Government expert Bill Leighty says VCU’s Wilder School fired him after dispute over ‘gotcha’ question for Richmond mayor

Bill Leighty — who served as chief of staff to former Virginia governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — says he was fired from his role at VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs after refusing to ask Richmond Mayor Danny Avula a question the school wanted him to ask on behalf of former Gov. Doug Wilder.

A  former Marine who had a long career in state government and is now considered one of Virginia’s top experts on public administration, Leighty was the moderator for a virtual question-and-answer session with Avula last Wednesday. The event was hosted by the Wilder School, where — until late last week — Leighty served as a senior strategic advisor and taught graduate-level courses. 

In a Facebook post Friday night, Leighty said he was pressured to ask Avula a pointed question related to a complicated financial dispute involving VCU, the city of Richmond and state leaders. Leighty said he chose not to raise the question and was abruptly fired two days later.

In an interview with The Richmonder on Sunday, Leighty was clear that he felt he was fired mid-semester — leaving dozens of students without their regular instructor with some weeks away from graduation — because he had angered Wilder.

“The bottom line is Doug Wilder uses the Wilder School as his perch to throw slings and arrows at people who he thinks don’t agree with him or don’t like what he has to say,” Leighty said.

Wilder School leaders did not respond to multiple emailed inquiries from The Richmonder sent on Saturday and Monday. A phone message left at the school Monday morning was not immediately returned. A VCU spokesperson declined to comment, saying the university doesn’t comment on personnel matters.

Because Leighty was a contractual employee at the school, he lacks the same type of job protections as tenured professors.

Leighty said he has no interest in trying to fight his removal, and jokingly said he saw it as an honor to join the “society of people who have been Wildered.” But he said he believes the Wilder School would be better off without Wilder calling the shots.

“Why would I want to work for a school that does this?” Leighty said. “If one day Doug Wilder is no longer there and they wanted me, I would go back. But I’m not going to go there as long as he is overriding all academic controls and academic freedom and freedom of speech and enforcing his will.”

The 94-year-old Wilder is a widely revered political figure who in 1989 became the first African-American to be elected governor of any state. Leighty himself said he still views Wilder as a historic and iconic leader.

But Wilder is also known for being fiercely combative with those who cross him. 

While serving as Richmond’s first popularly elected strong mayor in 2007, Wilder famously moved to evict the city school offices from City Hall.

More recently, Wilder has been sharply critical of a failed VCU Health System deal to redevelop a city-owned building in downtown Richmond, a misfire that ultimately cost VCU Health $73 million. Wilder has blasted university leaders for a project he feels was a waste of money, even going so far as to call for the removal of VCU President Michael Rao. In early 2024, the university took the extraordinary step of disavowing a Wilder School poll about the VCU Health deal, saying the results were “skewed” by leading questions and a small sample size.

Though Leighty said he wasn’t given an explanation for the firing, the series of events suggests Leighty could be the latest casualty of Wilder’s crusade against the VCU Health deal.

The doomed development project sparked a dispute over whether VCU Health still owed the city annual payments of about $2.5 million, money meant to partly alleviate the city’s revenue challenges caused by the large amount of tax-exempt property in Virginia’s capital due to the presence of VCU and the state government.

Former Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration insisted the city still needed to be paid under the terms of the deal, but the General Assembly directed VCU leaders not to pay after the project was abandoned. The city would probably have to take the contractual dispute to court to get a different outcome. But it’s not clear if Avula wants to have that fight just a few months into his term over a controversy that arose under his predecessor.

The exact wording of the question the Wilder School wanted Leighty to ask is unclear, but Leighty said multiple school officials pressed him to ask about the topic while the online event was underway.

Leighty’s social media post said Wilder School officials put a question “about the city's relationship with VCU” in a shared digital document being used for the Avula event. Leighty described the inquiry as a “gotcha” question and said he felt it would have been inappropriate to ask it after the mayor accepted the school's invitation to speak about his vision for Richmond.

“This was not the time or place to put that person on the spot when we’re trying to build a relationship between the city and the school rather than immediately start off with a smash in the face,” Leighty told The Richmonder.

Leighty posted a screenshot of a text message he says he received from Wilder School spokesman David Slipher, who explained the VCU question was “From Governor Wilder but we would like them to be asked anonymously like all the others.”

“I had no intention of asking the highlighted question,” Leighty replied in the text exchange. “It is in a legal dispute and this wasn’t the forum to ask it.”

Responding to Leighty, Slipher said he was just “following marching orders.”

“I stopped marching after I left the Marines,” Leighty wrote back to Slipher.

Wilder School Dean Susan Gooden also urged Leighty to ask the question, according to the text message screenshots Leighty published. Leighty said it was Gooden who asked him to moderate the Avula event, and Gooden who broke the news to him about his termination.

Leighty endorsed Avula for mayor last year and donated to Avula’s campaign. Wilder, who served as Richmond’s first popularly elected mayor under the strong mayor form of government, has been more critical of the new mayor. 

In a post on his website earlier this month headlined “Blindfolded Leadership,” Wilder took a swipe at Avula for agreeing to wear a blindfold during a trust-building exercise with the City Council.

“Is he admitting that he does not know where he is going, and will follow whatever course to which he is directed?” Wilder wrote of Avula. 

Avula declined to comment on the Wilder School dustup.

Impact on classes

In an email to his 44 students across two courses, Leighty said it was “quite unfathomable” how the school could “disregard its commitment to the students for whom it is obligated to provide an education.”

“I deeply regret the impact this action will have on your education and your future at the Wilder School,” Leighty wrote. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my role as your professor and the wonderful support of my colleagues, while employed here.”

If Wilder School leaders felt he was no longer a good fit, Leighty said, they could have told him he had to go at the end of the semester instead of leaving his students “abandoned.” 

“Clearly that one thing is where they failed the students,” he said.

One of Leighty’s students who asked to remain anonymous expressed similar frustration, saying they felt “cheated” to lose him as a professor.

“I am upset that VCU made a decision seemingly with no consideration of the impact on the students and the program,” the student said. “Bill Leighty is one of the most highly esteemed professors at VCU, and deservingly so. This is a decision by the school that seems to be contrary to the exact respect for public service that Leighty instills in us in every class.” 

In addition to his work with Kaine and Warner, Leighty previously served as director of the Virginia Retirement System, deputy commissioner of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, deputy secretary of transportation and as a financial and economic advisor to the Senate Finance Committee.

Leighty has also worked as a consultant and lobbyist and authored a 2023 book on Virginia government titled “Capitol Secrets: Leadership Wisdom from a Lifetime of Public Service.”

In Leighty’s email to his students he included his personal contact information, saying he expected VCU to lock him out of his university email account.

“I wish you well in the future,” he wrote.

(VCU is a sponsor of The Richmonder, but did not influence or review this story.)