The abrupt resignation of Richmond's top bureaucrat could leave city government foundering in the final months of Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's term.

At a meeting with top officials yesterday, Wilder divided the responsibilities of departing Chief Administrative Officer Sheila Hill-Christian between two senior executives.

One, Chief Financial Officer Harry E. Black, was rejected twice by City Council when Wilder named him as the city's chief administrative officer last year. The other is public utilities director Christopher Beschler.

The division of responsibilities could mean confusion and delay in making decisions, council members and political experts say.

"If you want to run things like a hippie grocery store, fine," said Paul Goldman, a community activist who helped write the city charter and is now running for mayor. "But that's not what we created. We created a city government for the city of Richmond with a structure." Council President William J. Pantele said he fears the next few months will see only drift and inaction in a City Hall already confused by Hill-Christian's parting e-mail in which she stated her ability to do her job had been compromised.

Hill-Christian has not been available to explain her comment and city officials said they do not know why she resigned.

"It looks like the city is simply not going to have an administration," said Pantele, who is also running for mayor.

"It is not an option, going without a chief administrative officer," said John V. Moeser, senior fellow at the University of Richmond's Bonner Center for Civic Engagement. "You do need someone at the top."

But Wilder's press secretary, Linwood Norman, brushed off those concerns.

"Services are being delivered, people are at their desks and bills are being paid," he said.

Wilder's division calls on Black to oversee social services, finances and the city's permit and inspections agency. Beschler oversees utilities, public works, police, fire and parks. Also, Black will sign all leases, although it was his signature of a lease for new school administration offices that led to last year's failed eviction of school officials from City Hall.

"It appeared Harry was the de facto [chief administrative officer] anyway," Moeser said, adding he believed that Hill-Christian had been sidelined.

Moeser and Goldman said the city charter requires an acting chief administrator be named when the incumbent leaves. Without one, Goldman said, "really the mayor is in charge."

In a statement Wednesday, Wilder said he wouldn't name a successor to Hill-Christian. But a memo yesterday said the division of her responsibilities would continue until he names an acting chief administrator.

Press secretary Norman said there was no timeline for that.

City Attorney Norman Sales, meanwhile, said he is researching whether city ordinances require key documents be signed by a chief administrative officer to be legal.

Mayoral candidate Lawrence Williams said it makes sense to hold off naming a new top administrator so that the new mayor could pick his own candidate.

Candidate Robert J. Grey Jr. said Hill-Christian's departure is a sign of "some kind of dysfunction down there that . . . needs to be addressed."

Candidate Del. Dwight Clinton Jones, D-Richmond, agreed, adding: "The constant bickering . . . does not give us much hope that this will be resolved until the November election."
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress @timesdispatch.com.

Staff writer Will Jones contributed to this report.