Richmond officials defend winter response as council presses on side-street service, sidewalk warnings

Chief Administrative Officer Donald updated Richmond City Council on the city's response to two late-January winter storms, saying the administration treated roughly 2,010 of about 2,500 lane miles and used more than 4,000 tons of salt and about 3,000 tons of sand. Donald said the city spent about $550,000 acquiring materials and deployed roughly 75'100 pieces of equipment during the events and that a detailed after-action report required by City Code section 12-19 will be submitted by March 2.

"We're not perfect. We didn't do everything perfectly," Chief Administrative Officer Donald said, adding that the storms combined ice and extreme cold that made treatment more difficult than a typical snowfall. He described two back-to-back events ("Fern," declared Jan. 24 and ended Jan. 28; and "Gianna," Jan. 31'Feb. 2), and said council-affirmed emergency declarations were rescinded at the Feb. 9 meeting.

Public Works Director Bobby Vincent told the council that the city sets priorities using Federal Highway Administration classifications. "You have, first priority streets, which are our major arterials. We have about 700 miles of major arterials," Vincent said, noting arterials were pretreatment priorities and often received multiple runs so emergency vehicles could move.

Councilmembers pressed for more detail on neighborhood impacts. Councilmember Trammell said many seniors in her district could not get vehicles or deliveries into side streets and asked how streets were selected for treatment. "They couldn't even get no oil," Trammell said of a constituent who could not receive heating oil; she said multiple elderly residents were left without timely access to services.

Donald said the administration had provided direct calls and text updates to hundreds of residents and that neighborhood outreach will be included in the after-action report. He also said the city had activated a multi-agency coordinating center (MAC) and used Richmond Ready and other tools to coordinate with utilities, limiting an outage that might have affected more than 4,000 customers to about 167 customers.

On enforcement, several councilmembers noted a local news item reporting more than 300 warnings to property owners for failing to clear sidewalks. Vincent and Donald clarified that the city issued notices of violation (NOVs) and warnings in many cases rather than monetary citations; Vincent said NOVs placed on properties or mailed to owners should include contact information and the inspector's identity. "When people say things, that doesn't always mean that they're true," Donald said, but he committed to tracking where NOVs were issued, which department issued them, and reporting that breakdown in the March 2 materials.

Vincent and the CAO also addressed material stocks and resupply. Vincent said the city maintained more than 6,000 tons of salt and over 2,000 tons of sand overall; he acknowledged one staging location was low on sand for a single shift but said resupplies arrived the following Monday and that the city will order additional materials proactively to prepare for consecutive storms.

Councilmembers asked the administration to develop targeted protocols to help vulnerable residents who could not leave their homes for warming centers or deliveries. Donald said staff will explore "white-glove" or prioritized outreach for seniors and high-risk households and will try to incorporate council suggestions into emergency SOPs.

The CAO repeated the administration's commitment to a full, detailed after-action report by March 2, which will include fiscal impacts, department-level details, the NOV breakdown and locations, and recommendations for future events. The informal meeting concluded after questions and comments from council members.