Speechless - Chapter 1

What needs to be said can't be said strong enough. Mayor Wilder is engaging in what essentially is a coup de' tat. Last Friday night a carefully engineered plan unfolded at City Hall. Police and moving vans moved in, the public and the press were locked out and the school board was evicted lock, stock and barrel. Cubicles were dismantled, files were packed, computers were boxed and along with the furniture, every was packed onto moving vans and hauled away. All this was done in express violation of city law and without the knowledge and consent of either the school board or city council. Only the last minute intervention by a judge called the whole process to a halt. Back come the moving vans, back come the furniture, the computers and the cubicle, but you can't put humpty dumpty together again. Imagine leaving work on Friday and coming back to find your entire office has been disassembled, rearranged and left boxed and disarrayed. Even your cubicle walls are gone! Where is your desk, your chair, your computer? Who would want to work in an environment like that? Imagine the brain and talent drain. Who would leave a stable job to come and work in a place like this? How are we going to find the talent, the teachers that we need to serve Richmond's families and children? Where are the companies going to go that we need so badly to improve our tax base? Where are the families going to come from that are needed to give this city hope for a future?


What nonsense. What a way to run a railroad. What a way NOT to run a city. What a shame.