City Council Special Formal Meeting, 4/14/2026

Very much.

Honorable members of city council in accordance with the Virginia Beach City Code 2-21 and by the authority vested in me as the mayor of the city of Virginia Beach, I hereby call for a special formal session of the Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. City [snorts] Council Conference Room 2034 of Building 1, second floor, 2401 Courthouse Drive.

Uh the the purpose of the special formal session to allow city council members of following its regularly scheduled formal session as listed the attached agenda to convene into a closed session to consider the uh uh following matters.

First of all, legal matters, Atlantic Park and also Oceanfront Public Safety, and then publicly held property in District 2, uh personnel matters city council appointments boards commissions committees authorities agencies task force, and appointees. At the conclusion of the closed session, uh the city will reconvene into open session for purposes of certifying the closed session. The

special formal session will be broadcast on cable TV, virginiabeach.gov, and Facebook Live. Uh and that is sincerely uh Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer.

Um I'd like to uh with your permission, council members, uh to start off to acknowledge, if we can do a moment of silence and prayer for Barbara Henley and her family.

As we all know, uh her hus- long time husband, Winky, has passed and uh our our thoughts and prayers goes with the Henley family. So, if we can do a moment of prayer.

Okay, thank you all very much.

Okay, at this point, I think we're ready to go forward. All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, at this time, we'll continue with our ongoing budget conversations. The first presentation of the day will be from Housing and Neighborhood um Services Department Reservation Apartment Director Ruthie Hill. She'll give City Council overview of the proposed budget operating budget for fiscal year '26-'27 for her

department.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, distinguished council members, Mr.

Dorney, Mr. South.

Thank you for your time this afternoon.

We are going to talk about the budget and we're going to start with the trends and issues that are happening um in housing at our current time. So, currently, we have um one in three households in the city that are considered housing cost burdened, um which means that they pay actually 30% or more of their income towards housing cost.

We know that renters and homeowners are nearly equally um proportionally housing cost burdens what we burden, excuse me, but we do know that renters actually um are proportionally paying more cost towards rent than homeowners.

40% of our seniors aged 75 or over are also housing cost burdened.

In 2024, there was the median rent was $1,750, which required an income of $70,000 a year to pay that.

Median um home crisis have increased by 5% over the last 2 years and coupled with the high interest rates, what we know is that it's more and more difficult for first-time and moderate um homeowners to purchase homes. And we're going to talk a little bit about something that we want to do towards that this year.

Um In terms of affordability, um we help residents obtain affordable housing through a variety of ways. I want to thank you again publicly for what you did last um fall in approving the attainable workforce housing performance grant. I want to share with you that we currently have 612 units in the pipeline with that program, which is amazing. 372 of them are funded. Grand Lakes and the Silos, or it's now being

called Whispering Pines, are funded, and then 240 of the units, Concord Lake Apartments and Solace Springs, um are awaiting funding through the Lightic Project program. So, we're excited about that.

Um we also have an owner occupied rehab that we help people um that own their homes that need to have rehab done, and we also have the federal choice housing choice voucher program, and then what we'd like to do this year is take some of the funds that I'm going to tell you how we're going to use them from the federal dollars and and start a down payment and closing cost assistance

program for people that are looking to purchase homes, affordable homes, but don't have that money. So, we're excited about that program starting. Um we also leverage public and private partnerships. Um we have I wanted to share with you that Tranquility at the Lakes, um which is one of our partners, um we talked about the senior piece.

They actually are going to be starting um opening up in the next few weeks. Um and they are going to have 60 um they're going to have 38 units for people for 40, 50, and 60% of the area median income, and they're in District 4 in Dr.

Amelia Ross Hammond's district, and so that is one way that our partnerships are working together to combat that need.

As we move on to homelessness issues, um the 2026 point-in-time count has not been um the data has not been released yet. So, in 2025, I wanted to share that 327 homeless persons were identified, which was an increase of 16 persons persons from 2024. But over the past 5 years, we have done targeted interventions, which have yielded a 9% decrease in our chronic homeless population, which is huge. Um and then

over the past decade, the city has experienced a 34% reduction in our unsheltered homelessness through our enhancement of shelter capacity and the expansion of uh permanent housing options.

Um I also wanted to share with you that in the next uh month, um Judeo-Christian Outreach Center will be opening 38 units of permanent supportive housing at the oceanfront, and we're excited about those coming online to help this issue.

Um we do know that homelessness is affecting those aged 55 and older at a higher level, and that that statistic is a national um trend that we're seeing, but it's also happening here. Single men and women constitute 75% of all the homelessness we uh persons we serve here in the city of Virginia Beach, and most of that re- the reason is because they're on fixed incomes and their their fixed

incomes are not keeping pace with the um escalating housing expenses. So, when somebody loses housing, they become um they they get evicted, they're not able to find another apartment to get back into. So, that's a an challenge that we're dealing with.

Other challenges is that the minority um groups are overrepresented in our city. As you know, the relative to the proportion of the city's minorities in our city, it is the most um it it remains the overrepresentation here in our city for homeless persons.

So, what we're doing to combat that is that we are working on and continue work on encampment strategy. Um What you can see is that we cleared 29 encampments in 2025, and we were able to transition seven people directly into shelter or housing. In 2024, we actually did 20 excuse me, 100 encampments. So, you can see a decline in the encampments that's happening because we're continuing this monthly process of

working, looking at people that are living in encampments, and prioritizing them for shelter or housing.

Um one of the things that came up particularly in this um winter was the issue around barriers to shelter. What we found with there are were individuals that would avoid shelters due to pet restrictions or limited storage, and so we are working on um exploring pet fostering fostering um pet friendly fostering issues and some expanded storage facility um solutions that can help with that.

Um All right. So, major budget changes for my department this year is that we are requesting in service level three um to fund at $110,000 a City to Tech pilot.

City to Tech is a uh platform to evaluate the effectiveness of an AI-driven imagery for proactive code enforcement. And what we'll do is we will have two cameras on one vehicle that will be mounted to detect property maintenance code violations and in improve inspection efficiency.

Um that the reason for that is that it can pinpoint potential code violations and it could reduce travel times um and the need to for patrol. We have inspectors in every precinct and um if we're able to integrate this with our inspections database, it could streamline the processing of notices um notice of violations as well. So we're looking forward to that. Um we did meet with Newport News recently.

They are using uh City Detect in a pilot and they're very thrilled with it and we got some good information about how it's working there.

Um Stockton, California has also been using it and they have got really good results. So we think this pilot will help us to determine whether this can be effective um both cost-effective and be more efficient for the community um if we use it.

The other update I wanted to share with you is that we have moved um six code enforcement positions into the general fund um um general fund pot of money and what that will do is that is going to allow us to free up federal funding for the homeownership rehab program and other eligible programs. You heard me share with you that we wanted to do the first-time homeowners um closing cost assistance program.

Um some of that money will be able to transition to the community to help with that.

The um Hampton Roads Planning District Commission uh excuse me, Ham- Hampton Roads Planning District yeah, Commission runs a program and we're the only city that doesn't work with them for excuse [clears throat] me.

Excuse me, I got a tickle. Um for closing cost assistance and down payment assistance.

I was at a meeting two days ago there and they said they get more calls for City of Virginia Beach than any other city in the region and so we want to partner with them for that.

Excuse me.

Um Okay, thank you. Um [snorts] I do want to share with you that we just this week received our um funding allocation from the federal government and we got a 3.39% in our community planning um [snorts] funding which includes HOPWA, ESG, CDBG and HOME. We have not got our gotten our allocation for our housing choice voucher.

Um we should be able to work with um the budget office um during reconciliation for the CPD funding, but we'll have to come back to you um for council approval because we haven't after the budget has been approved because we have not gotten the housing choice voucher allocation yet. So [snorts] that is my report. Questions for me?

Okay, any questions? Okay, let's go Hutchins, Stacy and then Jennifer.

Stacy.

Thank you, Director Hill. Um appreciate all that y'all are doing.

Getting way up there at the top. You're one of the departments that really excels in my opinion. Thank you. Um when you talk about the the finances for the first-time housing and trying to do that, is there a is there a number? Is there a goal? How does that work with HRPC? And that's how you do it. Just say HRPC. Don't try to say the whole Yeah, I can't say it right. Thank you. HRPC. But um

can you give us just a little bit more of what that looks like cuz that's an exciting program.

it will depend on how much they need in closing cost assistance. We expect to maybe do four or five families. Our goal is to put um $200,000 towards that program, but because of the cost in Virginia Beach, it's not going to it's not going to serve but a small number of families. Yeah, it's almost like getting in the lottery, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

Stacy. Let's do Stacy.

So uh [snorts] thanks for the presentation and just a comment on the um affordable housing uh grant program.

If you do the numbers where um for the units that have been put into the program the cost to the city is about $100 a unit per month which is an amazing value to think that we're getting 600 some units put into the program at that kind of cost and not to say that there's no upfront cost to the city. So no money's going into the program.

Uh there's no maintenance, no insurance, no upkeep, nothing the city has to do once once this has been our unit's been put into the program. So it's just this is just been a home run. It has been.

a great program. Thank you for bringing it to us cuz it is a uh it's one of the solutions to to an ongoing problem. Thank you. I was at a regional meeting um yesterday um with HUD and there were three regional localities that came up to me and asked me for my card so that they could learn about the program because they were pretty excited about it when I shared it.

And when I say that the cost is $100 per unit, that's it's not that the city has to pay out $100. It's just the in foregone um you know, real estate tax revenue that's would have been but for revenue anyway.

So it's just this incredible program. Mhm. Thank you.

Thank you. You guys were the ones who approved it. I appreciate that.

Hey, Jennifer. Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Director Hill. I know that there had been a gap between the number of residents who are on the um seeking assistance with the housing choice voucher and the number of available units for rent. What is the status of that? Is there are we offering more units? Is there still a long list for those? Yeah, so the waiting list remains closed.

Um we have begun this past year uh trying to quarterly begin to purge the list. What happens is people go on the list and then they get lost. We can't find them and so we need to purge the list more often than was happening so that we keep uh a list of a realistic list. We're trying to get it down to about 2,000 people um which sounds like a lot, but right

now it's at 10,000. Um and so you have to go through the list by compliance a very specific way that HUD requires us to and it it just keeps people from getting back on the list um unless they're already on it. So we're we're working on purging it to getting it down to a more reasonable um size. Will they be notified if someone is purged? Oh, absolutely. So what we do is we reach

out to them and if we reach out to them three times, if we can't get them through phone, through email, through letter after certain amount of time, then we'll purge them.

Yep.

Hey Mary.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

I'm really happy that the trainable workforce performance grant is really a great bonus for us.

[clears throat] And then also where you have down payment assistance Mhm.

those are sometimes things that it can just open doors for people in there. And most important here was that pet-friendly program. Can you talk a tiny bit more about that? Cuz we have people who do not even want to be um housed Yeah.

because of their pets.

Yeah. And then Yeah, so we we we are we have a by-name list if I've shared with you before, so we know all of those that are experiencing unsheltered homelessness in our city and we have less than 10 people that are known to us that have a pet um and what what we found out is that there are people that cannot or will not come into shelter with with a pet. So we're working with um

the City of Virginia Beach um animal control as well as some other providers um to see if we can do a fostering program. So during sheltering events like what we had with the winter shelter with the weather in in January, that we could get people to come into shelter during that time or even if people would come in and they could foster their animal for a while. It's it's hard because people oftentimes um feel like

their pets are family members and and that's where it it's just difficult for people to to release them to somebody that's unknown. So it's a barrier we're working on. Right, and the foster care needs to bring trust.

Those people. So what a foster program would look like would be somebody like you or me might be willing to house an animal that somebody experiencing homelessness owns for a season of time while they're in shelter trying to get housed. So that's what that would look like.

Thank you.

Okay, and now Josh. Um thank you, Mayor.

Just uh really quick. Uh will we receive I guess in the future or will the public kind of have a better sense for how this City Detect program would work um in case people have questions about um that that Yeah, so once the pilot evaluation is completed, then we're going to sit together and talk about um what kind of notification we need to do, how we need to communicate with our citizens about the program.

Anyone else?

Thank you for doing such a magnificent job. You and your entire staff, I tell you, you're doing God's work and we appreciate it.

Thank you.

[snorts] And it is indeed my staff that is doing it. So, thank you so much.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we'll be joined by Director Aileen Smith. She'll go over the Human Services proposed operating budget for fiscal year '26 and '27.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor.

And Vice Mayor, City Council members, City Manager, and City Attorney.

Uh today I have with me Joe Yunken, who is our new CFO and I did want to introduce him. He's been with us about a month and a half. He comes to us from Public Utilities. So, sorry, Bob.

Uh but we are really, really happy to have him. He's already doing dashboards for us, which is changing the way we look at our finances and and so we're real pleased that he has joined us.

I would also like to thank the Human Services staff before I get started.

They have been through quite a lot of challenges that you're going to hear in this presentation, some of the big changes that we have, and they are adapting so well. So, a big thank you to Human Services staff.

I did put on your tables a resource guide, an updated resource guide for this year, as well as a couple pins. It is Child Welfare uh Prevention Month. So, you have a little pin. Yes, there you go. I know you like the pins.

Uh so, there you go. Um All right. Yes, I like it. And yeah, I know. And there's also a Human Services one for you.

Okay. So, today we're going to talk a little bit about trends and issues in the Human Services Department, and of course we have a lot of things going on. A big uh item for us is the opioid abatement programs that we have started on behalf of the city uh the city, but with and in conjunction with other departments. So, the Behavioral Health Team actually works very hard to get all of these

programs together, the applications together, but you will see here in this slide and in this top uh bullet here, that we have programs with the police, we have programs with EMS, as well as with the Health Department, and also the schools. So, there is the Recovery Harbor Hope School that opened up in Chesapeake, and uh the last numbers that I heard was about 11 students were in

that program. Five from Virginia Beach, five from Nor- uh five from Chesapeake, and one from Norfolk. And they expect to have about 25 kids that'll go through that program. The Teen to Teen Social Media program, which is with the Health Department, is a campaign where we actually have teens put out social media so that the other teens get interested.

It's a little different when teens talk to teens as opposed to adults talking to teens about substance use.

Um EMS, the program that they um are doing is called Next Steps. It was called initially Impacts program, but now it's called Next Steps.

And they have seen probably about 25 citizens in the city. What that program is is if someone overdoses, but it was considered accidental, then they go out and they do more education with them about substances and try to give them a little bit more tools in their toolbox to understand what they're doing, what they're taking, and what the effects will be.

So, uh two of the other items under the opioid abatement um bullet that I want to talk about are the vans. So, we are doing a van for prevention, our prevention program. This would be a van that would go out to parks after dark and to other events so that people would see the Human Services logo, the city's logo on there, and it says Prevention in Motion or something like that on it. And

then there's also this regional collaborative program that we have done with five other or four other cities, and that's called the WOW van, Wellness in Motion or Wellness uh Wellness something. Okay. Anyways, it's called the WOW van. That's how I remember it. And it's going to be a treatment van where there will be a doctor on it, a nurse on it, and our clinician on it. We will get that van

one day a week, and the other cities will get the van the other days. And so, we would also try to schedule that where we have more of a big city event. It is when you think of this, think of a big RV going down the street. And so, you're going to have a side where someone could come in and actually get a physical, and then a side where someone can talk about

using substances, and that's where our staff would would be.

Um that's in collaboration with Sentara, as well.

So, both of those vans will probably be on the road in about 6 months.

And finally, these programs, a lot of them we are continuing into the next fiscal year. You have to again apply for everything, but our goal is to make sure that we're doing things with other city departments and other city um agencies as a collaborative for these opioid abatement funds.

The next big item is under Social Services, and that is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program.

So, in our city we have about 28,000 to 34,000 on average monthly citizens who are getting SNAP. This would be in the past you would think of it as food stamps.

This program has an incredible amount of changes that are coming this year from the federal government for the most part. One of them is um that there will be a difference in the work requirements. Whereas Medicaid never had work requirements, and now they do.

SNAP had work requirements, but the age limit is going up, or the age of the person that they will have to work will be longer. So, it used to be up to age 55, now it will be up to age 64 that you have to work.

The working is an 80-hour a month requirement.

Um and so, that is a big change for that program, as well as this error rate issue. In the past, since the 1960s, the federal government has al- always paid 100% for this related to what whether or not your state had an error rate or not. Some states have very low error rates.

There's about six in the nation that have under 6%, but any state that has an error rate that's over 6% will have a requirement for their state to pay a portion now. That is that was historically not something that they had to pay. So, that is something that we're watching the state budget on to see how that goes in the next month here in the next couple weeks.

And you did see and heard from Brent that it was in there, in the house in particular.

So, the next item would be Medicaid eligibility.

Uh well, let me say one more thing about the SNAP. The the part about that cost share requirement is effective this Octo- October of 2027.

However, in October '27, they will be looking at this fiscal year's error rate. And uh currently the state's error rate is 10.49%.

So, what that is an equivalent to is $180 million.

Uh Medicaid eligibility. So, uh for Virginia Beach, we have about 88,000 citizens or residents who are on Medicaid, and about 26,000 of them receive the Medicaid benefits through the expansion program.

Effective in January of 2027 is when the work requirements are going to go into effect and new eligibility kind of standards around that. And again, it's this 80 hours per week I mean, per per week. What's what we do? No, sorry.

80 hours.

Per month. And um uh or training of 80 hours or volunteerism. So, what we're trying to do is find some other volunteer uh opportunities for citizens to be able to have, as well as other ways that they can perhaps work. And that is one of the items that I will go to on my next slide.

Um the renewal period effective in January of 2027, the expansion enrollees are also going to have to be reassessed every 6 months. So, not only is this challenging for the expansion enrollees themselves to have to come forth with all their information, but it's also challenging for our staff.

It doubles their work. So, if you think there's 26,000 residents that need us to do this, double that for what we are not doing currently. We are only doing it one time a year.

The co-pay. So, expansion enrollees will also have a co-pay that is going to start in 2029, and it will be $35 per uh visit per service.

Okay.

Next slide is just about some of the the changes that we had in our budget, and this is just some of them. So, in order to uh kind of support ourselves in what's happening with the changes in the benefits program, we did ask for one family support specialist and some benefit program assistants, two of those. That's actually rather low for what I need, but I didn't feel like I could come forth to you asking for more

positions when I still have some vacancies in this program. So, I have about 11 vacancies I'm still trying to fill. If I was able to fill those vacancies, then I would probably come back and do an assessment of what our case loads are, because our case loads are running 1,100 to 1,300 cases per staff member, and they should really be in the 7 to 800 range. So, once we get 11 positions

filled, then we will relook and see what we need to do in the next budget cycle.

But, for right now, we're asking for a family support specialist, and the state will pick up approximately 65% of this position.

It will also help with these work requirements, and this position will actually be based out of the housing resource center on the third floor, and will um support the other benefit staff, which are located at our main building.

The two additional benefit program assistants, we are going to pay for by um an equal reduction in our contract staff in this area. We are having a really hard time filling the temporary or contract staff. We find it easier to hire city positions, so we wanted to kind of do a swap there of our funding and try to hire some city positions for the benefit program assistants.

The last item is in the behavioral health area, and that relates to permanent supportive housing. We are going to use some of our fund balance to move it into our operating budget, so that we can manage the additional slots that we have received in the last year.

We had 142 slots, and now we have 202 slots.

Uh for citizens who have mental health issues and are chronically homeless. So, we wanted to move some of that fund balance over. We have also been able to fill most of the positions in that program. Last year this time we had six vacancies in that program, now we only have two.

So, questions for me. Okay, any questions?

Okay Hutch.

So, when you talk about the 11 the 11 folks that you're short, any cuz it's it seems to be a um a trend for everybody. You know, what any any anything you can attribute it to, or and as well as any hope in the near future of that turning around?

Uh we are always recruiting, and doing the best that we can to be competitive with our salaries. We do have a hiring bonus for these positions.

Um we increased them by one step recently to try to bring them up to the level of some of our sister cities.

So, we're doing everything that we can financially to incentivize. I think we always need to remain competitive as a city with our salaries, so we're we're watching that.

But, uh the other thing that we have done with the benefits program in particular, out of all the human services programs, the benefits staff do more of a hybrid work environment. So, they telework as well as in the office.

We do not need them in the office every day to know they're processing applications, and that seems to work much better for their lifestyle. They're very pleased that we have retained that hybrid workplace for them. So, that has also kept us pretty competitive. Actually, 11 is is one of the better Okay.

Yeah. So, it might just be of how it's been in the past. Mhm. Yes, sir.

Okay, anyone else? All right, Jennifer.

I don't really know how to frame the question. I'm thinking about sort of as the changes to SNAP and Medicaid come into effect, and the number of individuals who have received those benefits will decrease because of the change in the policy, but I don't know if their circumstances have changed where the need for some kind of support will go away.

So, I'm just thinking about as we're I don't know what the question is, but I'm just thinking about preparing for people who may still have need, but no longer are getting these kinds of services.

If there's work requirements, thinking about sort of the jobs that are coming online, the kinds of work that they need, do do we have that, or is that accessible, is it available?

Um what they're kind of looking for.

Correct. So, it it is a challenging situation all around all around the nation, not just for us, not just for Virginia.

Um what we're trying to do, like I said, is also find volunteer opportunities, so maybe it's a hybrid there that they're working, and then they're also doing some of that to get that 80 hours.

But, the thing that is important here to remember is these folks aren't going away, and we'll continue to serve them.

They may not have Medicaid in the same manner that they did, but if they are a mental health client who has been seeing us, we will be continuing to serve them.

So, and that would be on the other side of the agency, on the behavioral health side. But, it would be at an indigent cost, so they wouldn't be paying us, we wouldn't be billing Medicaid, but we cannot not serve these folks. They still need our services.

That makes sense? Yeah, it's just something to think about. Oh, yeah. Thank you.

Okay, anyone else?

Uh you know, when we talk about essential city services, you [clears throat] are a very essential city services.

And when [snorts] you take a look at the fact that, you know, WalletHub said that Virginia Beach is the most caring city in the country, uh you and along with the partners that you work with, with the faith-based community, and the for-profits, and everything, but really help fill a lot of the gaps that people need really down in the community.

You are invaluable. So, you know, thank you and kudos to you and your entire staff. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you on behalf of the staff.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, the next presentation will be given by Fire Chief Ken Pravetz. He's [snorts] going to give City Council an overview of the proposed items on the fiscal year 2026-2027 operating budget for the fire department, as well as a request from City Council for additional information regarding the possibility to move towards 40-hour staffing in the fire department.

Very welcome, Pravetz. Good afternoon, Mayor and Vice Mayor, members of City Council, Mr. Dane, Mr. Styles. Thank you for allowing me to talk about the budget today.

The key [clears throat] budget priorities this year were based around maintaining outstanding service delivery, investing in our infrastructure, including the fleet, facilities, and equipment. And finally, we requested funding to continue to invest in our outstanding staff. All of our budget submissions align with the City Council focus plans, people, places, and partnerships.

And today I'm joined with the majority of my command staff, and I just like to uh acknowledge the outstanding work that the men and women of our fire department do every day. We're very proud of everything they accomplish.

Okay, the trends and issues. The big The big three trends for us this year this year were firefighter health, staffing, uh and to deliver on our mission, and supply chain challenges.

On the matter of firefighter health, we're working hard to reduce the exposures and toxins as best as possible in our profession. Currently, we have over 40 firefighters that are working or have worked for the Virginia Beach Fire Department that have cancer diagnoses.

In the partnership with risk management, we've begun advanced health screening, and we're seeing results. Roughly 60% of our staff have already participated in these advanced screenings, and the department is forecasted to have all of the members completed by May.

This is a major improvement uh in previ- over previous years of health getting our people through physicals.

Our members are being identified health concerns, and they're able to take proactive preventive measures to uh to nip these problems in the bud, or to take aggressive care. Um firefighters are being informed, and they're able to uh to respond to those that information.

We've also initiated a diesel exhaust capture device on Engine 19, which is reducing the exhaust exposure to our firefighters and to the fleet mechanics that work on our fire apparatus. We hope to expand this uh to the rest of the fleet over the next few years as we replace apparatus, as it is making an additional healthy work environment in the fire stations.

And we continue to track the changes in the fire uh fire service personal protective equipment. As you know, the protective equipment contains PFAS, and it's a challenge for us, so we're tracking the industry as they make changes to make sure that we can put our firefighters in the most protective gear and still perform our mission.

On the staffing front, our lost time continues to be a challenge.

We still average about 42 firefighters annually that are assigned to limited year no duty due to injuries or illnesses.

This is a their average duration of about 99 days. This accounts to about 40,000 hours of lost work, or 1.6 million dollars in salaries that these firefighters are not able to perform their work. So, staffing shortages are also caused due to daily leave, family medical leave, and military duty.

Due to the support of the City Council, I'd like to say thank you for that. Uh in previous budgets, you gave us 60 positions. That has having a very big impact. Our overtime is down 50%, and our mandatory overtime at the end of the calendar year last year was down 80 to 90%, so thank you for investing in the positions to help us get the mandatory overtime down.

[snorts] 17 firefighters just graduated. I know some of you were there, and I appreciate you coming. We appreciate the uh firefighters taking the step to join our department. We have 35 vacancies today, and uh the end of the month we're hoping to hire 42 firefighter recruits, and uh they expect to start the academy at the end of April.

Application loads are still below where we'd like them. Our applications are still trending two to 300 below the police department, which is a very concerning trend. We are tracking what the police department is doing to see if their recruitment efforts uh increases the applications and results in successful hires.

Finally, I believe you're all aware of the issues in the emergency vehicle uh industry, and the proposed budget does continue to help us manage this challenge.

The major budget changes for us that have been recommended in this budget, we moved three positions from a grant line to the general fund.

This was more of administrative change and it has no impact on our budget.

And as I mentioned earlier, the number of overtime hours is trending down with a 50% reduction. However, with the salary adjustments last year, we anticipate a need for additional overtime in our budget. I'd like to remind you that we pay for holidays, FLSA cycle pay and other expenses out of this budget line. So, it is not just mandatory staffing that impacts our overtime.

Lost time is a major factor as I mentioned earlier, but we're also doing things like staffing an ambulance to support EMS and trying different response vehicles that limit the heavy fleet responding to some types of calls.

On the capital side of things, we requested funding to keep our fleet operational and fund the replacement of our self-contained breathing apparatus.

Both of these requests are so that we can continue to serve the community and respond to changes in the industry and the fire environment.

I will mention the challenge in the fire apparatus and we appreciate the support city council has provided to help us keep the fleet operational.

The self-contained breathing apparatus replacement will help us protect our firefighters from the toxins that they unfortunately have to work in and keep them safe and reliable apparatus.

Allowing us to continue to protect our workforce and reduce occupational diseases while continuing to be aggressive in our firefighting. This will help us save lives, civilian and firefighters.

And to echo echo to what Chief Stroud and Chief Newdigate mentioned, we have significant facility and CIP challenges.

Both fire We have fire stations built in the '50s, the '60s and the '70s that no longer meet the needs of the community.

We submitted seven several new facility requests, none of which were moved forward. This year we'll be working on a master facility plan to address the needs of our current facilities to better inform the city council and to make some items for discussion in future budget years.

With all the infill development, there's increased housing units and increased density. This creates higher risk, expanding the the gaps in our response coverage and that need will be met that need will need to be mitigated through increased density in fire and rescue fire stations.

And finally, the staffing request that we submitted, our budget submission included a request to initiate a process to begin to better manage the firefighters work schedule.

VBFS VBFD has been exploring this issue for over a year as it's better it has spread across the country.

The current average firefighters work 56 hours a week. Everybody kind of giggled when the the comment was made about 80 hours less when many of our firefighters are working 80 hours a week. Um but there was a the science is clear that this work schedule is harming our ability to deliver our service and detrimental to our members well-being.

I originally put in a a request for $4.7 million to build out a fourth shift in the fire department. In discussions with the budget director and city manager, I changed recently changed it to a $3.7 million ask that would allow us to provide some relief under the three schedule rotation that we're doing now.

This would allow us to get the firefighters to an average of a 48-hour work week.

While I hoped we could be first in the region, we are seeing departments across the Commonwealth and the region moving in this direction.

This request was to help us remain competitive in the industry by allowing us to recruit the best candidates and retain our workforce. It will also have a positive impact on our members on our members well-being.

As fire chief, I believe it is important for us to signal that we're also implementing a plan to make a change in this area.

And finally, take any questions you have.

Hey, Worth and Stacy and [clears throat] Cash and Jennifer.

Thank you, Mayor Dyer. Thank you, Chief Privett for the presentation. And first for I have about two questions. I did do a ride-along last Saturday. Beautiful day during the day at the oceanfront, otherwise at night, but went on two calls and it was a great experience, about 4 or 5 hours, great camaraderie, great educational. I learned a lot about what you're saying here. And so, that kind of

segues into the second question. And that is the issue of the 56 hours a week and I was not aware of that. And that's 52 weeks a year and that's on average.

So, I I hear you. This does potentially could compromise their ability to serve.

And so, I do think we need to address this issue that you have asked for. And I don't know about this year, but I do think that it comes back to recruiting and and and not necessarily pay, but recruiting more engineers. So, I I think we should be trying to address that.

I appreciate that. We we the science is all saying that the recovery time is so important and that's that's what we're trying to work towards is increase the recovery time. Our our firefighters work an average of uh 364 8-hour shifts a year.

So, it does it [clears throat] does accumulate and it's a lot on them on them.

And several of those are 24 hours on.

they typically work 24-hour shift. I was just breaking it down to the hours to count to the normal workforces 8 hours.

So, they work 364 of those equivalents.

So. And the second question you mentioned in your presentation, I just want to make this clear for me.

So, if you're injured and you're not able to work, you're not compensated at all?

getting paid. They're just not out on the street protecting on riding on a fire truck. So, they're they're in a limited Most of them come back to a limited duty capacity where we could use them to help with resource or logistics or training and something with whatever the scope of their limitations are, but they're not on a fire truck. So, I have to backfill that position. So, that's where that cost

is lost salary, lost time and that's where the expenses add up.

Thank you. Okay, Stacy.

Thank you, Chief.

Um the emergency service all of our emergency service personnel. You know, the idea of holiday pay not really being much of a benefit for those cuz they're working holidays anyway. Do you see validity in look examining the cost of changing the way they're compensated for holiday to flex days? Is that something that would be beneficial to I think many of the firefighters count on the holiday pay. Um

and so, we we still have three flexible holidays that when the city transitioned, we maintained three flexible holidays, but I do think many of our members count on the holiday pay.

So, I think that's a bigger discussion.

I'm probably not really ready to answer.

Okay. Uh Cash, Jennifer and Rosemary.

Chief, I'm thankful for your presentation. Thank you.

Um I'm I'm thankful [clears throat] for Stumpy Lake um Station 19. It's in my district and they play a large role in community involvement, right? After hours or during work hours and when children are getting off their school bus, that's sort of a drop-off point for um uh the kids to to sit into their parents pick them up. So, that's a safe uh environment for our community. It's become a pillar in um

in Virginia Beach as fire departments not just having the mission of fighting fires, but they're also um paramount when you think about going to schools and connecting with the kids and they're first line sight of really saying, "Mom, Dad, I want to be a firefighter." because of their exposure um to what you provide at schools. So, um the fire department is very um important to me. Um not just because of being in

city council, but because of my exposure as a child.

So, in plain words, Chief, could you tell us again what you need from city council?

Well I I look at my boss to see if I No, I yeah. He's pulling his belt up. I'm not sure what he means.

That's a trick. That's a trick. No, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I love you.

You could write it down. Write it down.

No, I they the the council has given us the the money towards maintaining our fleet and that's phenomenal. I really appreciate that. The industry is transitioning its work schedule and I and I think that we need to keep pace with that. And my ask is that we start going down the path of maintaining competitiveness with the industry. And that means for me building out a fourth shift at some point. Um I know that's a

big ask. It's like $15 million to get there. Um so, if we could incrementally start down that path, I would really appreciate the support from council.

You've been phenomenal with our health screening. You've given us a lot. The cancer screening. Um you've invested in our apparatus. You're investing in our um equipment and I really do appreciate what council is doing for me. I I think going forward to maintain a competitive recruitment situation, we're going to need to start transitioning the work schedule away from the 56-hour work schedule.

Thank you.

Hey, Jennifer then Rosemary.

Nice save.

He said, "Chief."

Look at look at his facial expression.

So, hi, Chief. It's um it's been brought up already, the shift to the 48-hour schedule and you'd mentioned the challenge in recruitment and retaining people once they're in the program. And um is it Norfolk that they're going to 42 or 48?

The city manager announced that they're working towards a 42-hour work schedule.

They're going to add a fourth shift and um I don't know exactly what phases they're going to take when, but they are moving towards a 42-hour work week. The um Norfolk already has their paramedics on the 42 and the Department of EMS in our city has our paramedics on a four-shift rotation. So, it is a trend that's just happening and um yeah, of course I wanted to be first, you know, I didn't

want to be uh responding to somebody else in the region, but Norfolk the manager has announced that it's in its budget to start moving that direction.

Yeah, there've been ongoing conversations on this issue. Thank you for that information. And one of my bigger questions was how uh the fire department, their structure was so different from the other emergency services that it became this 56-hour, 48, 42, and how do we get all of these different departments in alignment so that we don't have these challenges where HR is more complicated

and paid time off is more complicated because you all are doing something completely different from your peers in other emergency services departments.

So, I'd love to see us get to something different away from 56. I recognize 42 is going to be a really big jump for this budget, but um I'm in support of looking to see what we can do to reduce it to 48 um and to try to just get y'all into parity with what the other departments are doing. Thank you.

Hey Rosemary.

I think it's pretty obvious that this this council and and uh previous councils have been extraordinarily supportive of our fire department and all of our public safety. We We appreciate appreciate you tremendously and what you do and you keep our safe city very safe.

Um [snorts] This and I wanted to appreciate also the tour that I took of the structural collapse. That was absolutely fascinating.

glad you were able to make it.

Uh and Chief Prevost and I we we talked about this uh proposal um when I came out to visit him and this is a whole big shift in philosophy and it's we're being asked to make it in a very short amount of time.

Which this is this is a really big decision to fairly change how we're we're doing things in like two or three.

I think there's a whole lot of things that complicate more than just the hours and the money. There's a there's a lot of other things, too. I might get Patrick to um speak to that.

[clears throat] I think this council has shown that we're we're good for our word.

We've been very good for our word in the past. Um when you wanted 60 firefighters, you said, "Well, that's a lot for one year." And I think this is an ask of 56 firefighters, by the way.

Um so, we did 31 year and 30 the next year. And then we need we we found out that we really weren't doing a paying enough money to our public safety. So, that year we promised we would do a Marcus survey to find out where we needed to be. [snorts] We did that and we came through for that. So, of course we're spending $19 million on fire apparatus and gear,

which is pretty amazing. It It shows a true dedication.

So, I I think what we might want to consider in this reconciliation is to look at look at this cuz it's a big policy change to find out, you know, uh what's what's all included and what's all needed to happen and what steps would need to take place um and and to look at that.

So, that we we know what we're all getting into without making this huge step all at once. And Patrick, would you mind talking about the different aspects of this and it it affects it's not just hiring more people.

Well, Vice Mayor, I I think you did a pretty commendable job of explaining it, so I [clears throat] really don't have um much to add to it. I think um you're spot-on. To make a policy change this um late in the budget process will require a council to restructure some things and up and find some revenue offsets, right? And as the council know, we adjust the budget basically two ways.

You're either cutting a service or you're bringing revenue or increasing taxes or increasing a fee somewhere to cover the cost on it. I think ideally we would have some time to study this as a fire department and the budget staff and then bring council back a proposed conceptual plan consideration on how we can cover the costs and all the different um impacts associated with going to 48 hours. In talking to the

fire chief, um we don't necessarily think it's going to mean a lot of um impacts to our facilities or our fleet, but those are some answers that we owe you all as well because some of the questions I got from the council members, I don't 100% have those answers to. So, we could be able to bring that together, let you know what's the salary impact for it, if there's going to be

any kind of um fleet or facility-related impacts and we could do that in short order if council so directed in reconciliation for us to bring back something to the council for consideration in in um the fall.

Thank you so much and and I don't think we're in a race with anyone. I mean, Norfolk may be looking at this, but even if they do implement it, it's going to take them a while to do that. So, I I I think that's shouldn't really be a big issue for us. I do have a question. If we reduce hours from was it 58 to is it 56 to 48?

Does that have an impact on each person's um take-home pay?

No, I mean, our expectation is it would not. Their annual salary would stay the same and their hourly rate would change because the num our hourly rate is calculated based on the number of hours they work. So, our firefighters actually get penalized for working more hours cuz they get a reduced hourly rate. So, their hourly rate would actually change, but um we think it's a net neutral

because the holiday pay would go down and eventually the cycle pay would disappear. And the cycle pay is about $1.6 million a year. So, we think there'd be enough offsets to make that neutral, but um that's our general uh And I think that's another issue that we need to make sure we we look into before we we make this big decision and not to put words in your mouth, but when um

Chief Prevost and I talked he seemed to be receptive to doing this study. We could have it done by the end of the year, correct, Patrick?

So, I think that might be a good way to look into it cuz it's a big policy change. We need to make sure we do it we want to do it right. And as I've said, we've always been good for our word with our with our reconciliation letter.

Hey Hutch.

So, first uh hats off, KP. Nice job on the presentation, really. Love the picture that we got in there for Kate Pittman in there.

That's good stuff. I just texted her that, so she's real happy. Um and Lori Zantini, as a lot of you know, she took the picture, so that's that's really cool. Um and the questions y'all asked were well thought out. I really appreciate it and Vice Mayor, way to bring it home. It was exactly what we needed to hear on how it goes. The The only ask that I would have at the end

and I've talked to you about this already, sir, is that if there is some money in the end of this year we're already just hanging on to the numbers for recruits.

Right, Chief? I mean, I'm not It's your numbers that you say you're starting with and then what we end up We're accepting to hire 60 for this academy. Right now, there's 42 people that have accepted the job and willing to start. So, So, all I'm asking is is that at the at the other end of the like next year at this time, if we have it if we have the funds, if we can predict we

have it and I know Kevin can help obviously Katie help with that is that if we can hire before we start this process even, it would help us keep even so we're not starting behind the eight ball.

I think I said that right, but that's Just something that if it's possible, I'm not saying it will be. It's kind of like what I said to y'all about the ambulances for EMS or the fire trucks is if we don't stay a little bit ahead, we're going to fall even further behind is what I'm worried about there. That's that's it. Thank you.

Okay, good conversation. Uh Chief Prevost, thank you and your magnificent crew, everybody that works uh for your department. We are indeed a city of heroes because of you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate this court.

Thank you. Good day.

So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the last budget presentation will be given regarding the schools budget and we're joined in our presentation by several members of the city school board as well. So, I know they'll be making their way down as well.

So, Mr. Mayor, before um Crystal Pay the school CFO kicks off the schools operating budget presentation, um I'd like to see if Dr. Robertson would like to recognize the school board members and the members of the key staff that are here um in the meeting.

Okay. So, thank you uh Mr. Danny.

I'm going to speak at the [clears throat] Yeah, thank you uh Mr. Danny. Ms. Brown, school board chairwoman, is going to make some remarks on our behalf today.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, members of council. I am joined here by school staff as well as Mr. Callan, our school board member, is also here.

Um I'm here today along with staff to present the approved fiscal year 2026-2027 budget and capital improvement program. This year, the school board worked diligently to be more involved and transparent in the budget process as a result of our summer retreat priorities.

Of the projected $33.9 million in increased revenues, this budget includes $22.6 million for future compensation bringing the average pay increase to 5.23% to make us more competitive with the market.

We've also allocated 11.1 million in compensation increases for our unified staff including custodians, food service workers, bus drivers assistants, security and other essential staff who support our students every day.

The board continues to prioritize workforce development and our industry credential program more than 14,500 certifications were earned in the 24-25 school year alone.

Students have access to over 131 credentials aligned to career fields at no cost to students.

Additionally, we continue to expand dual enrollment opportunities in aviation maintenance and medical assisting to strengthen pathways to high demand careers.

Additionally, we are funding the reopening of the Plaza Middle Planetarium.

We continue our commitment to student support by continued funding of transportation to the Harbor Hope Center where we are already seeing strong success with the Regional Recovery School. And finally, the board recognizes the challenges related to the health fund balance and has allocated an additional 5.3 million to strengthening the funds supported in part by continued reductions in central office expenditures.

Um within the capital improvement program, the New Town Diamond Springs addition will move forward shortly.

Princess Anne High School is included in our updated 6-year plan and we are continuing to seek creative ways to reduce costs while meeting our facility needs. And I'm sure that our facilities team will speak to that. Thank you for everything you do for Virginia Beach schools and your continued partnership.

When our city succeeds, our school succeeds and when our school succeeds, that is our city. So thank you.

Thank you for coming.

So good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor Wilson, members of City Council and Mr.

DeHaynie. Thank you for the opportunity to present Virginia Beach City Public Schools fiscal year 2026-2027 proposed budget as outlined in the Superintendent's Estimate of Needs and the 2026-27 through 2031-32 Capital Improvement Program.

This afternoon's presentation will focus on key areas including changes to the division's local composite index or LCI, a comparison of school operating fund revenues, compensation adjustments, health insurance premiums, and the proposed capital improvement program, specifically the timeline for Princess Anne High School.

We will also review proposed uses of additional funding state funding, provide an update on federal revenue, and conclude with time for questions.

So before we begin, I think most of you know, um we would like to know that the General Assembly has not yet approved a state budget. The General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene in a special session on April 23rd and we remain optimistic that a finalized state budget will be adopted after the special session.

The Superintendent's Estimate of Needs provides a comprehensive overview of our budget development process including details on school board funds, priorities, challenges, and key highlights. It also includes information on special revenue funds, historical enrollment trends, per pupil expenditures, and personnel allocations as well as staffing standards and guidelines.

[clears throat] You have heard references to the local composite composite index or LCI which determines the share of funding responsibility between the state and localities for K-12 education.

The LCI is recalculated every 2 years as part of the state's re-benchmarking process.

This index measures each locality's relative ability to generate revenue compared to others across the Commonwealth reflecting changes in local economic conditions.

Divisions with a lower LCI receive more state support while those with a higher LCI receive a smaller share of state funding resulting in a greater local funding responsibility for localities.

In practical terms, as the LCI increases, the funding burden shifts from the state to the locality.

For Virginia Beach City Public Schools, the LCI increased from 0.4138 for the 2024-2026 biennium to 0.4172.

This means the city is now responsible for approximately 41.7% of the cost of the state's minimum education program established under the standards of quality. It is important to note that the city continues to fund education above this required minimum in recognition of the great value that Virginia Beach City Public Schools brings to the quality of life in the city of Virginia Beach.

This slide outlines proposed revenue estimates in the Superintendent's Estimate of Needs for fiscal year 2026-27 compared to fiscal year 2025-26 amended adopted budget.

Total additional revenue from all sources is projected at approximately 33.9 million dollars.

Of this, approximately 55% or 18.7 million is expected from the state, approximately 37% or 12.5 million from the city through the revenue sharing formula, roughly 3% or 1 million dollars from other local sources, primarily the Stop Arm Program, about 3% or 967,000 dollars from state sales tax, and approximately 2% or 750,000 from federal sources, primarily Impact Aid.

This slide reflects the first page of budget balancing outlining how the proposed 33.9 million in additional revenue is distributed alongside savings from personnel and non-personnel reductions as well as lower costs due to a decrease in the VRS rate.

The allocation prioritizes employee compensation and contributions to the health fund. The full balancing budget balancing details are available in the SEON document.

For the teacher pay scale as shown in green, the proposal includes a 2% increase plus an additional 1,000 dollars to the entry level and a 1.5% step increase for eligible employees.

The additional 2% plus 1,000 dollars at the entry level will flow through the entire pay scale resulting in an average overall increase of 5.23% at a cost of approximately 22.6 million dollars.

For the unified pay scale as shown in orange, the proposal includes a 3% increase to the entry level that will flow through the entire pay scale with a 1% step increase for all eligible employees with 1 to 14 years of experience and a 1.5% step increase for those with 15 years and above.

This results in an average increase of 4.17% at an estimated cost of 11.1 million dollars.

Compensation remains a top priority for the school board, the superintendent, and the administration consistent with the school board's compensation philosophy.

This proposal supports a comprehensive total compensation package designed to attract and retain a highly qualified workforce.

In addition, the budget includes approximately 14.6 million dollars in contributions to the health fund and is highlighted in yellow on this slide.

Of this amount, 9.2 million is allocated for projected employer contribution increases for the 2027 plan year effective January 1st, 2027 based on Mercer's projections.

The remaining 5.4 million is designated to strengthen the health fund balance and move toward the recommended reserve of 2 months of gross cost.

City and school staff meet monthly with Mercer to review health care data and projections. While final employee rates have not yet been determined, the schools rates will remain aligned with city rates.

The employer contribution included in the SEON was based on Mercer's projections using November 2025 data.

Updated projections using January 2026 data reviewed in our March 2026 Benefits Executive Committee meeting continue to support the assumptions used in the SEON.

I will now turn the presentation over to Ms. Melissa Ingram to review the capital improvement program.

Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Paed, and um good afternoon, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, Council members, Mr. DeHaynie, and Mr. Styles.

Um I want to thank you for the opportunity to review the VBCPS proposed capital improvement program and again, this capital improvement program deals with both new construction and renovation and replacement projects for the school division.

Our first slide shows in blue uh the revenue sources for the funding of the CIP, funded at 61.9 million dollars annually, similar to last year.

These funding sources include pay-go, special reserve funds from reversion funding, bonds, and a new PEG funding source dedicated for school cable infrastructure, similar to that which was created for the city this year as well.

Shown above the blue table in green is the accompanying CIP debt service plan.

This was developed with Davenport and city and school budget teams.

It plans for a 6 million dollar annual increase to the debt service budget starting in fiscal year 28 and this is to support capacity for Princess Anne High School, which is planned for construction and fully funded within the 6-year CIP.

Our next slide shows the preponderant the the proposed fiscal year 26-27 to 31-32 funding summary table.

With this planned, two priority new construction projects are fully funded.

First, Princess Anne High School listed third in this table, which is CIP 1-015, which has been recalculated for a 2028 bid or GMP at $330 million, and currently is in a progressive design-build solicitation.

We will go into more detail on this process on the next slide.

Second, Tri-Campus additions. This is listed above the total at the bottom of the table, about the fourth project up.

CIP or CIP 1-028.

This project is on track for construction to begin this summer and to be opened in August of 2028.

If you recall, this project was reduced significantly from the original Williams Bayside 6 replacement project as a result of closing Bayside 6 Grade Campus this last August 2025, and rather than construct a replacement project through adding additions to two schools within the Tri-Campus. These are at Diamond Springs Elementary and New Town Elementary School.

We also continue to prioritize keeping our existing buildings well maintained through capital rent renovation and replacement projects listed here on this table as well.

These are systems such as our roof and HVAC systems to address our aging facilities as we continue work towards moving building system needs out of deferment.

And at the bottom of this page is a new CIP project, CIP 1-034, school cable access infrastructure. And again, this is related to the new funding source that we discussed in the last slide, PEG fees, and again, similar to that of the city's CIP.

So, we're going to take a look now at Princess Anne High School in a closer level, and with this slide which outlines the projected timeline.

Over the past year, we've worked closely with school division and city partners, including the Joint Modernization Committee, Superintendent's Working Group, and Procurement and Budget teams to keep this project moving forward.

We've initiated a progressive design-build process with steps outlined through this timeline.

Step one is in green.

This is policy creation, which is completed this January.

Request for qualifications or RFQs advertised of interested design-build teams.

That was advertised this February to March, and we are in the process of short-list selection of three qualified design-build teams from those that that went for the RFQ.

Step two in this timeline is in blue, starting with issuing request for proposals. This will consider schematics for both replacement and renovation possibilities at Princess Anne High School.

Then selection of a one preferred design team, entering into an agreement, design development first to 20% to determine replacement or renovation moving forward, and then to 70% design.

Then to a guaranteed maximum price, which is referred to as a GMP, or an off-ramp if needed.

And step three, our final step in orange, would be entering into a construction agreement for 100% design, permitting, and construction.

Again, as the arrow shows, we are currently completing interviews from the RFQ phase, and we're preparing the RFP to issue to those three short-listed teams that come out of that process.

After receiving RFP proposals, we anticipate selecting one preferred design-build team by late 2026, advancing design through 2027, reaching GMP or an off-ramp in 2028, and completing construction around 2033-34.

We are looking forward to leveraging efficiencies through this to progressive design-build process, and thank everyone in this room who has helped keep this project moving forward as we maintain this CIP project as a priority.

And with that, I will now turn it back over to Ms. Crystal Pete, our Chief Financial Officer.

Thanks Melissa.

So, as mentioned earlier, a final state budget has not yet been adopted.

Therefore, the allocation of any additional state funding remains subject to school board approval.

Potential uses include paygo, continuing services and resources currently supported by the All In grant, which expires June 30th, 2026.

The funding from this grant focused on the Virginia Literacy Act, tutoring, and chronic absenteeism.

Human resources priorities, including increasing the amount of employee professional development reimbursement, updating part-time rates, and alignment of educational allowances with the neighboring divisions.

Additional contributions to the health fund balance to further strengthen the reserve, and other priorities as identified by the school board.

We also want to highlight a few federal funding areas with that may impact the operating budget. This information is what we currently know and is subject to change.

Federal revenues from categorical grants fluctuate annually based on funding availability, spending patterns, population changes, and student demographic data.

The Title 6B Individuals with Disabilities Education Grant provides approximately $7 million $17 million.

However, given the current funding levels, projected staffing costs exceed funding levels, requiring the shift of approximately 9.5 FTEs on the program to the operating budget.

Title 1 Part A grant provides approximately $18 million for to schools with high numbers of low-income students to help ensure all children can succeed academically. This grant is projected to decrease $2 million due to decline in the economically disadvantaged student count.

The Perkins grant provides approximately $1.1 million of federal funding for career and technical education programs and is still under state review with allocations anticipated in June.

In addition, rising costs and relatively flat federal funding have reduced purchasing power, resulting in an increased reliance on the operating budget to maintain staff and resources.

So, this concludes our presentation and we'll be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Vice Mayor Wilson, Michael Jackson.

Stacey. Thank you so much. It's always a delight to have you come and visit with us, and and I know y'all have done some great things. Your graduation rate is way up, which is to be commended, and one thing that's particularly exciting for me in this whole thing was that you've reinstated teaching cursive writing, which I thought was really I was I was really happy about that. And y'all have done really some You've

increased your career and technical education, which we worked very hard on the council and the school board. So, y'all doing some really great things.

And I have to tell you, I last year when you were here, we talked about Princess Anne High School, and it you had some I don't even remember the date. It was so far in the future. I said, "This is unacceptable."

And you really rolled up your sleeves, and you've and worked really hard to and you've got a a timeline to let's get Princess Anne High School done. I I am concerned about the $330 million. It's a really a large amount since our last high school we built was $108 million with Kellam.

Um but hopefully with this design-build, and I hope you can comment on on some of the of that, that that number is going to come way down cuz that's that's a super high number. And every dollar that we can save on that can go towards the next one, which is Bayside. We'll get Bayside done, and then we can look at First Colonial and get that done. So, we really need to be not just looking at

Princess Anne. We've got to look at the whole series of schools that need to be renovated. So, can you please comment on Ms. Ingram will speak to that.

Maybe some of this price tag and what you're what you're hoping that we can be doing.

Sure, I'll be happy to. Yes, thank you.

And again, thank you, too. There's a lot of people in this room who have helped us keep the project moving forward. Um you know, we are working to find efficiencies. I think, as you said, Vice Mayor Wilson, through the progressive design-build process. We hope that still gives us a best value for our school division to make sure we're in quality buildings, but also savings, efficiencies, um working with a

design-build team and helping to save um as much as we can and while we provide the educational program that's needed.

Um the cost we see here is and I think last year we had sent you a comparison with Maury High School, where they had a bid out in 2025.

We are right there, apples and oranges, in terms of um you know, where there the the year that we're bidding in 2028 compared to the year that they bid in 2025.

Um our our estimates are in line with that. However, that does not mean we cannot find some cost savings throughout this process and being in town center that's an opportunity. Uh we're looking at some grant funding options. I've spoken to our budget team about that and might have some communication with you if in case something um um comes to fruition with that, but DOE does offer some grant programs um

and we're hoping to compete for that this year as well. But um I agree I wish it was uh a lower price tag, but we do have to give the best projected estimate that we can um in order to um have a a realistic outlook.

Thank you so much. Michael.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, um I also want to express my compliment to the school division uh for all of your achievements and hard work throughout the year.

One of the reasons that Virginia Beach is a very special place to live and to grow up and to um learn is because we have some of the best schools anywhere in the country. And that's um because of your hard work and dedication. It's because of the great parents and families whose um it's because of the outstanding students who who learn in our schools.

And uh and I think it's because of our partnership between the city and the school division. So, um I think uh we should all just pause for a moment and acknowledge just how special um our schools and the people who are involved in education are in Virginia Beach. So, thank you all very much for your outstanding efforts. Thank you.

Yeah. I'd like to segue though if I could um to the a question about health insurance parity.

And um one of the things that I struggle with as a council member and as an active citizen, neighbor, was explaining the conversations that were occurring around health insurance premiums in the community.

And um I don't have the full timeline of the history and the mastery of every topic but as I understand it in plain speak, I'm going to put it this way.

At some point a decision was made um to lower the premiums that were um being paid by employees who were using the consolidated benefits health care system.

And Virginia Beach, just for all those who are watching and interested, the consolidated benefits system is one that serves both the school division, which is about 14,000 employees roughly, and the city uh workforce, which is about 7,500 7,400 employees roughly.

So, in order to create efficiencies and um standards in benefits and care, uh we we again, as we do on many things, collaborated together and we have this consolidated benefits program. At some point the schools lowered the premium for those who were paying into the system lower than what the city employees were asked to contribute.

And the challenge on this for us, for me, uh I'll I'll just speak for myself, is twofold. One, um and I know because I avail myself of uh health insurance policy in the private sector, all of these policies are are significantly lower than what's available [clears throat] to people who are paying through the marketplace or through the private sector. So, as a public benefit, um and as part of public

service, it's one of the benefits uh being involved in public service is that there are some benefits that are supported more strongly.

Um so, public employees are paying less than what private sector what most of our neighbors are paying from the jump.

Number two, how do I explain to a firefighter or a waste management professional that their health insurance should be more expensive than a teacher or um a facilities uh manager in the school division? The answer is, of course, I can't.

And so, I'm wondering if you're willing to provide any additional uh context on that topic or provide me as a council member with any additional assurances that moving forward will not only have a bullet point there that says we remain in parity, but a true, full-throated endorsement of that policy.

So, I will say that that will continue moving forward that it that we will stay in parity with the city. Um I think it was written in their ordinance and I think um we've had uh Dr. Robertson, I don't want to speak for him, but there's been discussions with chairmen around and probably school board members. So, that is an assurance going forward that that will remain.

To go I mean to to go back in history would be to say that we had a recruitment and retention issue at the time. Um there was a relatively um smaller contribution to contribute in order to reduce those rates and try to help recruit and retain teachers across the uh the uh across the the whole Commonwealth, especially on the Southside.

Um we had uh projections for 10 years that basically said your health trend was well below the book of business.

Some cases it was negative. And so, the decision at that time was made to infuse that contribution from the operating budget into that and reduce those rates.

Unfortunately, as we all know, that those trends started to go up.

They were up they were a little almost erratic going up so quickly and that um we wanted those rates hopefully to stabilize, everything to start to stabilize. And then we realized that that wasn't going to happen. And so, and then we ended up in the position that we were in last year when we came before you.

So, that's the explanation I can give you of what happened and give you the assurance that it has been discussed that we will remain in parity with the city moving forward.

Thank you.

Good. Thank you, Josh. And then uh Stacey and then Amelia. Um thank you all very much for your update. Um I and I also want to um join especially uh in thanking everybody and the joint uh modernization task force, the school board uh city and school staff, um Council member Cummings and and Vice Mayor uh to to help actually make Princess Anne High School reality in the in the

next 7 or so years and and fully funded and and a living, breathing thing on your on your CIP So, thank you very much and um it serves uh I I think it zones kids in 8 and 9, right? So, district 8 and 9, but it serves um you know, students citywide because of the inter of the IB program, the International Baccalaureate program, and then we've got our special needs

um program that is run out of that facility. So, [snorts] a lot of a lot of citywide benefit. Um so, thank you for that. Um and and and I'm just with the number that we kind of see in the spreadsheet there, can you help me and I guess and the public understand um when we went through or began that PPEA process, um we saw a similar number like that one and we all kind of said,

well, hey, that's just too much and we can't commit to you know, building all three schools. Um and so, um so, then you know, we we were going to take it more on a piecemeal approach, I guess.

Um and and we're seeing kind of the same number so, uh well, then then what we saw through that PPEA process. So, um what what's the difference? I guess how how did we get here? Um and I've got two more quick ones after that.

Sure. Um so, thank you. That's a great question. Um one of the great things that came out of the PPEA, well, we you know, we have a lot of work items that came out of that survey, geotechnical works that helps is going to inform our progressive design-build teams that join us.

Um and another great thing is we really took a hard look at debt service, working with Kevin and and his team, um as well as our own budget teams and helped to inform that. So, you now see in our CIP process, we have debt service planning there. So, um you know, while um we want to make sure that we are moving fast um and efficiently, um that we're doing things right and we have to

make sure that we can pay back whatever it is that the cost of building Princess Anne High School is to be responsible to um our city. So, that is one of the big takeaways I think um from the PPEA that um you know, not only are we trying to still do a uh an integrated design approach to help that process go through [clears throat] and and be as efficient as possible, but

we're also um thinking about our debt service on the very front end so that we don't have a um an issue as we start to construct.

Um one quick one, the Plaza Middle uh planetarium, I was happy to see it's coming back online. When when will that happen?

Um so, that's under That is um our contractor actually is starting with that. They're working with our teaching and learning teams as well as our maintenance services helping um on a lot of the the bones of the building and um they are starting up in June. It should be open by the end of this summer. Um they've been working on it all throughout this school year and it's really exciting. I know um both the

staff and and um and folks at at Plaza Middle School are excited about it, but I hear about students and teachers from all schools are really excited. Um last question uh regarding school safety, uh what specific measures um are you considering in this year's budget to enhance um student safety across our school kids?

Well, we have a standing CIP project. If you look at our summary table for um safety safe schools infrastructure, um my chief operations officer, Mr. Jack Freeman, works very well um with our our other stakeholders for a safety task force that we meet quarterly on.

They also are um office of safety emergency management. They apply for a lot of grants. We've increased our security resource officers at our school buildings both in the capacity of being able to keep our building safe and also have a connection to the community.

It's been a really great well-rounded approach. I want to thank even partners in VBPD as well and then our other local partners. They've they've been fantastic in showing that we have processes in place. Okay, thank you. Great job.

Stacy and then Amelia.

Thank you for the report. But I do have a question about the Princess Anne CIP.

I'd like to join in with Vice Mayor Wilson about my concern on the price tag.

The 330 million.

And it was my understanding and maybe maybe I'm wrong, but it was my understanding that we were going to maybe look at a dual process looking at remodeling reconditioning modernization versus a new build.

I don't know if where we if we did that process.

I don't know where we are in that process, but it seems to me that given the price tag I would certainly [clears throat] like to know if we're not going to pursue this reconditioning, you know, why not and what are the benefits that we can expect from a new build versus a re-reconditioning of that existing building. Great. That's a great question as well. Definitely we're listening

through those conversations we've had with the joint modernization committee and then even everyone on our school board and our school leadership teams.

One of the great advantages of the progressive design build process is that we can look at cost not only [clears throat] from a design team's point of view, but also from the contractor's point of view as we go forward with the project. So we were lucky to get a lot of interest in the RFQ process that to have to shortlist to three.

At the we will be asking when we issue the RFP for two schematic designs, one for replacement and one for renovation.

And what that will do they'll also pair that with a cost analysis for each one.

So those three design build teams so that we have that information. When we choose a preferred offeror, we're also going to ask them to continue the process looking at both methods, continue that cost analysis to a 20% will then work with our school board to see the most efficient and advantageous advantageous way possible to move forward with that project whether it will be a straight

replacement project, straight renovation project or as you mentioned it possibly be a combination of both.

But we're really hoping to leverage that process and then continue after the decision's made at the 20% to a 70% design and get the GMP for the best value we can for the building. So we're at the we've done a great job working um with our legal team to have a policy in place and advertise as quickly as we could and we're really looking forward to continue the process to help inform us of that

decision. So it is possible that the price tag will come in much significantly below. Absolutely.

The what is priced out now is a 2028 GMP for a replacement project. We have to make sure that we're planning for the scenario that was originally in the CIP, but you might even see in the CIP project we have a replacement or renovation even in the title of the project just keeping that in mind. You might talk to some experts and they'll say, you know, renovation I think some of you might have done

renovations at home and you find a lot of things that uncovered and it might be more costly than doing a replacement project and I think some other people will tell you vice versa, but we're trying to leverage the expertise of those going into this process with us to make an informed decision on that as we move forward. Okay, I I think that's good information.

There's one other question on the health fund balance.

Uh there's an anticipation of without further state input to the revenue stream, there's an anticipation of increasing that fund balance or putting into the fund balance this year about 14 million dollars. And given that, where would you anticipate the fund balance in fund balance ending up at the end of the year? So I will tell you right now as of the end of March before these contributions even happen,

we are at a 15 million dollars.

The 9.2 million that of the 14 million, that is going to be through our employer contribution and Mercer projects out what our plan costs are going to be and what it would cost us based on what [clears throat] we think the employee is going to have to to bear based on the again the parity with the city. So we are in line with that and then of course the 5.4 is to actually put that in

there. So if we are we've been going up um pretty much steadily for the last few months. So if we put the five in and things stay the way they are right now and there's no guarantee, we could be like upwards to 18 19 million dollars.

We have a meeting tomorrow and we're going to actually see some March data. Um and so at that time we'll look at those projections and see if there's any adjustments that we need to be making based on those. We look at it quarterly. We also go before school board and update them and give them a financial update as well every quarter just for the school side to show them what's happening and where we stand

at that point and what the projections are.

Thank you.

Okay Amelia.

And thank you all for giving us such a wonderful report.

We promised to clap so I'll have us clap now for all you've done.

Now a couple of things.

When you talk about the Princess Anne and remember when we were working hard to do with the child campus I creatively you all came up with a solution of doing additions instead of trying to build otherwise. Plus you made several people in the um civic league and so forth happy to do with the Jericho project.

So those are a plus and I thank you.

Other area I want to congratulate that keeps going up is to do with achievable dreams.

I was here when it started in 2014 2015 and there were lots of doubts. But as you can see you're producing outstanding students and we're happy about that.

Finally, I wanted to ask you if you turn to page I believe 12 to do with where you mentioned about title one title three, where is it? Mhm.

You said there's a reduction?

[snorts] There's a reduction in the title one.

Title one, yes.

Yes, ma'am.

That's due to our economic disadvantage student count going down.

So we are we are expecting it's just the demographics of the division once when they go through and and look at the students and where they stand from an economically disadvantaged point they just have gone down a little bit. So we do the title one right now in federal fund in the federal budget is remaining relatively flat giving us some additional flexibility, but because of that student count going down for

economically disadvantaged students, we do expect a two million dollar decrease and it's just based on the fact that we do we're not showing as many economically disadvantaged students.

So in a way it's a little plus. A little bit.

Mhm.

[clears throat] Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay, thanks a bunch folks. Really appreciate it.

Okay, I'm going to get council comments wrote rolling.

Um we all know we have a very important topic we're going to be discussing in close today about what we can do to confront with the violence that we are experiencing.

Violence that is very common going across this great nation of ours.

But we have the obligation to confront it right now.

You know, as I said in the press conference yesterday, we now live in a world in a country in a nation, a commonwealth and everything where anger anger, hatred, violence and disregard of law are the new norm.

And we are not immune from that.

But that being said, we are going to confront it.

But the thing is we also have to let people people know that we have been confronting this over time.

But unfortunately a series a series of unfortunate events has put us in the spotlight and we are going to deal with it.

And you know, let me just say that it we're we you know, let me put it this way.

You know, it's a different time that we are living in right now.

And any solution that we're going to come up with is is complex. It's going to be out go beyond public safety.

And it's not a solution that we could do right here in Virginia Beach alone. It has to be a 757 matter. It's got to be a commonwealth matter and quite frankly it's got to be a national matter.

Because you know, that's where a lot of the problems are.

We now live in a era of what I call culture of spontaneous violence.

That really didn't exist before. You know, uh uh myself and people like Stacy and everybody and Hutch back in the day, there were fist fights.

And then maybe you wind up being a friend one day.

That is no longer the case.

You know, I remember at a event that we had at Mount Trashmore when we were planting trees from each city that had gun violence that took the life of a teenager.

Uh the councilman who is now the vice mayor of Hampton said, "I am a preacher and I am tired of burying teenagers."

And he said, "Back in the day, you know, we used to have fist fights, but now people go get guns and that is the culture."

The proliferation of the people just have to having to carry firearms for number of reasons.

And what is that? It created a new paradigm that we have to deal with.

That and we are going to deal with that.

And you know, but I I just want to get a little bit personal now.

Uh you know, we take heat when things like that happen.

Especially the mayor.

But I'll tell you what, when I'm reading a little bit now on social media, you know, you know, um criticizing our police, I cannot let that stand. I don't think we can let that stand.

You know, let me put it this way.

You know, being a police officer these days is a challenge.

And let me tell you about a little I was in the bank today.

And I was There was an elderly man there on a cane waiting in line with me.

And he said, "I just want to thank you and the council for taking care of police all the years."

And it turned out he was a retired police officer from the fourth precinct.

He was on a cane.

And he says, "Yeah, I'm on a cane because all the multiple injuries I've had jumping over fences, wrestling with people."

But he says, "It wasn't only that."

He said it was also the mental stress that he was under and the family the stress it put on his family.

Number of years ago, there was a movement to defund the police, to take away the sovereign immunity.

Police in this nation were demonized and demoralized.

And as a result of that, there are significant shortages of police throughout this great nation.

It takes a special man and a special type of woman that want to become a police officer these days.

And to those people who criticize the police, I respectfully say, "Walk a mile in their shoes."

Figure out what they go through.

Take a ride along.

But once again, realize that you know, we got some problems, but we are still among the safest cities going.

But we got some work to do.

So, but before we go into the closed session and really find out what tools are available, let me just state up front that you know, what we are doing. And when you think about how we have funded as a city with the magnificent new police headquarters with the highest of technology, making sure people that need that what they need. And now the fact that we were at planning a leader for world-class

you know, department to help recruit and retain people.

Um you know, I think that's a critical that we have been doing our part to make sure we get the people out there we need.

Unfortunately, you know, a presence of police and as was Chief Newdicate said yesterday, you know, we've had we had a significant amount of police there.

And unfortunately, that was not enough.

When we had the shooting at the carnival, there was a armed public safety person a couple of feet away.

And you know, I hate to say, but we lost two magnificent police officers last year in a despicable act of violence that was away from the oceanfront.

And this is happening in many, many cities around us and in this country.

And what we're going to do. But a couple things that we're going to do and we're going to that I'm going to kind of commit to do with your blessing.

Um a couple of years ago, uh Donny Tuck, the mayor of Hampton, and I started the Youth Violence Task Force.

And it was very successful.

And uh we had the city managers working with each other.

We had the police chiefs working with each other.

And we came up with some pretty good stuff and in its outgrowth, we had a mayor's thing that Rosemary took over. That's how Parks After Dark started and everything.

It helped.

But obviously, there's more to do there.

So, what we're going to do uh you know, we're going to reconvene we're going to get the mayors to reconvene and we're going to make those meetings again public. So, people can come and see what we're doing on the 757.

Uh then we're also, as I indicated yesterday, we're going to form a task force of people that we we'll discuss the composition of it. You know, but it's going to be community stakeholders and things of that nature.

Action people throughout the community that are going to be a tremendous influence in dealing with this uh you know, situation.

And the other thing is to we're going to be you know, making a special point to build uh bridges, positive bridges with our state and federal partners where we're going to be needed.

And the other thing I'm going to be doing, I'm going to be reaching out to the governor uh you know, to talk about you know, see if we can somehow expedite uh you know, as we know we wanted the pop-up legislation uh if somehow we might be able to get that on a faster thing. We I don't think we have the luxury of waiting a year. We need some immediate action on what we

can do. But once again, by building the bridges with our state and federal partners, we may be able to do things.

But the other thing I want to talk about, uh we just can't do things locally and one of the discussions that I've had and we've had is about education [snorts] systems teaching de-escalation skills in school.

You know, a friend of mine uh became a uh high school principal at a local school and he said for the first time in his life he had to go on blood pressure medication because every day in the school, they would have five or six major you know, confrontations and fights.

So, we got to you know, start working on the behavior.

You know, the behaviors that are evident now you know, are born at the time people are in the third grade on with bullying and things like that.

So, it's going to it's going to go beyond public safety, my friends.

But I'm just saying that if there's any council anywhere that is going to come up with a remedy that we're going to need for right now, it's going to be right here.

So, as we go into uh you know, you know, you know, you know, closed session, you know, we're going to do it with what a sense of positivity and that we're going to come out with outcomes. And once again, we're going to come out with the outcomes that the public deserves to know that Virginia Beach is, in spite of events, a safe city.

Does anybody else want to make a comment before we go? Rosemary, uh Stacy and I I just want to say well said. I had some other things, but we we want to sound this topic right now, correct? Yeah. I No, yeah, I'll tell you what, yeah, no, but if I tell Yeah, okay, let's go Stacy and Worth.

What I thank you for saying what you said. I agree with everything you said.

Um in the since yesterday's press conference, there's been a great deal of chatter on social media and we've received a number of emails [snorts] and there's a perception out there amongst some people that uh this council is divided over their support of our city police department. And I can only speak for my time here on council.

This council has been 100% in my view, 100% unified behind every uh item that has been brought forth to it by the police chief. And that there has not been one whisper of disagreement or discontent over any of the actions uh that we've put forward together.

And I I assuming that's going to continue. But I know the feeling of this council is we want to correct this problem.

And we're going to do it together and there's no there's no um discord in that.

[cough and clears throat] Thank you, Stacy. Worth.

Thank you, Mayor Dyer, and I just want to compliment you on what you just said.

And thank you for what you said yesterday in the press conference as well as thank Chief Newdicate for what he did.

He recounted, you know, the the incident of Saturday night and where our police force was, over 90 officers there.

And once the fires were shots were fired, 10 seconds later our police were there. So, uh I've heard a lot, we've all heard a lot as Stacy said from the public and from all walks of life. I mean, friends, parents, not just stakeholders, folks from way in the western part of the city.

And uh we'll get this right. I mean, we're going to find a way to get this right. And I know that's a promise.

Um we we've got to fix this cuz it's not pretty. Uh folks every the public knows that we are going to do this together.

And I think we are united with support of our public safety. Thank Hey Josh.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Um and yes, I I echo Council Member Remick's comment that y'all everybody did a great job yesterday at that press conference and um and and explaining why why why it is we're doing what we're doing. And and I I think something that really deserves to be highlighted and said is this is like you said, Mayor, not a problem that's unique to Virginia Beach, but it's also not homegrown

problem in Virginia Beach because if you look at the people who've either been the shooters or who have been shot, these are people from not even not even Hampton Roads. I mean, these are people from all over the state. So um it is a it is not it is not the same kind of problem that that we had in the '80s and the '90s or even some of the recent ones with um social perceptions of social

injustice and societal unrest and protest and things. These are bad people coming here from other places. Um some of them are armed. They have bad intentions and then when they run into one another, bad things happen. And the way that we're not going to community workshop our way out of this problem, I don't think. The way to fix this problem is to keep doing like we've been doing, um

resource the police department with whatever they need to confront this problem and coordinate with our our sister localities on on this you know, this rash of violence because um we we can do it. We can do it.

Okay. Amelia? Yes, I would like to echo the same.

As I was over yesterday at one of my civic league that came up.

They are happy that we're doing something about it. They're happy that we're collaborating including with the sheriff as [clears throat] reinforcement in there.

Other thing that people mentioned was looking at everything look how far we've come.

And nobody was really blaming the city.

Just like what Councilman Schulman mentioned.

They're looking at having people from other places who have come.

And I like what you said, we've got to look at it from the root.

From the elementary schools and up, getting them prepared so they can be defensive for us as as I said.

Because overall, we're pretty safe city.

And we all believe in working together for having what we have in place.

[clears throat] [snorts] And we'll continue to do so.

Thank you. Hey Hutch.

So I'm going to pick my words carefully here for a second, but the first thing I want to say is it's just crap that anybody would say that we're not public safety friendly and and really care about our public safety folks all the way up and down the line. And I would suggest humbly, don't look at the social media, the vocal minority cuz that's what that is.

Um I I'm I'm uh heart's bumping right now. It's like this is that's just garbage. Um there's not one of us on here.

I'm friends or you know, co-workers with all of you.

Been on both sides with the manager.

Worked with the city attorney many times. Is that we just had the fire chief up here lauding how much we have done for him. Police chief was last week saying that. EMS chief sitting over here was there last week saying the same thing. So we do support at a high level.

With that though, and this is what I'm concerned about is that unrealistic expectations and that we're facing a wicked problem is not going to be the easiest solution.

And some of the some of the answers and that's what I try to say back to folks that are talking to me about it is okay, where do you think this lies? Yeah, shut down the beach, make it to tickets, do the the wanding, everything else. But that comes with a whole 'nother host of issues we're going to hear about. So to think we're going to wave a magic wand and have this handled is is just

not the case.

I personally feel after all my years here and being a part of the oceanfront, it seems like to me when we get critical mass of the families and everything, that this dissipates. I don't know if it's a spring thing. I mean, obviously the the pent-up energy and everything leads to part of this, right? I've said that already about me back in the day here. But it seems like once we get

everybody in place early June May May, end of May. Yeah.

Yeah, this is really a March to end of April thing. And once you get the families here and the It just seems like the critical mass of the rounds it out.

[clears throat] takes care of itself. Um so it's we're going to work very hard to try to figure this out and and minimize. We don't want to see our young folks getting hurt. That's what I've said before is we don't want them to miss out on the rest of their life.

And whatever we can do to help that, I believe that's our goal. And to keep ourselves family-friendly and an economic driver that really matters to us. It just does.

That's the hard facts of this. So anyway, thanks for letting me ramble.

And before I get to Cash, Hutch, I just want to thank you for your your your comments and your 100% You know, yesterday at the press conference I said, you know, being a physical therapist dealing with people uh you first of all, you got to say what's the problem. What caused it?

And what's the plan? But as far as goals, you got short-term goals and long-term aims.

And you're 100% right. The ultimate fix is going to be decades in the making because if we're going to be getting to the third graders and the you know, the things along that way. And I think you know, once again, I think that you point out we got to manage manage expectations. We're we're you know, we're not going to come out with a no golden rod on this one and really get it taken care of.

So uh

[clears throat]

[clears throat]

to hear what's on our mind. That's why we're doing this, right? Yeah. So I'm going to add my thoughts to this chorus.

Um [clears throat] in my view, I've got a few things that are running concurrent.

Uh the first one is that we need to let our police officers know that not I think they do know this council has their back, but that the community has their back.

And there's a desire to see legal fair firm proper enforcement of the laws not just at the oceanfront, but throughout the city.

And I think that our police leadership, professional staff city management and council members need to express in no uncertain terms that we empower those officers to do what's necessary to maintain and support public safety. And that includes aggressive gun interdiction programs.

Um that includes a variety of other techniques, many of which we'll learn about more and the community will learn about as well with us in the coming days.

But we need to let make sure that the officers who are actually being tasked with doing the work know that they have our community support.

And they I know they do. But all of us I'm talking about citizens. I'm talking about council members. I'm talking about professional staff. We need to step up and make sure they know that they have our support. The other thing is I'm no expert in this, but in my view we need to explore violence interruptor programs.

And I've been talking to friends in other communities that have that have faced episodes of violence like this, and there are community-based social socially connected programs that can identify these moments of tension and mitigate the impact of that tension through peer-led interdiction in ways that are law enforcement professionals may not be able to uh lead.

And I think if you have a combination of violence interruption programs with true, meaningful law enforcement the broadcast message that will go out, whether it's to Henrico or Richmond area or other cities in the in the region or across Virginia Beach that um we're here to be I think it's what you say, firm, fair Friendly, fair, and firm.

Friendly, fair, and firm. Let's start with firm in this instance.

Friendly, fair, and firm. But don't come here and mess around.

And also we need to be thoughtful and and and strategic about how we can actually bring people into the discussion who have a sense of understanding and community trust that um maybe some of our other assets may not have. And I think in combination we have a real chance to make an impact on this. And I I really hope that that's sort of the direction we'll take. That program and I've talked to members of our staff

about it. I've talked to folks in other cities. There are models of this programming that when when uh combined with the strong law enforcement really have a positive impact. That may not you know, we don't we we can't get that up and rolling for next weekend. So that's a whole different issue. But we need to be thinking about that. The other thing that's on my mind is you know, I heard Chief Newdicate

talk about having 90 officers within uh a a 10-block stretch at the Oceanfront. I want to say two things about that.

Number one I need people to really know and be aware that this is not a lack of police presence.

And you know, putting officers on the ground and I've heard talk about you know, vehicles with no one in it. Um this is not a deterrent for the folks that we're dealing with.

How many times have we been in this room and seen videos that show the arrows of the officers, you know, 21 officers present within you know, a 90-ft within feet of the incident. The presence of police officers is not the problem. But where it can become a problem is if there's an an an we've seen this before. I I was on the Human Rights Commission for 5 years um involved in these discussions before

I was a council member now for seven. So I'm going back 12 years of immediate direct relationship to these events.

Um you have an episode at the Oceanfront and then group a big one and then groups of these individuals travel throughout the city. So now you have a pop-up and I was just with our emergency communicators telecommunicators um this afternoon thinking through this.

You got an episode at the Oceanfront and then but this is not this is not theoretical. This happened. And then an episode in another part of the city episode in Salem for example, and then what what do you know? It's a pop-up in another part of the city. Now we've got a real problem on our hands.

And we and people are unsafe. So this is this is an Oceanfront issue and and I understand all that, but it's also a citywide issue. And as a District 3 council member from the center of the city, Town Center, Lynnhaven, we have surge events at the park and there's been incidents there. I hate to call them out, but there's been incidents there.

Um I also feel compelled to to speak up and say, what are our plans going to be for maintaining safety throughout the city? I know that's on a lot of other people's on everyone's mind as well.

This is not exclusively an Oceanfront problem and it can very quickly turn into a citywide and I want to raise the alarm on that on that front because this while we need to be mindful of the fact that there were two There was also an incident at Kempsville between these two events multiple people were shot.

Um and yeah, so anyway, I'll stop there. I'm I you know, there's a lot of work to be done here and um I hope everyone will lean in and tune in and let's get to work and make sure that we're firm, fair and friendly.

Yeah, and be assured violence interrupters will be part of this tool kit that we're going to be using and you know, let's remember tough love can save lives.

Wait, sorry Mayor. I also want to say it's in very important that we broadcast out and and emphasize that we need support from our Commonwealth's Attorney and all their professional staff. They do a great job, but this is no time [snorts] to play. So I I'm interested in what type of coordination we can support in that area because their prosecutors are the ones are the ones who are that's you know, really who are

prosecuting these cases and ensuring that the people who are responsible are held accountable. And we also need to make sure and I know this is beyond the scope of our responsibility, but the judicial system and the judges need to understand the impact of these events and I'm not saying they don't. But there are sentencing guidelines, there are um a variety of aspects to that judicial

system that I that I hope um that you know, will be kept in mind by those people who are who are in those positions of authority and power. They really under I know they're they're members of our community, they understand what's going on, but we need to make sure that people are held accountable and that that accountability is um distributed publicly in a way that people know what the consequences are. I

intend to have the Commonwealth's Attorney as part of the task force.

Hey, where's Mary?

This is a fantastic discussion. Thank you for everybody that spoke.

I want to bring up two two things.

Um One is the Nimmo Church is asking to be out of the historical district. And we we know that there's $500,000 in the budget negotiations.

And I really don't think we can make a decision on Nimmo until we know if that money's going to come through or not. So I'd like to ask us to have and I talked to Brent about this of when exactly the budget might get passed and he's not real optimistic it's [snorts] really going to be on the 21st.

So I'd like to um on the 23rd.

Whatever day it is.

Uh to see if we could do an indefinite deferral until the the state budget has been passed so that we have an idea whether that money's going to come through for Nimmo Church or not.

Yes. Is everybody okay with that?

Yeah, that makes sense for us. Okay. And the other thing I wanted to mention was uh we we asked the Electoral Board to look at tents at the Registrar's office and they did a fantastic job. They're very thoughtful and they worked really hard with recommendations.

So I wondered if the council's ready to accept those and if we if so, do we I guess this is a sort of Haney question. Do we need to vote on that or can you just take it as a direction? So if council indicates um concurrence with that, then we can amend the um administrative directive that uh Electoral Board and Voter Registrar and I put together for that facility to include the

the language that they that they incorporated in their memo they sent to us.

Can I ask a quick question about it?

Please. Thank you. Thank you.

I I I was really appreciative of the work they did, too. I just have one question.

When I looked through it, it looked like they're they're recommending only two canopies be allowed one each representing the two major political parties.

Um are we even able to limit the number of you know, based on the major political parties? But I mean if if another legitimately organized national party like the Libertarian Party or the Green Party or whomever um what if they come up and they say they want a tent and do they get one?

I think we start by saying two tents and we deal with it as it arises.

Um I don't think we want to be in the business of uh specifically calling out specific party affiliations, but we do say two tents and go from there. And and just just a little background. I know we've talked about it before, but I mean there there are people that go out there and they volunteer. They're older people. Some of them, you know, just may maybe mobility challenged and it gets hot or it gets

rainy or all of that. And that's really what this is all about. I'm just making sure there's people that help out on election day and they ought to have the dignity of being able to sit in the shade or be kept dry.

Okay, Michael. Thank you. Well, if I would like to make a request of the body if it's okay as I am not in a position to agree to the recommendations at this time.

We received them last week I think in our package. Um we haven't discussed them as a group. I I recall every aspect of them off the top of my head. I was just looking for the memo. I think it's in my files at home.

I think we should talk about this as a group. I'm happy to offer some of my reflections now, but you know, I would say in response to to what you shared Council member that this isn't only about the people who are working and volunteering their time and I'm great I'm grateful to them and I appreciate them, but I'll let you know and and many others that I have received so much incredible feedback from voters who have

who appreciate the peace that that that occurred appreciate the lack of sign pollution and visual pollution and real pollution that was occurring there.

I do think they made great recommendations and I'm in agreement I recall having a couple questions about a number of them and I think we should before we move forward with direction or an ordinance. I also then I think we should have a chance to discuss those or at least have those questions asked so if it would be possible if you could redistribute electronically the the the the memo I would appreciate that and and

at least give give me and any others the chance to express concerns about that or have any questions we might have answered.

Yeah. Yeah, let's get a briefing. Let's get a briefing.

Okay, anybody else at this point?

Mr. Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Mayor do you concur with the briefing then we can get it on the get No part of the agenda. Okay, yep.

Thanks.

Okay, are we ready? Okay, Jennifer.

[clears throat] The Clean Community Commission is having at Mount Trashmore I should have pulled it up ahead of time. Oh, no.

I [clears throat] I have two flyers here. Okay, so the Virginia Beach Clean Community Commission they're hosting a zero waste wardrobe event at Mount Trashmore for adults and children. It's at it's Saturday, April 18th from 8:00 a.m. to noon where you can shop gently used donated clothing. So there are a number of places where if you have items that you'd like to donate they're clean and gently used you can

donate them at Bayside High School, Kellam High School, Ocean Lakes High School, Tallwood High School, or Lynnhaven or LR now. Today well not today cuz the windows closed, but by tomorrow between 7:00 a.m. and 3:30.

So it's a way to save money and to save the planet.

Yeah. Okay, folks are we ready?

The chair will entertain a motion to recess into a closed session pursuant to the exemptions from open meetings allowed by section 2.2-3711a Code of Virginia as amended for the following purposes. Legal matters, consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members and poor consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing in an open meeting would

adversely affect negotiate negotiating or litigating procedures of the public body pursuant to section 2.2-3711a7 the Atlantic Park and also legal matters. Another one consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by public body regarding a specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel pursuant to section 2.2-3711a8 Oceanfront Public Safety and then

publicly held property discussions or consideration of acquisition of real property for public purpose of public disposition or publicly held property where discussion in an open body would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body pursuant to section 2.2 3711a3 and that is District 2 and then personnel discussions, considerations, interviews of prospective candidates for

employment assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of public bodies pursuant to section 2.2-3711a1 and that would be council appointments boards commissions committees authorities, agencies, and appointees.

Do I have a motion? So moved. Second.

All righty.

You know I want [clears throat] Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, we are recessed into closed

Meeting back to order. I'm going to ask for a motion to certify the closed session. So moved. Second.

Third, fourth. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, we are Thank you all very much.

Excellent.