20 Questions for Deputy City Attorney Adam Melita

A member of CANT recently had a very enlightening conversation with an individual who possesses first-hand knowledge of the highly controversial issues between the shut-down establishments at Waterside, BAR Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Café, and Waterside Associates/Bar Task Force/City of Norfolk.

As it turns out, the owners of BAR Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Café are currently involved in litigation with Waterside Associates and the city of Norfolk, and they have a court date set for next week.

The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, brought up more very serious questions as it relates to the Task Force and the way the city of Norfolk operates.

The following questions arose during our conversation and I would be most interested to see if either Deputy City Attorney Adam Melita or City Attorney Bernard Pishko would actually answer them in a public forum.

- Is it true that Deputy Attorney Melita told Have a Nice Day Café and BAR Norfolk through communications with their counsel that Norfolk City Council was approving their liquor license renewal 72 hours before the council decided to rescind the licenses, when Melita knew that bars’ attorney was leaving for vacation and would not be available to be present at the city council meeting?

- Is it true that when contacted for a resolution to the Have a Nice Day Café and BAR Norfolk cases, Mr. Melita contacted Waterside Associates to be present at an informal meeting with himself, City Attorney Bernard Pishko, Wayne Ringer and representatives for Have a Nice Day Café and BAR Norfolk?

Mr. Melita allegedly told representatives from both Have a Nice Day Café and BAR Norfolk that if they city was found to have done something wrong in the closing of the two establishments, which several members of City Council already think, then City Council could vote to retroactively “fix the wrongs” and that would be the only remedy required of the city.

- If so, why would the City Council be able to do this and why would it be the only remedy required of the city?

- Would they not owe the businesses, who lost millions of dollars by their closings, something else?

- What would “fixing the wrongs” prove?

- Why does the city not care about the 120 employees that they essentially made unemployed by shutting down Have a Nice Day Café and BAR Norfolk?

- Why do Mr. Melita and the city believe that they can just close a business down for over two years, retroactively enact a new law and think that the establishments that were shut down are not owed anything else?

- Have a Nice Day Café had a lease with Waterside through 2014, with an option for five additional years, and BAR Norfolk had a lease through 2013. What about the lost revenue to these businesses for closing them down?

- Does Mr. Melita believe that the city is immune to federal law requiring due process?

- Have a Nice Day Café and BAR Norfolk were not given due process. Is the city above the law?

- What about the tax dollars lost by shutting down two very popular nightspots? Why do the law makers not care what their constituencies’ wants or needs?

- Why did the timing of all of the bar task force enforcement levied against Have a Nice Day Café coincide with Have a Nice Day Café becoming predominantly an African American crowd and after a shooting occurred in the parking garage at Waterside? (A pivotal moment came this summer after a bar booked an act associated with violence after a man was killed near Waterside. "That’s when I knew then we had to do something," Vice Mayor Anthony Burfoot)

- Is it true that there is no connection between anyone at Have a Nice Day Café or BAR Norfolk and the shooting that occurred in the parking garage?

Mr. Melita also allegedly said that he doesn’t care about any negative press the city may receive because it would be in and out of the media within three days.

- Why does he have such a flippant attitude?

- Does Mr. Melita feel that he and the city are so untouchable that they aren’t affected by any negative press?

Some other interesting facts that came to light in these conversations include the fact that Circuit Judge Norman A. Thomas who City Council asked to shut down both BAR Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Café, worked in the City Attorney’s office from roughly 1982-1991 and most likely wrote the 1983 ordinance that the Bar Task Force used to shut these establishments down. Mr. Thomas also worked closely with Cynthia Hall, who heads the Bar Task Force.

Judge Thomas also allegedly has very close ties to City Attorney Bernard Pishko, as the two and their spouses frequently socialize together, a relationship that dates back to William & Mary.

- Does this relationship not affect Judge Thomas’ decisions on cases under his jurisdiction?

- How about the fact that the majority of the active judges for the city of Norfolk are graduates of the College of William & Mary?

- Judges Karen J Burrell, John R Doyle, Junius P Fulton III, Charloes E Poston and Norman A Thomas all attended William & Mary, along with Bernard Pishko. Even though William & Mary is a fantastic school and it is right up the road, this seems like an inordinate number of graduates of the same school all working together, does it not?

- Five judges in Norfolk Circuit Court went to the same school. Doesn’t that seem like a very high percentage?

Do a quick scan of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Richmond etc. and you won’t find that high of a percentage from the same school on their Circuit Court.

- Is it even possible for Have a Nice Day Café and BAR Norfolk, or anyone else in the city for that matter, to get a fair trial with all of these relationships and connections along with a judge clearly siding with the city?

After all, we already know that Pishko will and others in Norfolk aren’t above questionable acts, such as when Pishko represented Vice Mayor Burfoot in a non-city related matter last year.

Again, if these instances of fishy business by the city of Norfolk were singular events, we could let them slide. But where there’s some, there’s fire and the city of Norfolk is smoldering these days. 

Is anyone in the media willing to sit down with Mr. Melita and have him answer these questions on the record?