City Council - Regular Meeting

6:00.

Good evening. City Council is now in session. Please stand for the invocation by Council Member Butler Barlo, which will be followed by the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

Let us pray. We pray tonight for a safe and flourishing community. Recognizing the serious challenges we face and continually searching for solutions, we pledge to work for a community where we honor and learn from our past, where our leaders make sound decisions for both today and the future, and where we listen to and learn from our citizens, where neighbors learn to work together and care for each other. We ask for guidance in our decision-making so we will be good stewards of our resources. We pray that this city of Suffuk may be a place where all citizens thrive and where all are welcomed and valued. Amen. Amen.

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. The Freedom of Information Act certification is required at this time. Madame Clerk, please present the resolution for consideration.

A resolution certifying the closed meeting of May the 6, 2026 pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3712 is presented to council at this time. Now therefore, be it resolved that the city council, the city of Suffach, hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of Virginia law, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the city council of the city of Suffach in the closed meeting. Council motion been presented for your consideration. Council member Williams, move for approval. A motion for approval from council member Williams. Council member Bennett. Second.

Second from Council Member Bennett. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame Clerk, kindly record the vote. The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. We now move to approval of the minutes from the January 21st, 2026 work session and regular session. The motor motion again would be in order. Council member Williams. Move for approval. A motion for approval. Council member Williams. Council member Recctor. Second.

Second from Council Member Recctor. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam clerk, please record the vote. Motion is approved by eight vote of 8 to zero. We have two special presentations this evening. Our first is a proclamation in recognition of National Police Week, which will be followed by a proclamation in recognition of National Drinking Water Week. Mr. Manager, please provide overviews.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, National Police Week will be observed May 10th through May 16th. Accepting the proclamation this evening is Chief James Buouie and member a healthy member uh membership of the Suffach Police Department. You could all join the mayor at the podium. You brought a lot of brought a lot of back dogs. Madam clerk, would you please I'm sorry, Mr. Manager, we need an over First, I believe, or did we do that already? There we go. Madam clerk, behind time, please present the proclamation.

Whereas the United States Congress and the president declared May the 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as police. And whereas the city of Suffach joins the nation in honoring the memory of those officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their communities. And whereas the city of Suffach would like to express its gratitude to the city's law enforcement officers for their contributions to Suffach's quality of life. Now therefore, I, Michael D. Duman, mayor of the city of Suffuk, do hereby proclaim May 10th through May 16th, 2026 as National Police Officer Memorial Week, and call upon all residents to express their gratitude to our law enforcement officers for their efforts to make Suffach a safe place to live. and witness whereof I've here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Suffach to be affixed the sixth day of May in the year of our Lord 2026.

I know you got I know I knew I took a shower tonight on Of course I did. I'm in the right place. Don't be there. Now I feel like I'm at P.

[applause]

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, and city manager. Thank you so much for this proclamation. It means a whole lot to us. Um, I want to I want to thank our city council and the city manager before I start anything for your continued support for everything that we do. Your past support and your continued support. We can't we can't work without you. So, greatly appreciate all your support. On May 10th through the 16th, we'll honor and remember all law enforcement officers throughout the country who have made the ultimate sacrifice. I want the families to know that we not only honor and remember them once a year, but we remember them every day. In 2025, we lost 111 law enforcement officers in the line of duty. Although that number has decreased from 2024, the only acceptable number in that category is zero. On May 15th, right here in this room, we will honor and remember the five law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice protecting our city and our citizens of Suffuk. Officer George T. Smith, end of watch, July 4th, 1908. Chief William Brinkley, end of watch, December 2nd, 1918. Officer Joseph Pratt, end of watch, October 20th, 1935. Officer William Drew Henley in the watch March 19th, 2005. Sergeant Joe Rivera in the watch May 31st, 2021. On behalf of the Suffach Police Department, I want to say to all the family members of law enforcement officers, not only in Suffach, but all over the country whose loved ones have made the ultimate sacrifice, we think of you daily, and you are truly our heroes. Thank you.

[applause]

Mr. Manager, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, your second uh special presentation uh is in recognition of National Drinking Water Week. This week, May 3rd through May 9th, is in recognition of National Drinking Water Week. Accepting accepting the proclamation is Mr. Paul Retell, director of public utilities and members of the department of public utilities. Madam clerk, please read the proclamation.

Whereas water is our most valuable natural resource. And whereas drinking water serves as a vital role in daily life, serving as an essential component to health, hydration, and hygiene needs. And whereas clean and safe tap water is necessary for maintaining wellness, providing fire protection, supporting the economy, and enhancing our quality of life. And whereas our citizens rely on the hard work performed by the entire water sector, including those who design capital projects, provide customer service, maintain water lines and infrastructure, operate equipment, and analyze the safety and quality of drinking water. And whereas the American Waterwork Works Association has established drinking water week. Now therefore, I, Michael D. Duman, mayor of the city of Suffach, do hereby proclaim the week of May 3rd through May 9th, 2026 as drinking water week and call upon all residents to celebrate the dedicated employees who work diligently to bring high quality drinking water to their customers. And witness whereof, I'm here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Suffach to be a fix the sixth day of May in the year of our Lord, 2026. Thank you. [applause] Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of city council. Mr. Manager, Department of Public Utilities greatly appreciates the support that's been given to this proclamation for drinking water week. While the proclamation recognizes public utility departments and professionals across the country that assure safe

drinking water is supplied to customers, tonight in particular, it shines a light on the work done 247 every day by the women and men of the city of Suffach Department of Public Utilities to deliver safe drinking water. Our skilled staff operates within five different divisions. And tonight, it's my privilege to work with them and to highlight each of these five divisions and what they do. The water production division led by Mr. Randy Brooks, who is up here sitting behind me, who truly is a treatment plant operations expert. This is likely the group that typically comes to mind when you think of the drinking water, our drinking water because it's with that division with that when that single drop of water begins its journey through our water system. They operate the G. Robert House Water Treatment Plant in Chuckatuck, making sure it's in operation 24 hours a day, staffed 24 hours a day, meeting all federal and state regulations for drinking water treatment, operating the water quality testing laboratory run by Tina Greer, who is behind me, and also by Robin Whitley, who we'll talk about in a second, who runs thousands of tests of water quality through the year during all stages of the water treatment process from the beginning to the end and ending while it's in the distribution system across across the city. They also operate and maintain the booster pumping stations and the water storage tanks. You may have noticed uh we are in a new contract with a ca with a tank maintenance contractor. Over the last few weeks, we've repainted and cleaned several of our elevated water tanks. Um the reason I'm highlighting that is our staff, particularly Troy and Randy. were operating through the night while in particular the Holland tank was down because when that tank is down we have limited uh what we can do with pressures in the system. So they were up at night in the booster pumping station manually controlling the station just to make sure that station was operating correctly in particular for fire suppression needs. The line maintenance division think about this division when

they investigate and repair water main leaks often under adverse conditions. They repair and replace fire hydrants and water valves that allow segments of the water distribution system to be shut down during repairs. The customer service division works with customers to resolve billing issues, answering questions about utility accounts, maintaining and addressing water meter issues. our engineering division maintaining the water system design standards that provide for a well- constructed and operating water transmission and distribution system as well as the review of construction plans to check them against design standards and plan for water system in growth areas. And lastly, our administration division for the planning of capital improvement projects and the financial planning that goes along with that. At last year's water drinking water proclamation, we had representatives from all five divisions. Tonight we paired that down to focus on the water production division as well as having one of my assistant directors, Adam James, with us. So we're going to focus a little bit on the next slides of one of the things that's exciting that's happening out at the water treatment plant that you've been hearing about through the budget and the CIP process. First, I want to start with Robin. Robin Whitley is truly the one that's behind National Drinking Water Week. She has a passion for this. She participates in many STEM events. She is a water quality analyst in our drinking water laboratory. She's shown their hard at work along with her colleague uh Dustin working in the laboratory. The other thing I want to highlight and you've heard about this as I mentioned before through the budget process. We're currently in this the planning stages, design stages to expand the G. Robert House water treatment plant. What you see there on the right hand side of this photograph is a pilot skid. And what you see in those white tubes are different manufacturers membranes, filtration membranes that we're testing. Once we evaluate those, we'll be able to look at the performance and the design consultant will be able to weave those into the design of the expanded plant.

And on the left, of course, is Mr. Brooks operating that uh showing off his his water treatment expertise. Also want to show you a photo. If you haven't been out to the water treatment plant, I encourage you to give me a call. I'd be happy to run you out there and Randy would uh, you know, throw Randy under the bus. Ry's the tour guide. He knows the place upside down, backwards, and forwards. On the left hand side is EDR building. EDR, electrodialysis reversal building number two. Those are the membranes on the left hand side that pull fluoride that actually uh extract fluoride out of our groundwater. And then on the right hand side is a piece of our surface water treatment plant and those are packaged plate settlers that treat the bulk raw water that we that's pumped in from the city of Norol. So there's some some of the technical aspects we deal with and we wanted to highlight, but I want to close this out by talking about it's really about the people that run this. It's not just about the equipment. This is a photograph that Robin uh supplied me with. Right in the middle of that is uh one of her colleagues uh Jackie Watlington who set up a a a joint uh session with the city of Portsmouth. You may recall that we buy bulk water, finished water from the city of Portsouth. This was established by Jackie and also uh supported by Robin to sit down and have some good communications and share some beverages and some food with their colleagues at the city of Portsouth to improve communications across the cities. absolutely fantastic event and I applaud them for taking the initiative to set that up. I had absolutely nothing to do with it which is makes me proud of my staff. So, thank you very much for your support. Thank you. [applause]

At this time, we will consider the removal of items from the consent agenda and adoption of the entire agenda as presented. Removal of any item from the consent agenda would only be necessary if any member of city council wishes to vote on a specific item separately and a motion would be required. A motion would be in order at this time. Council, council member Recctor. Motion to approve the agenda presented. Have a motion for approval from council member Recctor. Council member Butler Barlo. Second. Second from council member but Barlo. Any sec. Any discussion of the motion hearing? None. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. Madam clerk, do we have any agenda speakers present at this time? No. Mayor Dum, will you please present the items for this consideration? Consent agenda item number seven, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the library of Virginia Circuit Court records preservation program for the clerk of the circuit court and consent agenda item number eight, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Federal Transit Administration for the city of Suffach Public Transit Service. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, consent item number seven. The city has received $21,78 in funds from the library of Virginia's circuit court records preservation program for the preservation of record books in the clerk of the circuit court's office. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues expenditures of the consolidated grants fund by $21,78 and does not require a local match. Consent item number eight for city council's consideration is an ordinance to accept $395.91 cents from the Federal Transit Administration as a pass through to the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation for the city's public transit service. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the revenues and expenditures of the transit system fund budget by $395.91 and does not require a local match. That concludes your consent items.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. If there are no questions about the items, the motion would be in order to approve the consent agenda as presented. Council Council Member Johnson. So move a motion for approval. Council member Johnson. Council member Williams. Second. Second from Council Member Williams. There any discussion the motion? Hearing none. Council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam clerk, please record the vote. Motion's approved by a vote of 8 to zero.

We'll now move to public hearings. Our first public hearing is a public hearing to receive public comment on the proposed fiscal year 202627 citywide effective real estate tax increase due to a reassessment of 2.69%. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Stephanie Wells, director of finance and budget, will provide the overview for the public hearing. I would note that within Stephanie's presentation, especially related to items 9 and 11, will feature a number of points specific to questions and comments that we've received since the original budget presentation was rolled out on April 1st. The presentation tonight on the public hearing is going to cover the effective real estate tax rate, but also some more specific information. The real estate tax rate requires a public hearing by the code of Virginia if the revaluation excluding new construction results in an increase of 1% or more of the previous year's total property tax levies. The total assessed value due to reassessment exceeded the prior year by 2.69%. A reduction of 1 cents or $16 per $100 of assessed value is proposed in the operating capital budget for the next fiscal year 2627. And after conducting the public hearing, city council will consider adoption of the real estate tax rate during the adoption of the 27 operating and capital budget and related ordinances. So some information from the seven city region in Hampton Roads. You can see here the seven cities are listed. The tax rates are the first row. The re-evaluation percentages are the second row and the average is around 4%. The revaluation in the city of Suffach was

4.3. That does include new construction. The only city proposing a tax rate decrease is the city of Suffach. And you can see that there in the first column under SUFFK, the real estate revaluations, the need for a public hearing, as I just mentioned, is related to the change of 2.69% excluding new construction. And this is the average effect that current residents will experience. The 4.3% total increase citywide includes the increase provided by new construction as well. I've mentioned that already. I have provided on the right hand side a table of neighborhoods. This just happens to be the first eight neighborhoods in our list, alphabetical list. And you can see under percent changes, some neighborhoods saw steady values or a decrease. Others saw the average increase in the range of the 2.69%. In neighborhoods with new construction, the increases were more due to the market value of new homes, but on average, we are seeing 2.69%.

[clears throat]

What does this mean for most homeowners, property owners, real estate property owners? [snorts] So, the current year, our tax rate is a$1.7. And here's an example of a home 2025 valuation of $200,000. To determine what the tax bill is for 20, this was FY, say FY 2026, you would divide that value by $100, multiply the rate that we had of $1.7, and that gives you $2,140 tax bill. Moving to the next year, FY27, we're looking at an average of 2.69% increase. So, I'm adding this change in valuation to $25,380. To determine your tax bill, again, you divide by 100, multiply by the $1.7, and you're looking at a tax bill of $2,198. That's an annual increase of $58 if the tax rate stayed at $1.7. We are proposing a tax rate of $16. So again, multiply divide by 100, multiply by the new rate of $16. Your current um tax bill will be $2,177 or a new annual increase of only $37. And so depending on if you see a glass half full, glass half empty, you can see that as annual increase or you can see that as an annual savings that the city has provided of the $21. And that's just in this one example. What you experience for your property is going to be dependent like that first table showed what neighborhood you're in, what you're experiencing, what your property is experiencing as far as values. So, adopting the real estate tax rate.

No action will be taken during this tax rate public hearing. The action will be taken during tonight's ordinance agenda item. And we are recommending adoption of the proposed $16 tax rate ordinance on tonight's agenda under the ordinance agenda item. That's it. Before we open the public hearing, Madam Clerk, will you please explain the timing system?

This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address and will receive three minutes to offer their comments. This is a public hearing. Will the first speaker please come forward and provide their name and address? Do we have anyone present who would like to speak to this item? Hearing no speakers. This public hearing is now closed. Oh, sorry. Do we got one? Okay. Good afternoon or good evening. My name is Judy Hawkins. I live at 80001 Stewart Drive, Stu A T Drive, Suffach, Virginia. Um kind of nervous coming to do this today to speak. I've never done this before. I did call to see if I could speak and I don't know who ever answered the phone was I was very impressed with who answered the phone and she treated me very well and eased my fears. Um I love the PowerPoint Google Slides that you have for the information but I'm going to speak for me for my family. Um I became a widow in 2014. my whole entire life changed. I basically reinvented myself even though I have um a master's degree. I teach for the um SU public schools. I teach first grade and I've been with SUK for 10 years. My tax bill has gone up every year to the point now that my property for an annual tax rate is $5,300. Then I add $2400

for insurance. So it puts me at about $85,000 $8,500 a year for taxes and insurance. I see the increase. My salary has not increased to that. I've lived in my home for 38 years. I did call the office one time just to see what I could do to try to get my taxes down. And I was told that the probably the best thing that I could do is sell my property. Right now, my property is valued at almost $600,000 and I was blessed to have that. Um, but I speak for widows and widowers that your whole life changes when you lose an income in your family. I teach I I speak for single mothers for one-inccome families that it shows a $50 increase for a $200,000 house. Mine's not going to be a $50 increase. It's going to be way more than that. I really don't know what else to say to you but to I'm proud to live in Suffuk. I wasn't born in Virginia. I was actually born in Montana but I've been here since I was eight years old and I am proud to live in Virginia. I'm proud to be a Virginia and at the present rate at this past year I started a flower farm just to pay my taxes. It's going to take me a while to build my my flower farm. Started it with $100

and I did very well. I didn't make $6,000 pay my taxes and I've got a little plan to increase that through the through the next five years, but I thought maybe I would get some tax deductions because of that. I really don't because I don't have enough acreage for that. But um I just appreciate you listening to me and I and I may be just one standing here, but I know there's a lot of citizens in Suffolk that this will be a hardship for them, not just for me. And I just just thank you for listening to me. I appreciate it. Thank you.

We have our next speaker, please. Do we have anyone else present who would like to speak at this time? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. Uh there is no action necessary at this time as the ordinance to effectuate the real estate rate for fiscal year 2526 is included in item number 11. We'll move to our next public hearing which is a public hearing to receive public comment on the proposed fiscal year 2627 tax decrease on mobile homes personal property. Mr. Manager please provide an overview.

Mayor Russ mayor members of council Stephanie Wells director of finance and budget will provide the overview. Thank you. This pro public hearing is for the personal property tax rate. We did do a notice correction, so we had to have a hearing tonight. There was an error in the notice on mobile homes tax rate for the next fiscal year. You can see here that the error says that it was a $19 per 100. The correction is that mobile homes will be taxed at $16 per 100. The only change to personal property tax rate is this 1 cent reduction for mobile homes to match the real estate tax rate and the correction does not affect the operating budget.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Will you please explain the timing system? This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address and will receive three minutes to offer their comments.

This is a public hearing. of the first speaker. Please come forward and provide their name and address. Do we have anyone present who would like to comment at this time? Once again, do we have anyone present who would like to comment? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. There is also no action necessary at this time because this will also be included in item number 11. We'll now move to ordinances. We have adoption of the proposed operating and capital budget for fiscal year 2026 27 and related ordinances. Mr. Manager, please present an overview.

Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Stephanie Wells, director of planning, sorry, uh, finance and budget will provide the overview. Stephanie's going to hit on two uh a number of items, but I want to emphasize one thing uh specifically or two things actually related to schools. So the first thing uh assuming that we move forward on the budget is that we would ask for an amendment or it would be my recommendation we ask for amendment to the capital improvement plan related to schools. The approved CIP currently features $500,000 that was proposed to be used for the design of the Riverbend VOTE site. We would propose that that $500,000 be moved to the major repairs and replacements line item in the CIP for the school system. So, that amendment would need to be made with budget approval. Uh the second item, uh we continue to await an approved budget from the the general assembly in the Commonwealth. As we've mentioned to you, uh previously uh it is our preference to wait for that approved budget and true up what the funding will be from the state of Virginia as it relates to the city's total contribution there. uh that would allow us to uh get that number right and then bring it back to the city council for a future amendment to the operating budget related to the the school's request.

Thank you. So this is the vote to adopt the FY2627 proposed operating capital budget and the related ordinances. I have a somewhat short presentation here just to reiterate what has already been said in the past couple of excuse me budget presentations. So the FY27 proposed budget you see here in the yellow column this is our total budget. This is all of our funds and our total budget for FY27 is proposed at 954 million $88,770. The proposed budget highlights for our general fund tax rate decrease and no other property tax increases includes a few operational reductions. Our new positions were reduced from an average of 45 to 24 for FY27 and we are investing in public education. The school resource officers will now be at every school. We are looking at 86 million in school funding which provides an additional $5 million in local support over a prior year. And as mentioned, we are planning to amend the operating budget for additional school funding after the state budget approval. The table at the bottom here shows our operating budget by function. You can see public safety is the highest portion of our budget at $108 million, approximately 30% of our budget. And then second is education at the $86 million previously stated. Public safety is increasing by $6.6 million and education is increasing by $5 million. Some of our other funds, a couple of highlights, the internal service fund increases are not duplicative. I don't think that I said a whole lot about this portion of it. So if you see in our or you will see in our general fund budget

we're going up approximately 5%. These increases that are in the risk and it and fleet already covered by that 5%. So even though risk budget overall is going up say 17% the 5% in general fund that's being contributed to this already encompasses that number. So it does not add a 5% plus another 18%. There's no increase in the refuge fee. The refuge and recycling sips of sort program is being implemented. There's no increase in the storm water fee. We are not issuing any debt for the next fiscal year for storm water. And the public utilities rates, the programmed annual increase for the coming year is 5%. The debt will be issued possibly sometime in 27, but more likely in FY28. We're going to be using cash planned to allow a de. The cash that we're using is planned to allow a delay in debt issuance. Delaying that debt issuance reduces the current annual rate increase. So it could be 6%. If we had had additional debt to take on, you would have seen a say a 6% increase. Looking at our five re five-year real property tax revenue increase, we have over the last five years seen a 5-cent reduction in the real estate tax rate. the bottom left hand corner there revenue percent increase by type. There's single family residential, multif family residential you can see is that the orange that had the largest increase. Commercial and industrial and then agriculture on the right hand side the percent of value growth you can see that the commercial and industrial has had a significant value growth since 2022. And then the other largest would be the multif family. So we are seeing some relief from that commercial and industrial value growth.

We are also seeing the lowest budget increase in the last five years. You can see on the left hand side our operating budget in blue. It has continued to go up the last five years. Our increases in the orange have fluctuated some somewhat. And on the right hand side you can see our increase by fiscal year for the last five years and the percent of increases. And you can see at the bottom FY27 5% is the lowest increase over the last five years. Revaluations I provided this slide already in the earlier presentation so I won't go through that again. Capital projects the programmed use of our surplus reserves. We have had some comments and questions about our cash reserves. We have approximately $78 million in capital reserve in the general fund. And you can see just for our programmed use of surplus there in the red box is $119 million over the five years. 7876 million $78 million is not going to pay for that. So the difference is coming from general fund pay. But you can imagine if we didn't have that 70 plus million dollars to assist with this, how much our tax rate would have to go up over the next five years to pay for these capital projects. This part of the capital projects, the school administration office has also uh not come to fruition. So we are asking for council direction to move this SAO school administration office funding to school capital maintenance. So if that is the desire of council, you could just let us know during the vote on the budget. And this is the calendar and we are at May 6 and so we have had our public hearing tonight on the effective rate increase due to reassessment. We've had

the public hearing on the personal property tax rate and we are now at budget adoption. Any questions? Council, we have an ordinance has been presented for your consideration. What is your pleasure? Council member Bennett.

Yeah. Uh Mr. Ma, Mr. Manager and Mayor and Council, I did have some inquiries by some of my constituent and citizens. about the tax rate u for the license fee for decals and um they was asking about the amount of money that's being collected for the decals which they are no longer getting. So they want the I need some explanation on that so they'll know exactly the purpose behind that.

Sure. So the the decal doesn't exist anymore. However, the fee attached to it does. And so, we currently collect about $2.9 million in revenue for that. That's uh goes into our general fund, which uh fuels and and pays for the budget. Okay. So, that is a part of the ongoing budget for the coming years. Until council decide to vote to eliminate that, how would that work?

Uh we would need to find a mechanism to make up 2.5 $2.9 million in revenue. Okay. And my last question is with the um tax rate and I had a lot of comment and I don't know why a lot of people don't come up here and they come to me. I can't say other council member about the tax rate and they were saying one cent is not near enough with the assessments going up the amount they are going up. So that was another question that has been proposed to me. So, so a a cent on the tax rate is about $1.7 million. And so, similar answer I'd provide is that we it would need to be made up in another means or cut from the budget.

So, we would have to actually uh do some uh elimination of correction in some line items in the budget in order to fill those gaps. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Okay, council. We got an ordinance presented for consideration. We still don't have a motion. Is there any more discussion? [snorts] Quiet out there. Any discussion? We need some discussion or we need a motion. Yes or no? Or discussion? Council member Butler Barlo. How about more discussion? Um, works for me.

So, going off of what council member Bennett just talked about, I I too have gotten a lot of phone calls and a lot of concern and I know the one cent reduction is um it's significant that we're able to do that. Um I and I think um ever since I've been on council when we've done reductions, we've done two cent reductions. That's not scientifically based, but two cents would make a little bit more difference in people's pocketbooks. And manager, you said we would need to find 1.7 million to make up for that second cent deduction. Um what are the um what are our options in finding that? Like where where might that come from to put you completely on the spot.

I would look for that direction from the council.

Touche. Um I guess I just again I've I've had a lot of feedback. I mean I I think the fact that we're the third lowest in the area. We're the only locality that is having a reduction of any kind. I think all of those things are significant. I know it's difficult having put together a really fine-tuned budget to find another, you know, almost $2 million. Um, but I would ask other council members, anybody have any thoughts or ideas? Um, and again, I you know, the math on a on a $200,000 house, which I don't know that we have any $200,000 houses, but um, you know, a $50 reduction or a $30 reduction, you know, is not a lot, but uh, it it just it just would feel better to do a little bit more of reduction. So, anyway, I'm asking I'm I I don't know the answer. I'm asking for other discussion from other council members. Thank you, mayor.

Council member Wright.

Yes. So, I also received multiple calls regarding the tax rate and I think that it's important that we take a look at the difference between the assessed value and the market value because to me that's important and what's driving both of those things. And so I had the opportunity to speak with a constituent and we kind of walk through that. We walk through what drives the assessed value, what drives the market value. Some of the things are out of our control. Now, what is in our control is what we do with the tax rate. And so I'll use my home as a perfect example. Um, my increase went up significantly. Um, and in order to not increase my taxes, the tax rate would have to be reduced 4 cents to get me there. But when I look at if I were to sell my house today, the market value, I am not being taxed at that market value. I'm being taxed at the assessed value. And both of those uh values are not necessarily influenced by solely us. We influence the tax rate, but the market determines the market rate. Um so I think that is important to to recognize that. Now, when we look at that and we look at the difference in what the taxes would be at 107 and 106, yes, the tax rate still the our taxes will still go up. At the same time, the city is mitigating some of that by taking off some of the the the brunt of it. It's not a significant amount, but it is an amount that I think should be recognized. I also think it's very important that and one I want to thank Miss Hawkins for coming. Um I'm sorry for your loss and I do appreciate you stepping forward to speak. Another thing I want to recognize though

is that we have a lot of things we have to get done. People want to compare Suffuk to Virginia Beach. We're not Virginia Beach. We don't have the different tourism tax revenue that Virginia Beach has and we actually most people don't want to see the growth that Virginia Beach has. So I don't think that's a fair assessment. But when we look at Virginia Beach being very large um compared to us and having the extra stream of income uh coming in for us to be the third lowest in the region speaks volumes. So with that I'll say that we have a lot that we need to get done. I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, but we're behind on infrastructure. Guess what? This budget is putting a lot of money into capital improvements to improve our infrastructure. We are behind on our school facilities and we need to work to improve those. The extra taxes are going to do that. So, I think that is very important that we put things in perspective. While I would love to and I think at some point we'll be able to tout the tax rate that Virginia Beach has, we have to speak to where we are now. Um, and we have to speak to the issues and the things that we need to mitigate. And so, while I would love to reduce it lower, we have to really look at the budget and figure out where we're going to take it from. This is no different than your home budget. If you can't afford to get your roof fixed today, then you'll have to put it off for a second and you may have to pay something else. In this instance, we have a lot of things that we need to bring up to speed. And so I think that as you said that we should focus on the the glass is half empty or half full depending on how you look at it. And so I would just ask that we look at the full picture. Um, and so to the

constituents of Sleepy Ho Burough, I'll say to you, I hear you. I understand. I definitely understand this tax rate, but I also hear you when you're pounding infrastructure and schools and services. And so, it's a very delicate balance. And with that, I will motion to move to approve the budget with the and move to amend the budget to in to move the 500,000 to um the schools for major repairs.

Council member Johnson, I didn't really push my button to second that, but I might in a minute.

Um what I'd like to do first tell Miss Hawkins, thank you. Thank you for coming. Um, thank you for talking about all the people that have been talking to us for the last two or three weeks because everybody's saying the same thing. We understand, I understand, I mean, I where we're heading. I hope at some point in the future, and we're not prepared to do this right now, that we look at assessments and we look at assessments in such a way that that you reach a point in life where your assessments shouldn't keep going up. When you've got an 80 year old living in a home that's been assessed started at $120,000 and today it's at 600 $800,000, it's tough and there are areas of the country that that make make, you know, allow people to do things to help reduce that. So, I hope down the road we can look at that because it is it's very very scary particularly for our older pe old people that have in their homes their whole lives. That's not where I'm going with this though. Where I'm going with this is I I asked for four In the beginning, I asked for two cent after that and Mr. Hughes came back and said 1 cent. And I said, "Well, thank you. We'll take 1 cent." The the reason we can't adjust more than what we adjust is because of the number one, we are a successful city and we have lots and lots of expenses. And I'll I'll agree with Miss Wright. We we've got so many things coming toward us. And with the uncertainty of our world today, that's I accepted this budget several weeks ago because I knew it's where it had to be. Um, I think we've got lots of things that are could happen in the coming years and we need to be prepared for it. I also think with the school situation being what it is, we could have some issues there as far as what we have to provide for the schools. I don't disagree with with we got new schools to build and somehow we've got to pull all these things out of our magic hat that we don't seem to have ever have enough money to do. So, despite the fact that I would like to see us have a a larger increase um in what we give back to the citizens, I'm

going to have to second this vote tonight because I know it's the right thing to do tonight. Um this is unusual for me to be doing this, but I I do think this our manager has put together a budget that he's comfortable with and that we can live with as a city and that will take us to the next year. and then we all still keep in the back of our minds what we need to do next year and that we always want to do what's best for the citizens and give them you know it's it's it's how it should be. So with that I'll I'll second the motion. Thank you.

Do we have any other comments? We've got a motion for approval from Council Member Wright, seconded by Council Member Johnson. Uh if there no other comments, I'd like to offer a few myself. Uh first of all, I want to commend the city manager and his staff uh for for preparing the budget that they presented to us initially. Uh was well formatted, well thought out. I believe it addressed the ongoing and I say ongoing ongoing and increasing needs u of our city. It addresses the services uh that our citizens depend on. And we did it in a fiscally responsible manner with no tax increase. And a matter of fact with no tax increase as it's been mentioned it was well and I say tax no tax I don't want to get beat no tax rate increase. There are individuals that are going to pay more tax. So we call it like it is. It's a tax rate and it's your assessment. When we talk about assessments the assessor is in the audience. He will tell you by code. He is required to assess your home for the correct values. Not necessarily market value per se, but using the system that they use. If there's any adjustment to that, then we would have to make it in the rate. If we're going to make concessions for certain incomes, you want to make concessions for certain ages. We have means to do that. We already do that for disabled. We also do that for elderly. We just passed an additional uh tax break recently on um personal property for the same individuals that would qualify for a real estate abatement. When you look at the budget, yeah, I'd love to cut the budget, too, but let's let's call it the way it is. We are the only city in Hampton Roads that reduced the rates this year. We are the only city that has reduced or or provided for relief four out of the last five years. We are the only city in

Hampton's roads that has basically created a trend of reducing the tax rate. The only city in Hampton Roads. Nobody else is close. Virginia Beach has a low rate and council member brought that to our any off track here. Uh that Virginia Beach can raise their meals tax and raise a lot of money. But if you look at the numbers, Virginia Beach's real estate assessments went up more than anyone else in Hampton Roads. A house that's 400 grand in Suffach, the same type of house is 500 grand in Virginia Beach. So the rate's lower, but the home value is higher. Or we already have the third lowest rate in Hampton Roads. When we look at the budget, okay, it's only $1.7 million. All you have to do is look at the budget and decide what you're going to take it from. One of the initiatives that the manager came up with and it was his idea, wasn't mine. I don't think it was anybody else on council. We did more than a cola adjustment. He did an extra 1% increase in pay for our employees in anticipation of what the results are going to be when the new compensation and classification and compensation study comes back. assuming that it's going to suggest higher pay higher pay requirement. So in kind of preparation for that he added an extra 1%. So we can give everybody a coal and take away 1% then you can reduce the taxes some more. But I don't think that's the thing to do. You know it kind of caught me off guard when he came up with the idea. But after thinking about it it's a pretty good idea. It gives our employees an additional 1% on top of top of what would have been a 3% cola and it also prepares us for the upcoming results

from the compensation study. So all in all, I you know, I know nobody likes to see any taxes go up, but the reality of it is when you look at everything that we're doing, when you look at the schools, I mean, schools just came up and wanted in the last three weeks wanted another $7 million for maintenance. $7 million means that your taxes are going up 6% or 5% of 5.4 for about 4 cent to make up $7 million. That's just one little thing. So, we're doing what we need to do and I think we're being very responsive and very aware that nobody wants their taxes to go up. I know I don't want mine to go up, but they do. Uh, can we make some allowances? Maybe. So, but the time to address some of these things rather than the 11th hour, we've had plenty of time to look at the budget. lots and lots of time to look at the budget. If someone wants to suggest where the money is coming from, what do we want to cut back? You know, we talked about surpluses and there's lots of numbers being thrown around and we're sitting on millions and billions of dollars. You got to understand that our total budget is almost a billion dollars a year when you throw everything in there. Operating budget and capital It's almost a billion dollars. It's about $2 and a half million dollars a year. So, we have to have ample reserves to to that's what the rating agencies are looking for when they do the bond rating. They want to see reserves. 20% unrestricted reserve. We've maxed that out. We capped that out four or five years ago. We don't put anything else in that unrestricted reserve. The only reason that dollar amount goes up is

because it's based on our budget and our budget goes up every year. Now, we're fortunate. The reason we're fortunate is because we can continue to provide the services we're buying and we're doing providing and we're also moving forward with a lot of these school initiatives. You look where the money's being spent. You know, we're doing a lot of quality lifestyle, a lot of parks and wreck improvements, a lot of school improvements, finishing up JFK Middle School. You know, we got a addition going on Northern Shores. We just moved up Nesman River High School. Uh we've got Elephants Fork Elementary coming online. And the reason we can do as much as we've been doing is because we've had a lot of commercial development, commercial real estate. And I think the assessor told me we had like $3 billion worth of more commercial real estate, not homeowners, commercial real estate put on the books. They pay the same rate that generated about $32 million in income. That's income generated on the retail side that we don't have to go to the taxpayers. So that part of the growth issue has paid for a lot of it and allow lot allowed us to do what we're doing. So, I am pleased with the budget. I'm glad that we're able to reduce the rate somewhat. It ain't much, but it's something. And it's 100% more. And I know we don't compare ourselves to the other Hampton Road cities, but the stuff is good. I'd like to. We It's not that our city operates in a vacuum and our needs are not any less than any city around us. And in a lot of ways, you know, we have more needs because we are growing. we have more needs because we have 430 square miles to contend with. So every time we decide to improve something or cut a

ditch, it's a lot more money than it is enforcement. So I'm I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish. I want to thank the manager again and staff uh for getting this far, getting us where we are. And I'll quit rambling and we have a motion on the floor for approval and a second. Do we have any other discussion? Yes, Mr. Just to emphasize a a couple of points that Stephanie hit on, but just want to re-emphasize. Uh, our budget includes operational reductions to the tune of almost $2 million in capital outlay and travel and training. So, it does include operational cutbacks, but not to the point where our services will be reduced for our citizens. So, that is something that is in this budget. I'd also mention that we talked about that we probably coming back to you to amend the budget as it relates to uh something that's going to happen in Richmond and what that's going to impact to the school system. That's probably an increase that we're going to come back to you and say we need to increase funding to the school system. And so just bear that in mind. Um just want to draw those two points out.

Okay. Thank you. We got a motion on the floor for approval. Do we have any other comments? Hearing none. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote. The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. We now move to resolutions. We have a resolution to adopt Suffach Transit's minor transit development plan known as the TDP update to their 2020 2022 transit strategic plan TSP. Mr. Manager, please provide present resolution.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, I'll ask Maria Takowski to come forward and provide you with an overview as it relates to the proposal um for you tonight. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council. I'm here to give you an overview of what our SUFFK transit TDP update is all about. So, just real quickly, this is the kind of what we're going to go through here. What is a TDP? Our existing system, proposed recommendations, and then a request summary. So, what is a TDP? So, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, known as DRPT, requires that any public transit operator receiving state funds submits a transit development plan. They must be adopted by the operator's governing body, and they're completed every 10 years with a requirement to provide a minor update after five years. What's included in this? It serves as a management and policy document. It identifies needs, goals, and recommended improvements. provides up-to-date record of capital and operating budgets and also provides a basis for inclusion in the state transportation plans and programs. This next slide here, this is the current existing system that Suffach Transit operates. Uh that barrier that is around all of those nice colors on that map are the paratransit boundaries that uh exist within threequarters of a mile of all of our fixed routes. On this side, you'll see the proposed system. As some of you may know, we just started two brand new transit routes on Monday called the Peanut Express, which provides transportation from Suffach to the town of Windsor, and then the Seapport Express, which provides service from Suffach to Portsouth at the Victory Crossing HRT hub as well as TCC. And in this proposed system, you'll actually see that those two brand new routes are already on this. So, we've already made a little bit of progress into trying to

get ourselves into what we're thinking will be a really great system for the city of SuffK. Some of these proposed recommendations is to realign some of the routes just to improve performance. Sometimes that means doing a slight a slight change to a route. If we've got new development that's come around and it's close enough to the bus route, we can change something very simply so we can provide more service. uh increasing some frequency and span of service on some routes. This is ideal especially if you're trying to capture what we call choice riders, those individuals that choose to park their cars and get on a bus. That um increased frequency is more attractive to those choice riders. We are looking to expand some commuter service to other places that will help support Suffach growing job centers and then to introduce some ondemand zones in some lower density communities that we can use those on demand zones to connect to Suffach Transit's current network. One of the things that we are doing in regards to the on demand transit zones is in FY27 we are going to be conducting a feasibility study to look at creating on demand in the burrows of Holland, Chuckatuck and Whailville. We do know that these are areas that are far enough away from downtown Suffach where transportation can be a barrier and it can be a challenge to get to some of the services. So, we are looking at how we can potentially create a system that will help individuals in those areas. And then the request summary here is we are just looking for a resolution of approval. And I'm requesting that you guys adopt the minor transit development uh plan update. This adoption does not commit the city to any future service implementation or funding. This really just serves as a roadmap for us to see where we would like to take SUFFK transit in the future. I will answer any questions if there are any.

Okay. Thank you, council. Any questions, comments? If not, looks like you're off the hook. All right. Thank you, council. A resolution has been presented for your consideration and a motion would be in order. Council member Williams, move for approval. And a motion for approval from council member Williams. Council member Wright. Second. Second from Council Member Wright. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by vote of 8 to zero. Our next resolution is a resolution to adopt the fiscal year 202627 annual action plan for the city of Suffach Community Development Grant Program CDBG and the Western Tidewater Home Consortium Home Investment Partnership Grant Program home. Mr. Manager, please present the resolution for consideration.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Miss Dedra Garrett with the Planning Community Development Department will walk you through this slide deck. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. Uh we are going to go through this pretty quickly because I've been before you for the fourth time I think now. [laughter] Um so the annual action plan for CDBG and home programs. This is the strategic implementation documentation for our oneyear funding horizon. Uh CDBG is specific to community development. Um and home investment partnership is specific to our homeowner occupied rehab programs and our down payment and closing cost assistance programs. Um CDBG is specific to the city of Suffach and home is administered on behalf of the Western Tidewater Home Consortium which consists of Suffuk is of White Southampton and Franklin. The proposed allocation for CDBG is $515,935 and our proposed home is $389,72363. So for CDBG, the two largest items we're going to invest in uh for fiscal year 2627 will be the homeowner occupied rehabilitation program and our Hillpoint Trace affordable housing project. Uh and then those five public service entities that we uh support for home, our community housing development organization, Habitat for Humanities, um gets a 15% mandate out of that allocation and then we split the rest of that equally

amongst the consortium members. So today we are here to adopt the budget. Uh and then I will submit the plan to HUD by June 15th. If you have any questions, I'll be here to answer them. Council, any questions or comments? Thank you very much. Council, resolution's been presented for your consideration and a motion would be in order. Council member Bennett, move for approval. A motion for approval. Council member Bennett. Council member Richtor.

Second that motion. Second from council member Recctor. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote. The motion is approved by vote of 8 to zero. We do have one staff report this evening. Suffach Fire and Rescue's 2025 year in review. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, at at your place is the 2025 fire and rescue annual report. Uh, fire chief Michael Barack will present the 2025 year in review and the highlights of that report. Thanks, Chief.

Thank you, Mr. Hughes, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. It's my honor to be standing in front of you to provide you with our 2025 um year in review. Before I start, I want to say to Director Rattell and Chief Buouie, congratulations on your pro proclamations this evening for your staff and everything you do. Um, everything in the city is intertwined in multiple areas. Uh, we can't do our job without water. We can't do our job without police. We can't do our job without finance, HR, you know that. And so, thank you all. And certainly those proclamations are important to the city and to us. Thank you. Well, on behalf of the 336 firefighters, paramedics, officers, administrative professionals, it's my honor to be standing in front of you as a as a fire chief to uh give you a year in review. Now, this is for the calendar year and the calendar year included um your annual report, which I believe was provided uh at the dis tonight for everybody. Um so, when we look at that, we're in May right now. So, we're about five months into 2026. So these numbers just for clarification that will be seen on the monitors and into your books will be for 2025. Um the fire department uh is internationally accredited. We're one of 334 departments internationally that meet the strenuous self assessment and quality improvement to show that we're an accredited agency. To do that we have a 5-year accreditation uh cycle or we're next up in 2028. So we put we we have our push for accreditation starting in 2027 to try to demonstrate that we maintain not only the the response standards um that we are looking at not only how we train equip um how we provide services but also what is our vision and our vision a lot of times tied to the budget because a lot of times vision in city government is related to how we fund or how we plan um our future. So, um this budget again is not only um provides finance and and obligations for us to do work, but it

also has this a nice planning document as well. Um and Hampton Roads, uh Suffach Fire Department is uh one of of four. So, you have Hampton, Navy Region, Mid-Atlantic, Virginia Beach, and Newport News that are internationally accredited in Hampton Roads. And um for that um I'm quite honored to to demonst year in review um call for services are up uh 12%. Um with that we'll get a little more granular in a couple more slides but we have a 12% increase. Our unit responses uh the best way to describe that to council and certainly to our citizens are um an incident is a call for 911. A building fire call will have multiple units responding uh three engines a ladder company rescue company etc. A crash sometimes will have most of the times I have a an engine and a medic and a supervisor vehicle. So that's the discrepancy or the difference really the difference between a incident and a unit response. You see the difference there of being more units that respond versus the number of incidents. Uh some of our successes in 2025 uh the new rescue one company which is right down here on Market Street went into service. um tanker 7 out in Holland which has been uh well used in the last three and a half four weeks. New tanker 7 uh is placed in Holland and new ladder five on Bridge Road went into service. Those were all replacement apparatus. Fire station 4 we hope to see um it was adopted in budget tonight. Thank you. But we're our plans are now at 30%. Um I believe on Friday's um priest metal agenda. Uh Gary um congratulations to you. Um uh that's on the docket then. So, we're moving forward with station 4. Uh, our burn building and training tower is getting close to completion. Um, that was a success in 2025. Uh, the stop light at fire station 10 um went into service. That took about three years. Uh, some land uh acquisitions for rideaway and all that, but we now have a stoplight that's protecting our driver

fire station um and and the citizens that d that travel. Uh, our FEMA uh Virginia Task Force 2 had a deployment in 2025 to Tennessee. uh ventilators. Uh we're the the first department in Hampton Roads to put uh ventilators very similar to the ventilators you'll see in the hospitals, ICUs, and emergency rooms are on our medic units, our ambulances. Uh first in Hampton Roads to do that. Very very proud of our Marcus Alert, our Mark One vehicle providing the mandate for our Marcus in partnership with police and western Taiw um CSB. We're very proud of that program and um again uh that success is not only here in the city but we're seeing that success in Hampton Roads as being a um a foundational program that other people are trying to emulate. We graduated uh our Hampton Roads uh recruit fire academy class 70 and 71 32 firefighters were graduated in 2025. uh fire station 11 uh was opened physically opened the doors uh in July and we had our ground uh we had our uh a grand opening uh on 911 and so that went into service and thank you so much to council we now enjoy an engine ladder a rescue a medic and a supervisor vequ that station and to get a little more granular as I said we would um 22,400 incidents with that 54,000 responses and our average response time is 6 minutes and 14 seconds. We for accreditation break that down into the urban environment, suburban and to the rural environment because obviously we cannot provide the same services to our rural citizens as we can in our urban citizens to our urban citizens. Um but average time from the time that our 911 center picks it up until you see a fire truck or ambulance at your front door six minutes. Part of accreditation is striving to be better. So, I hope next year when I stand up here, we can reduce that and the year after we can reduce that because that's what makes us as a fire uh rescue

department and you as council and and city leadership uh better for our citizens is finding ways to shave that number down. One thing that we're doing, uh, Chief Buoy, myself, IT, um, uh, the, uh, city leadership is we're looking at our CAD and we're looking at how can technology upstairs at our 911 center improve our processing time, which then reduces the amount of total time to get to our 911 calls. And, and that's going very well. And so, Chief Buie and I and again, IT and all the um, departments working with that are working to reduce that time. When you see 15,000 uh emergency medical services incidents, it's kind of misleading in a way. It's really not in the fact that that's means an ambulance shows up and somebody goes to a hospital. But what's not embedded in that is how many of those EMS incidents are related to a fire, to a crash, to a technical rescue. So although we say 15,66 times an ambulance showed up, that doesn't show what showed up with that. So again, uh, EMS is part of our mission is to provide the best prehosp emergency medical services. We provide critical care, our medicine, our ventilators, our IV pumps, our ambulances are all the highest of levels, and your skilled paramedics provide those services. Service calls could be a fire alarm activation, could be water leak, it could be um smoke in the area that are now entering somebody's HVAC that gets a 911 call, an alarm activation, that's pretty self-explanatory there. Usually those are residential alarms. Um, many times they're not nuisance alarms. Many times they activate because citizens are cooking or because the microwave has an issue and the alarm activates. We go out there and mitigate the problem before such time as an active fire produces. A motor vehicle crash is at 1369 or times for which a patient wasn't involved. Could be a fuel spill related to it. It could be um uh airbag deployment and no patient was transported. So 1369 uh

working fires, we we define those by a smoke or fire showing upon arrival. So uh those are times for which um yeah people either lose property or lose um um a vehicle, lose their home, lose their business. So uh we always say we have about one uh working fire a day in the city. And extrications are times in which people are are removed from their vehicle uh through some kind of mechanical usually what we call hydraulic tools to remove them out of there by station. What's really important about this slide is that between station one here downtown station three uh down the street um White Marsh station five on bridge and station six uh over on Godwin um our our public safety center station six uh those are 75% of our runs. So, uh, we're a busy fire department, but then you get how busy are we when you look at our our our locations. Station 11 is only 3.7% of the calls there because we're only looking at a small data set for 2025. When I reproduce this slide in 2026 or next year, that data set will get a little bit different because station 11 will be open for a full year with the full amount of data. Total instance by category again, EMS. Um, again, that drives any fire rescue department anywhere in the country. Um but if you look to the right, we've had an increase in in um in the amount of runs that we've had uh other for example 9% our EMS calls, 22% on hazardous condition. Um so we're increasing our runs. Uh you're asking when do we do most of our work? It's pretty steady about 1,900 calls uh per month. Uh 2,000 calls uh in July. Again, the summer season and all. You see a little bit of a gap when it's nice weather. We're a weather-based response agency. So we go down to about 1,700 runs during the the the nice fall weather and the nice spring weather, but you see that increase in the cold and the increase during the summer. So about

1,900 runs a month is what we're doing. Uh by year, you can see the increases uh 2014 all the way to 2025. Uh about 12,000 runs has increased by there. And then our unit responses interested by this, it's about the same level of increase as compared to our total incidents. So we're responding the right resources to the right calls. We're not over sending or under sending resources to our incidents. We have a good proportionality there. With that, I'll end on the next three slides are our specialty teams that go with a fire rescue. Traditional suppression and traditional ambulance service is we have our communications team, the only one in the in the in the Hampton Roads region and one of two in the Commonwealth to have that level of communication style um uh delivery bus as you see there. Um, our HR IMT were partners with the Hampton Roads regions on our incident management team that deploys throughout the country. Our hazmat team has been very active lately, but our hazmat team stay based out of station 11. Um, our marine incident, we call it our mer team, but our maritime incident response team, uh, fireboats, zodiacs, inflatables, um, 23 foot skiffs. We have a whole armada that's designed to meet the needs of our community based on our waterways. our search and rescue team partner there with uh police. Uh that picture has uh police and fire in that picture. It's a partnership that get that does not only provide those services here in our city. We were in Franklin about two weeks ago providing services there as well. Uh a very unique highly trained team that is requested throughout the uh the region. tactical med medic team uh whether it's chief buoy or the state police we provide our medics in the tactical environment that provides the those um specialy teams the protection and the citizens that they work with the protection uh from that level technical rescue team required by OSHA um Paul and I discuss quite often uh the requirement for when not only our employees but

other employees enter confined spaces high angle um there has to be a team by OSHA that's readily able to and skilled and trained and equipped to provide that rescue and we do that with public utilities routinely um sometimes daily. Uh but anyway, technical rescue comes out of your fire rescue department and then the urban search and rescue team on 28 national use our teams based out of here in Hampton Roads and Suffach Fire is a participating agency in that with that citizens who would like a copy of what council has here and what city leaders has there is that scan code in the lower left corner. It is also uh uh Jennifer Moore's group uh media has placed it on the Suffach Fire website to click on and go straight straight uh straight to our our annual report. And also um if anybody wants one at fire station 6, our headquarters fire station, 300 Kings Fork Road, we have copies, hard copies for any citizen that'll like to have one as well. With that, that ends my presentation. And Mr. uh Hughes, any um questions or from um city council? I'll be glad to take them. Okay. Thank you, Chief. Council questions or comments. Council member Wright.

Yes. I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation and also I see the work that the fire department is doing. I'm often up at o dark 30 by 4:30 in the morning heading down Bridge Road and there's oftent times there's a fire truck in route somewhere um before most people are even up. So I appreciate all that you do. I appreciate all that the firefighters do for the city. They're always out in the community. Um, they can actually shoot, too. We went to a pep rally and the firefighters were there to help the kids get ready for the so pep rally at John Middle School. So, I'm like, okay, they put out fires and they can shoot basketball, too. Okay.

But, uh, yeah. So, but they're also they're out in the community a lot. Um, and I think that that is important. So, I thank you for all that you do. Thank you so much and I appreciate that. You're welcome. Council member Recctor.

Thank Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, thank you for the report, Chief. Um, I [clears throat] don't think that uh anybody in the city can deny the fact that we have one of the most dedicated, one of the best trained and one of the best equipped fire and rescue units in the entire country. Um I live in the downtown burrow and so you station number one um is a very to say it's busy is to is you know to say the least and since I've been kind of semi-retired and spend a little bit more time around the house. It's amazing to me how many times during the day I hear your sirens uh going off. So and I had a chance I guess last week to experience it firsthand. Um, I was at our church and happened to look out the window and there was a truck, a pickup truck that had caught fire in the bank parking lot and the whole truck was literally engulfed in flamed. And um, I don't know whether it's one of your guys, but somebody got into the poor lady's car next door to the burning vehicle and moved it, you know, which I thought was just, you know, a huge act of bravery because you don't know if truck's going to explode. Um, but anyhow, the the heat and the smoke and everything else that came off of that just that one little incident and how quick you guys were uh to respond and get it out and turn a potentially dangerous situation into a very quickly managed um situation. My hat is off to you and and all I can say is that thank God you've never had to come to my house, but I know that if I had to call you, you would be there and I would be well taken care of me and my family. So, thank you again.

We appreciate that. Thank you, Council Member Johnson. Well, Chief, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't say something because as most of the public should know if they don't know, we are in probably one of the biggest droughts we've ever been in this p past month. And I've become really close with the fire department because they have been out in Holy Neck Burrow for two, three, four weeks. How many weeks has it been? Yes, sir. Three and a half weeks. Yes, sir.

Brush fire after brush fire after brush fire. And I just can't, you know, the people of the city are so fortunate to have a fire department of the quality that we have because they've been on the spot every time. They've handled the fires every time. They've concerned about the people that live in the community. And um I I just personally can't thank you enough because we we were directly part of it. And then even this morning we wake up and there's still the smell of smoke in the air and the guys are still out there. So whether you know it or not guys, we are truly truly blessed. Not only that, that service, the the the ambulance service, and these guys come to your house and they it's just we are very very very blessed and um we just need you to know it and the guys to know it because not one truck, not two trucks, but how many trucks did you have on site several times? I mean,

you have 40 and 55 all over and they were there and and I it it's it's pretty impressive to live in a city like we live in such big area and you're there, you're everywhere. So, personally, thank you and for the people of of the city. We are so fortunate. We're blessed to uh not only to have your support, but the community for any incident, whether it's uh uh Saturday morning um that was Saturday morning, I believe. Is that right? Uh council member Recctor u with the at the fire at the bank um at uh across from U Baron. whether it's a Saturday or Sunday morning, right?

Whether it's multiple times, uh the community is as important as a fire or a police department's engagements. Um and it takes a whole village in in a city in a community to provide services. So, we're as grateful to you and to everybody here, everybody listening as you are to us. So, thank you so much. Yeah. Council member Bennett.

Thank you. Well, Chief, I just wanted to say thank you so much and all your wonderful firefighters and medics and all that take care of our citizen and uh I've had to call once or twice and um I really do appreciate uh the courtesy and professionalism that the people give when they come to a person house and u I cannot thank you all enough for what you do and uh now that we just passed the budget do you have enough uh employee I see you had 40 new ones the job that California budget. We're very grateful for all the resources that we received. Yes, sir. I think my evaluation is due as well. So, yes, sir, we are very No, sir. We're we're very blessed for what we've received.

Vice Mayor Ward. Yes, sir. Thank you. Also, Chief, uh, you know how I feel about Fire Station 11. Thank you so much. You represent this city well. Thank you. And the rest of your crew. Thank you. Thank you, Council. Any other comments? Chief, I'll be brief. Thank you. Thank for your for for your team is that they are and they provide an invaluable service to our citizens and obviously we greatly appreciate that. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you all. At this time, we'll move to non-aggenda speakers. Madam clerk, do we have any non-aggenda speakers? And if so, please explain the guidelines.

Yes, Mayor Doom. We do have non-aggenda speakers this evening. Each person participating under the item of business entitled non-aggenda speakers shall limit their remarks to the services, policies, and affairs of city government and shall be permitted five minutes for the purpose of presenting their matter. Speakers appearing before city council will not be permitted to participate in the following activities. To campaign for public office, engage in personal attacks, provide promote private business ventures, or use profanities. Speakers who violate these rules will be declared out of order by the presiding officer and will immediately yield the floor and be seated. Our first speaker is Valia Rose 168 preserve way representing self regarding concerns regarding the reserve at Lake Me.

Good evening. Uh my name is Valia Rose, 168 Preserve Way. Um today marks the seventh time that I've come before this city council to share concerns regarding um the development of the preserve at Lake Me. The first time I spoke before you was May 15, 2024. At that first meeting, I questioned whether the city's growth exceeded its capacity to ensure that projects were completed in accordance with approved plans and in compliance with city ordinances. Two years later, I still have those concerns. Today we are two weeks away from electing a homeownercontrolled board within the preserve at Lake Meade. I come here today with some of my neighbors. Um but my specific concern and role in our conversation today is to kind of think about this at the macro level. macro uh suffuk level, not just the preserve at Lake Me because development we know is a continued concern for residents here and I'm part of that growth and development here in the city. We only moved here to Suffukk in 22, so four years ago. So I can't be mad at the development because that's why I'm here. But I think it needs to be done in a responsible, smart um way that ensures that residents actually get what they think they're paying for. So just some lessons that we've learned.

I have to go back to the conditional use permit, the cup. So, our community was developed, as you all know, the city has an obligation to provide park and recreation for its residents um through the conditional use permit. Developers can offer open space and get a bonus density so they can build more homes on the land in exchange for this active open space. So, the developer provides active open space and that's part of what brought us to our neighborhood and it still is just not it's not what we expected. It's not what we were promised. And here within the next 5 years, I think from 2027 to 2031, this council's already approved a town home community next to our community with 355 proposed units. I don't know. I haven't we haven't requested the the engineering plans for that community. I don't know what they've been promised, but our hope is that as the city continues to grow, as developers come into Suffuk and are provided things like a bonus density to put more units in a particular square acreage that residents actually get the amenities, that they get the open space because where we are now, what hasn't been done by the developer is going to become the resident's responsibility, but in a very direct way, not residents responsibility

through parks and recreation that we contribute to through our taxes, but instead our homeowners association fees will increase to pay for things that should have been done in the beginning. So, I understand that growth is a necessity. Um, and it's not all a bad thing, but I think it has to be done responsibly and that responsibility really rests with you. So, we seek your leadership, your continued leadership um in building SUFFK responsibly. Thank you. Our next speaker speaker is Peter Ramos Jr. 125 Abby Road representing self regarding concerns regarding the preserve at Lake Me.

Good evening, mayor, uh, council members. Uh, my name is Pete Ramos, 125 Abbey Road here in Suffach Preserve at Lake Me, representing myself as a concern homeowner. Um, this is more of an update and awareness uh from our last meeting uh that occurred back in September of 24 where we presented this great binder that the mayor liked uh with um a lot of our issues and concerns that we had and then later uh again in November uh with again with a list of items that we uh we provided um that were concerns within the community. Um so uh at that time it was recommended uh um by the city council that we uh establish a communications committee u which was which was done I I think it was established more in my opinion in name only u we've had uh a lot of communications issues with the property manager um throughout throughout that time frame up until now. So, um the most recent communication we provided to the property manager was on uh March 10th. Um March 17th they replied with uh with with um their response and basically the the email contained an attachment with an attachment with a list of of items uh that were still um either in a work in progress or not completed um within the neighborhood. So uh but their response was hey we'll we'll address these in the next few weeks with uh with the declarant worth uh development and then um provide some updates. Um since then uh we've tried to communicate text message, voicemail, email and zero uh response. So um fortunately in the last couple hours out here um outside the building we were able to speak with uh uh Mr. Riley who represents Worth Development and um I think we are are going to see some headway and some

progress here in the next uh in in the near future. Again, as as Belia Rose uh explained, we're we're about to transition in into a HOA based uh director body. So, um some of the some of the information that was uh received by us in the email from from the property manager was was not clear, but uh u Mr. uh worth back here um explained to us that that would be clarified that the issues that we have with with the community um will be rectified beyond our transition and some of those issues are walking trails still existing problem uh pitch grade of of of the property when it rains it washes out a lot of the trails. Uh there's an unfinished portion of a lot curb sidewalk are missing. There's still uh some it's not crush and run, but large rocks are still present within within that corner lot that needs to be finished. Some of the stop signs, crossing stop uh crossing signs are are leaning uh obviously not properly installed. Uh there's a surface drain in one of the fields is still covered up by uh construction material. Construction debris throughout the fields. Uh the open spaces are are still present. And these aren't small rocks. They're big pieces of concrete that were left behind. Um, and uh, water valve cover in front of the neighborhood. I believe it's the turnoff valve for the fire hydrant. That thing's the pipe the pipes cracked inside and the cover keeps uh, falling out every time a vehicle drives over it. Cover's gone now. Don't know where it's at. Um and then the last issue we had uh we we want to clarify uh was to ask to ensure the developer and builders made the assessment payments on their respective lots in accordance with article 4 section 4.04 of the declaration of protective covenants conditions restrictions easements charges and leans. So PMA's response was hey uh we've reached out to them the document will ensure that all

assessments are owed and will be paid. So again, o awareness as you guys go forward and and approve um all these developments that are going to Suffach. We're growing. I got it. Uh but the the uh from the folks that go out there in the fields and and and inspects, you know, inspects inspects these sites and and and do the due diligence and and uh and to ensure that the homeowners were getting what they what they paid for. Um so in in closing um I think we have some progress but again your future will tell if if all these things get get fixed. Uh we were promised certain things. So hopefully those things uh will will be put in place for the homeowners and and for the future uh of of our development there preserve at Lake Me. Um, I hope you can use um what we've experienced over the last three years or four years um as you make your decisions um and um as you approve these developments that the issues we've had, you can present those to the right folks and they can go out and do the due diligence to make sure these things don't happen again. Thank you very much. Our final speaker is Daniel Blue, 168 Preserve Way, representing self- reggarding concerns at the preserve at Lake Me.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. U my first time here was uh in May of 2022. I've been here probably 12 times. 12 times. And uh I also want to highlight the incompliance with the proof engineering plans for our development. [clears throat] uh at Lake Me. I live uh adjacent to approximately 4 and a half acres and uh my initial visit here was to ask you to help me to get the developer to maintain it. After 15 months, they finally cut the weeds down. I'm 6'2 and they were a foot above my head.

[clears throat]

Um, it appears to me that some loophole exists that is allowing the developer to tax me is the way I feel at least. he can effectively pass on the cost of initial development which he does not complete to our homeowners association which we need to absorb then he's effectively taxing me for parks and recreation which I expect the city to provide for me. [clears throat] If in fact that's what you intend, then I would like maybe you to consider owning the park inside my neighborhoods and then we could do something to maintain them. But to ask us to do the initial development because you've allowed the developer to skirt uh what his uh commitment was. It's not fair to us. [clears throat] Um, I have been down here, like I said, about 12 times or close to it. And, uh, I lived here for four years. And I've been going through this same thing for the whole time. I feel like I live in a ghetto. And I have experience living in a ghetto. And I didn't intend to move to one. Uh, [clears throat] and I have zero confidence that the developer will follow through with his verbal commitments. Zero. Uh, our history up until this point has uh not given me uh any reason to believe that that will occur.

Um, as my wife who came prior to me and Mr. Ramos said, there have been some uh progress, but it has been minimal and uh we get their attention when we come to the city council as is attested to by the developer being outside waiting for us when we got here today. uh we seem to get their attention when we um decide to come here but not until so as we are here now I'm asking you for your attention to our matter and u for the future and for all the developments that are coming forward like my wife said we we are part of the the growth of th this city and uh we wouldn't like to see the city look like is uh like our development looks. My house costs almost 600,000 bucks. That might not be a lot to some of you, but it is a culmination of my life. And um I don't think that I should have to come to ask you to have to do what they promised you to do. They promised not just us. They promised you they sold you the idea. They sold me the house. Um, I thank you for your time and I would appreciate your attention to the matter. Good night.

That concludes the speakers. Mayor move to announcements and comments. At this time, I'll ask if the communications department has any announcements.

I'm sorry, I got to put you on hold one second. I forgot new business. Let's skip right over new business. My apologies. Madam clerk, do we have any addition to tonight's agenda?

Yes, Mayor Duman. We do have additions to this evening's agenda. The Virginia Municipal League uh has a variety of policy committees and the following council members have been nominated for appointment to these positions. The Community and Economic Development Committee, Vice Mayor Lou Ward. The Finance Committee, Council Member John Recctor. The General Laws Committee, Council Member Ebony Wright, the Human Development and Education Committee, Council Member Leroy Bennett, and the Infrastructure Committee, Council Members Shelley Butler Barlow, and Council Member Leotis Williams. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Councelor, what's your pleasure? Council member Butler Barlo, move to approve.

A motion from Council Member Butler Labaro for approval. Council member Bennett, second. Second from council member Bennett. Do we have any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members prepare to vote. Please vote. Madam clerk, please record the vote.

The motion's been approved by vote of 8 to zero. Okay. At this time, I'll ask if there's any new business items that require the action of city council for consideration that council members would like to bring up. Council member Recctor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, [clears throat] I'd like to move that a motion be placed on the agenda for the city council at their May 20th, 2026 meeting to request a report from the city manager regarding the fiscal impact of removing the moratorum on tax exemptions for nonprofit organizations.

Council, we have a motion on the floor. Do we have any questions, comments, or a second? Vice Mayor Ward. Second.

Second from Vice Mayor Ward. Do we have any comments? Any discussion? Hearing none. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam clerk, please record the vote. Let's do a roll call. Council member Bennett, Council Member Labaro, Council Member Johnson, Council Member Recctor, Council Member Wright, Vice Mayor Ward.

Yes. Mayor Duman. Yes. The motion is approved. 57 to zero. Okay.

We'll now move to announcements and comments. Miss Moore. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Mr. City Manager. I'll start the announcements off this evening with an exciting leadership update. City manager Kevin Hughes has announced the appointment of Gary L. Jones, RA, as a deputy city manager, overseeing the city's development portfolio. Mr. Jones has served as the interim deputy city manager since September 2025. Gary is a licensed architect and a graduate of Hampton University. Prior to working with the city of Suffach, he served as the capitol outlay architect at NOFK State University and was was responsible for planning and construction projects such as the L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center, the William Prince Football Stadium, and the expansion of the Brooks Library. Jones has served as the director of capital programs and building since its creation in 1999. During his 26 years with the city, Gary managed the planning and construction of of over $800 million worth of capital projects. Some of these projects include City Hall, the new downtown Suffach Library, downtown Festival Park, and Fire Station 11. Congratulations to Gary. The economic development department continues to celebrate businesses growing across the city with recent ribbon cutings. On April 23rd, the city welcomed DBAT SUFFK located at 116 Business Place. This state-of-the-art indoor baseball and softball training facility offers batting cages, private lessons, camps, and clinics for athletes of all ages and skill levels. The climate controlled facility allows for yearround training and provides access to professional instruction, helping players develop their skills in a high quality environment. Following that, on April 27th, the Grocery Outlet

celebrated its grand opening at 924 North Main Street. This new location brings an affordable discount style grocery option to SuffK, offering a wide variety of name brand products at lower prices. Known for its treasure hunt shopping experience, Grocery Outlet helps residents stretch their grocery budget while accessing everyday essentials. Suffach Parks and Rec continues to enhance recreational spaces across the city. Recently, improvements were completed at Lake Meade Park, including updates to the Kids Zone playground, providing a more engaging and accessible experience for families and children. These enhancements build on the park's role as a key community destination, supporting active and healthy lifestyles for residents of all ages. The city would like to thank Cinta Cares and the Parks and Trails Alliance for their support in making these improvements possible. In addition, the Lone Star Lakes playground has reopened following the completion of public utilities construction in the area, restoring access to the popular recreational spray space for residents. For more information on these parks and all of our parks, check out Suffach Parksandre.com. And Suffach Transit officially launched its new regional routes with a community celebration held on May 4th, bringing together residents, partners, and regional leaders to mark this important milestone. The event introduced the Peanut Express and the Seapport Express routes, connecting Suffach to Windsor and Portsouth, and expanding access to jobs, service, and neighboring communities. This launch represents a continued commitment to connectivity and regional collaboration. For more information, visit suffecttransit.org. Suffach Tourism has recently installed the new Lafayette trail marker at the Sleepy Hole Park as part of the city's participation in the Virginia 250 commemoration. This marker honors

General Lafayette and his role during the American Revolution, including his time near Suffach during the 1781 campaign. The dedication ceremony held on April 15th brought together community members and regional partners to commemorate this important moment in our nation's history. The Suffach Public Library has been named one of just three finalists for the Clare event library innovation awards recognizing libraries that are refining their impact through innovation and community engagement. This honor highlights the library's commitment to expanding access to knowledge, services, and opportunities through creative programming and community partnerships. Congratulations to the Suffach Public Library team. And VOTE continues to make progress on the Route 58 SIPA interchange improvement project. Crews have begun restoring Route 58 westbound back to three lanes, marking an important step forward. The temporary lane closure was necessary for road widening and pavement work related to the new SIPA overpass connection. Drivers should continue to use caution and remain alert for changing traffic patterns. For more information on this project, visit sufficva. uscip and suffach public works would like to advise motorists of upcoming overnight lane closures at the intersection of shoulders hill and bridge road. Lane closures will be in effect May 8th and May 9th from 700 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. weather permitting. During this time, traffic on Shoulders Hill Road will be restricted to right turn only onto Bridge Road. The motorists traveling north will be directed to make a U-turn at Winward Lane. Knots Neck Road will also be closed with access maintained via Walton Road. For more information, visit sufficva. uscip. And the suffic fire marshall's office reminds residents that the summer burn

ban is now in effect through September 30th. Open air burning is prohibited, including burn barrels and yard debris burning. Recreational fires are permitted only under specific safety conditions. For more information, visit suffva. us. and the city of Suffix public safety committee would like to share an important reminder for residents and they are encouraged to use the public safety portal, an online platform to share non-emergency concerns and suggestions. Submissions may be made anonymously and please remember that this portal is not intended for emergencies. So, in the event of an emergency to please dial 911. For more information, visit suffva. us. in Suffach recently hosted its annual Earth and Arts Festival and it was another huge success with over 7,000 residents who came out to celebrate sustainability, creativity, and community. From arts to music to hands-on activities, this year's festival truly had something for everyone. Let's take a look at some highlights. Thank you.

[music] [music]

And lastly on your screen are the many ways residents can stay connected to the city of Suffach. Thank you and have a good night. Okay. Thank you, Miss Moore. We now move on to announcements from city council and we're going to start with council member Butler Barlo.

Thank you, Mayor. Um [clears throat] I want to start out by saying um that we are celebrating the Virginia Municipal Clerks uh week, which I didn't know that was a thing, but it is. And so I would like to say many many thanks to my next door neighbor here um Erica who keeps us straight and um does so much behind the scenes that nobody knows and also keeps me straight over here. You you all don't have the benefit of sitting next to Erica but I don't know what I would do without her. So um we are happy to celebrate you this week and congratulations and she's not she won't even look at me [laughter] but to you and your staff honestly many thanks. Um the work that you all do is invaluable. Um second, I'd like to uh congratulations to our public utilities and our police department for the proclam proclamations during the work session. Um really important stuff for all of our citizens and so appreciate the job that all of you do and uh both departments. Um, I need to say a personal thanks to uh, Senator Emily Jordan who recommended me for an appointment uh, recently to the Virginia Rural Center and I was approved u sometime last week and attended my first meeting virtually on Monday, but I'm excited to be a part of that group. It's sort of an intersection between uh rural communities and economic development and I'm looking forward to serving and uh it's a pretty interesting group of folks that serve on that board. So again, thanks to Senator Jordan for that appointment or for that recommendation. Um so glad to hear that the Lonear playground is back open. That was that kind of snuck up on me, but um that's been really missed and um I was out there walking this morning. I don't usually go by the playground, but I know that the folks in the community will be happy to see that that's back opened.

Um, attended the NASA River Preservation Alliance meeting last week and they had a very positive update on the state of the river. There's been another 600 acres of oyster grounds opened because the health of the river is improving and um that's that's the first time they've had a positive report um I think ever. So um they were very complimentary to the partnership with the city and the fact that we are experiencing um growth but we were also um looking after our our environment. So I think that's really significant. The mayor was there also and um nice to have a good news story there. And um last um we're in a bad drought situation folks. Um the fire department knows it. Um the I mean everybody knows it. It's uh um very significant across all of Virginia. There's a couple of places that are in severe drought and I think we're eight to 10 inches behind on rainfall. It stopped the planting season for the local farmers. Um seeds won't germinate if there's no moisture. So, um there's a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. So, I want everybody to whatever you do to promote rain, do your rain dance or uh I'm hoping that uh whatever you got planned tomorrow gets rained out. And uh hopefully we will turn this around and uh get back on track with u a much neededed rain for everybody for our our lawns, our gardens, our farms, um our reservoirs, uh Lonear Lakes are the water level is down incredibly. So, um anyway, that's my my last plea is uh everybody do the rain dance. And with that, I'll say good night.

Council member Bennett,

I'll be kind of brief tonight, I think. Uh I would just like to say uh I went to the uh new bus route up at Windsor and um took the bus tour and I think that was great. It's great um tool to be used between Windsor, Suffukk and Portsmouth and um it's going to help a lot of of residents I think from both areas for transportation getting to doctors and to schools and work. So I think that's great that the transit has really uh reached out through the cooperation of other areas to work together to have better transportation for our people to be able to get to the places they need to get to. So again, I would just like to commend everyone that was involved in that. Also listen at some of the comments about uh 58 and lanes open. Uh glad to hear that that that hopefully that will help take some of the traffic and load off of Nestman Parkway in Wilroy area because in the afternoon and morning that is a back uh blocked up with traffic. So hopefully I think some people probably was taking the locals that know the back way to come in and go out has been taking uh advantage of that. So, I think that's going to help relieve some of the traffic over there on National Parkway and Weroy Road. I hope so. Anyway, and once the uh while we're talking about the National Parkway and Wilroy area, once they get the railroad crossing that progress road into the industrial park, those crossings are so bad. I'm hoping that that will help relieve some of the traffic because people slow down so much trying to go over them. that traffic just backs up all the way past Holiday Ice in the afternoon trying to get across. So, I'm hoping that we can u

look at u continue with the railroad. I know it's supposed to be on their list. So, stay on them about trying to help get that uh moving forward. Uh, also, uh, the bat cage, uh, that is up there in my burrow and, uh, I think that's a great tool for the young people in the driver and the, uh, Shers Hill Road area up there. It's a lot of of activity with ball fields and ball diamonds and kids trying to have some place to go. So I think that's a great tool that's uh in the neighborhood there and convenient for them to be able to go and get some back to batten practice in. So that is that is a great tool that uh we have. Also, um the Earth uh festival day downtown. That was great. I tell you, I think that was about the largest crowd that uh I had seen had attended and saw people coming and going. And um actually, I didn't know people were still doing um the uh blacksmith stuff. and they was out there with the heat and making snakes and all that stuff with blacksmith. I said, "Wow, I had to stay there and sort of take some of that in because it's been a long time since I seen that u kind of stuff taking place." So, there's a lot of good things going on there. So, uh it was warm, but u I made it through the day. Uh, also I would like to congratulate uh Gary Jones on his appointment as deputy city manager. Well done, Gary manager. Thank you. I think that's great selection and I think you all have a good team and I think you all help move the city forward working together. So again, I want to say congratulation to uh him as well and all the others that

uh have been up uh all the firefighters and all the police officer and all that came up tonight. And I think that uh we couldn't live without them. I think we are really uh pleased to have all them to help keep our city safe and things that we need to get u done. So again, I just want to say thanks to all of them. And I have a list and I will not give it to you on on the dice. I'll give it to you later on on things that I have uh from the homeowners meeting that I attended, Mr. Manager. So I'll just share that with you later on rather than take time here tonight. And with that, I would say we'll see you next couple weeks. Thank you, Council Member Johnson. And I'll be brief. First, I'll start with you, Gary. Congratulations. We've already been using you to the point that I'm you've probably used to it all now, but we we are happy to have you officially on board. Um, National Police Week, every week's National Police Week. We are so blessed. We have a wonderful police force and and we really respect you and we're happy. We're so happy to have everyone here. Um, Earth and Art Festival, if you didn't go this year, you missed it. It was amazing. It's the first one I've been able to go to in a little while and I was just blown away. It truly was seven, eight thousand people there. I've never seen so many people on the street. The events were wonderful. Everybody kept saying we should do this every quarter or I know staff doesn't want to hear that, but it was a it was a true it was an excellent excellent occasion and happy I was able to attend. Um, a advisory committee met a couple weeks ago and I write these things down. I don't want to forget to bring them forward. But it was a very robust a meeting and I was glad to hear that they talking about a a reserve program. There's so many things we're talking about. We're talking about villages and and the fact that Mr. Jonathan McBride is going to help us try to come up with

a plan to make our villages what we always knew they could be. Very good meeting. You've got people all over the city working. But I was impressed that night with what what happened with the committee. Um, Paul Retell and Robin. I have to throw Robin in there, Paul, because she is something else. She's a good girl. Thank you for keeping our water good. I'm We are happy to have good drinking water in the city of Suffuk and your your staff does an amazing job as well. We appreciate it. And with that, I'll end except to say it's Mother's Day coming up this weekend. Don't don't forget mom. I mean, everybody's got a mom and it needs to be remembered. So, have a wonderful Mother's Day and make sure you call if you if you don't see her. That I'll say good night.

Council member Wright.

Good evening. So, first I want to start off by congratulating U. Mr. Jones, our deputy city manager. I think that that is an excellent addition to the city manager suite. Um, it is professional municipal clerk's week. So, I want to thank Erica, Tracy, and Stacy for the outstanding support that you all provide to myself and the other members of the staff. Um, in recognition of National Police Week and National Drinking Water Week, I want to thank our police chief and the police department as well as our public utilities department for all that you do to support the city. Yesterday, we had an exceptional education committee meeting. Um this is the second one uh I believe this year and it has been very product well no not this year second one since I've been on council. Um and it's been it was the meetings have been very productive. I think we're building a good battle rhythm with the school board and a couple of the things that we discussed yesterday were the uh school facilities um the status of the school facilities. So, we went through an update there um with the potential of having another study. We've accomplished a lot since the last study in 2021. So, we want to be able to account for that, but get a good um picture of where we stand um and what we need to do. We also had a very good and productive discussion about um potential options for the school administration office. And so, there's more to come there. And we also had a pretty good brief on possible energy performance contracts. Um, the next topic I want to talk about is SOS. This week, please keep our elementary and middle school students in mind. They have SOS this week. And next week, our high school students um will be taking the SOS. So to the students

under my voice, you have this study, pray, and just knock it out. And for the residents of preserve at Lake Me, I I guess I want to find out from a council standpoint what we can do to remedy some of the concerns with the builder because I'm a little torn on as to what is within our swim lane to enforce. But I will I heard Miss Rose, Mr. Amas, and Mr. Blue. I hear you. I'm going to speak with um our city attorney and the city manager to see what is within our swim lane because on my homeowners association, we um before we took over our homeowners association, we worked closely with the builders and developers. But in this case, it sounds like it's been a long time coming. So, I want to try to get you all some relief, but I want to make sure where we operate within our swim lanes to what we can actually accomplish. So, I'm not quite sure what we can do to enforce, but I'll um follow up and see. And the last topic that I wanted to discuss is Sunday is Mother's Day. For those who still have mothers living and for those who have lost their mothers, um think on if you've lost your mom, think on the good memories. And for those who still have a mother, I I second what Council Member Johnson said. Take care of mom. You only get one. With that, I'll say good night.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, Councilman Williams said before he left that I could have his five minutes. Is that okay?

That's nice. He ain't running the show. [laughter] um to first off I want to thank the speakers that that came before us tonight and in response to your query about moving forward and and what the city can do. I I believe after y'all had been up here a couple of times in the when this first started coming up, I think this council directed the city manager to go back and talk to staff about what could be done from the conditional zoning enforcement standpoint because when you offer a conditional use permit to a specific piece of property for a specific use with conditions attached to it, if those conditions aren't met, this council can go back and revoke the conditional use permit. With a conditional resoning, it gets a lot more complicated. Um because as you can attest, you've got houses now on a piece of property that was conditionally reszoned. So, um how do we go about making sure that the city can properly enforce whatever conditions were imposed on the property at the time of the resoning? Um so, thank you for bringing that back up to us and uh it might not hurt, you know, Mr. city manager to go back and just take a look at what the planning department potentially came up with in terms of reviewing that process and any potential uh enforcement issues. Um [clears throat] my congratulations also to Gary Jones. Um the teams together, the bands all together. Um, I think the city is very fortunate to have the leadership group uh in place now that we have and I look forward to continued great things coming out of the city manager's office. Um, the last couple of weeks have been a good weeks for the parks and recreation department because not only the what you said at Lonear Parks, but um they've

reopened the Lake Meade Park. We had a ribbon cutting ceremony there, I believe, last Friday. And then week or so before that, we cut the ribbon at the North Constance um park there on Main Street, right when you go over the Kimberly Bridge. Um so, congratulations to the park and Rex department. Um I attended the ribbon cutting of the grocery outlet. Um I think it was correctly described as sort of the TJ Maxx of grocery stores. um you're not necessarily going to always find all the items that you want in there every time you go, but um they assured us that you will find a good variety of a lot of [clears throat] the staples that you will find in most people's refrigerators and pantries uh and hopefully at a reduced rate to ease the grocery cost burden on everybody. Um, I I too also attended the Earth and Arts Festival and I want to thank uh everybody in the city that had anything to do with organizing that activity. Um, I was overwhelmed by the number of people that were down there and every vendor that I talked to going up and down the street said it had been a good day for them. Um, and you know, Councilman Johnson, they'd like to see more of it, but I understand it is a it it's a big effort to put on an event like that, but but it was very wellreceived and um look forward to the next thing that's going to happen there. I also it's been a long time since I've been on a bus, but um along with the mayor and council member Bennett, we rode the bus up to Windsor. And if the other drivers of the buses for the Suffach Transit Authority have anywhere near the personality of the lady that drove us up to Windsor have um it would almost be worth getting a bus ticket just to simply get on and listen

to her. Um she was she she was just a delight. Um, and then finally, I want to congratulate the police, uh, and Paul, the utilities department for your recognition. Um, I've said it before and I'll say it again. The average person has no idea of how complicated it is to get water out of the lake, water out of the ground, treat it, and deliver it to your house so that it comes out of your faucet uh, clean, lead free, almost completely PASF free. And then just as importantly, when you run the water down the drain, where it goes and that it is treated properly in the technology that is involved in making both those processes happen um is truly remarkable. And I would encourage anybody that has not taken Paul up on the opportunity to visit those facilities, please do. And with that, I'll say good night, [clears throat]

Vice Mayor Warden. Yes. Uh, first of all, I'd like to congratulate my grandson, Bryson Scott, for for having the highest score in so Fred Cherry. I want to congratulate him for that. Um, I had a town hall meeting at Fire Station 11. I think it was great that the people came out, voiced their opinion. I think the staff, Kevin and the staff, they did a great job and I think the community was much applied just to hear some of the questions uh answered for them and I really appre appreciate that. Also, the police department, congratulations. and also the fire chief. Uh thank you so much for being a good host that night. We really enjoyed you and you take care our community well and also to see you suffer. Congratulations Mr. Jones. Thank you so much. And I think that was a great choice with uh the dream team with you Kevin and Aziz suffered in good hands for now and the future. Thank you so much. Congratulation for that. I want to give um my condolence to Eli Eli Ward and his family and for the the loss of his sister. We call her P Ward. Uh they have my condolence. Um, here I go. I was here when the Lake Me community came up and they said a couple of years ago and I went out there and visited that community and it was everything they

said. It was a mess. It looked bad. I haven't been out there in a while and we did had I think we promised them something uh what we can do and I appreciate the the council saying that um whatever we can do we're going to try to make sure that this job is done because developers already talk with us got a I don't know got a warning But they promise most likely promise you something cuz they came here and walked out with y'all one night. And for them to delay and I don't think is I think it's purpose. I mean they know the rule. They know the law. So they also know that what they dealt with you and how they dealing with you. I don't think it's fair. So whatever like one council mentioned that whatever we can do whatever I can do I'm going talk to the city manager because this an ongoing thing and seem like we help a lot of communities and you all have been consistent and Mr. Blue said he'd been here 12 times. 12 times for the same thing four years. That's unacceptable. And I just hope that, you know, is there something that we can do do by the law that make them get done? I don't know how I look now, but I will go out there one day this week and see what the difference was when I went out there a couple of years ago

because they got instructions and only thing your community to ask from get what you paid for what you promised the community. And I thank y'all for coming up here. I think for the manner y'all come up and you're very respectful, very professional and keep coming till they finish the job. And whatever I can do, I will try to do the best I can do and try to encourage the council to make sure we represent that community. Well, with that say, God bless. Thank you.

Well, I'll go ahead and wrap it up. Uh, anytime there's three weeks between meetings, there's a whole lot that's going on and there's a lot that's going on in our city. Uh, and like council member Bennett, I'm going to leave off the civic league meetings and everything else we attended, but just talk about some of the events that we've had in town and and some ribbon cutings. Uh, but before I do that, I too want to thank uh, city manager for selecting Mr. Gary Jones in the permanent position is deputy city manager. I think we have absolutely solidified our senior management team. I'm going to call it the senior management dream team. And when I look at it, we've got uh three individuals that have spent the majority, if not all of their working career right here in the city of Suffach. And there's so much institutional knowledge anytime that you have the opportunity uh to look within your organization and promote individuals that have that knowledge. You're just so much better off. And in in a city of our size and our diversity, it's uh I think more important than it is probably anywhere across the country. It's just so much to deal with. So, we are um we are going to be moving forward with some exceptional leadership. Uh the clerk's office today would be a great day, a great week to say thank you for everything that uh Miss Dolly and her folks do in the clerk's office, they do their best to keep me straight. And she's smiling because she knows that's impossible, but it's okay. Uh expectations are what they are, but we uh muddle through the day and and uh she tries to keep me focused and on track. The Arbor Day proclamation at North Constant Park. Ribbon cutting.

Um I think I mentioned that the ribbon cutting. I was with council member Williams. He said, "Where's that park?" And I said, "You know the Wendy's Park." So we may consider changing the name to Wendy's Park instead. It's a whole lot easier to remember. Uh on the 21st, I attended the Suffach Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Citywide Revival. And you don't know how many years it's taken me to spit that out without stuttering. uh they do a great job every year just uh I think close to 30 churches participate as part of that organization and they are absolutely outstanding in what they do, how they go about making decisions. They're nonpartisan and it's I mean it's it's really nice. They do a great job and and it was a pleasure to be there again on their uh opening day. the grocery outlet. We mentioned that Habitat for Humanity on the 25th I went to Habitat for Humanity opened ribbon cutting for two more homes in the Pewsville area and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the street, but they're two very nice homes. two great families moving into them and I want to thank them for uh choosing Suffach and they said they had a little bit of a problem across Hampton Roads finding location. So I suggested that they call um the treasur's office too and look into you know u tax foreclosures if you will and possibly there would be some sites there to make sure that they get that information. That would be a that would be a match made in heaven right there. I want to thank Bird Song Peanut. They sponsored one of the houses and their philanthropy. Every time I turn around, you know, you see Bird Song on something, we take it for granted, but they I don't know. They're just in a league all their own with what they've

done for our city and what they've they've donated through their efforts. The Earth's an art, the Earth and Arts Festival, I think there could have been at least as many, if not more, maybe than Taste of Suffk. I mean, it was really well attended. Uh, like Council Member Johnson mentioned, uh, DBAT on Shoulders Hill Road, very unique um, operation. They're franchise. It's if you got a kid playing sports or what have you, especially softball, baseball, you need to go check it out. Nasman River Preservation Alliance Alliance, and I'm being somewhat redundant. I've been involved uh, with them since their inception 15 years ago. And to be a able to open up 600 acres of what was previously condemned waters is uh quite an accomplishment. Uh we had the investature of Von Breedlove who worked in the Commonwealth attorney here as a judge uh district court judge in Alawa White. I wish him all the best. Kids zone me park. I'm so glad that's open. And I don't know how many people, but it's amazing how many kids or whatever use that. Now, if I'm not mistaken, somebody told me 60,000 visits maybe in a year, but it is a very, very, very wellused park. And it's awesome. Now, with the remodel, I know it took a little extra time because there was some uh equipment issues that were ordered and had to be remedied, but check it out. Right behind Kroger, we actually do have a park on Main Street. is 60 some acres and it may be called a kitty park but it's got a pretty nice walkway for grown adults too. So it's a park and it's a very nice park. Uh you need to go check it out. Uh Harbor Freight ribbon cutting. We had another Harbor Freight open up in the Harbor View area. So it was nice to know that we could get something on this side before they get it in Harbor View. And that was at 8:00 in the morning. 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday morning. So I got to talk about these

eight o'clock ribbon cutings. Uh few folks there are glad they're over there. the everybody mentioned the Peanut Express and Seapport Express, a little uh partnership collaboration with the uh town of Windsor, but we all there was also state funding involved in that and that's really welcome for the folks in Windsor where they can get on get on a bus and and come to Suffach, come to the big city and be able to get the Medicare medical care that they need and be able to get groceries and things that we take for granted now. It used to kind of be like that in Suffach, but now I mean to them, we're the big city. And you look at what we have available to us as far as especially as far as medical care just right there on that route 10 quarter is just truly amazing. So to be able to open that up that was great education committee meeting. I thank you council member Wright. I won't belabor that but we did get a lot done and also want to congratulate uh superintendent uh Dr. Gordon for being selected as the superintendent of the year in Virginia. Uh quite a recognition. I was at um OBC hospital this morning, another one at 8:00 and uh presented a proclamation to uh nurses there in appreciation of uh National Nurses Week appreciation. Uh it's always great to go there. I got to got to bring one of my little therapy puppies at the same time. Of course, there was food involved, so he was very happy. And I want to thank Centa Obviously for all they do. That's another great outstanding corporate part partner, not just the services they provide, but how they work with our folks, how they work with the jail, how they give back to the community. Uh we're we're certainly blessed to have them. I want to thank council for supporting the budget. I mean, great budget. I mentioned I'm not going to

beat that up either. Thank the manager again for putting together a great budget. We got a lot of good things in there. We covered a lot of needs. We lowered the tax rate and I don't think we could ask for more. There was one other thing. I think that's it. The folks at Lake Me, I know everybody's addressed that. We've addressed it before. I think there's just two concerns and two concerns only. Once we know what your concerns, we got to determine whether we have purview over that or not. And we it's either we do or we don't. If we do, it needs to be fixed. And we need to do whatever we can to make it get fixed. And if not, then it's going to be a HOA issue. And I think council member Wright mentioned that also. I think it's sometime you probably have to sign off now and turn that can get turned over to the citizens because they've reached that percentage. But I would have to believe that had that you would have to be in agreeance to that before you accept that responsibility. I'm not an attorney, but once again, it'd probably be worth a phone call to see what your legal rights are. we can protect you on the city side as far as whether they're adhering to conditions of the conditional use permit and that they're also adhering to any regulations that we have uh regarding the development itself you as far as roads are concerned or safety issues and that type of thing. But probably a call, a brief call to an attorney that that handles that just to find out what your rights are on the other side so you can proceed. And because once you're going to once you're done, you want to have it straight when the transfer takes place or whatever that's going to be. And with that, I will go to my quote of the night. I don't know why I picked this one other than I get some pretty weird I don't know somebody calls me but a social media post and you know I go look at it and I can only wonder where it came from. So this is a Mark Twain quote

that I thought was quite appropriate and I try to do that so I don't respond to certain things and that quote is this it's a Mark Twain quote. Never argue with stupid people. they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. So with that, I'll say good night to ask for a motion to adjourn. Council member Johnson. So move a motion for adjournment from council member Johnson. Council member Recctor. Second.

Second from council member Recctor. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by vote of seven to zero. This meeting stands adjourned.