by Jon Baliles

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the “cesspool of corruption and inefficiency” that is inundating City Hall, the shark comes back around and takes another chunk out of any remaining credibility. Samuel Parker with the Richmond Times-Dispatch has found more glaring incompetence at 900 E. Broad Street and secured his reporting job for some time to come as he continues to investigate and reveal more layers of corruption as if he is peeling an onion big enough to make all of us cry.

Parker began his investigation into the use of the city’s credit card program several months ago and found multiple abuses and questionable spending at the Voter Registrar’s office. The Registrar is appointed (or fired) by a three-person, state-controlled Electoral Board, but the office is funded by the city and the credit cards issued to it are managed by the city’s Procurement Department.

When the story broke, the city’s spokeswoman, Petula Burks, tried to deflect attention about the issue by saying the city didn’t control the office (while ignoring the part about the city funding the office and being responsible for monitoring spending of all city credit cards). Burks was quoted in that story saying, “the responsibility for proper use of the [purchasing] card is the responsibility of the [holder].”

Soon thereafter, Parker’s reporting led to the discovery that Burks was also found to have spent more than $270,000 on city credit cards in the first six months of 2023 and violated city policies on many occasions. While much of the spending was for city events and office use (including $71,000 on consulting and $42,000 on meals and catering), Burks’ card was also used to purchase more than $98,000 from two companies that were controlled by Cameus Chicoye, a former business partner of Burks in Florida, with whom she created and co-owned a separate company in 2015.

According to the article in early July, Burks made 15 credit card purchases between January and July 2023 and spent almost $44,000 with LC Studios LLC, a production company based just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida owned by Chicoye. She also purchased just over $55,000 at Play 4 Production, a public relations agency that listed a Willow Lawn Drive address for whom Chicoye was listed as the registered agent (a liaison for an LLC). According to the Times-Dispatch (RTD) article this week:

Chicoye’s Virginia firm, Play 4 Production LLC, was formed in December 2022, less than a year after Burks began working for the city. Public records indicate that the firm was headquartered in suite 304 at The Shops at Willow Lawn. But 19 of the 30 purchase orders instead show a Clermont, Florida, address as the location for Play 4 Production.

Suite 304 is the location of the Staples supply retail store at the Willow Lawn shopping center. Staples offers small businesses a service called iPostal1, which allows owners to register their businesses in Virginia by setting up a legal mailing address in the state. It is not clear whether Chicoye used iPostal1 to register Play 4 Production.

Burks’ city credit card was suspended in late July 2023 by Procurement Department officials because of unpaid bills and unanswered questions about her purchases. But one of Burks’ subordinates began using purchase orders to pay for services from one of Chicoye’s companies on July 21, 2023, the day Burks was notified her credit card was about to be suspended. Another of Burks’ subordinates in the Office of Strategic Communications used their city credit card in 2023 to pay $6,500 for services from Play 4 Production after Burks’ city credit card had been suspended. Burks’ resigned almost a year later when the story was published (July 1, 2024) and she was paid $14,000 in severance pay.

Skip ahead to this week where Parker’s review of city purchase orders in 2024 shows that three other city departments spent almost $173,000 with the Play 4 Production firm this year. The latest purchases were made by the Department of Procurement Services, the Office of Community Wealth Building, and by one of Burks’ subordinates in the city’s communications office.

The records show that those departments made 30 purchases with Chicoye-controlled companies between January 9, 2024, and July 17, 2024, for video and consulting services. Records show the city paid $1,500 for a video that shows users how to log in to the city’s RVAPay online portal; another cost $10,000 for a “Human Services Summit Video Production;” another video was produced showing an employee event at a city fire station that did not have a listed cost. There was also a $9,000 charge for “consultation and professional development.”

All told, between city credit cards and purchase orders the RTD has reviewed so far, the total spent with Play 4 Production was just over $345,000 in just the last two years. Keep in mind that Burks was hired in January 2022; Parker and the RTD have yet to review any credit card records or purchase orders from 2022 and are undertaking a review of credit card records from 2024.

It was also reported in the Augusta (GA) Chronicle in 2021 that the mayor of that city used his city credit card to purchase almost $25,000 worth of services in 2020 and 2021 from the Chicoye-controlled LC Studios based in Florida despite that city’s local-vendor-preference policy. Burks worked for the Augusta mayor during that time.

The recent RTD review also found that even though Play 4 Production became “inactive” in Virginia in March 2024, 17 of the 30 purchase orders were dated after March 31. The RTD could not ascertain if the company is still in business and Chicoye did not respond to Parker when asked for comment.

It is also (sadly) not surprising that no one at City Hall — not the Mayor, his spokesman (who never says anything), Chief Administrative Office Lincoln Saunders, or anyone from the communications office is willing to communicate, respond, or answer questions about potential or obvious ethics breaches, violations of procurement and/or contract rules, or why a Florida-based firm was chosen to produce videos instead of using city staff or local vendors.

If they pretend hard enough, maybe they will convince themselves and the public that none of it ever happened.

Jon Baliles, a former Richmond City Councilman, publishes the RVA 5×5 blog. This column is republished here with permission.