RICHMOND, Va. — Alida Rogers did a little of everything when employed with the Richmond Finance Department. From working in customer service to the real estate unit to the business unit, she handled many taxes for over a decade.
When asked why Rogers stayed at City Hall for 15 years, Rogers had a quick, simple response.
"I loved helping the customers," she said.
But over time, she said a negative work culture, inefficient systems, and poor management took a toll.
She resigned in August of last year.
She then watched as headlines emerged about incorrect personal property tax bills, restaurant owners hit with unexpected meals tax late fees, and taxpayers not being notified when they're potentially due a refund.
Watch: Richmond's Mayoral Candidates on fixing the city's Finance Department | Citizens' Debate Clip
"Were you surprised to see those issues come out?" CBS 6 reporter Tyler Layne asked.
"Not at all. I was waiting for it to come out," Rogers said. "Because it was happening while I was there."
Rogers felt compelled to speak up after public remarks by Mayor Levar Stoney and Finance Director Sheila White seemed to party fault some underperforming lower-level employees for many of the department's shortcomings.
"I'm talking about the folks who liked working in silos, avoided accountability, ignored good customer service and were not transparent," White said about some workers during a presentation to the Richmond City Council in September. "Yes, I have fired people. I have a standard of excellence that I expect employees to meet. Yes, I told my team we are not hitting the mark. I said it because it's true."
"We have a standard of excellence, particularly when we're handling the finances of our residents, and if you cannot meet that standard, you will not be employed by the City of Richmond," Mayor Levar Stoney said during an August press conference following the firings of some finance employees.
Rogers believes accountability should be placed on the leadership.
"The director has to take responsibility for what's going on, and the mayor has to take responsibility because he hired her," Rogers said. "I've stayed quiet for a year, and I wasn't going to say anything. It became time to speak when everything was blamed on the employees."
Rogers claimed that she began reporting to management in 2018 that she noticed taxpayers with credits on their accounts, meaning the taxpayers may have overpaid and were possibly due a refund from the city. She described some of the credits as "huge," ranging from $300-$1,700.
"I was saying that we should run a report about the refunds, and they were like, 'Oh, that's just too much work. The system may not be able to handle it. We don't have the manpower,'" Rogers recalled.
The alleged failure to notify taxpayers when they're possibly due refunds is an issue that's been under investigation by the Richmond Inspector General for more than two years.
The former finance employee who reported the issue to the inspector general's office and prompted the probe, who wished to remain anonymous, called it “the biggest thing I've ever seen in my working years of just blatant disrespect for peoples' intelligence and money."
No findings related to the investigation have been released.
City Hall spokesperson Margaret Ekam said she could not comment on Rogers' opinions, but generally, she said account reviews involve multiple steps and research to determine whether a credit exists. She added pulling data for credits is only "half the equation" to determining whether an overpayment occurred.
However, Ekam said the finance department "is streamlining several processes, including addressing the lengthy review processes, training and retraining staff, and addressing past deficiencies and historical dysfunction. "
Rogers said she also discovered problems with the city's new online billing system RVAPay, which has been touted as a solution to the finance department's antiquated systems. She said she was part of the team to test the business tax functions of RVAPay before its rollout.
"I tested it, and I failed it, and I gave them my concerns that it wasn't ready," Rogers said.
Among her concerns, Rogers said the system would abruptly crash and send bills to taxpayers even under a "test environment." She said she shared these concerns with Director Sheila White.
"She said, 'I gave the mayor a date that we're going to go live, so we're going to go live with this date,'" Rogers said.
Ekam said RVAPay has only been launched so far for personal property tax bills and that the business modules have not yet gone live.
"Finance is currently working on designing and programming the [admissions, lodging, and meals tax] module, with the remaining ones to follow," Ekam said. "As with any system implementation,
we are constantly looking for ways to improve our service and customer satisfaction. If customers experience issues, we encourage them to contact 311."
However, a recent audit by consultant Anne Seward found poor mid-management decisions regarding the implementation of RVAPay resulted in account errors.
Rogers believes none of the findings contained in that same report were revelatory or new to leadership.
For example, it also revealed thousands of customer service voicemails and emails went unanswered.
"When I left, the voicemails were still backed up," Rogers said.
And the audit found there were no onboarding plans for new hires.
"There's never been training," Rogers said.
That was a claim previously echoed by probationary finance employees who told CBS 6 in August that they were fired without an explanation.
"Do you feel like they set you up with the proper training?" reporter Tyler Layne asked.
"Absolutely not," they said. "We didn't have training."
After Rogers' departure, she sent emails to Sheila White and an email to Mayor Stoney titled "internal issues" to try and bring her concerns forward. While she said she did meet with human resources, she never received a response from White or the mayor's office.
"How did that make you feel as an employee of 15 years?" Layne asked.
"That I didn't matter. It honestly hurt," Rogers said.
Now, she's using her voice with hopes that it will help improve City Hall.
"So many people talk about the city, but I believe in the city. The city can be better if it had better management, and I want to be a part of it being better," Rogers said. "I just hope that somebody takes some kind of ownership of this."
Rogers provided her personnel file to CBS 6. It contained no write-ups and several evaluations where her performance was frequently scored as "meets standards" and "exceeds standards."
CBS 6 requested an interview with Sheila White for this story, and she declined.
This week, the city announced some updates regarding the finance department including the recent hiring of a new deputy director, Thomasena Gadson, and a director of revenue, Jamie Atkinson.
Both have at least 15 years of financial experience in government or private sector roles.
“Their financial expertise will be a benefit to both residents and the administration as we move forward to strengthen the Department of Finance,” Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders said in a press release about the two new department leaders.
The city said Atkinson will oversee revenue collections of the city, business tax and personal property assessments, administration of tax relief programs, and overall customer service.
Gadson is responsible for customer engagement, assessments and billing, and technology improvements. She is also leading the effort to streamline processes, create efficiencies, and improve services.
Additionally, this week Mayor Stoney released the findings of a City Hall performance review by Teo Consulting, which also conducted Stoney's 2017 city government review that resulted in more than 200 recommendations for City Hall improvements.
The 2017 report made 22 recommendations specific to the Finance Department. Of those recommendations, an assessment by Director White found seven were fully implemented, five were partially implemented, two were not implemented, and eight alternative solutions were implemented.
The recommendations that were marked as fully met by White included establishing performance reviews of the finance department's operations, rewarding high-performing employees, automating the flow of data between systems, providing customer-facing employees with cross-training, and giving employees more opportunities to interact with management.
According to the report's methodology, these findings were determined based on city department directors filling out a survey provided by the consultants. The consultants did not alter any director's responses.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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