Council staff presented draft text amendments to Richmond’s primary budget ordinance during the council’s operating amendment work session, and councilors discussed whether those changes should remain in the budget ordinance or be handled separately.

Will Perkins, senior legislative services manager, said he had received draft amendments from Councilor Newbill and Councilor Gibson and outlined seven proposed changes. Newbill’s submission would remove non–budget-specific provisions from the budget ordinance, including sections that would have changed duties of certain departments, requirements related to job vacancy advertisements, and written opinion requirements for the city attorney.

Gibson submitted narrower, overlapping amendments that would strike the city attorney opinion section and proposed changes to residency requirements. Perkins told members the submissions were at the concept stage and that staff had not yet finalized statutory language or cost estimates.

Gibson also proposed a contracting standard that would require janitorial and security contractors serving the city to pay wages equal to the city minimum (discussed in the meeting as $20 per hour). CAO Sabrina Joy Hogg provided a preliminary cost estimate for that change: roughly $1.1 million to raise janitorial contracts and about $2.4 million for security contracts, or about $3.5 million total in increased contract costs if implemented in the current cycle.

Council members debated whether text amendments that are not directly budgetary should be removed from the ordinance and handled as standalone ordinances outside the budget process. Several members urged staff and administration to work collaboratively on the drafting and to pull non-budget policy changes out of the budget ordinance if possible.

Perkins said staff would draft language after receiving member feedback and that legal counsel would need to review the proposals. No formal votes were taken during the session; councilors and staff planned follow-up work on the text amendments.