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Public Safety Standing Committee

June 24, 2025 ·1:00 PM Final

Council Chamber, 2nd Floor – City Hall

Agenda PDF 📹 Watch video Official record ↗

Agenda — 44 items

  1. 1 Persons requesting to provide comments virtually during the public hearings or public comment period held at this meeting, must call the Office of the City Clerk at (804) 646-7955, option 3, by no later than 10:00 a.m., on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
  2. 1 Committee Members in Attendance
  3. 2 Call to Order
  4. 2 The Honorable Reva Trammell – Chair The Honorable Sarah Abubaker – Member
  5. 3 Chamber Emergency Evacuation Plan Announcement and Public Speaker Guidelines
  6. 3 Absent
  7. 4 Public Comment Period
  8. 4 The Honorable Stephanie Lynch – Vice Chair
  9. 5 Approval of Minutes
  10. 5 Staff and Others in Attendance
  11. 6 April 22, 2025 - Public Safety Standing Committee Meeting Minutes CD.2025.205
  12. 6 Greg Lukanuski, Deputy City Attorney Nahdiyah Muhammad, Assistant City Clerk Candice Reid, City Clerk Steve Taylor, Council Policy Analyst
  13. 7 May 29, 2025 - Public Safety Standing Committee Meeting Minutes CD.2025.206
  14. 8 Presentation(s)
  15. 8 Chair Reva Trammell called the meeting to order at 1:07 p.m., and presided.
  16. 9 Richmond Police Department (RPD) Environmental Officers and Operations Update
  17. 10 Code Enforcement Updates
  18. 10 Upon the Chair’s request, Assistant City Clerk Nahdiyah Muhammad provided information on the appropriate way to evacuate the Council Chamber in an emergency along with public speaker guidelines.
  19. 11 June 24, 2025 - Code Enforcement Updates Presentation CD.2025.219
  20. 12 Paper(s) for Consideration
  21. 12 There were no public comment speakers.
  22. 13 There were no papers for consideration.
  23. 14 page break
  24. 14 There were no amendments or corrections to the meeting minutes of April 22, 2025 and May 29, 2025, and the committee approved the minutes as presented.
  25. 15 Board Vacancies
  26. 16 There were no board vacancies.
  27. 17 Discussion Item(s)
  28. 18 There were no discussion items.
  29. 19 Staff Report
  30. 19 Chief of Police Rick Edwards, presented the committee with updates regarding RPD environmental officers and their operations. Chief Edwards stated that RPD environmental officers work with other city agencies to enforce code violations.
  31. 20 June 24, 2025 - Public Safety Staff Report CD.2025.222
  32. 20 The committee requested additional information regarding environmental officers, the Hope outreach team, and the Community Response Team (CRT) having civilians as staff, the number of active environmental officers recruited, and resident environmental concerns.
  33. 21 Chief Edwards responded that officers were sworn police officers and there could potentially be more opportunities to civilianize some of the roles but stated that these roles benefited from being occupied by sworn police officers due to the issuing of citations. Chief Edwards stated that RPD currently only had one environmental officer. Chief Edwards also stated that there were bandwidth concerns within RPD.
  34. 22 Chief Edwards continued to discuss the operations of RPD environmental officers with the committee.
  35. 24 Kevin Vonck, Director of the Department of Planning and Development Review (PDR), presented the committee with code enforcement updates.
  36. 26 A copy of the material provided has been filed.
  37. 27 The committee requested additional information regarding the status of the reporting of inspections, proactive vs. reactive code enforcement, staffing impact of the proposed rental inspection program, considerations of properties developing greener sustainability practices, response times to complaints, and notice of violation time frame for the rental inspection program.
  38. 28 Director Vonck provided the committee with additional information regarding no violation observed, compliant, and non-compliant. Mr. Vonck stated that the workload volume was more reactive and responsive, and that the Department of Planning and Development Review (PDR) was working toward finding a balance within code enforcement to manage the workload. Mr. Vonck also stated that more discussion would be necessary to potentially establish rental inspection districts to evaluate additional staffing needs. Mr. Vonck further stated that standard operating procedures would need to establish guidelines for greener sustainability. Mr. Vonck stated that the rental inspection program would mostly focus on the most extreme cases of violation.
  39. 29 Greg Lukanuski, Deputy City Attorney, provided the committee with additional information regarding notices of code violations.
  40. 30 Director Vonck continued to discuss code enforcement updates with the committee.
  41. 38 Council staff provided the committee with the June Public Safety staff report.
  42. 40 A copy of the material provided has been filed.
  43. 41 Adjournment
  44. 42 There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.