There's less than two weeks to go until anyone interested in running for mayor of Richmond must put their money where their mouth is. June 10 is the filing deadline for when mayoral candidates have to submit 500 signatures of support with at least 50 from each city district.

With incumbent Mayor L. Douglas Wilder out of the running, it's anybody's guess who could take the helm. So far, five people have announced their intentions to run, and last night City Council president Bill Pantele became the most recent to toss his hat in the ring.

To keep you informed, Richmond.com will give you the skinny on each candidate every Thursday until the June 10 deadline.

Today, meet candidate William "Bill" J. Pantele.

William "Bill" J. Pantele

(pronounced Pant-lee)
Age: 49
Family or pets: I'm married, but no kids. We have two cats, Mosby and Marty, and a black lab, Mojo
Occupation: lawyer
Background: Pantele graduated from Hampden-Sydney College with an undergraduate degree in political science and French. The private attorney received his law degree from the University of Richmond. He has served on Richmond City Council, representing the 2nd District, which includes the lower Fan, the Boulevard and parts of Broad Street, for seven years. He was first appointed to council in September 2001, filling the term of now Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. For the past two years, Pantele has served as president of the council.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

Most people might be surprised to learn that I'm a big NASCAR fan. I like to go the car races. It's an amazing experience to be at a race track with 120,000 or 150,000 people and the strategy of the race and the fun of being with your buddies watching the race is something that's a lot of fun, and certainly different than what I do day in, day out.

What are your top three favorite Richmond restaurants?

Mamma Zu's, Joe's Inn and Hunan East.

What are your top priorities?

Public safety, education and getting the city running in the right direction.

While we've certainly made a lot of progress in the area of public safety, we have a long way to go and everywhere I go, citizens across all different demographic groups and neighborhoods, everybody wants the same thing: much stronger street-level enforcement of the laws. I think in this next stage of the city's history, our public safety strategy should be and has to be to deliver on behalf of citizens. I will be proposing a number of specific public safety strategies to address crime on the street.

On public education, again, it's an area where we've seen progress in terms of SOL scores and accreditation and those are good things. We've also seen some fiscal reforms initiated through the audits City Council pushed, but really the bigger picture is to reach to excellence in our public schools, such that families throughout the region would want to attend them. That's where Richmond's future, its success, could be really amazing. So while I think a lot of elementary schools are doing well, it's clear that in middle schools and high schools, we have a long way to go and I think we need to have a real focused approached on those and the best way to do that, in my opinion, and I have proposals there too, would be the formation of public-private partnerships, to partner with each middle school and high school in the city with a strategic plan and meaningful resources to provide a unique experience at each of those schools.

Finally, on running in the right direction, I and the citizens are extremely frustrated about a government that too often presents obstacles and not solutions and there's too much waste and too little action in addressing that, thus denying the citizens the resources to have really good city services. This is a local government and it's all about city services. I think the city's doing too many things it should not be doing and this is one of the reasons why I'm running, to address that and have the authority to make changes that need to happen.

Why should people vote for you?

This city needs competent, committed leadership. The stakes are too high with a new mayor, police chief, superintendent and school board chairman, to have on-the-job training. I've demonstrated that I can lead and am extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of the city government. I've been able to bring the School Board and City Council to the table and I have excellent relationships with the regional elected officials and there is no one else in this race who knows what to do and how to do it. That's what we need going forward if we want to have a city that we want, that is a great city and to do things the right way.

Meet the rest of the candidates:

May 1: The Rev. Dwight Clinton Jones

May 8: Lawrence E. Williams

May 15: Donnie Corker

May 22: Paul Goldman

May 29: Bill Pantele

June 5: Rodney D.C. Barnes