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Sam Roman leaves city of Roanoke for Charlottesville

There is more Roanoke municipal leadership turnover, with the departure of one of two deputy city managers.

Sam Roman’s last day on the job was Dec. 31. Roman will soon start as an assistant city manager in Charlottesville, according to a city spokesperson.

An attempt by The Roanoke Rambler to reach Roman this week was unsuccessful. Roanoke City Manager Valmarie Turner said Roman decided to retire from the city when she was asked about his move to Charlottesville. She said she plans to fill the now vacant deputy manager’s job.

Angie O’Brien remains as Roanoke’s other deputy city manager.

O’Brien and Roman were announced as assistant city managers at the same time in March of 2023 by then-city manager Bob Cowell. Roman made the atypical move to the municipal role from police chief, as cities typically hire local government lifers with master’s degrees and professional backgrounds in municipal budgeting, urban planning and public administration.

O’Brien was a strategy officer for Cowell.

Roman left the city last week with more than 30 years of service, most with the police department. His annual salary in the deputy manager’s job was $202,910.

His career switch with the city in 2023, when he was 52, came at an unsettled time for the police department. Two civil lawsuits from lieutenants alleged discrimination and retaliation over promotions. And several officers, in a 2021 survey by the Roanoke Police Association, expressed frustration with police leadership and gave poor marks for Roman, with some even saying he needed to go.

In his deputy city manager’s job, Roman was part of project management and oversight of city departments.

Roman’s departure comes as two other familiar faces announced their decisions to leave City Hall as the local government grapples with stresses caused by employee turnover.

City Attorney Tim Spencer is retiring March 1 and Finance Director Margaret Lindsey left the city in early December.

Employee instability in the finance department played a role in Lindsey’s decision to resign after 15 months in the job, she said. She’s going to work for the Virginia Association of Counties/Virginia Municipal League accounting services group based in Richmond.

Lindsey, responding to questions about her departure from The Rambler, wrote in an email that the personnel “roller coaster was the toughest portion for me and what I will not miss.”

Meanwhile, Spencer — one of five city council-appointed officers along with the city manager, municipal auditor, real estate valuation director and city clerk — will retire after 22 years with the city, including more than five years as council’s appointed attorney. He was city attorney in Danville before coming to Roanoke.

Turner, starting her second year as city manager, will reshape the municipal leadership knowing there are challenges with turnover, she has told the City Council. Hundreds of city jobs are vacant at any given time and during the last fiscal year the city under-budgeted overtime – a direct result of vacancies – by $5 million. Getting that under control is a priority during the current year, city leaders decided during their most recent budget discussions.

Former state Sen. Brandon Bell and wife seek appeal of defamation finding

Former state Sen. Brandon Bell and his wife, Deborah, are taking steps to appeal a decision that they defamed a Cave Spring High School student in 2022 by accusing her of sexually assaulting their daughter.

The Bells filed a notice with the Court of Appeals of Virginia last month. 

In August, a Roanoke County jury awarded $1 million to the former Cave Spring student after a three-day trial. That amount was reduced to $850,000 by Circuit Court Judge James Swanson during a November hearing, based on a cap of punitive damages allowed by state law.

There was no disagreement during the trial that the student and Bells’ daughter were in a consensual relationship, at least for some period of time.

The heart of the defamation claim was a July 2022 letter that Brandon Bell sent to then-county School Board Chairman David Linden and copied to other school board members. Penned on state Senate letterhead 14 years after Bell left office, the letter was also copied to the state superintendent of education, the state secretary of education and several members of the state legislature. Bell testified he believed the state officials needed to know about his daughter’s situation as an example of what he saw as misguided Cave Spring leadership.

In the letter, Bell labeled his daughter’s classmate “the LGBTQIA+ ring-leader” and slammed the school system: “Cave Spring High School would rather blossom into a groomer school whose basis is to foster and then force LGBTQIA+ identification among children whose pre-frontal cortex is not yet formed,” he wrote.

The trial involved a matter of public policy that later came before Roanoke County school officials involving youth sexual identity and the school system’s evolving approach to the matter. Tense school board meetings took place as the division grappled with how to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students.

During the November hearing, Swanson declined to alter the jury’s verdict based on 14 post-trial requests by the defense, including that the jury was unduly influenced by passion and prejudice because of Brandon Bell’s status. That and the other requests that Swanson overruled – including what should be considered the legal definition of sexual assault based on the facts of the case – could make up a basis for the appeal.

The Bells’ lawyer, Mel Williams, had no comment on the most recent development. The defamed student’s lawyer, Alicha Grubb, also declined comment.

Bell served in the Senate as a Republican from 1992 to 1996 and then again from 2004 to 2008, representing different parts of the Roanoke Valley each time due to redistricting. He was vice president of the state Board of Education in 2022. He remains the owner of a wealth management firm in Roanoke County.

City projection: real estate tax increase pain not as sharp this year

Roanoke homeowners will see the annual rise in their property values and taxes based on the most recent assessment – but the overall increase is going down, according to city data.

On Monday, K.C. Bratton, the city’s real estate valuation director, told the City Council that the expected increase for all properties – including new construction –  is 6.5 percent. That’s about 2 percent lower than the previous assessment.

The drop in the projected residential increase is more substantial, from 11.13 percent with the last assessment to 7.15 percent with this year’s, he said.

The city mailed notices to property owners on Monday.

The real estate assessment drop from last year is in line with a recent consultant’s report. Under a $200,000 contract, the PFM firm did a deep dive into the city’s finances last year, and one of its conclusions: The city can expect a general dip in tax revenues, at least over the next several years.

During his presentation, Bratton, too, highlighted areas of the city where development is happening – including Valley View Mall.

“How many people know that Valley View has 18 restaurants?,” he said, adding that “there’s something special going on out there” due to a lack of vacancies.

He said there are several projects ongoing, including a Kickback Jack’s that’s being built near Buffalo Wild Wings.