THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606280163
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 60 lines
Around Town is a not-quite-newsy look behind the scenes from City Hall to City Park.
SHORTEST EVER: City Council members made it short and sweet Tuesday night.
The meeting was over and they were out of the chambers by a few minutes past 7:30 - or about 30 minutes after they convened.
Deputy city managers Luke McCoy and Tim Little, both longtime city employees, were somewhat shocked.
``I've never seen one this short,'' Little said.
McCoy concurred.
``It's unheard of,'' he said.
The meeting got off to a quick start with no non-agenda speakers. Then the councilmen voted on a lot of items that involved no controversy.
In fact, Shirley Hines, an activist with the NAACP who had asked to speak after the agenda, did not get to speak at all. She left council chambers and had not returned when the meeting ended.
AFTER THEY'VE SEEN PAREE: Mayor-elect James Holley III spent last week in Paris, France, and was scheduled to return just in time to be sworn in at 2 p.m. today on the City Hall plaza.
According to city hall sources, the trip was a gift from Holley's two adult children to their parents.
WHO'S IN CONTROL? Most council watchers have assumed that Cameron Pitts, the senior white member of City Council, would become the vice mayor, replacing Johnny Clemons, who is black.
The assumption was made on the longstanding but unwritten rule of choosing a black vice mayor with a white mayor, and vice versa. Since Holley is black, it was assumed that the No. 2 post would go to a white.
Since Pitts has a longer record of service than either Jim Martin or Ward Robinett, people naturally assumed Pitts would be the choice.
However, some members of the Portsmouth Committee, a political group that did not support Pitts for re-election this year, allegedly are pushing to keep Clemons in the job.
The Portsmouth Committee failed to gain a majority on council when Jim Hawks lost his seat. As it now stands, Martin, Robinett and newly elected Councilman Tommy Benn, all white, were supported by the committee. Pitts, Clemons and Bernard Griffin, who is black, fill the other seats. Holley has the seventh vote.
PORTSMOUTH MAN NOW: City Manager Ron Massie is a full-fledged Portsmouthian now. Massie and his wife moved last week to their home in Woodbine, adjacent to the former Churchland High School site.
Although nothing had been said about it when he accepted the job as city manager on a permanent basis, Massie voluntarily said he would move from Norfolk to Portsmouth.
The Massies chose the house in Woodbine despite neighborhood squabbles with the city over a proposed shopping center on the vacant land.
Massie said he favors development of the site, so his new neighbors are not likely to get any help from him in blocking the shopping center.
Planning Director Jim Gildea, also a longtime employee and resident of Norfolk, is planning to move to Portsmouth, too.
He said recently that his house in Norfolk has not been sold yet but that his wife already has been looking in Portsmouth - especially in Olde Towne. by CNB