Just back from the EOV Civic League Town Hall Meeting. I arrived a few minutes after the scheduled start time of 6pm and the meeting was already underway. More than 300 people were there, with more people coming in behind me.
At the time I arrived, a Power Point presentation of the good, the bad and the ugly of EOV was being shown. The decision to show this without narration was interesting. As I’m not from EOV, some of the issues being presented were lost on me but not on those assembled. People audibly reacted as the images they recognized appeared.
After the presentation was completed, Tommy Smigiel, Vice President of the civic league, presented a set of proposals that the citizens believe should be adopted. Those proposals can be found in here, in case you didn’t get a copy of them at the meeting. Comments were then made by the invited officials, who were seated at a table up front. Seated from my left to right (I’m doing this from memory, so I hope I don’t get it wrong) were Ward 1 Councilman Don Williams, Sheriff Bob McCabe, Ward 5 Councilman Randy Wright, Ward 3 Councilman & Vice Mayor Anthony Burfoot, Mayor Paul Fraim, Police Chief Bruce Marquis, and Planning Commission Manager of Zoning Services Lenny Newcomb.
In his remarks, Wright reiterated his support for surveillance cameras and criminal background checks, as mentioned in my earlier post today. Mayor Fraim expressed support for the proposals set out by the civic league with the exception of the purchasing of blighted property. The Mayor pointed out that the change in the eminent domain law will make it very difficult to condemn property. I had noticed a beautiful color flyer on eminent domain on the table where some other items were and picked one up. (Too bad this stuff doesn’t require disclosures the way political mail does – I have no idea where this flyer came from.) Included on the flyer was what the Mayor referred to in his remarks: that property can only be taken under the blight laws if it endangers the public health or safety and is either a public nuisance or is a structure beyond repair or unfit for human occupancy/use. Some of that language needs to be clarified in court and Smigiel challenged the Mayor to use a property in EOV as a test case.
After the remarks, the floor was opened for public comment. A long line quickly formed. Speakers were supposed to limit their comments to 2 minutes and to EOV. Of course, that didn’t always happen, as some of the speakers were long-winded and some of them weren’t from EOV. One speaker was cut off, and kept yelling “Corrupt” as he walked back to his seat. Several of the speakers were owners of multi-family housing in the EOV, something of an issue in the community.
I wandered out in the hallway to talk to some folks so I didn’t hear all of the speakers. Shortly after I did so, the crowd started filing out to take part in a community walk. Amongst those in the crowd were Delegate Paula Miller, her challenger Hank Giffin, Senator Nick Rerras and his challenger, Ralph Northam. I didn’t participate in the walk, and neither did Rerras, Fraim, Williams and some of the attendees. As I was leaving, I saw the marchers coming back to the center where the walk had begun.
The issues facing EOV are not unique to that neighborhood. When I ran for office, I attended civic league meetings throughout the city and heard similar complaints. For that matter, the Mayor’s own Town Hall Meeting Report (which I have in hand and if it is on the city’s website, I can’t find it is available here) cites some of these very same things. Public safety, code enforcement, remedy of neighborhood blight, affordable housing, infrastructure – all are included in the report. The only question is when will these issues be addressed.
I applaud the EOVCL for their commonsense plans for their neighborhood. I hope that the city takes them to heart and implements them – citywide – as soon as possible. Norfolk is a wonderful place to live, but it can always be better. The citizens cannot do it alone. It is imperative that our elected representatives take the steps to continue our march towards making Norfolk the premier city in Hampton Roads.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Thanks Vivian. FYI my last name is spelled Smigiel. You got it right the second time. Nice write up.
The outpour of support was unbelievable. The Community Center Staff said that there were fewer than 500 people in attendance (based off of chair count). It was impressive to hear from the Councilman that this was the largest turnout they had ever seen for a town hall meeting.
I think the turnout was largely a combination of a very active civic league, good public relations on our part and people not trusting the government.
I am usually not one to defend some of our Councilman, but people should know that Mayor Fraim, Councilman Wright, Councilman Winn and the other panel members were very supportive of this town hall meeting from the beginning. In fact Councilman Winn and Wright were going to be out of town for the first date we proposed and we moved it because they wanted this to happen. I know some of them gave the political rhetoric we asked them not to give, but at least they showed and listened. Now it is up to them to follow through with their word. We will hold them to it.
I was disappointed in some of the speakers. I think that some of them shifted the focus away from what we were trying to accomplish. It seemed some people wanted to use this as a forum to discuss their personal situations about other city business. It is sad that they felt this was the outlet and I encouraged many of them to show up to City Council meetings and voice their concerns. There also seemed to be some police bashing. Maybe I just don’t get it, but as the moderator, I could not sit there and let people bash the people that we were asking to protect us. Many of the officers who showed to out meeting, were not on duty, but wanted to show their support.
Too bad you didn’t walk Vivian. It was very impressive. We loved the faces of the residents as we walked and I think some people got to see first hand what we are dealing with.
I understand that other parts of the city are facing similar problems. I hope our forum motivates them to get active and do the same thing. That is the least that this forum accomplished. I think City Council got the message tonight and I foresee a brighter future for East Ocean View.
I corrected the spelling – sorry.
I didn’t hear the police bashing – that must have happened while I was in the hall. Anytime there is a public meeting, people get off-topic, because they feel as if they are not heard. I do wish more folks would attend the council meetings to express their opinions. The evening meetings are perfect for this.
As for the walk – well, I had a couple of other things to run down while you guys were walking 😉
Good turnout. And with all the local media there, I suspect we’ll see some coverage on TV and in tomorrow’s paper.
Vivian,
You’ll find the Town Hall Meeting pdf file at
Click to access Norfolk_Town_Hall_Meetings.pdf
Thanks 🙂
why does it take someone getting their head smashed in to get somthing done, why is it not the norm that things are done right the frist time, people in eov thing real hard about that next time you vote, maybe eov has the wrong color in it, maybe to much color for some people.