THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 6, 1995 TAG: 9502060060
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL AND KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
Electing School Board members rather than appointing them was supposed to solve myriad problems.
It would get good people into office and help keep them there, despite the whims of the City Council; it would make seats on the School Board a reward for good ideas rather than good friends; it would increase the public's control over a board that spends upwards of $370 million a year.
But the first six months of elected representation on Virginia Beach's School Board have been rocky at best. Unprecedented troubles on the 11-member board have prompted some who opposed elections to start singing ``I told you so.'' And election supporters have been forced to admit that the system needs fine-tuning.
Eighteen of the state's 134 school boards have added elected members since state law was changed to allow it in 1992. Virginia Beach had by far the most bitter contest when the first races in the state began last spring, and it is the only city facing such significant problems now.
``The concept of direct election is good, but the present mechanisms we have are flawed,'' said John T. Early Jr., chairman of Kids First, a group that includes some founders of the push to switch to elected boards in Virginia Beach.
``I don't believe in throwing the baby out with the wash. I really believe we've got to work with direct election, but we've got to improve it.''
Early's group is preparing to circulate a petition this week calling for the court to remove School Board member Charles W. Vincent, who was elected in May and is awaiting a judge's decision on whether to uphold his criminal conviction on nine counts of violating a state ethics code. Vincent has refused to step down.
Board members have argued publicly over whether they should ask Vincent to step down, and privately they have lamented that they are spending more time worrying about his case than about education issues.
The board was rocked further last week by the surprise resignation of Chairman James R. Darden, also elected in May. Darden's departure, because of family medical problems, came only seven months into his four-year term.
Vickie J. Hendley, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, which backed Vincent and Darden during May's elections, said that the board's problems are an unfortunate anomaly but that the elections process is not to blame.
``Elected school boards don't guarantee you great school boards; neither did appointed boards,'' she said.
Former board Chairman Samuel W. Meekins Jr., a vocal opponent of elected boards who declined to defend his seat last May, last week said one problem is that races for board seats generally are low-profile, often attracting political unknowns. Last May's ballot had 24 candidates with a huge range of backgrounds. A heated council race with 20 contenders added to the confusion.
``I don't think a lot of people even knew what the issues were,'' Meekins said.
Vincent ``fooled me, too,'' Meekins said last fall after Vincent's indictment. ``I thought he was the most qualified candidate out there. But I think that just further enforces the concept that these kind of elections, particularly when they're the first elections, make it very difficult for voters to sift through candidates' qualifications.''
Vincent was a newcomer to the public scene and has attributed his problems to political naivete.
Ulysses Van Spiva, elected to the board in May, said he believed that as the city gets more experience with elections, voters will get better at making choices. The next board elections are scheduled for May 1996, when the five remaining appointed seats will go on the ballot. At that time, Darden's seat and possibly Vincent's, if he is forced from office by the court, also could be filled. Six seats were up last May.
Spiva said campaigning ``forces you from day one to say to the taxpayers across the city what it is you plan to do, what your feelings are about education. . . . Heretofore, taxpayers haven't had that.
``Now I admit there's been a little bit of rough starting with some of the things that have gone on. But it'll fix itself.''
Early does not agree that the system will mend without help.
He proposes changing the city's charter, allowing residents to recall unsatisfactory elected officials by voting them out of office. Portsmouth has such a recall provision, which was used in 1987 to oust Mayor James W. Holley III.
Beach citizens who want to dump an elected official must petition the Circuit Court and prove that the official was incompetent, neglected duty or misused power in a way that adversely affected the office.
Early said his group is considering a petition to put a question on the ballot asking voters to approve a recall provision.
But Frank E. Barham, executive director of the Virginia School Boards Association, said a recall measure would be a bad idea.
Education is a better way to go, Barham said. His organization is trying to better educate elected School Board members about the laws under which they must operate.
Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Robert J. Humphreys said he didn't think concern over the Vincent case justified changing city policies or state laws.
``Vincent is the first elected official to be convicted in the city's history and one of only a handful who've been convicted as elected officials in Virginia,'' Humphreys said. ``I don't know that I would go rushing around to change the law to deal with this particular situation.''
There is enough room in existing law for citizens to affect Vincent's future, he said.
``If he's convicted, then obviously, as a part of that punishment, he will lose his seat on the School Board, whether it's immediately or after appeal,'' Humphreys said.
If he's not convicted, Humphreys said, state law provides for a way - albeit a complicated one - to remove Vincent by petitioning the court.
Meekins said he believed there was more accountability when board members had to report to council members.
In the Vincent case, for example, ``The heat would really be turned up on a City Council member . . . and pressure would really be brought to bear to clean this mess up, either by resignation or otherwise,'' he said.
``I just wonder how many people today would vote for elected school boards
Still, it wasn't necessarily easier to get rid of unsatisfactory board members when the City Council was appointing them. Unless the seat was up for reappointment anyway, council members, like citizens, would have had to circulate a petition and request the court to remove the board member, according to city attorneys' interpretation of state law. The council also would have had to prove incompetence, neglect of duty or misuse of office.
Spiva said the new elections process, though complex, at least gives voters the hiring and firing power. In 1992, a disgruntled council member decided not to nominate Spiva for reappointment, even though citizens wanted him to stay on the board.
``With the appointed board, there were many times when there were people on there who you felt were not doing what they should be doing, and you couldn't do anything about it, either midterm or at the end of their terms,'' because they'd get reappointed by their friends on council, Spiva said.
``Board members now feel responsible directly to the taxpayer, and we know that if we don't do a good job and satisfy a sufficient number of taxpayers, then we are going to be voted off,'' he said.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB