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Tommy Smigiel
Ward 5
Time For Change
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Make local government transparent

I am committed to an open and accountable government. Our City Council should always be transparent – you pay for it, so you have the right to know what your elected officials are doing. City government touches our lives on a daily basis. The citizens collectively pay millions in dollars in taxes. Yet in recent years, our city council appears to have spent our tax revenue with little regard for the citizens who fund the city. Too many decisions regarding our tax dollars and our future appear to be made before the public even has an opportunity to comment on it. I believe this approach to government should end. I believe City Council meetings should be more accessible to Norfolk citizens and important decisions should be discussed thoroughly with the public before they are made. In an information age, with multiple technologies available and affordable to enhance mass communication with the citizens, I believe City Council should be more inclusive and collaborative with citizens.

Bring it back to the people

I will support an open and transparent Norfolk City Council by:

Moving all City Council meetings to 7:00pm. 2:30pm City Council meetings are not accessible to working people. Norfolk is the only city in Hampton Roads that continues to hold afternoon meetings.
Developing a renewed Ward 5 citizen’s advisory committee as a means and method for citizens to become engaged in Ward 5’s civic life and for making recommendations to our city government. I will advocate for an advisory committee that meets regularly in locations throughout Ward 5 and virtually on the web. I will encourage the productive use of modern communication techniques, while holding regular and accessible meetings for face to face conversations. I will also encourage neighbors to share information and reach out to one another, so no one is left behind in a digital divide, while providing a source of accurate information for verification to guard against whisper campaigns and rumors.
Conducting regular Saturday neighborhood meetings and coffee talks so that your voice is heard and considered when decisions are made. Despite advances in communication technologies, nothing beats the opportunity to meet with neighbors face to face and listen to what they have to say about their communities and their city. I will make myself available for those conversations year round.
Challenging closed door meetings and decisions. Norfolk citizens deserve an open government, and Virginia law demands it. I will abide by the sunshine laws and will cease to participate in any meeting of council that evolves into a violation of those laws. This commitment includes a conservative interpretation of Virginia’s Open Meetings Law, living by the spirit of the law not just the letter of the law.
Fighting for better oversight of city boards, agencies and commissions. Appointment powers are one of the greatest privileges granted to the council. Sadly, it has become a source of political meddling and micro-management. It is the role of council and the appointed boards, agency and commissions to set and oversee policy. A return to the fundamentals of our local governing structure is essential.
Proposing that ALL City Council meetings are shown live on television. Currently only the evening meetings are televised, yet evening meetings are frequently canceled. In 2009 only 15 out of 35 meetings were televised, and these meetings were not shown in their entirety. The meetings are taped and edited before being released to the public for viewing and they appear on the city local access channel for a limited period of time.
Developing an active web site for Ward 5 which will communicate upcoming discussions and votes and allow the public to post comments before a decision is made. In the time of the internet and the connected age in which we live, there is no excuse for failing to have a place where citizens can seek information from their elected officials. Residents of Ward 5 may access Senators Warner and Webb, Congressman Nye, State Senator Northam and Delegate Paula Miller via official web sites, but not their current City Council representative.

Ensure that we get the neighborhood services essential to our quality of life

I care deeply about preserving our quality of life. I understand that the issues that matter most are often those that hit closest to home, like fighting neighborhood noise or addressing blighted property. I believe that the city should provide more resources to citizens that will allow them to better their neighborhoods. I support citizens deciding what is most important for their neighborhoods and that it is not a City Councilman’s job to dictate what projects take precedent over others. I will fight for our neighborhoods by:

Making Ward 5 neighborhoods the focus, not downtown projects. Citizens are demanding a representative who will fight for neighborhoods in Ward 5 and make their issues the number one priority.
Increasing code enforcement staff and holding slumlords accountable. (Grime = Crime) Civic Leagues are demanding more support in their communities from code officials. There should be a strong collaborative effort between Civic Leagues and city code officials. We need to institute a zero tolerance policy on code violations particularly on absentee landlords. I will help facilitate conversations between civic leaders and code officials and request for an increase in code sweeps for neighborhoods asking for help.
Facilitating broad community driven efforts to develop realistic plans for the Pleasant Avenue and Little Creek Road corridors. These two areas of Ward 5 have been ignored and neglected. It’s time that the city brings citizens together to develop real, practical solutions for redevelopment.
Promoting new parks, walking trails, biking paths, and enhancing beach access points. We have an obligation to our citizens to create healthy communities. The best way to get our citizens out in the community is to give them neighborhood amenities that promote a healthier lifestyle.
Pushing for a full and independent assessment of the city's infrastructure, with full citizen engagement, to start addressing our flooding issues. Recent flooding has cost the city millions of dollars, yet the city has neglected to implement plans that will help our residents. It is time that the City of Norfolk, State and Federal officials work with citizens to develop plans to address flooding. I want to have open communication with citizens on their vision for how we can fix flooding and evaluate current construction practices in flood prone areas.
Evaluating our tax structure to give a break to homeowners who have invested in our neighborhoods. We need to reinstitute tax abatement programs and increase low interest loans for individuals who rebuild our aging housing stock.
Working with our state legislators to strengthen laws to fight blighted and abandoned property.
Developing a plan for a new, state of the art senior citizen center. Our seniors need a better facility to meet their needs. We should be working together to identify resources and find ways to be better neighbors for our seniors.

Support our schools and children

As an award winning educator, there is no one running for City Council that understands the current and long-term needs of our schools better. I believe that instead of pointing fingers and playing the blame game when our schools face issues, City Council should be finding and funding solutions. Current Norfolk City Council members have yet to address the fact that the average age of a school building in Norfolk is 48 years, and that quality teachers continue to leave our school system because of the lack of competitive pay. It’s time for Norfolk to invest in the future of our city. Norfolk citizens should be outraged that our City Council members waited until an election year to start addressing our school’s needs. I will support our schools and programs for our children by:

Developing a long-term plan to address our aging schools as outlined in the MGT study. In 2007, MGT found that over $800 million was needed to address our aging school facilities and maintenance needs. Last year Norfolk City Council only put aside $2.5 million in the capital improvement budget to address this concern, which barely renovates an elementary school. We need to increase the funding for capital improvement so we can rebuild our aging schools.
Working with the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Norfolk Police Department to initiate gang prevention education programs for our elementary and middle school students. The best way to combat gangs is to stop their recruitment efforts. We need to makes sure our children understand the consequences of gang life and provide alternative activities to get them off the street.
Providing funding to upgrade security systems in our schools that are lacking state-of-the-art security equipment. Many of our schools lack quality security systems that keep an eye on the hallways and school grounds. Our kids should be able to go to school each day and feel protected and safe.
Supporting competitive salaries for our teachers. If Norfolk wishes to retain and attract high quality teachers they must remain competitive with surrounding school districts. Norfolk teacher’s salaries should be brought up to the regional average.
Advocating for an elected school board. Our citizens deserve an open government at all levels. Let’s allow the citizens to tell us who should run the school system and eliminate the cronyism that exists with our boards and commissions.

Advocate for better management of our city's finances

The next Norfolk City Council is going to inherit one of worst deficits ever seen in our city’s history. Why it is that even in these tough economic times when our families are expected to balance their checkbooks and make ends meet, our City Council members can’t do the same? I believe that our City Council has failed at their fiduciary responsibilities, and it is costing our schools, first responders, city employees and other core services essential to running a city. I believe we can start by freezing spending on non essential purchases and only investing in our core services. We need to start making our neighborhoods the priority and bring balance back to the way we spend our money. While downtown projects are important to the growth of our city, they shouldn’t get the lion’s share of the budget. I will advocate for better management of our city’s finances by:

Calling for an audit of every department that receives city funding. Citizens need to know how their taxes are being spent. We need to see actual budgets compared to proposed budgets.
Increasing the amount of auditors in our city manager’s office to ensure we maintain a healthy bond rating.
Developing a 10 year comprehensive plan on where our city should spend the taxpayer’s money. Each ward should identify major projects that the city could invest in that will bring economic development, jobs and neighborhood stability. Each of these projects should have 100% public input and posted on the city website for full disclosure.
Reducing the salaries for city council members. If other employees are expected to take a cut, so should all of our council members.
Promoting green and energy saving initiatives. All new buildings should be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified as rated by the US Green Building Council. Following good green practices leads to long-term savings and a healthier Norfolk.
Developing a Small Business opportunity fund that will offer low interest loans or grants for citizens to start new businesses in our communities.
Supporting public/private partnerships to help pay for major projects. The city has invested money in large corporations so now they should have the opportunity to invest in our neighborhoods, schools and large projects.

It's time for a change (issues)

Tommy is in the process of talking to Ward 5 voters and gathering suggestions to build his platform. He cares about citizens having a voice in local government. You can count on him to:

make our local government transparent and bring it back to the people
fight to keep our neighborhoods safe
support our schools and children
ensure that our city government provides us with the neighborhood services essential to our quality of life

Please come back to this page for updates on Tommy’s vision for Ward 5 and the City of Norfolk.

You can review Tommy's press release by clicking here.