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c. P.
<br />
<br />July 12, 1917.
<br />
<br />At a special meeting of the City Council- July 12th there were present:
<br />
<br /> C,H;'~He~ber~, Jno~.A;" NOrris, ~. Ho Culpepper,
<br />
<br /> The following directions were.~rsad for the special meeting:
<br />
<br />"Mr.-L. P. Slater,
<br />
<br />"Portsmouth, Va., July 11, 1917.
<br />
<br /> "City Clerk, City.
<br />"Dear Sir:--
<br />
<br />July 12th, at
<br />
<br /> "You will please call a special meetingo~ tn~ City Council for Thursday,
<br />?:30 P. E., to consider~the several phases of the City Ms~u~gvrsnmp,
<br />
<br /> "RespeCtfully,
<br />
<br />"J. T. Hanvey,
<br />
<br /> The "call" h~ving been read, Er. Herbert moved that the Council receive applications
<br />for the position of Cm~y Man=get un~il Tuesa=y, July l~t~, 12 o cmock E.
<br /> ~. Dashiell moved, to amend, That before any applicmtions are asked for ~the City A%-
<br />torney be instructed to give his written opinion as to legality'of the action of the Council
<br />on ~une ZSth in dismissir~ the City Manager. The amendment was adopted.
<br /> · Then the motion, ~s amended, w~S adopted.
<br />
<br /> Mr. Morris moved .further that the City Attorney give his opinion as to same by the next
<br />regula~r meeting of the Council on Tuesday, July l?th.
<br /> Ta~ motion was adopted.
<br />
<br /> At this point, the President of the body inquired of the City Attorney, who w~s present,
<br />as to the ~ga~lity of the CoUncil meeting on July 25th.
<br /> The City Attorney answered that a ca~ll for a special meeting should always state the
<br />object of the call.
<br /> (Present Er, Claud).
<br />
<br /> The following resolution w~s offered by Mr. Herbert:
<br /> "We heartily agree and endorse the
<br />sentiments as expressed in the preamble as submitted by the Citizens' Comnittee of July 7th,
<br />t917, ms ~ollows: 'Whereas the City E~nager Form of Government, overwhelmingly adopted by the
<br />people Of Portsmouth, ~ppears to the public not to be receiving a fair trial at the h~nds of
<br />the City Council by re&son of discord a~d lack of co-operation, thus affecting the home
<br />h~pplness of every good citizen,~
<br />
<br /> "First. On account of antagonism and m~licious animosity practiced by the minority mem-
<br />bers of the Council against the majority, backed up by a limited number of trouble' making citi-
<br />zens ~no have neither the presenta.~nl~at~on~'~ · ' ~ of the City Government nor the welfare of
<br />the City of Portsmouth at heart,
<br />
<br /> "Second. Due to a blunder which h~s developed on pa~t of the City Council in selecting
<br />its first City ~anage~, which we are now attempting ~o correct by dismissing him from the
<br />service of the City of Portsmouth,
<br />
<br /> "Third. In order to carry into effect the principles as outlined in above quotations
<br />and further to put in practice the City Eanager Form of Government, both' as specified as to
<br />letter and spirit of the law, we do hereby invite all law-abiding and home-loving citizens
<br />of the City to co-operate a~d assist the Council to this end.
<br />
<br /> "in reply to the first section of resolutions by the Citizens' Committee that the City
<br />Council~ be requested ~o rescind its action in dismissing the p~esent City Man~ger, we, the
<br />members of the City Council, absolutely refuse to grant this request, in view of the facts
<br />that we have prior to reaching this decision~ deliberately, conservatively, and fully in-
<br />vestigated the merits of the' present City Man~ger and find that action already t~ken w~s the
<br />or~ly reeourse left to the Council to serve the best interest of the City.
<br />
<br /> "In reply to the second section of resolutions, we as m~mbers of the City Codncil do
<br />not ples~i guilty of any purpose to defeat the object of the City Man~ger Form of Goverr~ent,
<br />a~ud, therefore, are no~ sub,eot to resign from the Council.
<br />
<br /> ~With reference to third section of resolutions, we heartily endorse and approve the
<br />same, except to s~id that it is the desire of the Council to defend and advmnce the interests
<br />of any indi$idual who is serving or may serve this City towards the mutual welfare and bene-
<br />fits~of all classes.
<br />
<br /> "The City Council feiz at its~meeting held July 10th that the citizens had not been
<br />sufficiently charitable to the City CounCil, in that they had not given full,fair and d~lib-
<br />state considgration of the action ts.ken by the Council and had not investigated the merits
<br />of the reasons for dismissing the City Manager nor the methods adopted by the City Council
<br />in ~a.king such action. For those reasons, the resolutions were promptly tabled when pre-
<br />sented to the City COuncil.
<br />
<br /> "RESOLVED, ~at the Clerk of the City Council be instructed to furnish to each member
<br />of the Citizens' Committee a written statement embodying the full mction of the City Council
<br />in dealing with their resolutions ms presented to the City Council July loth, l~lT, signed
<br />by Lam~r C. Teemed, Secret~ry of the Committee.
<br />
<br />
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