With a lame-duck mayor, Carolina-bound police chief and departing school superintendent, Richmond could be headed for a period of drift -- though some think that'd be no big change.

With Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's announcement yesterday that he won't seek re-election, three top officials are in countdown-to-the-end mode, political scientists and leaders say.

Wilder's announcement came less than 24 hours after Police Chief Rodney Monroe accepted a new job in Charlotte, N.C. Six weeks ago, the city's top school official, Deborah Jewell-Sherman, a frequent target of Wilder's criticism, announced she planned to leave next year.

"It does create somewhat of a lame duck situation," said Robert C. Bobb, former Richmond city manager and now president of the District of Columbia State Board of Education.

"I know how difficult it is to keep . . . going forward when you have a mayor say several months before an election that he's not going to run."

. . .

Drift is a real danger, he said.

"You're not going to see any major policy initiatives, I think that's safe to say," said John V. Moeser, visiting fellow at the University of Richmond's Center for Civic Engagement.

"But there is real opportunity now to get past the mayor versus city council, mayor versus school board standoffs," he said.

King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Virginia Conference, worries that the months ahead will be even more contentious.

"As long as there was a question if he would run, we had a little bit of accountability. There's no telling what he might do in the interim," he said.

John McGlennon, a political scientist at the College of William and Mary, thinks city officials may delay making major decisions in the months ahead.

With a wide-open race for mayor and a revolving door in top City Hall posts, it may be tough to find people interested in working in Richmond.

"Anyone whom you would like to consider is obviously going to be looking at the turnover and wondering: 'How do I fit in?'" McGlennon said.

. . .

But 2008 already was set to be a time of change, he said. City Council is now wrangling with Wilder's amendments to the current two-year budget. The next start-from-scratch budget will be written next year.

To ease the transition at the schools, Jewell-Sherman will keep working until the Board finds a replacement.

Many believe Wilder's departure could mean a calmer period is coming at City Hall.

"Wilder has a powerful personality," McGlennon said. "He knows how to make everybody uncomfortable so that his viewpoint will get ventilated and maybe bring enough people along."

But Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said politics were played fierce and rough when he served as Richmond's mayor.

"Urban politics are like that," he said.

Kaine thinks Richmond will cope just fine in the months ahead. "It is a lot of change, but Richmond has a good talent pool," Kaine said.

Ex-mayor Roy West agreed. "No one is indispensable" he said. "I think Richmond is going be very attractive for anyone who wants to get involved in a vibrant city."
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress@timesdispatch.com.