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The current mayoral transition is smooth and helpful and needed, but contrary to Mayor Stoney’s claims, it is not the first such smooth transition, which actually took place in 2008.
A little Monday morning quarterbacking of the Mayor’s race with some analysis, keywords from the new Mayor, the cost per vote stats, and the absurd notion that Election Day should be a bookend of a five day holiday…
Plus! The fun look at the write-in vote for Mayor with all of the suggestions of politicos, sports figures, cartoons, and others who people wished would serve….
STORY #1 — Transition Tales & Severance Lessons
During the transition press conference with Mayor-elect Avula the day after the election, Mayor Stoney pledged to help him so he is ready to roll on January 1, and also boasted about how his Administration was doing unprecedented things to help the new Mayor as he prepares for his new Administration.
“We want to ensure that it’s a streamlined transition process, something that we’ve never seen before here in the city of Richmond, that ensures that he and his team are prepared to lead this city into its next chapter,” Stoney said.
Except — like many of Stoney’s other boasts — it is more delusion of grandeur than recital of fact. The transition assistance being offered by Stoney is very real and very helpful, to be sure; it’s just not unprecedented.
When Doug Wilder was preparing to leave the Mayor’s Office at the end of 2008 as the nation’s economy plunged into The Great Recession, he opened the door and offered Mayor-Elect Dwight Jones everything he needed to prepare for his transition into City Hall. Wilder and Jones were hardly buddy-buddy, but in the November 25th, 2008 issue of his weekly Visions newsletter, Wilder wrote that his office had reached out with a helping hand:
“Such an orderly transfer is essential, especially in these uncertain economic times, and critical to maintaining the ongoing delivery of City services and the continued stability of local government operations.
My Administration is providing the Mayor-Elect with his own suite of offices at City Hall, telephone and computer equipment, and most importantly, an ‘open door’ policy for speaking with City officials and employees.
The incoming Mayor and I have talked and I have offered to assist him on matters large and small that, in January, will be coming across his desk.
My Chief of Staff, the Chief Financial Officer and the Budget Director have already provided in-depth briefings about City finances and other matters.
The Mayor-elect and his team are scheduled to meet with the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and Emergency Operations staff. Additional meetings with other City officials will follow in the coming weeks, and we are providing documents and information upon request.
The City’s current budget, and those in the coming years, will be among the most challenging responsibilities facing our new Mayor.”
Wilder also noted that when he was Mayor-elect in 2004, he was not afforded a smooth transition or space to set up in City Hall (he did set up a transition office at VCU), and department directors in City Hall “were instructed not to speak with my transition team so that we could assess how City government was operating.”
He also discovered — only after it had already taken place — that City “Council approved some $300,000 in severance packages for the outgoing City Manager and Police Chief. Under my Administration, you can be assured that there will be no such severance packages or sweetheart boardroom deals.”
And there were none when Wilder left office. Of course, when Mayor Jones left eight years later, Stoney discovered only after he was sworn in that Jones had issued more than $220,000 in severance pay, bonus money, and vacation payout to his top staff. Jones’ press secretary received $80,000, his Executive Assistant $64,000, his Chief of Staff $30,000, and his Deputy Chief of Staff $47,000.
Fortunately, such shenanigan’s can’t happen again because the idiotic ordinance that was approved in 2004 just before Wilder took office to provide those sweetheart
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