Virginia Beach mayor's speech speaks volumes

It's apparently tradition in Virginia Beach to hire a consultant to write the mayor's State of the City speech. Mayor Meyera Oberndorf had $8,210 worth of outside help last year on her annual presentation; the city spent $9,000 on Will Sessoms' speech last week. Those checks were cut despite the fact that the city has its own communications staff, including a speechwriter.

It's noble of the city to want to stimulate the economy by hiring a local wordsmith. But perhaps in such an austere time, such niceties aren't necessary. And anything that isn't absolutely necessary needs to be cut to save the things that are.

After all, Virginia Beach says times are so tough that its own employees - and the city's teachers - will go without raises. Just this week, it said it can't afford to help the struggling Virginia Symphony Orchestra. And the budget proposal for 2010, to be presented to the City Council next week, is still $36 million short.

Recent State of the City speeches weren't themselves particularly objectionable - or, for that matter, even memorable. They were full of cheerleader fodder touting Virginia Beach's successes in recruiting new companies, its agreement to purchase the Norfolk Southern right of way, its fine schools and safe streets - all laudable accomplishments and notable characteristics.

The amount of money isn't the main issue, either, in a city where the annual budget is counted in hundreds of millions of dollars. The problem, put simply, is what this says about the city's priorities, about its willingness to tighten its belt and do more with less.

At a time when thousands of people in Hampton Roads are losing their jobs, including several dozen municipal employees in Chesapeake, why is Virginia Beach paying a consultant for something its own employees could do?

No other southside city paid a consultant to write its mayor's speech. Given the current climate, Suffolk leaders are handling the job in house after hiring a consultant the past two years. When Pilot reporter Deirdre Fernandes questioned Virginia Beach officials about the expense, they shrugged it off. "I don't have an explanation for you," Mayor Sessoms said. "I was trusting media and communications."

Mary Hancock, the city's communications director, said she liked having a fresh pair of eyes for such an important speech. But she also added that the consultant, Norfolk-based Otto Design & Marketing, would be used for all of Sessoms' speeches in the next few weeks.

This isn't the first time Virginia Beach's leaders have turned a deaf ear to perception.

Last fall, on the same day city staff announced an $81 million hole in the budget, it proposed that the public contribute a larger share of the public-private partnership building Town Center.

"When the economy gets bad, the public needs to step in," the city's finance director said.

It's hard to make a case for everyone having to sacrifice when the city itself isn't willing to cut clearly extraneous expenses. Sessoms didn't start the extravagant practice of hiring outside help to promote Virginia Beach. But he can, and should, end it.