Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder said yesterday that he never saw anything to indicate he was getting a $700-per-month car allowance while a city vehicle was assigned to him.

"I never knew," the mayor said before a bus tour of projects being funded through his City of the Future initiative. "I never knew when it started. . . . I haven't received a check since I've been here, to put in my hand. My checks are all deposited.

"Bottom line is you either got to believe I know or I don't know, and I just tell you, I don't know," Wilder said.

Officials announced this week that the mayor will reimburse the city for car allowances paid to him since he was given a city Executive Protection Unit in summer 2005. The total could exceed $23,000.

Wilder said he's undecided whether to run for re-election this fall.

He also would not say whether there's a double standard between how he and a former department director were treated after both were revealed to have received car allowances while each was given access to a city vehicle.

"That's not City of the Future, is it?" Wilder said at the end of yesterday's bus tour, on which reporters were told to restrict their questions to City of the Future topics. After the question on the car allowances was posed by a reporter, the mayor playfully smacked him on the shoulder with a rolled-up news release.

Benjamin Johnson resigned as emergency-management director Monday, and officials won't say whether he was asked to step down or given a chance to reimburse his car allowances.

In a statement released last night, Chief Administrative Officer Sheila Hill-Christian said it's unfair to compare Johnson's and Wilder's situations.

"When any employee has been aware of a problem for some time, and has had multiple opportunities to rectify it yet does not, they may find themselves in a situation similar to Mr. Johnson's. When the issue of the car allowance was brought to the Mayor's attention, he took immediate corrective action."

For the bus tour, Wilder and other officials took reporters across the city to highlight progress on the mayor's $300 million City of the Future plan. The initiative was announced in early 2006 as a way to improve schools and other public facilities.

The city has drawn about $500,000 from a line of credit for City of the Future, which is designed to borrow money as needed, minimizing interest payments. Officials expect the amount to be drawn down to increase to $10 million in the coming months.

The first stop was Westover Hills Elementary School in South Richmond. Officials visited the playground to highlight recent improvements, including a gazebo, an artificial-turf playing surface and a large, fiberglass rock that children can climb.

Wilder said he's disappointed that not one of the 15 promised new or renovated school projects has been started, but he added that his administration stands ready to provide the money once school officials give him a plan for consolidating and closing underused buildings.

"In the absence of having that, we're not in the position to determine which schools are going to be built, which ones are going to be retained, which schools should be renovated, so we're stymied," Wilder said.

School officials submitted last year a plan for school closings, consolidations and new construction, which City Council has accepted.

The tour also drove past the Carpenter Theatre, which is being renovated and expanded as part of a new downtown performing arts center with $25 million to be provided by the city.

The tour spotlighted several road-paving projects, resurfaced tennis courts at Byrd Park and an improved sidewalk in Highland Park.

Clifton Coleman, 80, greeted Wilder warmly when the mayor stepped off the bus, and he asked the mayor how he liked the new sidewalk on Wellington Street. Coleman later said the old sidewalk wasn't too bad, but he welcomed the attention nevertheless.

"They're doing a good job," he said of city officials.

While small projects like sidewalks and playgrounds don't have the splash of new or renovated schools, Wilder said they're still important to a healthy city.

"You want to show livability. You want to show renaissance. You want to show life," he said.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.