The chairmanship of the board of Hampton Roads Transit rotates among the seven member cities. Soon, it will be Norfolk’s turn and the thought that our senior representative on the board serving as chair is causing some heartburn.
“I’m extremely concerned it could bring divisiveness to the board,” said outgoing board chairman Jim Wood, a Virginia Beach councilman who was one of four board members who publicly called for Townes to resign or face being fired. “I differ greatly with the way Paul perceives things.”
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“Some on the board have some concerns,” [Newport News Councilwoman Patricia] Woodbury said. “I plan on speaking with a couple other people on the board about this. We want to think he has a commitment toward the job.”
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“I am concerned that his attendance record is poor and would hope as chairman he would strive to attend every meeting,” Wood said.
If this was the first time I’d heard statements like this, I’d be surprised. But it’s not and I’m not. There seems to always be an effort to remind everyone of the worst of someone when it’s their turn to lead. How well I remember the quiet uproar when Joshua Paige (no relation) was slated to be chairman of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board.
You don’t get to change the rules just because you don’t like the players.
Elect Riddick chairman. And if he doesn’t perform, I’m pretty sure there are rules for removal.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Who’s taking Wright’s place? Could that person walk in and become the HRT chair?
(figured I’d ask “could they” before “should they”)
Coby,
Yes, they could. However, as of yesterday afternoon, Norfolk still hadn’t made the selection. They’d need a candidate tomorrow in Hampton.
Vivian,
This is where I was going with the final question yesterday that I sat on. Given that Shucet is a TDCHR employee, I was going to ask diplomatically, but he’d probably would have been very uneasy with it.
My concern with Riddick is that it will be the excuse for the cities to mothball mass transit improvements. I give Riddick credit: he’s shown genuine concern for HRT’s ridership. Therefore, he’s not the worst choice the TDCHR could make.
On his attendance, prior to latest LRT overrun saga, over the previous 18 months it had been horrible. However, another one of my hats is as a Commissioner on Virginia Beach’s Resort Advisory Commission (RAC). The previous RAC Chairman had a terrible attendance record – until he was chosen Chairman. He then missed 1-2 meetings in the next 3 years.
Should Riddick be elected tomorrow, I hope he comes to Virginia Beach on June 30. That evening we have a big public meeting on the VB Transit Extension Study. Given that Riddick would become TDCHR Chairman hours later, let him come over and charm some of his harshest critics.
Normally this chairmanship issue would not be a big deal, who knows who the past chairs have been? But with the push sure to come for Virginia Beach to sign on to light rail in 2011, the opponents of this project will be raising every negative they can. Mr. Riddick’s most confounding flaw was his repeated defense of Michael Townes after all the issues regarding cost overruns, lack of disclosure by him to the board, failure to prosecute alleged thievery of public funds, etc. I believe Mr. Riddick referred to these issues as a “hiccup”. This does not exactly inspire confidence in moving forward with the next phase of light rail into Virginia Beach if Mr. Riddick really believes that a $100 million plus cost overrun and these other issues are nothing more than a hiccup. I am concerned his chairmanship may delay or kill the project, a price not worth him skipping a turn, in my opinion.