THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 9, 1995 TAG: 9501070027
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Charles W. Vincent goes to court tomorrow to find out whether he violated ethics provisions of state procurement law. Elected last May to Virginia Beach's first-ever elected School Board, Vincent is also the first elected official in the city's history to be indicted on charges of public misconduct. Nine indictments charge that he illegally solicited campaign contributions from local architecture and construction firms that were seeking business with the Beach school district. If any conviction on these charges is upheld on appeal, Vincent must resign his School Board seat.
Whatever the outcome of that court case, however, Charles Vincent has proved himself unsuited to service on the School Board.
A first indication of his unsuitability came after his campaign as one of six candidates who won both the Virginia Beach Education Association endorsement and the election. It was revealed that the doctorate in counseling psychology to which Vincent routinely referred in his campaign literature was issued by a nonaccredited subsidiary of a religious outfit that was operated out of a private home and that, under California law, could confer only religious de-grees.
Now comes to our attention the card reprinted here, a handout from Mr. Vincent's School Board campaign. Would the facsimile of the state seal fool anyone that he as a ``(candidate)'' carried the imprimatur of the commonwealth? Let's hope not. But if implying that imprimatur wasn't the purpose of affixing it, why affix it? And though campaign cleverness isn't forbidden by state statute, unauthorized use of state seals or any facsimile or representation of them is. Is this representation of this seal an authorized use?
Such failures in judgment - failures that his School Board colleagues surely wouldn't emulate themselves, or recommend to the students in their charge - ought to be sufficient for them to press Vincent to resign. But the board is silent.
Charles Vincent's final failure of judgment is his unwillingness to resign, the decisive evidence of an ethical obtuseness no school board, school system or school patrons should countenance. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
by CNB