THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508100208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 292 lines
IN THE LIFE CYCLE of city councils, Virginia Beach's only has a few good months left.
Meeting last weekend for its fourth annual retreat, the City Council was energized from a productive year and ready to tackle as many as 50 new projects.
But retreat facilitator Lyle Sumek opened the two-day discussion with a reality check.
``So how do we keep this going?'' Sumek asked, rhetorically. ``If you think, `we're real good, we can sit on our laurels'. . . teamwork is very fragile; if we get complacent about teamwork it dissipates very quickly.''
Four periods exist in a council's life, Sumek said: infancy, when the council gets organized and sets goals; action, when most of the tough decisions are made; survival, when election fever sets in and members do more speechifying than policy setting; and legacy, when lame duck council members focus efforts on leaving something behind.
The Beach council has gotten a lot done since Louisa M. Strayhorn, W.W. Harrison Jr. and Barbara M. Henley joined or rejoined the body last summer. But with half the council and the mayor up for re-election next May and campaigning expected to start in January, the time for action will soon come to a close, Sumek said.
``We can't be that doggone stymied by politics,'' Harrison responded in frustration. ``I'm not up for election.''
``He's got a lot to learn,'' three-year councilman Linwood O. Branch III whispered to Louis R. Jones, a former mayor who has spent more than nine years on the council.
No matter how well-intentioned the council members are, the politicking and the fear of saying something that will sound stupid on an opponent's campaign poster, quickly puts a damper on council productivity, Sumek and the majority of council members agreed.
In the meantime, Sumek said, the council members should take pride in what they have accomplished and work as much as possible on the things they really want to get done.
In the informal setting of the retreat, on the second floor of the city's Pavilion convention center, council members got a little carried away with Sumek's advice to ``celebrate their successes.''
Karaoke council members performing in the new amphitheater, Branch suggested. Shooting Jones through the completed Lake Gaston pipeline, another added.
During more serious moments Friday and Saturday, the council members set priorities for the near and long-term future.
They renewed their overall vision of an economically vital tourist city, with a stable tax base, a low crime rate and a broad range of educational opportunities.
And they set 13 ``top'' and ``high'' priority goals they hope to meet before next year's retreat.
Council members said they were most frustrated this year with the failure of the Lake Gaston settlement. As the treaty, which had been crafted over more than seven months, went down, so did the City Council's estimation of regional neighbors and state legislators.
Norfolk didn't support the original settlement, because it felt left out of the negotiating process and wronged by the agreement. Political squabbling among Republican Gov. George F. Allen, state Democratic leaders, Virginia Beach officials and legislators from Southside and Northern Virginia, marked the settlement's end.
Council members said they hoped over the next year to renew their commitment to regional leadership and build a better relationship with state and federal legislators.
Regionalism is an over-exposed term that is less workable than its supporters promise, Harrison and other council members said.
Cooperation works well for a few items of common interest, they said, citing the regional sewage collection system. In all other areas, the cities of Hampton Roads will always and should always be in competition, Harrison said.
``I hope we don't spend a lot of time on this topic,'' he said near the beginning of a half-hour discussion on regionalism. ``The public perceives regionalism as simple: `Why don't you idiots go do it?' But it isn't simple. .
``So far, regionalism has appeared to mean what's best for other cities,'' Branch added. ``Regionalism to me now is a way to take Virginia Beach's money and take it to another city.''
The members agreed to try to work with other cities in the region to lobby state government, advertise area amenities, identify regional opportunities and create economic development.
LAKE GASTON:
The council plans to stay the course in trying to build the 76-mile Lake Gaston pipeline. Construction could begin this fall if the council is successful in fighting back North Carolina's efforts to block the water project.
ALTERNATE WATER SOURCE:
Council members said they need to start working up a plan to find other sources of water besides Lake Gaston, in case the project falls through.
Communicating mostly through innuendo and murmurs, the council members also said they don't want to be in a position of ever needing water from Norfolk again. Under current projections, even if Virginia Beach gets the Gaston pipeline in 1998, it will need to buy water from Norfolk by 2010.
But the council's distaste for dealing with Norfolk - reinforced by this summer's Gaston dispute - has changed many members' long-term plans. Growth should be controlled, they said, so that Virginia Beach never becomes dependent on Norfolk water again.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN:
As part of their water strategy and also to take into account dramatic economic changes in the past five years, council members said they want to revise the city's comprehensive plan. When the last plan was drawn up in 1986, the city was one of the fastest-growing in the country and explosive growth seemed likely to continue forever.
The new plan is scheduled to be completed by 1997, although several council members said they would like to push up that date.
Branch said he doesn't want the completion of the pipeline to create a new development boom that will outstrip the city's infrastructure.
BUSINESS RETENTION AND EXPANSION:
Promoting the expansion of existing city businesses is absolutely crucial to reach the council's goal of reducing the city's reliance on residential growth. If all of the 17,000 small firms in the city hired one person next year, that would create more jobs than any new company could provide, Robert K. Dean said.
POLICE STAFFING:
The council hopes to resolve the current round of disputes with the police department and possibly increase the size of the force this year. Virginia Beach is still the safest city of its size in the country, but the council is worried that without an expansion of the police force, growing problems will overwhelm the city's more than 660 officers.
The council also wants to dispel the image that the tourists at the Oceanfront receive so much police coverage that residents elsewhere are left vulnerable.
COMMUNITY SAFETY STRATEGY:
In addition to solving staffing problems, the council hopes to develop a broader set of strategies to improve safety. Keeping kids out of trouble by entertaining them at recreation centers or at late-night basketball games will help reduce the chance of crime and neighborhoods' fear of bored youths, council members said.
``Maybe we don't need more officers, but some other ways to deal with root causes (of crime,)'' City Manager James K. Spore said.
BURTON STATION:
The council is still committed to the idea of leveling the Burton Station neighborhood and replacing it with a profitable office park. The city has already relocated many residents of the neighborhood, which abuts the runways of the Norfolk International Airport, and hopes to buy most of the remaining properties this year.
It's been difficult to purchase the properties, because most of the houses have passed down through many generations and ownership records are muddied. The council has been trying to figure out a politically palatable way to condemn the properties, so the city can pay legitimate owners.
The council has not wanted to kick people out of their homes to turn the land over to private businesses - a move that would violate state law - but several members said at the retreat that there may be a way to lay out the office park that would permit legal condemnation. If the disputed properties become roads, or public space, for example, businesses could still gain access to land purchased outright.
MASTER STREET & HIGHWAY PLAN:
The council decided to take another look at its main planning tool for roads, which has been outdated by the death of the planned Southeastern Expressway and the council's new commitment to controlled growth. Instead of the Southeastern Expressway, which would have connected Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, the city should widen Kempsville Road and extend Lynnhaven Parkway, Dean said.
LEGISLATIVE LOBBYING:
The council spent more than an hour discussing how to improve relations with state and federal legislators and how to increase the city's clout in Richmond and Washington.
Council members said they were pleased with the Richmond lobbyist who had helped promote the Gaston project - and who charges about $250 an hour. They all said they want to hire someone like him to shepherd important legislation through the General Assembly. The city's on-staff lobbyist, an assistant city manager, does a good job, they said, but just doesn't have as much access to the Richmond power brokers as a professional lobbyist.
Now, Virginia Beach legislators rarely tell the City Council when they are going to pass legislation that affects the city or the council. The council was not told, for example, when state legislators decided to rearrange the structure of the City Council.
``It's very frustrating that we have to pay this money for people who should be working for us,'' council member Nancy K. Parker said.
NEIGHBORHOOD VITALITY:
Although Virginia Beach is laid out like a suburb, it is starting to suffer from many of the traditional inner-city problems. To avoid further decay, which puts an added demand on police, social services and maintenance programs, City Council members hope to target neighborhoods where property values are falling.
They also agreed, in general terms, not to allow development projects like those that have bred problems in the past.
Council members discussed the special needs of the rural area of the city, where, they decided, development standards should not be the same as the crowded northern neighborhoods. ``You're going to lose a city inspector or two if you try to do that,'' council member John A. Baum said.
Some parts of the Beach need more city services than others, they agreed. The city can't afford to clean streets in every neighborhood, but it should change its policy to help out where residents don't have the time or the commitment to clean up for themselves.
The council decided to inventory city neighborhoods to decide where extra services are needed.
``What are the neighborhoods that are taking care of themselves?'' Harrison asked. ``Which are the ones that need our help?''
``If we don't respond to some of these needs, we're going to end up with some slums,'' Jones said.
SCHOOL FUNDING STRATEGY:
The council got tangled up in several battles with the School Board this year about spending. The council hopes to improve relations this year, and also to work toward consolidating some city-school functions to save money. The city, which funds the school district, has already consolidated video and several other services. Council members said they would like to combine financial departments, purchasing and perhaps building construction..
LAKE RIDGE:
The council decided to purchase the 1,200-acre Lake Ridge property early this year for the amphitheater, several school sites, a business park and possibly golf courses. During the next year, the council wants to draw up a detailed plan for the site, deciding precisely how to use the land.
CORPORATE LANDING:
Council members Dean and Harrison have headed a Corporate Landing task force that is making progress in refining the office park, which is getting its first development after more than four years. Both council members said they expect to bring a new business plan for the park to the council. Council is enthused by construction for the park's first tenant and the recent signing of a deal for another one. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color cover, by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Retreat facilitator Lyle Sumek, right, opened the two-day discussion
with a reality check for City Council. ``So how do we keep this
going?''
Councilman Robert Dean, who is known for his stance against what he
considers ``pork'' in city spending, took lots of short-ribbing for
this pink poster that was hung on a wall at the Pavilion convention
center.
Louisa Strayhorn, the Kempsville borough council member, enjoys a
hearty laugh after a remark by a fellow council member at the
retreat.
Virginia Beach police officer Bobby Mathieson, left, president of
the Virginia Beach Policeman's Benevolent Association, chats with
council member Linwood Branch during a break in the retreat.
COUNCIL'S GOALS
1995-96
TOP PRIORITIES
(in no particular order)
Lake Gaston
Alternate Water Source Plan
Review Comprehensive Plan
Business Retention and Expansion
Police Staffing
Community Safety Strategy
HIGH PRIORITIES
Burton Station
Master Street and Highway Plan
Legislative Lobbying
Neighborhood Vitality
School Funding Strategy
Lake Ridge
Corporate Landing
LONG RANGE
TOP PRIORITIES
(in no particular order)
Economic vitality
Safe community
Stable city finances
Quality education for life-long learning
Destination point for tourists
HIGH PRIORITIES
(in no particular order)
Service quality to support urban living
Protection and use of natural resources, environment
Active citizen and business involvement as partners with city
government
Regional cooperation, marketing and leadership
Mobility for citizens, businesses and tourists
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL
by CNB