A Glimpse of how the Local News Media Interact with Our Government

Behind the Scenes: After the Meeting with the Mayor, Council Members Speak with Local Television News - Jan. 11, 2010 from Silver Persinger.

Times-Dispatch's Public Square on Baseball in Shockoe Bottom

On Tuesday evening, May 12, 2009, The Richmond Times-Dispatch held a Public Square Meeting on the topic of the proposal to build a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom. The video below includes the entire debate portion of the meeting. In support of the project were master developer Highwoods Properties Vice President Paul W. Kreckman and investor Bryan T. Bostic with Richmond Baseball Club LLC. Speaking in opposition to the proposal were Charlie Diradour from Lion's Paw Development Company and Jean Wight, an attorney and historic preservationist.



In the video below are the complete recorded comments made by the audience.



Editor's Selections

This 12 minute video contains what I considered the strongest arguments in opposition to the proposed Shockoe Center Baseball Stadium in the Bottom.



The speakers are Brian Glass, a retail real estate broker; Herb Seiver of Tappahannock, Virginia; Terrell Bowers, a self employed realtor and investor; and Gustav Franco of Glenn Allen, Virginia.

Who is John Dodge?

The video below contains what I have identified as the "angriest" speaker at the event, John Dodge. He did not identify himself as living in Richmond, he simply said, "I've been here 27 years." I was not able to find any ready information about John Dodge from google. Mr. Dodge was the poster child for the forum on the Times-Dispatch's front page for May 13, however he was not quoted in the paper's story about the forum. I always think it is important to know who an individual works for because there is always a chance that the individual speaking may have an economic stake in a situation. Mr. Dodge was followed by Gary Armstrong, a Senior Vice President at First Market Bank and Chair of the Chesterfield Business Council. Mr. Armstrong wasn't mentioned in the Times-Dispatch article either. Why not mention these two seemingly important individuals?

Two Interesting Stories from RTD in Last Two Days - 100th Anniversary

The Richmond Times Dispatch recently reported two stories that I found particularly interesting. In yesterday's newspaper, it was reported in an article entitled "Richmond looks to reassign workers to avoid layoffs" that Mayor Jones' budget proposed to eliminate 150 positions bringing the city's number of employees, "non-school, full-time-equivalent positions from 5,108.6 to 4,958.94."

This is interesting because the "total number of city employees" that has been thrown around at City Hall for the last few years has been 4000. Recently and notably by Dr. Tyrone Jackson, Richmond's Director of Human Resources. Listen here as Dr. Jackson references the city's "4000 plus" employees during his presentation to the Governmental Operations Committee on February 26, 2009.

However, the Times-Dispatch article took no exception to this discrepancy, even though it represents a difference of 20% over what had been the conventional wisdom on the employment number. The above example is the sort of thing that bloggers and watchdogs can be effective at exposing. And with the ease of digital recording, it makes it easier to hold people accountable and serves as an aid to remember what they said. It also highlights, the failure of our newspapers to be a valuable asset in assisting the public to make informed decisions about our government.

The second story I was interested to read in today's newspaper was entitled, "Richmond jail inmates to pay $1 a day." The article stated that it would generate $500,000 annually. The jail's current operating budget is $30 million. I think that is a crummy idea and is petty "feel good" act of meanness towards individuals whose lives are already being destroyed by their mere jail sentences. The best way to save money at the City Jail is to reduce the number of people in the jail. Deal with the mentally ill in an appropriate manner and don't jail non-violent and drug offenders and release individuals who can't pay their bonds when such bond is less than $500.

Today marks 100 days of blogging the Richmond City Council Reporter and Telegraph.

It has evolved in that short time. I have decided to focus more on the video format. After three years of making audio recordings at Council meetings, I recently bought a video camera and have been filming the Council meetings. The videos are so much more compelling to watch than the audio recordings were to listen to. There is so much going on in the videos and visual signs of the speakers show meaning that is not captured in an audio recording.

I'm still trying to figure out how I should be making videos. The long format, entire meeting is nice but I know people would be more inclined to watch a ten minute summary. I will experiment and try to come up with different ways to present information. And be sure to leave feedback when you think something is working or not working. And let me know what you want to see.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I was going to give up on this blog. I didn't and in the last couple of weeks, I have really put a lot of work into it. I hope I can keep it up. It is taking up a lot of time and space.

Hi-Lights from the March 23, 2009 Meeting -- My comments

I spoke to the City Council on various topics that were discussed on the evening of March 23, 2009. First I spoke in opposition to the appointment of Thomas A. Silvestri, Publisher and President of The Richmond Times-Dispatch, to the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau on the grounds that it would pose a conflict between objective reporting and supporting the goals of the Visitors Bureau, it represents a continuation of the "good ol' boy network," and the Bureau needs a more gender-balanced board -- currently only 5 of 21 members are women -- and Mr. Silvestri was appointed to replace a woman who had resigned, Nicole G. Hood.

I also spoke against the naming of an alley "Herbert Hamlet Alley" because the current process gives developers too much power to assign alley names rather than having a process where the public has a role in determining the naming of a public right of way. I also included the comments from the applicant for the alley name, Jane Allman from Monument Construction.

And finally I pointed out the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget which they were adopting (finally, after former Mayor Wilder declared the Council's adopted budget invalid) did not include $5750 for the Virginia Cooperative Extension, which the City previously had to restore to a recent annual budget.