From Virginia to California, the DEI Crisis of Incompetence Runs Coast-to-Coast
At the same time that California burns, Virginia's capital ran out of potable water for nearly a week—shutting down both the city and the state legislature. There's a common thread here.
This story first appeared at American Greatness on Jan. 20, 2025.
On the West Coast, homes of Hollywood elites burned to the ground because incompetent leadership failed to implement fire mitigation strategies. On the East Coast, Richmond, Virginia, had a major system failure that left the city without water for five days. What do these two situations have in common? Democrat leaders who prioritize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) over public safety and readiness.
On January 6, a snowstorm brought 4 inches of snow to Richmond—not an unusual event for a central Virginia winter. Yet the city’s water system stopped operating. Democrat officials blamed power failures that caused flooding in the water treatment plant and backup systems that went mysteriously offline at 6 AM. Yet the city failed to notify the Virginia Department of Health until late in the day. The state brought in engineers and specialists, but problems were already skyrocketing out of control. The Virginia legislature was forced to delay the beginning of its legislative session and schools were shut down for the entire week.
Democrats have been in charge of Richmond for decades, yet they won’t accept responsibility for their failed policies. Have DEI agendas replaced competence in local government leadership?
(Read more: Let's List the Democrat Criminals Elected to High Office)
Democrats Won’t Accept Responsibility
In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a scathing report after inspecting Richmond’s water system. The report indicated the public utilities emergency response plan was out of date. The city’s answer was to finalize an updated emergency plan in 2025—three years later. Why wasn’t critical infrastructure more of a priority?
Minutes from a June 2024 Richmond Planning Commission meeting indicate engineers shared concerns about aging pumps in the station having “very low reliability and high maintenance costs.” They also noted the need to upgrade electrical systems, yet apparently, no action was taken to address those concerns.
Richmond’s Director of Public Utilities, April Bingham, responded to the system failures by saying the city needs more “investments in this infrastructure.” During a January 8 press conference, she blamed the entire event on a power outage—even though outages occur all the time across the nation without water systems failing. Initial reports indicate the failures may have been caused not only by the aging pumps but also by improperly trained employees who didn’t understand the backup systems.
The Virginia Department of Health told local media if the main power source fails, there is a backup generator and three backup batteries. Two of the backup batteries were not online and there should have been manual procedures to prevent what happened—staff was not aware of the manual procedures. The Virginia Department of Health indicated there will be an investigation and said, “This event should not have happened.”
A Richmond resident told Restoration News, “We first noticed the boil water advisory on Monday, but by Tuesday the taps ran completely dry. Stores were wiped out of bottled water, and countless businesses and restaurants were crippled by the chaos. This isn’t just an unfortunate coincidence—it’s a failure of leadership. After the EPA’s failed audit in 2022 and warnings about redundancies in the water system just three days before this collapse, it’s clear that this was avoidable. Richmond’s leaders can’t keep hiding behind excuses about an aging system or a power outage when the warnings have been loud and clear for over a year.”
Hiring Based on Race and Sex, Not Merit
Lavar Stoney served as mayor of Richmond for the last eight years and is now running for lieutenant governor. Stoney’s top priorities in Richmond’s 2024 $3 billion budget included police reforms and equity but not facilities infrastructure. For comparison, the Republican-run City of Virginia Beach has nearly double the population of Richmond with a smaller 2024 budget of just $2.6 billion. Richmond doesn’t lack funding, yet that’s what Democrats would have you believe.
In 2021, news headlines in Richmond reported: “For the first time, a woman is in charge of the Richmond Department of Public Utilities.” One reporter proudly declared, “Ms. Bingham will bring a different perspective in leading an agency whose past directors have largely held engineering degrees and experience.”
Instead of an engineer with experience, they hired April Bingham, who has a background in customer service and government administration. Bingham also serves on the American Water Works Association’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. Since being put in the spotlight, Bingham has blocked select members of the public from her X page even though she uses it to communicate public business—a potential violation of Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.
That’s consistent with what the nation is learning about Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a notorious social justice advocate who pushes an equity agenda. The city spent more money on homeless funding than the entire budget of the L.A. Fire Department.
The assistant L.A. fire chief, Kristine Larson, claimed people want to see emergency personnel who look like them when they are in danger. She even blamed victims, claiming if she had to carry a man out of a fire, “he got himself in the wrong place.” The chief executive of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Janisse Quinones, claimed her number one priority was equity—not essential infrastructure. She was reportedly responsible for a major water reservoir being empty, which led to dry fire hydrants while homes burned. In Los Angeles, like Richmond, Democrats believe equity is more important than competence.
Will citizens of Democrat-run cities open their eyes to failed leadership that puts DEI agendas over public safety? Democrat-run cities are starting to look like third-world countries. Hopefully, voters will wake up to the fact that DEI is really DIE.
(Read more: Don't California the Commonwealth)
