Dolphin Tank project may be in danger.

"It may be very nice and it may be very pretty," Jones said.  "But its not needed, particularly in the face of all these other protects. I'm going to have to say now that I am not going to support  %50 million dollar dolphin tank."  Clouding the discussion of the projects cost was a published report in The Virginian Pilot Tuesday that Beach Police has assigned an undercover female to attend several months of meetings and a rally of Dolphin Liberty, a citizens group opposed to the museum's proposed dolphin exhibit.

Councilman William W. Harrison Jr. said the surveillance operation "shows a side of the city that is not very appealing."  Harrison questioned whether the revelation would further erode public support for the project. "It was shocking, appalling," Harrison said. "I'm worried about it. I'm calling a spade a spade." Beach officials acknowledged monday that for four months beginning in October a plain clothes officer attended meetings of Dolphin Liberty. Museum Directory Mac Rawls quickly found himself on the defensive after Tuesday's comments from council members.

"There has been two years of city staff working and planning on this," he told the council. "It's probably going to be Virginia Beach's best chance for national acclaim. It's a good project."  Rawls made his pitch after Council member Reba McClanan suggested postponing the expansion..  "I wonder if we don't want to take a little more time to make a decision," said Rawls, adding that he didn't play any role in the police surveillance...

Beach Police Chief Alfred Jacocks said Tuesday that an undercover officer was used because some people invited to Dolphin Liberty meetings had criminal backgrounds and could pose a threat.  He declined to identity those people or their crimes. Jacocks said undercover officers have not attended meetings of other activist groups like the Citizens Action Coalition Inc., known as CACI or a citizens group opposed to the large hotel complex at 31st Street and the Oceanfront.

"But neither of them invited people from out ot town who have connections to groups know to have been associated with criminal activity," Jacocks said, declining to elaborate further.  City Manager James K. Spore said he wasn't aware of the undercover operation at the time it ws going on. Spore said Tuesday what police were interested in monitoring the guests of Dolphin Liberty, guests that police say had extensive criminal destruction of property, vandalism, trespassing and other "'destructive behavior."

We didn't want this stuff to happen in Virginia Beach," Spore said. "It wasn't as if we just had this hunch." Spore declined to identity the people who concerned city officials.  Susan Q. Wagner, co founder of Dolphin Liberty, said she thinks that city officials may have been concerned about oe person invited to the group's December meeting, two months after the surveillance began. The individual is an out of town activist with a national animal welfare group and has been arrested while protesting  for various causes, she said.

The city's explanation "doesn't make sense," Wagner said. "the people they were concerned about were not invited until a meeting in December. But they had been carrying on surveillance since early October. So it appears that they targeted out group mainly because we were opposed a project endorsed by the city."  Jacocks said this was not the first time an undercover officer monitored the activities of a citizen group, but he couldn't think of a similar instance. Legal experts said officers to monitor civic groups is a tactic to be used with trepidation.

Rodney A. Smolla, a law prefacer at the university of Richmond and a civil rights expert, sad police infiltration of political groups affects the freedoms of association and speech.  "The danger for me is if it's a very generalized, amorphous suspicion and they infiltrate routinely as a precaution, that worries me," Smolla said.  "Would people like their churches infiltrated, or groups infiltrated that hold strong beliefs?"  Another law professor, Michael Gerhardt of the College or William's and Mary, seemed less concerned.  "It's hard to say that she has doe anything illegal," said Gerhardt, a constitutional law expert, of the undercover officer. "It would be hard for the group to argue she's done something wrong," unless her undercover surveillance collates a city or department policy.

Under those conditions, there's not much to constrain what the officer does," short of entrapment, Gerhardt said. Tuesday's discussion about the museum project was part of a workshop intended to arrow the list of $500 million in  new projects being considered by the council.  Spore is expected to present his proposed budget to the council l on March 27th and the council will have until mid May to make a final decision on the projects.