THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605110346
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The Virginian-Pilot included this sentence in a story Thursday about efforts by a police coalition to get more funding for the Virginia Beach Police Department:
Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf, in her first meeting with Fraternal Order of Police President Al Byrum, called him a ``lying junk-yard dog.''
The newspaper failed to attribute that version of the exchange to Byrum's recollection of the meeting. The paper also failed to contact Oberndorf for her recollection or for comment on Byrum's characterization.
Oberndorf told Pilot editors Friday that she did not and would not make comments personally attacking police officers nor make remarks that could inflame tensions between the city and police organizations.
Oberndorf said she had found Byrum to be more civil than she had expected. She said she told him at the conclusion of the meeting that she had heard - in the phrase of the Jim Croce song - that he could be ``meaner than a junk-yard dog.''
Byrum told Pilot editors that Oberndorf used the phrase ``junk-yard dog'' and made statements that he took to portray him and other coalition members as liars. But he acknowledged he could not be certain that she had used the phrase ``lying junk-yard dog.''
Lt. Dean Kluss is one of two men who ejected from an F-14 that crashed during a landing attempt April 17 at Oceana Naval Air Station. His first name was wrong in several stories.
CLARIFICATION
A story in Friday's MetroNews section suggested that Virginia Beach City Council member Nancy K. Parker did not like the council's proposal to expand the Police Department and increase spending on schools. Parker does not oppose any specific spending proposals for schools, police or firefighters. Rather, she has questioned the need for the full 3.2-cent tax increase in light of significant growth in city revenues this year. by CNB