
DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9711020087

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN MURPHY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  104 lines

LONG-TERM INCUMBENT FACES LONG-DISTANCE FOE ATKINSON, PACE SEEK BEACH TREASURER'S JOB.

The incumbent has spent just $50 on his campaign - and all but $24 of it went to bank fees.

His challenger has whiled away much of the election season on a tidal inlet on Cape Cod.

Still, the job up for grabs is an important one.

The Virginia Beach city treasurer collects revenues, invests city cash, balances the books, sells city decals and dog licenses, and chases after delinquent taxes.

It pays a handsome $87,000.

John T. Atkinson, a Republican, is looking to keep the position for his sixth straight term.

His opponent, Louis Miles ``Lou'' Pace, an Independent, is hoping to break an even longer streak of failed bids for public offices ranging from clerk of Circuit Court to state senator.

Yet neither candidate has been very aggressive campaigning.

Atkinson hasn't printed any signs, buttons or fliers. Instead, he's relying on the power of a handshake and a smile as he goes about his weekly routine in Virginia Beach.

``I'm probably one of the best-known people in Virginia Beach,'' he said in a recent interview.

``I can't walk 50 feet through a restaurant without meeting someone I know.''

Such chance meetings have been the bread and butter of his campaigns. He also gets an opportunity to chat with voters while performing his daily duties.

``I sent out 40,000 tax liens two weeks ago. I've been on the phone ever since,'' he said.

Though casual, Atkinson believes his approach for re-election is working. When asked about his opposition, Atkinson dismisses him, answering: ``My opponent? I don't know what his name is.''

His name is Lou Pace.

If you haven't run across his name on a Beach ballot, you probably haven't been voting. He's become an election staple, tossing his hat into the ring six times for City Council, once for the state Senate and once for clerk of Circuit Court.

This time around, Pace hasn't set himself up for an easy victory. For several months, he's been living with his wife in a rented home in Sandwich, Mass., some 500 miles away from the voters who can actually elect him.

``It's made it very difficult to do some of my campaigning,'' he admitted in a recent telephone interview.

``My wife's on assignment up here,'' he explained, ``I don't like to leave her alone because I love her so much. . . . I guess it cramps my style.''

That style has been to put up a fight when no one else heeds the call.

``I don't like to see him run unopposed,'' he said of Atkinson. ``I like to give people a choice.''

A veteran political outsider, Pace made his debut in 1985, when he and his neighbors in Hunt Club Forest united to fight a Safeway store moving into farmland behind their development.

The neighbors' fight failed, but Pace, a former key machine salesman, got his first taste of public life. He gathered the required signatures and ran for City Council. He got whipped.

Unfazed, he got back on his feet and made a run the next year. He lost again.

``I've been running ever since,'' he said. ``I always want to stir things up.''

Without much campaigning, the election is short on issues. Atkinson points to a long list of his accomplishments while in office:

He created tax payments by credit card, increased the amount of city money available for investing, created a dog license billing system, automated the tax lien collection system, and developed online real estate billing access.

But he hesitated when asked what he would do if re-elected.

``That's a tough question,'' he said. ``I can't put my finger on it. I'm aggressive about anything that will help collect more money and make it easier for people to pay.''

After some thought, he said he hopes to make it possible someday for taxpayers to send checks electronically.

Every year, the treasurer's office processes 2.4 million bills. More than half of those - all the water and stormwater fees - will be handled by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District in an effort to simplify the billing process. Atkinson predicts that this change will enable him to trim some staff from his 79-employee office.

When asked about qualifications, Pace cites receiving ``A's'' in all his college accounting classes.

Pace argued that the treasurer's office needs to shorten tax payment lines and make other improvements in customer service.

He also promised to take the treasurer's name off the tax bill. Pace believes residents should pay their bills to the city, not an individual.

Atkinson says that's not a new idea.

``I ran with a similar platform 20 years ago,'' he said, explaining how in his first year of office he printed new envelopes and bills and asked taxpayers to write their checks to Virginia Beach. But residents didn't like that, either, he said.

``I got the opposite reaction. They didn't know who to call.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Photos

WHOM WILL YOU HIRE?

VIRGINIA BEACH CITY TREASURER

ATKINSON

PACE

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] KEYWORDS: ELECTION VIRGINIA VIRGINIA BEACH TREASURER'S

RACE CANDIDATES