Independent Hagerty review urges formalized plans, training and a citywide preparedness framework after Richmond water incidents

Stephen Willoughby, director of emergency communications, preparedness and response, introduced Hagerty Consulting’s independent incident-response assessment to the Organizational Development Standing Committee on June 23, saying the firm was engaged early after the city’s January water crisis.

"We asked Hagerty to perform an independent assessment and an after action review of the city's response to this crisis," Willoughby said. "They have spent months observing, performing document review, conducting interviews with individuals both internally and externally that were involved in the response, collecting and fact checking observations."

Aymah Marino Mazza, Hagerty project manager, and Jaisa Rogers, preparedness planning specialist, summarized the review. Marino Mazza said the consulting team engaged up to 88 stakeholders, conducted 57 interviews, ran surveys and completed a document review. The team produced 72–74 targeted recommendations aligned to FEMA core capabilities and organized them so the city…