Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003182488
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Long
Finney, a five-term Democrat, got most of the credit for defeating a bill to allow restaurants near Smith Mountain Lake to serve mixed drinks along with beer and wine.
Many of his constituents in Franklin County viewed the bill as a heavy-handed effort to override a 1988 mixed-drink referendum rejected by voters.
Critics, however, claim that Finney secretly supported the mixed-drinks bill and spoke out against it only after angry church groups flooded his office with phone calls and petitions.
"He was going to let it slide through until the deacons and preachers started calling," said Ron Willard, a Smith Mountain Lake developer who persuaded a Northern Virginia legislator to sponsor the drinking bill.
Finney categorically denies having changed his position. "I told them I was against it; they knew that from the start," he said.
Finney and Willard differ in their recollection of events surrounding the mixed-drinks bill.
One intriguing question is why Finney waited until after the bill had passed the House of Delegates before speaking against it publicly. Was it simply Finney's laid-back style? Or was he trying to play both sides of the issue?
The bill's origins go back to 1988, when Franklin County voters by a margin of slightly more than 500 votes turned down a referendum question that would have allowed restaurants and bars to serve mixed drinks.
The question passed in the two voting districts next to the Smith Mountain Lake resort area, but church-led opposition in the rest of the rural county led to a countywide defeat.
The results upset Smith Mountain Lake restaurateurs, who had counted on the referendum's passage to help them compete with eating establishments across the water in Bedford County, which has allowed mixed drinks since 1984.
Rather than wait until 1992, the earliest date another referendum question could be put before Franklin County voters, developers sought a legislative exemption that would override the election results.
Restaurateurs got nowhere when they approached Rocky Mount Sen. Virgil Goode shortly after the 1988 referendum had failed. "I told them I wasn't for it and that I would vote against it," Goode recalled. "I never heard from them again."
The topic came up again last fall during a dinner meeting at The Water's Edge at Smith Mountain Lake attended by about 20 state legislators, including Finney.
Finney said his colleagues "jokingly" talked about someone introducing a bill in the 1990 General Assembly but no firm plans were made.
"There wasn't much said," Finney recalled.
Developer Willard, who hosted the dinner, claimed that more was said - much more.
According to Willard, Finney told the group he could not support such a bill for political reasons but he might not stand in the way if someone else introduced it.
"He said he wouldn't politick against it because he said the lake needed it," Willard recalled.
Finney denied having made such statements. Other participants could not recall details of the conversation.
When the General Assembly convened in January, the bill was introduced by Del. Warren Stambaugh, an Arlington Democrat with several constituents who own expensive lakefront houses at Smith Mountain Lake.
Finney, a low-key country lawyer, said he worked behind the scenes to encourage his colleagues to vote against the bill.
He said he thought his lobbying would be so effective that there would be no need to ask Stambaugh to withdraw the bill or to testify against it at a House committee meeting.
"I thought it was going to be a goner from the beginning," Finney said. "I really didn't think it would get that far."
Publicly, Finney remained silent when the bill came up for final passage in the House of Delegates on Feb. 6. He said it was unnecessary to give a floor speech alerting his colleagues that the bill was an unwelcome intrusion into his district's affairs.
"They knew how I stood on it."
Despite Finney's quiet lobbying, the House passed the bill without debate, 57-40.
The next day, Finney said he had voted against the bill but noted that it did not completely circumvent the local referendum results because a majority of lake-area voters had supported mixed drinks.
After the bill was reported by local television stations and newspapers, Finney and Goode started hearing from church groups upset that the General Assembly would "disenfranchise" county voters.
On Feb. 14, two days before the bill was scheduled to be heard before a Senate committee, Finney put out a news release saying he had persuaded Stambaugh to withdraw the bill.
Willard, the developer, said if Finney really had wanted the bill killed he would have put out a news release weeks earlier.
"He's tried to make it look like he stuck with the voters of Franklin County," Willard said. "If he was with the voters, why didn't he tell me that last fall and tell Warren Stambaugh that he better keep his nose out of Franklin County?"
The bill came up before the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee after Finney agreed that Willard deserved a chance to be heard.
Finney did not attend the meeting because the House of Delegates was in session. But Goode spoke against the bill, which died on an 8-7 vote.
The bill's demise sparked harsh words from both sides.
Willard, a Republican, threatened to bankroll a candidate to challenge Finney next year. Finney shot back that he was not worried about a "millionaire developer" who does not even live in Franklin County. Willard lives in Roanoke.
Stambaugh said Willard needs to bury the hatchet with Finney before the legislature would consider other ways - such as a referendum for individual voting districts - to bring mixed drinks to Smith Mountain Lake.
"If Ron Willard keeps shooting off his mouth," Stambaugh said, "there's not going to be anyone willing to help him."
by CNB