In a short press release Tuesday, Norfolk City Council announced that a public hearing will be held next Tuesday, June 15, to accept nominations for the three available slots on the school board. Norfolk remains one of the few localities to still appoint its school board, which has been under fire recently. Councilwoman Theresa Whibley has advocated an opening up of the process.
According to this story, Council will hold public interviews the following week, June 22. The actual selection will take place behind closed doors on June 29.
While I applaud council for at least moving in the direction of transparency, a week’s notice for a 2:30pm public hearing to accept the nominations doesn’t quite go far enough. It would have been nice for the citizens to have had more notice. At least the interviews will be held in the evening: the June 22nd meeting, according to the Council calendar, is scheduled for 7pm.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
So, what criteria will be used by council members for choosing who they nominate? Is there a checklist? Will resumes be submitted? Background checks? This smells of a “shell” game to me- “let’s give the appearance of transparency but we are going to nominate ‘our’ chosen ‘people'”.
Norfolk has a LONG way to go before even getting close to a “transparent government”.
No disagreement here. The rushed schedule was a tip-off to me. There is a major difference between appearing transparent and being transparent. This looks more like the former than the latter.