The Chesapeake City Council held a regular meeting on February 25, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber. The meeting included a work session at 5:00 p.m. for the Constitutional Officer's Annual Report, followed by the regular session. Key actions included approval of the agenda with an added item confirming the declaration of a state of emergency for severe winter weather, a proclamation for Career and Technical Education Month, approval of several public hearing items, and appointments to boards and commissions. The meeting concluded with a closed session.
Do you know what? I want to welcome everyone to our February 25th, 2020 council work session. We have several guests here with us. Mr. Manager, I'll let you introduce, and if I could, like to make a uh comment after you've done that. Um so as council will recall last year during the budget process, um uh we we talked about the notion that the city provides supplements to constitutional officers. Um we also for the first time last year started to provide a city supplement to the public defender's office, and so council asked uh my office and the city attorney to work with the constitutional officers and the public defenders um to draft uh um memorandums of understanding so that we could identify um really what it is that that um the the services that um that were supplementing and just to make sure that that all of those expectations are met. If you recall part of the um part of those memorandums require the constitutional officers and the public defender to come before council annually um to provide um an update on those activities for the prior year in advance of the of the um upcoming uh budget year. So this meeting we have uh three constitutional officers with us. We have the Commonwealth attorney, we have the sheriff, and we have Commissioner of the Revenue, and then we'll have the remaining constitutional officers and the public defender um coming up in March. But really the purpose is um to give a brief overview of the elements uh that were outlined in the MOU and the performance uh um on those, and then um uh really provide uh give council the opportunity between now and and the budget to give me any feedback on what they'd like to see in future MOUs and future budgets. And with that, I'll turn it back to the mayor. Thank you, uh Mr. Manager. I would like to just a couple of uh ground the understandings from council and from presenters. You know, this is an election time. We do not want this to be an election discussion where uh the purpose of it is to understand what you're requesting for the budget, so if you'll keep your comments to to that to those uh to that point, and I ask council members if you have any questions after the presentations uh related to what uh the expectation is for budget that you give those questions to uh our city manager and city manager will go back to constitutional officers to get the answers, and we will follow up with the with that later. Mr. Yes, sir. So up first is the Commonwealth attorney. Well, good afternoon, uh members, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. Um it is indeed an honor to be back in front of you all. I think since I was on the council with you, or several of you, I've only been back once to address you, and we'll get into why I was here for that because I think that was a particularly uh joyous occasion. Um but I am here as the city manager has uh eloquently laid out to begin discussions uh, I guess relevant to the memorandum of understanding that was signed last year. Um but I think I'd like to spend the first part of the presentation talking a little bit about our office because this is the very first one of these presentations we've ever done uh as far as the four years that I was on council, we never did this, and certainly I'm not aware of any other uh constitutional office coming. I think I'm the first one of the five to present to you. So uh for the benefit of those that are newly elected as well, and congratulations, Dr. King and Councilmember Smith. Um, I want to tell you a little bit more about our office first. And uh so I'll get right to it. I'm gonna introduce my team in a minute, so I don't want uh you or the public to think I'm uh ignoring them, but I have a flow to this presentation, and I'll get to that in a second. The Commonwealth Attorney's Office for, and I think most of you know this, if not all of you, but for the public that's watching, you know, we are what's called the district attorney's office and most other jurisdictions. But because of the way that uh the Virginia Constitution uh outlines our our role, we are a constitutional office, and I am the Commonwealth attorney for the City of Chesapeake. What that means is that we are responsible for prosecuting all felonies that occur within the city and certain misdemeanors. And I'll get into that a little bit later as well, because we're not statutorily obligated to prosecute all misdemeanors. However, we have certain policies in place where we do prosecute all of certain types of misdemeanors. But overarching that, the mission of our office and the mission of the Chesapeake Commonwealth Attorney's Office is to seek justice in every case that we prosecute. And our vision statement, our vision is to represent the best interests of the victims, the citizens, and the City of Chesapeake with integrity, fairness, and dedication to doing what is right. We will accomplish this vision within an atmosphere of teamwork that fosters a desire in our employees to serve people where they need us. What the vision statement doesn't say that is also important is we also as prosecutors need to look out for the interest of the defendant in the case. And our role is markedly different than that of a defense counsel uh as we seek justice. But we in our office, we are our North Stars are our core values of teamwork, mentorship, training, and integrity. To orient you a little bit about our office, and now is the part where I'm going to introduce you to our team members. This, and I know it's probably a little hard for you to see, but I think and hope that uh you all have copies in front of you. This is a organizational chart of our office and how we are structured. Um sitting to my left is Chief Deputy Commonwealth Attorney DJ Hanson. Uh DJ has been with the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney since September 11th of 2001. And seated next to him is Deputy Commonwealth Attorney Stephanie Pass.