Government
Newport News is an independent city with services that both counties and cities in Virginia provide, such as a sheriff, social services, and a court system. Newport News operates under a council-manager form of government.
Newport News city government consists of a city council with representatives from three districts serving in a legislative and oversight capacity, as well as a popularly elected, at-large mayor. The city manager serves as head of the executive branch and supervises all City departments and executing policies adopted by the Council. Citizens in each of the three wards elect two council representatives each to serve a four-year term. The city council meets at City Hall twice a month and, as of July, 2010, consists of: Mayor McKinley L. Price, DDS, Vice Mayor Madeline McMillan, Herbert H. Bateman Jr., Sharon P. Scott, Dr. Patricia "Pat" Woodbury, Tina L. Vick, and Joseph C. Whitaker. The City Manager is Neil A. Morgan. For the first time in the history of Newport News there is a female majority on the city council.
Newport News also has a federal courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. A new courthouse will be constructed in the future. Additionally, Newport News has its own General District and Circuit Courts which convene downtown.
Newport News is located in the Virginia's 1st congressional district, served by U.S. Representative Rob Wittman and in the Virginia's 3rd congressional district, served by U.S. Representative Robert C. Scott.
Read more about this topic: Newport News, Virginia
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“... the happiness of a people is the only rational object of government, and the only object for which a people, free to choose, can have a government at all.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The government is us; we are the government, you and I.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)