City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

[snorts]

Talking to Good evening and welcome to our March 23rd, 2026 regular council meeting. We are glad to have everybody in attendance here. We will call our meeting to order this evening and we always like to begin with the pledge of allegiance. Gary Harris from the VFW is here this evening. Gary, if you would lead us. Present arms. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

for all. Please be seated. And at this time we'll ask that you please join us in a moment of silent reflection where you can use this time for silent prayer, to reflect on the meeting, to prepare your thoughts for as we move forward. All right, thank you. Council, we did have an executive closed session just before we started this meeting. We needed to discuss two things that will both be discussed later in the meeting, the forensic audit services as well as some work with Wells Fargo building. I don't normally like to add things to the agenda that we haven't published, but this is something that's pressing and I'd like to make a motion that we amend the agenda under new business to discuss specifically the execution of an exclusive negotiating time for the Wells Fargo building. Do we have a second? Second. A motion and a second, any discussion? All in favor, please respond by saying I. I.

I. Any opposed? Okay, at this time we will open the floor for citizen comments on public matters. We'll ask that you come down to the podium, please use the microphone, state your name for the record, and we will have a clock up here on the wall that will count down 3 minutes. So, if you'll keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. Where is it? I'll use this one. Um Chris, you can begin. Certainly. Want to thank everyone tonight. My apologies for being a bit delayed in the meeting that I was intending to to join, but um family comes first. Actually, faith comes first in my house, family comes next. Alas, Radford City comes after that in in my priority, but um actually did pass out something this evening or should be passed out shortly. Hopefully everyone will recognize it. I wanted to thank especially all of council because I've been watching the meetings for years. I've been listening to them. I've been attended a few. And finally, a couple meetings ago everyone took an opportunity and showed the courage of conviction. And you stood up or stood against something that is very near and dear to my heart. And that was

[snorts]

an amendment to the Constitution. So, Councilman Wolford, thank you for making a motion and standing by it to say that all the amendments to the Constitution are not singular and frankly, it's not up to anybody to deny. As a legal citizen of the United States, I am as we all are, a child of this document. This is the law of the land. I'm not going to pretend as some have to be a constitutional scholar, to be a procedural scholar or legal scholar. I know my lane and I stay in it. What I am is a citizen of the United States. This is the law of the land. Bodies who choose to vote into action bills that are then signed do not and cannot stand if they go against this. There are negative and positive powers in legal world. Again, I'm not a scholar, so I won't go into it, but this document says that I'm not allowed to do these things. It's the governing bodies aren't allowed to take them away from me. So, again, thank you. I know there's people in the public who used their first minute right to speak out against Councilman Wolford, his family, they're lovely people. I treasure them dearly. I have used them as an example in my own life and faith and other things. So, thank you. And thank you again to everyone for standing up or standing against what you felt was appropriate based on the presentation by the public. I feel like members of this council did stand up for what the public told them they wanted. Members of the council stood against something they felt like public told them they didn't want. So, thank you all for that. It is an election year.

I would challenge myself and everyone else to remember those positions as it comes up. Thank you. Thank you again, God. Well, the one we have on the list if you'd like to come down and speak. Uh before I start my time, Mr. Mayor, would you please share with us the guidelines for the citizens who wish to speak before the council. Um the guidelines for citizens who wish to speak before the council, I'll pause your time so we don't use that. Uh we ask that you do be respectful. We're all neighbors here. Uh certainly we're uh trying to maintain decorum in the meeting, but um we ask that you keep your comments to 3 minutes or less and uh general topics about what's happening with the city. record and please adjust the microphone so everyone can hear what you have to Sure. Um Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Uh my name's Dwight Boyd and I live on Smith Avenue here in Radford. I was born and raised here. I've called Radford my home for 75 years. Um So, what brings me here to speak is something undignified happened at the previous meeting that has really been bothering me for the past 2 weeks. One of our fellow citizens stood here and publicly by name shamed the spouse of one of our city council members. This just is not right and it should not be allowed. When each of you ran for office, you expected to take some public criticism, but you did not expect to have your

family members be criticized. Do each of you council members want to sit there and listen to a citizen stand here and call your spouse by name and say that they are ashamed of them? I don't think so. That just crosses the line of common decency. Mr. Mayor, you have a gavel there and one of its purposes is to help you to maintain order and decorum during these meetings. I wish it had been used in the last meeting and hopefully you will keep it at hand in the future. If I say something out of order, I would expect you to use that gavel and tell me I'm out of order. Please have that gavel at hand when you suspect that decorum may be breached as it was at the last meeting. I'd like to share with you what Robert's Rules of Order has to say on this subject. Robert's Rules of Order advises against referring to individuals by name during public meetings to maintain decorum and focus on the issues rather than personalities. Instead, members should address remarks through the chair and avoid personalizing debates. This practice helps ensure respectful and productive discussions. I think we have enough problems in this city without us attacking each other, backbiting each other. And let's work on those problems. The citizens want to know about the budget, the audit, the audit that you're going to talk about,

and uh the foundry property. Those are concerns. And uh well, I'm right on time. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Do you have have any other citizen comments for the public record? At this time we can open the floor if council has any response that they would like to share. I'll have some thoughts that I'll share during my council member comments later in the meeting. Anything? Okay. Well, at this time we'll close this portion of the meeting. And we will move on to some reports. We have some very exciting news tonight. Um and then I'm really excited to be able to share some of this, but to to ask her to come forward as well. Esme Davis is a fifth grader at Belle Heath Elementary School, and she loves this community. And we are proud of her, and we are proud of our resource officer, Officer Rose at Belle Heath as well. They have come up with a wonderful idea. I'm going to ask Esme to tell us a little more about it if she would. Esme, do you feel comfortable coming up and speaking into the microphone? Okay. So, I'll just give a little sneak preview, and and we'll ask that you come over, and you can tell us what you're doing first, and then give us your flyers, okay? But, this is a fantastic idea, and one of the best things that we ever see happen is citizen engagement on topics that they're passionate about. So, tell us what your idea is. And don't be nervous. We're just regular people sitting up here. Hello. My name is Esme Davis. I'm a fifth grader at Belle Heath Elementary, and I am working on a new project called the CCC, or the Clean Community Club.

The CCC is where a group of people of all ages get together and clean up the community of Radford. The CCC's first get-together will be on April 11th at 10:00 a.m. at Belle Heath Elementary School. That morning, our volunteers will get together in groups, split up to compete to pick up trash around Radford. They will be judged later, and get the winning group will get a small surprise. There will be snacks. Hey, we love snacks. Now, I know what you're thinking. That sounds awesome. I get to clean up the community with my friends and family. And it is. You're right. That's what CCC's all about. You might also be thinking, "Now, this is the part of the talk where they ask for something." But, there's no catch. I won't be asking for anything because the police department has applied it us for us all. They have given us gloves and other supplies. And so, I'd like to make a big thank you to them, and some other people who have had a big help. My parents, and my teachers, and then, of course, the police department. I am very thankful to be here. Um but, the CCC poses opportunities for us all. Poses.

We get to pick up trash, and clean the community. It helps people who might need it, like high schoolers who might need to pick up a um and it also helps people make new friends. The CCC is very helpful, I believe, and I think would make a great addition to our community. But, there's one thing that we are missing. People. We need volunteers. You can tell your friends and family, and anyone else who you think would might like to come. We'd really like to see you there, and we would love to see you all anytime. We would be starting up at Belle Heath, and be going down around Bissett, and then back up to Belle Heath again. I'm very happy to be here, and thank you for letting me. Well, we have to say thank you to you, and I think you deserve a huge round of applause.

[applause]

So, this is so awesome, and we have these wonderful flyers for community cleanup day on April 11th at 11:00 a.m. It's really easy. 4:11, 11:00 a.m. be at Belle Heath. I want to say thank you to you, and to your teachers, and to Officer Rose. Do you have anything you want to share with us this evening? Uh just that everybody's invited, and uh if you can help us get the word out, please do so. And we love this. This is a wonderful idea. Thank you so much. Thanks for helping. You know, April is cleaning and greening month in Radford. We're going to talk about a lot of environmental stuff going on here all month long, and this is one of the coolest things. So, April 11th, 11:00 a.m. Belle Heath. Be there or be square. And thank you so much for joining us this evening. Thanks, Esme. Thank you. So, we will ask everybody in attendance, and everybody online, we have copies of the flyer here on the council dais, but we'll ask that everybody please share this far and wide so everybody knows about this wonderful event, and give Ms. Davis a great big round of applause whenever you can for coming up with this idea, and helping make this happen. So, thank you again. And I just like to point out how awesome it is that Officer Rose, our school resource officer, is working with students and faculty at Belle Heath to make this happen. We do so much in our community. Our Radford City Police works with our students, our community, community outreach, and does a fantastic job. And our next item of business, we're going to ask Chief Holdaway to come forward to share the police department report, and give us an update on all the activities for the year of 2025. Chief, welcome. Thank you guys for having me. That's a hard act to follow. I'm going to be honest with you. You hear people talk about the next generation, and you worry about the future. If all of the generation that is beneath us or

have this kind of ethos, we're going to be in great shape. Our city's going to be fine. Our country's going to be fine. I know you guys had an early start tonight, and most likely a late night. So, I'll try to get through this thing pretty fast, but please stop me and ask any questions that I may overlook. I think the thing that I want to say to start off with is that Radford's no different than any other locality around us. We've had some successes. We've had some failures when it comes to public safety. This is a trying time, especially in this profession, and with that being said, public safety's always been at the forefront for the city. You guys have done a tremendous job in supporting us, and I'm grateful for that. The city manager's office has been instrumental in some of the things that we've got going on, and I couldn't be more grateful and appreciative of the things that you guys have done for us in the last year. But, I tell everybody I have the most unfair job in the world. I get to come and talk to people, and highlight our success. But, it's so much more than just me, right? Like, we have some of the best men and women in the business, and I say that every time I get a chance to talk to you guys, and and I'm not just saying it. I know it. I see it, and I see the work that they do. And so, I hope that this report highlights some of the things that we've had going on this year, and sharing some of their success. And I I call this the police department annual report. I probably should have named it public safety cuz I included some of the other entities that we have under our span or control, but I want to start off with animal control. We all know Helene was hard for the city, hard for a lot of places and jurisdictions, but what really hurt us most in public safety is we lost our animal control facility. We refurbished a four-bay car garage, and turned it into what I would consider a state-of-the-art facility, especially where we came from to where we are now. But, I'll share some of the numbers, the things that we had down there. The building opened in May, so we were roughly about 7 months in, and we still took in nearly 400 animals. I was surprised when I saw those numbers, and then we answered somewhere around close to 600 calls for animal control. The thing that I want to share about all

this is when you see the work that the men and women do in our city, but especially Adele and Ashley at animal control. I had an opportunity to work down there some this winter, and Adele said something with me that stuck I stuck, and she said they have a rule that you don't eat until the animals eat. And if we treat our people the way Adele and Ashley treat those animals, we we won't have a need for public safety. But, those guys do a phenomenal job, and some of the things behind the scenes that I it's worth sharing that most people don't know about. These guys spend their own money on these animals. They spend their own time. They take them home with them. They bottle feed them, and they're very proud of the fact of how they take care of their animals. And we are very successful in that we are considered what's called a no-kill shelter. Sometimes you do have to euthanize animals, but we have a very high rate, and we manage to meet that rate every year. So, very proud of the work that animal control has done for our city. The next thing I want to mention is our dispatch center. We had 53,000 calls in our dispatch center last year. That's a lot. We do the math. I tried to break it out by how many calls we get an hour, and it's not really fair because sometimes you go, and you don't get a lot of calls, and then sometimes you get a ton of calls. But, we answered 5,700 911 calls. And then we had roughly about 233 text to 911 calls, which is some new technology that we're mitigating through. But, overall, all these calls that come in, they're doing it in a reduced staff with about 40% reduction in staff. And the thing that's key is that this is just the calls, the phone calls they answer. It doesn't count the times they talk on the radio, the police, fire, EMS. It also doesn't count the walk-in complaints and the warrant services and all the paperwork. They have done a phenomenal job. And this last year, too, they also received their P33 certification, which is similar to um some of our certifications or accreditations on the PD side. And it's remarkable that they have accomplished what they have uh with the amount of call volume that keeps coming into our PD.

Total calls for the PD. Last year, we answered 17,363 calls. That's up a little bit from the year before. Uh in 2023, we were about 19,000 calls. We saw uh about a reduction 3,000 calls. Now, we're up about another 1,500 calls for service. We made almost 1,400 traffic stops. And then we wrote about 800 tickets. So, we're roughly about 40% of the time you're getting a warning uh when we pull you over. But, I think the it's important to know that um you know, we write tickets for a couple reasons. We want to change behavior. It's about behavior modification. It's not always about tickets. Sometimes it's about education. And uh those those are great numbers for, you know, a locality of our size and amount of warnings we get versus the amount of tickets we write. One of the major things that we deal with in our city right now is mental health calls for service. Uh on average, we we're between 80 and 120 mental health calls a month. These calls are hard to track. We might get a call for a car crash that ultimately ends up being a mental health call. We might get a well-being check that's a mental health call or an intoxicated in public call that ends up having some kind of mental health association with it. Currently, the city of Radford makes up 19% of the emergency custody orders at the New River Valley um our um down at Well, I shouldn't say it that way. We we make up roughly 19% of NRVCS emergency custody orders for the New River Valley. We lead all the other localities. It's kind of an an issue when you look at the population per capita. We're about 17,000 people or give or take. And you have other agencies like Montgomery County that have well over 100,000 people or Blacksburg that has 40,000 people. And we're still doing 20% of the work. And I think it offers an opportunity for us to share some of our success with this is that the law changed a couple years ago. This Marcus Alert Law came out and it says if you have so many people in your locality, you're required to have a mental health co-responder. We did not meet those guidelines, but yet we still chose to participate and

have a mental health co-responder. It's been a huge success for us. Uh we have Kevin that works with us. He works about 40 hours a week with our PD. He tries to work during peak times for mental health calls. If there's any kind of mental health association or associated call for service, Kevin goes on it with our PD. And then we're also holding calls for Kevin. When he gets there, we're using him to the fullest extent. And I hope those numbers are reduced for next year. But, we kind of just see the trend continuing to grow in that direction. Gun calls have been a big topic of discussion. Uh we have had some successes with gun calls, though. In 2024, we answered 64 calls for possible shots fired. In 2025, that number was reduced by about 20 calls for service. We only answered 46 calls for potential shots fired. The one uh issue that we did face is we did have a homicide this last year that was firearm related. And we seized a total of 50 firearms in 2025. That's double what we seized in 2024. 37 of those guns had some kind of attachment to it. They were processed through evidence, and the other 13 were not. But, that comes with uh a lot of hard work. And anytime you see these numbers, we've had successes, but we're also addressing the things that are coming along with those. And that's what we're going to talk about in the next slide. We had one particular area that was um hit hard with some gun crimes. Uh we see some guns off um a certain location. We had a couple shootings um and the murder. So, we had held a pop-up event. Some of you guys attended that pop-up event, and we're kind of looking at this from um a tribe perspective of how we solve this problem. And first of all, it's just getting out and being a part of the community. And having these events hopefully will help people recognize us and get an opportunity to come talk to us, and we can talk about gun issues and gun safety. The second part of that is that we were fortunate enough to see um our numbers change, and we applied for the Operation Ceasefire grant, and we

got about $230,000 in grant money that you guys voted on last month or approved to help combat some of the problems. So, we're taking the enforcement side, and that will help us specifically put police officers out to target some of the gun issues that we're seeing and some of the gun crimes that we're facing. And last of all, the third component of that is the technology side. We have a NIBIN computer in our house now. We were able to use that through grant funding. And basically, that helps us track some of these guns. When you shoot a weapon or have a shell casing left behind, there's very specific characteristic marks that are left on those shell casings, much like a fingerprint. And that technology allows us to go put guns back in people's hands and associate them with other crimes. So, we're going every angle we can to help curb some of the problems that we've seen with gun violence in the last year or so. Vehicle crashes has been one that we've had success and failure in, also. In 2025, we had a reduction of about 35 car crashes. We worked about 360. The previous year, we had about 394 car crashes. We have seen a rise in injuries. In 2025, we had 46 people hurt in car uh crashes with 46 people hurt. And that was up 12 from the previous year, where we had 34. The most glaring number that sticks out is that we had three people killed last year in car three separate car crashes. And we've had another one this year. And historically, we've been a community we don't have major interstates running through here. Our speed limits are very low. But, we've had an uptick where we've seen a lot of fatalities in the last year. And that's unusual for us. We've went numerous years where we've not had any and received awards from the DMV. So, we're addressing those issues much like we're addressing some of the gun concerns. Um we we have target enforcement areas, concerns where people have complained about speeding, or issues where we've seen more crashes. We're trying to put uh specific police officers there. We have target towns where we're trying to at least run radar and try to slow some people down. Uh speed is most of the time a

mitigating factor in some of our crashes that we've seen. And then last of all, we use DMV grant funding. Uh we received roughly about $40,000 last year, and we've used that for target enforcement, speed bumps, some radar, some technology to help combat some of the issues that we're seeing with vehicle crashes. We've had some very good successes in 2025 versus 2024. Our narcotics uh uh issues, we are nearly 100 less narcotics charges this year, which speaks volumes. You know, we were almost 200 year before, and so we're about 100 this year. Huge success. DUIs, we're down 58. The previous year, we had 74. I think some of that's education and effort and and getting the word out that, you know, there's other opportunities instead of driving intoxicated. Our larcenies have went down by nearly 70 larcenies. We were at 171 in 2024. This past year, we only had 103 larcenies. 2024, we had four robberies. We're That's went down 70, you know, three uh less, which is one, but one is too many. Four is a lot for us. Definitely seen a change in numbers. Now, I wanted to add this, too, about the pursuits. Our pursuits stay the same. It doesn't matter what's going on. It seems like we get about six, seven, eight pursuits every year. The perception might be we're chasing everybody every weekend, but that's not the case. We're averaging a pursuit about once every other month. Use of force is a big topic in public safety in general. And I wanted to share this just because I think it leads credence to some of the things that we're doing in our PD. When you take our call volume of how many calls we answer, how many traffic stops we make, we use force less than 0.42% of the time. So, not even a half of a percent of the time when we're dealing with the public, we use force. We average about 74 to you know, we're in that mid-70 range about every single year for use of force. And I think it offers opportunity that the misconception of some of the things that are happening, that's not what you're seeing in our PD. It's

minimal force. It's the least intrusive means possible to make an arrest. And it's very, very rarely do we use force per interaction with people that we're dealing with. So, I changed this up a little bit. This was going to be the last slide, then I moved it back and forth around. But, um one of the successes I want to celebrate, you guys last January signed a proc- proclamation for us to become a certified crime prevention community. I'm very proud and happy to say that uh last Thursday, Manny and I went down to Richmond. It was voted on, and we are now the 16th certified crime prevention community in the state of Virginia. It is a recognition that we had years ago, and it fell by the wayside. And now uh we've went back through the process and are now a certified crime prevention community. And there'll be more for that to come later on uh next month, but it we're doing the things we need to do, right? Like, we're addressing crime issues. And part of this certified crime prevention community is making sure that we're taking care of the kids, we're taking care of the elderly, and we're doing all the things that we need to be doing as a community to keep us safe. So, I'm very excited about that. It's much like any other accreditation standard. We revisit it. We have to make sure that we're in compliance and and keeping up with all the standards. Um and last of all, I I I just thought this was fitting. Teddy Roosevelt, smart guy, super smart guy. I like Teddy Roosevelt. I like some of the stuff he says, but he I don't want to read this cuz I don't want to mess it up. But, he said, "This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in." And I think that stands true to us. Public safety is one component. We we're doing it. We've been short-staffed, but we still had successes. We've been very much at the forefront of you guys and the support that we get, but it really takes a whole community to keep us safe and to make this a good place for us to live in. We're one part of that, and I would encourage anybody, when you see something suspicious or out of the ordinary or concerned about speeders or have any issues at all, don't hesitate to call the police

department. You never know what that turns into in the long run, so that's our annual report. Uh kind of went through it fast. You guys have any questions for me or anything that I can help clarify or make better sense? First of all, I'll say congratulations on the crime prevention community. I think that deserves a round of applause. [applause]

I know that all the hard work that you and all the officers, all the staff, everybody in the Radford City Police Department have done have helped us get our CALEA accreditation, have helped us get this crime crime prevention community, and that's huge. And we thank you so much, and thank you for all your presentation this evening. I did have uh three questions I'd like to touch on them, and we'll open up the floor. Can you talk a little more about what the difference of having a co-responder with ECOs does? How that makes a difference for people with mental health crisis? Absolutely. And uh I apologize, I talk police talk, right? ECOs are emergency custody orders. And what that is is that someone is in crisis, and they're not capable of taking care of themself, they're a threat to themselves or others. And that's when there has to be some kind of intervention, and we're not going to leave this person um as they are. And so, the mental health co-responder is a trained professional through NRVCS. Their primary job is to help diffuse the situation, to help get it to a a point where they either need to go seek professional help or some alternative services that they can be provided with to keep them out of the system and maybe not flood them with other things that um are going on. Much like um I there's something to the full moon, right? Like when we get a full moon, you know we're going to have a lot of ECOs, and so it helps them helps us, it helps our community. It's definitely a great interaction that we have, and the the beautiful thing about it is, you know we show up in uniform, we're driving a police car, and we've got Kevin, who's one of the best guys ever. He's a captain in the United States Marine Corps. You wouldn't think that would correlate well to being a mental health professional, but he is absolutely one of the best, and he just helps talk to these guys, helps talk them down, and it's somebody wearing plain clothes, somebody that's a friend, and just offers an alternative to a means or a measure for them in their crisis. Well, and that's kind of the point I wanted to get to, cuz as police officers, you're kind of limited when someone can't take care of themselves. Do you take them to jail? Do you have them committed to a mental hospital? Do you you know, what do you do? And this provides you with another alternative to help address that person's needs, correct?

Absolutely. Through someone who is specifically trained and targeted mental health evaluations. It's just one component of many things that we deal with, where this guy's primary focus is mental health and getting them the services they need.

And I I think it's wonderful, and it's great that, as you pointed out, you took the initiative, your department took the initiative to do this even though we didn't meet the criteria to get the the support from the state to necessarily do it. We did it, and that's that's a wonderful initiative on on our part, on your part. Thank you. Um I do want to talk about guns for just a minute, cuz that's always a concern. Why do you think we're having such an issue uh with folks bringing guns into the community? I can very specifically share that the gun crimes and calls we are seeing are not from there are some from Radford residents, but we have um an uptick kicking other people coming from outside of our community. They're coming down here on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights, they're partying. Um they're going to parties around the college, and we're seeing gun issues there. We're seeing gun issues from out-of-town folks that have no Radford connection other than being here to be a part of the bar life and the party life around the college. Well, I think the one positive that we can take away from that, certainly there's more guns, but that there's fewer shots fired, that maybe there's fewer um negative consequences with the actions you all have taken. It appears that you're you've got a process to try to address it a little sooner rather than having to respond after someone's pulled it out and maybe created an issue. Absolutely. And then the last thing I just want to get back to, you know I hear this from some folks, Radford's not safe, Radford's so different from everywhere else. You started off your report by saying Radford's very much like the communities around us. Uh do you feel like this is a safe community for our residents? I will tell you right now, listen, I live here, I work here, my kids go to school here. I I I have no issue at all saying that Radford is a safe community. Um sometimes the perception or those that say those things may not be in the know. We do have our challenges, we do have issues, but it's something that we've addressed. Our police department's done a phenomenal job addressing these issues, but we're no different than any other jurisdiction. Uh there gun calls

everywhere, there gun calls in other neighboring jurisdictions. Um we are no different, we're not immune to the some of the crimes that we're seeing. And when these issues get pushed out of other places, they go somewhere else, and that's why they're here. They've been pushed out of other communities, and they show up here. So, I I and I I don't I don't know how to say it enough, man. Radford is just a great place to live, and I would not uh be here and saying this if I didn't believe that. Thank you, Chief. Does anybody else have any questions? I had one. Um so, did I did I hear you right when you said that we answer 19% of the NRVCS calls? No, ma'am. We actually answer between 80 and 120 mental health calls a month. We have 19% of those emergency custody orders at NRVCS is specifically to the City of Radford. Okay, that was my next question. Is is those is that 90% specifically to us? Okay.

Yes, ma'am. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. No questions, just a thank you for all you do, Chief. I appreciate you and your department in keeping this community safe and all the things you're doing. You're doing a great job, so thank you. Well, thank you, and listen, I take a lot of credit, but um those guys really do a phenomenal job, and certified crime prevention community, I like to I I I failed to say Emily Height is the one who's responsible for this. I asked her to take this task under her wing, and she excelled. Uh and uh to be the 16th one in the state uh with as many localities as there are shows the kind of dedication and work that she put into it to get us to back to this point. Fantastic. Thank you to Emily, thank you to you, thank you to the whole the whole crew. Anything else are we good? Thank you, Chief. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much.

[applause]

We are going to move forward after these wonderful opportunities to talk about our city, citizen action, our fantastic police force, and all that they're doing to help us be a safe and strong community. Uh we do need to talk a little bit about power, and we have a resolution to delegate authority to manage the energy supply congestion, and I'm going to read just a little bit of this, and then we'll we'll go into it. Um whereas the City of Radford encouraged transmission congestion costs associated with the delivery of its fixed energy shape delivered to its wholesale supply points with congestion exposure from the AEP Dayton Hub to the AEP APCO residual aggregate, and whereas effective management of congestion risk is necessary to mitigate pricing exposure during the transportation of energy and supports the City of Radford's electric goals of rate stability, budget predictability, and risk management, and whereas the city obtains congestion hedges through financial transmission rights, FTRs, and purchases through existing and new EEI arrangements to mitigate congestion risk, and whereas the city finds it in the best interest of the City of Radford to delegate authority to designated officials to take timely and necessary actions to manage transmission congestion risk within defined financial parameters from the period of June 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2028, and whereas the not to exceed cost requirement for congestion hedges is set at 75% of the city's previous congestion estimate received from suppliers a value of $0.63 million over the 31-month authorization period, $630,000, whereas uh advisory support from GDS Associates may be used to identify, evaluate, and recommend congestion management opportunities within the approved not to exceed parameters, including coordinating FTR bids with AEP Energy Partners in pursuing congestion

hedging agreements with qualified counterparties. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the City of Radford that Radford City hereby authorizes the delegation of authority to the utility director, subject to approval by the city manager, to execute the following on behalf of the City of Radford. Convert awarded congestion hedges to financial instruments that, as appropriate, provide appropriate protection of risk for congestion hedge values, our FTRs, financial transmission rights, to bid on and purchase financial transmission rights as appropriate, to provide appropriate protection of risk for congestion value hedge values, financial transmission rights, FTRs, and to negotiate and execute congestion hedging agreements with city counterparties to provide appropriate protection of risk for congestion hedge values, and negotiate and amend agreement with AEP Energy Partners for scheduling services as appropriate to accommodate any adjusted requirements from such congestion hedges. Be it further resolved the utility director and city manager must provide verbal or written approvals during the period of June 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2028 for the aforementioned actions and transactions, and be it further resolved that the not to exceed cost requirement is established at 75% of congestion estimates received from suppliers valued at $630,000 over the total period of 31 months, and be it further the that GDS Associates Inc. will provide recommendations to Radford staff for appropriate congestion management opportunities and their estimated cost within approved not to exceed parameters and be it further resolved that GDS will coordinate FTR bids with AEP Energy Partners and or develop congestion agreement with counterparties willing to sell the congestion hedge to Radford and be it further resolved by the Council of the City of Radford that in accordance with sections 2.13 and 2.14 of the city's charter respectively second reading of this resolution is hereby dispensed with and this resolution shall take effect immediately as an emergency

measure. So, having said all that, that is our resolution that exists because we are working to try to manage our energy supply. Todd, do you have anything you want to add on that? Well, I'll refer to our consultant on maybe we have them Okay. And we will turn to you. If you will share with us what your thoughts are. Can we turn them up a little bit? Hold on just one second. We're not hearing you quite yet. Everyone, um yeah, so this the delegation of authority would allow the city to manage and hedge the congestion costs associated with the city's activities They operate on tight time. Delegation enables timely participation while maintaining, Thank you. Do you all have anything else you want to add this evening?

So, just a quick summary that that these are essential to kind of manage costs that we have. And um you know, over the 31-month term provide us the administrative needs that we properly and and hopefully in the most favorable manner uh the consideration and and will report to you from time to time on on how these are solving or electric catches are made. Thank you, sir. So, uh long story short, it is getting more and more complicated than when we just had a traditional wholesale power contract trying to work through these power uh consumption charges and congestion charges. And so, we're working to authorize that through the approval of the city manager that the utility director uh Tim Logwood is able to execute these things on our behalf so we can be more nimble and address things as they come through, which should hopefully help our budget situation with that. Council, do you all have any questions for Tim, for Todd, or for our GDS consultants? You all did such a great job. I think we're good to go. Having heard none, do we have a motion to approve our resolution? I move. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second.

A motion and a second. Any discussion? Um Melissa, will you call the roll? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. And as we stated, this is an emergency measure because it is of a timely nature, so it will go into effect immediately. And, you know, certainly if you have questions, electric is is definitely changed for us and it's it's a different world. We're trying to navigate within that world. And thank you, Tim, for your work on that as our director of Radford Electric Department. And thank you to GDS for all that you all do for us on that as well. All right. Um looking at the time and knowing that we need to connect with uh someone, I'm going to actually ask Council if we can move into new business to get to our forensic audit services. And I'll give Melissa just a moment to bring them online. But uh I don't want to hold this up too awful long. So, let's just move to new business if that's okay and we'll come back to our proclamations following that. Would that be acceptable? Um and I I just want to do that with uh respect to the time of everybody who's going to be helping us a little bit. Um Joe Levine, the executive director to the New River Resource Authority, has requested that the City of Radford appoint an alternate for the remainder of our uh former city manager who recently passed away, Bob Asbury's term, which is through December 31st, 2028. Um I'd like to just go on and nominate Seth Gillespie to serve in that role. He's been serving as an alternate for Mr. Asbury. Uh do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. Any opposed? Now, we also needed to double-check. Mr. Ridpath, who's our former city manager, serves as a as an alternate for Mayor Starnes, former Mayor Starnes who's here this evening as well. And that term, he is in a term that ends December 31st, 2029. Have we had any response to be able to say that

David wants to continue in that role or do we need to look to move forward with an additional appointment? Okay. How about this? Why don't we reach out to David one more time and at the next meeting we can appoint an additional alternate if we need to. But to make sure, since he's already in that role before we remove him from that role and replace him, let's get a a double-check on that. Would that be acceptable? Absolutely. I was just going by what was directed by Absolutely. Does that sound Does that sound good to Council? Yeah, I I I know speaking to Joe Levine, I don't think that there's been any interaction, but I can confirm and let everybody know tomorrow. It'd be no problem.

Just want to make sure that we know uh before we make that change. I don't know that uh Mr. Ridpath would be interested in continuing in the role since he's now retired, but I want to make sure before we make that decision and move in that direction. Speaking of Mr. Asbury, I I did want to share just a little bit and and Bob's son, Scott, who's a good friend of mine, he and I went to high school together. He's here with us this evening. Thank you for joining us. Um Bob Asbury was an incredible part of this community uh for much of his entire life. While he was born in West Virginia, he attended Radford High School. He's a Bobcat at heart. Um and that's where he met Carol, his lovely wife. Uh he decided he wanted to go to Virginia Tech, uh learn more about things and and especially with his bachelor's in business, and then began a career in public administration. Because he cares about the places where he lives, he thinks he can make a difference in this world throughout his life, and he did. Uh he served as superintendent of the Radford Water and Electric Department, where he was for 3 years before moving on to city manager in Mount Holly, North Carolina and Elizabeth in Tennessee. But in 1979, he returned to Radford as the city manager and began a two-decade career where he truly helped our community move through a challenging time as some of our industries changed and as our world changed around us. Working with Mayor Starnes and the members of Council during those decades, he made a tremendous difference in this community, and he passed away here recently. I know his visitation is Friday evening for the family, and the memorial service is on Saturday. But I think it's appropriate that we have a discussion as Council members to consider how we would like to best remember Mr. Asbury. We don't have a proclamation this evening, and that can come perhaps at our next meeting, but I'd like to propose that we name the administrative wing of offices here at City Hall in his honor. I think that's fitting giving his service to the community and all that he did for the City of Radford. So, I'll open up for

discussion before I make a motion on that. I'll just say Mr. Asbury was an ambassador not just for Radford, but for the whole New River Valley, and and we're very appreciative of all the things that he's done for this community, and um Raf- Radford is a better place because of of Mr. Asbury's service. And I know he him and my grandfather uh served together for a long time and were close friends and on a personal level and a professional level, I will miss him and pray for your family. And but uh we we appreciate all the efforts that he that he has done on behalf of Radford. It's a better place because of him. So. Absolutely. And I'd like to say that [clears throat]

I was fortunate enough to serve 4 years on Council back when Bob was uh city manager. Man of integrity, is esteemed everywhere. A man who was a servant to the community. And I'm just proud that I was here to serve with him. Scott, I'm praying for your family, Bob uh son, and I hope you'll share that with the rest of the family. So, if there's no further discussion, I'd like to make a motion that we adopt and we can let city work the city staff work through the details, but I think it's very fitting this facility is named for Mayor Tom Starnes as a a council chambers, I think right next door having the administrative wing named for Bob Asbury would be appropriate. So, I'd like to make that motion. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. I think that deserves a round of applause.

[applause]

And I do think we'll have more to say at a future meeting. I just didn't want this to get past us before we had the opportunity to recognize him. Scott, to you and your entire family, thank you for sharing Bob with us for all those years. I know he he spent an awful lot of time taking care of this city, but he did a pretty darn good job taking care of you guys and raising some amazing boys and having a wonderful family and our best to your mom and to all of you. And you're in our thoughts and prayers. Okay, do we need a few more minutes? Okay. This time, we'd like to talk a little bit about the forensic audit services and and we've been looking at this for some time to try to help provide some additional clarity for our community on where Radford has been, how we ended up in the places where we are financially, and what things look like. And and so, we have um Brown Edwards has been a firm that we've been negotiating with. We went through a process of procurement and Todd, I'll ask you if you can address just a little bit of that to talk about the process for procurement and what all we have done to make this possible. Absolutely. So, the city the city issued an RFP for forensic audit services. Um we used a process called competitive negotiation. It's called for by the Virginia Public Procurement Act. Competitive negotiation is when you have professional services firms submit bids, but they do not include pricing. Um they are reviewed reviewed and scored based on their ability to complete the work in the RFP and and their qualifications. Uh we went through that process. Um we have ranked all the bids and we entered into negotiations with Brown Edwards. And we have the contract that is before Council this evening that we have

negotiated with them. So, uh with that being said, I'll certainly answer any questions about the procurement process, but but that's that's uh in somehow that works. Any questions, Council? So, a lot of folks have asked why we've had to have this in closed session rather than open session. This is the open session to discuss it tonight. While we're going through the negotiating procedure, if things didn't work out with Brown Edwards, we would move on to the next possible provider. And so, as the city was continuing negotiation, that couldn't be done in open session. However, we are here in open session tonight. So, we do have a little bit of information and John from Brown Edwards has joined us this evening. Thank you for being here with us this evening. We appreciate that. Um we would like you to address just a little bit for us and we are going to release a statement and a copy of the letter along with the outline of what is planned for our audit services this evening. But John, could you talk just a little bit about the breadth of the services that you're providing and just a a little bit about what the piece would look like for us? Certainly. Again, thank you all for having me. So, we negotiated and talked with you guys to kind of figure out exactly what you wanted and going through the process. And so, in doing this, what we will do for the city of Radford, we will provide forensic services as you requested. So, what this looks like is you've got an engagement letter with us that outlines the procedures. So, we're going to start out looking at certain areas that you guys have asked us to look at. Anything from utility billing to the tax process. And so, we're going to follow what we call forensic auditing guidelines and how we go about doing this or forensic examination services. So, we will work with you all and we will do the procedures that are listed

there. During the course of those procedures, as we find things or things come to light, we will make you aware of them. Uh one of the biggest things I think you're going to get out of this, you all will get a lot of recommendations. You know, things that the city could probably do better, do different, or maybe there's more efficient way of doing things. So, we will work with the city there and make recommendations. So, it's not just going to simply be, "Hey, we found these 10 things that need to be fixed." It's going to be how we can make Radford better going forward. Because that's that's the key. You want to learn from this stuff. During the course of this and what we've discussed, if we were to come across something that would be deemed fraudulent, okay? If it just it looks like fraud. Something doesn't look right here. We would bring that to your attention immediately. We would talk to you about it. And what most likely would happen is you guys would say, "We need to expand the scope of what we're looking at here." It it might maybe an issue a little deeper that we weren't aware of. So, the goal though is, you know, as we go through this, we will communicate with you all. We'll let you know what we're doing. At the end of this, we will issue a final report that talks about all the things we did, all the procedures. It will list out everything we observed. It will also list out all the recommendations in one place. So, I mean, we're going to do this along the way, but at the end of the day, you will have a document that has it all encompassed in it. So, you know, one of the times we get questions, "Why is this different from a regular audit?" Well, here's why. This is very focused, okay? We have gone in a you know, a focused area. Where do you want us to look? Where do you want us to spend your time? But when you hear the word audit and you get an audit every year, that's a little broader. Someone's putting an opinion on the financial statements of the city of Radford. They're saying, "You know what?

At June 30th, 2025, all these numbers are correct. And we're going to make an opinion that they're correct on this particular date." This looks a little bit different from that because we're not saying these numbers look correct on this particular date. We're saying we have looked at these procedures and these policies and we're making some recommendations and we're also going to let you think know if there things that we've seen in in the process. So, the the water gets a little muddy sometimes. People get confused, but they're both proper services. They just look a little bit different from the audit you get every year as part of your June 30th work. Thank you so much for your clarification on that. And just so that folks know, we do have a timeline that'll be released as part of this. We do expect some of these services to start ASAP, start immediately, but they won't finally be finished up until about the beginning of August. So, we have several months. While some things may be concluded sooner, we pretty much as John was saying, we'll have a final report likely sometime in August. Maybe I'll even say maybe September just in case that final report doesn't come by the end of August. But we will share that information as we're able to with the community. The whole point of this is to get this fully examined, to look at it to help us understand the procedure, and to move forward from there. Council, do you all have any other questions for John while he's with us? Hearing none, do we have a motion to award the forensic audit services to Brown Edwards? So moved. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. A motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Uh Melissa, would you call the roll for us? Mr. Trip? Yes. Mrs. Foster? Yes. Mr. Wolford? Yes. Mr. Gillespie? Yes. Mayor Horton? Yes. Thank you so much. Um and at this time, I would like to release a document that the city has put together, our staff has put together regarding this. The city selects a firm for forensic

audit services. Radford City Council approved a contract for forensic audit services at its meeting on March 23rd, 2026. Following a competitive request for proposals process, the city has identified Brown Edwards as the recommended firm to perform these services. The forensic audit is part of the city's ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability. The selected firm brings extensive experience in governmental accounting, auditing, and forensic financial analysis. Their work will include a thorough and independent review of specified financial activities and processes with the goal of identifying any irregularities, strengthening internal controls, and providing recommendations for best practices moving forward. City Council and staff recognize the community's interest in the city's financial position. The city is actively taking steps to stabilize its financial position, rebuild services, and implement sustainable budgeting practices moving forward. Engaging an independent forensic services provider is an important step in ensuring full transparency and accountability. The city is committed to understanding past financial decisions, strengthening its financial systems, and positioning the city for long-term stability. Efforts are underway to improve financial planning and oversight, and to rebuild fund balances over time. The findings and recommendations from the forensic audit will be shared with City Council and made available to the public in accordance with applicable laws and policies. The city anticipates that the results will help inform financial practices and reinforce long-term stability. And so, all that will be shared with our friends in the media and it will be posted on our website. And that will include the letter of engagement along with the detailed services that are out there. Certainly, if you have any questions after you take a look at all that, we're more than happy to try to field those questions at future meetings and to address that. This This part of an ongoing effort as we stated, uh where we've been working incredibly hard. So thankful to Trish Cox, the finance

department, Todd Meredith and his team, Craig Meadows as a consultant for us, and to Mike Bedsaul as our legal counsel as we have worked through this difficult process. And thankful to the members of council for all participating in trying to help identify areas we felt would be appropriate as we continue to look at where we are, where we've been, and where we can get where we want to go. So, looking at that, we will move forward. And we do have our amended agenda. I'm going to finish with new business, then we'll come back to our proclamations. Um I did want to say we had some exciting news that uh we had to have a closed session to discuss just a little bit about potentially having negotiations with our Wells Fargo building on Main Street in Radford. And we're very appreciative of Kim Repass, our our director of economic development. Um council, as we discussed some things in our closed session that we can't really discuss in in public with a prospect uh that we are looking to uh have a motion to authorize the city manager to execute a letter of intent or his designate to negotiate exclusively with a prospect for the Wells Fargo building. Do we have a motion to do so? So moved. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second.

and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. Any opposed? Now, we can't say more, but more is to come. Kim's doing a great job. We're really appreciative of that. Could be exciting times to have hopefully an announcement just a little bit down the road if negotiations are successful, and we'll move forward from there. And Todd, thank you and Kim for working on this for us, trying to get all this done, and for Mike for all that you're going to do. Now, we'll move back to proclamations, and uh we will begin I What I'd like to do is read all of these, then we'll come back, vote on them all at once. And our last two deal with our public safety officials. Our last three deal with our public safety officials, so we'll ask you all to come forward at that point in time. The last one is for our animal care and control. So, Adele and Ashley will bring you up for a picture and celebrate you at that moment. Uh we want to begin with environmental awareness month, and we have our proclamation declaring April as environmental awareness month in Radford. Seth? Proclamation, April 2026, Environmental Awareness Month. Whereas various organizations and citizens show concern for the Earth's environment, and whereas the problems of the Earth's environment affect all the citizens of Radford as well as the entire population of the planet. And whereas the City of Radford encourages Radford citizens to to participate in global appreciation of the Earth through educational programs, special projects, demonstrations, cultural events, lectures, clean-up activities, etc. Now, therefore, the city of the city council of the City of Radford does hereby designate the month of April 2026 as Environmental Awareness Month, and calls all citizens of Radford to support, recognize, and appreciate the importance of participating in this special month. Council, I'd like to make a motion to accept this proclamation. And we'll we'll have a motion and a second, then we'll come back and vote at the end. Do we have a second? Second. A motion and a second. All right, we'll come back and vote at the end. We also are looking at Earth Day, one of the most wonderful

celebrations of the year is on April 22nd. We have an Earth Day proclamation. Guy? Proclamation, April 22, 2026, Earth Day. Whereas April 22, 2026 is recognized as National Earth Day. And whereas the theme for 2026 is Our Power, Our Planet, which calls us to advocate for wider awareness on the health risk of plastics and the phasing out of single-use plastics. And whereas a sound natural environment is the foundation of a healthy society and a robust economy. And whereas there are sound economic, environmental, and social reasons for local government to initiate energy efficiency and renewable energy practices. And whereas the City of Radford encourages and endorses participation in events supporting Earth Day. Now, therefore, the city council of the City of Radford does hereby proclaim the day of April 22, 2026 as Earth Day. And does hereby encourage all of our citizens to participate in the ongoing efforts to recycle, reduce, and renews reuse, rather, as well as other activities which promote a healthy environment and sustainable society. I move for acceptance.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. We'll come back to that in just a moment. Thank you, Guy, and Earth Day. Hopefully everybody celebrates on April 22nd as part of Environmental Awareness Month. Uh April 24th is what we're looking at for Arbor Day, and I have a letter I'd like to read just real briefly. And this came to Todd Meredith on behalf of the Arbor Day Foundation as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tree City USA program. I'm happy to extend my warmest congratulations to Radford on receiving a 2025 Tree City USA recognition. This well-deserved recognition is a testament to your community's unwavering commitment to the planting, care, and celebration of trees. In an era where cities and towns are facing increasing challenges related to air quality, public health, and climate resilience, nurturing urban forests has never been more important. By prioritizing tree stewardship, you've not only helped enhance Radford's livability, but you've invested in a healthier and more sustainable future for your residents. The Arbor Day Foundation's Tree City USA program has a long legacy of supporting a nationwide network of passionate organizers and tireless tree planters. Since 1976, we've recognized thousands of communities of all sizes that have created and maintained green spaces. While we work in while we all work in different corners of the country, we're working in unison to create positive change through trees. To be named a Tree City USA is to be part of something bigger. We hope you are as excited as we are to share this accomplishment with your local media and your residents. To that end, we've included a press release for you to distribute at your convenience, which we have here tonight. Once again, congratulations on this outstanding achievement. Thank you for your dedication to Radford's tree canopy. We believe cities that take care of their trees take care of their people. That's from Dan Lamb, who's chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. And as such, too, we do have a proclamation for Arbor Day 2026. Whereas in 1872, a special day was set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of

more than a million trees. And whereas 2026 is the 154th anniversary of the holiday. And Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water. Cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature. Clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen. Provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are renewables resource giving us paper, wood, and other products for our homes, fuel for our fires, and beautify our community. trees, wherever they are planted, are source of joy and spiritual renewal. And whereas the City of Radford established the Commission for Beautification and Municipal Forest to enhance and maintain the health and vitality of the community's urban landscape. And whereas the City of Radford's commitment to the preservation and propagation of trees within the community has been demonstrated over many years and recognized by the National Arbor Day Foundation through the designation of Radford as a Tree City USA community again this year. The seventh anniversary of our Actually, it's the 13th anniversary of our initial designation, I believe. Now, therefore, the City Council of the City of Radford does hereby proclaim April the 24th, 2026 as the 154th anniversary of Arbor Day in the City of Radford. And joins with the Radford Commission for Beautification and Municipal Forest to urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. And further urges all citizens to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations. And I'd like to make this motion that we adopt this proclamation. Do we have a second? Second. A motion and a second. Okay, we're going to move on to three wonderful additional proclamations, then we'll come back to our environmental awareness and approve all that at once. We do have a distracted driving awareness month proclamation, and Kelly, I believe you have that for us this evening. I do. City of Radford Proclamation, Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Whereas more than 289,000

injury crashes and 3,275 occurred in the US in 2023 that involve distracted driving, and the economy toll of all motor vehicle crashes in the US annually exceeds $100 billion. Whereas talking on a mobile phone, even in hands-free mode, texting, programming programming your dashboard infotainment system or GPS device can divert your attention away from driving and result in physical and cognitive distraction. Whereas Radford residents and all Americans deserve to live in communities where that promote safe driving behaviors and healthy lifestyles. Whereas preventing distracted driving injuries and deaths require the cooperative cooperation of all levels of government, employers, and the general public. Whereas the National Safety Council and National and Radford City Police Department work to promote policies, practices, and procedures leading to increased safety, protection, and health in business and industry, in schools and colleges, on roads and highways, and in homes and communities. Whereas the National Safety Council in 2026 will provide this nation with a month-long distracted driving public education campaign. Whereas spring is the time when people begin to log more miles on the road, and it is imperative to focus attention on motor vehicle injury risks and preventions. Now, therefore, the Radford City Council of Radford, Virginia, does hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as Distracted Driving Awareness Month and strongly urges the citizens and businesses of Radford to observe Distracted Driving Awareness Month by practicing safe driving behaviors and pledging to drive distraction free. I'd like to make a motion to accept that proclamation. Thank you, Kelly. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Thank you all very

much. Uh we will move on now to our National Telecommunicators Week and we are so lucky to have wonderful dispatch telecommunications professionals. Whereas emergencies can occur at any time that require police, fire, or emergency medical services. And whereas when an emergency occurs, the prompt response of police officers, firefighters, and paramedics is critical to the protection of life and the preservation of property. And whereas the safety of our police officers and firefighters is dependent upon the quality and accuracy of information obtained from citizens who telephone the City of Radford Emergency Communications Center. And whereas public safety telecommunicators are the first and most critical contact our citizens have with emergency services. And whereas public safety telecommunicators are the single vital link for our police officers and firefighters by monitoring their activities by radio, providing them information, and ensuring their safety. And whereas public safety telecommunicators of the City of Radford have contributed substantially to the apprehension of criminals, suppression of fires, and treatment of patients. And whereas each dispatcher has exhibited compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their job in the past year. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Radford declares the week of April 12th through the 18th, 2026, to be National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Radford in honor of the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep our city and citizens safe. I'd like to make a motion that we adopt this proclamation. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. And we have one more proclamation and this is all about our Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week. So, Jessie? Yes. City of Radford Proclamation Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week. Whereas the National Animal Care and Control Association, NACA, is committed to setting the standard of professionalism in animal welfare and public safety through training, networking, and advocacy. And whereas NACA has designated the second week of April each year as Animal Care and Control

Appreciation Week. And whereas animal control officers dedicate their lives to the health and safety of at risk helpless animals and to the protection of the citizens in the community. And whereas animal control officers respond to calls for service to protect the welfare of helpless animals and pets and rescue them from injury, disease, abuse, and starvation. And whereas animal control officers provide essential community functions including the enforcement of animal control laws, protecting the public from diseases such as rabies, and educating the public on the proper care of the community's pets. And whereas federal, state, and local government officials throughout the country take this time of the year to recognize, thank, and commend all animal control officers for the dedicated service they provide to the citizens of the Commonwealth. And whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia recognizes and commends animal control officers for the many dedicated and long hours of service they perform in serving Virginia and for fulfilling the commitment to providing the highest and most efficient level of customer service. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Radford City Council that the week of April 12th to the 18th, 2026, be recognized as Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week in Radford. And be it further proclaimed that the Radford City Council extends its gratitude and appreciation to Radford's animal control officers for their continued dedication and professional assistance to the citizens of the City of Radford. I would like to make a motion that we accept this proclamation.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? Motion and a second. Now, what I will ask, is there a motion that we adopt all the proclamations read this evening? So moved. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second.

Motion and a second. All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. Congratulations. Let's do this. We need to get our police officers and telecommunications professionals down here. So, come on down and let's start with that one. And uh Adelle and Ashley, why don't you all come on down and we'll work through that because I don't believe we have anybody here to receive our environmental awareness uh month uh proclamations, but we do have our Department of Police here with us this evening. So, Council Join them down front, Kelly. We'll begin with the Distracted Driving Awareness Month presentation. Thank you. Thank you so much. We also have our proclamation for National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. So, congratulations. We'll get ready to Thank you all very much. Now, we're going to ask Ashley and and Adelle to come up cuz we have to celebrate them with a little special sparkle for all they do for all of our furry and scaly and all of our friends. Thank you. I get real close. All right. How about a round of APPLAUSE

FOR THEM? [applause]

WELL, FOLKS, THIS HAS BEEN QUITE A COUNCIL MEETING. WE'VE HAD a little bit of everything tonight and uh there's still more to come. Todd, what do you have for us this evening? Uh just want to talk a little bit about the Auditor of Public Accounts to its fiscal stress uh monitoring. The APA is currently evaluating the City of Radford to to determine whether or not it meets the criteria for experiencing fiscal distress. If the city meets that criteria, the APA may make a recommendation for the city for additional assistance for the city. Now, most often that's going to come in the form of consulting to help the city set financial policies to assist to assist the city in its financial recovery. Um the final the final decision regarding whether or not the city qualifies for additional assistance rests with the governor's office, executive branch officials, and legislative committees. The primary objective of the APA's review process is to determine whether Radford's situation meets the state's criteria for experiencing fiscal distress. The process is not meant to be punitive toward the City of Radford. It is not meant for the state to come in and take over the finance department. The The APA's monitoring process is intended to help determine if the city may need state assistance to support the city's efforts to continue to move forward and improve its financial position. Just wanted to clarify a few things with that. Um second thing I have, uh the Easter egg hunt will take place on Saturday, April 4th, at Bisset Park from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. The actual hunts begin at 2:00 p.m. They'll take place every 15 minutes for the four different uh age groups. There will be 12,000 total eggs with a with a few golden eggs for bigger prizes. We will have food trucks that

consist of 800° wood-fired pizza, Bootleg Barbecue, Sunset Shaved Ice, and uh Squeeze 'Em and Shake 'Em. There will be bounce houses and a petting zoo. And of course, pictures with the Easter Bunny. Thank you, sir. All right. Uh I'm going to add just a little bit uh before I get to everybody else's comments. Uh the manager and I talked a little bit about this because the fiscal distress piece had come up and uh I was able to provide a little bit of additional information. Um that Radford's been going through this process for a number of years. Uh during the APA's 22 2022 monitoring process, they had noted that we had downward trends and lower performance for 2020, 2021, and 2022. They communicated this communicated this information to the manager at the time. And uh city management, the manager, the finance director at the time, and their staff participated in the APA's follow-up review process in December of that year. Based on information management communicated to the APA in 2022, they at that time discerned determined that City Council and management were monitoring the city's situation and working to implement financial policies and budgetary strategies to improve Radford's financial position. Accordingly, at the time, the APA concluded that Radford didn't meet the state's defined criteria for fiscal distress and did not propose a recommendation for state assistance at that time. Uh basically, from my understanding of this process, is that it is an early warning system to help localities understand when we're not able to meet the needs of the locality. That it is not something that, as Todd said is punitive. It's not something to determine that we are not doing what we're supposed to do, but it's a warning to say that if you don't already recognize it, here's what's happening according to the APA, and they do have recommendations and potentially resources. Now, we don't know if we'll receive resources or not. We don't even know if we'll be on the final list.

Certainly, we've had our challenges as we have recognized with finances, with cash flow, with expected revenues, and that has impacted our ability to be able to provide services. We'll talk more about that in a few minutes, but I wanted to have that closer to Todd's comments. Kelly, what do you have for us this evening? Uh so, notes from my Notes from my joint commission meeting. We are working on a strategic plan that is quite detailed. We've been working on it for a while, and when it's finished, we'll have um someone come and present it to council so in the next month or so. Um we're also Todd, Melissa, Kim, and Angela, I think is the four that are working on a retail study um [clears throat]

to work on planning and zoning, see what demands are, what's right for Radford, things like that. So, that'll also be really informative. Um [sighs]

then, we're going to have So, the next upcoming Radford talks, the next one is tomorrow, 3:24 at the library at 7:00. Um these are talks that uh faculty and staff from RU sponsor. Uh this one's going to be K-12 school leadership. So, um that might be something that um our school board may want to attend or teachers to see what they have to say about that. And then, the next one is going to be 4:14 at Glencoe, and it's actually students will be presenting that one at because they've been doing research on Radford's history. Uh there is lots of food at these things, so if you'd come hungry if you would like to come, but I wanted to share that. Also, um RU in 2025, RU was named uh Blue Ridge Outdoors top adventure college. So, congratulations to them, but they are wanting to grab that title again for 2026. I sent out some voting information to council, and um I might ask that it get shared on our our um our Radford page. Um The first round of voting ends Sunday, 3:29. Um this is very beneficial recognition for the university, but also for our community. We have a lot of amazing things that we can do outside in our city, and when people see that we are a great destination to do outdoor adventure things, it brings um tourism, it brings revenue, so that's definitely a win-win for us. Uh I'd like to not call out the specific restaurant, but there was a restaurant that got approached to expand to another local community. So, I was really proud of them and our restaurants for doing a great job and and other people wanting to um get them into their area. They declined, but they were very appreciative of that. So, I just wanted to give them an anonymous shout-out. Uh kids and I were walking at the park the other day, and I noticed that the water fountain isn't working at the um gazebo. So, maybe we can And there's a lot more people out and running, so can we have someone check the

water fountains at Bissett Park to make sure they're all working? I think they turn those off every winter and probably haven't just turned them back on yet, but I think it's a good idea to have them checked. Yeah, so the pipes don't burst. Yeah.

warm at the park, so. Okay. Uh thank you to the citizens that came and spoke your concerns. Um I always welcome anyone to to let us know what you're feeling, how we're doing, if there's anything that we need to improve, if something's bothering you. So, that's always something that that I appreciate. It takes a lot to get up there and speak. Um Uh I wanted to say that the Sparky's Run Dog Park has a grand reopening at the end of the month on 3:31 at 2:00. I think a lot of us are planning to attend. I'm hoping to bring my uh 220-lb um [laughter]

a four-legged child with us, so hopefully you guys can come and pet him. He's He's like a big cow walking around, so he's he's fun to be around. Um and thank you to the chief for your your very informative report. It's amazing what you guys do and accomplish as a department. Um I was happy to see that some of those areas were trending down. Um so, definitely keep up the good work and and share my appreciation and council's for all of your hard work and dedication that you guys do. You guys are truly amazing. And I think that's all Oh, happy Easter, everyone, since we won't talk to you again until then. That's all I've got. Thank you, Kelly. Seth, what do you have? I'll I'll echo I'll echo Kelly's comments. Thank you for the people who came to speak, and good, [clears throat] bad, or indifferent, um it's always a good opportunity, um and I so I certainly appreciate that. I will also um reiterate uh Kelly with the dog park reopening on the 31st. I know that a lot of people missed that and are looking forward to that. Um I I want to give a special thank you to Don Green and Charlie Goins. They did a lot of work in-house to save us um cost on that. Uh the initial even though it is FEMA FEMA reimbursable, they were able to cut that cost in half, and a lot of it was in-house, and um Don Green and Charlie kind of rolled up their sleeves and and took that upon themselves. So, thank you to both of them. Um a lot of people are looking forward to that, and and so am I. So, that's on the 31st at 2:00. Look forward to that. Um I wanted to also thank uh Kim Repass, who who was here earlier to talk about We do have some For all the There are a lot of hard things, a lot of negative things, but there is also some good developments that are moving forward that I think are going to be beneficial for this city for a long time. Um So, I did want to share that. Hopefully, we have more good things on the horizon, and I think there's there's going to be a couple good things on the way. So, um fingers crossed to that. It certainly can move the needle. Um next meeting, we will have a resolution uh for us to to

consider to from the New River Resource Authority authorizing waste disposal um from Patrick County for us to consider. So, I'll make sure that we get that information to everybody um to see if we want to bring them into the authority. Uh last thing I'll I'll I'll have is is um my say on the audit, and I'm appreciative that we were able to move forward tonight with awarding a contract for our forensic audit. While you can't go back and undo what's been done, there are lessons to be learned. For me personally, this audit serves two purposes. As stewards of our taxpayers' money, they deserve an independent, transparent, and thorough review of how we got here. I also believe this is a great opportunity for us to have independent professionals in the field help us identify best policies, practices, and fail-safes for moving forward. The focus isn't on isn't just on how we got here, but also what are we doing to never be here again. And so, I am glad that we are moving forward that and look forward to working with Brown Edwards. That's all I got. Thank you, Seth. Guy, what do you have this evening? commemoration. I think Seth was going I I apologize. Me Me and Guy talked about this. So, the rec commission did unanimously um agree to move forward with that. I should have shared that with you. I apologize, Guy. We did talk about that, but the the rec commission did unanimously agree with that. Well, let's put that on the agenda for next time. Good. Yeah. That's all I got.

Fantastic. All right. Sorry about that.

Jessie, what do you have? You may be noticing flags going up in front of Glencoe. Uh the It's that time of the year to um recognize our heroes. So, we are meeting right now every week to get all the details hammered out. It's growing every year, but we are always searching for sponsors. So, if you're a local business, you'll probably hear from one of us soon. If you don't hear from us and you want to be more involved, if you're a citizen or a business, you can call Glencoe and speak with Scott. He has all the details for you. I'll also be bringing the details um at another meeting. So, uh the Kelly and I today, we spent a great deal of time on the phone um working out some of the details for the amphitheater that RU and the City of Radford is putting together for the community. So, it's moving along. It's going very well. Right now, we're working on what contracts would look like to bring in talent. Um and again, that's that's a great merger between the community and RU. So, look for that and hopefully more live music soon to the community. Um Glencoe is on my mind tonight. March 31st, from 1:00 to 3:00, Radford City Public Schools art show will be taking place. And I want to give a little shout-out to the music teacher at McHarg. She'll be playing the viola that evening, so you don't want to miss that. This exhibit will run through April 30th. So, please go out and support the students. It means a lot to them. I was able to see a few of their pieces, and I think you'll be very impressed. All the schools are represented this year, so you have all levels of participation, and it's it's pretty amazing what their what their creative minds are coming up with. Um I am so proud of that new organization,

the CCC, and I applaud their grassroots effort to make this community even a better one. So, um thank you for that leadership within the school system, within our police department for being willing to partner with them, and please get out and volunteer. Mayor, the date you were April 11th. At 11:00. April 11th, 11:00 a.m. It was It was catchy. Uh April 11th, 11:00 a.m. Oh, okay. The flyer says 10:00. Oh, 10:00. Sorry. April 10:00 a.m. Sorry. Well, come at 10:00 and visit with your friends. It may start at 11:00, but come at 10:00.

No, it does say 10:00 on the flyer. I got too excited with my 11:00. Yeah. Yeah. I heard when you were talking to them about it. So, we're going to go with 10:00. Uh and I want to really sincerely thank our police chief and all of our police officers and all the support team that they have. What a great job you do in keeping our community safe. And I can tell you from the many ride-outs that I've done, you guys really have the heart for community policing and I am positive that the reason we don't see all the negative interactions is because of all the positive foundation of footwork you guys put in to really being seen by the community as an asset. So, I just can't thank you enough for for all the extra effort. You're not just policing, you are a part of the community and you're being seen as a vital important part of that. So, thank you for keeping us all safe. And Adele and Ashley, I am always so impressed with what they do for our animals in the community. And when I say animals, I don't just mean cats and dogs. They will have quite a variety of animals um that they either have come across or that will be brought in that they provide a safe refuge for. So, thank you to them. And that's all I have, Mayor. All right. Thank you very much. Um I wanted to also mention the dog park that spot is near and dear to my family's heart. It is the uh Sparky's Run, that is also named for my grandfather William Lorton, who was our police chief back in the '60s and '70s. And he actually got in that piece of property as our original firearms range in the city. We no longer had used it for that. And so, a dozen years or so ago, we were able to convert it over to a dog park and it has been a wonderful space. So, we're so glad to see that come back online. March 31st, 2:00 p.m. Come out and celebrate the grand reopening. I also want to say thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who planted over 400 trees during the big plant this weekend.

Very fitting that we talked about Arbor Day, Earth Day, and Environmental Awareness Month as those folks really made a difference in helping to restore the riverbank area where Helene had removed a number of trees and where we've had some damage. Uh there were additional trees planted in and around the dog park to help support that all animal safe. And uh just a great effort. I also wanted to point out, as Seth said, Don Green and um I don't know. Charlie Goins, uh we're so appreciative of them for helping us with the dog park and getting that back online. All of that work came together to be able to relocate the fence, plant some additional trees, and do some things to mitigate flood disaster. Um I did want to touch on a couple of things. We're happy to have our Commissioner of Revenue, Kelsey, and our uh Treasurer uh Joy here with us this evening. Thank you both for joining us this evening. We're glad you're here. We hope to see you a lot during budget season. Although, I know you'll be busy, too. But thank you for being a part of things. Um thank you to our speakers this evening. I'm always appreciative of citizens who come forward to say something. Uh to Mr. Calfee, Chris, I appreciate what you had to say. I know I'm passionate about the Constitution as well. Uh and I would like to address some of the things you brought up. I'm no expert at all. I I just know what I'm what I've said I would defend. And um the Constitution is a complicated document. Uh but I also wanted to point out that in Article 5 and in Article 3, those are important parts of the Constitution that I feel passionate about when we talk about any sanctuary policies because those sanctuary policies tend to go around those two articles on how you amend, how you review the laws in the Constitution, and the role of the Supreme Court. I couldn't agree with you more that any law that goes against the constitutionality shouldn't be upheld, shouldn't be enforced. But as individuals, for us to short-circuit that process and to not follow the Supreme Court or the Constitution's amendments, I think that's challenging. That's one of the reasons I have a a

difficult time with any sanctuary policy, not just Second Amendment, uh not just uh uh any constitutional right being placed in that area because I don't think it's the right way to do it. But I do appreciate what you had to say and and I appreciate others' differing opinions on that. Uh I do think it's an important thing for us to talk about and I appreciate you sharing the Constitution with us. [clears throat]

I know Mr. Boyd had to leave us. I don't believe he's still with us. But to Dwight, thank you for coming forward. Um I also have to defend the First Amendment of the Constitution in my role as mayor. And it is a very fine line on when you tell someone they can no longer say something in a meeting and you gavel them down for lack of decorum and you let them continue with their thoughts. Uh it is complicated, too, certainly. Uh you know, Guy and and to Connie, I understand uh you know, we don't want to have anybody attacking family members or anybody speaking out against family members. But also, I think it's important that when a person does share something at the podium, that if someone has a disagreement or disappointment with that, they also have a right to say that they're not comfortable with that statement. Um we do want people to be good neighbors to each other. We do want people to uh be respectful and to really consider everybody's thoughts as we go through this process. Nobody's right, nobody's wrong. We all have different opinions and we all work through that. And I think the biggest challenge is finding a way to do it without being overly heavy-handed and I've attempted to do that. It's it's a tough gavel to uh have to wield because when we do have to tell folks that they can't continue, some folks feel like their First Amendment rights are um not protected at that point. But thank you all for speaking. I do appreciate folks coming forward. I appreciate the discussion as we continue to move forward. Two last quick points that I wanted to make um with the APA and the the fiscal distress, I think we're all very aware that Radford has its fiscal challenges. Um I don't like them. I haven't liked them for 8 years. Uh before I was elected, one of the big issues that Council was debating on this very day is, was do we have a sustainable budget? Are we in a place where we can continue to move forward? And at every budget season since then, I've always asked, can this work? Do we need to make changes? Uh all of us up here have tried to work through that process.

So, I do think it's important that we employ all tools that we have available. So thankful to Trish Cox and her team. Uh Diane and Katie are doing a fantastic job helping us work through every single thing related to our finance department, looking at every policy and procedure. Again, I mentioned our Commissioner of Revenue and our Treasurer. Thank you all for all the work you're doing there. Thank you to Todd and the rest of the staff for everything that's happening. And I do appreciate that we are going to look for best practices, best procedures. I think we're well on our way to implementing those things. Uh but having an outside independent person take a look at that and say, "You're doing okay here. Here's something that you could consider that would make things even better." That's a positive. What I don't know that we'll learn is anything that earth-shattering other than we probably didn't take in as much money as we needed over the last so many years to be able to meet all of our obligations. And you know, we'll see where we go. I'll reserve further comment regarding the fiscal uh audits and and everything that we're looking at until we get the reports back and we know what we're we're looking at. But I am appreciative of everybody working together to try to find these solutions. It is a huge web of things that we try to bring together to solve all of the problems for the community. And no day goes by, no week goes by, no month goes by that we don't all work to try to help this city be in a better position to be the safe city, to be the education city, to be the outdoor activity city, to be the New River City that we can be, to be the best version of Radford that we can be. I think it was fitting that we recognized uh Mr. Asberry this evening because I think that was his passion for the City of Radford for all of those years that he served for those many decades. We do need to take one more executive closed session to deal with legal counsel for just a few minutes. And uh I'll ask Seth if he'll take us into closed session to close the meeting. All right. I'd like it to make a motion to convene into a into a executive session for consultation with legal counsel and

briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing in open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body. For the purposes of this subdivision, probable litigation means litigation that has been sub Can't speak. Specifically threatened or on which the public body or its legal counsel has a reasonable basis to believe will be commenced by or against a known party. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a meeting merely because an intern an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or is consulted on a matter. Specifically to discuss Pulaski County revenue sharing agreement lawsuit. Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A7. We have a motion to go into executive session. Do we have a second? A motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you all. You're welcome to wait if you want, but we're going to be just a few minutes.