PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Shannon Glover fell in love with the City of Portsmouth when he was a young corpsman assigned to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.
Thirty years later, the 55-year-old Erie, Pennsylvania, native is the projected winner in the Portsmouth mayoral race.
With 100% of the precincts reporting, City Councilman Glover captured 35.21% of the vote in a six person race. Former Councilman Danny Meeks was the closest competitor with 28.65% of the vote.
Meeks told WAVY-TV 10 he contacted Glover after the returns were posted around 11:30 p.m. election night.
“At this point, it looks like the people spoke and Shannon is the winner. I appreciate everyone who supported me,” Meeks, a former city councilman and developer, told 10 On Your Side.
Glover’s projected win followed a summer of monumental controversy. The Confederate monument was taken down, several local Black leaders were arrested, police Chief Angela Greene was suspended pending an internal investigation, the city manager resigned and the city attorney was fired.
Glover, a business owner, said the events were tumultuous.
“What happened at the monument was a black eye on our city and it just brought a very difficult situation for folks to deal with,” said Glover.
Glover said the first order of business is to hire a new city manager.
“We have hired a headhunting firm. It was determined we have 74 candidates and 29 of them are from Virginia,” said Glover.
But what’s not settled is which City Council will pick the manager. The current council has a white majority, but the new City Council will have a Black majority for the first time in four years.
“We haven’t come to a clear conclusion that the decision to have the next city manager will be made by the current council,” said Glover.
The council must appoint a new member to fill Glover’s unexpired term. When asked if he would support appointing a white citizen to fill his unexpired term, the mayor-elect told WAVY-TV 10, “I am open to getting with my colleagues in getting the best-qualified candidates for the job.”
“As the next mayor, I am going to extend more than the olive branch. I am willing to extend myself and ask my colleagues to do the same thing,” he added.
The mayor-elect said new and current members of the council will begin interviewing city manager candidates later this month.
