THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412180303
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
How do you build a strong, healthy city? Ask Councilman Randy Wright and the answer is simple: Put time, energy, thought and money into building strong, healthy neighborhoods - ultimately the bedrock of the city's fortunes.
But City Manager James Oliver's answer is different. He says City Hall should focus on the big questions that it often overlooks in the day-to-day hustle: Regionalism. Economic development.
The different answers the men gave at a two-day City Council retreat last week are an example of the council's changing attitudes and values. They are largely the product of the city's switch to a ward system in 1992.
It is producing a new breed of politician who is elected in different ways and believes different things are important. It's producing a council more focused on clean streets and trash pickups than big downtown redevelopment projects.
It's a shift that, for better or worse, other cities could heed. The Virginia Beach City Council has asked the General Assembly to approve a new ward system there. Newport News approved a new ward system in October, after pressure from the federal Justice Department. In addition, the Justice Department has questioned the at-large election systems of Chesapeake and Hampton.
Norfolk had its first ward elections in 1992, after a long court battle with the federal government. Since then, the dynamics of the City Council have been changing gradually. Council members and staff openly talked about this evolution during the retreat at Fort Magruder Inn in Williamsburg.
Oliver, Norfolk city manager for eight years, is a product of the old at-large system whose members hired him.
Ward Councilmen Herbert Collins, Paul Riddick and Wright were somewhat critical of Oliver's performance during the retreat. But, overall, council members praised Oliver's guidance of the city.
``I'm patterning my company off two organizations - the Ford Motor Co. and the city of Norfolk,'' said Councilman G. Conoly Phillips, owner of Phillips Oldsmobile.
Oliver noted that the ward system is producing a new breed of politician, with a different political base.
``The way you get elected today is very much a grass-roots thing,'' Oliver said. ``Randy's breakfasts and Christmas party, Riddick's town meetings are as important as campaign committees and such.''
Wright said he wanted City Hall to reflect these new realities.
``Will your staff treat neighborhood groups the same way as the Greater Norfolk Corporation?'' Wright asked Oliver, naming a powerful downtown group. ``We want Jim and his staff to be as responsive to John Roger as to Josh Darden.''
Roger leads the Bay View Civic League. Darden is a longtime business and community leader from a prominent Norfolk family that has been influential in local and state affairs.
The shifting values came into sharper focus in discussion of city priorities. Oliver made an impassioned speech that the government needs to work harder at things that get lost in the shuffle of day-to-day business.
``We don't have a committee for regionalism, for job creation,'' Oliver said.
But Wright, Collins and Riddick said that, to prosper, a city must focus on repairing and uplifting neighborhoods. Rather than a pay raise for city employees, Wright said, the city should consider putting the money into better sewers, sidewalks and general infrastructure projects. Collins said the city should concentrate on code enforcement in residential neighborhoods such as Ballentine and Fairmont.
``We've lost the first battle of the war,'' Wright said, ``if our neighborhoods are not viable.''
Countered Oliver: ``We concentrate on (neighborhoods) every day. But you don't have people calling you up and saying, `You really ought to work more on region-alism.' ''
The split on priorities came up again during a discussion on how the city could be responsive to its ``customers,'' a term heard now in total-quality-management circles.
Wright pointed out that the city switched over the last few years from several garbage pickups a week to once-a-week, more-automated pickups using big plastic containers.
``Is going to one garbage pickup a week really an example of what the customer wants?'' Wright asked. ``Efficiency and responsiveness are two different things.''
Unlike their counterparts in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, the Norfolk council has seldom erupted into open warfare and still puts a premium on consensus and cooperation.
The Norfolk council members agreed that that the cities of Hampton Roads should communicate more with each other. Some of these ties could be begun informally among business and civic groups rather than through structural organizations such as the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
``Bring Meyera in and let her talk to the Norfolk Federation of Civic Leagues,'' said Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim, referring to Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf of Virginia Beach.
Fraim added that he would go to Virginia Beach's Council of Civic Organizations. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Norfolk Councilman Randy Wright, left, and City Manager James
Oliver, right, disagree on the approach local government should
take. Oliver says the city needs to work harder at the big picture,
including regionalism. Wright says the city must focus on repairing
and uplifting neighborhoods.
by CNB