City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome. City Council is now in session. Please be advised that Councilman John Rector will not be present this evening and has been excused. At this time, please stand for the invocation by Councilmember Butler-Barlow, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

Let us pray. We meet tonight with humility and faith, thankful for all the blessings and mindful of all the challenges in our communities. We celebrate the honor and privilege of work as we remember Labor Day. We celebrate the possibilities of a new school year and ask for blessings and safety for our students, teachers, staff, and leadership at all of our Suffolk schools. We ask for guidance and strength, for courage and wisdom as we meet tonight. Help us to remember to act in love and with grace in service to our city, remembering the needs of our neighbors and treating all people as we would want to be treated. Give us patience and understanding to face the challenges of these days with grace. And as an additional blessing tonight from Dolly to all of us, I hope life treats you kind. I hope that you have all that you ever dreamed of, and I wish you joy and happiness. But above all this, I wish you love. Amen.

THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT CERTIFICATION IS REQUIRED AT THIS TIME. MADAM CLARK, WILL YOU PLEASE PRESENT THE RESOLUTION FOR CONSIDERATION?

A RESOLUTION CERTIFYING THE CLOSED MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 2, 2026, PURSUANT TO VIRGINIA CODE SECTION 2.2-3712 AMENDED AS PRESENTED AT THIS TIME. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SUFFOLK HEREBY CERTIFIES THAT TO THE BEST OF EACH MEMBER'S KNOWLEDGE ONLY PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS LAWFULLY EXEMPTED FROM THE OPEN MEETING REQUIREMENTS OF VIRGINIA LAW AND ONLY SUCH PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS AS WERE IDENTIFIED IN THE MOTION CONVENING THE CLOSED MEETING WERE HEARD DISCUSSED OR CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SUFFOLK IN THE CLOSED MEETING.

Council, a motion has been presented for your consideration. Council Member Williams? Move for approval. Got a motion for approval. Council Member Williams? Council Member Bennett? Second. Second from Council Member Bennett. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of six to zero.

Now move to approval of the minutes from the June 17, 2026 work session and regular meeting. And a motion would be in order. Vice Mayor Ward. Move to approval. A motion for approval from Vice Mayor Ward. Council Member Johnson. Second. Second from Council Member Johnson. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of seven to zero.

We do have some special presentations this evening. Our first one is a proclamation and recognition of Hunger Action Month. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, September marks Hunger Action Month. Joining us this evening is Mr. Jeremy Roden with the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore to accept the proclamation.

Madam Clerk, will you please read the proclamation?

Whereas hunger and poverty are issues of serious concern in the United States, and the Commonwealth of Virginia and can impact anyone at any stage of life due to a variety of circumstances. And whereas the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that in the year 2024, approximately 47.4 million or 13.7% of the people in our nation live in food insecure households. And whereas the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore distributed more than 22 million meals in fiscal year 2026 through its network of food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community organizations. And whereas the city of Suffolk is taking steps to raise awareness about the need to combat hunger in our locality and provide additional resources to residents in need. And whereas all citizens, faith-based groups, businesses, and other organizations are invited to support and participate in local efforts to collect food and funds. And whereas the City of Suffolk is committed to working with the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore and their partner agencies to increase awareness of food security and the important roles our food banks play in feeding our friends, families, and neighbors. Now, therefore, I, Michael D. Duman, Mayor of the City of Suffolk, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Hunger Action Month in Suffolk, Virginia, and encourage those who are able to donate their time and treasure to combat food insecurity. And witness whereof I've hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Suffolk to be affixed this second day of September, the year of our Lord, 2026. Sure.

So I won't take up too much time there because these things take a while to read. But I just wanted to thank you guys, not only for this proclamation, but as is stated in the proclamation, as much as the food bank does, we cannot do it alone. We are aware of that. Um, we, we need our partner agencies, our faith community, um, as well as our municipalities that we serve, just like the city of Suffolk. Um, and this is a very important public step to show that type of partnership. Um, I gave the city manager some of these orange heart pins for you guys. And look, we already got some on. I love it. Um, that is for hunger action month. So feel free to wear that all month just to kind of further show that, um, And that's all I'm going to say on that. I appreciate you guys. Thank you for everything that you do to help us serve the community.

Our next presentation will be a Suffolk 360 program overview. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, the City of Suffolk is partnering with the Suffolk Foundation on a pilot program for our Suffolk community to encourage citizen engagement and community participation. With us this evening is Lorelei Costamaro, the Executive Director of the Suffolk Foundation, to provide an overview on the Suffolk 60 program. Hi, Lorelei.

Good evening. Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Mr. Manager, members of the council, ladies and gentlemen in the audience. My name is Lorelei Morrow. I am the director of the Suffolk Foundation, and it is my pleasure to be with you tonight. I will be quick. I hear you have a very light agenda, although I know that's not true. I will be quick. I'm here to talk about Suffolk 360, and it's been my pleasure to partner with the city on this project. Real quick about the Suffolk Foundation, because I think a lot of people know our name, but don't necessarily know what we do. We are a nonprofit organization, And we manage and invest charitable funds for different businesses, families, community groups, other folks in the community across Suffolk and Western Tidewater. We invest those funds, most of them are in perpetual endowments, and we use them to make grants and scholarships in Suffolk and Western Tidewater. We hold about $23 million in funds. Last year we gave out almost $2 million in grants and scholarships. And a lot of times when you hear the word foundation, you think of maybe a family or a business that set aside a pot of money to do wonderful things. We are a community foundation, which means that we're open to anyone in the community to participate. So all of our funds were established by different people at different times for different charitable goals. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to talk about Suffolk 360. I guess I click this to continue. Okay. So Suffolk 360 is a civic leadership program. And if that sounds familiar to you, it's because Suffolk had different iterations of leadership programs over the years. But I think it's been about 15 years since we had something like this. And so when Mr. Hughes approached me and said, hey, would you and the Suffolk Foundation be interested in partnering? I said, absolutely. Our goals are to catalyze impactful and positive community participation. We want to help residents and people who work in Suffolk to get to know their city. And I don't just mean the city as in the municipality, but also the community and different neighborhoods and different businesses and all different aspects of civic life in Suffolk. So we are engaging emerging and established leaders from all backgrounds from across the community. We have an offering of seven different sessions this fall on all different topics, and they'll be at places all across Suffolk. Topics ranging from public safety, arts, the environment, health, housing, education, all sorts of different topics. And again, this is a partnership between the foundation and the city. So it's not just about the municipality of Suffolk or city government. This is community groups participating as well. So for example, Tom from the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, they're hosting one of our sessions. Tom is one of our panelists one evening. We've got all sorts of speakers from different businesses, community groups, and city departments. to engage participants and teach them more about different aspects of the city and the community and encourage positive participation. This is not just about talking at people. This is about engaging people in conversation and discussions and empowering people to get involved in positive ways. And that's going to look different for all the different participants. We've got business folks and their business owners. We've got young people. We even have a student in high school. We have retired folks. We want to engage people as volunteers, board members for community groups, participants in civic life. We want to engage with their businesses. I will tell you, we start on September 15th. We had applications open for about three weeks. We have a cohort of 30 people. Mr. Felder was not surprised that we got 109 applications for 30 slots. I was surprised. We got such positive reception from the community and people who were eager to get involved. And it was tough to pick 30 people to be involved in this first cohort. So we were very purposeful in trying to put together a cohort that represented as many different communities from across the city as possible. So young and old, different community interests, different business interests. Many of the important employers of Suffolk are represented. We have military current and retired in the group. People with different levels of city involvement. I put together a little map that shows you the location, the residences of our different participants. We really wanted to make sure that all seven boroughs were represented, and they are. So we're really excited about this program, and I'm happy to take your questions. Real quick, I made a word cloud of all of the words that our applicants used when they wrote to us why they wanted to participate. Because I think this represents visually some of the different ideas that people have. But this is all about getting people involved in a positive way and empowering them for civic leadership. You probably remember that report that came out from the Workforce Council a couple years ago that looked at why young people choose to leave a community where they grew up. And one of the biggest correlations in terms of people staying in their community was civic involvement. People stay in communities where they can raise their family and when they can be involved in the community. And I think Suffolk has such a rich history of public and private partnerships. We know so many businesses have made a big difference in this community. And that's what this program is all about. One last thing, I really want to thank all of my partners at the city, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Felder, Joan Turner. Judge Holland will be our moderator across all of the sessions. Jennifer Moore, who's here today, has been an amazing partner. Lots of other city employees. So it's just been a delight to partner with the city, and we want to use this as an example of a public-private partnership. Does anybody have any questions?

Thank you, Ms. Morrow. Counsel, questions or comments? Vice Mayor Ward? What time is the session?

There's 6.30 to 8, correct, Kevin? 6.30 to 8.

And it also is open to the public.

Kevin says no. No, actually, many of the spaces are quite small. They're across the city. For example, at Lockheed Martin, we have to get clearance on all of the participants.

I see it's at Fire Station 11. Could I take advantage of being a city councilman and attend? Thank you.

We would love to have you there. Thank you very much.

Council, any other questions or comments?

Council Member Johnson. Just a comment, Laurel. Prepare yourself now. This is going to be for the rest of the world, okay? Every year. I predict it's going to be a wonderful occurrence. Thank you for doing this.

Thank you. I hope so. It's our goal to continue this.

Very good.

The first session, you know, we're going to learn a lot in our first session. Sure. And I'm excited about this. I'm very excited about this. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Lorelei, thanks. This is very exciting. Will we get a wrap-up at the end to get just an overview of how you think it went and what the plans are?

We're going to do evaluations after each session, get feedback from participants, evolve as we go. Absolutely.

Great. I'm excited to hear how everyone's experience goes. Thanks.

Anyone else? Any comments? Questions? If not, Lorelei, thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you. More importantly, thank you very much for what you're doing.

Thank you very much.

We will now receive a presentation concerning our Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.

Mr. Manager? Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Mr. Tom Yannuzzi, Executive Director of the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, will provide us with an update of the happenings at the center and the building, as well as an update on the upcoming season. Good evening, Tom.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, city manager. I appreciate your time that you're giving me tonight. I am taking to heart the mayor's comment last year about being too long. So I'm going to try to shorten it up a little bit. I realize that if I keep on just trying to go over all the things that we're doing over the center or at the center, we're just going to keep on going longer and longer and longer because we're just doing more and more at the center. So I'm going to take a little bit of a different approach tonight. I really just want to try to have a conversation about some things that are going on at the center, primarily more about our vision and what we're doing to try to fulfill that vision. And more importantly, my concern about sustaining that work. So if I can, I just want to first kind of take a look a little bit at our vision. I think I might have went the wrong way. Yes, sorry. So when I look at our mission and vision, I'm not going to read all this to you, but I do want to highlight a few things that are just extremely important to me and to the center. First of all, we believe that we're kind of living most of our values, and I'll get to that a little later on, but we believe the arts absolutely can change lives. We believe the arts are absolutely essential for a thriving community. We believe in inclusive arts. We believe in the collaboration and all that stuff. I think We made some shifts that are emphasizing that. More importantly, I want to emphasize the change that we made into our mission, and that's about access to the arts. And you've heard me talk about this a few times, and you heard me talk about it more about people having access to attend the arts, not being able to afford the things that we do. But I want to elaborate on that a bit more, because it's not just about that access. I'm going to talk about our community theater in a few minutes. But access is about, it is absolutely amazing to me the amount of talent that we have in this area. Not just performing arts, but visual arts and things. I mean, right on West Washington, we have an incredible artist that just needs to have space to display. So one of the things that we want to emphasize is that we want to make sure that the center is an asset for all members of our community not just to attend and to see creative experiences, but to be able to display their talents. Not just actors, but choreographers, directors, screenwriters, set designers, tech people. It's amazing what I've seen the last few months that went into developing a theatrical performance. And all of that needs space in this area. So that's what we want to try to do with the center. So one of the changes, or the changes that we're going to try to make, or that we have been making, some of the shifts, is that the center now is becoming a regional theater, presenter, producer. And what I mean by that is we want to create a space where we can have high-quality theatrical performances that are done by our local and regional companies. So we want to have a space where our local directors, our local screenwriters, our local producers, our local... costume designers and things of that nature have a space where they can practice their art and their talent and where they can display that talent. So we've made a few changes and I just want to highlight a couple of them. One is, first, we created a residency with the Underground Performing Arts Collective. You can read that the Underground Performing Arts Collective, I have it written here, they're artists, creatives, and designers who create and share art that reflects the experiences and tells the stories of traditionally underserved and underrepresented groups while building, educating, and uplifting our communities. Again, that's right in line with the mission that the center has. The Underground Performing Arts Collective performed three Shows for us last year and they're going to be performing three more shows as our resident theater artists this year All of those shows I shouldn't say all Many of those shows are original productions And I want to mention something about what those shows do for the downtown But before I do that, I want to talk about the second thing that we've done We just launched the Suffolk Stage Company, which is our community theater arm of the center. And we just did our community, our first production the last two weekends. It was a production of Cinderella. Again, I am absolutely amazed at the talent. If you came, I know a few of you came to see it. Everyone left raving about the productions that we can do here in downtown Suffolk. More importantly, you see a couple numbers up there. For the UPAC, you see 1,000 or 1,100 people. You see for the downtown 1,000 people, I want to emphasize something. That's new people to downtown. These groups brought in over close to 3,500 participants or attendees. Every single show, every event we have, I always ask how many people are new to the center. With UPAC, it was probably about 80% of the audience. With our community's theater, probably was about 60% of the audience. And all of those people, I shouldn't say all, a lot of those folks were going to dinners and lunches and things downtown. So if you're looking for an asset to the downtown that is going to attract people to your downtown, the Suffolk Center is the place that you should be looking. So we're really, really proud of what it is that we're doing. So as we move towards more theater productions, again, some of the other things that we're doing. Wait a minute. I'm off here a little bit. Oh, I'm sorry. I have a big word correction in my notes. So I want to go back to here. You might have seen our write up here. There's a little editorial mistake in there. Community theater did not start when I came. Community theater has been talked about for years and years. We just kind of made it happen the last year. So I want to make sure that I'm not taking credit for community theater in Suffolk. Just because we are doing theater or emphasizing theater doesn't mean that we're not still bringing in our traditional performances. This year we're going to start our year off with a Prince tribute. Then we're going to have, obviously, Vinyl Radio back, and then we're going to be ending with the Britain's Finest. So we are still going to be bringing in those traditional performances. Some of the other shifts, and again I'll try to make this fast, is we're establishing downstairs as more of a cabaret-style adult kind of destination. We have dueling pianos happening this month. Out of 120 seats, we have 117 sold. So again, this destination is becoming more and more popular for people. Our outdoors at the center is becoming more and more of a public space, which is open to the public that can come and see not just live music, but they can see our co-op, our working artists in our co-op. And now, as you know, we partner with the city to start even a mural project that is bringing the public to town. And it's not just in our performing arts space. but also in our visual arts. And I just want to emphasize a couple of things there. Again, we're trying to get much more representative of what we bring. This year, we're going to be doing what we call a short story with intellect. That's actually an immersive art experience where the art is going to be embedded with rap album EPs. So when you come, you can actually scan the art and you'll be able to download an original rap EP. And then we're going to combine that with a live performance and invite five artists also to do a live performance. Again, just trying to get more representative of the community. The other thing that we're doing that I'm really, really excited about is next year we're going to be doing an exhibit called The Other Side of the Tracks. Gary, thank you very much for that talk. But one of the things that we realized when we were talking about stories of our downtown, we were thinking about what stories aren't told. And we started thinking about the East Washington community and how we could tell those stories. And when Gary and I were talking, we were talking about how The separation in the South has always been referred to kind of as the other side of the tracks. So we actually put a submission into WHRO. We got a grant. We're going to be researching the stories of the East Washington community. We're going to create an original exhibition that represents the East Washington community. And now UPAC, our resident theater, is going to join in the research, and they're going to create an original play that's going to go along with that. So again, we're just really trying hard to figure out how can we be more representative, more relevant, and more accessible to the community. So if I can say, I'm pretty critical of myself. So I go home. I do go home some nights feeling pretty proud of what we're doing. But I will say that I go home every night. There isn't a night that I go home not worried about being able to sustain what we're doing. And it's not because of... of programmatic issues. It's because of operational issues that have become very clear for me. And it's something that we have to have a conversation about. I have a few pictures up there. This is the center. Some of the things that I have realized about the center is that most of the systems are from when the center opened. So we have a beautiful roof. That roof is 21 years old. Roof expectancies are about 20 years. We don't know whether it's a double or a single, so we don't know exactly what the cost is, but it's at least about 300,000 or so. On that roof, we have two 110-ton HVAC systems, two 25-ton systems. They're also 21 years old. Life expectancy is 15 to 20. Those systems, and I'm not throwing this number out as a scare number, but to change those systems out are probably somewhere between 1.3 million or more. Um, we have those, those racks that you see on the right there, on the upper right, those are called dimmer racks. So in theater, I'm learning a whole lot as I do this job, but they're called dimmer racks. They control all this energy that goes to all of your theater lights and to your house lights. They're obsolete. Um, if the brains on any one of those go, the theater is shut down. Um, there have been there since The opening of the theater, their life expectancy is probably about 15 years. So we're already over what we're doing. And these are just some of the major things. One of the things that I want to point out is everything in there is pretty much 21 years old. Our carpets have been walked on for 21 years. They're starting to fray and things of that nature. So what I'm saying is, first of all, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support. This is not about coming and saying that I'm not appreciative, because honestly, if it weren't for the city, the center would not be operating. But what I do want to point out is that that support, I'm afraid, isn't going to be enough if we're trying to think about how to sustain the center. I know that we don't have the reserves to kind of take care of all the things that we're looking at right now. So I'm asking the city to have a conversation. about what we can do to make sure that all the good work that we've been doing at the center, that we're able to continue to do that work. With that said, I just want to thank our partners, Bertone Peanuts and Town Bank. They help us tremendously. And again, I just also want to thank the city. I don't mean to be a downer here. I just like to be realistic. I THINK THE CENTER IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF, IF NOT THE BIGGEST ASSET TO OUR DOWNTOWN AREA. I THINK WHAT WE'RE DOING AT THE CENTER IS REALLY GOOD STUFF AND IS HAVING A REALLY GOOD IMPACT. AGAIN, MY CONCERN IS OUR ABILITY TO SUSTAIN THAT INFORMATION. SO AGAIN, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I APOLOGIZE FOR TAKING UP SO MUCH TIME. THANK YOU, MR. NUZZI.

COUNCIL MEMBERS, ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? COUNCIL MEMBER WRIGHT.

YES, I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT I'VE BEEN A MEMBER OF THIS COMMUNITY FOR OVER 26 YEARS. AND SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN ON BOARD, I KNOW YOU COULDN'T TAKE CREDIT FOR WHATEVER REFERENCE WAS IN THE SUFFOLK NEWS HERALD, BUT I BELIEVE THAT YOU SHOULD PROBABLY BE ABLE TO TAKE CREDIT FOR THE ATTENTION the diversity in offerings, and the excitement that you're bringing to the center. So I'm going to speak for me and say you haven't advocated me and keep up the good work.

Thank you very much. Council, any other questions or comments? Dr. Nuzzi, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for what you've done. I know it's a... sometimes an uphill battle, but you really have taken the resources you have and served the entire community coming and going. You are a huge asset for downtown and what's going to help make downtown Suffolk a destination. So I thank you for what you're doing. You hang in there and keep trying to make it happen. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you. Okay, our next presentation will be Regarding our city of Suffolk 2026 fall events. Mr.

Manager mayor vice mayor members of council Theresa Earls tourism development manager will provide an overview on a number of events taking place this fall throughout the city Good evening.

Mr. Mayor vice mayor honorable counsel. Mr. Manager. I would say I'm gonna be quick, but we all know that's a lie I realize that it feels like we're living on the surface of the sun right now, but fall is right around the corner, and we have wonderful events that are going to take us all the way through the holiday season. Right now, ongoing, you can catch The Door of Good. It's a solo exhibit by Jean Peacock at the Suffolk Art Gallery. That will continue through September 5th, so you need to go see it if you want to see it. Through October 16th, you can catch the Art of Wine series with Colette Mann. She's a Virginia-based mixed media mosaic artist, And she will be having an Art of Wine dinner. You'll see that later in the calendar as well. Through November 21st, we will continue with our Suffolk Farmer's Market. It's every Saturday from 9 to 1 at the Visitor Center Pavilion. And everything changes from week to week depending on the vendors and what is being grown and harvested. So just because you come once doesn't mean you're not going to see something completely different next time. So please stop on by. In September, from the 4th through the 6th, you can go to Refined Relics at their new location. They're having a barn weekend, so everything is actually located in a barn, and it's for sale, and it's antiques and fun, and you can find out more information at their website, which is listed here, refinedrelicsantiques.com. On the 5th of September, the Saratoga Dreamers are presenting a gospel festival in the Downtown Festival Park. It is free, but donations are gladly accepted. There will be music and food and games and activities for the entire family. Also on the 5th, from noon to 10, the third annual Parrot Head Party at Decoys. So if you're a Jimmy Buffett fan, that night is for you. And that will continue way into the night. Well, it's way when you're my age. It's 10 p.m. Decoysseafood.com. You can find out all the extra details. And then on Sunday the 6th, Myths and Monsters Market. That is a tongue tie. Explore a world of legends folklore and mysterious creatures So I've been promised cryptids and mothman and all those kind of fun legends along with food and craft beer That's at New Realm Brewing. It is free and open to the public Then of course we have our fourth annual Suffolk Plain Air Festival. So painting outside has never looked so good. From the 8th through the 10th, you can catch artists throughout the entire city, whether they're in a field or on the waterfront or even in a neighborhood, you will find them painting and you can watch them and ask them questions and perhaps purchase their art when they're done. On the 10th, you could sign up for a plain-air painting workshop. It's $120 per person suggested donation, and it will be happening at the Downtown Suffolk Library from 10 to 2, so you're going to need to register in advance if you are interested in doing this. On the 11th, the Wet Paint Sale and Soiree, the ultimate art party at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. This is an opportunity to see the art fresh off the easels and to purchase it if you'd like. Tickets are $100 per person, and it's from 6 to 9.30. On the 12th... We're going to have, once again, our quick draw, Paint the Taste. So anyone, regardless of your talent or your experience, can enter this contest, essentially, to paint downtown during Taste of Suffolk. It's $10 registration fee. You do need to provide your own supplies. And then at the end of 120 minutes, there will be judges, juries, and prizes. And then, of course, you can sell your art. You can find all of this information on suffolkplainair.org. On Wednesday the 9th, the first ever live music concert at Decent People Tap Room will be happening. Normally, it's, oh, great, it's live music at another tap room, but considering it's their first time ever, I think it's very exciting. Live music by Doc Perkins. It's free and open to the public, and they also are a full-service restaurant. On Friday, September 11th at 1 p.m., the Suffolk Peanut Fest Golf Tournament will be happening again at Sleepy Hole Golf Course. It's $65 per person or $250 per team, and that is a fundraiser for the Tunnel to Towers Freedom and for the 9-11 Tunnel to Towers Project in New York. and the Freedom Flag Foundation. Registration is required. September 12th through the 13th, from 10 to 3, the Suffolk Nansman Historical Society will be hosting their traditional heirloom sale. So if you're interested in antiques and treasure hunting, that would be the time to go to the Nansman, the Suffolk Nansman Historical Society at the Philip Dawson House. Suffolkhistory.org is a great way to find out more information about all the programs that the Historical Society offers. On Sunday, September 12th, from 1030 to 1130, you have the opportunity to make a hand-tied bouquet in a workshop at the End of Nowhere Farm on Old Myrtle Road. It's $75 per person, and you must register online in advance. And of course, we're all very excited about our 20th annual Taste of Suffolk Downtown Street Festival. I have been here for every single one of them, so I can say it has grown beyond our wildest imaginations and has really become the premier festival for downtown Suffolk. September 12th, it's free and open to the public. We're going to be changing up the footprint of the festival a little bit this year. So we're going to start on Main Street from Market to Washington and then along Washington Street from Commerce to Saratoga. So that way we can also incorporate the new downtown festival park. We have 23 different unique eateries participating, over 100 vendors. Craft Brews by Nansman Brewing Station, live music by the Heather Edwards Band, Alan Hudson and the Half Moons, Big Torin, Derek Smith, and Airliner will be playing in the park for the after party. So you can come out from 11 to 5 for a taste of Suffolk and then stick around until 8 so you can enjoy the after party at the Festival Park. WE WILL HAVE THE VIRGINIA 250 MOBILE MUSEUM AS PART OF THE AMERICA 250 PROGRAM THAT WILL BE SITUATED AT THE DOWNTOWN FESTIVAL PARK THE DAY BEFORE TASTE OF SUFFOLK, DURING TASTE OF SUFFOLK, AND THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING. THERE'S A FUN ZONE WITH KIDS ACTIVITIES, WHETHER IT'S GAMES, PUPPET SHOWS, THERE'S EVEN AXE THROWING AND ALL KINDS OF FUN STUFF. IT'S FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY NO MATTER HOW OLD YOU ARE. THE FUN ZONE THIS YEAR IS BEING SPONSORED BY SAM'S EXPRESS CAR WASH, SO WE'RE REALLY GRATEFUL FOR THAT. Main Street Methodist Church is hosting a classic car show in their parking lot and it really is an all-day free family fun for everyone and like I said it really has become our signature On Wednesday, September 16th, from 10 to 2, Parks and Recreation is hosting the Therapeutic Recreation on the Go. It's an apple-picking trip to Kola for Farms. You have to register in advance at suffolkparksandrec.com. On the 18th and 19th, an estate and collectibles sale at Miss Lily's Trading Post will be going on. And if you're not familiar with Miss Lily's, it's a wonderful combination of new and old and antiques, and it's a fun... shopping atmosphere in an old vintage barn in Holland. So if you haven't gotten an opportunity to go, I suggest you enjoy that sale because there's always entertainment and food along the way. On Friday, September 18th, that's the Colette Mann Art of Wine Dinner. So they pair art and wine together and along with a lot of stories from the artist. It gives you a unique opportunity to engage with the artist herself. It's $95 per person and registration is required. SuffolkCenter.org. On the 19th, we start the Rooted in Love art exhibition at the Suffolk Art Gallery that is hosted by Suffolk Parks and Rec and will continue through October 16th. And it's really about the connection of community and the roots built out of love of the people who live here and come here. On Saturday, September 19th, and Sunday, September 20th, this is kind of a combo. So on Saturday, it's Oktoberfest, and on Sunday, it's Dogtoberfest, both at New Realm Brewery. So... for Oktoberfest on Saturday with your German-inspired food and live music and seasonal brews. You get all that on Sunday as well, but you can bring your dogs. Dogs are not drinking. They're just there for entertainment. And I think that that's fun for everyone. It's free and open to the public. You can find more details at NewRealmBrewing.com. On the 19th, we also are hosting the Nansman Brewing reopening event. re grand opening celebration Many of you probably know that Nansman Brewing Station had to shut down briefly for some mechanical upgrades And so they've already opened back up to the public, but they're having a full celebration on the 19th celebrating seven years of craft beer in downtown Suffolk On September 19th from 5.30 to 10, Boots, Bourbon, and Barbecue, benefiting Suffolk Project Lifesaver at Malin Meadows. It's $55.20 per person, and you can find those tickets on Eventbrite. September 19th from 6 to 9, Shelf Bound Sound, a library music festival. This is the third year in a row that you can Go and listen to live bands. They're going to have mocktails, music. It's fun for everyone, and it's probably the loudest you'll ever hear a library, and it's at the new downtown Suffolk Library. It's free for everyone, and I trust that you can find more information at suffolkpubliclibrary.com. Again on the 19th from 6.30 for ages 18 and older. Dueling Pianos by the Copper Piano is gonna be downstairs at the center. That's the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. Tickets start at $30 and if you want to upgrade to a VIP experience with dinner, that's $90 per person. Suffolkcenter.org for tickets. It's a night of really great piano and a little bit of comedy all thrown in. You get to pick the songs and they just have to play them. Sunday, September 20th from 5 to 7 is a steak and bourbon hands-on culinary experience. It's a three-course workshop at the silos at Bridgeport. It's $60 per person. Registration is required because, as you can imagine, it's limited as far as participants. So if you're interested, I would jump on that soon. Saturday, the 25th of September from 5 to 9, Art Raid Pop-Up Artist Market at Sojourn Fermentory in Bridgeport is a partnership with Suffolk Art League. So you get a chance to, again, try some craft brews and some local food and witness some art and perhaps buy some art. On September 25th to the 27th, Stillwater Tea House at Rose Cottage is hosting their Paddington's Tea Tasting, so it's all themed with Paddington Bear, so expect some orange marmalade along with that. It's $65 per person, includes four courses and four curated teas paired with each course. On Friday, September 25th at 8 p.m., Marshall Charloff's Purple Piano. I know Tom brought that up. It's following the spirit of Prince's final solo piano performances. This is the next best thing you're ever going to get to Prince. So $40 to $50 per person, suffolkcenter.org. I suggest you get your tickets soon. Saturday, September 26th at 8 o'clock and with awards at 2 p.m., the Suffolk Rods and Muscle Cars are hosting their 13th annual charity car show at Nansman Suffolk Academy. It's free for spectators, but if you have a vehicle you'd like to enter into the competition, it's $20 per show vehicle. On the 26th from 9 to 12, the Nansman River cleanup will be happening at Constance Wharf Park. I've been told it's BYOK, bring your own kayak. So if you want to come out and help clean up litter with Keep Suffolk Beautiful, that would be the day for you. Saturday, September 26th, the American Girl program featuring American Girl McKenna Brooks will be at Riddick's Folly House Museum. This is... The American Girl Story, it's interactive with different kids from ages 6 to 12. There's two seatings. It's free and open to the public, but you must register because they have limited seating. The first seating is at 10 a.m., the second at 11.30. On Saturday, September 26, from 1130 to 8, there's a Wing Fest, which I'm pretty sure that's self-explanatory, at New Realm Brewing Company. That's free and open to the public. On Saturday, September 26, you can also go to the Fall Fest at Parks and Recreation at the East Suffolk Recreation Center. It is free with annual membership, which is a great deal. And it's crafts, music, petting zoo, bounce house, and more. You can find information at suffolkparksandrec.com. Again on the 26th. We're really busy on the 26th. Suffolk Parks and Rec is hosting adult recess. You remember recess from when you were a kid. Well, now the kids are kicked out. They're not coming. So if you want to play kickball, this is the time to do it. From 6 to 9 p.m. at Wellands Park on Pender Street. It's free and open to the public through Parks and Rec. We all run a lot slower than we did when we were kids, so no one will judge you. But the kids can watch, but they can't play. So this is really just for adults, and it's a fun chance to get out and bond with your community and get a little exercise along the way. On the 27th, from 12 to 7, the Suffolk Pride presents Pride Cove 2026. It's a pride festival at Bennett's Creek Park. You can find more information at their Facebook page, Suffolk Pride VA. On Sunday, September 27th, from 2 to 7, the Haunted Masquerade Market, just in time for the Halloween season. That will be happening at New Realm Brewing Company in Bridgeport. I'm sorry, Harborview. And that is free and open to the public. On the 27th, from 3 to 6, the Fall Wine Social at Decoy Seafood will be happening. It's nine curated wine tastings, three chef-prepared hors d'oeuvres, live music, and more. It's $59.99 on Eventbrite. You can get your tickets now. And as always, it's limited seating. Then we get to October, and it's our favorite season, our favorite month in Suffolk. We start off with our Suffolk Peanut Fest Queen Banquet and Fashion Show at the Hilton Garden Inn. Tickets are $35 per person. You must get your tickets in advance, and this is your opportunity to see who is going to be the Peanut Fest Queen for 2026. You can find more information at SuffolkPeanutFest.com. On the 2nd and 3rd at 7 p.m., UPAC presents Children of Eden Musical, the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. Tickets are 20 for children and 30 for adults. And then on the 3rd, we have the traditional Suffolk Peanut Fest Parade through downtown at 10 a.m. It comes down Washington and turns onto North Main Street. Also, on the 3rd, we have the Silos Oktoberfest. It's their turn for Oktoberfest. And that, again, is in Bridgeport, free and open to the public. Parks and Recreation is going to be showing Ghostbusters on the 3rd at 5 p.m. at Venice Creek Park. You can get there for fun activities at 5. The movie goes on at 7. You bring a chair, bring a blanket, bring snacks. There will be food trucks and activities for kids. The October 8th through the 11th is the 48th annual Suffolk Peanut Fest, the longest running festival in Suffolk. And I will be back in a couple of weeks to tell you all about it. But in the meantime, I'll remind you it's at the Suffolk Executive Airport. The fee for tickets is $10 per person. Kids 12 and under are free. There are also discounts on Sunday for military appreciation and first responders, as well as free for the entire community on Thursday night as part of the carload night wristbands. And then, of course, everyone's favorite event within an event, on the 9th from 3 to 7, the Suffolk Ruritan Club Annual Shrimp Feast. This year, they're only selling 1,500 tickets, and these will sell out. So if you're interested, please go by SuffolkPeanutFest.com to find all the ticket outlets. They're $45 per person, all you can eat and drink. October 9th through the 11th, the Stillwater Tea House is hosting Sherlock Holmes, the sign of for tea tasting. They have a special seating on Saturday at 6 PM. That is $70. All the others are $65 per person. And again, we'll include four courses and four curated teas. The evening will include live entertainment. On the 10th of October, the Parks and Rec will be hosting their annual chalk art competition as part of Peanut Fest. And it's free and open to the public, but if you want to participate, you need to get in there early so that you can get your board to start chalking. And it is amazing the talent that we see come out of this competition every year. And you can find more information at our website, suffolkpeanutfest.com. On the 11th from 11.30 to 4, Books and Booze, Plot Holes and Shallow Graves at New Realm Brewing Company. It's the perfect place for people who love to read scary stories or write them. And then the 14th and 21st of October from 6 to 7, they're doing Right on Target, Monster Hunters. Essentially, it's archery and costumes. And it's at Lone Star Lakes, and it's part of Suffolk Parks and Rec. And it's $5 per person, ages 6 and 12. Go on to their website to find more details. The library is bringing a pumpkin patch to the Chukatuck Library on October 17th from 2 to 4. This is a great opportunity to get out and grab a book with your kids and also experience the pumpkin patch without traipsing through a pumpkin patch. SuffolkPublicLibrary.com is free and open to the public. On Saturday the 17th from 7.30 to 9, the Strong Will Charity Fund Festival run 5k we'll be going down Suffolk seaboard coastal trail as part of driver days you can find information at the driver days events website and then of course driver days is their 33rd annual festival on the 17th and 18th of October Sundays 10 to 6 Sunday is 11 to 5 and as always it's free and open to the public on Sunday October 18th from 3 to 8 the chef's fireside feast will be happening at vintage tavern it's 120 per person you can get tickets online at their website. And then on Friday the 23rd of October from 8.30 to 9.30 p.m., you can participate with Wicked Wheels and you can bike on Lone Star at night. That's through Suffolk Parks and Rec as well. We have another Sherlock Holmes themed tea tasting on the weekend of October 23rd through the 25th. Again, it's $65 for the regular seatings and then for the late seating it's $70 and includes live entertainment. On the same weekend, October 23rd through the 25th, our downtown watch organization is presenting a fall in a nutshell weekend. So think live music and afternoon Oktoberfest in the downtown festival park. The Suffolk Rotary Club is doing a progressive peanut crawl from restaurant to restaurant. And we all have ghost walks and more. You'll find more information as it develops at downtownsuffolkva.com. Then on October 24th, the Suffolk Art League is celebrating their 50th anniversary with their annual juried show. It's called Fresh Squeezed, and think oranges and orange juice. It's free and open to the public, and you can find details at suffolkartleague.com. On Saturday, October 24th, you can go to the Little Acre Farm for their third annual fall market on the farm. So a fun family day with artisans and animals. On the 24th, you can participate in the Suffolk Out of the Darkness Walk. It's a community suicide prevention event. You must register ahead of time. It's through Bennett's Creek Park. On the 24th, that afternoon, from 3 to 5, is a Halloween cleanup, a Keep Suffolk Beautiful event with Nansman Brewing Station. And then Saturday night, from 6 to 8, is Fright Night for all the kids at Creekside, East Suffolk Rec Center, and Miltira Recreation Centers. It's through Parks and Recreation. And as someone who has taken their kiddos through the Creekside one, I can say it's a really fun time. The haunted houses are kind of scary, but in a fun way. There's trunk or treat and games and activities and a DJ and bounce houses. It's a wonderful way to get your kids dressed up and take them out for a really safe, fun Halloween happening. On Sunday, October 25th, from 2 to 4, there will be horror in charcoal. And I believe that is drawing through SuffolkParksAndRec.com. Then the 25th, the 18th annual Muttstra at Bennett's Creek Park. So we all love the dogs here, which is why there's a giant picture of a basset hound. So if you want to support dogs and pets in general that need homes, SuffolkHumaneSociety.com. And you can bring your well-behaved leashed dog to the event. On Wednesday, the 28th, there's going to be an active adults pumpkin patch trip that departs from the Miltier Recreation Center. It is $5 per person and requires preregistration. On the 29th, there's going to be Halloween line dancing at the Bennett's Creek Recreation Center that is free and open to the public. And then on the 30th, they're going to have Hollow Scream Teen Night at Kings Fork, Bennett's Creek, East Suffolk, and Miltier Recreation Centers. So it's a step up from... the little kid ones and Fright Nights. This is definitely for your tweens and teens. And then on the 31st, which is actually Halloween, they're going to have Haunted Wheels Drive-Thru Trunk or Treat at Cypress Park. I'm only giving you a glimpse into November because I'm going to come back and talk to you all about the holiday events we have. It's like a warning. On the 1st of November from 9.30 to 11, Subic Tourism will be leading the Great Dismal Swamp Underground Railroad Pavilion Tour, We do these in the fall and winter, and they sell out almost immediately. So if it's something you're interested in doing, please call the visitor center and reserve your tickets. Tickets are between $5 and $7 per person. On November 6th through the 8th, the Stillwater Tea House is offering nuts for autumn tea tasting. So each course is going to have something to do with different nuts. On the 7th, we will be hosting the Salute to Service 5K and One Mile Run through downtown. It's going to begin and end at Downtown Festival Park. It's $20 to $35 depending on which run you're doing. You do need to register in advance. This is a partnership between Suffolk Parks and Rec and Tidewater Striders. On Saturday, November 7, from 11 to 5, we're having the second annual stall crawl. It's a progressive barn tour. This time, it's Sunfire Equestrian, Liberty Lane, and Sunny Days Farm. So it's a chance for you to get out and visit different horse farms, see how they work, pet the horses, and any other critters that come across. And there will be opportunities to buy concessions, and there will be vendors. And it's just a chance to get out and experience more of the agricultural side of Suffolk and, of course, the horse-friendly side. On the 7th, there's a Barnyard Brew at Malin Meadows. It's benefiting children and families affected by cystic fibrosis. Early bird tickets are $45, and Day Ever 60, you need to get those in advance. Check them out on Eventbrite. And then our annual Suffolk Restaurant Week will be held November 7th through the 15th with price-fixed menus at the $20, $30, and $40 level. You can find more details as we get closer at VisitSuffolkVA.com. On November 14th from 2 to 6 at the new downtown Suffolk Library, Busy Town Adventures, a hands-on fun inspired by Richard Skari. This is fun for especially the toddler age and preschool age kids. And with all of our public library activities, it's free and open to the public. On the 14th and 21st of November, Ta-Da! Performing Arts is presenting Susakool Jr. The Musical. Tickets will be required, and you can get them through the Ta-Da! PerformingArts.com website. Okay, I feel like I just ran the 5K. SUBVICPUBLICLIBRARY.COM IS A GREAT WAY TO FIND NOT ONLY THESE EVENTS, BUT ALSO YOUR WORKSHOPS, YOUR CLASSES. THEY DO ART, THEY DO MUSIC, THEY DO SO MUCH MORE THAN BOOKS, EVEN THOUGH I STILL AM A BIG FAN OF THE BOOKS. THERE'S SO MUCH MORE FOR ALL AGES. AND LIKE I SAID, EVERYTHING THEY DO IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. SUBVIC PARKS AND RECREATION, YOU CAN SEE their logo and their website, and I'll tell you that just a few things that I discuss that they do, it's really just a drop in the bucket. You should have received your new program guide today that just came hot off the presses, and it is pages and pages of fun, family-friendly activities for the entire community. And of course, visit suffolkva.com. I'm gonna plug our website. because we showcase the entire community's events as far as things that not only visitors but locals will also like. And you can complete your schedule and book tours and do everything you'd want to do and start at VisitSuffolkVA.com. And I'm happy to answer any questions if I didn't already give you too much information.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Earls. Before I ask for questions and comments, I think I dozed off a little. Could you run through that one more time?

How about backwards and standing on one foot?

Just run through it one more time. Council questions or comments? Okay, looks like everybody's taking mercy on your soul. Thank you very much.

Well, you know where to find me if you have any questions. Absolutely. I'm always available. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Okay, let's see. There are no items on the consent agenda this evening, so a motion would be in order to adopt the entire agenda as presented. What is your pleasure, Council Member Johnson? Move to accept the consent agenda as presented. Thank you. We had a motion for approval. Council Member Johnson, Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Second.

Second from Council Member Butler-Barlow. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

Motion's approved by a vote of seven to zero.

We now move to agenda speakers. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers this evening? And if so, please explain the guidelines.

WE DO HAVE ONE AGENDA SPEAKERS THIS EVENING. EACH SPEAKER UNDER THE ITEM OF BUSINESS ENTITLED AGENDA SPEAKERS WILL BE ALLOTTED FIVE MINUTES TO ADDRESS THEIR COMMENTS TO CITY COUNCIL. SPEAKERS MUST ADDRESS THE SUBJECTS INDICATED ON THE REGISTRATION FORM. SPEAKERS APPEARING BEFORE CITY COUNCIL WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE, PROMOTE PRIVATE BUSINESS VENTURES OR ENGAGE IN PERSONAL ATTACKS OR USE PROFANITY. Speakers who violate these rules, we declare out of order by the presiding officer and will immediately yield the floor and be seated. Elizabeth Worrell, 3319 Deer Path Road, representing self, regarding agenda item 13, staff report, license plate readers.

I'm going to try to address everybody correctly.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, and anybody else who I forgot. This is on flock type cameras, license plate readers that are distributed through the entire city of Suffolk. I did send every single Congress, council, excuse me, member an email on 8-23-26. Mayor Duman had forwarded my email to Mr. Felder. I don't know if he's the city. I'm not exactly sure, deputy chief. And so that was an interesting email conversation where he referred to flock-style cameras prohibit heinous criminals. But from there, I went to the chief of police office. And I ran into, I did not run into, a wonderful, wonderful officer. named Mr. Epperson. Not only did he call me, he's also emailed me a few times. So he was fantastic. And when I'm talking about flock-style cameras, license plate readers, I am not anti-law enforcement. What I am is government surveillance. I am extremely anti-government surveillance, not only on myself, this is a military community, Many of us are driving plate cars with different plates on them when our families come to visit They have different plates on them. So and So there is no law. I really like Officer Epperson. Whoever, you know, give him a raise. He is not only friendly, but informative. And he also citations Virginia Code. And you know what? I know how to look that up and read it. So he's been extremely helpful. So my biggest concern is who has access to these cameras in Suffolk Police Department? Who is doing the internal audit? on these actual flock-style cameras because there is a movement in the United States of America and also in the state of Virginia, Commonwealth, excuse me, where officers have been fired because of inappropriate tracking with their flock-style cameras. And I really have no idea who has access to them. It is not a law for them to Virginia Code for Suffolk Police Department to make that available when they do an internal audit. Who's running the cameras? Where is the data going? I mean, I would just roll over dead if it was going over to ICE. I want to thank you for your attention concerning this matter. I believe a surveillance state is a decline in democracy and a freedom of me as a citizen in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And I think I would just end by saying we should refer to our flag. You know, no more tyrants. Thank you.

That concludes the speakers, Mayor.

Do we have no consent agenda items this evening, nor do we have any public hearings? ordinances or resolutions. We do have several staff reports. Our first staff report is in regard to farming and agritourism grant program. Mr. Manager.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, a motion was passed at your last meeting to bring forth information supporting an incentive program tailored to build and support Suffolk's agritourism industry. This evening you'll hear an update in steps moving forward from Julia Hillegas, our agricultural specialist.

GOOD EVENING, MR. MAYOR, MEMBERS OF COUNCIL. WE WERE APPROACHED BY A CITIZEN, THE AG ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECEIVED A CITIZEN REQUEST TO INSTITUTE A GRANT PROGRAM IDEALLY FUNDED BY THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY. AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MAY NOT RECALL, OUR AG ADVISORY COMMITTEE HAS NINE MEMBERS, OUR CHAIR, MR. BOSLEMAN CURRENTLY REPRESENTS CHUCKATUCK. VICE CHAIR BRIAN HARRIS REPRESENTS DIRECT MARKETING FARMING. REPRESENTS AGRICULTURE BUSINESS. MICHAEL ELLIS REPRESENTS WHALLEYVILLE AND CYPRUS. MICHAEL FALK REPRESENTS HOLY DECK. MIKE GRIFFIN REPRESENTS FARM BUREAU. MR. RICHARD GUALTIME REPRESENTS THE PEANUT SOIL AND WATER CONTRIVATION DISTRICT. AND MIKE LANE REPRESENTS THE FOREST INDUSTRY. ANDREA SLIGH IS OUR VIRGINIA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION. representative, and I am the city manager's appointee of that committee. Any of those folks can answer any of your questions at any time, or if you have other suggestions, they would love to hear from you. We typically meet quarterly, more frequently as needed. Lately, we've been working on a strategic plan, and you'll hear more about that in coming months, I'm sure. So we'd like to do something to incentivize existing and new agricultural businesses to diversify their revenue streams, increase visitor traffic, increase tourism opportunities, AND ON FARM EXPERIENCES. A FEW OF THE THINGS THAT THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ALREADY HAS GOING ON FOR INCENTIVE PROGRAMS, FACADE IMPROVEMENT GRANT AND THOSE ARE TO ENCOURAGE REHABILITATION OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS, EXTERIORS AND DESIGNATED AREAS OF THE CITY ONLY. REIMBURSEMENT BASES UP TO 50% OF TOTAL COSTS NOT TO EXCEED $10,000. WE ALSO HAVE A SMALL BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT GRANT TO NEW AND EXISTING RETAIL AND RESTAURANTS IN DESIGNATED AREAS OF THE CITY. ALSO 50% OF THE TOTAL COST OF THE IMPROVEMENTS NOT TO EXCEED $10,000. AND THEN OUR NEWEST PROGRAM IS THE FAMILY DAY HOME GRANT THAT SUPPORTS FAMILY DAY HOME PROVIDERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO EXPAND THEIR OPERATION. AND WE COVER ALL NECESSARY ASSOCIATED COSTS WITH OBTAINING CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT. THAT'S APPROXIMATELY $850 PER APPLICANT. SO LIKE MOST LOCALITIES, SUFFOLK PROVIDES RELIEF TO AGRIBUSINESSES THROUGH OUR END USE PROGRAM, EQUIPMENT EXEMPTIONS AND PLAN REVIEW EXEMPTIONS FOR AG RELATED CONSTRUCTION. THE STATE HAS A DEFINITION OF AGRITOURISM THAT WE WOULD USE AS THE BASIS FOR OUR PROGRAM. WE HAVE PULLED A VARIETY OF LOCAL FARM OPERATORS TO Gauge interest and explore types of projects where financial assistance could help. And I have a list of a few of those. Restroom and hand washing stations, handicap access improvements for hay rides, barns, stables, and farm stands, dedicated or expanded parking areas, arenas for animal shows and demonstrations, classroom or instruction areas, expanded protein processing capabilities, improvements for washing and packaging produce and specialty crops, cold storage, or mobile market trailers to increase local food access, which is some of the items that we heard from the community. Agritourism, as you can imagine, has lots of benefits, but the most important one is to diversify and increase income streams for our local agribusinesses, provide direct-to-consumer experiences, and telling the story of agriculture in Suffolk. There's still more work to be done to flesh out this program, but a lot of it can go on simultaneously. We realize the need for checks and balances, but also want the application process to be approachable and straightforward. So we will be developing that in conjunction with the Ag Advisory Committee and Economic Development Authority. With that, if there are any questions, we're eager to hear your suggestions and concerns for how a program might be instituted in the city.

Council, questions or comments? There we go. I knew I had one volunteer. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

I have to say something, right? I just appreciate everybody who has worked to get us to this point. We have a lot of work to do, but I think it's an exciting opportunity that we're offering other businesses in our community and now we're going to extend it to the more rural areas. We talked a minute beforehand. I was actually at a stakeholder meeting from the Secretary of Agriculture for the state earlier in the week and One of the things that was mentioned was that we don't want to just provide startup funding for these small businesses or these new enterprises, but we want to be able to do something that helps them to be sustainable as well. So I hope we'll build that into the plan. So, yes, we help them get their feet on the ground, but some checks and balances, too. continue to support them, not just out of the gate, but in the years to come if they are participants in this program. I love the list that you read. Agriculture is incredibly diverse, which people don't realize. Each farm is its own unique thing. Everybody's doing a lot of interesting, a lot of different activities and growing different crops and raising different animals. And I just look forward to what this can do to help not only our existing farms, but maybe new folks that wanna start to participate. Thank you so much. I look forward to the next update.

Council Member Johnson. And Julia, I'd like to thank you too for bringing this forward. And I think it's most important that the public is aware of what we're trying to do here because that's where we're going to get the input that's really going to push this thing forward. With all the new people moving to our town and with the agricultural community and the young people that want to be part of the agricultural community, there's so much of a need and so much of a demand. I think you're going to be shocked. I think people are going to come forward out of the woodwork and we're going to have lots of possibilities coming forward, very much like the program that we put forth to help people keep small children in their homes. This is what our city is about, and I thank you. Thank you. This is just another opportunity for us to promote agriculture in our city. Thank you. Thank you.

Council, any other questions or comments? If not, thank you very much for your presentation, Ms. Hillgast. We appreciate it. Another staff report. We will be receiving an overview of our Suffolk Leadership Academy.

Mr. Manager. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, during the 2026-2027 operating budget proposal, I previewed a new program for our workforce to advance our leadership and management skills. This evening, you'll hear more about our progress from two members of our Human Resource Department, Becky Luther and Quetta Brown-Fletcher. Good evening.

Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, Mayor Duman, Vice Mayor Ward, and all members of the City Council. Very excited to stand before you and let you know about our Leadership Academy, which began in June for our new employees, or for our employees. This is the city's first formal leadership development program. that we have had. We've had training programs in the past, but in terms of a true leadership development plan and program, this is our first one. We're very excited. Not only is it a program for our employees, but it is also a formal commitment from department heads and supervisors and managers within the city to encourage employees to mentor them and to stand beside them and help them grow in their current role as well as future roles, hopefully, as they stay with the city. So looking for that growth, that development, and that culture. We also, in terms of our purpose, designed the program to build our next generation, obviously, of supervisors and leaders This is in support of our succession planning across city departments to ensure that we have a very deep bench as folks retire and people move on to other positions. We also hope to gain this popularity with the program by increasing not only our retention efforts in keeping current employees here at the city, but also as a recruitment effort because many cities in the Hampton Roads area do have these programs, but ours is a little bit more robust than some of them, and we're very proud of that as we start off. As you can see from our list here, we have, surprisingly, we expected maybe 25, but we've got 50 enrollees for our first go-round within our program, so we're very excited. Almost all of our departments have representation. Some have many, so we are very, very excited again to see that turnout. when that came to us through the application process. There is a one-year commitment from the employees. They have one year to complete the program. It is taught by, classes are internal, taught by myself as the training manager, and also Queto, who's gonna speak in just a few minutes. We both continue to teach the classes that we have, are building new classes along with other department leaders helping us do those, so we're very excited with that collaboration. Multi-class offerings throughout the year allows a flexible schedule for our employees so they aren't going through every class together. It's open and offered many times throughout the months to enable them to allow that flexibility so that they can get in on the classes when they need to. The requirement is 65 hours of training in the classroom, whether it be the core program, which I'll show you in just a few minutes, or the electives that they get to choose from. So it's 65 hours throughout the year that they're enrolled in the programs. Some of the classes that we have that are out there are key class supervisor training, which is the HR basics that goes over policies. hiring, retention, how to handle employee corrective action, just everything that you really need to supervise. It gives them a great start, so we try to get our new supervisors in as they begin and also allow our current supervisors who maybe haven't gone through this in years to gain those skills as well. our popular Dare to Lead series that we continue to offer, our new class coming, Municipal Government 101, receiving the help from many other departments in forming that class, our Real Colors and Real Leadership. Blanchard Situational Leadership is a very well-known program and leadership model since the 1980s, taught all over the world, and employees are enjoying that quite a bit. Psychological safety in the workplace is very important. It's a very hot topic. right now in the business world, and we are offering very great classes on that. Courageous Conversations, Queda teaches, as well as generational leadership, which as we know, that as we have this multi-generational workforce, it's hard to communicate sometimes. So Queda does a great job at encouraging all levels of leaders to adapt to those different generational needs. Project Management Foundations is a new course we'll be offering as well to help them get through their capstone project, which I'll talk about in just a few minutes. And then Emotional Intelligence is also a very important key concept to have to equal great leadership. The capstone project, as I mentioned, will be the coup de grace, the grand finale of all of the participants in the Leadership Academy. They will be working throughout the year, gaining skills through our classes as well as working with their department managers, their department heads, their supervisors to develop a project that they will fully develop and present perhaps in city council as this. Many of them are nervous about it, but we're going to help them through that and support them the whole way to make sure that they're successful in their endeavors. So they'll be presenting perhaps to you. We'll see what comes of it. But it's going to showcase the participant readiness to be able to really go out there and lead highlight their division and make a big difference in our world. So we're very excited about that. I'm going to have Quetta talk about our leadership coaching and organizational development.

Absolutely good evening again and excuse my voice I'm very excited about this so you're gonna feel the energy as I begin to share our leadership coaching organizational development program is where we specifically offer both our employees and our executive team coaching and city management the goal is really to strengthen communication overall as Becky mentioned generationally there's a gap in communication, the way we lead and execute. And so a lot of times we have to make sure that we're paused and making sure that everyone is seen, heard, and supported. How do we do that? We make sure that they don't just have a seat at the table, but they have a voice at the table by enhancing decision-making abilities, We also teach conflict management skills. Again, it's not so much what is said, but it's what is unsaid and what that looks like and how that feels. We also work to build strong teams, and that's not just strong teams by what we say, but strong teams by what we do, making sure that the behaviors that we expect we're also exhibiting top down. The other big part of it is we really work hard to dive in and pull back the curtains on challenges that may exist within departments, any blind spots. But our goal is to serve as bridges and not walls. How do we make sure that each individual is able to partner and move forward with that? And then last but not least, which there's so much more that we could share, we really try to navigate complex situations and identify root causes. You know why, get down to the five whys, because again, surface situations may cause a blind spot and we may not be able to address it. This next part, I probably could leap out my shoes on, is our emerging leaders program. And so you'll see me use some expression with this. Becky just talked about our leadership academy that really constitute maybe in-class learning, but our emerging leaders program is a pilot project that we started with public utilities and public works, and it has 15 frontline people. Now I'm talking about those that are like boots on the ground, out in the fields, meeting with our citizens. These are not individuals that are gonna sit in a class and watch a bunch of slides. So we teach problem solving, communication, teamwork, influence, all those things through hands-on projects. And so they were nominated by their supervisors And it's more, like I said, experimental. Interview readiness, what that looks like. And then behind the scenes tours. So they were excited to say, oh my gosh, this is city council. This is the city manager's office. Even to see some drapes and things hanging in our city. our city manager's office, right? So those were things that they were really excited about, and you'll see the picture here. We also felt that it was important to build an understanding of how their positions impact departments.

Like, really, what do you do?

Like, let's roll up the sleeve and let you know that you're valuable, and it really trues back to what we talked about in October with our representation and accessibility program. Every single employee has a right to be seen, heard, and supported, and that may mean behind Not in a chair, not through a slot show, but out in the field. And last but not least, and I'll give it back over to Becky, it gets them ready to consider future roles. We know that our deputy city manager was able to transition from social services and over to our city manager's office. So we wanna let people know where you start doesn't have to be your endpoint.

Up to you, Becky. Great, thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you.

Council, let's see if we get any questions or comments. If not, thank you very much for your presentation.

Thank you.

And our last staff report is going to be related to license plate readers. Mr.

Manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, knowing there's much conversation taking place on the use of license plate readers and other public safety technology, this evening we wanted to present to you and the public House Suffolk Police Department in using these technologies to make Suffolk a safer place for our citizens as well as our public safety team members. Kicking us off this evening will be Chief Danny Bowie to provide a highlight on all the things that are happening.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Honorable Mayor Duman, Vice Mayor Ward, members of council, city staff that's here tonight and any of the public that's here tonight and any of the public that is watching on TV, wherever that camera may be. Thank you for letting us come here tonight for this staff report to tell you about Suffolk Police, our license plate reader, gunshot detection, and live camera programs. I'm gonna give you a brief overview of what we're gonna talk about, or what these two gentlemen are gonna talk about, and then I'll hand it over to them. We wanna brief tonight to counsel and to the public on what LPRs are, what gunshot detection and live cameras are, and how they're utilized in our city. We also will advise on many LPR facts. We'll brief you on how many of these current cameras we have and how they are utilized in our city. We'll brief you on how they're reviewed, audited, the training that occurs to our personnel, and the information that we put out in our community to be transparent with our community, our community transparency portal, our community outreach program, and our social media outreach program to learn about LPRs. We're going to brief on numerous success stories and on communities that utilize their own LPR programs. Lastly, we want to brief you on how the public can see our policies, how many cameras we have out and about, who the vendors are for these cameras, how many searches and hits they have. We want to be completely transparent with our community. We want to show them how to get to these places so they can get this information on their own. Deputy Chief of Administration, Jesse Epperson, and Sergeant Paul Hevelstein. These are our two subject matter experts and license plate readers. They've been here since the inception, and they know the most about this program of anybody in the police department, so who better than to give you this presentation than these two gentlemen. So that being said, I'll step out of the way, and I'll introduce Major Jesse Epperson.

Thank you, Chief. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, members of council, Mr. Manager, as well as citizens of Suffolk. Like Chief said, Sergeant Helvestein and I are going to walk you through our license plate reader program that we have here in Suffolk. We're going to go through all the different aspects of it that we use in Suffolk and the way that we use it. We're going to talk about our policies and how they help us to have this program work correctly. First off, what is a license plate reader? Not everything is a license plate reader. Not every camera you see is a license plate reader. And that's what I'm going to focus on, exactly what a license plate reader is. The Code of Virginia has the definition of a license plate reader as that second bullet there. A system of one or more high-speed cameras using a combination of computer algorithms to convert images, license plate vehicles, and a combination of both into computer-readable data. That's as the Code of Virginia defines it. in Code 2.255.17. That is a relatively new law that went into effect July of 2025 and really runs how Virginia and Virginia departments operate license plate readers. I do not know how other states do it. I do not know the laws of other states. But in Virginia, we have a law specifically for license plate readers that shows what we will do as a law enforcement agency the way we conduct audits, how we have our policy set up, and the manner in which we'll operate this program. So this is just a snapshot of the things that we're gonna talk about tonight that Suffolk has. So we have 90 fixed license plate readers. Those license plate readers, those are the ones that you see on the side of the roadway. We have 208 license plate readers that are in marked police vehicles. This is what we have a contract for. These numbers, this 90 and 208, they will not go up short of getting more in. Those are set. That's what we have. That doesn't mean that those are always operational. They break, they go down, they go out of service. We don't have all of the license plate readers in cars. Those cars are not always on the street at the same time. They're not always in service. So that number is going to be lower and all reality than what we're actually contracted for. We have three square miles of gunshot detection, and Sergeant Helfstein will talk a little more in depth about the gunshot detection. We also have 50 live feed cameras. Those live feed cameras, they are stationed around the city with specific emphasis on areas such as parks and trails, and we'll talk about why that is in just a little bit. We also have camera trailers, and we've had those for quite some time, just about 10 years now, and we'll talk about those towards the end of the presentation as well. The 86 fixed integrated cameras, those are cameras that are integrated into the system through cameras on roadways, such as with those that are at intersections, those that are able to be, any cameras with city buildings and things of that nature. So that number right there does fluctuate if the camera's broken out of service. So it may be 85 right now, it may be 86, but that number does fluctuate based on how many cameras are actually working at that particular time. All this does, what we use for our real-time information center platform is Flock OS. That's kind of where everything, goes to that we manage all these devices. And we'll talk about that towards the end of the presentation as well. The 12 partnership cameras that you see there, we do have these cameras where different businesses can opt to have a camera, not a license plate reader, but a camera installed on their property. None of those are currently in service. None of those have been installed. Again, if a private business chooses to have a camera in their parking lot or whatever, those are available, but none of those are actually in service currently. So the focus of what I'm going to talk about is going to be license plate readers. So kind of a history of license plate readers in Suffolk. We originally had license plate readers back in 2011. That program was funded through a Homeland Security grant and those license plate readers were attached to the rear of police vehicles. We had two different vehicles that were outfitted with these, and they would rotate around the city with different operators. Quite frankly, it was a very clunky system. It became outdated very quickly. With new cars, new technology, it fell by the wayside around 2013. So that picture kind of in the top with the older Crown Vic, that's what they used to look like when they matted on the rear of police cars. Around 2022, the program was restarted in Suffolk. And during that time, a lot of license plate readers programs started to expand in Virginia as well. During that time, a presentation was given to council in February of 22 in regards to the LPR program. And funds were designated. One was done in the work session, then at a meeting. and funds were designated to start that LPR program as well as the gunshot detection program. Since then, the program has expanded over the course of the last four or five years through grant funding, some budgetary funds, as well as community safety funds. So the program has expanded from the original one square mile of gunshot detection as well as the 27 license plate readers to where it is today. So some key information as it relates to license plate readers in Suffolk. Again, I'm going to talk about specifically what we're doing in Suffolk based on the law and how we are operating within that frame of the Code of Virginia that was passed a few years ago. So we have a policy that is specific to our license plate readers. That policy is posted on our website and our community transparency portal. It's reviewed annually. And it is there for anyone to see. It's wide open. Anybody can see that policy, our gunshot detection policy, as well as our real-time crime center policy. And we have numerous other policies that are up there as well, as far as the operation of the police department. We have a community transparency portal that the chief alluded to. It's on our website here. you can go and find a multitude of different information related to license plate readers, all types of other crime data, but specifically what we're talking about tonight with the Real-Time Crime Center through our vendors that we use for license plate readers, all that information is there in real time as far as that data that is coming in from our system. All of our personnel have to be trained before they are given access to our license plate readers. When we first did this program four years ago now, we had the vendors come in to do training. We also had train the trainers so we could have those continue to train our officers. In order to have an account created by an administrator who are Sergeant Helvestine and myself, they actually have to go through training during our post-academy process. So no one can have access unless they complete the training. That training is recorded, and then they can have access to the account. All users also have to have the proper CJIS awareness training as well as the active VSIN credentials with the police department. So that is another layer of how you handle criminal justice information as well as having the rights to view such information as well. Our system is audited monthly. I conduct the audits on that system every month. By far, conducting the audits on our license plate reader system is the most time consuming thing that I do throughout the month. It normally takes at least half to three quarters of the day to do. I started our monthly audit today around 11 o'clock and I think I finished about 4, 4.30 today. It just takes a long time to go through it. We audit every single aspect of it to make sure everything is right. So it just, it takes a long time. We've been doing audits since 2022 when the program started. You can look back at our policies that we rolled out when this program started. We were requiring audits before the state was requiring audits. So the state requires us to submit data to them quarterly in preparation for their annual report. So at the end of every quarter, which we're two quarters in to that requirement now, we submit the data that is necessary to them so they can in turn complete their annual report, which will be the first year of it next year. All that information is given to them, and that information is also posted on our website as well. We also have to ensure that our license plate vendors are in compliance with all technology security requirements per code, and that they are on the Virginia Division of Purchase and Supply, both of which our vendors are. And our system has multi-factor authentication. So in order to access our systems for license plate readers, just like access in our computers generally, you have to have multi-factor authentication. And that's done through the phones that we provide our officers, the Microsoft authenticator for MFA. So that is a facet of the system. The next couple slides, kind of looking at the facts of license plate readers. Again, license plate, they're fixed LPRs that are designed to capture a still image on the rear of a license plate in the rear of the vehicle. So they're taking a picture of the rear of the vehicle as well as a picture of the government-issued license plate that every vehicle is required to have in this country. The license plate is compared to that to create a hit off of the NCIC database, which is provided by the Virginia State Police through VSEN. And the hit is looking for a stolen vehicle, stolen license plate, a missing person, or anybody with warrants. If a hit is generated, No other information comes back other than this vehicle is stolen. This vehicle is associated with warrants. It doesn't say who the vehicle belongs to. It doesn't say who the driver of the vehicle is, any type of insurance information. It even won't tell you who the missing person actually is. It says this vehicle is associated with the missing person. This vehicle is associated with the stolen vehicle, stolen tags. It is then incumbent on the officer who's receiving that hit by code and by policy to ensure that that hit is confirmed. And that's done through the standard process that we do through VSEN NCIC with dispatch and central records of confirming that hit. So before any action is taken, that hit has to be confirmed. I believe our policy says that at least in three different areas that that has to be confirmed before any action is taken. There is a, we do have the ability to enter a manual hot list in our system. And what that does and the reason for that is There could be situations where we have to get information into the system very quickly. For example, if we have some type of violent crime, carjacking, what have you, that happens, in order to get that information in the system to produce a hit, through vSEN it's going to take a while to get that refreshed through the system. Where if we can put it in on the front end, only supervisors and investigators can do this. then we can get that information returned to us quicker. There is a part of the audit process that you check hot list every year, excuse me, not every year, every month. There's information that has to be provided with that, such as why they're putting that in, case number, and what have you. So we do have the ability to enter a manual hot list as well. We talked about the hits has to be confirmed, and none of these license plate readers that I've talked about use facial recognition technology. That does not exist with these license plate readers, and we do not use them for such. Continue on some facts. License plate readers are not associated with any type of automated enforcement. They don't issue tickets. They don't issue speeding tickets. They don't issue red light tickets or what have you. License plate readers and automated enforcement are two separate things. They can't even be part of the same system. So they're completely different, and like I said, they do not issue any type of ticket summonses, what have you. No information is provided by the vehicle when a hit occurs, and as well as any searches must have a criminal justice nexus. So when a vehicle is searched inside of the system in Virginia, and according to our code, the officers have to provide an incident-based report number or a CAD number, which is computer-aided dispatch, for a certain call for service. They have to put that number in the system. They also have to say, why they are searching, what type of crime, and the specific offense of what they're looking for that for. All that allows the search to conduct. If you don't put any of that information in, you cannot conduct a search. That's for any type of searches in the license plate reader system whatsoever. Further, all that information is provided on the audit. So when I go in and look at the audit, I'm checking to make sure that there's a license plate. I'm sorry, that there's a CAD number. This is an IBR number. What is the crime? And then those are compared against the information that we truly have in our records management as well as in our computer-aided dispatch system to make sure that those are real numbers and they attach to a call for service within the city of Suffolk. The vendor installs all the license plate readers themselves. The Suffolk Police Department does not. And any installation, they receive a permit from Public Works prior to any type of installation. Uh, as I talked about previously, July, 2025, Virginia code 2.2 55 17 went into effect. Uh, our data is only retained for 21 days. Um, that data that is in the system after 21 days is purged and it's a delete. It's gone. It is not held anywhere. The only way data is held after 21 days is if a specific incident is related to a crime it's evidence that falls under the rules of evidence, and then it is saved in our, uh, evidentiary system. which would be evidence.com for us. So 21 days, the data goes away unless it's associated with a crime and then it's saved and it's evidence. We own our own data. Suffolk owns its own data. The data belongs to Suffolk, not to any vendor. No one can access that data except for us. By Virginia code, the vendor cannot access our data and as well as our contract with them that mirrors state code. So no one can access our data except for us. If our data was to be accessed, It would be shown on one of our audit trails. No vendor has an account with us. The only people that have accounts for our license plate reader system are employees of the Suffolk Police Department. And further, we do not share any of our data outside of Virginia. The Virginia law says that you can only share data with jurisdictions that have a code that is like Virginia's. No other state has a law like Virginia does, so we do not share any data outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia. We do not share any data with any type of federal government or federal agency. The only people we share our data with are other agencies within the Commonwealth of Virginia. If anyone else wants our data, it has to be through some type of search warrant, court order, what have you. We don't share any data outside of Virginia or with any federal agencies. With that, I'll be back in a couple slides, but I'm going to turn it over to Sergeant Helvestine related to gunshot detection.

Thank you. I have a few slides on gunshot detection. Gunshot detection, we have three square miles of gunshot detection within the city of Suffolk. Those gunshot detection devices look like the image on your screen. They look different than the license plate reader devices that you see around Suffolk. These do not take images. They are for audio detection only. So a shots fired call occurs or gunshots are fired in the city of Suffolk. This device spread throughout the area, and we'll go over where they are and how that was determined. It determines that a gunshot has occurred in an area close to where a device is located at. It takes three devices to recognize that gunshot alert. before it sends a gunshot alert to the officer. And with those at least three devices, it triangulates and gives within an approximate 90 feet triangulation of where they believe the gunshot detection occurred. I tested this, not personally, but I responded to a gunshot fire call based on the alert for gunshot detection and where it placed the pin in the middle of the road is where I located several shell casings. I collected them for evidence. So the system works and it again uses at least three devices that has to triangulate to determine that gunshots occurred. They are not always listening. We cannot go into a device to listen to active audio. All we get is the device determines that it recognizes the gunshot or firework. There's three different alerts, single gunshot, multi-gunshot, and fireworks. It sends the alert to the officer, and they get a small clip of what they think, what the system believes is gunshots. So with that, we have a five-second audio clip to say, yes, that's gunshots, or no, it's not. And we can get a pin of the area where it determined triangulated where the gunshots occurred. and it only triggers, we only have alerts for gunshots and fireworks. In a period of determining, this came in several different installs. We started with a area that was focused on two-year and five-year data as far as where our Gunshots were, sorry I didn't move to the next slide, two year, five year data and that was based on shooting incidents and gunshot fire call. This initial area we focused on the core downtown area as well as a neighborhood in College Drive that worked. Contract expanded, the base expanded, and we then expanded again in downtown. And again, based off of gunshot fire calls and shooting incidents, we now have the area behind Food Lion, YMCA on Godwin. That neighborhood also was determined to have calls for service that justified having gunshot detection. Again, these are not cameras, five-second audio clip. For this, there's a 30-day retention, but again, that is only for the alert. That is not a searchable. I cannot go in and search a time frame and just listen to audio. That does not exist. The next section we have is live feed cameras. These pictured in the top corner, they do look like license plate readers, but they are different. These are for live feeds. They also record. We'll get to that as a seven-day retention. With this, there was a push at one point, and I'll get into the scenarios and stories about it, but there was a push to have the parks, city parks, parade routes, our heavy area where we have pedestrians, to have coverage. These were installed throughout the downtown corridor to include parade routes, Taste of Suffolk, the Earth and Arts, where we have a lot of people to where we can make sure we have good coverage. Large parks and trail systems, and then the area in and around schools, just for not on the school property, but in and around the school areas. Again, these are not LPRs. This is a seven-day retention. We can view these cameras live, and then also they have a seven-day retention schedule. After seven days, that video is gone. The exception would be if it is evidentiary, we can download it and save it into our evidentiary platform to save for a court case. Along with our live feed cameras, we have the trailer cameras. Major Everson discussed those briefly. These are readily to be deployed for special events. Citizens, if they have a lot of crime in the area, businesses, they can request a camera and we can deploy them. We have a couple here deployed in downtown. We'll use them for special events, for parades. You'll see one next Saturday for Taste of Suffolk. We will have one in the area of Main Street. We originally had 10 of those. They were purchased back in 2017. They were purchased back in 2017 and we have added two more recently and those are leased for coverage. And this video also is a seven day retention. So looking at our core downtown district for our parades and special events, just an overview on the left side of the screen there. for the road closure not sure exactly what event that is but on the right side of the screen you can see just an overlay map of the downtown area and then you have dots green dots in the area those are some type of camera each one has a different icon they could be live feed cameras they could be the integration cameras for the traffic cameras not the speed but Just in the area cameras trailer cameras. They could be a license plate reader But they're focused in and around where we do have special events Next page is just a further dive into our Downtown City Park here. You'll see small blue X's that's the just area of where we have live feed cameras and when you think about a The event that we just had, the Picklepalooza, there's a lot of people out there. The cameras help to make sure that we are able to see and keep everybody safe to see where any concerns or issues may occur. So I'm going to go over a couple success stories. This snapshot I think I can dive in a little bit more on. And for these success stories starting back from 2022, I'm going to dive into a couple of them, but with privacy and active cases, we're going to not advise on all the information. 2022, over 40 stolen vehicles and stolen license plates were investigated, missing person investigation, parental abduction, wanted subjects in other states, armed robbery of a convenience store. These are all success stories where This system in itself for license plate reader and or live feed cameras have helped in solving these cases. Over 70 stolen vehicles and stolen license plates were investigated in 2023. Homicide and abduction of a child vehicle theft. So this one here. This person parked a vehicle, the victim, vehicle owner, parked a vehicle at a gas station, walked inside, and left their child in the car with the car running. Someone jumped in the vehicle, took the vehicle with the child in the car, and last known location was heading west on Holland Road. We were sent officers in the area. The child was located on the side of the road, dropped off, We had the license plate, forwarded that on to the next city officials in Franklin. They were able to, with their license plate detection devices, were able to locate the vehicle and ultimately take that person into custody. The child was not harmed. 2024 homicide investigation solved in less than eight hours. This person, victim, was at a park in the area. and a witness statement led us to a vehicle that fled the scene after a gunshot was heard. By using license plate reader device, we were able to locate the victim vehicle and find our suspect vehicle traveling directly behind it. The time of the call and the gunshot was heard, the witness called in, that vehicle was then leaving the scene. That gave us an area and a timeframe of where this vehicle should be, could be, because it did not hit any other devices leaving the vicinity. So we were able to locate this vehicle and take this person into custody within hours of the homicide happening. Stolen vehicle investigations also in 2024, as well as an armed robbery spree. 2024, I also want to touch on for just a moment that in May of 2024, there was a citizen of Suffolk walking on a trail, and that person was robbed at weapon point. That person was taken into custody, the offender, and no harm was to our citizen. And in that same month of May of 2024, we had a shooting at a park on Blythewood. Both of these happened in May of 2024. And with that, when I hit the next slide, you'll see that starting in May of 2024, there was public comment and suggestions or requests that are related to license plate readers beginning in May of 2024 talking about why aren't the cameras in the city parks. This goes on. The city heard the cries at that time. The city expanded the network to cover city parks with live feed cameras as well as license plate readers from the entrance and exit of some of the major parks. That implementation occurred within weeks after a camera was installed on Suburban Drive at the trailhead at the parking lot. A deceased person was located in the parking lot and was reported, and the cameras that were installed helped the investigation greatly. I could go into more detail on that one. So through here, you can see a snapshot of different stories, and through the community partnership, we have different dates of when we had public comment about the expansion and with that I will leave it to Major Epperson to talk about transparency.

One thing I'd like to highlight on this previous slide is there's also eight homeowners associations and apartment complexes in Suffolk that have their own license plate readers. So not all the license plate readers that are seen around the city are installed by City of Suffolk, Suffolk Police Department. Eight homeowners association have them. Matter of fact, the license plate readers actually started in Suffolk by a homeowners association. They were the first ones to install them in Suffolk. So these are not all neighborhoods in the northern part of Suffolk. They're in central Suffolk as well as the southern part of Suffolk. So like I said, eight different ones as well as businesses. The camera, the license plate reader cameras that you see At Lowe's, those cameras belong to Lowe's. They are not City of Suffolk cameras. So Lowe's has deployed license plate readers at all of their stores in Hampton Roads that I know of. And I don't know how far they're beyond that. But not all the ones that you see in Suffolk are installed by the city. There's a lot of homeowner associations, departments, and businesses that do have them as well. As far as transparency goes, we try to be as absolutely transparent as possible. There's a lot of conversations that Sergeant Helvestine and I have, like, what more can we do? How can we build this out even more? So in May of 25, we actually launched our transparency portal on our web page. So it's on the Suffolk Police website, the main website, transparency portal. We've shared this on social media several times via video and posts and whatnot, where you can go on here and find Almost anything that you need to know and anything that we can post up there without having some type of impact on a case or privacy. So all of our vendors that we use for license plate readers, the PowerDMS that you see there and then the picture, that is where all of our policies go. The same policies that our officers read and sign off on are the policies that are viewed on here. It's the exact same program. It just pushes them to the public side of the house. So as soon as our officers are getting that updated policy, it's pushed here. And our most up-to-date policy, which went through its annual review, are currently up there right now. And if you scroll down, this is obviously a screenshot, but you can see a lot of other information. We're required by Virginia law to report every single traffic stop that happens in the city of Suffolk. In fact, this past year, we have to report whether or not a license plate reader was used on that traffic stop, whether that was the basis of that stop. All that data since the inception of this program by Virginia law is there as well. All the raw data that we send to the state as well as a link to the state police's website is there. Any information, we've got some additional information that we're going to be rolling out there, hopefully in the next week, as far as our audits go, to the extent possible that we can release it by law is going to be there as well. So it's available for inspection by the public. So, again, it's a great website. I think there's a lot of good information that can be found there as far as this program and all of our gunshot and real-time crime centers. With that, that concludes this presentation, and we will stand by for any questions.

Thank you very much. Council, questions or comments? Quiet out there. Here we go. Council Member Bennett.

Commander Major, on the HOA cameras, who monitored those, and how does that work?

So we have access to their cameras. We get notified if there is an alert, just like we would with ours. On their side of the house, I do believe that they do not have access to that. It's basically they have the license plate readers, and the data comes over through the sharing process with us.

So they have to monitor themselves. That's not something that you all monitor for them.

We don't monitor it for them, but through the sharing agreements through FLOC, that would be the vendor for this particular program, we can see if a vehicle receives a hit on that through the sharing of that data.

Okay. Thank you. I know some of the incidents that you have in your report, I was very aware of the one, especially the one on Suburban Drive and the trail there and some of the incidents that took place prior to putting the cameras over there, and I know a lot of people in the community did ask for that type of service so that if they were walking those trails, they would have some type of, felt more comfortable with having that in there. So there are some pros and cons with this, and I'm sure a lot of comments or concerns are out there about public, private use of it. And it doesn't take a whole department to cause a problem with that. One person can do something, and it gets out to the public, and it makes a big thing where everybody will start looking at what is taking place everywhere. So I think this is what is being brought forward now, and I think it's something that we have to try to, Make the public aware, as you all report here tonight, what is taking place and how it is handled and managed. So I do appreciate your comments.

Yes, sir. Council, any other questions or comments? If not, thank you very much for your presentation. I know, I thought I knew a little bit about flock cameras and the other security cameras we have throughout the city. In our city, but across the state and across the whole United States, there's been a lot of discussion lately or concern about any type of surveillance type, law enforcement type cameras. It's, in my opinion, it's like a lot of other things. There's not any process that is 100% infallible. There's always a possibility. But like anything else, You weigh the pros and the cons. I want to commend our department in particular. Like you said, I don't know what the rest of the states do. I don't know what the other cities do. But with your presentation, as is normally the case, we have gone above and beyond even before it was mandated that we did certain things, very similar to how we did our Public Safety Committee. You already took the initiative to implement some of these processes and SOPs that will greatly diminish the possibility of having an infraction. When you look at some of the successes you have, people say, well, they don't do much. Well, they don't do much, but if it was my kid or my loved one or somebody, believe me, it's a lot. If it's coming from another city, We want to know about it. You've got cases there where in Hampton Roads, I know the localities work very well collectively, and meeting with the mayors of Hampton Roads on a regular basis, everyone has come to the conclusion that a crime in one city is like a crime in all our cities because we're interconnected, especially when it comes to Suffolk. If you're going to try to blow out of Hampton Roads, you're doing 58 or 460. It's two of the three ways west. I mean, it's just the way it is. Particularly for our city, I think these are significant not only as a force multiplier, which it is for everyone, but for a city of 430 square miles, it's a lot easier for Norfolk and Portsmouth to patrol those areas that have coverage, you know, we can't do that. I mean, it's just almost impossible. So by having those cameras, you know, in the event something happens, then we can catch one of these major arteries. And there may not be an officer within five miles of there or ten miles from that location. So that is very important for us when the – Of course, the state implemented some new safeguards, a lot of them aligned with ours, but just a few of them, the 21 days, the audit trails, and I'm not exactly sure what's included in the audit when you do it, but you're telling me it's at least every 30 days and it's a half to two-thirds of the day process to go through an audit, and I have no question that, there's no question in my mind that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, and nobody's slacking it. I'm also sure that there are consequences in place, significant consequences in place. I won't ask what they are. I don't know if it goes to immediate termination or whatever it is, but I know that our chief and our department are going to have consequences in place in the unlikely event that this system is misused for whatever reason. The fact that you have to have, well, there's limited data sharing. The audit trails are big. You have to have probable cause. The only things that probable cause, reasonable suspicion of a crime, missing or endangered person, human trafficking, warrants, stolen vehicles, stolen plates. You know, these are all significant things. reasons for having access to that. The key is, are we safeguarding that access? And it's a question everybody always has. But I think for us, we've done an exceptional job managing it. One thing that's been put out there that I'm really, that I learned today, because I'll be able to learn that when I get answered some questions, you know, it's been posted that we have 280 some flock hammers. Well, to me, I thought that was 280 cameras on the street. Nobody made the differentiation of where they were. And I looked at it, and I said, man, that's a lot of cameras. I don't remember seeing that many. But in actuality, we have 90 cameras mounted on the street. That's a long way from 280, so a little bit of misinformation goes a long way. Those other license plate readers are actually what's in your patrol cars.

Yes, sir.

So the license plate reader for an officer... It's much more efficient than getting on the radio and asking somebody to pull the tag number up. I assume it's kind of the same purpose. If they have probable cause to do that and they pull somebody over, in the old days you called up, you gave them the tag number or you did it on your computer and waited, but now it's automatically there. When you hit the license plate, it's going to come up. So not only for the safety of our officers, that's great, But that's a good one to get out there because people really do think when you look at the different cameras that are out there, and I'm somewhat aware of that, then it does look like we have a lot of surveillance. You know, you've got them at intersections. Lots of times those cameras might not be measuring anything except for traffic count. There's a lot of cameras out there doing anything more than traffic count when we're trying to redo signals. They might be doing timing. So it does understand why citizens are concerned about it. I mean, there's a definite reason. I mean, nobody wants a big brother following you everywhere you want and people having the ability to punch in a number and maybe find somebody that they shouldn't be doing, looking for their girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever. but it's quite obvious over this four year history that I feel like it's been a good investment for us, but it also behooves us to continue to constantly monitor this program to ensure that it is used only for the purpose that it's intended and that we have 100% accountability, which the transparency is there. We need to continue with that transparency, I don't know if this is on our website or not, but if not, I would post this on our website, the whole thing. I mean, it gives a breakdown. It's facts. I don't think you made any of it up. And it tells a story. And everyone's entitled to their opinion. There's going to be people that are really, you know, a couple of lives one way or the other. You don't want to make that sacrifice. But in the long run, like I said, I want to thank you for being diligent in doing the job but also protecting, you know, the rights of our citizens at the same time. Thank you. With that, any other questions or comments? Oh, I'm sorry. Got you. Council Member Wright.

Sorry, Mayor, I hate to come behind you, but you mentioned something that caused me to raise a question. So I noticed that your presentation included the monthly audits of the system and that that's conducted internally. Is there a specific group internally that does that?

I conduct the audits from the command level. I'm in charge of administrative division, which includes professional standards for internal affairs and what have you. The only person in the police department of higher rank than me is the chief. So that's kind of where we settled at this. So there's like the extreme oversight to conduct that audit. And then when I finish my audit, my monthly report goes to the chief where he reviews it.

Okay, thank you. And the monthly report goes to the chief, but then there's the quarterly reporting that goes to the Virginia State Police. Correct. What does that consist of?

So the report that goes to the state police, I'm trying to remember all the different facets of it. I believe it's like three or four pages long. It's in the format that they've determined based on law and what is said by law to be audited. The primary focus of it is searches. It's the total amount of searches that are conducted by the agency, what the searches were for, broken down by the different crime types that they have laid out. So those crime types that are laid out in that audit are also mirrored in our system so that when we're going through the audit, we are going through and making sure that those are the only types of things being searched for, allowable. We report whether or not we have any violations of policy or law with that as well. We also report every agency uh, within Virginia that we share with. So it's a, that in and of itself is about a page and a page is long, uh, with all the jurisdictions, whether or not we're sharing LPRs, um, with those agencies. And, um, I'm sure there's some other things on there. I just can't remember what. Um, but also part of that law, they're just not, they're getting that data from other sources, our monthly NIBR submission, which is our incident based reports. We have to notate on the report any type of license plate reader usage throughout the investigation of that. So with that, this year, I believe it's been like 162. I pulled that information before I came over, but 162 of those were notated this year. And as well as our traffic stop data that we've been reporting for the last four, five-ish years through the Community Policing Data Act, we report whether or not any license plate READER WAS USED SPECIFICALLY ON THAT TRAFFIC STOP ITSELF. SO AS AN AGGREGATE, MY ASSUMPTION FROM THE STATE POLICE IS THEY'RE TAKING THE AUDIT DATA WE SENT TO THEM QUARTERLY AND THEN THOSE OTHER FROM LICENSE PLATES FROM THE IBRS AS WELL AS THE TRAFFIC STOP DATA IS WHAT THEY'LL PUT THEIR ANNUAL REPORT TOGETHER WITH. we send is primarily searches, who our vendors are, things like that.

Thank you. And my final question, what type of safeguards, and audits are definitely safeguards because it helps to build accountability, but what other type of safeguards do we have in place to ensure that there isn't misuse?

So it's really using technology. So before the law even came out, the ability was to, let me back up even further than that. So the way the system is set up for users is that it is based on the needs of that particular user. And the patrol officer that is on the street, they do not have carte blanche access to the system, right? Their use is very tailored to their needs as a patrol officer. Probably about two thirds of our users are strictly patrol officers. And their functions are to receive hits and do basic searches. That's all they're getting. Then we have another level, which is a supervisory and investigative level with a little more access. And then we have a command level access, which is able to put in those custom hot lists and things that I was talking about. And obviously, the administrative level, where we're able to remove people's access, conduct audits, and pull that data on the back end. So that's one way, is that not everybody has access to everything. because not everybody has a need for. Also, the way the system is set up is that you have to put in what you're searching for, right? So you can't, the system originally was open text for, you know, what is the reason for your search? Investigation, very basic. Now you have to put in that CAD number, that IBR number, and choose the crime that you're looking for. So there's a lot of steps to get there. you have to put in what exactly you're looking for. So there's that on the front end using technology. The one thing that I didn't mention that I think is leveraging that technology is if the system detects a misuse based on a typical search, it will lock that user out. And they have to be manually unlocked by either myself or Sergeant Helvestine. That's a new feature that's just got rolled out, honestly, in the last couple weeks. So if it's a Saturday night where I'm not at work or something like that and the system says, hey, this doesn't look right for whether it's like a large amount of searches or it's an atypical search for this particular user, it'll actually lock them out.

It will require a second level review. Correct. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Council, any other questions? I'll get one more for you before you leave, Councilman. Member Wright brought it up. So when you do your audits, does the audit include a history of who the users were, who the requesters were for that information? Because that would be huge to me.

So who is actually making that search?

Yes, who's accessed the system.

So it'll show the date that it happened, the date and the time that it happened. the IBR number, CAD number that was put in there with it, what the offense was, who the person was searching for it, and the license plate number.

So there's a trail of every user request? Correct, yes. And how long is that, Captain?

The audit trail data is saved for two years by Virginia law and by our policy. So the system data, if you will, the pictures of the vehicle and the picture of the license plate, that's saved for 21 days, but audit trail data is saved for two years.

So the audit trail is... Two years. Yes, sir. So that really, if the supervisor's reviewing the audit trailer, you could see if there's a pattern anywhere or someone has accessed the system that doesn't look like it could have been legit. Correct. Okay. All right, thank you. That's good to know. Okay, last time, any questions, comments? If not, thank you very much for your presentation. All right, that concludes our staff reports. We have no motions this evening, so we will be moving to non-agenda speakers. Madam Clerk, do we have any non-agenda speakers? And if so, please explain the timing system.

Yes, Mayor Duman, we do have non-agenda speakers this evening. Each person participating under the item of business... Entitled non-agenda speakers shall limit their remarks to the services, policies, and affairs of city government and shall be permitted five minutes for the purpose of presenting their matter. Speakers appearing before city council will not be permitted to participate in the following activities. To campaign for public office, engage in personal attacks, promote private business ventures, or use profanity. Speakers who violate these rules will be declared out of order by the presiding officer. and we'll immediately yield the floor and be seated. Our first non-agenda speaker is Roy Johnson, 1877 White Marsh Road, representing self regarding citywide maintenance. Is Mr. Johnson present? Our next speaker is Douglas Carter, 1230 Kansas Street, representing local 2801 Suffolk Professional Firefighters regarding the Suffolk Fire Department.

Douglas Carter, 1230 Kansas Street. Good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. City Manager. Tonight I'm representing local 2801 Nearly 40 years ago, a small group of Suffolk firefighters did something brave. Suffolk was a different place than rural, recently merged with the county, growing, and had hired additional firefighters because of federal grant funding, not unlike the safer grants that help staff departments today. Those firefighters organized. They formed a union. The city's response was clear. Fullwater watched that funding and those new positions disappear. One of the men whose jobs hung in the balance went on to become a respected captain that trained many of the senior voices in the department today. The dozen firefighters who founded that first union were well-liked, well-respected men who spent the rest of their careers earning the trust of this department and the city, becoming officers, deputy chiefs, and driving many other community initiatives like Project Lifesaver. They chose to fold, not because they were wrong, not because the cause wasn't just. They folded because they looked at the younger men standing behind them the ones starting their careers, the ones who needed the job, and they decided their own fight wasn't worth someone else's paycheck. That is the kind of people who have worn this uniform in Suffolk since before most of us were born. That is who we come from. We tell that story tonight not out of bitterness. We tell it because it matters that you understand this isn't the first time Suffolk firefighters have had to choose between standing up and standing down. And it matters because we are still here. The union of those men folded came back because the questions they raised in the early 80s Safe staffing, fair treatment, pay, a seat at the table never went away. They are the same questions we have been raising. We are not here to relitigate history, we just note the pattern. Whether we are talking recruitment numbers last December, failures over pay studies in 21 or 2015, hiring freezes after 2011 to 2018, or a 30-year historical staffing study. We are here because we believe Suffolk can do better than continue repeating a failed history for its people. Nothing we have discussed publicly is new, it's just uncomfortable. But staffing numbers aren't the only conversation worth having. There's a bigger conversation happening across the state and the country right now about how fire departments structure their people's time, and specifically House Bill 1333. Between Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and several municipalities across the state are all having this conversation. We have built something special over the last eight years, and this fire department, its citizens, and you deserve the recognition that comes with that kind of proactive leadership, one that leads when others are fearful of new or difference. Suffolk isn't surprising anymore. It's established. We are not the younger sibling in the region we once were. We have shown we can lead it. Whether it's code enforcement, investigation, community education provided by the fire marshal's office to ensure citizen safety, to recruit, an incumbent training of a young fire department, and the opening of the regional burn building for a training bureau, or operations delivering critical care level EMS, aggressive fire tactics, and progressive special operations, Suffolk has built something that, by every definition, is exceptional. Built the hard way on the sweat of the men and women in uniform. We are not interested in a fight, we are interested in solutions. The firefighters who came before us weren't either. They folded a union to protect their brothers, not because they lack courage, but because they Understood that lasting progress isn't built on confrontation. We believe in working with the city, not against it. We believe Suffolk's leadership is capable of the same judgment those men showed decades ago. The judgment to do right by the people doing the work. But belief isn't a plan and patience isn't the same as waiting quietly forever. We have had the data and we have had the answers. We just need willing ears to listen. And we will keep hoping that this is a conversation Suffolk is finally ready to have honestly. the way it should have been the last 40 years. We're not asking the city to do something extraordinary. We're asking it to finally finish the conversation that started before most of the people in this room were even here. Until then, we will continue to hold and continue protecting life, labor, and the community we serve. Thank you and good night.

Our final speaker, Zoe Beal, 119 West Washington Street, apartment 324, representing self regarding flock cameras, That concludes the speakers, Mayor.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We're now moved to new business. Madam Clerk, do we have any additions to tonight's agenda?

No, sir.

Okay. With that being said, do we have any members of council that needs to bring something before council for consideration? Council Member Bennett.

Thank you, Mayor. I would just like to ask a request that we have the city management staff TO TAKE A LOOK AT TAX RELIEF FOR OUR SENIORS ON FIXED INCOME. I KNOW WE HAVE A PROGRAM WHERE PEOPLE CAN QUALIFY FOR TAX RELIEF FOR SENIORS THAT MEET A CERTAIN INCOME LEVEL. BUT I HAVE BEEN APPROACHED A FEW TIMES ABOUT TAX RELIEF FOR SENIORS ON FIXED INCOME. have some comment, discussion about if there's anything that council or the city can do to give some relief to senior citizens that's on fixed income and the real estate tax continue to increase. And I don't know how we could go about it, but I would like to ask the city manager, staff, if they could come back and give us some kind of update. Is there anything that the law allows us to be able to do?

I think the process now is to make a motion, have that motion seconded, and a majority of council agrees to put that on the agenda at our next meeting. Now, based on what your motion is going to be, I would imagine that a lot of that is going to be intertwined with the upcoming budget also. But to have a presentation as to what options we may have at that time, which is what sounds like you're looking for, then that would be your motion. Is it clear enough, Mr. Manager, as far as what Council Member Bennett is requesting?

I think maybe I've heard two things. I've heard an update or a report, but then I've heard budget. Is there a Is there a timeline that you're looking for information, and how would you like that information delivered?

Well, I would like to know how we can implement something to give a relief, and that will be where you have to be doing the budget process or whatever, like the mayor is stating. We need to bring it back so we can discuss if there's anything we can do involving that.

Did you have a timeline on your request to bring that information forth?

Is that a question to me?

Is that my request? Well, I think if I understand the process, you would pass a motion. The motion would now be on the September 16th meeting. Correct. Setting a deadline or a timeline for us to provide a report. So I want to understand what type of report you'd like to provide. At a minimum of 30 days, I would request.

I'll take more if you want to give it, but at a minimum of 30 days.

Okay. Thank you. So the process would be to get it on the agenda for the 16th, and then at that time we'll establish a guideline and precise direction for the city manager.

Okay. So we've got a motion to that effect.

I have a motion, yes.

Do I have a second? I'm sorry, Council Member Butler-Barlow. Yeah. No? I don't know.

I was going to second.

Okay, and we got a second from Council Member Montgomery. Do we have any discussion of the motion? Which is what? Which is what?

Mm-hmm.

I mean, throw me under the... I mean, I don't want to speak from Council Member Bennett, but I think the motion would be for the city manager to present what options we have to address... Additional tax abatements or credits for senior citizens relative to.

Fixed income. Fixed income.

You want senior citizens on fixed income relative to any tax considerations coming or going. Okay. That's close. All right, that sounds good. Are you still okay with a second?

Yeah.

Okay, and we got a second. Any discussion of the motion? Okay, hearing none, council members prepare to vote. Good. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

Let's roll call it. Council Member Bennett?

Yes.

Council Member Bartlett-Barlow? Yes. Council Member Johnson? Yes. Council Member Williams? Yes. Council Member Wright? Yes. Vice Mayor Ward? Yes. Mayor Duman?

Yes.

Motion is approved by a vote of seven to zero.

Okay. Do we have any other new business that any council member would like to bring forward? Hearing none, we'll move to announcements and comments. And at this time, I'll ask media and community relations if they have any announcements.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, Mr. City Manager. I'll begin tonight's announcements with a reminder that the City of Suffolk will observe the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 7th, and city offices will be closed. They will reopen on Tuesday, September 8th at 8.30 a.m. Refuse Collection will operate on its normal schedule. However, Suffolk Transit will not provide service on Monday, September 7th. Next, we're celebrating continued business growth across Suffolk with several recent ribbon cuttings. On August 21st, downtown welcomed Cure Coffee House on Main Street. Cure has expanded throughout Hampton Roads, building its brand on handcrafted beverages, scratch-made baked goods, and all-day breakfast and lunch. Its new downtown Suffolk location offers another inviting place for residents and visitors to meet, dine, and enjoy downtown. Following that, on August 27th, the Economic Development Department welcomed Suffolk Massage and Wellness as they celebrated their grand opening on Holland Road. They offer a variety of massage and wellness services designed to support relaxation, recovery, and overall well-being, including Swedish, prenatal, deep tissue, and sports massages. For more information, visit suffolkmassageandwellness.com. And rounding out our recent ribbon cuttings, Storage Authority opened its doors on August 28th on Carolina Road. This marks the company's first location in Suffolk, offering indoor and climate-controlled storage, along with outdoor options for RVs, boats, automobiles, and motorcycles. For more information, visit storageauthority.com. And turning now to roadways updates, the City of Suffolk Public Works Department advises motorists to expect temporary traffic impacts at the intersection of Pitch Kettle Road and Constance Road while crews perform underground utility work. Construction began this week with the work taking place Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the project is expected to take approximately one week to complete. As always, the schedule is weather dependent and may be adjusted as necessary. The City of Suffolk Public Works Department will hold a design public hearing on the proposed improvements to Route 17 Bridge Road as a part of the Route 17 widening and multi-use path project. The hearing will take place on Thursday, September 17th from 5 to 7 p.m. at the North Suffolk Library. This open house style forum will allow residents and stakeholders to review design plans for improvements along Route 17 from Windward Lane to Harborview Boulevard. Proposed enhancements are aimed at improving traffic operations, safety, and mobility, and include additional travel lanes, updated traffic signals, and a shared use path, as well as new sidewalks. There will be no formal presentation, and attendees may stop by at any time during the scheduled hours to examine the project materials, speak directly with site staff, and the design consultant team. Written comments will also be accepted through October 2nd. And for more information on this project as well as other capital improvement projects, you can visit suffolkva.us slash CIP. And on August 15th, the Suffolk Police Department welcomed the community to police headquarters for an open house and touch a truck event. More than 100 people attended, getting an up-close look at the people, vehicles, and resources that help keep our community safe. Visitors had the opportunity to meet members of several police units and programs, including animal care, SWAT, DARE, crime scene investigations, and patrol. The event provided a fun and interactive way for residents of all ages to connect with the Suffolk Police Department and learn more about the work they do each day. For more information on the Suffolk Police Department or to inquire about the recruitment process, visit SuffolkPoliceCareers.com. Looking ahead, the Workforce Development Center is inviting the public to Connecting the Dots, Navigating Today's Workforce, a free workshop on September 28th from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Workforce Development Center. Attendees will have the opportunity to discover valuable resources, connect with workforce experts, and explore opportunities designed to help them navigate and succeed in today's changing workforce. For more information, contact the Workforce Development Department at 514-7730. Next, Suffolk Public Libraries is turning up the volume with the return of its fourth annual signature event, the Shelf Bound Sound Music Festival, on Saturday, September 19th, at the Downtown Suffolk Library. This free, all-aged event celebrates local music and creativity, bringing together established and emerging artists from Suffolk and across Hampton Roads. This year's lineup features No Agenda, Berries, and Carousel, with live music beginning at 6.30 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. with a mocktail bar, artist merchandise, and creative activities, including a live screen printing. For more information, visit suffolkpubliclibrary.com. And before Shelf Bound Sound takes the stage, another big downtown celebration is right around the corner. The Taste of Suffolk Downtown Street Festival returns for its 20th year on Saturday, September 12th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival will fill downtown with local food, live music, shopping, a classic car show, and plenty of family-friendly activities. Local restaurants will serve up their signature dishes, with festival goers invited to vote for their favorite bite and help crown this year's Golden Fork Award winner. The Fun Zone will feature activities for all ages, including a rock wall, inflatables, magic show, face painting, games, and more. Festival goers can also visit the VA 250 Mobile Museum at the Downtown Festival Park as Suffolk continues to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. And when the Street Festival wraps up at 5 p.m., the celebration continues at Downtown Festival Park with an after party featuring live music from 5 to 8 p.m. So come hungry, bring the family, and help us celebrate 20 years of Taste of Suffolk. For more information, visit tasteofsuffolkva.com. And lastly, on your screen are the many ways residents can stay connected to the city of Suffolk. Thank you and have a good night.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Moore. We'll now move on to announcements from council. And we're going to start with Council Member Wright, since you weren't here last time. It's your punishment. Go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. My bad. Delegates, let's see. Where are you? They didn't take you off of here from last week, did they? Nah. This isn't funny. Hold on one sec. Okay, we got you.

Thank you, Mayor. I see that you have jokes this evening. So I just wanted to thank all of our staff for presenting tonight and all of the staff reports. Even though our agenda wasn't top heavy with public hearings and agenda topics, these briefings helped to shape the policy that we put before you all. So it was not in vain. I also want to say that I did miss you all while I was away. My job sent me away for two weeks for training, and the training was not only beneficial for my job, but I brought back some tools in my toolkit to help me be a better council member. So I missed you all, and I'm glad to be back, but I did not step away from the work. I remain present. I do want to wish everyone a safe and restful Labor Day weekend, and it would not be right if I did not close today with a Dolly Parton quote in her memory. If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one. And with that, I'll say good night.

Council Member Williams. Thank you, Mayor. First, I'd like to thank all the presenters tonight, the staff. You did an excellent job. Great presentation, and I'm going to be very brief. My word for the month of September is meek, and it means quiet, gentle, and unwilling to augur or force your opinion on others. And with that, I say good night.

Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Thank you, Mayor. That's a great word. I don't want to repeat everything, but also want to say my great appreciation to all the staff reports that we got tonight. We got a lot of information. We got a lot of clarification on things that we had questions on. But I want to go back to our work session and say when I first came on council was during COVID and we got the ARPA money and we went through all the steps to decide what to do with it. It's hard to believe that we're five years out from those initial discussions, but it's so great to, even though it took five years, it's so great to see the decisions that we made in the past that are now providing really great improvements to the lives of our citizens. So I know, I just want to say to our citizens, it sometimes doesn't look like we're working on things. Sometimes it just takes a long time to work through all the process. and then to actually get the job done. So thank you for everybody's perseverance. And with all the staff reports, we're always trying to work on good things for our citizens, for our staff, and to make the city of Suffolk a better place to live. I guess I'm saying I appreciate everyone's patience also in getting the work done, but we do get a lot of good things done. Of course, I want to say good luck to everybody with a new school year starting up. It's always an exciting time, and it can be stressful, but I trust that everyone's school year is off to a good start and hope that it will be an excellent year for everybody. and hope that everyone enjoys the holiday weekend. I am hopeful that our holiday weekend, we always joke that on Labor Day weekend we usually labor because it's time to pick the corn. And the goal is, we have a lot of superstitions in farming. One of them is we'd never start a new job on a Friday, which means we might be picking corn tomorrow. So we don't have to do it because we can't start on Friday. But to all my fellow farmers out there, harvest season is a busy time. I'd say it almost every meeting Give us a little room on the roads. We're gonna be out of your way in a minute. We've got giant equipment We don't want anybody to get hurt. We want to get where we're going safely and we want to get our job done so just give us a little space and If it makes you slow down a little bit enjoy the scenery I also I was instructed to tell everybody the corn is not dying It's this is just what it does this time of year. It turns brown and and it's matured and it's time to harvest it. So the drought is real. The lack of rain is a concern, but the corn is supposed to be looking like that this time of year. So just want to make that clear. Thanks for a good meeting. Thanks for lots of good news stories. And with that, I'll say good night.

Council Member Bennett.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll be kind of brief too. I want to start out by some requests that I've had come to my attention. I know school is open now, and it's a lot of parents driving the children to school, and traffic is backing up everywhere, National Parkway, Mack Bend School coming through this afternoon, backed up on National Parkway. But anyway, some of the parents are walking the children to school in Mack Bend, and they ask if we could get a crosswalk to go across to the school, people just walking across the road, that they would have a crosswalk. They're going to Mack Bend from Old Mill Creek area, Beamer's Mill rather, not Old Mill Creek, Beamer's Mill, to where they can cross the road with the traffic. I'd like to take a look and see if we can work at trying to get a crosswalk there for that. Also, I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT I WOULD LIKE TO PUT A GOOD PLUG INTO PUBLIC UTILITIES. THEY ARE WORKING OUT IN LAKE FOREST, NEW WATER LINE, AND QUITE A FEW OF THE NEIGHBORS HAVE CALLED ME AND EXPRESSED MY THANKS TO PUBLIC WORKS, I MEAN, PUBLIC UTILITIES. AND THE CONTRACTORS, THE ONES THAT ARE WORKING IN THE AREA, THEY ARE VERY NICE AND VERY RESPONSIVE IN COMMUNICATING WITH THEM ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON. being very protective of their properties, and they cannot thank them enough for what they're doing. I'd like to pass that on to you and to the contractors out there. They're very, very happy to have their cooperation. It's been a long time coming, and they are very excited about being able to get that taken care of. Also, the... The warehouse on Shoulders Hill Road, we're getting a lot of complaints about the way it's looking there, and I don't know whether we can make them trim some of the grass down and make it look a little bit better in that neighborhood. It's a bad-looking situation there, and we need to try to get something done over there with that, and I would appreciate it if we could take a look at trying to get something done up there on that Also, I'd like to thank Public Works and city management staff for new bus stops on National Parkway in Wood Lake and Regency Stake area. Some people have been concerned about people walking up and down the highway there, the street there, and hopefully they'll be riding the bus instead of walking back and forth down National Parkway to the stores and whatnot. So I want to say thank you for taking care of that for me as well. This is not my area, but I've had some calls and concerns about the new bike lane on Carolina Highway, right there as you come off the bridge down to Carolina Highway at the stoplight. And it used to be two lanes going in, and it merged right into one right at the light. And people was afraid that somebody was going to get hurt there. I think we need to take a look at it. I don't know what could be done there or whether that's the way it's supposed to be. But it's something I think we should take a look at as far as the safety part of where that bike lane is there right at the start and right at the stoplight. And you come up to the stoplight, your bike lane is there, and you're down to one lane, but you're coming down the hill to the stoplight, you've got two lanes coming down there. But all of a sudden you've got to merge into one lane.

Not all the markings are complete yet, so there is more to come to finalize some of that project signage and markings. So we're not quite complete, and I think that'll help with the finalization of the project.

Okay. Well, thank you. That would have been brought to my attention as well. And with that being said, I would like to thank all the speakers that presented us tonight. I think it was a great presentation from everyone, and I appreciate Thank you all for all your cooperation and working together to try to move our city forward. With that, I'll say good night.

I'll be brief as well, but I just have to reflect on the fact, I think it's kind of nice that we do this every once in a while, reflect on what's going on around us. Five years ago, the people in my borough, probably 60% of them didn't have the internet. And here we are five years later. What a remarkable thing that we have accomplished as a city. Nothing tonight but a lot of good news and a lot of potential good news for the future. It's important to have good information. It's just like the police report on the flock cameras. We all get calls, we get complaints, we get this, we get that. But the truth of the matter is we are doing it the right way as best we can. There always will be problems, but I appreciate what our city does and how our people that work for our city try to do things in the right way. I also appreciate the fact that we have a cultural arts center, a cultural arts center that is so important to this city. It's good to be reminded every once in a while that it is our cultural arts center, and it's going to take all of us to keep it functioning and moving in a positive direction in the future. Same as the Ag Committee, same as agriculture in our city. Ag always suffers a little bit every once in a while, but it's up to us to keep this city what we want it to be, which for me, part of that is an agricultural city. So we as a city need to do that. Peanut Fest is coming up very soon, but next week, or week after, we've got the Plain Air Festival coming up if you're an artist and you want to participate. Want to paint or be a part of that with taste of Suffolk. We also have the plein air festival come up It's a wonderful event and something our city should be very proud of as well. Well done And with that I will say good night. It's been a good meeting Vice Mayor Ward.

Yeah, so I think that all The staff did a great job for that information because a lot of times I some of the people come to you with something you don't know and you try to spend it in a way that is positive for the city but what was done tonight i think i got new information and i can really say what's really going on and i want to commend Because it was right on time of what you've done. Your staff, they give good information on it. And there's much needed about them cameras. You just don't see it. Just in Suffolk, like it says, news all the way around. So I thank you so much for putting that on for us tonight. I wanted to mention this here about the roads. I had a few people who came to me. and said how the outer roads look good and how it looks, 1758 Carolina Road, with all the complaints we got, but look at the end of it. So I'm really proud of that. Like I said, when I ride down 58, I just look at it and say, well, job well done. Now 17, even Carolina Road, so... A few of the councilmen said we're doing a good job all around the city. Just be a little patient and look at the results because I think we're doing what's best for the city of Suffolk. I want to also mention about the Cultural Arts Center. I didn't want to follow Councilman Wright because she said what I have been telling Tom Yannuzzi, a cultural arts center. I think he's from Philadelphia. When he first came in, I said to him, you got some great ideas. And I'm glad the mayor told him don't give up because he do have some great ideas. And cultural arts centers is not the same. Take a little time, but he have a vision. I'm proud of that. And just hope that he can get things he needed, to be where he wanted to take the city itself and also the cultural arts center. So with that, I'll say God bless.

Okay, I'll go ahead and wrap it up. We had a little bit going on the last couple weeks. A few ribbon-cuttings that we already saw. Cure Coffee downtown is pretty awesome. You need to check it out right down from the Elliott Hotel. This is, I believe, they have three or four other coffee shops, and they were trying to choose... whether it was Chesapeake or Suffolk, and basically said, you know, they chose Suffolk. And one of the reasons he said he chose Suffolk, remember, was because of the mural that is painted on the building at the downtown festival park. He said that pushed him over, and he decided to locate here. So I'm sure they'll be successful. The Storage Authority on Carolina Road, it's a great addition to that corridor right there. You should check that out. It doesn't look like a... self-storage. When you go in there, it looks more like a coffee shop. I mean, it's very nice. It's big in the back, and they've got plenty of room for vehicle storage as well. So if you've got a recreational vehicle or a boat, there's lots of room back there for storage. So check them out. Pretty brief tonight. I do want to take one minute. We had some great presentations. Everybody's kind of alluded to those. We did have some great presentations, some good news, a lot of good news of things that have already been accomplished and things that we're working on now. So I want to thank everybody for providing that. And if you listen to Ms. Earle's presentation, anyone who thinks there's not anything going on in Suffolk just doesn't know where to look. I mean, it took her talking as fast as she can, 45 minutes to get everything out there was going on. And there wasn't a whole lot of fluff to it. But we do have an amazing amount of events going on in our city, throughout our city, directed to a very diverse population with a lot of different interests and age groups. And I'm very proud of what Parks and Rec does and what our tourism department does, and then all the support that they have to make it happen as well, even down to the volunteers. So check it out. I do want to address the... We've heard from the fire department for the last couple of meetings. To be honest with you, personally, I got caught off guard a little bit on the staffing issues, but... I want to make it clear that we've heard your concerns regarding staffing compensation and overtime, and they're being addressed. The city manager is working directly with the fire chief to evaluate these concerns and develop recommendations for solutions and appropriate funding. That review will include staffing and compensation, but it must also examine scheduling and operational efficiencies within the department that could reduce significant overtime by making better use of our existing resources. At the same time, the city has undertaken a comprehensive classification and compensation study covering all our city employees like we did just four or five years ago, I guess it was, Council will be awaiting the results of that study, and it would not be responsible to make any decisions in isolation before we had the information necessary to understand the impact on our entire workforce and our budget. The upcoming budget process is where these issues must come together. Council will be able to consider the compensation study. the recommendations of city manager and fire chief, staffing requirements, overtime costs, recruitment and retention, and the funding necessary to implement sustainable solutions. Our firefighters perform an essential service and they deserve competitive compensation, staffing, and support. They also deserve solutions that are sustainable rather than promises made before the facts and funding are known. Council is prepared to act. We are awaiting the information and recommendations necessary to make informed decisions that support our firefighters, protect our citizens, and remain responsible to Suffolk's taxpayers. And with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and move to our quote of the night by Maya Angelou, one of my favorites. Angelou, excuse me, you pronounce, you... How many times have you corrected me on that? A long time. I'm a slow learner. But anyhow, we're going to start calling her Maya What's-Her-Face.

It's called Maya. We know who she's talking about.

Okay. All right, what that being said, that quote is, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. And with that, I'll ask for a motion for adjournment. Council Member Williams. So moved. A motion to adjourn. Council Member Williams, Council Member Johnson. Second. Second from Council Member Johnson. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote.

Mayor Duman, can you cast your vote, please?

That's bad.

That's quiet. Councilmember Bennett. Yes. Councilmember Butler-Barlow. Yes. Councilmember Johnson. Yes. Councilmember Williams. Yes. Councilmember Wright. Yes. Vice Mayor Ward. Yes. Mayor Duman.

Yes.

Motion is approved by vote of seven to zoom.

This meeting is adjourned.