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.

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 will work with the School Board, community partners, and city agencies to identify holistic solutions to fixing our schools.
We need to create a culture of support for our teachers, students and families.

- Implement trauma-informed school-based health centers. In my work in the General Assembly, I have helped lead the efforts to bring this concept from other states where it has been effectively implemented into Virginia schools. This approach ensures holistic access to quality health care for the children that need it most.

- Establish an empowered and permanent teacher advisory committee that has input and voting power on items that directly impact teachers such as grading software programs, textbooks, curriculum and courses.

- Create intentional opportunities for teacher learning collaboratives and shared best practices.

- Richmond has one of the highest rates of lottery ticket purchases in the Commonwealth. We need to push for transparency in the Virginia Education Lottery Fund to ensure that Richmond is getting every dollar for education that they are entitled to.

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.