RICHMOND, Va. — Mayor Danny Avula’s chief of staff met with his counterpart on City Council last month to streamline emergency communication in response to January’s water crisis.
Richmond officials will also soon revise the city’s plan for emergencies, according to statements provided to CBS 6 last week by Stephen Willoughby, director of emergency communications, preparedness and response.
The planned revisions will require regular updates between city officials when the Emergency Operations Center is active, streamline how EOC staff share information and formalize 12-hour work shifts across departments, according to Willoughby.
The revisions and the meeting between the chiefs of staff align with 14 recommendations an independent emergency management firm made in a response assessment and improvement plan published June 11.
The June 11 report says Richmond should follow those recommendations by “Q2 2025.” That technically meant June 30, according to Ross Catrow, director of the Office of Strategic Communications.
“I think the real intention of the plan is to have those early items due a couple of months after the report came out,” Catrow said in a recent interview.
Catrow said he thinks councilmembers will first discuss the planned revisions at a July 7 meeting.
Willoughby wrote the revisions will be adopted into the emergency plan in early July.
Chiefs of staff have developed a new communication plan
The revisions would establish a pace for briefings between the City Council and mayor’s office during emergencies, Willoughby wrote.
City Council Chief of Staff RJ Warren said he met with Lawson Wijesooriya, chief of staff to the mayor, after the June 11 report released to discuss how councilmembers should communicate with the mayor’s office.
Warren said members of Avula’s team will contact him and councilmembers directly as soon as the EOC declares an emergency. Warren will then coordinate questions between the City Council and the mayor’s office as a communication liaison.
Whoever’s available in the mayor's office will coordinate with councilmembers, Wijesooryia wrote in a Wednesday email.
If she is available, Wijesooryia wrote, she will be the council’s default contact to the mayor’s office.
There was a council liaison during the January water crisis, according the June 11 report. But EOC staff members continued to contact councilmembers directly. Councilmembers felt like they received inconsistent information, a lack of information in some areas and an excess of information in other areas.
The June 11 report recommends designating a council liaison for emergency communication.
Warren, who said he would be the liaison, said he entered his position on June 2, so wasn’t sure how the new plans compare to previous protocol. He said he was hopeful the City wouldn’t have to use the new system.
“Hopefully, we don’t have another emergency,” he said.
Plan revisions would address emergency alerts for city staff
In the case of another emergency, the June 11 report recommends city staff members receive information via Richmond Ready, the city’s phone and email alert system, when the EOC activates.
Willoughby wrote that the updated emergency plan would address procedures for that.
Catrow said he and other city leaders need to discuss who should be notified when the EOC activates. He wants that to happen after councilmembers discuss the recommendations, though.
“Before we get too deep into cross-departmental collaboration and stuff, I want to make sure City Council has a chance to look at it and talk about it and talk with the public about it,” Catrow said. “But it is one of those that are due Monday theoretically, so, I mean, it’ll be at the top of our list.”
Once that alert system is finalized, it will tell the appropriate people to come to emergency meetings, Catrow said.
“How do we make sure that people who need to be at the [emergency] activation get that notification and then come?” he said.
Some people received the notification in January and others didn’t, according to the June 11 report. At the time, Richmond was transitioning to Richmond Ready from a different notification system which didn’t have updated contact information.
The report recommends testing the new system. Catrow said the city already tests Richmond Ready for updates.
Catrow said he has also talked with Pete Breil, the director of the department that runs RVA311, to ensure Breil’s department is updated on the information the communications office releases.
The report found 311 operators didn’t have up-to-date information in January, recommending EOC staff update 311 operators with information.
Updates would streamline Emergency Operations Center communication
The EOC introduced situational reports on January 7, the day Avula announced pumps were collecting water, according to the June 11 report.
It’s unclear what the situational reports are, as neither the report nor the plan for emergencies nor defines them. But in January, they caused confusion and didn’t efficiently incorporate information into the main communication platform, WebEOC, according to the June 11 report.
Catrow said he wasn’t sure how the situational reports were different from WebEOC. Willoughby didn't respond to an interview request after providing the statements.
The report recommends streamlining situational reports, standardizing internal documentation and training staff members on internal documentation. Like the other 11 recommendations, the listed deadline was June 30.
Willoughby wrote that the emergency plan revisions would identify situational report templates and that staff members would train on the templates this summer.
Willoughby also wrote that the revisions would define WebEOC as EOC’s official activity record. The June 11 report recommends using WebEOC to improve communication.
Formalized support for city staff and employees is on the way
The revised emergency plan would also lay out 12-hour shifts for EOC staff, Willoughby wrote.
In January, EOC staff weren’t sure how long to work and sometimes worked longer than 12 hours, according to the June 11 report.
Willoughby wrote that city department heads and emergency liaisons have received additional information on staffing.
“It has also been reinforced to both department heads and Emergency Management Liaisons that agencies must plan staffing for 12-hour shifts, for at least a 72 hour period,” he wrote.
It’s normal for the Center’s shifts to be 12 hours, according to the report. But working longer led to people feeling undervalued and overworked.
The report recommends Richmond formalize wellness programs to help staff members. They should be based on Human Resource staff members providing meals and positive feedback during the crisis.
Under the revised plan, EOC leaders would create wellness programs for staff members early in emergencies with assistance from Human Resources staff members.
The report also recommends ensuring EOC staff members have up-to-date technical training. That would ensure people in the office and people on the ground were communicating well.
Willoughby wrote that the Center did that during May’s boil water advisory.
Finally, the report recommends city leaders recognize the hard work of city staff members and volunteers by the end of quarter two.
“The Administration accepts this recommendation and will ensure to implement in future emergencies,” Willoughby wrote.
The report’s recommendations last until the end of next year
The report has 61 other recommendations. The listed target deadlines for those range from quarter three of 2025, which would end on Sept. 30, according to an Investopedia article, to quarter four of 2026, which is 18 months away.
The report also lists some recommendations as being completed quarterly and yearly.
The deadline for one recommendation, tracking money spent during emergencies, is listed as continuous.
The goal is for Richmond to always do that, according to Catrow.
“I would hope so, since we’re doing that on the regular every single time we have an incident.”
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