Category: Norfolk

Portsmouth council community meeting tonight

Via The Virginian-Pilot: The Portsmouth City Council is holding a community meeting at 7 p.m. today at Woodrow Wilson High School, 1401 Elmhurst Lane. The council holds a community meeting every four months to hear concerns from residents. Wow. What a novel concept! Listening to the people. Meanwhile, Norfolk is holding a council meeting today … Continue reading Portsmouth council community meeting tonight →

Norfolk, VA Beach council races fundraising

The always excellent Virginia Public Access Project has compiled the numbers from the financial reports due yesterday. Here's where we are: Norfolk In the special election to fill the unexpired term of Daun Hester in Superward 7, there are four candidates. Earl Fraley, Jr. - no report as of this writing Phillip Hawkins, Jr.  - … Continue reading Norfolk, VA Beach council races fundraising →

WTH, Councilman Winn?

An email with the subject "Please Join Randy Wright and Barclay Winn at Cagney's this Saturday" was forwarded to me Wednesday. Here's the content (click to enlarge): Would somebody please explain to me why Councilman Barclay Winn has teamed up with the former council member and not the current council member for a breakfast? There … Continue reading WTH, Councilman Winn? →

Beach man abuses credit card, charged with embezzlement

And he wasn't missing any receipts. At least three bureau officials reviewed [Reggie] Stevenson's charges every month. But they usually verified only that the charges matched the receipts that Stevenson presented. They did not question the appropriateness of the expenses, even though that's required by city policy, Remias said. "That's where the big gap is," … Continue reading Beach man abuses credit card, charged with embezzlement →

City-paid private club memberships

The Virginian-Pilot has been on a roll lately, documenting and reporting on various behaviors of our local governments. It is what the hometown newspaper should be doing and I applaud them for it. Today's other big story is about the taxpayer dollars being spent on private club memberships.  At least it's not just Norfolk this … Continue reading City-paid private club memberships →

When is enough enough?

Norfolk Commissioner Sharon McDonald has hired a PR person to work in her office in the position of Chief Deputy II.  The mayor is none too happy about it. Mayor Paul Fraim strongly criticized the decision to hire [Charles] Hartig, whom he describes as "a lifelong friend." He said McDonald, with a staff of just … Continue reading When is enough enough? →

Think “local” this campaign season

"Democracy is not a spectator sport." -- Lotte Scharfman My latest op-ed appears in this morning's Virginian-Pilot. It galls me that so much time and effort, not to mention money, goes into the top of the ticket races, where our votes really don't matter, while the local races get almost no attention. In the big … Continue reading Think “local” this campaign season →

Update: OMG week in Norfolk

The West Wing called it throwing out the trash: release of information on Friday. In this case, it's not just Friday but also the Friday hurricane Earl was supposed to hit and before a long weekend. So it's really trash day - and Norfolk didn't disappoint. According to The Virginian-Pilot, five people have been fired … Continue reading Update: OMG week in Norfolk →

Another OMG week in Norfolk

A quick rundown of the stories of interest this week: The leak of the audit report on Commissioner Sharon McDonald came on Monday afternoon in advance of Tuesday's City Council meeting. The Council's response Tuesday night was pretty harsh and included an ordinance. The editorial board finally weighed in on the McDonald controversy. The FBI … Continue reading Another OMG week in Norfolk →