Staring at a dilemma

Here’s the dilemma Waynesboro voters face: A month from today, they’ll vote for treasurer. Sophie’s choice was less murky.

In one corner stands incumbent Sandra Dixon, who in her official capacity has played the part of the spouse who can’t balance the checkbook. In each of Dixon’s four years on the job, the state auditor has cited her for miscues ranging from failing to lock up money to neglecting to deposit tax checks. It’s the kind of knee-slapping futility that would draw a snicker from the Detroit Lions. Somebody call the Redskins.

In the other corner stands challenger Stephanie M. Beverage, making the race in November a repeat of the one won by Dixon four years ago. A 1997 bankruptcy that left along the financial roadside more than $72,000 in defaulted debts helped derail Beverage last time. That history likely will be a factor again, though Dixon has done her unable best to steal away the attention.

Meandering through all this is the niggling fact that the treasurer happens to handle money by the bundles, millions of dollars, and it’d be more than a trifling convenient for that officeholder to be remotely qualified for the job. Trouble is, legions aren’t exactly lining up for a run.

An alternative exists. State law allows cities to replace the constitutional, or elected, office of treasurer with an appointed director of finance, something the city of Galax, southwest of Roanoke, did several years ago. Voters must back the move in a referendum. Among the potential hazards are that the city would lose state money for the elected office, according to a Senate Finance Committee report. The state share across the commonwealth averages about half of treasurer budgets, the committee report said. In Waynesboro’s case, the annual treasurer budget tops $245,000.

As more than 100 pages in local and state audits and city memos attest, there are also costs for ineptitude: more than $50,000 in lost revenues and interest income in Dixon’s case along with another $25,000 embezzled by a deputy treasurer under Dixon’s watch. The Senate report is thin on details but hints there might be ways to mitigate the financial impact of localities making a switch from constitutional to appointed offices.

We generally are disinclined to advocate changes that take decisions away from voters, and we’re not yet prepared to support such a move now. But consideration of the option is merited given the particular circumstances of the city Treasurer’s Office. Officials in Waynesboro learned Dixon’s shortcomings almost instantly but were forced to watch as she floundered answerable only to the review of voters every four years.

It might well be that Beverage, whatever her past financial struggles, is qualified. Dixon already has proved she is not. Still, given what appears at the moment to be what the Greeks called a double proposition, one choice between two bad ones, it’s worth learning more about a possible third, better choice. Otherwise, voters in four years might awaken uncomfortably on the horns of still another dilemma.