I spent the afternoon yesterday with Sgt. Dick Tak of the Richmond Police Department and Code Enforcement Officer Theresa Tingle in an effort to find out what is working and what is not working.

I have to say that I was impressed by their enthusiasm and level of production in the face of severe reductions in force and lack of necessary equipment. I have prepared a report, attached as a PDF file, which describes what I learned and concludes with some recommendations.

Keeping Richmond clean is one of the fundamental responsibilities of our local government, but it never seems to rise to the level of priority that our citizens expect. We have to deal with this, or more lofty and appealing objectives of economic development, jobs and revenue enhancement will suffer. The City Council must show leadership by providing the necessary resources and must hold responsible those to whom these resources are allocated.

abatement_summary_8-1-04.pdf