The high-water mark for local government transparency was set five years ago this month. Our former city manager, Dr. L. Pettis Patton, opened up the police chief interview session for three finalists to the community as a whole. In the auditorium of “The” I. C. Norcom High School, on a chilly January afternoon, the applicants made their cases to the management team with several city council members and many interested citizens present.

(The news media even afforded Portsmouth some positive coverage, albeit on page 4: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=0F25E85643928EEF&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F15AB703FF66AF050 <https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=0F25E85643928EEF&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F15AB703FF66AF050>.)Following each presentation, the would-be chiefs fielded questions from the public. Although the Virginia Freedom of Information Act allows “personnel matters” to play out behind closed doors, City Manager Pettis Patton afforded city residents an opportunity to see and hear this rather important phase of the vetting process. I consider it one of local government’s finest moments. Unfortunately, no subsequent selection of high level staff has followed that particular path.

I believe that the current city manager selection process would do well to hark back to the example set in 2015. Although our pandemic restrictions make an in-person public gathering imprudent, if not wholly irresponsible, the same technology that facilitates virtual meetings of numerous public bodies would allow us to hold an electronic town hall meeting in the style of the Norcom interviews. Once council has winnowed the field of candidates to a handful, the public should receive introductions to and hear from them. Certainly, the city charter assigns council members the authority to hire city managers, but managers ultimately serve the people as a whole. Providing the citizenry an opportunity to appraise the available talent for ourselves also affords us another means of assessing the soundness of decisions our council members are making on our behalf.

As an elected body, you deserve credit for having already opened up proceedings that traditionally have occurred out of public view. You were bold enough to select an interim council member and a vice mayor in open session. Those breaks with past practices did not bring on tornadoes, tidal waves, or plagues of locusts. I urge you, then, to build on your own momentum by letting the “sunshine” into the city manager selection process, too, at least to the extent of the aforementioned police chief selection process. Democracy benefits when public bodies do the public’s business in a public setting.

Please let me know if you need additional information.

Yours truly,
Mark Geduldig-Yatrofsky