Council budget amendments aim to block Avula’s severance proposal, boost funding for schools
A majority of the Richmond City Council is opposed to Mayor Danny Avula’s proposal to allow more generous severance payouts to high-level City Hall officials, according to Council budget amendments released Thursday evening.
Several Council members are proposing more money for Richmond Public Schools to potentially save the online Richmond Virtual Academy and restore funding to cover transportation and security costs related to after-school programs.
And at least two Council members are backing an amendment that would change the mayor’s proposal on raises for city employees.
Avula had proposed a 3.25% raise as of July 1 for unionized city workers, but non-union employees would get a slightly smaller 3% raise delayed until January 2027. Councilor Sarah Abubaker (4th District) and Council President Cynthia Newbille (7th District) are in favor of an alternative proposal to give all city employees the 3.25% raise as of July. That approach would bring more uniformity to salary increases, but it’s expected to cost roughly $1 million more than the mayor’s proposal.
Abubaker and Newbille are two of five Council members signaling they want to strip out the mayor’s proposal to allow senior employees to get a full year’s salary in severance no matter how long they’ve worked in city government. The city’s current policy ties severance to length of employment, and caps the amount at 36 weeks of salary for the longest-serving employees.
“Richmond already has a clear, established framework for severance tied to years of service,” Abubaker said. “Creating a new policy that allows top officials to receive up to a full year of pay regardless of tenure raises serious concerns about fairness, accountability and public trust. While I can appreciate the desire to stay competitive in recruiting and retaining leadership, I do not see this as the appropriate path.”
Councilors Reva Trammell (8th District), Stephanie Lynch (5th District) and Kenya Gibson (3rd District) are also against the severance change, according to the Council’s amendment list.
The severance issue could be the sharpest disagreement between the mayor’s administration and the Council as officials continue work on a budget that’s light on sweeping new initiatives but avoids layoffs or major cuts to city services.
The city has less new revenue to work with this year. Officials are taking a year off from sending out new property value assessments to allow the assessment and budget schedules to sync up in 2027. Because of that, the city can’t rely on the extra money that usually comes when property values rise.
Michael Phillips
When asked Friday about the Council’s apparent opposition to his severance plan, Avula seemed unbothered. He said his intent is to make City Hall “as strong and competitive and effective as possible,” while indicating he won’t try to push the proposal through if the Council feels the timing isn’t right.
“Maybe it’s something we come back to in a few years if we continue to see this as an issue in recruitment,” Avula said. “And if not, it’s fine.”
The employment contract for Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II — whom Avula hired last year to implement his agenda and run the day-to-day operations of city government — seems to envision giving Donald up to 12 months of severance if he is let go for any reason other than malfeasance. That amount of severance wasn’t allowed under city policy when Donald was hired, but officials inserted a placeholder saying they’d work to provide it somehow.
“The Mayor and Council shall use good faith efforts to increase the severance period to 12 months, which is consistent with industry standards for similarly situated municipalities,” the contract reads.
It’s unclear how much legal weight that provision carries. The Council approved the CAO contract containing that language, but now appears willing to break with Avula on compensation for the most important hire the mayor has made since taking office last year.
The severance change would not only apply to Donald. If approved, all “senior executives” in city government would be eligible for enhanced severance pay, though they would not automatically get the maximum amount.
Council members had asked what the fiscal implications would be if everyone eligible for a year of severance left their jobs. It’s not uncommon for senior officials to exit City Hall en masse with the mayor they worked under, creating the possibility that a departing mayoral team could OK substantial severance payouts for itself.
In a written response, the administration said that scenario is “highly speculative and not an appropriate basis for estimating an actual fiscal obligation.”
Victoria A. Ifatusin
School funding
Avula has proposed a record amount of funding for the city’s public schools, but the $8.2 million increase is less than the $12 million boost school officials requested.
Several Council members filed budget amendments to try to get more money to the schools.
Councilor Kenya Gibson (3rd District), who previously served on the Richmond School Board, put in an amendment to give the schools another $4 million, with the goal of ensuring Richmond Virtual Academy stays open. To find extra money for the schools, Gibson proposed a variety of spending reductions in other areas like economic development and communications.
Trammell filed a similar amendment boosting RPS funding by $1.8 million to try to preserve the online school.
Newbille, Abubaker and Gibson are supporting an amendment to allocate $700,000 to fund transportation and security for RPS students participating in after-school programs.
Gibson is also seeking budget language to require an outside audit of the schools budget by Oct. 31 of this year, noting the school system has lacked an internal auditor and had to “correct errors” in its own budget proposal after it was released.
Victoria A. Ifatusin
In a news release about her budget proposals, Gibson praised the city’s overhauled budget process that has allowed the Council’s amendments to be presented in a clearer fashion. After complaints that the body’s former process was too informal and made it hard for the public to follow what the Council was doing, city staff have revamped the process this year.
“By allowing more time in our budget adoption process, and more visibility to amendments on the table, Richmond residents can have a true voice,” Gibson said.
The Council will begin discussing its amendments — which also include proposals to boost funding for road safety, add more staff to the Planning Department and make the budget itself easier to understand — on Monday.
Voting on the amendments is expected to occur April 27, with final adoption of the budget set for May 11.
Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org
