RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Mayor Danny Avula has canceled a planned meeting with Yemeni American business owners and their attorney after receiving a letter from their lawyer requesting that closure orders on 47 shops be rescinded.
The cancellation comes as the Yemeni American Association had been pushing for months for a sit-down with city leaders about how Operation Vaporize — a multi-agency inspection effort — is being conducted.
Attorney Mark Krudys of the Krudys Law Firm said Tuesday he asked the city to rescind the closure orders on the 47 Yemeni-owned shops that have been shut down as a result of the inspections. He said doing so would give each of his clients a fair chance to correct any violations while continuing to operate.
"My clients’ circumstances are urgent. They are requesting immediate relief from the closure orders," Krudys wrote to the city. "Unless the City determines that a specific situation endangers public safety, can it rescind the closure orders and give each of my clients a fair chance to correct any alleged violations while they continue operations?"
In response, a letter from Senior Assistant City Attorney Wirt Marks confirmed the planned March 24 meeting had been canceled.
"The current scheduled meeting has been canceled," Marks wrote. "The City remains committed to assisting your clients to ensure that they are in compliance with zoning and building occupancy standards."
"That is shocking," Krudys said.
Krudys said he had attempted to separate the conversation into two distinct objectives.
"I've tried to split the conversations into two different objectives. One, reopen these businesses immediately, and then secondly, we can talk about the long-term consequences of the city deciding to shut down these businesses," Krudys said.
The abrupt cancellation comes after months of the Yemeni American Association pleading for an opportunity to speak directly with the mayor about the multi-agency enforcement effort to crack down on businesses who they say are operating without valid business licenses, certificates of occupancy and code violations.
A spokesperson from the mayor's office told CBS 6 that it that The mayor’s office and Planning and Development Review (PDR) met with the association on Jan. 12, and there was also a follow up meeting with the association and PDR on Feb. 23 adding that the mayor was pleased to have another meeting on the books, before the communication was sent.
"We would have welcomed that conversation. However, after receiving a communication from their attorney, the meeting was canceled. All City services to help them resolve their issues continue to remain available to them," the spokesperson said.
"These are real people that are being affected that’s why we’re basically asking the community, often time their customers, to please respond to this and mayor, please do not sit back in a chair and allow somebody else to discuss this matter like the city attorney," Krudys said.
Avula doubled down on the response from his office Wednesday.
"The letter we received from their attorney just made it clear that there was going to be a different flavor to the meeting, and so we referred that to our attorneys and we wanted to make sure that the attorneys are communicating with one another," Avula said. "All the while, we're going to make sure that our staff continue to meet with business owners, continue to work them through the permitting process and help them get to resolutions and help them get open as soon as we can."
Dean Alasaad, president of the Yemeni American Association, called the mayor's response unacceptable.
"Meet with us and meet with our lawyer, see what is our problem. He is our mayor. That is his responsibility, to make sure that his constituents and his people are actually looked after, taken care of and heard," Alasaad said.
Alasaad said a direct meeting with the mayor is what the YAA has been fighting for since December. The association president says he's been speaking on behalf of shop workers who have been trying to work to resolve their specific violations all while having their businesses shuttered.
Alasaad said the latest decision from the mayor has made him lose faith in the mayor's office.
"I have absolutely zero confidence in this administration right now and the way they deal with people in the city," Alasaad said. "I have no confidence in this mayor."
When CBS 6 asked Krudys how confident he was that the conversation with the mayor would still happen, he placed the decision squarely on Avula.
"That's up to the mayor. He got elected based upon a persona of being a problem solver, a smart guy, that's a problem solver. Well that's what we need right now, we need a problem solver," Krudys said.
Since December, Operation Vaporize inspections have resulted in 67 businesses being inspected, 47 of which Krudys says are Yemeni-owned shops. Shop owners are going through the weeks-long process of resolving the issues that led to their closures, including safety violations or a lack of valid certificates of occupancy or business licenses.
The city Department of Planning and Review asked for the operation to be paused for 30 days to allow staff to catch up on paperwork related to the operation. In the meantime, shop owners say they have faced a loss of income and, in 16 instances, burglaries to their stores.
The mayor's office says all city services to help business owners resolve their issues remain available to them.
Avula said he wants inspections to continue moving forward.
"I want to make sure the folks are out there reinstating investigations on the ones we haven't gotten to yet by next month," Avula said.
Krudys says he is open to continued discussions with the Avula, but adds that the mayor's office must be willing to make that call.
"Let’s go business by business, discuss each of these are real safety violations or these are small marginal things are being shown up at this community to impede their business," Krudys said. "If the city does not want to talk to us, then we’ll have no choice but to move forward on legal grounds — and we’re trying to avoid that."
Operation Vaporize inspections are set to resume in less than two weeks, on April 1.
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