By Tommy Smigiel
Sorry, but the City Council agenda for this week is not that interesting. This is one of those meetings that validates my point that we do not need to be meeting weekly. With only six public hearings and four resolutions on the agenda, the formal session should be completed in less than 15 minutes. Last week, we had over 20 speakers - mostly addressing the police chief and building a police station in Berkley/Campostella. The meeting lasted over two hours and it was nice to see a full council chambers. With a 2:30pm start time and light agenda, there will be more city staff in the audience than citizens Tuesday.
On the informal agenda are presentations from Norfolk’s new City Manager, Marcus Jones. Marcus starts on Tuesday and will be updating Council on the budget. He will also present on “Community Outreach” and I am excited to see some of his ideas on how we can engage our citizens. Marcus is a breath of fresh air and I am excited about the new style he will bring to the management of our city government. Since we do not televise our informal meetings, you will have to come down to the 10th floor at 12:00pm to hear him speak.
Last week I told you about a predatory lender wanting permission to set up on Little Creek Road. The applicant pulled their request off the agenda before the meeting. I am glad they did, although I was looking forward to voting NO to their application.
I agree – Council should not be meeting weekly. Every other week is enough.
Posted by Vivian J. Paige | Saturday, January 29, 2011, 8:26 pmanother example of the councilman’s grandstanding! (let’s see if my friend Ms. Vivian will post this)
Posted by michael j. muhammad | Saturday, January 29, 2011, 8:44 pmGrandstanding? Hardly. He’s simply letting the voters know what’s going on.
Posted by Vivian J. Paige | Saturday, January 29, 2011, 9:38 pmI agree.
Michael, if you are going to make a comment like this, make sure we understand your point. In this case, I don’t.
Posted by Doug Knack | Sunday, January 30, 2011, 9:12 amIf you want to see “Grandstanding” there are several others who do it quite well.
This is simply good communication with constituents and others in Norfolk. I’m glad Tommy is reaching out in this manner and this is one of many promises kept from his campaign.
Thanks for keeping us (the voters) in the loop Tommy and working to increase citizen engagement.
Posted by proudvadem | Saturday, January 29, 2011, 10:42 pmTommy,
A few things.
First, it’s not how many meetings you hold, but what you do with that time. If you have a large agenda one week and a small the next, maybe whomever is writing the agendas has a problem.
Second, I’d be much more concerned over Informal not being televised than the number of meetings.
Third, going from there, don’t attack all directions at once. Prioritize, consider what’s most doable, etc.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by Henry Ryto | Saturday, January 29, 2011, 10:58 pm