Council Approves Use of Inmate Labor on City-Owned Property

My 2¢: Richmond City Council Approves Use of Inmate Labor on City-Owned Property from Silver Persinger on Vimeo.

At Richmond City Council's Formal meeting of February 28, 2011, I spoke in opposition to Ordinance 2011-21 which authorizes the use of inmate labor on City-owned property such as rights of way along highways, streets, alleyways, parks, City owned cemeteries and vacant lots. Such work on public property SHOULD be done by City employees paid a LIVING WAGE which is $10.19 an hour adopted by Council in 2008.

In 2006, Richmond City Council approved the use of City Jail inmate labor to clean up neglected PRIVATE property.

The Council approved the ordinance unanimously. Council members Marty Jewell [5th District], Reva Trammel [8th District], and Cynthia Newbille [7th District] offered comments in response to my comments.

This Week's Council Meeting, May 26, 2009

Opening Formalities

Above, the Richmond City Council May 26, 2009 meeting included an opening prayer delivered by John Westbrook [of Morning Star Baptist Church and Councilwoman Ellen Robertson's legislative assistant], the pledge of allegiance, roll call [all members were present], the fire evacuation plan, the appointments of Neville C. Johnson and Anita Randolph as members to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Oversight Board, and amendments to the agenda.



Awards and Presentations

Above, two awards were presented at this meeting. One award was presented to Richmond Public Schools' 2009 Graduating Class Valedictorians [Charmesa Cousins (Armstrong HS), Sheltia Strickland (Franklin Military Academy), Gina Gabriel (George Wythe HS), Marshé Minor (Huguenot HS), Dakeisha Bowman (John Marshall HS), Michelle Lewis (Richmond Community HS), Juan Wilson (Open High), Lamont Banks (Thomas Jefferson HS)]; another award was given to Richmond Public Schools' 2009 Mind Games Team Winners from Westover Hills Elementary School and Fisher Elementary School.



Citizen Commment Period

Theodora Parham commented on poor service of GRTC Care Vans and drug dealing neighbors. [0:30]

Ted Moody urged funding Recreation Workers for city youths. [4:15]

Keery Keenan and Todd Schall-Vess urged City Council's support for Friends of Dogwood Dell Arts Program. [6:45]

Allender Griffin opined the Echo Harbor development and baseball in Shockoe Bottom. [10:50]

Pamela Bohannon requested financial assistance to send her daughter on a trip to Japan to take part in the People to People Student Ambassadors Program. [14:40]

Jackie Kothe questioned the Council regarding legality of panhandling at the I-95 South Exit onto Cary Street. [18:00]



The Donald Hatcher Incident

Above, Council regular Donald Hatcher expressed his views on the 26 separate ordinances that constitute the City of Richmond's budget. However, after 3 minutes had expired, he wasn't done talking and challenged the limitation.

What followed was a tense standoff between President Graziano, Mr. Hatcher, an officer from the Richmond Police Department and Councilman Marty Jewell stepping in with a motion to allow Mr. Hatcher additional time to speak. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Reva Trammell. The vote was 3 [Jewell, Trammell, Tyler] to 5 [Graziano, Robertson, Hilbert, Samuels, Conner] with one abstention [Betty Squire].


Up until last year, citizens had the right to comment up to 3 minutes per ordinance or resolution. In an effort to curtail citizen participation (including my own), Council amended their Rules of Procedure [on Feb. 11, 2008, with Resolution 2008-R18-27, See page 11; Ms. Trammell and Mr. Jewell were the only Council members to vote against the change] and enacted an even more rigid standard where citizens are given only 3 minutes to comment on the Consent Agenda [which is commonly made up of 10 - 40 separate items] and papers that are called together [ie. bundling papers to limit opportunities for citizen comments]. Under the old rules, a citizen could spend his entire allotted 10 minutes speaking to the Consent Agenda alone.



My Comments

As usual, I hadn't planned to speak so much but found I had much to say. I spoke in opposition yet one more time to the use of inmate labor as currently proposed in the Community Development Block Grant [CDBG] Budget [Ord. 2009-50] under a line item entitled "Environmental Code Enforcement" managed by the Dept. of Community Development, the Richmond Sheriff's Office, private contractors HDL Services LLC and F.U.N. Construction and budgeted at $260,000.

I also spoke in opposition to continued support for Venture Richmond [Ord. 2009-97], a group that markets the city and operates the "Clean & Safe" program, operates the canal boats, and maintains the Canal Walk and Brown's Island, and is funded by a $1.7 million special assessment fee on properties located in the downtown and river front special services districts, in addition to a $700,000 contribution from the city; in opposition to the way the budget was prepared with almost no input from the public; in opposition to 8 papers that were being expedited in order to expend Council District Funds before those funds reverted to the General Fund.

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.

Citizen Comment Against the Use of Inmate Labor in Richmond, Virginia

In a rare act of public inclusion at a budget work session at Wednesday's meeting, Vice President Ellen Robertson opened the floor for citizen comments and since I was the only "citizen" in the room, she made a direct appeal to me to see if I had anything I would like to add.

Earlier in the meeting, the Finance Committee [Councilpersons Robertson, Bruce Tyler, and Charles Samuels] along with President Kathy Graziano, Councilman Jewell, and Interim Member Betty Squire were given a presentation on the Community Development Block Grant (aka CDBG) budget. CDBG is grant money from the Federal Government to fund lots of worthwhile programs like Emergency Shelter Grants, Housing for Persons with AIDS [HOPWA], housing revitalization and code enforcement.

However, there is an obscure line item, entitled, "Environmental Code Enforcement." This program is operated by the Department of Community Development, the Sheriff's Office, and a private contractor. Inmates at the City Jail are paid $10 for 8 hours of labor to do things like cut grass, trees and remove brush. The program is proposed to be funded at $260,000, an increase of $5000 over last year and it would be the third year of the program's existence.