He’s a big, mayoral-type fish in a small pond — a garrulous ex-governor with a penchant for prose and puttin’ up his paws.

She’s a saccharine-voiced Richmond School Board member and avowed Quaker with spunk who raised the ire of Hizzoner by holding onto her school board seat.

The topic: A recent court ruling that the Richmond School Board, not the city, is responsible for making schools handicap-accessible.

“Even the lower court’s ruling pointed out that the city had done nothing wrong and, for that reason, we thought it should be appealed so as not to give the impression that the city had done anything wrong.”

— Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, via press release after the city’s appellate-court vindication in an ongoing ADA lawsuit.

“Do you see what we’re doing? Whether we are telling people that some schools are for whites only or telling the [plaintiffs] that their son with disabilities cannot attend his neighborhood school … because it is for able-bodied only, we are guilty of discrimination.”

— Richmond School Board member Carol A.O. Wolf

“Suppose [Wolf] says the sky is falling, should I take it seriously?”

— Wilder in his Dec. 9, 2005, deposition in the ADA suit.

“Like a heat-seeking missile, Mr. Mayor. Like a heat-seeking missile.”

— Wolf