ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605040003
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
5 of the 7 seats on Roanoke City Council will be on the ballot.
HOW MANY ARE YOU VOTING FOR?
There are actually three separate elections - for mayor, for three seats on City Council serving four years and one seat serving two years.
Mayor: Two candidates for one seat.
City Council:
Six candidates for three seats serving four-year terms.
Two candidates for one seat serving a two-year term.*
Here's a look at who's running for what on Tuesday
MAYOR: A 4-year term
DAVID BOWERS (D)
--601 Camilla Ave. S.E.
--Roanoke, Va. 24014
Occupation: Lawyer
Age: 43
A 12-YEAR City Council veteran who was elected mayor in 1992, Bowers in his re-election campaign finds himself in a somewhat strange position.
In the past, he campaigned as a political outsider and the "peoples' candidate." But in this election Bowers has repeatedly defended city government and the status quo against criticism from other candidates and citizens.
"We've got a great city," he's told citizens time and again on the campaign trail.
Bowers is running on "a record of accomplishment," citing evidence such as a declining crime rate, the reopening of the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, and Roanoke's 77th-place ranking on a list of best places to live compiled by Money magazine.
But the mayor has lost the strong support of certain constituencies that feel he's broken promises he made in 1992.
The Painters and Allied Trades Local 891, a former strong Bowers supporter, has endorsed Republican mayoral challenger J. Patrick "Pat" Green. Some blacks are angry about Bowers' flip-flop on a referendum for a modified ward system.
On the other hand, Bowers garnered an endorsement from the influential Roanoke Education Association, a teachers' group that believes he's more committed to raising teachers' salaries than Green is.
PAT GREEN (R)
--3161 Stoneridge Road S.W.
--Roanoke, Va. 24014
Occupation: Co-owns small insurance agency and auto products distribution business
Age: 55
GREEN HAS campaigned on a theme that Roanoke is a good place to live, but it has a few problems: high juvenile crime and teen-age pregnancy rates are two of them, he says.
City government is "kind of like a wheel that's got a squeak in it," he told Rotarians during an April 11 forum at the Hotel Roanoke. Green's prescription is a mixture of vision and communication.
"We need to have a city that knows where it's going ...that communicates with everyone in the city," he says.
Green, who is making his first bid for public office, believes the city will be financially strapped in the next four years by federal and state mandates that won't include any new money. The way to cope, he says, is by cutting down the "layers and layers" of City Hall bureaucracy.
At an Old Southwest candidate's forum April 18, Green also questioned the size of recent pay increases for city employees, which have been higher than the inflation rate and increases granted by private industry.
Green's support appears strong in black neighborhoods, where some residents wear "Pat Green for Mayor" buttons. He's won endorsement from the Peoples Voters League, a mostly black group in Northwest Roanoke. The Republican has also been endorsed by Local 891 of the Painters and Allied Trades union and the city Police Benevolent Association.
CITY COUNCIL: For 4-year seat
DAVID LISK (R)
--909 Carrington Ave. S.W.
--Roanoke, Va. 24015
Occupation: Retired sales executive, current part-time coordinator for legal education programs.
Age: 67
LISK, WHOSE GOP roots go back to Richard Nixon's first presidential campaign in 1960, served 10 years on City Council. But he hasn't occupied a seat there since 1976.
More recently, he's stayed involved as a member of the city School Board, with service on the New Century Council, and as volunteer coordinator for the city's Sister City Committee, arranging partnerships with localities in South America, South Korea and Russia, among others.
He currently serves on the Fifth Planning District Commission and the Roanoke Neighborhood Partnership steering committee.
Lisk considers himself a "people's candidate." As as a council member, he says, he'll be available day and night to answer residents' questions or help them with concerns.
He says Roanoke needs: renovations at Victory Stadium; improved drainage in Garden City; and a referendum on a modified ward system "to put this issue to rest." Lisk also wants to rehabilitate deteriorating buildings in the city's downtown core "before we start other new projects."
Through real estate, personal property, utility and other levies, "council has its hands on the purse strings that affect you more than any other body, including the General Assembly and the Congress," Lisk says.
ALVIN NASH (R)
--1627 Lonna Drive N.W.
--Roanoke, Va. 24019
Occupation: Total Action Against Poverty administrator
Age: 44
ONE OF the things Nash says he'll work for if elected is a tighter leash on the city administration. To a question at the Old Southwest forum that suggested the city's bulk trash pickup program is ineffective, he said: "the way you ensure these things are done is to make it a part of the city manager's evaluation. It's very simple."
He also says he wants to see some new faces on city boards and commissions, which currently "have too many city staff people involved."
Citing widespread citizens' distrust of the city when it comes to development and transportation projects, Nash has also advocated the creation of a Community Development Commission that would ensure development proposals "pass a litmus test" of community involvement, including focus groups, public hearings and community review, before plans are presented to the city Planning Commission.
He's also pushing a Renew Roanoke II, patterned after the successful community fund-raising effort for the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. But the new campaign should be focused on improving neighborhoods rather than a single public works project, he says.
Nash has won endorsements from associations representing city police officers and firefighters and the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors.
JOSEPH NASH (I)
--1202 Kerns Ave. S.W.
--Roanoke, Va. 24015
Occupation: Truck fleet supervisor, Adams Construction Co.
Age: 40
NASH IS a political newcomer whose community involvement began with Wasena Neighborhood Crimewatch, an anti-crime group he heads.
His responses during recent candidate forums sound forthright and candid. Sometimes, Nash admits he's stumped and promises to find out the answer.
He does, too. When one citizen questioned why the city doesn't erect bus-stop shelters, Nash rolled up his sleeves and went to work, calling suppliers for pricing information. His answer: at $6,500 each, they're expensive.
The three things Nash has talked about most in the campaign are the need for better city schools, a more responsive government, and more attention to neighborhoods.
Since announcing his candidacy, Nash has been door-knocking in all quadrants of the city, assisted by a cadre of supporters. Meeting city residents in their homes, he says, has been "a real education."
As the first independent candidate in years to run for a City Council seat, Nash has also received an impressive list of endorsements. They include the Roanoke Education Association, a group that represents hundreds of city teachers, and the United Central Labor Council, a coalition of union locals in the Roanoke area.
CARROLL SWAIN (D)
--3434 Kershaw Rd. N.W.
--Roanoke, Va. 24017
Occupation: Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, retired city school system administrator.
Age: 68
YOU MAY have seen him knocking on doors in Deyerle, or Southeast, or Northwest. Swain, the oldest candidate in the City Council race, has been hitting the streets in his first bid for a political office.
Gentlemanly yet robust, the no-nonsense former Army officer pitches himself as a candidate who knows Roanoke inside and out.
Growing up as a boy, "I had to go barefoot in Northeast - because it was a necessity, not because it was warm outside," he's told audiences at campaign appearances.
Swain says crime is still a problem in certain city neighborhoods. He's calling for police substations where it's worst.
As a councilman, he promises to "get out and check" to see if city staff, boards and commissions are fulfilling policies council sets. He says "good jobs" are one answer to deteriorating neighborhoods, because they'll give people enough money to buy and fix up older homes. And he's proposed to set up a "citizen contact" database that would allow council members to check up on what city government is doing about specific complaints citizens have voiced.
Swain has been critical of the way the Henry Street Revival Committee and the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority failed to involved Gainsboro residents in drawing up plans for Henry Street Development.
He has been endorsed by the Roanoke Education Association, the United Central Labor Council and the Peoples Voters League.
JIM TROUT (D)
--2102 Stephenson Ave. S.W.#18
--Roanoke, Va. 24014
Occupation: Retired economic research analyst
Age: 65
THE 1996 city council races mark Trout's 11th election bid in a 30-year political career that includes 16 years on council. The last three times he's run - in 1990, 1992 and 1994 - he's lost.
Along with running mates Linda Wyatt, Carroll Swain and Nelson Harris, Trout's campaign theme is "good jobs, good schools, good government and good neighborhoods."
Good schools and good jobs go together, he told a crowd at a March 25th candidates forum held by human service agencies and arts organizations. "One will energize the other," he said.
One of Trout's classic campaign maneuvers is suggesting public works projects. This time around, he's proposing tearing down some old homes on the edge of Old Southwest and erecting an office building, parking garage and high-priced condos.
Trout has also laid claim to fighting in the trenches for citizens. At the April 18 candidates' forum in Old Southwest, Northeast resident Roy Stroop suggested that communities never see council members, Trout reminded him he'd gotten a fire station placed in that quadrant years ago.
"I remember you, Jim," replied Stroop, president of the Wildwood Civic League. "I'm talking about the others."
Trout has been endorsed by associations representing city police officers and firefighters.
LINDA WYATT (D)
--2543 Round Top Road N.W.
--Roanoke, Va. 24012
Occupation: Schoolteacher
Age: 47
WYATT IS a longtime city schoolteacher with strong liberal credentials who in 1994 won a two-year term in a special election.
Since then she's established herself as one of two council members most likely to vote out of lockstep with the usually unanimous council. The other one is retiring Councilman Mac McCadden.
More than any other member, Wyatt has pushed council through a "visioning" process she hopes will lead to more citizen involvement in planning for the city's future.
During this campaign for a full four-year term, Wyatt has pushed the idea of a more "hands on" council linked to neighborhoods groups and city boards and commissions.
She's also been council's most unwavering backer for holding a referendum on whether the city should switch from at-large elections to a modified ward system. On April 22, she won a step toward a referendum with a council motion that will establish a task force of citizens to draw up a modified ward plan.
Wyatt has made the "A" list of every special interest group issuing endorsements in this election: city firefighters; police officers; the Roanoke Education Association; United Central Labor Council; Peoples Voters League; and the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors.
CITY COUNCIL: For 2-year seat*
*This is a special election to fill the remaining two years of the seat held by John Edwards until he was elected to the state Senate.
NELSON HARRIS (D)
--813 Edgewood St. S.W.
--Roanoke, Va. 24015
Occupation: Minister
Age: 31
HARRIS, A Baptist preacher who is chairman of the city School Board, has run a quiet campaign.
"Nelson Harris can be a quiet worker," he said at a March 25 debate sponsored by human service and arts organizations. "But when it comes time to stand on principle, I'm not afraid to do that."
Harris is running in part on his record with the School Board, which has brought nurses to all city schools.
He's called for greater city funding in the area of social services and a formal council liaison to the city's Neighborhood Partnership. Harris also says he'll hold regular informal meetings in neighborhoods.
Harris has reversed one stance he took in his losing 1994 council bid. Then, he favored amending the city personnel code to ban discrimination against gays in city hiring and promotions. Now, he doubts the ordinance is needed.
Harris says City Council should hold administrators more accountable for enforcing city laws and ordinances and devising programs citizens ask for. The current bulk trash pickup program, he told the Old Southwest candidates forum, isn't working and is "simply inexcusable."
He's been endorsed by the United Central Labor Council; Roanoke Education Association; Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors and city police officers and firefighters associations.
JEFF ARTIS (R)
--727 Highland Ave. S.E.
--Roanoke, Va. 24013
Occupation: Substitute teacher; publisher, Black Conservative Newsletter; church custodian.
Age: 39
MORE THAN any other candidate running for council, Artis is blunt and unapologetic in his criticism of the way things are run in the city. It's a political style he honed in his losing GOP campaign last year against incumbent Democratic Del. Vic Thomas.
"Let's face it - if the city can make a buck it has shown it will do whatever it can do to get the property," he said to a question at the April 18th Old Southwest forum that suggested the the city administration isn't fully committed to preserving buildings in that neighborhood.
Earlier, he drew applause while taking a jab at City Manager Bob Herbert's plan to tow junked cars from neighborhoods, an item some communities had been requesting for two years.
"I think it's wonderful that in an election that we have a plan," Artis said. "... it's amazing. Maybe we should have an election every year." And, "we have many council members who are asleep at the wheel."
Conservative Republicans have chided Artis for a statement supporting an amendment to the city's personnel code that would ban discrimination against gays in hiring and promotions in city government. He says the issue has more to do with equal treatment for all than sexual orientation, and notes it would also protect heterosexuals from discrimination by gays.
Artis has been endorsed by the Peoples Voters League.
LENGTH: Long : 303 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 10 headshors. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS MAYOR CITY COUNCILby CNB