City Council Legislative Session - Regular Meeting

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

Councilman Bowman. Present. Vice mayor Brown.

Present.

Councilwoman Campbell. Present. Councilwoman Ferebee. Present. Councilwoman Harper. Present. Councilwoman Mugler. Present. Mayor Gray.

Present. And the invocation this evening will be given by councilwoman Martha Mugler followed by the pledge of allegiance. So will you please

do have to care there. Loving and gracious god, you are indeed the giver of all good gifts and thank you. I'll start one more time. Let us pray. Loving and gracious god, you are indeed the giver of all good gifts, and we come together this day to seek your wisdom, guidance, courage, and strength.

Be with us in our deliberations and help us to be wise in the decisions we make for our city and for the good of all those who have placed their trust and confidence in our leadership. Give us insight to lead with integrity that our decisions may reflect what is right and good. Keep us from shortsightedness. Help us to make decisions that strive to be for the good of all while guarding us from blind self interest. Finally, dear lord, grant us the humility to always your will in all we do and say. All glory be to you, loving god, now and forever. Amen.

Okay. So as you know that, you know, this month, March has been restaurant week in Hampton, and myself and along with members of council, we've been visiting a list of, I think, 19 different restaurants in the city to, one, support them with with the meal and hope and then with a number of social media posts. Hopefully, some of you have seen those, and you've gone out. I I met so many people in in the four different restaurants that I made it to thus week, and many of those people were there. They were there because they got the message about restaurant week.

So it's important during this week that we get out and show some appreciation for all of the business people in our community who have invested in restaurants and, you know, really make Hampton a great place to come, you know, and and get a great meal, great breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We have some family owned, locally owned restaurants that have been around our community for many, many years, and that's something that makes our city very unique. You know, we do have some of the chain restaurants, which are great too, but we have these local restaurants that have really been in our community for many years. So I hope you will take a look at the list. Go out and visit those restaurants.

Have a great meal. Take your family members with you. Post on social media, you know, copy or or a picture of your plate and what you had, and hopefully, you will inspire somebody else to go out and do the same thing and support our many great restaurants this week. We're gonna we're gonna turn up the the heat on this next year and double the number of restaurants that are on that list and really make that great. But this year, we want you to go out and support them too.

So thanks to all my council members. I think we still have a few visits to make before this coming Saturday or Sunday, actually. And so we'll we'll still be out there, and, hopefully, I'll see you out at some of those restaurants too. But thanks to all of you who've gone out so far and supported the great restaurants in our community. So with that, I'm gonna ask the clerk next to read the protocol for the consent agenda.

The consent agenda consists of routine noncontroversial items requiring council approval. These items are typically adopted with one motion and without discussion. Tonight, your consent agenda approves the fiscal year twenty twenty six second quarter budget adjustments and the minutes of the 02/11/2026 work session.

Alright. And we need a motion and a second.

Mister mayor, move approval of tonight's consent agenda.

Second.

Councilman Bowman?

Aye.

Vice mayor Brown? Aye. Councilwoman Campbell? Aye. Councilwoman Bearby? Aye. Councilwoman Harper? Aye. Councilwoman Muggler? Aye. Mayor Gray?

Aye. Okay. And I have a few proclamations that I have issued this week, and and I want to read those tonight to draw attention to to important things that are going on not only in our community, but really across the across the country. And the first of those is one that is proclaimed in March 2026 as developmental disabilities awareness month in the city of Hampton. So whereas March is recognized nationwide as developmental disabilities awareness month, first established in 1987 to promote a society in which people with disabilities are empowered to participate fully in community life.

And whereas individuals with disabilities, with developmental disabilities, are valued members of the Hampton community who live, learn, work, volunteer, and contribute to our schools, our workforce, our faith communities, and civic life. And whereas a disability is a natural part of the human experience, and it does not diminish diminish the right of any person to independence, dignity, self determination, equal opportunity, and full participation in all aspects of society. And whereas residents with developmental disabilities come from diverse backgrounds and seek the same opportunities as all citizens to pursue education, employment, housing, recreation, meaningful community connections. And whereas the city of Hampton supports a person centered approach that promotes accessibility, safety, community, and integration, and competitive employment, leadership, and independent living. And whereas families, caregivers, educators, and service providers, businesses, and community organizations work collaboratively to expand inclusive programs and strengthen opportunities for individual with this developmental disabilities and their families.

And whereas developmental disabilities awareness month encourages all residents to celebrate the abilities and promote understanding and strength of Hampton's commitment to an inclusive community for all. Now, therefore, I, James a Gray, mayor, on behalf of the city council of the city of Hampton, Virginia, hereby proclaim March 2026 as developmental disabilities awareness month in the city of Hampton, and I encourage all residents, businesses, schools, and community organizations to support individuals with developmental disabilities and work together to ensure full participation in all aspects of community life. And witness whereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Hampton, Virginia to be affixed this eleventh day of March two thousand and twenty six, signed James a. Graham mayor. And so you you you're aware that we have a committee.

It's the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities, a great group of community individuals who come together and work on identifying resources and looking for ways to make our community more inclusive, to remove barriers and obstacles that will inhibit people to be able to fully participate in everything that's going on in our city, and we are grateful for all of the work that they put in. So I would like to ask the members of our mayor's committee for people with disabilities to come forward and receive this presentation.

Thank you.

And this month is also American Red Cross month. And so we are proclaiming the month of March 2026 as American Red Cross month in the city of Hampton, Virginia. And whereas this March, we celebrate American Red Cross month by recognizing the compassionate acts of people in the city of Hampton, Virginia, and by renewing our commitment to lend a helping hand to our neighbors in need. And whereas since Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross more than one hundred and forty years ago, a generation after generation has stepped up to deliver relief and care across our country and around the world, bringing out the best in humanity in times of crisis. And whereas advancing this noble mission, the volunteers and supporters who now give back to the Red Cross of Coastal Virginia, they remain unwavering in their commitment to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of today's emergencies.

And whereas the American Red Cross has provided critical humanitarian service, including disaster relief, health and safety, education, blood donation, and support of military families for over a century. And whereas the efforts of the American Red Cross are made possible through the selfless contributions of volunteers, donors, supporters who give their time, resources, and compassion to help others in need. And whereas the American Red Cross continues to embody the values of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, universality, and promoting a world where people are cared for and protected no matter their circumstances. And whereas March 2026 marks the celebration of Red Cross' long standing commitment to providing essential services, fostering resilience in communities, and supporting the well-being of individuals across the nation and the globe. And whereas by recognizing March as American Red Cross month, we honor the dedication of the council countless volunteers, donors, staff who make the mission of the American Red Cross a reality and inspire others to become involved in their efforts.

Now, therefore, I, James a Gray junior, mayor, behalf of the city council of the city of Hampton, Virginia, do hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as American Red Cross month in the city of Hampton, Virginia in recognition of the invaluable contributions the American Red Cross makes to our communities and the world. And let all of citizens in the city of Hampton, Virginia observe this month with gratitude, reflection, and an invitation to support the continued success and impact that the American Red Cross's work makes. Furthermore, I urge all to participate in activities that support the mission of the American Red Cross, whether through volunteering, donating blood, or contributing to the disaster relief efforts as they work together to strengthen our communities and foster a more compassionate world. A witness whereof I have here to set my hand and cause a seal in the city of Hampton, Virginia to be affixed this March 2026, signed James a Gray junior. And, you know, I guess on a personal note, you know, I I spent thirty two years in the fire service, and, you know, I guess we know we know the the relationship that the American Red Cross has with first responders all across this community, when there's a fire and people have been displaced because of that fire, the first people who are on the scene not only to look out for the safety and the needs of the firefighters, but also they take care of the families and get them housed in hotels and all because fires can be a very devastating thing that kinda takes away everything you have in, you know, in just a few minutes.

And so folks need an opportunity to recover, and the Red Cross is always right there with them. You know, they're there. They run blood drives to, you know, collect blood for those in need of blood transfusions from accidents to major surgeries. And so, you know, we're grateful for all the work that they do. And so hopefully, you'll find a way to volunteer or donate or support Red Cross in some way during this month.

So and then lastly, it is March 8. We wanna proclaim as International Women's Day in the city of Hampton, Virginia. And whereas women's day is a global celebration that recognizes the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and girls. And whereas international women's day raises awareness about the ongoing gender inequality and discrimination and encourages community action to support equity, justice, and inclusion, and highlights the local commitments to addressing systemic barriers affecting women, girls, and gender diverse people. And whereas for one hundred and fifteen years, International Women's Day has helped drive change and redefine the possibilities, and whereas the city of Hampton supports a community that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, and free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination, and whereas the International Women's Day twenty twenty six give to gain campaign is a worldwide call for communities to contribute to women's advancement through donations, knowledge, resources, infrastructure, visibility, advocacy, education, training, mentoring, or time, which will help create a more supportive and interconnected world.

So now, therefore, I, James a great junior mayor, on behalf of the city council of the city of Hampton, Virginia, do proclaim 03/08/2026 as Women's Day in the city of Hampton, Virginia, call upon all citizens to help join me in supporting that cause and witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Hampton, Virginia to be affixed on this March 2026, signed James a Gray junior. And so in addition to International Women's Day, it is also Women's History Month. And we will pay tribute to, you know, all of the history makers in our instead in in including some of the ones that we have up here because I think we have four women on Hampton City Council, which I do believe is the first time in the history of our city that that has ever happened. So we have some history makers right here amongst us. So let's give them a round of applause.

And and then, of course, you know, you see in the leadership of our city, our city manager, our clerk, our city attorney, all women in leadership roles in our community as we're grateful for their service. And our city manager, she's she's making some history. I think for someone other than maybe her mother is the longest serving city manager around. I have a beat. Yeah.

She oh, she has a mother beat now. So she's she's she's done that. So we're grateful for Mary's service and all the other women in leadership positions and throughout our country and, you know, really right here at home in in Hampton. So at our second meeting this month, we'll have a special tribute to some women leaders who've had an impact in our community and across this country. So we look forward to to continuing to celebrate our women in our community all throughout this month. So that concludes all of my proclamations for this month and so for this meeting. So I'm gonna move on now and get down to protocol for public hearings. Madam clerk?

I'm sorry, mayor. There's one item prior to that. It's item number three, which is 26 dash zero zero seven six.

I'm sorry. I have a stormwater presentation that I'm skipping.

It's a it's public works wastewater, solid waste stormwater rate increase, and I believe miss Bunting will introduce that.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister mayor, and counsel. As hopefully most of you know, we're in the middle of our budget season. And one of the things we do in Hampton is we invite the public to weigh in on options before we actually release a manager's recommended budget. So last week, we had in person meetings that people could come to and see presentations and then give us polling preferences. This week, we have online polling for those of you who could not actually make it to our meetings.

One of the things that we discussed in the meetings was the need for various public works funds changes in fees. This would be our wastewater or sewer user fee, our solid waste user fee, and our storm water user fee. And it was suggested by council that because we would be looking potentially at raising these fees this year that we do it at the evening council meeting as well because we realize not everyone can get to those in person meetings. So I'm very pleased to introduce our interim public works director, Michael Bowery, who has been presenting this information in person and is glad to present it to all of you this evening.

Good evening, mayor Gray, vice mayor Brown, members of the council, city manager Bunting, and city attorney Sid North. Again, my name is Michael Bauer, and I'll be reviewing the three public works fee increases. First, beginning with our wastewater program. Our wastewater team's mission is to protect public health, water quality, and the environment by operating and maintaining the wastewater collection system. We do this through minimizing sanitary sewer overflows and the subsequent health impacts.

We convey wastewater from our homes and businesses to Hampton Road Sanitation District's larger pipe network system and treatment plants. We ensure our system is operating effectively through wastewater collection system maintenance, pump station maintenance, and various construction projects. Our wastewater bill has a base rate for operations and a surcharge rate to support regulatory compliance. The memorandum of agreement between HRSD and the various localities is enforced by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality through a regional consent order. This map shows the age of Hampton's sanitary sewer system.

As you can see, the majority of Hampton's wastewater system is more than 70 years old. By year twenty forty, thirty three percent of Hampton's wastewater system will be over a 100 years old. Just a brief wastewater fee history. In 2010, a surcharge fee was added to wastewater bills to support regulatory compliance and capital projects. Since full adoption of the memorandum of agreement, wastewater has focused on performing the required work first and drawing down cash reserves as much as possible to minimize rate increases.

Our wastewater team is prioritizing the worst defects to be completed by year 2030 as required by the regional regulatory schedule. This timeline, in 2013, a $165,000,000 was originally estimated for the known repairs needed to our wastewater system. In 2014, the memorandum of agreement was signed and the consent order was modified. Hampton became obligated to make the repairs in our wastewater system. In 2020, the regional wet weather plan was approved.

In 2022, due to cost inflation and construction cost continually climbing, the remaining repairs are expected to be escalated to $240,000,000 with the highest priority completed by year 2030 and the remaining defects to be completed by year 2040. To date, Hampton has spent $40,000,000 on capital assets in our wastewater system. As stated, $240,000,000 is the known most up to date cost for the repairs required to our wastewater system. 106,000,000 will address the highest priority defects by year 2030. The remaining 134,000,000 will address the remaining defects by year 2040.

This is an example of one of the defects. You can see the image to the left. The two bright spots indicates where a utility has bored through our wastewater line. The image to the right shows a completely repaired system and you have a new pipe using cured in place pipelining. One tool we have to measure success is by measuring the salinity in our wastewater system.

If we use the dark green line as kind of an indication point, if we look to the left of that, these are before repairs are made. The blue line indicates salinity in our wastewater system. The green line indicates James River high tides. As you can see, the peaks are kinda the same. So this shows that during high tide event, the tide is getting into our wastewater system causing peaks and salinity.

The dark green line shows repairs have been made. After the dark green line, you see that we have salinity in our wastewater system is no longer peaking with the James River high tide events, showing us we have a repaired system. Rate increased drivers for wastewater. The cost of construction and the cost to operating and maintenance activities over the past several years has drastically increased. National year to year construction cost indexes are still increasing.

They remain high with some of them rising faster than inflation itself. Other increased drivers include regional memorandum of agreement requires still ongoing work. HRSD focuses on the larger repairs, but they're not fixing the repairs that our citizens are dealing with on a day to day basis. Hampton is responsible for those day to day repairs needed that cause sanitary sewer overflows due to roots, grease, and other failures. The Department of Environmental Quality continues to provide regulatory oversight.

Our current wastewater user fee is $2.45. The user fee covers the cost of general maintenance sewer system. We are recommending a seven cent increase bringing the new total of the wastewater user fee to $2.52. The wastewater surcharge fee is currently $4.79. Again, this covers the the larger capital and projects as required by the memorandum of agreement.

We are recommending a 14¢ increase bringing the new total to $4.93. The wastewater fee is not based on a set monthly average. It's based on water usage. So if we use approximately the average customer's water usage of of about 5,000 gallons, the average monthly cost is $48.39 currently. With the recommended bill increases, it's bringing the new total up by a dollar and 41¢ a month, bringing the new monthly total on average to $49.80.

This is how our wastewater bill compares to other localities. This comparison does not take into account any proposed increases this year. As you can see, Hampton does rank number three compared to other localities. All of the other localities are in the same memorandum of agreement as we are. They chose various different methods to pay for this work.

Hampton chose to use a pay as you go method so we're not having to take out loans and using debt funded options for this work to be done. We're using it during our rate increases to make sure the work is completed that way. So in conclusion, our recommendation is to increase the user wastewater user fee by 7¢, bringing the new total to $2.52 and increasing our wastewater surcharge fee by 14¢, bringing the new total to $4.93. I'll take any questions you may have about our wastewater and then I'll I'll jump into the other two rate presentations.

Okay. This is a kind of a repeat for what we've already seen. Any questions, comments from council members? Alright. You can move to the next one.

Alright. The next fee we'll be increasing is our solid waste or request for fee increase is our solid waste management fund. Our solid waste mission is to provide weekly collection of residential trash, yard waste, and bulk trash and provide recyclable material, disposal, and solid waste disposal. This slide shows the services solid waste offers which include weekly trash and bulk collection, trash and recycle disability services, container delivery and repair, special collections such as bulk collections, illegal dumping enforcement and collections, as well as the other items listed on the slide. Within our solid waste program, Hampton operates and maintains the Hampton NASA steam plant.

The steam plant's mission is to facilitate the incineration of Hampton's trash to generate steam that is utilized by NASA to meet their energy needs. Solid waste fee increase drivers include, Hampton is in a ten year agreement with NASA. Each year, NASA's contribution goes down less and less, thus increasing solid waste contribution annually. In addition, recycling cost global recycling demand continues to decrease, and this is causing our recycling contracts to increase. In addition to that, increased cost to maintain our equipment and maintenance, increased cost annually to to dispose at the landfill, and then the cost to retain qualified CDL operators remains an ongoing issue.

Steam plant drivers include, we're in the process of replacing two aging cranes in addition to a major boiler rehabilitation. To fund those projects, we entered a new debt issuance for the CIP projects totaling 10,600,000.0 in 2025. In addition to that, continuous maintenance of an aging facility that requires major upgrades. Our current solid waste weekly fee is $8.78. We are proposing a 26¢ increase bringing the new weekly total to $9.04.

This equates to $38.05 currently and with the 20¢ 26¢ weekly increase, the new monthly increase would be a dollar 12 monthly bringing the new monthly total to $39.17. This is how Hampton compares to other localities. As you can see, we're number one in this category. This does not take into account any proposals recommended neighboring communities. I will have to say on this slide, we are the only locality in the area that has a steam plant.

That steam plant is really beneficial to Hampton because it increases the life of the landfill. If we didn't have the landfill, we would have to truck our trash elsewhere, bringing our new monthly totals, our bills drastically higher than this. So we're very fortunate to have that steam plant. In addition, Hampton is one of the only localities in the area that offers weekly bulk collection. So looking ahead, we will continue to pursue legislation modifications to the overall recycling definition.

So Hampton may have the opportunity to reduce cost of recycling by getting credit for recycling materials taken to the Hampton NASA steam plant. We will continue to explore the possibility of technology use, waste to energy, so using to our steam to support power generation. Some solid waste options we consider we could consider, and these are on the high value surveys. We could discontinue the residential recycling program which would save approximately $1,100,000 annually, which is equivalent to approximately 47¢ on the weekly solid waste fee. Solid waste and recycling materials with that will be combined and taken to the steam plant for incineration.

Hampton could meet its recycling requirements by the state with generated by commercial haulers. So this is a viable option. Other solid waste options we could consider is reducing bulk collections from weekly to biweekly, decreasing the projected solid waste fees by approximately 25¢ weekly. Going a step further, we could reduce our weekly bulk collections from weekly to monthly decreasing the projected solid waste fees by 35¢ weekly. Potential impacts by doing this, by reducing the bulk collection, you would see an overall increase in violations and the need to add additional enforcement staff to manage illegal dumping concerns.

In addition to that, reducing bulk trash collections would impact the appearance of our neighborhoods and could increase the likelihood of flooding concerns. So in conclusion, it is our recommendation that we increase our solid waste rate to $9.04, which adjusts for the ongoing cost escalations and provides our current level of service. At this time, I'll answer any questions you may have about our solid waste fee.

Okay. No questions for you.

Okay. The final public works fund we'll be covering is our storm water management fund. Our storm water program's mission is to protect public health, water quality, and the environment by operating and maintaining our storm water system. Our storm water services division offers many services to include roadside and back ditch maintenance, slope mowing, front ditching programs, mosquito control services, illicit discharge detection and elimination, as well as the various other services listed on the slide. Stormwater fee increased drivers for this year are the increased operating and maintenance expenses due to the overall cost increases to construction and capital projects and the future stormwater environmental initiatives.

In addition, our staff is continually exploring ways we could reduce neighborhood flooding with enhanced storm water systems and overall maintenance. Our current storm water fee is $12.83. We are recommending a dollar increase going towards maintenance cost and operating, bringing the new monthly total to $13.83. This is where Hampton compares to other localities. Again, this is not taking into consideration any proposed increases by other communities this year.

As you can see, Hampton does rank right in the mid range for this, so we're right on par with where we should be. In conclusion, it is our recommendation that we increase our current storm water fee to $13.83 for FY '27. We will continue projections and expenses to end revenues for future years to come. At this time, I'll take any questions you may have about storm water.

Alright. No questions for me. Thank you. Is that the last one?

That's the last one. Yes, sir.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And city manager, do you wanna comment?

Remind people that all of these options as well as other options both sorry. All of the things that mister Bowery covered about the different fees as well as your position on the real estate tax, employee compensation, and various operating capital priorities are available for Hampton residents to rank currently this week on what we call the iValue poll. These are preferences. It's not like majority rules because there's voices that sometimes don't get accounted for. So for instance, right now, we're not getting a lot of youth voices on the survey.

So if all of you who are watching can help me get the word out to young people, we wanna make sure that we're getting a representative sample of the entire community. And there may be folks for instance, one of the things we're talking about later tonight is homelessness. And there are items on there about both funding for temporary sheltering and also funding for permanent supportive housing. And it may be that the homeless aren't able to participate in the polls. So as city manager, I to preserve the right to make, you know, a responsible fiduciary budget recommendation to counsel that you all can then opine on after its release in the public hearings.

But we do value very much, and I think our track record shows that we largely honor the public feedback that we get. So if you're interested in putting your thumbprint on the budget before the manager makes a recommendation, please go fill out that poll. You can access it through our website or through our social media, and we look forward to seeing the results. We'll present those results to counsel on these questions you heard tonight as well as those other questions on the poll at our next afternoon work session. Thank you, mister mayor.

Thank you. Alright. So now it's time for public hearings. So I'll ask the clerk to read the protocol for public hearing items.

The city council is committed to fair and respectful respectful hearings. Hearings. The following guidelines help ensure an orderly process. Individuals

wishing to

speak must sign up in the city hall lobby. You can start one hour before the meeting, and it ends when the meeting begins. Speakers will be called in the order they signed up. Speakers shall address council from the center podium. Each speaker is allowed three minutes. The timer has a green light which will turn yellow with one minute remaining then red when your time is up. All comments must be addressed to the council, and speakers may not yield their time to others. After all the speakers are heard, the mayor will close the public hearing and invite council discussion and action. The first public hearing this evening is actually on both items number four and number five, a combined public hearing. I'll read those titles.

26Dash0037 is rezoning application number 26Dash0037 by WODA Cooper Companies LLC to rezone approximately 1.69 acres at 2601 Cunningham Drive 4002376 from General Commercial C 3 district to multifamily residential m d four district with conditions for a multifamily development. And item 526DashOO37. I'm sorry. That should be 38. Use permit number 26Dash0038 by Woda Cooper Companies LLC to promote permit multifamily dwellings 2601 Cunningham Drive 4002376.

This application is brought in conjunction with rezoning application number 26Dash0037.

Mister mayor and council members, Quinn Heinrich, one of our city planners, is going to make the presentation for both items. This is one public hearing as well.

Good evening. Thank you, city council, mister mayor, and miss Bunting. As said, my name is Quinn Heinrich, and tonight I'll be presenting rezoning application number 26Dash0037 and use permit number 26Dash0038. They're an application by Wode Cooper Companies to rezone approximately 1.69 acres at 2601 Cunningham Drive from general commercial c three to multifamily residential m d four with conditions to allow for a new multifamily development. This parcel is located due West Of I 64 and just North of Mercury Boulevard.

It's within our Colosseum Central overlay district. More specifically, it is just South Of Cunningham Drive and located right next to the Whoops. Located right next to the Build America business condominiums. Just to the south of this parcel is a hotel. To the west is a religious facility.

And to the north across from Cunningham Drive is multi additional multifamily developments. This current site has been vacant for its entire existence. In 1983, it was subject to a rezoning from c two to c three to construct the business condominiums at Build America. There were five proper conditions from that rezoning, which included the construction of a fence along the western border of 2601 Cunningham Drive. Between now and then, there has been very little change to this parcel.

Our current proposal was initiated in October 2025. And it called for a single four story building consisting of 44 units. There'd be six one bedroom units, twenty seven two bedroom units, and eleven three bedroom units. All of which will be at or below 80% of market rate for the area. They will be accessed via Build America Drive, which is a private street that is partially on the parcel.

Behind the building is parking lot that will be landscaped along all sides including a 20 foot landscape buffer that extends the length of the western border of the parcel. The parking lot will have 57 parking spaces. Seven will be ADA accessible. There will also be 12 bicycle parking spaces. And right down the road on Cunningham Drive is a bus station that serves routes one zero two, 105, and 114.

So, we anticipate that a portion of the trips from this site will be made by public transportation. The proposal on the inside of the building will be a community room. And outside on the parcel will be a picnic area, playground, and a grill. They'll also have a dumpster that will be enclosed. And the building will also be designed to meet a 150 mile an hour wind load.

It will be energy certified ENERGY STAR certified in its appliances and will meet the ENERGY STAR multi family new construction guidelines. Additionally, there will be two level two electric vehicle charging stations constructed on-site. This is a visual of the proposal. It's a little bit hard to see. Cunningham Drive is on the left side of this image and the building extends backward in an l shape. Behind there is the parking lot. You can see along the Yeah. Along the border with the religious facility, which is on the bottom, there's 20 foot landscape buffer. There's also a dumpster there. And then Build America Drive runs along the top of the image.

Here are some of the east and north building elevations, and then the south and west building elevations. Zoning map for the current zoning, which as we said is general commercial c 3. To the south is C 2 for the hotel. The religious facility is zone one family residential r 15. The apartment complexes to the north are zoned multiple residential r m.

All of the area to the south of Cunningham Drive, our future land use map on the community plan recommends mixed use development. And the area to the north, land use plan recommends high density residential. Here are some public policies from the Hampton community plan relating to land use that our staff has deemed relevant to this site. Additionally, their housing neighborhood policies and economic development policies. The parcel is also within the Colosseum Central Master Plan which does not have a specific recommendation for this parcel, but throughout the Colosseum Central Master Plan area, it calls for dense residential development at scales that support the neighboring businesses.

It also encourages pedestrian friendly and transit friendly development and especially to the West of I-sixty 4 that is in conjunction with reinvestment in existing retail centers. So staff analysis. This application aligns very well with our city's land use policies. It is compatible with the future land use map and the Colosseum Central Master Plan. It is redevelopment of an underutilized vacant site, which significantly improve the efficiency of land use in the city.

It adds needed residential units to Colosseum Central. And it is also very compatible with the surrounding neighborhood through its quality design and building materials. It's in close proximity to other apartment buildings, so it would be in character with the neighborhood. It has well connected pedestrian and bus infrastructure, and it's in close proximity to nearby shops and amenities along Build America Drive and the Peninsula Town Center. The applicant has proffered 20 conditions for the rezoning.

The full list of conditions can be found in the package. They include conditions relating to compliance with the concept plan and elevations, landscaping, density, and community amenities among other things. Staff also has recommended nine conditions for the use permit, which includes a condition on security that is one security camera will be recommended for each of the parking lots on the site. That is consistent with our other multi family developments in Coliseum Central. We recommend that for all of them.

The community meeting was held on 01/22/2026. There were 11 community members in attendance and they There were some questions asked about parking, traffic, and safety among some other things. And in conclusion, applicant has an opportunity to present. And after the public hearing, staff and planning commission both recommend approval of the rezoning number 26Dash0037 subject to 20 proper conditions. They also recommend approval of the use permit number 26Dash0038 subject to nine conditions. Thank you. And I'm available for any questions, and I believe the applicant is as well.

Okay. Questions. Councilwoman Thurry.

Thank you, mister mayor. Regarding the community meeting, could you elaborate a little bit more regarding the conversation and the after the community members in attendance, were there questions addressed? Did that make them favorable? Were people unfavorable? Or can you just elaborate a little bit, please?

Yes. So in terms of some of the questions that were asked, there were questions about the parking, whether there'd be parking permitted on Build America Drive. Currently, I know it's not permitted along the street, but there were questions on on that and about just the general yeah, the some of the maintenance things relating to that. There were some questions about whether you could build have a left turn onto Build America Drive, whether there'd a traffic light needed, whether or not there would be lighting required in the parking lot, and some questions about like cleanliness of the grounds and what they just how they were planning to or how they were planning to maintain the property essentially. And I can't speak as to whether or not people were swayed.

I don't know exactly what some of the like whether they came in opposition or left. But the developer did answer all the questions. And again, they're here and can answer some of them as well tonight. Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions? Councilwoman Campbell.

Yeah. I don't know if mine so much is a question. It's more of a statement. When I look at this piece of land, it goes from the 6 I 64 to Todd's Lane and or yeah. And then Cunningham to Mercury. And all of that in there is one huge commercial piece of of land that would make for a nice future development. So I just to me, it's kind of odd to stick just a few houses in the middle of this beautiful commercial property when you've got high density across the street, you've high density across the interstate there. So just more of a consideration that kind of caught my eye when I looked at this.

Any more questions or comments for the planner? Mr. Quinn? Okay. Thank you, sir. I believe the applicant is here. Does the applicant wish to have a presentation as well?

Good evening. Mayor Gray, vice mayor Brown, members of city council, city manager, city attorney. My name is Bruce Watts. I'm vice president of development for Walter Cooper Companies and chief engagement officer. This is Eric Wright, our also a development officer for our company.

It's indeed a pleasure and an honor to be before you today. I've been working in development for over twenty years. And in the Commonwealth Of Virginia, we've developed 13 properties throughout the Commonwealth in ten years, from West Virginia to Richmond to Chesterfield County, to Petersburg, Hopewell, and six in Hampton Roads. Six of those have been in Congressman Bobby Scott's district. So it would be an honor if we could get into Hampton.

We would love to be here. Our team is excited about this potential development. Excited because I understand this is women's month for the month

of

March, and we are naming this after the iconic, historic miss Katherine Johnson, who was thirty five years at Langley Air Force here in Hampton. And I remember researching names for this particular development, and I thought about her when I saw the movie Hidden Figures. And so we did some research, and I realized that, you know, she has been recognized, but I wanted to recognize her in a different way. And this development is named in honor of her. Also, Mary Jackson, we went to her community center here two weeks ago, and I was in awe of that community center.

It's first class, and I like to commend city council and the citizens here on producing a first class community center. It's I love the rocking chairs too. But the murals and the history of it is iconic. What I'd like to do is to talk to you about the development overall. It's a 44 unit development. It's at 2601 Cunningham Drive. We have six one bedroom apartments. Average is seven fifteen square feet. We have twenty seven two bedroom apartments. The average is nine twenty five.

And eleven three bedroom apartments, the average square feet is eleven thirty. It's area medium income ranges from basically 22,000 to $85,000. It's the area medium income. The rents are base rates are from $5.50 to $14.75, staff organization organization to to provide provide services services to to residents if needed. We have a community room, a fitness room, and also a library.

Our developments if you look at the packet that I presented to you, 50% of our designs are brick. Another 50% are either hardy plank or cement board. So we don't use vinyl siding for our developments. Another amenity that we have, we put elevators in our buildings. And that attracts seniors because seniors don't wanna go up three or four flights of stairs.

So without even advertising, over 30% of our units are occupied by seniors. And I think that's a big amenity that we have that other developers some of the other developers don't have. And so we love our seniors. We love attracting seniors. And I think this would be a great opportunity to provide housing for seniors also. I'm gonna let Eric talk a little bit about, you know, our company and the background of our company, and then we'll open it up for questions.

Thank you. Just to introduce a little bit more about us as we are new to this community in Hampton. Wood Cooper Company is a development, construction, and management company. Been in business since 1990, so over thirty five years this year. Constructed three seventy affordable communities, over 16,000 units, and we house more than 30,000 people today.

$1,500,000,000 in total investments in affordable housing properties. And the element that I really wanted to highlight is that we are a long term owner of our properties. We do not, as some developers do, basically build the building and either have someone else manage it or flip it and sell it to someone else or convert it to market rate after a few years. We intend to own building long term, maintain the building long term with on-site management staff. And we will keep the building affordable into perpetuity.

A little bit more about our current presence in Hampton Roads. Just down the road in Newport News, we have two developments, Brennan 0.1 and Brennan 0.2. In Portsmouth, we have Holly Point and Baines Point, as well as another development that we're hoping to bring in the few years. And the banks at Berkeley and Bell Diamond Manor, both in Norfolk as well as our Virginia office. As Bruce mentioned, we named this development in honor of Katherine Johnson.

And these are some of the amenities that we have. One other element of the development that I wanted to mention in reference of it being developmental disabilities month, we'll have seven ADA units at the development that will have a first leasing preference for people with disabilities, including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It's something that's a part of our mission. And we're working with the STOP, Inc. Organization to provide services to those residents

to

help them stay maintain stable housing and access other resources in the community. Here's the proposed rendering. And I suppose I should reference a few things that came up in the planning commission meeting, concerns that some community members or planning commissioners had. With regards to the parking count, there was questions about 57 spaces being enough. I just wanted to highlight, you know, that is that ratio is something that our management company is comfortable with.

That's based on an analysis of our over three seventy properties that we have in operation across the country. We constantly are, you know, getting feedback on that. And a lot of our properties today are way over parked. That is, you know, you go there at night, half the parking lot is empty. That's a real problem, not just for us, but it's not conducive to good storm water management.

That's not conducive to a pedestrian friendly community. And so, we believe that 57 spaces is the right number. There was also questions regarding the maintenance of Build America Drive. Prior and since, we've been in conversations with some of our neighbors with whom we share responsibility for maintaining Build America Drive. And we're familiar with the costs of expected improvements and maintenance to that road, and we budgeted accordingly for this development. So with that, we'll turn it over for any questions.

Okay. Questions for the developers. Councilman Bowman.

Okay. Thank you for the presentation. If my math serves me correctly, 44 parking spots and then 57 is what you have. Are you anticipating only having one car per unit? Because to me that sounds unrealistic. And if that's the case, where is the proposed parking? Because I don't see that you can park on Build America Drive. So can you answer that for me, please?

We are proposing 57 spaces in the parking lot for 44 units. So it's just over, you know, between one and one and a half cars per unit.

And if I could add, councilman. I mean, based on history, in most of our developments, we have a percentage of residents that don't have cars. Then we have a percentage of residents that use public transportation. So that that parking number works. It may not appear that it works, but it works. If it didn't, we wouldn't we wouldn't do it because you do you need to have adequate parking, but it does work.

Any other questions for the developer? Okay. Alright. I'm sorry. Council Councilwoman Faribi.

Oh, thank you for the presentation. I'm just curious. I love the fact that you are naming the property after one of our hidden figures. We happen to have four that our city were that lived in the city of Hampton, but I I worked with I was a Katherine Johnson with in Nassau, and Katherine Johnson was still working there. Is there any process that you have to go through to name a building after a person? I'm I'm just curious since I have you here.

We we do do the we do due diligence in house, and also we we're very careful to not name a development after a person that's living because there could be some things that could pop up that may not be conducive. So we wait until, you know, that person is no longer here. But we we also recognize, and we try what we try to do is to name it after individuals that have made a significant impact in our communities. An example of that in in Norfolk, we named one of our developments after mister George Bates, who was a pioneer Norfolk in the Berkeley community. We named one in Portsmouth after the late mayor James Holly, who was a personal friend of mine too.

We named one Chesterfield County after senator the late senator Benjamin Benjamin Lambert. We named one in Waynesboro after Julius Rosenwald, who started 500 schools in the South after the civil war. So we're very careful who we pick and who we name to put on our buildings. Okay.

And thank you. I was just curious about whether or not you had to go through a process to to do so. I was just curious about that.

Thank you. And appreciate your support and what you've done with NASA over the years. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions for the developer? Councilwoman Campbell.

Hi. Thank you. Can you tell me I got the rent. It was $5.50 to $14.75. What was the square footage of the apartments

of the units? I've got it here. So the one bedroom excuse me. So the one bedroom is $7.15. Two bedrooms average $9.25, and three bedrooms average $11.30.

Perfect. Thank you.

Any other questions for the developer? Alright. Thank you, mister Wise. Thank you, sir.

Okay. Thank you all too.

Alright. This is a public hearing, so we're gonna open the public hearing. There is no one signed up to speak on these items, so we'll close the public hearing, and then we'll call for a a motion.

Mister mayor? Yes. Move. Thank you, mister mayor. I move city council approve rezoning application 26Dash0037 with 20 proffered conditions and use permit 26Dash0038 with nine conditions as presented in the agenda

package. Second.

Alright. We have a motion to second. Is there any further discussion? Alright. There being none, would you call it a roll, madam clerk?

Councilman Bowman?

Aye.

Vice mayor Brown? Aye. Councilwoman Campbell? Nay. Councilwoman Farabee? Aye. Councilwoman Harper? Aye. Councilwoman Mugler? Aye. Mayor Gray? Aye. The motion carries. The next public hearing on your agenda this evening is item number six, which is 26Dash0039. It is a use permit application number 26Dash0039 by Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge LLC to amend the existing restaurant three use permit to modify the security requirements and extend the operational hours of the restaurant at 2163 And 2165 Cunningham Drive, which is a portion of LRSN 7001532.

Mister mayor and council members, this item will be presented to you tonight by chief planner Donald Whipple.

Good evening, Whipple. It's been while.

Mayor Gray, members of the council, as the clerk just read, this is a use permit application number 26Dash0039 by Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge located at 2163 And 2165 Cunningham Drive. Specifically, this use permit application, the request is to amend the hours of operation and the security requirements of a previously approved restaurant three use permit located in the Cosseum Central Central Area zoned limited commercial C 2 and Coliseum Central overlay districts. As indicated by the red star, this is the Coliseum Central Area as it sits within the city limits. And zooming in near the intersection of Coliseum Drive and Cunningham Drive, specifically at the intersection of Cunningham and Enfield Drive. This is the property that's outlined in blue and then the actual location of the restaurant within the property is indicated or outlined in yellow.

Just a little bit of history. In 2020, the current owner in Southern Comfort, the current owner acquired the space and opened the Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge. And at that time obtained a zoning administrative permit which limited the hours of operation from six a. M. To ten p.

M. And then in September 2025, under our new restaurant one, two, and three uses received an updated zoning administrative permit for restaurant two, which extended the hours from 5AM to 12AM. And then just this last December, they secured a restaurant three, which which was for extending the hours and allowing for live entertainment. And at that time, the hours of operation, as you can see, were extended to 12AM Sunday through Thursday, 2AM Friday and Saturday, as well as some holidays. So what the applicant is proposing tonight to amend that use permit by asking to extend the hours of operation from 11AM to 2AM daily.

And with respect to the security amendment, the applicant is requesting requesting to to look look at at the the space differently which would reduce the number of required internal security personnel on nights when the event space is not in use. In doing so, the interior security personnel requirement which is typically based on the total occupancy allowance for the total restaurant would be looked at just in the parts that are used. So in the case of this restaurant or in the case of this establishment, looking at the restaurant lounge area separately from the event space area. All other security conditions including the external security personnel requirements would remain the same of the approved use permit. So this is the applicant's proposed floor plan, and it shows the proposed separation.

And so in blue, this is the restaurant and lounge area, all in blue. And then the gray area is the event space. And so looking at this, so the sorry. The total occupancy load for the entire space is 517. But if you just separated out the restaurant and lounge, the load is three nineteen and one hundred and ninety eight for the event space.

And this plan has been reviewed by our building officials and found to be acceptable per the building code. As mentioned, this is a zoning map which reflects the limited commercial C2 zoning. And the proposed future land use which indicates this area or this particular site is being mixed use as is most of the area with the exception of the high density residential to the right. And this slide highlights the community plan policies that are pertinent to this application. Now regarding staff's analysis of this request, the applicant has requested the maximum hours of operation that could be permitted for a restaurant free use.

Based on staff's previous and current review of the request, we believe the currently approved hours appropriately balances the business operations as well as the public safety concerns and is also consistent with other restaurant threes that have been approved in this area. The applicant has also requested to amend the security requirements by looking at the restaurant lounge in the event space separately and determining the amount of security personnel. For enforcement purposes, the city typically prefers to determine the required security staffing based on the total occupancy of the entire business space. The applicant has indicated that the event area is relatively large and not used as frequently. Thus, the current standard would result in a greater number of security personnel for a space that may not be in use.

Because of the current physical layout, the applicant does have the ability to restrict or prevent access to the large event space when it is not in use. This capability would help to address some of the enforcement concerns by ensuring that the larger area cannot be utilized without the appropriate level of security staffing. As with all of our use permits, the establishment is required to comply with all conditions outlined in the permit. Any violations would be addressed through the city's established enforcement and revocation procedures. And just to remind you, this is the current conditions that were just approved from the use permit in December.

And just of note, most important what we're discussing tonight is the hours of operation currently as they stand are Sunday through Thursday 11AM to 12AM, and on Friday and Saturday 11AM to 2AM, as well as some holidays which would also permit the establishment to be open from 11AM to 2AM. Now regarding the existing security conditions, and I'm just gonna focus on the security personnel, There would be security monitoring of the parking areas as well as the adjacent public property. There would be seven total security guards beginning at 10:30 in the evening until thirty minutes after closing. And that number is based based on the total occupancy of the space. Again, that's 517.

So that nets five secondurity personnel for the internal space and two security guards dedicated to monitoring the parking lot. And on those occasions, on the nights where the establishment would be open to two a. M, there would be two extra duty Hampton Police officers that would need to be on-site. And all security personnel must be certified by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. Now given that there was some interest in an amendment to the current conditions, staff has prepared this option of a set of conditions for your consideration.

This option maintains the current or existing and approved hours of operation, but it does allow for the applicant's request to modify the security staffing when the event space is not in use. In doing so, the interior security personnel requirement would be based on the total occupancy for the restaurant and lounge or the event space separately or collectively if the whole space is being used at one time. Built into this set of conditions would be that the restaurant would have to notify the Hampton Police Department in writing not less than seven days, seven calendar days before the use of the event space. And as mentioned before, all security all external security requirements would remain the same as the previously approved use permit. There were several community meetings too that were associated with the previous use permit which was approved in December.

And you can see they were held both in August. And then there was a subsequent, just last month, a community meeting was held in February going over these suggested amendments to the conditions. In summary, the applicant is requesting two separate requests of the existing conditions. Extending the hours to two a. M.

Daily and reducing the number of security personnel one night when the event space is not in use. So option one would be to approve the applicant's request in whole, which would be approving and extending both operating hours and modifying the security conditions as proposed. Option two is the modification which approve in part and modify the security conditions only, but keep the hours of operation as they currently are approved. And option three would be to deny both request, both hours of operation and the security modifications. In which case the existing use permit would remain in effect and they could still operate under that.

So in conclusion, the applicant is here, does have a presentation to give, and after the public hearing is held, I will note that Planning Commission recommended denial of the amended use permit application and decided to uphold the current use permit application with its 14 conditions, which is option number three.

Mr. Whipple, for the record, am I correct in understanding that the Planning Commission did not get all three of these options however? I just wanted to make sure

Yeah, were at the Planning Commission, they were afforded option one and option two, which was to approve the applicant's request or deny the applicant's request, which is what they did. And so since the planning

You mean commission option one and three. You said option one and two.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Option one and three. Since planning commission, staff has worked on option number two, which is retain the hours of operation of the approved current use permit, but agree to the modification of the security conditions as proposed by the applicant. Hopefully that doesn't confuse you too much. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Uh-huh. Questions for mister Wilco, vice mayor Brown?

Yeah. Thank you, Donald. Just on the community meeting held on the sixteenth Yes. Of February, How many people attended that meeting?

There were about eight, I believe. And then there were some staff members that were there And as

what list did we use?

I'm sorry?

What invite list did we use?

We used the 20 the point two five, which is the quarter mile radius from that location.

And did anyone have any opposition to the proposed

There was no opposition. It was just more the applicant explaining why he was, you know, why he desired that. And most of them seemed amenable to, you know, greater access, you know, in helping the business, you know, succeed. There wasn't, you know, any opposition to what was presented.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Councilwoman Harper.

Thank you, Don, for your presentation. I just have a small question. Why does the applicant have to let HPD know, and this is not anything discriminatory, but why does he have to let HPD know within seven days of having an event?

Yeah, my understanding, and HPD is here if they can speak up if I say something wrong. My understanding is that that's part of it helps with potential enforcement concern that we had of, you know, if we're going to look at these spaces in separation, the idea is that on most of the time the restaurant lounge is going to be open and the event space is only going to be open for special occasions. And so just giving that heads up, and then they can know when and when not to expect that additional personnel. Okay. Does that make sense?

It does. Okay. It does. I do have one other question. Sure. Were the hours to be open at around 5AM? Am I missing something? Or did I see something?

The previous zoning administrative permits allow a 5AM begin time. You know, because some restaurants do breakfast So and that sort of for these live entertainment and extended hour establishments, most of them are usually 11AM to 12AM or 2AM depending on the night. And so that's something we've been consistent with the restaurant three hours of operation.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. Councilwoman Mugler.

Thank you, mister mayor. Can you go back to the slide of the interior of this The floor plan? Establishment. Yes, please.

Yeah. Sure. So

if if we're looking at this slide and we're looking at the what I would call reddish pink on the bottom right hand corner, which is near the front parking lot.

This right here?

Yes. Yes. And so then we see white area there, and it goes up. And I'm assuming the middle part that's white is the kitchen.

And No. So this is all the back of house on the on the left side of the screen. So this is all the kitchen.

I'm I'm sorry. I'm in the middle of the slide. Yeah.

In between the blue and

the because this is white also.

So I'll

just give you background.

This is the corridor. That's a great question. This is the corridor, which is currently in place that actually separates these two spaces currently. So there's walls on both sides. So this is basically this is a separate entrance. You can enter in here or into the establishment or you can enter in here. And so really when you enter in on this side, it's just an open corridor that you can walk down. You know, the bathrooms are back here in the back, so you could get to the restaurant lounge or to the event space. And there's existing doors here that they can lock so that if just the restaurant lounge are open, the general public would not be able to get into this event space.

Thank you. You answered

my question.

Mister mayor, if I may, for the record, just

City manager.

For the benefit of the public watching, it is this unique element that councilwoman Mugler called out that allows for the potential, for lack of a better word, bifurcation of the restaurant lounge and the event event space. It's only because it can be completely severed, locked off, and maintain proper public safety ingress and egress for fire safety exits and all of that that we can even look at that option too of saying you can have this security for this and this security for this and the combined for the combined event space. There are if this were one big space and the applicant was just suggesting coordinating it off, we would not be in the position to give you the option of this bifurcation. But because of that unique corridor that allows a complete blockage and lock off of the event space, we are in the position to give you that option. But I wanna be clear.

This would not necessarily be an option that any restaurateur could ask for, and we would be in the position of being able to say you can make it work. Because if they're just gonna rope off an area or whatever, it becomes very unmanageable for security reasons to really control what is the right number. But this is almost two completely different spaces that stand alone and can be combined.

Any other questions for mister Whipple? Okay. Is the applicant here, and does he have a presentation?

Yes.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening, mayor Gray, vice mayor Brown, miss Byron, members of the city council. As you guys know, my name is Eddie Gomez. I'm the owner of Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge. And tonight, we're requesting operational alignment that supports both sustainability and continued economic contribution to the city of Hampton. Since receiving our permit, we have operated responsibly and in full compliance.

We have remained committed to safety, cooperation with Hampton Police, and adherence to the city regulations. This amendment is not about reducing safety, but it's exactly about aligning our permit with by providing quality dining, live entertainment, and a professionally managed event environment. We have built our reputation on professionalism, regulatory compliance, and maintaining strong, for relationships with our surrounding neighborhood. From the time we opened, we have successfully operated until 2AM, demonstrating our ability to manage late night operations responsibly and in coordination with the city's expectations. We operated until 2AM every day of the week until March 2025 when it was brought to my attention that there was a clerical error on my behalf in the paperwork that I filled out.

Southern Comfort plays an active plays an active and positive role in Hampton's local economy and community. At full operation, we provide over 40 local jobs, supporting families, and contributing to the city's workforce stability. We prioritize source from Hampers based vendors and regional distributors, keeping our purchasing dollars circulating within the local economy. Our venue has hosted city supported initiatives such as hope after dark for the two years, along with corporate events and community fundraisers. We operate a safe and controlled nightlife environment managed by DCGS, DCJS, licensed security professionals, and coordinated with the Hampton Police Department.

In addition, we participate in the annual charitable giving efforts, including providing meals to local shelters and families in need. We are also proud members of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, reinforcing our commitment to responsible business leadership in this region. Southern Comfort is a full service restaurant with a lounge component and event space, not a nightclub venue. During the week, our late night operations are primarily limited to to the lounge side with a smaller and controlled occupancy than what the full building allows. The full dining footprint is simply not utilized late on weekdays, and the current permit conditions were structured around peak weekend operations, as well as the capacity at which our entire space holds rather than the typical weekday activity, and the fact that only one space is being utilized during those hours.

Under the current midnight closing times, Sunday through Thursday, projected weekday revenue does not meet our operational overhead. Extending operations to 2AM on weekdays would allow us to stabilize weekday cash flow while maintaining the same level of responsibility and oversight. This request is about business sustainability and project and local jobs, not increasing late night intensity. This chart displays the amount of revenue we made in 2025, operating Monday through Sunday until 2AM compared to February 2020 going day, We're

We're

utilities remain constant while security and police costs increase. The removal of our peak hours from twelve to 2AM eliminate the margin that previously made weekday operations profitable. Since implementing the 12AM closure, staff has reduced from 40 employees to 15, which is a 75% reduction in employment. We've experienced losses in annual meals tax revenue to the city. We've missed significant tourism driven traffic, including major coliseum events such as comedy shows, r and b shows, monster jam shows, and on holiday weekends, we also get large orders from vendors, book ins, and local spending, which all have declined.

Extending to 2AM Sunday through Thursday, we'll restore 40 plus jobs, increase meal tax revenue, keep event attendees spending in Hampton rather than neighboring cities, strengthen in partnership with Hampton Police, and generate new city revenue without infrastructure costs. This frame this frames it as an economic gain, not just a business benefit. Our meals tax support, the public safety, the police department, fire department, and the rescue, public schools, infrastructure improvements, parks, recreations, and cultural services. Every additional dollar generated stays in Hampton and benefits the residents. The following bar charts illustrate the significant financial repercussions of closing at 12AM versus 2AM.

Here we show a 58%, 90%, 90%, and a 72% decline in sales and use tax respectively when closing at twelve a. M. Versus two a. M. As shown in the data, food and beverage tax revenue declined approximately 55% over a four month period. Sales and use tax revenue declined approximately 77%. This is a measurable economic contradiction tied directly to restricting operating hours. Late night operations generate additional economic impact beyond our walls. Ride share drivers earn more. Hotels see increased occupancy after convention events.

Vendors receive larger supply orders. Hampton Coliseum events retain spending locally. We estimate over $250,000 in secondary economic impact annually when operating four hours. Our peak revenue hours are between 12AM and 2AM. Those two hours determine whether the weekday operations are sustainable.

We respectfully request Sunday through Thursday, closing extended to 2AM with implementation of a tiered security based model on occupancy. Our tiered security models allow us to align safety staffing with actual occupancy levels in real time. Rather than applying a one size fits all requirement, this structure ensures that security presence scales proportionately with the number of patrons in the building. If occupancy is lower on weekday evenings, staff adjust accordingly. If attendance increases, staff adjusting security staffing increases as well.

This approach maintains strong safety oversight while also ensuring operational efficiency. It creates a structured, measurable system that protects public safety without imposing unnecessary excess during lower risk periods. In short, the TIER motto allows us to remain fully committed to safety while operating responsibly and substantially. We will continue to, of course, to keep certified personnel, continue to do ID scanning, camera monitoring with RTC access, and cooperation cooperation with with Hampton City Police. We have demonstrated responsible operation under restricted conditions, and this request is built on that proven record.

Southern Cuffer remains committed to retaining responsible and maintaining positive community engagement. We truly value our partnership with the city of Hampton, and we do nothing to jeopardize that. There is no pattern of violent incidents. We have no pattern of repeated violations. We have demonstrated consistent cooperation with the Hampton Police Department, and our records reflect this responsible operation.

Responsibly. Approval restores jobs, revenue, and economic vitality. Extended hours means more resources flowing into Hampton's general fund. This is a shared success, local business and city leadership working together. We remain committed to operating responsibly, supporting our community, and strengthening our partnership with the city of Hampton.

To provide additional accountability, we are willing to accept a six month review period for the weekday extension and reduced security requirements. This allows the city to evaluate the results and ensure continued responsible operations. And in closing, Southern Comfort has demonstrated very great responsibility. This amendment supports economic stability, job restoration, and increased tax revenue without compromising safety. We respectfully request approval, and we thank you for your time and consideration for the city of Ann.

Okay. Any questions for the applicant? Councilman Bowman.

Mister Gomez, thank you for your presentation. You're welcome. For the dates of 2026, how many times have you rented out the event space or utilized it?

2026, that will be this year? Yes. We haven't. Okay. We haven't at all. It's very rare that we do use the big side because it holds so many people. We don't usually open that side unless I have a very big event going on. And in that case, previously, like before, we've always notified the city when the event was coming, what exactly the event was, and they know they had time and, you know, vet the event or the artist or the person. Do you know and they've we've never had a concern about that.

So for clarification, you are paying for security for the event space even though you're not utilizing the event space? Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions for the applicant? Okay. Thank you, mister Gomez.

Excuse me, mister Gray. I would like to present to the council. I have a petition book here where we have over 250 signatures from the community and the customers from our restaurant to sign and support. We have a description written in here of what they signed, what they were expecting, and what we were expecting to do. And we have over 200 I'm sorry, two thirty signatures in this book.

Alright. You can you can give it to the

also here have a petition of support from the businesses in the immediate shopping center. We have around 11 open businesses in the shopping center, and right here I have five signatures from the owners of the shopping center. A couple of the owners who had language barriers, they didn't really understand what we were trying to do, and they didn't really want to get into nothing that they didn't know what we was getting into. And two of the owners we weren't able to contact in enough time, but we also have that here for you. Alright.

I got another question. Councilwoman Ferribee.

Thank you, mister mayor, and and thank you for the presentation. Your business sustainability chart

Yes, ma'am.

I'm trying I'm to I don't quite understand it because you've got the blues is is for February 2025, and then the orange is can you describe can you explain reexplain the chart, please?

Real quick, so I to see.

I think it's this

sustainability chart. They're not numbered.

I think you need to go back

a few more slides.

You need to

go back a few more slides.

Go back a few more. Yeah.

That's it.

Okay.

Can can you describe this chart again, please?

Sure. Let me catch up. Okay. So under the business sustainability, I think this was what we were grossing in these months of 2025 versus what we are grossing in the months of 2026, if I'm not

Okay. I I just didn't understand because you have the blue was February 2025, and one says it's almost a 135,000, and then the other one says it was a 109,000. I was just trying to understand. Okay. So one is payroll, and the other is overhead.

There it is. Right. Just glad you cleared that up for me. Yeah. Thank you.

So I I guess my question is, do you have some sort of a breakdown? You mentioned that you've lost 50 plus thousand dollars. Is that over a month, or is it over a year? And do you have any kind of a breakdown looking at the days that you weren't open? Do you have a daily breakdown of how many people or what the revenue was like on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? Or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I think Thursday night you're open on later. I was just curious about your daily.

We do not have I do not have the daily as in day to day, but I do have the monthly because those numbers break down easiest for us, and it's easier for the city to reference because we pay these bills monthly. So if anybody wanted to do, like, a fact check, they would be able to go back monthly and see that these numbers match.

Okay. Well, I was trying to get a feel for how many people you have coming between midnight and 2AM, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And then what kind of revenue you actually generate or what you net based on the your employees and the outlay of the what you're serving.

Understood. But the the amount of people, I couldn't give you a total to, but it's it's a known fact that people come late to everything. They just run late. It's just in the nature of, I wanna say, I guess, partying, I guess. Like, they just everybody's just used to coming so late. They try to get there, like, right before close or before closing. So, again, ma'am, I'm sorry. I do not have those numbers, of course. But, we did break it down to monthly because we thought it would be easier for the city to vet if they wanted to go back and check these numbers and make sure they was accurate.

Okay. Well, thank you.

You're welcome. Alright.

Any additional questions for the applicant? Okay. Thank you, mister Gomez.

One more thing, mister Gray. I had a security personnel. He couldn't sign up because he was coming from the other side of the water in Norfolk, but he is here now. I was wondering if he would be able to speak along with the other.

I don't do we need to hear from no. We don't we don't need to hear from you. Thank you. Okay. So this is a item. This is an item. It does require a public hearing, and so we're gonna open the public hearing. We have several people sign up to speak. Mister Mirab Patel. Mister Patel, you can come to the mic right here in the center. Yes.

Evening, mayor and good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Nirab Patel. I'm the owner of a hotel located very close to Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge. I'm here tonight to speak in support of their request to extend their operating hours until 2AM throughout the week. As a hotel owner, my business depends heavily on visitors, travelers, and guests who come to our city for work, events, and leisure.

One of the most common questions we receive from our guests, especially those arriving later in the evening, is where can they go out to eat, relax, or socialize after typical business hours. Having having quality establishments nearby that are open later help us provide a better experience for those hotel guests and make our area feel make our area feel more vibrant and welcoming. A well run a well run restaurant and lounge that stay open later doesn't just benefit that single business. It supports the broader hospitality ecosystem. It gives hotel guests somewhere safe and nearby to go rather than driving to other areas or other cities that offer more late night options.

It also keeps economic activity local, supporting jobs, generating tax revenue, and encouraging visitors to stay longer and spend more in our community. From my perspective as a nearby business owner, having a professionally managed establishment operating later can actually be a positive for the area. A legitimate staff venue with management, security, and structure is far better than having people leaving our area earlier and dispersing elsewhere without those safeguards in place. Our city is growing and part of that growth involves creating a lively but responsible hospitality environment that supports businesses and visitors alike. Allowing extended hours during the week would help strengthen that environment while supporting local entrepreneurship and job creation.

I appreciate the council taking the time to consider this request, and I hope you will support this business in continuing to contribute to the vitality of our community. Thank you for your time.

Mister Patel, which hotel do you own in

any Comfort Inn and Suites on Hardy Cash.

Okay. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you.

Alright. And next speaker is Rishan Bracey.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members. I'm just a simple patron of SoCo. I work second shift for Should we release

the microphone? I don't wanna mess

it up. I work second shift for United States Navy. I'm a nuclear metal framer. So I work second shift. So usually I work from two to ten, sometimes two to eleven.

Sometimes my job can be stressful. There's a lot of things going on in this world and when I get out of work, sometimes I do like to stop by Southern Comfort Lounge. You know, I don't like to bring the energy from my job inside my house so I could sit there and maybe watch a game or two or maybe eat something. It's never really been any unpleasant place to be at all. I'm just here just to help, to try to speak a help for them because you know, people within that deals with what I have to deal operating at night, we don't really have anywhere to go because after traffic shuts down the bridge or anything like that, everything is closed.

Sometimes I don't feel like going home and cook. So I can go there and have some food and listen to some good music and just go home and I will definitely rest peacefully. So I'm just here just on the behalf of I hope you're approved hours, it's in hours because people like me in my position, we need Southern Comfort. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you, mister Bracey. Next speaker is Trey Carter.

Good evening, members of city council. My name is Trey Carter. I'm a graduate born and raised in Hampton. Graduate of Hampton University. And I'm also a business owner here in the Hampton Roads area.

I'm here tonight to express my support for Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge and their request for extended hours. As someone who operates a business locally, I understand how important it is for small businesses to have the opportunity to grow and operate in a way that allows them to remain competitive and sustainable. Extending their hours, to to my knowledge, would give Southern Comfort the ability to better serve their customers, increase their revenue potential, and continue providing jobs to members of our community. As a sidebar, I have a nephew that goes to Hampton University, and he works at Seven Comfort as well as a server. And would like him to have some more hours too, so he get out of my pocket.

You know? Restaurants and small businesses are an important part of the local economy. When businesses are allowed to expand their operating hours responsibly, it can lead to more employment opportunities, increased economic activity, and stronger support for surrounding business businesses in the area, like the gentleman that owned the hotel that came and spoke. Southern Comfort has established itself as a respected local restaurant with a strong customer base, which I'm a part of, and allowing them to extend their hours, it seems, will help them continue building on that success and contribute positively to local businesses within the community. As a fellow business owner, I believe it's important that we support responsible local businesses that are trying to grow and serve their customers.

And for those reasons, I just wanted to come up and say I fully support their request for extended hours, and I thank you for your time and consideration.

Alright. Thank you, mister Carter.

You're welcome.

Next speaker is Arnell Davis.

Good evening, council members. My name is Arnold Davis. I'm a local business owner and a community member. I'm here this evening to express my support for the extended hours request for some incoming restaurant. Me and my family go to this restaurant plenty of times. Me and my wife use the extended hours. Birthday parties, friends come out of town. We take them to this location. We do family nights. During the time, we consistently provided a safe, welcoming, and respectful environment.

My wife never felt uncomfortable in there. Any members from out of town, anybody I bought never felt uncomfortable, and we always enjoyed ourselves. And as a fellow local business owner, I also have firsthand how the other business as a community support one another through referrals and cross promotion, and we help strengthen each other's success and contribute to the stability of our community and and economy. Approving extended hours will allow Summer Comfort to better service customers while continuing to maintain the same safe and friendly atmosphere that the community has They're They're police everyone's going already gone secured. The police is pushing people out out the parking lot, making sure everyone's safe.

And I've been there for that plenty of nights. So I thank you for your time and consideration. Have a good evening.

Alright. Thank you, mister Davis. That's all the speakers that have signed up for a public hearing, so we will close the public hearing. I'm call for a motion from any council members on this use permit adjustment.

Mister mayor, real quick. I just wanna say that mister Gomez, I appreciate everything that you've done as far as the things with acts you've been willing and given that information back to us. I kinda wanna use this as an analogy. I had tough parents growing up, and and I'm a tell you, I have been on punishment longer than two months. And you are coming before us, and you haven't even been ninety days.

So you don't give us anything tangible that we can compare and say this is something that we can entertain because number one, our job is to be safe. We want the community to be safe. However, you have expressed, and I I can feel your hardship on the event space. You're paying for security for an event space, and you are very unique. There there's not probably another restaurant that we can consider this. But paying the security for an event space, I can see the undue hardship that's placed on you. So for counsel, I'm just letting you know I would be considering option two as a recommendation.

Okay. I was gonna call for a motion and second. Can we do that? Alright. Do we have a motion from council?

Yes, mister mayor. I move that city council approve in part use permit application 26Dash0039 for Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge to amend existing use permit 20Five-two85, subject to the optional conditions in the agenda package approving amendment to security conditions only. I further move that counsel explicitly deny applicants' request to amend permitted hours of of operation. Operation.

Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Further discussion? Okay. I saw my mic still on. So no further discussion. I will call for the vote. Madam clerk.

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Thierry. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler. Aye. Mayor Gray. Aye. The motion carries.

Alright. Okay. City manager, next item. Yes, sir.

Do you like me to read

the title? I'm gonna say you want the clerk to read it or you want me to read it into Oh,

I'm sorry.

Item is number 726Dash0072. It is a resolution to authorize the acquisitions by negotiation or condemnation of portions of land and fee symbol from properties located at 19 East Lamington Road, LRSN 8005303. 619 East Little Little River River Road, LRSN 8004918. 5 Sydney J Lane, LRSN 8004916. 4 Crockett Drive, LRSN 8004920.

And 717 East Little River River Road, LRSN 8004978, pursuant to pursuant to section 25.1 dash 100 at sec and 15.2 dash 19 o one at sec of the code of Virginia of 1950 as amended for purposes of a public street slash road and associated public right of way necessary for bike and pedestrian access, sidewalks, paths.

Now, mister mayor and council members, I will describe this a little bit more. As was referenced, this sets of properties are necessary to proceed with the Little Back River Road bike and pedestrian accommodation project, which will allow the improvements to be made from approximately North King Street to Valerie Drive. This project will city of York, project, acquisitions were required for multiple properties. We always seek first to acquire through negotiation. However, if we're not able to reach a negotiation and we have projects that are remaining and necessary to complete a project, we reserve the ability to come to counsel and ask for support of the ability to condemn if necessary.

These properties are relatively small in nature. And then when you hear a property, you think it's the whole property. So I wanna go through each of them really quickly. The first address, 19 East Lamington Road. We are looking at an acquisition area of roughly 2,944 square feet plus or minus or roughly 0.068 acres.

I'm sorry. I I read the wrong one. The first 119 East is 432 square feet, plus or minus or point zero zero one zero acres. The next 1619 East Littleback River Road is the twenty nine forty four square feet plus or minus and the 0.068 acres. The next 15 Sydney Jay Lane is 841 square feet plus or minus, which is equivalent to 0.019 acres.

The next 4 Crockett Drive is 5,554 square feet plus or minus, which is equivalent to about 0.128 acres. And the final is 717 East Little Back River Road, and that acquisition area is 2,365 square feet plus or minus or roughly 0.054 acres. You can see these are relatively small pieces of property, but they are essential to be able to have a continuous pathway. All five properties are needed and therefore it is recommended that pursuant to section 25.1 dash 100, and 15.21901 and the applicable portions of section 33.2 dash 1,000 of the code of Virginia of 1950 as amended that the city exercise its eminent domain authority to commence condemnation proceedings upon the identified required portions of the property since we have been unable to attain the acquisitions through negotiation.

Okay. This item does require a public hearing, but there's no one signed up to speak on that. So we'll close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mister mayor, I move that city council approve item 26 dash zero zero seven two, resolution authorizing acquisition, a negotiation, a condemnation, or right of way necessary for pedestrian improvements to public road as presented in the agenda package.

Is there a second? Second. Alright, madam clerk. You call the roll.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice mayor Brown. Aye. Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Faribi. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler. Aye. Mayor Gray.

Aye. That concludes all of our public hearing items. So I'll ask the clerk next to read a protocol for a public comment.

Council meetings are for conducting city's business. Public comment is allowed on matters within the council's authority and follows public hearing items. Speakers must follow the citizen participation protocol. Speakers may sign up in the lobby one hour one hour before the meeting and until it begins. Speakers shall address council from the center podium. Each speaker is allowed three minutes. The timer has a green light, which will turn yellow with one minute remaining, then red when time is up. Please speak respectfully and avoid personal attacks. Focus on topics within council's jurisdiction. Do not use the platform for political campaign speeches.

Comments must be directed to the council, and yielding time is not allowed. Audience must refrain must remain respectful and refrain from interruptions. Council typically listens without engaging in discussion. Responses may be provided by the city manager, city attorney, or council members after public comment. Failure to follow the protocol may result in removal from the podium or meeting after fair warning. Thank you.

Alright. We have several people signed up to speak. The first one is Stephanie Baird.

Hello. My name is Stephanie Baird. I'm a former Hampton City Schools math teacher, and I'm here to talk to you about ordinance 20 five-one 170. When we discuss homelessness ordinances, the language is often about protecting the community while respecting the individual. We hear about verbal warnings misdemeanors rather than jail time and expensive fines.

It sounds like the goal is compassionate compliance, but peer reviewed evidence reveals a much harsher reality. Research from the National Alliance to End Homelessness shows that these ordinances, regardless of their severity, do not reduce homelessness. They actually make it worse. By treating a housing crisis as a behavioral problem, we make the underlying crisis nearly impossible to solve. A $2.50 fine for public camping and storage may seem minor to city council, but for someone with zero income that is an insurmountable debt.

A study published in the Journal of Public Health found that individuals with such legal debt remained homeless for an average of two years longer than those without it. That debt can trigger warrants, destroys credit scores, and often disqualifies people from the very subsidized housing that they need. As reported in The Lancet, these minor citations create a paper trail of poverty that labels victims of the housing market as a risk to landlords and employers. Proponents argue these laws encourage people to seek shelter. However a 2024 study in the Policy Studies Journal analyzed the 100 most populous US cities and found that this enforcement led to no significant reduction in homelessness.

What it created was forced displacement. When we warn someone to move along, we aren't moving them into a home. We're severing their ties to healthcare and social services. A report from Johns Hopkins shows that displacements are associated with a seventy to ninety percent increase in drug overdose deaths. You simply cannot provide wrap around services to someone whose location is constantly changing.

Soft penalties are still penalties for the crime of being poor. Decades of research proved that housing first models can save a city millions of dollars by reducing emergency room visits and jail nights. The data is clear. You can't find someone into a home, but you can find them into living on the streets. When I was a teacher at Hampton City Schools, one of my colleagues was Despite being fully employed and working as an educator full time, they couldn't afford rent and they were living in a motel with their child.

One bad week could have been the difference between sleeping outside and sleeping in a motel with a roof. I implore the council to reflect on the research which I have brought and the real life impact of these ordinances. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Ms. Baird. Next speaker is Michelle Uskanga.

Hello. Good evening. My name is Michelle Uskanga, and I am a student at Christopher Newport University and the president of HOME, which stands for homelessness outreach made easy, a student organization that works with members of the unhoused community here on the Peninsula. I'm here today because of the proposed ordinance that would expand enforcement against people sleeping or camping in public spaces. Policies like this effectively criminalize homelessness by allowing people who have nowhere to go to be fined, sited, or removed from public areas simply for trying to survive.

I understand that the city wants to address physical homelessness and that people want safe and welcoming spaces. However, punishing people who are who have nowhere to go does not solve the problem. It only just moves people from one place to another, making it even harder for them to rebuild their lives. Through home, I've had the opportunity to volunteer directly with members of our unhoused community. Our our organization works with local community partners, and we spend time volunteering, fundraising, raising donations while supporting the programs that serve people in crisis.

We see how much these organizations do. They provide shelter, meals, clothing, and basic services, and they help people connect with stability by finding them jobs, access to health care and mental health services, and towards stable housing. Redirecting resources toward these kinds of services help people integrate into society. It gives people the support they need to rebuild their lives instead of punishing them for the struggles they are facing. Homelessness is rarely the result of a single decision or event.

It's often caused by job loss, medical bills, family crisis, or mental health challenges. There are struggles that could affect any one of us, our friends, families, and are being currently faced by our neighbors. The people we are talking about are our neighbors, human beings who deserve dignity, compassion, and the opportunity to get back on their feet. Our community already cares so deeply about this issue. Students, volunteers, and organizations across the Peninsula already give their time, donation, and energy to support people experiencing homelessness.

Choosing this choosing to invest in support and resources would be an even greater way for the city to advocate for them to protect their rights. Criminalizing homelessness does not make the problem disappear. It pushes people further away from the resources that could actually help them. I encourage the council to reconsider this ordinance and focus on instead on solutions to invest to invest in people and help our neighbors rebuild stability. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. And our next speaker is Brenda Marks.

Mayor Gray, vice mayor Brown, council members, city manager bonding, my name is Brenda Marks. And I'm here tonight to bring your attention to some issues I have with the I value survey. The first concern I had and the main concern I'm gonna address tonight is the section for the implementation of capital improvements for Buckroe Downtown and Coliseum Central. This is a 25,000,000 line item allocated at $5,000,000 per year for five years. There is no specific detailed line items to explain how this money is to be used.

Last year there was a specific survey where items were described in detail like the parking garage at Buckroe and the stage at Mill Point. Most of these items this list were resoundingly rejected by the public. This item gives the impression that the city is intending to implement those projects previously rejected and or the city manager will have a $25,000,000 slush fund to play with. Prior to this meeting, I brought this up to mayor Gray and was told these funds were to improve the infrastructure. I've stated that considering the city deemed Christmas decorations and improvements of existing infrastructure, I have a problem with the simple designation infrastructure improvement.

As a note, mayor Gray stated Hampton doesn't designate Christmas decorations as infrastructure improvements. Mayor Gray, if you and vice mayor Brown will check your phones, you will see I have sent you a message that contains one of the invoices that is clearly shows project code, improving existing infrastructure, infrastructure, project description, improved existing infrastructure, distribution, improved existing infrastructure. I don't know if I'm more concerned that Mayor Gray doesn't remember that I don't usually speak unless I'm sure of what I'm saying or that I stand before a city council who does not know the extent of the creative accounting that is going on within the city. If 200 of Christmas decorations can be considered an improvement to existing infrastructure without any concern or without your knowledge, just how much other money is being creatively cost coded. This is $25,000,000 is a lot of money.

And I'd like to see line items listed for just exactly what you plan to do with it. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you, miss Marks. Next speaker is Joan Weaver.

Good afternoon, governance team. When I hear you all read invocations is such blasphemous, how in God's name can you talk about prayer, divine actions when your actions are demonic with what you do to the citizens of this city? Homelessness, criminalization, no. And me, the poster child, for your weaponization and your retaliation, three misdemeanor criminal charges for cosmetic problems with my home. But in that lying strategic plan you state, oh, we're gonna help them.

We wanna hear from you. All bold faced lies enough to even make Jesus wept, but yet you stand those premises. I look at it. Hampton City if there was such a thing as a Hampton City Ombudsman, give us the name and the department to contact because you've got a hell of a lot of people who are gonna be standing in that line who need help regarding homelessness, criminalizations, fines, and charges. City council, you should be ashamed.

Mayor, all of you all, from our attorney to our manager, and this is what you say. You care for the citizens, bald faced lie. And when I also sit and think about your departments, your frontline staff, unfair treatment, abuse of powers to citizens who come to you when all they want is help, but yet you're gonna criminalize us all. You need to all take a good look at yourselves. Hampton City, I'm ashamed of you.

I've lived here sixty eight years, and nothing you will do will make me not advocate for the voiceless. They need to be heard, and you all need to look down in your souls and come up with some empathy, authenticity that you need to do.

Thank you, miss Weaver. Next speaker is Bob Harper. I'm sorry, mister Harper. I made a mistake. I skipped over. The next speaker is Aaron Weaver. Okay. Sorry about that.

Thank you. Aaron Weaver. This homeless ordinance is being presented as a compromise. It's being marketed as more compassionate. But when you strip away the language, very little has actually changed. It still makes sleeping in public illegal. Those two things cannot both be true. If the goal is to criminalize homeless if the goal is not to criminalize homelessness, make sleep itself illegal as is a strange way to show it. And that contradiction matters because the behaviors we are told this ordinance is meant to address are already illegal. Blocking sidewalks and obstructing the right of way is already illegal in Virginia.

Virginia code 18.2 dash four zero four. How do we know this? Because you all, not you all, but city council has put the city itself put signs up discouraging people from giving money to panhandlers and standing in the middle of the median. We have all seen it who live here. Those signs were a reference to the obstruction of law.

Public intoxication is already illegal under Virginia code 18.2 dash three eight eight. Police already have tools, address a dangerous and disruptive behaviors by any citizen. So the question becomes simple. If those laws already exist, why do we need a new law that criminalizes sleeping, criminalizes sleeping? And another statement we often hear is the ordinance is meant only for the smaller number of people who review services.

That may happen that may be for many reasons, but the simple fact remain. Turning a service does turning down a service does not create a legal place to sleep. If someone has nowhere else to go, where they're they're legally allowed to sleep? If the answer is nowhere, then we are not regulating behavior. We are criminalizing existence.

An ordinance like this do not solve homelessness. They move people from one block to another, from sidewalks to alleyways to under bridges, and the dark places, and less safe places. And in doing so, the ordinance itself should be sends a very clear message. Your existence is a problem, and we refer to to relocate you your suffering somewhere else out the public's eye. So we are being asked to move forward without public data.

You have not been provided any kind of data that shows that the laws that we currently have are not working. We this ordinance should show evidence. We have no baseline to go off of, and you all did not ask that question in any one of those services at all. Ordinance should follow evidence, not the other way around. And while we hear about the potential funding of of temporary housing, temporary housing funding is not guaranteed. Permanent housing funding is not guaranteed. We know this. But the criminal penalties in our ordinance would be real life penalties. So many complaints driving these discussions are anonymous. This system can be helpful, but it can also be weaponized as we're gonna talk about a little bit later.

But what's happening is we have a class that is weaponizing you all, but you all's names will be on this guaranteed.

Thank you, mister Weaver. No clapping in city council chambers. Just before I call the next speaker back, I wanna acknowledge councilman Rob Coleman sitting out there. Welcome to Hampton City Council Meeting. I'm sorry. Newport News City Council meeting. Sitting in Hampton Chamber so you get a new title on that. Alright. Next speaker is mister Bob Harper.

Thank you, mayor Gray, vice mayor Brown, city council members, and city may manager Bunting. I come here tonight to speak in favor of the ordinance. I'm a thirty year resident of Hampton and a small business owner. And I've been working with the homeless through my church and other faith based organizations as well as our organization called help for many years. Yesterday, I had a client come to my studio to pick up an order for my portrait a portrait order, and she couldn't get into my front door because someone was camping there.

And I didn't know about it, and I had to go move that those that property out of there so she could come in. So it does affect small business people, and it does affect the tax base of the city of Hampton because of the impact on small business. However, I am very compassionate towards the issue of homelessness or unhoused people, and I am very gratified and encouraged by this fact that the city manager and the city of Hampton, the city council, and the mayor have undertaken a more comprehensive look at this particular area that affects our community. The people we've we're talking about generally have nowhere to turn. But the people that would be most affected by this ordinance as proposed are people who are not being served now by the different organizations within our own Hampton and the Greater Peninsula services that are available.

For whatever reason, they are the unserved. So the way I look at this proposed ordinance, I have three real good points I think I wanna I wanna make. Our current situation is bordering on untenable. There are underserved people out here that are unhoused. They deserve care.

They deserve to be evaluated and get to the right area in our community that can give them what they need. Citizens and commerce in Hampton is also being affected by that, as just I demonstrated for my own business. The ordinance provides a compassionate way to address both of these issues. First, in effect, the ordinance allows our Hampton Police Department to be an information conduit to people that come they they contact under this ordinance. Say, we'll be required to give the list a menu list of services that are available and tell the individual how they can apply access those.

That's a great improvement right there. Okay. And that will allow

Yes, sir. Mister chairman Your time is up, mister Harper. Can I

have one more thirty seconds? No, sir.

We can't we can't allow that. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Alright. Thank you, mister Harper. Next speaker is David Lykovic.

Good evening. I'd like to just for the record state that I'm here in my personal capacity and not as a member organization that I may be a part of. I am a local attorney that exclusively serves the indigent community. I'm here to discuss the revised ordinance that still criminalizes homelessness, potentially leading to fines, jail time, and a criminal record for unhoused individuals, which are our most marginalized population. I would like to state that this is inhumane and morally reprehensible.

More people than ever are facing homelessness. In the past year, the federal government has passed a budget that slashes federal support for housing vouchers, food assistance, and Medicaid, resulting in the Virginia pilot publishing a study showing that 4444% of the working class of Hampton household are struggling to meet basic needs. I've heard city leaders argue that in most cases, this ordinance wouldn't lead to jail time or even fines, but that's not the point. Criminalizing homelessness under the threat of fines and jail times empowers law enforcement to remove unhoused populations from just about any public space whenever and wherever they want. Criminalizing homelessness doesn't solve any problems.

It just pushes unhoused individuals out of parks, off sidewalks, and out of the public spaces in the public eye. But where are we removing them to? The city has not set up any in any infrastructure for this population. They depend on private shelters and organizations that have their own requirements for services. Those private shelters can deny service to anyone for any reason.

And what about the people that have been barred from individual shelters? We should be investing in affordable housing, expanding shelter capacity, strengthening tenant protections, and supporting social services. Criminalization of homelessness does none of that. How does a fine help a homeless person find housing? As a US Supreme Court justice, Sotomayor wrote in her dissent in the city of Grant Pass versus Johnson case, sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For some people, sleeping outside is their only option. By criminalizing homelessness, the city of Hampton would be criminalizing the assistance of the city's most vulnerable population. Please don't do this.

Thank you, sir. And next speaker is Jeannie Belgrade.

If this can be shared with city council, please, so you understand what I'm gonna be talking about. Okay. So good evening, major, vice major, council, city manager, and the staff behind the scenes. My name is Ginny Belgrave. I brought a few copies of a visual example accompany my remarks tonight. The document includes a sample page layout of of a small homepage icon concept related to animal services information on the city website. If possible, could this please be shared? Yes. Okay. I would like to briefly present a small improvement opportunity regarding how animal related information is organized on the city Hampton website.

At the moment, information about animals and pets is available on the city website, but it is spread across several different pages. Residents may have to navigate between sections such as animal response, pet licensing, park, parks, and city ordinances in order to find the information they need. The idea I would like to suggest is very simple. It would involve creating a single animal service and pet resources hub page on the Hamptah website where residents could find all animal related information in one place. This page will simply organize existing information already provided by the city including animal response services, lost and found pets, pet licensing requirements, bar park information, animal ordinances, wildlife encounter guidance, and pet emergency preparedness resources.

By organizing these resources into one easy to find location, residents will be able to access information more quickly and it could also help reduce unnecessary calls to animal control for questions that could be answered online. Another advantage of this approach is that having a clear public resource hub makes the city more grant friendly and partnership friendly. Many animal welfare organizations and grant programs look for accessible public information when evaluating collaboration with municipalities. This will be a very low cost digital improvement since it would primarily involve primarily involve organizing information the city already provides. The goal is simply to make it easier for Hampton residents to find animal related resources while supporting responsible pet ownership and animal safety in our community.

My intention is in sharing this idea is to support the city's ongoing efforts to improve public communication and services for residents. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Alright. Thank you, Belgrave. Next speaker is Joe Griffith. Sure.

Please keep that.

Good evening, mayor, members of council, city manager Bunting. My name is Joe Griffith. I'm here to talk about the budget this evening. But before I do, I wanted to say that I was at all three of the sessions for iValue last week and, great feedback from, the community about being able to enter their comments after the session and very, very valuable. But before, before I talk about the budget, I wanted to talk about, mister Mitchell Silver who came in as a consultant.

For those in the audience who don't know Mitchell Silver, he's been here for the strategic plan a few times. He's a nationally recognized urban planner. And mister Silver often recommends cities a very simple principle. If you want people to stay, you have to give them great places. Places that foster belonging, a sense of safety, and joy.

And during the iValue sessions, the city manager emphasized something very similar, that Hampton's foundational growth depends on strong public private partnerships that nurtures investment and vibrant third spaces. Phoebus has a track record of taking that message to heart. The Phoebus partnership, a few years ago, applied for and won a competitive state grant to develop master plan for a historic commercial district, which is a nationally recognized main street, one of only two on the Lower Peninsula. The consultants that the partnership hired were excellent. They were professional.

The community participated wholeheartedly. And together we produced a comprehensive plan, which is essentially a master plan update that focused not on deficits but on opportunity. And when we submitted our capital improvement request for fiscal year twenty seven, we followed that plan. But only two projects from that plan appear on the city council's CIP priority list, and they're ranked last. For the stakeholders who spent years shaping that plan, that was a real shock and a disappointment.

People asked me, Joe, what did we do wrong? And my answer was simple, nothing. We briefed counsel. We walked the district together, and we showed not blight, but promise. My concern is now momentum.

Because in the end, the places that make cities memorable and special aren't plans on paper. They're vibrant mixed use neighborhoods and the daily spontaneous interactions that happen on those streets. Those are the places where people feel belonging. Those are the places that people choose to invest in and those are the places that Mitchell Silver is talking about. And if we truly believe what we say about creating great places in Hampton, now is the moment to keep that momentum going. We owe it to the people who live and work here. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, mister Griffith. Next Next speaker is David Mongi.

Thank you. Excuse me. My name was cut off a little bit. It's David Mongiolo. They just cut it off a little. Good evening, members of the Hampton City Council, vice mayor, mayor. My name is David Mangelo, I'm a resident of Hampton and a father of eight children. On 08/03/1998, I swore an oath when I joined the United States Marine Corps. That oath was to support and defend the constitution of The United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I still take that oath seriously.

During a child protective service investigation at my home, a social worker entered my home while a police officer was present with a search warrant related to child safety checks. Once the officer had completed the scope of the warrant, I asked that individual who no longer had legal authority to remain and leave to leave the property. Instead, I was told by the social worker that the constitution did not apply here. I was then told that if I did not sign a safety plan, my children would be taken away. Under that pressure, I signed the document.

Despite complying with that plan, four months later my children were later removed and my wife was taken into custody. I stand here tonight not only as a father, but as someone who believes strongly in the rule of law and the constitution that protects every American family. City departments exercise tremendous power over families. With that power comes an equally serious responsibility to respect constitutional rights and ensure that authority is used properly. If this could happen to my family, it raises an important question.

How many other families may have experienced something similar but never had the opportunity to speak publicly about it? I'm asking this council for oversight and accountability. This agencies operate under the authority of this city and the citizens of Hampton deserve assurance that constitutional protections are respected during investigations. I respectfully ask this council to review practices of the Hampton Department of Human Services and ensure that the safeguards exist so that constitutional rights are not disregarded in the course of child welfare investigations. My goal is not conflict. My goal is accountability, transparency, and preventing situations like this from happening to other families in the future. Thank you.

You. Yellow. Final speaker is Earl Miller.

Great evening, everyone. Council, mayor, vice mayor. Yeah. I'm here again. Last time I was here, my colleague, Darren Williams, he spoke. Usually, I get the liberty to talk with councilwoman Harper on the issues that deal with the state of Bryanfield Tennis Park. Things have gotten worse. As you all know, the courts were just recently done. I do not have the liberty to put on the slides, the pictures, the photos that I have of the newly resurfaced courts. There are holes and there are cracks everywhere.

The lights, basically, for Courts 4 And 5, the lighting altogether was never serviced. People are coming out to the courts more often. They love the new benches. They love the way that the courts look, but now we have a bigger issue with fortunately, a lot of people here spoke about the homeless. It's really hit that dark area of the tennis courts because at nighttime, there is no lighting.

The situation with the cornhole people, they come in droves now. And I've been challenged a whole lot, which I have no problem with it. I'm just trying to communicate and bring people together the correct way so that we can try to resolve some of these issues. We, the council people out at the tennis court, the players themselves, we suggested that if I could come back and say to council, I'll make the signs up myself. It's it's not an issue.

As you all remember the first time I came, I am the one that actually fixed the lights. There would be no lights out there at all right now. Mister Williams and myself, we're the ones that put the trash cans out there. It's it's it's it's a collective thing that we're trying to do here. I know I'm not gonna say all the things that I need to say in the three minutes, but I look forward to speaking again with councilwoman Harper and anyone else that I need to speak to try to get things more in place. The weather is breaking now. It's springtime. As I said previously, things are getting worse. I've had two night surveys now of what's going on with the lock. This is one lock that I've had to cut off again.

That's due to the homeless situation. So I'm not gonna really address that right now. I just want everybody to know what some of the people behind me have talked about. It's affecting us in a lot of places that it doesn't need to affect us in. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. And that is all of the speakers signed up on the public comment. So I'm gonna ask the city manager if she will address some of the issues that were raised.

Following the public comment, we actually have a whole presentation on the homelessness thing. So I'm not gonna address each of the comments. If you all can wait, you'll see the full presentation on that. I'll then go down in order. Miss Marks, Marks, on 12/11/2024, the council appropriated $275,000. It's in the Granica system. I pulled it up. I can show you where it is, specifically for enhanced Christmas lighting lighting in the community. That account number is if you look on your bill, it's 20Dash something, and it's 570. If you look at that 570 in our financial system, 570 is the code for special events equipment.

So there was nothing on underhanded. No creative accounting. Nothing done secretively. It was appropriated on 12/11/2024 into the capital account that is labeled $5.70. So if you look at that, it's like C20Dash, and you'll see the reference to 570.

That's the service code for special events equipment. Also, just for reference, I realize when you when you hear the word infrastructure, we are used to thinking about utilities, sidewalks, roads, etcetera. But it's increasingly common for seasonal lighting or just lighting in general, decorative lighting to be considered economic, social, and physical infrastructure. If you look on the Internet, you'll find that. And that's part of this whole place making conversation that we've been talking about that mister Griffith represented about place making and the like.

So the traditional use of the word infrastructure has evolved over time, and that's why it was appropriate for it to be in account $5.70 in the capital budget. So, again, I can show you exactly where it is in Granicus, and you can see I I realize you'd expect all of us up here to have everything in our memory. I don't think it's possible for every council member to remember every quarterly budget adjustment, every but it is well documented. In terms of miss Weaver's concern, again, the homeless piece, will address when we get to that. I do want to clarify, and and and she and I had a conversation, and I think she knows I'm very fond of her, and I will remain fond of her even if we disagree about this particular issue.

Violations are by state code, and I can give you I will give you, the code. It's 36Dash106 of the Virginia code, that allows for violations of the building code to be enforced through the misdemeanor mechanism. We don't jump to the misdemeanor mechanism. We start with a violation notice. And if violation notices are not corrected within the hundred day time frame, those who have not completed either the correction or made a plan and made progress on the plan are issued summonses for court.

So we have currently about 1,400 active violations open throughout the city. We average about the same amount throughout at any point in the year. The overwhelming majority do get corrected in the hundred day time frame. We currently have 200 active summonses for code violation. So I I I do realize you genuinely feel you're being targeted, but there are 200 active summonses of a like nature, that are being taken across the city.

So I just wanted to state that for the public record. So and there have been other notices in her neighborhood as well. So for the record, she's not the only one who has gotten notices. We generally, in terms of responding, I would love that we could be out in every neighborhood all of the time. We don't have enough staff for the the close to 50,000 residential properties. We have plus commercial properties and everything to be there every week, every time. So we do try to get around periodically to every neighborhood, but when we get a complaint, we will investigate the complaint. When we're out for the complaint, we will get anyone in that general area that has a building code violation. So that's that's more about that. That.

In in terms of the Phoebus partnership, you know, issues, I I did share this with mister Griffith. I think we're all very proud of what the FEVAS partnership did both in terms of getting the small area plan approved and the great work that they did, and I think we're all very, very excited about it. When the council has limited funds and we're asking the public with limited time how to rate things, we have to put a cap. Honestly, you know, we thought we were gonna be shortening the time we were with the public by not going through every project the way we used to, so we thought we'd take the highest rank 20 operating and the highest rank 30 operating knowing we don't have enough money to do all of those even, and give people the opportunity to not just tell us if they like it or don't like it, but ordinarily rank, this is my preference over something else, or I don't like this at all. And so we had to draw the line somewhere.

The the lack of everything showing up in the CIP conversation for this particular year does not mean that we don't value everything that the partnership put forward. And we have to make sure that when we're putting a list, we're not looking at only one sector of the city. And this brings me back to that and I meant to address this with miss Mark's comments, but it it it ties into mister Griffith's comments as well. The master plan implementation is not intended to be a slush fund. It is intended to be there for when we get the master plans updated.

And so since we're going through the process right now, Phoebus' has effectively been updated through their small area plan work. Buckro is currently we're getting ready to award an RFP for Buckroe, and the CIP contemplates us adding updates to downtown and Coliseum Central. So if we're updating all these plans and we're not setting aside money for public investments that are needed either in in infrastructure, be it physical or social or economic, and or public private partnerships, then we're gonna do these plans and have no implementation money. So the notion was $5,000,000 per year so that we could address whatever comes out of collectively the Phoebus, Buckroe, Downtown, and Coliseum up plan updates. The new ones, of course, are the ones that aren't yet completed, but mister Griffith is absolutely correct that the small area plan is effectively the same thing as a master plan update.

I will certainly look into the allegations about the child protective services. It's really hard for me to sit here and opine on what happened without looking into it. I'm not disputing what was represented, but I need to look into what the court had ordered and things of that nature and, you know, the whole process. So I will follow-up on that, and I will give counsel a report as to what I find out. However, I wanna be clear.

We never discuss child protective service issues as to what transpired in public. So I will certainly get citizen as well as counsel, but I will not report on whatever I find in public because we must protect information relating to minors. And then the state of Brierfield Park, I I will say we've tried to fix the lights. They they're they ultimately need to be replaced. And if you go online, mister Miller, and take that budget survey, the the upgrading of the lights for Brierfield Park is one of the projects that is listed currently or ranking by the public because we agree that they need to be completely overhauled.

They're they're aged, and they're we've been working to try to repair them. And we get them on for a few days, and then they fail again. So they they fundamentally just need to be replaced. I will look into what's causing the holes in the court. I know you mentioned, and and your and your peer mentioned some reasons before, and I will get mister Crittonen, our new parks and rec director, out there and see, what's going on and what we might do about that.

It may be that the work that was done was not proper, and we can go back against the the entity that actually laid the new, the court, the, you know, the paving for the court. But we will absolutely look into that and follow back up with mister Miller and the council on that as well. And in fact, I don't know if you saw my text, but I asked assistant city manager Jason Mitchell to come out and speak with mister Miller so that we can follow-up with him again. So when we move on to the next item, I'll deal with the homeless questions.

Okay. So city manager, so I can set the record straight with miss Marks, that Christmas decorations were coded correctly at five seventy and they are special events. They are not infrastructure.

Well, it's it's all under the CIP capital, but and and equipment can be considered infrastructure as I made reference to. But they were coded, and I'll show her I don't know if she has it with her. 570 is the code in in our accounting system for, quote, special events equipment, unquote.

Right. Alright.

And I'll be glad to talk with her after the meeting if she remains, or we can talk by phone.

I wanna go back quickly to our close public comment. I had one speaker that signed up, and her name did not get to the list. And actually, it's this young lady who came here from the boys and girls club to extend an invitation to city council. So I like to give her opportunity to have her say at that she didn't get during the public comment period. And since I don't have your name on the list, would you just state your name, please?

Yes. Good evening. I am Mia Richardson, one of the youth of the year candidates at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Virginia Peninsula. I would like to extend an invitation to the city council to our youth of the year celebration where we will be announcing twenty twenty six youth of the year and also recognizing the amazing accomplishments of the youth from Hampton And Peninsula. Our Youth of the Year celebration is on Thursday, March 26 at six p. M. At the Hampton Roads Convention Center. We will be honored if you would join us. Thank you.

Good. Thank you. And thank you councilman Coleman for bringing me out to extend that invitation.

Yeah. Absolutely. And I appreciate the opportunity, mister mayor, vice mayor, members of the council, city manager, city attorney, city clerk. And I also appreciate the acknowledgement, but I am here today as the chief operating officer of the Boys and Girls Club of the Virginian Peninsula. Peninsula, we just want to extend our deepest gratitude for all of the support that the city of Hampton has given to the clubs. And Mia is a proud member of the club on is our our our citizens unit, and she does amazing job. She is a junior at Phoebus currently, and she is one of our finalists for youth of the year. So please come out on

Okay.

Thursday, March 26, and see who becomes our next youth of the year.

Okay. Thank you. And just for the record, the citizens unit is where?

It's on Shell Road.

Right. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Alright. Okay. Thank you. And thank you, Mia. We look forward to seeing you.

You are down.

Alright. Madam clerk, would you read the title of the next item for council?

The next item on your agenda is item number eight. It's 25 dash zero one seven zero, ordinance to amend and reenact the city code of the city of Hampton, Virginia by amending chapter 24, offenses miscellaneous, article one in general section 24 dash 50 to prohibit camping and storage on public property.

So mister mayor and council members, earlier today, we jumped right into the changes to the ordinance that were recommended by the stakeholder group that we convened. But in realizing based upon some of the email traffic we were getting this afternoon as well as the comments tonight, I think you all agreed it would probably be a good idea if I recapped both what the stakeholder group said and why and then how this would really operationally work. Because there are a lot of misconceptions, I think, even represented tonight that we're doing this to solve homelessness. We all agree upfront. This is not gonna solve homelessness.

This is not about solving homelessness. It's it's patently not about that. This was always about trying to help our neighborhoods and our businesses that are having challenges with unhoused and others. It's not always only homeless. I realize the majority and the focus has been on the unhoused, but there are also also, from time to time, other kinds of individuals or groups that will create, in essence, an encampment that is in front of a neighborhood or in front of a business.

So the Camping and Storage Ordinance was introduced last year to address some of these problematic behaviors, some of which mister Weaver discussed. Intoxication in public, blocking the right of way from ingress and egress for people, urinating, defecating in public, things of that nature. And, yes, there are codes that deal with that, but people often assume incorrectly that police can do anything about that even if they haven't observed it. So they assume, I'm Joe Smith. I call in.

I tell you that this person is urinating and defecating in front of my house all the time and I'm frustrated with it, or they are always drunk in front of the the neighborhood kids in front of our neighborhood park or what have you, and that police can just do something about that. But demeanor violations, all of these are misdemeanor violations, must be observed by the patrol officer. And inevitably, and you can imagine, because some of those things I described happen pretty quickly, that when the citizen is calling or the business is calling and saying, this person is doing x y z in front of my establishment or in front of my home. I don't want my kids to see this. That by the time the police officer gets there, they can't observe the the urination.

You know, that the they can't prove the person's intoxicated. Things of that nature oftentimes occur. And so what we had to do heretofore is basically tell people we can't do anything about it if it's on public property. And if it's on private property, it's up to you to do something about that yourself because the city can't go on private property without the permission of the private property owner, and we can't enforce trespass on private property without the explicit written permission of the property owner. Sometimes, you know, people we get complaints about people encamping on private property and the private property owner is perfectly fine with the encampment being on their property.

Again, we can't do anything about that. And we're not striving to do anything about it candidly because if the private property owner is satisfied with that and it's not causing anyone harm to the earlier points, people who for whatever reason have not gotten housing, whether we've offered services and they've been rejected or what have you, they need some place to sleep. But it's very, very hard as you might imagine to say to a business owner or to say to a resident who's complaining about some of these behaviors happening in front of their kids that we can't do anything about it. So the council had tasked the city attorney's office and staff of mine, like the police chief and the human services director, with what could we do. And the first proposal that came forward last fall proposed a misdemeanor one penalty.

If we could stay on that one for a moment. The misdemeanor one penalty would have been the most severe misdemeanor penalty. For reference, that would allow that would if someone were convicted and the judge chose to impose and let me be clear. Anything I talk about, the judge is the one who decides whether a penalty is imposed or not. So it was up to, keyword being up to, because up to is everything from zero to the maximum amount, up to a thousand dollars and up to a year.

Again, zero days to a year in jail for a misdemeanor one. And we understood and heard very clearly from folks that that felt overhanded. Now the reason why that was initially proposed was because private trespass is a misdemeanor one. So if a private property owner wants trespass taken out and they go to court, it is a misdemeanor one. And so the idea was what the equivalency? Public trespass versus private trespass. But everyone was right. We are a compassionate community. We try to be very much a compassionate community. And what we heard was that the public didn't feel like a misdemeanor one really reflected, you know, what we were talking about.

Again, this was never intended to solve anything other than the problematic behaviors in front of businesses or individual properties. No one had any illusion that it would solve or make homelessness better. We have other things that I will get to in the end of this presentation that we believe will help lower homelessness and help the situation. This was to help those who were having deleterious effects at their properties. So that's when the council pulled back and convened a stakeholder group.

And this stakeholder group was made up of people who had been really effectively on both sides of the issue. They were equal numbered, in fact. I think we started out with 20, ended with 22 homeless advocates on one side of the group and the others being residents or businesses that had complained to us through various means. In some cases, 911 or 611 data calls. But most of the time, candidly, phone calls directly to counsel people or to myself kind of fed up and frustrated when they got the police answer that they could do nothing about it.

Next slide. So stakeholder committee started with this question. How might we address public safety concerns while upholding the dignity and rights of people experiencing homelessness? Because as a community, I think we would all agree that we want to respect the dignity and rights of everyone. We are a very welcoming community, and we want to make sure that everyone who lives in our city feels that their rights and dignity are upheld.

So this was the question we posed to them and effectively gave them a blank slate and said, we will make the resources available to you, the staff like Chief Weidman and his team, Doctor. Tamar Tamoni Porter who's our Human Services Director and her team. We had a member of the CSB, that's Community Services Board for folks who don't know that acronym. The Community Services Board is the entity that helps people that have mental health issues, substance abuse addiction, and or varying abilities that where they need some assistance. And so we had them there to help consult as well as the city attorney's office.

That was the essential question. Next slide, please. They agreed that their goal, and this is their words, was to codesign actionable, humane, and community supported alternatives to the first camping ordinance. They then facilitated we had one of our Bloomberg fellows who's here from Bloomberg Harvard facilitate the listening and co design sessions with the various stakeholders of the committee. Multiple meetings.

And they had a meeting then they'd go back and talk to other people that they were there to represent and then they would come back. We took about four or five months in this process. They didn't meet every week because they were having time in between and also candidly Thanksgiving and Christmas ended up in between their group. So I don't want to suggest they met every week for four to five months but they met over that period of time. And they came up with the following recommendations.

Next slide. First is this is the way they framed it after they did their listening sessions of each other. Public discomfort and safety concerns related to behaviors associated with individuals perceived to be homeless, and, you know, we've talked about these already, have prompted a proposed ordinance aimed at addressing the issues. While the intent is not to criminalize homelessness, this approach must be carefully considered to avoid unintended consequences that could further marginalize vulnerable individuals. The challenge is to develop a community informed, compassionate, and effective response that upholds public dignity, health, and safety while advancing solutions that reflect our shared values and work for all residents.

Next slide. What you'll see here and I'm not going to read everything to you but these are the steps that they took along their design process. Next slide. These are their recommendations. They felt that any ordinance should start with proper tone and framing. And when Ms. Law comes up and goes over the changes to the ordinance, you will see many of the words they specifically used incorporated into the new ordinance. They said any ordinance should reflect a service first approach rather than an enforcement first approach. In other words, don't jump immediately to trying to cite someone. Start with the offer for service.

They also wanted us to be clear in the ordinance that we aim to lead with care and compassion. We're not aiming to lead with punishment. But sometimes when you ask people to do something and they still don't do it and it's still causing a problem, correction may be needed. Next slide. They wanted to clarify the intent, and you've heard us made reference to this, tonight, and you will hear it in miss Law's presentation on the ordinance.

We want compassionate compliance, which means we're going to protect the community but never give up on the individual. They said and this is true, and we've been clear about this. Most of the people who are unhoused will accept housing when it's safe, dignified, and appropriate. There are a small number who repeatedly refuse to help for various reasons, usually deep trauma. I shared this months ago.

My own father chose to be homeless. We had the resources to help him. And he still chose to be homeless because of the demons that he brought back, I believe, from the Vietnam War. But that was a choice he made. And no matter how we tried to get him help, he refused that. Not because he was afraid that the shelter was unsafe because we weren't offering to put him in a public shelter. We could afford to put him my grandmother wanted him to live with her. I wanted him to live with me. Did not want that. So some people refuse help for various reasons related to their trauma.

And for that group, that's the group we're talking about. Okay? Because the people who are willing to accept housing when it's safe, dignified, and appropriate, we have ways to help them. And I'll talk about those in a moment just for clarity. But for the group that don't want that, that choose to not do that, yes, they've gotta live somewhere.

But they don't have to live in a way that causes problems for our neighborhoods and our businesses. And that was sort of the fundamental issue. So they said, after they went through all of that, this is far more complex than we realized when we came in the room. There it's not we shouldn't have simple tolerance and accept everything goes nor should we have simple enforcement. We're gonna jump to enforcement.

We need a balanced strategy. And so what they came up with with their intention is the ordinance should pair persistent outreach with a variety of housing options, but also insist that public spaces remain safe and usable for everybody. And that when someone's behavior was dangerous or disruptive, we do need to address that. You don't get to make allowances for dangerous and disruptive behavior. You do get to make allowances that you fell on hard times and we're going to help you and work with you.

But just because you fell on hard times does not give you the right to be dangerous or disruptive to other people. And so the answer to that in their mind was that we address behavior directly through outreach and co responder teams and community court programs if that could be worked out with a clear expectation that we don't leave anybody behind. Just because someone refuses today doesn't mean they won't accept services in the future. Our CSB representative, Joyce Cipriano, recently gave in fact, I think it was at their final meeting an example of someone that they had worked with 18 different times before they finally accepted help. But she was pleased to report they had finally accepted help.

So the notion here is never abandon anyone. Keep going back. Keep trying. The next recommendation dealt with next slide please. Making sure, absolutely sure, that an ordinance was required because a Newport News policy was brought to the table that didn't seem to require an ordinance.

So they wanted the city attorney's office to look one more time and verify that for the select group I'm talking about, this isn't even everybody who chooses not to be housed. It's for the people who choose to be unhoused and then have disruptive behaviors in front someone's home, someone's neighborhood park, someone's business, so that it may creates an uncomfortable situation for customers or residents or park goers. You know, if if you need an ordinance, then okay. We will support an ordinance. But we wanna make sure that Newport News or other cities aren't onto something with just a policy.

After this report was given to council actually, right before that it was given to council, but between when the the the committee made the recommendations, the city attorney's office opined that they believed we absolutely needed the ordinance to deal with a small select group. Number four was if we do need the ordinance because the city attorney's office says we need that to deal with these issues, we shall incorporate language in the ordinance that makes it clear that law enforcement shall, not should, shall prioritize voluntary compliance and relocation to lawful area or shelter if the person is asking where they can go. If enforcement's needed because they refuse to go okay. This is the key. Refusing the police officer's direction to go to another safe place that we can identify, then the following steps had to be taken first.

Notification of the prohibition, reiteration of the offer of service, and coordination with outreach workers to offer those services and the alternative sleeping locations and to help make things like transport or whatever available to the individual if they choose to accept that help. Continue with suggested changes to the ordinance. I think I have one more slide on that. Yeah. They recommended changing the penalty from noncompliance to that misdemeanor one that I talked about earlier, which was up to a thousand dollar fine and up to a year in jail, to a misdemeanor for, which is the very lowest level that you can have for the first violation.

In all honesty, all of us would have rather there not be any penalty for violation. Just the ability for the police officer to have the person leave. But in legal theory, if you have a violation of code, you must have a maximum penalty. Again, maximum penalty. So the lowest possible level is a misdemeanor four.

And a misdemeanor four does not have any potential jail time and is up to, keyword, up to $250. It does not mean you're going to assess $250. Most of the time, for lower level misdemeanor offenses and we haven't had this ordinance, so I can't say what the court would do. But most of the times, the court will is just trying to get compliance. Basically saying to someone, you must do what the officer told you to do or the code's inspector told you to do or whatever leads to the misdemeanor charge. They're not trying to get a fine. We're not trying to get a fine. We're seeking compliance. So a lot of times you'll get a withhold finding or you'll get more time to comply or things of that nature. Again, we haven't had this ordinance, so I can't tell you what the court will or won't do.

And not only do we have our Hampton judges, you have substitute judges. So I wanna be abundantly clear. But many, many, many times, if someone comes to court, the the court's goal is to get compliance, not to seek a penalty, not to seek a jail time. Now if you come lots and lots of times where you refuse to comply with a court order, they can get heavy handed because you're you're being in contempt of court. They said we should go to a misdemeanor two for any subsequent offenses.

And this was very nuanced, because it turns out that a misdemeanor two is where you get a public defender and you get access to the behavioral health court. So it's again, not that we want to put someone in court I mean in jail or not that we want a fine, but because misdemeanor too does have the potential for court for jail time, you get a public defender automatically assigned to you. And that gives you the access to the behavioral health docket, which could be another resource for the people we're talking about. Next slide. Finally, they wanted to ensure that there is sufficient support for emergency sheltering and that the city committed to developing transitional and permanent supportive housing options, which is something we had reported to them on.

Hampton and Newport News have been exploring some joint things, everything from additional emergency sheltering to tiny home, transitional and permanent supportive housing. In fact, you if go to that budget survey we've been talking about tonight, there's $4,500,000 recommended to start a tiny home community for permanent supportive housing. Is it yet delivered? No. I haven't made my manager's recommended budget yet, but I was the one who put that on the list based upon these conversations and based upon conversations and research and visits that the council has done to see such communities.

There's also on the operating budget an an increase in 200,000 that you can pull on for additional money for emergency sheltering. And this can take a host of different forms. It can be everything like when we had COVID, we would put people up and still can put people up in hotels if that's the best appropriate thing. Some people might be able to go to other existing shelters. So for instance, 4Kids runs a regional shelter for families with children.

The Peninsula Rescue Mission is the only available resource currently for men. And they also have a requirement that you participate in their religious pathway. So for some men, they don't choose to accept that because they don't want to do that. And so we understand that. And that might be a case where we would say, we don't have an available resource.

We will put this person in a hotel. Homeless veterans, they are actually typically the easiest to place because of the federal VASH voucher program. So depending upon your circumstance, you might get slotted in different places. But sort of a last resort, and I say last resort because candidly, one of the biggest issues for people who are unhoused is a sense of isolation. And this issue of anybody who has deep trauma, who is experiencing mental health issues.

You know, they tend to pull away, but they really do. We as human beings need social interaction. And so in a hotel, you just put them in a room and then you kind of feel even more isolated. So it's not our preferred alternative, but it is an alternative. And that's why we, the council, committed that we could go ahead and spend what we needed for the rest of the year out of contingency, but that I would ask for the money that we thought we would need to be able to do it all year next year as part of the recurring budget.

So we had shared that with them, and they said, if we add the funding for temporary hotel stays as was done during COVID, and we continue to work on year round sheltering and or transitional permanent housing projects like converted hotels or tiny home communities, that would give them hope and reaffirm that this is not about homelessness. This isn't about this is the strategy for homelessness. We're just gonna make them go away. No one thinks that's going to work. No one has that illusion.

These other things that I'm talking about under number five are the things that can help. And more of those things can help. And so they as part of their report this is the report that was given last month. They were very intentional and clear that with this, they felt like it's not just about relying on an ordinance. The ordinance really is about what has been represented.

Number five is the stuff that really helps us deal with the systematic issues here at play and getting people out of even emergency shelters. It's not ideal for them to live in emergency shelters where we'd really like to get them as into permanent supportive or transitional housing like tiny home communities that have wraparound services available for them and you increase the social interaction and you have peer to peer recovery. Going next, I want to say that all of these recommendations were supported by all the stakeholders who were present in the final meeting. Now not every one of those 22 people were there at the final meeting. I want to be clear about that.

But there were people on both sides of the issue that had started in the beginning, and they all said that they endorse the five things I just went through. And that was the thought process that got them there. Now what does this really mean from an operational standpoint? And I have Weidman in the back. He and I talked about this.

If you turn to the next slide, I'm gonna walk you through what he has said would happen if the council were to choose to adopt this tonight or in the future. The police chief would issue a training bulletin to all of his officers and they would all be required to understand and sign off on these procedures. This is what would happen. A complaint is received from an individual who's causing the types of problems that I have described that are on the public right of way in front of a business or home. Again, this doesn't apply to private property.

It doesn't apply to someone who might be in the woods or something like that because they're not causing disruption to somebody. The first thing that happens is the officer will go with an outreach team, the outreach team being the human services department and the community services board, to explain to the individual that they can't continue to behave this way on the public right of way and to get that offer of services. Here's what we can do for you. You're a homeless veteran, we can work with getting you VASH vouchers. You're a family, we're going to get you on the wait list at four kids and in the meantime we can put you in a hotel, etcetera, etcetera.

Etcetera. And basically document this first visit as a verbal warning and to document so that we can comply with the shall in this ordinance, document that the services were offered. If they are called out a second time for the same individual, then the officer and the outreach team would again visit the individual in question and offer services and ask the individual to leave that space. Only if they refuse to leave the space will they get a citation. They will get the citation the first time, as I mentioned, for the misdemeanor for.

Now, I've had questions. Does this mean they go straight to the magistrate? No. Think about when you if you've ever gotten a traffic ticket, I must confess I've had one of those, you get a citation with a date to appear in court. So that's what they would get. They're not gonna get put in a police car and taken some They're going to get a citation that you were told by a police officer to leave because you were in violation of the ordinance and you refused to leave. That's what leads to the misdemeanor. It's the refusal to leave because you're doing the improper improper behaviors. We gave you a verbal warning. We offered services on two different occasions and you have refused to leave.

Now if it happens a third time, if you'll turn to the next slide oh, and by the way, again to clarify, misdemeanor force up $250 up to. Not any jail time. Third time, the same individual, the officer and the outreach team again visit, talk to the individual in question, offer service, ask them to leave, and if they don't leave that's when they get the citation for the misdemeanor too. Which is up to a thousand dollar fine and up to six months in jail. As I mentioned earlier, this level was selected because of the access to the public defender and the behavioral health system under the theory that if you've rejected service, then you rejected an officer request to have you leave one time, and you reject an officer request to leave a second time, you're likely to keep behaving that way.

And maybe, just maybe, the intervention of the behavioral health court, if you choose to pursue that with your public defender, will help you. What is currently available? And I already alluded to some of this, but what will be offered by the outreach team? Outreach team is social services and community service board personnel. They can offer temporary housing of the different types I've mentioned. They can offer access to mental health and substance abuse services. Oftentimes they can offer immediate service to those. If they say yes in the field, we're going to take them and help them immediately because you want to take and help people when they finally say yes, I need and want that help. We can also offer employment services. Now this isn't just for the people I'm talking about here.

We offer these things for anyone who's unhoused. But many times the people who are actually living in the street versus say living in a car or couch surfing on someone's property, they may not have certain IDs that they need to even get employed. So they might need help getting a driver's license or an identification. They may need help getting their social security card because you can't get employed if you don't have a social security number. So we also offer those types of services as well.

And again, focus primarily on what we can offer the people that we meet in this situation after the complaints have been made, but we offer those to anyone who's in that situation. What else is being considered? As I mentioned earlier, it's not intended to be the homeless strategy. It's intended to help with that very small group. I've talked about the resources that we have been permitted to provide this year, that being the additional hotel housing if we need to, particularly for people who we can't place.

Men, I said, you know, unless their veterans are the hardest to place because we only have the Peninsula Rescue Mission right now for them. Of course, we have the the HELLP program, and I'm not trying to disrespect HELLP, but as we all know that's a winter shelter program, it's not a year round program. So those are the things and also we're considering the additional funding in '27 and beyond for these other things I mentioned. I think that was our last slide. Did I was that it?

So hopefully that gives context. I'm not trying to change anybody's mind, but you know sometimes when you get an email or you see something on social media it doesn't go through the depth of what we've been able to cover this evening. And we want to assure you, we are really trying to struggle with the compassionate compliance, but we also have really legitimate concerns that come from other people. You heard one express his concern tonight, but there have been other calls from all parts of the city. Actually, mister Miller even talked about some issues that he's seeing and having.

So what we're trying to do is think about all of our community and be compassionate for all of our community. So with that, mister mayor, if you're ready, miss Law can go through the proposed changes to the ordinance that reflect this so people can see it mirrored in the ordinance. I don't know if you still want or need that tonight but she's available to do so.

Ms. Law, why don't you come up and do your presentation? Because I do have a couple of questions for you.

Thank you. And I will just briefly kind of go over the actual ordinance language. So, as Ms. Bunting spoke about, one of the recommendations of the stakeholder group was to have a tone setting for the ordinance. And so through that, they created this preamble that will introduce the ordinance and hopefully capture city council's intentions.

And that will read, 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. It 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 where for 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 finally, wherefore the city's goal is compassionate compliance, protecting the community while never giving up on an individual. The ordinance then goes forward to prohibit anyone from camping, laying, or sleeping or storing items on public property. Several defined terms which I'll go over.

The first is camp, which 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 equivalents or cooking tools fire. And there is this exception specifically written into the ordinance for any authorized use of public property, includes, as one example yes, sir.

Yeah. And this is this is where I have a question because when you read the full text of the the ordinance, it seems to me that it has other applications other than just addressing homelessness. For example, you mentioned that there's an exception built in for camping or or on public beaches outside of normal hours. So during the time that a public beach is closed, which I think is at dusk, and a group of people were found camping on Buckroe Beach or some other beach in the city, would this be the ordinance that you would use to address that if police came out, or is there separate trespassing ordinance? It it just seems to me that that there are other situations such as protests with individuals who may take up space on public property, people camping on beaches, and those kinds of things.

But this language in this ordinance seem to apply in those situations. And so it seems that this ordinance, while it's kind of built developed around homelessness, it has other applications that that it would address as well. Mommy, can you speak to that? Am I on the right track with that?

Yes, And that and that and that's exactly right. That's why we included using the beach during lawful hours because if you're using the beach when the the park rules prohibit you from using it, then you are that park beach potentially in a way that would violate this ordinance.

Right. So so then would we still need this ordinance whether we're gonna apply it to people who are who may be homeless? Would you say that we still need this ordinance or or are there other city codes that would address the situations that I that I mentioned that are not I'm not mentioned here?

There are other ways that the police currently address situations such as trespassing in parks after dark. So the city ordinance allows the parks the PRLS, Parks Recs Parks Rec and Leisure Director, to adopt park rules. And if the police do a similar take similar situation to how what miss Bunting has described, give warnings of those violations, then they can ultimately charge someone who's violating those park rules with trespass, which again is the class one misdemeanor.

Okay. Thank you.

The ordinance defines public property to mean any and all property in which the city of Hampton or another governmental entity has a property interest. So this could also include other public bodies such as the ordinance defines STORE to mean accumulating, keeping, leaving, or maintaining personal property on public property for future use or safekeeping. And again, we provided an exception in the draft ordinance for authorized storage of personal property. It also specifically provides an exception for just simply storing your property in a vehicle that's lawfully parked on the public street. Finally, the ordinance provides that property which is stored on public property in violation of this section and which is also unattended may be immediately seized by city staff or contractors.

So it require both unlawfully stored and unattended. And then that property shall be stored by the city for thirty days. Individuals can contact 311 to determine if the item that they believe may have been seized is currently being stored by the city. But items that staff determined to be trash, garbage, debris, unsanitary or hazardous, including weapons, may be disposed of immediately. And again, as miss Bunting already said, the first violation of this ordinance would be a class four misdemeanor punishable by up to a $250 fine.

And a subsequent violation after you've already been convicted one time would be punishable as a class two misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to six months in jail or up to a $1,000 fine. I believe that the committee members talk to the judges or at least perhaps judge Glenn to determine what those qualifications were for the behavioral health court. And then finally, prior to charging any person under this section, such person shall be given a verbal warning to cease such activity and a reasonable amount of time to comply with such warning. As Ms. Bunting stated, the police will document that warning and they will only re approach the person if they get another complaint.

With that, I'll take any other questions.

Questions for Ms. Law? Okay. There are no questions for you. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright.

So with that said, I think we we need a motion on this this ordinance. Mister mayor. Councilwoman Campbell.

So, mister mayor, we've reviewed the inputs from the staff, and we've heard more inputs tonight. And I know for some, it's the first time they've actually seen the full ordinance. So, I think it'd be prudent to get a little additional time to review the provided information. So, I move that city council defer item number 25 dash zero one seven zero to legislative session on 04/08/2026.

Second.

Alright. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Alright. There being none, call for the vote. Madam clerk.

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice mayor Brown. Aye. Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabi. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler? Aye. Mayor Greg? Aye. The motion carries. It will be on your docket for April 8.

Alright. Madam clerk, would you read the motion required for appointments?

Yes, sir. There will be two separate motions this evening. The first motion is on the Citizens Police Advisory Group reappoint Linda Curtis as a legal representative to a second term until 01/31/2030, Gail House representing the faith community to a second term until 01/31/2030, appoint Spencer Bosch, a community at large member, to a first term until 03/31/2030, reappoint Benton Knight as a business representative to second term until 01/31/2030, appoint Amanda Roton as a nonprofit member to a first term until 03/31/2030, reappoint Stephen Dean to a second term serving as a faith based representative instead of as as instead of as an at large member until 02/28/2030, appoint Keith Foster to a first term as a community at large representative until 03/31/2030, and appoint Jason Mitchell as the city staff liaison. Vacancies are left for two business representatives and a neighborhood commission representative. On the Citizens Unity Commission, reappoint Mara Yoko to her first full term until 01/31/2030 and appoint Alyssa a Turner to a first term until 01/31/2030.

On the Parks and Recreation advisory board, appoint Thurman l Diamond and Justin Vaas to first terms until 03/31/2030. And on the Eastern Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority, appoint Carlton Campbell, is the chair of Hampton Economic Development Authority, until 03/30/2030.

Alright. Need a motion and a second on the appointments.

So moved. Second.

Alright. May I please recall the roll?

Councilman Bowman?

Aye.

Vice mayor Brown?

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell? Aye. Councilwoman Barabee? Aye. Councilwoman Harper? Aye. Councilwoman Bugler? Aye. Mayor Gray?

Aye. Alright. With that, are there any reports

sorry, mayor. There's one additional motion required, but I believe councilwoman Campbell has a statement to make.

Okay. We got it on that.

Mister mayor, I will not participate in any discussion or vote concerning appointments to the golf course advisory committee because my spouse is under consideration for appointment.

The remaining motion is on the golf course advisory committee to reappoint Ralph Roberts to a second term until 03/30/2029 and appoint John Campbell and Vanessa l Hill to first terms until 01/31/2029.

Mister mayor, so moved. Second.

Alright. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? There being none, would you call the roll, please?

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell. Abstain. Councilwoman Barabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye. Now, city manager, you've had enough reports this evening. I don't think you wanna do any more, do you? Alright. Any other reports by city council staff or committees? Good to hear. Alright. Is there any new business? Alright. There being none, then we are adjourned.