And people want results now.

We understand due process.

We don't want to deny about a due process.

But the the tools that the mayor and I talked about yesterday and the council members that we've got to be able to do something now because people don't want to hear, oh, it's gonna be nine months or six months, it's eight months before I do that, you know, and you lost your child.

Uh, you know, so it's it's just challenging.

So some language needs to be cookie-cuttering there, that it is it is um already in there, so you'll know and uh because when you look at the evidence that you need to revoke like this, it it can't be lawyer proof, we know that.

Uh but you can have enough teeth in it to win the case.

Absolutely.

Yeah, and consistency, I agree.

Consistency for all these businesses is important.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon.

Part three of three.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Ann Liggan.

I'm an assistant city attorney, and my main focus is codes enforcement.

So I am the one who gets to take all of these fund cases to court when it comes time for that.

Um, I'm going to talk to you all about options that we have in court for these types of matters.

So the first thing I'll talk to you about is we can bring a nuisance or blight action in the circuit court.

Um, the Virginia Code allows for us to ask the circuit court to compel abatement of nuisance nuisance or criminally blighted properties.

So, first I'll talk to you about a nuisance action.

Um, the Virginia Code section that authorizes nuisance actions is 15.2-900, and it defines nuisance as includes but not limited to dangerous or unhealthy substances which have escaped, spilled, been released, or which have been allowed to accumulate in or on any place in all unsafe, dangerous, or unsanitary public or private buildings, walls, or structures which constitute a menace, menace to the health and safety of the occupants thereof or the public.

Um, and if we determine that that exists, the locality may bring an action to compel abatement in the circuit court.

And before we take an action to the circuit court, we generally give the business owner or property owner a chance to abate those conditions before we take that action in circuit court.

Criminal blights.

Commercial sex acts, regular use of property for drug possession, manufacturing, distribution, or things like that, or presence of persons under the influence of drugs, or the discharge of a firearm that would constitute a criminal act.

Now to bring an action of criminal blight in the circuit court, this is the process that we must take.

And then that owner or business owner gets 30 days to abate.

However, if in those 30 days they request an additional time to make those abatements, we have to allow them 30 additional days.

So all in all, they could get 60 days to take time to abate the blight.

So at the end of those 30 or 60 days, the city must provide additional notice of the date when a civil action may be filed in the circuit court no sooner than 15 days.

The city can file a petition in the court asking in the circuit court asking the court to order the blight abated.

And if the property owner has taken all of those steps that we requested, then no abatement will be ordered because the court will see it as already met.

So what does abatement look like?

So abatement would be specific conditions as determined by the city that the property owner must take to ensure the nuisance or blight conditions are no longer present.

So what that might be, we might talk with HPD and see what they think needs to be in place, like stricter security requirements, or that business hire extra duty police officers.

So if they don't do that, if they don't commit that commit to that abatement, then we could take them to circuit court to do a criminal blight action.

This is an action that the citizens would have to do, and it would not be prosecuted by the city, it would be prosecuted by the Commonwealth's attorney.

This is Section 48-1, and it allows for five or more citizens to petition the circuit court to impanel a grand jury to examine a nuisance.

And if that grand jury determines a public nuisance exists, then the commonwealth's attorney would prosecute that, and the court can order abatement through that process.

Now I will note there's no specific form or anything for the citizens to fill out.

That's something that they would have to figure out amongst themselves.

Any questions?

Okay.

Questions?

Councilman Boone.

Um this is a good segue because Mary had um talked about we were talking about the homelessness private property.

So if someone has private property and they're allowing folks with tents, cars, boats, buses, like 30, 40, 50 people, would nuisance fall under this category.

I think that's something we have to investigate into that specific property, what is going on there.

Okay.

Any uh additional questions from Council Boomers?

Okay, all right, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Turn it over to you for the final presentation.

The final presentation of open session this afternoon, and I I know it's been a long meeting.

I appreciate everyone's indulgence.

As you all know, we're scheduled to adopt the budget this evening, and we had forecasted last week that we would need to make some budget amendments.

Um we believed at the time that we would have to cut some of the priorities that council and the community had asked for in the budget, and I had included in the manager's recommended budget because the governor had line item vetoed something known as the safer grant.

The safer grant um had been added by the General Assembly for not only Hampton but several other cities, and could be used for violence prevention efforts.

And we were very disheartened when we learned that that had been cut out.