THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503030174
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
The two-day meeting at the fire-fighting school last month was billed as a City Council ``retreat.'' And in at least one instance, retreat they did - from public scrutiny.
Last September, Council members decided to have an informal, workshop session on the third Tuesday each month, when Council doesn't otherwise meet. They would discuss city business with each other, with city staff, with the public in a back room. Or, as Councilwoman Parker reminded during the retreat, the better term is ``conference room.'' Back room, conference room, they did not initially want these third-Tuesday sessions televised. But they were persuaded otherwise, and paid to wire the room for telecast.
At the retreat, however, Council took the third-Tuesday sessions off TV. Why? Apparently not so much to deny the public access to candid Council as to deny some Council members access to the public. This suggestion was one of several to balk members' grandstanding before the cameras.
Grandstand? This group? Well, some more than others. And the ``some'' are members usually in the minority who, having already lost their argument with the majority, hope to appeal to constituents via the camera. It's time-consuming. It's annoying. It's sometimes inarticulate and often counterproductive.
It's also democracy at work.
To cut them off is to stifle dissent; which, unfortunately, seems precisely the point. When the minority's remarks can't change the result, why bother to broadcast them? Because otherwise just light the stogies and press the Tweed, that's why.
For all their occasional resemblance to the worst of the genre, Council meetings are not a TV show. They aren't supposed to be a scripted, rehearsed progression from ``The Tuesday Night Fights'' behind the scenes into ``The Brady Bunch'' on camera. Yet there was in the discussion at the retreat more than a hint that warm and fuzzy are fine, hot and bothered are not and Council member/par-ents who shout like banshees behind closed doors must present a united front for the citizen/kids. Nah.
Council members are supposed to be courteous, informative, spirited (also thrifty, clean and prepared) on the dais. When they aren't, they can be (a) gaveled down by the mayor, (b) disabused of their misinformation, (c) given enough rope by colleagues and (d) hung out to dry by voters in the next election.
But members' muzzling members because they use up time, videotape and patience dissenting, questioning, even grandstanding? Not in America. Not in Virginia Beach.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL by CNB