City Council Special Formal Session - 09/09/2025

Paul. Um, we're going to have get going here. And honorable members of city council in accordance with Virginia Beach City Code 2-21. And by the authority vested in me, as mayor of the city of Virginia Beach, I hereby call for special formal session of the Virginia Beach City Council. Tuesday, September 9th, 2025, 2 p.m. of city council conference room 334, building one second floor, 2401

courthouse drive. They make me read all that stuff. Uh the purpose of the special uh session is to conduct public hearing and city council comments discussion as listed in the attached public agenda. At conclusion of the public briefing, the city council to commence discussions, um, city council will convene into a close session where the following matters will be considered. Number one,

publicly held property in district 2, district 4, district 5, a public contract of Mocha RFP, and personnel matters. uh uh council appointments, council boards, commissions, committees, authorities, agencies, task force, and appointees, performance of council appointees boards commissions or committees. At the conclusion of the close session, the city council will reconvene into open session for the

purpose of certifying the close session.

The special formal session will be uh broadcast on cable TV, virginia beach.com, and Facebook live. Yours truly, Bobby D. Okay. And uh I guess we're ready to go.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, at this time, we'll be joined by Tom Ley, a familiar face, and the executive director for SPSA to learn more about an opportunity to extend an agreement for services.

Go ahead, Tom. The floor is yours.

Welcome back, Tom.

Long time no see. How you been?

Oh, pretty good. Pretty good. Thank you.

Um, joining retirement.

How happy you look.

Yeah, I hope I hope to do that in about a decade or so.

All right.

Anyway, well, good afternoon, Mayor Dyer and uh, Vice Mayor Wilson and all members of city council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about SIP's plans and visions uh to conserve our finite and limited uh landfill space and also to significantly increase the amount of uh solid waste that we recycle and reuse. In the meantime, I have with me today uh Mr.

Henry Strickland. He's Sips's uh deputy executive director. Our our executive director, Mr. Dennis Bagley uh sends his regrets, but this issue is also on Portsouth City Council agenda today. And since I'm chairman of the Sipsa board, um I came here and then he went to Portsmouth. So, I'd say on a personal note, um I'm also here today because as I was walking out the door on my last

day of work, I told city manager Duhaney that if he needed anything to just give me a call.

I was being polite.

He called my bluff. But well, you know, Tom, in the Marine Corps, there's a saying, never volunteer.

That's right.

So anyway, so anyway, moving on. The mission of the Southeastern Public Service Authority, or SIPA, is to provide reliable, quality, lowcost, and environmentally sound waste disposal service for the eight member communities.

It was created 50 years ago by the member localities themselves under the Virginia Water and Wastewater Authorities Act. We're governed by a long list of state and federal uh laws and regulations. But we also govern ourselves through agreements between SIPA and the localities. These agreements are known as use and support agreements and they are a major dis point of discussion of the presentation

today. Um, these use and support agreements are really the key critical documents that prescribe the duties and responsibilities of SIPA and the localities and how we relate to each other. I guess in other words, they're our rule book.

So, SIPA executed identical use and support agreements with all eight members. uh and that superseded a previous set of agreements and they be these became effective in January of 2018.

The initial termination date in the current use and support agreements is June 30th, 2027. Now the agreements will renew for 10 more years till June 30th, 2037 2037. And that's automatic. it happens automatically unless a member locality would provide SIPA with written notice to the contrary by the end of this calendar year.

But I would say it's important to note that SIPA and the eight member localities have partnered to provide reliable, efficient, and quality solid waste disposal to this region for four decades, for 40 years. Uh the use and support agreements have served SYPA and the member localities extremely well and they has and they have uh functioned without incident since they were executed. No one has had an issue with

them. They've worked perfectly. They've done everything they were supposed to do.

So now I'd like to say a couple words about the uh regional landfill. It's located in Suffach, the north side of 58 uh 460 bypass. Uh the landfill was established in the early 1980s in wetlands that happened to be adjacent to and hydraologically part of the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge.

All I can say at this time is back then that seemed like a pretty good idea. But um as you might imagine uh getting permits for landfill expansion in recent years has been somewhat problematic. But after a very long, very difficult, and very costly regulatory process, SIPA has finally obtained the state and federal permits necessary for a final buildout, and I must repeat, a final buildout of the regional landfill.

two critical and painful lessons that emerged from this permit process and the permits uh uh what I call a grueling gauntlet uh are that the first there will be no more capacity added to the regional landfill beyond what was just permitted. It's it. It's a finite amount. And two, any new significant new major landfill capacity is going to come at very significant very major environmental, financial, and political

costs. So the most important takeaway from this slide is that at current disposal rates, the regional landfill is fin as finally permitted, just permitted, will last no longer than60.

Now, I know that may sound like a long time to some people. I can tell you as a much younger man being part of a group that pushed through a 37-year contract with Norfolk uh on water. And at that time, that was so far in the future, as far as I was concerned, it was forever.

And long before I left the city, I was involved with another group having to renegotiate that contract as we discovered that if that contract wasn't extended, whatever we would have to do was going to take decades uh to um uh to implement. So 35 years in government years is not as long as it sounds.

Okay. So what would happen after60?

Well, the waste would have to be hauled to other landfills much farther away. Uh transportation from the transfer stations to the landfill is a major cost factor, major cost center, major consideration uh in planning solid waste disposal.

Based on studies conducted as part of the landfill permit process, the projected cost for disposal at farther out landfills would exceed about $125 per ton. That's in today's dollars compared to today's cost of about $67 per ton.

So, the planning, engineering, property acquisition, permitting, and legal challenges with a major new landfill would be a multi-deade undertaking and have a very uncertain outcome. Now, turns out that exporting trash outside of the region is just about as controversial as importing water into the region.

Yeah, I I was shocked. Uh but if I could draw another parallel to water resources, a region without an assured waste disposal solution is going to have the same institutional, political, financial issues that a region without an assured water supply would have.

Our regional landfill is a valuable and indispensable infrastructure that is owned by Sipsa members. It's absolutely necessary for the health, safety, and welfare of our communities. The region wants assured landfill capacity beyond.

We must reduce the volume of waste being disposed of at the landfill.

So early last year, SIPA issued a request for proposals RFP seeking a third party entity that would divert waste from the landfill by recycling, reuse, and alternative waste disposal mechanisms.

SEIPS is now finalizing negotiations with Commonwealth Sortation uh and that is the name of the LLC. It's actually the essentially it's AMP Robotics out of Denver, Colorado um to provide mixed waste processing facilities that use artificial intelligence robotics uh to remove recyclables and organics from the solid waste stream. What would be different from our current recycling systems is under this system, the

homeowner would no longer have to separate recyclables into two different cans and put two different cans at the curb side uh to be collected by two different trucks. All the waste would go into a single can collected by a single truck at the curbside. Recycling and reuse would occur after collection.

Under the system that we are proposing, 20% of the waist stream would be directly recycled. Another 30% the fiber and organics would be pyrolyzed and converted into biochar for reuse. Now, our current Bluecan system is picking up about 10 to 11% of the residential waste, but about onethird of that is being returned to the landfill. So, we have a net recycling rate of about 6 to

7% and that's pretty well common through all the blue can systems in the region.

Under the SYPS system, within three years, this system would divert a minimum of 50% of the waste that would otherwise be disposed of at the landfill and would extend the capacity through about 2025.

2095, excuse me. Duh. Thank you, whoever caught me.

Glad you're here.

Um so uh Commonwealth sortation would invest about $200 million in new processing facilities in the region. And again uh it's a little be a little redundant but this is very important.

The direct recycling rate would be guaranteed contractually guaranteed to a minimum of 20% and after three years the landfill diversion rate would be contractually guaranteed at 50%.

All eight member communities would receive the same services at the same costs and the region would uh have assured solid waste disposal capacity to almost the end of the century. But however, and this is a really big, very important however, no private sector entity can be expected to build $200 million of waste processing facilities to be amvertised and depreciated over 25 years without a corresponding commitment

from SIPA and its members to provide the solid waste stream and pay for that uh uh waste processing.

So therefore, SIP is asking all eight member localities to execute an amendment to the use and support agreement that would renew the agreements for 25 years instead of the existing 10-year extension. So that would be June of 202 instead of June of 2037.

These amendments basically are needed to be secured, need to be secured before Commonwealth sortation could execute a contract with SIPA.

Now, an amendment executed by a locality would be effective if and only if all four of the following actions would occur. So, the first would be at least 75% of the SIPA board members would authorize the amendments. Now, that's scheduled for this month in two weeks.

Um, that's 12 of 16 board members.

Second, at least 75% of the member localities would execute the amendment.

That's six of the eight SIPA members.

Third, at least 75% of the SIPA board members would approve a final contract with Commonwealth Certation. Again, that would be 12 or 16. And fourth, um both SIPA and Commonwealth Sortation would execute the board approved contract.

Now, if otherwise, if the four these four things don't all occur, the amendment would be null and void.

Wouldn't matter what which locality adopted it or not. uh if they adopted it and those four things did not occur, the amendment would uh uh have no would be null and void, have no have no meaning.

So if the member localities execute the amendments, the SIPA board would then vote on approving the contract with Commonwealth sortation and specifying Commonwealth facilities as a designated disposal mechanism in SIP's standard operating procedures, also known as the SOPs.

SIP's SOPs are an appendix to the use and support agreements. They provide significant detail and specific direction to SIPA staff with respect to operations. These documents aren't changed lightly. A supermajority consisting again of 12 of 16 of the SIPA board members is needed to approve both the contract and to modify the standard operating procedures.

But if SIPA and Commonwealth rotation execute a contract in early 2026, there would be a phased in ramp up of the uh facilities and waste processing. It would start in spring of 2026 and pretty much be in at full capacity by um late 2028 or early 2029.

So many years ago, I was here, Virginia Beach assumed a leadership role and they s sol solved not only our own water shortage, but they also solved the regional water shortage as well that was hampering all of Southside Hampton roads. So on behalf of the SIPA board of directors, I'm here today to ask you to again demonstrate leadership and authorize execution of this amendment for the benefit of the city and for the

region. So thank you for your time and I'll be glad to take any questions.

might need to call Mr. Strickland up here depending on how technical you get.

But uh thank you.

Hey, we're gonna go Stacy and work.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Um so 75% of the members have to agree to opt in. If 75% agree to opt in, are the other 25% automatically included or do they get excluded?

That's an interesting u legal question.

they would actually if if two let's just say two of the members did not um sign on to this extension um they're actually still part of SIPA and would still be bound by what SIPA does. So 75, you know, but on the other hand, if it was um Virginia Beach is one/ird of SIPA of SIPA's waste and of course one/ird of its tip fees, if Virginia Beach didn't sign on, that would be different than

say Southampton not signing on, which is 3% of SIP's contributions. So it probably it actually probably if if 75% of the localities signed on if the two if their contribution wasn't such that it would actually disrupt the ability for uh Commonwealth sortation to amvertise uh or at least be guaranteed of enough waste to process so they would get fees to amortize their facilities.

It might not have an issue but again you're getting into a legal issue. It probably need uh Mr. styles and our general counsel to uh advise you on that.

Okay. Uh we'll go with Mark and then follow.

So So I think what would happen the question that Tom is addressing is whether or not Commonwealth would sign the contract based upon the available waist stream. If if two of the jurisdictions didn't sign, then my assumption would be that their existing use and support agreements would remain in effect and so their renewal will only be for 10 years rather than 25 and then that creates a business decision for

Commonwealth sortation. I think that's I agree actually you said it better than I could but that's exactly right. And then just to follow up, do you have any um done any calculations as to the effect on the rates to the citizens?

So if you look at the long-term picture, uh first of all, it's an unfortunate fact that the cheapest and most environmentally least sustainable and unsound way to dispose of our solid waste is landfilling.

uh recycling comes at a price and under the uh I can't get into a lot of details but certainly under Commonwealth sortations um the contract negotiators were in the middle of we could see tipping fees that might be 15 to 20% higher than they would otherwise be. Now those tipping fees are going to go up in any event because they are you know solid waste is a costly business. it's

heavily dependent on uh CDL drivers and equipment that wears out. So that is something that is always there's always cost pressures. Um, however, for the cities that are running blue can systems, the additional costs of the sit tipping fees and the additional cost that your director of public works would have to come to you for to pick up that additional 10% of the waste um are expected to be less than what the cost

of your blue can system. So for yes, for Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffach, um, and I think Portsouth, you're expected to either have the same or lower costs.

There are some jurisdictions that aren't running Bluecan systems, and they're probably going to look at higher costs.

Now, that being said, your contract with uh Commonwealth, your contract with your Blue Can uh contractor has a couple more years on it and that would overlap with some of the citizens.

So, you that was something that you'd have to do, you have to deal with.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, what um Tom said is spot on. We do anticipate that there's going to be a period of overlap between our current bluec supplier and it may mean that this we would have to navigate in the budget process by use of fund balance or maybe some general fund support because we would we would not want to unduly or unnecessarily increase um waste management fee without a long-term need to do so.

Thank you.

Thank you Mayor D. Thank you Mr. Ley for the presentation and for your work on this. This is a really important topic because it's a basic city service that um and it's a longterm just two questions. Uh back to the slide on the four uh things that have to be done all four not just separate. Uh those are big like the the agreement with Commonwealth sortation.

Um I know you mentioned earlier when we were talking that's a that's a big you're pretty well along. You feel pretty comfortable you can get and is that by the end of this year or sometime in the next 12 months? We are certainly hoping by the end of this year. We are very far along with the contract with Commonwealth sortation. To give you an idea, it's 130 pages long and has 33

exhibits uh or attachments uh I'm not sure whether they're exhibits or appendix or whatever, but there 33 parts of that contract. Uh it has been briefed to the board in um the and I would have to say they are very close to a final agreement and it has been the terms have been briefed to the board last month and I would say certainly well before the end of the year there will be a final

contract uh agreed to by the SIPA board and Commonwealth sortation.

Thank you. Just to follow up you've done some due diligence or SIPA has on Commonwealth sortation and their abilities to deliver.

Absolutely. We did due diligence. We started out with six firms. There were four firms that were not carried forward because their proposals were nonresponsive. We moved forward with two firms. There was extensive due diligence done on both firms. Uh Commonwealth, which again is a LLC, but it'll actually be AMP Robotics will be the vast majority of who we're dealing with out of Denver. They are running uh

facilities right now in Portsouth. In fact, that port facility in Portsouth will be part of this proposal. It's uh doing right now I think about something equal to about 1/8 of the regional capacity, regional uh supply uh solid waist stream. Uh under this proposal would end up being more about 1/4 and the other 3/4s would be expanded later.

They also have a huge facility in Cleveland that is doing exactly uh what they uh will be doing for us in terms of separating and recovering recyclables.

Okay, we're gonna go Josh and Rose, man.

Um, Mr. Ley, thank you very much. Nice to see you again, sir. And, uh, you you might be retired, but it kind of looks like you're working still, so we're glad to have you back, sir. Um, a couple of questions. Um, if we were to give um I I'm not sure what exactly we're looking for today right now, but if there was a at least a nod to um proceed or or some

authorization being sought, I assume that doesn't mean that we're not going to be able to see what this might entail from a a financial perspective. So like those other other things don't cascade into fade, please. Will we have a chance to review the agreement terms? Who sits on our SIPA board? I'm assuming either the mayor or you. Um so just that question. I've got one other question if you don't mind.

So um per city council recommendation and per the governor's appointment, Tom Ley sits on the board and um LJ Hansen is our city representative on the board as well. Um, basically what Tom said on the fees is pretty much the ballpark of it is that we anticipate with the tipping fee increases and our blue can coming off eventually that we won't necessarily see a cost increase associated with this transaction. There

may be a period of time when we're still going to be having our blue can contract and the tipping fees go up that we're going to probably have to navigate between either fund balance and the waste management fund or some general fund support because we wouldn't want to unnecessarily increase waste management fee just for a short-term need. But the finances are pretty solid. If some

reason that changes, council controls the ability to appropriate the funds, right? You know, that's something that would have to be determined throughout the period of time. But basically what the ask is right now is council council comfortable with us bringing forward an ordinance for its consideration to extend the term the extension term from 10 years to 25 years. So um Commonwealth

can um amaturize the debt necessary to take out $200 million to invest in a to take over this this rubble for SIA.

Well, I mean, it it looks like there's a a lot to like about it, especially I mean tripling the recycling rate. Um, and then extending the life of the landfill by another what 35 years. So, um, so that's great. And, uh, just as an aside, I think SIPA along with another couple regional organizations that that really work well with localities. I mean we get as Hampton Roads a region like

criticized for not being the best in terms of working together and being regional partners. Um SPS certainly and transportation certainly is an exception to that rule. Um what is biochem just or char biochar? Yeah. Oh, so 30% of the waste which is essentially the organic and fiber is dried and then fed to pyrolysis kils which essentially is a in incineration without oxygen. And I don't

know if you remember from high school chemistry where you heated up some wood chips in a in a test tube that had a top on it and you basically that was paralysis and you turn that into essentially carbon. Uh and this biochar has a number of uses. One is it can be an alternate what they call a um a daily cover for landfills and have already been some of our landfills don't need

the daily cover because we have the material there. But um some of the landfills have already approached commonal sortation about um daily cover.

It's also um uh a you can be used in um uh as a additive to concrete instead of fly ash. Um and so for the first three years the contractor can actually send it ends up being about 10%. Now that 30% is converted down to about 10% carbon for the first three years the contractor has the right to put it into our landfill sequestered. They are getting um uh they sell um carbon credits to to

companies that are trying to uh be carbon neutral. And so that it has to go into something that won't be used again.

You can't reurn it. Although that is a use for it. It can be turned into a um it can be turned into bio coal but that is not what the plan is. The plan is to sequester this carbon uh so that it is taken out of the environment either in landfill or in um the concrete. So that's what it is basically essentially the carbon that is left from the um fiber and organic material that is um

pyrolyed.

Thank you very much for that. Yes, ma'am.

I think some of my questions have been answered. However, uh want to comment that recycling is very popular with our citizens and this will make everybody with a black can be a recycler.

It's really good news environmentally for for for all of us and it's sounds like a really good way to stretch out way beyond uh the time any of us will be around anymore but really by then who knows what kind of solutions there will be waste u I guess I was just trying to figure out what the next actions were going to have to be taken by the council

and also So, uh, where will, um, come up sortation be built? I guess has to be built correct?

They have a facility in Portsouth right now on Frederick Boulevard. That'll end up being about 1/4 of their facilities.

The other three4s will actually go on SIPA controlled property, the former Wheeler site that was burning uh, all of our trash before they Navy stopped uh, taking the steam and they went out of business. Ships that took over that site. And so the other three4s of their operation will be right there on the SIP site.

So I guess so the other uh council actions that you mentioned an ordinance to extend the date, right? Okay. Patrick and then Patrick.

So Mr. Mayor, unless council says otherwise, we would um look to bring that ordinance forward for either um for October the first October briefing, the first October meeting, which I think is October 7th for consideration. You know, unless council asks us to do something differently, we would look to bring it on to October the first agenda in October 4. You also adopt.

Let me uh let Hutch get in and then Sorry. So Tom, um will you go to the slide that show the the percentage that it will go to once it's up and running for recycling and then what the percentage is right now and then um I believe that.

Yeah. So I'm going to start off with another question first. So I talk about the diner a lot. A lot of guys line up to ask me questions. And so I started pitching this already and I was telling my wife and everybody else because I think it's a fantastic idea because just as the vice mayor just said, it turns everybody into recycling. It makes it it makes it good, I think. You know, right?

It takes takes a lot of the is this a five good? Is this one good? Can we throw it in here? You know, let let the pros decide. What I found out was is to a person, they still think we're dumping our trash at Mount Trashmore, too. Yeah.

And uh Yeah. So I I did the same thing.

I was like I taught everybody. So that might be something for Tiffany as far as when we have to go to do this is like do you remember when we stopped taking trash to to to to you know to Centerville Turnpike? I know LJ wasn't here but do you remember?

Maybe Mr. Hansen knows it's a long time.

I mean it was a long time ago, right?

But I'm just saying that's one of the things I think we need to kind of say is that's that hasn't that doesn't happen anymore. Well, it does though. We So, we still use We still use the landfill, the Virginia Beach landfill. Um, we do not use it for municipal solid waste. So, the use and support agreements that Tom was talking about today specify that all of the eight member localities have to

bring all of the municipal solid waste to SIPA for their uh for their use. But municipal solid waste is typically defined as that material that we find in our black hands. So, but we have several trucks that run through everybody's neighborhood. We collect yard waste. We collect bulk material. Uh we have people that drop stuff off at the landfill. So, we do we do still use the Centerville.

Uh right. I was saying more that like you just said, the black can stuff does not go to Centerville. If you're you're taking an old fridge or you're want they got the metal, they do a lot of separation.

They've got the big dumpsters. You throw your your old deck in. That kind of stuff is what's going to trash more 2, right?

That's correct. And I I would have to say that's probably been the case since they closed Trashmore one or or not very long after that because Senator because SPS has been handling the waste for Virginia Beach for quite a while.

Yeah, I just was curious on that. Um, so then Tom, the the next thing is is that I just want to I'm kind of pulling what Councilwoman Rouse does for the general TV public. um is because I don't think it's realized about that um that we're only at six to 7% is getting recycled and that you're saying there that it's going to go up to almost 50%.

So what were the your blue can contractors picking up about 10 or 11% about a third of that is going back to the landfill as things that are unprocessable or un recyclable. So 67% our in our case you take the raw municipal stream not separated 20% would come out that mostly be virtually all the metals and all the plastics the organics and the fiber products would be separated that's another 30%.

they would go to these um paralysis kils and what would come out of them is uh about 10% of that a third of that 30% would come out as biochar. Whereas the other 20% well about half of that is water vapor and the other half is emissions mostly carbon dioxide uh that comes out because all fiber and organic material contains quite a bit of oxygen as you would imagine. So even when you do heat it,

there's still going to be some CO2 generated, but it is a fraction of what was being generated when we were burning and incinerating all of our trash. I mean, a tiny fraction of it.

Okay. So the the positive is we're going from six or seven to somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% when we get up and running.

Well, we're reducing the landfill by 50%. What's actually being recycled and reused would be more like 30%.

Sorry. Okay. Yes. Well, it's it's still good cuz we're extending the life to 2095 and extending the life of the landfill.

Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Anybody else? At this point, does anybody object to moving forward?

Okay. Good. And let me say, Tom, as being the U landfill baron for 14 years before I became mayor, uh if you get a chance, you should take a to go out to Jake Sears Road off Centerbell Turnpike and take a look. It is a magnificent operation of bringing you know things.

You can get rid of electronic thing. You can get rid of paints and oils. You can get rid of seashells. You can bring, you know, paper and everything. But I just want to, you know, say, you know, Patrick, that the crew out there is so friendly and accommodating. Um, and it's magnificent operation that they got there. I think the city would be proud of. And congratulations, Cass Green. You are now the windfall bar.

What?

A new title. A new title.

So, uh, by the way, mayor some weeks ago, um, the executive director and I sent you and Mr. Dhaney a letter copied all the council members.

Uh, it explained pretty it was sort of a summary of this presentation and had the amendment. I do have 15 copies here. If anybody would like a current copy, um, I'll just leave them with Mr. Dehaney and he can come out to you.

Yeah, it's tough predicting the future.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, we'll work to get something on your agenda for October 7th. And that concludes the workshop briefings.

And Tom, you thought Lake Hansen was a challenge, right? And you did that. So, that's a good thing.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Moving on.

Take care, Tom.

Okay. I guess we're into council comments. Any council comments at all?

Michael. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have these flyers in front of me that um just reminded me that we are planning a District 3 neighborhood safety and self-defense workshop in partnership with uh Sheriff Rocky Hulcom and the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office. It's kind of a unique spin on a a district town hall, a little bit different. Um, but it's free. It's open to everyone, no matter which district. And, um, I think

it'll be really interesting.

Participants will have some chance to get some hands-on self-defense techniques taught by our professionals at the sheriff's office. And, um, some tips on neighborhood awareness. And it's just good to um, you know, think about those things as we think about our safety for ourselves and our families.

And I want to thank the sheriff's office for um, partnering with me on this. and uh to all those who will attend and um I'll share more information on social media as the days goes by, but I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you.

Okay. Anybody else at this point?

Oh, I do have Oh yeah.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh just uh quickly, September 22nd from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Princess Anne High School. Um, I've asked the city attorney's office to uh make a presentation about the uh referendum uh regarding our election system just to educate the public and to be there to answer any questions that people have. So, September 22nd, Monday night, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. And

then I also just really quickly saw a letter in our packet here from the rack relative to the um the the you know, vulgar merchandise and and and things that uh we we asked our retailers to help cooperate with us to clean up. Um just want to thank you uh to Council Member Remick and to the RAT for support on that uh endeavor. And I know there was a council member memo

circulated a little while back, maybe a week ago, um that there's folks out there currently starting to have some of those conversations. I was wondering if you might be able to update.

So that's actually happening today. So staff and ambassadors are going out right now to meet with the um the shop owners to try to get them to, you know, um comply with the request that they tone down some of the language on the products that are outside of their shops. And then after that, we'll follow up with the actual business owners as well, right? So, we're reaching out to

the tenants and the operators right now.

And if they're just renters and not the owners, we're also going to be following up with the owners as well to see if we can get their assistance and helping to um tone things down on the beach.

Hey Kev I was proud to attend um the second year anniversary of Genuine Care, which is a non-emergency medical transportation uh company. and um Dr. Ameilia Ross Hammond uh and myself were there in present form and it was just nice to see a small business that uh started with one truck and just to see their vision and just the support that they knew that they had from the city of Virginia Beach and the

the community. It takes a lot to get a business started and so again that business name is Genuine Care. Um, and um, I just can tell you that the owners, the co-owners, the community showed up at the Sherin. We were in Norphick.

Sorry. But Virginia Beach was there. Uh, and with that being said, I I wanted people to know that we do care about small businesses.

Thank you. And Mark, what about Mount Olive?

So, Mount Olive Baptist Church on Bernac Road. Pastor Jason Knight and the congregants celebrated a return that was the theme of the return of this uh grand opening uh Saturday night but also Sunday you attended Saturday night. Uh this church uh is the mother church in SeaTac and it was started in 1892 and so it's returning back to its location on North Great Neck Road. Great event, great time. Thanks for

Yeah, thanks for covering. Appreciate it. Anybody else? Uh just quickly real uh this morning I uh welcome a convention group and it was called Water Jam and they were about 2,000 water engineers from the east coast that showed up involved in all aspects of water and you know they're doing some amazing things now. They're actually taking waste water purifying it and they can use it on golf courses now and other

practical applications. But the point in my remarks, I was able to, you know, talk about three things. You know, we have a group, I believe, of third graders that every year we have a contest. They drew something about water conservation and it's really kind of cute and the city puts out a calendar with the winners on that. Um, and then the other thing we brought up, uh, Michael, was the Boat Creek project that

is, you know, really, you know, going to make a spectacular water retention area and park and everything and just showing the innovation of things. But, but the big one, uh, what the crowd really enjoyed was with um, HRSC's 52 uh, million gallon retention pond that we put a skateboard park on. you know, in terms Hutch, you know, that's pretty much in your neighborhood.

Yep. Right there.

And I'll tell you what, if people haven't seen it yet, that thing is state-of-the-art, but once again with these engineers, it was amazing, you know, uh the strides that they're taking and especially when you think about, you know, with water uh wastewater and everything, how it affects city budgets, the need to keep infrastructure going and everything. But once again, the engineers out there just thinking them

some very, very way. So kudos to our folks that are involved with that. Okay.

At this point, I think we're ready for close.

The chair will entertain a motion to recess into a close session pursue the exemptions of the open meetings lab by section 2.2 3711A code of Virginia as amended for the following purposes.

Publicly held property discussions or considerations of the acquisition of real property for public purpose or for the disposition publicly held property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiation strategy of the public body pursuant to section 2.2 to uh 3711A3 and that would be a district 2, a district 4 and a district 6. And then

public contract discussion of the award of public contract involving the expenditure of public funds and discussions for in terms of the scope of such contract where discussion and open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or the negotiating strategy of the public bodies pursuant to section 2.237 2 3711A29 and that's the Mocha RFP and then personnel matters discussions

considerations or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance uh demotions salaries discipline or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees of the public body per se pursuant to section 2.23711A1 23711A1 and that would be a council uh appointments for boards, commissions, committees, authorities, agencies and appointees and also performance of

council appointees, boards, commissions and or uh committees. Uh do we have a motion?

So moved.

Second.

Hi Counley Hutcherson.

Hi Jackson.

Hi.

Hi Rock.

Hi Council Schman.

Hi.

Vice Mayor Wilson.

Hi Dire.

Hi.

Okay. We're we are recessed to close.

Hi Jackson.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Sorry. Hi.

Thank you all very much. We are journ.

I'll see you guys.