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Richmond, Henrico officials agree to pursue regional water advisory group
Summary
Richmond and Henrico leaders met in a joint special session to begin planning a regional advisory group to study water-system resiliency, with officials agreeing to return with detailed proposals and next steps.
Richmond Mayor Avila and members of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors met in Richmond at a special joint session to begin planning a regional water advisory group aimed at strengthening redundancy, resiliency and long-term financing for the region's public water system. The bodies agreed to continue discussions, directed staff to develop more detailed proposals, and scheduled further deliberations at upcoming local meetings.
Mayor Avila, who convened the meeting, said the January water outage prompted the session and urged an expert-led process. "My hope is that today we as elected officials of the two neighboring localities ... can reach agreement on the need to have further detailed conversations that are aimed at strengthening the resilience and redundancy of our regional water system," he said. Richmond City Council will hold a follow-up discussion on July 7 to review a concept paper and proposed advisory structure.
Henrico Vice Chair Reverend Cooper said the joint appearance demonstrated a shared regional commitment: "By working together as partners, we can create a more resilient, redundant, and modern public water system that will serve our residents, business community for decades to come." City and county staff agreed to continue technical work — including cost models, legal review and engineering options — and to return to elected bodies with recommendations on a potential advisory group, an MOU or other formal agreement.
The meeting also produced immediate operational items: the Richmond mayor asked staff to draft a regional advisory concept paper and a proposed membership list of technical and elected representatives; Richmond indicated it would present counsel's recommendations and a more detailed funding and governance outline at its July 7 council meeting. Several council and board members emphasized that any final structural change would require formal votes by each governing body.
Votes at a glance - Approval for remote participation by Henrico Board member Dan Smith: moved by Supervisor Rountree, seconded by Supervisor Rogish; voice vote recorded as "ayes have it" and the motion passed. No other formal votes were taken during the joint session.
