The Virginian-Pilot
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VIRGINIA BEACH
The city's various African American communities came together in 1986 to raise money and support Virginia Beach's first black council member.
But since John L. Perry's historic win, Virginia Beach voters have elected only one other black person to the City Council.
The council's decision last week to not choose any of four minority candidates among 15 for an appointment to a vacant seat has some African American leaders talking about reviving Perry's strategy and coalition.
"This action may just galvanize us," said Bruce Williams, a public relations consultant. "We must get behind one candidate, one philosophy or one course of action. It's clear that there's going to have to be that kind of action."
Williams attended the council's interviews with candidates Tuesday. About a half-dozen black people were in the audience, most of them disappointed when council members unanimously appointed Rita Sweet Bellitto, vice chairwoman of the Virginia Beach School Board, to the job.
Black leaders expressed frustration and outrage in conversations with one another. Some complained to the mayor and congressional representatives.
The city has made gains in recent years to diversify its work force, and national black organizations are starting to bring conventions to Virginia Beach, Williams said.
An all-white City Council sends the wrong message, he said.
"They showed us that they don't want any minorities here," said Ralph Parham II, a community activist who attended the meeting.
It didn't matter who it was, the City Council should have appointed a black candidate, said Parham, who grew up in Virginia Beach and plans to speak at the next council meeting about the appointment.
"I don't see my city moving forward until we do the right thing," he said.
Twenty percent of the city's 435,550 residents are black, but the last time a black person served on the City Council was in 1998.
Ron Villanueva, whose election to the General Assembly opened up this vacancy on the council, is Filipino.
Council members said they opted for Bellitto because of her experience with budgets and because she had been tested with voters, who elected her twice to the School Board.
"It was very close. I'm sure there's disappointment from all the candidates," Mayor Will Sessoms said. "The issue is to get the very best person.... I stand by that."
Bellitto, whose term will end Dec. 31, has to run for election in November to keep the seat and will have the advantage of incumbency.
Black leaders say they plan to recruit a candidate for the November elections.
That candidate should follow Bellitto's playbook, said Sandra Smith-Jones, who leads the mayor's minority roundtable and is a School Board member. Bellitto participated in civic organizations, helped out in political campaigns and got to know the city's power brokers, Smith-Jones said.
Others, such as Carl Wright with the Virginia Beach African-American Political Action Council, haven't ruled out a legal challenge against the city's election system.
In Virginia Beach, all council members must run at-large, even the district representatives. Civic groups and minority communities have complained that the system requires lots of money to run.
Virginia Beach's election rules are likely to come under scrutiny again next year during the redistricting process.
"It's coming to a point where we have to do something," Wright said.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilot
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New City Council appointee
As a successful gov't contractor, let's hope he doesn't follow in the footsteps of Herman Valentine or Alan Fuentes!
I can't see that the 8a minority owned small business set-aside program run by the small business administration has ever done anything positive for the country other than waste taxpayers money!!!
Bellitto Same old same old
There is no such thing as Black community leaders in Virginia Beach. What we have instead are Black individuals "pretending" to be leaders of the Black Community. I find it confusing that Bruce Williams who worked to get our new mayor hired has identifies himself as someone who cares about fair representations of Blacks in Virginia Beach.
And why are we surprised the council appointed Bellitto, she a republican just like most of the other members currently serving!
I want to know why...
I want to know why they elected a woman? Cmon pilot you always put the race card on the front page why not an article about why a woman was elected and not a man? Why white and not latino? You always try to stir the pot as much as you can. keep the readers involved!?
Article - Wrong Focus
Ms. Fernandez article has the wrong focus - it should have distinguished the candidates experience and qualifications. The focus was primarily on whether or not a black candidate was chosen in a city that has no Black representation almost unheard of in 2010 - it talked about qualifications, but it never mentioned the other candidates qualifications or experience. The city selected Harry Diezel by appointment - someone who was promoted to captain of the fire department with a GED. But apparently because of his skin color thats ok - I guess there is a privilege in color. (cont'd below)
Article - Wrong Focus
(con'd) Now I don't think one black person could have serve on the fire department much less be promoted to an officer position. Folks the truth is the majority community has always and continue to practice Affirmative Action for the majority community and tries it best to demean others at will when they are challenged. Oh by the way, the truth is if you are from the majority community you really don't have to qualify - they just have to make your resume look good and embellish everything.
City Council Pick
After reading all of the notes, and reviewing the candidate interviews, it is obvious that Rita Bellitto was an affirmative action pick - the group voted to hire one more person that looks like them, not the person with the best experience. In my humble opinion I rated her the bottom 3 candidates. 16 of the 19 candidates were more competent than Bellitto. Now that I have reviewed the interviews, it is even more of an embarrassment that she has been selected to serve on council. We had strong candidates with military backgrounds, who were responsible for multi-million dollar budgets, we had business owners with mulitmillion dollar contracts doing business with government agencies both in the U.S. and internationally. As a female, this lady does not hold any qualifications that I feel makes her the best candidate. Her education is suspect and I trust that Ms. Fernandez will do her homework and verify her education and experience. Her experience civil engineer & the Lake Gaston Project - please! The candidates that came before council had backgrounds and work experience far SUPERIOR than Ms. Bellitto. Virginia Beach you can do better than Rita B.
If they don't get their way
then they call it racism. I suppose the election of a white mayor in New Orleans makes the predominate black population racist too, or can that only be applied to white people? Who cares what color the representative is?
black candidates
For those crying for a ward system since VB is "all white" or "all republican" and blacks can't get elected please explain to me how VB voted for Obama for president and how we have had 2 or 3 blacks on school board for the last 10 years.
Maybe there is no interest?
Did anyone think that maybe there may be no interest by an African American in Va Beach to run? Geeze. We have a Black President - in a country where only 17% of the country is African American. Doesn't this demonstrate that we have gotten past things?? I realize it's not all peaches & creme, but somehow the inference that a certain race is being crowded out on purpose. Please. Go to work on your investigative reporting on the man-made global warming hoax that has been perpertrated if want to report some atrocities to our society. The moral equivilent of screaming fire in a theater. Had me going.
Affirmative action Bla Bla Bla
Affirmative action all over again. What these folks do not understand is the fact that you have to BUY your way into our city council. Just ask our Part time Mayor/Full time Banker, Will "Champagne" Sessoms!