more litigation was filed Monday, with another filing expected today ? the two
School Board factions have been playing a chess game with meetings, each trying to get a strategic upper hand. Each faction will schedule a meeting and only its members will attend, meaning there?s no quorum to conduct business.
The pro-consolidation board members want a quorum so they can move forward with their plans, using the tie-breaker?s vote if necessary.
The anti-consolidation board members, according to their
attorney,
Frank Kilgore, don?t want to meet unless there?s an agreement beforehand not to discuss certain issues, including those related to the tie-breaker and consolidation.
In the latest round, the anti-consolidation side has called a meeting for 6 tonight, and the pro-consolidation side has called a meeting in the same location at 5:45 p.m.
With a growing number of lawsuits now pending in
Wise County related to school consolidation issues, a local government shutdown could create a unique set of problems, as the courts might not be and able to hear them.
And Commonwealth?s
Attorney Ron Elkins said it?s more than teachers who wouldn?t be paid if there?s no budget. The husband of a schoolteacher who?d also go without pay in the event of a shutdown, he said he?d keep going to work as long as he could financially manage to do so.
He?s concerned that, in the event of an extended shutdown, criminals might walk free because, under state speedy trial laws, cases that aren?t resolved within five months are automatically dismissed.
?We have probably a case that the speedy trial could run out on every day,? he said, explaining that Wise County?s court docket is crammed.
Elkins said he?s also concerned about his employees ? particularly the single-parent and single-income families that he said would be devastated by the loss of their paychecks.
Maj. Gene Vanover, of the Wise County Sheriff?s Office, said the county will still have
law enforcement in the event of a shutdown ? the state requires it.
?What caliber of people we have here, they?ll be here,? he said. But, he added, ?Hopefully, they?ll get a budget passed before anyone misses a paycheck.?
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