The Rebate Check Maze; Pick Up The Phone Or Send A Raven; Stoney’s Untold Thoughts on Water Plant Meltdown.

RVA 5x5 - May 11, 2025

No algorithms. No content filters. No A.I. — Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.

Today we have stories on:

• The latest on the rebate check debacle; see if you can find your way through the maze to get to the cheese.

• After four months, the city still has no standard operating procedures on how to communicate better. Try a raven.

• Former Mayor Stoney serves up a Monday Morning QB take on the water plant failure he left behind for Mayor Avula.

STORY #1 — The Rebate Check Maze
City Council got an update on the rebate check debacle last week from Interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Sabrina Joy-Hogg. She presented in lieu of Finance Director Sheila White, who was nowhere near Council chambers or in the proximity of fielding questions from Councilors who have been getting an earful from constituents about the latest ineptitude.

Joy-Hogg said that the Finance Department printed 59,000 rebate checks that were to be mailed to property owners; 8,000 were addressed to a single payee named Hartshorn Community Council, and 3,000 of those were actually mailed. She also said about 2,000 rebates were issued to people who owned a property in 2025 but didn’t pay the 2024 taxes and were not eligible for a rebate. Joy-Hogg told Council she does not yet know whether those incorrect payees were distributed a check.

According to Graham Moomaw at The Richmonder, The city initially didn’t void the batch of checks that went out…to avoid cancelling valid checks addressed to the intended recipients. However, a few recipients (at least three) were able to cash the erroneous checks despite having the wrong name.

Once the city realized some of the Hartshorn checks were being cashed, the city attempted to stop the payments. That attempt at cleanup also caused some valid checks to bounce, Joy-Hogg said, and at least 69 people have already requested a refund from the city due to a valid check bouncing.

If you were one of the people who cashed a check made out to someone else, Joy-Hogg said, “Finance will have to recoup that money. Because it doesn’t belong to them.”

Follow the maze through the Finance department’s next steps to “fix” the error: If you received a check for your property address that was not made out to someone else, the Finance department asks you to discard that check and not cash the payment. They also said if you received a correctly issued check but it bounced because the city canceled the checks after realizing the debacle was underway, you can still navigate the maze and apply for a reimbursement of any incurred bank fees by calling 311 or