Minutes 02/28/2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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February 28, 2017 At a Called Meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, February 28, 2017, there were present: Mayor John L. Rowe, Jr., Vice Mayor Paige D. Cherry, William E. Moody, Jr., *Elizabeth M. Psimas, Dr. Mark M. Whitaker, Nathan J. Clark, Lisa L. Lucas-Burke, City Manager Dr. L. Pettis Patton, City Attorney Solomon H. Ashby, Jr. 17 - 103 - The following call for the meeting was read: "Please attend a Called Meeting of the City Council to be held in the City Council Chamber, 801 Crawford Street, 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 28, 2017 for the purpose of a Public Work Session. In addition, you may consider a motion to go into a Closed Meeting. By order of the Mayor." 17 - 104 - The following item was discussed in Public Work Session: 1. Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority (PRHA) Hearings Meeting. Mayor Rowe read the following statement: This is a legislative hearing pursuant to the provisions of Section 36-17 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as Amended. This section of the State Code pertains to the removal of commissioners from local redevelopment and housing authorities. Furthermore, this section of the State Code provides that local governing bodies, such as the Portsmouth City Council, may remove commissioner from the housing authority for inefficiency or neglect of duty or misconduct in office only after the commissioner has had the opportunity to be heard in a hearing before the governing body. In addition, the governing body must give the commissioner a ten-day notice in advance of the hearing. At the hearing, the commissioner may appear with his or her legal counsel. Again, this is a legislative hearing for the Portsmouth City Council to carry out the provisions of Section 36-17 of the State Code, and during this hearing, we will provide each commissioner who is under consideration for removal the opportunity to provide to City Council any testimony, witnesses, and documents as to why that commissioner thinks that City Council should not remove him or her as a Commissioner of the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority. In addition to our usual video recording of this hearing, we have a court reporter who will develop a verbatim transcript of this evening’s hearing. In this regard, I ask all who speak during this hearing to speak as clearly as possible. Furthermore, I ask that only one person speak at a time for the ease of the court reporter. We have three commissioners who will have the opportunity to be heard pursuant to the provisions of Section 36-17 this evening, and we will hear from each commissioner one at a time. We will give each commissioner ample opportunity to provide City Council with both testimony and documents. As for City Council, we will conduct this legislative hearing in a fair and impartial manner, and we will not allow any political or improper motivation to enter into this process. City Council will only consider those charges that were included in the February 15, 2017 letter that City Council sent to each commissioner in question. We will proceed as follows. As we hear each commissioner, I will first ask the City Clerk to read for the record the February 15, 2017 letter that City Council sent to that commissioner.