THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605040105
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 27 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Street
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Tuesday is D-Day.
No storming the beaches, dodging machine-gun fire or mortar rounds. It's election day or ``decision day'' for Virginia Beach voters.
Elections are always tough calls, what with trying to separate the bums from the would-be bums and the could-be bums, but this assignment will be especially difficult, mainly because it's confusing.
First, we're looking at electing seven new School Board members from a field now whittled down to a mere 43 candidates.
They'll be divided into six groups, with staggered terms. Two seats - one from Blackwater Borough and the other from Virginia Beach Borough - are uncontested. The remaining four seats have as many as 23 people jostling for them.
One way to help yourself wade through the mire is to review the Voter's Guide, which is wrapped around today's Beacon. It gives thumbnail sketches of every candidate and issue on the ballot.
That ballot offers voters a virtual smorgasbord of political selections. In addition to the School Board options, there are two choices for mayor and 10 candidates for four City Council seats. Then there's a yes or no question that will decide whether city residents will continue an at-large system of electing future City Council and School Board members or go to a ward system.
And despite valiant efforts to try to inform city residents about each and every candidate through regular newspaper stories and charts and public forums over the past two months, it seems likely that apathy will once again keep the city's electorate at home.
Predictions are - and they seem wildly optimistic - that only 30 percent of the city's 169,000 voters will turn out at the polls Tuesday.
That means 50,700 voters - or less - could decide for all 425,000 city residents the following:
What property and real estate tax increases will be made and when.
How and where Beach residents will vote in coming elections and for whom.
Where roads, schools and water, sewer and drainage lines will be built and who builds them.
How much pay teachers, police officers, firefighters and other city employees will get.
What will be taught in our public schools, when and by whom.
Who will be appointed to various city boards and commissions that determine where houses, shopping centers, apartments and parks will be built and when.
What we're talking about here is ``quality of life,'' or lack thereof, for everybody in Virginia Beach.
A low voter turnout Tuesday means those decisions will be left in the hands of the few. The very few.
If the script goes according to form, candidates backed by special interest groups with an ax to grind will wind up taking those City Council and School Board seats. All they need to do is get their buddies and partyline followers - 2,000 or 3,000 people at most - out to vote and victory is theirs. From then on, they get to call the shots.
Meanwhile, the goldbricks, the I-was-too-busy-to-vote and the who-cares-one-vote-ain't-gonna-matter crowd can whine and gnash their teeth all they want to. It'll be too late and they'll have nobody to blame but themselves.
If you care about your kids, your neighborhoods, your schools and your streets, you owe it to them to get off your butt and mosey on down to your friendly neighborhood polling place to vote.
It just takes 10 to 15 minutes, but you'll feel soooo much better about yourself and your town. Trust me. by CNB