An Open Letter to Voters
I have lived in Ocean View for nearly 30 years.
Together with my wife Aileen and grandson Gage,
we’ve seen breathtaking Bay sunsets from a boat.
We’ve been stuck in tunnel traffic and evacuated
from an approaching storm. We’ve dined at
The Camel, purchased shoes at Ward’s Corner,
stopped a conversation because of jet noise,
celebrated homecomings and the Fourth of July,
enjoyed children’s shows at Crossroads Elementary,
struggled without electricity and water for days,
danced at a festival or two, joined a friendly church,
marveled at East Ocean View’s transformation
and waved from a float in the St. Patrick’s Day
Parade. We have experienced much of what living
here is all about.
Having never run for political office, my campaign is about independent action. The time has come for a fresh, independent voice. At the moment, there’s too much political power in too few hands in Norfolk; too much social agenda and too little emphasis placed on the nuts-and- bolts of passing laws that genuinely aid our community.
We’ve all experienced both Republican and Democratic representation. Now it’s time to reflect and act, using the best of what has been learned to create something better: an independent candidacy that isn’t tied to either Party, that takes what is best from both groups, left and right, and brings some common sense to the heart of the matter: what is good for the people of the 87th District.
It’s time for our independent voice to be heard
See you soon!
John A. Coggeshall
ISSUES I’M ASKED ABOUT A LOT
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
1) CHESAPEAKE BAY CONCERNS
There’s one remaining processing plant near us that is over-fishing our Bay. Shut it down. Winter crab dredging? End it now. Our oysters are 99.5 percent depleted. Crabs are selling for $145.00 a bushel because of scarcity. Fishing excursions come back empty. The menhaden fish (one menhaden fish can clean one million gallons of Bay water in its lifetime if not caught) has been so over-harvested that the Bay can no longer clean itself; one-third of the Bay is now considered a “dead zone.” Together we’ll stop the rape, robbing, ravaging and ruin of our greatest natural resource.
2) CRIME AND TERRORISM
More police on the streets, less police behind desks, and total support for Neighborhood Watch programs. Let’s start a Norfolk Night Court. The court facility is already built and unused at night. With one judge, a clerk and a couple of deputies, (and a prosecutor and defense attorney on call) we’ll save our city money by not having to hold so many arrested people overnight in our overcrowded jail.
3) EMINENT DOMAIN / TAKING OF PRIVATE PROPERTY
I own a home in Ocean View. The recent Supreme Court Kelo vs. New London ruling allows governments and developers to take property for less than free market value. No one should be forced to vacate their home or give up their land for less than what they feel it is worth. It is very difficult for any state legislature to circumvent a United States Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court needs to overturn itself and, with some new judges on the horizon, that may occur. Until that time, as your Delegate in Richmond, I will make every effort to narrow Virginia’s definition of “public use” and “blight” to protect us from Kelo vs. New London eminent domain/condemnation type proceedings. As a practical matter, should the city come knocking on your door before I get to Richmond, find your own appraiser, consult your own attorney and beware of accepting any first offer.
4) PROPERTY TAX RELIEF
Acco
rding to the 9/13/05 Virginian Pilot newspaper, Norfolk property taxes will go up over 50% between 2004 and 2006. How many folks’ salaries go up 50% in three years? We need a plan, we need it now, and while my two opponents are still “searching for a solution” I have it. In any given year, cap the property tax at one and one-half times the rate of inflation (or the consumer price index), and in no case allow it to go higher than 5%. That protects long term homeowners on fixed incomes and will not cool the real estate market; it applies to both residential and commercial property across the board. My plan is flexible, and allows the city to fund needed services while protecting us from these devastating rate hikes.
5) SCHOOL SUPPORT
Reorganize the budget (less money for administration costs and more for teachers who teach) and put discipline back in the classroom. If we guarantee our teachers less than 18 students per classroom, and provide them with more teacher aides, our schools would improve immediately. There is no reason why we can’t do that.
6) SENIOR CITIZEN ISSUES
I’ll turn 55 on January 10, 2006. As the only candidate in this race on the verge of the reputed “golden years”, I understand the immediacy and concern senior citizens have for meaningful legislation on the issues that matter to us. As a true independent, I’m the only candidate in a position to obtain genuine bipartisan support for a prescription drug bill that could actually pass into law next year. We’ll lobby for tax relief together, we’ll make health care more affordable and we’ll raise a ruckus before we’re done!
7) TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS
Hampton Roads is the largest metropolitan area in the United States with only two two-lane highways going in and coming out. We have a congestion problem almost everywhere, and we have transportation funding problems, too. I’m against building a third crossing bridge-tunnel, which would cost us approximately seven and a half billion dollars. I have a better (and less expensive) idea. Upgrade Route 460 (at a cost of less than one billion), require all large commercial vehicles to utilize that upgraded highway in and out of Hampton Roads, leave our Bridge-Tunnel system for passenger vehicles only, and utilize easy access toll decals that allow frequent-use commuters to zip through tollbooths without stopping. These two workable solutions would ease congestion and raise transportation funds into the future.
Political Season Revs Up
by D.D. Delaney
Independent John Coggeshall promises to make the race for 87th District delegate interesting. The attorney and entertainer, who once campaigned for former Del. and current Norfolk City Councilman Don Williams, wants to clean up Chesapeake Bay.
Norfolk's political season arrived on Sept. 1 like a sudden change in the weather when seven politicians in two separate races jostled for attention at the first civic league meeting of the fall in East Ocean View.
With the lazy, hazy days of summer still lingering and the tragedy of the Gulf coast a palpable and troubling distraction, residents, after running an impromptu gamut of twenty political signs stuck in the grass outside the parking lot, met a reception line of scrubbed and smiling personalities, all extending a hand and offering self-promoting literature around the steps of the East Ocean View Recreation Center.
Once inside, each candidate -- three competing for the 87th District's seat in the Virginia House of Delegates and four to become Norfolk's treasurer (i.e., tax collector )-- was allowed just five minutes for an introduction, a platform summary, and a response to questions from the audience, though only treasurer candidate Vivian Paige allowed time for questions. Candidates were barred from questioning each other.
In alphabetical order, then, Civic League President Bill Kerry yielded the podium first to the candidates for House of Delegates, a contest which might have been a repackaged version of last year's special election -- when Democrat Paula Miller edged out Republican Michael Ball for the seat vacated by Thelma Drake after her successful run for U.S. Congress -- were it not for Independent John A. Coggeshall's maverick entry into the race.
Coggeshall, a Norfolk attorney, may have the disruptive potential for attracting votes from both sides of the political divide. While Ball and Miller essentially replay their campaigns from last year -- Ball prioritizing a cap on property taxes in a campaign emphasizing state fiscal reform, Miller focusing on bipartisan solutions to critical state-wide infrastructure problems -- Coggeshall in a sense outflanks his competitors with his stated top priority to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
Ball proposes "a real, independent audit of Virginia's finances" as part of a call for "new, innovative ideas" rather than "20th-century answers to 21st-century problems." Miller believes the most pressing area issues are transportation, education, and the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) Commission's threat to close the Oceana Naval Air Station. She points to her work with the Republican majority to win approval of Norfolk's elected-mayor initiative and the appointment of Judge Jerrauld Jones, a Democrat, to the bench of Norfolk's Juvenile Court.
Meanwhile, Coggeshall, or "Cog," as he calls himself in campaign materials, readily admits his political inexperience, but offers his working knowledge of Virginia law as an important credential in his favor.
"In 2007 the General Assembly will recodify all the laws of Virginia," he says. "We're going to need some attorneys up there (in Richmond) to help that along."
A
nd because "I'm not beholden to any party, the people of the 87th District come first."
Perhaps in that spirit, he favors the citizen initiative to preserve rather than develop housing in Bay Oaks Park, taking issue with a common objection that the area as it is attracts criminal activity.
"I walked alone through Bay Oaks Park on (a recent) Saturday night at 11:30," he says, "and guess what? I saw no one! Nothing happened!"
In the race for Norfolk Treasurer, meanwhile, what is lacking in compelling issues -- all four candidates promise a more convenient, efficient, and pleasant tax-paying experience -- is made up for by a diverse gallery of contrasting personalities.
Sherry White Battle, citing her university training in technology and her experience over nearly two decades as a business woman, promises never to use the office of treasurer as a weapon against the people in the service of established political or economic interests.
"What happens to you happens to me," she says. "I refuse to go along to get along."
John Wesley Hill presents himself as a distinguished senior citizen with a resume of "undaunted service to the community over fifty years," beginning as a Norfolk police officer in 1966. As Treasurer, he says, he will expand collection by credit card, create payment flexibility with semi-annual or quarterly rather than annual billing, and, while intensifying efforts to collect delinquent taxes, remain sensitive to seniors and others on fixed income to help them keep their homes.
Incumbent Tom Moss, reportedly ill with food poisoning, was represented by Commissioner of the Revenue Sharon McDonald, who praised the former speaker of the House of Delegates for reviving "an antiquated office with antiquated surroundings" by installing an ATM machine on the premises, authorizing credit card payments at the counter, cutting Social Security numbers from tax bills, and initiating the elimination of auto decals. Future plans, she says, call for enabling payment systems on-line and by telephone and devising a single bill for all taxes.
Vivian Paige, herself a certified public accountant, won the Democratic nomination for treasurer in last spring's primary. She charges that Moss' upgrades were too little too late and proposes additional citizen access with 24-hour lock-boxes for tax-payer drop-offs and a system for automatic payments.
"We've got to get out of downtown Norfolk and get into the communities," she says.
Taken from: Portfolio Weekly
