'What's the hurry?': Councilor, citizen question appointments to Petersburg arts board

PETERSBURG – The first seven members of the newly formed Petersburg Area Arts Council were chosen Tuesday by Petersburg City Council, but not before one lawmaker and one resident questioned the need for speed in the appointments – especially when City Council will meet again in two weeks to go over a proposed amendment to the membership.

“I don’t see what the compulsion is to get this done tonight,” Ward 4 Councilor Charlie Cuthbert said at the end of a reconvened meeting Tuesday afternoon at the Petersburg Public Library. Cuthbert noted that he and his colleagues were set to meet again Sept. 19 for a public hearing raising the number of PAAC members from nine to 11 and complained that he was neither familiar with the roster of nominees before them nor had he gotten the chance to make his own nominees.

“Maybe one member of council may know all these people,” Cuthbert said. “But I certainly don’t.”

He was referencing Ward 5 Councilor Howard Myers, who championed the PAAC’s establishment six months ago and presented Tuesday’s nominee list for consideration. Four of the seven names either live in or have business ties to Myers’ district, one in Mayor Sam Parham’s Ward 3 and two members who do not live in the city but have business ties here.

“This roster did not come from anybody but one member of council,” Cuthbert said, meaning Myers. “And I don’t think that’s the way we ought to be doing business. I see nothing wrong with pushing this off until our [Sept. 19] meeting.”

The seven appointed Tuesday are Petersburg Area Art League president Bill Nicholson; husband-and-wife business owners Kristopher and Tiara Russell, Tamara Tazewell, TyAsia Williams, Amber Salter and Sandy Graham. Nicholson, Tazewell and Williams live in Ward 5. The Russells live in Ward 3, but Tiara Russell was nominated as a Ward 5 business owner because she runs Haus on Market, an "incubator" studio and event center for local artists just starting out, and also is on the art league board of directors.

More: Petersburg historic home transformed into 'Haus on Market' studio and event space in Old Towne

Graham, a Richmond lawyer who lives in Henrico County, is head of Petersburg’s Battersea Foundation. Salter, an adviser to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, is a former member of the board of Historic Petersburg Foundation.

According to the ordinance creating the arts council last March, membership is open to any Petersburg resident, business owner or someone associated with an arts-related nonprofit group based in the city. As it stands now, PAAC would have nine members, but Myers is requesting an amendment to expand that to 11, and that is the issue that will be taken up in the Sept. 19 public hearing.

He said Tuesday he presented the roster for consideration with an eye toward the proposed expansion.

The original ordinance called for the first appointments to consist of two at-large members and the remaining to represent each one of Petersburg’s seven wards. Myers’ amendment strips away the ward representation, boosts the number of members to 11 and sets membership distribution to “at least three practicing artists, at least two members belonging to an arts or culture organization, at least two members associated with design and historical architecture, and the remaining members shall be citizens of, property owners, government or school officials, or business owners in the city of Petersburg,”

Cuthbert said he was not given an opportunity to present his own nominees. When Parham told Cuthbert he and others could recommend candidates for the remaining positions at the Sept. 19 meeting, Cuthbert again protested.

“There’ll be four left for six members of council to come up with a suggestion,” he said. “That’s way out of balance.”

Cuthbert’s substitute motion to delay the appointments failed when no one else on council would second it. He cast the lone dissenting vote for the appointments. Myers’ original motion passed 5-1, with Cuthbert casting the lone dissent. Ward 1 Councilor Marlow Jones attended Tuesday’s meeting, but he was not on the dais for the roll call.

The matter did not end there, though. During a public-comment period in a work session that followed the meeting, resident Barb Rudolph claimed the vote taken was illegal because it was done based on criteria to be heard and acted on at the next meeting, not what is in the existing code.

“You do not want to do things legally,” Rudolph said, echoing Cuthbert’s comments from the earlier meeting. “What’s the hurry?”

At that point, Parham asked City Attorney Tony Williams to weigh in since Rudolph publicly challenged the vote. Williams said he thought they would fit the criteria for membership, but he needed to go back and review it, and if necessary, suggest a revote at the next meeting.

When Rudolph tried to ask another question about the criteria, Parham cut her off, saying “We’re not getting into a debate on this tonight.”

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Timing questioned about appointments to new Petersburg arts board