Category Archives: Leadership

Open Letter to City Council: Pending Council Reorganization

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Mayor and Council:

I write to express my support for those of you who may be motivated to replace the current vice mayor and the members of the Personnel Committee. I have heard a number of voices in the community who share my desire for a vice mayor interested in playing for “Team Portsmouth” rather than “Team Me/Myself/and I”. Regarding the Personnel Committee, I believe the public would be better served by people not pursuing the goal of remaking our boards and commissions in their own images but in reflecting the community as a whole with its diversity of demographic characteristics and perspectives. Additionally, I have seen convincing evidence that the current Personnel Committee has treated a number of commissioners/board members who were eligible, qualified, and willing to accept reappointment inequitably by not offering them subsequent terms. The people who donate their time and talents to our city deserve our thanks, not indifference or antagonism from the selection committee. If reappointment is an option within the defined term limits, and an incumbent has been attending meetings and performing other required duties conscientiously, he/she/they should be reappointed as a matter of course.

Please make your selections Tuesday [January 3, 2023] with those precepts in mind.

Yours truly,
Mark Geduldig-Yatrofsky

Open Letter to Council: More Decorum and Impartiality

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Mayor and Council Members:

As someone who has had a lengthy relationship with Robert’s Rules of Order, I cringe whenever I observe its provisions being misapplied or misused because that often means that democratic practice is also being thwarted, either by ignorance or malign intent. During city council meetings in recent times, I have been particularly distressed by the chair’s frequent use of the phrase, “You are out of order.” I believe you all would benefit from +guidance straight from the 12th edition, the latest and greatest update to the venerable Rules. Section 4:17 states the following: Continue reading →

Open Letter to City Council: Collective Bargaining Flip-Flop

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Mayor and Council:

At a virtual meeting of the Portsmouth City Council held on September 22, 2020, the council as then constituted adopted the linked resolution, 20-228-Resolution, by a vote of 7-0. That resolution laid out a framework within which our city would develop the policies and procedures for establishing collective bargaining agreements with city employees. Continue reading →

Guest Opinion: Open Letter to City Council regarding City Manager Selection

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The following message was was originally sent to Portsmouth City Council on January 11, 2021. Unfortunately, it appears that a council majority bloc is intent on opening the City of Portsmouth to numerous potential law suits with its inexplicable actions related to the selection of a Portsmouth City Manager. Nonetheless, the truth will come out.

Portsmouth City Council Members:

It is an understatement to say that Portsmouth, VA, is at a critical crossroads in its future. Portsmouth suffers from a declining population, increased poverty, failure to attract viable businesses, a large number of unhealthy citizens, high taxes and racial problems. Should I name more problems? Yes, this City Council has already made some highly questionable appointments. Continue reading →

From Senator Tim Kaine: Thoughts on January 6th, 2021

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Publisher’s Note: I received the following message by eMail directed to me as a constituent. Although it is not specific to Portsmouth, it is a thoughtful treatment of issues that affect all of us as citizens of the United States of America. I share it here, therefore, in the interests of stimulating reflection and dialogue.

So many of you have reached out — while the Capitol attack was going on and in the days since — to ask how I am and express your deep concern over what you saw happening. Rather than respond briefly to each, I thought I would write up my thoughts to share with you all. Continue reading →

Open Letter to City Council: Vice Mayor Selection Criteria

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Mr. Mayor and Honorable Members of City Council:

In the twenty-four years I have lived in Portsmouth, city council has selected a vice mayor in accordance with certain unwritten rules. All else being equal, a tradition of fostering a sense of unity through representational diversity has evolved. Consequently, when the mayor has been an African American, a European American would be selected as vice mayor and vice versa. This has not been an ironclad practice but rather a general tendency. Continue reading →

Open Letter to City Council: One-Way Respect, Incompetence, Illegality, and Broken Promises

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Mr. Mayor and Honorable Members of Council:

In a constitutional republic, the principal duty of an elected representative of the people is to understand the needs and desires of those they serve. Honest, direct, and frequent communication with one’s constituents is the preferred means of staying apprised of their views. Those sorts of interactions enable elected officials to benefit from the collective experience and wisdom of the members of their community. Your recent action demonstrates your underdeveloped appreciation of those republican ideals. Continue reading →

Open Letter to City Council: Yesterday and Today

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Mr. Mayor and Honorable Members of Council:

I see that you have scheduled another special meeting for this evening to discuss the current state of unrest in the city. In contrast to yesterday, I hope that you all will conduct yourselves professionally and in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order and council’s own rules of order and procedure. For example, the mayor should have ruled CM Moody out of order when he was strutting and fretting for his moment on the stage by calling out his colleagues rather than focusing on resolving very thorny issues. In the same vein, any member of council could have raised a point of order about the gratuitous nature of CM Moody’s remarks, just as you have done to citizens on numerous occasions. You all need to model in your interactions the deportment that you want citizens to follow. Continue reading →

Unsolicited Bid, Undesired Outcomes

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Many of my generation understood the advice, “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”, as a literary allusion. According to The Iliad, the ultimate destruction of Troy was the consequence of an imprudent decision by the leaders of that city. What ten years of conventional war waged by Greek invaders had failed to accomplish came to pass when the defenders of the city misinterpreted the purpose of the wooden horse left in the wake of their adversaries’ apparent withdrawal from the field of battle. Unbeknownst to the Trojans, what they thought was a grudging tribute to their steadfastness and determination was in fact a trap that led to their undoing. Continue reading →

Special Council Meeting, January 3, 2018

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Unless you subscribe to the City Clerk’s eMail alert list or have friends “on the inside” of city hall, you would not know that a special, called meeting of Portsmouth City Council is coming up tomorrow at noon. The calendar of meetings for 2018 that council adopted during its final public session of 2017 does not include, nor even hint at, it. Still, a call letter went abroad about 1:30 PM on Friday, December 29, 2017, bearing news of this previously unscheduled gathering. If you were in the midst of your holiday activities, you might well have missed it. Continue reading →