Jones says he’s focusing on improving city operations

Calling himself Richmond's biggest cheerleader, Mayor Dwight C. Jones treated the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce to his first "state of the city" speech this morning.

Jones kept the talk to themes he has honed in dozens of appearances since taking office in January. A real state of the city assessment, he said, would be difficult at this point.

"It's hard to do when you've been in office just 134 days," he said.

As he has done since January, Jones focused on improving how the city government operates and finding ways to maximize use of a shrinking base of tax dollars.

"This is a city of opportunity," he said. "It's amazing to see cranes downtown in the midst of a recession."

He said he thought the city had a good master plan, and he was looking forward to improving quality of life, both economically and environmentally.

"It's a plan. A plan is a guide, and that means there will be some negotiation along the way," he said. "I want to find a balance between preservation and economic development."

In a jovial mood, he played the room for a few laughs, including one on the topic of landfill fees. He's proposing that the city charge the same amount as surrounding counties.

"In the spirit of regional cooperation," Jones said, "we don't want them to have a fee we don't have."

He called high-speed rail "a deal-maker" for Richmond, said the topic of baseball was far from a consensus and that it was time to get working on a number of long-needed capital improvements, including building new schools and a new jail.

"It's absolutely immoral having anyone living under those conditions," he said of the city's jail. "We just can't operate an institution in that kind of condition."

He said he was setting aside more than $18 million for school construction projects, plus another $5 million or so to continue the effort to make schools handicap-accessible.

"It's time to pull the trigger on those projects," he said.

-- Zachary Reid