Chesapeake City Council Regular Meeting - June 10, 2025
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Chesapeake City Council Regular Meeting - June 10, 2025
The Chesapeake City Council held a regular meeting on June 10, 2025, at 6:30 PM in the City Hall Council Chamber. The meeting included a work session earlier at 5:00 PM on FY 2026 budget amendments. The council approved a consent agenda, adopted numerous budget amendments for the schools and city, and heard public comments. All votes were 9-0.
Consent Calendar
- Acknowledgments for Rezoning Applications: Two rezoning requests were acknowledged for future hearings: PLN-REZ-2025-006 (Unit 3 Hotel Proffer Modification at 1664 Debaun Ave.) and PLN-REZ-2025-007 (Hubbard Farm, 22 acres at 4216 Ballahack Road, reclassifying from RE-1 to A-1 Agricultural). These are scheduled for Planning Commission on July 9, 2025, and future City Council consideration.
- Resignation: Accepted James Mills, Jr. from the Chesapeake Commission on Health and Well Being.
- City Manager Items: Authorized application for a 2025 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act grant and approved transfer of $820,000 between programs in the Health Insurance Internal Service Fund for FY 2025.
- City Attorney Items: Approved four ordinances effective July 1, 2025, reflecting statutory changes from the 2025 General Assembly: (1) real estate tax exemption for surviving spouses of U.S. Armed Forces members who died in line of duty; (2) clarification of transient occupancy tax reporting requirements for accommodations intermediaries; (3) amendments to tow truck operator storage rates, owner/lienholder search fees, and removal of fuel surcharge; (4) amendments to the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) Financing and Resiliency Program.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Agenda Item Comments: Vic Nicholls (representing self) spoke in support of the Hubbard Farm rezoning (Item 1(B)), noting it moves land back to agricultural use and urged approval.
- Non-Agenda Comments:
- Vic Nicholls: Discussed farming costs, proposed a city-themed shirt design for events, and criticized the geographic imbalance of Planning Commission appointments, urging broader representation.
- Tommy Hart: Accused Chesapeake police officers of fabrication and evidence tampering in a murder case, alleging a cover-up and requesting investigation.
- Joel Beyioku: Advocated for a permanent farmers market in Chesapeake, citing economic benefits, community gathering (“third place”), and potential self-funding model based on Virginia Beach’s market. He suggested the city explore staffing, initial capital, and location.
Discussion Items
- Amendments to Chesapeake Public Schools FY 2026 Budget: City Manager Christopher Price presented 13 items (A-M) totaling $10,346,657 in state revenue appropriation, plus a $51,422 reduction in the city manager reserve. Key allocations: $4,824,810 for an additional 1% compensation adjustment for teachers and unified staff (bringing total to 4% increase); $1,330,973 for elementary common planning time; $412,933 for five administrative specialist positions; $436,443 for five general classroom teacher positions; $483,033 for the Modern Classroom Project; $164,803 for one school resource deputy (including vehicle) at an elementary school; $228,084 for security equipment; $1,000,000 for security vestibules at elementary schools; $1,000,000 for infrastructure support; $117,000 for a financial wellness program; $400,000 for HR recruitment/retention initiatives. Council Member Ritter confirmed that all funding except the $51,000 reserve reduction comes from state revenue, not city general fund. Council Member Bunn asked about the 1% salary increase (applied to all employees). Council Member Newins clarified the state revenue is ongoing, not one-time. Council Member King asked about the five administrative specialist positions (support for special needs, ELL, 504 students, and a pipeline for future administrators). Council Member Whitaker asked about the $1 million infrastructure support (general facilities upgrades, no specific projects yet). Council Member Ward praised the achievement for elementary teachers’ planning time and support staff raises.
- Amendments to FY 2026 Operating Budget: Nine items (A-I) were presented. Key appropriations: $12,500 to HR for Full Employment Program partnership with Virginia Department of Social Services; $110,000 to Central Fleet Management for utility costs; $10,593 to Library (0.25 FTE increase); $164,803 to Sheriff’s Office (1.0 FTE for school resource deputy, fully funded by schools); $20,780 to City Treasurer’s Office for benefit costs; $120,251 to Voter Registrar (12.5 FTE for seasonal election workers); $1,300,000 to Public Works-Chesapeake Transportation System for supplemental debt payment to Virginia Transportation Infrastructure Bank. Decreases: $49,249 reduction in HR (elimination of 0.125 FTE) and $102,375 reduction in General Fund non-departmental reserve for contingencies. Council Member Ritter asked about asset forfeiture funds; Police Chief provided clarification on seized vs. forfeited assets and that funds are shared by Police, Commonwealth’s Attorney, and potentially Sheriff’s Office. Ritter also requested an update on EDIP grants and shared use facilities agreements.
- Amendments to FY 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Program: Five items (A-E): $914,972 for Elbow Road Bridge Replacement (Virginia Beach’s share of cost increase); $160,000 (correction: $165,000) for State of Good Repair Milling and Paving (additional state funds); $325,000 reduction in Advanced Right of Way Acquisition Program II; establishment of Dominion Boulevard Trail project with $225,000 developer contribution; scope modification for Citywide Stormwater Outfall Regrading and Restoration project (clarifying allowable activities). Budget Director Jonathan Hobbs noted a typo in backup documentation for the milling/paving project number, but action item name is correct.
- Technical Corrections and Late-Year Administrative Changes: Included in the operating budget and CIP amendments. These were accounting corrections, fund reclassifications, position transfers, and fee schedule corrections. No change in purpose or amounts. Approved unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Agenda: Approved by 9-0 vote.
- Chesapeake Public Schools FY 2026 Budget Amendments: Approved by 9-0 vote.
- FY 2026 Operating Budget Amendments: Approved by 9-0 vote.
- FY 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Program Amendments: Approved by 9-0 vote.
- Requests for Amendments to FY 2026 Operating Budget and CIP: Approved by 9-0 vote.
- New Business - Initiating Resolution (25-R-047): Approved by 9-0 vote, requesting the Planning Commission to consider amendments to subdivision approval authority, timelines, and measurement standards to reflect 2025 General Assembly statutory changes.
- Meeting Adjourned: At 7:06 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Want to welcome everyone to our June tenth, twenty twenty-five council work session. Uh Mr. Manager, you want to introduce our topics? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, this is the meeting every year where we go through the final amendments and technical corrections uh for the operating and capital budgets, and I'll turn it over to budget uh director Jonathan Hobbs. All right, thank you, Chris, and uh good evening, uh, Mayor West, Vice Mayor D. Uh, as Chris said, I am here this afternoon this evening to go through the uh final amendments to the city and school's budget as well as some technical corrections to the city operating budget and CIP. Uh later this evening on your formal agenda, uh, you will have four separate uh items uh to consider relative to these requests. So we're gonna start with the school operating budget and the final amendments to the school operating budget. Uh so the reason that we are bringing these amendments at this time is there was the city council adopted the uh operating budget and capital improvement program on May thirteenth. Uh, due to the timing of the adoption of the state budget, uh, the schools, the school board did not have time to act uh based on the final adopted budget from the state. They took action on May nineteenth, and these are the requests of the school board, and they are requesting that City Council appropriate these funds as part of the final FY26 budget. And please keep in mind that all of these amendments are in the school's operating fund. We have not finalized revenue projections as things continue to move throughout the process. So we place this amount each year, whatever it is, in a city manager reserve. And then when the school board comes back and reconciles their final budget, they request to have this funding allocated. So that's what's occurring here. So in this amendment, we are reducing that reserve by $51,000. And then the next items are how they will be expending that allocation and the $10.35 million from the state. First is $400,000 for human resources initiatives. Next is the largest amendment is $4.8 million for an additional 1% salary increase for school employees. Then there's an amendment for $1.3 million for common planning time for elementary schools. Next is just over $400,000 for the schools to add five administrative specialist positions. The next amendment is just over $430,000, and this is to add five general classroom teacher positions. Next is $483,000 for the modern classroom project. The next item actually has a companion within the city amendments, and that's $164,000. The schools would like to add one additional school resource deputy as well as a vehicle for that deputy. And you will see that show up again in the amendments on the city side, an amendment to the Sheriff's Department's budget. Next is about $228,000 for security equipment, a million dollars for elementary school security vestibules, a million dollars for infrastructure support, and finally $117,000 for the financial wellness program. So that concludes the amendments requested by the school board to the school's budget. Next, we'll move to the city operating budget and look at final amendments. And typically what these amendments include are items that when we prepared the budget, we were did not have knowledge of. These are things that came in basically the last quarter of the fiscal year. And when we bring the amended budget to you, when we go from the city manager's proposed budget to the budget we asked you to adopt and adopt in May, we do not like to include what I would consider more staff-driven changes. We only try to include the changes that city council has asked that we make to the city manager's proposed budget. So that is that's why these are being requested at this time. So I'll go through these. And again, the change here are those benefit costs associated with it being a full-time position, things like retirement and health insurance. Next is a decrease in the position complement. We are eliminating an eighth of a position within the human resources department. We actually have a quarter of a position. It's an executive mentor position that we're reallocating one eighth of it to a mental health counselor position, and then we are eliminating the other eighth of a position that remains. So a reallocation of an eighth of a position and then the elimination, but the net is a decrease in the budget for human resources. Next is an increase in the position complement by 12.5 FTEs and expenditures in the voter registrar's office. This is a result of, and we've had several items come to council over the last several months that are result of position audits and auditing our position control system. This is another thing that we discovered through those audits. Due to the increase in staffing required for elections, as you all know, the state has mandated that uh polls be open longer periods of time over the past several years. We've gone from kind of election day to election season. Uh so we certainly need the FTE authority within the registrar's office to uh staff the polling sites.
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