"Insubordination, sabotage": Inside Richmond's beleaguered finance office
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Richmond's finance department has been plagued by a lack of accountability, outdated technology, cultural issues and "a long history of deficient work practices," per a newly released independent review.
Why it matters: Any local who pays car or real estate taxes, or owns a business in the city, has likely interacted with Richmond's finance department.
State of play: The report, dated July 9, is from third-party government finance consultant Anne Seward, who the city hired last year to review the department. It sheds light on big issues behind the scenes, including:
- A "lack of service commitment" from staffers, who also routinely exhibited "insubordination, sabotage and undermining" of leadership
- Standard operating procedures that either didn't exist or weren't followed
- Long-running reliance on manual and paper-based systems, which resulted in errors, poor record-keeping and overall slow work
- Dozens of instances of billing issues and errors, incorrect tax balances, and payments wrongly applied or not applied at all
The big picture: The report recommended specific workflow and tech improvements, plus management and customer service enhancements.
- Most have been implemented or are in process, per the report.
Catch up quick: The city hired Seward in the wake of Richmond's meals tax debacle, in which dozens of restaurant owners said they'd been assessed tens of thousands of dollars in questionable fees.
- By the end of last summer, Seward published a draft report outlining a series of stunning failures by finance, including failing to respond to thousands of emails and customer voicemails and not processing years of records.
- Before that, locals were frustrated by problems with their car tax bills in 2023 and 2022.
- And this year, the department sent some property owners the wrong tax rebate checks, and then sent some homeowners the tax bill meant for their mortgage lender.
By the numbers: The city paid Seward just under $500,000 for a year to help root out the finance department's problems.
- Outgoing finance director Sheila White, who tendered her resignation the day after the report was dated, made $256,000 a year, per the RTD's government salary database.
- Her last day is Friday.
What's next: The city listed the open finance director position earlier this month. The posted salary: $159,123-$265,731.