MEDIA ADVISORY


VIRGINIA'S LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TO MEET AUG. 11-13

	About 800 local officials from throughout Virginia will meet
in Charlottesville Aug. 11-13 for the 45th annual Local Government
Officials Conference, co-sponsored by the University of Virginia's
Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

	"Election Forum '96," a panel on the Presidential and U.S.
Senate elections, will launch the conference at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug.
11, in Old Cabell Hall Auditorium.  Panelists will include: Bob
Gibson, Charlottesville Daily Progress, Jeff Schapiro, Richmond
Times-Dispatch and Dwayne Yancey, Roanoke Times & World-News.  Bill
Wood, executive director, Virginia Institute of Political Leadership
and formerly with the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, will be the moderator.

	The conference will feature numerous discussions on a wide
range of key state issues.  Sessions, jointly sponsored by
government officials' organizations, will be held at various
locations around the University and city.

	Some highlights include:

Monday, Aug. 12

11-11:45 a.m. -- Kaye Braaten, county service representative for the
National Association of Counties (NACo), will speak at a Community
Countdown 2000 session.  The session is designed to inform citizens
about the important role of county government in addressing local
concerns and to encourage citizen responsibility in the search for
solutions.  
1:30 p.m. -- Jerry Kilgore, state Secretary of Public Safety, will
speak at an issues forum on juvenile justice at the Omni Hotel.
Other panelists will include Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court
Judge Charles McNulty III of the 26th District; and Nancy Ross,
executive director of the Virginia Commission on Youth.

3:15 p.m. -- A Virginia Association of Counties session at the Omni
Hotel will focus on school board taxing powers, with representatives
of Virginia Education Association and the Virginia School Board
Association.

Also at 3:15 p.m. at the Omni Hotel a session on preventing
Chesapeake Bay pollution will feature Kathleen Lawrence, director of
the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; Allison
Wiedeman of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake
Bay Program; and Joseph H. Maroon, Virginia Executive director of
the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. 

Tuesday, Aug. 13

10:45 a.m. 12:15 p.m. -- A public hearing on alternatives to the
personal property tax will be held.  The panelists, members of the
Senate Finance Subcommittee on Revenue Resources, will include Sen.
Charles J. Colgan, 29th senatorial district, Sen. Joseph B.
Benedetti, 10th senatorial district, Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr., 20th
senatorial district, Sen. Kevin G. Miller, 26th senatorial district
and Sen. Charles L. Waddell, 33rd senatorial district.  

	For additional information about the Local Government
Officials Conference please contact Albert Spengler at the Cooper
Center for Public Service at (804) 982-5518.  Television reporters
should contact our Television News Office at (804) 924-7550.

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August 2, 1996