Judge: Portsmouth mayor must resign or face recall

PORTSMOUTH

A months-long campaign to remove Mayor James Holley received a judge's approval Thursday, setting the stage for a recall election in July and a shake-up on the City Council.

Circuit Judge Dean W. Sword Jr. concluded during a 20-minute, sparsely attended hearing that the petition and signatures submitted by two civic activists met city charter requirements. He gave Holley until 5 p.m. June 4 to resign or face an election, likely on July 13.

Holley, 83, did not speak in the hearing but said afterward that he would not resign. He smiled and patiently took questions from reporters.

"I'm just a happy guy," he said. "I've been around a long time. Why should I have a frown on my face? I don't hate anyone."

Holley could become the first politician in U.S. history to be recalled twice, said Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University. Voters recalled him in 1987, then re-elected him in 1996.

The prospect of his removal caused a mixture of surprise, dismay and uncertainty among council members.

"I never thought it would get this far," Councilman Doug Smith said.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Psimas has said she plans to run for mayor in 2012 and did not dismiss the idea of vying for the seat now. She noted that the council could appoint a replacement if Holley resigned before the end of next week.

"The right thing to do would be for him to retire and eliminate this distraction to the business of the city," she said. "I hope he will do that and not cause all the shenanigans and expense of the election."

A host of scenarios could play out over the next two months. A challenger could get on the recall ballot and run for mayor, but it could be a daunting task.

The city charter requires the same number of signatures to get on a recall ballot as it takes to trigger the recall: 30 percent of the voters in the last gubernatorial election.

In this case, that's 6,669 names of registered voters.

If no one gets on the ballot and Holley is voted out, the council would appoint a successor. That person might serve until a special election in November or for the last two years of Holley's term, depending on whether a state law that begins July 1 applies, said Bryan Meals, an attorney experienced in local election law.

Council members could appoint one of themselves or someone new. If a sitting member took the appointment, he or she would lose the council seat, opening the door for yet another council appointment, Meals said.

"So it could get very interesting as sort of the dominoes start to fall and it becomes a political calculation for some of those folks, if they want to run the risk of losing their council seat," he said.

Vice Mayor Bill Moody Jr. said if the council must fill Holley's seat with an appointment, it should be someone who is not interested in running for mayor in the next election.

"I think we need kind of a calming effect after going through this ordeal, and whoever's sitting in that seat, if they're running for mayor, they can't give it their full attention," Moody said.

The other six members of the council voted in August to ask Holley to retire, fined him $2,500 and offered to pay for him to receive counseling at the city's expense after an episode involving his assistant at City Hall.

The employee wrote a memo detailing what she described as verbal abuse and a list of 44 personal tasks Holley had requested her to perform. The assistant wrote that Holley threatened to have her fired if she didn't continue to do his personal work.

Residents began circulating a petition seeking Holley's recall after he refused to step down.

As the signatures mounted over the past few months, some council members expressed an uneasiness with the idea of a recall and the negative attention they worried it would bring to the city.

Earlier this week, Tidewater Community College President Deborah DiCroce briefed city officials about the college's new Portsmouth campus and boasted about a grand dedication ceremony with Gov. Bob McDonnell. The event is scheduled for July 13.

Councilwoman Marlene Randall called the recall's success Thursday an unfortunate turn for Portsmouth at a time when the city is focusing on economic development and moving forward with important projects.

But when asked if she planned to support Holley against the recall, she said it was a personal matter for the mayor.

"His statement, if I recall correctly, was that it was the people who voted me in office and the people will vote me out of office," she said.

Holley's supporters have not made much noise publicly over the past few weeks, but those who have spoken up say many are still squarely behind him.

Park View resident Clyde Toler urged Holley at this week's council meeting not to resign if it came to a recall election.

"If they want to recall you, let 'em do it," Toler said. "But you've got a lot of people in this city for you - more than you've got against you."

About 15 people attended the court hearing Thursday besides the media. Sword began by saying that the petition before him was "to put it mildly, not your typical court proceeding."

His first task was to determine whether the petition satisfied the requirements of the city charter, which he said provides for a "strong presumption in favor of the process."

In the petition, people signed a statement that sought Holley's removal "based on activities which have severely eroded his ability to lead and to represent the City of Portsmouth, Virginia with credibility, honor and respect."

Sword found that to be a sufficient complaint.

"The next issue is, are there enough signatures," he said.

Sword read an excerpt from a report by General Registrar Deloris Overton Short on her research of the signatures. She counted 8,494 in all. That was lower than the count of 8,772 the recall organizers thought they had when they submitted their work.

Overton Short determined that 7,083 signatures came from qualified registered voters, a cushion of more than 400 names. The majority of those that did not pass muster were unidentifiable, were duplicates or came from unregistered voters.

Pilot writer Patrick Wilson contributed to this report.

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