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The Virginia Beach City Council held a special formal session on March 12, 2026, primarily to address a temporary curfew ordinance for unaccompanied minors. The meeting began with Mayor Bobby Dyer calling the session to order and immediately entertaining a motion to recess into a closed session for consultation with legal counsel regarding the imminent threat curfew ordinance. The motion passed unanimously, and the council entered a closed session. After reconvening in an open session, the council voted 11-0 to certify that the closed session was conducted in accordance with state law. The main agenda item, an ordinance to authorize a temporary additional curfew for unaccompanied minors at the resort city, was then discussed. Councilmember Jennifer raised questions from parents about exemptions for minors attending events like dances or sports, and she asked for clarification on the geographic boundaries of the curfew. The Police Chief responded, specifying the curfew area would be from Rudy Loop to 31st Street, west to Pacific Avenue. He assured the council that normal exemptions for travel to and from legitimate events would apply and that the police department would enforce the curfew empathetically, focusing on voluntary compliance before issuing warnings or detentions. Following the brief discussion, the council proceeded to a vote on the ordinance. The measure was approved unanimously with a vote of 11-0. With no other business, the meeting was adjourned.
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Council
Public Safety
Welcome all uh to our special session today. In accordance with Virginia Beach, me as mayor of the city of Virginia Beach, I hereby call for a special formal session of the Virginia Beach City Council, Tuesday, March 12th, 2026 at 3:30 of City Council conference room uh 2034, building 1, second floor, 2401 courthouse drive. The purpose of this special forum or session is to allow the
0:41city council to convene into a close session to consider the following legal advice limited threat curfew ordinance.
0:51At 4:00, city council will convene into an open session of the city in the city council chamber to consider the following. Okay.
1:01certifying the close session and then the ordinance to authorize a temporary additional curfew for unaccomp unaccompanied minors and to authorize certain additional actions to assist law enforcement at the resort city. The special formal session will be broadcast on cable TV, virginia.com and Facebook live.
1:23Sincerely, Bobby [snorts] Dyer. Okay.
1:26Okay. I think we're you have this call for special session.
1:30Okay. Oh, call for special. Oh, yeah.
1:33Right here. Here we go.
1:38That's why they pay me the [snorts] big bucks. All right. The chair will entertain a motion to recess into a closed session pursuant to the exemptions of the open meetings allowed by section 2.2371A code of Virginia as amended for the following purposes. Consultation with legal uh council employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the permission of
2:04legal advice by such council pursuant to section 2.23711A and that is the imminent uh threat curfew ordinance. So I have a motion.
2:16So moved.
2:17Second.
2:18Okay.
2:18Couni.
2:19Yes.
2:19Councley.
2:22Yes. Cut.
2:24Hi. Counc. Jackson.
2:25Hi.
2:26Hi.
2:30Hi.
2:31Hi.
2:32Wilson.
2:33Hi.
2:34Hi.
2:34I to zero.
2:35Okay. We are turned into close.
2:47Want to call this uh meeting to order.
2:51And uh you know once again could we have the roll call please?
2:57All present.
2:58Okay. Uh motion to certify the close session.
3:06Second.
3:08Mayor give us just a second. We have just a couple members coming in. So we need to have them vote.
3:13Okay.
3:13For the certification as well.
3:20Go ahead and open the vote here.
3:23The vote is open.
3:33By vote of 11 to zero, you have certified the close session to be in accordance with a motion to recess.
3:38Okay. Okay. The only item up for uh discussion is the ordinance to authorize a uh temporary additional curfew for unaccompanied minors to authorize certain additional actions uh to assist law enforcements. Are there any speakers tonight?
3:56There are no speakers, sir.
3:58Okay, we have a motion.
4:02Okay, unless we have any discussion, let's go ahead to the vote.
4:08One second.
4:08Okay, Jennifer.
4:11Thank you, Mayor. I just want to ask a couple of clarifying questions that I got from um some parents. So, um one of the calls I got um this week since our Tuesday meeting was concern from a parent who saw the uh curfew from 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. and she said, "Well, you know what about kids that have ring dance that are going to events or dance?
4:33They're participating in sporting events." So, um before we vote, can we clarify, somebody clarify what the exemptions are to this, um uh imminent threat curfew and also the geographic boundaries? Is it citywide or where are um where is this going to be implemented? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Is this okay if the chief responds to that?
4:54Mr. Mayor, yes, she's okay if the chief response.
4:57Yep.
4:59Greetings, mayor, members of council, council member, thank you for the question and I think it is important to clarify and that's something that uh if the council does vote in favor of this that we're going to work with the city comm's team to make sure that there are no questions about what we are asking for. So the geographical boundaries are going to be from Rudy Loop to 31st
5:18Street uh west to Pacific. It is a very clearly defined area and of course there are the normal exemptions for trailing to and from legitimate events and I can tell you that your Virginia Beach Police Department is going to do a very empathetic job with the curfew enforcement and I think the numbers that we have from the previous years where we have issued less than 60 speaks to how
5:43we utilize that tool. It is not a tool that we utilize often, frequent, and we really only utilize it when there are no other measures. And unfortunately, I think that's where we have come to with our situation at the ocean front. Um, so I think to the community, to the council, our primary response is going to be try to gain voluntary compliance.
6:07It's all going to be about request, compliance advice warnings persuasion, and until it gets to the point that uh we're not getting that type of cooperation, then we will look at the detentions and the warnings.
6:22Okay, good. Anybody else? Okay, let's open the vote.
6:26Thank you.
6:27The vote is open.
6:29[snorts] By a vote of 11 to zero, you've approved the ordinance.
6:35Okay. Thank you very much. No other business today. We are returned. Thank you.