Councilman Riddick needs to go

Step down, Paul Riddick.

Whether it's $246,000 or "more like $120,000" that Riddick says he owes to the federal government in unpaid taxes, it is inexcusable, despite his excuses about a downturn in the economy.

The downturn started four years ago; the government says Riddick has not paid taxes for 14 years, starting in 1998 with his failure to pay unemployment taxes.

Riddick also owes more than $4,000 in taxes to the city he was elected to serve, according to the Commissioner of Revenue. He says he is current on city real estate taxes but behind on state withholding.

Whatever the number, that is money Riddick's constituents have had to pay in his stead to support public services. Riddick ignored his obligation even as the treasurer's office garnished the wages of teachers and city employees found delinquent on their taxes.

The federal government charges that not only did Riddick ignore his obligation, he deliberately sought to avoid it by transferring ownership of his funeral home "for the purpose of evading taxes."

What's more, the charges revealed in federal court this week continue a pattern of ignoring the basic obligations of citizenship even as Riddick sits on Norfolk's City Council.

In 1994, he paid off $34,000 in delinquent real estate taxes during a campaign for re-election. In 1998, the state sued him on criminal charges for failure to pay back taxes, a dispute that he settled by paying $5,755.

Riddick is innocent until proven guilty. But his own words help to condemn him. If he knew this day was coming, why did he not seek to make arrangements to pay his taxes?

Somehow, voters have looked past a string of embarrassments Norfolk has suffered by Riddick's actions, beginning with the tax problems and continuing through racial and religious slurs, an incident of assault, and code violations for failing to maintain his property.

Somehow, voters have looked past his inability to bring improvement to the neighborhoods he serves, which remain now as they were upon his election in 1992 - among the poorest areas of the city.

"You're always going to have citizens say, 'If he can't keep his business straight, how can he keep the city's business straight?' " Riddick told Pilot reporters this week, saying his performance on the City Council would not be affected by the federal lawsuit.

"But this has nothing to do with City Council. It won't affect my efforts on council any, and it won't sidetrack me."

It has everything to do with the City Council.

Riddick's election to that body means he is a steward of taxpayer money, charged with watching it carefully, spending it wisely and ensuring that everyone who benefits from those dollars supports it with contributions of their own in the form of taxes.

When Riddick refuses for more than a decade to support all the functions of the government he supposedly serves by failing to pay his taxes, he insults all of us who do.

He tells us that we should trust him to handle our money when the federal government does not trust him to handle his own. He spends our money and keeps his own.

Anyone in office wins election to represent us, the voters, the people who live here and pay taxes here. Failing to pay taxes means he no longer represents us.

He must step down.