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Old 07-14-2014, 04:13 PM
 
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,149 posts, read 16,970,121 times
Reputation: 15498

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Watching the evening new just now I see where the Mayor is rejecting the latest ball park proposal. Has the leadership of the city ever sat down and defined who takes care of what? It seems like for every issue the mayors office and city counsel are both doing the same thing, neither agrees with the other and the citizens lose once again...
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Old 07-20-2014, 06:09 AM
 
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,149 posts, read 16,970,121 times
Reputation: 15498
I guess all the posters who always praise living in the city have no opinions on what makes it run...
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Old 07-21-2014, 09:27 AM
 
Location: Boston Massacusetts
157 posts, read 228,481 times
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Corruption and administration are two words you often see together in reference to Richmond. And you'll never see the mayor supporting anything that doesn't directly improve his reputation regardless of its affect on the taxpayers.
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Old 07-21-2014, 12:13 PM
 
Location: Richmond, VA
1,799 posts, read 6,304,762 times
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Sorry Yankee - was out enjoying all those great things in the city. The deal was never really about baseball, but it's the administration's fault if it doesn't happen. They have botched the delivery of the concept, botched the delivery of required details for full evaluation by city council, and pursued an approach that felt closed-door. The conversation has been framed so poorly from the get-go.

The truth is, it's about freeing up areas of the city that are primed for higher/better use and provides a greater economic return to the city's taxpayers. With annexation not possible in Virginia, unlike competing regions in other states, the city must maximize what it has to create additional revenues and lower the tax burden, fight poverty, and improve schools. Shockoe Bottom may or may not be the best place for a ballpark, but for me it's always been more about the potential for the Boulevard site without a stadium and accompanying parking needs. The ballpark, slave trade memorials, etc should always have been secondary to the core purpose.
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Old 07-21-2014, 12:39 PM
 
Location: Boston Massacusetts
157 posts, read 228,481 times
Reputation: 104
I'm assuming you're talking about the city's ultimate goals as an idealism and not a realism. I may be biased as an aspiring educator with a mother who teachers in Richmond City, but I know education is not a priority, at least not for our current administration.

I'd say the citizens win if a ballpark doesn't go downtown, because the opposition was clearly the majority and the reason why the mayor withdrew his proposal (I'm pretty sure). Coming from someone who religiously attended the town hall meetings pertaining to the stadium, I'd say the Boulevard is still the perfect place for baseball; the current site inherently handles well most of the concerns that came up at the meetings (i.e. interstate access, traffic, and parking)
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Old 07-21-2014, 03:46 PM
 
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,149 posts, read 16,970,121 times
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Thanks to the responders I was starting to think that mass transit and bicyclists were the only discussed areas.

What I am really asking is, why after all these years haven't the responsibilities of each part of city government been defined in writing. It seems that for every issue City Counsel and the Mayors office both thing they are responsible to address the problem. It the end nothing get accomplished and once again the citizens appear to lose out.

Wouldn't it be more efficient (especially with costs) to identify the duties & responsibilities of each office???
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Old 07-22-2014, 08:13 AM
 
Location: Boston Massacusetts
157 posts, read 228,481 times
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I think I see where your coming from. Just recently I was pondering why very few of the topics brought up by City Council are ever publicly addressed by the mayor. You'd think with proposals as hot as bike infrastructure would gain some attention. The short answer coming from someone who only recently got involved with local politics is that the mayor only has a voice with things he directly supports. City Council, without a doubt, places more emphasis on their job as liaison for the citizens. I've seen Council members opinions be swayed based on their districts, especially on the baseball issue, whereas the mayor only withdrew his proposal when he found he was outnumbered by the districts collectively. Again, only an observation from going to the town hall/discussion meetings and talking to Council members. Hope this helps.

edit: Frankly, I've enjoyed my interactions with the Council members, appreciate how in touch with the community they are, and respect the work they do, although I can name a few who would disagree with their potential motives.
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Old 07-22-2014, 03:57 PM
 
5,546 posts, read 6,851,060 times
Reputation: 3826
Quote:
Originally Posted by VA Yankee View Post
Thanks to the responders I was starting to think that mass transit and bicyclists were the only discussed areas.

What I am really asking is, why after all these years haven't the responsibilities of each part of city government been defined in writing. It seems that for every issue City Counsel and the Mayors office both thing they are responsible to address the problem. It the end nothing get accomplished and once again the citizens appear to lose out.

Wouldn't it be more efficient (especially with costs) to identify the duties & responsibilities of each office???
Well, it seems to me a bit naïve (or disingenuous) to ask the question in regard to just Richmond Virginia, because this is how federal, state and local government agencies work in the US in many cases. Take a look at the office of the president of United States. He's not responsible for ensuring that everybody has health care or that the economy gets better; but everybody expects him to step in and "do something " when people bemoan that things aren't right. The same could be said about Congress and budgeting for bills that really have nothing to do with what the federal government is charged with doing. At the end of the day, it has to do with what people in office want to do, what citizens, peers, and colleagues allow them to get away with, and how much money is involved. I don't see this being remarkably different in Richmond than anywhere else.

What I think is particularly bad in Richmond specifically, is inefficiency and an inability for layers of government across the metropolitan area to build the proper relationships to try to get some things done metro-wide (of course, it does exist and other metros as well). I don't absolve the counties from their poor contributions either, but I know you want to focus on the city itself.

As for the definition of what city offices and the mayor do, there's a lot of reading material that defines that, if you dig for it. I would start here:

Richmond VA > City Council > Home
http://www.richmondgov.com/Mayor/role.aspx

In other words, the mayor is the executive branch and city Council is the legislative branch. Again, the overlap that you are trying to point to is not unique to Richmond, and the roles of each are defined on many layers.

And let's not forget that Richmond has a lot of great amenities and great quality-of-life attributes that the counties do not have and will likely never have. The metro as a whole, could really improve if everybody would stop pointing fingers at each other in blame. Our issues, to me, come more from poor relationships and a poor/constrained mentality than they do around what office does what.

Last edited by AJNEOA; 07-22-2014 at 05:01 PM..
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Old 07-22-2014, 07:34 PM
 
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,149 posts, read 16,970,121 times
Reputation: 15498
Quote:
Originally Posted by AJNEOA View Post
Well, it seems to me a bit naïve (or disingenuous) to ask the question in regard to just Richmond Virginia, because this is how federal, state and local government agencies work in the US in many cases. Take a look at the office of the president of United States. He's not responsible for ensuring that everybody has health care or that the economy gets better; but everybody expects him to step in and "do something " when people bemoan that things aren't right. The same could be said about Congress and budgeting for bills that really have nothing to do with what the federal government is charged with doing. At the end of the day, it has to do with what people in office want to do, what citizens, peers, and colleagues allow them to get away with, and how much money is involved. I don't see this being remarkably different in Richmond than anywhere else.

What I think is particularly bad in Richmond specifically, is inefficiency and an inability for layers of government across the metropolitan area to build the proper relationships to try to get some things done metro-wide (of course, it does exist and other metros as well). I don't absolve the counties from their poor contributions either, but I know you want to focus on the city itself.

As for the definition of what city offices and the mayor do, there's a lot of reading material that defines that, if you dig for it. I would start here:

Richmond VA > City Council > Home
http://www.richmondgov.com/Mayor/role.aspx

In other words, the mayor is the executive branch and city Council is the legislative branch. Again, the overlap that you are trying to point to is not unique to Richmond, and the roles of each are defined on many layers.

And let's not forget that Richmond has a lot of great amenities and great quality-of-life attributes that the counties do not have and will likely never have. The metro as a whole, could really improve if everybody would stop pointing fingers at each other in blame. Our issues, to me, come more from poor relationships and a poor/constrained mentality than they do around what office does what.
Why is it naïve? Ever since the mayor has been directly elected it has been an on going conflict between this office and city counsel. According to the mayors web site the mayors job is

"The Mayor acts as a chief executive officer (CEO) with responsibilities that include submitting the annual budget to City Council, selecting a Chief Administrative Officer, issuing regulations, and making recommendations on revenue and funding transfer matters. "

Ambiguous at best and combined with the "overlap" you speak of it seems to create a lot of inefficiencies and stale mates where only the residents lose out.

Where does it say that the Mayor can evict the school board. Determine that schools should be replaced or decide which ball park plan may be considered? I am well aware that congress and not POTUS are the ones running the county....

Lets forget for now differences between the counties and cities because that has nothing to do with the posted question.
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Old 07-22-2014, 08:29 PM
 
5,546 posts, read 6,851,060 times
Reputation: 3826
Quote:
Originally Posted by VA Yankee View Post
Why is it naïve? Ever since the mayor has been directly elected it has been an on going conflict between this office and city counsel. According to the mayors web site the mayors job is

"The Mayor acts as a chief executive officer (CEO) with responsibilities that include submitting the annual budget to City Council, selecting a Chief Administrative Officer, issuing regulations, and making recommendations on revenue and funding transfer matters. "

Ambiguous at best and combined with the "overlap" you speak of it seems to create a lot of inefficiencies and stale mates where only the residents lose out.

Where does it say that the Mayor can evict the school board. Determine that schools should be replaced or decide which ball park plan may be considered? I am well aware that congress and not POTUS are the ones running the county....

Lets forget for now differences between the counties and cities because that has nothing to do with the posted question.
I don't disagree that the mayor sucks or that the city is inefficient. I don't mind asking the question of what needs to be done to change things. We're on the same page there.

What you completely skipped was "why" I felt the question was naiive and then you asked me why again.

IMO you're getting next to no responses because it's clear that the form of the executive branch of government almost always takes the shape of the person who gets in office alongside those that surround him/her. It's the norm in the US and is nothing unique to Richmond. You may as well ask "why don't city residents vote someone else in as mayor". See what I'm saying?

Aside from that, you're asking for a clear description of The Mayor of the City of Richmond and City Counsel from a particularly inactive sub forum that's largely dominated by county residents (maybe 4 or 5 live in the city, post somewhat infrequently and have their own interests (like bike lanes and transit as you put it, not necessarily politics)).
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