Surrounded by supporters on Wednesday, Alecia Nelson stood quietly in tears just before she walked inside the Richmond Police Department’s 3rd Precinct and filed a formal complaint against an officer
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FILE PHOTO: Richmond City Hall (Crixell Matthews/VPM)
Despite the pandemic and resulting economic recession, Richmond City Council passed a $774 million budget for FY2022 that includes pay raises for employees.
The budget first presented by Mayor Levar Stoney in March was lean. While it maintained funding for the city’s essential services and departments, it was $18 million lighter than last year. Budget officials said that was due to declining meals, admissions and lodging tax revenues.
“The ongoing pandemic has decimated the finances of cities and states alike, and the City of Richmond is no exception,” Stoney said at the time. “To be sure, this is a Pandemic-era Budget, and city tax revenue projections are still significantly short of what we projected at this time last year.”
The Marsh Manchester Courts Building in South Richmond. (Photo: Crixell Matthews/VPM News)
Richmond City Council has agreed to start supplementing the salaries of lawyers in the city’s Public Defender’s office. They’ve set aside nearly $600,000 in this year’s budget roughly half the amount the office asked for.
Public defenders, who represent people who can’t afford a lawyer, have urged the city to help pay their salaries for years.
The state of Virginia pays the salaries of prosecutors in Commonwealth Attorney offices as well as attorneys in public defender offices. But Richmond, like many other Virginia cities, supplements the salaries of prosecutors.
Richmond Police Department Headquarters on Grace Street. (Photo: Crixell Matthews/VPM News)
Richmond City Council members have agreed to provide roughly $204,000 for a civilian review board examining police misconduct, about a third of the funding requested.
Richmond’s Task Force for the Establishment of a Civilian Review Board is currently working to outline how the board will operate, what power it will have and what kind of resources it will need. It’s still unclear when the board will be operational, although task force members are hoping for the start of 2022. The civilian review board will investigate police shootings and resident complaints.
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Richmond City Hall. (Photo: Crixell Matthews/VPM News)
Richmond City Council members are proposing various amendments to the 2022 budget, from salary bumps for police and firefighters to funding for a city-wide financial audit.
The proposed amendments would be attached to a bare-bones $770 million budget proposed by Mayor Levar Stoney in March. Because of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on local tax revenue, Stoney’s proposed 2022 budget includes little new spending or projects. Still, some members of Richmond City Council want to move money around to free up funding for various initiatives.
Three members Council President Cynthia Newbille, Vice President Ellen Robertson and Reva Trammell are proposing salary increases for police and firefighters, costing between $1.9 and $4 million.