October 13 15, 2016 issue

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Feeling music at Folk Festival

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B2

Richmond Free Press © 2016 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 25 NO. 42

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

Banking on Bobb Petersburg City Council votes to hire former Richmond city manager to help correct a raft of troubles By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Here he comes to save the day. At least that’s the big hope in Petersburg after Robert C. Bobb, a former Richmond city manager, was called in to help the beleaguered city correct its finances and deal with a stream of public and private creditors badgering the city for payment. On Tuesday, the Petersburg City Council voted 5-1 at a special meeting to hire Mr. Bobb’s Washington-based consulting firm to assess the city’s situation and provide guidance on putting the city government on sound footing. However, the City Council

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Dea gister e to r vote on: to lecti ov. e ay in N nd 7 Moc .1 O t Less than a month remains before Election Day. To vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8, for president, congressional representatives, Richmond mayor, City Council and School Board, you must be registered. Final Free Press alert: The deadline to register to vote is this Monday, Oct. 17. Registration applications are available online and at the state Department of Motor Vehicles offices, public libraries and other government offices or in the local voter registrar’s office. Mailed applications must be postmarked by the deadline. Requests to receive absentee ballots by mail must be made by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov.1. An absentee ballot can be cast in person at your voter registrar’s office until 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5. Richmond residents can go to the Richmond Voter Registrar’s Office at City Hall, 900 E. Broad St., to register to vote and to cast an absentee ballot. Questions? Contact the Virginia Department of Elections, www.elections.virginia.gov or call (800) 552-9745 and select Option 1. Help also is available at VOTE411.org, a website created by the League of Women Voters, that will tell Richmond area residents what will be on the ballot based on the searcher’s address.

left it unclear how the Robert Bobb Group would fit in with interim City Manager Dironna Moore Belton and whether the group or she would make decisions on operations and expenditures. The consulting group, which will report to Petersburg City Council, will not come cheap for a six-month stint. While the council did not initially release the cost, several people with knowledge of the contract told the Free Press that the council has agreed to pay the Bobb Group at least $350,000, plus $25,000 in expenses for its expertise. City Council members later said the cost would be covered using funding from vacant positions, such as the finance director’s post. As the city has not issued any financial statements, it is unclear whether money is available or whether Ms. Belton has used it to cover current bills. Petersburg Mayor W. Howard Myers said the council agreed to turn to Mr. Bobb because “this is an emergency situation.” Mr. Bobb’s firm specializes in helping local governments improve their financial condition. The mayor began pushing to hire Mr. Bobb after receiving an email from him last week

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VUU makes a splash at homecoming

OCtober 13-15, 2016

Lauren Northington/Richmond Free Press

Delegate Delores L. McQuinn, chair of the Richmond Slave Trail Commission, addresses the audience at Monday’s development ceremony at the Lumpkin’s Jail site in Shockoe Bottom. Among those joining her on the stage were Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, former Gov. Bob McDonnell, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, City Council President Michelle Mosby and Dr. Joseph F. Johnson, interim president of Virginia Union University.

Lumpkin’s Jail ceremony marks first step in memorial project By Lauren Northington

Mr. Bobb

offering his firm’s services. Mr. Bobb is expected to oversee the work of staff members assigned to Petersburg. Ms. Belton, for now, is still the interim city manager, although it appears her prospects for winning the job on a permanent basis are dimming. One of Mr. Bobb’s duties will be to recommend prospects for the city manager position. Ms. Belton previously served as manager of the Pe-

“Our history must never be buried,” Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones said as he launched the long-awaited effort to create a slavery memorial at the Lumpkin’s Jail site — a once horrific pen in Shockoe Bottom for enslaved people who were bought and sold like cattle. “And I am hopeful that this project will be a catalyst for conversation about reconciliation,” Mayor Jones told the roughly 200 people who came to witness the start of the project Monday near 15th and Broad streets. “Because we are … finding out that we are

not living in a post-racial society, there are many issues bubbling below the surface.” However, the plan for a $19 million project to tell the story of Robert Lumpkin’s jail and Richmond’s significant role in the domestic slave trade is still a work in progress. About 300,000 enslaved people are estimated to have moved through the city’s auction houses before abolition came. The heart of the program involved the announcement that the city had agreed to use $1.4 million of the funds to hire Detroit-based architecture firm SmithGroupJJR to undertake Please turn to A4

Several candidates support larger park plan By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The small Lumpkin’s Jail site could be expanded into a larger memorial park remembering Richmond’s role in slavery after Mayor Dwight C. Jones leaves office, according to advocates for the expanded site. Four of the candidates considered to have the best

chance to win the Nov. 8 election to become Richmond’s next mayor have endorsed the idea of creating a 9-acre Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park in which the 1.7-acre Lumpkin’s Jail site would be the centerpiece. They are Jonathan Baliles, Jack Berry, Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey and Levar Stoney, according to

activist Phil Wilayto, who has led the campaign for the memorial with his wife, Ana Edwards. A fifth candidate, City Council President Michelle Mosby, has not endorsed the expanded project, according to Mr. Wilayto. In addition, Mr. Wilayto Please turn to A4

Please turn to A4

Trump creates chasm in GOP with lewd tape Free Press staff, wire report

Photo by Ava Reaves

Planning ahead Tayshawn Williams has his eye on the future. The youngster was spotted wearing his message at the recent 2nd Street Festival in Jackson Ward.

Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump ignited his base — and opened a chasm with the GOP leadership and many supporters — with a second debate performance in which he threatened to jail his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, if he is elected. Mr. Trump During the 90-minute debate held last Sunday at Washington University in St. Louis, he dismissed a tape of his explicit comments about grabbing women’s genitals and exploiting them for sex as mere “locker room talk,” and argued with the debate moderators, claiming they didn’t understand what he said on the tape. After the 2005 audiotape was leaked by “Access Hollywood” staff and reported Friday by The Washington Post, Mr. Trump and his top campaign staff spent the weekend huddling in his Manhattan Trump Tower plotting strategy in hopes his latest

outrage would not repel conservative voters who are key to the GOP’s hopes for recapturing the White House. As the immediate backlash against Mr. Trump mounted, he released a video later Friday apologizing for the comments, but arguing that President Bill Clinton was “far worse” and Mrs. Clinton was complicit in covering up for her husband. Speaker Ryan Dozens of Republican officials began withdrawing their endorsements of Mr. Trump or calling on him to step down from the presidential race. His campaign appeared to be in freefall. Even after Sunday’s debate, in which he continued to try to dismiss his comments when questioned by moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN, many Republican leaders nationally and in Virginia said they would not publicly support Mr. Trump Please turn to A4

Unused equipment symbolizes waste to Public Works employees By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Expensive equipment sits unused at the Richmond Department of Public Works’ compound on Hopkins Road. Meanwhile, some vehicles and equipment have developed major rust spots that could reduce their useful life or lead to early breakdowns. Both appear to be signs of practices that have left department employees concerned that tax dollars are being thrown away

by what they see as an uncaring and unthrifty management that has largely frozen their wages for the past five years. “It’s such a waste,” said one employee, who like others the Free Press interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs. For him and others, the wasted machinery also helps explain the sharp drop — from 36 to 12 — in the number of full-time workers assigned to fill potholes, pick up bulk trash and improve alleys.

The Free Press talked with employees and viewed the idle equipment after mayoral candidate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey mentioned the situation during an interview with the newspaper’s editorial board last week. Mr. Morrissey said workers pointed out the equipment when he paid a visit to the compound, along with giving him an earful on the need for change. How much equipment is going Please turn to A4

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

This photo shows a line of snowplows and the large Rosco gravel chip spreader that the Richmond Department of Public Works has left parked for years. Location: The department’s Hopkins Road compound in South Side.


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October 13 15, 2016 issue by Richmond Free Press - Issuu