Local Issues

As a delegate for Richmond City’s 79th District, it will be my job to support our community at both the state and city level. I will address the lack of transparency coming from the Mayor's office, demand accountability for waste, fraud, and abuse, and work to replace City Hall’s exploitative culture with one of servant leadership.

Through targeted legislation in the General Assembly and advocating directly to City Hall, I will elevate the concerns of our citizens to bring long overdue transparency to our City government and catalyze desperately needed reform.

On this page, we are highlighting articles from Richmond’s local reporters documenting issues that have plagued our city from mayor to mayor. These issues need to be addressed by the City’s representatives at the state level:

• Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
• Lack of Transparency
• Lack of Accountability
• Negligence
• Local Environment
• Prison Safety

City Hall's Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

• City credit cards used for $5 million in "questionable expenditures"

  • Richmond Times Dispatch
  • Axios
  • Office of the City Auditor Official Report

• Ex-city worker sends millions of City funds to businesses linked to himself and friends

  • City employee used city credit card to spend $40K
  • Former city employee spent $840,000
  • Ex-city worker spent over $2M

• Richmond treasurer: $90k per year with no responsibilities

  • Richmond treasurer running unopposed for a third term

• City Hall gives millions to nonprofits with little oversight while infrastructure crumbles

  • The city of Richmond gives millions to local nonprofits.
  • Audit finds Richmond gave more than $1M to nonprofits that didn’t meet city criteria

City Hall's Lack of Transparency

• Mayor Avula leaves little time for City Council to vet his appointment for one of Richmond's most pivotal roles: Chief Administrative Officier (CAO)

  • Avula appoints Atlanta official as Richmond’s next CAO

• Mayor Avula drags his feet fullfilling his promise of transparency

  • Will Mayor Avula publish city payment data as required by code? Maybe.

• May 2025 Water Outage

  • No transparency from DPU Director Scott Morris.
  • The Avula admin invokes "personnel matters" to shut down discussion of which city employees did what and when
  • City Council cancels meeting about water during water outage

City Hall's Lack of Accountability

• Former Mayor Stoney passes the blame

  • Stoney points to predecessor as Richmond water crisis seeps into LG race

• Too little too late: Richmond finally rejects Stoney

  • The fall of Levar Stoney: How Richmond cost him the race for Lt. Gov.

• Interim CAO lies about erroneous real estate tax bill

  • Richmond’s interim CAO initially said erroneous real estate tax bills were sent on purposet

• Mayoral administrations flaunt legally binding obligations

  • City stopped publishing spending data in 2019 — despite code requiring it
  • Will Mayor Avula publish city payment data as required by code? Maybe.

Richmond City Negligence

• January 2025 Water Crisis

  • rva.gov Water Crisis Assessment
  • Local Richmonder Speaks up

• April 2025 water flouride spike

  • RVA.gov Press Release

• May 2025 Boil Water Advisory

  • Richmond issues partial boil water advisory after issue at treatment plant
  • City of Richmond says nixed FEMA grant would not have prevented water outage
  • Work order shows cleaning of Richmond water plant filters was apparently delayed: 'Should be a high priority'

Local Environment Issues

• James River Pollution

  • Approximately 37 "overflow events" a year release raw sewage in the James
  • Hopewell Water Renewal plant discharged an estimated 1 million gallons of untreated sewage the James

Prison Safety

• Unsafe conditions for those in state custody

  • Richmond Sheriff's candidate William Burnett discusses the state of our jail
  • Richmond sheriff settles federal lawsuit over 2023 jail death
  • State intervenes at Richmond City Jail after a series of deaths
  • Irving wins third term as Richmond sheriff; Burnett 'done running for good'

• Unsafe conditions for those working in the Sheriff's Office

  • 911 call: sergeant rushed from city jail to hospital after 'incident'