When Governing Is A Family Affair

WISE, Va. – Betty Cornett and J.H. Rivers didn’t set out to be public officials. But now Cornett, a former member of the Wise County Board of Supervisors, serves on the county’s School Board and Rivers, her husband, is on the Board of Supervisors.

The couple isn’t the only family with seats on both Wise County boards; brothers Phillip and Steve Bates also serve together, with Phillip Bates on the School Board and Steve Bates on the Board of Supervisors.

If that’s not enough, consider that five of the eight county supervisors and six of the eight county School Board members have spouses who work for either the county or the school system. Two additional supervisors also derive household income from employment in education – at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

In a four-month investigation, the Bristol Herald Courier reviewed hundreds of financial disclosure forms filed by Southwest Virginia public officials. It revealed that a number of couples and family members serve together in government. But nowhere were there more family connections than in Wise County.

“In Wise County, we have a policy that we try to hire as many of our local people as possible,” said Gene Rowland, director of secondary education for the school system. “If we have qualified applicants and they’re from Wise County, we try to give them the opportunity before somebody else ... so naturally they’re going to be related.”

In a small, rural community, Rowland said, it’s hard not to have family connections, especially when education and government make up a large percentage of the available jobs.

“The school system and our colleges are probably the largest employers in Wise County, so naturally that’s where some of these people are going to be employed because there’s not that much opportunity for them to do other things,” Rowland said. “Years ago, it was the coal industry, and now it’s education where most of the people work.”

Rivers said it’s “just by chance” that he and his wife are serving in local government at the same time. He worked for the state and wasn’t able to run for a seat on the board until he retired; she got into local government when she filled the remainder of the term of her first husband, who died after serving just one month on the Board of Supervisors.

“We’re both … we love to give,” said Cornett, who was a supervisor for seven years before she lost her seat and ran for the School Board.

Both she and Rivers said they’ve been willing to give the time, effort and money it takes to seek office in a county where many public officials run unopposed.

Monty Salyer, whose wife is a teacher, said his participation on the School Board is simply an outgrowth of his longtime involvement in his children’s education.

“Since my children started school I have been an active participant in school issues, and I just stepped it up a notch when I decided to run for School Board,” he said.

He noted that his wife has taught for more than a decade while he has just served four years on the board; the timing is significant because state law forbids the hiring of an employee who has a close relative who serves on the board.

Rowland said it’s common here for a local couple to attend college, then return to Wise County as a pair of teachers. Each spouse then makes career advancements independently of the other, and ultimately they hold different positions in the county’s education or government system.

For example, Phillip Bates and his wife both started out teaching, Rowland said. He served as a school principal before retiring and running for the board; she continues to work for the school system along with other family members.

Salyer said there are fewer and fewer people who want to serve, and local government has a smaller number of people to draw from.

School Board member Mark Hutchinson said when he and his wife attended college together, “We knew we were going to spend our whole lives in education.”

A former teacher and administrator, he now runs an education program in state prisons and serves on the School Board in Wise County; his wife continues to work for the school system.

Elected officials on both county boards acknowledge that the level of interrelations here has its good side and its bad.

“I think it’s increased communication when you have people serving dual roles, but the negative I think is public perception, such as [that public officials are] serving a selfish interest,” Rivers said.

Hutchinson said too many relatives together in local government can make it easier for a handful of people to seek control – and “you can forget the sunshine laws in certain situations.”

But Superintendent Jeff Perry said the frequency of spouses serving together in government and education here can be boiled down to similar interests – and the tendency of two people with “a servant’s heart” to wind up together.

“I think a lot of times in small, rural communities, people with similar interests tend to gravitate toward each other,” Perry said. “If they don’t have common interests, those interests are developed later.”

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