A Team Player for Roanoke

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Behind the Page

Valmarie Turner was a unanimous choice to fill Roanoke’s open City Manager position.

At her introductory press conference, new Roanoke City Manager Valmarie Turner strongly emphasized a crucial management goal that Roanokers should grow accustomed to: teamwork.

The first black woman to manage the city in it’s 137 years of existence moved into the role from her position as Fairfax’s first deputy city manager. She succeeds Bob Cowell, who resigned as Roanoke City Manager in June. Lydia Pettis-Patton has served as interim city manager since then. Turner has served as assistant administrator in Loudon County previously and has been an administrator for 30 years.

Turner’s salary as Roanoke City Manager will start at $255,000, according to the city’s website. Her predecessor finished his term at $225,692 per year. Her term is to begin January 6, 2025.

“I love to improve lives,” Turner said at her introduction. “I have 30 years of passion” for the job. She says “the charm of Roanoke” led her to apply for the position and City Council was so enamored that it gave her unanimous support from both the outgoing and the four incoming members (both Democrats and a Republican).

Her goals as a new city manager include affordable housing, homelessness and lowering crime. “You can talk crime, but it is a symptom of what needs to be done,” she says. “I am a transformational leader. We can’t be an island and be a success.”

Relationship building, she emphasizes, is vital. “I have a special message for my staff,” she says. “I look forward with you.” Several of Roanoke’s departments have been less than teams in recent years.

The interview process brought out the real Valmarie Turner, said a sorority sister of former Councilwoman Trish White-Boyd). “She came to us with a plan,” says White-Boyd.

“Ms. Turner is a transformational leader, steeped in effective ways to bring diverse community partners together to create meaning and lasting solutions to areas of challenge and growth," Joe Cobb says. "She is a relational leader who sees the potential in people and empowers growth.”

White-Boyd opines, “Council was impressed by [Ms. Turner’s] demeanor and her experience with issues facing the city.” … She has an excellent reputation as a leader, a team builder and someone who builds collaborative relationships with stakeholders in the community.”

Turner is a recent winner of the Leadership Trailblazer award from the League of Women in Government. The National Association of Counties has called her a “seasoned manager” of some of her pet concerns.

Like White-Boyd, Turner is a Florida native who attended an HBCU (Florida A&M). She completed the Senior Executive Institute at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.