Anthony “Scott” Morris will lead Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities on a permanent basis after serving as interim director for more than a month.
He took the position following the city’s January water crisis.
Richmond’s interim Chief Administrative Officer Sabrina Joy-Hogg made the announcement during Richmond City Council’s Governmental Operations Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Joy-Hogg said she’s been “thoroughly impressed” by Morris, noting his background in wastewater technology and nuclear science. As DPU director, Morris is responsible for managing the city’s drinking water, wastewater, stormwater and streetlight utilities. The department serves about 500,000 people in total, according to a city spokesperson.
Morris — the former director of water at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and a Professional Engineer — took over for former DPU director April Bingham on Jan. 15.
The city announced Morris was taking over the post after Bingham voluntarily resigned. Bingham then “rescinded her resignation” eight days later, a city spokesperson told VPM News.
Wednesday’s announcement came after Morris recently presented preliminary findings from an investigation into January’s water outage to the Governmental Operations Standing Committee.
Kansas City-based HNTB, an engineering firm hired by the city to assess the water issue, released its initial findings Feb. 13. It indicated there were no set safety protocols at the water plant during the January water outage.
Bingham told City Council members in a Feb. 13 email that she wasn’t given an exit interview and hadn’t been contacted to be a part of the investigation into the water plant’s failure.
On Wednesday, councilor Kenya Gibson asked Morris if Bingham was made available for HNTB’s investigation. He said Bingham declined to speak to investigators for the review.
After this story was published, Bingham reached out to VPM News and again asserted she hadn’t been asked to take part in the HNTB investigation.
“Am waiting [on] a response from the city on why this was communicated,” she wrote in an email.
