Will Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones have to handle his own commute to and from City Hall rather than being chauffeured by a police officer when the new budget year begins July 1?

Richmond City Council is following through on its threat to strip the mayor of most of his security detail in the budget that is expected to be approved Friday, May 13. The council also is expected to limit when the security detail can be used.

An amendment that will accompany the general fund budget states that the mayor will be restricted to having “one sworn police officer … assigned to provide security” and then only “during the times when the mayor is conducting official business within the Richmond region,” which includes the city and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico.

Driving to and from work does not appear to fit the restriction.

The amendment authorizes Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham to beef up that detail in “a case … which presents a specific and credible threat of bodily injury (to the mayor) and only for the duration of such threat.”

The amendment is a victory for Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, who heads the council’s Public Safety Committee, although it doesn’t abolish the mayor’s security detail as she sought.

“If he’s so afraid of the city, as I’ve said a thousand times, then why is he still the mayor?” Ms. Trammell asked her council colleagues. “Why doesn’t he step down?”

No mayor of the city needs security, she continued. “They do not need police officers driving them around, taking them here, there, everywhere,” she said.

Why Ms. Trammell won unanimous support this time remains unclear. She repeatedly had proposed eliminating or reducing the detail in past city budget cycles, only to have the idea shot down. One reason may be that it is an election year and at least two members of the council, Jonathan T. Baliles, 1st District, and Michelle Mosby, 9th District, have announced they are running for mayor.

Slashing the size of the detail will not produce any savings, as several council members noted. The money is included in the police department’s budget, and the five or so other officers on the detail simply would be reassigned to other duties — filling some of the holes on the force that the chief is now publicly expressing concern about.

The police department has been spending $400,000 to $500,000 year on the mayor’s security detail, including overtime — far more than any other jurisdiction in Virginia that provides a security detail. Few cities of Richmond’s size provide security details, and those that do usually have only one person assigned.

Whether the council can enforce the amendment remains to be seen. Councilman Parker C. Agelasto noted that City Attorney Allen L. Jackson told the council that ensuring compliance with the amendment will not be an easy matter. Mr. Jackson, he said, encouraged the council to pass an ordinance to ensure compliance.

The detail has been in place since former Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, a former Virginia governor, took office in 2005.

Mayor Jones has not publicly stated any opposition to the change.

According to the mayor’s press secretary, Tammy Hawley, Mayor Jones “reduced the staff when he took over (in 2009) by more than 50 percent.”

The mayor has since “relied on the judgment of trained law enforcement to decide what resources would continue to be dedicated to that purpose,” she stated.

Still, some Richmond residents have complained the detail is a waste of money, according to Ms. Trammell.

Throughout his term, Mayor Jones has had a police driver and escort wherever he goes, whether to meetings, official events or social affairs where he brings city greetings, and also to unofficial activities, where he is on his own or with friends.