If Reva Trammell’s handouts to South Richmond voters are any indication, she’s not taking any chances as she runs to keep her 8th District seat on the City Council.

A Trammell campaign flier targeting her opponent, Frank Wilson, claims the services of a private detective revealed that Wilson spends time at a house in Goochland County instead of at the Richmond address he listed on his campaign paperwork.

The flier includes images that purport to show Wilson checking the mail at the Goochland house, and lists its exact address. The house, according to Goochland property records, is owned by Wilson.

“If you’re going to make decisions for the people in the city of Richmond, shouldn’t you live there a hundred percent?” Trammell said when asked why she thinks the question of Wilson’s residency is relevant to 8th District voters.

As she fights an uphill battle at City Hall to lower the city’s property tax rate by 4 cents, Trammell asked how Richmonders who pay those taxes would react if they knew City Council members could establish residency in the city for political purposes while keeping a home in a nearby county with lower taxes.

“Is that fair to people screaming and hollering that they can’t afford these high-ass taxes?,” said Trammell, whose tax rate reduction proposal has been delayed several times and won’t be put to a vote until Nov. 12.

Wilson, whose campaign website indicates he most recently worked as a magistrate for the Supreme Court of Virginia, declined an interview request from The Richmonder this week. He said he was focused on early voting but could speak after the election.

Earlier this month, Wilson told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he leased a property in the 8th District owned by his church in order to run for the seat.

“I established my residence in Oak Grove because of wanting to run,” Wilson told the newspaper. “Since the property that the church had was vacant … I approached them and said, ‘Look, I’m considering this, right? Is it OK if I lease it?’”

Trammell, who has served on the council since 2007, doesn’t appear to be in major danger of ending her lengthy electoral winning streak. She has raised more than $95,000 for the campaign, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Wilson has raised just under $13,000  and is self-funding much of his campaign.

“I'm running for Richmond City Council because I want the interest of residents of the 8th District heard and responded to,” Wilson’s website says. “It is my intent to bring a high level of trust and respect to the role of City Council representative for the district. I will make sure all sides of matters impacting residents of the district are heard, pros and cons.”

On his Facebook page, Wilson promises “people-focused change” focused on listening to residents and putting “community needs first.”

It’s not clear how that message will fare against Trammell, who freely gives out her cell phone number in public and recently clashed with her council colleagues over whether they’re as in touch with regular people as she is.

Trammell said 8th District voters should keep supporting her because “I’m here.”

“People have my private cell number. They have my private home number that they call. And it’s full all the time,” she said. “They’re going to call him? I don’t think so. But they’ll call me.”

When The Richmonder met with Trammell in her district last month, she pointed to a major affordable housing development going up at the former Oak Grove Elementary School site and the construction site where a new T.B. Smith Community Center is being built as signs of the positive change happening in the district on her watch.

“I live here in the district,” she said. “I’m out here every day with the citizens.”