On Monday, September 15th, City Attorney William Hackworth at the request of Mayor Bowers explained the FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) and the reason Councilman Court Rosen was denied a copy of the Roanoke City Market Building proposal prior to the September 2nd City Council meeting.
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Mayor Bowers said that the public may want clarification as to what bits of information the Council can have access to and asked Mr. Hackworth for the legal standing on that.
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The City Attorney said that the issue “was a novel one for him and one that had never come up before … he had never had a member of a governing body ask for proposals” prior to award or rejection. He spoke to Bill Hefty, an expert attorney on the Virginia Public Procurement Act in Richmond and they had not ever had that issue come before them either. However, Mr. Hackworth relayed Mr. Hefty’s advice that “if Council as a whole decides they want to see proposals submitted as part of an RFP process they have a right to make the decision to do so. However, an individual member of Council acting on their own would essentially have the same standing as a member of the public.” Therefore they would be denied. Mr. Hackworth elaborated by saying if an individual member of Council asked for a proposal he would advise them to bring the request before all members of Council in a closed meeting.
1 comment:
This is not actually a response to this post, but I wanted to make a comment pertaining to a comment by Mr. Rosen.
I read the blog he wrote the evening of the council meeting. He said "I fully recognize how difficult the last several years have probably been for residents who live on or near the golf course."
No, he doesn't!! There is NO way he can "fully recognize how difficult" it has been. That's like saying to someone who has suffered a tragedy that you know exactly how they feel.
As one gets older and wiser, we learn not to claim that we feel what another feels unless we truly have experienced the same thing ourselves.
He doesn't live in the area near Countryside nor does he have an investment in the area.
Again, his youth and inexperience are showing.
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