Portsmouth council seats up for grabs among many candidates

PORTSMOUTH

A large field is forming for local council elections in May, with at least five challengers planning to run against three incumbents.

Vice Mayor Bill Moody Jr., Councilwoman Marlene Randall and Councilman Doug Smith each will vie for another four-year term.

Council seats are elected at-large in Portsmouth, so the three candidates with the most votes citywide will earn a spot. The seven-member City Council sets policy, controls local taxes and fees, and shapes a $560 million budget, among other duties.

The filing deadline to get on the ballot is March 2. As of Thursday, two challengers had qualified: Paige Cherry and Steve Carroll.

Cherry, a member of the city's finance committee, said he will focus on economic development, jobs and education in his campaign. He ran in 2008 and almost overtook Councilman Steve Heretick for the last of three seats up that year. Heretick edged him by 79 votes, 4,273 to 4,194.

Carroll, a civic league leader and former president of the Portsmouth Taxpayer Alliance, also ran in that 2008 race. He came in seventh out of eight, about 1,400 votes behind Heretick.

Carroll said he was motivated in 2008 by what he felt was the council's disregard of public opposition to a condo development. This time around, he said he's running to stop the nonsense he sees in decisions to spend public money on ventures such as the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and the Renaissance Hotel.

Others who said they plan on running include Ted Lamb, Kenneth Bolton and David Vass.

Lamb started a neighborhood watch in Cradock that he says now has 300 active members. He said similar examples of community involvement could be replicated anywhere in the city.

"I think Portsmouth has such a potential to be even better than what it is," he said.

Bolton, a training administrator for Panasonic's customer call center in Chesapeake, said Portsmouth needs to do a better job of landing major corporations. Call centers are one avenue to pursue, he said, and he feels his experience could help with that.

Vass, a Scout leader and risk management specialist at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, said he thinks there are ways to lower the tax rate, and landing a spot on council would be the best way to improve the community. One of his ideas is to pursue a recycling program to help clean up the city and reduce trash rates.

The incumbents, meanwhile, are focusing on economic development as the council's primary concern.

Moody is going for his fourth term and Smith his second. The two will run together, Moody said.

In 2006, Moody ran with Randall on a ticket that was supposed to include Councilman Charles B. Whitehurst Sr., who dropped out of the race before returning as a write-in candidate.

Randall, who is seeking her third term, said she is running alone this time. She said the city has improved its school system and public safety during her time on the council.

"The big picture now is economic development," she said.

Dave Forster, (757) 446-2627, dave.forster@pilotonline.com