Keep 'em honest

After taking three-month sabbatical to work on the Roanoke mayoral and city council campaigns of Alice Hincker and Wendy Jones, I am returning roanoke.com to write my weekly column. I hope you will return to reading it.

The 2004 races for mayor and council involved as many hard-hitting issues as there were candidates. During the course of these campaigns, I found that one of the greatest tools of democracy was roanoke.com’s “Grandstand” – the weekly online columns written by the candidates themselves on the election issues.


No, I’m not trying to score any points with the company that publishes my column. I truly feel that Grandstand was a place where every candidate had a voice and could tell voters his or her thoughts on the issues – unfiltered, unedited, and for free. The candidates didn’t have to pay for expensive advertising, mailings or Web sites to get their messages out. Even the darkest horse candidate had a chance to speak to tens of thousands of voters.


And you, as a voter, had the opportunity to get to know the candidates’ views in more than just 30-second TV and radio soundbites, or through the filter of a newspaper article. You could email the candidates directly and ask them questions, you could compare candidates on the issues, and you could post your opinions in a virtual town square and discuss them with others – all so you could become more informed before going to the voting booth.


Roanoke.com Grandstand was one of the first – if not THE first – all-candidate forum of its kind in the country. It served a very noble purpose, and I hope it continues for other races.


On July 1 in Roanoke, a new mayor and three new members of city council will be sworn in. Now that they have taken public positions on the issues – in writing – hold them to those positions. Remember their promises. These positions and promises are what you should expect from your next city council.


What follows are their words from their Grandstand columns – some are full quotes, some are paraphrased – but all are without my editorial commentary.


Print out this column and keep it somewhere that you can refer to it over the next four years. Keep score of the candidates and whether or not they maintain these positions. Hold them accountable when they change them, and give them support when they stick to their principles on difficult issues.


1. School safety


Nelson Harris: “As mayor, my role would be to hold accountable those responsible, notably the school board, for the governance of our school system, to be supportive of the efforts of our teachers and students in creating a safe learning environment, and to make the necessary fiscal commitments to move our public schools forward.”


Bev Fitzpatrick: He says there is a breakdown in parental responsibility that has some students coming to school with no respect for their teachers or peers.


Sherman Lea: “While I believe that our school system should do everything possible to see that no child regardless of social [or] economic background, race or learning abilities is left behind, we must recognize that once a student is identified as repeatedly disruptive, creating a situation in which others cannot learn, then that student must be removed from the classroom.”


He proposes that council make elected school boards a referendum issue.


Brian Wishneff: “No issue is more important for Roanoke than school safety. If elected to Roanoke City Council, I will make funding school safety improvements my No. 1 priority for spending city funds.”


He says he will support necessary funding for alternative schools for kids who are disruptive, and support funding to provide the number of school resource officers necessary to make parents, teachers and students comfortable. Although he doesn’t necessarily agree with the idea of elected school boards, he pledged to place the issue up for referendum.


2. Victory Stadium


Nelson Harris: He says he was elected to represent what he feels is the will of the public. He supports reviewing the renovation options for Victory Stadium. He’s in favor of a public referendum on the issue.


Bev Fitzpatrick: He says we don’t know what it will cost to fix Victory Stadium, and that he would be unwilling to spend any money there until he knows “what is going to be necessary.”


Sherman Lea: “As co-chairman of Citizens for a Sensible Stadium Decision, I want there to be no doubt that I stand for a renovated Victory Stadium.”


Lea and co-chairman Brian Wishneff have been calling for a public referendum on this issue.


Brian Wishneff: He says that Victory Stadium should be renovated and the proposed new stadium project abandoned. He pledged that if he was elected to city council, he would never vote on such a major project without prior public discussion.


3. Economic development


Nelson Harris: He says he supports the strengthening of relationships between Roanoke and Virginia Tech; attracting a low-fare air carrier to Roanoke; investing with neighboring counties to create regional commerce parks; and continuing with the regional water authority and finding other regional collaborations to provide efficiencies and better service for business and residents. He pledges to have on-going meetings with local government officials and business owners to determine ways city government can serve them better.


Bev Fitzpatrick: He suggests that we have to change the way we provide employment training for our citizens and make it quick to respond to the changing needs of businesses. He says Roanoke needs to continue to emphasize regional marketing, and work jointly on business prospects with other localities.


Sherman Lea: He says that marketing our city’s and our region’s assets is the first step in attracting new businesses. He also says Roanoke’s economic development department should be dedicated to assisting existing businesses, including calling on them to assess their needs, and working to cut government obstacles and regulations that inhibit business growth.


Brian Wishneff: He says he will insist that the city create capital projects that pay a return to offset those projects with no tangible financial return. He supports the new art museum/ IMAX Theater, the Dumas Hotel, and attracting a new low-cost airline. He feels that Roanoke has become a difficult place to do business because of a “City Hall knows best” attitude. He pledges to make the city business-friendly again by listening to the needs of small business owners.


4. City debt


Nelson Harris: He feels that Roanoke City is well within its debt policy's parameters He says debt service shall not exceed 10 percent of Roanoke's budget expenditures and bonded debt shall not exceed 5 percent of the total assessed value of real estate. He supports maintaining the city's debt within these parameters.


Bev Fitzpatrick: “Roanoke is not too indebted and meets all current and appropriate standards for such borrowing. We rank right along with other Virginia cities and urban governments with our bonded debt percentages.”


Sherman Lea: “…City Council presently has or had plans to spend more than $344 million by 2007 for capital expenditures. This would create a debt burden that will result in skyrocketing property taxes for Roanoke residents.”


He advocates using voter referenda for major capital projects.


Brian Wishneff: “The financial projections presented to City Council at a recent financial planning session have as an assumption that real estate assessments will continue to increase at a rate of 4%-5%. During the past 20 years, the typical citywide assessment increases were in the 1%-3% range. Even with these projected unprecedented increases, there is a significant gap in several years between expenses and revenues.”


He advocates using voter referenda for all major capital projects.


5. Roanoke Police Department


Nelson Harris: He says he has consistently opposed the unfunding/elimination of police positions; he supports a review of and increase in the police pay scale; he supports the return of officers’ and supervisors’ opportunities to earn overtime pay; he opposes the "pay for performance" plan as it currently exists; and he supports efforts to increase the diversity of the police force to reflect the diversity of the population of Roanoke.


Bev Fitzpatrick: He says that the department must spend more time on training and updating equipment so it remains on the cutting edge. He states that the police department will always have priority in city council decisions when it comes to budgeting money for equipment, training, and salaries.


Sherman Lea: He says that pay and benefits for police officers must not only be competitive within our region, but throughout the state. “Funding competitive salaries and benefits for Roanoke police officers will be a priority for me.”


Brian Wishneff: He feels the city has employed bureaucratic techniques toward employee benefit policies that create a “we versus them” mentality between the city administration and public safety employees, and punishes employees financially.


6. Social services


Nelson Harris: “Community ethic certainly suggests we should assist those with legitimate needs; however, Roanoke cannot continue to be the majority provider of these services for our region over the long-term … If true regionalism is to succeed, then it must encompass social services, and not just be limited to economic development projects and infrastructure.”


Bev Fitzpatrick: “This entire issue is so big that I surely do not have the answers to what we can do to fix the situation ... I would like for us to do some in-depth research on our process, the individuals who need it, and take the facts and see what we can to do locally change what we can.”


Sherman Lea: He proposes that Roanoke develop stronger economic development initiatives, so that an economically growing city can continue to support those citizens who are in “real and desperate need.”


“As a member of Roanoke City Council, I pledge to support all activities and efforts that will strengthen our ability to provide the best social services possible to our citizens.”


Brian Wishneff: He says Roanoke must have a high degree of home ownership and a quality housing stock for neighborhoods to remain healthy. He feels the current city council’s reliance on federal funds is insufficient. “We need to spend millions of dollars of city money to… provide financial incentives to increase home ownership in the city and to improve our housing stock.”


7. Roanoke city manager


Nelson Harris: “Our city has moved forward in a number of projects and programs since Ms. Burcham was retained as our city manager ... As an organization, however, we continue to suffer from low morale amongst city employees, a high turnover rate in upper management positions, and a pay/evaluation plan that remains problematic and inequitable ... I believe once the new council is seated in July, we should provide goals and objectives for our city manager, become more engaged in giving direction and feedback to city management (without micromanaging), and should ‘manage the manager’ in a higher and more effective manner.”


Bev Fitzpatrick: “Many would say [Darlene Burcham] is blunt and perhaps too aggressive and some of those criticisms have some merit. But I would rather have a decisive leader any day, especially one who cares about Roanoke and really does want to make a difference in our lives.”


Sherman Lea: “I would like to see the present city council provide more direction and accountability concerning this position. If elected to Council, one of my first duties will be to evaluate the effectiveness of the city manager relative to providing a team approach within all offices of city government.”


Brian Wishneff: “I do not believe that you can effectively run a 1,800-person organization like [city government] through intimidation … when you use intimidation to motivate people you end up with a much less motivated workforce.”