RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — There’s growing concern regarding overlaps between Richmond City Hall and Mayor Dwight Jones’ church.
On Thursday, the mayor asked Virginia State Polic for help in the investigation of a city employee who was accused and found guilty of abuse of time.
Friday, Jones told reporters he decided to reach out to state police after new emails surfaced raising more questions about ties between his church and the city.
“The auditor came up with additional allegations, and we want to get to the bottom of this,” Jones explained. “Nobody wants to more than I do, so we think this is a way to get this behind us.”
In Mayor Jones’ letter to Virginia State Police Colonel Steven Flaherty, he asks for this evaluation out of an abundance of caution.
On Tuesday, the city auditor revealed new emails showing contractors listed city account numbers on proposals for projects related to the mayor’s new church.
The letter makes a special mention of the city’s DPW director who was found to be supervising construction of the church on city time, but it doesn’t make note of the fact that 10 percent of the city’s executive level positions are held by people with ties to the Mayor’s congregation.
When 8News asked the Mayor if he would be asking the colonel to review city hiring practices, it didn’t sound like it.
“The people who work for the city are hired with acceptable business practices,” said Jones.
Legal expert Bill Shields tells us there’s some red flags being raised that need investigating.
“There probably should be an investigation into this, it just doesn’t pass the smell test,” Shields said.
But Shields also tells us this letter might not be worth the paper it written on. Shields says according to Virginia Law, the mayor doesn’t have the authority to ask state police for investigation.
“I think it is more than anything else an attempt to get some political cover,” Shields added. “As I read the law, the mayor can’t request state police to investigate anything. Those requests have to come from the governor or the commonwealths or attorney general.”
The Attorney General’s office tells 8News that if state police plan to investigate a public official, the AG has to authorize it. But they say if you look at the letter closely, the mayor is not asking for an investigation into his office and any possible inappropriate church-city ties; he’s keeping this to an investigation of the DPW Director. The AG’s office doesn’t investigate public employees.
A spokesperson for Virginia State Police says they are aware of the letter, but they haven’t received a hard copy of it and will not respond until they do.
