Who’s Got Your Vote: Meet Danny Avula

Rich: Welcome to RVA’s Got Issues, a podcast about politics and public affairs in and around Richmond, Virginia. I’m your host, Rich Meagher. On this special election episode, RVA’s got issues with the Richmond mayoral election. Five candidates are vying to be Richmond’s next mayor. Each one wants to be the key decision maker that will shape the future of the city and the region. We’ll sit down with the candidates for an in-depth conversation about who they are, what they plan to do, and why they should be the choice of Richmond’s voters in November. We’re joined now by Danny Avula, a pediatrician who was also recently the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services, a state government agency.

Welcome Danny. Thanks Rich.

Avula: Great to be here. Right.

Q: So, you oversaw the COVID vaccine rollout for the state. The whole State of Virginia. And that’s given you a bit of name recognition. People know you as the doctor who oversaw that. I think some voters might be wondering, though, about your connection to the City of Richmond and whether you’re up to the task of addressing all the city’s challenges. What would you say to voters who question whether you’ve done the work getting to know the city of Richmond?

A: Well, I moved to the city of Richmond in 2000. Came here to go to medical school and really decided that we loved Richmond and wanted to plant roots, raise a family and be invested in the city. And so, we made a decision, at the time we’re transitioning from med school residency, to move into the East End. And so, for 20 plus years now, we’ve been residents of North Church Hill. Deeply invested in the city. My wife is a public school teacher. We have five kids who have all gone to Richmond public schools. I was the former city’s public health director. I served for 12 years in the local health department and then I actually merged the Richmond and Henrico health departments back in 2018. And so, even before I was doing work at the state, deep, deep work in the city and in the region, serving on the leadership teams of both the city of Richmond and County of Henrico. And so, you know, this has been my home. It’s been the place I’ve loved. It’s been the place that we’ve given our life to over the last 20 years.

Q: So, speaking of like kind of giving your life over to that. Just some history about your parents. They immigrated to California, was it, from India and you’ve told a story about how education was a huge priority for them so much so that you graduated from UVA early when you were 19. And you and your wife, in the East End, sent your kids to Chimborazo Elementary. Decided that you were going to send your kids to public school at a time when, say, the reputation of that school and really the outcomes weren’t super strong. I think nine out of ten students were at the poverty line back then. Why did you do this? Like this couldn’t have been an easy decision for you folks. Why do this?

A: Yeah, you know, when we moved into the East End of Richmond, that decision, in many ways, was motivated by a desire to address deep seated race injustice issues. I mean that was our sense of call to that community, recognizing that the way that our society typically operates, you are not in places where you can build relationships across race or across class. And that if you really want to address some of those root causes, you’ve got to be invested. And so, for my wife and I, we made the decision to move into a community that, you know, suffered from a lot of blight. There were not a lot of people who looked like us there. It was a very low-income community. But we did it because we wanted to be in a place where we could both build those kinds of relationships and be invested in the systems and structures that lead to disparity. And so, you know, the decision to send our kids that school, when we first moved in the neighborhood, my wife took a job at Chimborazo Elementary and it immediately connected us to that to the community and our friends, our social network was really… the school was a hub for much of that and so I think having our kids go to our neighborhood school, having our kids be a part of their community, I mean, it actually wasn’t all that hard a decision for us.

Q: I want to like push back on that a little bit. Just because it’s not so much even the participation in your neighborhood school, but when so many folks in Richmond who have the resources might pull their kids out of RPS or send them somewhere else if they feel like they can. If maybe you had the resources, maybe didn’t but making that decision right prioritize certain things over others. How does that inform your approach to what you’re doing in the city? Not to get grandiose, but you called this being in the neighborhood an act of social justice. So, what does that mean for what you do publicly?

A: That’s a lot to unpack there. I’ll first say that I think that our schools are one of the great contributors to inequity. And the reason for that is our history has created neighborhoods of wealth and neighborhoods of poverty. Redlining is the most obvious example, but many other policy actions in our country have really created difficult circumstances for the Black community, in particular. And so, I think that the current state of schools is a reflection of generations of disinvestment. And the way to turn that, and the reason that I think making different choices about where we live and investing in those systems is an act of justice, is that it’s, it’s resources that need to come back into schools and that’s family and parental resources, but it’s also actual monetary investment by the city. Maybe one thing you said that does ring true as somebody who grew up as an immigrant family and education was everything. There was some internal wrestling about what is the priority here? Like I grew up, everything was about get the best grades, go to the best schools, go to the best opportunity. And I think living in our community and really wanting to do some of that deeper work around systemic injustice, it made me, and my wife realize that, okay, there are actually other priorities that are just as good as the best grades and the best schools and the best opportunities. And for our kids, who have resourced, educated parents, like, they’re going to be okay. And so, I think, weighing the reality that for our family, having our kids have the opportunity to grow up and to build some of those bridge relationships across race and class, like, that was just as or more important than, than other things.

Q: So, let’s actually talk about any kind of lessons you might’ve learned. So, you’re living in the East End. Your wife’s teaching Chimborazo. What did you learn about the actual challenges the school was facing? Not the sort of like, “Oh, the schools are failing. They’re terrible.” But you’re in it. You’re embedded in it. So, you can kind of see some of the actual challenges that families are facing. What did you learn about the schools and the community that you lived in?

A: Three things. One, that the schools are full of amazing, super passionate, super committed, super generous people. I mean, the teachers that serve schools like Chimborazo, and all across Richmond Public Schools, pull money every day out of their own pocket to meet the needs that are in front of them. And you know, teachers don’t get paid well to begin with. So, just really… admiration for the people who have given their lives to this work. Second, that in the Richmond public school system, we serve students that have come from, in some cases, like, degenerational poverty. And so, for years, and probably still, the RTD will post, you know, the per pupil cost for Richmond versus Henrico versus Chesterfield, and people will go nuts and be like, “Oh, why is Richmond, you know, so bad at using money. What’s going on there?” And the reality is that what so many of these kids need and what they’re struggling with requires way more investment. And so, you know, we could double the pupil cost and I’d be okay with that. Now that’s not going to happen, but I do feel like the investment that so many of these kids need around mental health resources, around restorative justice approaches, around substance use for families, around employment skillset. That does take investment, and I think we talk a lot about equity, and that is really at root making sure that everybody has the opportunity for well-being, for success, for health. That takes different investments in different places based on the history that has led us to that point. So that was the second thing that I learned is that, you know, it is just going to take more investment. And the third thing is as outsiders coming into that community, I had a lot, you know, we were young, we were UVA grads, we wanted to change the world, and we had a lot of, like, grandiose ideas about what we wanted to see happen. Early on, we really pushed for Chimborazo to become an IB school and I think that was a mistake. Like, we did not do enough work listening to community residents and really honoring the priorities of that community before kind of pushing our own agenda. And so, it was huge learning for us to say, hey, like really truly being a part of the community means uplifting community voice.

Q: And so, you say it’s a it was a mistake. How could have gone differently for that third point?

A: Well, I think what it showed was that people who have resources, who have connections can push forward and make their agenda happen. Like, we were able to connect with our city council, and we were fought to find donors, and to go to resource communities, and to make this thing happen that really most of the parents didn’t even know what IB was, didn’t really care, didn’t have the buy in. And so, it’s not necessarily that Chimborazo becoming an IB school was a bad thing on its own but what it did was it created a dynamic where the folks with resources and connections were pushing an agenda that wasn’t the agenda, that wasn’t really the best thing for everybody in that school. And so, you know, I mean, I think my learning again is that you the need is to come in humbly and to listen to communities. And yeah, maybe there’s an organizing role or maybe there’s a benefit to bringing resource to an effort. But it’s gotta be led by the folks who are really invested in it.

Q: So how would this translate into an Avula mayoral administration. What kind of role do you see the mayor playing in supporting RPS? It sounds like you said investment, so, is it increasing the budget? Is it more than that? Like what should the mayor do to help support RPS going forward?

A: Yes, and yes. I think the primary role the mayor plays in supporting the school system is ensuring that it’s prioritized in the budget. That first introduced budget has a subset of what’s going to the public schools. And so, you know, if I’m elected mayor, I’m going to ask the question every time is an investment in something else, a better investment than investing in our schools and our kids and our families. And so, I just think that for multiple reasons, investing in schools is really important for our city. One, it’s an issue of competition. You probably know lots of folks who weren’t ready to do public schools, didn’t feel good about doing public schools, and so by the time they got their school age, they moved out to the counties. Other people who had the resources, would send their kids to private schools, and no judgment around any of it. All of us are just trying to do the best thing for our kids and I understand that. And I think the competition part, which is that we’ve got to get schools to a place where, some of those families say, “Hey, I feel good about sending my kid here, and I’m going to stay in the city, and I’m going to continue to contribute to the tax base here.” But there’s a moral imperative for all of those families who don’t have the privilege to leave or to send their kid to private school, you know, and so, I think we need to have a standard that every kid who comes to the school is going to be either prepared to go to college or prepared to go to the workforce, to the career force. It’s so fundamental to what local government does. And so, you asked, how do we get there? The mayor absolutely has to advocate for more funding in the city’s budget. The mayor also has to do the work at the General Assembly because we have such a, significant infrastructure issues in our school that’s not going to be able to come from just the city tax revenue alone. And so, there’s a real role to both battle around the local composite index, make sure the funding formula at the state level is appropriately funding disadvantaged schools, but also the need to advocate for capital dollars to build new schools.

Rich: So speaking of large organizations like the Richmond Public Schools. You’re no stranger to large bureaucracies. We talked about the Richmond City and Henrico, bringing those two health districts together. You’ve set up community health clinics. What do you do when you’re faced with a problem? You’re someone who maybe has an answer to this, in terms of prioritizing the challenges you address. COVID hits. Everyone’s sort of like falling apart, wetting their pants, whatever and you go to work. And you say, okay, we’re going to roll out the vaccine, let’s make it happen. How do you actually figure that out? Like the next step in the plan?

A: Some of this comes from medical training. The way that we’re taught to diagnose illness is really to do an assessment. And it means listening to certain parts of the body. It means running some tests. It means maybe doing an X-ray. And so, the analog of that in community work is really understand, like, what is the data? What is the baseline that we’re working from? Where is the community? Where are the people’s will and hearts? Where the resources that could be applied to a solution? And so appropriately framing and diagnosing the problem is where you start. And then there’s got to be a clear outcome that we’re working towards. With COVID, when I took over that role as state vaccine coordinator, we were 50th out of 50 states in terms of getting shots in arms. And so, every day, we would sit in the situation room, not unlike this, where we have monitors all over the walls, and we would post what was our national ranking, how many vaccines had we delivered in the last 24 hours, and what was our plan in the next 24 hours and next seven days to, to deliver vaccines. And by being really focused on the number outcome there, and having a sense of accountability, saying, we’re bringing the team together every day to see this, and to make sure that this is directing our next steps, we went from 50th in the country to the top 10 most vaccinated states in about six months. And so, I think that’s part of the answer, is that you are, accurately and appropriately diagnose a problem, you set an outcome and then you hold, you provide accountability towards that

Q: So, I get that. It gets a little more complicated when you’re running a city because then it’s not just the vaccines. We have our goal. We have many goals, right? You’ve got your housing goals, you’ve got your school goals, your education goals. How do you set priorities? How do you think you might set priorities as mayor to try to figure out which of the many things that you could be targeting ends up on those monitors?

A: Well, part of running for office is basically like doing a six-month community survey every single day. I mean, even this morning, I was out in Fulton Hill and hearing from residents about what their challenges are. And so, you know, I think any of us coming in should have a very clear idea of what the priorities in this community are. I mean, and what I’ve heard consistently over and over and over: housing, education, public safety. And that all three of those things really emanate from a need for a higher functioning, more transparent, more responsive, local government. And so, I think the work is really framing out what are the outcomes working towards, How much new housing? How much of it is market rate, how much of it is affordable at 80 percent How much of it is 80 percent a MI? How much affordable at 60 percent and below? And then making sure that we are working towards those numeral numerical outcomes in the Department of Housing Similarly in the Department of Permitting. If our turnaround time is three months and we need to get that under one month, we’re gonna drive to that outcome. And so, I think the role of the mayor who was so functionally, ultimately the CEO of a 2.8-billion-dollar agency with 3,000 employees that exist to provide a set of services, like you can actually drive to outcomes like that.

Q: So, Danny, let’s talk about trust. There’s a sense that certain parts of the city have been left behind. Neighborhoods, maybe the entire South side in some ways, right? In your health care roles, you’ve worked with populations that don’t normally trust medicine. Right? How does the experience of trying to get people who are, let’s say, vaccine resistant to take a shot, to literally get a shot in their arm, how would that work in terms of translating to the work you would need to do as mayor to get communities who are also distrustful of Richmond City government?

A: I think there are components to this. It’s showing up, actually getting out into communities. Listening well, actually spending the time to hear what is important to folks and then following through and doing that in a transparent way. Even pre COVID, a huge part of our work at the health department, was expanding access to family planning and reproductive healthcare in some of our lowest income communities, our big six public housing communities. And so, we were mapping our data for things like infant mortality and sexually transmitted disease and we, we went to the housing authority and said, hey,could, could we work together on figuring out how to improve health outcomes? And we just started talking to community members and it was incredible to sort of here, their desire to engage that, their input. And one example, you know, people were like, “If that’s an STD clinic, no one’s gonna show up. We all know each other’s business. No one’s gonna walk in those doors.” And so we had residents saying, “I just want a place where I can get my blood pressure checked or to talk about my diabetes and check my sugar.” And so, we really changed the operational model of these resource centers because of deep community engagement and input and that built trust. And what we did was we ended up hiring residents of those neighborhoods as community health workers. We started the first community health worker program in the area and then we worked to help them go from 20 to 30 hour a week, part time employees to show the city council. the benefit of what they were doing and the outcomes they were driving towards. City Council invested, invested, invested, and we were able to make those full-time benefited employees, and really create career ladder for those folks. And so I think an example of where, you know, you’ve just got to show up, listen to community, work with community, and then follow through and communicate transparently about what you’re doing and why. Similarly, during COVID, you know, there’s a lot of historical distrust from the Black community around vaccination. And so, not only did we have those community health workers and a longstanding relationship with low-income communities to build off of, but we also did new work. We engaged faith leaders in the African American churches. I went to mosques and masjids, and you know, worked with the imams and in of those engagements just to being honest about what we know, what we don’t know, what we’re trying to do to make things better. And over time that built a lot of just goodwill and trust.

Q: And so you, the way you put that, it’s, it’s more than words, right? It’s the actions. And so, on issues beyond healthcare, the mayor needs to commit to following through on some of those issues. I think people want to know like, what kinds of follow through would come out of the candidates running for mayor this year? Are there specific things that you see that the city needs that you’re willing to not just sort of say, we’ll listen, but yes, we’ll give that we’ll work on that. We’ll do that.

A: I mean, back to our earlier conversation about what we’re hearing from community, when I’m out there talking to folks and, and we’re hearing over and over housing, education, public safety, and a more responsive, transparent, reliable local government, I think that frames for me where the attention is going to go and where the follow through needs to be. There’s numerous examples. Let’s take permitting as an example. You know, I’ve talked to many people who either, own a house and try to put a deck on the back of their house or a developer who’s trying to build a 100 unit apartment building, and both of them have similar experiences of not, not knowing all of the steps that they need to go through. Not feeling like the city is coordinated well enough outside between planning and DPW and DPU and I will say the city has made significant strides. I’ve spent some time with the new planning director who’s done a great job listening to communities, working on process improvements, and so I’m really encouraged about some of the directions the city is going. I think there’s still a lot more work to do, but that would be an example of an outcome where we have to deliver on better communication inside of City Hall, making it easier for the person trying to build a deck or the person trying to build a 100 person apartment unit building to get through that process. I think there’s also this sense that it is really hard to get the city to respond to me about various issues. And so, I think one of the things that, that speaks to is culture and culture starts with leadership. And so the CEO of that organization has to be the cheerleader, the encourager, the one providing that aspirational vision that we are going to excel in customer service. Like every day, we’re going to ask the question, is what I’m doing making life better for a Richmonder? And so, I think there’s just an ethos and focus on customer service that will be different with [me as] a mayor who’s really focused on building the culture of the organization.

Q: So, following up on this idea of trust. I think there’s some questions bubbling up on the campaign trail. about support you’ve received from some city leaders who might be characterized as socially conservative. On your website you say clearly that you support reproductive rights, that you support LGBTQ plus rights, but I think this is becoming a topic of conversation on forums and social media. I wanted to give you an opportunity to clarify where you stand on reproductive rights, on LGBTQ plus rights?

A: Thanks, Rich. I appreciate the question. I mean, I’ve been very clear, both on my website and really in my body of work. Not only am I a Democrat, because I think I’m getting some stone saying you work for the Youngkin administration. Are you really a Democrat? And I think for some of those folks they haven’t been around very long.  They have the two-year window of he’s part of the Republican who’s been administration, they forget that I was actually appointed by Governor Northam and did a good enough job leading us through one of the biggest crises we’ve ever faced that a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle said, well, maybe we want his talent in this next administration. I think it’s probably important to say I was originally being considered for likely the state health commissioner role. You know, I’m a public health physician. I spent my entire career at VDH and that would have been the likely place that I would end up. During that vetting process, I was asked several questions about my policy stances on things like reproductive rights transgender rights, and gun control. And I was very honest about the fact that I was pro-choice, pro trans rights, pro-gun control. And unsurprisingly, I didn’t hear back for a while. But very surprisingly, I actually did get a call over a month later and said, “Hey, would you consider being commissioner of social services?” And I saw that as an affirmation of leadership ability, of effectiveness. And for me personally, an opportunity to lead at really significant scale, working for principles that I care passionately about. Working to help people in poverty get better access to benefits, to get better access to food, to food security, to find employment pathways out of poverty. And so, I, again, was surprised, but, really grateful for the opportunity to serve in that capacity, and I wouldn’t take it back. I really appreciate the opportunity to try to make things better for two million Virginians. So, back to the question. I very much am pro reproductive rights. Very pro LGBTQ plus community. I have a queer daughter. I’ve done deep work with the LGBTQ plus community over the last decade as the public health director and, so I think that it’s a pretty myopic criticism without really taking into consideration the 10 to 15 years of like, again, deep work with the LGBTQ community. Really centering racial justice and equity and things that. If folks sort of looked back would say, okay, like, I get it.

Q: So how do you balance these views with you know, anyone who might be more socially conservative who is supporting your campaign?

A: There’s a lot of socially conservative folks who are supporting the campaign, but it’s not because we, we agree on some of these social policies. issues. It’s because I think, you know, let’s take the business community as equal. They want to see improved effectiveness of local government. And I think what they see in me as a candidate is somebody who has actually had a track record of leading large organizations, of building good teams, of improving services. delivery of changing culture, and they see an opportunity for our city to move forward with the right leadership at the helm. And so that’s why I think a lot of folks who are more business minded, who really just want to see government work well, I think that’s where a lot of that support is coming from.

Rich: So, housing is the top of mind for voters. You’ve mentioned it as something important. You have some broad proposals that I’m kind of curious to get a little bit more specific on breaking the cycle of eviction, which sounds great. Richmond has one of the highest eviction rates in the country, on top 10, maybe second. It’s a big issue. But what can the city do specifically?

A: I think probably the best lever here that the city can work on is with the public housing authority because that’s a huge portion of the evictions that are happening And so while the city doesn’t control the public housing authority the city can use its political influence and the fact that City Council actually appoints those board members to elevate the issue and say, hey, you know, when we are not providing the degree of service for this resident community. We cannot be evicting people when this is already an option of last resort for most families. I think that’s a clear area of focus. I think another clear area of focus is in strengthening tenant rights. So, a lot of that work has to happen at the state level. It’s a GA advocacy issue. I, as mayor would absolutely be involved in year-round advocacy around that. And then three, like, actually, uh, improving access to legal representation for tenants. Because, you know, from the clinical lens, so often I would see kids suffering from severe asthma attacks because their house was full of mold. There were leaky roofs and moisture in walls and parents saying, I can’t really say anything to my landlord because I’ll get kicked out. And so, clearly tenants need more support, more access to legal help and, and so that’s something that we could support.

Q: Some of these things seem like administrative and maybe structural stuff, but access to legal help, like lawyers are expensive. Maggie Walker Land Trust, we need more investment, that’s expensive, like where does that money come from?

A: You know, we only have so many potential sources of revenue. Now, one huge potential source that is just going to need continued advocacy is the General Assembly. We talked about the fact that we have such significant potential capital needs in schools. I think the same is true for our combined sewer overflow infrastructure and the city coffers are not going to meet those needs. And so there has to be a role that the state plays in infusing dollars into the city. Same with being better able to receive federal funds. And that means building a city apparatus like the procurement pathways, the grant writing capacity to be able to maximize what we draw down from federal funds. Now, the options that the city has are really around tax revenue and fees. And so, the city tax rates are already way above what they are in the counties. And so there will not be any political will to increase taxes, nor should there be. We’re already way, way above that. Higher than we probably ought to be. I’ve talked a lot about how we’re going to work on, like, the nuts and bolts of government. We’re going to make processes work better, we’re going to partner better with the development community so that we can increase the production of housing, both market rate and affordable. That’s where you find new revenue streams. By actually maximizing the development that the city has capacity for, that’s going to bring in new tax dollars. And so, we need to make it as easy as possible to get from idea to shovel in the ground on some of these housing efforts to bring people into the city.

Q: So, let’s ask a, a more general question here. What do you think people get wrong about you as a candidate?

A: Two things, you know, the things that I hear. One is he’s a doctor. Why would he do this? Like, he’s taking a huge pay cut. He must have some big aspiration. And so, I think I want people to just, know my story of having chosen to move into the East End, having invested in community, raised our kids in Richmond Public Schools. And for me, you know, this decision is about nothing other than what we’re doing. Wanting to make Richmond better because it’s a city that I love, and I believe in, and I want to be a part of its future. So, I want people to know that this is really about feeling like my skill set and my passion for this city can help Richmond move forward in its next chapter. And then I think the second thing we’ve already talked about is, is sort of the, uh, affiliation with a Republican administration, and you know, Republican donors in some cases and feeling like, oh, he must be a social conservative, we can’t have him leading. And, again, I would just remind people, uh, not only did I work in a Democratic administration first, but I have a Democratic administration. A decade of work really centering access, racial equity, addressing root causes and systemic and structural drivers of injustice. Like, that has been the work I’ve been engaged in my entire career.

Q: And so, on a more personal note, what’s something not political that you’d want someone to know about you that you haven’t been able to talk about on the campaign trail. You know, sort of first date fun fact that you might share.

A: I have had this like weird lifelong fascination with the Iditarod.

Rich: Oh, really?

Avula: The dog sled race up in Alaska. And so, one of my favorite trips ever, my wife and I went to Alaska and got to watch the start of the Iditarod. And then we did our own guided dog sledding trip through Denali, kind of trying to live out my fake identity.

Rich: Yeah, you can pretend for a minute that you’re on the race.

Avula: That’s right.

Q: So bottom line here, right there, there are five candidates in the race. What specifically makes you best prepared for the challenges Richmond will face over the next four years?

A: I think there are two main buckets of what the mayor’s role is and what the mayor has to do to help the city move forward. The first is where the mayor does have real power, which is the internal organization of city hall. And we’ve talked about at length my experience as an executive leader in both local and state government and people often say, oh, we need to run City Hall like a business. Like, no business person would ever walk into City Hall and do any of the things we’re doing because the rules are different. Right? And with good reason. The requirement to steward and be transparent about the public dollar just means that systems are going to work differently. The protections that workers have in the city hall context are good in many cases, but also make it really hard to make changes. And so, you need to have somebody who understands that. understands the context of government and understands that you can’t just clean house, right? You’ve got to invest deeply in supervisors and managers to understand HR policy and to work folks through progressive discipline. But you also have to be an executive that is going to energize a workforce and make it a place where people feel proud to be a part of an organization. So that is a huge part of what the mayor’s role is and where the mayor really has the most power. The second part of the job is the political and relational parts of the job. For us to move forward as a city, we’ve talked about the fact that we’re going to need significant state investment. As someone who has been the commissioner of a 2.6-billion-dollar agency, who’s gone through the budget cycle at the General Assembly multiple times, I have both the relationships. and the experience of understanding how do you effectively advocate? That doesn’t just happen for the 60 days that the General Assembly is in session, that happens year-round of building the plan, building the relationships, tracking things through committees. So, it’s a really important skill set that I bring to this to be able to optimize the dollars that would come from our state partners. But it also is going to require more regional cooperation. You think about things like affordable housing and transit and even the unhoused population in the city. These are not things the city can solve necessarily by itself. And so it really needs a humble, willing convener for the regional leadership and you know, that’s the work I did during our COVID response, you know, when I was the public health director for Richmond Henrico fell into the sort of de facto regional lead on COVID response and every week was either in meetings or on calls with the county managers in Henrico, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover. And so built those relationships over time and still have really great relationships with our regional partners. And so, I’d come in day one with a huge advantage in being able to move the regional conversation forward.

Rich: Danny Avula is running for mayor of Richmond. Thanks so much.

Avula: Thank you, Rich.

Rich: If you’d like to hear more about the important issues facing RVA, I hope you’ll subscribe to our podcast at our website, rvasgotissues.vpm.org. Next week, our special election coverage continues. Join us for my interview with Andreas Addison. You can find our interviews with all five mayoral candidates on YouTube vpm.org, or wherever you find your podcasts. I’m Rich Meagher. Thanks for watching.