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Originally published in THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS March 22, 2005 Copyright 2005 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS http://www.dallasnews.com

By EMILY RAMSHAW, Staff Writer

Second of two reports

RICHMOND, Va. - Residents of this historic Southern capital have watched helplessly for years as their city fell from grace, demanding relief from high murder and poverty rates, decaying schools and corruption at City Hall.

So when former Virginia governor and homegrown hero Douglas Wilder swept in with a referendum to implement a strong-mayor government, Richmond voters were eager to oblige - and to elect the black icon in a landslide victory.

"It was a combination of a very forceful, charismatic figure and popular concern about how Richmond had really been disgraced," said John Moeser, a professor of urban studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The magnitude of the change, and having a former governor running for mayor in the capital city of Virginia ... it was absolutely phenomenal."

As Dallas gears up to decide on the merits of a strong-mayor system, Richmond provides an interesting case study.

In the first months under Mr. Wilder, Richmond has seen what strong-mayor proponents call the system's greatest benefits - rapid decision-making, sweeping change and an empowered, accountable elected official. But critics of the form of government say Richmond's strong mayor has brought out the worst: poor checks and balances, a lack of representation and a power struggle that has left individual council members with much less authority.

Richmond's first popularly elected mayor in 60 years has slashed departments, fired the city manager and police chief, and persuaded council members to grant him even greater powers. Supporters say they trust his judgment. Opponents are outraged.

"All the checks and balances that would normally be taken into consideration have been ignored" because of Mr. Wilder's stature in Richmond, said Virginia state Sen. Henry Marsh, who served as the city's first black mayor in the late 1970s. "You don't change a system to meet an individual's needs. He has full power."

With a population just under 200,000, Richmond is one-sixth the size of Dallas. But Richmond faces similar big-city challenges, from poverty and homelessness to a sky-high crime rate that once earned it a place on the FBI's 10 Most Dangerous Cities list.

Like Dallas, some of Richmond's companies and residents have fled to the suburbs, despite elected officials' efforts to create jobs and breathe life back into downtown.

But the region's 400-year history - which includes early British settlements, the Revolutionary War and the city's Civil War role as the capital of the Confederacy - precludes deeper comparisons.

While race relations are the elephant in the room for many Southern cities, some Richmond residents still see their majority-minority city's legacy of slaveholding and resistance to racial integration as a permanent, impossible obstacle.

"Richmond is still clinging to the past while trying to move ahead," said Raymond Boone, publisher of the Richmond Free Press, the city's black newspaper.

For Mr. Wilder, there's no looking back. With the energy and insistence of a teenager, the assurance of a veteran and a clear mandate from voters, the 73-year-old has taken City Hall by storm. He's forced department directors to re-apply for their jobs and eliminated individuals and agencies that he believes contributed to Richmond's decline.

"Richmond had become a cesspool of corruption and inefficiency, and everybody was passing the buck," said Mr. Wilder, who has warned his 4,500 city employees that more reorganization and potential budget cuts are in the forecast. "Four years from now, I want this city to be far better than it is today. We're going to stop giving ourselves high fives when we don't deserve them."

In his campaign to change Richmond's form of government, Mr. Wilder emphasized the worst: the city's job losses (3,500 in the last three years) and high rates of truancy and sexually transmitted disease. But with Richmond's dropping crime rate, a new convention center and a listing as one of Forbes magazine's 10 most business-friendly cities, some believe this state capital was on the rebound well before the new mayor entered the picture.

As the morning fog lifts and flurries dust the windshield, Virginia Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine weaves his pickup through chilly downtown Richmond, listing the city's recent successes over the rattle of jackhammers at dozens of construction sites.

Since Mr. Kaine's recent term as Richmond mayor, long-neglected warehouses have morphed into loft apartments and nightclubs. Abandoned department stores have taken on new life. And families are moving back downtown into restored turn-of-the-century townhomes.

Would a strong mayor have sped up this process? Absolutely, Mr. Kaine said. "When you put things in the hands of an executive, they're much more likely to accelerate," he said.

Richmonders elected their mayor until 1948, when the city adopted a council-manager system. For the next two decades, an at-large council appointed the mayor from among its members and hired a city manager to run Richmond's professional operation.

But as the city's black population grew, white council members began to get skittish. In 1970, they crafted a deal to annex part of Chesterfield County, a move designed to water down the city's black vote. Richmond's black leaders filed suit and won, resulting in the current system of nine single-member districts. This laid the groundwork for a majority black council with the city's first black mayor.

Early rumblings for a popularly elected mayor began in 1995, when the City Council placed a measure on the ballot. Voters approved it easily. But the General Assembly - the Virginia legislative body that must approve cities' charter changes - considered Richmond's fiery history and refused to approve it.

By mid-2002, Mr. Wilder had again become a visible presence in Richmond politics, calling for accountability and a strong, popularly elected mayor at City Hall. He and U.S. Rep. Thomas Bliley, a former Richmond mayor, petitioned the public and oversaw months of hearings before gaining enough support to put a popularly elected mayor issue on the November 2003 ballot - under the condition that a candidate would have to win five of nine council districts to be elected.

The strong-mayor referendum had formidable opponents. Black leaders from the state assembly and the community argued such a system would reduce their hard-earned representation at City Hall and make running for office so expensive that only the wealthy could compete. But on election day, the measure passed overwhelmingly, carrying nearly all the city's voting precincts.

"The NAACP, the black ministers, the black newspaper, the Richmond Education Association - they all said, 'We're turning back the clock on progress,' and still it passed," Mr. Wilder said. "The city's black population said, 'We think for ourselves.'"

With Mr. Kaine presiding over the state Senate, the charter amendments sped through the General Assembly. But once the governance change was in place, the top-notch mayoral candidates that many anticipated didn't appear. Mr. Wilder, who had vowed he would not run for mayor, offered to lead his hometown through the transition - and won the election with 80 percent of the vote.

"I didn't want it," he said. "But I figured if I had to do it for a couple of years, I'd do it."

Since taking office in January, Mr. Wilder has become Richmond's local celebrity. They talk about him in the barber chair, in dingy diners and corner coffee shops. And as a general rule, they either revere him or reject him.

"I hear a lot of people saying, 'What Wilder wants, Wilder gets,'" said Shelia Folley, a restaurant owner who has watched businesses shutter and lunchtime traffic trail off. "The city of Richmond has done less and less for us as time goes by. I have to be optimistic he will make things get better."

As the setting sun spills shadows over downtown Richmond, the city - with its historic government buildings, powder-white churches, grand pillars and echoing foyers - looks more like an excavation site. The state Capitol building is undergoing renovation, and workers are replacing City Hall's crumbling façade.

But this makeover isn't just external. Richmond's new mayor has assumed full responsibility for the city's day-to-day operation.

In his boldest move so far, the mayor asked the council to grant him additional powers, including the authority to veto certain council actions and oversee the school board budget. Members consented, and the state assembly has since approved these and other charter changes.

"Before, we had nine mayors in these nine council members," Mr. Wilder said. "The public was really cut off from the process."

City employees say these early changes haven't been good for morale, with many fearing for their jobs. And some council members who have been outwardly supportive of the mayor's actions say they are grappling to meet their constituents' demands with reduced powers.

The grumbling on the council is typical of a city in transition, said Richmond Vice Mayor G. Manoli Loupassi. While Mr. Wilder was elected with a clear mandate, he said, many council members received similar support from voters.

The mayor "has the political strength to quell opposition," Mr. Loupassi said. "But there are still people [on the council] who were against this to begin with, and they're still against it now."

Mr. Wilder has only committed to serving one term. But the mayor hasn't closed any doors, saying the inefficiency at Richmond City Hall is thicker than he ever imagined.

"You can't expect a culture change overnight," he explained.

But what happens when Mr. Wilder is no longer the nurturer? Critics fear their next strong mayor will have all the power of the current one, without the values or sense of restraint.

"Now, the mayor is only accountable to the people who raised half a million dollars to elect him," said Mr. Marsh. Strong mayors "set up the possibility for pork-barrel projects. They're more likely to be corrupt."

Any democracy runs the risk of corruption, and a strong-mayor system is no exception, Dr. Moeser said. But Mr. Wilder is setting the bar high, he said, and future voters won't put up with anything less.

"Across the board, people have greater hope at a time when there was little spirit," Mr. Boone said. "He has lifted expectations. The challenge now is whether he'll be able to live up to them."