Good afternoon and welcome to the Hampton City Council work session.

I'd like to ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Present.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper.

Present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Present.

Mayor Gray.

Present.

We have uh three items on the agenda for presentations.

Uh, but we uh want to move the first item.

We want to defer that item until uh the meeting on April 22nd, which will be our second meeting of the month.

Could we get a motion to defer that item?

Mayor move to defer item dash 26-0135 second to the work session on April 22nd, 2026.

Okay, I think we have a motion and a second.

All right.

Uh you call the roll.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muddler.

Aye.

Mayor Greg.

Aye.

And so it is budget season, and we are into the wheeze of the budget now and getting down to manager releasing her uh budget officially on uh April 15th.

So this afternoon we have some presentations on the capital improvement plan as well as the uh city uh operating budget for FY27.

So I'll turn it over to the uh city manager to introduce the first item.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

You're absolutely right.

Um, the budget full budget will be released on April 15th.

But since this is the last meeting before that budget release date, we typically use this meeting to unveil the CIP and to share what will be in the manager's message as part of the budget release.

So we're gonna start first with the CIP today.

I think this is his first time presenting to you all.

So please welcome senior budget and management analyst James Baldurston, who is going to be doing the CIP uh proposal again for the public capital improvement plan is a five-year plan.

The first year of the plan would align with the manager's upcoming released budget.

Thank you, Mary.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council members, uh, city manager and city attorney.

As Mary mentioned, I'm my name is James Balderson.

I'm a senior budget analyst with the budget department.

I'm here to present the 27 to 31 uh capital improvement plan to CIP.

So first off, what is a capital improvement plan?

Excuse me.

Could you pull the mic up just a little bit more so that we can hear you?

All right.

Can you hear me better now?

That's that's a little bit better.

Not much.

There's not yet, but I can I can kind of hang out on this side of the podium.

That might be a bit better.

Okay.

So this is a five-year funding plan to finance the long-term acquisition of properties and equipment for these costs.

They need to be in excess of $50,000 and have a life expectancy of at least five years.

So we're talking sustainable and durable investments.

The goals of this CIP, uh the first goal is it plugs in to the FY27 budget, the first of this five-year CIP.

The next goal is to maintain our bond rating.

The city has a second highest bond rating right now, which is double-A, and it is maintaining that.

Uh, we do this by balancing new initiatives with critical maintenance and everything between those two polls.

Uh lastly, the CIP lets us set aside funding and focus on larger and critical initiatives.

Here's the timeline for the 27 to 31 uh CIP development.

So we started all the way back in August meeting with community stakeholder groups.

They submitted funding requests, and then in October to December, the CIP committee made up of members of the City of Hampton refined those submissions, whether through cost, feasibility, and that ended up being what you ranked in the budget retreat in February.

Additionally, the citizens and the public had input on that in March in the I value public input meetings, as well as the ranking surveys that they did as well.

That leads us to today, the briefing on the 27 to 31 CIP during this work session.

Moving forward, this first year will be incorporated into the manager's recommended budget next week on April 15th, the first year, and then on the 22nd, we will have the City Council public hearing on the CIP.

So for the CIP, we have four main sources of funding.

The first is bonds.

These are municipal loans that let us borrow money up front to tackle larger projects like infrastructure repairs or new facilities.

The second is the general fund, which is the city's main source of operating revenue.

We try to use this carefully for capital needs since it also supports our day-to-day services.

Each year we typically utilize budget savings to finance capital projects.

Third, we have dedicated sources.

So these are revenues from specific taxes or fees, and that usually they're legally or strategically tied to specific initiatives.

And then lastly, we have state and federal funding.

These are usually one-time dollars for very specific projects.

You can think of drainage improvements or road improvements.

When we talk about funding, we also should talk about the challenges associated with that funding.

Firstly, on the financial side, like many localities, we're dealing with limited resources and a relatively small commercial tax base.

Even when we do have funding, a lot of it is restricted and it can only be used for certain things like stormwater.

That limits our flexibility.

Next, we have state and federal mandates.

These are things that we're required to do, but without matching dollars to go with them.

That means money usually ends up getting pulled away from projects that both the city and the residents would really like to prioritize.

And third, rising maintenance like inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain issues continue to drive up costs across the board.

Just keeping up with the maintenance of existing infrastructure continues to be more expensive year after year.

Next, you'll see our seven council strategic priorities.

Each project associated with the 27 to 31 CIP is going to be in at least one of these buckets, usually multiple.

This is monies allocated to tourism, redevelopment, and housing revitalization efforts.

Additionally, you will find the Coliseum and the Convention Center capital monies in there as well.

Next, we have educated citizenry.

You'll see that that is the second largest at 15.6%.

With major investments in school facility upgrades, technology, and maintenance.

That's why you'll see this is such a large percent.

And then we have excellence in government at 47%, almost 50% of the total budget.

This covers essential investments in core infrastructure, facility maintenance, fleet upgrades, and IT systems.

Generally, this largest portion stems from maintenance of basic city infrastructure.

Following that, we have family resilience and economic empowerment.

You'll see that that's only at 0.7% for these departments that are associated with family resilience.

They're usually very operating intensive.

So the money is to fund those initiatives, whereas you won't see as much on the capital side, that is made up for in the operating side for those departments.

Next, we have living with water at 48.8 million, and those are Hampton's resilience, stormwater management, and environmental sustainability efforts.

At 10.8%, we have placemaking, and that will be funding to support neighborhood enhancements, public spaces, parks, and public realm improvements.

And then lastly on this, we have the safe and clean community, which is allocated to sporting investments in public safety facilities, sanitation, and beautification efforts.

Another way to view this is in a pie chart as parts of a whole, and you'll see that here.

This really shows the various percentages in a more digestible format.

Excellence in government, the largest definitely is uh 47%, driven by public facility maintenance, and then you'll also see educated citizenry at 15.6 showing a strong commitment to funding our schools.

So I'm gonna go into the individual projects now, and I'm going to touch on the new projects that you'll find bolded and underlined, and then I'm also gonna touch on larger projects that are larger percentage of the budget.

So first up at economic growth.

A new project we have is Boo Williams Sports Plus maintenance, which is critical maintenance to the sports plots.

We also have master plans, which are new this year, and specifically these are updating the master plans for Coliseum Central and downtown.

These are documents to guide organized development, resource allocation, and support coordinated land use and infrastructure planning.

And to go along with that, we have the master plan implementation for these four locations for BuckRow, Coliseum, Downtown, and Phoebus.

Um, and these are supporting implementation of those master plans that I just touched on in those locations.

Um we have a question, uh Councilwoman Campbell.

Could you explain again the difference between the master plans at 450 and the the implementation at 5.5, please?

Absolutely.

So the master plan is the document in which these implementations will be laid out.

And then the implementation is going to be items like real estate acquisition, uh capital projects, um development concepts, market studies, and the more expensive implementation of the said master plan.

Okay, and which ones did you say were in the master plans?

For the master plans, it will be updating the Coliseum and the downtown master plans.

Okay, and if I may, the reason why Buckrow and Phoebus aren't listed as Phoebus recently did their small area plan, which is equivalent to a master plan update.

So we're in we're including them in already being updated, and BuckRow, as you know, is one that we had put out to RFP this year, so we don't have to fund it.

So it's being done in the current fiscal year.

So the two new ones would be the downtown and coliseum, but the implementation money is for all four.

Thank you.

Additionally, under economic growth, we have the Coliseum.

Um for FY27, we have 5.47 million allocated to a variety of capital maintenance needs for the Coliseum.

That ranges from electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and various equipment for the Coliseum.

Hand in hand, we have the convention center as well.

Um they have 23.3 million allocated to their capital improvements, and that is parsed out over five years.

I will go over that now.

Um, so we have the ballroom and meeting room renovations for that.

That includes items like the air wall, conference room improvements, and ballroom pre-function.

We also have a variety of furniture fixtures and equipment replacements.

Um, these are exterior lights, occupancy center uh sensors, um, and the dance floor.

As you know, the convention center is 20 years old now, so for the HVAC repair and replacement, a lot of that is replacing the original infrastructure they have there in their boilers, chillers, and their air handlers.

There's also infrastructure repair and replacement.

Um, this is fencing, gates, painting, escalators and elevators, and then they have kitchen and concession maintenance.

You'll find that kitchen floor and drains, exhaust items like that are in that larger category.

The next strategic priority I'll be talking about is the educated citizenry.

You can see that first line item is the Hampton City Schools maintenance and technology investments.

In 2028, there are major renovations planned, and that is what the a large portion of that 69 million is for.

We also have the Phoebus Library Enhancements, a new project this year.

Um it is providing modernization to improve accessibility, including flexible spaces for learning collaboration, updated shelving, um, and all this is done to continue to preserve the historic charm of the site as well.

There's also the Willow Oaks Library.

This is relocating and then renovating the Willow Oaks Library.

The current library has space issues and location issues.

This limits programs and community use.

So a larger, more modern facility will create space for placemaking events.

Sorry, me again.

For the Phoebus Library, does that include any roof repairs?

Or is that all inside stuff?

That does not include any roof repairs.

Okay.

That needs to be done too.

I had not heard about the need for roof repairs, but I will follow up and look into that.

Okay.

And those types of repairs would be included in public facilities maintenance.

And so, yeah, that which is one of the bigger categories under excellence and government.

But so we would, if there is need to replace the or repair or replace the roof, that would be in there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brian.

If I may, before we move on, I just want to say for the public benefit, I know council members know this, that um the school maintenance and technology investments, how that money gets spent is dependent upon the elected school board's decision making.

They certainly share their information with us, and in fact, earlier this year we took a really wonderful tour how they have spent money over the past years.

But a lot of times people will come and ask us, well, exactly how do you break that out.

Um under Virginia law, we don't get to dictate that to the school board.

So that's why you just see a large lump sum, but that reflects our ongoing commitment to making sure our school facilities are modernized.

Thank you, Mary.

I will move on to excellence of government.

You'll see that this is 47%.

Uh the bulk of the CIP budget, and once again, I'll touch on the larger buckets that comprise this.

Up first for one of those larger buckets is the citywide street and traffic maintenance.

Um that is resurfacing and reconstructing arterial and residential streets, as well as replacing and repairing traffic and signal equipment.

A new project you'll see here is a citywide street safety enhancements, and those are funded through the traffic photo revenues.

So all those uh photos will those revenues will go to protect users of the roads.

We also have curved delineations, a new public works project.

Um installing signage and striping along several curves throughout the city.

The biggest item is this infrastructure rehab program, um and that is the multi-year wastewater initiative focused on upgrading and replacing segments of the city's sanitary sewer system.

Another new project we have is the IT server cooling units.

Um the project will replace the existing server room HVAC system.

The existing system is approximately 10 years past its life expectancy right now.

Um, another large bucket is that maintenance of public properties at the bottom, um, and that funds the inspection, evaluation, repair, and replacement of major building systems in city-owned structures.

Continuing with excellence in government projects, um, another larger one is that rehabilitation of maintenance facilities.

Um the scope of work in this one is the demolition of old auxiliary structures for public works infrastructure, as well as the park division maintenance building.

Another new project we have is the timekeeping system replacement.

Um this will replace Kronos, the current system, and which reaches the end of support in March of 2027.

It's currently being phased out, so it's getting a new product in place before that is no longer operational.

The next strategic priority we have is the family resilience and economic empowerment.

Um, once again, this is a smaller bucket, a lot of these costs reside in the operating budget.

Um a new project we have here is temporary homeless housing.

Um, this is establishing a community to place people who are ready for transitional and permanent housing, but are currently unhoused.

Um, an example that we might explore for that solution, it would be tiny homes.

And I do want to add um, because we had been floating this as a roughly 4.5 million dollar expense.

We have two million dollars on hand in housing funds that we can use from CDBG and home money.

So this 2.5 is the additional 2.5 that would be needed to have that 4.5 million dollar uh tentative budget that we were talking about with Newport News.

Vice Mayor Bryant.

Yeah.

Thank you, sir.

On the economic empowerment, the riverside psychiatric emergency department.

That is that the balance of our commitment of $5 million.

Yes.

It is listed here as purely for committee.

It was three million.

Okay, so this is the uh balance.

It's not it's not net new farmers.

$500,000 per year.

Yeah, I need to confirm how much it was.

It was either 2.5 or $3, but I want to confirm that.

Okay.

Um because it's been a while since we approved it.

Yeah.

But yes, to your point, this is the balance of what was due, not any new commitment.

Sure.

Thanks.

And I can confirm that as well.

Okay.

Moving on to living with water.

So this is separated into both resilience and stormwater maintenance.

So the resilient Hampton Initiative is our strategic initiative to support the city's resilience to climate changes and challenges.

The stormwater is focusing on improving drainage, uh, reducing flooding, and emphasizing the water quality.

Hampton's water plans are built on both technical solutions and community input.

So we want to ensure that we address flooding while also creating public access, restoring natural habitats, and then supporting neighborhood revitalization.

So I'm going to start with the resilient projects.

So one of the new projects we have is the Bromsgrove Drive drainage improvements.

And this is improving the drainage system located behind residential houses between the end of Brahms Grove Drive and Madrone Place.

We have the Charlton Slide Gate.

This is mitigating tidal flooding experienced by houses and roadways along Charlton Drive between Wheatland and Raymond Drive.

And then we also have the colonial acres dredging, mechanically dredging the canal located between residential houses along Coach Street and Chowning Drive.

This will help with navigation and water quality.

Continuing for resilient projects, there's also the Salt Ponds Inlet, which is maintaining the navigational activity along the channel and replenishing the public beach.

And then the Westover Street drainage improvements.

These are installing new stormwater pipe between North King Street pipe system that diverts stormwater southwest along West Over Street.

Moving into the stormwater project, there's several uh new ones here.

Uh the Crystal Acre retrofit will dredge Crystal Lake at Sandy Bottom from one to two feet to six to eight feet.

Uh this will restore wetlands and enhance the wildlife habitat.

There's also dredging waterways, uh dredging various canals, ditches, and ponds to maintain navigations, water quality, and quantity.

Items like mower, knuckle boom, or a wash truck.

There's also the marina bulkhead repair, which is additional structural repairs to the existing bulkhead located behind 700 settler landing road.

There's also the Mary Peak drainage ditch improvements.

Um there's significant deterioration and overgrowth, so it's stabilizing the ditch and ensuring its proper functionality.

This is acquiring and elevating homes in the city's special flood hazard areas, which is a joint effort between the city and the Army Corps of Engineer.

There's also Old Point and Halifax Avenue drainage improvements, and this is establishing a new drainage system to help with minimizing flooding around houses between Halifax and Old Point Avenue.

And the last few of our living with water stormwater projects, um, you'll see there's no new ones here.

These are a continuation.

A lot of these revolve around the stormwater management, um routine maintenance of the facilities, and providing improving water quality and reducing flooding risk.

The next strategic priority is placemaking.

So up first we have Darling Stadium enhancements.

This is a continued phase project of the Darling Stadium renovation, focusing on facility improvements following the structural upgrades that have happened.

This phase includes locker room and restroom renovation, uh HVAC and electrical replacements, press box restoration, concession repairs, and general ADA accessibility enhancements.

We also have the golf course renovation.

This is major maintenance and renovation to replace older infrastructure and enhance player experience.

Another new project is Phoebus Streetscaping, which is adding public streetscape amenities on Mallory Street, including lighting, benches, banner posts, traffic bump outs, and other traffic calming improvements.

And then lastly, uh for new projects on this slide, we have pickleball courts.

This project will convert existing tennis courts at Northampton and construct new courts at Gosnolts and Briarfield.

Um this will include surfacing, fencing, striping, and lighting to create safe and modern facilities.

Continuing on in placemaking, uh, we have general placemaking projects.

Um these are costs allocated to RAC to smaller and impactful placemaking projects.

We also have the Bluebird Gap Farm Master Plan implementation.

So this is phase one of the larger plan, um, including full design services, um, construction of pathways, various utilities and improvements to the pond and aviary.

We also have the North Phoebus Community Center renovation, um, and this is modernizing the North Phoebus Community Center, including furniture, fixtures, and equipment and system replacements.

Question Vice Mayor Brown.

Yeah, thank you.

On the North FIBA, and it may be for the manager, um the community center renovation, 600,000.

Uh that includes the uh the interior renovations, correct?

Yes.

That's exactly what it is.

Okay, and 600,000, is that sufficient?

That was what was asked for.

If we find that when we put things out to bed, we need more, we'll come back to you and look at other sources such as contingency or end of the year savings.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

The other center renovation we have there is the therapeutic recreation center renovation, um, and that is renovating the center to create accessible places, and that includes ADA upgrades, also interior modernization, and building system replacements.

And I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that we did receive word that Congressman Scott's requests for direct congression congressional directed spending in the amount of $850,000 for the therapeutic recreation center renovations was approved.

So we owe a big debt of gratitude to Congressman Scott for that request and and it being fulfilled.

The last strategic priority I will cover is the safe and clean community.

Um at 6.8% of the budget, once again, this is a category that tends to be more operating intensive and less capital expensive.

First up, we have the CAD RMS suite.

Um this is a new system for the 911 emergency communications.

Um they have been using the same vendor since 1998, and this legacy system is now being phased out.

We also have Fire Station 2.

Um, that's a new modern facility to replace the aging station at 122 South Hope Street.

And new for this year is the Fire Station 6 Northampton replacement, and those are costs allocated for the design and future implementation of the Northampton fire station.

The last new project on this list is the police equipment, and that is funding for replacing outdated and aging equipment.

So the next steps for the CIP will after this meeting is the City Council comments, um, and then the public hearing and vote.

Also, as the first year of the CIP ties into the FY27 budget, the steps for that are on the 22nd.

We'll have the first public hearing.

The 6th of May is the second public hearing, and the 13th of May is the final approval of the budget, which again includes the first year of this capital budget.

Any questions?

Questions from Councilman.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Somewhere are you talking about the capital budget or the overall budget?

So I I believe we do the budget every year.

Yeah, we don't do a five-year budget.

We do the budgets on an annual basis.

A five-year projected budget.

We do not do a five-year projection budget.

Okay, thanks.

And I do need to, if you I may, Miss Mayor, while I have the floor in answering that question correct.

Brian texted me and indicated I was wrong about the Northampton, I mean, sorry, the North Phoebus request.

They asked for two million, but we're breaking it up into annual allocations, doing part of it at a time.

So I wanted to correct that.

I apologize for missing.

Sorry, I'm fighting allergies.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

First of all, this was a great presentation, especially the lead-in and all the really basic concept information about a municipal budget.

That was really really a great presentation.

So I want to thank you for that.

Um I'll probably hold on to this document for for years because I'm just a wonky budget geek, but I thought it was really great the way you laid everything out.

I did have one question about the um when we started getting into the details of um living with water and some of the others is uh slides 18 and then beyond.

So you sort of talked about those items on the slide that were highlighted.

And the other items that are not highlighted, have they already been addressed or they're going to be addressed?

So I can address any of those that you would like if you have any questions.

I tended to do the highlights, so the larger projects and anything that was new for the 27 to 31.

The ones that are not highlighted were included in previous CIPs.

So they have been touched on before, but I can elaborate any of them if you would like to.

No need to elaborate.

I just wanted to have clarity on on how I interpreted that slide, those slides.

Gotcha.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Comments?

Okay, city manager.

Great.

I feel wrap this one up.

I will transition to the proposed what might be the proposal manager's recommendation.

Budget for uh fiscal 27.

I do also want to add to my earlier response with councilwoman Campbell, we don't do a five-year projected overall budget.

We do modeling of our debt service so we know when we're paying off debt service and timing debt service to add for future bond issues.

So if that's maybe what you're referring to, I can get you an updated copy of that.

But we've never done a five-year budget forecast of the of the ilk I was understanding you to ask about.

So okay.

Um, so as was stated earlier, we will be releasing the full budget document.

It's about this thick on February on April 15th.

Um, we will have it online and we will get it out to the libraries as well.

So if someone wants to physically go through a budget book, they can check those out at the library, or they can also see it online.

But I like to try to give a preview of what the budget's going to say in advance since we have this opportunity when the budget comes out next week, it will be on a non-council week.

And so to help residents understand and contextualize what is being recommended in that big thick book that they may or may not want to go through.

We usually take about 30, 40 minutes or so to go over what's going to be in the budget.

So Angelique is uh Shank is going to be assisting me.

Um, and I want to thank her in advance for helping me keep up with my my slides.

Um it is with great pride uh that I present the fiscal 2027 manager's recommended budget on behalf of the organization and the community.

Hampton's robust citizen engagement process ensures that this recommended budget reflects more than a single perspective.

It is shaped by the voices of residents and staff who have come together to identify the values and priorities that matter most to our community.

The City of Hampton's fiscal 27 managers recommended budget reflects our continued commitment to delivering high-quality services, investing in our people, and advancing the priorities identified by both the city council and our community.

And it builds on the progress of recent years while maintaining responsiveness to evolving economic conditions and emerging risks.

While Hampton has benefited from several years of relative stability and growth, this budget was developed amid emerging challenges, including a cooling housing market, changing economic conditions, ongoing uncertainty within the federal workforce, even a war overseas, albeit paused at the moment, as well as continued impact of state policy changes and unfunded mandates that place an additional pressure on local resources.

An additional factor in this year's budget development is the timing of the state budget, which, as you all know, has not yet been finalized.

This creates added complexity for local planning, particularly when state funding is anticipated.

As an example, both the House and Senate's proposals included increased funding for Hampton through the Safer Communities Grant, which is a grant that provides critical violence prevention program support.

However, until the state budget is adopted, there remains the possibility that this funding could be reduced or even eliminated.

These programs remain a priority for the city, and so if state funding is not ultimately provided, as this budget has assumed it will be, the city will need to reallocate funding from other planned initiatives to ensure that the violence prevention programs continue.

This reality underscores the importance of maintaining flexibility within the budget as we move through our budget season and ultimately get to a council adopted budget.

Now I want to say balancing a budget is never easy.

There are always more needs than available resources and you know different constituent groups wanting different things and trying to make sure we take care of the larger community is an important thing for us to do so that we don't pour all of our resources into only one part of the city or only one part of our strategic plan priorities.

So we do look to try to balance these things out so we get a healthy plan for the whole city.

As noted, the this year's challenges were a little bit greater in a sense because just as Hampton residents are experiencing rising costs, we also experience rising costs.

As an example, I know many people have lamented the higher utility bills.

They don't think necessarily about the fact that the city also has higher utility bills because we don't get free electricity for our fire stations and our libraries and our police department and our you know fill in the blank all of our buildings.

And likewise, right now, with gas prices being up so high, we are not immune from those gas pressures either.

Um we have all those police cars and fire trucks and ambulances and solid waste cars on the on the road every day.

And so when we're balancing the budget, we had to account for these things.

We had to plan for higher utility costs, higher gas prices, those kinds of things.

But we did want to be sensitive and not try to pile on everything we would like to do because we had as a goal to make sure that we at least maintained, if not, you know, we would have loved to have lowered as we did the last four years, but we did not want to raise our real estate tax rate as some localities in our region are actually considering.

So this budget ensures that we maintain that tax rate and that we do what we can to help our residents with these conditions while we also face those conditions.

The total proposed budget for fiscal 27 will be 708 million,640,649 dollars, which is a 4.3% increase from last year.

The Hampton City Schools portion of the budget is 327,998,571 dollars, of which they get 101 million, almost 102 million from the city.

Um, the state requires a match of a minimum of 61,239,442.

We actually give them 43 million more than that.

Every locality in Virginia gives their school system more than the state required match because of the inability of the state process to keep up with rebenchmarking the true standards of quality.

But we do believe that our schools produce great value for the money that we give them.

I want to touch a little bit on some of the things that I mentioned a little bit more in terms of what was driving the budget.

We had the cooling housing market and economic uncertainty around what's going on with uh the war abroad as well as federal workforce changes as we know.

Many of our federal workers were either chose to take early service retirement or in some cases actually terminated, and so that has impacted our local economy.

Um, as we have many military people abroad, that's less money that they're spending in circulating in our local economy.

Likewise, if you know the gas pressures I talked about earlier, is people having to spend more at the gas pump, typically they spend less in our restaurants and our stores.

And so that means we don't get direct money from the gas tax to support our budget, so people are having to put more into gas and less into eating out.

We also have less people eating out because of the deployed personnel.

So all of these things actually caused us to have to temper our revenue projections for things like sales, meals, taxes, which in past years have been pretty substantial.

One thing I'm pleased to say that will be productive for us this year is the state change the process for sharing paramutual betting revenues.

And where that comes into play for us is the activity that we have at Rosie's.

Rosie's is a paramutual betting off-track betting facility, and based upon changes that the state made last year, we will get roughly three million dollars more.

And so that was a real saving grace for us.

So we wanted to take all these things into account and deal with our workforce, which is our our biggest priority, but also make some investments both on the capital side, as James described earlier, and then the operating side.

And I'm going to move into describing those now.

As I've already mentioned, we plan to maintain the current real estate tax rate of $1.14 for $100 of assessed value.

This recommendation comes despite these increased pressures that we mentioned.

In recent years, the city's taken a consistent approach to reducing the real estate tax rate, as you can see by this chart, bringing it down from $1.24 to where it is now at $1.14.

Holding the tax rate steady helps to minimize the financial impact on Hampton residents at a time when households are dealing with the same things the city is dealing with.

I do want to note that Hampton has been one of the few localities that has reduced its tax rate at all, and probably the most aggressive tax rate reduction of any of the major localities in our region.

By major, I mean Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Newport News, and which one am I?

Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Newport News.

Yeah.

Vice Mayor's question.

When we say that we reduce that personal property tax rate 10 cent over the last four or five years, and what that equates to financially, who covers their burden.

So yes, I and the just for clarity, I think I know you meant this, but in case people might have been confused, we're talking about the real estate tax, not the personal property tax.

Because the personal property tax has remained the same.

But the real estate tax.

But two, the city will always need some growth in revenue because you have the kinds of things we're describing, salary increases and and other needs that you have to take care of.

Well, what we deliberately did was to recognize when real estate was appreciating very rapidly at a faster pace than what we would need that we concertedly lowered the tax rate.

And you can see it's gone down a total of 10 cents on the dollar on the 100 dollars in that last four-year period.

It's hard for me to do the math in my head, but each penny is currently worth about 1.6 million dollars.

So you can multiply that times 10.

So that represents over 16 million dollars of tax relief in that period of time that we have provided to Hampton residents.

Rough rough numbers.

Is that what you were getting at, Mr.

Vice Mayor?

That's clear, but I wanted to also too, because I I hear this all the time.

Will you lowered that rate, but we'll still have to pay whatever and we're covering that cost of the reduction.

But that comes back to us.

So yes, I mean, as I mentioned, the tax because assessments and you know, we we've talked about this before.

I'll try to do it very briefly.

We can only have one tax rate for the locality.

Other than we'll talk about it in a moment, if there's a special carve out like the state has made to allow us to assess a higher rate for blighted property.

But like all residential properties, whether they went up fast or slow in their assessment, can only be at the same level.

All commercial properties can only be at the same level.

And so when we set a tax rate reduction policy, what we look at is lowering based upon the average increase.

So some properties might have increased at a higher rate, some at a lower rate, some not at all, some may have decreased.

But we what we look at is the overall increase, and what we try to do is to adjust our tax rate down so that we don't allow any growth faster than resident income growth or inflation as defined by urban consumer price index.

And so that's what was that's how we came to the different numbers that you see represented on this chart.

So for instance, in that first year, we where we dropped six cents from $1.24 to $1.18.

I think if we go back to then the assessments were increasing something on the order of 15, 16%.

Um and then we we started tempering it down a little bit because each year the assessment growth was not as great, but it was still there, and we wanted to provide some relief to taxpayers.

But there will always be in all in all honesty, there will almost always likely be some increase that people pay in taxes.

We hope to keep it nominal, but just like the grocery store prices go up or the gas prices go up, you know, we we do have to account for the ongoing increased cost.

It doesn't cost the same thing next year as this year if we give our employees a salary increase.

It will always go up somewhat slightly.

But I think what this reflects is council's concerted commitment to not take in any more than was absolutely necessary.

That get at what you were hoping for.

Okay.

So returning, I want to note that our tax rate does remain competitive within the region, the localities I just mentioned that we compare ourselves to.

You can see that Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Newport News all have higher tax rates than us.

And I think it's very notable when we think about the assets that each of those localities have, for instance, Portsmouth now has a casino that generates quite a bit of money for them.

Norfolk, of course, has long had major corporations in their downtown.

Newport News has Huntington Ingalls Shipyard and Waterworks that pays quite a bit of money to the general fund and return on equity.

And the localities that we're slightly above, like Chesapeake, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach have much, much higher average housing values.

So when you look at what our homeowners pay in taxes, this is the way we calculate this chart, is taking the average value of housing in each locality.

So the average resident in Chesapeake, when you multiply their housing value times the dollar one tax rate, they're paying just over $4,100 a year.

Whereas if you take the average Hampton homeowner and multiply it times, albeit a higher tax rate at $1.14, they're still paying considerably less at just over $3,000 because it costs more to live in Chesapeake than it does to live in Hampton.

So we we do want to note that we think that these kinds of numbers reflect that we are doing well with the efficiency and effectiveness of the dollars that we take in.

Additionally, I want to note that Hampton continues to experience a disproportionate impact from the Commonwealth of Virginia's 100% service connected disabled veterans real estate tax relief program.

And I want to make it abundantly clear the city is very proud to support those who have served our country.

We don't begrudge them this benefit.

But the cost of the benefit accrues to our tax base.

So if you look at what this chart, you'll see that we expect to have to write off $13.7 million in taxes in the upcoming fiscal year, which means that if the state were compensating us for that, it was a uh something they decided to do, we could lower our tax rate probably to the tune of about 10 cents and have it be even lower.

And why we bring this up again is not to begrudge those who have served our country and deserve the support that we provide, but to note that Hampton has a higher percentage of military and veterans in our area than most cities in the state of Virginia.

And so in this case, we're spending part about 7%, it'll probably be upwards of 8% by the time fiscal 27 is done of our budget.

Most cities in Virginia are somewhere around 1% or less of their overall residential tax being impacted by this tax rate.

And so our hope has been it was in our legislative package that the General Assembly might step up and give some financial relief to localities that have a higher disproportionate impact like Hampton.

And you know, that may happen in the future.

We hope so because that would allow us to provide tax relief for all residents and not just for our well deserving men and women of the military.

Finally, before I move on from the real estate tax rate, I do want to note for those who weren't following along, our I value process around the budget asked the residents for their input on what tax rate they feel most comfortable with, and a clear majority of residents who participated in the engagement process supported the real estate tax rate remaining the same.

There was certainly ones who wanted it to be reduced more, but when you look at where the majority of the community fell, it was at maintaining the real estate tax rate of $1.14.

Now we do have several targeted adjustments to user fees, and we've done these only where absolutely necessary to sustain critical services, maintain aging infrastructure, and ensure long-term program viability.

And every effort has been made to limit the financial impact on residents, including asking them for choices, were they willing to accept less service for a lower tax rate.

So I'll summarize each of the three major fee structure adjustments, those being in stormwater, wastewater, and solid waste, beginning with stormwater.

Hampton Stormwater program plays a critical role in protecting public health and improving water quality and addressing the growing impacts of flooding.

Federal or EPA and state DEQ regulations require ongoing investment to improve the Chesapeake Bay and local waterway conditions, where our city's resilient efforts also focus on reducing neighborhood flooding caused by increased rainfall intensity, sea level rise, and land subsidence.

We are proposing to increase the fee of a dollar per ERU per month, which for residents is a maximum of 12 dollars per year to support the rising capital project cost, increased maintenance needs, and continued investment in flood mitigation and water quality initiatives.

Key services funded by these fees include assessing and cleaning the stormwater system, flood reduction, channel inspection and maintenance, mosquito control, weather emergency response, slope mowing and ditch maintenance and water quality initiatives.

And I do want to note that we have long had a plan to do a dollar per ERU per month over time so that we can ask our residents to bear some cost of addressing the impacts of flooding over time as opposed to having to do it in all one fell swoop.

The public overwhelmingly supported continuing with that path in the I value program polling.

The next one is the wastewater management.

Hampton's wastewater management program is essential to protecting public health and environmental sustainability.

Most of our wastewater infrastructure is over 65 years old, and a significant portion would be 100 years old by 2040 if we don't upgrade and maintain them.

Now I want to note, because some people have suggested we wouldn't need to do this if we had maintained them all along.

We have maintained these systems all along, and that's why we've gotten 65 plus years out of them.

If you don't maintain them well over long, you wouldn't be getting 65 years.

But there does come a point when you have to replace an aging infrastructure, and we are at that point as an older city.

So maintaining and upgrading the system is vital, and to some extent, even a regulatory requirement.

The proposed combined user fee and surcharge fee rate of $7.45 percentum cubic foot foot per month will increase by 21 cents over last year's combined rate.

Key services include wastewater collection systems, maintenance, pump station maintenance, regulatory compliance projects, and the construction rehabilitation of the aging infrastructure I've mentioned.

And the monies that we're collecting from this will allow us to make an investment of over 106 million dollars within the next five years in our wastewater system.

These requirements are impacting all localities across Virginia, particularly those with older infrastructure systems like ours, and we are not the only locality having to raise these fees.

Some do it every year as we try to do so that we lessen the impact all at once.

Some do them every couple of years.

But again, we polled our residents in the I value process and they supported going ahead with this fee increase.

Some even supported being more aggressive.

So it shows that our public really understands the need to maintain these critical systems.

And then we have our solid waste user fees.

This year we are including a recommendation to increase the solid waste user fee to $9.04 per week for recyclers.

This is an increase of 26 cents over fiscal 26.

And this is to address rising operational costs and ensure continued service delivery.

We do remain unique in providing weekly bulk trash collection service, and some cities have started to even move away from curbside recycling service, which we also continue to offer, meaning that our service level exceeds that of most neighboring localities.

Through the high value engagement process, residents were asked whether they would prefer a reduction in service frequency to the bulk trash collection or the elimination of curd side recycling, and a clear majority included a preference to maintain the current level of service, even with these associated cost increases.

So I'm pleased to report that they also supported this fee adjustment.

And finally, it does not impact everyone in the community, but just those users of our before and after school program.

We I am recommending a 10% increase in fees for the before and after school program offered through our youth education and family services department.

This adjustment reflects the need to better align program revenues with operating costs, as this fee has not been increased in over a decade, and the program has required a significant subsidy from the general fund over time.

Even with this adjustment, the program will continue to be partially subsidized.

However, this change represents an important step to improving long-term financial sustainability over time.

Feedback from residents during I value also indicated general support for this increase.

I'd like to turn now to employee compensation because as you all know, our workforce is the foundation of the services we provide at the Hampton community.

City employees consistently deliver high quality services while supporting a growing and evolving set of community needs, making it essential that we remain committed to providing competitive compensation and a supportive work environment.

Hampton's workforce is more efficient than others in the region, owing to the fact that we significantly downsize middle management during prior recessions and housing market corrections.

And in this chart, you can see that our residents per employee, in other words, how many residents each employee supports is much higher than the regional average, and the only locality that does better for than us in this measure is Suffolk.

We we perform exceedingly well representing our efficiency in meeting the needs of our residents.

Through the I value engagement process, residents express strong support for investing and compensation, with a plurality supporting the 4% wage increase proposal and a full majority indicating support for at least 2.5% general wage increase for civilian employees.

Since the public polling, however, it's become clear that the majority of our competitive localities are recommending at least a 3.5% increase with a handful of localities going even higher.

We cannot expect to retain our talented workforce if we don't at least keep pace with the rest of the region.

Therefore, I am recommending a 4% increase as essential and hope that our first our employees will be able to see this increase reflected in their first full paycheck of the fiscal year.

In addition, the city, I'm proposing the city absorb the full 13.2% increase in health care insurance premiums so that employees realize the full benefit of the provided wage increase.

And they just got a fairly substantial salary increase this past January when we looked at the changes necessitated by the market for the STEP system that we have in place for them.

So this past January, the city implemented a pay increase of at least 7.5% for all sworn officers, with most officers having gotten a combined 10% base pay increase with their step added.

And so they were just recently adjusted, but this budget reflects the annualization of those changes that we made in January.

We've also provided for the step increase that would be due in January and allocated some flexible funds should we need to do more than the step increase in January.

You can see as a result of those changes that we made, we moved up from the bottom of the market back to the middle, being the third highest place force one officers upon completion of the academies.

Together, these investments reflect a balanced approach, supporting our workforce in a meaningful way, while also maintaining fiscal responsibility and long-term sustainability.

Now I'll turn to the operating capital budget highlights by strategic priorities.

I would focus more on operating here because James talked about some of the capital budget highlights earlier.

Most of our revenue went to these high-ticket items such as the compensation increases and the disabled veteran tax relief program, but we did focus our set of strategic investments around the council and community strategic priorities.

Given the more constrained and uncertain financial environment this year, we made sure that limited discretionary funding was directed towards the highest impact initiatives.

I do want to say in some select cases I'll touch on, I deviated from public input.

And I've always said when we do the I value process, I have to reserve the right and judgment to offer to you what I think is most fiscally responsible and fiduciarily required, because not all folks that come out to our hearings or participate in the I value input have all of the knowledge that we have that we're working with.

A good example was the salary increases I discussed earlier.

Two and a half percent might seem right until you find out every other locality gave three and a half percent, and none of us would want to pay our workforce less than others.

So that's an example.

I get data after people have polled that tell me that I need to recommend certain things.

So as I go throughout this, if I if I did deviate from the public support for an item, I will explain why.

However, with 100% of our schools fully accredited without condition, and a nationally recognized college and career academy model, Hampton City Schools continues to demonstrate strong outcomes for our students with the resources provided.

We're giving them a 2.8,821,023 to be precise increase over last year.

In addition to fully funding Hampton City Schools, the proposed budget includes strategic investments and library facilities to support lifelong learning and community access to educational resources.

James talked earlier about some of the enhancements to the Phoebus Library and our plan to relocate the Willow Oaks Library through the purchase and renovation of a new location.

Together, these investments will reflect our commitment to education at every stage of life, whether it's early childhood through adulthood, as we strengthen both our school system and the community resources that support lifelong learning.

Now I'm going to turn to the council priority of safe and clean community.

Maintaining safe neighborhoods and reliable public safety services remains a core focus of this year's budget with targeted investments that strengthen operations, improve efficiency, and support those who serve our community every day.

One of the highest ranked priorities in the IVA engagement process was the upgrade of our 911 system, also known as the CAD system.

This investment will improve how quickly and effectively emergency calls are received, tracked, and responded to, helping to ensure that our residents receive timely and coordinated service when they need it most.

The budget also supports red light camera enforcement operations as well as school zone camera enforcement efforts, strengthening our ability to improve safety at busy intersections and school zones.

The effort is intended to reduce dangerous driving behaviors and make roads safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists across the community.

With the fire and rescue operations, we've added a paramedic pharmacy tech to help streamline medication management, allowing first responders to spend more time focused on patient care and emergency response.

We've also added support for the Sheriff's STAR program.

The STAR program, for those of you who aren't aware of it, provides re-entry services to individuals returning back to the community after serving their time in jail or prison.

By helping individuals successfully transition back into society, the program contributes to safer neighborhoods and reduces repeat offenses.

And as James mentioned earlier, we continue to advance planning for future fire station investments with a design being currently done on Phoebus Fire, Station 2, so that it will be ready to build in fiscal 28, and design funding for number six where Northampton Fire Station being planned.

These long-term investments are essential to ensuring facilities remain modern safe and capable of supporting our effective emergency response.

Together, they reflect our ongoing commitment to safe neighborhoods, supporting our first responders, and delivering reliable safety services, public safety services.

Next, we'll focus on family resilience and economic empowerment.

The city remains deeply committed to strengthening families, supporting youth, and fostering safer, more stable communities.

These investments are designed to not only address critical needs but also to create pathways for long-term stability, self-sufficiency, and opportunity for residents.

A key focus of this year's recommendation is advancing housing stability initiatives.

Building on the findings of the recent regional study on individuals experiencing housing insecurity, Hampton is continuing to work in partnership with the City of Newport News to develop coordinated approaches that expand access to shelter and supportive services for those most in need.

The collaboration also works includes working together to identify alternatives to ensure continued access to critical services such as replacing the regional housing crisis outline to one that will better serve our residents in need.

In addition to these regional efforts, funding is included to support planning and initial development of a transitional supportive housing community, most likely a tiny home community, which is an innovative community-based approach to expand supportive housing options.

While full implementation will occur over a couple of years, the early investment represents an important step towards increasing capacity and providing more stable long-term solutions for individuals in need.

We are also investing in transitional and expanded emergency sheltering to help individuals move from crisis situation into more permanent living arrangements.

The budget also advances workforce development and economic mobility through expanded training and employment services offered by the Office of Economic Empowerment and Family Resilience.

These programs are designed to equip residents with the skills, resources, and support necessary to secure and maintain employment, strengthening both individual households and the broader community.

With city supported training options, residents can now quickly train for high demand and good paying jobs.

It's just one example using the medical sector as the highlight.

Together, these efforts reflect a thoughtful and coordinated approach, strengthening regional partnerships, while also advancing local solutions to support residents on a path towards stability and independence.

Next, we'll talk about living with water.

As a coastal city, Hampton continues to lead with foresight and innovation in water management and climate resilience.

This year's budget reflects ongoing commitment to preserve natural resources while providing the infrastructure that supports our residents' daily lives.

So you see up here listed several projects that are being continued or completed in this fiscal year, and in other cases, being started.

So some of the new work will include the Aberdeen Gardens, the Farmington Ditch Retrofit, and Gloucester Street drainage and outfall enhancements.

Together, these efforts reflect our long-term strategic approach to resilience, making sustained investments over time to better manage water, protect infrastructure, and enhance the quality of life for our residents.

Next is excellence in government.

And as you know, to deliver high-quality resident services to our residents, we have to have the right systems, people, and tools in place.

And many times these are behind the scenes things that our residents don't necessarily see, but are critical for a smooth operating city.

So this year's investments focus on improving how we operate behind the scenes to give faster, more reliable service.

One of the things we're doing is strengthening our ability to respond to public information requests and support development activity in the city with a new paralegal position and updated FOIA software.

We're also making targeted improvements to our community development department, where we're increasing upgrading their software so that they can have faster online servicing of people who prefer to do their work online versus in person.

We're also making targeted improvements to city facilities to make sure they're accessible and functional for staff and the public.

As one example at the former circuit court building on Kingsway, we will be installing a chairlift, which will improve accessibility to the second floor.

These investments may not always be visible, but they're essential to building a responsive, efficient, and trustworthy government.

Placemaking.

Creating welcoming, vibrant public spaces remains a core part of what makes Hampton a place where people want to live, work, and play.

While essential services like public safety and infrastructure are critical, the quality of our parks, neighborhoods, and gathering spaces plays an equally important role in shaping the residents' day-to-day experience.

So this year's budget includes a series of targeted investments to enhance recreation, improve neighborhood quarters, and ensure our public spaces are safe, accessible, and enjoyable for all.

So just to highlight a few of the things again, I don't want to spend too much time on them because James talked about the bigger projects like the pickleball courts and improving the golf course and finishing up our work at Darling Stadium, where renovations to restrooms and concession areas will enhance the experience for players and visitors.

We've added improved lighting at Briarfield Park.

But we've also done some things that came to us from other parties, like the Phoebus Partnership recommended streetscape enhancements in Phoebus to include upgraded lighting, seating, landscaping, enhanced crosswalks, and traffic calming features to create a more inviting environment for residents, businesses, and visitors.

We have some pedestrian and corridor improvements planned along Tide Mill Road and West Queen Street to support walkability, safety, and neighborhood connectivity.

And what I hope will be exciting news for our residents.

We are we have money in this budget to bring back a Bay Day style event in downtown Hampton, creating a multi-day festival that celebrates the city's waterfront and community spirit, follow the fond feelings we all have from Bay Days of years past.

We also have included a pilot program for guided tours originating from the Hampton History Museum, offering residents and visitors the opportunity to explore our historic and cultural assets in downtown Hampton University, Fort Monroe, Aberdeen, and so many other places.

I can't name them all today.

We're also investing, as we talked about earlier and upgrading our therapeutic recreation center so that we can modernize the facility and ensure it supports specialized program for individuals with all sorts of abilities and their families.

And again, I want to thank Congressman Scott for the grant funding that helped ease the burden for our local taxpayers.

Together, these investments reflect a continued commitment to enhance spaces that bring our community together, improving quality of life for residents while strengthening Hampton's identity as a vibrant and welcome, welcoming city.

Last but not least is economic growth.

Supporting a strong local economy remains a key priority for the city as economic growth not only creates opportunities for businesses, but also strengthens neighborhoods and enhances quality of life for our residents.

This year's budget focuses on thoughtful long-term planning to guide future development in a way that reflects both market conditions and community priorities.

So as we were discussing earlier, we will be updating the master plans for Coliseum Central and downtown, wrapping up the master plan for BuckRA, which has started in this fiscal year, and ultimately honoring with implementation dollars those three, as well as Phoebus with the master plan update or small area plan update that the Phoebus partnership had conducted.

By investing in the planning now, we can ensure our assure our residents that the informed decisions we make about future development infrastructure and land use align with not only the community's vision but the market realities.

Looking ahead, um we will likely need more investment implementation dollars than what we have currently allotted, but we will make those adjustments once we get the master plans done and know exactly what's called for.

But we did want to at least begin that process with some implementation dollars in fiscal 27 and beyond.

As I noted earlier, um, under excellence and government, we're looking to update the permitting software for our community development department.

But in terms of economic growth, we've also identified the need to modernize our city zoning code.

This is something that we've heard from developers as something they would like to see us do to make it easier to do business in our city.

And this comes on the heels of some other steps we've taken to be more customer friendly, so we felt it was very important to continue with their recommendations and make sure that we update and modernize our zoning code.

So to summarize as we move forward, the city of Hampton remains committed to balancing fiscal responsibility with strategic investments needed to support a strong resilient community.

Our vision, we are Hampton, a vibrant waterfront community celebrating and embracing over 400 years of history and innovation to create an even more dynamic future, continues to design guide our decisions and shape our priorities.

This year's budget reflects both the input we receive from our residents and the realities of a more uncertain economic environment.

Through the I value engagement process, we heard clearly what matters to our community.

At the same time, this budget required thoughtful and sometimes difficult decisions to ensure we remain financially stable while continuing to deliver the services our residents rely on every day.

The result is a budget that is measured and forward looking, one that supports our workforce, maintains our core services, and makes targeted investments in the areas that matter most.

This reflects a commitment to doing the right things at the right time while maintaining flexibility to adapt as conditions change.

I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to City Council, our dedicated staff, and the residents of Hampton.

Your engagement, service, and support are essential to this work.

Together we will continue to move Hampton forward in a way that's thoughtful, responsible, and grounded in the values of our community.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership.

All right.

Okay, so uh questions, comments from council members.

I know it's a lot.

We will have a month give or take.

A little bit more than a month.

To dissect um decipher and receive public comment, even though we had some public comment on the upfront end, we always also extend that public comment on the back end, as was mentioned earlier.

We'll have our first budget public hearing in two weeks on April 22nd, and then we'll have a second public hearing on I guess it's May 6th, if I remember correctly, um, and then the actual adoption on May 13th.

Okay.

I just want to add one point to you know this year's budget uh presentation, and I've been I've been listening to your budget presentations for I don't know, 15 years in every year in the budget presentation, you always mention how you know kudos to our employees because we are thinly manned is the term you've used many times before.

And I always thought that you know we're we're gonna be thinly manned and we need to be you know adequately compensated.

And so when you look at the budget and you look at you know this you know residents per employee, you know, if we want to call it an efficiency rating compared to Suffolk, only Suffolk being higher than this.

And the only way that we can lower real estate taxes by 10 cent over the last four years, and then still give our employees a four percent paid increase, which is what you're recommending, which is higher than what the other cities are doing.

No other city is doing, you know, reductions in real estate taxes like we have, and I brag about that all the time.

But you know, what allows us to do that is the fact that our employees are giving a lot of extra, getting a lot done, uh, and city government is very efficient, and that's the only way that you can accomplish that with uh you know keeping our tax rate low.

So I I want to really kind of give kudos to uh all of our employees for what they're doing to help us do this, and I think we're right in trying to uh compensate them in a way and keep our salaries you know very competitive in the region, you know.

As I mentioned before, we don't have to be in the middle, we can be in the top tier salaries, and I think we're getting there.

And so uh, you know, we'll continue to work on that.

But you know, thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, and I think we're you know got a great budget you put together, and uh so looking forward to getting citizen input and uh getting it adopted uh in May.

So thank you, sir.

Any other questions or comments from council members?

All right.

So with that, uh that is our last presentation.

And so are there any regional issues?

Uh is there any new business?

Okay, so with that we have uh we need a motion.

I'm gonna ask the clerk to read the uh required motion for the closed session.

The motion required is to convene a closed session pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 point A point one to discuss appointments as listed on the agenda and the performance of council appointees.

All right, we need a motion and a second.

So move.

Second.

All right.

Will you call her openings?

Councilman Bowman.

Aye, Vice Mayor Brown, aye.

Councilwoman Campbell, aye, councilwoman Fairby, Councilwoman Harper, aye, Councilwoman Muggler, aye, Mayor Gray.

Aye, so we will uh convene in the Lawson conference room at uh 435.

435