Richmond Mayor Danny Avula and City Council members met for three hours Dec. 4 to open a new budget process where they work closer together, going over their priorities and sharing concerns about how to pay for them.

The joint session, held in a meeting room at the downtown Hilton hotel, was run by a “facilitation team” that included Eric Scorsone, the executive director of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. 

While the meeting didn’t entirely meet its intended goal and questions remain after the fact, it ended with the city’s elected officials voicing enthusiasm for the new approach to crafting a spending plan for fiscal year 2027. 

They agreed broadly on goals to improve government services for residents, build more affordable housing and support Richmond Public Schools and economic development. Officials also discussed ongoing efforts, like improving the city’s water treatment plant and maintaining free bus fare. 

The effort is a shift from the traditional process that Avula agreed to after councilors began calling for more input. 

Richmond’s mayor and administration typically draft a budget proposal that council amends slightly and votes on, but the nine-member body doesn’t help come up with the spending plan. Council President Cynthia Newbille (7th District) said Thursday that the old way had councilors and other officials working in silos. 

Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald said the meeting was just the beginning of working closer together on a budget: “I know you’re talking about the baking of the cake. It includes a lot of ingredients. This is ingredient one.” 

Officials didn’t appear on the same page when Thursday’s meeting started, with some councilors questioning why they were discussing priorities instead of using specific financial numbers to plan ahead. 

With Avula sitting next to her, Councilor Kenya Gibson (3rd District) said the meeting felt “very marketing” to her and that the city doesn’t have the luxury of limiting itself to a handful of areas to focus on. 

Gibson said the meeting presented good ideas for the future, but that’s not the goal she believes they should be aiming for. 

“The reality is we’re not in a conceptual place, we are in a reality in which we are continuing to increase how much it costs for residents to live here,” she said. “We’re ending up with a surplus and yet we still have escalating costs.” 

But Donald said councilors and the administration have heard from residents at town halls and should use that feedback to come up with their priorities. 

“With limited resources, unless there’s an appetite to raise taxes and increase the burden on our customers, which I haven’t heard, then we have to prioritize,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re continuously left with more month than money and no way to spread it across.” 

Gibson said she wasn’t sure why the joint session didn’t include a discussion about revenue figures, including a potential $22 million surplus from last year’s budget. Without them, she said, officials don’t know enough about Richmond’s financial state to make decisions. 

Avula said that number is not final but the city’s “best guess,” and that using that projection to consider city spending could put officials in a tough position and require additional work for staff. 

Once the discussion shifted to priorities, officials seemed to come together on what they found important, including housing, public safety and health care. 

“Public housing redevelopment is [at] the very top of my list,” Avula said. 

Newbille raised concerns about health care access to Medicare and Medicaid during federal changes: “In a minute, I’m not sure that we won’t have even more people leaving here because they won’t have access to health care. I’m hopeful but, in January, we don’t know what that’s going to look like.” 

Vice President Katherine Jordan (2nd District) said she felt addressing issues at the city’s finance and planning departments was a top need as well. 

The discussion also turned to constraints in Richmond’s ability to expand its real estate tax base because of tax-exempt state-owned properties, which officials said limits their ability to raise money. 

Councilor Ellen Robertson (6th District) joked with the facilitation team about coming up with the money to fund budget initiatives: “Since you all agreed to facilitate this meeting, are you going to come back with a pot of revenues and resources to pay for everything?” 

The goal of the meeting was to find about six spending priorities, but the final list grew to about eight. Avula said what started as a “focusing exercise” ended up being an “expansion exercise.” 

Donald praised the officials for the progress they made Thursday, which he reminded them was just the start of their budget work. He told them to give themselves grace because they decided to have a more cooperative approach when they didn’t have to. 

“It’s not going to be perfect — it’s government,” Donald said, “but the standard has been raised [above] what it was the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that.”