THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407020226
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Beth Barber
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Fourth of July celebrations end tomorrow night. We can hope that Tuesday doesn't inaugurate another two-year round of po-lit-i-cal fire-works: Three City Coun-cil mem-bers elect-ed on May 3 and three re-elected on May 3 join five incumbents on the dais in council cham-bers this week. Nary a shrink-ing violet among them.
When members of the group change, the dynamics have to. It ought to be interesting. The old council bequeaths the new council much the same unfinished business - from water problems to subdivisions to schools - it inherited in the summer of '92. Will it bequeath this council of '94 much the same contentiousness as well?
A certain amount of bickering comes with the dais, but the summer of '92 was the same summer that star Beacon reporter Lise Olsen introduced the Bicker-om-eter. The first meeting of that council of '92 set the standard 7-4 on the split-vote scale and registered a 2 (10 being rudely out of control) on the Bicker-om-eter, with Lise's warning: ``We'll see if they can make it last.'' That may have been the low point on the Bicker-om-eter.
It wasn't the low point on coun-cil.
Speaking of bickering, Councilman John Moss is due extra credit for cutting through the claptrap Tuesday on some never-finished business and very old news: Schools Want More Money, this city's budgetary equivalent of Dog Bites Man.
School Superintendent Sidney Faucette beseeched council to move $1.7 million from old-school renovation to computers and other equipment for two schools under construction and over budget for reasons Dr. Faucette mayn't discuss and, besides, they'll pay it back. He must've felt like a kid asking for an advance on his allowance.
Like a kid, he'd have had a better chance of getting it if Mr. Moss hadn't done his homework and the superintendent's report card carried the notation ``spends money wisely.'' Put a $40,000+ flagpole atop a $1.7 million deficit in a $400 million school budget which days from the end of the fiscal year admits no inkling of its bottom line and what do you get? Six council members and innumerable citizens who see a very real problem: the school administration's systemic failure to plan realistically and monitor ad-e-quate-ly its con-struc-tion, personnel and budg-ets. Will the new School Board see it too?
Dr. Faucette may take what comfort he can in having accomplished what few have: forging an alliance between mile-a-minute Moss and laconic Lan-teigne, now a former coun-cil-man admittedly relieved not to worry about making a habit of it. They are two sharp tongues running not just at different speeds but generally in different di-rec-tions.
Such divides are what make City Council a spectator sport, half the appeal of which is wondering how much is philosophy, how much personality and when the animus is real. Nobody runs for council without some semblance of ego and agenda. Nobody comes to council without a pet project, a pet peeve and certain fools and foolishness they've never suffered gladly and, over time, can't suffer at all.
Like kids going off to camp, adults coming on Council ought to get a basic Council Survival Kit: Patience pills. Civility pills. No-Doz. Thick skin. A duck's back. Permission to say, I don't know what you're talking about. Permission to say, You don't know what you're talking about. One drum roll. Enough rope. A gong.
And this year, for this council, a divining rod. by CNB