The Richmond mayoral election has raised questions of whether the “strong mayor” form of government is working. A strong mayor form of governance gives the mayor direct authority over the city council across many areas, such as appointing or removing officials, proposing a budget, vetoing council votes and exercising oversight of day-to-day city operation.
A strong mayor structure reflects the organization of most state governments. The mayor is the city’s chief executive, while the council is the city’s primary legislative body.
When I led the City of Richmond referendum in 2004, it was strongly supported by the people, though opposed by the city council. In fact, the council refused to bring it up for a vote. I led a campaign to collect 15,000 signatures to bring it to council for passage.
I was prevailed upon by the people to run for mayor and received nearly 80% of the votes cast, carrying every district. In the last several elections, we’ve seen the percentage of votes cast for the Richmond mayor-elect plummet to dismal numbers. The percentage from all of the districts was 35.7% in 2016 and 37.7% in 2020.
When this year’s mayoral candidates are asked how they will solve the problems confronting the city, they give answers that are perplexing. They seem to admit that they, themselves, are not experienced to do the job.
To the extent they identify anything that needs fixing, they resort to saying they are going to find “someone” to do that heavy lifting. In fact, some of them say they are going to conduct a national search to find a chief administrative officer to come to Richmond with solutions.
This lack of leadership has been the critical problem for far too long. Either they know what needs to be done, or they don’t. The job of mayor requires the qualifications and experience to be that leader, of the people, for the people.
Government today is bloated with bureaucracy. Richmond has returned to the “cesspool of corruption and inefficiency” that I confronted as mayor. Currently, there is a “division” for this, or “department” for that, an “expert” or two to boot, and every “assistant” you can imagine.
Crime rates can be reduced, fiscal accountability can be achieved, public education can be improved, and housing affordability can be made possible. But, that requires leadership and creating solutions that involve and include all people through open governance. It necessitates bringing together all branches of government, elected or statutorily created.
I sincerely hope that there will emerge and ultimately be shown reasons, on qualifications, why that person should be elected.
Stay tuned.
