Romanello helps lead county

By Uriah A. Kiser

Published: July 31, 2008

STAFFORD — When a devastating tornado hit the England Run North neighborhood on May 8, it left eight homes uninhabitable and many more residents wondering how they would pick up the pieces. Shining a light on this dark situation was the highlight of one man’s career.

Anthony Romanello, 38, has faced many challenges as Stafford’s county administrator while overseeing a jurisdiction of more than 120,000 residents.

Overseeing roads, county services and revenue collection is some of what Romanello does on a daily basis. Out of more than 1,200 county employees, he is responsible for 700 of them. To hear him speak however, none of them work for him — they all “work for the people.”

In Romanello’s third-floor office overlooking the courthouse, hangs a picture of Abraham Lincoln and a copy of the Gettysburg Address.

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced,” Lincoln said. Romanello said these words, spoken more than 100 years ago, are the reason he chose a career in public service.

After graduating from the University of Virginia with a degree in government and history, the Henrico County native got his first job in Richmond as a food-stamp worker. It was his job to screen applications for food stamps, a far cry from one day running a city.

“Working in Richmond was an amazing training ground,” said Romanello.

He spent a total of eight years working in Virginia’s capital. During the last four he served as assistant to the city manager. Romanello dealt with the issues of crime, poverty, and blight.

Learning all that he could, in 2000 Romanello left the urban environment to manage the town of West Point. The town sits where the Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers meet the York. During his time there he got his first real experience working with the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“VDOT is not a four letter word,” said Romanello.

One of the two bridges carrying motorists across the river had to be replaced. The plan called for demolishing many businesses that had lived on the town’s 14th Street for years. In the end he said they were able to work with the transportation agency to find a better solution, running the road around the businesses — a solution that didn’t destroy the heart of the town.

He likens his experience there to Stafford County, where he was hired as Deputy County Administrator in 2003. He moved to Falmouth and quickly learned that
unlike the established Town of West Point and the capital city of Richmond, Stafford was a growing area of small villages and new suburban development all trying to find a collective identity on the map.

“What strikes me about Stafford is there are a number of communities like Falmouth and Aquia, Brooke and Garrisonville. The county itself really struggles for an identity. What is the mental picture of Stafford? When [the public thinks] of Fredericksburg or Richmond, accurate or not, they have a picture in their minds of what those places are,” said Romaello.

Like the bridge he had compromised on to save the town, he said it is equally important that Stafford’s county roads are not referred to simply as “610” or “17,” but should be called by their real names — Garrisonville Road and Warrenton Road.

“These roads aren’t numbers. These roads are part of the community,” he said.

Romanello took office as the Stafford County Administrator on January 1, 2008. He replaced long-serving Steve Crosby, who Romanello interviewed with before coming to Stafford. The professional development opportunity as well as the community’s safe schools and neighborhoods, he said, were the reason he moved his wife and four children to the area, he said.

His wife, Diane Romanello, is a former special education teacher turned homemaker. His girls, ages 8 and 5, and his boys, ages 10 and 12, are in to all the “usual things” like baseball, ballet, scouts, and spending time at the pool, he said.

He imagines the reason why he and his wife, who have been together since high school, stay together is his busy work schedule. It is a schedule that keeps him on the job seven days a week, and scheduling time to be together is never easy. The time they do share is special, he said.

“The tough things are the ones that are not schedules, the stuff you can’t plan for,” said Romanello.

That moment was the May tornado. It struck late on a Thursday night. During the aftermath he and his staff worked for 13 days straight. Most worked on that Sunday, Mothers Day, helping residents recover from the disaster.

“It is our job to maintain the ordinary in extraordinary times, said Romanello. “Our main function is to keep people safe, and then provide the basics. ‘Do they need medicine?’ ‘Are they on oxygen?’”

From there it was getting people back in their homes, he said. The county spent $300,000 on the recovery effort, mostly on overtime pay to its employees.

When Stafford’s tornado disaster relief center closed, “I couldn’t have been any prouder of the people I work with,” Romanello said.

Michael Neuhard is one of Stafford County’s deputy administrators. Now working in the job Romanello once held, Neuhard met Romanello at a professionals’ conference at UVA. Since taking the job, Neuhard said he has admired Romanello’s management style.

“We always cover for each other when one of us leaves. We are pretty much generalists,” said Neuhard, referring to the fact that they each take on a large variety of duties.

Neuhard shared some musings Romanello sends out on a regular basis, called “Random Thoughts.” These one-sheet memos are distributed to county staff.

After attending a public meeting about fire response in the county, Romanello put his thoughts about the meeting on paper.

“The hallmark of the night was an elderly gentleman who stood up to Chief [Rob] Brown for opening the Berea Fire Station. In a choked-up voice, the gentleman noted that since Berea opened…he had called 911 three times and Berea responded all three times within two minutes,” he writes. “ I wish every county employee could have been there to hear this man thank Chief Brown. None of us serves the public alone.”

The public gets the chance to see their county administrator twice a month during it’s board of supervisors’ meetings. It is in these meetings Romanello is often called upon for answers to questions about issues facing county government.

“That is where democracy happens, and it it’s a great to have a front-row seat to watch it,” said Romanello. “The board is demanding of the county administrator and they should be,” he said.

Romanello said he works at the “pleasure of the board,” noting that it is ultimately responsible for his job. Though it is the most public part of his position, it is only a small fraction of his time. He spends a lot of time working with businesses and residents. He also devotes a major focus to helping county employees who serve the public develop the same passion he has for the job.

He has recently developed a list of peak practices for his staff to follow, hopefully creating what he notes is the best local government in the Commonwealth.
“What we try to do is bring people into the organization and share our best values, set clear expectations, hold people accountable and then get the hell out of the way,” said Romanello.

When the tie comes off and the administrator heads home for the day, one will likely see him trying to round up the family for a sit-down meal, reading a book, or watching Yankees games. Romanello has been a fan since he was a kid. He also admits he is a really bad golfer, only playing about three times a year.

No matter what he is doing it is clear he has one goal in mind - never forgetting whom he is working for.

“It’s not my voice. It’s the voice of the people. It’s the voice of the board of supervisors, and it’s my job to carry out their will. They are the elected leadership of Stafford County… It is my job is to organize the staff to serve them,” he said.