Mayor Avula on Steering Richmond Forward

Rich Meagher:

Welcome to RVAs. Got Issues, the show that brings you the people and ideas that are reshaping Greater Richmond. I’m your host, Rich Meagher. Danny Avula is the mayor of Richmond. He just finished his first 100 days and he’s finding out what it’s like to try to follow through on campaign promises. One lesson, he’s probably learning the hard way. Changing city government can’t happen overnight. It’s like turning an oil tanker. It happens slowly and you need a lot of room. Today we’ll join Mayor Avula at the wheel of the oil tanker and find out what it’s like to steer the city of Richmond. Mayor Avula. Welcome.

Danny Avula:

Thanks, rich. Great to be back.

Rich Meagher:

So it’s been quite a few first hundred days. Um, what has this period taught you?

Danny Avula:

Boy, so much. One, uh, that yeah, this work does not happen quickly, right? I, I think that on the campaign trail, uh, you know, we’re asked questions every day by residents all over the city about what we’re gonna do and what we’re gonna fix, and what do we think about this and that. And it all sounds great when you’re on the campaign trail. Like we wanna do all of those things, but there’s a reality to a finite bucket of resources and the hard work that it is to divvy up those resources in a prioritized way On the campaign trail, you hear and speak in kind of platitudes in a sense, right? You say, oh, we’ve got a billion dollar budget, why can’t we fix everything? Billion dollar sounds like a lot of money until you actually start to get into the budget and you realize we’ve got 4,000 employees and that we’ve got huge, uh, commitments to paying off debt on old decisions. And so, you know, there’s a lot that the public doesn’t understand about the complexity of running a city. And so that has been a lot of these first a hundred days is really learning the challenge of that.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. So about that public understanding, right? I think a major issue in the campaign was this idea of fixing city government. In your words, it’s creating an effective and accountable city hall. So there’s already been a few issues that show that work needs to be done. The, the water crisis of course, but also this recent stuff about purchasing cards where employees possibly abusing city credit cards, people not being able to cash their tax rebate checks. How do you handle these kinds of situations when things come to light that, that don’t make the city look good?

Danny Avula:

Yeah, I mean, I, this is what I say most days when I’m out there talking to residents in different settings, is that, uh, this is the work that I signed up to do, right? Yeah. I mean, the public mandate is to, to create a more effective city hall, a city hall where we can trust what’s happening and how we’re stewarding the taxpayer dollars. Um, and you don’t flip a switch, right? That is slow, difficult work of creating policy, making sure you have the right people on board, making sure the right accountability structures are in place. And so I expect the entirety of my four year term to be full of these stories, right? We are gonna dive into different agencies. We are gonna use the auditors as a partner. We are gonna identify stuff that’s gonna make us look real bad, but it’s the stuff we’ve gotta fix. And so that will be my attitude at every turn is like, we’re gonna look for it. We’re gonna find it, we’re gonna fix it.

Rich Meagher:

So, fixing things, right? The, the water crisis hit you right in that fun first week you had on the job. Uh, what’s the plan moving forward on that?

Danny Avula:

Yeah, well, a lot of the initial investments have, have already been made. And so the water treatment plan is up and running. We obviously had another hiccup recently, uh, with the, the fluoride issue in the water. And, you know, thankfully it was caught at a point where there was not a health harm to people. But I do think it is indicative of the ongoing process of like instituting new procedures and making sure that we’re communicating well, both with our partners in the counties who rely on us for water, and also our, you know, our own customers here in the city. I do think we are gonna see ongoing changes, right? Not only ongoing staffing changes, but also, uh, investments that we need to make in the long term, right? So there were things that were, uh, planned out over the next five years in our capital improvement budget that we have accelerated to the next one to two years because we know we’ve gotta put more in now. And then I think this is a great opportunity for us to, you know, band together with our regional partners and say, is there some setup where a regional approach and regional investment into the water treatment plan actually serves the entire region better? And so we are actively, you know, working through some of those ideas and plans with our county partners and, you know, there’s a spectrum of what that could look like, but we’ll get there.

Rich Meagher:

So you, you mentioned that that fluoride spike in the water, again, the city was slow to notify state authorities, again, slow to notify local partners. Why is that still happening after personnel changes there?

Danny Avula:

Well, the personal changes hadn’t quite happened yet. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I mean, we, we started to make some moves, the communications operating procedure, it, it hadn’t quite, uh, been put into action yet. So, you know, I think this is where change has not happened overnight. Yeah, we do need a runway and you hope that nothing else is gonna happen in the course that runway. But the reality is, is it does. And the fact that information didn’t bubble up to the director of public utilities for several days shows that we still have deep issues and training within the plant that we’ve gotta address.

Rich Meagher:

So I wanna widen the scope a little bit to what’s going on in the national context. The Trump administration making massive cuts to federal spending in some areas, threatening others. What city services are most at risk without those federal funds?

Danny Avula:

Well, we rely heavily on federal dollars, you know, about $290 million of federal funding come in. Some of that is one-time funding through grants and largely in infrastructure, but some of it actually fuels the day-to-day operations of what we do as a city. And so, you know, people often ask, what are you gonna do if the feds pull out all their money? And I, I don’t have a great answer for that because you can’t replace $290 million easily, right? And so what we are doing is making sure that we know and clearly have eyes on all of the different funding, federal funding streams that support city work, that we are communicating regularly with our federal representatives, our senators, and Congresswoman McClellan, and, you know, making sure that there’s just good exchange of information, but even they will say stuff is coming outta this administration that they don’t have eyes on.

That’s surprising everybody. And it’s already having impacts, right? I mean, one of the big headlines a few weeks ago was, uh, the pulling back of a $12 million grant that was gonna go into our water treatment plant, right? And so that’s a big loss and, and we’ll have to find other ways to fund that. But I think the things as we look forward, I mean, especially to the budget that the president just, uh, just presented to Congress recently, uh, there’s some really concerning things in there, right? Like the removal of the community development block grant, CDBG, which is a large funding stream for us that funds a lot of our affordable housing efforts, funds a lot of our lead remediation work. Uh, and so if that is to get canceled, like that would have a huge impact on our ability to provide safe and stable housing for the most vulnerable residents of our community. One of the other things that’s proposed to, to cut back on is money that supports homeless services. And, uh, if that gets pulled back, that leaves a huge gap in our ability to actually find some quick stable housing for that population.

Rich Meagher:

And so what are the levers that the city has if they need to replace that funding? Is it just you gotta cut a, a, a program if the money isn’t in anymore? Or are there other funding sources that you can find?

Danny Avula:

I mean, again, the scope of what the Fed support is so vast that I think there are specific things that we’ll have other strategies for. Like, we’ll talk to our state partners and see if there’s money that can come outta surplus to help fill a gap. Certainly the philanthropic and corporate communities can come together and, and so we’re, we’re gonna have to like go chase money wherever we can to fill the needs. But I, I think for anyone to think that there are easy solutions to fill the federal gap, that’s just not the case.

Rich Meagher:

So nonprofit groups that traditionally contract with the city to provide some of these services, they, they seem pretty worried. What is the city able to do to help them, if anything?

Danny Avula:

You know, we have supported nonprofits pretty significantly, especially compared to our county counterparts Last year had about a $13 million line item to support nonprofits across a bunch of different areas, whether that’s arson culture or human service delivery, uh, youth development. And we’ve had to cut back on that, right? The budget that I presented took that number from about 13 million down to just below $9 million. And that, you know, I think a lot of nonprofits were understandably frustrated. But there’s also the other side of that coin, which is that we need to really focus on making sure that local government can just do the, the fundamental job is expected to do really well before we then think about where, what other nonprofits are we looking to support?

Rich Meagher:

So what, what about proposed cuts to Medicaid? Uh, you, you were, you were a doctor, you may forget that some, some days <laugh> in your job here, a former health official. How does a federal program like that affect richmonders?

Danny Avula:

Yeah, I was gonna get there because, you know, the proposed cuts to Medicaid at the federal level would be disastrous for us, right? Not only, uh, the vast array of like direct healthcare services that are funded by Medicaid for low income individuals, but it’s not just going to a doctor. Medicaid funds a lot of other supports that low income individuals need, uh, mental health services, uh, housing services in some cases. And so drastic cuts to Medicaid will have devastating effects on our most vulnerable populations.

Rich Meagher:

And so all of these cuts, these, these federal programs, it’s, it’s not just about the services, right? It’s about the way that they affect the economy here in Richmond. The federal cuts, the layoffs. Now the tariffs, uh, predictions are that this will not only lead to a lagging economy, but the businesses themselves are already having to raise costs, right? Raise their prices, reduce their staff hours, delay investment. Is there anything the city can do for our businesses?

Danny Avula:

Yeah. Well, I’ll say that it, it like really throws out of whack the economic game plan for the city, right? Because for us, our path forward is both about trying to continue addressing the social needs for our more vulnerable populations, but doing that through thoughtful economic development, right? Like bringing, uh, more people into the city, building more housing, and then bringing more business in the city to drive revenues. Now, the challenge that we’re seeing now with tariffs and all the other things that are happening is that people who have the money to build a 200 unit apartment building are gonna be a little bit more wary of that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. They’re gonna be a little, uh, more hesitant to let that money go. And the cost of construction already post covid, I saw 30 to 40% increases and now it’s gonna be even, uh, higher than that.

And so, uh, the money that it takes to actually build housing to, to, you know, renovate old spaces to bring new business into town is only gonna get harder in this economic environment. And that’s gonna make it really hard for us as a locality to move forward. And so, you know, what can we do about that? I mean, I think one is, is really just making the ask to our corporate partners to say, Hey, these are hard times for everybody. You all have a, a significant footprint both in creating jobs and investing money in our community. Um, and so we just ask you to continue doing that and we will do our part to make that as easy as possible. But so many cases, this comes down to money and that’s what’s gonna tighten up over the next few years.

Rich Meagher:

We’ll have more from Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, including why he wanted to fight for higher salaries for city employees in this economy. When we come back on RVAs got issues, this is rva’s got issues, we’re back with Richmond Mayor Danny Avula. So Danny, you’ve gotten through your first budget season, not without some challenges, right? You had a disagreement, pretty public, one with newly elected city council member Sarah Abubaker, particularly about city employees, right? It’s a tight budget, but you asked for significant salary increases for some city employees. Sarah wanted to limit those increases. Why was this so important for you in this budget?

Danny Avula:

My job, number one, is to make sure that our city government just does the basics. Well, the way to do that is not to, uh, not treat our employees well, not to, to cap raises and not to like, create barriers for us to be able to recruit and retain the best talent possible. We had already agreed, you know, through our collective bargaining agreements before I got here, right? Uh, that we would give raises to employees across the board. Uh, it’s something that we are gonna need to do continually to compete. ’cause they, otherwise they’ll jump to Henrico or Chesterfield. Henrico and Chesterfield are both giving raises to all of their staff as well. Mm-hmm. It’s something that we have not done consistently over the years. And so some of this we’re playing catch up on to really try to, uh, make sure that, you know, we’re, we’re addressing the cost of living realities, right?

You know, the things we’re talking about are not huge things. This is a 3.25% raise. I mean, that’s a, a basic cost of living adjustment that most people in any other sector would absolutely expect. Um, and so to, to then say, Hey, why don’t we only do that for this group of employees and not others? It sends a message to an organization more than ever, I need to, uh, rely on leadership, right? I need to make sure that I have the most talented leaders helping us through this transition and capping them in an environment like this is not the way to get there.

Rich Meagher:

Well, so the Richmond Times dispatch and an editorial, um, said, take off the blinders, mayor. Yeah, I saw that, right? Yeah. And, and in some sense, right, it is about perception, but it’s not just this across the board percent increase. It’s like a couple of these positions you were calling for, you know, $40,000 pay increases, including a raise for yourself. So what do you say to people who are, are suggesting this is bad politics? Like, read the room, mayor Avula.

Danny Avula:

Yeah, I mean, I think the blinders comment, like if it was some, from someone who’s actually run an organization, like I’d give it some credence, right? Mm-hmm. I mean, I think the reason I was elected is because I’ve actually had experience growing, building, improving organizations. And if you talk to anybody who has actually done this work, they recognize that taking care of your people is the most important part of that. Like, making sure that you are competitive, that you’re backing the, the staff that you have, that it’s an environment where people feel supported. Now, if people are not doing their job, I also have the responsibility to hold them accountable and move them on, right? And that’s the work that we’re gonna do. But I feel like commentary like that is just, uh, you know, it, it makes for a good headline, but it actually is so removed from the reality of what it takes to run a 4,000 person organization.

Rich Meagher:

So going back to the budget process itself, Councilwoman Abubaker also called the budget process broken, right? Not enough public input, definitely not enough council input. Both she and some other members argued that it’s sort of like the administration decides, and then the council just rubber stamps it. Um, Ellen Robertson, uh, said, it’s, it’s hard to unwrap what’s already wrapped. So Sarah suggests, revamp the process, start in the summer, get more input and a bigger role for council. What’s your response to that proposal?

Danny Avula:

Yeah, totally agree with all of that. I mean, I think that, um, and I have been clear with my colleagues on council that we as, as soon as we get past this budget adoption, then the budget process for the next year starts. And we need to rethink like, what are the timelines? How are we, uh, incorporating input not just from city council, but from constituents. ’cause we really do need to have our finger on the pulse of what different segments of our community need and are gonna prioritize. Um, and that’s part of City Council’s role too, right? I mean, in so many ways they are the liaison between the community and, and the administration. And so I absolutely see them as partners in this work. I think this upcoming year budget process will look very different in terms of the degree of ongoing connection and co-creation that we have of the city’s priorities. And one of the things that I hope is that, you know, city council, they represent each of their nine districts. Like each district is gonna have slightly different priorities, but there also have to be a set of shared priorities for the entire city, right? I, I think of, uh, you know, when things have gone really well in other cities, it’s when leadership can really rally around, uh, consistent priorities and consistent investment in those priorities, because that’s the way that change happens in a community.

Rich Meagher:

So you mentioned public input. There was a, a surprise in the budget you proposed. We’re going through the, the much lauded people’s budget process. Mm-hmm. We reported on that earlier this year. You did not include funding for that in the original proposal. How come?

Danny Avula:

Yeah, again, I think this is like the media’s version of this, right? We were having many conversations both with my colleagues on council with Matthew Slats, who’s running the participatory budgeting process. Uh, you know, at the time that I had to propose my budget, they had not finalized what those nine projects would be. I looked at the whole list of what people were voting on, and many of those projects would actually be funded out of already existing buckets within DPW and other agencies. And so what I told City Council was like, Hey, get through your process. We’ll crosswalk the nine selected projects against the city’s budget. Make sure that those things are prioritized in our flexible funding, like Complete Streets and like some of the other buckets of funding in DPW. And then anything that doesn’t already fit in the budget will either try to see if we can find some surplus money or other flexible funding streams, or we’ll prioritize it in FY 27. But at every step, I felt really good about the conversations I’ve been having with council and about the sort of honesty and integrity of that process.

Rich Meagher:

So you also promised during the campaign to prioritize Richmond Public Schools in the city’s budget, and you gave ’em $10 million more than last year, but 20 million less than what they requested. So with school teacher salary still below average federal funding cuts looming, there are schools really a priority when it’s so much less than what they say they need.

Danny Avula:

Yeah. And again, uh, behind the scenes, the conversations look very different than they do in the media, right? The superintendent and I meet once, sometimes twice a week. We have, we’re in regular dialogue about every, every step we’ve met with school board leadership before I, I proposed my budget. Um, and I, I think here’s the deal, right? They asked for 32 or 34 million, but we couldn’t just fully fund everything that we want to do. We had some core things that we had to fund, right? Our agreements to in give, uh, salary increases to employees, uh, our commitments to pay off debt, right? And so in the conversations we had with the school board, I said, you know, looking at our projections, it’s not realistic that we’re gonna be able to give you the full ask of $34 million. Uh, but we, we can do 10. And we, as a city, we had to like look deep across all of our agencies to figure out where we were gonna trim funding from, and we expect the schools to do the same thing, right? And thankfully, school board voted, Hey, we are going to, uh, maintain our commitment to our teachers. So there, those salaries, uh, increases are still going through, but they just like, we have go look for other places that we’re gonna trim back in a tough budget year.

Rich Meagher:

So something you did include some funding for was the fall line trail, right? It’s a multi-use paved path. It’s gonna run from Ashland to Petersburg. We got a listener question about that trail. It’s not about funding, but let’s listen to it.

Voicemail:

This is Rich Saer of the Bellevue neighborhood. In April, the city of Richmond announced that the 13 mile segment of the fall line multi-use trail will cost over a quarter of $8 billion over the next 10 years. So far, the planning and design has been done with minimal city council and public involvement. What is your administration doing to increase public involvement in the route and design of the trail and to ensure that the trail is the most safe, environmentally friendly and cost effective option of all those available? Thank

Rich Meagher:

You. So again, our listener here is really asking about public engagement. What is the city doing to bring in the public for this big fall line trail?

Danny Avula:

I will say that this has actually been one of the more engaged public processes. I mean, there’s so many entities that have been involved that have had voice, that have met with members of our team. My chief of staff came back from, uh, a meeting recently at the, uh, Richmond Police Training Academy, specifically around fall line trail and, and some of the options that were on the table. And she came back to saying, this is what democracy should look like. And it, and it wasn’t like a super easy meeting by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a place where so many voices were represented. So many perspectives, uh, were coming together. And I think a lot of these organizing bodies have done a lot of work to really get their finger on the pulse of what potential users of this trail would want.

Now there’s a small group that, you know, feels really strongly and differently about that, but again, like that’s what democracy should look like. And I, and I really do feel good about the degree to which those voices have been weighed and heard. The second part of this question was really around the stewardship of dollars. Yeah. Making sure that those dollars are being spent. Well, I do think it’s important for people to know that the fall line comes from taxpayer dollars in a different way. The bulk of the fall line trail is actually being funded through, uh, monies from the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, which was created several years ago and uses fuel tax from across the region to fund big transportation projects. And so if you look at those different stretches, you know, from Hanover on down to Petersburg, it’s actually money from CVTA that is funding that, not like your direct real estate tax, for example.

Rich Meagher:

So keeping on this theme, uh, one other big issue from the campaign was housing availability and affordability. People are still feeling like rents are too high, they can’t afford to buy a home. We have another listener question about that.

Voicemail:

Hello, this is Joseph Carlisle. I’d like to ask a question for the mayor. We are in a housing crisis, and Richmond has already done the hard work of creating a vision through the Richmond 300 plan. But when the projects that align with that vision come up, especially multifamily housing, it bogged down by the same handful of objections, traffic, parking, neighborhood character, these arguments are often not backed by data, yet they still delay or kill housing that we desperately need. What is your administration doing to ensure that the zoning overhaul actually results in more homes and we don’t let fear and nostalgia block the future of this city?

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. So this listener is worried about obstacles put up by city residents, right? How do we overcome nimbyism the not in my backyard? Like what can your administration do to get residents on board with more of the housing that we need?

Danny Avula:

Yeah, I think this comes back to our conversation about engagement, right? I mean, a city government is in many ways directed by the people who we represent. It is the city’s government. And so we do need to spend the time and make the effort to really hear those voices, but it also takes kind of the analysis and the wisdom to know when you’ve got a small group of people with a very loud voice. And I think the fall line process was an example of that where on multiple rounds of engagement, it was, it became clear and clear that, you know, it was a smaller and smaller group with a very loud voice. And again, no disrespect, I think it’s important to hear all of those voices, but it’s also important to know where is the bulk of your community at and how do you then drive decisions based on that.

I think with housing, there are some parts of our city that are gonna be really resistant to it. And, you know, we’ve gotta engage in the sort of public education process. And, you know, one of the things I just talk about all the time is the fact that to keep up with increasing costs in a 62 square mile city that doesn’t have the ability to, you know, grow beyond our physical footprint. We are gonna have to be super thoughtful and intentional and even aggressive about developing the land that is currently undeveloped. And so that’s housing, that’s retail, that’s, that’s really identifying all of the spaces where we can bring more development into. And part of the listener’s question also spoke to the ordinance rewrite process. You know, we, as we look at best practices around the country, we know that higher density, more multifamily, smaller lot sizes like that, we actually have to make changes to our code that has not been updated since the 1970s to be able to allow for the kind of growth that we need here in 2025. And so, you know, it’s why the planning department is doing the roadshow, right? They’re doing all of these open houses all over the city to get that input and feedback and make sure that we have as many voices represented in the rewrite as possible.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. But just more specifically, like how do you make that case? How do you as mayor speak to those folks to get them on board? Yeah. With more

Danny Avula:

Housing, you know, my family moved into the East end 21 years ago with a real desire to build bridges and relational connections across racial and socioeconomic boundaries. Um, and that has been transformational for us. And, you know, I can’t write that prescription for every resident in the, in the city, but I, I can really advocate for zoning changes and the kind of development that will make that kind of integration more feasible.

Rich Meagher:

So before we go, I’ve asked about a lot of these challenges the job has thrown at you. What’s been your favorite part of being mayor so far?

Danny Avula:

Boy. Is there a favorite part? Uh, um, you know, like, there, there are definitely highlights every week. The opportunity to just get out in front of our staff and to share, you know, our appreciation and recognition of how hard these jobs are. Like that is a real joy every time I get out to a community meeting, even though it’s not always fun, right? Yeah. People, people come to those to sort of air their grievances, but I do think we are kind writing a new script about how, uh, I and our team want to be connected to the ground, want to be out in the community, and making sure that we’re hearing directly from people about what they prioritize in those governments. And I think we’re doing a good job of that.

Rich Meagher:

Danny Aula is the mayor of Richmond. Thanks for being here.

Danny Avula:

Yeah. Great to be here, rich. Thanks.

Rich Meagher:

That’s our show. Thanks to our guest, Danny Avula. Find out more about our show and tell us about your issues at our website, RVAsgotissues.vpm.org. Remember to tell your friends about us, share a social media post or leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform. RVAs Got Issues is produced by Max Wasserman and Rachel Dwyer. Script editing by Rachel Dwyer. Audio mixed by Steve Lack. Our intern is Cate McKenzie. Our theme music was composed by Alexander Hitchens. Meg Lindholm is our executive producer. Steve Humble is VP’s Chief Content Officer. I’m your host, Rich Meagher. Thanks for listening.