Good evening and welcome to the Hampton City Council uh special meeting, uh meeting pertaining to the uh eventual adoption of our operating budget and the public hearings around that one.

And so with that, I want to ask the clerk to call a roll, please.

Councilman Bowman, present, Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell, present, Councilwoman Dareby.

Present, Councilwoman Harper, present, Councilwoman Mudler, present.

Mayor Gray.

Present.

And our invocation and pledge of allegiance will be uh offered by the Vice Mayor Stephen Brown.

So please uh stand and join us.

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Oh Lord, this is the day you made you say we should rejoice in and be glad.

And thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to serve in this day as and serve this great city we call Hampton and City, which we love.

We pray tonight, God, for deliberations.

We pray tonight, God for civility.

We pray tonight, God for peace and collaboration, working with our citizens and also folks on this dice tonight.

We pause now to remember those who are first responders, those who given the ultimate sacrifice and have given their lives for this country, our veterans, our senior citizens.

I pray, God, as we deliberate over the budget and the very difficult decision we have to make.

I pray God that you give us wisdom to make the right decisions.

And God, that we would honor you and do all things decently and in order.

And so tonight we pray peace over our nation, peace over our world, pray for the uh those who are upcoming leaders in our community that they will see leadership as a noble ambition.

And so we give your name the praise.

We give you the glory and the honor, and all of God's people said together, Amen.

Okay, so April, the month of uh May, uh, as well as April, there were quite a few uh proclamations recognizing special days in our community and across the country, but uh this evening I had uh on the mayor's comments, I have a couple of uh proclamations and recognitions on special days this month, so that I'm gonna read these on the mayor's comments.

Normally I would do these under a different section on the agenda of uh presentations, proclamations, and awards, but that is not on the agenda tonight because uh this is a special meeting.

So I'm gonna take the uh uh point of privilege of doing these on the mayor's uh comments tonight.

And the first one I'm gonna start with is in recognition of World B Day in the City of Hampton.

That's World B B E E Day.

And whereas the United Nations designated May 20th as World B Day to raise awareness of the vital role bees and other pollinators play in our ecosystem and food security.

Whereas bees and other pollinators are facing numerous threats, including habitat loss, climate change, pesticide use, which are endangering the populations and the food supply they help to produce.

And whereas the city of Hampton recognizes the importance of protecting these essential creatures and the ecosystem they support, whereas the city of Hampton is committed to promoting awareness and action to support bees and other pollinators, and whereas the City of Hampton received its B City USA affiliate designation in 2019, and whereas since his acception, the B City USA Hampton Committee has participated in numerous outreach opportunities, created a pollinator certification program for Hampton residents, and was featured on the cover of the B City USA 2023 annual report.

And whereas in 2024, B City USA's Hampton team has hosted webinars, participated in events, and created a keep America Beautiful grant-funded pollinating garden at the Bluebird Gap Farm.

And whereas it is fitting for the City of Hampton to acknowledge World B Day.

Now, therefore, I, James A.

Gray Jr., mayor of the on behalf of the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, do hereby recognize May 20th, 25 as World B Day in the City of Hampton, City of Hampton, Virginia, and call upon all citizens of Hampton to join me in recognizing this important cause and witness whereof I've hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Hampton, Virginia, to be a fixed this seventh day of May 2025, signed James A.

Gray Jr.

Mayor.

And we have some people uh here this evening who are involved with um the B program here in the City of Hampton.

I'd like to ask them to come up when I call their names.

Uh uh Chris Grady, um Hampton Clean City Commissioner Vice Chair, Chris, come on up, uh April Resuver, and if I didn't pronounce your name right, April, you can let me know that.

And then uh Al Banwell, B City USA Hampton Chair, uh Cynthia Fazin, uh with our Clean City uh Public Works Department, uh McCoy Logan Public Works Clean City, Arjun Novak, Public Works Clean City, and uh Marty Wood, B City USA Hampton Committee Chair.

So why don't you come on right out down front and uh Cynthia, if you want to just maybe make a few brief comments or introduce what uh all of our team is doing with regard to bees in our community, I feel free to do that.

You can actually go to the mic, Cynthia, so that you can be heard.

So I have a chance.

What did I say?

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Uh, first of all, Mayor Gray, Council members, we thank you so much for this proclamation for recognizing May 20th as 40B Dave, along with the UN and several other cities throughout the United States.

This was for I started as a collaboration with the City of Newport News.

Uh, however, they had to move forward, and we pressed on with this.

So we thank those that work in the council office to get this done for us.

But it's just a recognition of everything that B City USA Umganizations throughout uh the United States do.

This is just one small part of what we do here in Hampton.

If you're interested, check us out, Hampton Clean City Commission, our B City, our website, and join us in the effort to save our bees, save our pollinators, save our earth.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, so a lot going on with uh Clean City Commission and a lot of other organizations in our community.

You probably didn't know we were doing so much with regard to bees in our community.

So uh we uh thank you for bringing this to our attention.

So we were pleased to do this proclamation just to uh bring recognition to uh we know the importance of bees in our community and what they do for the environment.

So I'm gonna ask the council members if we can jump down and take a quick photo with uh all of the team involved in uh beekeeping and bee pollination and protecting the bees in Hampton.