The Richmond City Council held a budget work session on April 20, 2026, beginning at 6:00 PM, to consider proposed amendments to the FY27 budget. The session focused on reallocating $3.168 million from the underutilized gap grant program to free up general fund dollars for council-initiated amendments. The council reached consensus on multiple items, including a one-time retiree benefit, funding for RPS after-school transportation, and several community projects. A major debate over funding for the Richmond Virtual Academy was deferred for further work.
Good afternoon, everyone. The budget work session for the Richmond City Council will now come to order. Mr. Clerk, if you would provide the chamber emergency evacuation announcement. And that will be followed by our chief of staff, Mr. R. J. Warren, who will provide the protocol for the work session, and then we'll proceed with the proposed City Council amendments. The family crisis fund, eviction diversion, real estate freeze, and right to council. And because these programs are ongoing and will carry on unexpended balances into FY27, the GAAP grant fund and directed toward them will now match their proposed FY27 allocations, which releases the equivalent general fund dollars for FY27 amendment considerations. So basically that means the 3.16 million will now be available to you all to allocate towards proposed amendments to the FY27 budget. That would require us to do a text amendment. And I just need to kind of nodding of hits that council is an agreement on this process. Okay, thank you so much. Excuse me. Councilwoman Trammell. I don't fully understand. Would you summarize so $3.168 million was dedicated to the GAAP grant program in October 2024? Okay. It was to be exhausted by December 2025. That has not occurred. There's a little over three million left in that gap grant program. City administration has agreed with our proposal to reallocate those funds to pro housing initiative programs that are working and are active for the money. And then that would free up and make available to council the equivalent of proposed dollars and FY27 to put towards your amendments. So that's why we have enough funding for amendments today. Councilwoman Robertson. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Warren. So just for clarification, the gap funding that was appropriated for 24. What was the total amount and the balance is to 3.168? What was the purpose of that funding? And I think some clarification on that would be good just to get us started. And then how we uh selecting if we uh augment this budget with revenues from the balance that's left over for the four items that or four or five items that have been selected and the amount that we appropriating in each of those. Okay. So in October of 24, city administration provided council with options related to the uh RVA stay initiatives. Um several items that were using the if you recall it was uh there was a rebate to residents, there was this gap grant program, there was uh a tax freeze for certain qualified individuals, and I believe it was 3.5, 3.9 million was put towards the gap grant program, and two years later, 3.1 remain. And we know that these initiatives that are currently working now could use these dollars, um, and therefore, instead of it sitting on to the side two years later, we have recommended that you all put it to the initiatives working, programs working to make available the equivalent amount of funds for budget amendments. Just to be clear, uh there's a recommendation of four or five different existing right initiatives, and we have a breakdown of what we appropriate or being recommended for those areas of this 3.168. It is the exact equivalent of what's proposed in the FY27 budget for those four programs. Is the exact amount that the current budget has from the mayor as a proposed budget for those categories? Yes, ma'am. I'm right. Thank you. I follow you. Okay. Councilwoman McGibson. Um I I think I I'm still can, you know, I we've talked about it. I just want to make clear that these are these are recurring funds that we have access to. Yes, and we have assured city administration that council will um you know make known that these programs need to be funded again next year in the budget.