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In 2016, then-mayoral candidate Levar Stoney pledged that, if victorious, he would commission a comprehensive performance review to explore all that ailed City Hall operations. Jim Burke and Linda Pierce — who led the team of consultants from VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs that performed the review — came up with a staggering 228 recommendations across dozens of departments. In a news conference last month, Stoney unveiled the results of a second performance review, commissioned in May, that paints an entirely different picture of city government. The results of the updated review, which was also conducted by Burke and Pierce (who now run their own consulting firm), were much less bleak. The pair of consultants found that officials had implemented many of their recommendations, found alternative solutions for others and, overall, had dramatically improved the “vibe” at City Hall. But there was another major difference between the 2017 and 2024 studies: In the more recent one, Burke and Pierce limited their work to department directors and did not speak with lower-level employees or frontline workers.

More than two weeks passed between the time floodwaters swept 13 tanks filled with a hazardous chemical into the New River and when officials at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant realized the containers were missing. “To further dismay, RAAP withheld this information from residents along the river for another 3 weeks,” a statement issued by Citizens for Arsenal Accountability continued, referring to a Nov. 7 community meeting when details were first shared. At last week’s meeting, a recording of which is posted to the Radford Army Ammunition Plant’s Facebook page, the frustration of residents who live along the New River was obvious. At one point, one of them interrupted Lt. Col. Adrien Humphreys, the head of the arsenal, as she explained how information was being shared with the public. “This is not how you inform the public,” Georgia Doremus said of a meeting for which there was not widespread notice. “If you want to tell the public what’s going on, if you want the public to help you find these totes that are missing, then you should make it public.”

Two years ago, the Prince William supervisors tasked a committee with rewriting the county’s noise and zoning regulations to reduce data centers’ impacts on neighboring communities. Now, all six residents appointed to the group have revolted, going public to complain that their work is being slow walked by county staff and obstructed by representatives of the data center industry. The origins of the committee, known as the Data Center Ordinance Advisory Group, date to July 2022, when the county set up a steering committee of residents and businesses to give input on noise issues.

A group of Staunton residents have worked their way through every city office, getting a chance to explore what the city employees, volunteers, and leaders all do for residents. The group was attending the city’s Citizen University, a hands-on approach to learning what local government does and connecting it to more of the city’s residents. The group recently finished the 10-week course and were honored by Staunton City Council on Thursday night. (2nd item)

Board and Council members are elected to represent the people who put them into office. They are public servants who owe their constituents explanations to legitimate questions about their actions. In the 540, however, a growing number of public officials act as if winning elected office absolves them from that responsibility. Rather than answering questions, they choose silence. Oftentimes, the Advance has pointed to the Spotsylvania County School Board to demonstrate the contempt elected officials can have for citizens who demand answers for actions a board has taken. They aren’t alone. Also last week, the Advance exposed how Stafford County Board of Supervisors’ Chair Meg Bohmke earlier in the year damaged a citizen’s reputation and has refused to tell her why. Bohmke’s dismissive attitude toward this individual is apparently shared by most of the other Board members, who went along with the public humiliation.

This is one of my weird FOIA tics (Don't judge me!): When a prominent public figure dies, my knee-jerk reaction is to fire off a request to the FBI for a copy of the investigative file the bureau maintained on them (assuming there is one and there usually is). So when Bill Walton—NBA Hall of Famer, broadcaster and Deadhead—died in May of cancer at the age of 71, I immediately asked for his file. I just received the documents the bureau sent me. They’re largely about Walton’s connection to an infamous kidnapping case.