Roll call vote to end all roll call votes - Akron Beacon Journal (10-9-95)

Board of Education's Vincent Pettinelli says recording all votes wastes time, seeks to end practice. By Dennis J. Willard

COLUMBUS - The first roll-call vote cast by Gov. George Voinovich's eight appointees to the State Board of Education will likely be one to eliminate required roll-call votes.

State school board ends roll-call votes.

Vincent Pettinelli a board member from Dublin appointed by Voinovich to fill a vacancy in an elected seat, is expected to introduce a resolution during a meeting in Toledo this week to do away with roll-call votes. The eight new members are being sworn in and will begin voting on matters then.

Pettinelli said the board is "beleaguered by minutiae" and has to take a roll-call vote just to adjourn a meeting. He said it takes too much time.

"This way we will have all in favor say "aye" and all opposed say "no." That should speed things along,: Pettinelli said.

Critics maintain state board members are making the move to avoid being individually accountable for their votes. There will be no written record of who said "aye" and who said "no." Minutes will only reflect whether a motion passed or not.

Anita Tighe, an elected state board member who represents Medina and Wayne counties, opposes eliminating the roll-call vote. "My concern is accountability," she said. "With 19 of us, it will be easy to muffle a vote."

William Phillis, who heads the Coalition for Equity and adequacy in School Funding, said the board will be able to vote as a group and avoid individual responsibility.

"That probably falls in line with the philosophy of a board that answers to another elected official rather than answering to the people," Phillis said. "The people who elect them like to know how they vote."

Roll calls are fairly new to the board, Pettinelli argues. It began using roll-call votes in 1992 when its size was reduced from 21 to 11 member. But with Voinovich's appointees taking seats next to elected members, the board will be expanded from 11 members to 19.

"We were one of the few boards of elected officials who did a voice vote," said Tighe, who led the board committee that recommended instituting roll-call votes nearly two years ago. "I represent 1 million people, and they have the right to know how I vote."

Pettinelli said his resolution calls for a roll-call vote only when board members elect a president and vice president. That should change this week. Pettinelli said he will ask for an amendment to his resolution that will allow for a roll-call vote if one-fifth of the board wants individual positions to be recorded.

In the past, when voice votes were used by the state board, it took only one member to ask for a roll-call vote. Virginia Purdy, state board president, who supports the resolution, said a current board member who objects to Pettinelli's idea has said she will ask for a roll-call vote each time. Purdy said that would effectively kill the resolution's intent, and would burden the board with roll-call votes on every item. She interprets the one-fifth rule to mean three members, and she believes any divisive issue among board members will end up as a roll-call vote.

The most divisive issue in recent memory occurred when the board voted 6-5 against appealing a July 1994 Perry County court ruling that found the state's formula for funding primary and secondary schools was unconstitutional and inequitable. This ruling has since been over-turned.

Although it went against the wishes of a majority of its members, the state board was included when Voinovich and legislative leaders moved ahead with n appeal anyway. Voinovich has pushed for more direct control over the state board since being elected. He proposed doing away with the elected state board entirely and giving appointment powers to the governor. State lawmakers balked at Voinovich's proposal and instead reduced the board to 11 elected members. Earlier this year, Voinovich introduced a plan in his two-year budget proposal to appoint the state board.

The governor believes he has been given the responsibility to oversee education in Ohio without the authority to make changes.

In a compromise move, the legislature created the board of 11 elected and eight appointed members. Voinovich has filled two elected posts and eight others, so his appointees control a majority of the votes on the 19-member board.

Michael Dawson, Voinovich's spokesman, said the governor is not going to get involved in the board's decision not to have roll-cal votes. "It's up to the board to decide. It's their decision to make," Dawson said.

Arline Smith, a board member, said she has mixed feelings about the resolution. "The negative is there are some constituents who are interested in how their elected board members vote. The positive aspect is it would speed up the process," she said Smith said she wants the board to consider moving things along by having the board president ask if there are any objections to a motion. Hearing no objections, the motion would be passed.

Everyone present would be considered supportive of the idea, and any objections would be noted in the record. Roll calls would not be necessary unless there were objections. A number of state commissions and boards work in this way including the State Controlling Board, which is comprised of elected state lawmakers and a president appointed by the governor. "That's something we should talk about," Smith said.