Labor groups favor Virginia Beach incumbents

VIRGINIA BEACH

A group representing more than 2,900 city employees has endorsed a slate of eight incumbents and two challengers for the November city elections.

The police, firefighters and teachers associations endorsed Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, three City Council members seeking re-election and four current School Board members after a meeting of representatives Wednesday night.

But the labor coalition also picked two new faces.

In the race for the School Board's Rose Hall district, the group, known as the Virginia Beach Coalition of Public Employees, opted for challenger Brent Mckenzie over incumbent Michael W. Stewart.

The choice was a reaction against Stewart, who wants school employees to pay more for their health care, said Dominic Melito, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, which represents 2,100 teachers and other school employees.

Melito also recalled a speech that Stewart gave in March 2007 in which Stewart derided teachers as "Pluto People" who think they are too overworked and underpaid to learn about new techniques. The association had asked for fewer required training hours each year.

"That's who we are - the infamous Pluto People," Melito said.

In the citywide at-large School Board race, two seats are open. The coalition endorsed board Vice Chairwoman Rita Sweet Bellitto for re-election and backed lawyer Erika Walker-Cash to fill the seat of Ed Fissinger Sr., who is not running.

The association disagrees with the position of challenger Mavel Velasco on merit pay, and opposes candidate Patrick Salyer's platform that 65 percent of education funding should be spent on classroom instruction, Melito said. Gertrude "Bunny" Waugh did not respond to the association's questionnaire. Endorsements were based on the responses and face-to-face interviews.

The coalition also endorsed board Chairman Dan Edwards, incumbent Sandra Smith-Jones and Bill Brunke, who was appointed to fill the Princess Anne district seat when Lyndon Remias became city auditor in May. Only Edwards has an opponent, French Mackes, who did not respond to the group's questions.

In the mayoral and City Council races, the coalition endorsed Oberndorf and council incumbents Rosemary Wilson, Harry Diezel and Reba McClanan. The group did not take a position in the Kempsville race, where Bob Dyer is running unopposed, because he did not answer the group's questions.

"The relationship we've had with all the people we have endorsed has been on a good turn," said Ray Bach, president of the Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association, which represents 300 police officers. In addition to that group and the Virginia Beach Education Association, the coalition includes the associations for city firefighters and police supervisors.

"We feel they're starting to listen" to police, firefighters and other city employees on issues such as pay, health care and retirement, Bach said. "They're making the right strides."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com