Councilman's oversight on landscaping job is worrisome

With apologies to Charles Dickens, let's try our own tale of two cities today.

First we have Norfolk. We learned in Monday's Pilot that a councilman there recently landed a quarter-of-a-million-dollar city landscaping job. But because Barclay C. Winn was dealing with a subcontractor - and not the city directly - it slipped his mind that he was being paid with public money.

You'd think the address - Town Point Park - would have tipped him off. You would be wrong.

Not to worry. Councilman Winn is sorry for this misstep. It won't happen again.

Naturally, his colleagues on the council are leaping to his defense. Theresa Whibley, for instance.

She points out that when Winn was elected, his company, Winn Nursery, lost all the business it had once conducted with the city of Norfolk.

"He has sacrificed a lot to serve on the City Council," Whibley huffed. "I think it's inappropriate to have any concerns about this."

Inappropriate?

Sorry, Dr. Whibley, but any time a politician appears to be in a "technical" violation of the state's conflict of interest laws, it's absolutely appropriate to be concerned.

Let's remember that Virginia's conflict laws are so lax it's nearly impossible to violate them. Seems all Councilman Winn needed to do was announce his plans to bid on a public project and get City Council approval and his problems would have evaporated.

As far as his sacrifice for the city, I hesitate to point this out, but no one forced Winn to run for public office. If he wanted to continue to conduct lucrative business with the city, he should have remained a private citizen.

Any time any politician lands a quarter of a million dollars to work on a public project, it raises eyebrows and ethical questions.

Frankly, the absence of indignation by most members of the Norfolk City Council is almost as alarming as the deal itself.

Enough about Norfolk. Let's travel a few miles east, to Virginia Beach, the city that can't take no for an answer.

Again, according to Monday's Pilot, city officials there desperately want a headquarters hotel planted next to the new $202 million convention center. Never mind that they tried this last year and were warned that national security concerns outweighed the need for more king-size beds with mints on the pillows.

The Navy claims that a high-rise building at that location would interfere with radar operations at Oceana.

So the city is stomping its feet, holding its breath and hiring a consultant - cha ching - until it gets its way.

Am I the only one who remembers that the 31st Street hotel was presented to the public as the ideal place for high-rolling conventioneers to stay? Apparently that wasn't quite true. Now the city's convention and visitors bureau claims it has lost more than 100 bookings because the 500,000-square-foot facility lacks an adjacent hotel.

Tough.

Only in Virginia Beach would national security take a back seat to hotel development. But some at City Hall are so desperate for another hotel that they want the radar installation to move.

Sounds outlandish, but a word of warning from someone who's lived at the Beach for 25 years: Never get between a Beach politician and a hotel development.

Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net