City Council Meeting, 4/28/2026

Party.

All right, so Mr. Mayor members of council, hey um the council's requested electoral board will come and give to the council um a presentation of their recommendation as regards to where to place tents at the new location standing.

We're joined here by members of the electoral board. We got chair Nanette Miller, vice chair Amy Myers, and secretary Laura Lee Grimm. So I think um electoral board, please feel free to come on up and and and address some of the recommendations to city council.

Okay, welcome. Welcome Nanette.

Hey sir, how are you today?

I'm good.

Great.

Uh we want to thank you all for inviting us to come up and talk on this subject.

Uh we thought it was something simple and then we realized it wasn't quite as simple as we thought it was going to be.

So we wanted to really clarify and make sure that we're all on the same sheet of music. And the reason that we looked at the tents is um kind of a basic reason uh because we have all been people who stand outside and uh try to connect with voters and support either our candidates or whatever subject matter that it happens to be on uh for a vote. So with the new building, which we very much

love, it needs a little love um on a certain few issues, but we love the new building, we love the parking, we love everything being in one location. It made a tremendous difference these last two weeks with the voting and the canvassing and uh our work to prepare all of the votes to go to the Board of Elections. So we very much appreciate that and we look forward to getting some more good works done.

So the building itself is um kind of uh elongated which and the entrances uh for the front of the building for citizens to come in is going to be on the north side of the building which is the left as you face the building and on the backside is the warehouses and whatnot which is what we need when we're taking care of the election officials moving equipment in and out the machines to the various

sites and when everybody comes back with all of their paraphernalia ballots and votes and all of that information on election night. It worked out very well and we appreciated that.

What we quickly saw oh before I passed that signage we very much appreciate that we did not have a lot of a bunch of signs and we didn't have any arguments and we didn't have any fights. The signage was great the selection of that.

But what we quickly noticed was oh gosh when you're most of the voters are older and you're there for a long time uh you have no point of reference as it were to go to. There is no place to store where your purses or your bags or your flyers and those sorts of things.

You have to leave everything in your car and that's fine when it comes to signage and whatnot. But we quickly realized as much as the foliage around the building is lovely it is not going to be um it 100% shade when it comes to voting and walking uh having volunteers standing out there in the heat of the summer.

Or even in the heat of the fall and sometimes the heat of the spring. So much like we had at building 14 with having tents out there each party came and put up a tent and they had a base of operations as it were. It provided them a place to have storage and to be prepared and to take respite when it was really hot or if it was pouring down

rain, which many of us have stood out there in the pouring down rain trying to reach voters.

So, we thought about putting up each party offering them up a tent. We brought the party chairs in. We talked with them about it. They agreed that it would be a good idea, that they would be willing to take care of all of that. And uh they would make sure that everybody was civil and took care of those who maybe weren't affiliated directly with the party and needed a quick respite

underneath the tent. And so, we thought that would be a pretty good idea. Uh but then we had some questions and we wanted to make sure that we addressed the questions with you all directly and answer any questions that you might have. I know you have a letter of our proposal. So, with that, I'd like to see what questions you might have.

Any questions at this point?

Yeah, this Councilman Hotch, go ahead.

Well, I just if if Where at this point is I just want to say we we started this everybody helped, but myself, the vice mayor, and Rocky I think got this started a kicked off a while a couple years ago now, year and a half ago. So, appreciate it and I think the pendulum we just had swung a little too far as far as the tent. So, I'm glad we're

fixing it. The one thing I do want to say though is is I don't think we need to put the tents right side by side. So, we could find a congenial place to make it so that there's the two tents are out there and that's good enough.

Well, there's a number of reasons why we did it that way. Have you Have you walked the property?

Yes.

Mhm.

It's very muddy.

Yeah.

On the north side of the building, it's extremely muddy and it's low.

Uh-huh.

So, there's flooding if it rains right there by the parking lot and it's muddy until we haven't had rain for the last 2 weeks and it's now not muddy.

Okay, well we do some landscaping then.

So, just my my my point is my point is is that they need to be spread out. They don't need to be side by side. That's just Yeah.

See, we were taking the path of least resistance and simplicity, which is there right where they're at, they are dry. And we asked both chairs what they thought about being side by side.

So, I'm I'm the Republican on the board and they're the Democrats on the board and but we uh our chairs have been more than congenial about this. Um we have found I have always found standing out there for hours at a at a time with a person who is on the different side of the aisle for me, by the end of the day we're all we're we have 99% of things in common.

So, We can use that, Rita.

Exactly. So, uh we have most everyone is a grown-up out there and on a very rare occasion the keyword that I was looking for.

Most, on a very rare occasion and tents and we don't have to keep going.

Well, the best thing that we have found uh and this is stands true on election day. If there's a problem at a polling location at a precinct and it's I mean, I I've addressed issues with people who are Repub- Democrats and I've addressed issues with people who are Republicans.

We generally from our own party, we generally know who are not the grown-ups in the room and we know how to handle those kinds of folks and we try to be uh responsible and try to address things quickly and calmly. I I don't know of anything that has escalated out of our control to this date.

Okay, so, you don't have any problem with them not being side by side, do you?

Not at all.

Okay.

Our our concern was we can't put them in the mud. Yes.

Okay, Jennifer, Josh, and Rosemary.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, I thank you for your response to some of the concerns of the volunteers who are out there. For me, just a question of clarity under B, usage and responsibilities, bullet two.

And one of the questions I got was, is it the expectation that volunteers from either party set up and take down the tent every night? So, in terms of the tent, once it's erected, is it your recommendation that the tent can remain, but the materials inside need to either be they need to be tucked away inside the tent or they need to be removed and replaced each night and each morning? Can you just clarify?

The lesson that we learned at building 14 a few years ago when we all put up the 10 by 10s was you have to drop them all the way down at night and you secure everything underneath and drop the top down and then it was fine. If you left them up, if it had a rainstorm, if you had a high wind come through, that was a bit of disaster. We all learned that the hard way.

Okay, so this tent just collapses Yeah, it comes right down. You don't have to take it completely down, but it will those 10 by 10s will collapse down, so they're only about 3 ft, 4 ft tall and then everything is secured underneath that and the next morning you come out and you put everything up and it's nice and dry.

Thank you.

Okay, Josh and then we're going to Miss Miller, thank you so much for all of you for coming and and I'm really glad we asked you what you thought of this kind of new way forward here in your new facility. So, thank you for the work and as you put it, we're all in it together. So, and and I and I know a lot of our concern was around the proliferation and

just the saturation of the messaging and the signage around the area and and so I just want to confirm that the tents themselves will be not opportunities for messaging themselves right?

Correct. Correct. It's a it's really a place to get out of the sun, get out of the rain.

And and that's exactly what this is always been about was like we you know several of us had talked and you know just you know we we recognize the volunteers that stand out there all day and and you know a lot of people might be elderly, might be mobility challenged or just anybody who needs a little bit of shade during a long day.

Our numbers can be hot which is the great part about living in Virginia Beach. So so again thank you very much.

Yeah, we did notice if I can just expand on that a little bit. The registrar noticed one day that they were supposed to stand right here and so they just put all their stuff in the trees.

And then they forgot stuff and so it ended up our staff had to go out and clean it up.

I know I know we've we've we've we've done this for the parties, right? So but if if you happen to get other parties like that are registered for local parties like independents or whomever that request places to be, will you please let us know so that we can kind of evaluate that?

Absolutely. Yeah.

I appreciate that. And then to the flooding in the low-lying areas, I did notice that the last couple of times I drove in there.

I don't know if that's our part of the condo property or not but like as you pull in there's always a puddle there even if it's even if it's like kind of wet.

It does pool in that area.

It does.

They were married my home and then safe.

First of all, thank you for looking into this and you did such a great job of really looking at all the details and it really made our job easier by what y'all have done. So thank you so much for doing that. Um and it is a very long building. It's a long walk from the parking lot to the door. And and I know we've been dealing with tents for decades and

it all seemed to worked out. I'm so glad not to see all that signage.

That's just breath of fresh air. But how do you decide which party sit goes where? I mean, are you going to flip a coin each time, or are you going to alternate each time, or which because it's a long walk and you It's not like it's it's just different.

And only 14 people could come from both sides, but this way people have will pretty much come from the enclosed list.

Well, I think once we have an area that we designate, um, Lorelei said it very well, we'll just alternate. I mean, we've talked with the chairs, we brought them in and asked them how they felt about it, how they were going to respond to it, and and they have all been, um, very amenable to having something and and taking responsibility for it.

Yeah. I I think you need a process, and then we have Once you have a process in place, then everything's considered to be fair. That's what people are looking for is a fairness.

Yeah.

Okay, Michael.

Well, thank you all for being here this afternoon and for your work that and thoughtfulness and, um, consideration that you invested in formulating this policy.

Um, as you know from conversations that I've had with you, I've had some questions arguably characterized as concerns about the tents.

Um, because I've received a lot of, uh, complaints and concerns from voters who were attempting to exercise their civic responsibility and duty and really felt uncomfortable in the process of doing so.

Um, I have very much appreciate the consideration and thoughtfulness that has been invested in uh, supporting the people who are there to support candidates or political parties, um, but I also want to priori- I think we all need to prioritize and I know you have the experience of the average voter who just wants to independently and quietly and respectfully exercise their um, right and obligation to vote.

And that's why I've had some questions about this without being harassed. It was even in I think we made great progress in eliminating the signs.

Mhm.

Uh, but it was even described um, as the sign the way the signs were configured were even described by one party as a fort uh, as recently as last year.

And um, that's how voters really felt when they were some voters felt when they were approaching building was 14, building 14 that they that they had to run the gauntlet uh and proceed through a fort in order to just simply vote.

And um, that's what the the genesis and that's been the basis for my uh, questions and concerns around this.

People shouldn't have to run a fort or breach a fort in order to cast their vote. And a lot of people don't want to talk to the volunteers and others there.

So with great deference and consideration to those people um, and I do I appreciate them. I've done it. I've done it for other candidates. I've done it for myself and people have done it for me. I'm very uh, grateful to to share.

But I just really this has been on my mind a lot because they just want to go in, they want to vote, they want to come out. So I won't belabor the point, but I think that uh, we've basically you know, I think you've addressed that and I very much appreciate it, but I do have some questions about it.

Number one, and I don't have I can't find the memo in front of me. It's somewhere in in this pile of paper so I couldn't find it. But is it is it correct that I read that the uh, people volunteering are not to meant to stand in front in the middle of the sidewalk.

Correct.

Cuz they are.

They can stop stand on the side of the sidewalk, not in the side.

They have been standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

Um and I think that's that would be part of this. That would help.

So the sidewalk would be would remain clear.

Um No please.

So Mike, we need you at the microphone.

Thank you.

So we need to probably chat with you or if you all would look at the administrative directory, because in the administrative directory, um directive, I apologize for saying that incorrectly.

There is language under restrictions in 2.2.0, but then there is specific language relating to polling locations. So people who like to put their finger one place and another and say, so I don't know if we probably don't want people on the sidewalks, but people have said to me, well, the administrative directory, I was amazed that they knew about it. But um I've made that point to us about the

language on the signages, and that also applies for signage, because in there's places in the administrative directory that says you can holding a sign is not right, but we had all agreed that a person could hold a sign in the right place. So if we can make recommendations for the staff to look at that would clearly address what you're saying, because it was an uncomfortable situation to have people

on on the sidewalk, and we certainly don't want that. So It was it was and it is, and including for me. I just want by the time I'm ready to go, I know who I'm voting for.

So I'm going to go in, I just want to do it, and I don't want to have to sort of, you know, play what is it, Frogger or whatever, by trying to get through.

I completely understand, because we climbed over a fire truck to avoid people when I voted in Rome. So, No, it's fine.

Thank you. So, that that's one question and I maybe it needs uh some further analysis to go through those, but it's good to know that works.

We all seem to be on the same page. Um and then what about um someone asked me about this. So, if you wanted to hold a sign while you were there, you could hold a sign.

Mhm.

But what if and you can bring chairs if you're volunteering. Can you put your sign on your chair? Cuz that has come up.

It has it had come up and what we did was we told people they weren't supposed to, but again in that administrative directive, it is confusing because we actually had somebody take the the plastic sign that you slip over and they slipped it on the back of the chair and we said, "Well, you're not really not supposed to do that." But they that administrative directive does have uh

some conflict between one paragraph and another. We tried to help hold people accountable and say, "You have to hold it. You can sit in your if you've got a chair, you can sit with it in your lap, but you can't leave it on the chair while you're off talking to people." We just there's no signage. We don't want signage.

And then um one last question is what about um a vehicle that's in the parking lot and I'm very familiar with the space and it happens to be right in the middle of District 3, by the way. So, we're very happy to have the new location there. But what if you were there and you had a um Well, some people wrap their vehicles.

Mhm.

Or some people put the yard signs like they tape them on to a pickup truck or whatever. I've seen that. Is it is it okay to for that to be parked there? I mean, how would you And this is a real-life scenario. So, and I guess they were asked to remove their car or whatever, but I don't understand how you could ask them to do that if it's just parked.

Well, I think if you're coming up and I know people who do do that. One in particular puts it on his business vehicle. So, you I I think because of the freedom of speech issue and we've talked with this many times with um council, if they're just coming to vote and they're driving their car, you can't tell them they can't have a bumper sticker. You can't tell them they can't have that. If they're coming in and

they're parking their car and leaving it for the day, that's a different issue.

I don't know how that can be enforced, but yeah, I mean I And so all of that is to say that that First of all, I really do appreciate your work and I'm sorry I don't mean to take up too much time here, but all of these sort of lead to my question for the manager or for Mr. Styles is how do we resolve these these things?

Um you know, between I guess what is we we appear to all be in consensus here, that's fine, but does the administrative directive reflect it and can can you reasonably enforce these provisions?

In general, I think whoever comes to labs my team and the board of elections team and Mark's team will put our heads together and discuss can we enforce these things?

Generally, I think we probably can to some extent. Mark may say something else and then where there's consensus amongst the council, then we'll work to amend the administrative directive and then issue it to the board of elections so we can distribute it to the campaign teams.

Mark I don't have anything to add.

We will um endeavor to the best of our ability to implement what the council ultimately uh decides. I will say that the legally most conservative thing is to prohibit any uh signs and etc.

Uh if you're not going to prohibit them, then whatever you do needs to be entirely viewpoint and content neutral.

Uh, and by that I mean to say, it's not a situation if it's a situation where you have to look at the content of something to determine whether or not it's prohibited or not, then that it's not going to be content neutral. So, uh, it's a very difficult area of the law. It's very difficult to comply with.

That's why staff initially recommended uh, just not doing it, but I understand the need. I understand the desire. I appreciate the work that the electoral board has put in on it, and we will do everything we can to make it both uh, lawful and enforceable. With respect to the question about, um, whether or not a sign being held is the same as a sign in a chair, I believe you

got that right. I would have agreed with that if if I'd been asked. I think that the rule has always been someone is certainly entitled to stand outside with a sign, uh, but the sign cannot be either affixed to the ground or or left alone in a place. So, I think that I I I believe that was the the right call on that. With respect to automobiles, I need to think that through some more,

but I certainly agree that you can't tell somebody they can have a they can't have a bumper sticker or a sign expressing, you know, their political beliefs on the vehicle. So, I'm not sure there's a lot that can be done about that.

Well, and I just want to follow up to say I agree with that. And I can see how that could go sideways, you know, and people could just start parking vehicles in the front, and that is maybe a big loophole. And that's not the intent of it, but on the other hand, I can understand how disappointing it is if you're an very enthusiastic uh, volunteer, or and there were many of

those on both sides um, just in the most recent special election.

And you know, they they got their signs on their car and they they're there volunteering and they park and they were told that they you know, they're told that they can't. I'm not saying that was a wrong call. I'm not I'm not trying to be critical. I was just um you know, I don't know how we can do that and I don't really think we should do that.

But then on the flip side, we don't want a campaign to like rent one of those um billboards and pull it up front which I guess they could could they do that? I don't know.

Anyway, maybe it's too hypothetical, but No, not really.

Or if you need for a I think I have a campaign idea.

They never got the other plans with the banners. They never got them.

All right. Rosemary and then uh Stacy.

So is this something we can do by consensus or do we have to vote on it?

The administrative directive is the city manager's administrative directive. He's the chief He's the head of the administrative and executive functions of the city.

The administrative directives therefore typically not voted on by city council.

However, on matters such as this the city count the the city manager quite rightfully wants clear direction from this body because while it's his decision to make, your decision is who the city manager and the city attorney are. So um that a formal vote is not required, but I believe I can speak for the manager in saying clear direction is requested.

And so will the vote.

Okay, let's go Stacy and then we'll discuss the possible ordinance.

I guess with like with any policy or anything you try to do, the devil's in the details.

And um you know, while I'm I'll just go on record. I'm I'm opposed to any signs, any tents, anything that's going to prohibit somebody from just getting out of the vehicle, walking up, voting, getting back in their vehicle, and leaving.

That's the way I'd like to see it, but not That's not going to happen.

Yeah.

But, um one of the details is we we talk about tents being authorized for each of the parties.

So, who's the sanctioning body for each of these parties?

Who are you dealing with? Because of the party.

Of Of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach and the Democrat Party of Virginia Beach.

that needs to be put into the policy that these are the people cuz you could have people arguing that well, they don't represent our side of the party.

And then you're going to get into who who has the official word about who's to be there and what's to happen.

So, I think a clarification about who we're dealing who the city is dealing with in making the determination will go a long way. Well, well, will help the situation.

Right.

Uh, secondly, uh, under the enforcement we talked about, if any volunteer of either party violates any of these conditions, the electoral board has the right to deem the uh, to deem the office a no candidate area for both parties for the remainder of the election cycle. So, I guess to me that says if if somebody's out of control, you're going to penalize both both parties.

Or, you know, prohibit both parties for the actions of one side. And you know, again, I get that that gets into the fairness here. We're doing We're supposed to be doing and then the other side's not doing what they're supposed to be doing, so now everybody, you know, we have to leave.

So, I don't know that that's fair. Um, and again, I I'm springing it up because I think devil's in the details, and I do going to I think the situation's going to confront us sooner than later.

True, probably.

All right, we'll we'll address that a little bit further on the board and with the registrar to get some clarity on that.

Or they can provide direction.

Or you can give us the direction that you would like to do.

Well, everything is that way.

Okay.

All right.

You know, did you have something?

You know, I just noticed one thing, it's minor, but still as people going up just asking for their vote.

Are people are they yelling people's names out and all of that stuff stuff? Are you curbing that?

Did I did not see that much at 500 Studio Drive.

Doesn't roll off the tongue quite like building 14.

I have not noticed it at the registrar's office. On very rare occasion, I've seen it at a precinct. But again, usually if there's any kind of concern confrontation from the chief of the precinct, they pick up the phone, call the registrar, we are driving around on election day, and we are at whichever spot we need to go to, and go and have a conversation with and I've done it many times in the short

time that I've been on the board, I've done it many times.

Go and have a quick conversation of, "Hey, just need you to calm down. You can't be this aggressive."

I I've had people voters tell me that they didn't like it.

I said, "Well, when you go to a used car sale lot, what happens? There's going to be a salesman who has a product for you.

Every candidate is trying to sell you their product, and they have a very short period of time, maybe 20, 30 seconds, to capture your attention. So, keep that in mind that this is just as passionate for them as it is for you, and maybe we we can find some common ground. But, if if there is a campaigner that is not acting professionally out there, I I know we have all had to go to

a site and address it. And again, I have not had anyone that uh that I couldn't deal with, and then I had to call other help. I know that there are there have been instances, especially in this last election, um there was police called at 6:05, and I was there at uh 8:15, um and talked to the candidate there, and it was between the a candidate and a not a candidate, but a uh representative

of one side of the question for the special election, and a voter. And it was the voter who called 911, not the chief.

But, the police were there rather quickly. I talked to the worker, said, "We all just have to be kind. We all have to be professional. If you have a problem, here's my card. Call me.

We'll deal with it directly right away."

That's pretty good cuz I used to be vice chair for the electoral board.

Mhm.

Wow.

So, you know.

I know.

Going around to places.

Mhm.

But, you know, I support because it's a different time, and you will have people out of line, you know, addressing when you go to some of the polls.

So, that's why I'm asking if you you know, had something long ago. It wasn't that bad, but now It's It's a very different time, and we have to be prudent on that. But, I can tell you on election day I put 111 miles on my car.

So, we we were everywhere. We made sure we talked to people and if there was an issue, we got a call from the registrar, we were immediately at wherever we needed to be.

Thank you and other thing on the other side I was pleased to hear that you all are going to have um two just like the fast food areas for people who are handicapped instead of just one.

Planning to have two.

Right. They worked very hard on making sure that everybody who did the drive-thru was taken care of very quickly.

So, we're hoping to get our nice awning on that building sooner than later and that will also help.

So, it it will be Mhm. Thanks.

It's a you know, this is a complex issue.

And um let me put it this way. I don't think we should over legislate with, you know, legislating stuff, but I think in this thing, Patrick, in terms of clarity, uh you know, our administrative director is good, but I think a council action, you know, sets the tone. Would that be helpful to you?

And always says Mark, what do you think?

Um council can certainly uh provide direction by a resolution if it determines Mayor, I'll say something as well. Um a resolution is always helpful, but it also doesn't allow us to make any contemporaneous changes if there's an issue along the way. Cuz if you all vote, it's kind of cast in concrete to me and Mark.

And um if we're rolling out something new, it might be some stumbles and some falls along the way.

And we have a language of discretion included in that document?

Um I know it's kind of tough.

That's a double-edged We've been doing a lot of that lately.

That's a double-edged That's a double-edged sword providing providing discretion without providing details about how it will be exercised.

Mhm.

Um again the best policy would be a policy that simply said, "Here's an area where tents can be erected. This is not an area for expressive activity. This is an area exclusively for for rest and recuperation. There will be no signs.

There will be no expressive activity conducted." Um That's not what we're looking for.

I I understand, but if you want if you're if you're asking me if you're I mean we've got to sign off on this for legal sufficiency and and you know I I I'm I'm I'm trying to tell you what's most legally defensible because I um you know, when you start having to look and see whose tent that is and whether or not it's authorized by the appropriate political party um you open yourself up to challenges.

It's just That's what it is.

a little bit of a quagmire because even within both respective parties there are factions.

And there are also other parties like the Green Party and you know, you know, other other parties that may you know, want to stake a claim. I'm just saying this is a little bit more complicated and convoluted that it you know, it seems. Jennifer?

Thank you, Mayor. I'm thinking outside of a resolution because some council members have had questions like clarifying questions. So, is it something where you can recirculate or update the memo based on your recommendations for the administrative directive and then you pass that along to us and if it's sufficient, we can say, "Okay." So, that way it's more flexible and it's not having We have to

vote on every change, but we can get a sense of an updated version. And if it feels sufficient, it can work in the meantime until something else comes up that may need Brooke Trans.

I think the Electoral Board who understands this question better than anyone else in this room because they deal with it every single day. They have put together a very, very thoughtful plan.

And I think we can hang our hats on what they have done. I think we should just go by their recommendations and then if down the road there's some other issues, then we can come back and address them.

But I I would I'd like to see us just as an administrative to um to follow the lead of what the Electoral Board They They They know it better than anyone else. And they put a lot of good things like no standing on the sidewalk and and that sort of thing. Sometimes you get too much too many details in there that makes it kind of really impossible to to

legislate. So, I I'd like to see us just to do administratively according to what they their recommendations are.

Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with that. And then let's live this next election and invite y'all to come back and we can hear how the discretion we gave you like if there are were issues with that where you need more clarity from us, but I I I don't think I don't think we need to overcook it.

Patrick.

And Mr. Mayor, just what I would suggest as well is that I think the qualification deadline for at least the council races and the school board races is June 1.

And we're quickly about a month away.

So, we voter registrar, probably Electoral Board and my staff and attorney's staff would definitely want to finalize whatever is decided here so we can at least get the administrative directive updated because we do hand those out to folks that are interested in running for office and changing it mid-cycle creates confusion. So, you know, if we have to go back and forth with a update for

consideration, that may delay the time we're able to get that out to the public for them as they consider their um next steps as it relates to running for office if they want to do that.

Now, let me say I'm comfortable with the latitude of discretion that the city manager has in conjunction with the electoral board.

Yes.

I mean, you know, there's going to be unique situations that could come up on the fly that have to be resolved immediately. And I concur that, you know, if you have too many things set in stone, you you you lose the latitude of discretion to act upon These are things you've got to act on immediately and act with spontaneity. Uh so, when we get you know, but aren't we blessed to have elections sometimes even

more than one every year in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Uh and the the work you do, but at least now with the facility you've got is going to make it a lot easier.

But, you know, once again, I concur with Michael and Stacy that uh it you know, I for my I would say that overwhelming majority of people when they show up at the polls, they know exactly who they're voting for.

Uh you know, you know, a lot of times also when you got a huge you know, a big on the presidential ballot, you have a president, you have a Senate, you have a Congress, you have uh then you have council members and mayor, council members, school board, and then maybe a couple referendum questions.

I mean, you know, it's almost rough to get everybody you know, up to speed on things, but you know, considering the complexity of what you do, you're doing amazing.

Can I say one cuz cuz I'm kind of agreeing with both of what y'all's is as far as how that goes with the passing out the the flyers or whatever. But what I've noticed was and and you made me think about it right there at the end, Mayor, is that what a lot of needs to be said though is because of the drop-off after you, you know, from the from the

Senate to the to you, president, Senate, however, and then when they get to you, but then that drop-off after, especially our school board friends, it does help to have somebody there saying, "Hey, vote all the way down the ballot. Don't forget there's a second side." So, I fully agree with you as far as you don't want somebody in your face trying to change your mind. I'm 100% there.

But I think on that aspect it does help.

And then my reason for having the tent, my only reason for really for having it is like we said, the sun and the rain.

And I was out there and it was it was an older gentleman, you know, and then it was one of our hot days a month ago and you know, he was struggling. Now, he could have left, you know, he didn't have to say, he could have gone and sit under a tree, but by if he'd had the tent, he could have stand under it and then come right back out. You know, I

just felt like that's what it was for.

You know, I thought that's why we were looking for it was for those conditions.

That's that's why I feel like I don't want to I don't want to stop that part.

So thanks.

Okay.

If I can make a comment, I have found over many, many years of doing this and having voted for many years, people walk in 99% sure what they're going to do. And every once in a while there's a referendum on there that they don't quite understand or there's new information that they haven't got. And people are really comforted that there are volunteers out there that they can ask questions to or share information

with. So, having candidate representatives and candidates, I think it's part of the political process and we need to make sure that we keep that.

With that being said, I'd like clarification. I think that we on the board would like to know if we're going to do landscaping over on that side. We start early voting for the primary on the 18th of June.

So, we need to know kind of what are we going to do on the 18th of June. It's going to be a hot June, July, and August. The The voting is uh for the primary is the 4th of August, and that's really why we wanted to make sure we had addressed this issue.

And then the general election is 18th September?

18th of September. So, again, it's September October into October warm. So, Well, I'm I'm speaking for that cuz I'm the one that talked about it is I'm I'm not saying I'm just saying you don't have to wire tie them together. If there's room to put them a few feet apart, it's a working I'm a big pilot person. You know, that we put a pilot in front of anything, Okay.

right, and give it a try. So, we know this is we got a nice easy one coming up here to get it started. Let's use that to take a look at it. Then if we get some we find a few pennies in the budget to do some landscaping, then we do that and we can fix it a little better, but I'm not I'm not I'm not married to we got to Okay.

do it this time. So, I I believe in in you two handling it, you three, whatever.

Great. Thank you.

Okay, so Patrick, Nanette, and Amy.

Amy Orly.

Orly. Yeah. I guess what I want to say is are you all comfortable with the conversation we had today, and you you kind of you kind of kind of got a direction to go forward?

Yes, sir. I think it's great.

Yeah. I think it sounds like a council is leaning towards accepting the recommendations that you all have. We'll work with the attorney's office to put pen to paper. The administrative director will circulate it with you all before we finalize it, or just for last comments if you all have anything on that. And then with that, the voter registrar will execute and release it out to the candidates.

Right. And you know, you got to build a facility if other things do pop up, we'll we'll be here with open ears.

Don't tell him that.

Mayor, do not tell him that.

They're already over budget. They're not going anywhere.

Yeah.

I started to say that about the problem.

I'll focus on the landscaping for you.

Yeah.

There you go.

All right, thank you.

Thank you all.

Yeah, thank you. Take care, you.

All right, so Mr. Mayor, members of council, as council knows, last October you all created a e-bike safety task force. The task force is ready to give city council's recommendation and its advice on where to go as it relates to helping to regulate e-bikes in the community.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council. I'm Julie Brineman with Fountain Works, and I had the pleasure of facilitating the e-bikes task force, so I'll just introduce the item and then turn it over to our co-chairs.

Um as the manager just said, the mayor convened a e-bike safety task force um with the purpose of looking at the current state current state and local laws related to e-bikes, to look at public self safety and health risks, to evaluate best practices from other communities, and to recommend strategies for education, enforcement, signage, or code changes.

Um the task force members that were appointed are listed here. There's 12 members. Our co-chairs are going to be presenting with me. There's a few members of the task force in the audience. If you all would just raise your hands for the council.

Um and there are other members of the task force watching online as well.

Uh council members Cummings and Hutchinson were the liaisons to the task force and between the two of them, at least one of them was at every meeting and both of them were at almost every meeting.

Um in addition to the 12 task force members, there were many city staff supporting the task force. Think we've got 24 listed here. We may have missed a few. Um just to show you how important the staff realizes and how complicated the issue of the um the task force, the e-bikes, and the rules are. Just wanted to show you how many there are. There's a few staff in the audience that were part of the the

support. If you'd all just raise your hands real quick.

They're being shy. There's more than that.

Um Um and then the last thing I'll do before I turn it over to the co-chairs, the task force had planned to have five meetings to discuss this. They ended up being um very efficient and completed their work in four meetings. In addition, uh part of that was There was a lot of education about the rules related to the uh to e-bikes and state law restricts a lot of what we're

able to do. And so as soon as there was a grasp on the state law restrictions, there was a decision that we were we had gone as far as we could go at this point.

So at this point, I'll turn it over to first co-chair Genie Sevens and she'll be followed by Chuck Keaton.

Thank you.

Hi Genie.

Hi. How are you? What a pleasure to be here. My presentation is going to be really short, about an hour and 20 minutes, so it'll be okay. No problem.

Get comfortable.

We may have wine after this.

It was a pleasure for me to be appointed. Thank you. I appreciate it.

And are you sure it was only 16 hours?

Oh my god. Okay, but it was really a pleasure. It was it's it's an interesting topic and I will start by saying I certainly don't have the answers and I don't think that the committee the task force itself has the answers has all the answers, but they really covered a large spectrum of information and learning and the city staff was unbelievable unbelievable. I mean they were just they were right there

because it is a confusing and very difficult decision to make. And as we're standing here the technology is changing every day. So we have we did have a vision if you oh I'm supposed to do this, right? Am I this right thing?

Okay, good. So our vision was I'm not going to read all this for you, but really to promote responsibility and safety. And you were you tasked us with that and we were reminded of that every time we met and it is again a difficult subject. Our vision for the task force in general was trying to get some kind of forward thinking rules and regulations and guidelines for today and the technology of tomorrow,

which is indeed a a daunting challenge. And clarify what an e-bike is and what it's not. That was a learning cycle. That was a whole I don't know how many hours we spent on that one. The vision for the e-bikes obviously safety is the most important improve infrastructure that is was somewhat questionable, but we we know that there has to be some kind of assistance from the city if we're going to take on some of the

recommendations. A clear understanding of what's allowed and what's not allowed and and Chuck, my co-chair will get into some of that.

The shared responsibility, which is very, very important because it's not just the riders, it's not just the bike shops, it's the school system and especially the parents because most of these users are under the age of 18.

Although there are a number of over 18.

And obviously we have to meet ADA guidelines and things like that. How we do this? We training and education and best practices.

Develop policies that are easy to understand.

Clarify the differences between the different classifications of e-bikes, which is indeed another challenge.

Establish and enforce the speed limits, which is even bigger challenge. And have some kind of clear and concise communication and outreach to the citizens and those that are using the bikes.

Oh, that's me. Okay.

Sorry, I don't know.

I can't chew chewing gum and walk at the same time. Okay, so this was a huge learning curve for me because you really can't tell the difference between a lot of these vehicles and I think that I use the word vehicles because that's what they are. I think that the Virginia Beach Police Department was very candid with us about how difficult it is just to look and do a quick look to see what kind of

bikes these are. But anyway, the maximum speed on the class one, which has already been classified by law, is is 20 miles an hour. It's pedal.

The class two also is 20 miles per hour and throttle and pedal assisted. And then the class three is 28 miles per hour and pedal just pedal assisted. Um and then there's additional guidelines regarding helmets and things like that.

And I mentioned earlier that certainly um as we're standing here the technology is moving um every minute and and it and it is um an ongoing challenge and it will be a challenge for council uh to try to keep up with it. Um there's e-motos also. Again, another learning curve for a lot of us. Uh these are examples of other types of electronic or vehicles that are coming up and again there's lot more but

the pocket bike is um kind of looks like a toy but it goes rather fast. The moped which I'm sure all of you experienced at one time or another and obviously the motorcycle and there's guidelines and oversight for all of that. Um this this was this committee um was very uh careful about how they did things, what they asked a lot of wonderful questions. Um and it was it was a definitely

a huge learning curve for all of us. I think though some were more um educated on it than others. But it's difficult to ID them and you're going to hear this from some of the regular some some of the data that Chuck is going to give you. Um and um and as we stand here now as I mentioned the technology is changing.

As you all know I um work in town center and um that is indeed a challenge. That is a walkable um vehicular use um shared atmosphere if you will.

And with very short streets um the you're you guidelines now already that prohibit those types of wheeled vehicles in and around town center and especially through our beautiful uh fountain plaza area. We have a lot of pedestrians in that area and we encourage that kind of traffic um and a lot of events that go on in the fountain plaza.

There's hardly a weekend that goes by um that I don't see uh some type of electronic vehicle um and they're they're in a flash and out in a flash.

So, I just say that as one who deals with it um rather often uh because of the producing all of the events. There's families and there's lots of crowded people. We had Easter Extravaganza a couple weeks ago.

There were 2,500 people in town center.

Um and these e-bikes are everywhere. So, I I know this is a challenge. I want to thank you very much for taking on this challenge. Um there are some hard decisions for you to make and um I'm here to answer any questions, but my co-chair is Chuck and he was he's going to go into the actual recommendations and the overview of some of the issues that we had in making these determinations. Thank you.

Thank you, Jenny.

Welcome Chuck.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Um our recommendations really fall into two main categories. Actions for the city such as education, signage, and enforcement and actions for the Commonwealth including legislative and regulatory changes.

What's important to recognize is that local progress on e-bike safety depends on both city action and state authority.

Advancing recommendations in both areas is essential to fully modernize regulations and establish consistent safety standards for e-bikes.

We recommend that the city advocate for representation on the forthcoming Division of Motor Vehicles e-bike work group um established under House Bill 1120, which was recently signed into law by the governor.

The DMV is well positioned to provide clear public guidance distinguishing legally defined electric bicycles from other electric mobility devices such as e-motos.

This work group presents a key opportunity for Virginia Beach to take a leadership role in shaping statewide e-bike policy.

We recommend actively supporting stronger statewide regulations for e-bikes. During the recent General Assembly session, we we reviewed House Bill 269, which addresses many of our concerns, but what has since been tabled.

Our recommendations focus on practical high-impact measures such as standardized training, registration, age limits, and clearer clearer device classifications that would strengthen local control while ensuring consistent rules across Virginia.

At the federal level, momentum is also building.

A bipartisan proposal introduced in Congress last month, the Safe Standards for Personal e-Bike and e-Moto Device Specifications Act, would establish national safety standards for electrical bikes and off-road electrical vehicles.

Education is one of the most immediate and impactful actions available to us.

We recommend targeted communication for parents, youth, visitors, and e-bike vendors.

We also see strong value in partnering with the Virginia Beach Public Schools to develop programs to educate students early on safe riding practices.

Clear communications will help mitigate unsafe behavior before enforcement becomes necessary.

Clear signage and supportive infrastructure are essential.

We recommend expanding signage in high-density areas and school zones with clear guidance on where e-bikes are allowed and how they should operate.

We also encourage infrastructure like designated parking to promote responsible use.

Speed is a central factor driving safety risks.

The issue isn't just the type of e-bike.

It's the speed at which it's operated.

If granted authority by the Commonwealth, the city should have the ability to regulate e-bike speeds, particularly in shared-use and high-traffic areas.

We recommend prioritizing restrictions in high-density areas as well.

This includes maintaining current sidewalk bans in town center and the resort area, prohibiting e-bikes on the boardwalk, and restricting e-motos from shared-use paths.

Regional consistency will also be important.

One specific recommendation is to allow e-bikes on the bike path adjacent to the boardwalk with a posted recommended speed limit.

This provides a safe alternative to Atlantic Avenue while maintaining separation from pedestrians.

Oops.

E-bikes are an evolving and increasingly popular transportation mode.

We recommend that the city staff continue to monitor best practices, emerging technologies, and related mobility trends, including adjacent modes such as e-motos.

And if desired, you could consider reconvening the task force in a year to reassess conditions and refine recommendations.

Because Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, many of the most impactful solutions must come from the Commonwealth.

We strongly support state state-level action in several key areas, including authorizing local regulation, requiring helmet use, establishing incident tracking, and mandatory audible warning devices.

Together, these measures should would significantly strengthen safety and improve enforcement consistency.

E-bike registration is another important tool.

A visible decal or identifier tied to ownership would support enforcement and accountability, while also helping distinguish between e-bike classes.

And finally, effective policy requires consistent enforcement, and effective enforcement requires training.

We recommend coordinated training across city staff, including police, schools, parks and recreation, and public works to ensure consistent understanding of the rules and their uniform application across departments.

In closing, e-bike usage is growing rapidly as an affordable and accessible transportation option, and with it comes an increasing need for clearer guidelines and safeguards.

This is the right time to act.

We believe education is the fastest and most effective place to start while recognizing that long-term success will require working cooperatively with the Commonwealth to clearly define and appropriately regulate e-bikes and other electric micromobility devices.

Our recommendations are designed to proactively address safety concerns while preserving the many benefits e-bikes provide both our residents and visitors.

We respectfully urge Council to adopt these recommendations.

Thank you for your time and attention this afternoon.

We welcome your questions.

Any questions at this point? Rosemary.

As always, we really uh appreciate volunteers coming together and tackling issues that we really need to get down in the weeds and just to wrap things and and come together with the recommendations. And we really really appreciate that. And and most everything you said I I I think it's great, but I have to say I live on the boardwalk. I represent people that live on the boardwalk, and I

talk to people that are down there all the time. E-bikes are not allowed on the boardwalk now. And it's they're there because it's not enforced. There's no signage, there's nothing there to say.

And it is a big They go so fast, it is dangerous. There are children, little children, people walking their pets like me and with our little dog, elderly, older people, and these things are so fast.

And if they were even on the bike path, but even the bikes don't stay on the bike path. I mean, I'll be down there and I go, "Bike path, bike path." And they let me know in no uncertain terms with a hand signal that And it's not just whether they're right or right or left, but they don't appreciate them me asking them to get on the bike path. So, I can tell you they

will not follow the rules, and it is a very dangerous situation. And I have met with condo associations and all sorts of people that are down there, and they hate it. They are very upset by this.

I don't think we need an alternative route for the for Atlantic Avenue, cuz if it's a means of transportation, then they can go on Atlantic Avenue. And I It's just This is something I just cannot support is this particular recommendation. And And I appreciate everything that you've done, but Excuse me, did you Did you think we were recommending putting bikes on the boardwalk?

Nobody said Just the bike path. Just on the bike path.

Yeah, but it's still they They don't follow that rule, either.

They don't follow that rule, either.

That's They will be on the boardwalk just like the bicycles.

It's impossible. I mean, I I've seen it and I've tried over and over and over again to get people to get on the bike path. They don't follow those rules. So, if you allow them on the bike path, they're going to be on the boardwalk.

They really, really are. And you you And you have these little intersections that they're going to go zooming through where people are going to be It It's I I'm so sorry. I just can't accept that particular Okay, we're going to go Worth, Cash, Stacy, Josh, and Michael.

Um at the beginning of this one. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, um everyone for the work. I've too many people to thank.

It's a lot of work. Very much needed.

And you addressed Looks like everything.

And I want to triple down that double down, triple down on Vice Mayor Wilson's observation uh to get so many people asking me stop the e-bikes on the boardwalk as well as bicycles and they go fast.

It's very dangerous.

And we've got to do something about it.

So, you comment about education, you comment about police. And so, coming forth from the task force, I think we really need to be aggressive on how we're going to educate and police this because we can talk about it here, but we then need to go out and implement the policy. And I I think it's good e-bikes. I'm glad there's no overreach in my opinion. I heard also people say uh councilman, don't overreach, don't

overregulate, don't overdo.

Um don't overgovern.

E-bikes is a form of transportation for young people, old people, recreation.

So, I don't think you did that at all. I think you addressed it right down the center of that. So, but I can't emphasize enough how important it is at the boardwalk not to have e-bikes on the boardwalk. I'm actually okay on the bike path. So, that's my last question.

The question is you set a speed limit on the bike path.

Did you come up with a a 15, 10 mph, 5 mph?

So, what we were what we came to understand is that we cannot post a regulatory type speed limit sign for bikes uh that aren't on the roadways uh without some author or without the general assembly given granting us that authority.

What we could post is recommended speeds.

And we felt that, you know, part of the education is also to uh better educate the youth and the parents as to, you know, what the expected um use of the bike path is as far as speed goes. And we believe that over time people will begin to um, you know, follow that.

If I could add just to be in there, we had said probably 8 to 10 mph.

And and I was the The that brought it up as far as what this with the attorney, our city attorney that was there is that you can't put it but you could say recommended and you're trying to get that in from Captain at the time Captain Whistler now Deputy Whistler said that most people comply when they see stuff like that. You're going to always have the outliers and that's not that's not

what we're trying to address. That's another issue. But they they said that was good practice. They their attorney agreed to that.

Okay.

Thank you. We're going to go cash Stacy, Josh, and Michael.

I want to thank you for your presentation. This is very important.

Um The part on page 11, my only uh observation probably needs to be added in.

Um I'm grateful that I see schools there. Uh civic groups.

That was the only would like to see civic groups in there because we've got lots of questions asked at town hall meetings and I want to educate the parents. Start in the home.

Then to the schools, then the community.

But um if you can just consider that.

Thank you.

Okay, Stacy.

So just Vice Mayor, as a point of clarification.

Right now, and correct me if I'm wrong, but right now no form of bicycle, skateboard, or anything uh except your feet, and a stroller, baby stroller, are allowed on the walking path of the boardwalk. I know they're there, but we can't you can't double down on a law. We already have a ordinance that says they are not allowed on that part of the boardwalk.

On what the recommendation is right now e-bikes in any form are not allowed to be on the bike path of the boardwalk.

That is again, the current ordinance is any motorized vehicle, whether it's electric or gas, whatever, is not allowed on the bike path of the boardwalk.

The recommendation is to allow e-bikes on the bike path.

And the reasoning behind that is is that A, they've become incredibly popular not only amongst the That's right.

kids that are running, you know, up and down that we'd all like to stop, but amongst the older population that are riding from the neighborhoods and in some cases are coming from a great distance down our bike trails to get to the boardwalk. And the the pedal assisted the e-bikes allow them to do that. So, if you take away if you take away the ability for them to get to the boardwalk and then they continue

their the ride, you're really restricting a population that we're not, you know, that we're trying to encourage to get down to the boardwalk. And so, that um that would allow them to do that and that's that would be something I agree with and what we need there needs to be a lot more clarification, as was said, about the different classes of these e-bikes and differentiating between these e-motos

and e-bikes. The the um task force was not tasked with anything outside of the e-bike restriction. So, there are already laws and ordinances and DMV regulations regulating these um e-motorbikes or e-motorcycles.

E-motos, which they don't have pedals.

They're not bicycles. They're not They don't fall into any of this class and they are already regulated by DMV regulations, by city ordinances. So, this task force was just strictly on the e-bikes and um not and there was a concerted effort not to do overreach, but to make people use these or to have people use these in a responsible manner that makes it safe for pedestrians and and for the bikers

themselves. So, again, the idea of uh having e-bikes on the boardwalk, that you have to do restrict them as they aren't supposed to be now, uh I think goes against what we're trying to accomplish. And um you know, by educating, by getting the proper signage, by um letting people and by enforcing the fact you can't ride with it on the main boardwalk, I think that's where the biggest problem

comes and when people are even on the bike path are going at a high rate of speed, those are the things that we need to focus on and not try to restrict people that are using them in a responsible manner as their only means of um transportation getting to the boardwalk and and enjoying what we have to offer down there.

All right, Josh Michael Touch.

Um thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for the hard work and the and the recommendations and um you know, as much as I want to be um an embracer of new technology, I've also been the dad holding the hand of a small child, you know, trying to navigate the boardwalk on Neptune Festival weekend or any other time.

Um only to be startled by the you know, the the whoosh of the wind that like goes by you and somebody's, you know, going almost 30 miles an hour past you and they're gone by the time you could shake your shake your angry fist. So, um and I and I think of all the people obviously as we all do visiting and mobility chal- challenge and elderly. Um I you know, that

the way you put it though just now made me think about it Councilmember in a in a whole new light of the you know, if we're going to if we're going to say people with bikes can come down to the beach, how you going to say the people with e-bikes have to park it up walk away and they can't you know, so so I I think that's a really valid point to make. Maybe we can

um corral them somehow at points of entry along the beach or whatever, but um I don't know. I mean maybe even speed bumps on the bike path uh you know, by the by the cross streets because um you know, I you know, right at the cross streets they encourage people to slow down um might might get them hurt and we might get sued over that, but um I I just because the cross streets

are really what the challenge are in my mind. You know, when you when you think about um something going even more than 10 miles an hour on a bike path. I mean even some of those like pedal cabs, you know, going on those don't stop really easily cuz you got four people pedaling. So, um you know, and the problem with these e-bikes just like anything else disruptive is like we're we're right now

we're talking about the lowest bar of behavior, right? So, like we're going to like these kids we know there's going to be kids that misbehave on these things.

The these and it's not just the resort.

It's town center like what and you know, we got big old glass doors that open wide on sidewalks and what what's going to happen?

You know, um a family at the fountain plaza and and these things are frankly terrorizing our neighborhoods. I mean they're they're you know, on school properties. I think that's a no-brainer easy lift like where these these things should not be on school properties at all or in school zones Um because you know these are places where kids go to the park on the weekends.

They These are places where kids are supposed to feel safe and then there's like an e-biker gang that just shows up.

And and and it it's true. It happens because it's like my own kids have experienced it. So I I don't know. I I noticed some you know words are important so I noticed some differentiation between trails and then shared youth use paths. So I'd like to kind of learn a little bit more about that. Um And and and but but otherwise I mean we we our resort we need to keep people

safe. We cannot have people blown off their you know out of their shoes by bikes going 30 miles an hour past them.

And and it's got to be a safe place for the place for kids and same with our school.

Okay. Uh Michael.

Mr. Mayor, could I just mention Sure can.

the um e-bikes are currently completely banned on school property. They're not allowed to even enter school property legally.

So you want to change Yeah, which um the task force in all of this was trying to balance the need for transportation and encouraging people to be healthy and get outside with the need for safety. So there was that balance and then just um the the differences between those three classes of e-bikes, the one, two, and three, to the naked eye, to the trained police eye, you can't tell the difference. Um

and so that presented a lot of difficulty and how could we allow a pedal assist, uh the class one, on places where it's really not going faster than a regular bike when you can't tell the difference if someone going by you is on a class one, two, or three.

I'm a I'm a fan of these stickers just so the cops know what they're looking at. And I mean, as wonderful as a technological enhancement and and connectivity provider that this is, our resort and our neighborhood, as far as I'm concerned, are not ready for it.

Hey, Michael.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, I'll just also join in the um chorus of remarks of our gratitude and um thank you to all the committee members and professional staff who supported this effort and for making the time to be here today.

Um I have a question and then I have some reflections, just a few comments.

The first one is, on slide 16, you suggested that if empowered, the city should restrict restrict speed.

How would that be enforced?

So, uh police were concerned about adding that to their uh things that they had to watch. Um I I I what I would suggest is and I think it was it was a a discussion topic that we had quite a bit of um back and forth on within the task force is um I believe that if you um if you have a posted speed and it's been I think it's been shown elsewhere across the country

that it it it does influence people's behavior and um and and you could um over course of time, I think people will start to generally follow that guidance.

Um if I think, you know, right now we could only put a suggestion, a recommended speed, but I mean, that would be speed is really the the thing that we felt was the biggest concern and the thing that really has driven driven the behaviors that have has caused the most safety of concerns for everyone. And so, um if they had if the city had that authority, they could create they could

post speed limits on trails and other um bike accessible areas within the city.

Um and then, you know, the enforcement is always a challenge on those things. Um Um some some parts of on the West Coast, I know they actually put up the little uh you know, detectors that say, "Here's the speed that you're going." And uh on some of the bike paths out on the West Coast. And so they say, "Here's the Here's the speed limit and here's what you're going." So, I I

I think it the general feeling was over course of time and people see what the expectation is that they will start to change their behavior.

And just as a follow to that, is it legal to make a speed limit for a bike?

Not now. Not not in Virginia.

I didn't think so.

it's a speed limit that if you go if you speed, you're speeding.

You're You're just like a you can get a ticket just like if you ride, right?

It On on roadways Yes, I'm talking about on paths in like the uh bike path on the boardwalk or trails and not that that is not There are we the city does not have the authority to set speed limits at this time.

I mean, no it's It's super complicated.

And I'm first one to acknowledge that with you. Um and I and I understand the concerns that are being This is going into my commentary part. I I completely understand the concerns um of that have been raised around this table and throughout the community on the topic of e-bikes.

I also want to say that I think it needs to be said A that people really enjoy this product.

There's a reason why they're I felt like In fact, I was talking to a committee member and I said, "Well, it looks like you've got your work cut out for you cuz I think at Christmas time your e-bike population doubled in the city of Virginia Beach um just over the holiday.

People love this product. And they buy from you can buy it on the Amazon.

You can go to your local bike shop and buy it. There's I think I've seen a proliferation of new e-bike you know, new stores that specialize in e-bikes all throughout the city.

We're getting ready to invest millions upon millions of dollars or have invested and will continue to in the VB Trail.

That's kind of an East-West corridor that I know will be popular among e-bike riders.

And I just want to make a moment to acknowledge um A that there is enjoyment in the product. And there is uh economic activity connected to the product. And um And they have other benefits too such as allowing people who I see people using e-bikes in the area that I serve to get to and from work. And they're riding on sidewalks and they're getting to and from work.

Um I see uh I know seniors who who ride e-bikes for leisure who um go for farther and longer um because they're able to on the e-bikes and they love it.

And so I feel like we're giving e-bikes a little bit of a um uh unfair shake here um even though I I also acknowledge all of the issues that are related to them.

And and the impacts that they have that have been accurately described and I take no issue with the comments that have been made about the impact of the boardwalk or in the neighborhoods.

I don't know, someone sent me a video once of the e-bikes and they said, "Can you believe Look at this. This is crazy." And there were kids riding in a park and they were just they looked like they were just it wasn't out of control.

They were just riding e-bikes in a park.

It didn't look that bad to me.

Um So I could be in the minority here. It wouldn't be the first time. But I do think that we we're maybe coming a little uh a little down hard on the e-bike community. and no disrespect but just to explore the idea. You know, Councilman Sherwood was talking about different like types of stickers on a bike. That to me is a little draconian.

Um and and and how you do that. And I was just having a conversation with a friend about the agenda coming up today and I mentioned this was on the topic and he goes and this is what it comes back to on this and a variety of other topics.

He he said, "Well, you know, that's a parenting issue."

You know, and even though we know that um you can't always rely upon that level of responsibility in parenting.

He's right at the end of the day. This is just something that the family should teach. I don't think you can afford to and that's really why I want to close with his comments about we just spent weeks talking about the constraints on law enforcement professionals at the oceanfront and throughout the city.

Um and so the pushback that you received I think seems to me to have been well placed in that you know knowing and I know that you know this of all people Mr. Caden, you know very well but knowing what um those professionals are faced with in their portfolio of their and prioritization of their responsibilities I don't think radaring uh e-bike riders is at anywhere near the top of that list.

So, how do we break through that?

I thought Hey hey hey you had to be in February have Rosemary go and then you I can do a capstone and finish you too.

Okay.

Rosemary I I live down there. I see this every single day and my condo's are connected to a hotel and we have over 14 million visitors a year come to Virginia Beach. They're not going to get this education that we're talking about because they're coming from all over. I mean, I don't know how we educate everyone that's coming in.

And so that education is not going to help the visitors coming in.

And these people, they walk out of their hotel, they're in a new place, the new surroundings, and they see the ocean, and the first thing they do is want to walk towards the ocean, which is to cross the bath the bike path and cross over into the boardwalk.

They don't know to look right and left because of traffic. And this is going to be traffic. And especially things coming and they're you know, they're holding a a small child's hand, and they don't know to look. They're just look at they Oh, there's the ocean. Let's go.

And if it happens all the time, and there's a lot of near misses, and it's just really dangerous for our visitors and for everybody else. These crosswalks that you're talking about, you know, where the streets come in, there's gathering there. People are at the showers washing their feet and gathering and all that, and whoosh, as Josh talked about, comes. They don't slow down. They just keep going. It's

just incredibly dangerous.

Um you put this If you allow them on these bike paths that are 10 ft away from the boardwalk, they're going to be on the boardwalk.

They are not going to stay on the on the bike path. I can tell you they're not.

They don't do it now.

And they're just not going to do it.

It's right there, and it's close to the water, and it's wider, and it's a much more pleasant ride than on this little narrow bike path. It's going to be It's just dangerous for And I have heard from the people in the condos down there, they're very upset about these things.

And and they're and they're right.

They're they're really right. And then Michael touched on law enforcement.

Okay, so we're 86 officers short.

And they're having to deal with other issues. And we talked about marijuana today in a meeting that we had. And how are they going to enforce it?

And they're past. And how are these officers going to What are they going to do? Ticket them?

Are they going to give them a ticket?

I It's It It just gets too complicated.

And they have a full plate of things to do already with our And we have a shortage of officers as it is. And they've got so many important things to take care of to keep us all safe. I think with the number of visitors that we have, the shortage of police officers that we have, and you've got the two people who represent this area.

Worth and I represent the boardwalk. And we're both saying this is not a good idea. Please listen to us. Please.

Okay, we'll go ahead and let Stacy have a closing too.

Dude.

Okay. Um there's a lot even today.

There's a lot of terms that are used that are that are part of the education for everybody um is needed. Um we I would say starting off with the group behind us is a wonderful group. They were not uh wallflowers. There was lots of discussion. Lots of disagreement. Um lots of work to get to common common ground. So, uh I really appreciate that.

Um one of the things that I would say very clearly was uh Captain Westler at the time, deputy now, uh was said that most always when police engaged that they asked people respectfully to get on the bike path or you know, however speed that they've complied.

We're going to have across our whole city, we're never going to stop the kids in the neighborhood. We have got them in every neighborhood riding, and it's not And the other thing is, we've got to be careful cuz the data actually showed it's not all kids.

As we were stating, there there's a lot of us older folks that are riding down there on class one and class two. Class threes are usually are the one that you can kind of tell a difference. There there is a difference between them. So, but even them, if you're riding to work or whatever and you're pedaling it, it's now just a regular bike. So, there are people that do that. I fully agree

there's people that are not. But, when you start talking about and and like the speed signs, like um Michael, when you were saying that as far as the radar, it's not a radar, it's just it's not doing anything to you, it's just letting you know. And there we're saying again, from talking to the folks that were on the team and those of us that have biked all over the country, it does allow you

to go oh, okay, I've I've got to regulate. So, it's keeping those folks uh in line. And I'm going to say again, the ones that aren't going to stay in line, they're not going to stay in line no matter what. So, that's where the enforcement part's got to come in. Um if if they're not doing it, then we've got to make sure they they know that's I'm saying PD, that that's their job.

Um the one thing I will tell you, and this is something you talk about a pet peeve, um cuz I'm down there all the time riding, and that and walking or whatever, but riding mostly, is is that when we say about staying on the bike path, and this bothered me when I was in public safety, is that you you're going down the bike path, and then all of a sudden there's three trucks, or there's

people working on the planters, there's people working on the thing.

And you're like, okay, do they need three three trucks up here to do this right now, you know? Okay, so now I got to go out on the boardwalk to go around them to come back in. and you do that six or seven times down the down the boardwalk down and you and you now you've been riding on the boardwalk when you really weren't trying to.

But, you know, that or the sprinkler's on and it's covering the it's a shower as you go through, you know, so it's like there's some there's some gray area here. I'm not I'm not saying it's not an issue and that we don't need to address it.

Also, during this, we got to be very careful when we say e-bikes. Are we talking a class one or class two cuz a class one is as we said you you can't tell the difference and they're not going any faster than what you can battle. So, that's what I see most people riding. So, when somebody goes through and I know we talked about it in the group several times is is that

you don't know when a bike goes past you whether it's an unless it's the big one and that again that's usually the class three is when it's a class one you don't know that it's a regular bike or not a regular bike. And there was lots of anecdotal discussion about passing or riding that are riding too fast. Well, that's any bike. That's not a e-bike and as I'm and my brother that

rides one, you know, he's not riding it too fast. He is doing exactly what you want. He's riding from one end to the other and back, hanging out with some friends, couple of coffee, whatever and then he's off. So, there there's plenty of people that are riding within what they're supposed to and to ban a bike down here, an e-bike when you are you going to ban the regular bikes cuz I can tell you if

you're going to start with a ban, let's start with the quad quad bike. We all agree it's wider than the path it's wider than its side of the path and it causes the most problems amongst bikers that I've seen. So, there's a whole litany of things we have to do whereas I think what we've done here is a good starting point. Let's put this in place and then go from there is is my my belief.

Um When we talk about that this will be the last thing. When we talk about the bike lanes, again, if this the same thing I really what I just said is it's it's but in a different areas that we were on the bike lanes and it's a regular bike, the speed would apply to them as well.

You know, I know when I'm riding my road bike, not that I'm riding too much faster cuz I can't, but is as I'm riding faster than when I'm riding my my uh beach cruiser that I bought from down there that's got the heavy wheels and everything else. So, you know, but you can pay it you you need to pay attention.

So, anyway, I I I think my my my my hope is is that we would support what the group has put out. It's very it's very good. We need to get somebody on the state state board state committee.

That's one of the things I was going to say. I know we've put in for it. I don't know if we know yet where we are with that, but um I'd say I'm definitely in support of this and I think any of the reasons that we've said or not are just as applicable to reg- to regular standard bikes and skateboards and roller skates and everything else as they are to and scooters. Thank you. Talk about what's

wrecking our kids. It's the scooters are way worse. So, the and then the e-bikes.

So, anyway, thank you.

Thanks, coach. Stay safe.

I don't think that any one recommendation that the task force made uh is the answer to the overall problem.

It's the totality totality of the recommendations.

So, allowing e-bikes in certain portions of the city is not the answer without signage.

We need, you know, the signage needs to be vastly improved.

Uh not only at the boardwalk, but in neighborhoods, on our trails, uh it throughout the throughout the city. So, the signage to me is every bit as important as the the the other regulatory parts that we're asking for.

And to simply say that, you know, banning e-bikes is the is the solution, well, it's not because they're banned now on the boardwalk.

You can't have an e-bike on the boardwalk.

You cannot ride any thing with wheels on the walking path of the boardwalk.

And it happens all the time. So, doubling down and double-dog-daring you can't do it is not the answer. The answer is And it look, I started off. I was the one that was I don't want any of these things in our city anywhere, anytime. I was the biggest uh I think, you know, Hutch tried to get on there to tame me down.

Yeah.

And he did a good job.

Look, it worked.

So, I just I really got an education. My eyes were opened to the benefits to some of these things. And, you know, by working with, you know, the working to make things better that, you know, maybe yeah, we'll we'll ban class three uh bikes from the from the bike path so that you can't have these high-speed things going down. But, you know, to to uh to do what I would have done

uh 3 months ago is not the answer. You know, we need to do the all of these things in totality so that uh it's safe, it's people are educated, and that they're being used in a responsible manner.

Okay, at this point I think we're going to have to obviously have further discussion, but at least we got some data points and you know, points to talk about. And I'll tell you well, the pros and cons both have, you know, lot, you know, good points. But, once again, uh we're just going to have to sit down and figure out to do the best possible thing and get it to right as possible.

But, once again, thank you so much uh for what you have done. Thank you.

So, Mr. Mayor, um as it relates to the recommendations, um is Council okay with us moving forward with the recommendation that um the task force, or does Council want Yeah.

Okay, yeah.

All right.

Good.

All right.

Hey, thank you very much. But, I'll tell you what, I think it once again uh points out the value of putting a task force together uh with uh some, you know, the right people and uh you know, getting at the right data out there.

A new set of eyes looking at the problem. That's good.

Can I ask a quick question? Do Do the recommendations include amending the city code to allow e-bikes um stuff like that?

Will that push it forward?

So, I think it's already state law.

So, the e-bikes e-bikes are allowed on the boardwalk bike path.

Down on the boardwalk?

No, not on the Okay, so Bike path, yes. Boardwalk, no.

So, but anyway, I'm sorry.

I I guess we'll clear it up later because Okay.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

All right, moving on.

Good Mr. Mayor, members of Council, before we start our budget presentation, we're going to have our planning department brief City Council on the pending planning items that will come before you on May 5th and May 19th.

All right. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council. As the city manager has stated, I'm here to go over the planning items for consideration on your May City Council agendas.

Um as you may recall, there was a conditional rezoning and a subdivision variance request for 4916 Euclid Road that was on your March 17th agenda that was deferred to the May 5th agenda. That applicant has requested to withdraw the application, so that will no longer or that will be on that agenda for withdrawal.

Looking then at your May 19th hearing, there are total of 14 planning items for consideration.

Item one is a subdivision variance request for property along Ash Avenue in District 4.

The subject area contains six parcels, five of which were created by plat in 1893, and could each be developed by right with a single-family dwelling. The sixth, which is labeled as part of lot 32, was improperly created by deed in 1961 and is not considered a legal parcel, and therefore it could not be developed in its current state.

The applicant is proposing to split the land area of that sixth lot across the five other parcels.

The parcels are zoned R-5D, which require a minimum lot area of 5,000 square feet, minimum lot width of 50 feet, and a minimum street line frontage of 40 feet.

Although the existing parcels do not meet the minimum dimensional requirements for the R-5 dis- R-5D district, the subject proposal does increase the lot area, lot width, and street line frontage for each parcel and eliminates that improperly created parcel.

The proposed lot layout will still align with the overall neighborhood, as many of these lots were also platted in 1893, and as such do not meet the current dimensional standards.

Staff did receive one letter of opposition and had two individuals speak in opposition at the Planning Commission hearing who noted concerns regarding drainage and flooding in the area.

Ultimately, the Planning Commission found the proposal to be an improvement from the current lot configuration and recommended approval by a 10-0 vote.

Item two is another subdivision variance request. This is for property along Laskin Road in District six.

The two existing parcels were improperly created by deed and as such require a subdivision plat to legally create the parcels. The applicant intends to vacate the interior property line to create a single parcel for the development of a 7 Brew coffee shop. The site is zoned B2 community business district, which requires a minimum lot area of 20,000 square feet.

While the combined lot area is approximately 21,500 square feet, that rear parcel is currently encumbered entirely by a Vepco easement and as such that lot area cannot be counted towards that minimum lot area requirement, so that brings the overall qualifying lot area down to just over 19,000 square feet.

Since the property is located in the Hilltop SGA, staff has recommended a condition that future development of the parcel should align and conform with the Hilltop SGA guidelines. Staff has not received any opposition and the planning commission did recommend approval by consent.

Item three is a street closure closure request along Vanderbilt Avenue in District five.

The applicant who owns 621 Vanderbilt Avenue is requesting to close a 7 and 1/2 foot wide portion of a 15 foot wide unimproved alley and incorporate that area, which equates to 375 square feet, into their property. As is typical for similar requests, staff is recommending the dedication of a public drainage easement over that entire closure area.

As you can see in the images on the slide, there are existing improvements in the alley including a gazebo, fencing, landscaping, and a fire pit, all of which belong to the owners of 624 Surfside Avenue. These improvements, which were all done over numerous years and by varying property owners, were done without the necessary approvals and permits. As this is currently city property, any of those improvements

would have required an encroachment agreement granted by this body prior to being installed.

Additionally, there is an active notice of violation being handled by our zoning division for the gazebo, which does not meet the setback requirements for an accessory structure.

Staff did receive two letters of opposition related to the request, one from the owners of 624 Surfside Avenue and another from their attorney.

Additionally, both property owners of 624 Surfside Avenue did speak in opposition to the planning commission hearing.

Ultimately, the commission did recommend approval by unanimous vote.

Item four is another street closure request. This is for an alleyway between 4502 and 4504 Myrtle Avenue in District 6.

The closure area is approximately 1,200 square feet and will be equally divided between the two adjacent property owners.

As there is an existing public sewer pipe within this portion of the alley, staff is recommending a condition that a public utility easement, in addition to a public drainage easement, be dedicated across the entire closure area. Staff has not received any opposition and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item five is a modification of conditions request for 1100 Stanbridge Road in District 2.

A conditional use permit for a farm stand was approved by city council back in 2015, and the applicant is seeking to modify that approval to allow a food truck on the site as an accessory to the existing farm stand.

The food truck will prepare food using items sourced from the farm as well as other items sold at the farm stand and or grown or produced locally. Staff has not received any opposition to this request, and the item is scheduled to be heard by the planning commission at their May 13th hearing.

Item six is a modification of conditions request for 2440 and 2444 Pleasure House Road in District 9.

A CUP was approved in 2014 for a craft brewery which has been in operation on the site since 2015.

A modification of conditions and a street closure was approved in 2023 and a condition of that approval was that progress be made towards the improvements that were were required with the 2014 plan which included curb and gutter and sidewalk. Another modification was approved in 2025 to to allow an additional year to obtain those permits and start construction on those improvements. Um and while the applicant

has been working towards site plan plan approval due to some complicating factors related to the street closure, that site plan approval has not been achieved to date. As such, they are requesting another extension to meet that condition.

While the planning commission was amenable to that extension, they did revise condition four to require that all permits and construction commence within 100 day 180 days of council approval versus the year that was initially requested. Staff has not received any opposition and with that modification, the planning commission recommended approval.

Item seven is a conditional use permit request for a family daycare home at 249 Brookhaven Drive in District 1.

The applicant seeks to provide care for up to 12 children within a 2300 square foot dwelling.

Um she plans to operate from 6:00 a.m.

to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. As is standard with these requests, staff has included a condition to require that pick up and drop off times be staggered to mitigate any potential traffic impacts.

While the outdoor play area which you can see on the slide here is is largely concrete, the applicant does intend to put down rubber matting to minimize any of the visible concrete surfaces.

The applicant has installed a new vinyl fence to separate the pool area from the outdoor play area and will continue to work with the Department of Education to ensure that their safety standards are met.

Staff has received eight letters of support and five letters of opposition with those in opposition noting concerns related to safety, traffic, noise, and parking. The Planning Commission did recommend approval of this request.

However, they modified the maximum number of children to eight versus the 12 that was initially requested.

Item eight is another CUP request. This one is for a bicycle and moped rental at 3713 Sandpiper Road in District 2.

The applicant intends to use a portion of the 21-acre parcel to operate an e-bike rental business. The site, which is located within the Sandbridge Suburban Focus Area and the AE flood zone, is also home to a real estate business, jet ski rental business, and a restaurant.

The business will operate out of a 208 square foot cargo trailer, which will be used solely for the storage of bikes as well as some office operations. The bikes will be ordered online and will be delivered directly to the customers by the applicant. The applicant will then pick up the bicycles at the end of the rental period. The applicant intends to operate on a seasonal basis from month

from May to September, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily.

The applicant is solely renting class one and class two e-bikes and will only do so to individuals 18 years of age or older with a valid ID.

As the site is located within the AE flood zone, the proposed cargo trailer will either need to be placed on the site for fewer than 180 consecutive days and be licensed and insured or it will need to meet the flood plain requirements for a permanent structure.

Staff has added a condition to ensure that those flood plain requirements are met.

There was one speaker in support and three speakers in opposition at the Planning Commission hearing with those in opposition noting concerns about overall safety. Planning Commission ultimately recommended approval of the request with two additional conditions.

One, that the maximum inventory of 25 e-bikes and two, that it be limited to class one and class two e-bikes only.

Item nine is a CUP request for a home-based wildlife rehabilitation facility at 3421 Alcott Road in District 8.

The applicant intends to provide rehabilitation care to turtle hatchlings as well as small mammals and is requesting to allow approval for public drop-off between the hours of 8:00 a.m.

and 9:00 p.m. daily. As is typical with these requests, we have um included a condition that the animals not be released on the site.

The animals will be kept within a 130 square foot room of the home. Since the applicant will primarily be providing care to turtle hatchlings, the applicant is requesting a larger number than we typically see with these similar requests, specifically requesting approval for up to 47 turtle hatchlings as well as three three mammals.

Staff is unaware of any opposition and the Planning Commission recommended approval by consent.

Item 10 is an alternative compliance request for 4554 Virginia Beach Boulevard in District 9.

The site is zoned Central Business Core District and is subject to the CBC form-based code. The development area, which is shown in the red box on the slide there, is within the interior portion of the Pembroke Mall. The form-based code requires the building to be placed within 0 to 10 feet of the public right-of-way, which is referred to as the build-to zone.

Since the proposed building is approximately 485 feet from the nearest public street, a deviation to that build-to zone requirement is needed, which is why they're coming before you with this alternative compliance request. The development itself includes um 284 dwelling units. It will be a 96-foot tall mixed-use building and will also include 17,000 square feet of commercial space as well as a 613-space

parking garage.

Additionally, the development includes about 26,000 square foot square feet of outdoor amenity space that includes a rooftop pool and lounge, pickleball court, and a dog park.

With this request, the applicant is seeking deviations from the transparency and blank wall requirements of the form-based code. This is specific to the facade of the parking garage.

Staff is unaware of any opposition to this request and the planning commission did recommend approval with a modification to condition eight that would require that the eastern ground floor facade be modified to meet the form-based code requirements if the coals is demolished and if that portion of the building at that time faces a public or private street and all of those improvements would need to be made

within 3 years of demolition.

Item 11 is a CUP request for a short-term rental at 213 16th Street in District 5.

The applicant is seeking approval to operate a three-bedroom STR and the required three parking spaces can be accommodated on site.

While there was a previous zoning complaint for operation of an STR without a CUP, the complaint was unsubstantiated by staff at that time.

The site is not currently advertised and the last documented stay was in September of 2020. There's no known opposition and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item 12 is another CUP request for STR, this one for 4005 Atlantic Avenue Suite 101. This is in District 6.

So, this is a request for a one-bedroom short-term rental within the Oceans 2 Condos. Oceans 2 has 15 previously approved CUPs for STR use. One parking space is required and is provided in one of the Oceans Two lots.

Again, with this one there were two previous complaints for operation without a CUP, one in 2021, another in 2024. Neither was able to be substantiated by staff. The site is not currently advertised, nor are there any documented prior stays. Staff has not received any opposition, and the Planning Commission again recommended approval by consent.

Item 13 is another CUP request for Ocean Two. Um this one related to Suite 205.

This is another one-bedroom request, and one parking space is provided within an Oceans Two lot.

Again, there was a zoning complaint for an operation of a CUP without or operation of an STR without a CUP in 2021. Again, staff was not able to substantiate that claim. We do not have any prior documented stays, and the unit is not currently advertised. Again, no known opposition, and Planning Commission recommended approval by consent.

The final item is an ordinance to amend Section 1001 of the city's zoning ordinance pertaining to crematories in the industrial districts. If approved, this ordinance would permit cemeteries, crematories columbariums and mausoleums within the I1 and I2 districts with a conditional use permit.

Staff has not received any opposition, and this was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission on consent.

Mayor, that concludes my briefing, and I'll stand by if there are any questions.

Any questions?

You've done the Thank you.

That's fine.

I'll see you for that.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, at this time we'll start off with the city manager's um proposed budget briefings, with the first department will be CVB with our director Nancy Helman to give the overview of the operating budget for the Convention and Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Yeah, let me start by saying Nancy will be working did weekend was Thank you.

uh option on just a lot of happy people at the Oceanfront Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I'll pass that along to our team.

So, good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council, Mr. DeHaven, Mr.

Styles.

I'm here to give a brief overview of the Convention and Visitors Bureau's budget.

The CVB is made up of 116 full-time employees in nine divisions and a total budget a little over $45 million.

Our funding comes from three sources, the general fund and two dedicated funding sources, the Tourism Advertising Program Fund or the TAP Fund and the Tourism Investment Program Fund or the TIP Fund.

Budget and Management Services have asked us to focus on trends and issues and major changes, so we'll move through this quickly.

As you're aware, um the Virginia Beach Sports Center and sports tourism continue to deliver in a big way. In FY 26, it's estimated that more than 750,000 total athletes and spectators came to Virginia Beach to attend and participate in 174 events in 12 venues generating more than 170,000 hotel room nights. Of that, the Virginia Beach Sports Center welcomed 56 sports tourism events with a little more than 200,000

200,000 total athletes and spectators generating about 55,000 room nights. In FY 27, we'll look forward to continuing investment and ensuring that Virginia Beach retains and grows market share by hosting championship events and sports conferences to showcase the destination to new event planners.

Also, in FY 27 brings new activations to the Oceanfront like the Supergirl Surf Festival on Labor Day weekend and signature events like the Boardwalk Art Show, Neptune Festival, Symphony by the Sea, Point Break East Coast Surfing Championship and more.

As you're aware, the Virginia Beach Convention Center celebrated its 20th birthday last year. A very special thank you to City Council for reinvesting in the center through a CIP. Significant projects will improve the guest experience including repair or replacement of things like the roof, elevators escalators chillers ponds and other important furniture, fixtures, and equipment. A big thank you to Public

Works facilities for their assistance.

Our laser focus always remains on advertising marketing public relations, events, and activations that bring overnight visitation to the destination, which create economic impact and improve the quality of life for our citizens. Our two Our 2025 statistics are in development now and will be shared in the early fall at our state of tourism event.

New for FY27, under the leadership of our Advertising Advisory Committee and our Vice President of Marketing and Brand Strategy, Anna Stone, we're planning an increased marketing and advertising spend to create an additional return on investment in the destination.

The new spend from the TAP fund will focus on increased digital marketing efforts, new domestic market penetration, improved technology for guest experiences, and a mobile app.

We're looking forward to briefing Council on our marketing and advertising efforts in a scheduled upcoming meeting.

We're excited to expand our entertainment offerings in FY27 and partnering with our entertainment provider, Beach Events, to expand some of our amazing programming including adding to the Oceanfront Concert Series, growing Funk Fest, and highlighting fire fireworks, and much more.

Also in FY27, we'll be finalizing the relocation plans and the reimagining of our holiday season program and we'll look forward to sharing more information with the public in the very near future.

This slide outlines the changes to the general fund, which include things like changes in rental charges at the Virginia Beach Convention Convention Center, and looking closely at individual operation line items like reductions made to event services and professional development.

Before I wrap, I would like to thank Deputy City Deputy Department Director Michelle Boyette, who works diligently to ensure fiscal responsibility and budget development and implementation.

Thank you, Michelle.

In addition, I would like to say a special thank you to Hunter Anderson in the Budget and Management Services Office for his assistance.

And before I close, I'm looking forward to celebrating National and Travel and Tourism Week with all of you next week.

I'm here for any questions you might have.

Oh, question. Cash, get it going.

Um, no, I was just saying hi to someone in the audience.

But uh I'm going to offer a different No, I know.

I think you're going to like that one.

What are we talking about here?

All right, anybody?

I tell you, once again, what a remarkable Thank you so much.

And Nancy, let me say something. Your entire team is just so friendly to work with, and I just really want to give you all a major shout-out.

I tell you what, you could feel the energy uh even at the rodeo yesterday.

Uh Hutchin uh Wentworth was with us and everything.

It was cold, but we still had a great crowd. But, once again, up and down the boardwalk, as the events that you have planned for the season are going to be game changers.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of Council, at this time, Acting Director Emily Archer will give City Council overview of the operating budget for Economic Development, and also for the Economic Development Tourism Development CIP. She's going to give an overview of that as well. So, go ahead, Emily.

Welcome, Emily.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council.

Um, I did just focus on the CIP today, but happy to answer any questions you may have. Sure. Um, so in total our section, um, economic and tourism development includes 21 projects. The six-year program total is 62.3 million. Uh, will be appropriated with 35.9 million FY27, uh, excluding appropriations today.

Uh, I'd like to point out that only 5% of our section is funded by the general fund with the majority in the tourism investment program that's comprised of taxes mostly generated by our visitors, uh, when they eat at our restaurants or stay at our hotels or seek entertainment in our city offsetting the general fund burden.

Uh, the top other kind of two contenders for the funds here are the cigarette tax at 10% and the Town Center TIF at 12%.

Um, budget men, uh, changes in our section to point out, uh, we are the Atlantic Avenue street improvements has been reduced by 6.3 million to align with the task force recommendations over the past year. Uh, the Pembroke Square public parking uh, CIP has been added 5.5 million to support parking garage acquisition. Uh, the resort parking district has been added has added 25 million in FY27 to support new parking

construction at the oceanfront or when, uh, private developers are building decks to get public spaces and more parking at the oceanfront.

Uh, Town Center garage and plaza maintenance has been added 7.6 million across the CIP uh, to fund Town Center, um, funded by the Town Center TIF to support, uh, maintenance and replacement and restoration of the garages, primarily the maroon garage and the green garage will see these, um, improvements.

A quick project status, um, you can see we broke it between under construction, anticipated construction this year and then upcoming directly after that. 17th Street Virginia Beach Boulevard you're all aware is under construction.

Lynnhaven Parkway improvements has been making great strides. It is ahead of schedule and should be done by um 20 uh next year, 2027. Uh the sign should go in soon. Uh both Corporate Landing and Winston-Salem will conclude construction this year. And then the 31st Street Garage has uh started off strong and is expected to be completed in 2027 as well.

Um following construction probably this fall is uh the 6th Street restroom, uh 18th Street creative crosswalks, uh the kind of final piece in that CIP project, and uh Pembroke Square garages. The smaller of the garages is actually under construction now, but the larger one um that will make up 611 spaces will start this summer and be done in 2028. Um directly after uh end of next year or directly

thereafter, um the Atlantic Avenue uh improvements are currently being looked at by our design consultant and re-scoped. We have to get into design here quickly this summer, and the first full phase of construction is slated for fall of 2027.

Um and then I mentioned the Town Center garages. Uh a lot of that goes to elevator replacement in the green garages is a high priority.

Very brief today, but happy to answer any questions you may have.

Oh, that's it. Okay, any questions at all?

You folks are on a roll. My goodness.

Okay, uh uh here we go. Mayor, you're Yes, I wanted to thank you for the work you're doing. She's come in and she's hit the ground running.

Thank you.

There we go.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of Council, the next presentation will be given by Emily LaBow, director of Cultural Affairs. She'll talk about the operating budget for Cultural Affairs as well as the Arts and Humanities Guys, how are you doing?

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council.

Glad to be here here talk about the cultural affairs budget.

With the 20% emission tax dedication to the arts, the city has established a long-term dedicated investment to arts and culture. These funds support key initiatives like the individual artist grants, the creative neighborhood grants, performing arts partnership grants. I briefed you all last month on the success of of those grant programs, as well as sustainability for our large Virginia Beach-based arts groups and

some temporary public art.

The Arts and Humanities Commission oversees a variety of grant programs that support nonprofit cultural organizations and cultural initiatives throughout the city.

The each year the commission sees an increase in the number of applicants and funding requests, reflecting the strong demand of arts and cultural support across Virginia Beach.

Cultural Affairs has has celebrated some significant accomplishments. This year we reopened the restored Francis Land House, completed the city's land acknowledgement statement, launched the new grant programs, and the recent dedication of the historic Kempsville public art project that was multi-year, community-based, in partnership with a regional artist.

With uh MOCA moving over to Virginia Wesleyan, there is a $75,000 savings that um the city no longer is responsible for reimbursing the museum's utility costs.

And my final slide reflects council's approved allocations of the arts dedication funding across the major program areas.

The remaining unallocated funds represent an opportunity during reconciliation to support or increase these existing investments based on community needs and successful program outcomes.

I'm here to take any questions.

Mike we are on a Happy to be here.

I don't have any questions. I just really have a just a quick comment.

You know, I think everyone every department in the city performs at a very high level and we're very very lucky to have the professionalism and dedication to public service that's displayed by uh all of the public servants who comprise the 7,000 plus workforce.

Um but Emily, your department really stands out as I think as a model um both for your impact and the quality of the people who work in your department including you um who perform uh your responsibilities not only with a high level of expertise and skill and talent but also with compassion and with um with passion.

The work that you're doing is uh so vital because in an age when we are increasingly disconnected with each other um through our digital devices or our divisions in uh politics or religion or culture that exist you know that arts and creative expression connect people and bring people together. And I saw that on display uh just recently when we were with a really diverse coalition of people from different background

backgrounds dedicating the historic capital project or um when I've been with the civic leagues in and the uh from the district that I serve and you have people that don't even really like each other in some cases coming together um um, to plan and execute the creative neighborhood projects that your office is facilitating. And you have made room for um, sustainability in the organizations that we rely on for

um, entertainment and for um, young people and seniors to participate in in performances and um, I just could could go on and on. We have a unique program where artists from Virginia Beach are, um, accessing this, uh, unprecedented levels of support to um, increase their craft, to study their craft, to get better and to share that then with other people in the community. It's just amazing. And I really want to just

really take this opportunity to thank you for all the work that you've done and your colleagues. I know you are part of a great team.

They're fantastic.

Yeah, they really are. And the Arts and Humanities Commissioners are, um, so dedicated to their work and I could go on, but I'll I'll spare, uh, I'll spare everyone, um, additional reflections, but it's just really knocking out of the park and I am very grateful.

Yeah, I know.

So, just to carry on, I will not do what Councilwoman Ruddy just did, but from the layman's standard of art and being able to, you know, make a drawing of nothing like me, uh, Kim So was fantastic.

I would I would encourage everybody to go by and take a look at it. The way the way they incorporated the folks that could do some real nice stuff and then some that had to be they cut them to make them bound borders. I wasn't going to say that, but maybe those maybe those were just they were just laying pieces down to make it look like a border. So, you

know, we all have our roles. Um, but just the history, the way the clear glass showed the history, um, that was just a phenomenal piece that, you know, like you said, we'll get the plants and all that around it, but the the cement the look of the boat and the sail it's it's a cool piece and it's nice to nice to see that and all of y'alls work from behind the scenes. That

that was no small project to pull off and and it was fun in the making. So that was even the better. So thank you very much.

Okay, Mayor Yarbrough.

And of course you know my hand would go up not this way.

Anyway, thank you so much.

The arms of the deal.

Yes.

I just got I just got it.

Yes. So thank you so much. I remember when you had a tiny budget and you used that budget accordingly.

And you have a much better one and you've added new creative things.

So I'm very happy to be one of the liaisons along with Michael and keep doing what you're doing. We appreciate you.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem, I'll say take our city to the next level. Thank you.

Moving it on.

All right. So Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this time we'll be joined by Parks and Recreation Director Michael Kerschner. He'll go over the operating proposed budget for Parks and Rec as well as the proposed CIP.

This might be a little longer program.

No four slides.

I was just saying that.

And we're on a roll, Michael.

Mhm.

Hey, Michael, once again, just as a preamble, I'll tell you what, I've been in a number of your events and you reach out to the entire community. You make you put a lot of smiles on people all over.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your support.

We have a great team and we always say that we're in the memory making business in Parks and Recreation. That's what we do.

Uh good afternoon, Honorable Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, Council Member Gihani, and City Attorney Styles. I'm here with my entire senior leadership team to present the fiscal year 2026-2027 Parks and Recreation operational and CIP budget.

So, quick overview of some of the trends and issues that we're seeing.

First, while our parks and rec centers have always been popular and the COVID pandemic certainly brought that to the forefront with a surge in growth.

Just as notable as that surge in growth from the pandemic has been the continued increase of visitation since the pandemic.

We are currently looking at an 8% year-over-year growth of visitation to the parks.

That's amazing. When you think about a 7% increase is a 10-year doubling time.

We are seeing some parks with 20, 30, even 40% increases over the past 5 years. And that's all possible now to track due to the Place or AI technology we acquired last year, which gives gives us very good visitation to all of our parks and amenities.

This is phenomenal news. We also had the highest number of scans in the rec centers last year, 1.8 million scans for members over the last 12 months. That's a record as well.

So, this is great. It just means more wear and tear and more challenges that come along with with all that visitation.

Um Along with that, the city is making some significant investments in park and recreation facilities. We'll talk about some of these during the capital part of the program.

But, first one is rec center modernization. As you know, we did the study back in 2020.

A lot of these facilities are reaching end of life. Their electrical, plumbing, roofing systems are just about shot.

And we have now started at Great Neck and Bayside and Princess Anne will quickly follow.

And of course, we are investing significant resources in some major, iconic truly transformational park projects across the city.

Three of those being the Bow Creek Stormwater Park, the VB Trail, and Rudy Park.

So, some major budget changes.

Uh every year we look at fees and charges. We don't We have hundreds and hundreds of different fees and charges for all the different services that have those types of fees with them. And while we don't increase all field fees every year, we of course every year look at those which need to be adjusted due to factors such as inflation, uh any changes to the service, or any changes to the cost of the service.

Uh so, just a few that are happening.

Most people want to know what's happening with the rec centers. That's a common one that people are curious about.

The rec center youth membership yearly membership will remain the same at $40 per year. The adult yearly membership will increase $5 from 120 to 125.

So, it'll be a a 4.1% increase in the cost of an adult membership.

Uh lots of other small fee increases. Uh just as an example, a a large room rental in a rec center will go from 70 to 76.

Um if you're a commercial operation, you want to rent out a gymnasium, it's going to go from 145 to 160.

Um if you want to rent a small room, it's going to go from $45 to 50. So, a lot of small changes like that, but all combined, uh those will uh equal uh an estimated $360,000 in new revenue for next year in the rec centers.

Uh one of the um themes you'll see throughout our presentation is taking existing park recreation funds and vacancy savings and part-time positions and converting those into full-time positions. Uh we do this during the budget process cuz only council can can can approve a full-time position.

And really what we're doing is taking positions that are becoming very, very difficult to fill, if we can fill them at all, and creating a position that we need for a service. So, you can see we're doing that here with the open space management maintenance team. Uh we're converting uh enough positions that fully funds this conversion. In fact, it's even slightly positive on the in this case.

Uh other changes to the general fund are increases to our child care programs.

As you know, we are the area's largest child care provider.

Uh we provide before and after school child care programs at all 56 elementary schools. That's called the out-of-school time program.

As well as early childhood programs operating out of four of our rec centers.

Prior to COVID, these programs were pretty much budget neutral.

Uh the fees that brought it came in for the service paid for the service.

Uh you'll remember though that coming out of COVID, we did we had some drastic issues with staffing and hiring. We are on the verge of canceling over a dozen sites due to lack of staff.

Thanks to council's quick action, we increased pay, we solved the issue, we were attracted more employees, and we got people in there, and we saved the child care.

However, increasing those pay rates along with some other quality pro changes we made such as lowering the staff to child ratio created an imbalance um in the budget.

So, just as PISC recommended, we have been making some consistent changes to the pricing structures. The goal here is to get back to uh budget neutral.

Um it should be noted that these programs, even with these increases, are still incredibly competitive. Uh they're the best price in town uh for child care. So, we're just trying to get these programs back to budget neutral, so there'll be little to no reliance on the general fund moving forward. You can see the uh increases there will result in roughly $900,000, which we hope to by the end of next year

get to budget neutral.

Additional uh major changes to the general fund, you'll see here where we are actually going to be for the first time um if funded as proposed we will have a dedicated natural resources management unit within parks and recreation.

Uh this has been a gap in the department of our service for many years.

And natural resource management is a form of asset management.

This is where we will have trained educated staff that scientifically manage our natural areas.

Natural areas need to be maintained and they can be maintained at 1/10 the cost of manicured ball fields or active parks. But there is a cost to maintain them or they will degrade over time due to invasives, due to encroachments, due to erosion.

Uh what we're doing here is we've taken a significant portion of internal resources, vacant positions, and funding combined with some new funding to create a natural resources management unit.

Uh what has really been the kind of the the straw that broke the camel's back saying that we really needed this is the first phase of Boeckman Stormwater Park coming on this year.

So Boeckman Stormwater Park is going to be an amazing facility.

Um it's going to be a destination.

Uh but it should be noted that phase one alone of the Boeckman Stormwater Park has 3 and 1/2 million dollars worth of native plant plugs alone.

So our job is to protect that investment, care for that investment, and make sure it doesn't degrade over time. And there'll be millions more coming in phase two.

So the goal is to get a natural resources unit up and running so that we can maintain these quality areas as they need to be maintained.

Uh another place where we are reorganizing and taking uh vacant part-time positions is um we got quite a few things happening in one of the areas of operation.

We have Level Green Park coming on board uh with a new spray ground. Uh that one need to be have its uh water tested multiple times per day.

We have the first phase of the Boeckman Stormwater Park coming online.

Uh we're seeing incred- visitation to uh Woodstock Park. and we're eventually going to have a revamped Seatack Park.

That means we really need to re- re-look at how we're doing our park maintenance.

We're going to form two zones. We again use some of our exist- existing money and funding and positions combined with a little bit of extra money and we're going to um be able to maintain those parks and those facilities as they need to be maintained with this change.

And you'll see that again with PAC. With PAC, we are taking existing uh vacant positions uh for merging those all together uh to create a full-time uh position to help with all of our weekend use. Uh the PAC as you know is a 7-day a week operation. It hosts anywhere from 24 to 28 major tournaments Friday, Saturday, Sundays. Monday through Thursday, it's all with local play. We're really having

a hard time giving it the maintenance.

This one will enable us to have a kind of dual shift, overlapping shift in the middle of the day and will give us a much more support for those tournament organizers and the general upkeep of the site.

We are ecstatic that once again we'll be receiving another $575,000 to continue with security cameras in the parks.

The current fiscal year was the first year of this funding. Uh so far we've done PAC, City View, Beach Garden and Red Red Wing parks are coming. With this funding next year, we'll have security cameras added to Little Island, Great Neck, Bayville Farms and Seatack. Of course, we already have the Lynnhaven Boat and Beach facility and Mount Trashmore are already done. So really what we're doing is we're adding

security cameras. These are the same cameras used at the oceanfront or anywhere else in the city. Police have access to them. They can access them at any time through their real crime center.

And we have seen some incredible some great value from the existing cameras.

Uh a couple examples of that is the Virginia Marine officers were able to use camera footage from the Lynnhaven Boat and Beach facility to catch a commercial business that was illegally dumping just boxes and boxes of dead fish in the Crab Creek.

And they caught him.

Uh just last week, we had kids climbing up the Lesner Bridge accessing below it where you can get in.

The cameras, we turned the camera footage over to public works and the police.

Uh we once had uh shots fired um at that site. Uh the police were able to use the camera footage, gathered information on the vehicles, identified the suspects, and the suspects were apprehended.

So, this is the type of information and the type of value that these cameras are providing. So, we're really happy to see this expand to other of our most popular park sites uh across the park system.

In addition to adding security cameras to the park, as you are well aware, uh we have proposed for the first time to have park rangers within parks and recreation.

The department has been researching uh this for over 2 years.

The reality is that up until this point, we have not needed park rangers.

However, as police um issues continue to evolve and grow, and as visitation continues to skyrocket in the parks, now is likely the time to consider park rangers. And rangers are not a new concept. They're just a new concept to us here in Virginia Beach.

Uh and most agencies our size, if not smaller, they are in fact the norm. Uh we spent the last 2 years researching ranger programs in Norfolk. They have 11 full-time rangers. Newport News, they have 16 full-time rangers.

Chesapeake next door has four four full-time rangers and two part-time rangers.

As well as we looked at ranger programs in Richmond, Arlington, Prince William County, and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

All of those park systems, excluding Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, have fewer parks, far less acreage, far less facilities, far less events, far less square miles of jurisdiction, and far lower populations than we do.

Again, we've just been lucky that we haven't really had to have rangers up until now, uh but there are a lot of reasons why it makes a lot of sense at this point.

We're getting nearly over 7 million visits per year to our parks.

And the reality is 99.9% of all park visits go great.

Uh but even with that, that means there's a couple thousand calls for service every year going to the police from park locations.

The vast majority are non-violent. These are non-violent, non-serious issues.

But when the public calls the police from a park site, the police do respond.

Might not be right away. They got pressing things they need to be, more important things to do, but they do have to take the time to respond to that call eventually.

Um Last year, Mount Trashmore alone, which gets about 1.7 million visitors per year, and it's and it's going up by 100,000 per year, produced over 220 calls to the police department that they had to respond to.

Our goal with the ranger program, one of the goals, is to mitigate those calls and take that workload off of the police department, thereby freeing up those officers' times that they can be doing the things that they need to be doing.

You know, if there's dogs off leash, if there's cars parked illegally, if heaven forbid someone's car got broken into, rangers can take those reports, rangers can respond to those issues, thereby freeing up police time.

Uh the creation of a park ranger team would provide a visible, approachable presence within our parks. They would provide daily monitoring and patrolling of our largest parks, support law enforcement, improve emergency response, strengthen public safety and security, help to deter crime and vandalism, support our special events, which is becoming a very hard to get off duty on a consistent basis.

Enforce park rules and regulations and really just provide a provide a much higher level of customer service throughout the parks. 90% of a park ranger's duty is really to educate, enforce, and provide customer service when they're out there.

Um and once amenities such as the VB Trail come online, we'll park rangers in place and they can patrol things like linear trail systems on foot or by bike.

Um We have a full plan uh that we submitted. However, what we're doing is we're really just starting up with three full-time positions, the chief, the chief ranger, and two rangers. Uh the chief ranger and two entry-level rangers and we'd hope to have them um on board.

Right now we're setting up job descriptions. It's a whole new minimum qualifications, pay bands, HR is working on all of that so that once the budget, if passed uh as is, we'll be ready to go. We can advertise these positions in the fall. Probably by next spring, we might have some limited patrols happening in the parks.

Uh on to the CIP portion of the budget and Chad is here if you have any questions as well.

Uh I already talked about uh the modernization of the rec centers. Great Neck has begun. Public input has already happened. We had How many hundreds of surveys received?

900 surveys from the public received uh for the Great Neck modernization. We had a great uh public open house a few weeks ago.

Uh so that's all moving forward. Uh we have actually some uh design concepts coming forward in the next few weeks.

Uh we should be under construction for Great Neck hopefully in about a year and a half.

Yes.

Hopefully if all goes well, uh Great Neck would shut down be a 2-year construction project. Uh during that time, what's embedded within the budget now is design work to start on Bay Trail and Princess Anne. And so the goal really is to as these rec centers close down for construction and then open back up, as soon as it opens back up, the next rec center closes down.

If we do that over the next 6 or 7 years, that means we can down staff and stay down staffed by one rec center over that time, and all of that built up lap salaries goes towards the construction project. You know, we have to staff back up and then back down again.

We were also uh finally we have um uh a semi-permanent restroom put in at the Lynnhaven Marina. Um if you recall years ago, there used to be a restroom there. We had a a bulkhead fail. Uh when I got here in 2018, it had already happened. The bathrooms have been taken down. The bulkhead was repaired, uh but we've never put bathrooms back, uh but we are putting in some really nice um

They won't look the same as other bathrooms, but they're some pretty They're like Conex boxes converted into bathrooms. They look gorgeous. We've been looking at looking at those.

And we're hopeful by late spring of 2027, pending purchasing finance availability delivery time, uh that those will be installed on site uh by next spring.

And then as mentioned, uh subsequent to Great Neck, we would go right into Bayside and the Princess Anne Rec Center modernization projects. Uh with that, I'll take any questions.

Any questions? Barbara.

I want to mention that you want to absolutely terrific presentation. You're doing a lot, which is so important for us.

Thank you.

But I'm looking for something that you didn't put in here, I'm afraid.

Uh I hope it's in here and I just haven't seen it.

But when we were 2 years ago when we asked for the update to the ITA, what it would take to complete that, and we had this wonderful implementation plan, and we agreed that we would work on some of the short-term, low-cost things that we call the low-hanging fruit.

And in that section is design and construct a 5K practice course at PAC, and activate and maintain additional temporary cross country trails at Atlantic Village.

And when we were getting the the feedback from the public on that, I was just so astounded at the number of emails and letters, which I still have, from people saying, "We really need the track."

And the running is such an important part of our our uh sports uh activities, particularly for our youth.

And I've I have been astounded to to know that our high schools can't practice track in Virginia Beach. They have to go elsewhere. And we heard from the universities. I believe we heard from Virginia Wesleyan and Regent how much they need this cross country track because to retain their students.

And I I would just hope that this is something that is low-cost and easy that we could do.

Um I noticed it shows up on the uh and I I really appreciate uh getting the uh slides that we're going to be seeing tomorrow night on the ITA. It shows up in that plan in this area, and I just think it would be such a valuable part of our offering to our our young people.

Uh and uh I I hope it's something that we put this here in the low-cost, that it would be something that we could work into our budget. Uh we've been talking about it now for 2 years. I really hate to see another 2 years go by without this happening.

Cuz I think it's it would be really valuable for our our our youth. And you know, it occurred to me in thinking about our sports tourism and our recreation and so forth, how much this fits in with something else that we've been faced with in the last couple of weeks.

And that is what are we going to offer to our young people so that they've got programs to do that keeps them from hanging out down at the oceanfront and causing mischief. I think all these things that you have come up with and that we've got in parks and rec and that we can do with our sports tourism and our other sports really answers that concern a lot.

Because it's it's not only sports tourism, but it's our youth.

And what more important thing can we serve than our our youth? And and I just really see, like I say from those emails and so forth we got, how lacking we are in track.

And you know, that's the sport that is the easiest to do and at least costly.

Because all you have to do is run and have a good pair of shoes.

And I would hope that we can really work on getting this track and our trails in use.

I think it would mean a lot to a lot of people.

Yep.

Okay Stacy.

Yes, I just like to add to what Councilwoman Henley has said that you know, I'm in full support of that. I believe that I know we're waiting on this ITA uh report and but I do think that this idea of a cross country course and in the ITA and the sports area is really a no-brainer and is something that we should pursue and to put it off any longer uh

you know, it's just not not needed. We There's enough space out there we can fit a cross country track. And we can start a design right now. Uh we can start looking into some of the uh things that we need to consider on this cross country course so that we can get started and we're not starting from ground zero a year from now or two years from now.

So I I agree with Councilwoman Hanley that I would I would love to see something maybe during reconciliation that we could put some money towards getting this thing started because there is a lot of support I know from from Virginia Wesleyan. I mean directly have contacted with them. They are very interested in supporting and I think our schools should be included and this is something that is

is not an absorbent amount of money but it's something that can reap really great benefit and I wholeheartedly concur with everything Ms. Hanley said in that respect.

Good work.

Thank you mayor and I just want to double down again on that as I said earlier but that is low hanging fruit. I'd like to find out maybe what the design cost would be and see if we can't consider it this year because it you know our high schools do lack facilities to train for cross country.

Our high schools can't compete as well as the other schools across the state because we just don't have the cross country places for them to to practice. I mean they go into First Landing State Park is an example but that's probably not that healthy or safe but anyhow this would be the southern part of the city. So I agree it's right out there. It's trails and I don't I'm not ready to

and it's in the idea of forward as you said.

So I wonder what the cost would be just to find out the design.

That's anyhow.

I think one of the earlier speakers talked about it.

Mine's going to dovetail into this.

Okay.

Okay. So um couple things. One is I'm I'm now on ATEC. You know I asked to be on there because I believe in it. Um one of the things I would say to to agree with both council members is obviously cross country and we should be setting the bar across the region for that.

With that said, I think with the kids that are coming in to all the sporting events and the folks that like the mountain bike and ride the bikes, I think a mountain bike trail was almost as cheap if not as cheap cuz they really really don't care if you do anything but give us the lane. So, I think that could be included in that somehow as a subsidiary of that

group, I think it would be good cuz I think the hotel and they're building the second addition to that. I think I know the mountain biking community will travel and if they're already traveling for their kids, they'll bring their bike and and ride. So, I think that would be something that we could could do with that. Now, with that being said, the trails and the bike ways and have we

added any trails in the last 11 years?

Let me just ask that to begin with.

Sure. So, the Foxfire is a good example.

So, smaller smaller trails, yes.

I just pitched that to you.

Marshview.

Thank you.

Yep.

So, there's been many trails added.

With that, your trails and stuff maintenance money, how are we doing with that?

I I believe what you're asking is yes, our our trail CIP has not changed in 11 years.

There we go.

I don't think you were asking for that much of an increase from what I'm understanding, right? And that it's hurting to not keep them up and as we don't keep up with them, then they are getting worse.

Um more rapidly with the amount of use that we're giving from what I'm seeing.

Um I don't think I don't want to say uh it's nothing but it was around 100 grand. It wasn't exactly like y'all were asking for a ton of money for that. I know we're past you know reconciliation and the cake is probably already baked, but if there was any way to find any money at the end of the year or something like that to put towards maintenance to add to that, I think it

would be good and I think it's time with adding more trails, it's time to look at increasing that money.

So.

Okay.

I guess this is a question for Chad cuz I've been talking to our budget director about this and he was telling me that they think that the cross country track was going to be about $6 million.

I'll let Chad, he's the expert on this, but I would just say there's there's two concepts being floated and both are needed. One is a practice trail. We could put in a practice trail which would not host events, which would not be used for meets at the current pack facility.

But then south of that in the ITA plan as you'll see, there is the formal track meet which would have a parking lot, bathrooms, and have the full 5K, 10K trails down there. So, there are different costs associated based on what we're talking about, but I'll have Chad talk about kind of what those costs could be.

Yep, good afternoon. That's correct.

Those are those the practice course that we estimated about $500,000 and it would just be surrounded around the pack facility, the parking lot already there.

You just kind of go there, warm up, practice, put the right signage out. We may have a couple of ditch crossings to go over. Things like that to stand that up fairly simple compared to what we're talking about in the in the one master plan about creating the collegiate level or better style cross country course that would have all the different distances, have the starting lineup spot, the the the parking needed,

and all the other ancillary facilities that would go with that to make this a a top, you know, destination facility for for cross country all the way up to the collegiate level for those opportunities. So, yeah, there's couple of things there whether the collegiate level cross country course could be scalable or you know what can start start this and get it get it going and get get that

momentum built up. You know, there probably is a possibility there where you mentioned you know how much of this can we start design can we is it scalable or there other opportunities to get get something quick quicken on the ground that a course drives how much your cost would be for for design coming out of the gate.

And and I didn't talk to you directly Chad so this is kind of coming through Kevin but Kevin's pretty reliable and this sort of kind of informal type track once the regular track comes on board maybe obsolete is what's what it's added like we would not be needing that as much and that might not be the best spending of and Stacy and I talked about that that night.

Just doing it kind of like a temporary thing may not be the best use of our money but we do have something in the reconciliation letter coming up to kind of address this to get the ITA which we're going to be dealing with that really soon and to work towards that this year.

Hey Stacy.

Yes Chad.

So I was just going to say this what you just stated that you know this idea of a temporary or practice track I I don't think should be accelerated over the larger plan and you know also you know last year we had 40 million dollars of reversion money from the schools and I don't think it's an unreasonable ask to look towards looking at that some of that this year to go towards this cross country track

as I truly truly do believe they should participate in this and that it would be a good use of some of that money.

Okay Patrick.

Mr. Mayor members of the council what I was what I was going to articulate as well as that council's going to receive the ITA update work. If council desires, we could put some seed money inside of reconciliation to possibly start the concept of a design. You won't be able you won't get ahead of your plan because around that time frame is a probably July, August time frame is when we'll finish our

community engagement, finish our community feedback conversations, and we'll come back to city council to make a determination on how you all would like to proceed. You could have the design money. We we wouldn't even be able to start it yet until we get that direction from you all on how you want to actually site it. And if council recalls as part of the budget presentation and keeping with the

budget retreat, we did kind of ideate a path on how council could fund it, especially if you give direction to move in the direction of reconciling those uses in the ITA. We could come up with a funding plan to help fund out some of the infrastructure to include the this trail as well. You know, we got a couple ideas in our head that we've been thinking about as well that we can help

with this initiative if council wants to move in that direction.

Okay. You know, I think it was always our intent, you know, to find compatible use, you know, for the ITA that serves, you know, you know, a lot of needs that we have.

And you know, certain sports marketing, you know, given what we have down at Lansdowne and things of this nature. So, once again, I think this is something that we really can dovetail into, you know, the plans that we have to keep our city alive and vibrant. Chris tough might Thank you.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the next presentation will be given by director of budget and management services, Kevin Chaholaire. This one is a school funding formula update. As council knows, there's a a couple of initiatives inside of the proposed budget regarding the school funding formula, and we'd like to seek City Council's guidance as it relates to a extending the formula and also

regarding um parity on our um health care premiums between schools and city employees. And then we're here to accept any other guidance and feedback Council may have as well. So, go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Manager. I set it up perfectly. So, even though this is a part of the budget presentation, there won't be obviously a lot of numbers like there typically is.

This will be just opportunity to um as City Manager just noted and highlight to seek City Council's guidance and direction on um a couple of policy proposals for City Council's consideration that been included in the operating budget regarding the revenue sharing formula.

Uh so, um more specifically, uh the purpose in the following slides will touch on the um recommended language or the proposed language to extend the existing formula for another year as the current funding formula is set to expire June 30th, 2026 or at the end of this year. So, if we're going to go through uh the next fiscal year and going through the reversion process, that's largely governed by the

existing funding formula. So, there would be a need to extend that at minimum for another year. Uh also, as the City Manager noted, um there regarding the health parity, this is a request City Council had a discussion on and made of city staff uh for to include some language as a part of the proposed budget for their consider for or excuse me, for your consideration um in an effort to try to seek parity in terms of

health insurance premiums for both city employees and school employees.

Uh I have another slide on that here in a minute.

Uh so, a little background on the funding formula history.

Uh I believe City Council the current sitting City Council was all in place when our last provided this uh historic overview and requests seeking direction on whether to extend, update, tweak, modify the existing funding formula. So, I pulled this slide from a previous um PowerPoint presentation uh to walk down the history of the existing formula and how it came to be.

So, the funding formula's been a long-standing practice and policy in place within the City of Virginia Beach.

The original formula was established in 1997.

Really with the intent and purpose of establishing a consistent planning tool for both city and schools to use as part of their annual operating budget and CIP planning process.

If you look back prior to that point in time, the annual uh budget battles between city and schools um there was a lot of tension and and friction in terms of the competing for resources prior to that. So, ultimately City Council at that time uh landed on the use of a mechanism to evenly share specific revenues to allow for consistent planning and reliability of both bodies. Uh there's been several

localities in Virginia who have since migrated and um shifted and adopted a similar policy uh as to what City of Virginia Beach has been using for quite some time.

Uh so, the original formula 1997 was uh uh even share of the most consistent reliable revenues.

In FY11-12, the funding formula was um eliminated or suspended as City Council at that time determined that's no longer meeting the existing needs of the current economic reality of the time.

Uh it was a couple of budget processes after that before until a new funding formula was put into place, adopted in FY13-14, and that funding formula, the specific one, the calculation tool, took into account the standards of quality or the SOQ standards that are established by the state, as well as the local composite index, which is basically a multiplier of a locality's ability to pay

um or support their local school district. Um the SOQ funding, for example, the way it was incorporated into it, each year the state allocates a set amount of resources to each school district.

There's several buckets, and there's a minimum amount that each locality must put in terms of local dollars and resources towards. Uh so, for example, in Virginia Beach, they looking at the governor's proposed budget, the SOQ minimum amount that Virginia Beach is supposed to provide to schools in FY27 is around $245 million. Um Excuse me, I think I misspoke on that.

Uh I think that's the net difference.

So, the minimum amount um is closer to like $340 million. Uh the Virginia Beach's contributions just under $560 million, resulting in the difference of exceeding that by about $247 million. My apologies.

Uh so, the current formula um that was adopted in 2019, um due to the complexity in trying to take the SOQ and the LCI into consideration as part of the budget development, it created quite a bit of an unknown and a lot of volatility. So, that was removed from the current funding formula, where city and schools just had a even split of 46.75% of the largest general fund revenues.

Originally, it was set to be revisited after a 4-year period, um and since that point in time, we've been on a 1-year continued extension of the existing formula since FY23-24.

Um a little bit on the health insurance premiums and a look back over time. So, both the city and schools have had a consolidated benefits office since 1999, um offering a self-insured plan between the city and schools, also offering the the same amount of health plan offerings and coverage um for both city and um school employees, meaning that the plan offerings, the deductibles, the co-pays, and all of the

components of the plans have been on par and equal.

Um historically, the premium amounts that were contributed by city employees and school employees were in line. Uh the city has not made an adjustment up in its employee health insurance premium since FY18-19.

The schools uh deviated slightly since then. In 2023, they slightly or they reduced their school employee premiums by around 50% um and they had that in place for a couple of years until the recent um benefit year came to be at as of January 2026, schools increased their employee contributions or their employee premiums to be in line and they are now on par with the city.

So, all this background led to city council asking to explore um for staff to consider putting forward a consideration to establish parity between this, trying to make sure that we stay in tandem um going forward as we have been over the many years of the consolidated benefits office.

So, included in the proposed uh FY26-27 proposed budget is a amended version for city council's consideration of the existing revenue sharing formula, as that's the tool that's largely governing um the resource allocation between city and schools, and a couple of policies that city and school share.

Uh, it seemed a fitting tool to try to work in health insurance premium language into that as well.

So, I typically don't do this, but I'm I'm going to, uh, I'm going to quickly try to read through this, uh, to to digest it for the for the room. Uh, so, included is section 7.1.

So, both the city and schools have a consolidated health insurance plan with equal health benefit coverage and offerings. Recommendations on premium adjustments, as well as plan design changes, are made by the benefit executive committee, or the BEC, which is comprised of staff members from both city and schools. Recommended health insurance premiums, as well as plan offerings for both city and school

employees, should remain in unison to the greatest extent possible, with health insurance with school health premiums not being below the recommended premiums of the city.

And then, also using keeping in line with the previous section of the revenue sharing formula, in which if the schools have a desire to seek additional resources above and beyond what the current formula has in place, or is allocating to them, there's a policy in which they can request an additional amount above that, or through a proposed tax rate adjustment. And so, in following in line with that, um, section

7.2 was also included for consideration.

Should school board desire to establish employee premiums below the city employee premiums, the school board will notify city council by resolution of the desired change. The resolution will provide the following: the desire to decrease the premiums, the reasons as to why the lower rates are being requested, the requested premium rates and effective date, and the recommended employer contribution

change and revenue sources supporting the change, as well as the projection of the health fund balance demonstrating future sustainability.

So, with that, there's still an opportunity for the uh, to put forward a request to pivot away from that should they desire which would create an opportunity to have that discussion on policy level discussion with city council.

Rosemary?

Did Jeff something that?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, one more.

Well, I've got one more and I Yeah, I apologize.

Okay.

It was a mouthful. I was catching my breath.

Okay.

So, the last slide here is just a summary slide of as proposed the proposed budget does if adopted it would formally extend the existing formula to June 30th 2027.

And the direction provided in the in a resolution or ordinance at the back of the operating budget is to give the city manager direction to work towards including the previously referenced language on the last slide slide five to work to incorporate that as a part of the FY 2028-29 process or excuse me to update the revenue sharing formula throughout FY 27-28 or next fiscal year.

So, that would be a formal process in which we would provide it to schools. Schools would consider it. If school board agrees, they would adopt it and then they would send over a resolution in their support and then we would work it through the typical process for city council to amend it. So, that's the last slide and so I'll use this opportunity to um ask city council should we proceed as

what's included in the proposed budget or is there an alternative direction city council like us to go?

Okay, Rosemary.

So, it's a walk down memory lane. I I was on the school board and I believe Barbara was on city council when um we had very a very volatile relationship between the school board and the city council. And it was quite unpleasant. Let me just tell you, it was very unpleasant. And we were in headline news a couple times a week because of the ongoing fights between the two bodies.

And this revenue sharing formula really did wonders for fixing that situation. And so that became much, much better. In fact, uh I went to quite a few conferences with VML and all with Patty Phillips to share this idea with localities across the state. And so there's a quite a few places that adopted it because it really, really, really works. And for many years, well, there was parity

with uh the combined uh benefits office.

And so we never had an issue with health insurance or or the other benefits until a few years ago when the school board decided they they needed to have an enhanced type of situation for for their employees. And they had their reasons, and we don't need to go into all that, but uh it's really backfired because they drew their their reserve down so it was dangerously low because their employees

were not paying enough into it. And so they've had to come back with a fix. And it upset a lot of their employees and the way they had to do it. Um so I I think this is a really good idea to go ahead and add this as an amendment to the to our rules of our our policy. And uh just want to tell you that it is it fixes a lot of problems. So, I would

highly recommend we do it.

Okay, Barbara and Jennifer.

Well, I'll I echo what Rosemary said. If you think budgets are tough now, you should have been here when we had to when we didn't have a formula. Doing this formula was one of the best things the city ever did, and it it was very tough to do, and I know it's tough to maintain, and we do have differences now that come up with the healthcare, but I think we want to try to work that out.

We certainly want to maintain the better relationship we have had, and if there are issues like the health insurance that do have things that make them different, I think we need to really do everything we can to to work it out.

Uh and uh I I hope everybody will have the very positive attitude toward going forward because uh it's worth working on, and we don't want to go back to what we had.

You really don't.

We don't.

That was bad.

It was bad.

Okay, Jennifer.

Thank you, sir.

Uh in our one-on-one budget conversation, um I was interested in whenever we get an idea of what the state will provide to the schools this year in terms of budget, um if it ends up being a windfall, so there's a lot of extra dollars that are given to the school budget, if there could be some kind of language where the city council can then hold on to some of the

funding that's a part of the formula as a way to try to balance our own budget since we don't get extra investments from the state outside of dedicated revenue, so um I'm asking this question not to completely because I want to make sure schools are funded um at the maximum that we can per our formula, but if there's a circumstance in which they're going to get well over um what they were projected to get from

us and the state combined, is there a way that we can maybe hold on to some funding in this budget to then use for something else for us, our general fund or whatever needs we may have.

Also, I have a Which is that?

Cross-sector reports.

Vice Mayor, did I'm sorry.

Vice Mayor, did you ask how how would that occur?

Yeah, I developed a Does anyone else Yeah.

Um so so in the over the past several years uh that has been the case. So, um in FY 24, uh the budget was actually adopted by the state um after the city's budget was adopted. And that was an occurrence in which the schools received an additional $23.4 million that was not included in their adopted budget.

What results is they adopt I think it's you should clarify to as well. It's not $23 million in one-time money. It's $23 million in ongoing money that hits their budget year after year, right?

Correct. That uh translated to them providing additional um or up to 2% of uh compensation increase. So, it was an ongoing bill payer. Uh so, what occurred was they adopted a resolution and then city staff received that because city council ultimately has to appropriate the additional revenue to support that and establish those appropriations. So, there would be a mechanism to where uh I

think currently at crossover, there's an opportunity the the house and the senate um there's a range between additional 8 to $22 million that um could be provided to Virginia Beach City Public Schools in addition to what is already in the governor's budget.

So, if either of those were to uh pass and the state was to provide those additional resources, schools would um be adopting a resolution and looking to appropriate that in which city council would um see that action item and be able to take all this into consideration at that point in time and continue this this discussion at that point in time as well.

Anybody else at this point?

Okay, thank you very much.

So Mr. Mayor, just to clarify so is council okay with us just going forward what's proposed as it relates to asking the school board to consider passing a resolution to create parity amongst health care premiums and if they want to break parity on health care premiums they have to formally request that via resolution and then also to extend the date to June 30th, 2027. Is council okay with us moving that direction?

Anybody object?

Step forward.

Thank you, Kevin. So Mr. Mayor, that's the end of the presentations for staff.

Okay, thank you. We'll get into council comments now if you don't mind. I'll start things going.

I want to give a major shout out to our public safety professionals over the last couple weeks.

It's been a very challenging time for everybody.

But you know, they stood tall, did a tremendous job and did our city well.

There's no doubt that there are challenges out there.

Nationally, there's a national epidemic of violence out there.

There's a new paradigm where more and more people are carrying firearms.

It's not unique to the city of Virginia Beach.

And but once again, you know, we are is we have to confront that.

And you know, we go back to the history of week 17. It's been problematic for some time now.

And historically since you know, we had the terrible riots in 1989 You know, we have been you know, wrestling you know, with this problem over time. If there was an easy solution, you would have had it in place a long time ago.

But uh once again, there's no prolonged solutions right now. Uh you know, we've tried a number of things.

But once again, uh you know, I think the Marine Corps has a saying, innovate, adapt overcome.

And we have to adapt to the new paradigm. And we have to do that for the sake of uh not only our public, but you know, to the public safety officers that do that.

You know, a couple weeks ago, we made a decision.

And let me say that I don't believe anybody in this table or this room wanted to imper you know, impose a curfew on anybody.

But you know, sometimes we have to do uncom- comfortable things out of necessity.

And at the time, you know, we're dealing with a whole state, and we are just limited about the actions we can take.

You know, we talked about a gun free zone. But then we talked about the complications of implementing it.

And you know, some other uh social implications there that would have made it challenging, and we eliminated that.

Uh we actually uh talked about what some other cities do. I think they did in Florida and other places. Total shutdown.

You know, to save the uh the season for many things. And we're talking about some big cities. You know, we're talking about Washington, D.C.

We're talking about L.A. We're talking, you know, Wildwood, New Jersey and uh you know, various things. This is not new to you know, to the Virginia Beach at all.

And um you know, I think you know, we had a goal going forward.

Protect the lives and save the summer.

And I think you know, we all kind of had this thing that it would be a short-term inconvenience for a long-term uh goal, you know, going forward.

Because, you know, once again, you know, and I think this is in discussing with you and number other people, when you have a couple of mass shootings that occur within a short short proximity of time, where 14 people, you know, were injured, and thankfully no casual you know, casualties, uh loss of life.

Uh you know, it just came out the other day that, you know, Virginia Beach is still up there as one of the safest cities, number 10 in the entire country.

And uh but once again, you can justify and say this rarely happens in Virginia Beach, but it does happen and it's happening everywhere.

But I respectfully submit if we did nothing for College Beach week weekend, week 17, and it's God forbid something happens, now you got the trifecta. Now you have a trend that I honestly feel would have negatively impacted not only our season, but all seasons going forward.

It was a tough decision.

And if I could just give you a, you know, a little personal thing, when I first became mayor, um we were told we're going to be confronted with a category four or more hurricane.

And I ordered the evacuation of Sandbridge.

Well, guess what? The storm the the guaranteed storm totally missed us and took out Sandy Hook uh Hurricane Sandy took out a good chunk of New Jersey.

But I respectfully submit that what happened if we didn't order the evacuation and it did hit?

And I think that by taking prevention, you know, airing on the side of judgment was the only prudent thing that we could do.

And to the folks that lost, you know, some revenue, granted, we feel you know, we're we're troubled by that.

But the point is losing it over a couple days is better than losing significantly a lot more for an entire season.

You know, it was a kind of a decision that we had to make.

And then, you know, the courts came out and said it wasn't a imminent danger, but it was a high probability danger, you know, based on the histories that we've had.

And then, once again, you know, these are the type of decisions we make, you know, we'll always be judged, you know, whether right or wrong.

But, you know, and the thing is, I stand by the decision we made.

And it was not only to protect lives, but protect But, you know, we have a police force that deserves the type of recognition.

And I can say that, you know, if you ever go to the oceanfront in time and see you know, see what goes on, we have a national crisis uh in with recruiting and retaining police.

A number of years ago, and this is a national problem. This is you're not Granted, we're 88 slots down, but I can tell you there's a heck of a lot more cities out there that are far Yeah, far far greater vacancies that we do.

You know, a couple years ago when they talked about defunding the police, taking away several sovereign sovereign immunity, they also took away a number of tools that our police use to get guns away from you.

But once again, you know, I think we got to go forward, be proactive, and you know, say, "What are we going to do?" We're We're talking about uh putting together, you know, the task force of, you know, people that can do that. But but let me say, in discussions and being in this job for 21 years, we cannot solve this program a problem alone when the other cities are having the same if not worse problems.

And it's not only in the Commonwealth, it's also nationally.

So, I think we it's incumbent upon us going forward that we work with not only our state, but our federal authorities.

Uh once again, we got to get back in this nation to being a nation that respects laws.

And that people know if they do a criminal act, they could be arrested, prosecuted, and jailed.

And you I'm just so sorry to say that, you know, there's far too many people in this country, you know, right now that commit, you know, heinous acts without fear of retribution or, you know, or you know, you know, uh consequences.

But once again, this is going to be a long-term strategy.

And but what And then we're talking about uh some of the strategies about doing on a Commonwealth level, you know, classes in de-escalation. We got to get the kids in the third grade that are used to bullying and social problems and things of that nature. I was talking to Jennifer about a lot of this uh stuff is societal that we're dealing with. The Yeah, the breakdown of families. You know, we're

talking about e-bikes, you know, where's the families with this?

So, maybe that's the question. Where are the families? Where are the, you know, the neighbors? You know, you know, when I was a kid growing up playing with the kids, my mother would say, "Robert gets out of hand, you know, do do do what you got to do."

Yeah, you know, fear of fear of parents was real back in the '50s and '60s.

Uh but I'm just saying being serious that, you know, this is going to be a very tough challenge and there is no immediate fix for this. This is going to be a long time, but a journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first step.

And we're going to have to work not only with our surrounding cities, but the Commonwealth. This has to be an attitude adjustment of change for this entire nation that we can no longer tolerate anger, hatred, and violence, and callous disregard of life.

Uh so, at this point, uh you know, I'll jump off the soap soapbox. Does anybody else uh Stacy and then Rosemary.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with everything you just said.

Um I was I did a ride-along or a walk-along uh with with our police down at the oceanfront on this past Friday evening.

And uh I was able to sit in on a briefing that was given about the uh traffic flushing plan. All right. I was told don't use that term, but I don't know another term to call it. Uh so, anyway, the uh plan that was set up to mon- you know, to reroute traffic down at the oceanfront. And it was a pretty major ordeal. It was a very major ordeal. Very well thought out.

Um but I do have some I do have some criticisms and I I don't offer criticisms without maybe giving some suggestions.

And that there were businesses there were some businesses that um were difficult, if not impossible, to navigate to.

Mhm.

And um I mean, I know that firsthand because when I was out there walking, the police were actually getting calls that they were responding to um to to inform these businesses about what the traffic pattern was. So, uh and then I'm sure that along with Worth and Rosemary, I'm sure you got your share of calls from vendors or, you know, stakeholders down at the ocean front saying the same thing that people

just can't get here. It's, uh, you know, the streets are blocked off. Nobody knows what to do.

So, and I did I did see that first hand. So, I I know that these were valid concerns.

But, my my recommendation would be in the future, when we do this, I would recommend two things at least. One is that we have a hotline where the people at the ocean front could call and say, you know, explain to me about what's going on. The the barriers are, um, not where it's supposed Yeah, whatever the problems are, that instead of calling their council person, they're who or like, I Y'all call

somebody. I don't know. But, there's somebody that would be, um, knowledgeable about the way the traffic is supposed to flow, and that would be able to communicate with the people with the boots on the ground about, uh, the situation and handle those things. I think that would go a long way to, um, solving the problem that this problem. And the other thing would be, uh, cuz all of the most of the streets

were closed down coming to Atlantic Avenue with barricades. So, people would come up to the barricade and have to figure it out.

And, you know, that that I don't know if there's a better solution. My solution or my recommendation would be, if we at every place where, um, we had a a dead end area, if we had a QR code where they could, um, scan it, and it would tell them where to go, how to try, you know, this is where I am, this is where I need to go. You know, how do I get there? Go

down to 17th Street. Boom, boom, boom.

Or go down to 9th Street and head you know, head north. So, I I think if if those two little suggestions to me would go a long way to uh solving the um uh problems that we had with the with the well-thought-out plan that maybe could have been a little better implemented.

Okay, thank you, Stacy. Councilman I was going to talk about something else, but Worth might want to talk about the meeting that we had this morning.

Did you want to I I did. Thank thank you.

And I agree with every really with everything that's been said so far. Um so, this morning, Vice Mayor Wilson and I convened a meeting of stakeholders at the Oceanfront who experienced what Councilman Cummings just had My phone blew up last Friday, as it did the the previous weekend. And so, I'm going to ask the city manager to to respond about their traffic diversion program going forward, but and I'm going to but

we heard them, and I think too, in addition to everything else, we need to collaborate and communicate more and better with our stakeholders and the community, not just at the Oceanfront, but citywide. And I I think that's going to happen going forward, but I really want the local things. And then, I really do think that at the top of everyone's list, and we've talked about it, and we've just got to find a

way to do it, and that's to crack down on the public um smoking of cannabis.

That's just top of mind for everybody.

It It's It's It's against the law, and it should be enforced. We need to find a way to crack down on that. But if Mr.

Manager, if you could speak to the traffic diversion program.

Um so, as the council knows, last year we briefed City Council about the limitations that we have, and we talked about the need for the popular event legislation. And um it really about after last week 17, when we when the police department had the tremendous amount of crowds, and then they pulled off the 50-plus weapons.

Um so, we did a road show about what our limitations are, what other cities are doing, and then we also visited other cities with Panama City, Miami Beach, Myrtle Beach, and looked at some of the things that they do to address crowds and problem weekends. We did initially brief this to the public at a rack meeting, but obviously we could have done that better, right?

Um this was a pilot to see if we if this could be something that could be successfully put down or deployed in Virginia Beach.

Um over the weekend we adjusted it and it still didn't work. So, it's not necessarily something that we intend to use in our repertoire. We really were just planning to see if this is something that we wanted to use and it's really something that we wanted to see if we could use it on a April weekend and predominantly week 17, which is usually our worst weekend, but we don't intend to use this going forward in the

season and we articulated that to the stakeholders today as well.

Okay, Mark It was a really good meeting that we had this morning with the associations mostly and Patrick and Amanda did a fantastic job of, you know, talking and the best thing is we did a fantastic job of listening.

And they had a lot of very valid concerns and we listened and it was these were addressed and and in a collaborative effort we all want the same thing. We all want a family-friendly city that's safe and that we can all work together and I think we all worked out walked out of the room with with that in mind going forward. So, it was it was a really good meeting and hopefully, you know, we'll continue that

and and we talked about your task force that coming up. We'll probably talk about that next week. And it was it was just it was really good, but the staff did a great job.

Okay, thank you. And you know, a couple of comment a comment that um were made, you know, heard from a couple of people was with the cannabis uh smoking outright. Now, is it with my understanding that you know, when the some of the tools got taken away, cannabis was one of the enforcement was one of the things Mayor, they moved it to a civil offense, right? A $25 fine. And um in talking to

the chief, he has communicated to the rank and file that they should, when they see it and it makes sense, they should write tickets. Um it's limited enforcement, but it could it could be something that we could do, you know, so the PD is going to work in that direction. One of the asks that we also had of the stakeholder group was that what the rank and file report is that

some of our restaurants and some of our hotel establishments don't take cannabis seriously. So, when they respond to calls for services for from residents or tenants or people staying in a hotel saying that somebody in the room next to them or somebody in a restaurant is smoking marijuana, the our retail establishment, our hoteliers don't allow us to enforce it, don't allow us to evict folks, you know, so we

asked them if they want us to take an approach like that, we need their support as well in not encouraging behavior. Yeah, so it is something that we are looking towards moving towards, but again, it's not a criminal offense, it's a $25 fine, and there's sometimes where it pulls officers off the streets to book a a marijuana joint, you know, but it would be something that we'll work through and figure out a way to

help move the needle on that.

Yeah, I think that, you know, that's why, you know, the importance of talking to our state partners. And yeah, once again, I just recommend, you know, come down and take a ride-along. You know, walk a mile in their shoes.

Stacy, I And correct me if I'm wrong, but uh the first offense is a $25 civil fine.

The second offense, the you're required to sign up for a program.

And then the third offense is actually a misdemeanor.

That's correct.

So if we start simply writing a bunch of $25 tickets, if we if we start there then progress, just may help situation.

Yeah.

Now I I would I would tell you what we're living in here. We're living in a world of perceptions, Michael.

Um the only thing I really want to add to this is that it one of the conversations that I have I've heard a lot from stakeholders at the resort and from the community at large is that we need to have law enforcement be more proactive and assertive in their enforcement of the law.

And I um agree with that. I understand it and I am 100% supportive of it.

But in talking to the police officers I know throughout the different positions in the in the force what they'll tell you what they've told me is, you know, being in the situations is not a pretty business.

And it often results or can result in a more a higher likelihood of use of force.

And when use of force is examined by the public or is captured on video or is presented in such a way that is um made clear to the public it's ugly. Use of force is basically two people fighting or more than two people fighting. And even though those officers are are trained in techniques that that give them an advantage in those fights, at the end of the day it's it's fighting.

And or worse.

And um I really don't know how we would achieve this, but I really I really want to broadcast to the hospitality community who's been asking for this that in coordination with that, if that's what they're asking for it would be nice to make a public statement about support.

Cuz when the going gets tough, who's going to be there?

It's the officers who are going to be left holding the bag.

And if we're going to ask them to put themselves in positions where we're enforcing urinating in public, cannabis, I don't know, somebody told me something about handlebars. You got to have both hands on your handlebars. They used to do something about that. I don't know if that's a thing or not. All right, well, it was. I Whatever. So, I heard that back in the day. But, the point is finding things that

are give them an opportunity to enter into a space and to break up things.

We're asking them to go into those situations. We're asking them to do it understaffed. And I think the community has the the opportunity now to express their support. If that's really what they want, then say it and then let them know. Obviously, not to support anything that is not legal or is outside of the policies and procedures. But, within the policy of and procedures, there is um

it doesn't look pretty on film or in person.

And we need to be aware of that going in if that's what we're asking. Cuz it's not It's easy for us to sit around a table and say, "Enforce this and go after this." We're asking people to go in and into harm's way and then to um to be in the position that they have to make decisions about. I've I've talked to them and I don't know that I'm comfortable doing this cuz it it's going

to lead to an unnecessary uh interaction that that we don't want to have that actually could cause more uh harm to to peace and safety. So, these are all things that are on my mind, but the hospitality community could come in strong and say, "We know what we're asking for and we're going to be there to support them when the going gets tough."

Cuz when the going gets tough, it's amazing how few friends you have. You know that.

Yes, ma'am.

I just want to add one thing as well.

And I I think so, you all know we're about 80 86 88 86 officers short.

Another thing to note is that for about 5 to 6 months of the year, we tell these officers they can't take time off.

Right? And then we force them to not leave work and stay on their shifts as well. Right? They're 88 They're precinct short as well.

This makes it more for some of our officers, it's more encouraging for them to look at other cities that don't have these types of requirements as well, right? So, this is a balance that we're trying to have with our police department and our special our police officers is try to find the right balance to get the right enforcement need that we have, but also not create an incentive for them to go look to

Chesapeake or Suffolk or Moyock or other places where they don't have these mandatory time off um blackout periods where they can't leave or take a vacation.

I think another uh cop-out and things of that caliber is the fact that our shoulder season is going away.

Uh you know, as we get more people living at the ocean front and we get more activities going on year-round, whether it be the Sportsplex, whether it be now with Atlantic Park and then now we have a population center there through restaurants and everything.

Uh you know, once again, that's good for the economy, but by the same token, and you know, the other thing is you know, you know, Michael and I have things, you know, we got to make sure that you know, we're during the concentration cuz I was at the uh the police muster on uh Saturday at the Lido, and it was amazing how many people were there getting ready to hit the streets. But, I can guarantee

some of the folks that were there, you know, were from every one of our districts out there, you know, getting there.

Uh so, this is a uh longer-term you know, situation. And you know, we we going to have to confirm it.

Okay. Anybody else at this point?

Barbara?

No.

I have something else to talk about.

Oh, okay. Okay, let's go Amelia and then Rose Mary.

Um what's happening is um from the transit, we have the new way chronics that are coming in.

So, they're having a written cutting for that out at the Virginia Aquarium on May 7th at 10:00.

And then we also have the celebration of the completion of the greenway in Virginia trail phase three on the same day at 1:00.

So, those are two coming up and we invite you all to come out for that.

And then the last today over at the um Beach Governing Board and they mentioned for people to know that the SNAP work requirement is there. There's been a change.

Got to work at least 80 uh hours a month to get your requirements and we have quite a large group that are involved with that.

So, just for people to stop at Human Services, become aware of the new It's not 65, it's 64 and under. We even have some for dependents with children from age 14. So, this is something to look into about the SNAP work requirement.

Thank you, Rose Mary.

Um I had three things I wanted to to bring up. Um one is my Crush Cancer event is happening on Sunday.

Oh.

And this will be our 11th year.

that has experienced cancer, but he's he's doing really well.

Um Tony Nero and I that started it, uh we're going to be recognized by the national um Memorial Sloan Kettering coming down.

They're coming down and they're calling us game changers for starting this local event. And so that's going to be This is really pretty exciting, kind honestly. Uh so I just want to mention that. Uh second thing I want Where? Where?

Oh, yes, thank you. It's Sunday from 10:00 to 3:00 at the Cavalier uh Yacht and Country Club.

And it's it's really If you haven't been there to see it then and I know Josh and Worth have seen it as and Michael's it's it's pretty fun to see.

Um The other thing we've been hearing a lot about the the the the meal tax and and you know what? Nobody likes to pay taxes. We None of us like to pay taxes.

But I thought it We got a really good uh memo uh from budget this year this week and I as a CCSR that I just wanted to to bring a few highlights out that if we brought the meal tax down to 3 and 1/2%.

Uh that equals to about $48 million.

$48 million.

Uh 28 million would be for the general fund which 45% of that is schools.

So it would be a loss to the schools and to us of that. Uh that 18 million is for uh the tip fund, which in the tip fund there is a lot of debt service that's paid. And uh Patrick will tell you the first checks that we have to write is debt service. We have to pay our debt service before we pay anything else. And so there's debt service. And it's not just

touristy things. I mean, we've got Windsor Salem Road project, 17th Street Road project, and then we have the Atlantic Park. All of these bills have got to be paid that comes out of that.

Um and then there's another six or seven million that's going to be is for the major projects, which is Indian River Road, uh LIDA, and other things. And we talked about the police and supporting them.

Getting We need a LIDA.

And that's one of the things that will help us attract more and more of our police officers. So, even though none of us like taxes, I think that it's important to people to know where this money goes to. And the other good thing is 40% of it is paid by our visitors.

40% is paid by our visitors. And if we We are the only city that I know in the region that is offering tax relief on anything with our personal property that we're going to do. And that will benefit more and more people than we've ever done before, and that is for our residents. So, I just wanted to to mention that.

The last thing I want to mention is you all got the email about uh uh recognizing Barry Knight and his accomplishments. And uh I had met with his widow, Paula Knight, and Don Horsley. And she talked to her boys.

She's You know, they have three sons.

And they really loved the idea of the Al's Creek boat ramp. And um Barry got all the money for that from the General Assembly, which was a huge help. So, wanted to put that on the agenda um for next week. And I have a a draft copy. And if anybody would like to sign on as a sponsor, Yeah, put me on.

just just let us know.

Um we keep track of this. Please mark who would like to to join.

I will.

And and I talked and I heard from Paula today that next Tuesday is fine for her and her family to Sounds perfect.

Thank you.

Good. Rosemary, very very good enlightening stuff. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Uh just a couple quick things. Uh this morning I was interviewed by uh the folks that put together the state of the region.

And it was a prolonged interview on housing. There's a new emphasis on housing. You know, when we talk about crises, housing is a crisis.

Um so but once again, uh they asked about some of the controversial projects we did and but also they really emphasized the need for attainable for any type of housing. And uh yesterday had the pleasure of meeting with the NAACP uh housing committee. And once again, it's a matter of maybe trying to come up with innovative ways. See what uh maybe they you know, really start thinking out

of the box like we did sometimes, but one way or the other, I mean, you know, it's controversy.

Uh they were talking about NIMBYs, YIMBYs, and you know, the conflicts that go on. And it's a and they they even brought up it's a generational uh you know, uh conversation. Uh but once again, I think you know, think out of the box there. And you know, one of the things we pride ourselves on is being one of the most caring cities. So I met with a couple good groups. I gave a proclamation

um the other day to uh the national uh nephrogenic diabetes insipidus awareness and it's a a uh a thing that affects children and causes like a kid kidney function. They got an awareness group they put together. They're doing a marvelous work. And then on Saturday at the ocean at the um um aquarium uh the Blue Star Families launch. And these are going to be a major support a support group for

all military families who have people deployed.

And uh but once again, I think it just showed shows the heart of the soul of what Virginia Beach is out helping each other.

Hey, anybody else at this point?

Okay, uh any some appointments today?

Yes.

Okay.

Uh the chair will open uh entertain a motion to recess into a closed session pursuant to the exceptions from open meetings allowed by section 2.2-37-11A Code of Virginia as amended for the following purposes: personnel matters, discussions, considerations, interviews or prospective candidates for employment, assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries discipline or resignation of specific

public officers, appointees or employees of any public body pursuant to section 2.2-37-11A1.

That's council appointments, boards, commissions committees authorities agencies and appointees. Do I have a motion? So moved.

Second.

I'll take the conversation. Raise your hand.

No.

Okay.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

No, I Hi, sorry.

Hi.

No.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Okay, we're uh we're recessed into closed

I'm moving.

No.

No, I know I WAS GOING TO, BUT YOU CAN SUCK IT UP.

YOU EXPECT it to be good.

Suck it up. SUCK IT UP.

SUCK IT.

YOU GOT IT.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I'm tired.

I.

Thank you all. We are adjourned.