I am not aware of any time where a Mayor ordered such ‘regrettable’ action, where a chief administrator plotted in secret to prepare to implement such action, that a Police Chief had his or her men positioned to enable such an action to take place, and a respected Judge found such action so harmful that she had to issue not one but now two restraining orders, and the city’s academic, journalistic and legal power structure has not demanded that heads roll…. There has been a death at City Hall, if not in the soul of this town.” — Paul Goldman, “Death at City Hall.”
In today’s edition of “City Council Theatre,” we present a special guest appearance by the Mayor of Richmond, L. Douglas Wilder, in a performance that is either straight out of Shakespeare’s Richard III… or Christopher Walken’s psycho monologue in True Romance (it’s your call).
This featured footage of the mayor is from the evening of Sept. 10, when our Hizzoner offered up a verbal olive branch to Richmond City Council, offering to meet with them regularly, in front of the public, to talk about important issues (right after the CenterStage vote, of course), and promising to “wipe the slate clean” as far as all the bad feelings between his administration and the legislative branch of the city. Then he practically challenged 3rd district rep Chris Hilbert to a fight before concluding that they should leave the schools matter to the courts.
This “Journey to the Center of Doug’s Mind” is presented here in three parts:
1. Wilder: 15 Months Left
2. “Agendas”: What is Ellen Robertson Talking About?
3. Doug Vs. Hilbert: Let’s Get It On
As we know now, the Mayor’s “clean slate” was more of a nuclear strike. A week later, the office of the same Doug Wilder would accuse Council President Bill Pantele of surfing porn on a city computer, assert a questionable hiring and firing power over council aides, and kick the school board out of City Hall — more than a week before the deadline he set for them to leave. When a judge temporarily blocked the Mayor’s move and ordered the school administration back to City Hall, it touched off a legal firestorm where both the school board and the city council began suing the mayor. “Richmond was under attack,” Pantele thundered on Monday night in council chambers. “The mayor said two weeks ago that he doesn’t start fights, but he doesn’t run from them. Well, I’m not either,” Councilman Chris Hilbert echoed, while his fellow rep Bruce Tyler called the Mayor’s tactics, “guerilla warfare.”
That sound you aren’t hearing right now is schools being renovated and built. Or infrastructure being fixed.
The result of last Friday’s actions against the schools? As the Times-Dispatch reports this morning, “Circuit Judge Margaret P. Spencer yesterday extended the school administration’s safe haven in City Hall until Nov. 30 after finding that the aborted eviction Mayor L. Douglas Wilder ordered over the weekend caused substantial harm to the school system — including its students and employees.”
Wiping the slate clean, eh?
[For those who prefer their schizophrenic public pronouncements set to music, we present this special video "remix" of the Mayor's performance that night. Accompanied by the music of Big Fish, "Work Together" is the latest in a series of civic remixes presented by the mysterious (and prolific) DJ Fundraiser Flex.]
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Previously, on the fully-downloadable “City Council Theatre”:
Bill Pantele In All His Unedited, Vote-Rushing Glory
Ellen Robertson’s Hopes For Harmony
Delores McQuinn: “A Rush Job”
Let’s Get Bizet: The Wit & Wisdom of Marty Jewell
Bruce Tyler Wants Answers
Art Burton’s Ticking Time Clock Problem
Silver Persinger Would Like The Full Six Minutes
“Pantele — The Bosnia Remix” by DJ Fundraiser Flex
“Pantele — Make It Work” by DJ Dom DeLuise