Pantele should step-down as Council head due to growing budget mess, law suit threat.

Goldman for Mayor - 22 July 2008 - For Immediate Release - Contact, 804-833-6313


"Wilder-led City Hall and the Pantele-McQuinn led Council have pushed Richmond into growing budget mess by putting their personal political agendas ahead of the public interest"

"The latest law suit threat shows that Bill fails to realize that given the anti-Wilder platform of his candidacy for Mayor, it is not in the public interest from him to remain as the head of the City Council, it mires this whole mess in mayoral election politics."


(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, said today that the latest law suit threat from City Council shows that "it doesn't serve the public interest, nor help resolve our growing budget mess, for Bill Pantele to stay as head of the Council while he tries to get elected Mayor on an anti-Wilder platform."

"The fact is that both the Wilder-led City Hall and the Pantele-McQuinn led Council have pushed Richmond into a growing budget mess - the threat of yet another pricey law suit just their latest excuse to spend money the city can't afford - by putting their own personal political agendas ahead of the public interest."

In a statement, Goldman continued:

"While this latest threat of yet another feuding lawsuit may (1) serve Mr. Pantele's mayoral campaign strategy to be seen as the anti-Wilder candidate, and (2) Ms. McQuinn's campaign strategy to become the next Council President, it does not serve the public interest, quite the opposite.

As I have shown repeatedly, if all sides were serious about putting the public interest first, this latest political feud could be resolved without a pricey, political law suit that gets political candidates free campaign publicity at the expense of the public."

All it takes is leadership that puts the people, not the politicians, first.

Moreover, this latest chapter in Richmond's longest running political soap opera only diverts attention from the long-term fiscal issue: namely, the fiscal irresponsibility of both City Hall and City Council, which together have created a bloated budget that has given us the most expensive city hall in the state, the most expensive city council in the state, the most expensive school bureaucracy in the state, in point of fact a total city budget that wastes not only tens of millions but has become a far-too costly and growing burden on more and more residents.

We can not move Richmond forward by being (1) the most expensive city bureaucracy in the state: and being (2) last private sector job creation as the Kaine Administration shockingly found in it's study of the state's cities."

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