About Kathy Graziano
A Typical Day for Kathy
Einstein’s at Stony Point, 8:15 on a Monday morning. Councilwoman Kathy Graziano is meeting Sheila Hill-Christian of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority to talk about low and moderate income housing. Two tall women, one African American, the other Long Island Irish, and the energy drips off the edge of the table when these two meet.
Moderate income housing may seem an unusual topic for the Fourth District, with it’s higher than normal assessments and booming real estate market, but Graziano has seen the census data that shows income averages of below $50,000 for the district and both young families and retirees being forced out by high home prices.
Hill-Christian is on her way to the office in a stylish suit, Graziano still in the running tights from her early morning ritual. Thirty minutes here, and she’s gone, home to shower, then to her district office.
Graziano makes it to the office by 9:15. More coffee is waiting, then out the door for a meeting with two homeowners concerned about erosion.
Erosion is another secret of the Fourth District. Campaigns center around crime, education and scandals, but in Richmond’s Fourth District, governing centers around drainage…ditches overflowing, culverts blocked, erosion into streams, lakes and the river.
Today, some of the questions are easy…how to get on the list for ditch clearance, but others are harder, since they will require increases in the public works budget and additional staff.
There are seven public works employees assigned to drainage problems for the entire city. Those seven could work full time in the Fourth alone.
Graziano has discovered that routine drainage has never been a high priority for the city, but since Isabelle and Gaston, the small dollars available for routine work have been siphoned away for emergencies. The money’s gone, the problems haven’t.
Back in the office, and the telephone. A representative of an arts group, asking for support to restore city funds for his group. Mayor Wilder’s budget took virtually all city money that has traditionally primed the pumps of small local non-profits. Long time supporters are scrambling to talk to every member of Council.
Graziano listened, makes notes on the back of a council agenda page. If the nuns on Long Island saw the handwriting, the wooden ruler would come out.
The calls continue, and the notes grow, until the pile of paper begins to approach the angle of repose.
But it’s almost noon, and another meeting, this time lunch with a council colleague. Graziano and fellow council members Pantele, Robinson and McQuinn are sponsoring legislation to increase the reach of the city’s long-overlooked tax abatement plan for senior and the handicapped on fixed incomes. The vote looks good, but this one-time lobbyist keeps counting her votes and building consensus.
It will be a short lunch, because on this Monday, the Planning Commission is meeting, and on the agenda is a contentious issue from the Fourth District. The District has the largest pool of undeveloped land in the city, and there is a dispute on one issue. The Planning Commission meets at 1:30; Graziano has scheduled brief discussions with the two sides on today’s issue to tell them what she has worked out…and how she will vote. It won’t be a perfect day for either side, but both leave having been heard, and listened to.
The Planning Commission complete, its 5:00, but not quitting time. Graziano will go back to the office, make a quick check through the stack of notes and emails her district liaison has left for her review. They have talked repeatedly through the day, but the notes serve as a reminder to her, and in return, a tool for passing along her decisions on issues.
Six o’clock and another stop. A civic league, one of more than two dozen in her district. She intends to visit every one of them at least once a year, but with several meeting only annually and others meeting on the same night, the schedule gets tight.
Nevertheless, she sits and listened, more crabbed notes, this time on the back of the association agenda. Notes about neighborhood cleanups scheduled, notes about drainage issues, and this time a new issue. A resident where the city does not send the street sweeper, because she has no curbs and gutters. She has no curbs and gutters because the city forgot to put them in more than 50 years ago when the neighborhood was developed. No curbs and no money in the budget for forgotten pockets like this. She listens and makes another note for her liaison.
Home by 8:30; Ed has started dinner, and a glass of red wine is waiting.
She has a business association meeting at 8:00 tomorrow morning.
