Portsmouth council now requires consensus to remove members from meetings

PORTSMOUTH — The mayor will no longer have the sole discretion to remove a colleague from a City Council meeting for disorderly conduct.

Portsmouth City Council voted Tuesday to amend the council’s rules of order and procedure regarding decorum during meetings and will now require a majority vote to eject a council member from a public meeting.

The change comes after Council member De’Andre Barnes was ejected at several meetings over the last few months at the request of Mayor Shannon Glover. Since then, city leaders have discussed aligning the City Council’s rules more closely with Robert’s Rules of Order, which governs parliamentarian procedure.

Barnes told The Virginian-Pilot he believes the changes likely targeted him specifically since he’s been removed at least three times in recent months. His removals have often — but not always — occurred during times of heated debate, and disputes with the mayor. In one instance, Barnes was removed after directing questions about tax abatement to a city official and disputing Glover’s point of order.

Barnes said “it could be someone else” in the future and that the amended rules are clearer now and more fair.

Barnes previously said he was targeted in March when council members voted to prohibit video recording from behind the dais — a normal practice for Barnes, who streams meetings on his Facebook page. He was removed during the subsequent meeting in March for refusing to place his camera at the speaker’s podium facing the dais, which he has done since that meeting.

Council rules task the mayor, as chair of the governing body, with maintaining dignity and decorum in the chambers and calling out any disorderly conduct. Council members deemed to be disorderly can be removed by by the sergeant-at-arms. Though council rules already allow for members to appeal a ruling from the chair, Tuesday’s vote amends the rules to require a majority vote of council before removal can occur.

City Council members didn’t discuss or debate the measure before taking Tuesday’s vote, which was 4-2. Mayor Shannon Glover and Council member Mark Hugel voted against. Council member Bill Moody was absent.

But council members discussed the changes at length during a previous July work session. At the time, Hugel said he believed changing the rules in such a way addresses a “symptom” of a larger problem of “bad behavior” and that the time spent taking a vote on such a matter is inefficient.

Glover said then that the ability to appeal a ruling that one is out of order is already in place. He added that he doesn’t enter meetings with an intent to eject any members. He also apologized to council members if they ever believed “there was a different intent other than keeping the order and doing the business of council.”

“The language doesn’t need to be changed,” Glover said at the July 11 meeting. “The appeals process is already in place.”

Council member Mark Whitaker said he believed the ejection of members has happened more frequently within the current council body and that the rules have been applied arbitrarily.

Council member Vernon Tillage said removing a council member without a majority vote opens the door for manipulation of votes by limiting elected members’ participation.

“I’m not thinking about it as trying to strip power or anything of that nature,” Tillage said. “As elected leaders, we are all elected here by the people to serve and make decisions. So if a voting member of a council, or an assembly, is ejected from a meeting, to me that’s limiting the voice of the people who put us here.”

Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke, a member of the Virginia Municipal League, concurred. She previously said aligning procedures with Robert’s Rules is an issue cities across the commonwealth are grappling with as well.

Barnes said Wednesday the changes could help the affected member reflect on disorderly behavior since the action would come with majority consensus. He added that younger generations, for example, may differ on what they deem disorderly or disrespectful.

City Attorney Lavonda Graham-Williams suggested council members form a committee to review other rules and procedures that may need to be updated, such as rules governing speakers and dates and times of meetings.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com