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Resident Chanel Blackton urges ‘Addison Cares’ wellness‑check program after 60 days of utility inactivity
Summary
At the Nov. 4 Addison City Council work session, resident Chanel Blackton asked the council to refer an 'Addison Cares' wellness‑check initiative that would flag utility accounts with 60 days of total inactivity and prompt a police wellness visit to protect vulnerable residents; she offered to help draft the ordinance.
Chanel Blackton, a resident of Addison, told the City Council at its Nov. 4 work session she would like the council to refer a proposed 'Addison Cares' wellness‑check initiative to the appropriate committee for review.
Blackton told the council the program would instruct the utilities department to flag addresses showing 60 days of complete inactivity for electricity and water service; that flag would generate a monthly list the police department could use to perform an in‑person wellness check. "This program is not about crime. It's about preventing a tragedy that could go undiscovered for weeks," Blackton said. She described scenarios such as an elderly person who had fallen or a vulnerable adult left without assistance.
Blackton said the initiative would be nonpunitive and narrowly targeted: accounts with short late payments or temporary outages would not trigger the system. She proposed that trained, uniformed officers conduct respectful welfare checks, exercise professional discretion (for example, contacting family members), and take emergency action only if signs of danger were present. She also offered to volunteer to help draft the ordinance and formally asked the council to refer the proposal to a committee for review.
The mayor closed the public comment period after Blackton's remarks and moved the meeting into the scheduled work‑session agenda. No vote or formal council action on the proposal was recorded at the meeting; staff were not directed to prepare an ordinance during the discussion recorded in the transcript.
Why it matters: The proposal seeks to use routine utility data to detect extended outages that may indicate medical emergencies or other welfare concerns, channeling a new operational trigger to police and utility staff. Council members did not take formal action Nov. 4; Blackton asked only for a referral to the appropriate committee, a procedural step that would determine whether staff draft formal language for later council consideration.
