Mayor Levar Stoney at Citizen in downtown Richmond (Photo by Sarah King)
This year marked a lot of changes for the city of Richmond, starting with its leadership. Mayor Levar Stoney laid claim to his new role in January after overcoming a packed ballot and an at times contentious election. But the election was just the beginning.
Among the many city departments he now manages, Stoney says perhaps his heaviest-looming priority was regaining constituents’ trust after his predecessor’s controversial term in office, and overcoming a reputation for strife and pettiness in the relationship between City Hall and the School Board.
“When you're doing a job like this, you've gotta be not only a competent manager but also a visionary,” Stoney says. “I think we did a little of both this year; this has all been about restoring the confidence of the taxpayers and what the city can do.”
The mayor is now visiting his brother in England, but before leaving town he sat down over a cup of coffee to recap the ups and downs of the city's past 12 months, covering the gamut, from school facilities and superintendents to grieving lives lost too soon to homicide and gun violence.
‘Wins’
Stoney says he began the year “basically calling out the things we didn’t do well and providing solutions to fix [them].” This was not a top-down approach, but working from the ground up and getting to know his many employees along the way.
Following up on his campaign promise to conduct a performance review in his first 100 days in office, Stoney says he went to every department in City Hall and sat down with the rank and file employees — an exercise he enjoys because it feels like having a “mini town hall” every couple of days.
“Some [employees] said they'd never seen the mayor come out to the warehouse at the Department of Public Works or come up to the Department of Social Services,” Stoney says. “I think at first folks were shocked and surprised, but it's not uncommon for them to see me riding the elevator in City Hall or visiting them in their cubicle on their floor.”
Those visits arguably paid off, because by year’s end the city boasts 25,000 fewer potholes and repaired 1,600 alleys; every Richmond Public School got a glimpse of the mayor — as did every Fire Department battalion, Police Dept. precinct and attendees at nine different town hall meetings across the city.
The snow was plowed and the grass got cut, and even the city’s stray cats and dogs had cause to celebrate: Richmond Animal Care and Control had a 91 percent "save rate" this year. Behind the scenes, the more mundane, but critical, mayoral work — such as money management — was getting done, too.
“We got our fiscal house in order this year,” Stoney says. “We got the CAFR [Comprehensive Annual Financial Report] in on time, or ahead of schedule — 3 weeks ahead — beating all the surrounding counties to that. To me, those are the operational wins of the year.”
The CAFR met the Nov. 30 state deadline for the first time in four years. By submitting the report early, Richmond saved $13 million in debt service payments over the next decade and a half by selling $119 million in general obligation bonds.
This maneuver will free up the city’s debt capacity, which Stoney said at the time of the announcement could help fund improvements for RPS facilities.
Schools
The city’s public schools have been a controversial topic for years, and Stoney says they were another top priority he aimed to tackle early on.
“We took some time to be aspirational as well, in the creation of partnerships for the benefit of our children,” he says.
One of his favorite moments from the last year was at Redd Elementary School in the South Side this fall. Sitting in an auditorium packed with students, educators and families, Stoney helped hand over pairs of shiny new glasses to more than 100 Redd students as part of the city’s announcement of a new partnership with nonprofits CONEXUS and Vision to Learn.
The partnership will provide each of RPS’ nearly 20,000 students with free vision screenings and, if deemed necessary, a pair of eyeglasses.
“The mother of one of the students came to me and said, 'You know what, thank you for this partnership. If it wasn't for this, I wouldn't have discovered my son was blind in one eye,' ” Stoney says, “and he left with glasses that day.”
While tackling the basics — like needing glasses to read and perform well in the classroom — is important, what captured much of the city’s attention this year was the premature conclusion of former Superintendent Dana Bedden’s contract during a closed-door School Board session and the raucous road to a facilities modernization plan.
There still aren’t very good answers as to why Bedden’s contract was terminated more than two years early on a 7-1-1 School Board vote or why interim Superintendent Tommy Kranz was appointed to his current position at 3 a.m. on a morning in June.
Similarly, the entire search process for Bedden’s replacement — D.C. Public Schools’ Jason Kamras — was conducted by a search committee headed by Dominion CEO Tom Farrell, and while community members participated on the committee, they were bound by a nondisclosure agreement.
Despite the lack of transparency, Stoney says he is optimistic about Kamras’ impending tenure, which begins Feb. 1, 2018.
“He's creative, innovative, passionate, and you can tell he has the sort of leadership qualities I think that have been long lacking in a superintendent,” Stoney says.
“I think that he will be the sort of guy who will not buckle to politics — that's what you need in a job like that; you need to do what's right … you can tell he's the sort of practitioner who's going to put what's best for the children first — and I think that's all that families in this city ask.”
As for facilities, the issue is more multifaceted.
The Education Compact
The Education Compact is Stoney’s effort to improve collaboration across city government to better tackle schools issues. Both the School Board and City Council approved the venture in August, but it has taken longer than some expected to get rolling.
The School Board and Council held the first quarterly meeting in accordance with the compact earlier this month, but community member selections and the first full meeting won’t take place until next year.
“I think for the first time in a long time you see the Council, the School Board and this office all on the same page when it comes to creating positive outcomes for our children,” Stoney says. “All three pieces of government here in the city of Richmond share a responsibility — and doing nothing is not an option.”
The Facilities Plan
There has been ample public backlash concerning the Board’s freshly minted $224.8 million facilities plan, which passed on a 5-3 vote (board member Liz Doerr had departed the meeting early, under the impression the vote would be the following week) without any public input or presentation this month.
“I pushed the School Board to present a facilities plan,” Stoney says. “It took longer than I thought it was going to take, but … for me, the end goal should be 'How do we get a child into a high-quality, state-of-the-art facility the quickest?' and that should be for all children in the city.”
It’s now the City Council’s task to collaborate with the School Board and new superintendent to approve the funding requested for the proposed five-year facilities plan, which would ultimately yield five new schools and enable hefty renovations to two more.
Adding to the jumble: The city would need to find $158 million to fund the Board-approved plan if it used all existing debt capacity, which is $66 million over the next five years, according to figures presented the quarterly joint meeting. A lack of funds and debt capacity stalled the city’s last attempt at schools modernization in 2014-15. That plan, deemed “Option Five,” stalled after more than a year of development.
“I don't necessarily know that this is the plan that does that just yet — working together with the School Board and City Council, [we] have to perfect the plan, and my responsibility is to find the funding for it,” Stoney says. “And I'm committed to that.”
The Referendum
In November, Richmond voters overwhelmingly passed a referendum calling for a city charter change that would require the mayor to a) present a facilities plan to the City Council that wouldn’t raise taxes or b) say it couldn’t be done.
As for Stoney, he says what the city decides to do about facilities will in no way be contingent upon the referendum and whether the measure passes in the upcoming General Assembly session.
“I do know and recognize that folks want us to do something for our children to modernize our facilities — and hey, I heard that message last year when I got elected, that's what I ran on,” Stoney says. “The real referendum, I thought, was last year when all these folks got elected.”
The measure, engineered and championed by Paul Goldman, a law partner to former mayoral candidate Joe Morrissey and longtime Democratic strategist, is now subject to approval by the General Assembly. Former School Board members Dels. Jeff Bourne and Glen Sturtevant have said they’ll help introduce the measure.
“So here's the thing: This funding plan is going to have to consider all options — whether it's enhancing revenue, cutting things — everything's on the table with this,” Stoney says.
“[I think] it's wishful thinking that we can find $800 million without even thinking about considering additional revenue. I would have to gut departments like Public Works, Utilities, Parks and Recreation — we're not doing that. We're not going to rob Peter to pay Paul.”
General Assembly 2018
Referendum aside, schools are also on Stoney’s agenda for the upcoming GA session. Stoney says he will be “pushing the General Assembly to do their fair share for Richmond Public Schools.” He has already reached out to the incoming governor and requested RPS be “held harmless” due to its challenged school district status.
This year, 18 schools were fully accredited — one more than last year — but more schools were also denied accreditation than last year, a total of 19.
In other words, after years of faltering student achievement, RPS entered into a memorandum of understanding and a corrective action plan with the Virginia Department of Education. If RPS does not meet the requirements outlined in the agreements with the state, the Department of Education could withhold roughly $30 million from the school district.
“I've also asked for dollars that can help with the development of educational leaders as well, principals,” Stoney says. “I think in the governor's budget you see $1 million allotted to developing principals, leaders for challenged districts like ours — so I see that as a precursor to a win, but I've got to get to the GA first.”
The mayor will also be working closely with Police Chief Alfred Durham on legislation aimed at addressing gun violence, including civil penalties for individuals who do not report firearms lost or stolen and one-gun-a-month policies, which were law until former Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell repealed the latter measure.
“I'm hopeful that with the new makeup of the House of Delegates that common-sense gun measures can see the light of day,” Stoney says. “Like banning firearms in city public buildings; it just makes no sense that a person can walk into the council chambers with a loaded weapon. It's my hope that the GA reconsiders one gun a month — there's no reason why a person needs more than 12 guns a year.”
Stoney says the majority of legislation he’s working on with Durham is geared at bringing down the overwhelming number of homicides in the city this year — more than five dozen as of mid-December — but added it’s important to recognize the restraints of living in a Dillon Rule state, meaning localities are bound by the laws of the state legislature.
“So like in Baltimore, they can do — they can step over that line — here, we can't do what a Baltimore or a Philadelphia or a New York can do when it comes to combating gun violence, because of the Dillon Rule,” Stoney says. “All we can do is confiscate and lock people up.”
Moving forward, Stoney says he is going to add to Durham’s initiatives like the Police Athletic League and RVA League for Safer Streets and keep an eye out for more partnerships and collaborations, including after-school activities for all students in the city.
“On my end, though, I plan on working on programs that help us prevent crime as well,” Stoney says. “The hours between 3 and 6 p.m. are a prime opportunity for mischief, and we want to ensure our kids are getting enrichment after the bell, [and] also access to arts and recreation.”
The Year to Come
As for other sneak peeks into 2018? “Stay tuned!” says the mayor.
