Platform
The 5th District is an amazing place to live, work and play - but there is still so much progress to be made for our schools, access to quality housing, public transportation and infrastructure, our public safety processes, and so many other facets of city government. I’ve spent this past year getting to work on these issues, and I look forward to continuing to make real progress together.
Schools
This means holding the city accountable for its promises, asking tough questions, and measuring our success against what has made a true and tangible impact for city residents. We need to renew our commitment to engaging with people first, before decisions are made.
- Provide the resources and support necessary to ensure that teachers, children, support staff, and families can safely navigate learning during COVID-19.
- Create a culture of support for our teachers, students and families. That includes re-committing to the teacher and staff raises included in the pre-COVID city budget, and fighting for more resources in subsequent budgets
- Prior to serving on Council, I worked to implement the first trauma-informed school-based health centers in Virginia. We need to bring that model of wrap around supports integrated into schools to Richmond.
- Establish an empowered and permanent teacher advisory committee, with oversight on curriculum, purchasing decisions, and more.
- Implement restorative justice practices, increase transparency and reporting around disciplinary enforcement, and remove armed police officers from our schools.
The 5th District deserves a transparent and high-quality city government that functions, for everyone.
- Implement an Accountability and Transparency task force that reports to the Governmental Operations Committee for contracts over a certain dollar amount and/or of particular import to the community, to ensure accountability, responsible fiscal stewardship and best practices in contract management.
This includes actions to: Establish a “Community Development Hub,” a collaboration between civic and neighborhood association leaders and community members, whereby a central forum for Developers who wish to partner and/or receive public funds from Richmond City, can have a central place to engage the community so that critical projects are thoroughly vetted and community members have access to information on major projects upfront, instead of being behind it.
- Leverage technology to automate and bring efficiencies to city government departments in the areas of permitting, contract management and finance.
- Overhaul and reexamine our City’s procurement process and implement steps to follow best practices from other localities.
- Implement a permitting “Strike Force” to address outstanding permits for businesses and residents over a certain aged date.
- Implement a penalty and accountability system for departments that fail to pay vendors and contractors by the obligated deadline-- this includes RPS vendors.
- Implement all recommendations as noted by the City Auditor in the most recent report on inefficiencies and malpractice within the Department of Social Services.
- Require a report on all eligibility determinations exceeding 20 business days.
- Require a community assessment of child welfare cases that may be eligible to receive a new federal funding for the “Families First” Act.
Throughout the years, I have built relationships with local elected officials, administration staff and business leaders in localities around the Commonwealth. I firmly believe we should be competitive and on par, as a city government, with our surrounding neighbors and municipalities. City Council members can and should encourage the Administration through collaboration, legislation and budget action to make these strides.
I do not believe in reinventing the wheel. On day one in office, I plan to initiate a shared best-practice project to collaborate with fellow Council members and leverage relationships with friends and colleagues across the Commonwealth, to understand what technology, business processes and levers they have employed to create a more effective and efficient city government to help meet the goals mentioned above.
Public Safety
Re-imagining public safety in our City by ensuring transparency and accountability in our police department, but also through changing our approach to how we serve and protect all of our residents.
- We need a transformative rebalancing of the institutions in our public safety and criminal justice system. As a career social worker, I’ve seen how our current approach to policing has traumatized communities, perpetuated health disparities, increased recidivism rates, created an oppressed population of low-income workers, and disenfranchised black lives.
- I’ve worked on Council to lift up the incredible work of community activists and reform groups and translate the protests and pain in our communities into policy. I’ve worked with my Council colleagues to introduce the “Marcus Alert” mental health crisis intervention hotline, start the process of creating an empowered Citizen Review Board with oversight capacity of RPD, and curtail RPD use of force towards protestors
- We have a lot of work ahead of us. We need to continue to engage with our community members and activists, as well as the public safety apparatus, to:
- Ensure funding parity between the Public Defender's Office and prosecutors in the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office.
- Demilitarize the police. Richmond is not a warzone, and Richmond police are not soldiers - they should not be equipped with military-grade weapons. I support ending all contracts between RPD and the military, and removing all militarized equipment from our city inventory.
- Drug Courts. Addiction is a disease, not a crime. We need to reform Richmond drug courts to direct residents into substance abuse recovery facilities and rehabilitative services, not incarceration
- School Resource Officers. I support transitioning police officers out of Richmond Public Schools and replacing them with trauma-informed case officers. Our kids need and deserve support, not incarceration.
The 5th District deserves a transparent and high-quality city government that functions, for everyone.
- Implement an Accountability and Transparency task force that reports to the Governmental Operations Committee for contracts over a certain dollar amount and/or of particular import to the community, to ensure accountability, responsible fiscal stewardship and best practices in contract management.
This includes actions to: Establish a “Community Development Hub,” a collaboration between civic and neighborhood association leaders and community members, whereby a central forum for Developers who wish to partner and/or receive public funds from Richmond City, can have a central place to engage the community so that critical projects are thoroughly vetted and community members have access to information on major projects upfront, instead of being behind it.
- Leverage technology to automate and bring efficiencies to city government departments in the areas of permitting, contract management and finance.
- Overhaul and reexamine our City’s procurement process and implement steps to follow best practices from other localities.
- Implement a permitting “Strike Force” to address outstanding permits for businesses and residents over a certain aged date.
- Implement a penalty and accountability system for departments that fail to pay vendors and contractors by the obligated deadline-- this includes RPS vendors.
- Implement all recommendations as noted by the City Auditor in the most recent report on inefficiencies and malpractice within the Department of Social Services.
- Require a report on all eligibility determinations exceeding 20 business days.
- Require a community assessment of child welfare cases that may be eligible to receive a new federal funding for the “Families First” Act.
Throughout the years, I have built relationships with local elected officials, administration staff and business leaders in localities around the Commonwealth. I firmly believe we should be competitive and on par, as a city government, with our surrounding neighbors and municipalities. City Council members can and should encourage the Administration through collaboration, legislation and budget action to make these strides.
I do not believe in reinventing the wheel. On day one in office, I plan to initiate a shared best-practice project to collaborate with fellow Council members and leverage relationships with friends and colleagues across the Commonwealth, to understand what technology, business processes and levers they have employed to create a more effective and efficient city government to help meet the goals mentioned above.
Housing
Expanding access to affordable housing, tackling our eviction crisis, and helping our legacy residents age in place.
We need to utilize all of the tools in the tool box to address budget shortfalls in Richmond and generate more revenue by...
- Making up for lost tax revenue by increasing the minimal tax that state-owned buildings pay. This tax is technically called a “payment in lieu of taxes” and is an agreement between state-owned buildings and the city.
There is over $781,689,000 in non-taxable property from Virginia’s state agencies and $2.3 billion from Richmond-based universities. Richmonders pay more money in real-estate tax to subsidize non-taxable property than any municipality in the Commonwealth- approximately .36 cents of every $1.20 of real estate paid by residents goes to subsidize nontaxable property.
We are currently only generating $3.2 million of tax revenue into the city’s coffers and we could be generating millions more dollars if we negotiated a higher fee from the state agency-owned buildings. With strategy and the right advocates, it can and should be done.
- Supporting the “at-risk add on” for schools that have an unjust concentration of poverty. The at-risk add-on allocates additional dollars to low-income students. We are currently capped at 13%, one of the lowest in the nation. This has earned us an “F” rating from the Virginia Education Law Center.
It’s not just more money- it’s money targeted towards prevention, programs and teacher retention. Richmond would benefit greatly from these funds and it would help alleviate pressure on taxpayers.
- Modify the street maintenance formula so that cities like Richmond receive their fare share of funding for street paving and maintenance.
- I fought for $300,000 in funding in the City budget for housing assistance for those facing eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to ensure that no Richmonder is forced to navigate this health crisis on the street.
- Richmond was the #2 City in the country for evictions prior to the COVID-19 Crisis. I will continue to fight to support our new Pilot Eviction Diversion Program, as well as expand the Housing Affordability Trust Fund, and work with our state level legislative delegation on legislation to expand the rights and resources available to tenants in Richmond.
- As our communities continue to grow, we can’t be displacing and pricing-out our legacy residents. On Council I’ve worked to expand our outreach efforts to educate our elderly legacy residents about the City’s elderly tax abatement program.
Infrastructure
Modernizing our aging infrastructure, protecting and preserving our environment, and creating a more inclusive city landscape.
We need to fully fund efforts that will modernize our aging infrastructure, protect and preserve our environment, and create a more inclusive city landscape.
These include:
- Support and fund citizen recommendations for the James River Master Plan.
- Create incentives for developers to ‘green’ spaces and preserve trees.
- Maximize solar energy opportunities in ‘brownfields,’ or unusable land.
- Restrict the harmful use of harmful chemicals such as glyphosate in and near Richmond schools and public parks.
- Increase street, gutter and sewer cleanings for the health of our roads, rivers and oceans, and invest in modernizing our combined sewer outflow to help protect the James.
- Increase funding for public works to match our sister cities such as Norfolk and increase accountability for contracted work using risk and performance-based measures.
- Maintain all current conservation easements.
- Leverage federal and state grants to fully fund the Parks and Recreation Department.
- Support top priority action items in the “Clean City Commission” Master Plan.
- Invest in our commitment to Vision Zero: that means building more protected bike lanes, protecting pedestrians by lowering speed limits in residential areas and installing more high visibility crosswalks, and ensure community policing is responsive to dangerous driving in our neighborhoods.
- Fully fund GRTC, and ensure that investments such as the BRT translate into access for everyone across Richmond.
In my first year on Council, I’ve already sponsored resolutions to expand our green spaces and ensure access for all 5th District Residents in places like Canoe Run Park. Going forward, I will continue to advocate to fully fund efforts that will address our crumbling infrastructure, bolster our incredible natural assets in the 5th, and create an urban landscape that is navigable for everyone.
These include:
- Support and fund citizen recommendations for the James River Master Plan.
- Leverage funds from the newly created Regional Transportation Authority to fully fund GRTC, and ensure that we pair investments such as the BRT with increased route frequency on local routes that ensure access for neighborhoods throughout the 5th.
- Increase street, gutter and sewer cleanings for the health of our roads, rivers and oceans, and invest in modernizing our combined sewer outflow to help protect the James.
- Increase funding for public works to match our sister cities such as Norfolk and increase accountability for contracted work using risk and performance-based measures.
- Invest in our commitment to Vision Zero: that means building more protected bike lanes like we see on Idlewood, protecting pedestrians by lowering speed limits in residential areas and installing more high visibility crosswalks, and ensuring increased enforcement of speeding/reckless driving in residential neighborhoods
- Support top priority action items in the “Clean City Commission” Master Plan.
- Reinstate the Urban Forestry Commission
Trust and Transparency
Working to promote greater transparency and trust in city government means holding the city accountable for its promises, asking tough questions, and measuring our success against what has made a true and tangible impact for city residents. We need to renew our commitment to engaging with people first, before decisions are made.
We need to fully fund efforts that will modernize our aging infrastructure, protect and preserve our environment, and create a more inclusive city landscape.
These include:
- Support and fund citizen recommendations for the James River Master Plan.
- Create incentives for developers to ‘green’ spaces and preserve trees.
- Maximize solar energy opportunities in ‘brownfields,’ or unusable land.
- Restrict the harmful use of harmful chemicals such as glyphosate in and near Richmond schools and public parks.
- Increase street, gutter and sewer cleanings for the health of our roads, rivers and oceans, and invest in modernizing our combined sewer outflow to help protect the James.
- Increase funding for public works to match our sister cities such as Norfolk and increase accountability for contracted work using risk and performance-based measures.
- Maintain all current conservation easements.
- Leverage federal and state grants to fully fund the Parks and Recreation Department.
- Support top priority action items in the “Clean City Commission” Master Plan.
- Invest in our commitment to Vision Zero: that means building more protected bike lanes, protecting pedestrians by lowering speed limits in residential areas and installing more high visibility crosswalks, and ensure community policing is responsive to dangerous driving in our neighborhoods.
- Fully fund GRTC, and ensure that investments such as the BRT translate into access for everyone across Richmond.
The 5th District deserves a transparent and high-quality city government that functions, for everyone.
- Implement an Accountability and Transparency task force that reports to the Governmental Operations Committee for contracts over a certain dollar amount and/or of particular import to the community, to ensure accountability, responsible fiscal stewardship and best practices in contract management. This includes actions to: Establish a “Community Development Hub,” a collaboration between civic and neighborhood association leaders and community members, whereby a central forum for Developers who wish to partner and/or receive public funds from Richmond City, can have a central place to engage the community so that critical projects are thoroughly vetted and community members have access to information on major projects upfront, instead of being behind it.
- Leverage technology to automate and bring efficiencies to city government departments in the areas of permitting, contract management and finance
- Overhaul and reexamine our City’s procurement process and implement steps to follow best practices from other localities.
- Implement a permitting “Strike Force” to address outstanding permits for businesses and residents over a certain aged date
- Implement a penalty and accountability system for departments that fail to pay vendors and contractors by the obligated deadline-- this includes RPS vendors.
- Implement all recommendations as noted by the City Auditor in the most recent report on inefficiencies and malpractice within the Department of Social Services
- Require a report on all eligibility determinations exceeding 20 business days
- Require a community assessment of child welfare cases that may be eligible to receive a new federal funding for the “Families First” Act.
Budgeting
We need to ensure that city dollars are spent wisely and that Richmond is getting its fair share out of the Virginia budget. Raising taxes and increasing the cost of living for Richmonders cannot and should not be the fix to all that ails us. We have to be strategic and make sure we continue to create efficiencies on the local level while also pushing for policies on the state level that will bring resources back home and leave Richmond in a better place for future generations.
We need to utilize all of the tools in the tool box to address budget shortfalls in Richmond and generate more revenue by...
- Making up for lost tax revenue by increasing the minimal tax that state-owned buildings pay. This tax is technically called a “payment in lieu of taxes” and is an agreement between state-owned buildings and the city.
There is over $781,689,000 in non-taxable property from Virginia’s state agencies and $2.3 billion from Richmond-based universities. Richmonders pay more money in real-estate tax to subsidize non-taxable property than any municipality in the Commonwealth- approximately .36 cents of every $1.20 of real estate paid by residents goes to subsidize nontaxable property.
We are currently only generating $3.2 million of tax revenue into the city’s coffers and we could be generating millions more dollars if we negotiated a higher fee from the state agency-owned buildings. With strategy and the right advocates, it can and should be done.
- Supporting the “at-risk add on” for schools that have an unjust concentration of poverty. The at-risk add-on allocates additional dollars to low-income students. We are currently capped at 13%, one of the lowest in the nation. This has earned us an “F” rating from the Virginia Education Law Center.
It’s not just more money- it’s money targeted towards prevention, programs and teacher retention. Richmond would benefit greatly from these funds and it would help alleviate pressure on taxpayers.
- Modify the street maintenance formula so that cities like Richmond receive their fare share of funding for street paving and maintenance.
We need to utilize all of the tools in the tool box to address budget shortfalls in Richmond and generate more revenue by...
- Making up for lost tax revenue by increasing the minimal tax that state-owned buildings pay. This tax is technically called a “payment in lieu of taxes” and is an agreement between state-owned buildings and the city.
There is over $781,689,000 in non-taxable property from Virginia’s state agencies and $2.3 billion from Richmond-based universities. Richmonders pay more money in real-estate tax to subsidize non-taxable property than any municipality in the Commonwealth- approximately .36 cents of every $1.20 of real estate paid by residents goes to subsidize nontaxable property.
We are currently only generating $3.2 million of tax revenue into the city’s coffers and we could be generating millions more dollars if we negotiated a higher fee from the state agency-owned buildings. With strategy and the right advocates, it can and should be done.
- Supporting the “at-risk add on” for schools that have an unjust concentration of poverty. The at-risk add-on allocates additional dollars to low-income students. We are currently capped at 13%, one of the lowest in the nation. This has earned us an “F” rating from the Virginia Education Law Center.
It’s not just more money- it’s money targeted towards prevention, programs and teacher retention. Richmond would benefit greatly from these funds and it would help alleviate pressure on taxpayers.
- Modify the street maintenance formula so that cities like Richmond receive their fare share of funding for street paving and maintenance.
Gun Violence
I live four blocks away from Carter Jones park where the Dickson family tragically lost their daughter to crossfire. Gun violence is a lived reality for so many in our community. We need to fully support measures to prevent and decrease gun violence, particularly in trauma-impacted communities.
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