City officials in three different offices this year have spent $172,900 at a Florida-based advertising and consulting company operated by Cameus Chicoye — the ex-business partner of Petula Burks, who resigned from her position as the city’s communications director on July 1 amid questions about her use of city funds.
The 2024 expenditures bring the total spent by the city at Chicoye’s firms above $340,000 over the past year and a half.
Chicoye and Burks in 2015 partnered to form a corporation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to public records. Eight years later, Burks’ 2023 city credit card log showed nearly $100,000 worth of charges at two firms connected to Chicoye. Asked on July 1 about the relationship, Burks did not respond. City officials announced Burks’ resignation later the same day, but did not address her connection with Chicoye.
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Now, purchase orders obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch show that Burks’ office was not the only department to do business with Chicoye.
Purchase orders show dozens of deals
Records show that Lori White, who works in the city Department of Procurement Services; Darcel Jones, who works in the Office of Community Wealth Building; and Raymond Dark Jr., who worked under Burks in the city’s communications office, engaged the services of Chicoye on 30 occasions between Jan. 9 and July 17.
Chicoye’s Virginia firm, Play 4 Production LLC, was formed in December 2022, less than a year after Burks began working for the city. Public records indicate that the firm was headquartered in Suite 304 at The Shops at Willow Lawn in Henrico County. But 19 of the 30 purchase orders instead show a Clermont, Florida, address as the location for Play 4 Production.
Suite 304 is the location of the Staples store at The Shops at Willow Lawn. Staples offers small businesses a service called iPostal1, which allows owners to register their businesses in Virginia by setting up a legal mailing address in the state. It is not clear whether Chicoye used iPostal1 to register Play 4 Production.
The purchase orders indicate that Chicoye was hired to create and produce videos by the city and to provide consulting services. For example, a June 2 purchase order shows that Dark paid Chicoye $10,000 for “Human Services Summit Video Production,” and a June 3 purchase order shows that Dark paid Chicoye $9,000 for “consultation and professional development.”
Gianni Snidle, a spokesperson for Mayor Levar Stoney, previously referred The Times-Dispatch to two videos that Chicoye had produced for the city: a video with login instructions for RVA Pay and a video featuring an employee event at Richmond Fire Station 5. The city paid Chicoye $1,500 for the first video, according to one purchase order. It is not clear how much the city paid for the second video.
Public records also show that Play 4 Production became “inactive” in Virginia in March 2024. But 17 of the 30 purchase orders were dated after March 31. It is not immediately clear whether the company is still in business. Chicoye did not respond to a request for comment.
Officials also have not responded when asked whether any ethics or contract violations have occurred, and why Burks did not select local companies to produce the videos.
Orders note ‘procurement violations’
Three of the 2024 purchase orders also contain notes that read “procurement violation,” though the nature of each violation is not specified. Those orders are worth a combined total of $12,200.
The Times-Dispatch on Monday morning reached out to Richmond Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders, a spokesperson for Stoney and two officials in the communications office with questions on the purchase orders and procurement violations. None of the officials has responded.
Saunders last week announced that the city would be reviewing and reformatting the Department of Procurement Services, which oversees the city’s contracts and purchasing card program. He did not respond when asked for details on that restructuring.
Play 4 Production is one of two companies operated by Chicoye to be paid by the city in recent months.
Chicoye also runs LC Studios LLC, which was incorporated in Clermont, Florida, in 2014. The Times-Dispatch obtained purchase orders from 2023 that show Dark spent $22,900 at LC Studios last year.
The 2023 and 2024 purchase orders and 2023 credit card transaction logs bring the total spent at Chicoye’s firms over the past 18 months to $345,200. The Times-Dispatch has not reviewed credit card transactions for 2024.
In July 2023, the city credit cards assigned to both Burks and Dark were suspended due to overdue balances, The Times-Dispatch previously reported. Burks also had accidentally used her card to make personal purchases.
Transaction logs for the cards assigned to Burks and Tamara Jenkins, who worked with Burks in the city’s communications department, contained multiple charges at Play 4 Production and LC Studios. Dark started using purchase orders to obtain services from Chicoye on July 21, 2023 — the same day Burks was warned her card would be suspended within the week.
Burks could not be reached for comment.