Multiple allegations of misconduct against Richmond election officials emerge

(The Center Square) — All but one of the allegations of fraud, waste and abuse against Richmond’s two top election officials have been substantiated in a report by the city’s inspector general.

The only allegation investigated directly related to the elections involved Registrar General Keith Balmer hiring a private security company “to investigate possible election interference”.

The report revealed some allegations of inappropriate responses to workplace violence and sexual harassment. But the majority of the allegations focused on authorities collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in unsanctioned charges at the taxpayers’ dime, according to the report.

Perhaps the most disturbing abuse of power is described as follows: report In the summer of 2023, General Registrar Keith Balmer allegedly refused to report domestic violence occurring in the workplace between city employees.

A group of employees attended a work conference in Roanoke and spent the night at a hotel. Two employees, one a municipal employee and the other a temporary worker, rented a room together while dating. According to the report, the temporary worker was “arrested for domestic assault on his wife.”

Balmer allegedly acted independently of the employee relations manager who offered assistance and told the attacked employee (the report generally refers to individuals in the neutral plural to protect privacy) that they could stay at his home as long as the employee left work. relationship with the criminal.

When the employee rejected Balmer’s offer, he advised the employee to resign due to “safety concerns for other employees,” according to the report. The assaulted employee was told that the office “could help them get unemployment benefits” but that they were unable to receive them due to the resignation.

According to the IG, Deputy Registrar General Jerry Richardson allegedly neglected to report complaints of workplace violence and sexual harassment to human resources, as city ordinances required him to do, or potentially covered up.

Two Department of Elections employees reportedly complained to Richardson about workplace violence and sexual harassment. Richardson allegedly told them that he was the human resources liaison and that such complaints should be referred to him. The office’s human resources business partner later told the investigator that the deputy registrar general was not the human resources liaison; The report states that Richardson never forwarded the complaints.

Unlike the unreported cases of violence and harassment, city employees occasionally took advantage of Balmer and Richardson’s misconduct, according to the report.

The report details Richardson allegedly using his government purchasing card to pay for college tuition for two employees in 2021. One employee reportedly “left town within three months” after being paid; Of the three payments Richardson made on the employee’s behalf, “only two payments were credited back to the city.”

The city provides tuition assistance to employees when they pursue courses that “will benefit them professionally,” but only if they can demonstrate financial hardship and the assistance is approved by the HR director or designee.

“There were no allegations of victimization against employees and no requests were forwarded to human resources for approval,” according to the report.

Although Richardson opposed city policy, the tuition payments ($7,233 in non-refundable funds) are a relatively inexpensive example of substantiated allegations of waste and abuse against Balmer and Richardson, according to the investigator.

Balmer spent more than $260,000 redesigning and remodeling the office; this includes $14,647 in new furniture and $16,293 in art installations. The approximately $230,000 remodel of the leased space was split into 21 purchase orders to bypass the bidding process required by the Procurement Services Department for purchases between $50,000 and $200,000, according to the report.

Balmer and Richardson also sought to contract a private security firm for personal protection services and certain other services for Balmer due to the alleged threats, which the inspector general found were “not specific to the Registrar General” and a phone call to which Richardson referred He allegedly spent more than $235,000. this could not be verified.