[{"_1":2,"_99":-5,"_100":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,75,87],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},"mediaId",6551729,"mediaKeyId","5329462-935888a01100fc80e9e7188c12447750","parentId",5329462,"title","Committee votes: agenda amendment continued Resolution 2025 R020; closed session entered and certified","audioSeconds",7492,"startMs",83000,"endMs",7575000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=5329462-935888a01100fc80e9e7188c12447750&start=83&end=7575","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5329462-935888a01100fc80e9e7188c12447750/thumbnail_83000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6551729/Richmond-City-Independent-City/Virginia/Committee-votes-agenda-amendment-continued-Resolution-2025-R020-closed-session-entered-and-certified","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6551729-92fad3201497a91b8182a9ca01b18b76/orig.mp4?Expires=1770975179&Signature=A9eT2BMKrSYGFcwOkmf2F2XJ9HnDldiODkA0guUb-RkypQnSUuJv9ODsnGY7XUUZbLVUWKvTmiSkHj4YDUATivg0eu5n5CLxx7lg3zU2mnDtjHKGx6LozdAs32vjp5puRVA7XIe80Ov-zKR71jGkXiInIUu3ypBvkUjNq7t6ciCXxBRPZk-HDuvfGwjrwY13PqisPo9ADkMNMBz4stR~Rlgk1sTZzH3VuqhSNXKv2Xvr7l2tv7E~-jdyXWNmmSXY7jDhjJht9GFUGL6FrxWX4S03bBMG1z70mYNNu6OGckp2zbey4lor-pMS0-mtrOUXwzKE20aPMJFbiUQo-xfeFA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Richmond City","date","2025-07-08T00:00:00Z","article","The Organizational Development Standing Committee took three recorded actions during the meeting: approval of minutes, approval of an agenda amendment to continue a resolution and board-appointment recommendations, and a closed-session entry and certification.

Approval of minutes

The committee approved the minutes for the May 5, 2025 Organizational Development Standing Committee meeting “as presented,” with no roll-call recorded in the transcript for that item.

Agenda amendment — continuance of Resolution Number 2025 R020 and board appointments

The committee voted to amend the agenda to continue Resolution Number 2025 R020 and board-appointment recommendations to the Civilian Review Board to the Organizational Development Standing Committee meeting on Sept. 2, 2025. The transcript records the roll-call as follows: Mr. Bridal — Aye; Ms. Gibson — Yes; Ms. Lynch — Aye; Vice President Jurden — Aye; President Newbill — Aye. The motion passed.

Closed session and certification

The committee voted to enter a closed meeting pursuant to subdivision (a)(8) of §2.2‑3711 of the Code of Virginia to consult with legal counsel regarding a regional water advisory group; a second was requested and recorded. The roll-call for entering closed session was recorded as: Mister Breton — Aye; Miss Gibson — Yes; Miss Lynch — Aye; Vice President (Jordan/Jurden) — Aye; President Newbill — Aye. The motion passed and the committee conducted the closed session in the Second Floor Large Conference Room.

At the meeting’s close the committee voted to return to open session and then certified that, to the best of members’ knowledge, only matters lawfully exempted by Virginia law were discussed in the closed session and only matters identified in the motion were considered. The certification roll-call read: Mr. Bridal — Aye; Ms. Gibson — Yes; Ms. Lynch — Aye; Vice President Jurden — Aye; President Newbill — Aye.

Ending

The committee recorded these actions and then proceeded to standing-committee reports. Where the transcript did not attribute a mover to a motion, the article lists the motion text and the recorded vote; mover/second are listed as “not specified” when the transcript did not provide a clear name for the maker of the motion.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Richmond City - Organizational Development Standing Committee Meeting - July 7, 2025, 4 P.M. - Jul 08, 2025","oneSentenceSummary","The Organizational Development Standing Committee approved continued consideration of Resolution Number 2025 R020 and associated Civilian Review Board appointment recommendations and conducted a closed session to consult with legal counsel about a regional water advisory group.","taxTitle","Richmond City (Independent City), Virginia","taxId",5755,"location","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":76,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":77,"_41":78,"_43":79,"_45":80,"_47":81,"_49":82,"_51":83,"_53":84,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":85,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":86,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},6551734,"Hagerty presents after-action report on January water crisis; consultants recommend integrated preparedness plan",2216,1044000,3260000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5329462-935888a01100fc80e9e7188c12447750&start=1044&end=3260","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5329462-935888a01100fc80e9e7188c12447750/thumbnail_1044000.jpg","/articles/6551734/Richmond-City-Independent-City/Virginia/Hagerty-presents-after-action-report-on-January-water-crisis-consultants-recommend-integrated-preparedness-plan","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6551734-7cd66aa7da9abd6fa9f0782098687d30/orig.mp4?Expires=1770975179&Signature=dhQCYa5WN-YZYQhrJnFyWiYXQYE9F3HwZrtg3SeUe2iP190fVggdAO85fIBaa4e5OP9AgIk9Ubt0H1rQ9afcPVitEo6P92KxNJEzNwjSeaYxVAn1DYIa2mrGbef7EYtGN-4RSveSCBF7hrDu6BajEhzrq3u0g05Rlwy7nG0TLArFqx~kQvjSxptdlCAccMCss-4i4m7zbI1mlslg4HQ6TzJ~RkcttNQ13dykV9YUjQaUVloVX1eemh8XVgcsgYIL1La7CllEWn~yimU5yU8R-vDiucKY56AAK1fzXEacs6YkaEL2pPB1mq0RjxXOovkFBDM6Vu2zu-hgtMvJa-y48g__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Stephen Willoughby, director of emergency communications, preparedness and response, introduced Hagerty Consulting's independent incident response assessment of the city's January water crisis and asked Hagerty to present its findings and recommendations to the Organizational Development Standing Committee.

Eimar Marino Mazza of Hagerty said the firm engaged about 88 stakeholders, conducted 57 interviews and performed a document review to ground the report in federal emergency-management guidance. \"The ultimate purpose of this report was, 1, to capture the city's experience, but more than that is to look forward,\" Marino Mazza said.

Hagerty said the report aligns findings to FEMA core capabilities and contains roughly 72–74 targeted recommendations intended to improve preparedness and response over time. The consultants emphasized that the recommendations are not a short-term checklist but a multi-year work plan the city should prioritize and scope against evolving needs.

Key themes Hagerty highlighted included:

- Planning: In-the-moment planning was a strength; pre-disaster planning and mandatory training for key roles need improvement. Marino Mazza recommended updating the emergency operations plan and the point-of-distribution and crisis-communications plans and instituting mandatory training and exercises.

- Operational coordination: Internal teams executed tasks well but cross-team coordination, defined command structure and preplanned staffing shifts need clearer, pre-event definition.

- Situational assessment: Early gaps existed in information arriving from the treatment plant; the EOC later filled that gap by sending liaisons. Hagerty said pod sites and external partners sometimes lacked the information needed to perform assigned tasks and recommended structured reporting mechanisms.

- Public information and warning: When accurate restoration timelines were available the city communicated transparently; Hagerty recommended a joint information center for coordinated regional messaging and embedding messaging templates in a crisis-communications plan. Hagerty noted Richmond has already implemented and tested a new notification system.

- Logistics and supply chain: The city established water distribution pods and a homebound delivery service but lacked predefined pod plans, staffing rosters and logistical exercises; Hagerty recommended developing a resource management plan and exercising it.

- Economic recovery and long-term vulnerabilities: The city established cost-tracking mechanisms and a recovery framework; Hagerty recommended continued attention to regional interdependencies and infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Hagerty consultants said some recommended changes are already in progress: the emergency-notification system has been implemented and the city has developed a citywide recovery framework. The consultants recommended creating an integrated preparedness plan to serve as a framework for other plans and training, and they proposed a timeline for exercises and updates.

Committee members asked questions about outreach, the scope of stakeholders contacted, cost recovery and next steps. Council Member Lynch asked whether Hagerty interviewed council members; Hagerty said council members and representatives were contacted and that two council members or representatives participated in interviews. Lynch and others asked whether Hagerty curated a fixed “phone tree” for stakeholders; Marino Mazza said Hagerty recommended the city build a crisis-communications plan that would include a stakeholder contact list tailored to future incidents rather than a single fixed list.

Council Member Gibson and others asked about the new emergency-notification platform (referred to by staff as Richmond Ready, using the Everbridge product). Willoughby and Hagerty said Richmond Ready has been tested and that the city also has access to the Wireless Emergency Alerts/Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS/WEA) for broader reach; staff said policy changes now require WEA use for future boil-water advisories.

On cost issues, council members asked for a breakdown of consultant costs and which expenses might be eligible for state or federal reimbursement. Willoughby said the city began cost-recovery discussions with state partners but that insurance coverage and federal/state thresholds complicated eligibility; he said staff would provide more detailed departmental breakdowns.

Willoughby described next steps for implementation: Hagerty's recommendations will be posted on the city's website and the Office of Emergency Management will treat the report as a work plan. He said the city intends to begin the integrated preparedness-plan process in the next 30 days and to initiate updates to the emergency operations plan within 60 to 90 days.

Ending

Willoughby said the office will publish a tracker showing progress on recommendations and invited the committee to set a reporting cadence for follow-up; committee members indicated they want periodic updates as the work proceeds.","Hagerty Consulting presented an independent incident response assessment of Richmond's January water crisis to the Organizational Development Standing Committee, reporting broad stakeholder engagement and dozens of recommended improvements to planning, coordination and public information.",{"_33":88,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":89,"_41":90,"_43":91,"_45":92,"_47":93,"_49":94,"_51":95,"_53":96,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":97,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":98,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},6551739,"Richmond DPU outlines consent order deadlines, capital projects and customer billing changes",859,183000,1042000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5329462-935888a01100fc80e9e7188c12447750&start=183&end=1042","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5329462-935888a01100fc80e9e7188c12447750/thumbnail_183000.jpg","/articles/6551739/Richmond-City-Independent-City/Virginia/Richmond-DPU-outlines-consent-order-deadlines-capital-projects-and-customer-billing-changes","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6551739-77784a1153c744c1459c5a7088131310/orig.mp4?Expires=1770975179&Signature=m0HtU~e91pcGSzC-ZdWndQrfrO7VQmX1ZUdQm9Rbd3OT7mnsr7rUUx0Q8U7~GoRxSXY-ISh9m8~G5KNeIj5jo~LWG-huDfDhXQ6GrgEZ6lGUOs-8mhd838RudTkTfAg8aJRiDK2kXmSt2024UOLakHMt-9w1MQwEgLJloHllSL0CdpbWfOd1Iop19Gq7Pi~~6FEm0Vo5sBJ8cR75fSjUnePvq0Pm2sNdQ9hSZfVn5kU9u8Tj5RA2o5K4Kaa93U3JnGy7KFOkIfpNN~bwg51xpREZ0caymliYq~FilO51bz0dChvnVkHcBFbccwlkAXwV-DrjnXEtNHVM9Svzrib1iQ__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Director Scott Morris updated the Organizational Development Standing Committee on the water treatment plant consent order and Department of Public Utilities (DPU) enhancements, saying the consent order is effective June 28, 2025 and imposes a civil charge of $6,817.

The consent order “acknowledges all the corrective actions we've taken to date, which is about a 155 actions,” Morris said. He told the committee the order’s Appendix A lists requirements and that DPU must provide recurring progress reports, equipment and testing schedules, and a list of standard operating procedures submitted to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).

The consent order and associated reporting schedule matter because they create mandatory deadlines for DPU. Morris said several deliverables are due within 120 days of the effective date, including a schedule for periodic testing and emergency backup systems; a capital improvement plan; an updated organizational chart; a water asset-management plan or equivalent; the approved budget and the most recent rate-model output; and a list of active water-related contracts. Morris said DPU has the capital improvement plan, the organizational chart and the budget in hand and is compiling the asset-management material to submit to the VDH Richmond field office.

Morris said DPU has completed the bulk of the required Standard Operating Procedures and has submitted them to VDH for review. “We've completed all those standard operating procedures. We've sent those over for a VDH to review,” he said, and added the department will begin training once the agency’s review is complete.

On completion progress, Morris told the committee there are “about 230 total recommendations. We've completed about 82% of those to date,” and that weekly updates are produced to track progress.

Morris also described operational and customer-facing changes under way. DPU removed the convenience fee for all credit-card payments effective June 30, 2025, and raised the threshold for when a payment triggers the fee from $500 to $1,000. He said the change was intended to reduce double charges and make paying easier for customers.

On billing exceptions, Morris said the department reduced a backlog that once approached 10,000 exceptions (June 2024–May 2025) to roughly 2,875 exceptions for June of the current year by assigning exceptions automatically to an exceptions team and instituting a weekly processing report. He described a daily generation rate of about 500 new exceptions and monthly processing volumes between 11,000 and 13,000 items, handled by a team of about 16 staff.

Morris gave details about meter replacement and reading upgrades. He said DPU is replacing roughly 41,000 meters identified as near the end of expected life and has completed about 9,000 replacements to date. He said the system contains roughly 70,000 meters in total. The department has upgraded handheld meter-reading devices to automatic mobile reads (so field staff no longer must manually type reads), installed GPS on meter-reading vehicles to ensure route adherence, and plans incremental annual replacements of about 7% of meters after the current 41,000-meter project. He said DPU expects to launch an AMR (automated meter reading) customer portal early in 2026 so customers can view daily usage.

On regional coordination, Morris said DPU directors typically convene quarterly and that, in emergencies, directors initiate calls with partners to offer or request assistance and, where needed, share parts from their respective warehouses. He described those emergency calls as set up “case by case” rather than governed by a fixed protocol.

Council members asked about the 120-day deadlines and reporting. Morris said the 120 days is counted from the consent order effective date (June 28). He said the city will post highlights of the required submissions and deadlines on the city website rather than publishing the full 230-item list. Council Member Bridal asked whether committee members should expect a status update listing items as “complete” or “in progress”; Morris said the website updates and the weekly internal tracking reports would capture incremental progress and that some items will remain pending until capital projects finish.

Council members praised recent improvements to procedures, staffing and training at the treatment plant and said they expected continued public and regional engagement as DPU moves through the consent-order schedule.

Ending

Morris closed by noting that some outstanding recommendations are tied to capital projects already under construction and that the department will submit a final report to VDH after all items are completed. He invited committee questions and said more updates would be provided as the department advances through the consent-order deadlines.","Director Scott Morris told the Organizational Development Standing Committee the water treatment plant consent order takes effect June 28, 2025; the department has completed most SOPs, removed a credit-card convenience fee and is replacing thousands of meters while tracking roughly 230 corrective items tied to the consent order.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

Committee votes: agenda amendment continued Resolution 2025 R020; closed session entered and certified

Hagerty presents after-action report on January water crisis; consultants recommend integrated preparedness plan

Richmond DPU outlines consent order deadlines, capital projects and customer billing changes