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Bingham resigns as Richmond utilities director

Bingham gives remarks along Mayor Avula
Shaban Athuman
/
VPM News File
April Bingham, Director of Richmond Department of Public Utilities, joins Mayor Danny Avula to give an update after The City issued a boil water advisory after power outage at water plant on Monday, January 6, 2025 at Richmond Public Library in Richmond, Virginia.

Avula calls resignation amicable; Anthony "Scott" Morris named interim director

April Bingham voluntarily stepped down from her role leading Richmond's Department of Public Utilities Wednesday morning, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula confirmed.

He said the separation was amicable.

“It came on the heels of a pretty intense week, as we have all been responding to this crisis, thinking about what is the path forward, what does the water plant need,” Avula told VPM News.

Bingham led the department responsible for Richmond's drinking water, which for about six days was not able to deliver potable water to residents. She was appointed in 2020 by former Mayor Levar Stoney.

Last week, when Avula was questioned about Bingham’s leadership and qualifications, he said: “I’ve been absolutely impressed with April's attentiveness and response. Again, I'm a week into this job, just getting to know everybody, know the operation.”

Avula said many of the state and regional partners that helped support the city through the water crisis offered expertise that informed what Richmond needed from its public utilities director.

“In the course of that conversation, there was a recognition that, maybe, we do need a different focus for this next phase of leadership,” Avula said.

Anthony “Scott” Morris, current director of water at the Virginia Department of Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and a Professional Engineer, will take over the role in an interim capacity, the city announced Wednesday morning.

“As someone with a history of working in local and state water service roles, including a previous tenure with the City of Richmond as a wastewater plant chief operator, I am excited to return to Richmond to lead the Department of Public Utilities,” said Morris, a U.S. Navy vet. “As the City continues to recover from the recent water service outage at the plant, I look forward to working with the team to support the delivery of essential utility services to Richmonders.”

Avula said he is excited about Morris’ background and highlighted his experience having worked in plant operations in the city, Chesterfield County and at the state level.

“The combination of being a certified Professional Engineer, having local plant operational experience, having state regulatory experience and leadership roles in all of those different areas, I think that is really encouraging to us,” Avula said.

One of the four pumps that takes "finished water" from the treatment plant to the water distribution network failed sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, according to a press release from the city. Officials said that despite the failure, the water system was still producing 68 million gallons of water per day and the reservoir's water level remained at its normal operating height.

The mayor said the next phase of recovery at the plant includes not just infrastructure work but improving systems, processes and culture.

DEQ spokesperson Irina Calos told VPM News that Morris will be stepping down from his current position.

“Although we hate to see him leave, we are ecstatic that he will be working with the City of Richmond to address their longstanding infrastructure needs,” she said.

Calos said Morris’ last day at DEQ is Friday.

There appears to be no clear timeline for when the next permanent DPU director will be hired.

The Richmond-Times Dispatch reported that state Sen. Glen Sturtevant (R–Chesterfield) is working on a bill proposal requiring a professional qualification to lead a locality's water utility. Virginia Senate Republicans are also calling for an investigation into what happened after the General Assembly session was delayed due to the effects of the citywide water outage.

Avula, who is in the process of recruiting the city’s next chief administrative officer, said he would like the next CAO to have some involvement in hiring key permanent positions.

For now, the mayor said he remains clear on his focus as the plant gets back to normal operations.

“I've been really clear during my campaign and post-election that the things that I'm going to be focused on are the really basic functions of city government,” Avula said. “Of customer service, of billing appropriately, of making sure that the services that the residents of the city rely on are being delivered effectively. And I think infrastructure falls into that.”

The next two-phase of “after action,” according to Avula, will be to investigate the sequence of events that unfolded on Jan. 6 and to identify what “recovery and resilience” look like for Richmond’s water treatment facility — including what machinery needs to be replaced.

Avula said city staff has done some preliminary cost calculations, and Del. Rae Cousins (D–Richmond) has asked the General Assembly to allocate $650,000 to replace damaged components. However, Avula suspects the independent "after-action report" he is seeking will reveal a much higher cost needed to repair and modernize Richmond’s water treatment plant.

Keyris Manzanares is the Richmond reporter for VPM News.
VPM News is the staff byline for articles and podcasts written and produced by multiple reporters and editors.