Portsmouth council OKs money to move Confederate monument. But politics may complicate how.

Portsmouth — Portsmouth’s City Council has set aside $250,000 to move its Confederate monument, weeks after it was beheaded and spray painted during a protest.

But, as usual when Portsmouth politics cross issues of race, it’s not so simple.

The Confederate monument has been a flashpoint in Portsmouth — most recently the site of protests that resulted in the arrest of prominent local NAACP officials, the destruction of parts of the monument and the injury of one man who was hit when a statue was torn from its perch.

Council members have sniped at one another over the monument and its fate. The matter of moving the monument seems decided — sometime later this summer, after a public hearing on July 28 and a 30-day period to accept solicitations from museums or historical groups who want to keep the monument, it will leave the intersection of Court and High streets.

But the question of who gets to move it seems to be yet another matter complicated by Portsmouth’s contentious politics.

Portsmouth City Council members: top, from left, Paul Battle, Shannon Glover and Lisa Lucas-Burke; and bottom, from left, Nathan Clark, Bill Moody, Elizabeth Psimas and Mayor John Rowe. (City of Portsmouth)

During Tuesday’s meeting, several council members made reference to an offer by Danny Meeks — a one-time council member who is now running for mayor — to have his company remove the monument free of charge. In a letter to the council dated June 15, Meeks wrote “I believe the best way to bring our community together is to remove what is tearing it apart.”

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But Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke called the offer “unethical” in an interview Tuesday, saying that the council shouldn’t grant such a request from a mayoral candidate who stands to gain political points by being the one to move it.

She said Meeks should go through the same bid process as any other service provider if he wants to take down the monument on the city’s behalf. But she said things may be different if he dropped out of the mayor’s race and made the offer as a “private citizen.”

Two other members of council, Shannon Glover and Paul Battle, are also running for mayor. Both are black and are Lucas-Burke’s political allies on a council that often finds itself split along racial lines.

Meeks’ mayoral run has the backing of the four white members of the seven-member council, while Lucas-Burke is backing Glover, according to people familiar with the campaigns.

When asked who may be considered for the monument moving job, City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton noted Portsmouth has contractors already involved with other city projects and effectively on retainer to deal with the removal, but said she hadn’t gotten any estimates on what the move would actually cost.

The removal of Norfolk’s 80-foot Confederate monument cost that city $175,500, officials said this week.

Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com