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As is their custom, Goochland officials—supervisors, school board members, and constitutional officers—met with members of our delegation to the Virginia General Assembly, Delegate Lee Ware 65^th District and Senator Mark Peak 22^nd District at the Residence Inn at the Notch on September 14. Del. John McGuire, 56^th District was represented by a staffer. McGuire, a Goochland resident attended neither of the county’s two September 11 remembrance events.

The meeting was held at the Residence Inn at the Notch in West Creek.

Ware presented Ruth Quarles, widow of William Quarles, Jr., a framed copy of House Resolution 532, Celebrating the life of William E. Quarles, Jr. The resolution includes Mr. Quarles’ SMILE philosophy: S, to Seek to understand before being understood; M, to Make the other person feel important; I, to remember It’s not about me; L, to listen twice as much as one speaks; and E, Enthusiastically and quickly to admit when you are wrong”.

Del. Lee Ware presents resolution to Ruth Quarles

 Ware recalled a past election where he and Quarles ran against each other. “He disagreed in a way that invited constructive discussion,” said Ware lamenting the loss of Quarles and civility in elections.

Virginia is a Dillon Rule state—localities have only those powers specifically ceded to them by the state—so a good working relationship with our state representatives is vital to protecting the interests of Goochlanders. The main theme of the September 14 meeting was “we know what’s best for our community, don’t burden us with inappropriate and unfunded mandates”.

Ware said in the current election year there is a lot of information on the “real versus the possible” circulating. The current special session, which technically has not concluded but is not active, dealt with allocating money. Governor Northam made an additional $700 million available for Broadband expansion through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) grant program.

Peake addressed the changes in the marijuana law. He said making the legislation effective July 1 of this year was not well thought out. Localities do not have the power to regulate it or are set up to deal with it. Law enforcement has no way to determine if someone is driving under the influence of THC. When passed, the legislation was scheduled to go into effect in three years, providing time to deal with a wide range of issues.

District 1 Supervisor Susan Lascolette expressed concern about the lack of regulation on sales of marijuana by growers. “Will roadside marijuana stands replace farm stands?” she asked. With little regulation, how will the health and safety of users be protected from contamination by things like pesticides not intended for human consumption?

Peake said that the operation of the Viriginia Employment Commission (VEC) during the pandemic was “woefully pathetic” as the agency was unable to process many unemployment claims in a timely manner to help those thrown out of work by Covid. He said that closing DMV offices placed a hardship on people who need to use the services of that agency.

“Kids don’t learn through Zoom,” Peake said. “Test scores show that. We’ve got to get them back in school.”

Dr. Jeremy Raley superintendent of Goochland Schools began his remarks by saying “it’s not an easy time to be a public servant.” He said that Goochland was one of the first school divisions in the Commonwealth to welcome students back to in person learning last year. “We have a proud record of making solid decisions.” Raley contended that now more than ever the importance of allowing school boards to make decisions is a local matter to best address the needs of each community. He asked our delegation to push back on GA decisions that interfere with local school decisions.

Goochland School Board Chair Karen Horn, District 3 echoed Raley’s comments. “All ideas brought forth from the community and our staff who share ideas to help us make decisions.”

Raley contended that extra layers of state mandated testing duplicates those already used in Goochland Schools and only adds expense and more work for staff. Given the extra effort that all school divisions are putting in to “wrap up unfinished business, this is not the best time to add a new tool.” He asked that if the state insists on extra testing it should send money to pay for it and contended that Goochland uses methods to measure student growth that area better indicator of progress than another layer of standard of learning (SOL) testing.

Another “ask” from the schools is legislation requiring schools to report both letter grade and specific numerical value earned by students on all transcripts. District 5 school board member John Wright said that college admissions processes use a computerized synthesis to “cull the herd” of applicants by normalizing letter and number grades, putting students that do not have both at a disadvantage.

Ware said that the addition of money from the state budget surplus and rising stock market has been beneficial to the Virginia Retirement System, the 18^th largest pension fund in the nation. Other reforms, such as eliminating defined benefit pension plans for new state hires, have helped its solvency.

District 5 Supervisor Ken Peterson, who was a tad skeptical about VRS investment returns said, “if you torture numbers long enough, they will tell you what you want to hear.” He advocated use of surplus funds to fully replenish the state’s rainy-day and VRS fund. He also noted that the state should pass a structurally balanced budget that reflects its true fiscal condition.

Peake said that he sponsored legislation in the last session to impose a limit on the time that a governor can use emergency powers. He will do this in 2022. “Regardless of party affiliation, no governor should have unlimited emergency powers.” Thirty to forty-five days, with extension if approved by the GA should be adequate, he said.

Robin Lind, Secretary of the Goochland Electoral Board thanked the legislators for increasing the pay for general registrars whose workload has ballooned as the result of changes in voting procedures. He repeated his annual plea for the state to fully fund the expense of the electoral board as required by state law. He also contended that Freedom of Information (FOIA) laws are being weaponized to bog down election officials by detailed requests close to elections. Lind asked if a waiver for response to FOIA requests for 45 days before an election, when registrars are busy with voting, could be put into place.

Both Ware and Peake thanked Goochland for the opportunity to discuss issues of concern and share information. “Let us know how we can help,” Peake said.

“If you see an issue that has you worried, please let us know,” Ware said citing the sea of proposed bills that state legislators wade through each year.