Richmond traces its roots to the 1600s when, shortly after the landing at Jamestown, Christopher Newport explored the falls of the James. William Byrd is credited with founding the settlement that grew into the Richmond of today. The first debate regarding school buildings probably occurred between Richmond’s 1742 incorporation as a town and its 1782 incorporation as a city.

Bryan T. Norwood entered an awkward political environment when he started as Richmond’s police chief just over a year ago. Norwood, the former police chief in Bridgeport, Conn., had been selected by outgoing Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, and he started as chief the day before the election of a new mayor, Dwight C. Jones, who had called for the appointment to be left to the new administration.

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones today announced plans to correct “major financial management failures” in the Department of Social Services after the discovery of an estimated $3.8 million overbilling to the state.

Sitting with Mayor Dwight C. Jones, the Richmond City Council last night approved a $630 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year that includes no pay raises for employees and imposes a new fee on property owners to fund stormwater-management projects. The council voted 8-1 to adopt the plan for fiscal 2009-10 that’s about $25 million less than this year’s budget and $400,000 more than what Jones had recommended.

A renewal of the sense of urgency from the civil-rights movement is needed to close the nation’s educational achievement gap, Virginia Union University graduates were told yesterday. “To be sure, education is the new civil-rights agenda,“ Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones told graduates of his alma mater. Fifty-five years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing school segregation, much work still needs to be done to change the paradigm of educational opportunities, he said.

Increases
  $100,000 , James River Park personnel
  $355,000 , commonwealth’s attorney office salaries
  $24,000 , Garfield Memorial Child Guidance-Childsavers
  $20,000 , VJ Harris Health Clinic
  $60,000 , Maymont
  $70,000 , Economic Development Consortium
  $7,500 , Fan Party Patrol

The economy is so rough that even the river otters at Maymont are getting hit with furloughs. The popular Richmond park has closed its Nature Center on Mondays to reduce expenses in the face of sagging donations and budget cuts. “It’s indefinite at this point,“ said Norman Burns, executive director of the nonprofit Maymont Foundation, which manages the 100-acre property for the city.

Wow. The reaction occurred during a conversation yesterday between the Editorial staff and Mike Signer, candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. The night before, Signer attended the annual action meeting of Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities (RISC). The commitment manifested by the approximately 1,000 attendees at a Good Shepherd Baptist Church impressed him. A veteran of think-tank conferences drawing a handful of experts and poseurs, Signer applauded a meeting in which real citizens joined community leaders in talking about public policy.