THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 22, 1995 TAG: 9510200214
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
When Clarence V. Cuffee finished a six-month term as acting city manager two years ago, he expressed extreme relief that it was over.
Now he's back in the chair again, filling in for former City Manager James W. Rein, who was fired suddenly Tuesday by City Council.
Cuffee says this time he's prepared for the challenge, even though he hasn't yet sorted through his feelings about the surprise dismissal of the man who gave him his first shot at a career in city management.
Sitting in his office in a black sweater vest and patterned tie Thursday, he was relaxed, unhurried and quick to smile.
``I'm trying to put the pieces together, trying to get people organized and calmed down so we can go about our business,'' said Cuffee, a social worker by training.
Employees now are feeling emotions ranging from anger to grief at Rein's fate, Cuffee said. It will take them some time to work through all that.
Meanwhile Cuffee, a 50-year-old South Norfolk resident who has been deputy city manager since 1993 and was an assistant city manager for about six years before that, will serve on an acting basis until a permanent leader is chosen.
City Council members have not yet discussed publicly how or when they will find Rein's replacement.
Cuffee has not decided whether his name will be under consideration.
Although he is ready for the challenge of leading the city for however long it takes council to select a new manager, he is not sure that it is his life's ambition. He does not plan to move his things - stacks of books and walls full of duck prints - into Rein's old office.
Someday he'd like to teach college social work students. He's working on a doctorate in the field at Norfolk State University.
But he said of the manager's position, ``This job would be a great job,'' with enough staff to help.
That's in stark contrast with the situation he faced when he filled in for Rein in late 1992 and early 1993, when Rein took a six-month leave to care for his dying wife.
``At that time, it was a tough job,'' Cuffee said. ``We had a lot of difficult issues, and I just felt like we didn't have enough people to deal with it.''
The city was reeling from the criminal investigation of the City Garage, prompted by articles in The Virginian-Pilot detailing mismanagement, including excessive charges and overtime. Assistant City Manager H. Wayne Richard, once the top supervisor of the garage, resigned under pressure from council for his role in the scandal.
Council was putting heat on Cuffee to give some kind of direction to lead the city out of its troubles, but Cuffee was hampered by having too little help at the top and by the knowledge that the real boss eventually would be back.
Cuffee now seems to look upon the experience as something that has helped prepare him for the tasks ahead. On-the-job training is important for a man who has no academic background in city management.
``I think there are some of us who learn better by doing, and I had to do,'' he said. ``Through experience, I think I've learned to do this job.''
As deputy, Cuffee helped the manager with everything from drafting budgets to overseeing the city's 2,000 workers.
At heart, he is a people person.
In college at Maryland State on the Eastern Shore, he let two homeless students sleep in his dormitory room on cold nights, despite the threat of expulsion for his kindness. One of those students, now a judge in Cincinnati, wrote about Cuffee's generosity in a newspaper column in 1993.
Cuffee started his career back in 1967 as a fine arts teacher in Chesapeake public schools. When he discovered that helping children and families was his passion, he went back to school on a fellowship at Fordham University in New York City and earned a master's degree in social work.
He worked as a social worker for the cities of Richmond and Hampton and then for the U.S. Army. He landed back in Norfolk in 1984 as director of human services. Rein hired him in 1987 as assistant city manager for human services.
It was kind of by default that Cuffee began taking on more and different responsibilities.
Cuffee said he and Rein used to talk almost weekly about the lack of job security city managers face. It's the nature of the position, balanced as it is between bureaucratic management and politics.
Cuffee said he saw Rein Thursday, after the council's decision had had a chance to sink in.
``He seemed to be more relieved than ever,'' Cuffee said. ``It was like a burden was lifted off his shoulders.
``And for a person who seemed to enjoy doing something as much as he did, he seemed to enjoy not doing it even more.''
Cuffee said he's ready to take the city in a new direction, and he's already formulating ambitious plans. He hopes to organize department heads into teams that would concentrate on each area of public life, such as public safety, quality of life and infrastructure. He hopes the teams will promote better communication between city departments.
He's ready to do whatever else is necessary to keep the city thriving.
``I don't feel hurried about this,'' he said. ``I don't feel in any way frustrated by what I see coming.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
For the second time in two years, Clarence V. Cuffee is acting city
manager.
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