The Richmond City Charter states, “ (f) Administrative Responsibility. The Mayor shall sign all contracts on behalf of the City which are acted upon and approved by the City Council unless otherwise delegated by the City Council to a City official or employee, and shall exercise such other powers and duties as provided in this charter and ordinances and resolutions of the City.”

When I was offered the opportunity to sign the contract with Meyers nave for an additional $75,000 to continue litigating against me, it gave me pause. I deferred because, in my opinion, both the litigation and the contract are illegal.

Apparently, City Council member and Vice-mayor Demnlus Johnson had no such hesitation, stepping up to not only sign the contract but to promote himself to “mayor.” Per the Charter, the City Council may delegate the act of signing a contract, but in this case, they did not.

City staff apparently just winged it and sent Johnson the Docusign request, with which he was apparently happy to comply.

This is how we roll in Richmond. Ignore the law and just do what works. Note that Assistant City Attorney Heather McLaughlin signed off on it also, pretty much par for her course,