Editor's note: Milondra Coleman dropped out of the City Council race in late April, after this article went to press.
As long-standing Richmond City Councilman Chris Hilbert rounds out his 15-year tenure on the council dais, three city residents have launched bids to become the new representative for Richmond’s North Side in this November’s general election — though all agree that their legislative priorities are likely to be clouded by COVID-19’s local economic impact.
Milondra Coleman
A history teacher at John Marshall High School, Coleman is making a second run for council after unsuccessfully challenging Hilbert in 2016, though she calls her first outing a valuable learning experience.
“There was so much more that I learned about the process that I did not know prior to [running],” says Coleman, 49.
A Richmond native, Coleman says that the city should prioritize its spending on COVID-19 relief efforts, but she posits that it could explore public-private partnerships to tend to long-standing issues such as funding the city’s public schools, addressing housing affordability and homelessness, spurring economic development in the 3rd District and continuing Mayor Levar Stoney’s focus on infrastructure improvements.
“[We should seek a] partnership with surrounding counties as it relates to economic development, partnership with new businesses that would bring new jobs and subsequent wages that the citizenry could infuse into the city’s economy,” she says. “Partnership with the state government as it relates to education could assist us in securing some of what I hope to accomplish for the 3rd District and the city.”
Elaine Summerfield
The 51-year-old director of foundations and endowments at Heritage Wealth Advisors comes to the 3rd District election with an extensive background in nonprofit work as the former vice president of programs at the Community Foundation and program officer at the Virginia Health Care Foundation. She also helped to found HandsOn Greater Richmond, an online platform that aggregates volunteering opportunities in the area.
“I want to be sure that everybody in the city has the same type of opportunities that I’ve enjoyed and that my family has benefited from,” she says of her desire to serve on council.
Summerfield would prioritize increasing transparency in City Hall, ensuring that basic city services are met, boosting local small businesses and creating a better partnership between City Council and the School Board. Additionally, she says the city should more actively address climate change.
Similarly, she says boosting the local economy and securing sustainable housing will need to take center stage in the aftermath of COVID-19. “City Council is going to have to deal with how we are partnering with other levels of government to ensure people are housed, to ensure that people are employed, to ensure that small businesses exist,” Summerfield says.
Willie Hilliard
Hilliard, 56, a barber and president of the Brookland Park Area Association, says his community ties and connections with council members and city department heads make him the man for the job.
“For a lot of folks, especially seniors in this community, I’ve become the go-to person that they want to call when they need to get something done,” he says.
If elected, the lifelong 3rd District resident says he’d focus on allocating more resources to North Side schools and curbing a rising tide of community displacement within the district caused by gentrification.
“I think a lot of these developers are taking advantage of the term ‘affordable housing,’ ” Hilliard says. “What’s affordable to them is not affordable to us, so they’re taking advantage of these programs.”
However, he also anticipates that rising unemployment rates and decreased tax revenues caused by the pandemic will take a toll on education funding and the upcoming city budget.
“There is a major concern that education funding, as well as our city budget, will be completely compromised as the city and state languish in ‘rescue and recovery mode’ as opposed to conducting normal business.”
