THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9501300070
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
Voter-endorsed revisions in the Virginia Beach City Council election process are headed for defeat in the General Assembly.
The bill - which passed the House of Delegates last week - has been sent to the Senate, where it is opposed by two key Virginia Beach senators.
Republican Del. Leo C. Wardrup Jr. is leading efforts to forge a compromise that would retain a provision for drawing seven districts of equal population, but would eliminate a requirement for a modified ward system.
But civic groups say they want no changes in a plan that was approved by 53 percent of the voters in a citywide referendum last year.
``We're not in a position to change it,'' said Maurice B. Jackson, leader of a petition drive that led to the ballot initiative. ``We'd violate the trust of the people.''
Voters approved a modified ward system to replace the current system of at-large elections of four members and district elections of seven members.
The vote, however, has failed to sway a number of Virginia Beach lawmakers who say many voters did not understand that the ballot initiative included wards.
Democratic Sen. Clarence A. Holland, a former Virginia Beach councilman, said the at-large system is better because it makes each candidate consider all parts of the city, not just his or her district.
The Virginia Beach business community, fearing a loss of influence in city elections, has been lobbying against the civic league-backed bill.
The Council of Civic Organizations, the Citizens Action Coalition and the League of Women Voters have refused to endorse Wardrup's compromise - even if no legislation is approved this year.
Del. Frank W. Wagner thinks he has found a way to encourage more youths to stay off drugs: Make them take drug tests at public schools.
Wagner, a Virginia Beach Republican, emphasized that the program would be entirely voluntary, at least as far as parents are concerned.
His legislation would enable school systems to set up programs in which parents could sign up their children to take two or three drug tests at random times each school year.
The parents would pay for the tests and only parents - not the school - would be notified if a student failed.
Wagner said he got the idea from the Navy, where widespread drug abuse ended ``three to four months'' after drug screening was introduced.
``All you're doing is giving a child a reason to say no,'' Wagner said. ``You'll have students say, `I'd like to take a toke, but my parents have me in this program. What a bummer.' ''
Clarence A. ``Clancy'' Holland has seen the light on tolls on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway.
The Virginia Beach senator - who last year helped kill legislation that would have set a Jan. 1, 1995, deadline for removing the 25-cent and 10-cent tolls - is sponsoring a bill this year that would get rid of the tolls by July. What has changed?
Gov. George F. Allen has circumvented the General Assembly and has directed the Commonwealth Transportation Board to remove the Route 44 tolls by Nov. 1.
``Clancy's trying to one-up the governor,'' groused one GOP lawmaker.
A woman who claims the Virginia State Police should have prevented the murder of her husband in Chesapeake five years ago has lost a long-shot bid to get $500,000 relief from the General Assembly.
The House Claims Committee voted 9-0 Tuesday to deny a claim by Michael Jacob's widow, who contends that she and her family were doubly wronged by the state.
First, Barbara Jacobs says, the state police did not notify her husband after they received information that John Thomas Midgette was looking to hire someone to kill several people, including her husband.
Second, she says, Central State Hospital - where Midgette was sent after being found innocent by reason of insanity - had inadequate security to prevent Midgette from escaping and remaining at-large for 45 days last year.
``We as taxpayers should share this burden on Mrs. Jacobs and members of her family,'' Del. William K. Barlow, D-Smithfield, told the claims committee.
But Lt. Col. David T. Mitchell, director of criminal investigations for the state police, said his troopers acted properly when two men reported in January 1990 that they had been approached by Midgette to kill several people.
Mitchell said the state police believed they were dealing with a murder-for-hire scheme and put a tap on the informants' phones in hopes of thwarting Midgette.
Mitchell noted that Midgette's statement to the two men was so incoherent and paranoid that several other law enforcement agencies had refused to look into the matter.
State police policy at the time was not to notify Jacobs and potential victims because such notice might have blown the undercover operation. That policy has since changed, Mitchell said.
The Claims Committee voted 9-0 to deny Jacob's claim.
``The problem,'' said chairman C.A. ``Chip'' Woodrum, a Democrat from Roanoke, ``is that for every injury there is not a remedy.''
State Sen. L. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth broke the tension in a Senate committee meeting Thursday.
The issue at hand was the perennial ``Labor Day Bill'' that pits education interests in western Virginia against tourism interests in eastern Virginia over whether to allow the school year to start before Labor Day.
Sen. R. Edward Houck said the committee had a obligation to listen to educators, not ``Yogi Bear, Ronald McDonald or the Coppertone Girl.''
Lucas, who is black, interjected, ``The Coppertone Girl votes No.''
A full minute passed before laughter subsided in the packed hearing room.
For the record: Lucas cast the deciding vote as the bill died, 8-7.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB