Richmond mayor outlines six-month progress on staffing, water repairs and financial controls

Mayor Vula updated the Richmond City Council on the administration's first six months, saying leadership changes, operational assessments and targeted reforms are intended to strengthen city services as Richmond grows.

The update centered on staffing and management changes, reforms to financial controls, follow-up from the city's recent water crisis, and steps to improve customer service and public-facing data. "We need to have the right people on the bus," Mayor Vula said, adding that the administration's approach is driven by a seven-pillar mayoral action plan and measurable performance indicators.

Why it matters: The mayor framed the work as foundational to daily service delivery — particularly water operations and finance — and said the changes aim to reduce the risk of recurring service failures as the city expands.

The mayor said Odie Donald began as chief administrative officer on July 9 and that two deputy chief administrative officers were added (one present at the meeting, Amy Popovich for human services, and another, Tanika Jackson, arriving soon). The administration has appointed new directors for communications, public utilities, economic development, housing and community development, and finance, and created an Office of Gun Violence Prevention with Greg Hopkins hired as director on June 30.

On water operations, Mayor Vula said the city completed an incident response assessment after the earlier water crisis and has worked with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). "As of July 7, Public Utilities is reporting that we've completed 80% of the actions that were on the consent order from the Virginia Department of Health," she said. The administration also reported hiring multiple professional engineers in Public Utilities and replacing executive leadership at the Department of Public Utilities to strengthen operations.

The mayor said the city is pursuing regional coordination because Richmond's water system serves surrounding counties. She described scheduled planning steps including a regional work group meeting on Aug. 18 and a tabletop exercise on Aug. 25 to improve coordination for low-pressure incidents and capital planning.

On finance and controls, Mayor Vula reviewed steps taken after the auditor's findings on the city P-card program. She said the city reduced the number of P-cards from 320 to 67 and is revising policy, procedures and training to align with national best practices. The mayor also described efforts to rebuild the finance department, including new leadership and organizational review aimed at correcting billing errors and operational weaknesses.

The administration piloted customer-facing changes, including expanded 311 hours, a new City Hall newsletter, and deployment of RVA Pay — a new payments system the mayor said had initial problems but will be iterated. The mayor said the city will launch a "one stop for permitting" later this summer and publish public performance dashboards in the fall tied to the mayoral action plan.

Employee engagement was raised repeatedly. Mayor Vula said an all-employee survey (conducted by SIR) was completed and will be shared first with staff and then with council; she said the 2024 survey had been director-level only, while the new survey sampled all employees. Councilmember Gibson asked about methodology and whether survey questions matched prior surveys; the mayor said the 2017 survey was performed by VCU and some overlap is probable but she did not provide a question-by-question comparison.

Council members praised the staffing and reform work and asked for continued detail. Councilmember Trammell thanked frontline staff and raised concern about an apparent recent personnel separation involving a longtime city employee; Mayor Vula acknowledged the difficulty of change and said the CAO and department leads have been asked to focus on retention and support for frontline workers. Councilmember Gibson asked that union representation be included in water-system discussions and urged the administration to include regional water-use projections and climate-related storm impacts in planning.

The meeting also included formal votes to enter and exit a closed session. Council moved into a closed meeting under subdivisions a(7) and a(29) of section 2.2-3711 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to consult with legal counsel on probable litigation and to discuss the award of a contract for state lobbying and legislative services. The council later certified that only matters allowed under the Virginia FOIA were discussed.

Looking ahead, Mayor Vula said the administration will publish an action plan this summer that establishes baselines and targets for the mayoral goals, and will roll out public dashboards in the fall. She invited further questions from council members and said staff would return with scenario analyses and legal and financial input on regional water options.

The mayor's remarks were followed by questions and comments from multiple council members and closed-session actions recorded by roll call.