THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508250220
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Wendy Hill, president of the Hall Place Civic Association, went to court Aug. 3 to see if owners of four dilapidated homes in her neighborhood would be forced to fix them up.
They were not. Nor did any of the four cases even make it to court after the city attorney's office failed to issue summonses in the case, Hill said.
She voiced her complaint Wednesday before the City Council, asking its members and city staff to ``stop burying your heads'' because the city's housing problem ``is not going to get any better.''
Suffolk has long been plagued by inadequate and dilapidated housing. Large segments of Downtown Suffolk are crammed with vacant, sometimes barely standing homes.
The city has pledged to fight the problem, which has affected Suffolk's reputation throughout the region.
Little, however, has been accomplished since a new inspections program was started a year ago. The problems stem from bureaucratic glitches, personality conflicts and the courts' inability to handle the volume of cases.
Hill, however, placed the blame directly on the office of City Attorney Edward D. Roettger Jr., whose office has recently come under fire for allegedly slowing down the city's new systematic housing inspections program.
After tracking the inspections paperwork for the four homes throughout City Hall, Hill said she found that the process ended in Roettger's office, where the summonses were never served.
Roettger, who was on vacation at the time, did not respond to Hill's accusations at Wednesday's meeting. He could not be reached on Thursday.
Mayor S. Chris Jones asked Hill to give city staff the addresses of the four homes to allow the city to follow up.
``The condition of housing in this city is horrible,'' Hill told a stone-faced council. ``What is the problem? Why can't we do anything about it?''
Suffolk's housing inspections program has thus far done little to curb housing blight. Few if any substantial changes have resulted from revamping the inspections policy almost a year ago. And recent slowdowns in the courts and the city attorney's office have allowed many violators of the city's housing code to walk away unscathed.
``We all know where the blockage is and we all know there's nothing being done,'' said T.C. Williams, who spoke after Hill.
Williams has accused Roettger of having a racial bias against Vanessa Savage, Suffolk's leading housing inspector, after Roettger issued a memo saying that his office refused to work with the inspections department and, in particular, Savage. The memo gave no reason for the conflict. After further questioning, city officials refused to give details on the conflict.
City officials later downplayed the memo, saying the problem stemmed from a personality conflict, which they said had been resolved. However, according to sources within the city, Roettger still has no working communication with Savage.
Meanwhile, the housing inspections program continues to falter after being revised again last month. Assistant City Manager William E. Harrell, who has been given the task of resurrecting the program, said the revised inspections program will emphasize community involvement as well as streamline the penalty process for housing violations.
``Tonight there is no way for anyone to know where the systematic inspections department would have gone if the City Council had chosen to clean house,'' said Williams. ``You have chosen to do nothing. Meanwhile, the little people are still being fed great portions of nothing. We, the little people, are watching and learning as you lead this city to the edge of a cliff.''
Hill also chastised the council for not discussing housing issues at their retreat, which was scheduled Friday and Saturday. Housing and the inspections program was not listed on the council's retreat agenda, taking a back seat to utility extension policies and capital projects. The retreat has been rescheduled to Friday, Sept. 22, from 1 to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 23, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Frederick campus of Tidewater Community College. by CNB