THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604290033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 179 lines
The early 1980s were fat days. Ronald Reagan's military buildup brought prosperity. The shipyards were bustling. Tower Mall was packed, and Sears, Jif and London Fog still called the city home.
Those were the days when Dr. James W. Holley, Portsmouth's mayor, drove his new silver Corvette around town and his license plate - Hizonor - really meant something.
It was before Holley was implicated in a hate-mail scandal, and citizens learned about his travel spending and the out-of-town parties at the city's expense.
It was before he was recalled, and before the recession hit and the city discovered its financial reserves were gone and the council had to raise the tax rate by 10 cents.
Those were salad days, and Holley has promised that if he is returned to the mayor's chair on May 7, he will bring them back.
Some of the very people who led the recall campaign against Holley are now supporting his run for mayor in hopes that he can make good on those promises.
``During the time when Jim was mayor, the tax rate was lowest in history, and the revenues were the highest,'' said Charles Whitehurst, the former city treasurer who was a target of the hate-mail campaign over plans to close the old I.C. Norcom High School.
Whitehurst said he believes Holley was wrongly accused in the scandal.
Holley maintains his innocence, saying of the 48 pieces of mail, his fingerprints ``were only on two.''
Incumbent Mayor Gloria O. Webb said she is mystified by Holley's resurgence.
``Have people forgotten what happened?'' Webb asked. ``It's incredible to me, after what this city went through for months and months and months, that there's any support for him at all.''
Webb, a full-time mayor and homemaker, is not sure what has happened. The city is coming back after tough economic times, she said, and now - as it is on the brink of success - some of the city's voters have turned away from her.
But there have been issues over the past four years that have angered her former supporters, including the Portsmouth Committee, an influential political action committee that helped her get elected.
Webb said she lost support for her votes to build the new I.C. Norcom High School, to kill a riverboat gambling proposal and to build a shopping center on the old Churchland High School site.
To throw in an added kink, there's a third mayoral candidate - Frank Harte. Harte, a retired engineer, is a long shot. The last time he ran, he pulled in fewer than 2,000 votes. But he could be a factor, depending on from whom he pulls his votes.
``It's going to be the closest race the city has ever seen,'' Harte predicted. He said Holley may have a slight edge over everyone else in the race.
Harte, 75, is also adding to the heated rhetoric about a city that's failing, by constantly attacking Webb and the current council.
``The council has a bad reputation of telling citizens they know what's good for them,'' Harte said.
Then there's personality.
Holley is flamboyant, he's funny and he doesn't hesitate to make promises in a way that makes folks feel comfortable that he can get it done. And Holley doesn't shy from taking credit for the city's successes.
Webb, 63, has a Midwestern reserve about her.
She has office hours every day and goes to nearly every meeting, ribbon-cutting or celebration to which she is invited. She doesn't make many promises. She says what she thinks. Sometimes that gets her into trouble - like the time she said taxpayers didn't need to know about every little item in the city budget.
The item in question was money being put into a lucrative retirement account for the former City Manager V. Wayne Orton. That comment made a lot of citizens angry, and one group tried to start a recall campaign against her. She later apologized for the remark, but some folks still haven't forgiven it and have raised that issue during this campaign.
Holley is largely critical of the hard times that, he said, hit the city 10 months after his recall. The 69-year-old dentist said the council refused to work to attract businesses the way he had done.
Even though the city spent its reserves during his tenure, Holley said a tax increase was not inevitable. He said the council just didn't work hard enough to keep things on track. If he had been in charge, he said, he would have persuaded the business community to make up for any shortfalls.
``Why did the business community become disenchanted? Businesses are like a coalition. At one time, the chamber was on top of things, but I don't see that anymore. I'm going to try to get that back,'' Holley said.
``We just need more momentum now,'' he added. ``I generated right much of that.''
Webb is proud that she got through those tough times after Holley's recall. Citizens were hurt, angry and bitter, she said.
The nation's economy was plummeting and Portsmouth had exhausted its savings. Taxes went up, businesses started downsizing and crime began to rise.
Less than eight years later, Webb said, the city has begun a renaissance. Citizens are dedicated to making the city better. She feels that they have joined forces with the government to help fight crime and to help design attractions that will capitalize on the city's waterfront and history.
Webb has encouraged citizens to join the city's planning process for the economic development plan, Vision 2005. She has canvassed the city to tout the plan and to encourage citizens to get involved.
Now that the economic tide has turned, Webb said she wants to be at the helm while the city makes its greatest strides toward improvement.
But, nearly a decade later, Webb's campaign may be suffering somewhat from the backlash of Holley's recall. Holley's supporters are now saying that she was part of a plan to get Holley removed so she could take over his seat.
``I'm supporting him now because I felt it was a huge mistake to get him out of office,'' said Carrie Byrum, who helped lead the recall campaign against Holley. ``I believe it was a conspiracy to remove him from office.''
Webb and Holley served together on the council that lowered the tax rate by 10 cents during the city's robust economic times. Webb said the council wanted to share the wealth with the taxpayers so it lowered the tax rate and reduced the fund balance on the assumption that the economy would continue to improve.
She said she has learned a lesson about the importance of maintaining the fund balance.
Holley takes no blame for the council's decision to use the fund balance to finance day-to-day expenses rather than to steady the tax rate.
In the end, the schools had to make up the shortfall. For several years, the School Board returned part of its operating budget to the city. Rather than reinvesting that money for school maintenance, the city used it to make up for shortages in its own operating budget and to put money back into the city's financial reserves.
``I don't know who the party is that is responsible,'' Holley said. ``It was mismanagement of the reserves that put us in a bad position. The tax rate went way up after I left.''
Holley said the city can't afford to be too conservative if it wants to attract business. It takes money to attract new business, he said.
During his last year in office, Holley spent $33,000 traveling and entertaining prospective businesses - nearly 2 1/2 times the previous travel budget for the entire council.
He said he doesn't plan to do much traveling if he is elected because ``the people have told me they don't want that.''
``I have a good understanding of what needs to be done immediately,'' Holley said. ``It's going to be a juggling act to get the tax rate down.''
At a recent candidates' forum for the mayoral race, Holley said if he were mayor he he would convince the council to give Harvey N. Johnson Jr., a Holley supporter and the former executive director of the STOP organization, $100,000 to fund a study of a housing, retail and office complex in the Effingham Street area, even though other consultants have said the project isn't feasible.
``If they would let him run his study through there, and he figured out for himself that it wouldn't work, then he wouldn't have a complaint,'' Holley said. ``And we could get on with the big picture for the city.''
It's those kinds of statements that prompt Webb to say that Holley would ``give away the store'' to attract business.
``With the citizens consent, I would give away things,'' Holley said. ``I don't want to give away the whole shop, but I do want incentive packages comparable with neighbors and competitors.''
Holley also has incorporated some of Harte's ideas into his campaign. Harte is running on a seven-point platform that includes solutions to crime, education and economic development.
``Harte is making some positive statements that seem to be well thought out,'' Holley said. ``I respect his presence and I consider him a factor.''
Harte said his campaign is more than ``a lark.''
``If I don't make it, this city is in for a continuation of what it's had,'' Harte said. ILLUSTRATION: THEN...
James W. Holley was Portsmouth's mayor during the prosperous
1980s. But he was implicated in scandal and recalled from office.
Now he wants his seat back, and some who fought to have him recalled
are supporting him.
AND NOW... Incumbent Mayor Gloria O. Webb, who helped lead the
recall effort against Holley, helped pick up the pieces after he
left office. Now that the city seems to be recovering, she wonders
why anyone would want him back.
Votes for long-shot candidate Frank Harte may decide this close
mayoral race if they drain enough supprt from Holley or Webb.
Votes for long-shot candidate Frank Harte may decide this close
mayoral race if they drain enough support from Holley or Webb.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH MAYORAL RACE by CNB