Va. agency adding directors for Capitol Square, legislation (2025)

TheVirginia Department of General Servicesis elevating executive branch oversight of state-owned properties surroundingCapitol Squarein Richmond and creating a new role for coordinating legislative policy, just three months afterGov. Glenn Youngkinprevailed in a budget battle with the General Assembly over control of the sprawling state agency.

Youngkin had already appointed a new director, Banci Tewolde, to lead the agency, nearly six months after the sudden retirement of its longtime leader, but now the department is seeking to fill two division director jobs it said it has "repurposed" from existing, vacant positions.

"The Department of General Services is a diversified and complex agency," spokesperson Dena Potter said Monday. "In order to consolidate previously dispersed functions that are interrelated and to operate more efficiently and effectively, DGS has repurposed two vacant positions and both have been posted. No new positions were created in this process."

Tewolde, the new director, "made the decision to change the title of one vacant position and repurpose another vacant position under a new title to better align like services," Potter said.

The new director of government and regulatory affairs would be paid up to $170,000 a year as a member of the department's executive leadership team to coordinate legislative and regulatory affairs. The director of the division of Capitol Square Services would be paid up to $165,000 a year.

"The position is responsible for a wide range of high visibility activities throughout the Capitol complex," states the advertisement for the job.

Last fall, the state completed construction of a new General Assembly Building and state parking garage, as well as the renovation of Old City Hall, a national historic landmark that faces Capitol Square. The square and surrounding area include more than 6 million square feet of state facilities and 20 parking structures with more than 7,000 spaces for vehicles.

"With the completion of major construction on Capitol Square, the Director of Capitol Square Services will focus on maintenance and operations of all buildings and grounds on Capitol Square," Potter said. "This includes parking management, badging, building and grounds maintenance, mail services, security and event services."

The role of the new director of government and regulatory affairs includes coordinating the agency's legislative, policy and regulatory functions.

Youngkin and the Democratic-controlled legislature have been locked in a political tug-of-war this year over control of the department, Old City Hall and planning for state employee offices in the seat of government in Richmond. The department's portfolio of duties includes construction and management of state buildings and real estate; operation of the state vehicle fleet; laboratory services; and procurement of goods and services for state agencies.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly proposed to create an independent panel to oversee the executive branch department, which the governor adamantly opposed. The assembly backed off the demand in the budget compromise it reached with Youngkin on May 13, but legislators continue to express concerns about what they consider executive overreach in managing projects that are also subject to legislative jurisdiction.

"They continue to try to micromanage state government," said Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, who also introduced legislation that the assembly passed and the governor vetoed to make the agency independent of executive control.

The assembly included a provision in the two-year budget to ensure that the clerks of the House of Delegates and the Senate control the use of Old City Hall, which is divided between the executive and legislative branches under an agreement reached in 2016 after the assembly, then under Republican control, reduced the size of the new General Assembly Building.

The Capitol Police and the Division of Legislative Automated Systems, both legislative agencies, moved into the newly renovated Old City Hall last fall, despite an attempt by the Youngkin administration, led by former Chief of Staff Jeff Goettman, to turn the historic building into an executive branch showcase for state tourism and cultural institutions.

"The governor is trying to assert complete control over Capitol Square," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, who chairs the Senate Finance subcommittee on general government. "The legislature is always going to have a big say in what happens in Capitol Square."

Old City Hall was not the only sticking point in the budget between the executive and legislative branches.

The assembly included budget language that reverses Youngkin's commitment to demolish the Monroe Building and move state employees there into leased office space in the metropolitan area, rather than build a new office building on state property at North Seventh and East Main streets, where the Virginia Employment Commission was previously based.

Instead, the budget directs the Department of General Services to conduct a study of whether to build a new state office building at the Main Street site or at the current site of the Virginia Department of Transportation Annex Building on East Broad Street. The Department of Transportation announced in mid-May that it has purchased the site of the former Owens & Minor headquarters in Mechanicsville and plans to move its offices there.