Chesapeake City Council Meeting - May 21, 2024
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Chesapeake City Council Meeting - May 21, 2024
The Chesapeake City Council held a work session at 5:30 PM followed by the regular meeting at 6:30 PM on May 21, 2024. The work session featured a presentation from Chesapeake Regional Healthcare (CRH) on hospital performance, expansion plans, and financial challenges with Anthem. The regular meeting included recognitions, three public hearing items, two time extension requests, a proffer modification, and discussions on referendums. All votes were unanimous except for two solar farm extensions which passed 7-2.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Proposed Agenda: Unanimously approved (9-0).
Public Comments & Testimony
- R&J Motel Proffer Modification (Public Hearing Item A): Attorney Mike Sweeney, representing the Patel family and R&J Motel Management, spoke in support, noting the project would create jobs, expand the tax base, and include solar panels providing 60% of hotel energy. No opposition speakers.
- HRSD Washington District Pump Station (Public Hearing Item B): Representatives from Hampton Roads Sanitation District (Ryan Delo and Phil Hubbard) were present for questions only; no public speakers.
- Fence Text Amendment (Public Hearing Item C): No speakers.
- Solar Field Time Extensions (Agenda Items A & B): Joel Malefyt, representing Summit Ridge Energy, noted the extensions would allow finalization of site plan and stormwater approvals.
- Crestfield Accelerated Proffer Modification (New Business): Drew Vakos, representing Dragas Associates, was present for questions only.
Discussion Items
- Work Session: Chesapeake Regional Healthcare (CRH) Update (5:30 PM – 6:01 PM)
- CRH leadership (Reese Jackson, CEO; Dr. Jen Lenkewitz, CMO; Donna Runyon, CHRO; Jeff Kingry, CPRO; Amber Edgett, COO/CNO; Steve McDonald, CFO; Robert Cole Pepper, CAO) presented:
- Magnet recognition for nursing excellence (only 8% of U.S. hospitals achieve this).
- First open-heart surgery performed April 30, 2024, with five surgeries in two weeks.
- Comprehensive stroke center designation; listed in Becker's top 100 neuroscience programs.
- Planned level III trauma center application in June 2024, motivated in part by the 2022 Walmart shooting.
- Financial challenge: Anthem reimburses CRMC 28% less than nearby hospitals; CRH seeks community help to advocate with Anthem.
- Expansion projects: Hanbury & Battlefield urgent care/imaging center (opening by Jan 2025); future parking garage, child care center, nursing school, and behavioral health inpatient unit.
- 70% of workforce is Gen X or Millennial; 43% live in Chesapeake; turnover below national average.
- 117 employed providers; 56 hired since 2022; 140,000+ clinic visits and 6,500+ surgeries in past year.
- CRH leadership (Reese Jackson, CEO; Dr. Jen Lenkewitz, CMO; Donna Runyon, CHRO; Jeff Kingry, CPRO; Amber Edgett, COO/CNO; Steve McDonald, CFO; Robert Cole Pepper, CAO) presented:
- Council Discussion on MOU with Constitutional Officers:
- Council Member Ike questioned whether existing MOUs exist; City Attorney Lindley noted only one MOU (with Commonwealth Attorney) exists. The 3.5% wage increase for constitutional officers was previously part of the budget but tied to signing MOUs. City Attorney clarified that these are new MOUs to be drafted.
- Referendum Discussions:
- Mayor West requested a resolution for the June 11, 2024 agenda for council to consider petitioning Circuit Court for an advisory referendum on changing from at-large to ward-based voting.
- Council Member Ritter requested a similar resolution for an advisory referendum on recycling. City Attorney Lindley noted the filing deadline is August 16, 2024.
- Deputy City Manager Solis noted a recycling update is scheduled for the June 11 work session.
Key Outcomes
- Public Hearing A – R&J Motel Proffer Modification (PLN-REZ-2023-023): Approved (9-0) with proffers dated May 9, 2024, allowing a 77-room midscale hotel (reduced from 120 rooms), with stone veneer and Hardie Plank materials and solar panels providing 60% energy.
- Public Hearing B – HRSD Washington District Pump Station (PLN-USE-2024-002): Approved (9-0) with stipulations.
- Public Hearing C – Fence Setback/Height Text Amendment (PLN-TXT-2023-012): Approved (9-0) version dated March 25, 2024.
- Agenda Item A – Borrego Centerville Solar Field Time Extension (PLN-USE-2020-042): Approved (7-2) with Council Members Bunn and Ritter voting no. Extension to July 1, 2026.
- Agenda Item B – Centerville South Solar Farm Time Extension (PLN-USE-2021-018): Approved (7-2) with Council Members Bunn and Ritter voting no. Extension to July 1, 2026.
- New Business – Crestfield Accelerated Proffer Modification (PLN-REZ-2018-018): Approved (9-0) with revised proffers dated April 24, 2024, modifying timing for roadway dedications, a $500,000 cash contribution, and a park access drive.
- Closed Meetings:
- A closed meeting was held at 7:15 PM to discuss expansion of an existing business (under Va. Code §2.2-3711(A)(5)); reconvened at 7:24 PM; certification approved (9-0).
- A closed meeting scheduled for May 28, 2024 at 4:00 PM for evaluations of city appointees (under Va. Code §2.2-3711(A)(1)); motion approved (9-0).
Meeting Transcript
I want to welcome everyone to our May 21, 2024 City Council work session. Mr. Solas, I see a lot of our friends from our favorite hospital here tonight. So I'll assume that's our topic. Yes, sir, it is. And on behalf of the city manager, I'd like to introduce Mr. Reese Jackson, President, CEO of Chesapeake Regional Healthcare to introduce his team and members of the uh hospital authority. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Uh thank you, Mayor West, and all members of council. Um, it's um been a number of years since we presented to the work session. Actually, it was going back to 2018 prior to the pandemic. So I want to introduce the authority board members that are here. So I see uh David Paradise, our board chair, Angela Farabee, our past board chair, Christy Wooten, Sandra Baines, Lionel Spruel, we have uh John Maxwell and Doug Davis here tonight. So um, those are the board members here, quite a few. And as we go through the presentation, uh, each um executive will introduce themselves. Um, maybe I'll take the honor of introducing the first one because she's the newest member of our team, uh, Dr. Jen Lenkewitz. Hello, good evening. Thanks for having us. I'm happy to be serving as the Chief Medical Officer at Chesapeake, where we do provide consistently high quality care, and we are among the nation's top ten percent of safe hospitals. Well, what uh makes a hospital safe, it's the ability to treat disease, illness, injury, but also prevent harm, and partner with outside uh physicians, post-acute care facilities, and the community to preserve health in our patients. So the next slide focuses on our efforts to reduce hospital-acquired infections. And even though our patients require central lines to administer treatments and fluids, and indwelling catheters to measure their output, we're able to focus on preventing harm and prevent infections. Here you see some exceedingly low rates of infection when compared with hospitals across the nation. Next slide. So this is a six-hour bundle of care. And if you see the purple line is the expected uh benchmark, and here you see that Chesapeake Regional is able to go well beyond that to care for patients with such serious infections. On the next slide, we talk about readmissions, and this is the partnership with primary care physicians, community organizations, and postage care to preserve the health of the patients who just achieved a better state of health after being in our hospital. We have an expected rate of readmission for people who are very sick, and there you see the CMS benchmark in the lighter blue color, but Chesapeake Regional is able to able to do better than that with lower readmission rates than expected. But Chesapeake Regional is able to be able to do better than that with lower readmission rates than expected. So thank you. Good evening. I'm honored to be here. My name is Donna Runyon, and I'm the Chief Human Resources Officer at Chesapeake Regional Health Care. I've worked in health care for 11 years, although I've held HR leadership roles in other industries prior to that. I've been at Chesapeake Regional now for two years. This evening I just wanted to share a snapshot of our workforce with you. As colleagues, whether we deliver patient care or provide support to those who do, each one of us is considered a caregiver. There's roughly 2500 of us, and that includes our employed physicians and advanced practice providers. If we turn to the charts on the slide, you will see in the top left corner that 70% of our workforce is evenly split between the Gen X and Millennial generations. The gray bar is our organization, while the tier teal bar is the city of Chesapeake. Forty-three percent of us live in the city of Chesapeake. And while staffing remains a challenge across the healthcare industry, we're pleased to share our turnover performance, which has remained below national average hospital turnover since the end of the calendar year 2021. We attribute this as much to our inclusive culture and the focus on excellence as to our investments in competitive compensation and affordable health care coverage over the past two years. I know I speak for my colleagues in saying we're proud of our achievements and grateful for the contributions each and every caregiver makes at Chesapeake Regional. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us here today. My name is Jeff Kingry. I'm the chief physician relations officer at Chesapeake Regional Health Care, and really my primary role is to serve as the vice president over our employed medical group.
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