THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511030156
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Long : 229 lines
When I first started watching City Council meetings a couple of years ago, I thought Carl Burns, ``council watcher,'' was nuts. Mr. Burns is the guy who is at just about every council meeting pointing out our council members' shortcomings and the city bureaucracy's unresponsiveness.
For a while there, the council members tried to silence the city's chronic complainers by fooling around with the format of the weekly meetings and almost had me convinced that was a good idea. They were doing this for the sake of expediency, they said. So many of the meetings are long and tedious. But Mr. Burns persevered and many voices were raised in opposition to the format changes. Seems most of us still believe in the right of every person to be heard, even chronic complainers.
Well, a few things have happened in my neighborhood over the last two years that have opened my eyes, and I am seeing Mr. Burns in a whole new light.
The first incident was the proposed City Jail annex. Greenbrier residents will surely remember this issue. The city powers-that-were decided it would be a good idea to build an inmate work-release facility right in the center of Greenbrier. The people spoke and were heard. There is no jail in Greenbrier.
The second incident was the proposed routes for the Southeastern Expressway. One of those routes was planned to go through the dining facility at the Greenbrier Country Club. The people spoke and were heard. There is no expressway looming over the golf course in Greenbrier.
The third incident specific to my own neighborhood. For many years, the longtime residents of Fairway Drive have been trying to get the city to do something to improve both the volume and velocity of traffic on our street. In October 1994, at the request of the Wedgewood Estates Homeowners' Association, the Traffic Engineering Department placed stop signs at three intersections along Fairway Drive. The people spoke and were heard. Speeders slowed down and traffic volume decreased.
The fourth incident involves these same stop signs. Immediately after the signs were in place, several residents of Fairway Drive adamantly protested against them. The Homeowners' Association took a house-to-house vote. Should the signs stay or go? Seventy-five percent of the residents voted to keep the stop signs, with the exception of the intersection at Fairway and Cranston. The original request made by the Wedgewood Estates Homeowners' Association did not include putting a stop sign at Fairway and Cranston. The city did that on its own.
The Homeowners' Association submitted a request to City Council to restore Fairway and Cranston to its original disposition and make the other two intersections three-way stops.
In a meeting in October, council members ignored the 75 percent majority and voted unanimously to remove all the stop signs at the request of three very vocal homeowners, one of whom has ``a very close family friend'' sitting on the City Council.
I'm sure the council members all have very legitimate reasons for removing the stop signs - none of which are making our neighborhood a safer place for our children. The volume and velocity of traffic is a major problem once again.
So, what do the fist three incidents, in which the majority were heard, have in common with the fourth incident, in which the majority was ignored, has not?
The first three incidents came to the forefront in 1994, an election year for City Council members.
The fourth incident happened in 1995. Not one City Council member seemed to have a problem ignoring the majority. Only Dalton S. Edge risks losing his job this year. I'm sure you get my point.
As for the city bureaucracy under former City Manager James W. Rein: In the last two years not one of my phone calls has been returned by anyone under his supervision. I guess, for that, you need a close family friend in city management.
If this scenario sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you're one of the very many people who I have heard petitioning City Council to do something about traffic safety problems in our neighborhoods. Frustrating as it may be, if we all become as annoying as Mr. Burns we might get the City Council to fire a couple of traffic engineers who can glibly explain what their policy is but have no solution to ending the problems created by their own design.
Mr. Burns, keep up the good work. More often than not, your comments ring true.
Paula Leary
Fairway Drive Courthose cronyism
When I read a letter like the one from A.C. ``Andy'' Black Jr. (The Clipper, Oct. 27), I surely do snicker.
Lillie M. ``Lil'' Hart is an incumbent by virtue of courthouse cronyism. The only thing I ever saw Lil do was sell hunting permits. That's experience?
The same thing happened when Ray A. Conner was made commissioner of the revenue. Where was his experience?
Over the treasurer's office, Hardy White was enthroned when Barbara O. Carraway came in and broke that honeymoon up.
When Mrs. Cotten is elected, the clerk's office won't miss a beat.
Some people see City Manager James W. Rein's passing as overdue. Letters in the Oct. 27 Clipper listed all of Jim's sins. I think his worst sin was the choice of words to a councilman: ``Well some of the department heads are close to retirement and tend to let things slip through the cracks.'' I think he should have said, ``Monday morning, I'll be out there with a cat o' nine tails.''
When you vote, be sure you get rid of the rapid-growth gang. We are looking at border-to-border concrete.
Timothy J. Brown
Twin Cedar Trail Positive proof
``Computerization'' and ``age'' appear to be Vista Cotten's thump cards. But the cards do not necessarily create a winning hand.
Having worked in the clerk's offices in Tidewater, the Peninsula, the Eastern Shore and the Outer Banks of North Carolina doing research for various private companies, I could tell lots of stories - horror stories - of computer down time, lost records, power surges, hardware malfunction, program flukes and data input errors. It is true that they are nice when they work, but it is also true that it is a living nightmare when they fail.
It is not true to say the Chesapeake clerk's office is not computerized. The truth is all records are entered into the various departments' specific computer programs, which in turn categorize the information and daily produce up-to-date hard copies for public use. Every day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. anyone from the public can enter the clerk's office, research, find and put their hands on specific documents which have been put to record. (That means even when the electricity goes out.) I can cite many situations of which this is not true of other clerks' offices.
Since when in America has age become grounds for discrimination? Someday, in each of our futures, I know we will be very thankful this is true. As long as we each can physically and mentally do a good job, no employer can discriminate on the basis of age. Lil Hart has an incredibly sharp mind, enduring energy and admirable stamina.
Lil Hart has 54 years of varied legal and courthouse experience in addition to management experience. Thirty-seven of those years have been in the Chesapeake courthouse. I am not aware of too many others who could run for this office and warrant the confidence of the public in this regard. The job of the clerk of the Circuit Court is not a position where you can learn as you go. No other company or employer would afford an individual a top management position with little or no experience. So why should this case be any different?
The citizens of Chesapeake can be very proud of their clerk's office. If it is so outdated and part of the ``Jurassic Park era,'' why is it other clerks' officers have actually come to Chesapeake in order to determine how they achieve the production, quality and efficiency on a daily basis?
The citizens can be proud they have a clerk's office which is capable of handling the enormous needs of a growing and booming city and yet not lose the down-home atmosphere.
It is not true that there is poor cross-training of employees. It is true they are understaffed. But it is not unusual to find an employee from one department filling in for another employee while still doing his or her job so that employee can have a vacation or not feel bad abut being sick or losing a loved one. All-in-all, there is a great team spirit.
In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason not to re-elect an individual who has accomplished better than a good job, and who has consistently proven her abilities.
Anyone can say whatever they desire; we have that right. But the proof is in what has been done. Lil Hart's record is positive proof that she should be re-elected.
Brenda Williamson
Kempsville Road Change for city's sake
Not change for the sake of change, change for the sake of Chesapeake!
We can no longer afford to be influenced by the ``good ol' boys'' Democrat mentality. Your vote for Vista Cotten for Chesapeake clerk of court will assure Chesapeake of moving into the 21st century with pride.
Vista will do for the clerk's office what Barbara O. Carraway has done for the treasurer's office.
We support Vista Cotten for clerk of court.
Judy M. Jones
Stephen W. Jones
Ballahack Road The price of water
Joann Clark, a member of the Chesapeake Utility Bond Committee, does the voters a disservice when she tells them ``If this (the water bond referendum) doesn't go through, we're talking about another rate increase of $3. That's in addition to the $2.10 already in place.''
What she and city utility officials are failing to tell the public is that there will be another rate increase of $3 (and perhaps more) whether the bond referendum is approved or not.
Improvements to the city's Northwest River water treatment plant will include a reverse osmosis process that uses filters. The filters remove pollutants, and much of the salt.
But anyone familiar with the process will tell you that the filters can be cleaned a few times, after which they are so clogged they must be replaced. The filters are extremely expensive. Routine replacement will raise the cost of Chesapeake water even more.
It would be refreshing for the public to learn the truth just once about the city water project. Failing to fully inform the people about water improvements have led to the present crisis and will lead to more problems in the future.
Carl Cahill
Old Drive Clerk is capable
As a real estate title examiner, I use the records recorded in the Circuit Court record rooms of every city in the Hampton Roads area.
The individual charged with the proper care, indexing and management of these records in Chesapeake is our Circuit Court clerk, Lillie M. ``Lil'' Hart.
Lil came up through the ranks, serving in various positions within the clerk's office since 1967 and performing exceptionally well as our clerk since 1984.
Lil's opponent in the clerk's race is the co-owner of a local insurance company. Nothing I've read indicates she possesses even a rudimentary knowledge of the Virginia statutory law, court procedures, legal record management, probate procedures, firearms licensing procedures, law and chancery matters or the numerous other duties, departments and activities for which the clerk is responsible.
A vote for such inexperience is a subscription to the theory that management doesn't have to know or understand the job it manages.
Since I have experience working in the record rooms in Newport News, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk and Portsmouth, I can also attest that Chesapeake's clerk's office is not the ``outdated office stuck in the Jurassic Park era'' the opponent portrays.
Computers have been in use in the Chesapeake clerk's office for many years for the indexing and receipting of deeds, plats and law and chancery matters.
While further technological advances are desirable, they are presently hampered in Chesapeake by both budgetary constraints and a space-deficiency problem. Our record room simply cannot accommodate the reader/printer systems currently in use in Virginia Beach and Newport News. Both these cities have new facilities, planned and built to accommodate them.
It is my understanding that further computerization of our records will however be accomplished when our new Circuit Court is built. Lil Hart's input, experience and knowledge will be an incalculable asset in the planning and development of our new facility.
For me, this election decision is simple. Our clerk's position is not an ``earn-while-you-learn'' position. I'm voting for Lil Hart. She's experienced. She serves us well. And she deserves re-election!
Montrue Goldfarb
Shadyside Lane by CNB