THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260491
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Decision '96
Part 2: The Issues
LENGTH: Long : 295 lines
1. Do you support the economic development plan Vision 2005? 1b. What is the first thing the city must tackle to put itself into a competitive economic position?
2. How can the council support the schools? What is the council's responsibility toward making sure school buildings are maintained and that class sizes are not too large?
3. How can the council help fight the city's crime problems? Who is responsible for ensuring that the city's communities are safe? [Candidate's Answers]
[CANDIDATE'S FOR MAYOR]
FRANK A. HARTE
Age: 75
Address: 3400 block of Dogwood Drive, Siesta Gardens
Occupation: Retired engineer and businessman
Political experience: None; ran for mayor 10 years ago.
1. Yes and no. Yes, because long-range planning is imperative to our city's continuing progress. No, because there is no total cost estimate for its implementation; no cost estimate as to net or gross income to our city; and no guarantee that the project will be completed on time since its completion is predicated on external investment funds. What developer would invest millions of dollars on a project of this nature after observing our internal problems? If we clean up our act - yes. Clean up our negative-causing problems. Hunt and attract labor-intensive business. Abolish our tool and inventory tax structure. Offer tax and service incentives to attract business to Portsmouth. Establish a public relations system to keep business interested in remaining and expanding in Portsmouth.
2. Under our new elected School Board system, council can only control the funds to force the school system to comply with council's recommendations.
3. Today, our city manager has the sole responsibility to control our city's crime/drug problem. However, our city's governing body has the ultimate responsibility for this problem because the city manager is responsible to the city's governing body for all problems in our city - a situation in which I totally disagree. The governing body must give directions, establish goals, target dates, suggest and support staffing levels, provide the funds, give the city manager direct help and encouragement and then monitor the city manager's progress to ensure compliance.
JAMES W. HOLLEY III
Age: 69
Address: 1400 block of Carson Crescent West, Cavalier Manor
Occupation: Dentist
1. Yes. Because I believe that a city has to have a master plan in place for its future. However, I do believe that the present plan needs an additional in-house review with broader citizens input to dispel its weaknesses, which has caused some criticism among those citizens whose communities see no benefits during the planned 10 years. Open up closed meetings and utilize citizens instead of consultants. Determine what we should become and stop worrying about other cities. Become a town with its history as an attraction. Discover how to best market the geographic position of our city, its history, culture and the like.
2. Schools belong to the community. Members of council and the mayor are a part of the community too! Stop an ``it's them, not us'' mentality. Fight for in-school suspension to keep unruly children off the streets during school hours. Become advocates of our schools, especially with parents and community leaders. Seek active partnerships with members of the School Board to the extent that council members are invited to school buildings and meetings of the school system to better understand its needs and problems. Class sizes are important, but we must find ways to retain excellence in teaching.
3. Each member of council is also a citizen. Safe streets and neighborhoods must be a concern of all members of council. It is not merely someone's job. It is the mayor and each member's responsibility. The City Council is responsible for ensuring that the city's communities are safe.
GLORIA O. WEBB
Age: 63
Address: 200 block of Park Road, Glensheallah
Occupation: Mayor
1.Yes! It is a launching point for the city, and I predict it will eventually expand to all neighborhoods of the older areas of our city. The amazing thing about Vision 2005 is the involvement of hundreds of citizens who are working alongside city government giving us their best ideas, which we then put into use. ... We need to tackle our image of being an unsafe city. Our Economic Development Department has contacts with dozens of industries looking for relocation sites, and I am confident one or more of these will materialize. We work with the Virginia Department of Economic Development and Forward Hampton Roads. Our weakness is the city owns very few large tracts of land. We have also named a coordinator for small-business recruitment and retention.
2. Council can support education by funding the School Board operating budget and Capital Improvement budget proportionate to the city budget. Today 40 percent of the capital budget is designated for schools as well as 43 percent of general operating budget. Once that money is appropriated, City Council cannot control how it is spent. 3. The NEAT program will soon be expanded to cover nine areas of the city. The crime prevention steering committee, the citizens police academy, 51 neighborhood watch programs and seven neighborhood patrols are all working with the Police Department to lower the crime rate. We work with civic leagues to address proper street lighting, traffic controls, codes enforcement on abandoned buildings and automobiles.
The missing piece is programs for our youngsters. I would like to see wholesome, supervised activities for the youth and senior citizens. If new recreation centers are not affordable, let us at least open up our high schools and middle schools in the evenings.
Ultimately, responsibility for safe communities belongs to all of us: citizens, churches, social services, community services, environmental services, redevelopment and housing, police and city government. [ Answers from City Council - At Large Candidates]
J. THOMAS BENN III
Age: 56
Address: 100 block of West Road, Glensheallah
Occupation: Director of quality assurance, Norfolk Naval Shipyard
1. Yes; I believe in and support Vision 2005.
We must tackle the parts of Vision 2005, such as the Midcity and Downtown/Portside projects, that will kick-start recovery. We, the citizens, must resolve to support the new endeavors with our business. . . . We shouldn't cry economic renewal with our mouths and continue to go to the mall with our feet.
2. The council has the same obligation to the schools as does the School Board. A sizable chunk of the city's budget is earmarked for education. Having said that, the council also has the awesome responsibility to cover the budgetary needs of all aspects of the city, and education - as important as that is to all of us - is but one of those needs.
3. Keep advancing community policing. Remove the blighted areas that harbor the criminal activities. Place as many assets and resources as possible in the hands of the police. Support the vision, the techniques and the efforts of Police Chief Dennis Mook. We are all responsible for the safety of our communities. <
BERNARD D. GRIFFIN
Age: 57
Address: 1300 block of Watson Street, Mount Hermon
Occupation: Retired educator
1. Yes, absolutely. The next step is to complete the two projects that have been started on time - Norcom High School and the inlet at the foot of High Street.
The city must increase our fund balance, create a more positive image and dwell on our successes.
2. The council can support schools by funding their programs to update their physical plants as well as money to add more technology (computers). The council's responsibility is to fund their operation.
3. The council can help the city's crime problem by funding to purchase equipment and to add more personnel. The council must also appropriate funds to maintain a variety of recreational programs as well as an effective crime prevention and intervention task force.
JAMES C. HAWKS
Age: 49
Address: 4100 block of Faber Road, Green Acres
Occupation: Attorney
1. I enthusiastically support Vision 2005. The concept is to involve our citizens in identifying the good and the bad so that we can focus our resources to develop the good and eliminate the bad. In its initial phase, we identified four areas of concentration and we outlined what actions should be initiated. All of the planning has been done publicly with active citizen participation. My section, the Downtown, focuses on the opportunities presented by our waterfront location and the extraordinary collection of historical sites and buildings in a relatively small area. I expect the plan to evolve and not end in the year 2005. Cradock has already been identified as a likely area for inclusion. It must be understood that the established programs for resurfacing streets, providing sewers and drainage, building curbs, gutters and sidewalks and otherwise improving all neighborhoods will continue. The plan doesn't replace these programs but concentrates our discretionary funds in a more effective manner. Companies looking to expand or relocate to a new region often require proximity to an interstate highway, rail access, access to shipping, a mild climate and abundance of water and of local labor - and many other factors that we already have. What we must remember is that companies are run by people, and these people also want to know where they are going to live and where their children are going to school. The first thing that the city must tackle to be economically competitive is the middle-class flight from our school system. With the new residential housing available at River Pointe, Bishops Green and Long Point, the housing issue can wait - but not for long.
2. Council must not let the advent of an independently elected School Board result in a loss of confidence in or loss of communication with the School Board. Portsmouth's funding of public education has long exceeded the state-required minimum because we want our schools to rank near the top, not near the bottom. Schools must remain a funding priority, but council must insist that they improve. In my opinion, improvement can best be measured by a growth in student population.
3. The community policing that we funded through a recent tax increase . . community so that they can help that community improve itself and intervene before problems can turn into crimes. Council can further impact crime by continuing to eliminate blighted areas, as we have done in Twin Lakes, and by attracting new industry and jobs, as demonstrated by the recent success with Direct Marketing Enterprise. The greatest responsibility for ensuring safety in Portsmouth rests with the City Council, but each citizen has a responsibility to lookout for his neighbor, report crime, cooperate with police officers and come forward and testify at trial.
MILTON A. HOOVER
Age: 54
Address: First block of Decatur Street, Cradock
Occupation: Supervisor with Parks and Recreation; 33 years with the city of Portsmouth
1. I can support this if other councilmen can work close together to make this happen.
The high crime rate and our school system.
2. Council should set up a close relationship with the new elected School Board. We do not want some problems other cities have had.
3. Having the Police Department, council and neighborhoods working close together.
LEE E. KING
Age: 63
Address: 1500 block of Belafonte Drive, Cavalier Manor
Occupation: Retired general manager, Naval Aviation Depot
1. Yes, it is most definitely a launching point for the city. Sequential implementation and evaluation of each phase must be continuous to insure successful completion of the plan keeping the public abreast of progress.
To improve public safety by decreasing crime, marketing our natural resources and insuring a quality education.
2. By providing adequate funding for operation and increasing capital improvement funds needed to upgrade facilities. Schools must have ample space within them to accommodate smaller class sizes based on the number of students in attendance. The council's responsibility is to monitor the usage of funds to insure that they are being effectively and efficiently utilized to provide a quality educational system.
3. To provide the necessities for the Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to become more involved with communities. Promoting programs and incentives for communities to assume responsibilities for and develop a sense of pride in the areas in which they reside. The people are the key.
CAMERON C. PITTS
Age: 59
Address: 4800 block of Mallard Crescent, Hunters Point
Occupation: Retired businessman; electronic consultant, president of ABEC Inc.
1. I support Vision 2005, and I am chairman of the Midtown 2005 Committee. Vision 2005 is the launching point and will be enlarged - with Cradock, Fairwood Homes and Churchland to be included soon.
Portsmouth. Develop the Portsmouth waterfront to be visually desirable to attract from Norfolk the 3.5 million visitors who come to Waterside annually.
2. Children are our assets and our future. We must fund schools of excellence to raise the caliber of our work force. Our city is doomed to destruction unless we are willing to invest in our children - our future.
3. Zero tolerance of crime; expand the FBI drug busters; expand the NEAT community-policing program; increase support for Neighborhood Watch. Crime doesn't happen where people don't allow it. Police are very effective when they are wholly endorsed and supported by all of the people in a community.
RAFIQ ZAIDI
Age: 52
Address: 500 block of Dinwiddie Street, Downtown
Occupation: Consultant, health and environment, National African-American Leadership Summit, Washington, D.C.; hospital service aide, Portsmouth Naval Hospital
1 As a devout Muslim and Sincere Follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, under the present Guidance of Minister Farrakhan, I firmly believe that the offer of a Gindroz Vision 2005 to the people of Portsmouth is hypocritical and being instituted as a political ploy to deceive the people into believing that this so-called urban redesign should be praised and accepted without any idea of how it can be funded. . . .
Like many urban cities, Portsmouth must tackle specific problems with no easy solutions. Portsmouth must realize that no city can rise above its people. No city can survive without managing its finances.
2. My . . . concerns are mainly for all our children to have equal access to an education that develops the total human process of growth; to assess the current impact the educational system has on the student population; to develop and implement strategies to insure that every student has access to a quality education - not based on a standardized rating system, but by its preparation of its consumers for competition in an increasingly technological society; to examine the current educational system to determine the extent to which it affords adequate opportunities for students to achieve a quality education as determined by their readiness for participation in society and to develop and implement strategies to insure that adequate educational opportunities are accessible to all, regardless of creed, class, color or the circumstances of environment. . . .
3. I would like to deal with the origin of crime and violence. Any politician who pledges to be tough on crime, tough on criminals, can get a vote because the code words ``tough on crime'' and ``tough on criminals'' mean being tough on black people. We are being portrayed as the top criminals in society. It is sad that the little criminals - cheap thieves and hustlers surviving from day-to-day - are the ones who are persecuted and prosecuted, while the real criminals who are in high places dressed in fine suits and speaking in beautiful language are hiding their criminal activities behind the legalities of government, rhetoric and law. ILLUSTRATION: Photos of all the candidates<
KEYWORDS: PUBLIC JOURNALISM COMMUNITY CONVERSATION PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL
BOARD CANDIDATES PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES ELECTION
PORTSMOUTH MAYOR'S RACE by CNB