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February 09, 2016 16 - 43 - Items Submitted by Council Members A resolution adopting the City Council’s Newly Revised Vision Principles for the future of the City of Portsmouth. Motion by Ms. Psimas, and seconded by Mr. Meeks, to defer this item to the February 23, 2016 City Council meeting, and was adopted by the following vote: Ayes: Cherry, Edmonds, Meeks, Moody, Psimas, Whitaker, Wright Nays: None Dr. Whitaker read and asked that the following statement be placed into the record.  Judge Martin Clark’s decision to remove the portrait of General J. E. B. Stuart from the courthouse in Patrick County: “Confederate symbols are, simply put, offensive to African Americans, and this reaction is based on fact and clear, straightforward history. Bigotry saturates the Confederacy’s founding principles, its racial aspirations and its public pronouncements. For instance, the Declarations of Causes — the legal and philosophical grounds recited by the Southern states for leaving the Union — could just as easily be called The South’s Demands to Mistreat Black People. South Carolina, according to its declaration, felt wronged because of “an increasing hostility on the part of non-slaveholding states to the institution of slavery,” and, ironically, complained that the federal government had “denounced as sinful the institution of slavery.” Mississippi’s main reason for leaving the Union is unmistakably framed and repeated early and often in its causes document: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest in the world.” The Mississippi document goes on to condemn the notion of “Negro equality, socially and politically,” and finds fault with Mississippi residents being denied “the right of property in slaves.” Georgia listed its grievances “with reference to the subject of African slavery,” and insisted on its right to hold slaves. The single specific injury mentioned in Virginia’s actual Secession Ordinance is “the oppression of the Southern slaveholding states.” And, finally, lest there be any doubt exactly why black Americans might legitimately find the symbols of the Confederacy unsettling, here are the words of the Confederacy’s Vice President, Alexander Stephens, on the subject of slavery and race: “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” Dr. Whitaker asked for but did not receive consensus of City Council to have Mayor  Wright direct City Manager Patton to direct the Procurement Office to secure a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the removal of the Confederate monument. Vice Mayor Psimas informed citizens of the following:  -Swearing in ceremony of the new Police Chief Tanya Chapman, Monday, February 22, 2016 in the City Council Chamber at 10 a.m. -Candidates for Fire Chief Community Forum, Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 9:30 a.m. in the City Council Chamber. -Upcoming events for Black History Month. 16 - 44 - Report on Pending Items There were no pending items. 16 - 45 - Non-Agenda Speakers 1. Joe Wright, 1451 Welcome Road, voiced his concern with the racial division in the City. 2. Betty Ashberry, 5218 Cobblehill Road, voiced her concern with comments made by the Mayor in a recent article and with the conduct of City Council.