Posted on Tuesday, April 01, 2025

City of Richmond Launches FOIA Reading Room

Also: FOIA training mandated for Deputy Directors and Directors

To promote transparency and accountability, the City of Richmond has launched a pilot FOIA Reading Room with records pertaining to the 2025 Water Crisis. The reading room contains documents of substantial public interest that have been previously released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

"I said throughout my campaign and many times over the course of these first three months in office: Transparency is one of my core values," said Mayor Danny Avula. "The City's FOIA team has worked incredibly hard over the last several months, and now I'm asking them to do a little bit more."

"We wanted to pilot a FOIA Reading Room to promote transparency and accountability, save Richmond residents time and money, and reduce the administrative burden to staff," said Julia Holmes, the City's FOIA Manager. "My job, making sure the public has access to public records, is so important, and I'm excited for this new tool that will hopefully make it easier for folks to do that."

Whether a record is of substantial public interest and included in the FOIA Reading Room is determined in the best judgment of City officials, the FOIA manager, and subject matter experts.

"We're going to post records that are of both broad public interest and likely to be requested again. Not every record released through a FOIA request will make its way into the Reading Room, but I hope residents and reporters alike will see this as a good-faith effort towards greater transparency," said Mayor Danny Avula.

Additionally, to ensure that every City department knows the importance of timely, complete, and accurate responses to FOIA requests, all City Directors and Deputy Directors will now be required to take a mandatory annual FOIA training.

🌠 The More You Know

• Since the Water Crisis, 86 days ago, the City's FOIA team has responded to 61 water-related FOIA requests, with most of those requests including multiple sub-requests.
• 22 individuals have requested records.
• About 55 staff members have worked on at least some part of a water-related FOIA request.
• The City took the seven-day extension on 46 requests.
• The City has responded late, after the required deadline, five times.
• To date, across all requests, the City has charged requesters about $1,440.

🔎 All About FOIA

• State law requires the City to respond to FOIA requests within five business days—which doesn't include days the City isn't open, like weekends or holidays. If needed, the City can take a seven-business-day extension.
• Some records can be redacted or withheld (either partially or entirely). When this occurs, the City must provide a written response stating th specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows the withholding.
• The Code of Virginia specifies several reasons a record may be redacted or withheld. During the Water Crisis, the City cited those exemptions and withheld records that contained:
   
  • "information...which would jeopardize the safety or security of any person; governmental facility" (§ 2.2-3705.2),
  • "working papers and correspondence of the…mayor or chief executive officer of any political subdivision of the Commonwealth" (§ 2.2-3705.7)
  • "Written advice of legal counsel to…local public bodies or the officers or employees of such public bodies, and any other records protected by the attorney-client privilege" (§ 2.2-3705.1).
     
• The City can charge for the actual costs of responding to FOIA requests, including staff time spent searching for and reviewing the requested records.
• Costs are charged at lowest hourly rate of the staff member capable of fulfilling the request. The highly technical and sensitive nature of some records occasionally require subject matter experts, deputy directors, or even department directors to pull records.
• The City's FOIA team will regularly work with requester to narrow the scope of their requests. This saves the requester money and helps ensure efficient use of staff time and retrieval of information that accurately addresses the individual's request.