Minutes 07/16/2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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July 16, 2020 Board (plus the casino referendum), is a time to risk disenfranchising the voters of Precinct 33. As a resident of Precinct 33 and as Secretary of the Park Manor Civic League, I strongly ask that you vote against Item # 20-180. Gary Bunting New Business: As you consider the confirmation and continuation of our local state of emergency, I write to reiterate two objections that I have raised previously about the Portsmouth response. The first is that many matters you have taken up in virtual meetings do not comply with Attorney General Herring's guidance provided in the Sullivan Letter. On page three of that letter, General Herring lays out a three-part test for electronic meetings allowed by law and affirms that the first two "are plainly satisfied", an assessment with which I concur. The third item, however, has been the Achilles's heel: "'the purpose of the meeting is to address the emergency'". From my perspective, council has consistently been out of compliance with that basic but essential requirement. In my view, this means that the legitimacy of the non-conforming ordinances and resolutions may be subject to legal challenge going forward. Portsmouth does not need the additional lawsuits. My second objection is that the structure of your virtual meetings denies the public its right to participate as fully as in a regular meeting. No legitimate reason exists for that denial. The limitations of the technology the city employs for the conduct of the virtual meetings is not an acceptable excuse; other platforms in use by neighboring cities do not have the same constraints. Although I acknowledge that legitimate concerns about the safety of participants in in-person meetings make virtual meetings a prudent mode of operation for the foreseeable future, you have a responsibility to employ a technology that aligns the virtual and actual realms as closely as possible. The inability of citizens to comment on items considered by council as they are taken up is a significant impediment to influencing the thinking of our elected representatives. Faithful representation of your constituents requires that you get the communication logistics right. A minor procedural adjustment you made two weeks ago in response to my contemporaneous complaint does not come close to meeting the identified need. Please let me know if you need additional information. Yours truly, Mark Geduldig-Yatrofsky, PO Box 50141, Portsmouth, VA 23703-0141, 757 967-7298