Bacon's Rebellion

Constitutional Officers–The Solutions

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Dick Hall-Sizemore
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4 responses to “Constitutional Officers–The Solutions”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I’m someone who likes standards – public and private. I like the laws to be the same in all jurisdictions in Virginia and I don’t like different local versions.

    The interstate highway system is an example of standards. Imagine what it would be like if every state and every locality did this according to their wants?

    When I’m in Amelia county, I HOPE that the Sheriff or DSS or their tax office does business the same way they do in Fairfax or Emporia.

    So perhaps the Constitutional officers are an obsolete vestige but I do wonder the trade off between voters holding someone directly accountable versus an unelected Administrator.

    There is an additional concern if the Constitutional officers are hired and fired locally by the various Boards of Supervisors who get elected. Does this open us up to “machine politics”?

    In short, I think there are some pros and cons – and I’d like to see the pros and the cons before I am going to be comfortable agreeing that these positions are outmoded ESPECIALLY since I see how localities can influence agencies like DSS – who is TRYING to follow State law and State level policies and the local politics are not.

    When it comes to fiscal accountability – do we just delegate all of it to the locality or do we require adherence to State Standards?

    In Spotsylvania, if they had their way – no tattoo businesses would be allowed anywhere in the county – except the State won’t allow them to do that.

    I note in many places in the South – if you travel through that place and you run afoul of local law and regs – bad stuff can and does happen. Ask the family of Sara Bland in Texas.

    I know there is some level of separation of laws and powers from the Federal to the State to the Locality and a lot of variations of it but I’m no fan of laws and policies that allow Boss Hogg type localities.

  2. Lawrence Hincker Avatar
    Lawrence Hincker

    Coincidentally, a retired circuit court judge was speaker at my Rotary Club meeting yesterday. During the Q&A, I put the question to him about Clerks of the Court and whether they ought to be elected. While he dodged the question (appropriately, I suppose), he did volunteer that Clerks were, at one time, appointed by the judges. He felt that process was also tainted by courthouse and local politics.

    Heck, anything related to government will be tainted by politics. In my opinion, appointment by the judges, who might actually have some firsthand knowledge of the work, is far better than election by citizens who haven’t the faintest notion of what a Clerk of the Court does nor whether the work is up to snuff.

  3. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Here’s what I see – the policies and procedures of these positions is set by the state so we have standards and consistency – AND the positions are NOT “appointed” by political types but instead elected.

    On a short-look – one wonders why these “administrative” positions are elected.

    I argue that I prefer to have the elected rather than appointed by local politicians or these days with heavy influence from the political parties AND in addition to that protection – the policies and procedures themselves cannot be as easily corrupted by locals who would do so.

    I DON’T want a Sheriff whose policies are actually changed according to the politics of some individuals at the local level.

    We need:

    1. – standards – where the law and regulations work the same way across the State.

    2. – the people responsible for carrying out the law and the regulations should be elected in open elections and not appointed by unelected folks working behind the scenes to achieve their own political goals.

  4. warrenhollowbooks Avatar
    warrenhollowbooks

    I do not believe Circuit Court Clerks have been appointed by any one other than voters for the last 150 years
    In fact it is interesting that so many of these “solutions” seem to be a throwback to the time before the 1851 Constitution, a time when an all powerful “county court” set taxes, passed local ordinances and decided who all the local officials would be e.g. sheriffs, clerks, coroners, etc.
    Again this all seems to be a solution in search of a problem, unless of course you believe in Virginia the problem is a surplus of democracy.

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