Tobacco Avenue

A compromise between Richmond City Council and the mayor has been made in the city-residency waiver case for city auditor Umesh V. Dalal, who had asked to be allowed to move to Henrico County.

In a late-night resolution passed by councilmembers 8-0 and agreed upon by everyone involved,  city officials believe the best option is to outsource the city auditor position to Dalal’s home country of India, where he will work at much lower rate than he is paid in the United States.

“Though the mayor did not want a senior-level executive to live outside of the city, we all agree that it makes perfect sense to come to terms on this matter, as the rate at which we currently pay city auditors is prohibitive to our operations,” said councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson.  City statutes allow some senior-level government employees to live outside of the city and “if it makes sense, wherever they want,” according to the Richmond Book of Rules and Other Important Things.

Major American companies such as Microsoft, Google and Intel have operations in India, long a country where U.S. enterprises outsource parts of their operations citing lower costs, a well-educated workforce, energy conservation and more efficient use of resources and technology.

Richmond will get all of the above by outsourcing the highly-essential city government position, Robertson said.

Dalal, who was appointed to the office in February 2006, said he was ecstatic to be moving back east, which will allow he and his family to see loved ones and friends more often than they do now, which is largely never.

In his job at City Hall, Dalal oversees a software-based checks and balances system to make sure information the city manages and controls is accurate.  In the Indian city of Pune, Dalal will sit in a 4-foot by 7-foot cubicle in an air conditioning-free 150,000 square-foot warehouse with approximately 400 other U.S. city auditors whose work has also been offshored, largely for cost reasons.  The operation is next door to the Dell Inc. support complex, a similar-sized building with lots of people who know more about computers than most Americans - but, experts say, for some reason have a difficult time conveying that to the U.S. public.

Dalal, who earns $121,000 a year as auditor - barely enough to comfortably support a family in the city - will earn $32 a week in India.  That rate, according to Robertson, is enough to sustain his immediate family, two dogs, four aunts, Starbucks every morning, a Maruti Grand Vitara, private-school education for his children, XM Satellite Radio, a subscription to Xbox Live, annual vacations to the Mediterranean Sea and that new BlackBerry Pearl with a full data plan, which includes e-mail access and downloadable 35-cent ringtones.

The waiver announcement comes two days after, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder made clear he did not approve of the auditor leaving the city.

Wilder said, according to the paper, that it “strains logic” to think that senior city officials can effectively promote and create economic development in Richmond during the workday just to return to their homes in the county in the evening.  After his own workweek, Wilder leaves a riverfront condominium downtown for Charles City County, where he has a riverfront house.

Whether the city auditor offshoring works is still unclear.  Recent local efforts to outsource or offshore have not been as successful.

For instance, in 1990, planners in Henrico County handed the duty of establishing the Far West End to a 12-year-old local boy and his copy of Sim City, a simulation city-building game where he developed clogged intersections and an open-air mall without thinking about how residents should actually get there.

Last year, Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc. offshored its popular cake-making operations to China, forcing approximately 300,000 Richmonders to cancel their birthdays.