Transparency News, 7/7/2022
Thursday
July 7, 2022
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state & local news stories
"If you work in an organization, no one tells you why somebody is let go. No one gives you information on why someone has left. We’re respecting … the confidentiality of our agreement."
Newly appointed Portsmouth City Manager Tonya Chapman released a statement Wednesday regarding her decision to fire former Police Chief Renado Prince. In an exclusive interview with 13NewsNow, Prince said his termination came after a text message in which he was critical of Chapman. In 2018, Chapman hired Prince as assistant chief when she served as the city's police chief. After a recent meeting with Chapman, Prince said he complained to an employee via text message, expressing frustrations about his conversation with the city manager. However, Prince did not realize Chapman was included in the text message thread, he told 13NewsNow Wednesday. "It was a bad response on my part or a bad reaction, but nothing that I believe I should have been terminated for,” Prince said.
WVEC
Former Montgomery County school Superintendent Mark Miear has received a total of $42,674 in check payments between March and June, after his firing, according to records provided by the district. Miear was unanimously fired by the county’s school board on March 17 – a termination that was formally “without cause,” a specific condition that his last contract with the district suggested entitled him to severance pay. It has been unclear whether Miear is receiving severance as a result of his dismissal, even amid some public pressure on both payments and reasons behind his termination. The school board and school officials had declined to discuss the matter publicly. Information received by The Roanoke Times after a public records request shows that Miear received payments of $10,724 and $10,613 on March 31 and April 30, respectively. He then received payments of $10,724 and $10,613 on May 31 and June 30, respectively. School board chair Sue Kass said she understands how the community feels in regards to the details of the situation concerning Miear. “But if you work in an organization, no one tells you why somebody is let go. No one gives you information on why someone has left,” Kass said, reiterating that Miear was an employee. “We’re respecting … the confidentiality of our agreement.”
The Roanoke Times
editorials & columns
"The behavior by both School Board members and those speaking at meetings is also apparently taking a toll on the county in terms of soft costs, too."
The rise of incivility has garnered a lot of attention over the course of the pandemic. A January 2022 article in Human Rights magazine, a publication of the American Bar Association, is typical of many these reports. It describes: “a ‘disturbing spike’ in attacks on teachers, school board members, and other officials. … The attacks … offer painful examples of the increasing intolerance and fractured social and political divide in our country.” We often think of incivility in terms of poor behavior. Increased road rage (shooting incidents by drivers have doubled over prepandemic levels, according to Everytown), elevated use of childish taunts (“deplorables” and “Let’s go, Brandon,” for example), public outbursts (the “Karen” phenomenon), and hostility to frontline service-industry workers. We don’t think often enough about the monetary and production costs associated with these behaviors.The unruly and untamed meetings of the Spotsylvania County School Board are costing the residents of Spotsylvania real money. An article in The Free Lance–Star on July 4 revealed that the cost to taxpayers to post a greater number of deputies at School Board meetings the first half of 2022 was $8,000. That’s an increase of 186% over the cost for the same period in 2021. The behavior by both School Board members and those speaking at meetings is also apparently taking a toll on the county in terms of soft costs, too. While school districts nationwide are struggling to hire teachers, Spotsylvania has been particularly hard-hit, with roughly 170 positions open with less than two months to go before the start of school.
The Free Lance-Star
