by James A. Bacon
April Bingham, Richmond’s director of public works, has stepped down in what Mayor Danny Avula described as a voluntary and amicable parting of the ways. In the wake of the cutoff of water supplies to residents of Richmond and neighboring counties last week, Avula said, “there probably are other skills that have emerged as what we need in terms of oversight at the water treatment plant.”
Bingham, who had previously run the customer-service operation, had no engineering background. Her interim replacement, Anthony “Scott” Morris, does. Morris, currently a chief deputy for Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality, spent four years working in wastewater plant operations in Richmond.
It is notable that Avula managed the transition with a minimum of recrimination. Nobody had asked Bingham to resign, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Asked whether he would have fired her, Avula said he and Bingham had had “a lot of conversations over the last two weeks as we (thought) about the next phase of leadership.”
“We’re really grateful for … the work she’s put in,” he said.
Bingham was allowed to resign with her dignity intact, which seems appropriate under the circumstances.
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