THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501260156
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
A cartoon critical of Mayor Meyera Oberndorf's remarks regarding a resolution ``to support enactment of permissive legislation by the 1995 General Assembly for the mental-health authority'' was mistakenly published twice in The Beacon. We regret the error.
At the mayor's request we reprint her remarks on the subject from the verbatim transcript of the Jan. 3 City Council session.
I will vote for this based on the fact that having lived long enough no matter how we would like to encourage the private sector to take care of the needy, it has never happened in its entirety before, and I want you to know that when `push comes to shove,' when people are in need and there is no provision for them in the private sector they turn to their local government and say: `What are you going to do to assist me in my hour of need?' It is a very hard situation to be in.
``Because you are painted by some as being heartless and without compassion and you are painted by others as trying to take on those responsibilities that would better be served by the private sector. I think in that small strip of `never-never land,' where everybody kind of puts their hands up and says: `Not me,' the one group that is going to be asked to come to the table and make the provisions will be the City Council, because these are the very same people that have to be served with homeless programs, that have to be served with making sure they take medications, that may have substance-abuse problems and the rest of society is going to say we do not want to build any more jails to take care of these people. We want you to be able to guarantee us our safety.
``All of these things are so complex, so obtuse, but they unfortunately feed into each other, and I would like to thank Mr. (Robert F.) Hagans (Jr., chairman, Virginia Beach Community Services Board) and Dr. (Dennis I.) Wool (executive director, Mental Health/Mental Retardation/Substance Abuse). These are never easy decisions, especially those of us who have been here to see the wars that went on before the harmony was struck by the Community Services Board. It is people saying that their particular disability was treated more than somebody else's.
``I know that the wave of the future may be HMOs, and I also attend the funerals of some who were victims of that. So it is never an easy question. It all goes down to dollars and cents.'' ILLUSTRATION: Oberndorf
by CNB