THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507010152
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Beth Barber
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Dying for water and drowning in politics.
That was Virginia Beach at midweek, as an agreement initially between the Beach and North Carolina to expedite the Lake Gaston pipe-line went down in the General Assembly for the umpteenth - and last - time in two months.
The same politics that deep-sixed what became the Carolina-Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Southside-Newport News-maybe-even-North-ern-Virginia agreement may yet prove the lifeline for a Beach-Carolina accord on the Gaston pipeline. But not the same Southside and nearer politicos who sank that pact while fishing for deeper pockets and November votes.
The correspondence among state and local officials that is excerpted on this and the facing page is no way a complete chro-nol-o-gy; I offer it only as a sampling of the evidence that some major players heaved Gaston overboard and, hoisting the battle flag, set sail for Election Day.
Now, nobody's shocked. Disgusted, yes, but not shocked. For the public, which detects more politicking than politicians think, it's a matter of degree: Which pols did the most politicking, and the most damage to their constituents and the commonweal?
Had Governor Allen called a special session without the legislators' commitment to limiting the session's length and scope and to approving the Gaston agreement, the Beach could've ended up buying the consent of the entire commonwealth, a nickel at the time.
Once convened, legislators could have ignored any leadership's commitment to limitations and tied one sinker after another to the Gaston fishing line. Whatever else they are, however, Virginia's legislative leaders are generally gentlemen enough not to make com-mit-ments they don't intend to keep - and politician enough to give hifalutin reasons why. Beneath all this who-struck-George about legislative procedure and prerogative, lies this fact: Legislative leaders can manage to approve - or not approve - what they want to.
Which didn't want this agreement? Well, Democrats Glenn Croshaw and Clancy Holland of Virginia Beach and George Heilig of Norfolk did yeoman work in subcommittees to ``get to where they got to,'' as Del. Heilig put it. Where they got to last Sunday night was, they thought, a deal.
But Frank Hall, Richmond delegate and committee chairman appointed by Speaker Moss, was, um, prescient. He faxed Moss the bad news that consensus for approval was lacking before his committee even met. Mr. Speaker was off the hook - and put ``Boy George'' and his fellow Republicans on. The Norfolk Dem-o-crat can't retain the speakership unless Democrats retain their majority in the House in November's elections (if then).
Yet at week's end, who looked to lose more from the reknit but unraveling Carolina-Virginia Beach agreement than Tom Moss' Norfolk? $84 million the Beach was to pay for Norfolk water it won't really need - gone. North Carolina's assurance that it would not challenge Norfolk's in-ter-state/in-ter-basin transfer of the water it sells as surplus - kaput.
What did Norfolk gain? First, the right to sell that surplus (until some Carolina green sues over the drawdown from the Chowan) to, uh, Chesapeake or Suffolk if either grows so dumbly as the Beach did. Or to Newport News, if the Corps of Engineers (which has long advised that city to go west, not east for water) and that city's manager (who shunned Norfolk's water in no uncertain, written terms) learned humor from Mort Sahl.
Second, Norfolk gained a reputation for mulishness that gets 2-year-olds time-outs. And time out, if not suspension, from regional pursuits may be one penalty Norfolk pays. Increasingly, Beach residents would sooner give Carolina a nickel than Norfolk millions. Heaven help it, because voters won't, if city officials here - and elsewhere - aren't planning now how not to walk back into Norfolk's buzzsaw in 3 or 30 years. by CNB