Richmond City Hall chief Lincoln Saunders will leave top administrative job at year’s end

Lincoln Saunders, who has served as Richmond’s chief administrative officer for the last four years, will leave his job when Mayor Levar Stoney’s term expires at the end of the year.

The decision — announced to the city workforce on Sunday — means Saunders won’t continue serving as CAO in an interim capacity until Mayor-elect Danny Avula can find someone new to run the day-to-day operations of City Hall.

Saunders first began informing other city officials of his upcoming departure on Friday. The official announcement was being made internally Sunday afternoon, the day before the final City Council meeting of the year.

Avula has promised to conduct a national search for a new CAO. But he didn’t explicitly rule out the possibility of retaining Saunders for some period of time during the mayoral transition.

In a statement, Avula said he “would have welcomed” Saunders staying on temporarily but respects his decision to leave as of Dec. 31.

“I’m so grateful for Lincoln’s service to the city of Richmond over the last eight years, including four years as chief administrative officer,” Avula said in a written statement. “He led City Hall through the challenging times following the pandemic, oversaw elevating the city’s bond rating to AAA, and has helped make the city of Richmond an employer that attracts — and retains — high-quality talent. He should be proud of that work.”

In a statement of his own, Saunders said he’s been “honored to build an incredible team of public servants who work tirelessly to make Richmond the best place to live in Virginia.”

Saunders pointed to the city’s bond rating, the Diamond District development deal to build a new minor league baseball stadium, the acquisition of Mayo Island to expand the James River Park System, the adoption of fare-free bus transit and the construction of several new community centers as some of the successes that have occurred during his time at City Hall.

“I’m incredibly confident that the strong and competent leadership team, led by Chief Deputy CAO Sabrina Joy-Hogg, will continue the positive momentum for the City of Richmond,” Saunders said. “Thank you for the trust and the privilege to work beside Mayor Stoney, the City Council, our community, and our dedicated city employees.”

Avula said the mayoral transition process will “continue smoothly” with support from Saunders, adding he’ll soon share more details about his CAO search. 

“We’re building a great team and will be ready to hit the ground running on January 1,” Avula said.

It’s not uncommon for new mayors to hire their own team to execute the administration’s policies. But over the last few months, some city officials and a consulting team hired by the Stoney administration have argued stability in top City Hall leadership could be better for the city than a staff shakeup. 

A new team brought in by Avula brings an opportunity for a fresh start and improved governance, the changes many Avula supporters were hoping to see when they voted for him. However, there’s also a sense in City Hall that too much turnover could mean losing experienced officials who already have a grasp of the city government’s problems and have been working to fix them.

Though Saunders often comes under fire from critics who say City Hall dysfunction has continued under his watch, the Stoney team often touts its success at ushering in a more collaborative working relationship between the administration and the City Council. Many top Stoney initiatives got unanimous votes from the council (such as the Diamond District development deal approved earlier this year), and there hasn’t been a clear anti-Stoney faction on the council that routinely opposes administration plans.

Some council candidates running for office this year said they felt the city’s legislative body should do more to hold the mayor’s team accountable. When the five mayoral candidates were asked at one forum whether they would keep Saunders as CAO, all five indicated they would not.

Saunders, who previously worked as chief of staff for former First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe, first came to City Hall as Stoney’s chief of staff. He took on the top administrative job in late 2020 after former CAO Lenora Reid was incapacitated by a health emergency.  

Though Saunders has a master’s degree in public affairs, some of his critics contend his background as a political and policy aide didn’t give him particularly strong qualifications to run a city government with a budget of nearly $3 billion.

However, Avula’s praise of Saunders reflects the view within City Hall that the incumbent CAO made progress on longstanding organizational problems in city government.

When he took the job, Saunders said in his statement, the top priority was to stabilize a government seeing “unsustainable levels of turnover and vacancies.”

“Over the last several years, we have significantly reduced vacancies and stopped the revolving door by committing ourselves to becoming an employer of choice,” Saunders said. “We’ve made historic investments in compensation for all employees, enhanced benefits including [Virginia Retirement System] and employee health clinics, and reinvested in training and development.”

Avula will formally take office as mayor on Jan. 1.