Richmond Mayor Race: Candidates Talk Accountability, Credit Card Misconduct and Meals Tax Problems at City Hall
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The Race for Mayor of Richmond: Candidates Speak on Credit Card Scandal at City Hall, Transparency and Accountability
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — Last night, the Richmond Crusade for Voters hosted a forum featuring all five candidates vying to be Richmond’s next Mayor. The candidates are Andreas Addison, Danny Avula, Michelle Mosby, Maurice Neblett and Harrison Roday.
The candidates were asked questions from the audience about the ongoing corruption scandal at Richmond City Hall involving questionable employee credit card use. All of the current candidates endorsed a full audit on spending across departments. Policies on transparency and corruption were discussed.
The first question of the forum was, “if elected Mayor will you keep the current Chief Administrative Officer?” All five candidates answered “no.” audio below
The current Richmond Chief Administrative Officer, Lincoln Saunders, whose salary is over $300,000, was appointed by current Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. Saunders had no municipal financial administrative experience before becoming Richmond’s CAO. The candidates were also asked an audience question regarding “ongoing allegations of cronyism, nepotism, procurement violations and improper use of city credit cards.”
RELATED: The City of Richmond is Not Complying with Government Transparency Laws (CBS6 News)
An endless series of investigative reports by The Richmond Times Dispatch’s Samuel Parker have revealed questionable credit card expenditures by Richmond City employees. Richmond’s purchasing card program is now under investigation after Richmond registrar Keith Balmer was reported to have spent close to $70,000 on a Richmond city credit card.
According to Parker, tips from two former Richmond employees launched his investigative work into over a year of city credit card spending totaling “over $12 million” from thousands of transactions. According to Parker, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and Saunders have not directly commented on the ongoing reporting by the Richmond Times Dispatch. “We’ve asked the city numerous times about missing documentation and spending limits being exceeded and they haven’t responded to any of our questions,” Parker said on a video posted online yesterday.
The current candidates for Mayor were direct in addressing the controversy.
“I’ve been very clear that what has occurred is unacceptable and people need to be held accountable. We can’t just say, when there are issues like this, push it under the rug and say ‘everyone have a nice day.’ City money was spent and there need to be consequences if it was spent improperly,” said Harrison Roday, a ‘24 candidate for Mayor.
“Someone allowed a card to be swiped… over a span of ten months, over $300,000. Do you know how many people we could have fed and how many homeless we could have housed…? This is something we need to face head on,” said candidate Maurice Neblett.
Mayoral candidate Danny Avula said he “would conduct a national search” for a new Chief Administrative Officer.
“We’ve seen the credit cards, we’ve seen the meals tax and at the end of the day we need leadership that is going to be focused on Richmond — focused on accountability… today that is not what we have,” said Richmond mayoral candidate Michelle Mosby
“We have to choose a leader that is going to be focused on our city. That understands we have to hire experienced and knowledgeable employees — but starting at the top. We have to make sure we’re hiring a seasoned CAO. Someone who understands local government. Someone that understands accountability,” Mosby added.
Persistent issues have arisen during the tenure of Saunders over the last several years. They include a lack of transparency and violations of FOIA. In March, Richmond’s former FOIA officer Connie Clay told CBS6 Richmond she was fired for following the law.
"I sounded the alarm for several months, and no one listened, and I was silenced and then fired," Clay said. Clay is suing the city for $250,000.
“There were many instances where I was asked to withhold information that should have been released or to sit on records that should have been released," Clay said in an interview in March 2024.
RELATED: Review of City's Credit Card Program Shows Apparent Violations, Misuse (Richmond Times Dispatch, July 22, 2024)
Will anything change under a new City Hall Administration when Stoney is gone? The five current candidates for Mayor addressed that question as they asked about credit card use, transparency and what their top priorities would be.
“The first thing that needs to happen is that we start our search for our CAO [Chief Administrative Officer]. We need to make sure that we have our CAO. We also need a forensic audit. We need to know exactly where our dollars are in the city,” said Michelle Mosby. Mosby also spoke on affordable housing.
“I would work on accountability at City Hall. We have to audit. We have to comb through so many issues that we’ve been having for over 30 years that we need a resolution for,” said Maurice Neblett, a community activist running for Mayor. Neblett also mentioned a focus on mental health services.
“So much of the work in the first few days will be the national search for a CAO and an evaluation of all of the at-will positions in the city — you have to have the right team, you have to have the right people leading an organization that can be more responsive and more open to the communities we serve,” said Danny Avula regarding accountability. Avula also mentioned he’d focus on improving schools.
Affordable housing was also a major issue the candidates were asked about.
“I don’t know how in a country like America we have people in the city of Richmond sleeping under bridges,” said Harrison Roday. “If we don’t solve this problem we’re going to have so many cascading negative effects,” he added.
Roday also said he would “audit every single department at City Hall” to make sure residents were getting the services they need.
Andreas Addison mentioned a focus on Richmond’s communities and once again said there needs to be “multiple grocery stories” on Richmond’s Southside. Addison also focused on housing affordability and career pipelines starting in middle school.
There will be several upcoming forums for Mayor and other offices. Black Virginia News will provide detailed coverage.
The Race for Mayor of Richmond on POD VIRGINIA. This week, Pod Virginia featured an interview with former Richmond City Council member, candidate for Richmond Mayor and Richmond City Hall employee Jon Baliles. Baliles is also the publisher and founder of the local news platform RVA 5x5 and has written extensively on Richmond’s corruption issues.
Baliles is also the son of Virginia’s 65th Governor and 34th Attorney General, Gerald Baliles.
The Richmond Crusade for Voters hosted the candidate forum and there will be two more forums on August 8 with Richmond City Council candidates and August 15 with Richmond School Board candidates. 🗳️ The forums will take place from 6pm to 8pm at Third Street Bethel AME Church at 61 North 3rd Street in Richmond. For the Mayor’s forum last night (Aug 1, 2024) questions were submitted by audience members via index cards.
In Arlington: Fifth Annual Black Business Expo
The Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce is hosting the their Black Business Expo tonight through Sunday. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO. The Expo will take place at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington from August 2-4. This year's theme is “Automate, Accelerate, and Innovate.” The two-day exhibitor showcase will feature over 100 black-owned businesses.
Events
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