Publisher’s Notebook: Lumps of Coal for Your Stocking

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The late, great Henry Howell used to say, “There’s more going around in the dark than Santa Claus.” As the hours of daylight dwindle for the next week or so, those working in the dark have more time to obscure what it is that they are doing. Additionally, with the elections in our rear-view mirrors and winter holiday plans in the forefront of many people’s minds, the final city council meeting of the calendar year tends to receive far less public attention than most others. Consequently, if our officials intend to avoid citizen oversight, this is an ideal time for them to act. PCW feels obliged, therefore, to shine its high beams on three agenda items slated to come before council this Tuesday evening: 18-466 – Appropriation of $1,820,000 to Acquire Economically Significant Property; 18-462 – Precinct Number 24 Location Change; and 18-465 – Re-appropriation of FY2019 CIP Funds for the Circle of Sail Project. We believe that each of these matters merit more public attention before adoption than they are likely to receive in the current season. Continue reading →

Publisher’s Notebook: V-P Missing the Point as Usual

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As has so often been the case with Virginian-Pilot coverage of Portsmouth politics, the main event has once again been supplanted by the sideshow. An article in the November 1, 2018, issue of the paper accuses Candidate Paul Battle of falsely claiming that Senator Tim Kaine endorsed him. According to the story, Mr. Battle’s advertisement in the Bridges section of the V-P a week ago listed Senator Kaine as a supporter, but the senator’s staffers deny the assertion. The issue is, what in the political realm  constitutes endorsement? Continue reading →

A High Stakes Gamble

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Revised October 13, 2018

As Tropical Storm Michael was making its entrance into Hampton Roads yesterday evening, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Leadership Steering Committee (MLKLSC) gathered for a meeting. Based on subsequent social media postings from some who attended, the political action committee appears to have amended its list of endorsed standard bearers. Previously, MLKLSC had announced endorsements of Candidates Paul Battle and Shannon Glover, leaving one contested seat unclaimed. Last night, though, the group added Candidate Mark Whitaker, who recently received a suspension from city council due to an adverse decision in a judicial proceeding. The suspension also resulted in his disqualification as a candidate for reelection this year. Continue reading →

From the City regarding Florence

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The following information came from the City of Portsmouth in an eMail message. As it does not appear in its entirety on the city web site, we are sharing the content here as a public service.

Good Afternoon:

Portsmouth City Manager and Director of Emergency Management, Dr. L. Pettis Patton, has issued a Declaration of Local Emergency due to the threat of Hurricane Florence impacting the City of Portsmouth.  The Declaration went into effect this morning, Monday, September 10th, at 8:30 a.m.

At 6 p.m. this evening, the Portsmouth City Council’s scheduled Public Work Session will be dedicated to staff presentations, discussions, and updates on the topic of the City’s preparations for Hurricane Florence.  The Public Work Session will be held in the City Council Chamber, Portsmouth City Hall, 801 Crawford Street, 6th floor. Continue reading →

Publisher’s Notebook: Prodding the Media Lion

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Tired of waiting for our “newspaper of record” to report what many, but by no means all, Portsmouth citizens had heard from other sources, I wrote the following as a “Letter to the Editors” of the Virginian-Pilot:

One month ago today, the Portsmouth Registrar of Voters posted the official list of candidates for city council and school board in the November 6 General Election. On Sunday, June 17, and Monday, June 18, the Virginian-Pilot ran stories about candidates for school board and city council, respectively, in Virginia Beach. Since then, I have seen nary a word about who is running in Portsmouth or Suffolk; not in the main sheet, the weekly tabloids, nor online. As a Portsmouth subscriber and city council candidate, I would like to know when the V-P intends to fulfill its duty to its readers in this matter.

A week passed, but the letter did not appear in the paper. Expecting that I would not receive a response of any kind, I was pleasantly surprised to find this eMail message in my inbox about an hour ago:

Hello, and thank you for writing to us.

I heard back from the editor who handles Portsmouth coverage, and he confirmed what I thought — we’re planning to publish something soon about who is running. Close to the election, we’ll be doing additional stories.

Sent by the reader engagement editor, the response was more than I have previously received from the paper when one of my letters did not appear in print or online. Maybe I should be content that my low expectations were exceeded. Most of you know how I am, though; I want more. At a minimum, a date certain for fulfillment would be useful. How many calendar days remain until Christmas?

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 →

Publisher’s Notebook: Cancelling the Call for Recycling Boycott

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Following a conversation today with Deputy City Manager Vincent Jones, I am withdrawing my call for a recycling boycott in Portsmouth. DCM Jones made me aware of relevant information not previously available to the public, which included both a timeline and a description of the steps the city administration took on receiving notice in June of the former recycling contractor’s intent not to renew. He assured me that the city retains its commitment to recycling and is moving forward to get the program back in full swing. I urged him to share with citizenry during Tuesday night’s regular city council meeting the detailed explanation he provided me. From what I learned, I am now convinced that the administration acted in the best interests of the citizenry, which means a boycott would be counterproductive.

Publisher’s Notebook: Why Recycling Is in Turmoil

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Two months ago, as I sat outside the meeting room in which the board of the Southeast Public Service Authority (SPSA) was conferring in closed session, I overhead bits and pieces of a conversation among representatives of various waste hauling and recycling companies. Today’s edition of the Virginian-Pilot contains not only the essence of that hallway discussion but additional context for it. Portsmouth residents should pay it special heed for the article indirectly explains why our former recycling contractor was unable to offer the same terms for handling our materials going forward as in the contract that recently expired. If you only read one item from the V-P today, I strongly recommend that it be this one.

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Publisher’s Notebook: Call for Two-Week Recycling Boycott

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With apologies for the eleventh-hour call to action, I am asking my fellow municipal recycling customers in the city of Portsmouth to join in a boycott of the non-recycling program over the next two weeks. As I was surprised to learn on November 13, our city administration allowed its recycling contract to expire sometime in the last few weeks and redirected our recyclable material to the Wheelabrator Portsmouth Waste-to-Energy facility, where the combustible material has been burned and the remainder, diverted to the SPSA landfill in Suffolk. (See the Virginian-Pilot investigative report on this matter.) Not only did these revelations come as news to recycling customers but to members of city council, as well. Continue reading →

Open Letter to City Council: Post-2017 Election Deck Reshuffle

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With the election of Council Member Paige Cherry as Portsmouth City Treasurer, a vacancy on city council will occur in relatively short order. No doubt, council is already engaged in backroom conversations about who will fill CM Cherry’s slot once he resigns to assume his new position. Under Virginia Code and the city charter, the mayor and remaining council members have the authority to appoint an interim replacement. Since CM Cherry took his seat in January of 2015, someone running in the 2018 local election will replace the appointee next fall. Continue reading →