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.

New Mayor vs. Old Mayor

I am in a unique position to make some casual observations about differences I see in the administrations of former Mayor Douglas Wilder and our new Mayor Dwight C. Jones.

Granted these observations are being made only 100 days into the Jones Administration. To date, Mayor Jones' chief accomplishment is the creation of a two year budget [ get the 17 MB 400 page PDF ]. Proposed $629.6 million for the Fiscal Year 2010 beginning July 1, 2009; and $636.5 million the following year. The current fiscal year budget that was just formally adopted on March 23 is $655.3 million.

Mayor Wilder took a more assertive and confrontational tone with the Council. Gone are the days of long speeches delivered from the pulpit of Council Chambers' floor. I've got to admit it was entertaining, but it was also a waste of money, and no way to conduct a government.

A distinct policy change with the new Mayor is improved communication between department heads and the Council and more openness for directors to speak with reporters and citizens. Mayor Wilder had restricted Council's ability to speak directly with department heads and all questions were to be directed through Linwood Norman, Wilder's Press Secretary. It was a ridiculous policy but it was implemented. At the end of his term, sometimes members of the Administration were not even present at Council committee meetings to present legislation that was being sponsored by Mayor Wilder.

Another notable difference is that no top staffer such as Chris Beschler [Acting CAO], Michael Terry [Acting CFO], Suzette Denslow [Mayor Jones Chief of Staff], or David Hicks [Jones' Senior Policy Advisor] has yet emerged as a strong surrogate for Mayor Jones. In the Wilder Administration, Kim Neal [Wilder's Senior Policy Advisor] and Harry Black [Wilder's Chief Financial Officer and Acting Chief Adminstrative Officer] often presented reports to the City Council and advised the Council of the Wilder Administration's positions.

Mayor Jones is also doing a good job meeting with Council members' constituents at Town Hall meetings. I have seen him at a couple of neighborhood events. And he is always willing to take questions.

If you have some memories of the Wilder administration or impressions of the Jones' Administration, leave a comment.

Meetings This Week

Monday, April 6th - Council President Kathy Graziano chairs the Organizational Development Standing Committee at 5 PM in the 2nd Floor Large Conference Room at City Hall, located at 9th & East Broad Streets. All members of Council try to attend this regular monthly meeting on the first Monday of each month. There is no opportunity for citizen comment during this meeting unlike every other standing committee of the Council. Open to the public and free.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, April 7 - 9. Council Vice President and Chair of the Finance Standing Committee Ellen Robertson will conduct the Finance Committee's peering (and boring) inquiry into the minutia of departmental operations and financial reporting. The meetings will be held each day at 2 PM in Council Chambers, 2nd Floor Richmond City Hall. If you are newly laid off why not attend? Open to the public and free.

Richmond City Council Finance Committee Begins Budget Review Process March 19, 2009

This meeting was held Thursday March 19, 2009 in Richmond City Council Chambers located on the second floor of City Hall located at 9th & East Broad Streets in Richmond, Virginia.

The meeting began at 2:34 pm. Chair of the Finance Committee and Council Vice President Ellen Robertson (6th District) was joined by Finance Committee members Bruce Tyler (1st District) and Charles R. Samuels (2nd District). Council President Kathy Graziano also attended the meeting.

Departments whose directors are appointed by the City Council reported their department's budget to the Committee. Presenting budget information were Council's Chief of Staff [Daisy Weaver, 3:00 - 24:45], City Attorney [Norman Sales, 25:00 - 37:00], City Clerk [Lou B. Ali, 37:40 - 45:20], City Assessor [James Hester, 46:00 - 52:45], City Auditor [Umesh Dalal, 53:00 - 58:00], and Council Fiscal Analysts [Anthony Dale (58:15 -1:03:50)and Ralph Harris (1:04:12 - 1:27:45)]. The meeting ended at 4:12 pm. This meeting occurred before the Finance Committee's regular monthly meeting which began at 4:20 pm

Mayor Jones speaks to 6th District Saturday, March 14, 2009

Mayor Dwight C. Jones addressed citizens of the 6th district at Ellen Robertson's monthly town hall meeting held on Saturday, March 14, 2009 at the Bank of America building in downtown Richmond, Virginia.

With introductory comments Vice President Ellen Robertson explained her new meeting schedule for the 6th District. In addition to her regular monthly meeting at the Bank of America Building (Second Saturday of each month), since January she has been holding additional district meetings, that alternate monthly between the North and South Sides. The focus of the Southside meetings is improving education for children. The Northside meetings will emphasize the issues of housing, abandoned property, blight and illegal rooming houses.

At 6:00 minutes, Mayor Jones took the podium and opened with a prayer. Mayor Jones referred to Mrs. Robertson as "an energizer bunny" that "is handling the business." Mayor Jones said "City Council meetings are not fun. They take a lot of time." Mayor Jones recalled Mrs. Robertson's early support for him as a mayoral candidate, "When things were not going so well during the last four years, she was one of the first ones who came and said, We gotta do something and you oughta be the one to do it."

Mayor Jones repeated the mantra of his administration, "Collaboration, communication, and cooperation." The mayor said a vast majority of the city's 4,000 employees are "good, competent people who want to do a good job." Mayor Jones said he wanted employees, as well as City Council and the School Board, to know that they are valued.

At 9:00 minutes, Mayor Jones spoke about the Dove Court development and cited goals of decentralizing poverty and acknowledging "our need and responsibility to those who need affordable housing." At 10:00 minutes, Mayor Jones discussed his decision to drop the appeals filed by former Mayor Douglas Wilder which had cost the city $1.2 million dollars over the last couple of years. Mayor Jones expressed his hope that the Charter Review Commission would iron out any ambiguities that currently exist in the charter.

Then Mayor Jones repeated his goal of establishing a Tripe A bond rating for the City of Richmond to dispel "the perception of being inept and improperly managed."

At 14:00 minutes, Mayor Jones said that he had "inherited the need for a new city jail." The current city jail has a designed capacity for 800 but it currently holds 1500 prisoners. Mayor Jones said, "I'm not going to accept the projections of a jail that's so huge, that what we'll do is just keep on filling up the beds... I refuse to build a jail that is so huge." "We're going to find a way to handle the mentally ill by not sending them to jail, that's not where they belong." Mayor Jones also mentioned alternatives for non-violent offenders (ie. non-payment of child support, traffic violations) such as ankle bracelets as a means of saving money.

At 17:15, Mayor Jones spoke again about the need for regional cooperation. Mayor Jones told us he had been participating in regional meetings and working with county managers and supervisors. Working with Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, Hopewell, and Petersburg.

[18:30] Mayor Jones discussed working with the City Auditor to implement suggestions made by the auditor, and his support for implementing the recommendations of the City Master Plan.

At 20:00, Mayor Jones got a question about affordable housing. Mayor Jones responded, "We don't [want to] replace these depositories or concentrations of poverty with other concentrations of poverty." "The plan is to spread affordable housing out," mixing affordable housing with market rate housing. "Our goal is to make sure that we have affordable housing but that you don't know where it is."

The mayor's comments wrap up around 24:00 minutes, followed by four more minutes of Vice President Ellen Robertson. Mrs. Robertson said we would be seeing more in the way of regional cooperation because of Mayor Jones' initiative in working with other local governments. She also talked about the mayor appointing her to the Regional Workforce Commission and the previous way workforce development had been handled in the past with Richmond receiving just over a million dollars a year and the 8 surrounding counties collectively receiving about half a million dollars.