In the recent flurry of articles in the Virginian-Pilot concerning Portsmouth Police Pay, I have noticed something. Based on the comments at least, the majority of the citizens are behind us. A recent comment on an editorial said this:
The city of Portsmouth needs to give the police a pay raise they are out here day in and day out working to get the streets of Portsmouth safe QUIT wasting money where we DONT need it like the hotel that Portsmouth does not need and all the other bull that is going on here in Portsmouth we need our POLICE dept GIVE THE POLICE DEPT THE MONEY -=SOURCE=-
Wasting money on ideas and projects seems to be the city’s calling. The problem is not one individual. It runs rampant throughout city government.
And that same “problem” seems to manifest itself with the way the city does business on other fronts. The handling of the police department, and other departments, as a whole.
What ever is wrong with the City of Portsmouth management is systemic. It is a refusal to let go of whatever age old paradigm they are holding on to as a way of doing business.
In a recent discussion with a friend, I mentioned this issue. I told him that I could find no one person within city management to blame, hired or elected. But taken as a whole, the problem was terminal.
It has become the “norm” to do business the way they do. It’s absolutely a cultural thing. It is so much a part of the culture of Portsmouth leadership that they don’t even recognize it as being a problem.
It’s the reason there is a 13 million dollar shortfall in the budget. It’s the reason we can’t keep a decent police chief. It’s the reason the city builds multi-million dollar “round abouts” in front of a dying multi-million dollar amphitheater. And it’s the reason City Council can laugh about it during council meetings, and name the project “Oliver’s Twist”.
Portsmouth is a crown jewel in our nation’s history. It has the potential to be one of the finest cities in Hampton Roads and in fact the Commonwealth.
But the terminal case of systemic “old school” mentality will forever relegate Portsmouth the title of “Backwash” of Hampton Roads.
Unless they get a new grip on how to do business.
