THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9605010001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SERIES: DECISION 96
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
After some difficult years, Portsmouth is headed in the right direction.
Although the city has a low tax base, its budget is under control; in fact, the reserve fund is projected to reach $9.1 million by June. Citizens were deeply involved in drafting Vision 2005, a broad economic-development plan. Police are being assigned to neighborhoods, with the result that police and residents are cooperating to fight crime. City Manager Ronald W. Massie, with council's support, has the city moving toward better times.
The Children's Museum of Virginia and the Tidewater Community College visual arts center are valuable additions downtown.
Our endorsements for Mayor and City Council were made with an eye to continuing the city's recent progress.
For mayor, we recommend incumbent Gloria Webb, 63, who personifies continuity in Portsmouth. She served eight years on the School Board and has served 16 on City Council, the past two terms as Mayor. As occupation, Webb lists ``Mayor.'' She is a tireless worker for the city who wants to complete many of the programs and plans she helped start, including Vision 2005. She deserves the chance. Webb is a tough, gritty leader who has stood up to everyone at one time or another. She will fight for her city.
She has two challengers, one a hopeless long shot but the other formidable. The formidable one is James W. Holley III, a dentist who is as much a part of Portsmouth as Webb is. He served as city councilman from 1968-80 and from 1982-84 and as mayor from 1984-1987, when he was recalled after his implication in a hate-mail scandal involving the closure of the old I.C. Norcom High School. Many of his current supporters led the effort to boot him in 1987 but now say there was a conspiracy against him. The facts are: His fingerprints were on hate mail that contained racist remarks attacking blacks. Some of the hate mail was copied on a machine in the mayor's office, when Holley was mayor. The handwriting matched his.
Regrettably, the race could come down to white, Webb, versus black, Holley. It shouldn't. Webb has been mayor for the whole city, and the whole city is moving ahead.
Seven people, including three incumbents, are running for three City Council seats.
We endorse incumbents Bernard D. Griffin and Cameron C. Pitts, along with outgoing School Board Chairman J. Thomas Benn III.
Benn, 56, is in his fourth year as chairman of the School Board, where he's done a good job. He could play a key role on council as the city and School Board seek ways to consolidate services to save money. Also, he would be a forceful advocate for adequate school funding. Benn is director of quality assurance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Much of his education and work involve getting people to cooperate. ``None of us,'' he said, ``is as smart as all of us.'' Under his guidance, the school system last year received the U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award.
Griffin, 57, is a retired schoolteacher and a former chairman of the School Board. Like Mayor Webb, he wants to remain on a horse he helped get going in the right direction. Griffin is a team player with solid ties to the black community. He is known for hearing what the whole city is saying. Griffin was the first council member to press the police and prosecutors to do more to fight crime. He publicly lamented the repeated release of defendants charged with violent crimes. Crime may be Portsmouth's main problem, and Griffin leads the charge against it.
Pitts, 59, is an unusual and useful combination of cold-eyed retired businessman and free thinker. He devotes a great deal of time and energy to serving his beloved city. He knows its budget inside out. As council's appointee to the National League of Cities, he has been a warrior against unfunded federal mandates. He's also a world traveler who carries a camera and seeks ideas that might serve Portsmouth, especially its tourist trade. His proposals for a 50-foot high, four-story restaurant, observatory, lounge and lighthouse and for putting a large mechanized water spout in the Elizabeth River, like one he saw in Sydney, Australia, were not carried out, but he keeps thinking. The new atrium at the Children's Museum was his idea.
Webb, Benn, Griffin and Pitts would keep the city on its present progressive track.
KEYWORDS: ENDORSEMENT PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL by CNB