THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
After Chesapeake Vice Mayor Arthur L. Dwyer resigned last Friday, following embarrassing revelations about his personal involvement with a woman seeking city favors for her husband, the remaining eight council members pledged to unify to restore public trust.
How Chesapeake elected officials make such pledges with a straight face is a mystery.
On Monday, four of the five Republican council members called a special meeting to discuss selecting Dwyer's successor, but the two Democratic and one independent member were not properly notified and the meeting ultimately was canceled.
What better way to begin unification than by calling a special meeting in a way that breeds distrust?
``I had no idea what was going on,'' said John W. Butt, a Democratic council member. ``Why is this being rushed? I'm disappointed the council is doing something that is going to make the city look bad again.''
Then Tuesday night, the council elected Dwyer's successor, Republican farmer and businessman Dalton S. Edge, in a manner that again heaped embarrassment on the city.
It was expected that the five Republicans on the council would choose a Republican, no matter what the two Democratic and one independent members proposed. (Democrats would have selected a Democrat, if they'd had the votes.)
But the arguments could not have been more heated, had there been a question left to settle.
The Republicans, graceless in victory, labeled the Democrats' call for a deliberative interview process ``squirming,'' ``wriggling,'' ``hand-wringing'' and ``carrying-on.''
Councilman Alan P. Krasnoff, the lone independent, stomped out after his plea to go slow at a ``time for caution and care'' was ignored. He never returned, and when Republican member Robert T. Nance urged Mayor William E. Ward to order Krasnoff back to the meeting, Ward refused.
Race was introduced into the argument. Mayor Ward, who is black and Democratic, supported Dwight Parker, a black Democrat, to succeed Dwyer. Ward said at Tuesday's meeting that a council member had told him at a work session on Monday, ``Why are you holding the process up, Mayor? You know no one is going to appoint any blacks anyway.''
So the Chesapeake City Council consists of one black and eight white males. Edge, 47, will serve until a Nov. 7 election for a special replacement. (He finished only 28 votes out of the running in the May election.)
Edge's elevation to the council seems reasonable. But given the nature of the controversy that led to Dwyer's resignation, and given the males' loutish behavior at council meetings, voters might consider electing women to the council. by CNB