Richmond Behavioral Health chief is out

The head of Richmond's mental-health agency, Wilson J. Washington Jr., is leaving after just less than a year in that position.

"He is not acting as chief executive," Frances Christian, chairwoman of the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority's board, said yesterday.

The authority serves about 1,400 adults in the city with serious mental illnesses, as well as 800 children. It also provides services to about 1,000 Richmonders with developmental delays, as well as crisis care and substance-abuse services for thousands more.

Christian said she could not comment on why Washington was leaving, saying it was a personnel matter.

But Mary Ann Bergeron, executive director of the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards, said the board had not renewed Washington's contract.

"It would appear they are looking outside the organization for someone to sort of be an interim director until there are some decisions made," Bergeron said

Christian said the board will meet today to decide how the chief executive's function will be carried out.

"The board is fully engaged. . . . We have a strong management," she said. "Nothing will be falling through the cracks."

Washington was named chief executive in late June 2008.

He previously had served as vice president of the behavioral-health-care center of Community Health of South Florida Inc. in Miami, and is a retired Navy Medical Service Corps officer who also worked as a health-care administrator in Mississippi.

He succeeded Steven Ashby, who resigned in 2007 after five years as head of the authority.

In 2000, a review of hiring and personnel practices at the authority led to the ouster of the longtime director, Lundi S. Martin, who preceded Ashby.

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or .

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or .