THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060495
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEFF HOOTEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
The first Republican majority in the City Council's history on Tuesday slammed home a message to the two remaining Democrats: Things are changing, fast.
Councilman Arthur L. Dwyer, who was a sharp-tongued critic of the majority Democrats during his first four years in office, won the vice mayor's seat by a unanimous vote Tuesday.
He immediately flexed some Republican muscle, suggesting that the council create a new position of ``secretary.'' He said the secretary's job would be to help resolve citizen complaints and provide an ongoing report to the other council members.
Then Dwyer nominated Councilman Robert T. Nance Jr., who has feuded bitterly with Mayor William E. Ward, to fill the position.
The mayor, a Democrat and the only African-American on the all-male council, opposed both the new job and the person chosen to fill it.
``In the spirit of cooperation, we voted to support Mr. Dwyer,'' Ward said. ``I think we're getting off on the wrong foot. This was something that was pushed through by the Republicans.''
The vice mayor's seat is largely ceremonial, and the secretarial post doesn't appear to carry a lot of real clout. But the manner in which the appointments were handled served notice of the Republican majority's willingness to reign with force, and make little attempt to build a consensus.
The council's two Democrats were alone in voting against Nance.
Dwyer, who sits at the mayor's right hand, then made a motion to seat the new secretary to the left of Ward.
Ward, objecting to the shift, called it a ``reverse Oreo.''
Nance, later, said he was ``perplexed'' by the mayor's comment.
``It has nothing to do with an Oreo or anything the mayor mentioned,'' Nance said in an interview. ``That's the most absurd thing I have heard . . . That's a wild statement for him to make. It had definite racial connotations. We're talking about efficiency and organization, and he's talking about Oreo.''
Ward declined to explain his remark, but hammered at the same theme.
``Here's white men with an agenda to undermine the effectiveness of the mayor,'' Ward said from his home, ``to collar the mayor and to disempower that position, given the limited power that it has.''
Nance, who suggested the new secretary position to Dwyer, said he came up with the idea to prevent citizen complaints from falling through the cracks in council.
Ward had suggested that the decision on the new position be delayed until after the council's retreat this weekend.
This is Dwyer's second term on the council. His decision to seek an open two-year seat prompted rumors that he might be interested in challenging Ward for mayor in 1996.
Nance said he had talked to former vice mayor John W. Butt about the new position before the meeting and that Dwyer had done the same with Ward.
Ward and Butt, the last two Democrats on council, said they opposed Dwyer's motions primarily because they had not been informed of the moves ``until 10 minutes before the meeting started.''
``They can holler all they want, `They weren't told this, they weren't told that,' '' Nance said later. ``They made hundreds of appointments that I wasn't told about, appointing their friends.''
Ward was also upset by a speech Dwyer delivered that praised onlythe expertise of council Republicans, ignoring the two Democrats and lone independent, Alan P. Krasnoff.
``It's a slap in the face to the three of us and further erodes the harmonious working relationship of the council,'' Ward said. ``It sounded like a campaign speech, more than a conciliatory, visionary statement about where we go from here.''
The mayor is selected in a city-wide election, but the vice mayor is chosen by the council.
Also sworn in were two new council members: John M. de Triquet and W. Joe Newman; and three incumbents: Butt, Krasnoff and Peter P. Duda Jr. MEMO: Staff writer Esther Diskin contributed to this report. by CNB