NORFOLK
Councilman W. Randy Wright is mounting a campaign to bring a strong-mayor form of government to the city. That would make Norfolk the only locality in Hampton Roads with a mayor running City Hall instead of a city manager.
Wright, who has been on the council for 16 years, said the city is ready for a change. He made his proposal pitch on Council Update, a program on a city-run TV cable channel.
Most great cities in America have a strong mayor, Wright said, listing New York, Atlanta and San Diego.
Two years ago, when the city changed to an elected mayor, many residents thought the switch meant Norfolk's government would be controlled by the mayor, Wright said.
"What we need is someone who's responsive to the citizens, someone who will pick up the phone and return calls, someone who won't be stuck in some ivory tower," Wright said.
He will need to sway his fellow council members, including Mayor Paul Fraim, who has been mayor for 14 years.
"I'm not for it. I'm not against it," Fraim said. "I'm certainly willing to talk about it."
Most mayors in Virginia are part-time. City governments are run by city managers appointed by the City Council. They hire and fire department heads and submit budgets.
The council-manager form of government emerged as an effort to remove politics from the administration of government. Staunton, Va., hired the first city manager in 1908.
Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot said he worries that neighborhoods in less-affluent areas of the city would lose influence with a strong mayor.
"Randy's proposal has both positives and negatives," he said.
Councilman Don Williams is wary and pointed to Richmond, which adopted a strong mayor form of government in 2004.
Mayor L. Douglas Wilder has feuded with the Richmond City Council and School Board. He tried to evict the school administration from City Hall before a judge told him that he can't. The standoff cost taxpayers more than $100,000, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
"Paul Fraim would be a great strong mayor," Williams said. "But that doesn't guarantee the next one would be. You could get someone who is charismatic and has no idea how to manage things."
Councilman Paul R. Riddick said Norfolk should be run by someone "with business acumen" instead of someone who can win an election.
Fraim said if he senses popular support for the proposal, a series of town hall meetings would be held, followed by a referendum. The plan would also have to win support from Virginia's General Assembly.
"I have always been supportive of the city manager form of government," Fraim said. "But because of the pressures now being placed on local government because of the heavy reliance on the real estate tax, and the difficulty people are experiencing paying their taxes, our citizens might be looking for a more responsive government, for more accountability.
"We need to hear from them whether this is what they want."
Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com
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Mayor vs City Manager
When will everyone wake up, this city has been controlled by the tax and spend Democrates for years and years. Its time to look at some other policical leaders. No matter what party they belong to it would be better than those in power now.
If the average person out spent his or her means they would be out on the street with nothing.
City hall constantly out spends its means and forces the average working person and the poor out on the steet or out of the city where the cost of living is less expensive.
I'm sure thats what they want, that being a city of the wealthy.
Its time to clean out the city government
Between the Crips and what we have now...
I'm pretty torn...
:-)
Randy Wright is not to be trusted
Watch out people. I was told by a delegate that Wright is supposed to be the successor to Fraim. It is as if the coucil jjust does what it wants no matter what it was sent there to do; the will of the people. It could not be clearer what is going on here. All of the council needs to be out of office for any trust to further between the city and it’s citizens. That goes as much for Fraim, Wright and most if not all others are drunk with power. Look to the states judicial ruling just yesterday where the city of Norfolk tried to throw out ballots of citizens they did not want to have the right to vote. Is it sinking in? If the citizens don't get in there and do something these corrupt politicians are going to run away with the city coffers; mark my word
Wright; 16 years, Fraim 14 years, see something there?
Ask yourself this. Are you happy with the job they have done for the past 14 and 16 years? Chances are you are not. Yet, due to name recognition, we keep voting in the same train wrecks that have gotten us to this mess. It's time to invoke TERM LIMITS on all elected and appointed positions in local government. With TERM LIMITS we would have a fresh set of eyes and ideas in our city governments. We'd be able to prevent the developers and leaches of our tax dollars from having a buddy in city hall to pay for their projects. We'd be able to stop the complacency of the elected and appointed seats from having their own agenda at heart, rather than the interest of the people of the cities. George Washington said himself that it was "wrong for any man to monopolize a seat of public trust". He limited every elected or appointed seat he had to two terms. He was a smart man and maybe we should heed his advice and put TERM LIMITS on all these public seats since none of the politicians today have the integrity to do so on their own. It's time to get rid of these worn out, complacent, corrupt people holding these seats and bring in fresh people with standard commitment and the best interest of
Let's give it a try
It's obvious that the current system isn't best serving the needs of Norfolk's citizens. Taxes need to be kept in check and better use of the money garnered from those taxes needs to be implemented. Is the current city manager (the post, not the person) accountable to the people? Not really. At least if the mayor does a bad job, the people can replace him. Of course, we will need to educate ourselves about this change so that people elect the mayor who is going to best run the city, not who gives the best speech or looks best on camera.
OH HELL NO!!!
Too much power for one person. Current mayor Fraim talks the talk on homelessness in Norfolk yet, the WALK has been to build condos in downtown Norfolk, of which are mostly unoccupied. They would be unoccupied even if the economy was in great shape. What is Norfolk Council thinking. Oh Yeah!! Build more condos. What true systems of checks and balances do these other cities have in place and do they implement them for cause? Wright’s idea intentional or not will increase the already increasing gap between the HAVES and HAVE NOTS that much faster. I will not waste any more of my time on this for it is a foolish idea for Norfolk as a whole.
Power!
The last thing council needs is more power. The present council system makes enough bad decisions without having to answer to a king or queen.
Great Idea....
but someone needs to clean house first.
Very Good Idea
Super idea. Let the mayor run the city and let the city manager do something else. The city manager should not have the power that she does not. It belongs to the mayor and city council. I like the idea of having someone in the mayor position that will listen to the citizens.