Voters recall Portsmouth Mayor James Holley

PORTSMOUTH

Residents overwhelmingly voted Mayor James Holley out of office Tuesday, approving his recall by a ratio of greater than 2-1 and making him the first known politician in U.S. history to be recalled twice.

In voter turnout of 26 percent, about 16,000 people cast ballots - about 6,000 more than what the May elections for City Council and School Board garnered. The results appeared to split starkly along racial lines.

Robert Marcus, a resident who funded and helped organize the recall effort, said the margin sent an unmistakable message.

"The people of the city of Portsmouth will not accept Mayor Holley's behavior and recognize that it's time for him to retire," he said. "And they have retired him."

Holley, 83, smiled and chatted with friends and relatives at a banquet hall on Portsmouth Boulevard. After he was told the results, he spoke for a few minutes, thanking his supporters and encouraging them to stay active in politics. He did not accept questions from reporters.

"What you and I started 30 years ago, well, we're not through yet," Holley told the crowd of about 30 people. "This was just another distraction, another movement in another direction."

Holley, who was first elected to the City Council in 1968, became the region's first black mayor in 1984. He earned a reputation as a tireless, charismatic promoter of everything Portsmouth, but a politician with a rocky career that was beset in later years by car accidents, confusing speeches and allegations of mistreatment by assistants.

Holley's corner office at City Hall is covered floor to ceiling with plaques and awards that he will soon have to haul away. He will not officially lose his title until the local electoral board certifies the results, which is expected to happen today.

The other six members of the City Council must appoint a temporary successor to serve until a special election, likely in November. They will begin discussing their choice in a closed meeting at 5 p.m. today.

If the council is split and cannot decide on an appointment within 60 days, the decision will go to a majority vote of the city's Circuit Court judges.

Voters on both sides expressed frustration that taxpayers must shoulder the cost of the recall election, which was predicted to reach about $60,000. The overwhelming feeling from residents, no matter how they voted, was that it was a shame to see Holley's career come to this.

Many recall opponents said they recognized it was time for Holley to leave office, but he should be allowed to finish his term and leave with dignity and respect.

Some Holley supporters felt the loss personally. Holley, a retired dentist, grew to prominence locally in the 1950s and 1960s as a community leader and civil rights activist who helped desegregate areas of the city.

Jo T. Silva said she worked on Holley's first successful City Council campaign when she was 10 years old. Her late uncle, Raymond Turner, won a seat with Holley to make them the first black council members in Portsmouth. Silva said she was "disgusted" with the results Tuesday.

"Embarrassed to even be a Portsmouth resident," she added. "He's my mayor, and he will always be my mayor."

Holley was forced into a recall election by a petition drive that collected more than 8,000 signatures.

The effort began after Holley's assistant wrote a memo detailing verbal abuse and dozens of personal tasks that he made her do on city time, such as canceling his Playboy magazine subscription and shopping for his family.

The City Council fined Holley $2,500 last August for a pattern of mistreating his assistants and asked him to retire. He declined.

Holley also was recalled in 1987.

At that time, the people behind the effort included influential black leaders. The vote followed a controversy over Holley's refusal to intervene in the proposed closing of I.C. Norcom High School and a hate-mail campaign against several community leaders.

Holley was implicated as a suspect in the hate mail, but he was never charged.

Nearly a decade later, voters returned Holley to the mayor's seat in 1996 and re-elected him three times since. He narrowly won re-election in 2008 against a local civic activist who came within 202 votes.

Some city leaders and residents worried that the latest recall effort would sow racial discord and drive a wedge in what Holley loves to refer to as "the Portsmouth family."

On Tuesday afternoon, a black man and a white man, both 64 and both leaning on a cane, stood outside the Port Norfolk voting poll debating whether their mayor should go.

William Jackson, the white man, said he believed the mayor had taken advantage of his position and it was time for him to leave.

"I voted him out because I think he did wrong," Jackson said.

Lawrence Davis, the black man, said the flap over the assistant didn't warrant a recall, especially after Holley had paid the fine.

"We've seen a lot of things go on in Portsmouth, and this ain't the worst thing," Davis told Jackson.

The two men had never met each other before. But they joked and laughed even as they disagreed. They knew neither would be changing his mind.

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

Shayna Meliker, (757) 446-2326, shayna.meliker@pilotonline.com