Public Safety Committee Meeting - August 11, 2025
Public Safety Committee Meeting - August 11, 2025
The Public Safety Committee of the City of Winston-Salem met on August 11, 2025, at 2:00 PM. Chair Annette Scippio called the meeting to order, with Council Members Regina Hall, Vivián V. Joiner, and Scott Andree-Bowen present. Council Member Burke also attended. The meeting adjourned at 3:03 PM.
Discussion Items
G-1. Resolution Authorizing Grant Acceptance and Agreements for Forsyth County Driving While Impaired (DWI) Task Force
Chief Penn (Officer Penn) presented the item, noting it is the 16th year of the countywide DWI task force involving Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, and Kernersville. The committee also heard a scam awareness message from Chief Penn, who highlighted common tactics targeting seniors, such as high-pressure calls requesting money or personal information, and emphasized that legitimate law enforcement never asks for payment over the phone. The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval, forwarding the item to the City Council on September 2, 2025.
G-2. Ordinance Amending Chapter 38, Section 38-10(i) – Possession and Discharge of Firearms at Smith Reynolds Airport
Deputy City Attorney Jerry Contos presented the item, which would allow wildlife officers to discharge rifles to eliminate deer and wild turkeys within airport boundaries. The county had requested a three-year extension through August 19, 2028. Council Member Burke, speaking on behalf of property owners in Northwood Estates near the runway, stated that property owners supported only a 12-month extension (through August 19, 2026) and requested a substitute motion. Chair Scippio noted no incidents related to wildlife control had been reported since 2019. Council Member Hall made a substitute motion to extend the provision through August 19, 2026, which was seconded by Council Member Andree-Bowen. The motion passed 3-1, with Chair Scippio voting no. The item was forwarded to the City Council on August 18, 2025.
G-3. Resolution to Adopt the Northern Piedmont Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan
August Vernon, director of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Office of Emergency Management, presented the plan. He explained that the plan is updated every five years, involves seven counties, and is required for federal disaster recovery funding. Key points included that every $1 spent on mitigation saves $6 in recovery, and that the plan identifies risks such as cyber events (moved up after the city's recent cyber incident), excessive heat, tornadoes, inland flooding, and infectious diseases. Public surveys showed top concerns as infrastructure vulnerability, natural disaster preparedness, cybersecurity threats, and resource accessibility. The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval, forwarding to the City Council.
G-4. Presentation on Emergency Management
August Vernon presented an overview of the Office of Emergency Management's roles, including training, public education, planning, exercises, and 24/7 on-call duty. He highlighted that Winston-Salem and Charlotte-Mecklenburg are the only joint city-county emergency management departments in North Carolina. The presentation covered the city's emergency operations center, partnerships with over 100 agencies, and recent events (hurricanes, ice storms, flooding, Weaver fire, COVID-19, cyber event, microburst). Vernon discussed the Stafford Act process, noting that local resources are expected to sustain for 72 hours before federal aid arrives. He also addressed funding uncertainties and upcoming work on continuity of operations planning, rewriting the emergency operations plan, and enhancing the emergency operations center. Council Member Scipio requested a cheat sheet for elected officials' roles in crises.
Key Outcomes
- G-1 DWI Task Force Grant: Approved unanimously (4-0) and forwarded to City Council on September 2, 2025.
- G-2 Firearms Ordinance Amendment: Approved with a substitute motion to extend the provision through August 19, 2026 (12 months) by a 3-1 vote. Forwarded to City Council on August 18, 2025.
- G-3 Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan: Approved unanimously (4-0) and forwarded to City Council.
- G-4 Emergency Management Presentation: Received as information; no vote required. Council Member Scipio requested a summary of elected officials' roles for future reference.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. It's time for our public safety committee to commence. Adam City Clerk, would you just call our role, please? Chairperson Sipia. Councilmember Sipia. I'm here. Vice Chair, Councilmember Hall. Here. Councilmember Joyner. Present. And Councilmember Andrew Bowen. Yep. Thank you so much. We don't have a very, we do have a full agenda. However, we will we don't have consent agendas, but we will just get started with G1. If you would read that. Item G1 resolution authorizing grant acceptance and agreements for Forsyth County Driving While Impaired Task Force with Winston Salem, Forsyth County, and Kernersville. Chief Penn, if you would uh handle this, good afternoon, Chair Scipio, members of the committee. While you refer to me as Chief Penn, I am Officer Penn today. As there's a new chief in here today, that'll be Chief Charlie. So he's going to defer to me to talk a little bit about this, and I think he has something to say. So this particular item is one we we do every year. This is a formation of the task force with Kernersville and the Sheriff's Office. The DWI task force goes countywide, and they enforce DWI. So this is just, I think it's the 16th year of that, so it's just something we do annually. Thank you. Are there any questions? Um we have new committee members, but this is uh one of the things, ways we we actually fund many of our services through the grants that we get from other agencies. Uh and this is just a continuing, it's not a continuing resolution, but we do have to vote on accepting this. So don't have a thank you, um Chairwoman Scipio. Don't have a specific question about the item in front of us, but wondered um if there could be a um a point of uh privilege, personal privilege for the new chief to be able to say something to us maybe after we vote on this item or even uh now yes, I think our new chief uh has something to say to us. Chief Charlie I'm he I'm here to protect the citizens of Winston Salem. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Charlie. We're absolutely so proud to have Chief Charlie today serving uh in that capacity. We look forward to his continued support of public safety and making sure that the citizens of Winston Salem are taking well care of. Thank you, Chief Charlie. He's a fourth grader, and we're looking to have him uh be Chief of Police in the future, perhaps 20 years from now, or a little more. Thank you, Chief Charlie. Uh, can we have a um motion? Move to approve item G1. I second um the motion is properly moved and seconded. We'll just any other discussion. None. We'll have a vote. Thank you. Um before the chief sat down, I I wanted him to uh give a little update on to our residents on some news he sent out, a news release. Uh sometimes our residents need to be reminded of some of the things that people are experiencing and our recommendations on how to handle that. So, Chief Officer Penn, uh, would you please talk to us about that message that you want our citizens to know about? Right.
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