VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — 10 On Your Side is tracking the truth in the at-large city council race in Virginia Beach.
There is no doubt the most attacked city council member this election season is John Moss. Five days until Election Day and Moss says the ads are technically correct, but misleading and fail to tell the real story behind his votes.
“No Moss, no, no, no, no, no, no no,” scream The Hampton Roads Chamber ads and the ad for the Virginia Beach Education Association. “After all he voted against a resolution seeking to limit eminent domain powers in Virginia.”
That’s true, he voted against another council member’s resolution because it altered the accepted wording of the 2012 Constitutional Eminent Domain Amendment, which he made a motion to support before Council.
“We couldn’t change the wording or the amendment or we would have to start over from scratch.”
The ad states he voted against that motion, but the ad fails to note all the things Moss did to push the approval of the actual amendment, the motion notwithstanding.
“A lot of developers were not supporting it because it would prevent local government from condemning private property for private use, but the public overwhelming supported it, and I was a strong advocate all along the way,” Moss said.
It appears that’s true. Moss worked hand in hand with prominent eminent domain attorney Joe Waldo to help pass the constitutional amendment, “He was very helpful to the effort, no doubt about it,” Waldo said.
The next ad from the Hampton Roads Chamber Political Action Committee, known as HRBIZPAC, states, “He voted against increasing stormwater funding.”
10 On Your Side asked him why he voted against that.
“Because it was an insufficient amount. We proposed an alternative budget in May of 2017 to spend $75 million more on flooding that year,” Moss said.
His budget was not accepted as the majority budget was accepted and he was one of three to vote no.
Moss says the stormwater funding was part of a bigger budget that included big developer projects he opposed.
“To vote for that budget would be to vote for those special interest projects I don’t support. It would be me endorsing hose projects at the expense of those families having floodwaters in their homes, so it wasn’t my voting against flooding, it was voting against bad priorities.”
There’s also a commercial from the Virginia Beach Education Association, “Should Virginia Beach offer full-day kindergarten? The school board says yes, Moss votes no.”
Moss says, “what they say is actually correct.” It is true he has voted no on passing city budgets.
“My first responsibility is not to raise taxes, unless it is necessary, so I voted no on the budget on the city side and the school side because tax increases were not required … we didn’t need them.”
Moss says schools always have a year end surplus, like the $24 million one this year.
“I am going to support giving them back that surplus, with a few questions along the way. Kelly Walker says, “I would say he is not looking out for the children.”
She is the president of the Virginia Beach Education Association and was surprised to hear Moss will be voting to return $24 million to the school system as he has done in the past.
“The trickle down of not supporting the budget is not everyone is going to receive any funding to do what we need to do to provide for our students and our schools … we have $100 million of unmet needs, the recession hit us hard, and we have not closed those … budget gaps … we’ve lost state funding and the local hasn’t made it up.”
The VBEA ad also states, “when it became obvious that we needed to raise teacher salaries the school board says yes, Moss votes no.”
This vote hit home for Moss, “That is a redistribution policy. My wife is a teacher. I understand teachers, but to raise taxes when people are struggling during a recession makes no sense. I stand by my vote, and I don’t apologize for it…over taxing people is something I will never do. If the penalty is I have to pay the price of those negative ads that are technically correct, but misleading then that is the price I’m willing to pay because that is my duty to the taxpayers.”
Will his deep support across the city be enough to withstand this aggressive ad campaign against him?
That will be one of the big stories Tuesday night.