THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 22, 1995 TAG: 9510210137
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Jim Rein's days as Chesapeake's city manager were numbered. That's been obvious for quite a long time. Certainly Mr. Rein knew it.
But, oddly, when the inevitable happened Tuesday night it was a surprise.
Perhaps it was because Mr. Rein had survived so much turmoil during the past few years that he had begun to seem immune to it. He had managed to sidestep personal responsibility for major scandals in the City Garage, the Chesapeake Housing and Development Authority and the Inspections Department. When the end finally came it was over something comparatively petty.
The City Council, which has had any number of good reasons to fire him, chose a bad reason and a bad time.
Mayor William E. Ward called the method by which the firing took place ``inhumane,'' and surely it was. But, as the mayor well knows, incivility is characteristic of this council. Its members are uncivil to one another, and they are often uncivil even to citizens who come before them. Mr. Rein could not have expected civility, not from these men.
Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance Jr., who incited the attack, set to his work red-faced and tight-lipped, mistaking personal rage for high purpose. Mr. Rein was unfit for office, in the view of Mr. Nance, because he got in the vice mayor's way.
Mr. Nance was among those who thought the city ought to extend to water customers a modest rebate on water that had intolerable levels of sodium and chlorides. Council members specifically asked Mr. Rein and his staff for their best professional assessment of the proposal.
Mr. Rein and his staff said, in so many words, that it was a cockamamie idea. They were not the only ones who were of that opinion. So were the lawyers. So were the city's financial advisors. So were most citizens.
In the end, so did the majority of the council itself. The final decision on the matter was in line with Mr. Rein's thinking, not that of Mr. Nance.
Under the same circumstances, a good city manager would have given council members the same advice Mr. Rein gave them. It was the same advice that Acting City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee would have given them. In fact, any applicant for the city manager's job who claims he would have given different advice should not be considered for hire.
It was probably time for Mr. Rein to go. The council had plenty of chances to act deliberately in the matter, to exercise real leadership. It could not.
The decision, when it finally came, was impulsive, arbitrary and thoughtless. by CNB