RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond’s five mayoral candidates took the stage at the Citizens' Debate Tuesday, just four weeks from Election Day.
The debate, held at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC), was co-sponsored by Richmond First, the VMHC’s John Marshall Center, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and WTVR CBS 6.
Moderator Greg McQuade and panelists Bob Holsworth, Chris Coates and Reba Hollingsworth asked 11 questions to the candidates — Andreas Addison, Danny Avula, Michelle Mosby, Maurice Neblett, and Harrison Roday.
Question 1: Tell us why you are the best and most qualified person on this stage to be the next mayor of Richmond.
Andreas Addison
I am a 16-year veteran of City Hall. My eight years working in the walls of City Hall focused my attention on taking a entry-level position and making it into a nationally recognized government innovation leader.
I led international projects, won state awards and national awards as well. The reason why I quit my job is because you don't know about any of the work that I did, and so one of the biggest things I wanted to do is run for office.
The last eight years, I've served on City Council.
During my time on City Council, we've made incredible progress. When I was elected in 2017 you asked me to fill potholes. We are now paving 80% of our streets. You asked me to try to fix transit, and now we have one of the top three transit systems in the country that I helped make fare-free.
And lastly, probably the most important one, you asked me to fund public schools, and we've made historic investments, $88 million increase in RPS funding, building four new schools, and increasing average teacher pay.
Danny Avula
I'm running for mayor because I love this city.
I've tackled some of the biggest challenges that our local and state government have faced, and I want to bring that experience to City Hall.
I love this city because it's been home for over two decades. My wife teaches in Richmond Public Schools. Our five kids have all gone to Richmond Public Schools. The city has shaped us in so many ways.
When we were dead last in the country in terms of getting COVID vaccines into arms, Governor Northam called me and asked me to lead the state vaccination effort. We went from 50th to the top 10 most vaccinated state in the country, and we did it by listening to the community, by partnering with the private sector, and by being really focused on process and outcomes.
That's the experience that I want to bring to City Hall because if we're going to tackle the crisis of affordable housing, if we're going to improve educational outcomes, if we're going to expand access to health care, and if we're going to create an effective and accountable City Hall, that's the expertise our next mayor needs.
I'm going to be a mayor who makes sure that we continue to grow and flourish as a city, and that nobody gets left behind.
Maurice Neblett
I am running to be Richmond's next mayor because I am an example in the resiliency of Richmond. I'm a product of Richmond. I was born and raised here. I'm an example of commitment, and I'm not Johnny Come Lately.
I've been here, I've seen the challenges. I've helped pull and lift up veterans' families in crisis, and also those who have been incarcerated. So on a day-to-day basis, I've been doing it for over 15 years, and I've been committed to each and every person in the city of Richmond, even outside of the city limits.
When the call comes, I answer, almost like Batman in the heat of the night.
So the thing is, I have a background in financial accountability, because I'm on the board of directors of a Federal Credit Union, and also I'm a business owner, a serial entrepreneur.
I have innovative ways that's going to push and drive Richmond forward, and I cannot wait to serve as Richmond's next Mayor.
Harrison Roday
I'm Harrison Roday. It's great to be with you tonight. I'm running for mayor because I'm a proven Democrat who has the experience to get this job done, starting on day one.
I've worked with Senator Kaine and President Obama, so I know what it's like to have leaders who listen to people and who serve residents by advocating for them. I spent many years working in manufacturing, and I love manufacturing because people come together with a common purpose to get things done. And that's not just what we need to do to reform City Hall, but across our entire community.
At the beginning of COVID, when businesses were shuttering, I started a nonprofit organization called Bridging Virginia that serves small, Black and women-owned businesses with access to capital, because a level playing field is what we need in Richmond more than ever.
I'm running because our next mayor needs to have the right combination of experience and our shared Democratic values, and I'm looking forward to the conversation tonight.
Michelle Mosby
I'm running for mayor because I love our city and I love the people of Richmond, and I believe that Richmond deserves the best.
I am a former council representative that was able to get some really great things done in our city in four years.
Currently, we have my opponents, we have three that have never served in local government, and you need someone that can hit the ground running. At the end of the day, you have to have someone that has presented policy, presented initiatives, and a budget before Council and gain consensus, and I have been able to do that.
We need someone that has been able to not just be appointed to certain boards, but has been elected by the council to be president and serve as president of Richmond City Council.
You need someone that can work for the entire city and on day one hit the ground running, because in March, a proposed budget will need to be to council, and you have to have someone that can make that happen for us.
Question 2: A recent audit of the city finance department found deficient customer service, poor management, and disorganized accounting of taxpayer documents. Please explain what you will do to fix these issues.
Danny Avula
You know this is an incredible city and deserves a local government that is committed to listening and serving the needs of this city.
I've been very clear about my commitment to starting a national search for a CAO and evaluating the leadership of every single department so that as close to day one as possible, we have a team that is ready to build the right culture of trust and accountability for this city.
You know, for 15 years, I've been an executive leader in local health departments and at a state agency, and that's the work that I've done: Hired senior leadership, changed culture, built great teams, and improved services. And that's the same experience and expertise that I will bring to City Hall on day one.
Maurice Neblett
I believe in our residents and our regional partners, and I believe we can find someone here within the city limits, or even within the state, in regards to having the CAO, that's the trust that I believe that we have in Richmond.
The thing is, I want to make sure that we have fiscal audit and also performance review. That's very important for improving the customer service volume that we have in the city. We need to also improve with enacting technology that's going to be accessible for residents and businesses in lobbies, and we have an open welcome area so that we can have customer service representatives stepping out from behind the desk and becoming more interpersonal.
Harrison Roday
We all know that City Hall needs improvement, and whether it's auditing departments, rebuilding the finance department, or overseeing an IT turnaround, these are things that I know that I can do because I've helped lead them before, but I also know those things can't be done alone. To turn around our City Hall requires much more than just picking one or two people at the top of the organizational chart. It requires partnering with the people who are in the building who do the work every single day.
That is why I am so proud to be endorsed by SEIU and the teamsters who represent so many of our hard-working frontline City Hall employees who want to get the job done.
They know this isn't about hiring out-of-town consultants and paying a lot of money to people who don't have a vested interest in our shared success. They know we get things done together.
Michelle Mosby
Number one, we need to make sure that we have a kitchen cabinet that's going to help us, that have expertise in the different departments, so that we can be effective.
Number two, it's making sure that we have done our search so we can walk in the door doing our search for our CAO.
And then number three, it's making sure that our priorities are matching our vision, our mission, and our values.
And then it's meeting with every department. Previously, under the former mayor, it was a forensic study. I do not believe a forensic study is what we need. We need to meet with our department heads. We need to see where our objectives and our goals are. We need to see what has caused them to not be able to move forward and provide the outcomes that we need. We need to see if their staffing levels are adequate so that we can hire what we need in those departments, so that we can then make sure that we have the necessary tools that we need, so we can enhance and upgrade our digital footprint so that we can move from there to make sure that we're prepared to propose our FY 2026 budget and walking in knowing that these are the steps that it's going to date to take for us to be productive.
Andreas Addison
When I work in City Hall in 2012 I did an employee survey, and all across the entire organization, about 2000 employees responded, and they said there are three issues they had in the workplace.
One, I'm not trained properly.
Two, I don't have the right systems in place to deliver my job.
And three, I don't have the right information to finish and complete my work.
Two weeks two months ago, finance employees were fired. They said they were fired because of three reasons. One, they weren't trained properly. The systems they don't have don't work properly, and they don't have the right information to do their job.
This is not a complicated solution. This is getting in, rolling up your sleeves, and asking our employees, what can we do to empower you to make your job easier?
They're as frustrated as you are in every single thing about how we work as a city. They want to have systems. They want to do their job to the best ability that you expect. And so as mayor, one of the things I will use is leverage my time as a city employee, lift people up from the front lines, understand exactly what they need to see in terms of their job. Give them performance expectations and support and celebrate when they achieve the jobs we're expecting them to do to make sure that we are building a city that you can trust and is accountable for the services you deserve.
Question 3: What steps will you take to improve transparency in municipal government and ensure that citizens have access to public information?
Maurice Neblett
So in regards to transparency and accountability, that's been my platform since the beginning. So I want to ensure that we have outlets that's going to be utilizing the public network stations we're communicating to residents in the community, but I want to make sure that we have policies that will explicitly have the response time laid out for the requester, and then also make sure that our staff adhere to it within critical methods, right?
So I want to make sure that we have the transparency and accountability measures stemming from the core of the mayor's office, because it's all intertwined. Once we have that set as someone of good character and integrity, I believe that it will radiate throughout the City Hall.
Harrison Roday
Transparency is one part of an equation of a strong administration that gets things done and serves the people of Richmond. And FOIA is clearly within that, the Freedom of Information Act, if we can't be transparent with our residents about what's happening in City Hall, that means there are broader problem. And we know processes need to change. Changing things is hard. It takes time. It's very easy to make lists of things that are wrong, building truly sustainable change that is driven by the folks who show up to do the work every day. That is the kind of leadership that will support the change we need in City Hall. And this goes far beyond information requests important projects like the Mayo Bridge replacement, we need a city hall that is just as responsive as our residents deserve.
Michelle Mosby
First and foremost, we need to go back to again, our vision, our mission and our values. If you look it up today, it talks about accountability, it talks about transparency. So it's making sure that we are executing on what we say, that we do.
And so again, we're not a city that do not have policy. What you've heard from the information Freedom Act was I was trying to do the policy, and so we have to have employees that know that as leadership, we want them to follow the policy. And if the policy is not working for our city, then we need to go back and revisit said policies so that we can work the process, work the policies, and our employees are comfortable enough to know that leadership is standing behind them as they're working the policies.
I believe that leadership has limited our employees, from being straightforward and utilizing the processes and policies that are put in place, and they need leadership that's going to stand with them.
Andreas Addison
In 2015 I won the City of Richmond an award from then Governor McAuliffe. It was for open innovation data. I published the first check registry in the state of Virginia and open transparent assets of an Excel spreadsheet.
What that was, every payment made by a city employee was public record.
Then in 2017 when I was elected, I strengthened that legislation to make sure that we had the proper tools in a modern aspect, the challenge we had was an organization and administration that did not fully implement that outcome.
As council, I can create the best policy in the world, but if it's not met with the administration to deliver on it, it fails. And so what have I done to make this happen in my administration will be one thing? I want you to see your tax dollars at work today, right now, tomorrow morning, if I was mayor, you would see a dashboard that would show all this, all the paving projects we're doing, all the utility projects where the building permits are currently active, where you're seeing your tax dollars being spent and utilized for 911 services.
This is the beginning of building trust and understanding what happens with your government dollars, more importantly, in your neighborhood. These are the things of basically creating a government that works for you. From there, we'll build more accountability and transformation from there as well.
Danny Avula
Rebuilding trust in local government has to be built on transparency, and getting FOIA right is part of that. So you know, as in my years of leadership at the health department, this is how we did it. We assigned clear points of contact for FOIA requests, from the public, from the media, from whoever was requesting information.
We did annual trainings, not just for those individuals, but for everybody in the agency, so they understood what their pathway to route information to our clear FOIA points of contact.
And then the last part of this is accountability, if there's not accountability by the chief executive to ensure that people are being trained and are executing on the policy, everything falls apart. This has to be the commitment of the next leader of the city.
Question 4: SOL pass rates rose in Richmond this year, but are still far below many other school systems in the metro area. What should the mayor’s role be in improving the city school system?
Harrison Roday
Well, the mayor can play a very important role, and I think we all know that supporting our kids means supporting our families and our teachers. I'm honored to have earned the endorsement of the Richmond Education Association that represents 1200 of our public school teachers and support staff.
Supporting teachers is what matters to creating outcomes that are better for our families and for our kids. We also have to have a mayor, and I will be a mayor, that stands up to Governor Youngkin who has tried to take us backward on school funding, has tried to ban books and has tried to erase Black history.
As mayor of this city, I will ensure that we fight for all of the resources that our kids deserve in public school every day.
Michelle Mosby
When I served on City Council, I had the opportunity to be elected as president. During that time, I brought the school board, the council and the administration together so that we could discuss budgetary items and the needs of our schools. We built four new schools. We were working together and not in confrontation. I today have been endorsed by more School Board Representatives than any candidate here, because what they know is that I will work with them to build our career tech education. They know that I will work with them to ensure that they're funded. They know that I will work with them to ensure that our children get the best education, because I believe that our children are our future, and I work to make sure that I am intentional. When I say that I believe in something, I put policy to believing in it.
Andreas Addison
You know, during my eight years on City Council, we've made historic investments in public schools, built four new schools, increased average teacher pay by $15,000, and invested $22 million in the classroom directly. But this is only one part of the child's development, and one of the things, I believe it's the reason why I'm here before you, is because of after-school programs, sports, athletics, arts, culture, and music.
One of the things we need to make sure is that every school and every child has the access to the same resources I had in rural Northwest Virginia. They need to have access to parks, community facilities, more importantly, programs that bring children together for happy and safe opportunities to learn, to challenge themselves, to work together with other students.
One of the things I feel is a big opportunity is to invest in the communities around our schools, making sure they're safe, walkable, well lit at night, and, more importantly, bring together events that bring the community together, like middle school sports, where twice a week we'll see families come together to support their children.
Danny Avula
School outcomes are a daily topic of conversation around our house. My wife teaches in public schools. Our five kids have all gone to Public Schools. I'm very intimately familiar with the challenges that our school system faces.
I think there are three main ways that the mayor will need to act. One is to prioritize Richmond public schools in the budget year in and year out. Two is to really stand with the superintendent and school board, build those relationships, and build consensus so that we're all moving towards the same outcomes. And three is a recognition that we're not going to be able to do this with local funds alone. We need deep partnership from the state, and this is work that I've done as Commissioner of Social Services.
I worked through three budget cycles to successfully draw down $200 million of new investment in increasing access to services for low-income Virginians. I will bring those relationships and that expertise of navigating the state and the General Assembly to help Richmond Public Schools move forward.
Maurice Neblett
So it will be improving relationships, working with the school board to help ensure accountability and inclusion exist. We also want to make sure, as a mayor's administration, streamline financial resources, and partner with the school board to allocate those resources within the system. We also want to make sure that we open the Richmond Technical Center, and also expand that, providing vocational opportunities and provide more funding for the pathway to college program as well.
Question 5: Several once-affordable neighborhoods have been rapidly gentrified, increasing the worth of homes, but also making it difficult for long-time residents to afford the taxes that accompany increased assessments. What specific policy do you recommend to buffer the impacts of rising assessments for long-time residents in gentrifying neighborhoods?
Michelle Mosby
I think that to say I'm going to pledge tonight to do that without being there, to look at all the ins and outs of the budget would be premature.
I am committed to looking at the tax structure, but currently, I have been a part and watched our city. We're now in collective bargaining. We still have a ways to go in collective bargaining.
We have added Virginia Retirement Systems to our portfolio, which has added other dollars.
We now have the Diamond District that's online.
We now have the Affordable Housing Trust Fund that has shifted, and now the dollars that go to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund are now a part of the debt.
It's now time to look to see where we are before we can actually lower the tax structure.
But I am committed.
I recognize that the people of Richmond need relief, and I want to be able to provide that relief, but I want to do it in such a way that we can provide excellence and services.
I'm a firm believer that if you get excellence and services, it might not be that you're seeing the price as a problem.
Andreas Addison
Real estate taxes are one of the biggest things that the government has discussed over the last eight budgets I've been a part of.
So here's the challenge.
We have a system that punishes you for staying in your home when your neighbor buys and sells their house.
We've seen a home study that showed that racial disparities around Black homeownership is being lost at an alarming rate, and that is due in part to what government's taxation structure is.
That is why in 2019 I went to Jennifer McClellan, who was then state senator, to work on adding Richmond to a list of cities allowed to do a real estate tax reform opportunity. In 2022, City Council funded the study and the implementation plan that has created a roadmap to understand how we can separate how we tax real estate.
More importantly, transitioning our burden of balancing our budget from homeowners to focusing on our new growth, more importantly, the thriving, beautiful city outlined the Richmond 300 Master Plan.
I'm tired of taxing homeowners. Let's focus on our vision of future together.
Danny Avula
I think housing affordability is the biggest crisis that our community is facing right now.
It's actually the reason that I decided to run for mayor after living in the East End of Richmond for 20 years and seeing house rental rates rise and property tax assessments rise, and many of my low-income neighbors getting pushed out of the neighborhood.
I think we absolutely need to look at property tax reduction. We also need to make sure that tax relief is done in an equitable way, and that we are prioritizing people who struggle the most with the most tax relief.
Sounds like this decision is going to get made by council before any of us take office, but know that I'm 100% committed to working with the council to make sure the balance the budget is balanced, whatever they decide.
Maurice Neblett
With all these things outweighing against the budget, we we have a lot of experience up here there where we should at least be able to forecast.
I've supported Reva Trammell enforcing a drop on the real estate tax, because I believe that we need relief. And that's that's an initial relief. We can do more.
I pledge that we can take that down to $1.08. Reason being, I have a method of bringing in more real estate revenue by creating micro-communities utilizing prefab homes, which price range is under $100,000 and we can sell them at a market value of $175,000 and if we have 11,000 units, we can generate around about $800 million.
We need to create a new stream of revenue, and that not just relying on the backs of the citizens and the real estate tax.
Harrison Roday
The critical issue that we are facing is, how do we support the majority of Richmonders that are renters and who are seeing their rents increase and our homeowners, who are seeing their real estate assessments go up too fast relative to their incomes.
I am strongly in favor of a targeted approach.
I am tired of seeing people pay over $1,000 a month to live in apartments that are infested with mold and have landlords that don't do their job. I'm tired of hearing from our neighbors who say, because of these assessments, I don't think I'm going to be able to live in the neighborhood that I've called home for decades.
I support targeted relief for those individuals that is meaningful, a citywide tax cut would disproportionately benefit homeowners with home values over a million dollars and jeopardize core services.
Let's focus on supporting the people who need the help.
Question 6: How do you expect to streamline the city’s permit process and change the perception that nothing gets done with Richmond’s government?
Andreas Addison
Well, I feel with that resident, because I too dealt with a building permit process that delayed my ability to open my gym for 18 months. One of the things we need to focus on is providing an opportunity for a front door, for all anyone trying to invest in our city, whether it be a building permit for a deck, an addition on the back of a house, opening a storefront or doing a major apartment building to address our housing crisis.
Everything starts with a building permit.
The basic level access needs to be able to have a point of contact one person you can call, you can email, you can text, you can get updates on whatever the status of your request is going to be.
I did not have that and obviously the citizen asking this question did not either.
As mayor, I will strengthen the Economic Development Authority to be that front door, to focus on bringing those resources right in front of you so you know exactly who to call and get your answers from. That's the kind of information we need to show as we are concerned and focused on investing in our city, there should be no black hole. There should be understanding of exactly what's expected, the next step and helping get you through that, that's the way I want to make sure city of Richmond is seen as open for business and ready for your investment.
Danny Avula
Improving the permitting process and so many other processes in City Hall really requires two things, one, process improvement and two, accountability from leadership.
When I took over as Commissioner of Social Services, we were facing a challenge where turnaround time on background investigations was taking eight weeks or more. Many businesses around the Commonwealth were struggling because our department was taking too long.
I met with the department, I worked with the team to outline the process, and we realized three things. We needed, to streamline the process, add more staff and invest in technology.
We did those three things, and in six months time, we went from an eight week turnaround to an under five day turnaround. And it took accountability from leadership to make sure that we were tracking week after week after week and making improvements.
That's the experience and expertise that I'll bring to this, this permitting process and so many others in City Hall.
Maurice Neblett
We need to evaluate the staffing levels and also make sure that we have technology that equips staff to be able to track the progress and the permit process. I like the Domino's Pizza tracking app, you know, that's just straight, clear and transparent, so that people know exactly where they are in the process. Is it in the oven? Is it on its way? So that's just making sure we have simple solutions for complex problems.
Harrison Roday
It's critical that we have a city hall that works for our residents. We don't need city hall in the headlines. But this really is about so much more than City Hall.
Yes, we can talk about how I've seen projects worked on projects led, projects that upgraded IT systems from the 1980s to today. We have to do some of that in our city.
I've run projects where we're redoing departments and hiring new leaders. Yes, we have to do those things.
But why is this a fundamental issue? This is an issue because we have to tackle really important problems like affordable housing, funding our schools, honoring our collective bargaining agreements, and ensuring our neighborhoods are safe.
And we can't do that and spend our taxpayer money wisely unless we know City Hall is working.
We can get that done if we work together.
Michelle Mosby
Again, that's what's so important about someone walking in the door, being able to get things done.
In your first 100-day plan. You need to meet with every department head. You need to know what's stopping us from being productive.
We also need to know where our staffing levels is. That needs to happen up front so that we can enhance and upgrade our digital portfolio.
Let's be clear, my friends, there are a lot of things that we can't apples to apples to our regional partners, but the system working, we can apples to apples. So it's bringing experts in, it's bringing our Henrico friends in. It's bringing our Chesterfield friends in to say, hey, you have a system that's working, help us get our system working so that we can indeed make sure that affordable housing and all of the other things that we want to see in our city happen.
And so that's how we get things done. We bring in experts to help us.
Question 7: Why isn’t more being done to address the number of pedestrians who are being injured or killed on Richmond streets? As mayor, what do you pledge to do first to address the issue?
Danny Avula
As public health director, focusing on bike and ped safety was a big priority for us for several years. This work requires a lot of different organizations to come together, and it requires public accountability around set goals.
In my career in public health, so much of the work that I did was convening partners across the city, across the region, to solve complex public health problems.
Specifically to the issue of pedestrian safety. We need to look at the design of our community. We need to use technology where we can to look at streetlight timing, to look at speed cameras. We need to add speed tables when appropriate, but we can also narrow roads and build more protected infrastructure for pedestrians and bikers.
That's the future of our city, and we need to invest in it.
Maurice Neblett
Making sure that we have funds allocated properly. We need to look at traffic calming measures. We need to also look at cutting the cost when it comes to getting this job done.
We need to incorporate individuals from our community into the Richmond Technical Center so that they are able to obtain trades and certifications and insert into the workforce. I'm all about self-sustainability and a united better Richmond is key.
Harrison Roday
This is a critical issue, and we all know it shouldn't take someone being tragically killed, whether as a pedestrian or as a cyclist, in order for this issue to be addressed. Like so many of you, I walk around the city all the time. I ride my bike around the city, and what I think what it takes when it comes to City Hall is renewing our focus on what transportation means.
We have a Department of Public Works that does an excellent job of performing their role. We need a dedicated advocacy group in the form of a Department of Transportation to focus on these issues and ensure we're working across departments to get these things done, because Vision Zero, which means no one ever getting killed in an accident like this needs to be a reality for our city.
Michelle Mosby
Vision Zero is what we're saying that we'd like to see in fatalities. I live on the Southside of Richmond, where there are not a lot of sidewalks. We just had someone lose their life on Midlothian Turnpike. And so again, as we're building out this city, we're trying to make sure that we have fare-free transit that lasts, that we have BRT that's working for us, that we have these bike lanes.
What we need is a Transportation Director, but what we also need is a leader that can get the five votes that you need to have the Transportation Director.
These things are necessary in leadership.
We have a lot of people having a lot of nice thought processes, but you have to have a leader that has been proven that has been able to work with City Council to get these things done.
We need a Transportation Director to take us further.
Andreas Addison
There are too many Black and brown residents in South Richmond that are taking their lives and risking it just across the street to get to the bus. There are too many times people are coming home from work and they're being hit by cars or almost being hit by cars. It is our built environment. This is going to be an infrastructure project.
It is this issue, specifically from my experience doing no car November, riding the bus, walking the streets, going to Southside, going to Northside, that showed me the difference of infrastructure projects we have across our city. That's why in 2022 City Council approved my request to create a new Department of Transportation, a national best practice of understanding how to organize our resources, to plan for growth, to plan for safety, to invest in the sidewalks, to invest in the streets and the traffic calming needs around the entire city.
Not wait for a complaint, another data point, unfortunately, another casualty, to make a response.
It's time to be proactive in how we invest in our neighborhoods to make them safe for everybody.
Question 8: As mayor, how would you see your relationship with the police chief and how would you go about achieving it?
Maurice Neblett
I'd want to make sure that our department staff, our personnel, have the opportunity to vote in who they want to represent them.
Secondly, I want to make sure that we have a relationship that's going to be conducive for the growth of our communities, and that's going to be improving our community policing and also encouraging our community to be engaged.
I want to provide incentives for first responders to move back into the city with the models of the micro community programs that I mentioned that will actually save residents, and also increase the revenue for the city and also bring down the taxes.
So I want to apologize to everyone, because I know I keep the answer short and direct, because there's going to be so many issues that we have to resolve in the city, and we can't get hung up on story lines and love stories.
So I just want to make sure that it's clear and direct, that I have a plan and it's going to be effective.
Harrison Roday
I will answer this question. One thing I briefly should have mentioned in my answer on transportation is just thanking Councilman Addison for his consistent advocacy on this issue and we should recognize that for many years
With respect to the question on the police chief, I think we all know we need a strong dialog between law enforcement and our community.
We need to get to a place where community policing is a reality, where everyone in our city, no matter who they are, feels respected by any authority figure, be it someone who works for law enforcement, one of our first responders, or any member of civil service.
We need to rebuild that civic trust, and that starts with leadership. It starts with listening. It starts with having leaders who show up in communities listen to what residents need and then deliver on what they're asking for.
Michelle Mosby
I have been off Council since 2016 but I meet with our police chief and the police department monthly. Why? Because we have issues in our city. We have concerns in our city, and they need assistance from community leaders that can help us bridge the gap between community and law enforcement.
We need someone that is going to be able to stand and make sure that our young people are seeing our police in a different way. They're coming into the schools on Career Day and having more inviting moment in time.
We need to make sure that our police understand that they are not going to kill us while Black and it be a real statement that's made. We need someone that can bridge the gap between community and law enforcement.
If our city has the same issue we had in 2020 we need leadership that can handle it.
Andreas Addison
For the last 16 years, I've had the pleasure of working with everyone from Chief Rodney Monroe to current Chief Edwards, and those relationships have been really good.
As an employee, we work together on some initiatives around transparency and accountability, and then on City Council, we've worked together to make sure that we understand the budget needs, decompressing staff issues and making sure we're attracting a solid workforce.
Over the last couple years, we've seen challenges with public safety, and it is staffing-related.
As mayor, you want to see a mayor who's going to be not just working together yearly when you have the report we're showing, but you want to see the relationship we have outside in the neighborhoods, showing up at meetings across our entire community.
If there are concerns about public safety, it might be responding with a police officer or maybe a social worker, or maybe the needs of investing in a neighborhood to be safer and better lit or fixing that sidewalk.
These are the things I want to bring community together, which is why I started the participatory budgeting initiative that launched this fall.
It's to bring everyone together, and public safety is a big part of what we want to have conversations around. And that's not just police itself, but I want police to be at the table supporting your interests and investing in your communities.
Danny Avula
One of the things that's been really consistent and clear in the six months I've been campaigning is that everybody wants to be a part of a safe and thriving community.
As a public health practitioner, I start first with the lens of prevention, and want to really look at who is at highest risk of engaging in violence, making sure we're supporting them with wraparound services, mental health supports, pathways to employment so that they can choose a different path.
We also need to work with our law enforcement to make sure that we have a relationship of trust and connection with our neighborhoods, this idea of community policing that so many of us have talked about.
And we need to build culture and morale in the departments. I'm really pleased to have the endorsement of our public safety unions in both fire and police. Many of them are here in the audience tonight, but they're endorsing me because they know my track record of building organizations and improving culture, and that is what I'll do to stand with our police department, our public safety folks to help keep Richmond safe.
Question 9: What's your sense of the role of VCU in the city?
Harrison Roday
We know that any successful future for the city of Richmond has a strong forged partnership between the city and VCU. VCU is part of the state. The city can't really tell VCU what to do in many situations. And a lot of times it's a good faith negotiation and partnership between not just an institution of higher learning, but one of the biggest and most important hospital systems in Virginia.
So there needs to be a strong partnership.
It is true that as VCU physically expands its footprint, it stops paying real estate taxes locally, and that's an over $100 million impact on an annual basis. So it's a big deal.
I genuinely believe, through good faith negotiations with VCU, we can work together to find solutions that work for the city and work for the University, and that's what I'll do as mayor.
Michelle Mosby
VCU, again, is a big partner in the city of Richmond for many things, as we have the young residents of VCU here in our great city.
However, as a former council representative, it was very important to me to make sure that as we were moving forward and we were bringing out development deals, that we were working in such a way that perhaps a lease could happen, that some other things could happen.
We have a lot of different off the rolls, real estate tax rolls, in our in our city, and so we've got to figure out creative ways so that we cannot continue to be in a place where we're not getting the tax dollars.
So I'm committed as mayor to continue to be a partner with VCU, but doing it in such a way that is going to work for the good of our city.
Andreas Addison
In a span of one month, VCU came before City Council to explain how the Activation Capital new building was going to be smaller than anticipated, from $50 million investment to $30 million investment. And then a month later, they say, we're going to look to buy the Altria Research Center for $275 million. I see this challenge of real estate and investment for the things that we know we need.
The Activation Capital Center was going to be for research and development, attracting jobs and research money to flow through our city. By shrinking that, we're now shrinking the ability to track those investments. And instead of taking that, we're looking to a $275 million investment, untaxed, mind you, if they purchase this deal. And these are the challenges we have with downtown.
Because City Hall has not prioritized investing and creating the vibrancy we want to see in downtown's blanket corridor, we're letting VCU have the picking and choosing of what they want to pick for land to invest in.
It is time for City Hall to take control of our land and real estate and create an investment plan for downtown.
Dr. Danny Avula
We do need to recognize that VCU plays a crucial role in the economic health and the cultural health of our city.
You know, in the 24 years I've been here, I've seen the city transform because of investments that VCU has made. But we also face a significant challenge in that 28% of the property in the city of Richmond is tax exempt, with a huge portion of that being the Commonwealth of Virginia and VCU.
And so as mayor, I will absolutely make sure that we have a positive relationship with VCU as partners, but that I fight relentlessly to make sure that they are making up the tax exemption they have with other financial investments in our city.
It's the only way for us to move forward together as partners.
Maurice Neblett
I love VCU and MCV, but they're playing hot potato in this matter. They're trying to figure out a way how not to pay the taxes where they already committed to taking on the building.
The thing is, I want to make sure I commend the mayor, you know, on being transparent and direct in regards to this matter.
We need to turn change into challenging and resistance when it comes to this. Though we have the state, though it's the Dillon Rule, we have to have more negotiating and bargaining power.
As a mayor in the city of Richmond, I want to make sure that I put my foot forward, even if it gets rolled over. I want to make sure to advocate that we receive more funding from the state. Our first responders, they serve a lot of the state buildings downtown. We need more revenue. We need more help.
Question 10: What is your plan for reimagining Monument Avenue if you are elected?
Michelle Mosby
When the statute was taken down, there was a committee. There were civic associations, a committee that came together so that we could begin to reimagine what this would look like.
And so I believe that we need to go back to that moment in time. It is not okay for us to just pull them down and then have no plan. But in doing so, we need to do it so that it is community oriented, that it is community focused, that we sit down together as government, as people, and we make a determination on what we're going to do with Monument Avenue.
What would that look like for our future going forward, and what will we do with the statues that were taken down? Because, again, something needs to happen, productive for them as well.
Andreas Addison
Well, I sat in this room about this before we took down the monuments, being told what we should do for imagining Monument Avenue.
Here we are now with a blank canvas. What are we going to do?
And I think the question before our next administration, and as me as mayor, will be one about community organizing around that conversation what this needs to be?
It is a national park, and it needs to be treated and maintained as a national park. There should not be any dirt, there should have any rocks. It should be a place that's maintained to a high level of accessibility.
Why? Because I believe there should be a place where we bring people together.
We should look at opportunities to think about new statues and public artwork.
We could think about ways to bring Richmond together around one of our strongest assets. We have so many creative people all across the city that are making public art every day, making sculptures and wall murals.
Let's make Monument Avenue a place where people can celebrate the work we have as a community. And more importantly, want to stay and hang out. Bring a little bit of a picnic lunch, hang out with your friends and family, and make it a place you want to sit and relax and enjoy.
Danny Avula
This is one of the things that I am most excited about in potentially stepping into this role, which is helping our community come together, to create the forward narrative for our city.
I think that the work that's being done in Shockoe Bottom, with the Shockoe Project, connecting that to the story that could be told on Monument Avenue, this has huge opportunity for community healing, to retell a narrative and make sure that all of the voices of our city get an opportunity to weigh in on what that narrative is and how it's going to be told.
I think this can be transformational for Richmond moving forward,
Maurice Neblett
We need to implement a cultural context in the area. We need to make sure we connect with that population and that group in regards to what they see the reimagining position is for the area.
We need greenery, though. We need to make sure we have safety barriers in that spot where the statue was.
But just as every part of the city of Richmond, what makes Richmond Richmond, we need to embrace it. You know, we wouldn't be at this standpoint if we hadn't gone through those historical facts that we went through during that time. So I want to also bring up the same thing in regards to the Richmond Community Hospital. You know, that's still another historical landmark that needs to be preserved, like all other history in the city.
Harrison Roday
I agree with Maurice's comments about the Community Hospital, number one.
Number two, as someone who has rented on Monument Avenue for years, this is not a simple issue, and things that intersect our city and our neighborhoods really have to have a conversation that starts with people who live in the neighborhoods every single day and hearing those people's voices.
And while Dr. Avula and I don't always agree on everything, I strongly agree that the most important history project that we can work together to make a success in the next 10 years is the Shockoe Project and the National Slavery Museum.
We have an opportunity to put Richmond on a trajectory where we tell the real history of the Commonwealth, and everyone's stories are included.
Question 11: What is your position on the recommendations of the Richmond City Charter Review Commission? Which specific parts do you support and which do you not support?
Andreas Addison
I think the charter review was a very thorough evaluation. There are many recommendations. I think we do need to look at how we are structured for our election cycle. More importantly, the positions.
We should look at large options as well to make sure we're representing the entire city as a whole.
But also, I think there's some changes we could look at to making sure the structures between City Council, the mayor's office and the administration are seamless, but more importantly, clearly defined.
That is one thing I've struggled with, and I want to make sure we understand how to work together more cohesively for your benefit to improve the city of Richmond.
Danny Avula
I think there's a lot of really good work that the charter Review Commission has done. I've already committed to doing some of those recommendations, which are showing up to City Council meetings and answering questions in a public forum.
I also think the most important part of how we move forward as a government is that the mayor and City Council work together in a genuine partnership that will help solve a lot of the issues.
But if the people of Richmond continue to feel like a structural change is made, I won't stand in the way of that.
I will absolutely work with council to make sure that we build city government the way that the people want it.
Maurice Neblett
So no matter which charter is in place, it won't amount to anything if we don't have integrity, transparency and accountability.
That's the core of what we do. So whatever change we make is not going to matter at the end of the day.
A lot of what we heard today is what candidates have done when they were in seats and what they would do now. It's just what I hear is failure after failure after failure. I'm tired of losing. If they were so great, you know, we would be in a position of not having these discussions today. So that's my answer to the charter change.
Harrison Roday
I'm really proud of the vision that I've set forward for City Hall, and it's why I'm honored to have earned the endorsements of so many groups that represent a diverse cross-section of Richmond.
We're building a broad coalition, and as I've talked to those people and listened to them, the charter, we can change it. We can make small modifications. What we need leaders who stand up for what's right. I'm a proven Democrat who's ready to start doing this job and getting the work done on day one, and I look forward to earning your support, too.
Michelle Mosby
The charter has a lot of different changes that as a mayor, I was going to do anyway. I've been on council so I understand the importance between a mayor and a council and that working relationship.
So being there quarterly to ensure that I am a part of the council dais as our residents come before us.
But let me be clear, I have more council, more school board, more state legislative and more regional endorsements than anyone up here. Why? Because what they know is that I am committed to Richmond, whether the charter says it or not, I'm committed to Richmond.
They know I'm committed to win wins, and they know I'm committed to a Richmond that's going to work for all of us, and that is why these different legislators have decided to endorse Michelle Mosby for mayor, so that they can work with a candidate that's going to work for you all.
Learn even more about the candidates
CBS 6 interviewed each candidate ahead of the debate, which you can find here:
- Harrison Roday (Sept. 9)
- Michelle Mosby (Sept. 10)
- Maurice Neblett (Sept. 11)
- Danny Avula (Sept. 18)
- Andreas Addison (Sept. 23)
For more information on this year’s election — and how to cast your ballot in the City of Richmond or the surrounding areas — visit WTVR’s Virginia Voter’s Guide.
You can check your voter registration here. The last day to register to vote is Oct. 15.
What hopes do you have for Richmond's next mayor? Email the CBS 6 Newsroom and let us know.
Note: WTVR used AI software to transcribe the debate and newsroom staff to edit for clarity.
