Council should be chewing on the issues, not just on supper

Editor's note: Beginning Monday, June 8, 2009, Kerry Dougherty's columns will be available only in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Read more about this decision.

Ever wonder why the notoriously camera-shy Norfolk City Council balks at televising its informal supper sessions?

Hint: It has nothing to do with table manners.

Looks to me like these pre-meeting meetings let the politicians chew on dinner and red-hot topics without pesky cameras present to record every word.

Controversial matters like the Norfolk city assessor's crusade to physically inspect every piece of property in the city.

When the assessor was summoned to the lectern Tuesday evening to talk about whether her minions were trying to get inside every house in the city, Deborah Bunn denied it.

Sort of.

She said her policy - until last week - had been for appraisers to just "go to the door... if invited in, they do go in."

That was, perhaps, a "step too far," someone at the table harrumphed.

Better to stay on the porch and quiz occupants about what's hiding behind the door, council members agreed.

Others on the council seemed mystified about how the press got the "notion" that assessors were trying to worm their way inside private homes to eyeball fixtures, countertops and trim.

I think I can solve that mystery.

Last week, I discovered a city news release announcing this massive undertaking. One passage in particular caused the civil libertarian in me to gasp:

"Prior to initiating the inspection of a particular property, the appraiser will make the appropriate introduction at the door. If the owner/occupant is not home an exterior review will be conducted and a notice will be left informing the owner of the visit."

Hmmm. What about the interior when the resident is home, I wondered.

I called the assessor to ask.

Bunn told me: "We knock on the door and ask to come in... (the owners/occupants) have the right to say no. We won't push the matter."

She said her professionals would not be fooled by the tidiness or untidiness inside a house. They were looking for structural changes. Things like mahogany trim. Granite countertops.

When I caught up with Bunn on the 10th floor of City Hall, I showed her my notes and asked about our earlier conversation, Bunn said that if she had said what she said, that wasn't what she meant to say.

Geez.

Ironically, far from clearing the air, Bunn's latest appearance in front of council raised even more troubling questions about procedures in her office. Sadly, most of the pols were too busy polishing off their dinners to notice.

Topping the list would be Bunn's insistence that door-to-door canvassing was essential for her to be "in compliance" with professional standards.

If the council decides to confine her people to public rights of way - as Councilmen Randy Wright, Don Williams and Paul Riddick smartly suggested - Bunn said she would need some-thing in writing to get a waiver to abandon her door-to-door campaign.

That sparked a snippy exchange between the assessor and Wright, who wanted to know whether her predecessor, Wayne Trout, had breached the rules by not doing a citywide canvass.

At this point, an alert public servant might have dropped his fork and leapt to his feet.

"Who sets policy in Norfolk?" the politician would have roared. "City Council or some unelected group of professional property pricers based in Kansas City?"

Alas, the council's reaction to Bunn's astonishing assertion was studied chewing.

You should have seen it.

Oh, that's right, you couldn't.

Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net