ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220014
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONLAN PIEDMONT
THE ELECTION song is ended but the malady lingers on, and I have these few observations:
The voting in Roanoke's recent City Council election demonstrated among other things that John Donne was wrong when he asserted that "no man is an island." To find proof, see the council's only Republican, gallant Jack Parrott, bless him, all alone and surrounded by people from the other party.
And when, as usual, the new council arranges itself alphabetically, the Rev. Nelson Harris will be sitting to the right of the Republican-in-residence, surely an uncomfortable location for any Democrat. This imbalance, however, will be corrected with Linda Wyatt firmly anchored on the far left.
The Rev. Harris, by the way, will be in the anomalous position of voting for the budget he, pardon the expression, shepherded through the School Board, which he chaired until the siren song of council membership fell on his ear.
And what are we to think when we learn that, the day after election, some of the old - and new - gang talked about raising the city meal tax? Ah, don't fret, said the mayor. "When we have taxes on citizens who don't live in the city but come here, that's a good tax." The blow then, in this golden vision, would fall mainly on visitors, as if city residents, by flashing some sort of identification, would be excused from this burden when they pay the check.
The irony should not be lost that the mayor thought to use the new revenues the tax would raise to increase promotion efforts to bring visitors into the city, presumably to pay "a good tax" for us, thus funding further efforts to attract visitors to pay the tax to bring more visitors, ad infinitum.
But then the mayor, possibly overheated by instant hostile opinion generated by this outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease, appeared coatless in a sidewalk interview to say, in effect, no, we were just funning about that tax. (No, we didn't think we were, said two of the mayor's newly elected colleagues-to-be.) Rest easy, for the mayor has now promised that the tax won't come up until next year, when the '96 election might be forgotten and the one in '98 will be a year away.
But it's clear that the gang wasn't funning when not long afterward they closed the door and started talking about raises for themselves. Very likely a raise is deserved; council members work hard and long, and they ought to be properly compensated (although one might wish that any increases would be merit-based).
The problem, as even The Roanoke Times, in an outraged tsk tsk, pointed out, is not the raise but the closed door. Monday, Parrott, speaking of the closed-door session, said, "We goofed." Indeed, we did, said the vice mayor. A nice, straightforward apologia, the sort of thing we all expect from our council. It's not much to ask.
Donlan Piedmont of Roanoke is retired as director of public relations for Norfolk Southern Railway.
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