and those in local government employment to sit up
and take notice, not just in Virginia, but elsewhere.
For those who are new to Virginia government
and politics, the Commonwealth has long had a very successful and much
admired system of local governance. Top professionals in the
field were courted and caught as far back as the 1930s, in the late
Henry Howell’s words, to “keep the big boys honest.”
As Virginia localities reeled from corruption and scandals in the
latter part of the nineteenth century and the first part of the
twentieth, reform swept the nation and the state. As Staunton and
Henrico led the way by engaging top professionals in government
administration, accountability became a Virginia hallmark. Other
states envied and admired our ability to attract the brightest and the
best, and top candidates competed for positions of leadership in
Virginia localities.
Fast forward to the last couple of decades.
Our state capital city has been rocked time and again by scandal and
indictments. Until relatively recently, those have been laid at
the doors of former elected officials. A
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