Kerry goes to Norfolk council

Local, Norfolk, Politics 1 Minute

Virginian-Pilot columnist Kerry Dougherty attended the Norfolk City Council meetings Tuesday evening and witnessed the strange goings-on with which we are so familiar:

It was, simply, a well-scripted City Hall show, with everyone in the room playing his or her part.

And that’s what she said about the informal session, the one not televised and, theoretically, where the real work is done.

I can’t seem to find the link right now but I read somewhere that the police chief said that he should have turned over the information relating to the death of recruit John Kohn to the office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney instead of the City Attorney, because it would have meant the investigation was not subject to FOIA.

What we have in Norfolk, Kerry, is a culture of secrecy within Norfolk government. I’m not surprised that you saw it in action, only that you didn’t know it was going to be that way.

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5 thoughts on “Kerry goes to Norfolk council”

  1. I may have read Kerry’s column wrong, but the most disconcerting thing, to me, was that Tommy and Andy seemed to be among the Kabuki players.

    Loved Chief Marquis’ quote, “I can do better”. Lots of folks downtown have been using a version of that.

  2. In all fairness, the item on the informal agenda was for the Police Chief to give City Council an update on John Kohn’s death. It wasn’t meant to be a review of the Police Chief or how the investigation was handled. There was only 40 minutes left on the agenda for this report to council, and most of the talking was done by the lead investigator. There wasn’t a lot of time left to ask questions. Although I came into the meeting ready to ask some tough questions, it turned out to be the wrong time and place. I could see how Kerry would have been let down, but she might not have known the initial purpose of the meeting. And Doug, I thought both Andy and I asked some good questions.

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