Former city spokesperson Petula Burks received more than $14,000 in severance pay when she left her position earlier this month.
Burks departed amid questions about her use of a city credit card and after she’d been named in a whistleblower lawsuit. According to reports by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the spokesperson had thousands of dollars in back charges — and had her card suspended by the city in 2023.
Among those charges was more than $90,000 to LC Studios LLC and Play 4 Production — companies affiliated with Cameus Chicoye, a former associate of Burks.
Burks told WTVR following her departure from the city that she and Chicoye didn’t have a “business relationship” and explained registering an organization in Florida with Chicoye as being many “moons ago.”
The two appear in several Facebook photos together, dating back almost a decade, and Burks engaged Chicoye to produce videos at her previous position with the city of Augusta, Georgia.
Posted to Chicoye’s Facebook page is a video he produced for the Richmond Fire Department in 2023. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, VPM News found that Play 4 Production was paid $915.82 on June 4 for work the company completed for the department.
The RFD media contact said there was no contract with the department and the project was set up by the Office of Strategic Communications, which Burks ran until July 1.
On July 2, VPM News sent 13 questions to city spokespeople Gianni Snidle and Ross Catrow asking about a range of issues connected to Burks’ departure.
Catrow replied six days later to say responses would be available the next day. More than 10 emails were exchanged before another city communications employee responded Friday with a statement that didn’t address a majority of the questions.
