DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9710020007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

DENNIS I. WOOL A LOSS, A LESSON

The resignation last week of Dennis I. Wool as executive director of the Virginia Beach Community Services Board was as inevitable as it is regrettable.

Although the 52-year-old director was clearly culpable in failing to get reliable cost estimates for a plan to relocate the board headquarters and consolidate services, Wool was an outstanding director and an eloquent advocate for some of the city's least powerful citizens.

In his almost 14 years at its head, Wool guided the Community Services Board through a period of immense growth. Today the CSB serves 8,000 people each year. Most clients are mentally retarded, mentally disabled or struggling with substance abuse problems.

Wool deserves credit for bringing the concept of small group homes where adults with disabilities could live on their own to Virginia Beach. He also established support groups for the families of those receiving services.

By all accounts, Wool was a superior director. Unfortunately, he had no experience in commercial real estate transactions. That lack of experience was his undoing.

In December, Virginia Beach City Council appropriated $12 million to purchase and renovate properties on Bonney Road to house the Community Services Board. The move made perfect sense: The purchase would ultimately save the city millions of dollars in rent while providing an ideal location for the board's detox center - away from residential neighborhoods and near public transportation.

But Wool relied on preliminary studies of renovation costs to draw up his proposals. City Council in turn relied on Wool's estimates when it appropriated funds. Last month, these studies were revealed to be mere ``guesstimates.''

The guesstimates were off by more than $7 million. Renovation, it turned out, would cost about $19 million. The board then changed plans and decided to raze the buildings instead of renovate, which would only hike the cost about $5 million.

In the firestorm that followed it appeared that Wool knew, or should have known, that the early cost estimates needed more refinement. It also seems that he failed to share this information with members of his board.

Wool fell on his sword last week and tendered his resignation. But the resignation of a single man does not spell the end of this debacle.

It is imperative that city officials analyze what happened and institute safeguards to assure it doesn't happen again. Other members of the Community Services Board may share in the blame, and so may representatives of the Public Works Department. The city must explain how it came to pass that a person charged with running a substance abuse agency came to be managing a multimillion-dollar commercial real estate venture. Alone.

When public money is at stake, it is vital that a system of checks be in place to protect the taxpayers from one person's error. And when the spending of public funds is being approved, the buck stops with those voting on such expenditures. They have the ultimate responsibility for seeing to it that due diligence is exercised.

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