ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
IT MAY HAVE BEEN HIS PONYTAIL, actually, that kept Joe Nash off the Roanoke School Board.
A ponytail didn't bother nearly 4,400 voters who cast ballots for Joe Nash in his unsuccessful bid for City Council in May. But the Wasena crime fighter's long hair may have, in part, cost him a chance to serve on the School Board.
By a tally of 6-1, City Council on Monday chose financial analyst Harry Davis - who has shorter hair, but sports a trimmed beard and mustache - over Nash for an open seat on the board.
Six council members - Mayor David Bowers and Councilmen Nelson Harris, Jack Parrott, Carroll Swain, Jim Trout and William White - voted for Davis. The lone vote for Nash came from Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt.
The roll call came after the Roanoke Education Association distributed a statement to council defending Nash's long hair and mustache. The teachers' organization had endorsed Nash in his bids both for council and the School Board.
"I have heard disturbing comments made about Mr. Nash lately, such as: `A hippie does not need to be on the School Board,' `Mr. Nash's appearance is not what's needed on the School Board,' and `Mr. Nash does not have the financial background to be on the School Board,''' REA president Gary Stultz wrote in remarks that he wasn't allowed to deliver to council orally. He called those comments "discriminatory and cruel."
The six council members who voted for Davis, a vice president for finance at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., said their votes had nothing to with Nash's long hair. And all of them denied making any statements criticizing Nash's appearance.
"It is insulting that someone would suggest that a vote for Mr. Davis is a vote against Mr. Nash's ponytail," Harris said after the vote. "I take that decision much more seriously than looking at someone's hairstyle."
"That was totally dreamed up by the union guy [Stultz]," Parrott said.
But Wyatt, a city school teacher, said she had heard at least two council members make disparaging comments about Nash's appearance similar to those contained in Stultz's written statement. She declined to name the council members.
The councilmen who voted for Davis said it was his experience in finance that led them to choose him over Nash.
The school system's building plan over the next three years is pegged at about $25 million, not including a future high school that may cost as much as $40 million, council was told during an unrelated, capital budget briefing on Monday.
Wyatt said she supported Nash because two members of the school board already have a background in finance. Nash, a truck fleet supervisor for Adams Construction Co., is a father of children in city schools, she noted.
Davis has no children in the city school system.
Nash also organized and led the Wasena Neighborhood Crimewatch, a community group credited with ridding that Southwest neighborhood of two crack houses.
"When you get a dispro- portionate number of any type of person on the board, you get a kind of tunnel vision," Wyatt said. "I think Mr. Nash could have provided a great strength to that board. He's a parent of a working-class family, which is what most of our residents are."
Nash declined comment after the vote, saying, "The only thing I can say is I'm very disappointed."
Davis was not at the council meeting.
Stultz wasn't allowed to deliver his prepared remarks in public because Bowers ruled the REA had a chance to say anything it wanted in support of Nash at a previous public hearing. Supporters of Davis weren't in the audience Monday, so it would have been unfair to let Nash supporters have another chance to speak in his favor, Bowers said.
Monday's vote wasn't the only time Nash's appearance has been called into question. Back in May, one source in the city firefighters association said privately that the community activist's ponytail played a large role in his not getting the firefighters' endorsement prior to the City Council elections.
Nash, the only independent in May's election for a 4-year term on council, received 4,381 votes, finishing last among six candidates for three open seats.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) 1. Nash. color. 2. Davis.by CNB