Letter to the Editor: Graham’s experience good for Waynesboro

- “Graham’s experience good for Waynesboro,” April 29 News Leader

On TV: Chris Graham for City Council TV commercial debuts April 29

A 30-second TV spot featuring the Chris Graham for City Council campaign will debut on Comcast Cable in Waynesboro on April 29.

Get a sneak peek at the commercial here …

 

Letter to the Editor: Support Graham with vote to City Council

- “Support Graham with vote to City Council,” April 28 News Leader

Letter to the Editor: Mayor endorses Chris Graham

- “Mayor endorses Graham for council,” April 28 News Leader

Campaign Blog: I look forward to talking with union, Invista on stormwater solution

The leaders of an employees union at the Invista plant have decided to offer an endorsement for one of my Ward B opponents, Bruce Allen, based on what they know of his position on funding for the city’s stormwater-mitigation program.

I think it’s great for the union to get involved in the local election process, personally. According to a newspaper reporter who just called to get comment from me about the endorsement, this is the first time in the union’s 71-year history that it has endorsed any candidate for Waynesboro City Council.

I would have welcomed the opportunity to have engaged the union to explain my position on stormwater funding. Unfortunately, I was not given this opportunity.

That oversight notwithstanding, I pledge to reach out to the union and management when I’m elected to get their input and make sure that their positions are represented in the final solution to our city’s longstanding stormwater problem.

In the News: News Virginian endorses Chris Graham

From “Graham has vision for city,” Monday, April 28, News Virginian …

“[O]nly Graham displays a vivid understanding of what needs to be done to help Waynesboro realize its true promise as a gem in the Valley. For this reason above all others, Graham gets our nod in Ward B. ”

Read the rest of the endorsement editorial here.

Campaign Blog: Building on the NV endorsement

I am humbled.

The News Virginian endorsed my candidacy for the Ward B seat on City Council in an editorial in today’s newspaper.

“[O]nly Graham displays a vivid understanding of what needs to be done to help Waynesboro realize its true promise as a gem in the Valley. For this reason above all others, Graham gets our nod in Ward B,” the paper wrote in “Graham has vision for the city.”

We obviously still have a lot of work to do between now and next Tuesday to be able to work toward bringing our vision for Moving Waynesboro Forward to reality.

I look forward to being able to work hand in hand with The News Virginian as we go about this vital task.

Letter to the Editor: Graham will work hard for Waynesboro

- “Graham will work hard for Waynesboro,” April 27 News Leader

Campaign Blog: Another endorsement

I couldn’t believe my ears.

Frank Lucente told people attending the City Council candidates forum sponsored by The News Virginian and NBC29 Wednesday night that they should vote for me.

Count that two endorsements from sitting members of City Council for my candidacy this week.

Right?

Lucente, who is running for election to the at-large seat on City Council in Waynesboro, didn’t really mean to endorse me the way he ended up doing, of course. Indeed, what he meant to do was come out guns a-blazin’ to tell people why they shouldn’t vote for me, which is interesting, considering that I’m not running for the at-large seat, but for the Ward B seat.

I know, certainly, why Frank Lucente might have some interest in me, despite the fact that we’re not matched up head to head on the May 6 ballot. Lucente has made it clear that he wants a majority on City Council, and if he can get elected and pull ticketmate and political protege Bruce Allen with him in Ward B, he would have his majority.

I don’t have a problem with Lucente for having those kinds of goals. To give him credit, at least he’s up front about what he wants to do.

I do have a problem with the approach that he advocates. We’ve seen a bit too much in terms of Washington, D.C.,-inspired attack-style politics here in our Waynesboro in recent months, and what has happened as a result is that our City Council has spent a lot more time engaged in personality issues and a lot less time figuring out workable solutions to our many community challenges.

I’ve been saying for weeks that the hundreds of city residents that I’ve had the privilege to meet and talk with during this campaign have expressed to me that they want their City Council to be able to just work together, above all else.

This is the context for what Lucente had to tell voters at Wednesday’s forum. As The News Virginian reported in its Thursday-morning edition, Lucente said voters should vote for me if they want harmony on the City Council.

I know he didn’t mean it that way, but that in and of itself probably reinforces the point.

Campaign News: Mayor Reynolds endorses Graham for Ward B seat

Listen to audio from the press conference.

Download: enclosureRedirect.mp3?item_id=65F98A34FB3846A78D2AFE1BE16A9177

Waynesboro Mayor Tom Reynolds has served his hometown well as the representative of Ward B on Waynesboro City Council the past eight years. Today, Reynolds passed the torch of leadership to independent Ward B candidate Chris Graham.

“I am here to announce my endorsement of Chris Graham for the seat that I’m vacating on City Council Ward B. Looking at the three candidates, Chris, like cream, rose to the top,” Reynolds said at a press conference held in front of the Charles T. Yancey Municipal Building and in front of a group of Chris Graham for City Council supporters this morning.

Reynolds has held the Ward B seat on City Council since 2000. He has been mayor since 2004.

Reynolds is currently the pastor at Jollivue United Methodist Church in Augusta County. His record of service to the Waynesboro community includes a successful business career, years of service as an educator at Fishburne Military School and years of work on the ongoing Downtown Waynesboro revitalization effort.

Graham is the co-owner of the Downtown Waynesboro-based Augusta Free Press Publishing and the executive editor of The New Dominion Magazine. Graham has served on the Waynesboro Cultural Commission and the boards of directors of Central Valley Court Appointed Special Advocates and the Wayne Theatre Alliance and was formerly the city-hall reporter for The News Virginian and The Shenandoah Valley Observer.

“I want to thank Tom for his endorsement,” Graham said this morning. “It’s important to me that as I run for this seat that Tom has held and represented so well the past eight years that I have his endorsement. Because I’ve been saying from the beginning that I feel like I will be an independent voice on the City Council, and I think Tom has been that for the past eight years. I think he has represented Ward B with independent vision for the City of Waynesboro, and an important vision for the City of Waynesboro, that we need to move forward.

“He’s someone that despite the current way that we look at things, that we talk about majorities and minorities, he’s someone who’s been able to work with both sides. For example, last year he was instrumental in the tax-rate decrease that city residents were able to receive, an eight-cent tax decrease that was very important to the city economy and also to city taxpayers. We do both share a vision. We don’t necessarily agree on every single step that we need to get there, but that’s part of being independent. We can agree to disagree on some things, but we very much agree on many things,” Graham said.

Reynolds reinforced those messages regarding a vision for moving forward and the means that the city should take to get things moving in the right direction.

“Chris is an honest person with integrity, and he will work with the other City Council members. He will look at all sides of an issue, because every issue has more than one side. And then looking at all sides, then he can arrive at a logical and well thought out decision and vote, and not be swayed by individuals or action groups who believe that they can run the city,” Reynolds said.

“I’m proud to endorse Chris because I believe as a native son he knows Waynesboro, believes in Waynesboro, loves Waynesboro, just like I do. And he will do a fine job as a new City Council member from Ward B,” Reynolds said.

Forum Wrap: Which Ward B candidate values downtown?

It seems to me a basic thing to say that a part of my vision for the future of Waynesboro is that we will want to work toward revitalizing our downtown district. Downtown is the core of our city, where our main post office and the two city buildings are located. It’s where folks used to go shopping at Leggett’s and getting a sandwich and milkshake at Haney’s.

We all remember the good ol’ days, and want to bring them back again, if at all we can. And not just for nostalgia sake, either. Downtown development is solid economic development. Downtown businesses tend to be owned locally, and so the dollars that are spent in them are more likely to stay in the community. And they also add to the quality of life in a community in ways that are hard to quantify from a dollar-and-cents standpoint, but are easy to recognize.

Downtown development – good. Right?

Well, maybe not.

“We’ve spent millions downtown. For 40 years, we’ve had great city councilmen in the past. You see what’s down there. We spent $600,000 on sidewalks last year. Go down and take a look and see the vacant buildings,” said Frank Lucente, a candidate for election for the at-large seat on Waynesboro City Council, at last night’s Candidates Forum sponsored by The News Virginian and NBC29.

Lucente, running at the head of a two-man election ticket that includes one of my Ward B opponents, Bruce Allen, had made it clear earlier in the forum that he is willing to sell downtown revitalization down the river by pledging to renege on an economic-development agreement approved by City Council and the Economic Development Authority regarding the Wayne Theatre development effort.

My other opponent in Ward B, Greg Bruno, took the political football from Lucente – labeling the Wayne project “controversial” and calling the city’s investment in the effort “discretionary spending” – and ran hard with it.

“I believe that the city council can put its weight behind a more vigorous private effort to raise money for that project,” Bruno said.

My response to both Bruno and Lucente, speaking for the Lucente-Allen ticket, raised the question of why private investors would want to put their money into downtown if the message being sent by city leaders was that we really don’t care if you do or if you don’t.

“If we start reneging on those kind of agreements, I think what we’re going to do is hurt our efforts in the future to again either attract new industry or business or have existing industry look to stay here and grow their businesses here. We need to make sure that we live up to our agreements. That’s very important to me,” I said.

It’s also important to me that we value our downtown. And valuing downtown doesn’t mean breaking agreements that are in place on development projects already in the works, especially considering that we have two major projects on the horizon in the proposed baseball stadium and the Riverfront Commons mixed-use commercial-residential concept. And it doesn’t mean taking potshots at the ongoing attempt to get downtown moving forward by pointing at the current slate of empty buildings.

It’s going to take somebody with leadership and a vision to get downtown moving in the right direction.

I’m Chris Graham, and I ask for your vote on May 6th.

In the News: Coverage of last night’s Candidates Forum

- The News Virginian: “Candidates talk money“

- The News Leader: “Waynesboro candidates discuss issues facing city at candidate forum“

Overheard on the Campaign Trail: Push-polling effort under way

The word on the streets today is that the Chris Graham for City Council campaign is being made the target of a vicious telephone push-polling effort.

The calls being made in conjunction with this effort begin with a question asking city residents if they think a journalist running for city council might have a conflict of interest if elected to serve.

The question is asked in the guise of an attempt to gather information for a survey.

“This appears to be an attempt to smear my name and my campaign for city council,” Chris Graham said in a statement this afternoon.

Graham’s journalism career began in 1995 at The News Virginian in Waynesboro. He is currently the co-owner of Augusta Free Press Publishing and the executive editor of The New Dominion Magazine, a print magazine that is published quarterly.

He has won 10 awards for excellence in journalism from the Virginia Press Association, including first-place awards for in-depth and investigative reporting and business reporting.

“Waynesboro voters should make it clear that they will not stand for this kind of negative campaigning,” Graham said.

“I know that the hundreds of voters with whom I’ve shaken hands and discussed the issues of the day have told me emphatically that they want their next city council to be able to work together. A big step in that direction would be for us to conduct our campaigns openly and honestly. If we can’t be up front with the people that we’re asking to put us in office, how can we assure them that we’re going to be up front with them once we’re in office?” Graham said.

In the News: NV, council candidates, discuss development issues

- “City council candidates refocus on development,” Wednesday, April 23

In the News: News Leader Voters’ Guide focuses on economic development

- “Voters’ Guide,” Tuesday, April 22

In the News: News Virginian, council candidates dive into stormwater

- “Wading in,” Tuesday, April 22

Candidate Calendar: Meet the Candidate on May 1

The Chris Graham for Council campaign will be hosting a Meet the Candidate event Thursday, May 1, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Waynesboro Public Library, Room A.

Ward B candidate Chris Graham will be on hand to meet and greet city residents and to answer questions about city issues.

Voters can drop by any time between 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on May 1 to talk with Chris and engage him in discussions on the issues of the day.

For more information, e-mail the campaign at chrisgrahamforcouncil@gmail.com or call 949-6574.

Candidate Calendar: Forum scheduled for Wednesday night

NBC29 and The News Virginian are cosponsoring the second and final candidates forum of the 2008 Waynesboro City Council campaign season Wednesday night.

The 7 p.m. forum will be held at Kate Collins Middle School.

The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

Blog: Building blocks

Sixty people – from all walks of life.

Cynics call them special interests. I call them the backbone of my campaign team.

Young mothers and fathers, small-business owners, industry executives, retirees. With interests ranging from solving our city’s stormwater problems to promoting economic progress in our downtown and East End to stepping up to the plate for public education and more.

These special interests are special people to me – and what makes me work even harder than I’m inclined to want to work is how hard these folks are working on my behalf.

One volunteer took a half-day off from work to put those big four-foot by four-foot signs that you might have seen around town the past few days. Others have been calling me and telling me that they are writing letters to the editor to support my campaign publicly.

Several are hosting get-togethers in their homes for friends and neighbors to get a chance to meet me and quiz me on the issues of the day. More still are walking the streets with me knocking on doors to ask their fellow city residents to vote for me on May 6.

This is what politics is all about. Working together to achieve a common cause – in this case, Moving Waynesboro Forward.

Door to Door: A new, open Waynesboro

Dave O’Brien would have a field day.

“We’ve been welcomed with open arms.”

Yep, right there in the Tree Streets – a gay couple.

I was proud to be recognized when I made my way up the small hill leading to their house.

“You’re the Free Press guy!” I heard as I introduced myself.

We decided a few years back that we were going to make equal rights a driving issue for our Augusta Free Press Publishing family of publications, and I am so glad that we did.

But I was curious.

Waynesboro is treating you guys all right, isn’t it?

I was hopeful, anyway.

“Oh, yes. Our neighbors have been wonderful. Everybody here has been just great.”

Talk about being proud. I’m proud of Waynesboro.

Door to door: Bill wants to know about costs of West End development

“I don’t waste a second of my time on politics. I think they’re all crooks.”

Bill was spitting venom, and I can’t say as I blamed him.

“All they want to do is fuss and argue about nothing in particular,” he continued, before calming down a few minutes later.

Turns out Bill is a lifelong resident of Waynesboro and Augusta County, a graduate of Virginia Tech, whose three children also graduated from Virginia Tech.

His wife has lived in their Tree Streets home all her life.

“This house was built in 1913,” he said.

About a half-hour into our chat, Bill got to asking me questions about the city. A farmer with a degree in agricultural science from Virginia Tech, he wanted to know first and foremost why the city had approved all the development in the West End without taking care of issues related to stormwater runoff.

“My guess is that they were so desperate to get the business here that they turned a blind eye to those issues,” I said, and if that’s not the truth, then I’d like to know what is.

“And why don’t you look into why they have so many cars in the vehicle fleet,” Bill directed.

“I remember a Waynesboro that had three police officers and one police car. Now everybody and their brother has a city car.”

I promised to look into it, and I will.

I don’t know that Bill will think me any less a crook than he thinks other politicians, but …

Overheard on the Campaign Trail: ‘The two girls’

A friend was talking recently with Waynesboro City Council candidate Frank Lucente when Lucente asked him who he was voting for in the upcoming city-council elections.

When he said, “Chris Graham,” Lucente replied, “Why would you want to waste your vote like that? He’s just going to vote with the two girls all the time.”
“The two girls” would be Vice Mayor Nancy Dowdy and City Councilwoman Lorie Smith.

One, I’m not going to vote with them “all the time.” Two, they deserve a lot more respect than to be referred to as “the two girls.”

Overheard on the Campaign Trail: Telemarketing calls promoting opponent’s Ward B campaign

 

We’ve received word from several different city residents about phone calls originating in Richmond in support of the Bruce Allen campaign.

One person who received one of the calls told our campaign that the person on the other end of the line offered a few thoughts about the Allen campaign, before the local resident interrupted with a question about how it was that the caller knew Allen.

The caller replied that he didn’t know Bruce Allen at all, that he was based in Richmond, and that he worked for a telemarketing company.

Others have confirmed similar details from their own conversations with the callers.

If you’ve received one of these calls, and want to share what you were told about the Ward B race, feel free to e-mail our campaign at chrisgrahamforcouncil@gmail.com.

Even better would be if you happen to have a voicemail that was left behind. That might be of particular interest.

Me personally, I don’t have a problem with the utilization of these kinds of means to reach voters. Time is catching up on us here, to be sure. We’re a little more than two weeks from Election Day, and every hour is critical between now and then.

I guess I just prefer the more traditional methods of getting the vote out – door-to-door campaigning, meeting and greeting voters at local events, engaging as many people one-on-one as I can so that they can get to know me, and me them.

And I don’t know that a hired gun in Richmond who doesn’t know me from Bruce Allen can possibly substitute.

Door to Door: We need to protect, preserve Oak Avenue neighborhood

Residents of the Oak and Locust areas spoke loudly and clearly to me today.

They don’t want a bed and breakfast in their neighborhood, and they are convinced that the application for a conditional-use permit to locate one on Oak Avenue was withdrawn because the property owners have received assurances from partisans running for office this spring that they will get their permit if the election turns out a certain way.

I knocked on doors in the area today, and I think literally every single person that I met wanted to know where I stood on the issue.

It’s simple to me. Any time 120 people sign a petition saying they don’t want something in their neighborhood, I say we listen to them.

There are places in the Tree Streets and elsewhere in Waynesboro where a bed and breakfast might make sense. We see that at the Tree Streets Inn on Walnut. I’ve talked with residents on Walnut about the Inn, and I’ve heard nothing but good things there.

The problem on Oak, for those familiar with the 600 and 700 blocks of that street and the adjacent Locust Avenue, is that the proposed location is at a bottleneck for dozens of residents who are afraid, for probably obvious reasons, that an increase in traffic and in the number of parked cars at this bottleneck will create myriad problems, with safety being chief among them.

I want to mention that I also had the fortune today of being able to talk with the owners of the proposed B&B, and if it weren’t for the issues with parking, I think it would make for an excellent location for this type of business. The layout of the home is perfect for a B&B, and I could see the location being perfect for a thriving bed and breakfast business.

But therein lies the problem. The more successful the business is, the more headaches for neighbors, and the result would be to put at risk one of the nicer residential neighborhoods in Virginia, if not the entire United States.

My sense, I have to say, is that this neighborhood is at risk because of partisan politics.

Seems like we’re saying that about a lot in our community these days.

I am working toward the day when protecting our community isn’t considered political sport.

Question and Answer: Is your approach really moving things forward?

I agree with what you said to the Leader, that infrastructure problems must be addressed. I have watched a “good ol’ boy” council ignore needed infrastructure work for decades. This year (the city manager) has based his new budget on a four-cent rate increase, based on council’s request that he cover stormwater with general fund monies.

On the one hand, you say that you recognize the need to maintain infrastructure, and that includes not only stormwater and sewer and fresh water, but police, fire and school, but in the News Virginian you say you are opposed to tax increases.

?

As someone said, you can’t get 10 pounds of flour out of a five-pound bag. I don’t want to pay more taxes than NECESSARY, but necessary is the operative word. You are against using the general fund for stormwater, but I see that position as being no action at all. Council will %&$#@ around (chose your word) on fees and eventually come up with nothing. I like Waynesboro and want it to flourish. It will flourish and attract new residents only if it is a soundly run city. Ignoring tax increases and then shortchanging the police costs more in training costs than is saved in salary, the same tune is played across the board, just with different lyrics.

In short, I feel a hard line against tax increases means, ultimately, no forward motion for the city.

- C.

 

Thanks for your e-mail. Looking at city budgets the next couple of years, things are going to be pretty tight without additional growth in sales-tax revenues because of commitments toward infrastructure improvements that we’ve already made. The FY2012 budget year is our next real opportunity to make investments in our community without having to add to the tax rate, and I think we will be able to move forward in some important areas at that time.

I recognize your position on the stormwater issue, but I see things vastly differently. I personally look at subsuming the stormwater improvements within the general fund as being no action at all. We only have to look at this year’s budget to realize that. When the city manager was working on the budget with the utility fee providing the funding for stormwater, we were going to be able to do $1.2 million to $1.3 million worth of work on stormwater in the first year of the improvement program. Lumping in stormwater improvements with other general-fund needs, even with a tax increase, we’re only going to be able to afford around $600,000 in improvements this year.

I hope that you recognize that I’m trying to work on solutions to these problems in a time when there is a competing vision for doing city business that basically denies that the needs that we agree even exist and labels attempts to address our longstanding infrastructure problems as being frivolous spending. We may not agree on every detail of how to get there, but we are on the same page about where there is, and the details of the itinerary are something that we can all work on before we get started.

- Chris Graham