Despite city code, Richmond’s government watchdog reports haven’t been posted in 5 years

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – The office investigating corruption in Richmond’s government hasn’t posted a report online in nearly five years – even though attorneys say city code requires them to be “electronically published for public review.”

In 2019, the Richmond City Attorney’s Office gave Inspector General James Osuna legal guidance to be cautious when posting his office’s reports to help protect whistleblowers and create an environment where they feel comfortable coming forward, City Council President Kristen M. Nye told 8News.

The City Council gave Osuna “discretion” to publish the reports online, Nye said, after he informally addressed this legal advice with members. Nye said it wasn’t an official council decision or ordinance but also that no one member unilaterally made the decision.

Under his discretion, Osuna’s office has only published his first two reports from 2019.

As the city’s administration faces questions – and a lawsuit — over its compliance with transparency laws, the City Council-appointed inspector general has kept the corruption and misconduct claims his office has investigated over the last five years and his findings offline.

But after 8News reached out to Osuna and all nine city council members about them, Nye said the reports will soon be posted online and city ordinances will be reviewed to ensure “they align with all new standards and our commitment to transparency.”

“They’ve cleared them [the reports] to go up on the website, so within the next week or two, the IG’s office is going to work to put all of them,” Nye said in an Aug. 16 interview, “under this new legal advice.”

An open-records advocate pushed back on the rationale for giving Osuna discretion, his use of the authority and the informal process allowing him to bypass city code. Also, an 8News review of dozens of city IG reports available online found people who come forward, and even those facing accusations, have not been identified.

Inspector general reports not making it online

The inspector general’s office investigates claims of fraud, waste and abuse within the city, and among the IG’s duties is to “issue public reports.” The last IG report shared online — concerning the hiring of relatives of a former city administrator — was dated Sept. 19, 2019.

Per city code , Richmond’s IT department “shall maintain” a subsidiary webpage on the IG’s office’s website to provide “an internet location at which all inspector general reports issued since July 1, 2018, are electronically published for public review.”

The IT department referred 8News to Mayor Levar Stoney’s press secretary, who said the department has done its job and the IG’s office is expected to publish the reports. Richmond’s IG is appointed and overseen by the City Council.

Nye, who said she was speaking on behalf of the IG’s office as council president, did not answer whether the council believes the city code requires the reports to be published online. Richmond City Attorney Laura Drewry did not respond to an email asking the same question.

Attorneys who reviewed the inspector general city code for 8News, including those who help state lawmakers draft bills , said from their readings, the code requires the reports to be issued online.

This includes Richmond-based attorney Russ Stone and a Virginia Division of Legislative Services attorney who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The legislative services attorney said efforts have been made to remove “shall” from laws because it’s often used to be ambiguous, but that Virginia’s government interprets “shall” as “must.”

They added that if the city believes the code doesn’t require the reports to be published it should be able to point out language in the code to back it up. The city attorney did not respond to an email asking this question.

Nye doesn’t have transparency concerns — but others do

Nye doesn’t have transparency concerns over the investigative reports not being published online, she told 8News. She praised the inspector general’s work, telling 8News that the office believes it has created a safe environment for whistleblowers because the number of tips it has received has increased since Osuna took over.

Citizens could, Nye said, call the inspector general’s office for them or make a public records request. She added that before 8News raised questions about it, she hadn’t heard people complain about not getting the reports.

“Well, like I said, the IG’s office got one specific legal guidance in 2019. Since now, this week, they’re giving us updated legal advice,” Nye said on Aug. 16. “We’re going to get the reports up there in the next two weeks.”

Nye, who is not seeking re-election, said 16 or 17 reports have been completed since the last one was published online in 2019. She didn’t know how many people requested a report in those five years.

“The reports have been available and now we’re going to be posting them on the website with this updated legal advice. So, I don’t have any concerns regarding transparency or the public having access because it’s all going to be there in the next two weeks, at the most,” Nye added.

Asked by 8News in a previous interview about how the public would know which investigative reports to ask for in a Freedom of Information Act request to the inspector general, Nye said she didn’t think it would be difficult to ask for all reports in a given year.

Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said this creates another barrier for the public, especially those not familiar with FOIA, in getting records meant to be accessible.

“If you have an ordinance saying this information should be made available to the public then you honor that,” Rhyne told 8News in an interview, adding that responding to FOIA requests is extra work for the IG that could be avoided if the reports were posted online immediately.

The website that houses the inspector general’s reports doesn’t mention that people should call or reach out to request the reports.

“Citizens don’t know what they’re entitled to,” Rhyne told 8News. “They don’t know how to go about it, and it would be so much easier for them and so much easier for the government to proactively disclose this information.”

“This is a simple one,” she continued. “This is an ordinance that says, ‘Hey, put this online’ and these reports are going to be investigating things that directly impact fraud, waste and abuse, things that citizens care about. Like, this is a no-brainer. Just do it.”

Rhyne also raised concerns over why Osuna has used this discretion to not publish any of his reports since 2019 and with the informal process in which the council granted Osuna the discretion to post his investigative reports.

“If they can alter something that’s in code verbally,” Rhyne told 8News. “What’s the point of having code?”

Rhyne pushed back on the city’s concerns for whistleblowers, noting exemptions that allow individuals who come forward and other underlying materials in an investigation to be kept from the public.

“If you asked for it and they gave you that report, you could do whatever you wanted to with it,” she told 8News. “So, they’re not protecting really anybody or anything. They’re just making it harder.”

These types of final IG reports, Rhyne said, may reference certain information regarding an investigation but it “doesn’t include all that sensitive information about who came forward and what exactly they said because you do want to encourage that kind of free and open discussion.”

“But the final report is different. The final report tells the public we looked into this, and this is what we found,” Rhyne told 8News.

In the two reports from Osuna that are available online, and in dozens published before, witnesses and even some people facing allegations aren’t always identified by name or specific job title.

“I remember that conversation because we were scared they would jeopardize his investigation,” Richmond City Councilwoman Reva Trammell, who is running for re-election in the city’s 8 ^th District, said in an interview about Osuna sharing the whistleblower concerns.

“The way I look at it, City Council needs to be more open,” Trammell added. “I think it’s wrong. It needs to be a more open government.”

The coming changes

After 8News reached out to each city council member and Osuna about the reports, Nye said the IG asked the new city attorney, who changed in 2023 , to review the legal guidance previously shared with him and his office’s reports for any issues.

Nye said Osuna’s office has finished this review of processes and implementing new procedures, including one for the reporting process of his reports with the city attorney.

“Based on the recent completion of those efforts, we will be posting all past reports publicly to the Inspector General website,” Nye wrote in an Aug. 19 email.

The 16 or 17 reports Osuna’s office has completed since September 2019 will be posted online within the next week or two as a result, Nye said.

Despite saying she didn’t have transparency concerns, Nye also told 8News she believes the City Council needs a “more holistic point of view” when looking at how code impacts an office’s practices and workload, and whether what’s on paper matches “what their day-to-day is.”

“At the same time, we will be reviewing City Ordinances to make sure they align with all new standards and our commitment to transparency,” Nye’s email continued.

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