THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 21, 1995 TAG: 9504200145
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Councilman Robert Nance's big chance to show he's got the right stuff for the vice mayor's job got off to a clumsy start.
In his all-fired rush to carry out the dictate of his party bosses concerning the appointment to the vacant ninth chair on the City Council Monday, it simply slipped his mind that he was supposed to notify the rest of council that there would be a meeting.
He insists that the oversight was inadvertent and that no one should make too much of the fact that the only guests invited to his little tea party happened to be Republicans.
Mr. Nance's fumbling attempt at leadership finally came to naught anyway. He just couldn't pull it off.
Councilman W. Joe Newman made excuses for Mr. Nance's forgetfulness. ``It's hard to sit down and call everybody,'' he said.
How hard could it be? There were only seven other people involved and they're all equipped with phones, voice mail and the finest fax machines tax money can buy.
It seems as if a man who aspires to the title of vice mayor ought to be able to handle a simple thing like organizing a meeting.
But we can overlook Mr. Nance's ineptitude more easily than we can overlook the explanation he gave for it afterward. He asks us to believe his actions had nothing to do with partisan politics.
``If anyone tries to politicize this,'' he said, ``they're wrong.''
Golly, we haven't had a vice mayor who said silly stuff like that since. . by CNB