CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen hurriedly annotated this pair of news articles so that Webmaster Dave Gurganus could post them quickly, along with at least some indication of our views about this incident.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-94234sy0mar30,0,7412261.story?coll=dp-news-local-final
Peace is not at hand for Fort MonroeMarch 30, 2007Daily Press news report
A Hampton city councilman slapped away an olive branch offered by the head of a group that wants Fort Monroe to become a national park. [[Boldfacing added.]] A park would be "a legacy to your leadership, vision and love for your community," said H. O. Malone, president of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park.
"It's too late to pick a fight," Councilman Charlie Sapp replied. But for the past year, he said, "Every comment that your group has made has opened with our corruptness and our incompetence and our inability to be managers in this process." [[The record does indeed show that CFMNP rejects the proposition that Americans should even consider giving a Monticello to a Charlottesville, a Mount Vernon to an Alexandria, or a Fort Monroe to a Hampton -- any Hampton, whether run by Mayor Kearney, Mr. Sapp, and Mr. Gilliland, or by Mr. Mason, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Jefferson. And it is true that many of us, including me, have noted Hampton's past difficulties -- and we agree with Mr. Sapp, who has said it's unfair to blame him for waterfront parking garages, though in principle that still doesn't change the lack of wisdom in donating a national treasure to one single city. As to corruption, however, no one has brought that possibility up, and it never gets discussed or investigated by the media -- but whether or not Mr. Sapp's word is appropriately chosen, it'd be great to know more about the deep, back-channel connections that many insist must surely exist between business interests and the powerful few in Hampton who have been so ardent to develop this national treasure.]]
And this process has four years to go.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-93892sy0mar30,0,5703733.story?coll=dp-news-local-finalCity picks its seats at Fort Monroe table
With Hampton's seven faces, the new Federal Area Development Authority will have a familiar look.
BY JIM HODGES
247-4633
March 30, 2007
HAMPTON -- First H.O. Malone told the City Council that he would welcome them to join in his group's effort to make Fort Monroe a national park.
"We submit to you that ... (it) could be the finest and most rewarding experience you could have in public life, and a legacy to your leadership, vision and love for your community and the region," said Malone, president of the Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park.
Then the council appointed the seven members of the existing Federal Area Development Authority to a new 18-person body that will oversee planning the future of Fort Monroe when it ceases operation as an Army post in September 2011.
And then it was time for Councilman Charlie Sapp to vent.
"It's too late to pick a fight, but I can't go beyond saying this," Sapp said at Tuesday night's contentious council meeting. Sapp and Joe Spencer have been City Council liaisons to the Fort Monroe authority. "I have to tell you, Dr. Malone, that I have sat here and listened to you talk to us, and I listened to you reason with us and tell us that this is going to be a leadership legacy for us."
Sapp then launched a review of the past year.
"Every comment that your group has made has opened with our corruptness, and our incompetence and our inability to be managers in this process," he said.[[Please see the long annotation in the first of this pair of news articles.]]
"And now to stand up here and ask us to join in partnership with you, I'm assuming that this means your assessment of us has changed somewhat. ...
"I'm glad we're moving forward, but I just wanted to make sure that the public understands that we're the same group that was the gang that couldn't shoot straight last week." [[The relevant fact is this: following the recent enactment of the new state law, Hampton has retained a high level of control and influence. CFMNP's job is to work with political realities as we find them.]]Many council members assumed that Malone's speech was part of a campaign to be included in the new authority.
Not so, he said Wednesday.
"They misinterpreted my intentions," Malone said. "Some of my board wanted me to make a pitch for it, but I knew that (Hampton was) going to appoint the same people. ... I just wanted them to consider a new vision, not new people." [[I wanted the city council to appoint Dr. Malone or someone else from our board, which contains five Hampton residents, and I said so to Mr. Sapp last Saturday, and I have also made a point of telling the same to Marc Follmer of the Kaine administration. And indeed, after all that has happened, I not only stand by that suggestion, but I renew it: Someone among the newly appointed seven should stand aside, and Dr. Malone or Gerri Hollins or Sam Martin or Jim Stensvaag or Dorothy Rouse-Bottom should take that seat on the new Fort Monroe FADA.]]
They didn't.
Hampton residents John Ishon, Bob Harper, Alvin Bryant, Tommy Thompson, Kanata Jackson, John Quarstein and Whiting Chisman will continue doing what most of them have been doing for two years, since the post was included in Base Realignment and Closure legislation.
Hampton created its version of the Federal Area Development Authority to negotiate with the federal government when word came that the BRAC process would include the post.
The city also hired a consultant, who created some re-use options that involve commercial use to fund efforts to sustain the fort's historical legacy.
"I started this journey in July of 2004 ... long before any of you folks showed up," Sapp told Malone in the open meeting.[[In fact, we all started years or even decades ago. That's why we do what we do. In my own case, it began when I was married in the chapel thirty years ago. And for me, it continued in recent years, when I kept a file on Fort Monroe and BRAC, and was ready to start this public discussion in summer 2005, when our leaders -- political, business, and journalistic -- were ready to see Fort Monroe privatized by Hampton without any public discussion at all.]]
Malone's group is just over a year old, and its members have been critical of Hampton's actions, orally and in print. [[My own first op-ed appeared much earlier, in September 2005: http://www.cfmnp.org/Future_of_Fort_Monroe.htm ]]
The group lobbied Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for an expanded authority that would include citizens from beyond the Hampton city limits, and this was accomplished through legislation that the governor signed a week ago. [[I have great respect for my friend Jim Hodges, but I challenge him to show where a single private citizen is to be appointed to the new FM FADA except the seven private citizens from Hampton.]]
The 11 other authority members will come from Kaine's Cabinet, legislators, a historical preservationist and a tourism expert.[[And no citizens from anywhere else but Hampton.]]
It was, Hampton officials insist, exactly what they wanted.
"All we've ever wanted was a seat at the table," said Mayor Ross Kearney II.[[In an October 2005 Daily Press article that headlined how critics were lashing out against Tom Gear for questioning the Hampton-owns-Fort-Monroe presumption, Mayor Kearney exclaimed that Fort Monroe was "our land," meaning Hampton's land. Hampton has always sought to control the table, not just have a seat at it. In fairness, some of this was the result of the BRAC processes, though our leaders have now finally begun finding ways to rise above those bureaucratic problems.]]
Malone said that his group is just asking them to use that seat to lobby the National Park Service.
The process has clearly frayed some nerves and relationships, and it has four years to run.
"If the National Park (Service) had told me the day after BRAC that 'we'll take it,' I'd have said, 'Here, it's yours,' " Kearney said, joining the fray with Sapp and other council members. "I didn't need this. I'm a part-time legislator." [[Mayor Kearney does deserve respect and gratitude for his civic service. But the fact remains that Hampton sought actively to discourage the national park option.]]
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