Richmond City Council OK’s Marshall as CAO

Richmond City Council approved Byron C. Marshall as the city's chief administrative officer last night.

The council voted 9-0 at a special session to approve Marshall's nomination to the post by Mayor Dwight C. Jones.

"We want to be able to say our city is a first-class city and in order to do that, we've got to be operating right and to do that we've got to have a leader," Jones told the council.

The chief administrative officer is the top bureaucrat in City Hall and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of city government.

Marshall has been serving as president and CEO of the nonprofit Austin Revitalization Authority in Texas.

He will begin working full time in Richmond on Aug. 1 but will be here most of each week this month, traveling back and forth to Texas at his own expense.

Jones said he expected Marshall to focus on improving the efficiency of city operations, financial management, economic and neighborhood development, and public safety

Asked afterward about his own top priority, Marshall replied: "I just got four from the mayor. Those are my priorities."

Marshall told the council that he sees some basic city services that could be better, but that he felt the city is on the right track.

"I think it is right that we begin our new fiscal year with a team in place," City Council President Kathy C. Graziano said.

Before running the Austin authority, Marshall worked as a city official in Houston, where he had been a top finance department official, and Washington, where he was a senior official in the social-services and corrections agencies, as well as budget coordinator.

He also was chief operating officer in Atlanta, where he helped prepare for the 1996 Olympics, but he left that position after a 1997 disclosure that he was consulting in Austin while an Atlanta city employee, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported at the time. He has said Atlanta's then-mayor had previously agreed that he could do with work.

Marshall is moving to Richmond as the city of Austin is conducting a performance audit that relates to its work with his nonprofit group. Results are expected in October.

Fan District resident Turk Sties urged the council to wait for that audit before considering appointing Marshall. But South Richmond businessman Charles Willis said he felt Marshall was the right man for the job.

"Mr. Marshall is going to be in the seat to take the heat; I know Mr. Jones, if he put him there, he's going to stand behind him," Willis told the council.

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or .