Local and vocal, gadflies keep watch over local government

By Staff Reports

Published: December 7, 2008

How much of your money will local government spend during the next budget cycle, and on what?

If you're not there to influence their thinking, who is? The watchdogs - or gadflies - depending on which side of the table you're on.

They rarely miss a meeting - or an opportunity to be heard. They may not always get credit for protesting land development or keeping an eye on spending, but they fill a vital role at a time when few people make time for civic engagement.

Here are some of their stories.

George Beadles
Chesterfield County

In Chesterfield, George Beadles is something of a celebrity.

Beadles, 61, has been the life of the party at the county's Board of Supervisors meetings for the past two decades, after receiving notice that a landfill was being built near him.

"After landfills it was septic tanks, and after that it was finding out that you could learn enough to make valid comments and they actually appreciate it because they're too close to the subject," Beadles said. "When you're too close, you can't see what's right or wrong."

Playfully and colorfully, the Vietnam veteran -- often in T-shirts and shorts when weather allows -- uses citizen comment periods to critique the board and the occasional inefficiency of the government process. One of his favorite gripes was the three-minute citizen comment clock, done away with by the new board this year.

"The biggest problem with that is that with or without it, most people can't say anything in minutes, be it citizen or supervisor," Beadles said. "They know that some people can talk for a day without saying anything, and other people can in two minutes tell you more than you wanted to hear."

"He's probably the best known figure in Chesterfield County," said Board of Supervisors Chairman A.S. "Art" Warren, the sole veteran on a board of newcomers. "I've seen him at board meetings for 17 years and he hasn't changed a bit. I've always appreciated his good-natured, common-sense approach to explaining the government process to elected officials."

Beadles is philosophical in his criticisms and has been known to throw local leaders a compliment from time to time.

"He focuses on bringing us back to reality again whenever we get off course," Warren said. --Wesley P. Hester

Silver Persinger
Richmond

Silver Persinger, a self-described socialist who lives in Richmond's Oregon Hill neighborhood, has made a name for himself as the lone and often dismissed citizen voice at City Council meetings.

He's also a perennial lowor no-budget candidate, and he turned heads in early 2007 for a gesture that left members of City Council in tears and stunned silence.

Speaking at a council meeting, Persinger apologized, as a descendant of slave owners, for the sins of the trade, a move aimed at racial reconciliation. His apology came after the Virginia General Assembly had spent weeks wrestling over wording before expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.

"I felt like it was really a community-type thing," he said of the debate over an official apology for slavery. "It wasn't really about me. I was a vehicle for it."

His latest foray into politics was as the write-in candidate for president as a member of the Free Party. He launched his bid for the White House in a YouTube video as he sat by the James River in a gray hoodie.

Persinger sees similarities between his bid for the presidency and Barack Obama's -- excluding, of course, the more than 65 million votes cast for the president-elect.

"He wants to tax only the top 5 percent," he said of Obama. "I only want to tax the top 1 percent, but I want to tax the tar out of them."

He called for a mandatory six-hour workday and a four-day workweek with no cut in pay or benefits, as well as free government housing and university education.

Persinger, who works at The Library of Virginia for a project that makes a digital archive of old newspapers, said he hoped that bloggers would get hold of his ideas and propel traffic to his Web site, www.votesilver.com. That didn't happen, but he did score a front-page story in his hometown newspaper, the Salem Times Register.

With Obama headed to Washington, Persinger is refocusing on Richmond. He said he plans to follow a newly established commission that will review and recommend changes to the city charter. He said he is interested in making it easier for voters to recall elected officials and to submit their own ideas to a referendum.

Persinger said he continues to monitor city government and run for office because much of the public is apathetic. But he acknowledged that even he has to escape once in a while.

"Like most people, I can bang my head against the wall for so long until I get frustrated," he said. -- Will Jones

Ann James
Goochland County

If members of the Goochland Board of Supervisors propose an idea that Ann James doesn't like, they know about it, she said.

"I wear my heart on my sleeve," said James, 71, a lifelong resident of the Oilville area. "They can see whether I like it or not."

And why does it matter? James' agitation got the Oilville post office moved away from a store that sold pornography in the early 1980s, and she was a catalyst in getting a notorious sludge pit shuttered later that decade.

She first became engaged in public affairs as a secretary in the governor's office in the 1960s. She later freelanced for a local Oilville paper before becoming the area's postmaster in 1971. Since she retired in 1992, she has freelanced for The Goochland Gazette and now for The Goochland Courier.

Throughout all that time, James has rarely missed a board meeting. "I guess I was just interested in what was going on," she said. "I wish more people in the county were. It makes me sick sometimes to see just two people in those meetings."

Even though she doesn't work full time, the mother of two grown daughters and four grandchildren is the go-to watchdog for county residents. Her home phone number is like a public line that always rings, James said. And she still investigates concerns, because she wants to be known as someone who makes a difference.

"That should be everybody's goal in life -- to make a difference. I like to think I did. God knows I've tried." -- Calvin R. Trice

Gloria Brown
Petersburg

She is intrepid, outspoken and rarely misses a thing.

At Petersburg School Board and City Council meetings week after week, Gloria Brown brings her children most times and almost always gets up to say what she thinks. She does it in a very frank way -- her New Yorker style, she says.

And she has had a lot to say about the city's struggling school system, where two of her children are enrolled, and many other Petersburg challenges.

Brown's criticisms of the city reflect her longing for a Petersburg of opportunities, lower crime rates and improved school test scores.

"Petersburg is a place that can really be a model for change," Brown said. "There are challenges just like in any other place, but we have a lot of potential here."

The problem, she said, is that residents complain about those problems but rarely do anything about them.

The retired hairdresser from New York said she decided to do something when she moved to the city nearly four years ago. The stories she heard about Petersburg's poor schools didn't keep her from enrolling her children. She got involved with the PTA, pushed for initiatives such as the school uniform program and made time to attend long meetings every month.

Brown's comments reflect her commitment, said School Board Chairman Kenneth L. Pritchett.

"You can truly see she has passion for parental involvement, for everyone to be held accountable. . . . She knows and believes that if other school systems can do it, Petersburg also can do it," he said. "The way she speaks shows her passion for the children of Petersburg."

At School Board and City Council meetings, Brown speaks up for reforms, not afraid of being harsh or telling public officials when she thinks they are wrong.

"It is time you start running the city as a business," she told the City Council at a recent meeting. The city cannot give away property for free even if it is for economic development, and it spends far too much on social-services programs, she says.

City leaders need to be held accountable, and teachers need to care more about their students, Brown often says.

"I am there to keep them honest," she said. "I may not get a sentence correct, but I will keep you honest."

-- Luz Lazo

George and Becky Philbates
New Kent County

Wearing a navy-blue mechanic's jacket, George Philbates slumps in a seat beside his wife, Becky, at nearly every meeting of the New Kent Board of Supervisors.

For as long as they've been married -- nearly 24 years -- the couple attend the twice-monthly meetings religiously and speak up often.

Philbates, 75, said he goes to keep up with what's going on in the county and "to give my two cents worth.

"If people don't go, they don't know what's going on. You need to be there when things happen," he said. "If you want a say, you've got to be there to say it when it comes about. After it's been done, it's too late to complain about it."

Board deputy clerk Connie C. Nalls guessed that the couple attends 90 percent of the supervisors' regular meetings.

They're not shy to take the podium to voice concerns about rapid development, higher taxes and "anything we think will hurt the county," Philbates said.

The couple run an automobile wrecking yard off state Route 249 that has been targeted by government officials in the past.

Becky Philbates, 69, said her husband was once late for a meeting after being called out to tow a car. A former supervisor who was trying to get rid of the Philbates' wrecking yard saw an opportunity to bring up the subject but only got so far as mentioning its name.

"When George walked in, he changed the subject pretty quick," she said.

The couple receive the board's meeting agendas in advance, but they go whether there's something that interests them or not.

"It irritates me that people come when there's something pertaining to them, but when it's over with they up and leave. They don't care about what else happens in the county," Becky Philbates said. "We sit through some boring meetings, but we stay." -- Melodie N. Martin