Jo Gehlbach, Government Affairs Coordinator.
CITY OF RICHMOND
Violent crime in Richmond falls to lowest level in 45 years
Violent crime in Richmond dropped 12 percent in 2015, the largest reduction in seven years and the lowest level in 45 years, police say. That’s the good news. The bad news is that while violent crime is down, property crime continues to be an issue in the city, said Police Chief Alfred Durham. Those crimes were up 2 percent, including a 22 percent spike in thefts from vehicles. The increase in property crimes led to a 1 percent increase in overall major crime in 2015. Despite that, city officials are happy with the progress and say Richmond is becoming safer.
Richmond’s 2016 campaign for mayor slowly ramps up
Amid the slow buildup to the 2016 mayoral race in Richmond, a likely candidate and a confirmed candidate each offered a preview last week of their approaches. Former Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, who so far has only hinted at a run, kicked things off with a letter criticizing incumbent Mayor Dwight C. Jones and City Council President Michelle R. Mosby for not focusing enough on schools. Morrissey warned Jones and Mosby, who is the only candidate to form a campaign committee, that “2016 is going to be a year of reckoning on the issue of renovating Richmond’s school stock.”
10 candidates for Richmond School Board appointment make their cases to board
A 26-year Navy veteran, an ice cream shop owner and a strip club proprietor are among 10 candidates for a vacant Richmond School Board seat who on Tuesday submitted to vetting from their prospective colleagues. Board members grilled hopefuls to replace outgoing 1st District member Glen H. Sturtevant Jr., now a state senator, one at a time about their priorities, strengths and conflict-resolutions skills heading into what is likely to be another grueling budget season.
Richmond still late in filing 2015 financial report
The City of Richmond is nearly two months late in filing its latest comprehensive financial report with the Virginia auditor of accounts, and finance staff expect to fall yet another month behind. Martha Mavredes, state auditor of accounts, says today that the city filed preliminary draft documents, but to her knowledge had not yet filed the required 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that was due Nov. 30. Tammy Hawley, press secretary to Mayor Dwight C. Jones, said last week that the city now expects to complete the document by the end of February.
Survey shows growing dissatisfaction with Richmond government
Richmond residents’ satisfaction with their political leadership and the delivery of basic city services has dropped to its lowest levels since the city began surveying citizens in 2008, according to a report released by the City Auditor’s office late last week. Just 34 percent of people surveyed said they think the city is moving in the right direction, down from 37 percent in 2012 and 81 percent in 2008. “This means the vast majority of the population perceives that the city is not making progress,” concludes the city’s biennial Service Efforts and Accomplishments report.
Public Square #62: What do Richmonders want in the next mayor?
The race for president isn’t the only important election in 2016. Richmond will be choosing a new mayor this year, as Dwight C. Jones completes his second term. The RTD Public Square invites people from across the region to join us for a discussion about the qualities and character required of an ideal next mayor. What kind of leader will help Richmond build on its successes — an expanding population, a revitalized core — and attack its weaknesses, including challenged schools, messy finances and poverty? Who will lay the foundation for building a better Richmond? Times-Dispatch President and Publisher Thomas A. Silvestri will moderate the open dialogue for 90 minutes.
Reviews launched into overlap between mayor’s church construction, city
Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring said Thursday that he has begun reviewing a city official’s work overseeing the construction of Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ church. “After further discussions with the city auditor, we have decided to continue our review of all the matters,” Herring told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Separately, the Virginia State Police have accepted Jones’ Jan. 14 request that the agency look into the issue, Jones told reporters Thursday after he delivered the final State of the City address of his eight-year tenure.
In final State of the City address, mayor calls for referendum on tax increase for schools
In his final State of the City address Thursday night, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones called for a citywide referendum “to determine if the public supports raising taxes” to fund schools. Jones said he would explore the idea with members of the City Council and wants to get the measure before voters in the November election. “This is very important and the conversation has got to be a conversation that does not just take place at City Hall,” he said. “It’s got to be a conversation that takes place in the entire city.”
CHESTERFIELD
Board of Supervisors kick off ’16, elect Elswick as chair
At a time of significant change for some parts of the county government, the Board of Supervisors decided to stay the course with current leadership. The five-member board voted unanimously last week to keep Matoaca District Supervisor Steve Elswick as chairman until the end of 2016. “It’s kind of nice to have something constant,” said Bermuda District Supervisor Dorothy Jaeckle, who nominated Elswick and agreed to serve as the board’s vice chair.
School Board gets to work, elects Smith as chair
At the first public meeting of the newly constituted School Board, Clover Hill District’s Dianne Smith was unanimously elected its new chair. Smith replaces Bermuda District’s Carrie Coyner, who was unanimously elected vice chair. Coyner, an attorney, has served as chair for the last two years. Smith, a former teacher and principal with Chesterfield County Public Schools, has previously served as both chair and vice chair. Both Smith and Coyner were first elected to the board in 2011. “We accomplished much over the last four years,” said Smith, mentioning salary increases, the creation of a five-year funding plan, reducing the student-teacher ratio, rising graduation rates and rising passing rates on state-mandated tests.
Out of Sight: In Chesterfield, beyond the cul-de-sacs, homelessness persists
Amid the falling snow and rumbling trucks in the distance, Al and Dennis are taking stock in a patch of trees behind a shopping center in Chester. There’s a half foot of hardened snow on the ground – thanks to overnight sleet – and Dennis’ tent has collapsed. “He’s buried in there,” says Al, 51, who’s from northern Ohio. A roofer, he lost his job during the recession. Al’s been living in the woods for the last three years, and he’s nonplussed by the icy wind as temperatures dip into the mid-20s. Dennis knocks snow from his tent from within and then crawls out. “It’s cold,” Al says, rustling about in a jean jacket stuffed with multiple layers and an old Cleveland Browns stocking cap. “But it’s nothing like up there.”
Stormwater program could mean higher fees for Chesterfield residents, businesses
Chesterfield County residents and businesses could soon be asked to help fund the county’s $35 million stormwater utility program that is designed to meet requirements of the federally mandated Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan. The projected average annual rate for businesses is $308; single-family households would on average be billed $24 each year under the plan that Scott Smedley, director of Environmental Engineering, presented Wednesday to the Board of Supervisors.
After 37 years in Chesterfield County, Administrator Jay Stegmaier is retiring
James J.L. “Jay” Stegmaier, who began working in Chesterfield County in 1979 and rose to county administrator in 2007, will retire July 1, leaving what he calls a culture of good government. “I really think the legacy that I’d like to be remembered for, if anything, is (for) over a long period of time constructing a culture for the organization where every employee understands what the values are, understands what the ethics are … understands the need to get government right,” Stegmaier, 62, said in an interview Thursday. “Not just so an ambulance shows up when it’s supposed to show up, or the water is there and it’s drinkable when you turn the faucet, but because getting government right is so, so important to the survival of our quality of life.”
HANOVER
If the Hanover County Board of Supervisors was looking for experience and political longevity in its next chairman, they found it. Long-time Beaverdam District representative Aubrey “Bucky” Stanley took the reins from outgoing chairman Wayne Hazzard, South Anna, at the board’s first meeting of the New Year last Wednesday. After 33 years of service to the county as a supervisor, Stanley accepted the latest appointment, his fifth as chairman, with his usual brand of seriousness and public responsibility tinged with light-hearted humor.
HENRICO
Ogburn, Cocke elected Henrico School Board leaders
The Henrico School Board on Thursday elected Michelle F. “Micky” Ogburn of the Three Chopt District as chairwoman and Beverly L. Cocke of the Brookland District as vice chairwoman. Ogburn first sought the Three Chopt seat when the board was faced with replacing Diana D. Winston, who resigned in 2013 amid inquiries into the relationship between her, her husband whose company regularly conducted business with the school system and then-superintendent Patrick J. Russo. The board did not appoint her, but she successfully ran against Dr. Surya Dhakar in the 2014 election.
POWHATAN
Bill Melton was elected chairman of the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors for his second straight year at the board’s meeting last week. Melton, who represents District 4, was approved unanimously by his fellow board members in a vote taken at the board’s first 2016 meeting, which was held on Monday, Jan. 5. Melton abstained from the vote. Larry Nordvig, District 2, also abstained when his fellow board members unanimously voted him in as the vice chairman for the coming year.
Powhatan ranked 15th best district in the state
If the Powhatan County Public School system were a child taking his report card home to his parents, it wouldn’t have anything to worry about based on recent rankings that placed it among the top 15 school districts in Virginia. Niche, a national education assessment company, ranked Powhatan’s school district 15th out of 131 divisions in the state in its 2016 Public K-12 School Rankings, according to the company’s website, www.niche.com. The company researches and surveys ever school in the nation to get accurate rankings. It evaluates more than 100,000 public and private schools and divisions annually based on a comprehensive survey of performance data and the views of more than 27 million students and parents.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
New transportation funding process would finance 23 projects in Richmond region
This is where the money meets the road for Virginia’s transportation system. State transportation officials on Tuesday released the first round of rankings for projects that would be financed with more than $1.7 billion in newly available state and federal funding, guided by recent legislative reforms meant to take the politics out of road funding in Virginia. The rankings, coupled with a proposed process for allocating different pots of transportation money, would fund 23 projects totaling $155 million in the Richmond construction district over the next six years. Those projects range from major improvements to sections of Interstates 95 and 64 that overlap in downtown Richmond to smaller improvements across the region that scored well under the new ranking system.
Meet the renegade freshman Republican who refuses to play partisan politics
Sen. Glen Sturtevant, a Republican elected just two months ago, is unversed in Richmond’s arcane ways. How else to explain his failure to heed the legislature’s mindless partisanship? Mr. Sturtevant, who represents a portion of Richmond and points west, has incited the fury of the General Assembly’s Republican leadership, and blown up the opening days of this year’s legislative session, by doing something decent. He has refused to go along with the GOP’s plan to remove and replace a sitting justice of Virginia’s Supreme Court, Jane Marum Roush, whose qualifications, competence and integrity were unquestioned when she received a recess appointment over the summer from Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). Never in modern times has a sitting justice on the state’s highest court been replaced in such fashion. In fact, Virginia governors of both parties have made at least 31 recess appointments to the court; all of them have been elected by the General Assembly.
Richmond lawmaker proposes regional path to new coliseum
A state legislator wants to get the ball rolling on a new coliseum for the Richmond region by giving the Richmond Metropolitan Transportation Authority the power to build, own and operate an arena. Del. G. Manoli Loupassi, R-Richmond, filed legislation Tuesday to grant the added power to the regional entity that formerly owned The Diamond baseball stadium and still operates the area’s toll facilities. In an interview, Loupassi said the RMTA — which includes representation from the city of Richmond, Henrico County and Chesterfield County — would serve as a useful vehicle for partnering with the private sector on a project to replace the 45-year-old Richmond Coliseum.
REGIONAL/STATE
Number of homes sold in Virginia in 2015 rose nearly 11 percent
Virginia’s housing market ended 2015 with a continued rebound in nearly every region, including central Virginia, according to a report released Thursday by the Virginia Association of Realtors. The 2015 residential real estate market in Virginia outperformed every year from 2007, and far outperformed 2012, 2013 and 2014 in the peak summer sales season, the association reported. A total of 109,201 homes were sold in the state in 2015, up nearly 11 percent from 2014.
Home sales rose 14 percent in Central Virginia in 2015
Home sales in Central Virginia increased throughout 2015 compared with the previous year, rising double digits every quarter and up 14 percent overall in 2015 from 2014, according to a year-end and fourth-quarter housing market report released Tuesday by the Richmond Association of Realtors. Last year marked the fifth consecutive year of sales growth and the most consistently strong sales growth in the region since before the recession, reflecting continued buyer confidence in the market, according to the report. “2015 ended on a strong note for our region’s housing market,” said Dawn Bradley of Long & Foster Realtors, who is the 2016 president of the Richmond Association of Realtors.
ELECTIONS
Campaign coffers: Baliles hires Sturtevant’s fundraiser
City Councilman Jon Baliles, a rumored hopeful in the city’s 2016 mayoral race, has hired the fundraising consultant who worked for two winning Republican Senate candidates in the last statewide election cycle. In campaign finance reports covering the last six months of 2015, Baliles disclosed a $5,000 payment made to Emily Barrett Hovis last December. Hovis, a city resident who resides in Baliles’ near West End council district, worked for Glen Sturtevant and Siobhan Dunnavant’s respective senate campaigns in 2015, records available through the State Board of Elections show.
