Severance Payments, a Speech Anniversary Protest, and Local Goverment Communication
Cheers RVA!
Today will be sunny with a high of 66 with a light breeze. The evening will be chilly with temperatures dropping down to 38.
the juice:
The City of Richmond has released severance records from the last eight years; but with incomplete details the RTD is unable to determine if the payments are compliant with rules regarding severance, according to Samuel B. Parker.
The spreadsheet obtained by the RTD (232 days after a request) includes years of service and severance granted, but does not include names or salaries.
A total of more than $1.3 million was paid out in severance between 2017 and 2025.
While Mayor Avula has promised to release severance payments annually going forward, he said in a statement:
When a city employee signs a separation agreement under the current policy, both the employee and the city of Richmond agree not to disclose the existence of the agreement. In the spirit of the promises made to these employees, I’ve decided not to release their names.
the pulp:
Richmond Public Schools reports it continues to receive “positive updates” on the condition of Gregory Muzik, the principal of Mary Munford who was struck by a vehicle last week while cycling.
Richmond Police have released photos of a person of interest and suspected vehicle in a deadly hit-and-run crash that killed a woman crossing the street at the intersection of Robinson and Main back in February, via WWBT.
VCU plans to replace the restaurant space on the ground floor of the dorm located at Cary and Belvidere with a catering facility, according to Jack Jocobs at Bizsense. The University has determined the foot traffic in the area isn’t enough to support restaurants and the new catering space would better support events on campus.
A peaceful protest at the 250th anniversary reenactment of Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” speech is planned for Sunday, March 23 at 1:00 pm at Patrick Henry Park.
the dive:
Jon Baliles dives into the communication efforts (or lack thereof) the new mayoral administration is making in building trust with the community in a post of his 5×5 substack published for RVA Mag.
Avula ran for Mayor promising to bring transparency to City Hall and now is the chance for him to prove it and begin to rebuild trust with residents and show that transparency is the fundamental ingredient in fixing what is broken. His recent and repeated statements that communications with our regional partners were “reasonable” and “appropriate” when the water plant failed on January 6th are baffling given all the evidence to the contrary, and seems like a page from the Stoney media playbook of denial.
Baliles cites reporting by the Richmonder that quotes Avula as saying media has been so brutal on staff in recent years that, unfortunately, there is a learned behavior of not being honest about what’s happening for fear of being “raked over the coals”.
Read the full article here.
the vibe:
Have an outdoorsy day RVA!
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