ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
FOR ALL THAT Elizabeth Bowles has done for voters, her cohort say a four-star retirement dinner is OK. But others pan the tax-supported feast as unfair.
Gainsboro resident Evelyn Bethel had fruit for dinner Tuesday night. Over in Old Southwest, Paula Prince had toast.
But the local taxes they pay helped to buy a far tastier meal that night for 65 top Roanoke City officials and their spouses, former officials, local Republicans and others:
Herb-rubbed roasted prime rib; oven roasted potatoes; baby green salad topped with fresh vegetables and orange-honey-cider vinaigrette; and white chocolate mousse drenched in a raspberry sauce and topped with whipped cream.
The occasion, complete with a pianist and singer and emceed by Mayor David Bowers, was a black-tie retirement party for City Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles. The place was the four-star Hotel Roanoke.
The bill for the party came to just over $3,100, not including champagne. That's enough to buy groceries for a family of five for 20 weeks, or more than two months' salary for the average council member.
It will be paid out of City Council's "gratuities" account, a $17,165 taxpayer-funded kitty that council reserves for such occasions, City Clerk Mary Parker said.
After an inquiry by The Roanoke Times, Parker said she and City Manager Bob Herbert would find someone to underwrite the cost of the Tott's champagne served at the dinner.
Parker said she made the arrangements for the party after discussions with Bowers and, at different times, with some members of council.
In all, fewer than half the names on the guest list appear to be current or former city officials. The rest are their spouses or friends and relatives of the Bowles.
The guest list included current and some former members of council, some council-appointed officers such as Herbert, Finance Director Jim Grisso and City Attorney Wilburn Dibling, their wives, and Bowers' girlfriend.
It also included relatives of Bowles from Richmond; and longtime Bowles friends such as City Republican Chairman Ralph Smith, Total Action Against Poverty Executive Director Ted Edlich and Raleigh Court resident Beth Brooks and her husband, John.
Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt and Councilman Carroll Swain, who both attended, said Wednesday they didn't know for sure who was paying for the dinner.
"I'm the new guy on the block," Swain said, "and I don't know how these people have been doing it in the past. It appears to me that somebody would have paid something. If they had charged me, I would have been willing to pay my share."
City Councilman Jack Parrott, who also attended, said he assumed the city was paying for it. That's fine with him because Bowles deserves it, Parrott said.
"For somebody like her who's served like that for 20 years, I think it's fine for her to be recognized," he said. "I think things like that are justified. Recognition should be given for her long service and what she's done."
Prince, the president of Old Southwest Inc., the neighborhood preservation group, agreed.
"I think it's lovely that taxpayers served Mrs. Bowles a dinner," Prince said. "The improvements in her [Williamson Road] area over the years have more than covered whatever that dinner cost. Do you know what it looked like before? It was massage parlors and adult bookstores. It was pretty crummy."
But Bethel, who is president of the Historic Gainsboro Preservation District Inc., had a far different take.
"I have no problem with her being honored for her years of service," Bethel said. "But if city officials wanted to do that, then the officials should have borne the expense. Not the taxpayers - especially since they weren't invited. If they, a select group, wanted to honor her, I think they should have paid for it. That's how it's done in other organizations."
Parker said it's not unusual for the city to pick up the cost of receptions for departing council members. State Sen. John Edwards got one last year, as did former members Jimmy Harvey and Howard Musser.
Actually, Tuesday's dinner was the second time Bowles had been honored. The first was a less ritzy reception at the Jefferson Center in June for her and two other retiring council members - Mac McCadden and Wendell Butler.
At that fete, the trio received gifts that taxpayers also paid for. Bowles, who has served for years on the Mill Mountain Development Committee, received a $190 stained glass rendering of the Mill Mountain Star.
McCadden received a $200 chair from his alma mater, Virginia Tech. Butler got a $100 framed collage of photos of different places in Roanoke and the Roanoke Valley.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Bowles. color.by CNB