Norfolk Ward 2 candidates

With three contenders, the Ward 2 council race is the liveliest. There is no incumbent for this race, as the seat has been vacated by Paul Fraim, who is running for mayor. The three candidates, all seeking elected office for the first time, are Felisha D. Belin, Andrew J. Wallach and Theresa W. Whibley. I had the pleasure of attending the Colonial Place/River View Civic League meeting a couple of weeks ago to hear them speak. I think the folks in Ward 2 are really lucky: any of these three will bring a fresh voice to council.

Felisha D. Belin
Felisha Belin has lived in Park Place her entire life. She is currently employed as a client liason with a home health agency and also is a small business owner. According to my notes from the CPRV meeting, her entire campaign is self-financed and she is not accepting any donations. She indicated at that time that she would be launching a website but I have not been able to locate it. Her brief bio as well as her answers to the Pilot’s questionnaire can be found here.

On the tip of everyone’s tongues is what to do about the real estate tax rate. Not Belin’s. From the aforementioned questionnaire, she says that her top priorities are education, crime prevention and economic development. Her response to the real estate question is a measured one: she wants to know what the ramifications of a drastic rate cut would be before she would sign on.

My impression of Belin is that she is a very sincere young woman who would do well on council as her views on things such as structured recreation, school diversity, and the need for early childhood education, all of which she expressed at the CPRV meeting. In her closing statement, she said that we in Norfolk need to develop the people first and that we need someone on council that speaks for the people.

Andrew J. Wallach
Andrew J. “Andy” Wallach was the only candidate for council to respond to my offer to post a profile. Wallach’s profile can be found here and his answers to the Pilot questionnaire are here.

I always think it’s great when a candidate forces change without being elected. Wallach was able to get council to hold separate hearings on the budget and the real estate tax rate. He is a staunch supporter of reducing the real estate tax rate

Wallach has been involved in a couple of controversial council versus the citizens issues. He supports the efforts of the Bay Oaks Park Committee and was a critic of the city’s choice of location of the high school football stadium, writing this letter to the editor in 2003. Wallach believes that council needs to listen to the citizens.

I belong to a race relations group that Wallach attended. When the question arose about the boards and commissions reflecting the same racial makeup as council, Wallach offered that he would be willing to break with tradition and appoint a black person.

Theresa W. Whibley
Theresa W. “Terry” Whibley carries the stigma of being the “establishment” candidate in this race. She enjoys the support of existing council members, most notably Paul Fraim and Barclay Winn, has been successful at fundraising, and obtained the Pilot’s endorsement. Her answers to the Pilot’s questionnaire can be found here.

I found Whibley to be a well spoken, highly educated woman with more than a bit of an independent streak. Her experience on the school board has made her acutely aware of the inequities in our society and she believes that education is the key. She also agrees with Wallach on inclusionary housing. A major concern of hers is the homeless and she chided Norfolk for being behind on funding the Community Services Board.

She opened her remarks by calling Ward 2 a gerrymandered ward (which I found quite amusing since that’s exactly what the wards in Norfolk are). When asked about emminent domain, she answered that she supported it only for the public good, not for the personal gain of another individual. Talking about the school board, she said that she has been frustrated by the way the city council has interacted with the school board. She believes they can do better by sharing resources such as insurance.

Listening to her afterwards, as she conversed with citizens one-on-one, she expressed a little frustration that no one had asked her about Bay Oaks. She said that there is something wrong with the communication between council and the citizens when so many sign a petition like that. She believes that council needs to listen. To another citizen’s query, she said she believes the school board should have another black member, especially given that the student population is 70% black, and she already has someone in mind.