Wilder Didn’t Propose Council Meetings
A scheduled meeting between Richmond City Council and Mayor L. Douglas Wilder is not the proposed public interface suggested by Wilder in a letter sent to council on Aug. 28. Nope, it’s just a ploy to get Wilder to finally attend a City Council meeting, says council President Bill Pantele: “He rarely attends, and when he does, it’s to make a pronouncement and then he leaves,” says Pantele, who says he’s spent the better part of three years trying to convince Wilder to work with City Council.
And speaking of cooperation, Pantele wonders whose money Richmond’s acting Chief Administrative Officer Harry Black spent when he signed a lease and sent off a check for $91,000 to the owners of 3600 W. Broad St., the building Mayor Wilder insists will soon be home to the Richmond Public Schools administration.
“It certainly cannot come from the schools’ budget,” says Pantele. “I am unaware of any other authority for it, and if the city was obligated to an unauthorized expenditure of a million dollars, the charter spells out what the consequences of that are.” And those consequences could include Black losing his job and paying out of his own pocket for the $550,000 lease agreement.
Legal wrangling: When Richmond City Council scraps with City Hall, they call in private attorney Sharon Pandak, but she’s got plenty of drama on her own. Pandak, of Greehan Taves Pandak & Stoner, represents council in the ongoing dispute over the Public Safety Building. In her spare time, she’s trying to kick Corey Stewart out of his seat as chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.
Stewart’s profile has grown over the past few months, thanks to his hard-nosed stance on illegal immigration. Pandak’s so fed up she’s been quoting Shakespeare. At a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, she accused Stewart of performing poorly in front of a congressional panel on the subject, reportedly orating, “So we have, as Shakespeare said, ‘sound and fury signifying nothing.'”
Perhaps Stewart should pop in a CD by Richmond’s own “psychedelic Dixieland” musician Gary Gerloff. Gerloff was recuperating from a minor household accident when his wife convinced him to use the time to go through the mail that had been piling up. He tore open an envelope dated Aug. 15 and was shocked to find a check for about $1,000 in royalties. The money was for his song “You’ll Never Find Another Daddy Like Me,” which, unbeknownst to Gerloff, was featured on the soundtrack to an episode of the NBC football drama, “Friday Night Lights.”
