THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504140421
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 222 lines
Rumors were swirling that City Manager James W. Rein was about to lose his job.
Council members, meeting behind closed doors in a Williamsburg hotel for a February retreat, struggled to decide whether they should fire the city manager. Three wanted Rein out. Others seemed willing to go along.
One stood in their way: Arthur L. Dwyer. The vice mayor convinced other council members to keep Rein on.
``I didn't want to get rid of him at this time, at the retreat,'' Dwyer would later tell a Chesapeake woman.
He said he still had a need for Rein.
The incident, recounted in a tape recording of the conversation and through interviews with council members, set the stage for Dwyer to fulfill a promise he'd made to the woman, Sandra R. Lewis, the wife of a former police officer who had been fired more than a year earlier.
Meeting in executive session 10 days later, Dwyer asked his council colleagues to extend health insurance benefits to the Lewis family.
Rein, who had earlier turned down Lewis' claim, neither opposed nor recommended the action. He simply told the council how it could extend the benefits.
The council agreed to give Lewis the insurance, the first time the city has granted such an exemption to a fired employee since the plan was adopted six years ago.
``If Jim would have gotten up yesterday in the executive session and said, `I don't think it's a good idea' . . . all of a sudden I'd have had a problem with some of my colleagues on council,'' Dwyer told Lewis the day after the meeting.
``If he did, it would have been hard for me to get the votes, and the only reason he didn't, I think, is because, well, I know why he didn't. He owes me. He owes me and he knows it.''
The exchange is contained in one of a series of tape-recorded telephone conversations between Dwyer and Lewis. Mayor William E. Ward, the only member of council who has listened to the tapes, cited the incident as a key reason he sought legal review of the allegations.
``Naturally, it raises concerns,'' Ward said in an interview. ``That's why I raised the question: What, if any, pressure was applied to get the staff to agree to this unprecedented proposal?''
In an interview this week, Dwyer denied using his influence to pressure Rein or preserve the city manager's job in an attempt to get Lewis' benefits approved by the council.
``It's ludicrous,'' Dwyer said. ``I didn't exert any undue pressure on anybody. I don't do that.''
Rein, who has been city manager since 1987, also said he did not believe the vice mayor exerted undue influence in his pursuit of Lewis' benefits.
He said he met with Dwyer in January and advised the vice mayor that he did not believe it would be wise for the city to alter its policies for employees who were terminated or left before they could legally retire. The benefit, which covers employees until they turn 65, will cost the city about $65,000 in Lewis' case.
``I said, `I don't think it's a good idea, it's bad precedent,' '' Rein said in an interview. ``He said, `Well. OK. I want to know how it can be done.' ''
Ward and other council members contacted this week suggested Dwyer may have overstepped his bounds by using his public position to gain private favors.
At no time during the executive session did Dwyer mention a personal friendship he had developed with Lewis while he was negotiating for her benefits, according to council members. He simply asked his colleagues to go along with the plan because Lewis' husband, Sgt. Ed Lewis, 47, had been a decorated police officer for 24 years.
``This is a story about power and influence,'' said Councilman Alan P. Krasnoff.
Lewis, 30, a commercial scuba diver who lives in Great Bridge, has since accused Dwyer of pressuring her to have sex with him in exchange for his exerting influence with the city.
She began secretly taping their telephone conversations on Feb. 15, after the city restored the health insurance but did not renew other benefits. She said she decided to tape Dwyer because she wanted his romantic advances to end and she believed she needed more than her word against his.
Dwyer denied ever exerting pressure on Lewis and claimed he was the victim of a vindictive woman who had simply used him to try to win a legal settlement from the city. Lewis has asked for $650,000 in compensation. Both have said they never had sex.
In tape-recorded conversations from Feb. 15 and March 1, Dwyer told Lewis of his influence over Rein and his ability to bring his colleagues into tow.
In one section of the tape, Dwyer told of how he approached council members - including those who normally did not side with the vice mayor - to make sure all were in accord on the insurance package. He wanted to avoid any last-minute questions, he told Lewis.
He also described a portion of the Feb. 14 executive session when a council member praised him for going through the channels and making sure that Rein was on board with the Lewis request.
``I looked at Jim, Jim looked at me and kind of smiled,'' Dwyer recounted on the tape. ``I thought, `Oh, shit. Hope he keeps his mouth shut.' ''
Dwyer said this week that he had simply been boasting in an attempt to impress Lewis.
``Jim doesn't owe me anything,'' Dwyer said. ``He has his job because he's done a good job. Jim doesn't owe one single council member anything.''
Rein said he did not believe his actions on the Lewis insurance benefits saved his job in Williamsburg. He said Dwyer's request was an example of how council members often act on the behalf of city employees.
But council members contacted Wednesday said they are concerned the incidents are, in fact, related.
Though they would not speak publicly about what took place during the retreat's executive sessions, four council members privately provided details on how close Rein came to being ousted. All pointed to Dwyer as acting on Rein's behalf by proposing the council reconsider the issue later in the year.
Krasnoff said he believed the incidents referred to in the tape recordings have suggested a weakness in the way Chesapeake's government works, because it does not allow for council members to police themselves when a member oversteps his or her authority.
He suggested the city consider adding a recall provision to the charter, to allow voters to remove a member from office if there is evidence of wrongdoing.
``The city council/city manager form of government was designed to avoid these problems and get rid of the politics,'' Krasnoff said. ``It was designed to insulate the city staff. It was supposed to be an ethical safety net.
``The council doesn't have a mechanism in place to deal with inappropriate behavior, be it illegal in fact or in spirit.''
But Krasnoff and other council members acknowledged that most, if not all, of them have used influence at some point with the city staff to get pet projects completed.
The question is whether Dwyer's actions crossed the line from public pressure to private gain.
``I'm not aware of any pressure, per se,'' said Councilman W. Joe Newman. ``Sometimes a phone call can make something go through another loop, sometimes a phone call can get some amazing things done. Now, is that pressure?''
But even Newman acknowledged that Rein has reason to cater to the council members.
``Obviously, Mr. Rein works for nine of us, but on any given day he's got to make sure he's pleasing five of us,'' Newman said. ``He has to make sure that five are willing to support him.'' MEMO: Staff writer Francie Latour contributed to this report.
Related story on page A6.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a transcript of a Feb. 15 conversation between Sandra R.
Lewis and Vice Mayor Arthur L. Dwyer. They are talking the night after
Dwyer obtained health insurance benefits for Lewis' family, even though
her husband had been fired from the Police Department.
Lewis: He (Councilman Robert Nance) wanted the city manager gone
then, right?
Dwyer: Yeah.
Lewis: And, you didn't?
Dwyer: I didn't want to get rid of him this time, yeah, at the
retreat. First off, I'd have never gotten the insurance thing through
and . . .
Lewis: You mean, you don't think if Rein hadn't? Why?
Dwyer: Well, because. Jim didn't want to do it and I knew (Assistant
City Manager Clarence Cuffee) wouldn't want to do it.
Lewis: Right.
Dwyer: And, the way City Council works, if Jim would have got up
yesterday in the executive session and said, `I don't think it's a good
idea and it will ruin morale. It will degrade this and do this and
that.' All of a sudden I'd have had problems with some of my colleagues
on council. Well.
Lewis: If what wasn't good for morale?
Dwyer: Changing the insurance and all that kind of stuff.
Lewis: Oh.
Dwyer: You know, he could have made that argument.
Lewis: Yeah.
Dwyer: If he did, it would have been hard for me to get the votes and
the only reason he didn't, I think, is because, well, I know why he
didn't. He owes me. He owes me and he knows it.
Lewis: Yeah.
Dwyer: And, I mean, like I told you, I called him a couple of minutes
after 9 this morning and he told me he really had to bite his tongue. He
did. He did a good job at it. Even went to the point once where it
scared the hell out of me.
Transcript of a March 1 conversation between Lewis and Dwyer. They
have already received council approval for health insurance. They are
now discussing whether Dwyer will be able to get Lewis' husband's record
cleared with the city and have him honorably retired.
Lewis: Was (Mayor William E.) Ward in agreement with it, do you
know?
Dwyer: Was he in agreement to what?
Lewis: Ed's retirement?
Dwyer: No. They don't even know about it.
Lewis: They don't?
Dwyer: See, that's not. That's not a council action.
Lewis: Oh, it's not?
Dwyer: No. That would be something that Jim (City Manager James W.
Rein) could do on his own. I wouldn't want to get the council involved
in that. See, that's why, originally, you know, I told you I wouldn't
have any problem getting Ed's insurance.
Lewis: Uh-huh.
Dwyer: And, in a way, that's true because all it takes is five votes
to get anything done.
Lewis: Uh-huh.
Dwyer: But I, you know, when I first told you that I thought, `Well,
I don't have a problem, I can get five votes easily.' And, that's true I
can. But in this case I really started thinking about it, I realized,
really, I need all nine because I don't need to go out there and raise a
big stink.
Lewis: Have people asking questions.
Dwyer: Yeah. That's why I told you I was very nervous about whether I
was going to get it through because it dawned on me, a couple of days
before I was going to do it, I thought, `Shit, I've got to get all nine.
I can't just have six.'
Where with this, this is something (Jim) does, not something we're
going to do.
Lewis: Yeah.
Dwyer: And, it's unusual for me to have gotten all nine people
because usually there's always somebody that wants to point fingers and
complain or whatever.
Lewis: Well, you did very good.
Dwyer: Well, I'm a public servant.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Arthur L. Dwyer
James W. Rein
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL MISCONDUCT INFLUENCE by CNB