THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020608
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
It took less than five minutes.
Portsmouth City Council unanimously selected Councilman Johnny M. Clemons as vice mayor Friday and then quickly chose their new seats at the dais. The gavel was banged and the council members moved downstairs to have their picture taken for the new council portrait.
Councilman James C. Hawks nominated Clemons for the vice mayor's post. Without discussion, the council gave Clemons the title.
Clemons, 46, was the only incumbent to win re-election in the May election.
Clemons reacted with surprise when he won re-election last spring. By contrast, Friday's vote seemed anticlimatic - his colleagues seemed to have predetermined that the maverick councilman would become vice mayor. Clemons often splits with council members in voting on controversial issues.
The mayor is selected in at-large elections, but the vice mayor is chosen by the council.
The current mayor, Gloria O. Webb, is white. Traditionally in Portsmouth, when the mayor is white, the vice mayor is black; when the mayor has been black, the council has selected a white vice mayor.
Clemons is an engineering technician with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He is married and has three children.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL VICE MAYOR by CNB