Council candidate Shawn Dunning calls for collaborative leadership in District 6 council run
Richmond City Council candidate Shawn Dunning, who previously ran for mayor in 2022, has spent over two decades in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. He says his campaign is driven by a deep love for Richmond and a desire to foster more inclusive and collaborative decision-making.
“The solutions to the most complex problems never come from one way of thinking,” Dunning says. “We’ve got to leverage different ways of thinking, but we need leaders who hold the space for those different perspectives to come into the same room.”
During an interview with Grandview, Dunning emphasized the importance of collaborative leadership and addressing local issues like safety, cleanliness, and fairness.
If elected, Dunning said he plans to foster collaboration among council members and the community. He emphasizes the importance of bringing people with differing viewpoints together to co-create solutions rather than pushing pre-determined agendas.
“I don’t have the answer yet, but I know we can find it, and we have to work together to find it,” Dunning said. “We need to make sure all the right perspectives are at the table to do that.”
Dunning was critical of the current city council’s decisions, such as the police budget cuts. He proposed using technology and community involvement to address problems. Dunning highlighted the need for a customer service style model in government and fair treatment of businesses.
District 6 public safety
Dunning expressed concern about public safety in District 6, where residents frequently report issues like reckless driving and inadequate police response. He advocates for new solutions, including increased use of technology to enhance enforcement and make residents feel safer.
“The number one issue that comes up has to do with safety, both in terms of insufficient police response, but also just absolutely out of control streets,” Dunning said.
Dunning said that public safety is not just about placing officers at every corner but about taking the concept of patrol and enforcement seriously and establishing a reasonable approach to policing.
“Reasonable should be our guiding philosophy, and right now, it’s unreasonable just how under-resourced we are,” he said.
Dunning said that while most people feel safer with more police, some feel safer with fewer, and simply increasing or decreasing the police budget doesn’t fix either of those problems.
“We need to be more nuanced. We need to understand what’s going on, and we need everyone at the table to do that. So that’s an example of where, in 2021, they slashed our police budget and did it very unilaterally,” Dunning said. “There could have been a process where we found more of a win-win that could have carried us through. We could have paid for the Crisis Response Program startup funds with ARPA money. We had tens of millions at the time unspent. We could have done that without damaging the police budget or morale.”
Are residents being treated fairly?
Dunning says many residents feel a growing sense of frustration, questioning whether they’re being treated fairly. Despite facing some of the highest property tax rates in the county, they struggle to see the services and improvements that such taxes should provide.
“We need more of a customer service model of government where, if you have a problem that’s related to living here, you should be able to call a phone number and get an answer and get results,” Dunning said.
“What I hear from people all the time is they feel ignored when they make calls, they don’t get calls back, or they just feel like what’s the point of even saying anything anymore because nobody cares,” Dunning said. “There’s definitely a feeling of abandonment by a lot of residents, where they just feel like they’re not being treated fairly.”
Dunning says cleanliness is part of his platform because the general appearance of where we live affects our sense of calm and how we welcome visitors to the city.
“If you drive down a major thoroughfare in Richmond, one of the main boulevards, and you see weeds that are several feet high, or trash, it just, it’s not a welcoming environment, and it matters,” he said.
Dunning also strongly criticized Richmond's leadership, particularly the influence of the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
“I’ve come to realize since being here that our city council has been dominated by very unilateral thinking,” Dunning said. “It’s been dominated by the RPA for quite a while now.”
Dunning said the current council majority pushes their own agenda and doesn’t appear to consider other perspectives.
“It’s alienating a lot of people, and frankly, it’s leading to decisions that are not wise and that will ultimately hurt our city,” Dunning said.
Dunning criticized the Richmond City Council for focusing on international issues, such as the Gaza-Israel conflict, while neglecting what he feels are more pressing local concerns like the needs of Richmond firefighters.
Soren Hemmila
“The meeting began with an open forum, and a whole bunch of Richmond firefighters came to the open forum to beg for help because our fire department is being woefully under-resourced and firefighters are being forced to work weeks on end overtime. But instead, they summarily dismissed that and just listened to a bunch of bussed-in activists,” Dunning said.
Dunning said the language in the resolution in support of the Palestinian People of Gaza was troubling and biases that instilled fear within members of the Jewish community in Richmond.
Dunning, who spoke during open forum at that council meeting, said working towards a joint agreement would have been an accomplishment.
“I stood up and said, let’s get all the people in this room together, over in the auditorium, and work on a joint agreement. Because, you know what? I know it’s possible,” Dunning said. “I’ve actually worked with Israelis and Palestinians for six years. I lived in East Jerusalem, amongst Palestinians. I am certain of the possibility that if you get people on different sides of this issue, we could craft a joint statement we could all believe in, but they clearly had no interest in that, no interest whatsoever.”
For more information about Dunning’s campaign, visit dunningforrichmond.com
This is part of a series of candidate interviews conducted by Grandview with the goal of profiling all who are running for office in Richmond. These profiles aim to provide information to Richmond voters and are not endorsements.
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