RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, surrounded by city administration and City Council President Cynthia Newbille in City Hall Tuesday morning, applauded City Council's unanimous vote to approve the city's $3.4 billion budget for fiscal FY2027.
The budget encompasses the Richmond General Fund, Richmond Capital Improvement Projects, Richmond Public Schools funding, and other state, federal, and local funding plans.
Mayor Avula said the collaborative and intentional process started last summer through a task force, meetings, and town halls with participation of more than 1,000 Richmond residents.
"I think many of us have seen, watched, and lived through a budget processes that are defined by conflict, uncertainty, or last minute scrambling," Avula said. "I’m really proud on balance we remained focused on partnership, on shared priorities."
The budget includes funding for affordable housing, public safety, improved infrastructure, and record school funding at $257 million, about $8 million more than the previous budget.
At the City Council meeting Monday night, parents, students, and teachers urged leaders to find funding for the Richmond Virtual Academy, which Richmond Public Schools proposed to cut following budget concerns.
"You’re taking away the rights of a medically fragile student like my son, to learn without risking his life," one RPS mother told City Council.
A Richmond 7th grader said, "I have had many surgeries and many health complications in my life. A traditional school building often I have to worry about my health instead of my homework."
Avula said city leaders do not tell RPS how to spend its dollars.
"From the city, the school makes decisions on how the money is spent. While virtual academy came up and obviously there was a lot of public comment about it last night, ultimately RPS and their leadership and their school board needs to decide how to prioritize their funds," Avula said.
WATCH: Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, city leaders take questions on latest budget
The general fund will also boost the pay for all city employees by 3.25 percent.
The city budget included rate hikes for gas and water utilities as residents will soon pay, on average, about $14 more per month.
CBS 6 asked Avula for his message to families who may be struggling financially along with increased grocery costs, high gas prices, and electricity rates scheduled to rise, as well.
Avula said the timing of the rate hikes is challenging and noted everybody is struggling as the cost-of-living increases.
"When you look at our utility operation, the lack of consistent investment it has had in the last decade-plus, it’s a reality of deferred investment. Now what we got to do is try to do a little catch-up to make sure, especially after [the water crisis] last January, to make sure that the system can sustain the growth the city is experiencing and the only way to do that is by continued investment," he said. "My message to residents of Richmond is that these are important investments that we need to make for the good of our community — for reliable water, for reliable utility service. We have got to do that work and know we are going to take that seriously."
Avula added that they debated how much they could raise utility rates.
Public speakers also voiced concerns for funding Flock surveillance cameras, which was included in the budget.
"What is on the Flock cameras do not belong solely to the Richmond Police Department," said one public speaker. "The data on the camera is never removed off the hard drive on that camera unless it is taken out. Think of it as deleting something on your computer. It goes into the trash bin, but if the trash bin is never empty, it’s always there and it’s a warning."
Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards and Avula said the city has strict audits of who can access the data and for what reasons.
Last month, Edwards revealed an audit discovered a police sergeant was in violation of policy when they shared data about a homicide investigation to the FBI.
Edwards said Flock cameras recently helped lead to the arrest of Levy Nelson who was charged with shooting three people, killing two teenagers.
The city budget goes into effect on July 1.
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