Friction from a comment made by Hopewell’s interim city manager about residents questioning last September’s City Council retreat “if they dare” was evident in council’s Feb. 24 meeting, as Michael Rogers apologized to both councilors and citizens for his choice of words.
Rogers’ apology closed out the meeting after many of the citizens who took him to task for his Feb. 10 remark had already left the council chambers. One of those citizens was removed from the chambers by security during the meeting’s public-comment period after Mayor Johnny Partin Jr. repeatedly attempted to tell her she had gone beyond the three-minute time allotment.
Several citizens used that public-comment period to again call out Rogers for what they perceived was his unprofessionalism in addressing questions at the Feb. 10 council meeting about the $17,000 cost of a retreat at the Kingsmill resort in Williamsburg last September. They said that Hopewell was too fiscally strapped to spend that much and could have saved time and money by holding the retreat in the city…