He added that he does not see it as unusual that multiple high-level administrators are leaving.

“Anytime you have a person in office that cannot be re-elected, you start to see the leadership team dissolve before the last day in office,” Samuels said. “It happens with governors, it happens everywhere.”

The mayor filled two of the four deputy chief administrative officer jobs in May. He named Norman D. Butts as deputy chief administrative officer for finance and administration and Debra D. Gardner as deputy chief administrative officer for human services.

The administration did not name an interim replacement for Chapman on Friday. He’ll be with the city for two more weeks.

Chapman, who has family ties to Richmond, said he was drawn here partly because he liked the mayor’s vision of a comprehensive approach to development and poverty mitigation.

“What I was looking for when I came to Richmond was a city that was on the upswing, but a city that also manifested some really intense urban challenges,” Chapman said. “Richmond had all of those things.”

The biggest challenge today, he said, is tackling the issue of concentrated poverty around the city’s aging public housing complexes.