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Committee forwards ordinance to align utility-disconnection rules with state law
Summary
The Governmental Operations Standing Committee voted to forward ordinance 2025-134 to City Council with a recommendation to approve; the ordinance aligns city code on gas, water and wastewater disconnects with 2024 state law (House Bill 904) and would bar disconnections during extreme-heat periods and certain holidays.
The Governmental Operations Standing Committee on [date not specified] voted to forward ordinance 2025-134 to the full City Council with a recommendation to approve. The ordinance would amend Richmond City Code sections 28-54, 28-57 and 28-58 to align local rules on deposits, refunds and disconnection of gas, water and wastewater services with 2024 state legislation (House Bill 904).
The measure aims to prohibit service disconnections during specified high-heat periods (cited in committee discussion as when temperatures reach about 95 degrees) and at certain times around holidays, consistent with the state law described by the city’s Department of Public Utilities director, Scott Morris. "The changes that are proposed in this ordinance . . . align very closely with the state code and make our ability to do disconnects . . . prohibit us from doing those disconnects during periods of high [heat]," Morris told the committee.
The change does not alter deposit or refund amounts, Morris said; the references to deposits and refunds appear only because the ordinance edits multiple sections of the code and clarifies which subsections relate to disconnection protections. Morris told the committee that, operationally, the city has not been performing disconnections since the COVID period and plans to resume them only after billing issues are resolved. He said the Department will provide public notifications to customers and update internal procedures prior to reinstating disconnects.
Morris described an existing payment option, "PromisePay," which allows customers to spread past-due balances over 36 months. "As long as they sign up to PromisePay, no disconnection will occur," he said, adding that an annotation is placed on accounts when customers enroll.
No members of the public spoke in the hearing on the ordinance. A committee member asked whether the ordinance would take effect July 1; Morris confirmed the change would go into effect on July 1 (year not specified in the record). The committee moved the paper forward with a recommendation to approve; the motion passed with recorded affirmative votes from Council Member Gibson and Vice Chair Abubakar.
What the ordinance would do: it would (1) prohibit certain disconnects during high-heat periods and around holidays, (2) align local code with House Bill 904, and (3) make no substantive changes to deposit/refund amounts beyond reorganizing affected code sections. The Department of Public Utilities said it will perform customer outreach and revise internal procedures before resuming disconnections.
The measure now goes to the full City Council for consideration.
