Norfolk
City Manager Marcus Jones likes to gush. He deserves an Oscar.
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| Breaking Bad: The Final Frame |
Anderson
was fired less than a year later.
Gushing,
according to peer vetted medical studies of the past five decades, is
lodged in the DNA of politicians, government officials and newspaper
columnists. (Later studies have refuted that newspaper columnists
gush and have found, after meticulous investigation, that newspaper
columnists screech.)
Once
again, Jones is gushing. His gushing is dotted with words such as
“expertise,” “long standing professional relationships” and
“attention to detail.”
Jones is proud of his new hire. His name is Chuck Rigney. Remember him? He
was the guy who genuflected daily at the altar of Norfolk City Hall
as the interim director of Development for the city for nearly three
years.
Then
the City changed its mind: Anderson was out.
But
who was in?
Rigney
was stoic. His stoicism was so stoic that it overwhelmed Facebook's servers, so they were
shut down for 30-seconds.
The
City was stricken with Disassociative Identity Disorder; no one in
City Hall knew who was whom or whom was who.
Rigney
was not only out; he was forgotten.
Meanwhile,
Norfolk city officials kept busy indulging the whims of Bruce
Thompson and executives of The Cordish Cos.
Then
an angel miraculously appeared. His name was Peter Chapman, from the
heavenly city of Richmond. He was feted, praised and pampered; he
joined the city as a deputy city manager and promised reform of the
city's economic development department. With Jones' blessing.
So
Rigney, stoic and stalwart, crossed the river to
Portsmouth where he was hired as the city's director of economic
development.
His
coming was hailed as the Second Coming. Yet his departure (after less
than a year) was also one of many departures from Portsmouth,
following the city manager, the city attorney, the finance director
and the police chief. (It is a shame, observers have remarked, that a
few Portsmouth City Council Members haven't departed.)
Rigney
likes to gush too. Unlike his boss, Rigney gets a Golden Globe.
“This
was a choice for Norfolk, not against Portsmouth; just to be clear. I
remain certain of Portsmouth's bright future,”Rigney posted on
Facebook, following Jones' announcement that Rigney had been hired to
drive Norfolk's economy.
Rigney
gushed about the anonymous “Norfolk leaders” who “reached out
to me and made it possible for me to come back to this City I care so
much about.”
Rigney's
first initiative, according to reports, is to hire Zack Miller, to
ride an electric bike around Norfolk and find a Millennial to develop
an innovative and creative waste flushing system for City Hall.
In
Portsmouth, Rigney was a game-changer: he advocated for new toilets
on the second floor of Portsmouth City Hall.
Rigney
gushed about Portsmouth when he was hired.
“I
want everybody to come over here and see what we are doing over
here,” he said. (Source: Veer Magazine, Dec., 2014 issue). They never did.
No
one on Portsmouth City Council gushes. They argue, blame and fire.
They
deserve a Razzie.