VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — It’s the day many of us will never forget.
On May 31, 2019, a Virginia Beach city employee killed 12 people and seriously hurt four others at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center.
The city’s acting city manager, Thomas Leahy, spoke about the independent investigation into the shooting on Tuesday afternoon.
Hillard Heintze, a private consulting group spent months investigating the shooting. The goal was to find a motive behind the gunman’s actions and identify ways to prevent another tragedy.
Leahy listed several big initiatives he hopes to have funded as a result of what was found by the independent investigation team. The largest is the restructuring of the city’s human resources department.
The Hillard Heintz report stated that the city’s current HR structure requires HR liaisons in certain departments to report to the manager of that department. They also often have other responsibilities.
10 On Your Side has reported that victim’s families members felt concerns about the shooter went unheard. While none of that has been proven, through interviews with employees, the report found HR liaisons were often thought to not be independent enough from the big boss.
Leahy is proposing adding 15 full-time positions to the HR department. It will cost $1.5 million.
“Recommendation to restructure would eliminate the perceived department conflicts where the HR liason actually reported to the department director,” Leahy said. “It would also eliminate a lot of inconsistent HR policies where one department would interpret an HR policy one way and another department would interpret it somewhat different.”
