Profile

Gary O’Connell, ICMA-CM, is city manager of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Manager Marks 25 Years with City

On the wall of Charlottesville City Manager Gary O’Connell’s office is a framed copy of a Daily Progress article headlined “We’re No. 1,” announcing the “best place to live” honor bestowed upon the city and surrounding areas by the Frommer’s guidebook company in 2004.

As O’Connell, 55, celebrates his 25th anniversary with the city, he is not patting himself on the back for the recognition, but he does admit, in his characteristically understated way, that his term as the city’s chief executive might have had a little to do with it.

“I’ve probably had a hand” in the city’s success, he said this week, “but there’s a number of people” who have contributed along the way. Entrepreneurs, residents, city councilors, and employees past and present all have worked to give Charlottesville its enviable quality of life, O’Connell said.

O’Connell, a native of eastern Tennessee, first came to Charlottesville as the deputy city manager in 1981, after serving in a similar capacity in Maryville, Tennessee. He became city manager when his predecessor, Cole Hendrix, retired in 1995 after 24 years on the job. “He did a very good job as the deputy city manager,” Hendrix said. “I think he’s had a lot of significant issues to confront in the years that he’s been the city manager.”

When O’Connell took the reins, Charlottesville was debating the city’s future as an independent municipality. A petition was circulating that called for Charlottesville to take advantage of the Reversion Statute, a 1988 state law allowing cities of fewer than 50,000 residents to revert to town status, thereby giving authority and cost for social services, such as schools, courts, public and mental health facilities, and welfare to the surrounding county.

Reversion proponents argued that the city’s tax base could not pay for increasingly expensive social services, which were consuming more of the annual budget as the number of city residents receiving them grew. “There was a view that the city couldn’t afford the future,” O’Connell said. “I think the opposite has been proven true. The city has been pretty resilient financially.” Indeed, Moody’s Investors Service has given Charlottesville its highest bond rating, AAA, since 1973; Standard & Poor’s has rated the city AAA since 1964.

Also, when he became city manager, O’Connell said Charlottesville suffered from a narrow variety of housing. “There was virtually no one doing any significant housing development in the city,” O’Connell said. Most of it was taking place in Albemarle County’s urban ring surrounding the city, he said. Since then, especially in the past five years, the city’s housing market has exploded. From houses to duplexes to apartments, “almost every neighborhood has seen some sort of housing development,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell is credited by many residents as being responsive to neighborhood concerns. For years, O’Connell has gone on walks with neighborhood associations to get an up close and personal look at their problems. “Walking with residents, it really gives me their perspective,” O’Connell said.

Collette Hall, president of the North Downtown Residents Association and a vocal critic of city government, appreciates what she said is O’Connell’s dedication to his job. “I would say that the more I get to know him and the more I understand the workings of city government, the more impressed I am with the job he is doing,” Hall said.

She recalled a handwritten thank-you note he sent her after she commended the work of a paralegal in the city attorney’s office. “I was flabbergasted when I got a handwritten letter . . . because let’s face it, the guy is extremely busy,” Hall said. “He basically runs the city.”

Aging infrastructure is likely to be one of the biggest issues city leaders will confront in coming years, O’Connell said. “You can spend millions of dollars, and all you’re doing is replacing what you’ve got,” he said.

Whether Charlottesville maintains its top billing in national surveys will not change a basic fact of life in the city, O’Connell said. “Clearly, people think this is a nice place to live,” he said, “and it is.”

—John Yellig
Staff Reporter
Daily Progress
Charlottesville, Virginia

Reprinted with permission from the November 16, 2006, edition of the Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia.

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