Representatives from Columbia's villages came to a tentative agreement last night with members of the Columbia Council over their future relationship, putting to rest -- at least temporarily -- a power struggle between the two groups.

About 50 village representatives and nine of the 10 council members met in the Columbia Association boardroom to discuss the council's controversial decision last week to remove Village Association employees from the CA benefits plan.

After about two hours of discussion, the council -- an elected group that oversees CA -- agreed to help the villages make the transition to paying their employees benefits. Council members agreed to cover the villages for the first year, which they estimated would cost about $10,000 per village for nine villages; Long Reach already provides benefits independently of CA.

Evelyn Richardson, a member of the Dorsey's Search Village Board and a former council member, said she was "pleased" with the agreement but disappointed that the council didn't include the villages in the discussion sooner.

"We didn't have to go through all this agony," she said. "It's too bad."

Until recently, long-term residents say, Columbia's two branches of government got along fine. CA manages the community's recreational facilities and sets policies Columbia-wide, while the villages organize community events and address local concerns, such as traffic or architectural violations.

The association also gives the villages grants every year; in fiscal year 2000, the villages will receive a total of $1.4 million -- not including the $100,000 or so the council promised last night -- that will be used to pay staff members, buy office equipment, print newsletters and other expenses.

Last Friday, CA attorney Shelby A. Tucker King announced in writing that that relationship would change. She wrote that "CA and the Village Associations must now have separate benefits plans" and that the villages must make a decision for alternative benefits by March 31.

There are 114 Village Association employees, said Pam Mack, the vice president of community relations; about half, she said, receive benefits.

Many village members last night expressed dismay at the March 31 deadline, only 3 1/2 weeks away, which they claimed left them little time to research alternatives.

"How can we make a decision in three weeks of this magnitude?" asked Ed LeBlanc, a member of the Owen Brown Village Board.

"You're just shoving this down our throat," said Jay Stearman, another member of that board. "At least that's the feeling we're getting. I just have not heard a reasonable explanation about what is so sacred about March 31."

David Berson, the council vice chairman, said the council could not answer that question as it would violate its "fiduciary responsibility."

"We're in a difficult spot, too," Berson said. "We would love to share everything."

But, he added, the council has a "fiduciary responsibility to the organization that I think supersedes anything else." He said if the council didn't act quickly, it could put 230 full-time CA employees covered by the plan at risk.

Norma Rose, chairwoman of the council, said this week that CA felt a need to re-examine its relations with the villages after "a situation last year in one of the villages."

An employee of the Dorsey's Search Village Association was accused last year of embezzling more than $120,000 in funds, according to bankruptcy court documents; no criminal charges have been filed.

For months, a task force of the Columbia Council has been meeting to decide whether to centralize management of the villages and examine the way the association allocates money.

Last night, Richardson took issue with the council's approach and the villages' lack of representation in those discussions.

"Why were no village representatives included in deliberations and on the task force?" she asked.

"The members of the Village Association Partnership are angry and upset, not only with the changes being thrust upon them, but with the process by which these changes are being implemented," Richardson said. "This could have been avoided."

Pub Date: 3/05/99