Could Goochland County become the second municipality in the state to adopt a county-manager form of government?

Some Goochland leaders want to at least explore the change, which would eliminate the constitutional offices of treasurer and commissioner of the revenue and create a Department of Finance instead.

At a strategy session last week, Supervisor James W. Eads endorsed the change and suggested that many of the county’s recent fiscal failures might have been avoided under the simpler structure.

“God knows we’ve been through agony,” he said, adding that with new administrative staff in place, the time was ripe to consider the change. “We have an opportunity now to make Goochland the best-managed county around.”

In Virginia, only neighboring Henrico County has a county-manager government, which allows for the grouping and consolidation of administrative functions into departments and does not include elected financial officers.

Arlington County in Northern Virginia utilizes a “county-manager plan” structure, which does include an elected treasurer and commissioner of the revenue.

Hanover County attempted to switch to a county-manager form of government in 1994, but voters rejected the change in a referendum. Henrico successfully made the transition in 1934.

Henrico County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett agreed with Eads, calling the structure a more efficient type of government.

“Everything comes through the director of finance and it’s much simpler, I think, to deal with from a policy standpoint and an administrative standpoint,” he said.

Goochland Treasurer Brenda Grubbs disagrees — and not only because her position would be eliminated, she said. “It would be a terrible, terrible disaster,” she said. “You wouldn’t have your checks and balances in place.”

Grubbs said the county-manager form of government puts “too much control in one office.”

She said the county’s recent utilities debacle, in which years worth of undeposited checks were discovered — some in file cabinets — could have been worse under a county-manager government, pointing out that she had been reporting the problem to county leaders since 2004.

“I notified them ever time it came up,” she said, suggesting that without her office, it might never have been caught at all.

Jim Campbell, executive director for the Virginia Association of Counties, said the county-manager form does make for a more efficient operation, but abolishing constitutional officers makes carrying a referendum difficult.

“That’s an emotional argument, that you’re eliminating the two elected folks that were holdovers from the 18th century,” he said. “From a managerial perspective, streamlining and making things more efficient is the way to go. But when you talk about government, people want to be able to elect.”

Unlike a county administrator, a county manager operates as a chief executive officer without having to go to a local governing body for approval.

“Obviously, you don’t want to do anything that the Board of Supervisors may object to,” he said, Hazelett said, noting that he still serves at the board’s will.

Hazelett has served as county manager since 1992. The county’s Board of Supervisors is the longest-sitting legislative body in the state, having served together since 1996.

“The relationship between myself and them is just fantastic, and it’s this form of government that’s created that, quite honestly,” he said. “I marvel at times seeing some of the situations or discussions that I see in other jurisdictions. They would never happen here.”

Eads said it makes little sense to have a county or any other financial operations divided into three autonomous units. “I don’t think you can run a hot dog stand and divide the finances into three separate people,” he said.

Eads was careful to point out that his desire to make the change has nothing to do with the county’s current treasurer or commissioner of the revenue.

“I’m not talking about personalities here. There’s no reflection on any person,” he said. “I’m talking about a structure.”

But he did concede that the idea would probably be unpopular unless it was properly explained. “People will say, ‘Well, you know, what you have [now] is checks and balances.’

Well, we proved that checks and balances doesn’t work,” he said, referring to the recent problems.

Goochland Supervisor Malvern R. “Rudy” Butler agreed that the idea should be explored, but for different reasons. He said the state provides less and less funding to constitutional officers each year, leaving it to the localities to make up the difference.

“I think the day is coming that the state doesn’t fund these people anymore, and then we’ve really got to do something,” he said. “Sooner or later in these modern times we’re going to probably have to go there.”

If that day does come, Butler says he hopes the state will grant localities the power to make the switch on their own. A bill that would have accomplished that was introduced in the General Assembly last year but later pulled.

Currently, the change requires putting the matter to a referendum, obtaining a majority vote there, and then gaining the blessing of the legislature.

Eads said that despite the difficulties, pursuing the change was well worth it because the traditional form of local government was outdated and overly complicated.

“I’m sure it was a hot idea in 1710,” he said, but added: “It’s not practical today. It makes no sense.”

Wesley P. Hester is a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.