Thursday, May 08, 2008
Mayor-elect Bowers hits ground running
Photos by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times
Roanoke's Mayor-elect David Bowers gets a congratulatory hug Wednesday from supporter Virginia Hutson.
Fellow Kiwanis Club members greet Roanoke Mayor-elect David Bowers as he arrives at the group's luncheon in downtown Roanoke on Wednesday afternoon.
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roanoke.com/politics
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Wishneff-Rosen results may not be close enough for recount
The official results from Tuesday’s elections show Court Rosen ahead of Brian Wishneff by 1.02 percent of the vote for a Roanoke City Council seat, suggesting that Wishneff may not be entitled to an appeal. According to state law, candidates may petition the court for a recount when they lose by less than 1 percent of the vote.
Three city council seats were up for election Tuesday. Rosen, the third-place finisher, earned 5,516 votes or 49.3 percent, giving him a seat on the council. Wishneff, with 5,402 votes representing 48.28 percent, appears to have been shut out.
The official results emerged after Roanoke election officials completed their canvass of Tuesday’s election. On Tuesday, before the results were certified, Wishneff said he would consider requesting a recount. All told, 19.47 percent of Roanoke’s 57,459 registered voters went to the polls.
— David Harrison
Election Results
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Fresh from his victory Tuesday, Roanoke Mayor-elect David Bowers reiterated his pledge Wednesday to put the brakes on controversial city projects championed by current Mayor Nelson Harris, who lost his bid for a second term.
Bowers said he will attempt to block a decision to close two elementary schools, a planned amphitheater on the old Victory Stadium site and a much-discussed restaurant on Mill Mountain.
But it may be difficult for him to deliver on those promises. Already Bowers is bumping up against city council members who backed Harris.
"I would hope we don't get to the point where he is saying, 'This is my agenda and I'm moving forward whether you like it or not,' " said re-elected Councilman Sherman Lea, who will become vice mayor July 1.
Bowers, a former Democrat turned independent, has clashed with his old party, most recently in January, when he quit the city Democratic Committee after he lost a bid for chairman. On Tuesday, voters sent three Democrats to city council seats -- Lea, Anita Price and Court Rosen -- who will maintain the party's majority.
Bowers pointed to his 13-point victory to claim a popular mandate to push his agenda.
"I hope the current council responds to the voice of the people yesterday," he said.
At the same time, the state's constitution bars a mayor or city council member from exerting much influence over school matters. That means his emotional appeals to keep Forest Park Elementary and Oakland Intermediate schools open, on which he based his campaign in the waning days of the race, might come to naught.
The school board voted last week to close the schools and use the buildings for alternative programs for middle and high school students.
Bowers acknowledged that he was powerless to overturn the school board's decision but hinted that he might use the city's budget process to urge school leaders to rethink their decision.
"There may be nothing that can be done," he said, before adding: "I think the ownership of the building is a city council issue and the funding of the schools is a city council issue."
He promised to work closely with his colleagues and anticipated that council alliances would be "fluid" rather than hardening into distinct voting blocs. Some of Bowers' future council colleagues, however, have already balked at his call to keep the schools open.
"I'm not interested in trying to do that," said Lea. "To start off threatening and confronting the school board is absolutely not the way to go."
Council member Gwen Mason said she was "not interested in doing the school board's job."
"As a parent, I don't want city council messing around in affairs that are legally the purview of the school board," she said.
The Virginia Constitution guarantees that school boards are independent of city councils.
That means that mayoral takeovers of school districts that have taken place in cities such as Washington or New York are impossible in Virginia, said Patrick Lacy, a Richmond lawyer who represents the Virginia School Boards Association.
"If the question is: Can the city council say to the school board, 'You must operate or use these buildings for regular schools'? They can't do that," he said.
School board members said Wednesday they had no intention of overturning an existing decision.
Bowers may encounter less resistance to his plans to scuttle the city's consideration of an amphitheater on Reserve Avenue and Valley Forward's proposal to build on Mill Mountain.
The latter already appears to be in dire political straits.
The four heirs of J.B. Fishburn, the late Roanoke businessman who acquired and then deeded large portions of the mountain to the city in the 1940s and '50s, have said they'll abide by the Mill Mountain Advisory Committee's decision on the proposal to build a center to house two restaurants and a community room.
Two of the heirs, however, have said they oppose the project, which according to the city attorney may require a declaratory judgment from the Roanoke Circuit Court. And council members seem to have little stomach for going to court against the Fishburns.
Councilman David Trinkle said he believes the discussion of the project has been "healthy" for the city, and he believes it should continue to a definitive conclusion.
"We ought to finish the discussion for the sake of not having it every five or six years," Trinkle said.
There's also the amphitheater, which has been proposed for the former Victory Stadium site on Reserve Avenue. The city has contracted Red Light Management, a Charlottesville company, to conduct a site study. The council will then decide whether to move forward with a design and then whether to move forward with construction.
Trinkle has said he'd like to see a commercial amphitheater built on Reserve Avenue -- where the flood-prone Victory Stadium stood until its 2006 demolition -- while also investing money in a "souped-up" community amphitheater at Elmwood Park to better house the city's various festivals.
But he and other council members say the commercial amphitheater is ultimately a low-priority project. Trinkle said that while he feels the council chose the best location, he's not necessarily married to the river site.
"I'm more a commercial amphitheater fan than I necessarily am a location fan," Trinkle said.
Bowers, though, was adamant in his opposition to both projects, possibly setting up future council conflicts.
"I think the voters said they don't want to have that amphitheater in the flood zone," he said. "I think the voters said they don't want that restaurant on Mill Mountain."
david.harrison@roanoke.com 777-3523
mason.adams@roanoke.com 981-3253
