PANDEMIC HINDERS SCRUTINY OF LOCAL OFFICIALS

Governments across Hampton Roads, grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, have drastically reduced the ways they carry out one of their most crucial functions: Soliciting public input.

As a result, people haven’t been speaking to local officials as openly as they used to.

Before social distancing rules were put in place to stymie the coronavirus outbreak, people in the seven cities could take the lectern at the end of most regularly scheduled public meetings and talk publicly about anything on their mind. But officials now operate under a hodgepodge of changing rules on what the public can and can’t discuss during meetings, many of which are being held virtually.

“They’re doing the bare minimum they believe they can get away with ,” said Mark Geduldig-Yatrofsky, a Portsmouth resident who has attended nearly every City Council meeting for

decades. “I believe that the biggest benefit of a regular council meeting is the opportunity for every interested citizen to see and hear what their neighbors are saying about our local issues. This Facebook Live approach is isolating us from one another.”

The new rules vary widely among government bodies, which are using a mix of technology that includes Facebook Live, WebEx and Microsoft Teams. Some cities, like Hampton, Newport News and Virginia Beach, have let a few people at a time enter chambers to talk about items on a scheduled agenda as well as to address so-called “new business.”

Others, like Norfolk and Portsmouth, only take agendarelated comments. Norfolk Public Schools is taking nonagenda comments, while Portsmouth Public Schools is not.

After questions from The Virginian-Pilot, Portsmouth Deputy City Manager LaVoris Pace said he plans to consult with officials to try to bring nonagenda comments back to regular meetings.

“Of course, all of us are trying to deal with the pandemic and make sure everybody is safe and trying to be as transparent as possible,” Pace said. “There are a lot of different ways by which (residents) can provide information to us that’s far faster than having to wait for a city council meeting.”

Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander dismissed concerns about the lack of nonagenda discussions in his city. Council members hold town hall meetings, he said, and officials are getting plenty of input via social media, emails and phone calls. He noted several new initiatives that have been launched from those conversations during the pandemic, including the removal of the city’s downtown Confederate monument. When someone complained about bamboo growth at the Pagoda and when someone asked the city to move vehicles that were blocking a building entrance off Waterside Drive, the city

“Every person will be heard, just not in the format they’re used to.”

Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander

moved quickly, he said.

“We want to get back to normalcy,” Alexander said. “Every person will be heard, just not in the format they’re used to.”

Still, nonagenda speech is a rare chance for people to publicly put officials on the spot about something they otherwise might not have considered. Two years ago, it saved a recreation center in Norfolk from closing over a council oversight.

In April 2018, Raytron White took the lectern during a council meeting’s nonagenda comment period to challenge a decision to cut funding from a city-run recreation center in Grandy Village, a public housing community.

The revelation caught council members by surprise. Dismayed, they pressured city officials to find the money to keep the center open. White’s unexpected appeal saved it.

In neighboring Portsmouth, hundreds of people packed chambers during the nonagenda portion of a meeting last year to denounce the firing of Police Chief Tonya Chapman, the first Black woman to run a municipal police department in Virginia. To date, it has been the most powerful show of defiance over her ouster.

“It’s really a numbers game in terms of influencing the opinion of all of the officials,” Geduldig-Yatrofsky said. “If you have a room full of people and most of them are rising in agreement with your position, that makes an impression.”

In recent months, he said, that energy has been lost.

Reporters Peter Coutu, Sara Gregory, Matt Jones, Ryan Murphy, Josh Reyes, Alissa Skelton and Lisa Vernon Sparks contributed to this report