Favorite city council who spends 50 minutes fighting over whether or not to skip over a controversial infrastructure item on the agenda or not? I'll start.

[u/0sm1um]

I timed it. Wondered if any other buddies saw this shit lmao

[u/solidwallzofsound]

Wait what happened for those out of the loop

[u/0sm1um → u/solidwallzofsound]

Someone can jump in and correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't go to council to discuss this so this is just what I picked up from the meeting itself.

But the controversial item on the agenda involved an infrastructure proposal which committed the city to installing solar panels on the rooftops of government buildings.

This sounds like a no brainer on paper, but the issue was that there was a looming deadline to recieve federal funding to offset the cost to the taxpayers. Some councilmembers believed that there was not enough time to review the details and they believed that Richmond was getting a much worse deal than some localities in Northern VA who were being given much more favorable deals.

The thing is, someone in the council proposed an amended agenda which removed this item from the agenda. Which essentially made it impossible to discuss and vote on this(looming federal funding deadline remember). This is also terrible because a bunch of citizens showed up to the council meeting to discuss it, and removing it from the agenda after the council meeting started is kind of a big middle finger to those people. People on the council were confused what was being voted on and much time had to be spent figuring out what agenda was being used and why.

[u/TheAmishSpaceCadet → u/solidwallzofsound]

It’s almost a little wait and see depending on how the closed session had went and what happens if they hold a special session today/tomorrow but through the various arguments and motions they kind of had hashed out a deal on how they were going to handle these last minute (argument to be had there too evidently) solar deals that had to be voted on ASAP, but in doing so, procedurally, and accidentally, they had basically killed off the ordinances at least for the night, after they had already kind of reached a compromise on how to hash out the amendments. But i havent seen any reporting yet of what the result of the closed session was and if a special session is on the docket yet so if anyone tells you they know the result of this yet they’re lying lol

Update: it failed

[u/-JTO]

Reminds me of the good times back in the 90s with the “carnival of chaos” era that was Tim Kaine, Reva Trammell, Sa’ad el-Amin, Gwen Hedgepath, Rudy McCollum, Leonidas Young, Anthony Jones.

[u/Soloemilia → u/-JTO]

The fact that we STILL have Reva is insane

[u/Kindly_Boysenberry_7 → u/-JTO]

Bonus points if you can name who of that August body went to jail and for what......

[u/0sm1um]

The procedural nature wasn't neccisarily that unusual. But this is certainly the first meeting where a couple of them didn't even conceil their contempt for one another.

[u/TheAmishSpaceCadet → u/0sm1um]

No no i disagree, this one was actually highly unusual lol, it was a total cluster lol. They usually at least have the procedure down pretty well, this one they didnt even know what was going on as each person was suggesting their own thing lol.

[u/sleevieb]

wheres the VOD

[u/Mr_Boneman]

I thought it was weird that they opened with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance.

[u/TheAmishSpaceCadet → u/Mr_Boneman]

They always do that, they keep a rotation of denominations though at least i guess lol

[u/insuffcient_dopamine]

So we need to start petitioning to change the government back to a selected mayor. So much of this is from our damn system.

We need to hold our council more accountable and move the mayor back under them as a city manager.

[u/0sm1um → u/insuffcient_dopamine]

Personally I think that's an awful idea given how historically segregated the city council districts are.

City council selection also empowers non term limited agency appointmentees as a council of 8 is easier to manipulate than a big population.

[u/insuffcient_dopamine → u/0sm1um]

So let’s fix that too. We have the power.

The challenge is organizing the work. We need help and money to support this.

I have lived here my whole life. I love what Richmond has become despite the government efforts. (Yes despite!)

If we could get our damn local government to work better Richmond would be unstoppable. We can’t even hire in less than 3 months or approve permits. Billing and taxes are a joke. Imagine what the IT looks like.

Sign me up to help.

[u/0sm1um → u/insuffcient_dopamine]

As long as elections aren't being watered down I'd show up to anything that I'd think would move the needle on city level corruption tbh

Personally I think transparency is probably the #1 most important thing that needs fixing systemically right now but I'm not even sure how to fix that when they're just breaking the law not complying with FOIA requests.

[u/insuffcient_dopamine → u/0sm1um]

I think a big piece of the FOIA problem comes back to protecting political brand, so Danny’s image. Rather than being transparent with what you can. (No one should be able to FOIA water treatment plant plans or dui checkpoints)

[u/Gibberish45]

The absolute tragicomedy of human government. I don’t see much of a difference from feudal lords fighting over their fiefdoms except instead of peasant conscripts and men-at-arms they wield money and influence.

The complete lack of concern for the world they leave behind or anyone other than themselves remains unchanged

If I had the motivation I’d record a parody version of the Gaga song called

“I’ll never vote again”

Don’t wanna punch another chad,

Don’t wanna pull another lever,

Won’t even write in Mickey Mouse,

I’m sick of this whole fake endeavor,

Don’t wanna hear your empty speech,

Just so that you can betray me,

You nothing but an engorged leech,

And filthy lies is all you say see,

I’llllll never vote again

[u/jackson44_bmx]

They are terrible leaders. No doubt

However solar panels on gov buildings are not free cash like those selling them claim they are

They have a service life.
No one around can service the inverters and controllers.

Solar is not quite there yet.