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Next Luncheon (scroll down for details) Meet RFC President
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WELCOME TO THE RICHMOND FIRST CLUB!
City and County Watchdogs To Speak
at February 3rd Luncheon Meeting
The guardians of Virginia’s cities and counties will give their perspective on the financial crisis facing local governments at the February 3 meeting of Richmond First Club.
James D. Campbell |
R. Michael Amyx |
James J. Regimbal, Jr. |
James D. Campbell, executive director of the Virginia Association of Counties, R. Michael Amyx, executive director of the Virginia Municipal League, head the two organizations that provide services and legislative oversight to the Commonwealth’s counties and cities.
Together, Campbell and Amyx, bring 50 years experience heading governmental organizations. James J. Regimbal, Jr. is co-founder of Fiscal Analytics, Ltd. and has
twenty-seven years experience in state and local budget and tax policy analysis.
The February meeting will come three weeks into the new administration of Governor Bob McDonnell who took the helm of state government in the worst financial situation since the Great Depression of the 30s.
All three speakers we be able, at that point, to cite directions the Virginia General Assembly is headed as well as to point out prospective results of Assembly action or inaction, as the case may be.
Campbell has been executive director of VACO since 1990. His bachelor’s degree in business management is from Virginia Tech. He has a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Northern Colorado. He was previously director of intergovernmental affairs for the Virginia Municipal League. He served as management assistance supervisor for the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.
Amyx became VML’s executive director in 1980. He has served as a city manager and assistant city manager. He was executive director of the Kentucky Municipal League for five years prior to coming to Virginia. He holds a master’s in public administration as well as a law degree from the University of Kansas.
Regimal co-founded Fiscal Analytics Ltd. in 1999 where his expertise in state and local budget and tax policy issues have been provided to local governments, business groups, trade associations, and nonprofit organizations. The Virginia Municipal League, the Virginia Association of Counties, and the Virginia First Cities Coalition currently employ his services.
The Virginia Municipal League is a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan association of city, town and county governments established in 1905 to improve and assist local governments through legislative advocacy, research, education and other services. The membership includes all 39 cities in the state, 156 towns and 11 counties.
The Virginia Association of Counties, founded in 1930, exists to support county officials and to effectively represent, promote and protect the interests of counties to better serve the people of Virginia.
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“We Want Our Leaders to Get Along!”Mayor’s Chief of Staff Says
Mayor Dwight Jones’ Chief of Staff, Suzette Denslow, told Richmond First Club members January 6 that her boss is working toward ‘getting along’.
“He reached out to the new Governor. They’re not of the same party, but ‘who cares?’ Richmond is the capital city,” she said. Likewise, he visited the boards of supervisors of Chesterfield and Henrico counties. Previous mayors have not done that, she said. With the Richmond City Council, “We’re working together when we can and we’re civil about it.”
“We have to focus on the good things,” she said. And she reeled off a very long list of “good things” that are happening or have happened in Richmond. Included were Mead Westvaco and Altria locating in Richmond, Riverfront housing, the Hilton Hotel, baseball, James River Canal Walk.
"Leaders make it happen,” she said. “The leadership has to convince people to come to Richmond. We have so much to offer.” "We have to focus on the good things,” Denslow said but used examples from the Richmond Times-Dispatch to suggest that that doesn’t always happen.
Her greatest concern was how the news was played that Richmond has dropped 50 cities from 49th to 99th in city crime rankings. The ranking by Congressional Quarterly Press was based on 2008 crime data.
The story was played as a short under the Metro listing of “News Near You” on December 5. That, she said, is a perfect example of “good news” that was practically ignored in newspaper coverage. The one paragraph short said the Quarterly Press ranked Richmond fifth in crime nationally in 2005. The astonishing drop to 49th from fifth in four years was attributed by Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood to community partnerships, close work with the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and the Cooperative Violence Reduction Partnership that includes local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
In two other examples of what she believes are unfair portrayals of Richmond city crime, she provided copies of murder reports in the Times-Dispatch on the same day, April 14, 2009. A front page story reported on a Henrico murder with the headline, ‘Delivery driver was a ‘good person’. The story was about the robbery and killing of a Chinese food deliverer.
On the Metro front a very large headline read, “Man Killed in Richmond.” Was the Henrico man a good man and the Richmond man wasn’t , Denslow asked?
A Richmond First member said, yes, there is a lot of good going on in the city but unemployment continues to be a serious problem. “What is the mayor doing to address unemployment?,” she said.
Denslow replied, “We’re looking at workforce needs and the education system. “We want the drop-out rate to go from 31 percent to zero. We all know people who are looking for jobs.”
Richmond will be celebrating its sesquicentennial, she said. But, before that, she invited Club members and the public to attend Mayor Jones” State of the City annual address Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Richmond Center State, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Richmond First Club Urges Governor-Elect McDonnell To Appoint Blue Ribbon Commission to Move Forward with Bipartisan Redistricting
Click for full letter
Bipartisan Redistricting After the Census - One Chance Remains: the 2010 G. A.
Limitations on Virginia Governor and Government Hurt the State
December speaker summary - Bernie Niemeier and Mike Brooks on the Dillon Rule, Two-term Governors and more
“Virginia’s governor has about 18 months to accomplish anything.” And that isn’t long enough, according to Bernie Niemeier, the new owner and publisher of Virginia Business magazine.
As the only state in the nation that doesn’t allow the governor to succeed him or herself, Niemeier told the Richmond First Club December 2 that Virginia’s governors have control of their own budgets for only two of their four years in office.
Niemeier and Dr. Mike Brooks, professor emeritus of urban planning at VCU, spoke about handicaps to governing in Virginia.
“But,” Niemeier asked, “Is there the political will to take it (allowing two terms) on?” If two-term governor legislation had passed last year, the first time a governor could succeed himself would be 2017. Some fear the lengthier term would give too much power to the governor.
Career politicians, career lobbyists and bureaucrats hold too much power now, he said.
Niemeier believes the one-term limit stymies accomplishment and leadership.
He also believes that the moratorium on annexation, now extended to 2018, creates financial challenges for cities that have led some, such as South Boston, to become towns to operate under county governments. Fairfax County, he said, is exploring becoming a city because it is larger than any of Virginia’s independent cities. The independent city and county system creates unfair collection and distribution of resources, Niemeier said.
In response to a question about the seeming ability of Hampton Roads governments to work together more cohesively that the Richmond region, Niemeier agreed. “Hampton Roads is different because of its diversity. That is probably the influence of the military.”
Virginia Business has an office in Hampton Roads so he is there frequently. He cited a regularly sponsored Hampton Roads regional meeting that attracts about 1,100 attendees. Compare that to Richmond’s second Crupi report presentation that drew about 300 people. “We don’t see the same level of civic engagement that you see in Hampton Roads.”
They would say that they don’t have regional cooperation, he added. “But Mayor Paul Fraim (Norfolk) has done a wonderful job. They have a very, very impressive downtown.”
Mike Brooks Laments Failure to Use Survey Results
A former president of Richmond First Club, Brooks reviewed the results of a study on the Dillon Rule (resulting from an 1868 court case that local governments have only those powers given them by the state) by the Club in cooperation with the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Association of Counties.
Conducted eight years ago, Brooks said the results were never made available to the public. The 19 per cent response rate was low. However, the 131 responses were revealing. Surveys were sent to local governments across Virginia.
“We got a long list of things they wanted to do but couldn’t do,” Brooks said. “The list was the most valuable part of the report.” The list included such items as the inability to make local laws on guns in bars or signage.
Asked about preferences for home rule or sticking with the Dillon Rule, 49 percent preferred home rule, 39 percent had no opinion and 12 percent wanted to retain adherence to the Dillon Rule. They were mostly small town governments, Brooks said.
The Dillon Rule has long been praised by the state Chamber of Commerce and it is highly favored by lobbyists, he said. On controversial issues, it is much easier for lobbyists to deal with one entity—the state—rather than individual local governments. Brooks used gun legislation as an example. The National Rifle Association can kill state level legislation much more easily than would be possible if gun bills could be handled by local governments.
Dysfunction in Virginia is a result of the Dillon Rule, Brooks said. Leadership and advocacy for change is required to eliminate Dillon. That hasn’t surfaced.
Previous Speakers
Click for summary of previous speaker presentations
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City of Richmond & Region Chesterfield County Henrico County
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