
DATE: Thursday, November 19, 1997           TAG: 9711190473

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Public Life 

SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   88 lines

CONCERN FOR PUBLIC REACTION HELPS KEEP PERKS PALTRY

Virginia Beach City Council member William W. Harrison Jr. spent roughly 1,750 public service hours in misery.

His back ached, he felt squished like a sardine and was constantly in danger of slipping out of his chair.

Harrison and others on the council said it was hard to concentrate on city business while they were fighting to stay upright in 30-year-old, green leather chairs bought when the city was new.

Finally, early this year, the city replaced the chairs members use for work sessions with blue-leather ones that have ergonomically designed seats to fit council members of all sizes. The price tag: $22,322 for 15 council chairs and 25 visitor seats.

Comfy chairs are one of the better ``perks'' council members get for representing the interests of their constituents.

Generally, the benefits are pretty pedestrian.

Across South Hampton Roads, council members are fed when their meetings cross meal-times, flooded with faxes on taxpayer funded machines and provided with secretaries to help write speeches and answer public questions.

Virginia Beach and Portsmouth representatives both receive the same annual pay - $18,000 for council members and $20,000 for the mayor. But Beach council members spend about 20 hours per month in council meetings, while Portsmouth representatives average closer to 10 hours per month.

Suffolk is the biggest bargain. Council members earn $12,000 and the mayor $14,000. They're in official meetings for about 10 to 12 hours per month.

Chesapeake provides the best digs for its council members: All nine of them have their own offices. Other councils have to share one or two offices and phone lines during meetings that often run well into the evening.

All the council members in South Hampton Roads are provided fax machines and dedicated phone lines for city business. Virginia Beach and Norfolk give council members laptop computers, too.

Most councils now spend their semi-annual retreats in town to avoid taxpayer criticism. Sometimes, the same concern affects other public agencies. The Portsmouth School Board decided in 1996 to forgo Williamsburg for its two annual retreats. With the more than $5,000 it saved, the board paid the entry fees for students to participate in two academic competitions.

But the Suffolk City Council held its last retreat in Williamsburg, arguing that council members could focus better without the distractions of family and business. Retreats should be held out of town, Mayor Thomas G. Underwood said at the time, in ``an environment that's conducive to thinking and planning.''

Taxpayers also buy council members lunch or dinner during regular council meetings, which almost always stretch across meal-time. Most of the food isn't fancy, though it does come from establishments within the respective city's limits.

``Obviously, we're not having shrimp or filet mignon,'' said Erika Jenkins, chief deputy city clerk for Chesapeake. ``We have Farm Fresh or Chick-Fil-A.''

For its daytime meetings each month, Norfolk's council members eat sandwiches with chips, a drink and cookies from a rotating list of city restaurants. On the fourth Tuesday, a night meeting, the council always dines on chicken dinners from Pollard's.

Beach council members have shared cold cut trays from Farm Fresh every daytime lunch for a couple of years. The city springs for grilled chicken and vegetable strips for the one night meeting per month.

It's concern for the public reaction that helps keep menus modest and perks paltry.

In Virginia Beach, Kathleen D. Hassen, assistant to the city manager for community affairs, said the city delayed buying new chairs for years - despite their condition and council members' discomfort - because they worried about how taxpayers would react.

``We were afraid we would get a story in the newspaper,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Ian Martin/The Virginian-Pilot

Earlier this year,...

Graphic

Staff graphic by Ken Wright/The Virginian-Pilot

Council Perks and Pay

[Graphic lists the perks and pay for the city council in each city

of Hampton Roads]

Graphic includes:

Number of council members

Salaries

Equipment