Richmond’s former DPU director tells City Council she wasn’t contacted for city’s initial water report

Former Richmond Department of Public Utilities director April Bingham contacted the City Council this week to inform members she has not been asked to participate in the city-initiated review of last month’s water outage.

“Please note that I was not offered an exit interview nor have I been contacted to participate in any of the after action report activities,” Bingham said in the email to council members Thursday afternoon, the day the preliminary after-action report was released to the council and the public.

The Richmonder obtained the email through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Bingham was specifically responding to a question raised earlier this year by Councilor Sarah Abubaker (4th District). 

At a public meeting on Jan. 22, Abubaker asked city officials if Bingham would be interviewed as part of the third-party investigation being conducted by the HNTB engineering firm. 

And if Bingham would not be a part of that formal review, Abubaker asked if the city itself had done an exit interview with Bingham as part of her resignation on Jan. 15.

Bingham’s email did not say whether she would participate in the city’s review if asked. But her notification to the City Council raises questions about the scope and thoroughness of a review city officials have described as an independent investigation.

"It means that we’re not getting the full picture," Abubaker said in an interview, adding that Bingham could provide historical context on the plant and details on how decisions were made as an "instrumental piece" between plant workers and higher-up administrators at City Hall.

If Bingham is contacted, "she has every right to say no," Abubaker said, but her insights could help the city gain a complete view of what happened.

Councilor Kenya Gibson (3rd District) said she's concerned the upcoming report could be "thin in terms of detail." She said if there are still unanswered questions after the city gets the final report, the council could have the city auditor's office "explore further investigation."

"Either way, Ms. Bingham is clearly open to participating in the process so someone should pick up the phone and call her," Gibson said.

Bingham was the head of DPU for nearly three years before her resignation, a time period when the city was put on notice by both federal and state regulators about the need to beef up emergency response planning at the water treatment facility.

At a news conference Friday, Mayor Danny Avula seemed to indicate the city didn’t expect Bingham to participate in the review because she is “no longer with the city.”

He said the city would be “totally open” to HNTB talking with her, but doesn’t know if the firm has requested an interview.

“We did not do an exit interview on the specifics of this case,” Avula said when asked if the city had done its own interview with Bingham prior to her departure.

The preliminary report HNTB released this week says the firm interviewed 14 DPU employees, including Plant Operations Superintendent Doug Towne and Senior Deputy Department Director Eric Whitehurst. 

Bingham wasn’t on the list, but an official said the city hasn’t prohibited HNTB from speaking to her.

“They were hired as an independent investigator,” said Avula spokesman Julian Walker. “Their investigation is independent.”

Walker said HNTB is free to “reach out to a range of individuals” that the firm feels could have valuable information to share. The final report, he said, will have “more heft to it.”

“The process of gathering information and speaking to folks and gathering records and other materials is ongoing by HNTB,” Walker said.

HNTB didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether the company intends to reach out to Bingham in the next stages of its review.

The company’s work on the review is expected to cost the city around $234,000.

At a news conference Friday morning, Avula and Bingham’s successor, Interim DPU Director Scott Morris, stressed that the city has already taken steps to make the water plant more resilient and enact clearer operational protocols about how to respond to emergencies.

Avula said he expects the final report to take a broader look at what led up to the plant failure instead of only focusing on the events of Jan. 6.

“This is a preliminary report,” he said. “We have more information forthcoming.”