The current city manager of Petersburg, VA is Dironna Moore Belton.  She has walked into a total financial mess -- after years of mismanagement, and has been making the hard decisions necessary to move the city forward.  Perhaps because of this difficult progress, the mayor is moving to replace her.

Now, the current mayor of Petersburg has signaled his desire to hire a new permanent city manager who has a received a public reprimand as the previous city manager for Savannah, GA -- along with a request for her resignation by that city's mayor at the time due to the following: 

• extravagant disregard for proper use of taxpayer dollars 
• causing high turn-over rates and poor morale at previous posts
• stoking racial divisions and charges of racial hiring bias
• questionable contracting and reimbursement decisions

Petersburg, VA can not afford to make another bad decision about this critical city management role.  The citizens of Petersburg have petitioned their government to provide more opportunity for participating in and learning about the process behind this important decision, to no avail.  

The current mayor has shown disdain for open government procedures and minorities in the community.  There is currently an effort underway to re-call the mayor and all of city council.  

We, the undersigned citizens of Petersburg, VA are asking that the mayor and city council refrain from hiring a permanent city manager until after the upcoming election and the current recall efforts are resolved.

We believe the city is far better off in the capable hands of the interim city manager than it would be by making a strange and ill-advised hiring decision that could again add to the already significant financial burdens of the town.  

We are asking the Governor and the Virginia legislature to support this petition as well in a show of solidarity for the citizens of Petersburg.