Good evening and uh welcome to the Hampton City Council evening uh session.

Uh like to ask the clerk to call the role, please.

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Present.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper, present.

Councilwoman Muggler, present, Mayor Greg.

Present.

So our invitation will be given this evening by Councilmember Randy Bowman, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

So please stand and uh join us for the end.

Dear God, thank you for another day.

We pray for safety of our first responders.

We know we cannot control everything, but we ask that you give us the strength to control our attitudes to be better towards one another.

We ask for your protection over our community and nation and guard us from harm, violence, and discard.

That your peace reign over our streets, homes, and health.

Let up those that are struggling within our community, those experiencing hardship, poverty, loneliness, illness, and surround them with love and comfort.

We pray that they'll look beyond themselves and work towards the well-being of the community as a whole by embracing the power of prayer.

We know with you we can foster a stronger, more compassionate and resilient community.

This is our prayer and ask that all of God's people that are believers respond in unison by saying amen.

Amen.

So I I talked to a couple of people uh in the lobby earlier, and they were here to speak on the uh homeless ordinance that was up on our agenda previously.

And uh I do want to let you know that that we are not voting on that tonight.

We had a uh presentation in our afternoon session of city council, but it was a presentation to update us on the engagement process that we have uh organized to get input on the ordinance before we finalize it or before it comes back to council for a vote.

So if you're here tonight to speak on that, uh again, you know, if you've signed up, feel free to speak on it.

That's perfectly fine.

But we are not voting on that tonight, and uh it you know it will be on our agenda on a future date after we complete the uh community engagement process.

Um next, I've got uh a couple of items on the mayor's comments, and I want to talk uh first about uh a member of our community, Miss Melanie Paul.

Uh Miss Paul has been uh recognized over the years by Hampton Police Division for donating canine vests for the uh for some uh or donating vests for some of the canines that uh you know that our police use in uh in the in the course of their duties.

Um she's been an active member of the Hampton Rhodes Pet Therapy Group since 2005, uh participating in animal assistance therapy for both Hampton and Newport News public schools as well as various hospitals and nursing facilities.

Um and she has long supported the Hampton Police Division dating back to her tenure as a former um uh with tenure with former police chief uh Pat Manetti and working with the police academy of recruits to ensure that they understood how to assist and interact with uh individuals with disabilities, and she's provided similar training to other local police divisions and has also been recognized by the Air Force for for her contributions.

Uh Ms.

Paul worked for the former uh Virginia School for the Death Blind and Multi-Disabled for more than 20 years.

Uh her past service to Hampton, the City of Hampton includes membership on our Clean City Commission, the mayor's committee for people with disabilities, and our animal control advisory uh committee.

And over the years, Miss Paul and her dogs have received countless awards and honors.

And as mayor, I wish to personally thank her for her uh many positive deeds in our community that uh have impacted all on a on a more broader level.

So uh on behalf of our council and staff, I want to thank Miss Melanie Paul for you know supporting uh not only our uh police department uh but people in our community, especially with the emphasis on those who uh have disabilities.

So uh I think we uh have Miss Paul, Miss Paul, will you come up front?

And then we have a special friend here uh we want to bring up as well as one of our canine uh officers and our our canine dogs uh and who is wearing one of the vests that Miss Paul purchased.

So I want to ask her to come up with it.

Thank you so much, Mayor City Council.

I usually do not tell people my very dark secret, and that is how I lost my hearing.

I lost my hand.

Intoxicated me the wrong medicine, septimas, and it cost me to be smoking in three months over 20 years ago.

And doing what I wanted to helping the people in the city, especially the police department, and I love for them, never stopped me from helping humans and other communities.

Deafiness means nothing to me.

To what you do with your life, how you move forward, what you protect to others.

I would have become a police officer.

I really respect them off, and they've always been my heart until my last bath.

I wanted to say one thing.

It's about kindness.

Well, I need to give my kindness to people to everyone.

Do not say the different colors.

Do not say the next different background, do not say the SP for susabilities, say them as individuals.

Kindness is more than an attitude.

It's the way you look at someone, it's the way you smile, it's the way you touch someone, it's the way you hug someone.

It's all those things to uplift a person.

Kindness costs nothing.

Kind words cost nothing.

They're free to give.

One last commit.

And writer.

And so I'm sure you heard her.

I came in, my it's my favorite one.

People, what for a cat?

What you did.

Well for a cat, what you said.

How you made them there.

And that goes both for humans and animals.

I love both people.

Thank you so much for giving me this recognization.

Thank you.

Good night.

And I wish you well.

A good evening.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Paul.

And then the uh last thing I have.

Um on my list of uh mayor's comments tonight is just uh just a special recognition for one of our own vice mayor, Stephen Brown.

Uh will uh this week, uh August 16th, he will receive his honorary doctorate of humanitarian humanitarianism at a ceremony at the uh school of the Great Commission of Theological Seminary.

So uh, you know, he's uh making us proud this week, so we just want to acknowledge uh him for his great work in our community and uh certainly being recognized uh with this uh honorary degree.

So congratulations, Vice Mayor Brown.

Okay, so I am uh micro and ask the uh clerk to read the protocol for the consent agenda.

The consent agenda consists of routine, non-controversial items requiring council approval.

These items are typically adopted with one motion and without discussion.

Tonight, your consent agenda affirms use of funds from Virginia's Department of Juvenile Justice to offer programs to deter crime and recidivism for youth offenders.

It accepts and appropriates funding to support war memorial stadium operations, continue Hampton Roads transit operations, finance infrastructure costs in connection with the Phoenix Commerce Center Development, reimburse itself from bond proceeds by advancing funds from the city's general fund unassigned fund balance to the FY26 Capital Budget Capital Projects Fund.

It initiates certain amendments to the Hampton City Zoning Ordinance, specifically proposed accessory dwelling unit, community meeting, and Chesapeake Bay Amendment ordinances.

It requests that the Virginia Department of Transportation program two new projects into its six-year improvement plan.

It approves the formation of next gen, HRHA by the Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

It approves an encroachment agreement for offense installation, approves the city's participation in a proposed direct settlement of opioid related claims, sets the term of an emeritus member of the War Memorial Stadium Authority, and approves the minutes from seven city council meetings.

All right, we need a motion in a second.

Mr.

Mayor, I move approval of tonight's consent agenda.

Second.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Faraby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

All right.

And we have no presentations or proclamations on the agenda this evening, so I'll ask them the uh clerk to read the protocol for public hearings.

The City Council is committed to fair and respectful hearings.

The following guidelines help ensure an orderly process.

Individuals wishing to speak must sign up in the city hall lobby starting one hour before the meeting and ending when the meeting begins.

Speakers will be called in the order they signed up.

Speakers shall address council from the center podium, and each speaker is allowed three minutes.

The timer has a green light, which will turn yellow with one minute remaining, then red when time is up.

All comments must be addressed to council.

Speakers may not yield their time to others.

After all the speakers are heard, the mayor will close the public hearing and invite council discussion and action.

Item number 13 on your agenda minus 25-0234 is the 2025 to 2029 consolidated plan and 2025 annual action plan.

Mr.

Mayor and Council Members, this item will be presented by Angeline Jank.

She is our strategy strategic plan priority leader for public safety, and she is also a management analyst in the city manager's office.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, members of Council, City Manager Bunting, City Attorney Sid North.

My name is Angelique Schenck, and I'm a management analyst in the City Manager's Office, and I will be presenting the 2025 to 2029 consolidated plan and the 2025 annual action plan tonight.

The U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development provides funding to the City of Hampton through the Community Development Block Grant and Home Investment Partnership Programs.

As a condition of receiving these funds, the city is required to develop a five-year consolidated plan that addresses housing and community development needs in the city.

The plan provides overarching policy guidance and sets priorities for how we will use our federal grant funds over the next five years.

The annual action plan serves as our as the city's funding application to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and it outlines our one-year use of funds.

City staff worked with Mosaic Community Planning to help develop the consolidated plan.

In preparing the plan, Mosaic helped us with an analyzing data from a range of federal resources, including the American Community Survey, the Comprehensive Housing and Affordability Strategy data, public and Indian Housing Information Center data, and the Fair Housing Housing, excuse me, Fair Housing Data and Mapping Tool.

In addition, they also reviewed local and regional planning documents to ensure that the consolidated plan reflects both the federal data as well as local priorities.

Input from residents and community stakeholders were also gathered throughout the planning process.

An online and hard copy survey was made available during the month of February.

A dedicated project page was added to the city's website to share information.

And city and mosaic staff attended community meetings and held focus groups with organizations such as the Neighborhood Commission, the Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities, the Peninsula Real Estate Investment Association, the Housing Authority Resident Council, and Healthy Families.

We also conducted stakeholder and agency interviews to gain a deeper insight from those who work directly with our low and moderate income and special needs populations.

Based on the data and the community input that we received, we have identified the following priority areas for the consolidated plan.

The first is preserving housing affordability and quality.

This includes strategies to help existing homeowners with repair and rehabilitation assistance, accessibility improvements to support aging in place, and assistance to potential home buyers seeking to purchase homes in Hampton.

The next is public facility and infrastructure improvements, which may include projects such as park enhancements, sidewalk upgrades, and street improvements.

The third priority is increasing economic opportunities with strategies focused on workforce development, job creation, and other efforts to reduce poverty in the city.

Supportive services includes programs such as job job training, youth services, and mental health support.

And the last is effective administration of our federal programs to ensure compliance with all requirements.

These priorities align with the city council strategic focus areas, specifically economic growth, placemaking, family resilience and economic empowerment, and maintaining a safe and clean community.

While we are currently not undertaking activities in all of these areas, including them in the consolidated plan gives us the flexibility to direct our federal funds towards specific initiatives as opportunities come up over the next five years.

This slide details our historic funding allocations.

The city is an entitlement community, which means that we receive this funding on an annual basis, provided that we continue to meet the federal guidelines and the federal government continues to fund the programs.

Both of the grants are formula-based grants, and the amount we receive depends on a variety of factors, including population, age of housing, overcrowding, poverty levels.

And so when you see the declining amount in the grant amounts that we received, it is typically based on that formula.

The better your community does, the less money you actually get from the program.

And so for program year 2025, our CDBG and home allocation totals one point approximately 1.3 million dollars.

We also estimate that we'll receive an additional 150,000 in estimated program income.

And so that will bring our total amount of resources that we have to dedicate to projects to 1,536,634.

And this is a slight reduction from what we received last year, only about $25,000 difference.

And since we were very concerned on whether they would continue the program for the year, we were very pleased with the with just the slight reduction.

So now I'm just going to touch a little bit on the CDBG and home programs.

For CDBG, the activities that we propose for funding must be eligible under the program guidelines, but they also must meet one of the three national objectives of the CDBG program.

And the national objectives are a benefit to low and moderate income people, aiding in the prevention of slugs and blight, or meeting an urgent need.

And just for your for clarity, the federal government defines who qualifies as low and moderate income.

Each year they put out a chart that tells us for our metropolitan statistical area who qualifies as low and moderate income.

And so with the most recent chart that was issued in June, a family of four cannot make more than $85,200 to qualify as low and moderate income under these programs.

And so for the home program, it is primarily a program that is dedicated towards providing decent, safe and affordable housing.

It also requires that we set aside 15% of our grant to support special nonprofits called community housing development organizations or Chows.

And so this these slides, the next two slides I have will detail how we are proposing to spend our CDBG and home resources in the upcoming year.

For CDBG, our first activity is housing services.

We contract with the Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority to administer all of our housing programs that are geared towards low and moderate income people.

And so that includes our city funded housing programs as well as our federally funded housing programs.

And so this activity covers their staff costs and direct program costs.

We have one dedicated staff person in the housing and neighborhood services division that is responsible for making sure that the grants are administered in accordance with the federal guidelines.

And this also covers any of our program administration costs, like we we have advertising costs, plan preparation costs, and things of that nature.

For the home program, the first activity is homeowner rehabilitation.

This program provides up to $30,000 to assist Hampton homeowner low and moderate income homeowners with property repairs.

The CHODO SET-ASID program, we we set aside 15% as required through the home guidelines.

And then we also set aside funds for home administration, which is capped at 10%.

And this covers project-related soft costs as well as other administrative costs for the program.

And so this slide just details our planning process.

We did kick off in February.

We also included in the February time frame a public hearing at a city council meeting to let the public know that we were engaging in this process to develop this consolidated plan and to solicit comments.

The plan has been available for 30 days of public comment.

Tonight we'll end our public comment period.

And so any comments that we receive tonight will be incorporated into the final draft of the plan, which will be submitted by the deadline of August 15th.

And then tonight I also have with me Jessica Gay from Mosaic Community Planning as well as Yvonne Hodges, the chief community development officer from the Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and we are all available to answer any questions that you may have.

Councilman Moore.

Thank you for your presentation.

I have a question about the slide with the housing services and housing programs on it.

Isn't it?

Um for the money, I know the the goals are 21 households assisted, nine households assisted.

Is that what you've already done?

Or was that your goal to do?

The goal to do.

And so we're looking at the program guidelines, and so the 21, if you add up all of the programs that we're proposing to fund under CDBG and home, that's how you get to the 21 for housing services.

Um but for housing program, our goal is nine.

We shoot to exceed those goals.

Um but just so that you know that this isn't a one-time presentation.

You will actually see us back again in September when we present the annual performance and evaluation report.

So the action plan details how much money you are actually receiving and what you propose to do with it.

And when we come back in September with the CAPER or the performance report, that is where we were reporting to you how much we spent and what we actually accomplished with those funds.

Okay, because I I would want to see you know a few more households assisted.

Okay, thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Yes, thank you, Angelique, for your report.

Uh this may be a housing authority of course.

I know Yovon is here tonight too.

Um I think a couple years ago, we allotted to a million dollars toward uh the housing rehab program to help the authority um so you get people off the waiting list.

Uh can we get an update to where we are with that and uh the waiting list uh reduced or additional numbers added to that where we were with that um I can report that we have currently spent um over 900,000 of the two million.

We did slow down because I lost staffing.

I went from three down to one.

I'm back up to one full time and one part time, and hopefully filling the other open position soon.

We are continuing the program, it just slowed down.

So but we thank you.

So we see in progress.

Yes, sir.

Because the last time we reported, I saw numbers go down drastically.

No, and so we have right now touched over 51 households.

Excellent.

Okay, good.

Thank you, Yvonne.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Any questions or comments?

No.

Okay, thank you, Angeli.

Uh this is a public hearing, so we will open the public hearing, but there uh there's no one signed up to speak uh for this item, so we'll close public hearing and uh call for a vote.

Is there a motion?

Mr.

Mayor, I move that city council approve zoning ordinance amendment two five-0199.

Second.

I don't know if we're gonna do that.

No, that's not that was for the landing motion is for the land use items.

Which one so I think what you want is oh I'm sorry.

I think staff can say what is the action that you need for this, but do you need them to adopt or okay so I think it's a motion to adopt the motion.

Okay, thank you.

You need Angelique.

Okay.

Can I rescind?

Yes.

Okay.

I would like to rescind the motion.

And I move that city council approve um public hearing two five-zero two three four.

Second councilman Bowman.

All right, Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Item 14 on your agenda is 25-0199.

It is an ordinance to amend and reenact the zoning ordinance of the City of Hampton, Virginia, Chapter 14, entitled Reviews by the Planning Commission and City Council, Article 1, Section 14-12, entitled Expiration of a Use Permit to amend the procedure for establishing the expiration of a use permit.

Mr.

Mayor and Council members, I'd like to introduce you to Quinn Heinwright.

Uh I don't sure I'm saying it right, because this is my first time meeting him too.

He's a new city planner with our community development team.

And this is his first presentation to you.

Uh good evening, everyone.

It's Heinrich actually.

Sorry, I mispronounced it.

No worries, I get it get it wrong a lot.

Um yeah, my name is Quinn Heinrich.

Tonight I'll be presenting uh zoning ordinance amendment number 25-0199, which is an amendment to change chapter 14 of the zoning ordinance to revise the procedure for establishing the expiration of a use permit.

So some background on why we're making this amendment.

Currently, the zoning ordinance requires that all use permits are nullified after two years if new construction is not substantially complete within that time frame.

And that wasn't a much of an issue until 2021 when we had an ordinance amendment to require that all multifamily development or all multifamily dwellings and developments require a use permit, with some exceptions in downtown and Phoebus.

Since those projects are new construction, which isn't true of a lot of other use permits, and they are much larger developments as well.

They require much they tend to have longer time frames of construction.

And currently there is no ability for city staff, the planning commission, or the city council to amend use permit timeframes for a larger project that would take longer than two years.

And this proposal proposed amendment would allow us to have the flexibility to do that.

So in this amendment, the current expiration conditions for two-year two-year time frame is still gonna be the default rule, but we will allow add a clause that allows that rule to be modified should we have a uh large project or something that we expect will have a longer time frame or a shorter time frame.

Um and in addition, we're gonna omit or we're gonna omit unnecessary language from subsection three of that portion of the ordinance as well.

So what this will look like in the first sentence of section 14-12 of the ordinance under expiration of use permit, we will scrap the word chapter and replace it with ordinance and then add or in the conditions of the use permit, and that clause will allow us to add use permit conditions that change the time frame.

Um and then subsection three, we will scrap that sentence as we think that that we staff determined that that sent sentence will um sentence will clear or um is was redundant and it doesn't encompass everything that we could do to determine occupancy on should something take longer than two years.

So in conclusion, the public hearing after the public hearing um staff and planning commission both recommend that city council approves this zoning ordinance amendment number 25-0199.

Thank you, and I'm available for any questions you may have.

Okay, many questions or comments from council members.

All right.

Okay, this item requires a public hearing, so I'm gonna open the public hearing.

And there is no one signed up to speak on this item, so we'll close the public hearing and uh call for a motion.

Mr.

Mayor, I motion that we approve the zoning ordinance amendment 25-0199.

Second.

All right, is there any discussion?

All right, there being none, uh, Madam Clerk, you call a roll.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye, Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye, Councilwoman Faraby.

Aye, Councilwoman Harper.

Aye, Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye, Mayor Gray.

Hi.

To permit multifamily dwellings at the intersections of LaSalle Avenue and West Pembroke Avenue, West Pembroke Avenue and West Queen Street, and West Queen Street and Michigan Drive, LRSN 2000401, commonly known as the former site of the Lincoln Park Housing Development.

Mr.

Mayor and Council members, Chief Planner Donald Whipple will be making the presentation on this item.

Good evening, Mayor Gray.

Oh, hello.

Good evening, Mayor Gray, members of council.

As the clerk just read, this is use permit number 25-0195 by Trilogy Developers LLC.

This use permit uh request is to allow multifamily dwellings within the downtown DT1 district.

As indicated by the Red Star, uh, this site is located at the intersections of uh LaSalle and Pembroke, uh, Pembroke and West Queen and LaSalle and Michigan Avenue.

And this is the outline of the site.

Uh so this is just orient you.

This is LaSalle Avenue, Pembroke Avenue corridor, and West Queen Street.

And for those that have been here a while, this is the former Lincoln Park uh housing site.

Oop going backwards.

My apologies.

So the specifics of the proposal are for uh 300 and a total of 380 uh apartment units uh spread out over four buildings, uh 284 of which would be market rate units, and the remaining 96 would be age-restricted market rate units.

Uh within the uh age restricted building, there would be the opportunity for support commercial uses such as a hair salon, daycare, etc.

And for uh for the entire uh 380 units, the community amenities include clubhouse, fitness center, pool, and a centralized park.

And so this is the uh proposal uh slide, and uh this is just kind of turned uh orientation on you a little bit.

So this is now this is LaSalle Avenue here at the top.

Uh West Pembroke Avenue is here.

The main entrance into the site is here.

Um if you may recall, uh, I'll get to the history slides in a minute, but this was the subject of a rezoning use permit uh back uh applications back in 2023.

And so there's also a uh townhouse uh proposal that's outside of what we're looking at outside of the red area uh in this area here and here.

So the specifics of this use permit are for the multifamily uh apartments, which is the four buildings I just mentioned within the red area.

And so these are uh the four buildings.

This would uh be the building that has the age restricted units in it, and then the opportunity for uh commercial uh on the first floor.

This is the centralized park that was mentioned, as well as the clubhouse with fitness center and the pool area.

Just a few images to show you the character, uh architectural character of the buildings.

And here's a shot uh showing the buildings in the background and the clubhouse and pool in the foreground.

So I mentioned a little bit about the site history again, former uh site of the Lincoln Park housing development at that time.

Uh that development uh included uh a total of 275 units.

Uh and a little bit more about uh the rezoning.

I mentioned the rezoning council approved rezoning this site to facilitate this development in 2023 to its current zoning, which is DT1.

And there was a use permit approved in conjunction at that time to allow the apartment units to be developed.

And specifically, why is this use permit back?

The nullification expiration, basically the former use permit expired because there was a two-year standard two-year period of time where the new construction has to be under roof with doors and windows and the exterior exterior finish materials in place.

And as you can kind of imagine, uh four large buildings being built within two years is quite a feat.

And so while they haven't they're getting close to or have an approved site plan, uh construction has yet uh to start.

And uh just a little bit of background again why the use permit uh was required.

Um in DT1, there are additional standards that could allow apartments or multifamily to be a built uh be built by right.

Uh but uh just to remind you there uh on the left-hand side, there's buy right instances within the zoning ordinance.

If you meet uh these things, the finished floor elevation of 36 inches, off-street parking um being restricted in a front yard, 20% fenestration, and a minimum ceiling uh height on the first floor being 10 feet.

Um they they chose not to meet those by right, and so here you see the departure on this side, finished floor elevation that grade, 15% finestration, and nine foot first floor ceilings, which is necessitated the use permit uh request then uh and now the site is zoned DT1, and uh just uh there's uh surrounding apartments uh here to the west and to the north, they're zoned uh RM, and you see C3 uh across uh zoning across West Pembroke, and then some one family residential across LaSalle.

And the future land use map uh shows uh the site is recommended to be high density residential with a small area of low density residential right here and this portion of the site.

But again, I want to turn your attention to the use permit is strictly within this area here, which is pertaining to the apartment building proposed apartment buildings.

So a little bit from the community plan uh just as far as public policy, encouraging and maintaining a diverse mix of housing types and values, encouraging high quality new development, and promoting neighborhoods uh and compatible land uses.

Recommended conditions include uh compliance with the proffered conditions as well as one site management.

There's uh some conditions regarding uh if the commercial use wanted to be uh converted into residential, it would necessitate a new use permit, and then the nullification uh expiration now is being uh extended to five years.

Uh that's a recommendation from the conditions uh of this use permit.

The analysis uh staff analysis proposed development has not changed from the uh previous use permit.

Uh they are complying with uh rezoning uh proffers, high density residential use is supported by the comprehensive plan or the community plan and again there's no change in the development, so the trade-off between the buy right optional incentives versus the multifamily development standards and the use permit.

Um staff still sees this as a uh recommended uh multifamily project.

Uh the applicant is here but does not have a presentation.

Happy to answer any questions you may have of them after the public hearing, planning commission and staff are recommending approval of use permit application 25-0195, subject to nine conditions that completes my presentation.

Happy to answer any questions you have of me.

Questions or comments from Mr.

Whipple?

Okay, any comments for the applicant.

I know he didn't have a presentation.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Whoop.

This item does require a public hearing, so we'll open the public hearing, but they are there's no one signed up to speak, so we'll close the public hearing and call for the motion.

Motion to approve uh 250195 with nine conditions.

Second see any discussion.

You call the role.

Councilman Bowman.

All right, Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Mugler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Item number 16 is 25-0196 as a use permit application by Fisher's Landing Eats Inc.

to permit a restaurant three to expand outdoor dining at 4330 Kickatan Road, a portion of LRSN 20030.

Mr.

Mayor and Councilmember, City Planner Hanvu will be making this presentation.

Thank you.

City Manager Bunting.

Um good evening, Mayor Gray and Council members.

I will be presenting use permit application number 25-0196.

And the subject parcel is 4330 Kickatan Road.

The applicant is Fisher's Landing Eats.

This use permit would allow for a restaurant three in the light manufacturing M2 district.

And additionally, this restaurant would need a use permit only because outdoor dining is prohibited in M2 district for restaurant two use.

And if it was in any other zoning district, it would be permitted and otherwise approved administratively.

This is the general location of the subject parcel as indicated by the red star.

It's located along Sunset Creek.

And this is the general location again, zoomed in.

However, the building as outlined in yellow is the subject and this use permit.

The proposal would include a thousand twenty-six square feet of restaurant with outdoor dining.

The proposed hours of operation would be all week from 11 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

The restaurant would include alcohol sales, and no live and payment would be proposed.

And this is the floor plan of the building.

It is 100,000 square feet.

In yellow is where the kitchen bathroom foyer and waiting area are.

In red is where the main indoor and outdoor dining.

The outdoor dining would be overlooking Sunset Creek at the bottom.

In the parcel is zone M2, as surrounded by other M2s and C3.

The future land use map calls for mixed use for this site.

And these are the applicable public policies to this application, which includes promote compatibility among different uses, encouraging a mix of land uses that is appropriate for each district, nurturing small businesses, as well as expanding tourism entertainment and cultural opportunities throughout the city.

And staff analysis.

Similarly, previously approved restaurant, and the proposed use is compatible with surrounding development.

And in addition, again, um it would otherwise be permitted and would be approved administratively if it wasn't in M2.

And these are the staff recommended conditions, which includes issuance of permit.

The hours of operations are all week from 5 a.m.

to 12 a.m.

And these hours are consistent with the zoning administrator permit conditions for restaurant two.

Um the capacity and sounds licensing and ABC licensing expiration date and our standard revocation and nullification conditions and the complete recommended condition steps can be found in the package.

Staff has highly encouraged the applicant to do so.

And staff has received some calls from this neighborhood, and so far it has been positive feedback, and most just wanted to know what was the detail of the use permit.

And that concludes my presentation.

After the public hearing, staff and planning commission is recommending an approval of use permit application number 25-0196 with nine conditions.

And I will be available for any questions.

Questions from Ms.

Boo?

Councilman Bowman.

Okay.

So the uh applicant did not have a community meeting.

You had good phone calls.

Did you have anything negative?

I did not receive anything negative.

Um most of the neighborhood, the residents just wanted to know what was the use permit is about.

Um and they previously it was a restaurant also that was called parking dog, and so they are familiar and they do look forward to another another restaurant taking place there.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh the uh the hours of operation.

Uh I noticed that there were they said they wanted certain hours, and we suggested uh from 5 a.m.

to over the hour of 12.

Yep.

Um, so the applicant, I believe, proposed 11 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

And for consistency, we did want it to include 5 a.m.

to 12 a.m.

just to be consistent with the restaurant to use for the Zap.

So the applicant um do not need to come back if they want to extend the hours, right?

They can just go ahead and go with the 5 a.m.

to 12.

Yes, sir.

Right?

Yes.

Okay, thanks.

Okay, there are no further comments.

Uh we need a motion for Mr.

Mayor.

Um, I move approval of um item 25.

I'm sorry.

I did not call for the public hearing on this.

Oh, I thought you called for motion.

I did.

Okay.

Um this item requires a public hearing, so we'll open the public hearing.

There's no one signed up to speak, so we'll close the public hearing, and now I'll call for the motion.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh move approval of item 25-0196 with nine conditions.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Okay, there being none, we call the roll, please.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Cray.

Aye.

Item 17 on your agenda is 25-027.

It is a resolution to authorize the acquisition by negotiation or condemnation of a partial fee take pursuant to section 25.1-100 at sec and 15.2-1901 at sec of the Code of Virginia of 1950 as amended for purposes of a public street/slash road, an associated public right-of-way necessary for pedestrian access sidewalks.

Mr.

Mayor and Council members, as you know, the City of Hampton is proceeding with land acquisitions for the old Buck Row pedestrian upgrades project, which will allow improvements to be made from Pembroke Avenue to Fox Hill Road, Silver Isles Boulevard.

This project will construct sidewalks and make associated improvements for pedestrian access, including but not limited to crosswalks, pedestrian signals, and ADA amenities such as pedestrian lighting.

In order to construct the improvements for this important project to best serve the citizens of the city, acquisition of a portion of that certain property, commonly known as 1805 Old Buck Row Road, is required.

Based upon a title examination of the property, it is owned by Nicholas Pirigot, the owner.

The city has reached out on numerous occasions to the owner to negotiate the purchase of the required portion of the owner's property, but the owner has been non-responsive.

A partial fee take of the required prop portion of the property using the city's eminent domain authority is thus necessary.

The proposed partial fee take area comprises approximately 38 square feet plus or minus or.0009 acres plus or minus in accordance with that certain plated plat showing right away located at 1805 Old Buck Row Road conveyed to the City of Hampton, Virginia by Nicholas Perigo, which plat is dated March 21st, 2024, revised April 2020, April 22nd, 2025, and made by City Surveyor Randall J.

Edwards.

Therefore, it is recommended that pursuant to State Code Section 25.1-100 15.2-1901 and the applicable portions of 32 point 33.2-1000 of the Code of Virginia of 1950 as amended that the city exercise its eminent domain authority to commence condemnation proceedings upon the identified required portion of the property since acquisition has not been able to be obtained through negotiation.

Okay.

There is no presentation with this item.

Um it does require a public hearing, so I'm going to open the public hearing.

There's no one signed up to speak, so we'll close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mr.

Mayor, I move approval of item 25-027.

Second.

Second one here.

Okay.

Uh is there any discussion?

All right.

There being none, uh, will you call a roll, please?

Councilman Bowman.

All right.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Theraby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

All right.

Madam Clerk, uh, will you please read the protocol for public comment?

Council meetings are for conducting city business.

Public comment is allowed on matters within the council's authority and follows public hearing items.

Speakers must follow the citizen participation protocol.

Speakers may sign up in the lobby one hour before the meeting and until it begins.

Speakers shall address counsel from the center podium.

Each speaker is allowed three minutes to speak.

The timer has a green light, which will turn yellow with one minute remaining, then red when time is up.

Please speak respectfully and avoid personal attacks.

Focus on topics within council's jurisdiction.

Do not use the platform for political campaign speeches.

Comments must be directed to the council, yielding time is not allowed.

Audience must remain respectful and refrain from interruptions.

Council typically listens without engaging in discussion.

Responses may be provided by the city manager, city attorney, or council members after public comment.

Failure to follow the protocol may result in removal from the podium or meeting after a fair warning.

Thank you.

Okay, a couple of things for those who have not uh spoken before at public comment period.

The light and the timer is here.

Uh light turns yellow, you have one minute left.

When it has red turns red, your time is up.

Uh you have three minutes to speak.

If you wrote a five-minute speech, you still have to say it in three minutes, okay?

All right.

And the first speaker, uh, and also will you please state your name when you come to the podium?

And the first speaker is uh Michael Cheever.

Uh hello.

My name is Michael Cheaver.

I'm here about the uh the camping and storage ordinance.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh Hampton can children go through with the proposed camping and storage ordinance as it only criminalizes homelessness instead of rooting out the conditions that created it.

One major reason would be the lack of affordable housing.

As Hampton's mean rent has risen from $980.66 in in 2019 to 1,582.35 cents in 2024, which is an increase of 61.36% without any meaningful increases in wages or decreases in other costs of living.

This isn't helped by the fact that a majority of housing in Hampton is under single family zoning, which means there's less housing available, and what little is available tends to cost more.

Other common reasoning is drug and alcohol problems and unemployment.

Which can be best remedied if they are relieved from the high stress situations of homelessness and allowed to recover without the proposed threats of incarceration and or fines.

This was all this would also disproportionately affect the BIPOC community of uh black indigenous and Pacific Islanders as they are overrepresented in the homeless population.

Uh with the black community specifically representing roughly a third of the local population and three-quarters of the homeless population.

Our disabled homeless population has also risen as it is now at 36.68% of the total homeless population.

And there's an increasing proportion of older adults, which will both add to the chronic homeless population, meaning it is even more difficult for them to enter or re-enter the workforce.

The transitional housing is at 11% of capacity, rapid rehousing 100%, permanent supporting housing 95%, and other permanent housing at 99%.

So they're all close to, at or above capacity.

The only form of project typehousing with enough room now is emerging emergency shelters of 75%.

But as the study was done in January, it includes winter shelters, which make up 50% of all emergency shelters.

What this means is that most will be unable to avoid avoid breaking this ordinance and punch forever or going through a cycle of courts and streets, and instead we should look to uh the actual decommodification and passing legislation to make it more possible.

Oh, it's done.

Okay.

Excuse me, yellow.

Sorry about that, Mr.

Shibu, but the yellow morning light didn't come on for yours, so hopefully it'll work on the next one.

All right, the next um speaker is Amanda Ludwig.

West Loud.

Mr.

Mayor, Council members, our names are Amanda and Andy Ludwig, and we are here regarding More Laughing in the Morning, Cool Kids Summer Camp that was held, as you know, recently on Fort Monroe.

Uh, for three weeks, our daughters have come home in the evening excited to the point of bursting to tell us about what they got to do that day at camp.

Uh, our oldest daughter, who has always been into fashion design, was able to flex her creativity with arts, prompts, and costumes, designing programs.

Uh, but she's also found a new passion for editing and producing and directing.

And our youngest daughter took the opportunity to put her fearlessness and comedic timing on full display by delivering an opening monologue for more laughing in the morning, which will actually be airing on live on TV on September 8th.

So both of our girls are our athletes in Fox Hill with the Hampton City Schools, or Hampton City Athletic Program, and it's fantastic.

But this camp did such a great job of rounding out their entire summer.

Become coming in second place in Fox Hill softball to I'm the coach, by the way.

Second place.

By learning how to fly a drone to take aerial shots to learn all the stuff that they learned, how to make a television show.

And it's absolutely fantastic and brings that industry closer to home for our kids.

So we've already had fellow parents come up and ask when the next time the camp is going to be available.

So we're here rah-rah-rah, cheering for that program.

Please support it.

It's fantastic.

That's what we have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh next speaker speaker is uh Kathy Yeck.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council and city staff.

My name is Kathy Evack, and I am the general manager of WSKY TV, Sky4 TV, part of the Livewood broadcast group, and we're located right here in Hampton.

Uh last month, I watched a rising fifth grader step in front of a camera for the very first time.

She nervously adjusted her microphone, took a deep breath, and then proceeded to interview me with poise and confidence.

And all I could think was this is a future broadcaster.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all tonight about the continued importance of your investment in the more laughing arts and media camp.

For your reference, first and foremost, I serve on the board of directors for the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, where I am also the chair person for our college and university partnership committee.

On that committee, my goal is to connect college students with opportunities in the broadcast industry.

And over the last several years, one thing has become crystal clear.

And we need to reach them when their curiosity and confidence are still forming.

Through the academies of Hampton, Sky4 TV worked closely with the Academy Digital Digital Video Production at Phoebus High School.

But this summer, thanks to Alison Moore and More Laughing Arts and Media Camp, we were able to reach those younger students in elementary and middle school.

And the difference it makes is extraordinary.

Alison Moore's camp gave these kids more than just a tour of Sky4 TV.

She sparked interest in their future.

As they stepped into our studio, they met our production and sales teams, and they took on every single role from writing scripts, hosting interviews, editing, and dancing on the set.

They weren't just watching media being made, they were making it.

And you will see the results when their program airs on Sky4 TV on Monday morning, September the 8th at 7 30 a.m.

And I believe it will feature the mayor and the vice mayor.

This experience is just the beginning, igniting curiosity, giving our youth a voice and showing them how they can strengthen the community.

So when you invest in these programs, you're not just supporting arts and media, you're shaping the voices that are gonna lead Hampton's future.

And I ask you to keep the momentum going on behalf of your hometown Hampton Station.

Thank you for your partnership and for believing in the power of early exposure, hands-on experience, and the voices of tomorrow.

Let's keep there building that momentum together.

I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

Yu Bay.

Next speaker is Maryam Guadin.

Hello, Miriam Gordine, very close.

I'm gonna be doing a slight pivot to what I initially was going to address because I wanted to talk to the homeless plan that was is being considered.

Um again, my name is Miriam Gordine.

Um concerned Hampton resident, current Natasha House volunteer and board member.

The Natasha House is a rehabilitation center for homeless mothers and their children who have been in working with those families for over 10 years.

So I'm going to reserve my comments until the next meeting when you do discuss it.

So I'm pivoting a little bit.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Yola Dance.

Good evening, uh, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, and members of the City Council.

Uh, my name is Yola Lewis Dance, and I live in Hampton, and I'm a product of Hampton City Schools.

I'm here to express my gratitude to you and speak on behalf of the parents of the Cool Kids Camp Pilot Program in hopes it continues and expands.

My boys attend Hampton City Schools and aren't athletes or musicians at this time.

They love learning and storytelling.

This camp came along at the perfect time.

Uh it is a camp that gave them a unique opportunity to explore the arts, media, and performance in a way that will serve them for a lifetime.

My elementary schooler was eager to get to the camp each day and learn from distinguished journalists like Barbara Ham Lee and the Moore Laughing team.

He developed skills in hosting that boosted his confidence and creativity.

It was especially powerful to see my introverted high schooler break out of his show and serve as the announcer for the showcase, as well as learn editing and production.

Thank you for your time as I share my support for Allison Moore, Cool Kids Camp, and her growing vision to keep Hampton the home base for a much needed incubator for communication and arts education grades four through twelve.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Dance.

Next speaker is Shonda Dawson.

I'm sorry.

Uh next speaker is Soray Soraya Vance.

Good evening, everyone.

Um, my name is Sarah Vance, and I am here to represent uh Miss Allison Moore.

And this here is my good luck charm, Faith.

I am a proud daughter of two parents, Deborah and Jason Vance.

You may know them.

I am also a student at Norfolk State University, and I am majoring in the performing arts.

However, my decision in majoring in the performing arts didn't come recently.

It started about eight years ago when I was in freshman at Phoebus High School.

I remember the day like it was yesterday.

My best friends and I were in theater club in our theater club meeting when our teacher told us a popular comedian was coming to our school to hold an audition for her web show, Miss Deal.

While everyone else treated it like it was any other day, I treated it like it was the very moment that it was the very moment like any opportunity of a lifetime.

As a freshman, my eye, my young eyes always knew I wanted to have my name and shining lights.

But at a young age and with little opportunity here in Hampton Roads, I found myself stuck and unsure on where to go.

So when Miss Allison arrived at our doorstep, I knew that in this very moment this was my chance, my one opportunity.

So excuse me.

So I took this opportunity and I looked at myself and my favorite actors, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Eccles from Supernatural.

Upon getting into Miss Allison's web show, Miss Deal, and participating in rehearsals for the show, I found myself in awe of every aspect she had to offer.

From the lights, the sounds, the equipment.

I couldn't get enough.

I was in my childhood mind, I was on that very scent as those same young actors dreamed that they could be on.

In that moment, I knew that this was my destiny.

But I didn't stop there.

The moment that the cameras turned off, I would ask questions to every crew member I could meet and asked how they operated and gently shared, and they all gently shared their experiences with me.

Needless to say, I had hunger and vigor like none other, and as if I was on cloud nine.

But during that same day, when the episode dropped, everyone seemed to congratulate me for all my hard work, and it truly was the moment that I needed.

I knew in that moment I wanted to be a professional actress.

And it was I am eternally grateful for Miss Alice and the open and the opportunity she opened for that door.

I am a product of her.

I'm the very first of many young students that she was willing to teach.

And so I ask you, as a very young adult, to think about all the young students before her, including myself and Faith.

The Hampton things like this don't come easily to the Hampton Roads area.

In fact, do you have to go elsewhere, such as Seattle, New York, or even DC.

So I ask you, as someone who is comes from a struggling young family and in towns with towns that are out of reach.

Until now, this program has provided with the kind of thing that this that this young child needed.

In the sort of space that every young adult wish to stand before.

So please give a chance the same next generation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Vance.

Next speaker is Shonda Dawson.

Good evening, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, and Council members.

My name is Shonda Dawson.

I am speaking tonight just not just as an educator of 18 years, but as someone who has seen firsthand the skills this program builds that schools simply don't always have the time or resources to teach.

More laughing arts and media program gives students social emotional learning, confidence, and public speaking skills that go far beyond the classroom.

These are life skills helping students find their voice, work through challenges, and present themselves with poise.

They learn to collaborate, to listen, and to lead.

In today's world, one of the biggest influences on our students is social media.

If we're not guiding them to use it safely, responsibly and creatively, we leave them vulnerable to the very issues that often spill into our classrooms.

Distraction, conflict, and unhealthy comparison.

More laughing arts in Media Camp engages them in using media as a tool for connection and positive expression rather than division.

Our community has a wealth of opportunities in athletics, and that's wonderful.

But for the arts, especially media arts, there are far fewer outlets.

More laughing arts in Media Camp fills that gap, giving students a place to shine, who might never step onto a sports field, but will stand proudly on a stage behind a camera or in front of one.

We're not just teaching kids how to produce content.

We're teaching them how to tell their stories, build confidence, and contribute responsibly to the world they're inheriting.

I truly believe our community needs this.

When we empower young people to tell their stories, we're not just shaping better students.

We are shaping stronger communities.

And I leave you with a quote from Frederick Douglass that says, It is easier to build strong children than to repair grown men.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Dawson.

Next speaker is David Mangiello.

Good evening.

Um, yes, and that is correct, David Mangello.

Um good evening, Council members, mayor, vice mayor.

My name is David Richmond Mangello Senior, a resident of Hampton, Virginia.

I came, I come before you not just as a citizen, but as a father, one who has spent months fighting to reunite with his children due to what I believe is a deeply flawed and harmful involvement by child protective services in our family's life.

Excuse me.

On November 11th, 2024, a single incident triggered a chain of events that would alter the course of my family forever.

One of my young children, who is nonverbal and has no has a known history of elopement, managed to leave the house.

Well, I took immediate corrective action, including sending several of my children to live temporarily with their grandparents in California.

I was met not with support, but with a system more focused on punishment than partnership.

CPS entered into my home with a search warrant, conducted interviews, and made determinations that I believe were based on incomplete, inaccurate, and in some cases outright false information.

They ignored medical documentation, parental efforts, and professional assessments that can contradicted their narrative.

Their report included over 60 statements I have formally objected to, many of which are pro provably incorrect, misleading, or taken out of context.

Even worse, there has been no measurable accountability.

I have filed formal objections and requested independent review.

Yet the emotional trauma to my children, the financial burden on my family, and the disruption to our lives continue.

Before I speak further on my case, I'd like to briefly share who I am.

I proudly served in the United States Marine Corps from 1998 to 2002.

I was honorably discharged.

During my service, I was meritoriously promoted to the rank of corporal in June 2001 by Major General James T.

Conway.

In recognition of my leadership and dedication.

That same year in August 2001, I received a certificate of good conduct for exemplary behavior and service, among other medals, which I will not go through all today.

In 2002, I was honored to receive a letter of appreciation from the Honorable Mr.

Gordon England, Secretary of the Navy, for outstanding performance and contribution during my time in uniform.

In my professional life, I'm sorry, in my personal life, I married my wife, Gwendolyn Mangello, in January of 2013.

In 2016, I completed my Bachelor of Science degree in California State Polytechnical University, Pomona.

I'm a father, a husband, a veteran, a man who has always taken pride in protecting and providing for my family.

Council members, mayor, vice mayor.

I'm asking you tonight to consider the cost, not just in dollars, but in human impact of unchecked CPS overreach.

Time's up, Mr.

Mangello.

Thank you very much and God bless.

All right.

Uh next speaker is Alison Moore.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Alison Moore, and my company, More Laughing Arts and Media, received a support approved by Council.

I wanted to report on the success of the program.

I thank you all for sincerely from the bottom of my heart for the $15,000 sponsorship that helped us launch this year's summer camp.

Thank you to Vice Mayor Brown and Councilwoman Bunting for your leadership, patience, and support with me since the spring and over the summer.

I appreciate you.

Your support transformed lies in demonstrated Hampton's commitment to the youth and creative future, as my peers, friends, and family have shared with you all tonight.

This program is for Hampton.

I'm a third generation Hamptonian with college students that I raised in Hampton.

My grandmother was a principal at the Virginia Deaf and Blind School.

And what we create is for the future here.

In just three weeks, we trained 18 Hampton youth and welcomed seven more from outside the city, fourth through twelfth grade, in journalism, performing arts, media production, STEM, and leadership.

They logged over 100 hours of learning.

They interviewed CEOs and civic leaders like you, Mayor Gray and Vice Mayor Brown.

They created original media content and participated in three educational field trips.

We were really proud.

Our camp day brought 15 families to POC, a local Hampton business, and our campus showcase drew over 100 community members, both events generating economic activity for local businesses and creating an unforgettable experience for our youth and our families.

My vision is to take these programs and replicate the Boo Williams model, but for performing arts and media, a seasonal program that grows into a permanent facility, a regional attraction, and a driver of vitality for Hampton.

This isn't just about youth, it's about creating exciting energy, contributing to Hampton's arts and entertainment scene, and giving other cities a reason to come here.

Creating jobs and boosting small businesses and creative economy is what I am passionate about doing.

This fall, we plan to continue our camp, this time serving 50 to 75 Hampton families with using weekend clinics that build on our summer success.

So our focus for the fall will be online safety, YouTube content creation, and media engagement, which naturally connects to the broader community as a communications vehicle for citizens.

Tuition for this program will cover almost 15,000 of the 40,000 cost.

And I am seeking through private and other support 25,000 to close the gap on this program.

A dedicated space would allow us to expand the program, serve more youth year-round, and make Hampton a hub for creative talent development and economic vitality.

Looking forward, I hope to work with you and the staff to secure inclusion in the 2026 budget and share our 120,000 flagship summer program plan, a plan designed to generate revenue, develop Hampton, and put Hampton on the map as we make sure everybody knows why they should choose Hampton.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Moore.

Next speaker is Joan Weaver.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, first and foremost, where's the timer place up right up there?

Okay.

I would like to say good evening to everyone, giving acknowledgement to our mayor, to our vice mayor, our attorney, our city manager, last but not least, Miss Glass.

I am back again for my neighborhood.

This time, even though we all know I am Miss Virginia State School for the Deaf and Blind Advocate, I will continue to advocate for the Greater Whiff Neighborhood.

I was most impressed when acknowledgement was given to Stephen Brown Councilman.

No one that I can say who sits on that council, stood and defended and fought for us against all odds.

Developers and dollars did not dis did not sway you but decency, and we will forever be ungrateful to you.

And as we continue to grow, we know you will be there in our corner if and when no one else will be.

And I publicly and I believe I speak for our community too.

We love you, sir, and we thank you.

Moving on to it, and don't leave politics.

Let mayor position and others continue.

You've got a whole lot to give to the citizens.

You are a citizen and of a citizen, and you represent us and represent us well.

Moving on to the Greater Wolf neighborhood now, which really causes me concern as well.

Everyone knows that our community out of all Hampton communities is the bottom of the barrel.

Slowly, slowly but surely, we have been seeing improvement and are very grateful that to that.

Mayor Bunting, thank you so much.

But there is a hell of a lot that needs to be done.

When I look at housing and the improvement that we have asked for assistance with, we come back and ask that you revisit that again.

When your codes and compliance inspectors come out, keep in mind and be community sensitive.

We are asking that you provide and give and do and give us the resources that we need.

Don't just shove a notice.

You give us resources.

Tell us how, what, when and where you can do.

Thank you, Ms.

Weaver.

Next speaker is Cassandra Austin Townsley.

Well, I might as well stay standing.

Okay, I had to change everything around thanks to updates.

However, good evening to our esteemed and honorable Mayor Gray.

Vice Mayor Dr.

Brown.

Congratulations.

City Clerk, Mrs.

Bunting, City Attorneys, Ms.

Seymour, and our honorable city council members and fellow Hampton residents.

I, Cassandra Alton Town, he came here tonight prepared to speak on the homeless ordinance.

But instead, I rise simply to say thank you.

In August 2021, after receiving a proclamation from the city of New York for over a decade of community service, my now 89-year-old daddy said to me back then, your work here in New York is done.

Give your car and I-95 a break.

Your home is now in Hampton.

There's work to be done there.

Since then, I have embraced that calling.

And I represent many faces in our community.

I serve on the Hampton Senior Citizens Advisory Committee as a senior, appointed by City Council.

Thank you.

I'm also a disabled represent um community represented.

So I do receive services.

I am still in recovery from my second spine surgery.

Y'all keep me afraid.

You'll know I do a little more than I'm supposed to.

I'm gonna go home as a mess today, but we're gonna be all right.

Okay, and I just want to say thank you because as a retired community service representative from the government, and I'm also a retired mystery shopper.

I often said, let's not look at it as a problem.

Let's look at it as a situation with a solution.

And I really am here to work with each and every one of you.

Um you're all friendly faces to me.

And I want to say thank you for all that you do.

And prayerfully, I will make you as proud of me that I am as each every one of you because yes, I voted for every last one of y'all up there.

God bless you.

Have a great day, and I will be seeing you in the meetings.

Thank you, Miss Townsend.

Um Miss Doris Eck.

You got a hard act to follow, but you're next.

I don't know if I can follow that act.

My name is Doris Eck.

I live on Ireland Street since July 16, 2018.

And I've chosen this home because it is the first one I found that uh made of bricks.

I'm a German and we like our brick houses.

Anyway, dear council, esteemed, esteemed members, Mr.

Mayor.

We never had the pleasure except for one or the other person at um uh the neighborhood watch meeting, uh, which I belonged to the neighborhood watch.

Something terrible happened to us on July 9.

My husband and I we were sort of woken up, our car got broken into our driveway.

And uh I made uh I made a decision to to get proactive rather than sitting back and be afraid.

I got a whole lot of things moving, but I'm can't I came here to ask for a problem that I see with our street light.

Ireland, I live on Ireland Street.

Our street lighting is terrible.

We have put on floodlights on our house for put uh cameras now.

So at least we're we're catching a little bit of what goes on when we sleep.

But the street light situation is very difficult for us because we're not the only persons living on the street.

The same night where our car got vandalized and ruined.

Three other cars got vandalized, ruined, sold.

So I think Miss Bunting, I have brought that issue with the street lighting to you.

I have not heard back, so I just thought I'd bring it back to you.

And I'm also pleased to read and I will revisit uh the paperwork that uh came with this meeting tonight about juvenile justice.

So I'm gonna review this and I get back to somebody.

Um I want to bring to your attention a public meeting that's going to happen on August 21 at 6 p.m.

at 300 Butler Farm Road at the police academy.

And uh I reached out to Chief Wideman, who is assisting to have this meeting, and um I wanted to bring that to your attention too, in case somebody might be interested to hear from the residents.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Miss Egg.

Uh, next speaker is tonight, Tanisha, Tanatia Young.

Mr.

Young here.

All right.

Next speaker is Tewoo Sampson.

Good evening, Mayor Gray.

Uh Vice Mayor.

And good evening to the rest of the council member.

My name is Taiwo Sampson.

I'm a retired Navy chief.

Uh recently graduated from Millassifield University in Pennsylvania.

So I travel to Pennsylvania from January 13th to May 10th.

Depending on what time I left the house.

I live off here at Buckwheel, uh, not far from Buck Road Beach.

Um I try to leave the house by 2 a.m.

in the morning uh because it's about seven hours one way and another eight hours around trip.

Uh quite long long story short.

I traveled two times a week for five months consecutively with a zero traffic ticket.

So I'm here to raise a consigned by the traffic traffic enforcement camera placed by the South Mallory Street.

That camera is about two minutes away from my driveway.

And leaving my driveway two minute drive, I've incurred about 200.

So I have a son at ODU that I literally told not to come to the house.

Stay where you are between three and six p.m.

Or if you come by the house, you're not leaving until after six p.m.

I don't know the idea or the concept behind placing that camera there because if you live on South Malur Street, not Malu Street, all the way to the Buckle Beach, that road is the only road that brought you to 64.

It's like a choke point.

So if the idea was to mitigate traffic before the installment of that camera, it has triple the pain for everyone in that neighborhood.

If I leave my house, I either travel not east uh Mercury Bullyford to get on Seller Landing.

It used to take me three minutes, four minutes to get on 64.

It's not coming here.

I travel through seven cameras.

I live five minutes away from here.

Out of those seven cameras, three of them is to take my pictures for something.

And the next three days I check my mailbox is fifty dollar fine in my mailbox.

So I do have three questions for the for the council member.

Uh my first question is why this camera is placed at that particular location and it's like imprison everyone on two three sixty three, particularly some some uh everyone that lives on on the North Maluru Street.

Uh my second question is is the exception for us living in that neighborhood?

Because like I said, between 3 p.m.

to 6 p.m., I either stay put in my house or I face extended traffic to get on 64.

And my third question is can the Apton City install physical mechanical barriers like they have on all these HOV entrance lane.

If the concept is to prevent people from going over the bridge, one it would save me money.

And two, it would be fiscally seen by anyone coming through that that bridge.

Uh coming here today, I have to get out my car two times to tell people to go there that we have time times up.

Thank you.

Samson.

All right, next speaker is Joshua Moran.

Good evening, uh Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, and Council members.

My name is Josh Moran.

I'm here to speak about the proposed homeless ordinance.

Um this proposed ordinance is absolutely disgusting.

Um targeting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our community, criminalizing homelessness and making being poor a crime in the city of Hampton.

The city should be extending a helping hand to its homeless citizens, and this ordinance is a closed fist to beat them down further.

Sending people to jail when they're already at the lowest point in their lives, or trying to find them thousands of dollars when they already have virtually nothing.

It's deeply disappointing to even see this issue this ordinance being considered by council.

Um it was also reported in the news that this bus that this ordinance was supported by concerned business owners.

I would like to know the names of those businesses so that I never give them another dime in my life.

Um but I understand this ordinance is not on the agenda tonight.

I just would implore you to vote no whenever it rears its ugly head again.

Um how you choose to vote will show your true character.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Moran.

Good afternoon, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, City Council.

It's been a while, uh, Mr.

Guys.

Appreciate you guys everything you guys do.

I'm here just to recognize three of the.

Did you state your name as well?

Oh, yeah, sorry about that.

Uh, my name is Craig Knott.

Um, I'm here to recognize uh a couple of the the city groups that we have here.

Number one, 311.

311 has done an awesome job.

Lately, I've um had a bunch of residents that either have moved in here or did not know about 311 that have contacted 311 that you know just I I told them how it worked.

You know, you have an issue, contact 311, get a ticket number, follow up with it.

Um actually, I just had a gentleman uh three or four weeks ago, his daughter moved over near Fort Monroe, and they had a low-hanging branch that was uh fairly thick in diameter, I believe, that was hitting some trucks and stuff like that, and they had an issue with it.

So they called 311, they got a ticket number, TR 2570 361.

And um, I had asked the guy if he could give me the ticket number so I can follow up to see where it was.

Um, so I was just kind of curious if I could get an update possibly on that, or uh get somebody to contact him to find out where that is.

Um tonight hearing about the uh coal kids camp.

I actually brought up some uh some issues that I always try to look at was one of the things that I always like to do is volunteer.

And what I tell a lot of people is not a lot of people like to volunteer for picking up trash.

Not a lot of people feel that they get enjoyment for that or fulfilled, feel fulfilled doing that.

So one of the things I try to do is look for other opportunities that we have here for different people, and I like this group right here.

So one of the things I like to do is follow up with them to see if there's some possible volunteers for our kids for whether it be for the arts or media.

So I'm gonna follow up with them.

I appreciate you guys having these type of programs here that allow us as the community to know what's going on here.

All right, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Nutt.

Uh, next speaker is Chris Bowman.

Good evening.

I'm Chris Bowman, mayor, council members, city manager, city attorney, and council clerk.

I want to touch briefly on three subjects.

Uh, first, the new fire station three on Pembroke Avenue is awesome and a state-of-the-art facility.

Past council, this council, public safety staff, and city employees who made this project possible are to be commended.

Second, the soon-to-be vacated old with fire station.

I hope will be saved and converted into a community building.

Council has a history of saving older structures, such as the downtown post office, Vanguard, Old Courthouse Building, and Mary Peacombe on Pembroke Avenue.

It's been stated the structure's 90 years old.

If so, it needs it belongs on a historical register.

And as you know, the old Fort Monroe Firehouse was saved and is now a coffee diner.

Please see fit to save this structure.

Lastly, I do not feel the Buckrow Beach should house a mini golf and permanent concrete board games.

It simply will occupy too much green space.

Place the mini golf at the old Buckrow Junior High School site that has been vacant for 15 or 20 years.

Appears to have ample acreage for mini golf and parking, and if needed, shuttle service could be provided by Jones Middle School.

As the city has done in the past.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chris.

Next speaker is Andrew Stiff.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council members and city and city.

City manager and city attorney.

Yes, I have I'm Andrew Stiff.

Yes, I have a lot to say, but I'm gonna shorten it up quick as I can.

All right.

Um last week, as being uh environmental health and safety, I want to give these to the city council to give to the safety um safety person.

Um and later on, I'm gonna talk about that.

I went to Indianapolis and I got my city for my safety credentials, but I will talk about that later on.

Things I'm gonna talk about is being disabled.

It sucks.

Um I have a crosswalk over there by um, I would say um Tod's Lane, I'll say Todd Lane, and yeah, Todd's Lane to have all Tos Lane.

Um, what's that called?

You got all kinds of crosswalks, all kinds of crosswalks.

Thing is, press the button, you press the button is so bad that you gotta, you know, I had to cuss people out.

I had to wave people like this and say, stop, stop, stop.

I'm being animator, but you know, I had to do that.

Um person that with with disabilities, they need to be ticketed.

Need to be a city, city ordinance, be a federal ordinance, and need to be a state ordinance.

Um another thing, another thing is um Queen Street Baptist Church, which I'm a 50, I'll be a 50 uh 50-year member of next month, is celebrating their 160th anniversary next month.

That church will be 160 years, and it has a similar symbolization, reason why similar.

And I will discuss that later on.

I don't know if anybody came to to pass.

Um, the next thing I want, next thing I want to speak about is I don't know.

Um early, I think it was a couple of months ago, I gave to the city manager, city council.

I don't know if y'all had my uh I I produced my ideas, all my ideas um to you.

And I don't know if y'all read those.

I don't know if y'all read those read those.

Um, and also I'm reading I'm because I got a uh because of my communication skills, I'm looking for, I'm looking for uh um reading, um reading and um English teacher because my English, my my I'm a product of Hampton, but since I have traumatic brain injuries, I have all kinds of injuries and everything, can't stop reading.

So I'm looking for somebody to tutor me.

Start from the start from the front and start from the back.

So thank you very much, and I will come back with the disabilities.

Thank you, Mr.

Stiff.

Uh last speaker is Brenda Marks.

Good evening, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, Council members, city manager, city attorney.

Over the last several years, when crime my name is Brenda March.

Over the last several years, when crime statistics have been presented to the public, there have been several statements made regarding crime in the city.

These statements were made as far back as Chief Talbot and more recently by Chief Widman.

The specific statements that I am talking about are quote, we know that there are 59 people causing all the crime in the city.

The second statement is that the general public is safe because of the people doing the shootings, most of them have some sort of relationship or knew each other.

A quick address to the first statement.

You know are causing all the crime.

But secondly, and most importantly, is that the belief that has been presented that the city is stay safe simply because the people shooting each other knew each other or drug relationships or whatever.

What happened on August 6th on Mercury Boulevard should have rocked the governing body of this city to its core and should make you readjust that opinion.

Because I can tell you that the people sitting in the intersection at Mercury Boulevard, not all of them knew the two people that were doing the shooting.

But there were a lot of people that were caught up in the crossfire.

Two particular comments, and this comes from the ring app neighbor section.

Somebody was saying they hadn't seen it on the news.

The comment that was made back, if they reported on all the sheetings, they needed an extra half an hour just for Hampton.

If they reported on all the shootings, they needed an extra half an hour just for Hampton.

And then another one said, I was right at Keynes with this it happened.

This is horrible.

You can't go anywhere anymore.

Another neighbor responded.

I was in CBS when it happened.

A third neighbor responded.

She was in her car.

He said bullets were flying everywhere, and she had to duck down into her floorboard to keep from being hit.

I don't think if y'all still believe the city is safe because the shooters know each other and have a relationship.

We are all really in trouble.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Marks.

That uh concludes all of the speakers for this evening in the public comment period.

So you imagine what address any of the items that were brought up.

Certainly, Mr.

Mayor, and I'll I'll try to do them order starting with the beginning, although there were groups of comments, so I may lump some of them together.

With regard to the camping and storage ordinances, as the mayor said at the outset, uh, that's probably going to be delayed about 90 days.

Uh we had a presentation earlier this afternoon, and those who are interested in that in particular, you might want to go back.

You can watch the minute, you can watch the actual meeting on the internet or on the replay on TV to see the process we're going to use.

We have a stakeholder group that's going to be meeting that is made up of people who are on all sides of this issue.

And just to recap, this was never about criminalizing the homeless.

I want to be abundantly clear about that.

Um, this ordinance would have applied to all individuals.

It was not directed only at homeless.

Admittedly, there are more homeless that tend to camp on right of ways, but there are other people who do this from time to time as well.

So the ordinance would apply to all individuals.

The issue was never about writing tickets to give them fines or to put people in jail.

However, if you put an ordinance in place that says you can't do something, the law requires there be a stipulation about what the penalty is.

The reason why council was considering an ordinance in the first place is that we do get individuals who cause disruption to neighborhoods and businesses from time to time.

And by that I mean whether it's a homeless individual or it's a group of people trying to make a point about some other kind of issue, those individuals causing disruption with regard to homeless people specifically.

When we were talking about that at a meeting some time ago, I referenced complaints we had had about individuals urinating, defecating, bathing, um, using drugs in front of houses and children seeing that.

And I think we would all agree that we would not want children to have to see those kinds of things on sidewalks.

So we need a tool.

Currently, the council does not have a tool to be able to deal with that.

Likewise, if there were people camping out on a sidewalk for some other reason, and there could be reasons like camping out before a concert or camping out uh for some other policy reason, and they were disrupting the neighborhood, we could not ask them to leave the public sidewalk.

So the ordinance was written in a broad way to give the police the authority to ask people to leave.

Yes, there was the or there was the penalty because an ordinance that says you have to leave would have to say what happens if you don't leave.

But the majority of people will leave if the police ask them to leave.

Um, and we made abundantly clear, the chief said he would issue a training bulletin that we would not be rounding up the homeless or anybody else.

The tool would only be used if and when a neighborhood or a business was having a problem with individuals.

Now that said, because there was such overwriting concern by people that this was about criminalizing the homeless, which it never was, the council asked us to use the stakeholder group process that I describing was outlined earlier this afternoon.

It took us a while to get some of the business and neighborhood groups representatives identified that had raised these concerns to council that had prompted the ordinance in the first place.

So we took uh I think it's 20 people or give or take we're going to have in the stakeholder process, um, some an equal number on each side of the issue, um, homeless advocates as well as neighborhood and business um stakeholders that it raised concerns like the ones I described and the process about the issues that they will consider again was outlined this afternoon.

I don't want to repeat the whole presentation, but those of you who came tonight that have an interest and concern in this matter, I encourage you to watch that.

And I asked the council to give us another 60 to 90 days to have that stakeholder group have ample time to work through other potential creative solutions and/or ideas about an ordinance that might be better met with community support because we all want to be the caring, empathetic community we know is in Hampton's DNA.

But we also want to make sure that we're protecting our neighborhoods from concerning actions.

So that was what was at heart with that issue.

And we all agree the homeless don't need fines and the homeless don't need to be incarcerated, so that's stipulated.

And again, it was never only about the homeless, but we do need to have something to address objectionable uses in neighborhoods and businesses areas.

I was blown away by the work of the young people.

I agree it it was a wonderful program.

And I did meet with Miss Moore.

I'm not a council member, I'm a city manager.

I was given a lot of jobs tonight.

So for the record, I'm the city manager.

But I was really blown away.

I I always felt like it would be a really good program, especially one person mentioned it really aligns very nicely with the academies of Hampton and the efforts that we have for the high schools, and this is an opportunity for even younger kids to really explore potential careers in TV and film and comedy and fashion design and all those kinds of things.

And I'm really pleased that she was able to pull it off this summer.

We were all trying to say maybe next summer, and she's like, no, no, I can do it, I know I can do it.

And she did it great and wonderfully.

And I look forward to us figuring out a way to do more.

Um, fortunately, our budget was set for the current fiscal year, which by the way, our fiscal years run July 1st to June 30th.

And we really release a budget and are basically done putting the budget together more or less in the April time frame when Miss Moore first brought the idea to the council and myself.

And so we managed to get $15,000 out of a grant program to get the summer program started and told her that larger amounts of money would have to be examined when we build the next year's budget, which would be next July to June, or fiscal 27.

But I do think that there's a lot of community grant opportunities as well as some in-kind opportunities we may have.

I've already talked with Ms.

Moore via email about some of those, and I do want to introduce her to the school team, Hampton City School team, because they have some incredible spaces and they're always looking to expand the academy model to middle school and elementary school students.

And I think there could be a beautiful partnership there.

And I'm very excited that Ms.

Moore wants to continue to expand the program, not just to summers, but to fall and spring break and to make it bigger and better.

And I'm just so glad that all of the parents and students came out and had such a rewarding summer.

If Mr.

Monticello wants to send his information to the city and charity and I, we can look at it.

If it's been adjudicated by the courts, frankly, there's nothing even we could do, but um, it's not something that we should talk about in public.

But um, if you would like to send me your information, my email is mbunting at Hampton.gov.

It's easily found on the website, and you can also access it by calling 311.

Um Miss Weaver, you know, you have my my commitment that we're gonna continue to work with your neighborhood.

Um we um for the record, I mean the council knows this, but for the communities information, there's there's three communities we're currently working with with a national initiative, and um Miss Weaver's neighborhood was selected to be one of them, and I'm very excited about the things that we're doing through that initiative.

Um, Miss Eck, uh, if you look in the back, Mr.

Mitchell, who's our assistant city manager and former public works director, and Mr.

Bowry, he'll raise his hand as well.

He's our interim public works director.

They are working on the lighting issue and can talk with you further about that.

We have to work through Dominion Power, and that does take a lot longer than us just being able to do something, but they will be willing to talk with you if you hold back and see them after the meeting.

Um, we we do have um you know, a couple different things we can do with regard to lighting.

One, we want to make sure that the lighting that's in place is all operating properly.

Want to ultimately get to the LED lighting instead of just the sodium vapor lighting, and then most of the street lighting, as I think I told you before, was designed for traffic management and not public safety lighting.

This council has funded over the years public safety lighting enhancements.

So, all of those different things we will check with them, and they're they're aware and they'll be willing to stay back and talk with you if you'd like.

Um let's see.

The red light cameras, um, Mr.

Sampson, are you still here or did he leave?

He left.

Did you talk to him out there?

Okay, Mr.

Mitchell caught Mr.

Sampson, but just for the record, the red light cameras were put in place to help manage the cut-through traffic through the city of Hampton that happens when ways and Google Maps and Apple Maps and all that reroute people that are using the interstate through our community and clock up the streets in downtown in Phoebus.

We did for the record try to work with DDOT and the Federal Highway Administration to get the regular just block off the ramp arms, the kind of mechanisms that you might have seen in other places, most notably in our region, Ocean View.

We were told we could not do that.

We tried all sorts of things, and it would take me a long time to recount them all, but but suffice it to say the only thing we were able and ultimately permitted to do was to use the red light cameras at Mallory and at Settler's Landing Road.

And so we worked with VDOT.

In fact, VDOT helped to fund the red light cameras, and we use those to try to control the traffic.

No one should have to get a red light camera ticket if if they're living in Phoebus and living near Mallory Street or on Mallory Street, there's always a way around it.

You you do have to go west to go east if you're living in Phoebus, but by and large, people believe that that's ultimately better than all the backup traffic that was coming through there previously.

Um and I'm sure Mr.

Mitchell explained all this to Mr.

Sampson.

We do have information on our website for people who are interested in the red light camera programs and why we have them.

Mr.

Bowman, uh, we I think we haven't had the recent conversation about the old with firehouse, but um, past councils in this council tend to want to support saving historic buildings, and indeed the old hand with firehouse is a historic building.

So I'm sure we'll be having conversations about that soon.

Uh, we wanted to write make sure we could get everyone transferred into the new building.

Thank you for the compliments on the new building.

Um, Mr.

Sith and I had talked recently, I actually ran into him at Peninsula Town Center about some of the issues with disability at crosswalks, and I'm sure that Mr.

Mitchell or Mr.

Bowery both caught him on the way out.

And Miss Marks, I understand your point about Mercury and Armstead.

I mean, no everyone was surprised about that incident, and that was a disappointing incident.

I will, however, say the point that we're making when we say that most of the crime that occurs, almost all the crime that occurs in the city, is between people who are known to one another, is that most of the crime is not random, and it is not something that if you're going about your normal business on most days in the city, you're going to have to worry about.

Is there something from time to time like that that is out of the ordinary?

Yes, that happens in our society, everywhere in this country, you know, unfortunately, it's something about society.

There's nothing about that, however, that's predictable.

And I do want to say, you know, this council and this staff are doing everything they possibly can to try to prevent crime and make sure we apprehend people as quickly as we can, and to build the kinds of cases that will net convictions and get people who need to be locked away, locked away.

When the chief says there are probably 59 people who are the source of crime, just because we know that the people who are most likely to be victims or to perpetrate crimes because of their social histories, that does not mean we can prove that they have done that or that they will do that in the future.

It's just there's a lot of predictive factors that suggest that when people are running in certain kinds of so social circles or if they're having beef with one another, you know the kinds of things that are likely to lead to either them being a victim or them being a perpetrator of crime.

We involve a very well-known program called violence interrupters.

Um we have evidence that that's been successful in preventing crime, um, for preventing retaliations.

We're going to continue to do those kinds of things.

We had a very extensive conversation about that at our afternoon work session today.

The mayor and I had a special session with the violence interrupters last week to hear if they had any you know clue about things that were going on that were maybe on not on our radar screen and additional things we might do.

And of course, Chief Wideman was here last month talking about what they are doing.

All this is in the way of saying we take crime very, very seriously.

And it is important that we all take crime very seriously.

But it's also important that we keep it in context and that we not overreact and feel like we have to live in a bubble.

And I'm not making light of what happened there.

I actually was not that far from that intersection myself.

And I called the chief to find out what had happened because I came upon the traffic and wanted to know what had happened.

What I am saying is that most of us in our lifetime are not going to be an intentional victim or a random victim of crime.

But we can all do our part by reporting things that seem out of the ordinary.

If we if we know of someone who's committed a crime, instead of having a no-snitch culture, we need to be supportive of interventions and preventions.

And we also have to do our part to tell people that they shouldn't be solving conflicts with guns.

In old days when we were most of us were going up, conflicts got solved with words or with uh you know a fish yard fight or something like that.

Today, people are solving conflicts with guns and and they're deadly.

And that's not true just in Hampton, Virginia.

It's true everywhere.

All you gotta do is pick up a paper or your online media, and you're gonna see something about a shooting almost anywhere in America, almost every day.

And cities in this region that used to not have to worry about these things are worrying about these things.

I would much prefer to live in Hampton, Virginia because of the active programs we're doing with violence interrupters, the prevention and intervention programs we have, the police chief that we have with the aggressive and proactive law enforcement efforts we have.

I'm never gonna tell you there's zero chance that you're gonna be of it, you're not gonna be a you know ever be a victim of crime, but I'm gonna tell you the the patterns are such that most almost all the crime in the city happens because of domestic violence or people who are engaged in illicit behaviors.

So if you're not involved in those types of activities, by and large, you are likely to be safe.

And so that's that's what the chief is saying.

Mercury Boulevard and Arm said the other day, I'm sure it was very scary for anybody who was there, but that's not every day, and we're very fortunate to live in the kind of community that we are where we have heavy investments in all the things that I just mentioned.

I think I've covered everything.

If I missed anything, Mr.

Mayor, please correct me, but I think I got them all.

Okay, um, so with that, I'm gonna ask the clerk to uh read the motion required for appointments.

Mayor, with your concurrence, we have a lot of young people that are still here tonight, and I suspect I'm getting ready to read their names.

So maybe we could have them sign up or stand up as I read their names.

Okay.

We have uh members of uh incoming members of our youth commission for this school year.

So they have sat very patiently tonight.

So I'm getting called your name stand up.

There you go.

I'm getting ready to read the motion that would be required for your appointments this evening.

On the Hampton Youth Commission, appoint Marquisha Bugs, Angela Chin, Michelle Shadaberi, Gabrielle Gabby Hill, Adrian Hope, Addison Rice, and Melody Wheaton to a one-year term until August 31, 2026, and appoint Destiny Benton, Gavin Hope, Zuraya Meyer, Stephanie Nedukwu, Elijah Riddick, Alexis Van, and Riley Wheaton to two-year terms until August 31, 2027.

Would you like to vote on them and then we go on to the other ones or shall I keep reading?

Just go ahead and keep reading.

On the towing advisory board, appoint Corporal Nick Nicholas Kennedy, special events coordinator, and Sergeant John Crowder traffic unit, representing local law enforcement agencies, and Ashley Abbott, representing towing and recovery operators, and appointing Robert Lomax, Billy Hobbs, and Jacqueline Wade, representing the general public until June 30, 2027.

On the wetlands board, reappoint Rich Foley to serve a second term until December 31, 2029, and appoint Alan Docover as an alternate to serve until August 20, 2030.

And on the Grievance Board, appoint Stephen Rhodey to fill the unexpired portion of a term until March 30, 2026, and appoint Keisha Samuels to serve a first term until July 31, 2029.

That concludes the motion for the appointments.

Okay, so we need a motion in the second to approve the appointments.

Move approval, Mr.

Mayor.

Second.

Councilman Bowman.

All right.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Buckler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay, so with that, um, any reports from the city manager, city council, staff, or committees.

All right.

Uh there are any items for new business.

Okay, and with that, we are adjourned.

And so when we're done, I'd like to ask all the youth commissioners to come up front so we can do a photo with you.

How about that?