Richmond Government Operations committee sets 2025 workplan, schedules briefings on water outage probe, audits and utilities

The Richmond City Government Operations committee met to review its charge and set a calendar of presentations and follow-ups for the coming year, with priority attention to the city's ongoing water outage investigation, utilities and infrastructure, outstanding audit recommendations and departmental staffing reports.

"The goal of this meeting is just to share out what the priorities are for the committee for the year," said Catherine Jeremy, Chair of Government Operations and Second District City Council member.

Committee members said the immediate priority is the third-party probe into the recent water outage. Adam Holt, the administration's representative from the Board of Public Works (BPW), told the committee that HNTB, the consultant retained to investigate the incident, "has been doing some of the preliminary investigation work," including interviews of plant staff and a review of treatment-plant readiness and preparedness. Holt said HNTB and the Virginia Department of Health have both been working on-site and that the administration is planning an interim briefing for council leadership and the city auditor before HNTB's final report.

Committee members discussed the timeline Holt described. The committee heard that the HNTB engagement includes a near-term update intended to land within about a 10-day to 20-day window after the firm was engaged, with a fuller draft report to follow. Holt asked to schedule a meeting soon with council chief of staff and the city auditor to review the preliminary draft.

Why this matters: the committee oversees agencies that deliver core services covered by the investigation, including the Department of Public Works and Department of Public Utilities. Members said early, public briefings and documentation will help inform budget and policy decisions and provide community transparency.

Beyond the water probe, committee members reviewed five thematic priorities for the year: the water outage and crisis response; the state of utilities and infrastructure (including Gas Works, combined sewer overflow and Navy Plant issues); solid waste and street maintenance; sustainability and urban forestry; and internal city processes such as public comment rules and staffing. The committee's draft meeting calendar assigns presentations across upcoming months, with an intent to front-load items that could affect the mayor's budget.

Audit and vacancy reporting Committee members requested a renewed focus on outstanding audit recommendations and on a department vacancy report from HR. Members said those materials are especially important as the city approaches budget development. The administration confirmed a vacancy-report request is pending with HR and that the audit office produces quarterly lists that the committee can use as a starting point. The group discussed whether departments should appear to explain progress on audit recommendations, and suggested prioritizing audit items that carry budgetary implications for discussion before the budget season.

Service delivery, contracting and IT Members asked for briefings on service-delivery models, including where the city outsources services and where it retains in-house provision. Committee members said they want departments to explain the performance and fiscal tradeoffs of contracts (for example, janitorial or vegetation-management contracts) and noted possible overlap with Finance and Procurement depending on the focus of such reviews.

Information technology and user experience also surfaced as cross-cutting concerns. Members discussed both the city's enterprise systems and external, customer-facing services and asked staff to consider how DIT presentations could cover large, citywide systems that affect multiple departments and resident access.

Other items and process changes The committee discussed commissions and boards under its purview, noting some commissions are inactive while others are active; the City Charter review commission, for example, was described as paused pending further work. Members also discussed a modest change to public comment logistics: current rules limit public comment to no more than 30 minutes, with up to eight slots at three minutes per person; some members proposed raising the slot count from eight to ten to provide additional opportunities without changing the total time limit.

Members also flagged operational matters for future briefings, including the solid-waste outlook (a member observed local landfills may be on a 10-year horizon), Gas Works operational and fiscal sustainability, combined sewer overflow program updates (CSO), urban forestry and green-fleet planning.

Next steps and directions The committee set an initial presentation roadmap: February will cover early water-outage updates and the VA 311 overview; March will include combined-sewer updates and the personnel/vacancy report; later months will host HNTB's final report, waste-reduction policy discussions, Gas Works and capital-maintenance updates. Members emphasized the committee must remain nimble to add special meetings if urgent issues arise.

No formal votes were recorded during the meeting; the group produced scheduling directions and requests for follow-up materials from administration and staff. The committee asked the administration to coordinate near-term briefings with the city auditor and council chief of staff and to return with updates on the audit items that have budgetary impact.

Members closed by reiterating a preference to align presentations so the committee and council have relevant information before budget deliberations.