Lucente a needed voice of restraint

By The News Virginian Staff

Published: April 26, 2008

First of two parts announcing The News Virginian’s endorsements in the City Council’s two contested races:
A man who smiles easily and speaks softly, Frank Lucente is regarded by his enemies as the big stick who has carried the city’s divided council into the mud. From his minority vantage point, Lucente has managed to stoke controversy over money for the Wayne Theatre, stave off millions of dollars in capital improvement projects spending, derail a stormwater utility fee and perpetually rankle a majority faction that can’t seem to slip his grasp, even while holding the power of the votes.
And so they want him to go.
Toward that end come challengers to Lucente’s at-large seat in the May 6 election: School board member and lawyer Jeremy Taylor and longtime city resident and onetime councilman DuBose Egleston Jr.
Taylor is the majority’s man. In his corner stands developer and Wayne Theatre Alliance Chairman Bill Hausrath, who has squeezed $300,000 from the city for his pet project and hopes still to get another $700,000. Taylor declares his independence on this question, and says he opposes extra spending on the Wayne, but proof is in the vote.
Egleston is among the city’s most tireless advocates and likable figures. He has poured his energies into the community, serving as a member of the Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc. board, the Boys and Girls Club, Trout Unlimited and other groups. Egleston insists he has no political allegiances, and we believe him. That makes his a refreshing presence in a race infused with political gamesmanship.
Appointed to his seat two years ago, Lucente brings to his position the insight of a successful entrepreneur, and the accompanying bent on acting rather than talking. His view of government is that it carries the primary responsibility of getting out of the way. That starts, and largely ends, with keeping taxes level.
Of the three, Taylor’s ideas for revitalizing downtown are the most ambitious. He envisions forming public-private partnerships to draw a mix of retail and residential development. That could include a minor league baseball stadium, for which Taylor says he would be willing to approve cash as well as tax credits, provided the initiatives could be proved justified.
Lucente’s position is murkier. He has expressed a willingness to back credits for a baseball stadium and he is an ardent supporter of the tax credit program — $6.5 million in breaks over five years – that helped get the Town Center built. But he bristles at the mention of public-private partnerships, repeating a mantra of his that entrepreneurs — not city government — are responsible for development.
A clearer divide is formed on stormwater funding. Fueled by apprehension from business and home owners, Lucente helped engineer a switch from a proposed utility fee to the use of money from the general fund for a fledgling stormwater improvements program. Taylor opposes this, arguing that a fee would provide fixed revenues, rather than the discretionary sort that allows the council to make cuts such as the one proposed by City Manager Doug Walker, who slashed annual stormwater funding from $1.2 million to $685,000.
Here is demonstrated the principal distinction between Lucente and Taylor. The latter brandishes himself a fiscal conservative and a fiscal realist, as though the two are different. In Taylor’s world, we suspect, realism translates to the necessity of increased spending. In fact, he declares a willingness to raise taxes as situations warrant. Politicians who make such declarations almost invariably find cause to bump up the rates. When Lucente tells us no new taxes, we don’t need to read his lips; his record speaks volumes.
We worry about Lucente’s lack of vision for downtown and his hesitation at venturing outside the box to generate life in that vital district. But his voice of reason and restraint is needed amid the majority’s tax-and-spend chorus. Lucente’s understanding of finances based largely on his entrepreneurial success and his insistence on reviewing the details in city spending and holding staff accountable are unique in this race.
For those reasons, Lucente is our pick for the at-large seat. Even while lacking votes to support his views, he has demonstrated a remarkable tenacity in maintaining the order of the city’s financial house. We trust that over the next four years he can bolster that spirit with an equal energy toward rebuilding downtown.