City Council - workshop

We have only one topic this afternoon. Mr. Director, please make the presentation.

Monsieur le maire, madame la vice maire, membres du conseil, en coordination avec nos services municipaux, le système judiciaire, les agents constitutionnels et avec l'aide de Nicole Porter, Mindy Carlin, présidente et cofondatrice d'Access Point Public Affairs. Notre conseillère législative présentera le projet de programme législatif 2027.

Deux points à noter devant vous. Le projet de programme proposé, non pas dans sa version finale, mais au format bruit.

Regarding the calendar, the objective is to reach the stage of the public audience and to organize this audience for our legislative program, approved on Wednesday, October 21. Ms. Carlin, before you start your presentation, I would like to inform the public that Councilor Butler-Barlot and Vice Mayor Lou Ward will not be present and have been excused.

Thank you, Mr. Council Member. I am Mindy Carlin from Access Point Public Affairs and I am delighted to present the results of the work carried out with the services under the direction of Nicole Porter for your examination. Pour donner une vue d'ensemble, notre approche est similaire à celle des deux dernières années. Nous différencions nos priorités politiques si, pour rappel, sont les dossiers où nous serons pro-actifs dans notre plaidoyer pour obtenir du soutien et position politique.

intended to express the important points for the city in order to be able to react as other subjects advance during the legislative session.

You will notice in your file two new features that we offer for this year's platform. The first is a section that presents the profile of Suffolk City, as well as some statistics. La raison est simplement de nous assurer que nos représentants, aussi bien à Richmond qu'au niveau fédéral, en sachent un peu plus sur notre localité, sur les faits et chiffres qui nous rendent uniques et qu'ils aient une meilleure compréhension. Nous utilisons donc cela comme un outil pédagogique autant que comme un outil de plaidoyer. And the second new feature is a map intended to show the regional importance of some of our transport projects for which we have been pleading for a long time. But we have estimated that a visual representation of their location and the way they connect to the surrounding areas would help to explain why they are so crucial. I will briefly review these points. As we go through these priorities and positions, I will also highlight the new or different elements of our previous platform.

This is simply to help you in your reflections.

The first priority is a new element. We will therefore seek, with your support, to set up pre-trial services for the 5th Judiciary District, Pour ce faire, nous demanderons un financement à l'état de 416,615 dollars. Il s'agirait d'un besoin de financement récurrent pour soutenir ce programme à l'avenir. Nous sommes le seul district judiciaire de Hampton Roads à ne pas disposer de cette ressource. We think this is important because it strengthens public safety by providing courts with standardized risk assessment and monitoring that improves comparison, coordination and responsibility, while reducing unnecessary detention and prison costs. As you can see, if this is approved, we will ask for this amount in recurring financing from exercise 2028 via the Department of Criminal Justice Services. La deuxième priorité politique n'est pas nouvelle. Il s'agit du soutien à la conformité concernant les mandats sur les conduites de service en plomb, une exigence fédérale qui inclut l'identification et la vérification des matériaux des conduites, la tenue d'un inventaire complet, le remplacement des conduites en plomb ou non identifiées, ainsi que l'information et l'engagement du public. Cela figure dans notre programme depuis un certain temps, mais cette session nous espérons obtenir un financement de l'État pour aider la localité. Nous proposons une demande ponctuelle d'un million de dollars pour aider à compenser cette charge qui incombe à la ville. Our next priority is not new either, although the context has changed a bit following the last legislative session, and it is a subject that we know well in Suffolk, to strengthen the regional financing of transport. As you may remember from my end-of-session report, two bill projects have been advanced. The first was HB 1241, which created the coordination and preparation framework for Hampton Roads infrastructure. The PDC is responsible for identifying, hierarchizing and planning regional needs, non-financed in terms of transport and flooding, and evaluating sustainable financing solutions. The challenge is that no state funding has supported the adoption of this measure. As a result, the PDC must do its best to meet expectations, but without any additional resources. This is, I think, one of the points that will appear on the PDC's regional platform, and we recommend supporting this effort as a step towards the advancement of some of the road, primary and secondary priorities that we have identified. In addition, during the last session, the AJ28 was adopted, thus creating the study on the regional common transport of Hampton Roads. Cette étude est chargée d'examiner le transport à long terme et les solutions potentielles de financement dédiées pour les trois agences de transport qui desservent la région. Cela inclut Hampton Roads Transit, Williamsburg Area Transit en tant qu'agence de transport et bien sûr Suffolk Transit. Nous soutiendrons donc cette étude de deux ans. The objective of this study is, after these two years, to obtain a complete set of solutions that will benefit the community, which will be presented during the Session of 2028 and which will support the needs for transport in the region and certainly in Suffolk. We hope that these two measures will allow us to adopt a global regional approach to meet our needs for transport funding. We continue to have, and we now have a very interesting map, a list of infrastructure projects that have been part of our priorities for a long time. All the content of this slide and the agenda is in line with what we had last year. You can see that the projects listed include both bridges and roads, as well as improvements to the Crumbs Mill Pond dam. Moving on to our political positions, the first category is public security. A large part of this platform, in fact, all the positions in this section are consistent with our previous positions. I am looking forward to the second point, to the fact that we are preserving the ability to use technological solutions for public security. Je m'y attends étant donné que nous avons réussi à obtenir un soutien législatif lors de la dernière session pour encadrer l'utilisation des radars automatiques dans nos communautés. Cette année, j'ai l'impression que nous allons faire des choses similaires dans le domaine des lecteurs de plaques d'immatriculation. Nous veillerons donc à ce que les intérêts de la Ville soient représentés sur l'ensemble des questions que nous avons traitées par le passé dans le domaine de la sécurité publique. Next, we move on to our Regulatory and Finance section, for which we propose two new points. The first concerns the reform of tax evasion for disabled veterans. I know that you are all well aware of the impact that this program has on the fiscal situation of the city. However, it is important to note that it is not a question of removing this tax aid for the elderly. The objective is really to remedy the growing and disproportionate impact of this program on the city. The fiscal impact for the city should reach 20 million in 2027, which emphasizes the need for varied solutions, such as partial reimbursement by the state, cost sharing and other sustainable reforms. A point to note, the basis of this tax exemption is in the Constitution. Consequently, there are constitutional limits to what can be done on this subject. But a working group for which we obtained support during the last session held its first meeting today. I know that representatives of this region and localities of the entire State participated and we will follow this as things move forward. The second point is to protect the existing exemptions of the FOIA. We will seek to ensure that local governments can continue to protect sensitive information during discussions on economic development, public security, personnel, legal affairs, public markets and other negotiations currently protected by the FOIA. All our other positions in the Regulatory and Financial section are in line with those we had last year. We therefore want to continue to firmly defend the tax power of local authorities, to protect tax credit for historical rehabilitation, which had a positive impact on many projects in the city, to restore the local part of the excess tax costs added to our program last year, to preserve local authority against non-financed mandates, and to protect qualified and sovereign immunity. Let's move on to community development and urban planning. Two new points are submitted to your review in this section. The first priority is to expand housing options by specifically supporting state resources, tools and partnerships that promote production, affordability, preservation and rehabilitation of housing, while maintaining the necessary flexibility to implement solutions adapted to the unique needs of the city. Then, in second place, increase the support of the State for site preparation. It is proposed to support a state-funded investment supported in site preparation, in particular through the Virginia Business Ready Site MEC program and the necessary infrastructure to support sites ready for use in the context of our economic development efforts. It is essential that we maintain a solid partnership between the State and local authorities in order to guarantee our ability to capitalize on these opportunities for economic development. The other points of our section on community development and urban planning are in line with those of previous years. We will continue to fight to preserve our local authority in terms of soil use, strengthen our landification and our economic competitiveness, protect our rights to expropriation and local passage, and guarantee the necessary financing for the maintenance of historic African-American cemeteries. Regarding transport, staff recommends continuing to prioritize or support solutions that give priority to evacuation routes and infrastructure financing, and extend the current toll relief program so that Suffolk City residents can benefit from it. The section on public services and the environment, it does not contain any recommended changes You will see that we recommend maintaining the support and investment in the conservation programs of agricultural lands as well as the protection of forest areas and the financing of water management. A new section is proposed for education and labor where we are advancing a new position calling for a reform of the financing alignment for compulsory placements in specialised education. Plus précisément, nous soutenons les propositions visant à aligner la responsabilité du financement des placements privés en éducation spécialisée sur le système d'enseignement public de Virginie. Cela relève actuellement du Département des services sociaux et plus particulièrement de l'Office of Children's Services. This change would ensure sufficient state funding so that these placement and education services imposed by the federal government do not impose additional financial burden on localities. We recommend continuing our support for the construction and modernization of schools, and we are finally proposing a new position in the social services sector to meet the needs of young people with severe disabilities. More specifically, we propose formulations aimed at increasing the action and investment of the State to guarantee safe and adapted placements for young people in host families who have complex needs in terms of behaviour, development and mental health in the wait for their final placement. Il est important que la continuité des soins en Virginie soit solide afin que les jeunes en foyer ayant des besoins complexes disposent d'un endroit sûr et ne soient pas laissés à dormir dans les bureaux des services sociaux ou ne deviennent pas une charge financière pour la ville sans le soutien de l'État pendant qu'ils attendent leur placement. Et voilà, Monsieur le Maire, la plateforme proposée et je serai heureuse de répondre à toutes vos questions du mieux que je peux.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I noticed that under the public safety section, I did not see anything about our recurrent battle for 911 operators to be integrated into the retirement system.

Mr. Mayor, I am happy to answer that. So, on this particular point, we decided to add, you will notice on the very last page, and I apologize for forgetting to mention it, organizational support. L'intention est que, lorsqu'une autre organisation est le chef de file ou possède un ensemble de positions alignées avec nos intérêts, nous leur laissions le soin de mener cette question. Ainsi, nous travaillerions avec l'association qui représente les opérateurs du 911 et nous les soutiendrions dans la mesure où des propositions seraient avancées. Rien ne changera concernant le rôle de la ville si cela est adopté en l'état. La ville continuerait à apporter un soutien total à ses propositions. Nous avons simplement estimé, au sein de l'équipe, qu'il n'était pas nécessairement approprié qu'une seule ville soit le porte-parole principal d'un sujet qui impacte les localités de tout le Commonwealth.

Ma deuxième question concerne votre planification du développement communautaire. The support to the resources, tools and partnerships of the State to develop the production, the availability, the preservation and the rehabilitation of housing. I agree with all this, but the next point concerns the preservation of local flexibility. I told you, didn't I? A little contradictory. If the State imposes measures, it will be a unique solution for all, while at the same time we ask to preserve the unique character of Suffolk.

I wonder how we can make sure that these two objectives are aligned.

Monsieur le maire, monsieur le conseiller, je pense qu'il y a un certain nombre de choses que l'État a faites et peut continuer à faire comme investir dans le fonds fiduciaire pour le logement et dans des programmes qui incitent au développement de logements abordables sans pour autant dicter à une localité où les construire ou comment gérer les besoins en logement au sein de nos propres communautés. So I think the balance is there. How can we all recognize the need for more housing options? And our position is that the state can play a role in helping to support this without, however, bypassing what you know best about what will work or not in your community.

I believe that what is considered is to host it in the regional prison. There is a small change.

There is a strategy in the course of evolution.

What I would start with is that it is a very collaborative effort which includes the public defender and the prosecutor of the Commonwealth. This came to us in fact with some judges of the 5th district, the social services including the prison. We have therefore examined potential locations. They are currently working with people who are out of the program, so that would complete what they are already doing to help people at an early stage, rather than going to work already in this area, but we would host those within the program. Is it an additional expense for the city of Suffolk, or is it all financed by the city? We ask them to finance it. Is it a possibility?

So there is a program by which the state supports these programs in other localities at a comparable level. I would say that historically, there have been revenues or a part that has been taken care of locally. But we have not determined if this is the approach that we would adopt or not. However, the required level is comparable to what other programs in the region and across the state have requested.

We have separated politics from the financial side, which I think is very important.

As we quickly went through this document concerning our public security, when we talked about public security, I could see that one of the points was missing. As I said, I just had to take a quick look, where we were asking ourselves at a time when

Give me a minute. Is it still in our...

Yes, sir, it's at the top of page 9.

I think there were a few questions.

The presentation by Mindy is really a summary of the file.

There is additional information in the file, which is in context, of course, in the documents that you have... Thank you very much. This being said, the session is up and we will meet again at 6 p.m.