DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711180294

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   92 lines

NAACP COMPLAINS ABOUT PROCESS TO PICK PORTSMOUTH POLICE CHIEF GROUP'S PRESIDENT ALLEGES DISCRIMINATION, SAYS SHE WAS KEPT OUT OF PANEL'S MEETING

The city's NAACP president, surrounded by community leaders and NAACP area chapter members Tuesday claimed that City Manager Ronald W. Massie has kept the NAACP out of the selection process for the hiring of the city's new police chief.

They also alleged that the city has done a poor job in hiring and promoting blacks within the police department, as well as in the city manager's office.

Reading from a prepared statement, NAACP President Dr. Elizabeth Daniels said she was told to leave a recent citizens panel meeting that was organized to help Massie select a new chief.

Daniels, a dentist, said it is vital that the NAACP be a part of the selection process because of allegations of police harassment from black citizens, as well as the lack of African Americans in high-ranking positions within the department.

Massie this summer created the panel, a racially diverse group of citizens charged with helping select a replacement for former police chief, Dennis A. Mook.

The panel's members are Reggie M. Allen, a Prentis Park neighborhood patrol coordinator; Anne Green, a longtime crime-prevention volunteer; J. Robert Gray, a former vice mayor and city councilman who is now head of the Cradock Property Owners Association; and Francesca Dillard-Moore, program services director at the HER (Help and Emergency Response) Shelter.

Allen, who is African-American, said he doesn't understand the NAACP's concern because the panel has two black members. Dillard-Moore is also African-American.

The panel will interview about 10 potential chiefs selected from a larger field of candidates provided by Mercer & Associates, an Atlanta-based firm that conducts national searches for municipal positions. In-house candidates also will be considered. Massie will have the final say on the selection.

Daniels said she asked Massie if she could be a member when she learned of the panel but he told her she could only observe its actions.

When Daniels attended a meeting on Nov. 7 at the Central Fidelity Bank building, she said, she was told to leave by a city official. She wrote Massie asking him why she was not allowed to stay at the meeting. Massie responded with a letter informing her that the portion of the meeting in question was not open to the public because personnel matters were being discussed.

Massie's letter reads in part, ``I have asked that the process be structured so that matters of general content or process review may be open to the public, including but not limited to you, and that matters and discussions which pertain to individual candidates be closed. Again, do not regard this as a personal reflection upon you in any way.. . . ''

Massie refused to comment on Daniels' allegations of discrimination and the lack of promotions among blacks.

He said Daniels is welcome to attend meetings in which they do not discuss personnel matters or applicants.

Massie said Portsmouth's decline in crime has a great deal to do with the citizens' support of community policing.

``I want to build on the strength that has emerged in Portsmouth,'' said Massie.

Daniels, however, said she has logged about 30 citizen complaints from people who have called her this year regarding alleged harassment by officers, including being stopped and searched without reason.

The citizens have not filed formal complaints, Daniels said. But she said the NAACP plans to summarize the charges. She did not say what she plans to do with the alleged complaints.

``We have more complaints about police than any other city,'' said Daniels during the conference. ``I get two to three complaints a week about the police, so we're concerned about that.''

The NAACP isn't the only group seeking more minority representation in the city government.

The Church and Community in Action, a group of mostly black ministers and community leaders, invited Massie to one of their meetings to discuss what they perceive as his problem with hiring and promoting African-Americans for the city. They noted that of the 10 staffers in the city manager's office, there are only two black employees.

Massie pointed out that the current staffing was in place before he was appointed city manager.

``I met with them (CCIA) about two years ago. They announced their concern, and I share that concern,'' Massie said.

Daniels said she will convene a meeting sometime after Thanksgiving, open to the community, to discuss plans for meeting with Massie about the citizen panel. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

JOHN H. SHEALLY II\The Virginian-Pilot

Dr. Elizabeth Daniels speaks at a press conference Monday in

Portsmouth. She said she was told to leave a recent meeting of a

racially diverse citizens panel, organized to help the city select a

new police chief. KEYWORDS: NAACP DISCRIMINATION

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