Category Archives: Perspectives

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

Recall Improvements That Aren’t

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DISCLAIMER: As non-lawyers embarking on a discussion of legal matters, we declare that the following descriptions and analysis rest on a lay person’s understanding of the referenced documents, namely the Portsmouth City Charter, Section 12.09, and the proposed language found in Appendix A of the resolution linked to City Council Agenda Item 22-375 and are not intended as legal guidance.

For the second time in as many years, Portsmouth City Council will consider changes to city charter provisions pertaining to the recall (i. e., process for removing) of local elected officials. In a republic, theoretically, no office to which people are elected is the exclusive property of its current occupant, so depending on the term established by law for a particular position, whoever is sitting in the seat will be subject to replacement in a subsequent election. Sometimes, though, an official does such a poor job of representing her/his/their constituency that removal before the end of term becomes an imperative. Recall provides that kind of political safety valve. Continue reading →

Guest Opinion: Know the Facts before You Vote

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With everything going on in America today, this year’s elections are crucial. Much is hanging in the balance, especially in our own state of Virginia. We have an opportunity to continue the progress made under Governor Ralph Northam, or we can stumble into the abyss of a hundred years ago and return to discriminatory practices we have fought so hard to overcome. 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 →

Open Letter to Council and School Board: School Funding Formula

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Honorable City Council and School Board Members:

The idea of establishing a formula-based agreement for sharing local revenue collected by the city with our public school system had merit. The designation of a committee comprised of representatives of the city, the schools, and the public to work out the details of such an agreement was reasonable. Hiring an experienced consultant to guide the process made good sense. Yet, when the months of research, discussion, and planning produced a recommendation to the city council and school board last February, the hope of implementing a policy that could end the long-running antagonism between the two bodies over local funding for education went up in a puff of smoke. What went wrong? Continue reading →

Open Letter to Mayor and Council: Let the Public in Again

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The high-water mark for local government transparency was set five years ago this month. Our former city manager, Dr. L. Pettis Patton, opened up the police chief interview session for three finalists to the community as a whole. In the auditorium of “The” I. C. Norcom High School, on a chilly January afternoon, the applicants made their cases to the management team with several city council members and many interested citizens present.

Continue reading →

Guest Opinion: Open Letter to Council on City Manager Selection

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Dear Mayor Glover and Members of Council,

Many of us who who watched last week’s city council meeting were distressed to have witnessed what transpired: a person with no governmental management experience, no postsecondary education, and who had never shown interest publicly in the job, was proposed for appointment as our new city manager! How do we list the number of reasons we oppose Mr. Meeks for the position and reject the way Council handled this?  We wrote to each of you before last week’s meeting, outlining some of the myriad problems with his appointment. But then to see council members move forward nonetheless and all but hire this individual, totally ignoring the multitude of applications for the job already received AND the detailed published job requirements AND the fact that this person is singularly unqualified to run the city was very disturbing. How could council justify ignoring the many legitimate applicants who had shown interest and capabilities?  How could council simply refuse to honor their contractual arrangement with the consultants paid by Portsmouth citizens to assure precisely what you wanted to eliminate: an open and transparent process for hiring the best individual for the highest position in the city government? Continue reading →

Guest Opinion: Putting the Residents First

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So, we call a communitywide meeting [in Cavalier Manor], the first in over 10 months…. not for COVID preparations… not for food distribution… not for severe weather impact instructions… not to ensure a continued high quality education for our youth…not to address the crime issues.. not to check on resident welfare… not for vaccine instructions… not to announce Sustainable Wage Jobs… not to deliver PPE and hand sanitizer… not to get mentors for our students… not to check on our seniors… not participate in the early phase if the planning process… not to talk about Development Induced Displacement… not to comfort the community in a time of crisis… not to mitigate health disparities… not to ensure households who don’t have internet in these times have access… not to mitigate pollution caused by excess truck traffic…not to give people rides to the polls to vote… not to talk about moving renters to homeowners to create black wealth….We call our FIRST meeting in ten months to talk about a developer who wants to take our land from the community and build tiny low income apartments..no wealth building capacity… workforce housing… providing NO direct benefit to the community….take our land we could use for a park, amphitheater, compost area, walking trails, a mini client, farmers market., pop up venues. something that provides social welfare with a direct and measurable benefit…the community must be self determined such that its needs and wants are not dictated…it’s called Participatory Planning… that’s how it works in a democracy… with all these issues facing the community.. our FIRST meeting in ten months and we host a gentrifying developer instead of addressing real issues Shame, shame, shame!
We must not be afraid to speak truth to power.
Garry Harris, Community Activist

Coming Together on the Right Path

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Updated January 13, 2021. A majority of council, Members Barnes, Battle, Moody, and Woodard, voted to appoint Danny Meeks City Manager. They went into closed meeting to consider a compensation package but, on emerging into public session, voted to reconsider the previous vote. Rather than sustaining the prior appointment, they voted to extend the candidate search until January 20. (For additional details, see Portsmouth City Council voted to hire Danny Meeks as city manager. He still needs to apply for the job. – Daily Press.)

If the rumors that began circulating on social media last Friday are true, a coalition of disgruntled council members and their junior partners may have stumbled onto a way to bridge the racial political divide that has plagued our city for decades. Unfortunately, hard evidence of what, if confirmed, would be a real conspiracy has not yet surfaced. Consequently, as a responsible voice of the community, PortsmouthCityWatch.org will address this as a hypothetical situation rather than a matter of established fact. Continue reading →