Kaine also worked with the school board and city manager to figure out how the city could begin to build schools, according to several people who were school board members at the time. He cajoled and pushed council members to develop a loan package that would allow for the first school construction in 20 years, they said.
"He was the go-to guy on the City Council for education issues . . . that's just the truth," said Mark Emblidge, who served as a school board member from 1994 to 2002 and is now a member of the state Board of Education. "He created a new role on the Richmond City Council. We didn't have someone who was so dedicated to the nuts and bolts of how to creatively finance school issues and take on issues like he did."
Educational achievement in Richmond, while still lower than in other jurisdictions, generally improved during Kaine's time on the council, although some indicators decreased.
Kaine's work on a tax abatement program has been credited with helping attract and keep businesses and middle-class residents in the city.
Interviews with more than a dozen colleagues, friends and co-workers indicate Kaine was a generally well-respected presence on the council who made special personal efforts to help heal a racially divided city.
As majority-black Richmond's first white mayor in nearly 20 years, Kaine was often seen -- and saw himself -- as someone who could mend divisions between the poor black sections and the more affluent white neighborhoods that spanned his council district.
"One of the main things that impelled me to run was that I felt the city needed more bridge builders," said Kaine, 47, a former civil rights lawyer. "I always approached my job that way."
He also had to navigate the city's uneasy relationship with its history. Kaine angered many black residents in 1999 when he supported the placement of a rendering of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the city's flood wall.
His critics say he must share responsibility with others in government by facing accusations that the city failed to keep city schools up to the standards set by the Americans With Disabilities Act.
"He wants to take credit for everything that went right in the city of Richmond, but when it comes to public school compliance with ADA regulations, he says he wasn't involved," said Tim Murtaugh, press secretary for Republican candidate Jerry W. Kilgore, a former state attorney general.
Kaine, who was chairman of the City Council's education committee, said he was not directly responsible for violations alleged in a federal lawsuit filed June 14 by plaintiffs that include two disabled people and an advocacy organization. The suit alleges that since 1992, dozens of public schools have failed to meet the act's requirements for adequate handicapped-accessible elevators and ramps.
"Improvements to school building always begin by a request from the school board to the City Council," Kaine said. "We didn't repair school buildings willy-nilly. We repaired them with requests."
