Good evening and uh welcome to um Hampton City Council legislative session.

Uh ask the clerk to call the role, please.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell, present.

Councilwoman Fairby, present.

Councilwoman Harper, present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Present.

Mayor Gray.

Present.

And the invitation this evening will be given by Councilwoman Michelle Taylor Ferraby.

So please stand and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Gracious and loving God.

We come before you today with grateful hearts for the opportunity to serve our community.

We ask for your guidance, wisdom, and discernment as we gather to make decisions that affect the lives of all who call this city home.

Help us to lead with integrity, listen with compassion, and act with courage.

May we seek the common good and remember always our responsibility to the most vulnerable among us.

Grant us patience and discussion, clarity and purpose, and unity in our diversity.

Let our actions reflect justice, peace, and mutual respect.

Bless our city, its leaders, its citizens, its first responders, and all of those who work to make our community a better place.

In your holy name we pray.

Amen.

Two weeks ago at our last uh council meeting, we honored the uh uh dual enrollment students who graduated with their associates degrees uh before they graduated from high school.

Uh they still haven't graduated from high school yet.

Uh a proud moment, uh sixty-five students uh in this year's class.

Um I was told that next year's class will be even larger.

So, you know, not only are we uh kind of setting the standard for you know school uh learning and how kids are learning and what they're able to accomplish in schools, but I think it really kind of raises the bar for educating our kids in the Hampton Roads region, and they just continue to do great things.

And uh so we're I think we're at 22, I think is a total number of dual enrollment graduates who already completed the associate's degree so far, and that's done with uh no cost to the uh students or the parents themselves.

I think that's uh that's amazing.

So continue to make us proud there.

Then uh last week we attended the uh academic achievement awards banquet uh for all of the uh highest achieving students uh in the school division, again, a very great group of students uh and some really great stories there for kids who uh you know really achieving and and uh achieving remarkable things in the classroom, and again, a proud moment not only for Hampton City schools but for all of us here in Hampton.

And then last night, you know, once again they continue to uh make us proud again at uh Congressman Bobby Scott's uh 32nd uh high school art competition.

It's a nationwide program uh for Congress where students uh you know display their artistic uh skills uh in art and um you know are judged and then they have a competition.

I think we had uh nearly a hundred students that participated, 107 students that participated in the third congressional district from various high schools, and um, but when uh all was said and done for those students uh you know achieved the uh uh ranking of uh first place to fourth place, and in that were two Hampton students, both from Kikatan High School, the first place winner and the fourth place winner.

And so we were all pretty proud of uh that accomplishments accomplishment as well, especially when we're sitting there in Newport News with uh many of their students uh participating as well.

So again, they they made us proud again last night and very good accomplishment.

Um the two students who won the competition or who placed last night, uh the finalist uh Alisa Boyce was the first place winner uh from Kikatan High School, and Giselle Banks was the fourth place winner from Kikatan High School and uh uh Leah will uh travel to Washington DC on June 11th as a part of the gathering of all of the first place students from all across the country for a reception uh uh honoring them and uh their artwork that won them the competition competition will be displayed there at the uh at the U.S.

Capitol.

So congratulations to all of them.

And I know we're all planning those some of us would be attending high school graduations uh over the next couple weeks, and uh we're real proud of our students.

And as Brian Marcese mentioned earlier, um, you know, we we want these kids to graduate and go off to college.

Many of them are going to college locally, and um we want them to uh come back to Hampton.

Uh you know, we have a lot to offer here, and uh we need you know our superstars who uh and and all of our students, uh you know, especially the high achieving ones, you know, to really consider you know the future careers here and what's offered here in the Hampton Rose region.

And so we hope that we can uh we can encourage them uh to uh to come back home and you know be a part of our community, be the future leaders, the business leaders, the government leaders, political leaders, community leaders in Hampton in the future.

And I wanted to just reference uh uh a regional study because I think uh our work is cut out for us.

I think Councilwoman uh Campbell shared this with me.

I think that's where I got it from, but it's a regional study about outward migration of young people from the community, uh those between the ages of 20 and 29, and what what really keeps them here and what uh you know what forces them to look elsewhere and the uh the opportunities for us is to uh you know is creating a region where there's a uh a good cost of living, availability of housing, safety and crime, career opportunities, and availability of health care is what will attract young people to come back to our community.

So I want to remind all of those who who sometimes tell me that we don't need any more apartments in here.

Well, young people come back to the community, they're not necessarily ready to settle down in a three-bedroom brick ranch with a big yard and got to cut grass.

That's not their lifestyle, they like a different lifestyle.

So we uh have the challenge ahead for us is to create the community that will attract them here and attract them, make sure that they want to come back and be a part of Hampton.

So our much work ahead of us, and I don't I think we're up to the challenge, but again, congratulations to all of our uh Hampton High School students.

We're very proud of them.

So with that, I'm gonna ask the uh clerk to read the uh protocol for tonight's consent agenda.

The consent agenda is comprised of non-controversial matters before the council, which require vote by council due to their routine nature.

Typically, these items are adopted by one motion without separate discussion.

Tonight, your consent agenda amends the FY2025 council approved budget to appropriate previously received funds to the clear zone account.

It requests that VDOT program three projects into its six-year improvement plan and approves the minutes from the ceremonial session of May 15th, 2025.