City Council Legislative Session - workshop

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Hampton City Council work session. Madam clerk, will you call the roll, please?

Councilman Bowman. Present. Vice mayor Brown. Here. Councilwoman Campbell. Present. Councilwoman Farabi. Present. Councilwoman Harper. Present. Councilwoman Ugler. Present. Mayor Gray.

Present. And we have a couple of presentations on the agenda this afternoon, so I'm gonna ask the city manager to introduce the first.

Ms. Mayor, our first item today is a presentation, an update from the Virginia Peninsula Community College, which is a wonderful asset in our community for everyone from our high school students all the way up to adults who are seeking to improve their skills training or just want to learn. And we are just so blessed to have them in our community. Today, they're going to do a tag team presentation with Ada Bagley, the Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Initiatives Steven Carpenter, the Vice President of Finance and Administration and Nikia Madre Smith, the Director of Campus and Community Initiatives. And it looks like Ms. Madre Smith is going to kick us off.

Good morning, good afternoon actually esteemed counsel. Thank you so much for having us. We bring you greetings from President Brannan and Virginia Peninsula Community College. My name is Nakia Madre Smith, Director of Camps and Community Initiatives. And we were sort of introduced already, I don't if you want to do it again, but

Sure. Hi. I'm Ada Badgley. I'm the Chief of Staff.

Steve Carpenter, Vice President, Finance and Administration.

All right. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you. We thank you for the time and this opportunity to kind of present some of our college updates, some of the things that we're working on, some of things that we're excited about. So we're extremely excited to report that for the first time in many years, some years, we're growing. So after some decline, we have observed two consecutive years excuse me.

There we go. Two consecutive years of enrollment growth, and we are on track for that third year. We do feel that this is unique to BPCC because many institutions here in the area are still struggling with enrollment, and that's both at the four year and the community college level. As you can see here in this chart, Hampton students play a big role in our success representing about 24.7% of our total enrollment. In addition to our students here, we attribute this enrollment success to how we are engaging with students on the Peninsula.

We hold fast track events where students can enroll in a day. We engage reengage with stopped out students who have some college credit but no credential. Additionally, we're grateful for the support that you provide to our college navigators, our navigators and our recruiters out in the community. We're at middle schools, high schools. We host open houses, new student orientations, small and large group campus tours, and personalized care through one on one appointments.

On the workforce side, fast forward funding has become a critical component for how we can deliver on our mission to provide access to short term credential programs, which lead our community members to high paying, high demand jobs that also fill that workplace gap for our employers. The workforce credential grant is a state funded program that covers two thirds of a student's tuition. They pay that first third up front. And once they successfully complete that credential, that two thirds kicks in. But I would like to point out that with other funding options, other assistance programs, most of our students pay little to nothing.

So we're very excited about that, proud about that. Since established in 2016, we have seen growth in the fast forward program by about a 127%, representing about 20% year over year. Due to the success of the program, we have actually spent more money than has been allocated to us. So the BCCS has been reallocating funds up through fiscal year twenty twenty five, but beginning this year, fiscal year twenty twenty six, those budget adjustments just weren't possible. And so it has impacted our ability to serve a larger number of students through the that fast forward funding.

Here is some additional information on fast forward enrollment. It's important to note that fast forward programs are not credit bearing. They are not academic credit programs. They are workforce training programs that are offered in areas such as allied health, HVAC, IT, welding. These programs typically range from two weeks to six months, and they're designed to get students to work very fast in these high demand fields.

The graph here shows our fiscal year twenty five numbers, and it shouldn't be a surprise that in first number one, we've got Newport News followed very closely by Hampton and then Williams Williamsburg, James County. Shouldn't be surprising due to the fact that our trade centers are are somewhat located in those areas. We do have a somewhat recent opening of our Tucano Trade Center in 2023. And as most of you are hopefully, all of you are aware, we will open our new Newport News Trade Center in the coming weeks. So we hope that you all come out and support.

We continue to monitor the region's talent needs. Workforce is very agile, and they can quickly set up quick programs, customized programs to meet that that demand. For example, at our Newport News trade center facility, we'll be expanding maritime training opportunities by introducing a structural fitting pathway as well as opening a construction trades lab. We will continue to expand and to offer these make these offerings available to our community members. All depends on the funding being available to us to be able to provide those resources to those who are in the programs.

Dual enrollment is also an area that's quickly expanding, and high school dual enrollment has grown significantly since 2021. And we expect that growth to continue over the next several years, particularly because the general assembly legislation now requires that every high school offer the uniform certificate of general studies as well as the passport program. And we're working within each school district to approach that with kind of a phased approach, making sure that that's covered in all of the schools. Dual enrollment by locality. So by locality, we mean the home address of the student in the program.

As you can see, you guys are killing it. So Hansen is a great partner. You've always been a great partner representing little more than 31% of our total dual enrollment, which reflects significant growth from 2021 to 2022. And again, is based on the home address of the student in the program. And here is just a closer look at Hampton City Schools. We've got about a little over 2,500 students in our dual enrollment program and Hampton City Schools in 2425 represented 865 of those students. And I will pass off to Ida Badgley.

Great. Thank you. So and we wanted to share a little bit about retention numbers and completion numbers. So in addition to enrollment, which is important, attracting students, having them get enrolled, we can we can make sure that we're helping with social mobility in that way. We need it doesn't help if they don't complete their programs. Right? And so we've been doing a lot to work on retention initiatives, everything from making sure that the students feel cared for. Right? Having lots of activities for them to do. We've expanded our athletics program.

We work a lot to make sure that we have wraparound services so the students are being cared for in all different ways. And so as you can see, our retention numbers, so students who enter from one fall to the next are retained so that they are more likely to complete. We've been able to award more degrees and certificates over the past couple years, and our short term completers are up nineteen percent. I will share that our completion rate is our three year completion rate, so that's how we typically will measure completion, is thirty four percent with an additional nineteen percent who successfully transfer to another institution, which makes our overall completion rate about 40 fifty four percent. So we're really proud of that.

That is something that we've been working on again with those retention initiatives and really pouring into our students to make sure that they feel that they are welcome and that they complete their programs. What that means to you is that at the four year institutions, typically only about fifty seven percent of graduates stay in the area. But at VPCC, close to eighty percent stay on the Peninsula and contribute back to the local economy. They become part of our workforce, and they will contribute back at significantly higher rates. So we're really proud to be part of that.

And the other piece is that it doesn't really help that they complete if they don't get a job. And so we've been trying to track how our graduates are are getting placed within gainful employment quickly after their completion of their graduation. This is an area that as we look at these numbers, we are really proud of where we are, but we are going to be pouring in some more resources to this. One of the things that we don't have is job placement services or career services center. And so as we start planning for the future, that's a focus area that we're gonna start thinking about and trying to increase so that we can give that resource to our students. And I'll pass it over to Steve.

Thank you. So, I'm excited to share some of the facility improvements that we're seeing at the college, college, most most of of which which right here in the great city of Hampton. So within our both campuses right now, we're renovating student spaces, making it more enjoyable and a more inviting environment for students to to be a part of the college college community, feel like they belong, and really hang out and make it a home for them. You can see the bottom right corner, a newly revitalized Gators Cafe area where students hang out all the time. Mary T.

Christian Theater, which I think you all are familiar with. I think you held an event here recently at that theater for your budget that had a grand opening in or excuse me, ribbon cutting in January. We're really excited about that, and it's filling up quickly throughout the the rest of the year with community partners coming in and utilizing that facility as well as the college with some some arts programs there. The mentioned earlier, Newport News Trade Center. So we have a ribbon cutting on the twenty fifth.

I hope that you all were invited and are able to make that ribbon cutting nearly right outside the gates of the shipyard. This is put together through a great partnership with the federal and local partners to make this possible. And that, again, should be open on the twenty fifth, and we should be holding classes in there next month. Really excited about that. And then finally, the biggest one of them all, if you've traveled up and down Interstate 64 recently and saw all the demolition going on, so we recently demolished the three original buildings of the campus put together '19 or built in 1967.

So those have now been fully demolished, and we're making way for our new three story 75,000 square foot building that will house approximately 20 classrooms and labs for students, as well as most of our student services will be in there. And then on the 3rd Floor, much of our administration will be in that building. So we're really, really excited about those those improvements coming to the campus. Last thing I wanna share with you is just a note on some of the this this is a recent student satisfaction survey that we hold every year. This one's the most recent from the fall.

And just to highlight a few of the comments that we're receiving from students, we're really, really proud of the work we're doing at the college. Receiving great feedback from from the students. Some constructive criticism as well, which we welcome. It helps us to grow as an organization. But you can see here just some of the real highlights specificity around what's going on at the college and how it's really making the students feel at home and do do well and get them out into the workforce producing taxes for us here at the city.

And then finally, again, just wanna thank you for your time. Welcome any questions that you might have. If you think of something later, there's a email address on the screen there that you can jot down. Of course, we have four wonderful city of Hampton that serve on our local college board. So you're also can can reach us through them or reach directly out to doctor Brannan at the email address there. So here to take any questions that you might have on what we talked about today or any other topic.

Okay. Councilwoman Harper.

Thank you. Thank you for the wonderful presentation. I would like to say, I know you all used to have a dental hygiene program, and I would love for you all to bring that back. It is very much needed, particularly in the state of Virginia. They are 900 short approximately,

and

because I went to the dentist the other day and my and my dentist was she was talking about that and how, you know, the appointments are much further out than what she would like because they're terribly in need of dental hygienists. So and she did mention that, you know, about your program, and I would just love for you all to very much consider bringing that back Yeah. Because it's very much needed.

So yes. And and we would like to bring it back. I will explain a little bit about that program and why it it's on hold at the moment. So we were running that program for the last ten, twelve years. And I'm I'm the vice president of finance administration, so this is near and dear to my heart. We were losing nearly $600,000 a year in that program. Obviously, we have to have a national dentist oversee it. You have to have a staff because it's certified or excuse me, accredited program. It has to be an accredited program. You have limitations on the staff to student ratio, which is very, very small.

I think one to five in many cases. So the staffing of the program is just super expensive. So we were running a program for twenty students. There's a cohort of 10 each year. So we were running, you know, 10 for one year one, ten for year two.

So you have 20 students in the program at a loss of roughly $600,000 a year where we felt like we were not doing well towards other students at the school where that money could maybe be utilized in a different way rather than rather than losses. So we put the program on hold. We have gone to partners both within the private community. Delta Dental is a big one as well as the state. We've had a really, really big push this year. We've met with our state legislatures. Doctor. Brandon's been out pounding the pavement, meeting with them, trying to bring in some we're the government.

Working

working

one time funding. Like, to

get one year done, you know, and then go with back to losing a half million dollars a year just doesn't make sense. So a decision will be made when we know more about what assistance we can get. But for the time being, the program, I I believe, is is looking to remain on hold until we can you know, the state puts their money where their mouth is. They say they need dental hygienists. Let's let's see some support for it.

Okay. Understood. Alright. Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions from council members? I do have one regarding the fast forwarding program, and I know I noticed that the funding for the program is going up for several years. And so pardon me if I missed this, but how is the fast forward program funded? Because I think you mentioned that they the students are getting a workforce credential, no credit, but there's no cost to the student. Did I did I understand that correctly?

So so the funding comes in phases. So there's there's three pieces to it, and this the state funding covers all of the the three parts. The third part gets paid if they actually get the certification. So you get your part one when they start the class, part two when they finish the class, part three when they obtain take the test for the actual certification. You can see here on the chart, it's a little bit hard to see on the screen here, but what was happening was the white the white was the funding and the purple is this this the need or the students.

So as the program began to to grow, we were borrowing from the next year to pay this year. So each year, we borrow from the next year to pay this year. You can see the difference between '23 and '24 and then '25. So finally, in '25, the state said, you can't do that anymore. You can't borrow money from next year to pay for this year.

So so we were we were cut off on that funding, which so that's why in the current year, we've had to really trim back the, our ability to serve the students because, the state put a there's already a cap. Now I will say in the general assembly for the current budget that's being debated right now, there is additional funding for the program. A large part of it is coming from our own Virginia Community College system, a surplus that we have or a a fund balance, balance, I should say. Year one will come in part from that. And then beyond that, there is additional funding that the state is willing to put, into this program so that we can begin to grow it again.

Okay. Councilwoman Mugler.

Mister mayor, just to just to follow-up on your question. But when you initially talked about this, the student pays one third. Is that correct? And then

The in in many cases, the student will pay one third. Yes. In some cases, depending on their need, they can pay zero. Okay. Thank you.

So does any of the funding come through, let's say, WIOA funds for training this specific group of the 16 24 age group, which would be good candidates for this program for folks who are looking just to get the workforce credentials. So there's no there's no funding that comes from that part of money to help fund the program.

Right. So, the fast forward fundings are specific funding for specific programs, and we owe a funding they might cover. So, example, if a student has one third that they need to pay and then the one third and the one third are covered, the WIOA may pay for that one third. Right?

And

that's how a student ends up paying nothing. So, it all comes from different pots, if you will. Right? And so there's also only specific programs that fast forward covers, but we only cover other programs

Right.

That are also considered workforce. And so all of that funding goes to our workforce completers. This is just a chart. Most of our workforce programs are fast forward, and this covers most of that information.

Okay.

Does that help?

All right. Thank you. Very informative. And, you know, obviously, you all are doing a great job with turning out, you know, credential workers for the in demand jobs in the workforce and in in the community, Hampton Roads community. So continue what you're doing, but greatly appreciate it, especially relationship with Hampton on the dual enrollment program because you know we love to be able to brag about the number of kids who graduate from VPCC before they graduate from high school.

So we wanna continue to be able to do that. And I I think you you have 800 kids from Hampton. I accept what I saw here in the students from Hampton and currently enrolled in dual enrollment, eight sixty Yeah. So hopefully, we can get all of them to graduate. That'll certainly run up the numbers. Great stuff. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Mister mayor, if you're ready for the next item, this is gonna be a briefing from senior deputy city attorney Brandy Law. As you'll recollect, last month, you got a presentation from the stakeholder group that we had convened regarding the camping and storage on public property ordinance, that you had first seen last year. We had asked for a stakeholder group made up of people who had, if you will, have been effectively on both sides of the issue, both those who were concerned that the ordinance sought to criminalize the homelessness, which was never the intention, of course, and those who had felt like we needed to have some additional tools to be able to deal with any type of group that of individual or groups of people that may be blocking public right of ways and causing other sorts of disruptions, such as, you know, doing illicit behaviors there. And so, they came to a consensus compromise and gave you a series of recommendations that miss Law has turned into amendments to the proposed ordinance for your consideration. So miss Law will walk you through the new ordinance that reflects that stakeholder feedback and see if you have any questions or concerns about the new ordinance.

Okay. Alright. Good afternoon, Brandy.

Good afternoon. It's great to see you all. As miss Funting said, I'm senior deputy city attorney, Brandy Law. So I won't give you the full intro and repeat what miss Funting said, but you may recall from your last presentation from mister Mitchell that there were three main recommendations from the stakeholder group in regards to changing the previously proposed ordinance. And that was to provide a preamble statement that emphasized that the focus here is on compassionate compliance and not on enforcement.

To reclassify the offense, so previously it was proposed to be a class one misdemeanor, which is the highest level of misdemeanor that you can have. And so this the new proposal will have a lower class of misdemeanor, misdemeanor, which I'll get to. And then also ensuring that resources are provided to the subject before any enforcement actions are taken. So we did include a preamble in the ordinance which states that wherefore most people will accept housing when it is safe, dignified and appropriate, a small number repeatedly refuse help because they are deeply traumatized. For this group, the answer is not simply tolerance nor simple enforcement and requires balanced strategy.

And wherefore the city will strive to pair persistent outreach with a variety of housing options and insist that public spaces remain safe and usable. And wherefore when someone's behavior is dangerous or disruptive, the city will address that behavior directly through outreach or co responder teams and community court programs where possible. No one has the right to endanger others and no one should be abandoned. And wherefore, the city's goal is compassionate compliance, protecting the community while never giving up on the individual. So this will be this is proposed to be the preamble preamble for this ordinance which lays out the city council's intent in adopting this.

So the actual ordinance, the body of the ordinance, and this is a refresher. These terms are the same as what was previously brought to you last summer. But to refresh, the ordinance would prohibit anyone from camping, laying or sleeping, or storing items on public property. Camp is defined as to reside or sleep on public property with or without the use of tents, temporary shelters, vehicles, or equivalents, or as evidenced by the use of beds, blankets, cots, hammocks, mattresses, sleeping bags, tarpaulins, or cooking tools or fire. There is an exception in the proposed ordinance for any authorized use of public property such as using the beach, laying on the beach when it's open to the public.

Public property is defined to mean any and all property in which the city of Hampton or another governmental entity has a property interest. So this would apply to property owned by other governmental entities such as the EDA. STORE is defined in the proposed ordinance to mean accumulating, keeping, leaving, or maintaining personal property on public property for future use or safekeeping. And there is an exception, again, for authorized storage of personal property on a government entity's property or to store property in unoccupied vehicles that are legally parked on the street. The ordinance would say that property which is stored on public property in violation of this ordinance and which is also unattended, so stored unlawfully and unattended, may be immediately seized by city staff or contractors.

But the city would then hold that property for thirty days. So anyone who believes their property has been seized in this way can contact the city to determine if their items are being temporarily stored by the city. And that would be done by contacting 311. If staff determines the items are trash, garbage, debris, unsanitary, or hazardous, including any weapons, it may be disposed of law. The law.

The lowest level of

misdemeanor and is punishable the by up to a $250 fine. A subsequent violation after being convicted, so you're convicted and then an officer finds you in violation violation again, again would be a class two misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. And the purpose of having that level of misdemeanor is because you have to be charged with either a class one or a class two misdemeanor in order to qualify for the behavioral health court diversion program. Prior to charging any person under this proposed ordinance, the police officer would be required to give such person a verbal warning to see such activity and a reasonable time to comply with their warning. Now what is reasonable time will be somewhat up to officer discretion as it's currently written.

In discussions with the police chief, it would be our intent to provide officers with guidance on what is reasonable through the use of policies and training for the officers. But there are situations which may require more or less time depending on the circumstances. So in addition to the warning, the officer has to provide information on alternative accommodations such as available homeless shelters or hotels and public and charitable programs that offer housing assistance. And the police officer would document that interaction on a field contact card, which is loaded into the police record system. With that, I will take any questions.

Questions? Councilman Boone.

Thank you, mayor. With the number of unhoused, do we have enough facilities for them to go to? I think that will be a concern for me not knowing where they can go. Mhmm.

So I can address that. We don't currently have enough permanent housing for people who are transitioning, who have issues that need to be addressed before they're ready for permanent housing. But the council has agreed to put more money in the budget for, for instance, placements into hotels. So assuming someone were willing to go now most of the time, the audience we're talking about here is not the generic unhoused population. Most of the people who are in the unhoused population have just simply fallen on bad times.

They they just need support in finding a job, and so it's a lot quicker to connect them. And most of them are not choosing to block right of ways, to camp out, to urinate, defecate in public, things like that. Most of the people that we encounter where we can't when we go out and they refuse help are dealing with extreme unresolved trauma, oftentimes addiction issues or mental health issues or both, and they refuse assistance. And so this ordinance was really intended and not just for the homeless to be clear because there could be other types of groups of people where this might happen, but because people seem most concerned about the unhoused. Most of the time when we ask them or suggest places they could go, like, can we take you to the shelter or can we take you somewhere else, they just simply refuse to leave.

And so if they just refuse to leave, currently, the police don't have any ability to say, you must leave. So for the benefit of the public, what's up. But if they were to say, yes, I will go somewhere, the question is, do we have a place for them to go? Council's been gracious enough to agree to put in some money since the the money we originally had from from COVID and CARES dollars is no longer available. You all had agreed to set aside money so that if someone said, yes, I am willing to go somewhere, we can put them in a hotel while human services works with them to get them whatever they need, whether that's mental health services, addiction services, employment services, all of the above.

So that that's how we would address it if someone were willing to leave. Honestly, if most of these people were willing to leave, we already would have been working with them and placing them. This ordinance, again, is more for the last resort when people have simply refused the outreach that we offer and refused to leave to someplace else that's less obtrusive to neighbors and businesses.

Thank you. I just want a clarity for the folks that are watching at home. Thank you.

And I know we've gotten several emails today about it because I think the information being pushed out is that it's just simply a matter of criminalization of the homeless, which it, again, never has been. I think the stakeholder committee really debated, do you need an ordinance at all? If you need an ordinance, how do we soften it to make clear that it's a service first approach? Which is why you see the language that miss Law outlined about you have you do the verbal. You'd have the outreach team. You do these things. And this really becomes, if you will, the measure of last resort for individuals who simply are not willing to cooperate, accept the service, and then are causing those deleterious effects for neighborhoods or businesses.

Other questions, comments? I just one question I had regarding I know in many cases, HPD officers will be the first point of contact with complaint and, you know, issuing the notice of violation for sleeping or camping on this public property, and then they're supposed to provide the person after the notice of the violation with something that tells them where they can go to get help. So do we have or will we have printed materials that all HPD officers will carry so that we know exactly what number to call, which is hopefully not the housing crisis hotline because you know they they where you get with that. But that's my question is just to make sure all officers are trained and know what we are doing and what we're handing out.

So correct. For I'm glad you asked that question just for the benefit of the public watching. Chief Weidman has indicated that if counsel does choose to adopt this ordinance, he will develop a detailed training bulletin for all of his officers that will provide exactly like what you described. First off, the procedure so that we can document, for instance, that the verbal warning has been issued if it comes to that, so that we can document that the outreach team was called and that we can document that the outreach team did in fact engage for service delivery. In fact, we prefer that if someone calls in to police that the first contact would not be with HPD, it would be with the outreach team.

So the procedure would be get a call. We call out the outreach team. We try to get outreach team there. If they encounter difficulty, then they could let police know. Police would have the the leave behind just as the outreach team would have the leave behind so that the individual, if they're not willing to accept the service that moment, they would be able to accept the service later.

In an ideal world, if the outreach team goes out there and they're willing to accept service, we're not gonna make them call somebody later. We're gonna be immediately engaging with them. But, yes, we will have amongst the many tools printed material for folks. And to your point, you know, I think we've all been a bit frustrated with the housing hotline, which was run and will be run up until June 30 with an outside organization serving all of the regional localities. But we are all working on a new plan for that because it's really not lived up to the expectations that we've had.

And that's not to diminish the organization that's done it, but they're the way they did it doesn't really one of the big challenges was that they closed earlier and that many of the times people are calling that number. It's in the evening hours and it's not staffed. So when you're dealing with the unhoused population, particularly those who are working, a lot of the unhoused are working. They just have fallen on hard times, and they they may not have a stable place of of residents, but that doesn't mean they're not working. So they may be at work during the day, then they try to call the housing hotline and it's closed. So we're revamping that whole thing. The contract will end in June, and we will have a new service in place as of July 1.

Okay.

When I say we, not just Hampton, but Hampton and Newport News are working together on that.

Okay. Any other questions, comments from council members? Okay. Thank you, Brandy.

Thank you. Alright. Mister mayor, unless there's anything else on on either of those items, that's all we had for open session this afternoon.

Okay. Are there any regional issues? Are there any items for new business? Alright. There being none, madam clerk, will you read the protocol for or motion required for closed session?

The motion required today is to convene a closed session pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 dash thirty seven eleven point a point one to discuss appointments as listed on the agenda.

And we need a motion and a second.

So moved.

Second. Second.

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler. Aye. Mayor Gray.

Aye. And so with that, we will convene closed session in the Lawson Conference Room. And following the closed session, council will reconvene in the open meeting in the same location in order to certify the closed session and then proceed to adjourn the meeting. So, we will convene in the Lawson Conference Room at 01:45.