The City of Hampton's Planning Commission meeting for the month of November 2025 will now come to order.

Madam Clerk, can you call the roll, please?

Commissioner Griffith.

Here.

Vice Chair Rogers.

Present.

Commissioner Brooks.

Present.

Commissioner Coleman.

Present.

Commissioner Mugler.

Commissioner DeProfio.

Here.

Chair Harris.

Present.

Do I hear a motion for approval of minutes from the October 16, 2025 Planning Commission meeting?

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion for approval of the October 16, 2025 Planning Commission meeting.

Um minutes.

Madam Clerk, can you call the roll, please?

Commissioner Griffith.

Aye.

Vice Chair Rogers.

Aye.

Commissioner Brooks.

Aye.

Commissioner Coleman.

Abstain.

Commissioner Muggler.

Commissioner DeProfio.

Aye.

Chair Harris.

Aye.

That motion carries.

Now we have director of the planning commission.

Thank you.

So this afternoon we have the youth planner report that will be presented by Henry Godfrey.

How do we plan to start off our year?

Do we plan to push through obstacles when it seems like times are their toughest?

Go to the light to the end of the tunnel.

Do we plan to try to be the best version of ourselves?

Either way, this is what the Hampton Youth Commission has done so far.

Taking a look at some of the committee work, you know, we have our grants.

We kind of critiqued some of the applicants so that they'll have better future, better future grants, future applications.

Also emailed different trainings to resources and partners, different trainings like civics, financial literacy, other things like that.

For those of you who are asking, when is this happening?

It is still in the works, but we're looking to make it a consistent effort and compassionate.

It was really an opportunity to be able to brand.

Youth voice was we really got to reach out to stakeholders, prepared for our teen town hall, and elected new members for our commission as well.

Going more into our grants, we've had two grants as adding up to seven grants as of November 3rd.

In total, we've had 12 grants during the due date, November 17, 2025.

This played in parts are our fire drops, social media posts, as well as advertising, and having a look at some of our stakeholders.

Stakeholders are basically people who invest in the Hampton Commission who truly believe in us.

Here's the variety of issues that they deal with, etc.

Moving on to the next slide.

We have the the cabinet, the chair of youth voice has transitioned into the junior youth planner role.

She's done a great job of adding value in such a little bit of time.

We're so grateful for her as well as the clerk, who is also a youth paid employee and is making a difference within the Hampton U Commission.

Moving on to region representative.

This is an idea brought up by the neighborhood commission and the Hampton Youth Commission.

This they wanted to truly see what they could do to reach out to the how the youth could reach out to the community.

This was able, we were able to bridge the gap between the community HYC.

The youth are not only liaisons of their community, but are also high school reps and get to collaborate with adults as well.

We're close to capacity as of November 2025.

New commissioners have joined left and right, and currently we are at 23 members.

And finally, Compassion Night, we were able to help in New Life Seventh day of Ventus Church.

We've reached out to the community, branded, really got to shed light on some of the issues and talk to some of the church members about theirs.

Moving on to upcoming events, more details in the state quarter meetings will be shared in the next presentation.

We have our teen tall hall and grants hearing happening December 15th.

I know I'll open the floor to any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr.

Godfrey, as always.

Great presentation.

Uh any of the uh commissioners have questions or comments for Mr.

Goffrey.

All right, thank you, sir.

And one note to uh the citizens, and if you were looking at the agenda, made a slight mistake.

I'll put that on the chair, remove the uh community development directors report up so this young gentleman could go first before we got into some of the other more complex business issues.

So do we need to make some retroactive motion?

Because there's no action taken on that item.

I don't think that's necessary, Mr.

Chair.

Aye, all right.

Thank you.

Now I'll turn it back over to you.

All right, thank you.

I will first read the public hearing protocol.

The planning commission of the city of Hampton takes pride in being fair and courteous to all parties in attendance.

It is important that all involved understand how the commission conducts its hearings and how all persons before the commission should conduct themselves.

Individuals other than the applicant or their representative who have signed up to comment on the case will have three minutes to present their comments.

All comments must be directed to the commission.

No person may address the commission until he or she is called by the chair.

Speakers must remain at the podium or microphone while addressing the commission.

Speakers who have signed up may not donate their time to other speakers.

And please note that unless otherwise stated, the actions taken by the commission today are in the form of a recommendation to the Hampton City Council.

The first the final decision to approve or disapprove an application will be made by the city council at a future date.

Our first public hearing item is 25-0322.

It's a rezoning application by Gloria Lopez to rezone 0.15 acres at 1700 East Pembroke Avenue, LRSN 1203841 from limited commercial C2 district to the one-family residential R9 district with proffered conditions in order to construct a single family dwelling on a vacant lot.

Here to present on behalf of staff is city planner Han Vu.

Thank you, Kim.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

I will be presenting rezoning application number 25-032.

The subject site is 1700 East Pembroke Avenue, and the applicant is Miss Gloria Lopez.

This is a rezoning for the parcel located at 1700 East Pembroke Avenue again from limited commercial C2 district to one family residential R9 district with proffered conditions.

And this is the general location of the site.

This is a zoomed in version of the map.

It is located on East Pembroke Avenue.

The proposal would include a 19 1930 square foot single family home with two family with two stories, three bedroom, and three and a half bathroom with an attached garage.

And the main vehicular access is up of Smiley Road.

This is the lot layout.

At the top, we have East Pembroke Avenue, to the left is Smiley Road, and in blue is the proposed single family home accessed by a driveway up of Smiley Road again.

The top left elevation is the view from Pembroke Avenue, and the right bottom elevation is from Smiley Road.

The subject site is currently zone C2.

And the future land use maps calls for commercial for the site.

And these are the public policies that are applicable to this application, including encouraging a diverse mix of housing, safeguarding the integrity of existing residential neighborhood, and promoting and enhancing the identity and scenic qualities of the city corridor and gateway.

And furthermore, the plan also categorize Pembroke Avenue as a resident residential corridor with commercial notes, with the recommendation that commercial uses are concentrated into those notes.

And Pembroke Avenue is an aging corridor that is no longer viable for the current commercial market.

That other segment may be suitable for single-family home or info housing development.

The Bucks Buck Road Master Plan also speaks to this application.

New single family home housing on Pembroke Avenue would improve the character of the street and really add character to the Buckrow neighborhood.

And the plan also indicates there's a weakness in Buck Row with an oat housing stock with a demand for single family home.

And Pembroke Avenue again identified as in the plan as an improvement opportunity.

The plan also speaks to again the in-fill housing development are encouraged wherever it is suitable to revitalize and fulfill the need for single family home.

And these are the proper conditions, including the adherence to concept plan, elevation, building fencing, and roof materials, site plan approval, as well as compliance with zoning ornaments and ordnance and zoning ordinance.

And these are the proper conditions, including the adherence to concept plan, elevation, building fencing, and roof materials, site plan approval, as well as compliance with zoning ornaments and ordnance and zoning ordinance, and the complete proper conditions can be found in the package.

And these are the staff analysis, the adopted policies for the Buck Road Master Plan again, encourage infill housing development along the corridor to fulfill housing demand for the Buff Row neighborhoods as well as improving the characteristics of the corridor, and the proposal would be consistent with the characters of the residential neighborhood.

And today a community meeting has not been held.

I do want to note that the applicant is a Spanish speaker, and hence it could be a barrier to the applicant from preventing to hold a community meeting.

And the applicant is present today to answer any of your question after a public hearing is held.

SAP is recommending approval of rezoning application number 25-022 with seven proper conditions.

Thank you, Ms.

Is anyone?

I'm sorry, is any of the commissioners have a questions for staff?

Go ahead.

Could you uh just tell me what's on the other corner?

I'm trying to picture which one smiley is.

It's not the one between McDonald's because it's not at that big intersection.

Um sure.

So to the front here is a gas station.

This is also a gas station, and right here is where the KFC and Taco Bell is.

Okay.

Any of the other commissioners have questions for staff.

Thank you.

Does the applicant wish to speak?

Or the attorney for the applicant?

Good afternoon.

Um we're here to answer any questions you have.

And uh Ms.

Lopez is here to interpret for her family.

Can you state your name, sir?

Uh I'm sorry, it's Alan Tanner.

I'm a local lawyer.

Uh 11835 Fishing Point Drive in Newport News.

Pleasure to be here.

All right, thank you.

Any of the uh commissioners have questions for uh the attorney.

Go ahead, Commissioner Brooks.

Go ahead, Commissioner Coleman.

Hello, good afternoon.

Uh I just wanted to know is the house going to be occupied by the applicant, or is it going to be for sale or for rent or some other use?

So they're gonna stay in there.

They're gonna live there.

No more questions.

Thank you.

You know the other commissioners have questions, comments.

Right, thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Is there anyone signed up to speak?

There are not.

Then I will open and close the public hearing.

Uh do I hear a motion?

Move approval of rezoning application number 25-0322 with seven proper conditions.

I second we have a motion on the floor for approval of rezoning application number 25-0322 with seven proper conditions.

Um any comments or questions by the uh commissioners.

Madam Clerk, can you call the roll, please?

Commissioner Griffith.

Aye.

Vice Chair Rogers.

Aye.

Commissioner Brooks.

Aye.

Commissioner Coleman.

Aye.

Commissioner Mugler.

Commissioner DeProcchio.

Aye.

Chair Harris.

Aye.

That motion carries.

Thank you.

All right.

Next we have 25-0285, which is a use permit application by Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge LLC to permit a restaurant three for extended general hours of operation to include alcohol sales and indoor live entertainment at 2163 and 2165 Cunningham Drive, LRSN 7001532.

And I will be presenting on behalf of staff.

So as previously stated, this is a use permit application number 25-0285 for 2163 and 2165 Cunningham Drive for Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge.

This use permit application would allow for a restaurant three for extended general hours of operation to include alcohol sales and indoor live entertainment in the limited commercial C2 and Coliseum Central overlaid districts.

As you can see, the location is indicated by the red star.

Specifically, the location is located in a strip mall near the corner of Cunningham Drive and Enfield Drive.

A little bit of history.

So prior to September 9th, 2020, Southern Comfort Restaurant and Lounge obtained ownership for the restaurant.

Then on September 9th, 2020, they obtained a zoning administrator permit for a restaurant with retail alcohol beverage license, subject to standard ZAP conditions.

Those current hours of operation and not current, the pre-existing hours of operation, were limited to 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

It also spoke to sound live entertainment, zoning ordinance compliance, expiration, and revocation.

Then we fast forward to September 29, 2025.

They obtained a zoning administrator permit for a restaurant too, subject to standard zap conditions.

So this is what they currently operate under.

So the hours of operation are 5 a.m.

to 12 a.m.

daily.

They are also some of the other conditions are compliance with all laws, floor plan, live entertainment, any applicable outdoor dining.

And they had already been working through the use permit process when they obtained this step for a restaurant two.

The purpose was to extend the hours of operation from 10 p.m.

until 12 a.m.

daily pending the outcome of this restaurant 3 use permit application.

So the applicant's proposal, this is an existing establishment.

It includes 15,561 square feet.

It includes alcohol sales and services, live entertainment, a smoking lounge area, and advent space.

Their proposed hours of operation are Monday through Sunday, 11 a.m.

to 2 a.m.

Here you see the zoning map, the properties located in our C2 district.

Future land use calls for mixed use and a little bit of public policy.

So this project would align with promoting compatibility and synergy among different land uses.

It encourages a mix of land uses that is appropriate for each district, nurtures small and startup businesses, expands tourism, entertainment, and cultural opportunities within the city.

Staff analysis, so the applicant has requested the maximum hours of operation compared to those approved for other restaurant three uses.

Staff does recommend conditions for hours of operation that would balance both business operation and opportunity with public safety concerns.

And the existing location and the character of the surrounding area supports the restaurant operation.

So staff recommended conditions.

So for general hours of operation, we recommend that Sunday through Thursday, the business would operate from 11 a.m.

to 12 a.m.

On Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m.

to 2 a.m.

And again, to balance business growth and opportunity with public safety.

We are recommending a proposal to do 11 a.m.

to 2 a.m.

on specific holidays as indicated in the conditions.

Some other staff recommended conditions include specifying the locations of indoor live entertainment, window transparency, obtaining a certificate of occupancy.

We would prohibit third-party promotions.

They would have to comply with and cooperate with all criminal investigations, ABC licensing and expiration, compliance with laws, and revocation and nullification.

Specifically the security conditions, so the applicant would be responsible for the following the parking areas of the restaurant, and additionally any portion of the public property immediately adjacent to the restaurant premises and parking areas.

They would be required to have a total of nine security guards on site from 8 p.m.

to 30 minutes after closing.

Seven of those security guards, which is one per every 75 patrons would be required to be inside or else at the front door.

Two additional security guards would be required to monitor the parking lot.

And then additionally, two extra duty HPD officers would be required to be there on nights where they are operating until 2 a.m.

So again, that would be if we our recommendation was approved, that would be on Friday and Saturday night, and then on those holiday nights as well.

And that would be from 10 30 p.m.

to 2 30 a.m.

Additionally, all security personnel have to be certified by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.

They would also be required to have two exterior cameras for the purpose of effectively monitoring the entryways and shall be connected to HPD Real Time Information Center.

Also an ID scanner for the purpose of verifying the age of all patrons from 8 p.m.

to closing, and information shall be retained for a minimum of seven days.

And any criminal activity observed by restaurant staff or security personnel shall be reported to Hampton Police Division.

They did hold two community meetings on August 27, 2025.

Staff did attend that community meeting, and there was no opposition expressed.

In conclusion, the applicant is here to present.

There will be a public hearing held, and then staff recommends approval of use permit application number 25-0285 with 14 conditions.

And I'm here for any questions.

Thank you, Director.

Does any of the um commissioners have questions for staff?

Okay.

So we'll start with you, Joe.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I had a question about the necessary HPD officers at the location.

Um is the operator, the owner, required to pay for the the presence of those HPD officers, or does the city fit the bill for that?

Yes, they would be required to pay for any extra duty officers that are required per the use permit condition.

Okay, thank you.

That's correct.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Do we know how many people attended the um community meetings?

Uh there was about 10 people that attended those meetings.

Each.

Okay.

And and no opposition.

I know there's a pretty substantial um apartment complex adjacent to the restaurant.

And I'm, you know, I want to make sure that those people are aware of the extended hours.

So they would have been notified, the apartment complex would have been notified.

Yeah, that's a great question.

So we recommend that they send out notices to a specific list that we send out.

So the adjacent properties that are within a tenth of a mile radius.

I think the issue with uh specifically apartment buildings is that notification would go to the owner of the building, not necessarily all of the tenants.

So I can't say that all of those tenants of the apartment building were specifically notified so that they could be aware and come to the community meeting to speak and hear speak on their concerns.

Okay.

Um another question when you showed the floor plan of the restaurant, and you stated that some of that is an event space.

So I was curious as to what part of the restaurant is the event space, and is that area only used for private events, or is that also open to the public during regular hours?

That's a great question.

And I would say I would let the applicant speak to you that where he the events would be specifically located within the building.

Okay, I'll ask that question to them.

And then my last question is do we have a report about whether or not there's been calls for service to HPD in the last say 12 months regarding that location?

And have there been are we aware that there have been any any complaints registered with 311 concerning that location?

Thank you.

I can answer to the 311 calls.

So typically that those would be things that would come specifically to community development, and I can say that we have not had any of those, but I'm gonna let Officers in Kowskowski speak on behalf of Hampton Police.

Part of my responsibilities are bars and nightclubs in regards to Southern Comforts calls for service.

There have been a total of 17, the majority of which have been nonviolent calls for service.

Um there were multiple complaints received for noise from the apartments prior to the restriction of hours, but nothing that um raised the bar as far as concerned for me.

Do you have anything specifically you'd like to delve into?

Um not anything specific, but what what's the time frame for those 17 calls?

Has it been since the beginning of the year or since the beginning either?

This would be year to date 2025.

Okay.

How does that compare to any other similar establishments in that Coliseum Central area?

Um each establishment has different size capacity promotions, but it falls generally within what we would consider to be average.

Um we'd also point out that there was an extra duty contract in place with an officer in charge.

I communicate with those OICs when possible to determine if they have any concerns that need to be addressed by the city.

The OIC has given me no indication that's the case.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Hampton Police Department?

I I have a question for you.

Sir Um.

The ID scanner that holds people's information for seven days, a minimum of seven days.

Is that standard procedure?

Is it has it the standard procedure here in the city?

Is that standard procedure in the state?

Can you tell me about that?

Keeping people's, I guess, facial data or whatever the case may be within the system for seven days, or is that a restaurant thing that you're having explained that to me?

I apologize.

How stored ID scanner information is uh a best practices that we're trying to adopt going forward.

It's something that we've had with several inst or several um restaurants thus far, and it's something that could be a major tool to help us solve criminal activity that occurred outside or after patrons have left.

If we know who is in there who may have been in an argument or an altercation, it would help be an investigative tool for us.

Okay, in regards to facial information, this ID scanner doesn't hold that facial information, or at least there's no requirement to do so.

Um we would just ask for the identifying information of individuals who were scanned going into the restaurant.

Okay, and so who has control of that information for that time period?

The business would have control of that, and they are under no uh requirement to hand it over willingly to us.

We're willing to take the appropriate legal channels, whether that be subpoena or search warrant.

We just want to guarantee that that information is there for us to use in the case of a major criminal incident.

And do you have a max amount of time to need to hold that information?

Because I I heard I saw the minimum of seven days.

I think that would uh the applicant's choice at that point if they wish to store for 30, 60, etc.

Um, but ultimately we're only asking for that seven days to be stored.

Okay.

Again, so that our detectives have the opportunity to get that data.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions for police departments?

Go ahead, uh Commissioner.

Um, just to follow up on uh the chair's question, what identifying information is is uh is held as it name address?

I believe that we're we're reaching the scope of where I can speak competently.

Um what I will say is that we would be looking to identify individuals that are possibly involved in the crime.

Um the ID scanner could have a multitude of things that they store uh depending on the company and the equipment.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh uh, I'm sorry, Commissioner, go ahead.

Sure.

My question was about uh the floor plan and the differences in restaurant one, two, and three.

Um I see in restaurant two that they say that there's space for the entertainment, but there's no dance floor.

Is that gonna be part of the conditions on the restaurant three because it's not specifically listed?

Yes, ma'am.

So the the conditions are very specific to the live entertainment area.

And um in terms of dancing, we did a general condition that they must comply with our city code, so our city code does specifically speak to dancing to say that um they can't have a dance floor beyond 10% of the total floor area, and then in um in terms of the live entertainment area.

I can pull up the specific conditions right now.

I think it's one 182 total square feet that they're allowed to have if this can if this condition is approved.

Um typically with a restaurant too, we allow up to 75 square feet, and that's one of the reasons um to get a use permit is to not only extend hours but to have the expansion or request the expansion of the live entertainment area, which is what they've done.

Okay.

So there will be boots on the ground.

That's all I was trying to find out.

Yes.

There will be space for that.

All right.

Um I hate to interrupt, I just wanted to point something out, Mr.

Chair, if I could.

Um on the top right corner of the floor plan that you have in your package where it says live entertainment, that square, the dance floor surrounds that area.

The text is very small, but it is indicated there.

Okay.

All right.

So I did have a question for the officer.

Sorry.

So the um barcode scanner, is that something we are now newly incorporating for restaurants?

It's something that we would ask for.

Um restaurants are going to ID scanners, and it could be a great tool to solve a crime for us.

Okay.

Well, I just wanted to make a suggestion on Thursday unions.

I tend to go to Josh just to get the Phillies up.

They need an ID scanner.

They do not have one there.

They don't have police presence at Josh's either.

So that's just one of the places I go to.

I don't see any of those types of regulations in place.

Absolutely.

And I think that city staff would probably be able to speak to the regulations for newer institutions for use permits coming up.

I'll let them speak to that.

But it's something that if you're concerned about, I'm happy to address.

Again, this is uh a responsibility that we have to make sure that we're going to all the bars and nightclubs throughout the city and trying to find better ways to keep the community safer.

Yeah, because they have like parking on the other side of Pembroke.

So is that considered their problem if someone goes across the street and does a shootout?

Just a quick quick second.

I'm gonna interject, Commissioner.

Let's let's try to keep the subject matter to the item today.

Yeah, I didn't I don't want to put the officer or staff in the in a precarious position.

Okay, I understand.

Yes, ma'am.

But the parallels to equity.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Rogers.

Officer C I've got I've got one more question about the ID scanner.

Um just for clarification, because this does seem to be new technology that that we're using, and I know there's a lot of concern about the safety of our personal information, but um when I go to a local grocery store and by alcohol, they scan the back of my ID, my driver's license.

Is that the same information that um restaurant facilities are scanning the barcode on the back of the of the driver's license as you understand it?

Is that again that this would exceed my scope to be able to tell you which grocery store is storing versus which bar storing what information in particular we have.

But I'm saying I know they're doing that in a particular grocery store.

Um, you know, we just made we we just noticed it recently, like you know, we need to scan your ID, and I'm thinking, oh, I don't even know what information is on the back of that, but in regard to concerns about you know how it's handled, how it's kept, who's doing it, it's just a fact that at least one grocery store in this city is already scanning the back of uh driver's license.

I'm Captain Anthony Sheck, and if I may, just to step in and help out also Zimkowski with this, to what you're asking is from what I understand, the information that is scanned on the back is stuff like name, date of birth.

It may have your ID number from your uh whatever whether it's a driver's license number or ID number that's on your now.

There are some that do contain the ability to get like their race and gender, um height, weight, that kind of stuff.

But typically they're looking for dates of birth and your name and there could be an address associated with it, but a lot of those scanners are just to verify that you are of age and it takes away the possibility of somebody looking at it and misdoing the math or something like that.

But yes, that is.

And to answer the question about that would be a use permit type of thing if we moved forward with those and incorporating those.

So I don't know that that would be um something that could be forced onto existing places that already don't have that in place.

So that's something that um as the technology becomes more readily available that can be put in place.

And I know that there are certain things when ABC gets involved with different aspects of it, that's something that they can also uh if they've had violations in the past of other places that they can say that uh make that a requirement as well.

Thank you.

So it's happening in several different kinds of places in the city, not just restaurants, correct.

Thank you.

Any other questions from the commissioners?

I have a question for staff.

Well, it's two questions for staff.

The first question.

All right, so the first question would be about the third party promotions.

I know this has come up before last year.

Maybe you give me information on how we're council is situated on this.

Is it something that uh they have decided not to move on to allow third party promotions that we encapsulate that where it's gonna be pretty standard across the board?

Um I would tell you I have I'll always had um some misgivings about restricting third party promotions and and businesses because I think it really impedes on the business.

So can you give me some background or maybe council's position on that?

That's a great question.

So I can say over the last couple of years, all use permits that have gone forward have generally had that commission specifically lately.

Um I think to your point, allowing the third-party promoters um has been proven to cause issues, and um it it sometimes prevents us from holding the right person responsible.

And so we we've had that as a condition, like I said, over the last year or two, and and council has approved those conditions.

Well, I would say for the record, I'm not against third-party promoters.

I just I actually think it's a uh uh unnecessary, not unnecessary, I think it's uh some overreach as far as a restriction on how business owners use their property.

But neither here or there, that's not what we're here to determine today.

The other question I I have is about the ID scanners.

I know we're gonna mention this again.

In the condition, and I heard from the captain, he stated that a lot of them have maybe your age, um, date of birth.

And I know the other officer spoke of when we're trying to identify someone.

So will we be forcing businesses to buy a certain type of scanner that gets other information?

And what are the legal implications for requiring someone to get uh scanners that take off take on gender, sex and those things.

Um that seems like there would be some type of overreach as well.

We won't be asking for make or model or specific information.

We're looking to use this as a tool in a very limited sense, and that's why I mentioned the subpoena and search warrant.

We're not even gonna ask the business to turn that over to us directly.

If they choose to, then that would be uh a great thing to have.

But if they were say that they feel uncomfortable with that and they would rather just have it be through subpoena or search warrant, we completely understand.

We're happy to follow those legal routes to make sure that if we are invading privacy, we have a court order behind it to explain why we're doing this, why we're looking for this person in particular, and we will be looking for very specifically the suspect involved in this case.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions for staff?

Right, thank you.

Is the applicant here to speak?

Yes, he is here to speak.

Come on up, sir.

Good afternoon, counsel.

Uh my name is Eddie Gomez, and I am the owner of Southern Comfort Restaurant and Language.

Um quick summary of how we got here.

I um originally got here through a due to a clerical error.

When I first applied for my use permit, it was during COVID, and the city was shutting down at 10 p.m.

If any one of you guys can remember, I'm sure everybody remembers that.

So, due to my inexperience, I put those hours on my paperwork, and that was wrong.

So when things started getting out of hand in the city, and Mr.

Zimkowski um set up a meeting with me, and he approached me with my use permit to let me know that the things that I was doing was wrong and what I needed to do to comply with it.

You know, I immediately fixed it, and um, but at this point I have been operating already for about four years.

So everything that I've asked him to do now, I've been already doing for the past four years under ERA on my behalf and nobody else's.

Um I think I've done a very great job.

Um I have a great relationship with the Hampton Police Department.

Um they have a very great uh rapport with the security staff that's licensed by the DCJS that they asked for.

Um a lot of things that they're proposing me to do as an owner.

I had already implemented from day one as far as the scanners and everything like that.

Uh introduced that self as a protocol for me to keep the business safe from day one.

Um to answer your questions about the scanners, I can tell y'all what the scanners do hold.

And ma'am, they do scan the back of your ID card as if you're going to purchase alcohol from the store.

Um, what pops up on a scanner is their name, their address, their sex, and their date of birth.

It also has the ability to read not valid ID identification cards, also.

They can tell a fake ID, um, things in that nature.

They also store, like for instance, if we have a patron that's a troublemaker, we can go inside the scanner and mark them banned, which we've done that still to this day.

So when that patron comes and scans his ID, it automatically says ban, and they're no longer allowed to come into the establishment.

Um as far as I was listening to some of the things that they were proposing for me as a business owner.

As far as I was listening to some of the things that they were proposing for me as a business owner, um, I think that some of the things that they propose as far as the amount of security guards that I have or have to have, I'm asking that it still be up to my discretion because I do have different events that hold different amount of people at different dates and different times, and it would come as an overkill due to the amount of revenue that I would be making on a day-to-day basis.

Um I have a very good rapport with uh Hampton Police Department officer, Ms.

Martin.

I contact her and ask for the required off-duty officers to come to the location and actually patrol the location to help us keep the community safe.

Um I would say that me personally, I can't speak for the commission, but I would say that um my judge of character has pretty much proven to be successful.

Um we have very minimal problems since our open April um 2025.

Um we don't have many acts of violence.

Do we have a fight or two?

Of course.

But we immediately, like I said, if something happens within the area of us, we go in the scanner, we ban that person, and that person is no longer able to come inside the building.

I think that's one of the key things that kept Southern Comfort Restaurant safe.

I think that's one of the reasons why we have very minimal problems.

I actually think that's why HBD actually likes working for us.

Like they've they they very much enjoy working for us because it's very minimal there.

We don't have any uh we get rid of the knuckleheads.

Um again, everything that most of the stuff that they propose in this um in this applicant application that they want me to have, again, I'm already doing.

So I have no problem with what they're recommending.

The only thing that I would have pushback on is the mandate of so many security guards, because again, we don't have those type of that type of energy or that type of you know, problem to where we need an excessive amount of security guards to where it'll put me on a night in a positive into a negative to having to, you know, pay for the excessive amount of security guards.

Um I've always had Hampton Police Department patrolling the area since I opened.

Again, that was on my own recognition.

Um, they didn't have to force me to do that.

Um security and you know, keeping the area safe was my main priority when I opened.

Not to sound repetitive, but again, that's why I initiated these type of things when we first opened, because I know what it takes to keep a business successful and safe.

Um we've had uh not that this is off topic, but we've had numerous um visits from the health department, fire department, uh the task force has come by and we've passed every time they've came.

They've recommended things, you know, that I didn't know as a new business owner, and of course I got it fixed immediately.

I immediately send them an email and let them know when it was completed.

I think everything was completed in a in a timely manner.

And again, I don't have a problem with complying with anything that they have up there.

I mean, I would have to look at it again, but the the part that really caught my eye was the abundance of security detail that we needed to have.

But other than that, you know, I just asked to keep operating like I've been operating.

Um the parking lot, the non-security guards, we don't always have that.

Um you could even ask, so we still have police patrolling the area now when we barely have 10 patrons in the building.

So it's it's it would be like an overkill, and again, it would put me in the red when it comes to, you know, basically generally making money for the business.

Um I always have police outside.

I've never declined police.

We are on a sweeping on a a weekend schedule.

My days of operation was Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday.

They've always been there every time.

If they didn't show up, it was because you know, an officer might have called out, might have been sick, or you know, things like that, but they're always on schedule.

I never changed that schedule.

I always made sure um the Hampton Police Department was on premises to make sure everybody was safe.

Um I have the uh VDCJS security, of course, there.

Those hours from 10 30 p.m.

to 2 30 a.m.

were the hours that I had the Hampton police out there that was already scheduled.

I never changed it unless we did an event in the daytime, and then I would contact Miss Martin and let her know we have a daytime event, and could she please get some Hampton police department signed up to cover that event?

Um the parking lot, of course, the Hampton Police Department helps us patrol the parking lot when they're there.

Um and again, so you would see in my use permit that I have seven days a week there, but I don't plan on opening seven days a week.

I just wanted to have the opportunity to.

So when we have events that come to the Hampton Coliseum that might be throughout the week, and they reach out to us to you know have an event after the Coliseum is open, I want to be able to serve that like I've been doing for the past four years, again, under error of myself and myself only.

Um other than that, I do not plan on opening seven days a week.

I've never opened seven days a week.

I don't plan on opening seven days a week, but again, I did want to have the opportunity to just in case it present itself that I had the opportunity to actually be able to say, yes, we could do this or no, we can't do this.

All right, thank you, sir.

I really appreciate that explanation.

Um I'm pretty sure some of the commissioners have questions.

Go ahead, Commissioner Rogers.

Um, sir, can you address the the the floor plan for me so I understand like and maybe we can bring the map up on the screen?

Like where is the event space?

Is it just used for private events or is it open, you know, for public dining?

Uh how does that work?

Because I can understand your concern if your building's not full except for certain events.

Of course.

Um, so right under where it says rear on the top floor, that little dark square, that's the event space to where you know people like for instance, the city of Hampton has done um events in that event space.

It's um it stands alone, it has its own interest, its own exit.

Um, so you know it's it's very private.

They don't have to run into any type of other patrons that's in the building, that's less if they go to the bathroom, because of course the building shares the bathroom, but other than that, we um they're set separated from any other people in the building, down to the noise reduction.

If is you could play music in both different areas and like they won't hear it, and we've had pretty much good success with that.

Okay, that's a that's a fairly small portion of your square footage.

That's actually the one of the biggest, the bigger portions of the building.

Okay, so I'm misunderstanding.

Oh, this whole side that's along the along the right hand side.

Yes, ma'am, that whole right area right there.

That's the event space.

Correct.

Okay.

And and what's what is your building capacity?

So I want to say that side of the building holds about 536 people, if I'm not incorrect, somewhere roughly around there.

Okay.

And how often do you have events in that space?

Um depending on the year, uh, the time of, you know, but uh like around homecoming, things like that.

We get a lot of events.

Again, the city of Hampton reached out, they did a couple of, I think it was Hope After Dark, they've done that for the past couple of years there.

And we have people that um businesses get it, they do little holiday parties and things like that.

People come do birthday celebrations.

We've had repasses there.

We're basically open to everyone.

We don't restrict the usage of it at all.

So it's you know, kind of like, you know, due to the request of the people that you know who was trying to use it or what they were trying to do with it for sure.

And when you're not having an event there, when you're just open for restaurant business, do you have like a ballpark number of how many patrons would be in your facility?

So uh that event space is only used for events.

So that event space is not even open on a regular basis.

Uh the restaurant, as you can see to the bottom left square, that also stands alone as a standalone restaurant.

No patrons from the lounge sees that area, goes through that area.

It's a family restaurant and it stands alone to where it's just a restaurant and that's all.

Mm-hmm.

But do I mean can you ballpark a number like on a typical Friday night or Saturday night if you're not having an event, you might have X number of I mean um that may be a question?

On a good Friday night, um, I would say total restaurant and lounge, 200 people.

Okay.

All right.

And then I have one more question.

Um so I was when I was looking at the floor plan and I was noticing like those sound barrier walls.

Um but it sounds like from you from your description, that's to keep the sound from the event space and the other area.

I'm a little concerned about the exterior noise since that seems to be what the majority of calls for service were about, and and I don't know how many people live in those apartments, but that's a big apartment complex.

So can you talk to a little bit about how you can help keep that sound down to be a better neighbor to those residents?

Sure.

So again, when Mr.

Zimkowski had the meeting with me, I was unaware of those phone calls.

So when he let me know, no, Eddie, they they call sometimes.

I said, okay, so I have now a decimal reader in the lounge that lets me know that when I'm over certain decimals, it can be heard outside, and I keep that to a minimum also.

So I kind of like try to put the clamps on that because of course I don't want to disrupt anybody's sleep, anybody's kids, people have to work seven days a week.

So when he made when again when he brought that to my attention, I immediately took care of it.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Any other commissioners have questions?

I have uh one quo well, two questions.

Uh I know we have the surveillance camera one and surveillance camera two.

Are you adverse to that at all?

Again, um I have 15 to 20 cameras in my building.

There's no blind spots.

Um again, I have this, I did this on my own for when I first opened in 2021.

You could see the exterior around the whole building from the parking lot to the back of the building, all around the building.

You can see every area within within reach of the building for me through the whole parking lot and again the surrounding area of the parking lot, and it's been like that since I opened.

Right.

So you're not averse to those cameras.

Not at all.

Dave came, Hampton Police Department have come, Eddie.

We think something happened, we want to look at your cameras and see.

I put them directly in contact with the camera company.

It's what they call STG, and then they work it out with whatever times they need, uh whatever dates they need, I put them with them and then they then they do whatever they send to the Hampton Police Department and they've been suffice with everything that's been going on in that nature.

And then the last question I have for you about the security guards.

Um, if you had to hire and you were at that that capacity and you had to hire nine, I guess to eleven.

I guess the maximum eleven what I was looking at security guards between that and HPD.

Um would you be able to make a profit?

Um, or how much would you think that would cost you?

You can answer either one, either way.

Well, I can answer both.

Um again, depending on the event, it would be how many security guards we have.

Um, just like with the Hampton Police Department, this for an example, if I have a uh we had uh DJ Envy come for homecoming.

Um I will call a police department and tell them, you know, we need an extra car or two patrolling because I'm expecting a decent amount of people here, and then I will also call the lead for security and let him know.

So the numbers are just throughout the week for sure.

So again, I kind of leave it like to my discretion because I kind of know the value of the events that come through the building, and I just try to make it to where it's safe for everyone.

The security guards don't allow me to under staff for any events, they kind of in tune with what's going on outside, and again, we've never had uh problem with providing adequate security on a day-to-day basis, depending on the event that's going on.

Okay.

Go ahead, Joe, and then uh Commissioner uh Coleman.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I had a question about uh community outreach.

Just if you can rewind for the um the commission, give us a glimpse into what that looked like.

We know that you had about 10 people at each one of those engagements.

Um can you kind of tell us who typically attended that?

Like were they people from the apartments or were they business owners?

Like what kind of stakeholders showed up for that?

What was the general um uh feedback that you'd gotten from those stakeholders when you presented this information?

Was it concerning or um were they supportive?

Just to give us a glimpse of about that.

Um very supportive.

Again, because I think that you know, we don't really occur too many problems or too many incidents to where it would concern them.

I hire a lot of local people, so they were kind of happy with that.

One or two of them, people that came to the meet and had kids that work for me.

Um it was well, it was a couple of business owners, and the rest, I don't know if they were from the area, but they were for business owners in general, and um it was a couple people from the community, and we didn't get any pushback um at those meetings as far as you know from what I was hearing, they were kind of like, yeah, this place is pretty good, the food is good, you know the atmosphere is okay, and I didn't thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Quick question.

Uh, what is your minimum age uh for entry?

Twenty-one.

Twenty-one?

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other questions?

Other commissioners.

I do have a question.

Maybe for maybe staff can answer this along with um the applicant.

Uh the part about the police presence, uh, was that drafted due to the fact that when you make those calls, the HPD is taking away resources from somewhere else, and so we would need to make sure that those are paid police officers.

Um you answer that, Mr.

Zemkowski.

Uh yes, sir, I can.

But the first vector duty is just as you said, to basically keep our operational resources intact for emergency calls throughout the city.

If we know an event or a space is going to need an officer or two, we will have those officers ready to go, and they will handle that business in encapsulated uh state.

If they need additional resources, they'll call them in, but for the most part, those two officers should be able to handle the majority of the situations that arise.

So when the applicant is making those calls for you to come maybe do patrols and things of that nature, those are just courtesy drive-bys, drive-throughs, or you paying for those?

Yeah, I I pay for those hourly and they patrol from the hours that were stated from 10 30 p.m.

to 2 30 a.m.

All right.

All right, thank you.

You welcome thank you.

All right, any other questions.

All right, thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Is there anybody signed up to speak on this this item?

No speakers, Mr.

Chair.

All right, then I will open and I will close the public hearing.

Um I will have one comment and to the commissioners.

For me, I think the one component really goes back to the officer uh component here in the conditions.

Um it sounds like that he has a pretty good track record, and I know I guess would happen for the one of those things are it does take up some resources, but what what I try to do and try to facilitate is having the business owner as much as possible, especially if they show goodwill, um that they have as minimal restrictions as possible, and I I think he's met that here just from some of the testimony that we heard and the evidence.

But uh that's my position on it.

Uh if we can amend that one condition, I don't know if that's even possible.

Can you speak to that if we were trying to amend one of the proper conditions?

Uh if you know in particular what you'd like to see changed, uh you could make an oral motion this evening to uh uh to uh approve the use permit subject to that amendment.

Um alternatively, you you all could vote to defer to an at later meeting with instructions to staff on what changes you'd like to see.

All right, thank you.

That's all I have.

Uh do I hear a motion question, Mr.

Chair?

Go ahead, uh, Commissioner.

Um the amendments that you were referring to, would that be something that we would do before we did the motion?

Are we most making a motion to discuss the amendments or put the amendments in?

My understanding would be it would be a part of whatever motion you place on the floor.

I mean you can discuss it now if there's something that that you would like to amend.

But uh once we enter the motion, it will be entered with that amendment, that amended condition.

Well, I thought you had one in particular that well, I try to not make motions.

I try to wait on the commissioner, so I gave my opinion.

I mean the discussion piece as far as what amendment you would just that one amendment to um the the police matter, the police staffing.

Go ahead, I'm sorry, Commissioner Brooks.

Can you pull up that slide again, please?

That has the security requirements.

That would be helpful.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, it's a lot.

Go ahead, Commissioner DePoffrio.

Thank you.

Um can you uh explain the rationale behind the uh level of security that is being recommended in the use permit conditions?

Uh yes, I can sir.

The use permit conditions, the security would follow the capacity.

Um as um Eddie had testified to some nights he's only going to have uh a hundred people, some nights he might have five hundred people, but we can't adjust our use permit according to that.

We have to consider the worst case scenario.

In this case, it would be five hundred people.

It would require the intervention of two officers potentially, and for the distinction between DCS security and officers that are working on scene, typically bar owners and patrons don't enjoy having an officer standing in their bar.

They would like us to be outside ready to respond.

Security typically, if they have an issue, will call us in or bring somebody out to us and ask us to escort them to their car or escort them off the property, which is why you have the those two tracks in mind, typically.

I I can't speak to in Eddie's case or Mr.

Combs' case, but I imagine that would be the reason for that.

Thank you.

The applicant come back up just in case we have a couple questions for you.

Follow-up questions.

Uh go ahead, um, Commissioner Rogers.

So is there is there not uh uh a method in our conditions for the owner to um to have the security staffed based on expected uh attendance there?

I mean, you know, I I I think most of us would assume if there's not an event and it's a Tuesday night, he's not gonna have 530 people there.

I I certainly understand and and I support the city's effort to keep us safe, and we've been addressing that in these meetings recently, and that's very important to me.

But I also understand his position that if he only has a hundred patrons, but he's got nine security officers.

For one thing, that that might even just sort of change the vibe of the place, but it it would be unnecessary.

So is there not a way that that security element of a condition can be based on the expected number of patrons and perhaps there's even uh a way that he has some of his employees that are on call in case there's uh I mean I don't even know if that's possible, but I I can see both sides of this coin, but I understand that you're talking about a big financial investment in security that may be more than is necessary for certain days of the week.

Before you answer the the way I read it, at least that first component, the seven security guards, is based off the amount of people attending, or is that not?

It's based on the one per seventy-five patrons allowed by capacity.

We have to do that is because in the past use permits have been made based on the amount of people that are currently in the bar, but that can change from minute to minute.

You'll see people come in one hour, out another hour.

There's no reasonable way to track that for the sake of verifying compliance.

Um minute by minute that could change, and I imagine that these security guards don't want to be sent home halfway through the night if they just don't happen to have a turnout that so then let me answer maybe staff someone can answer.

So that the overarching statement says nine total security guards are required.

All right, then the second component there, the second bullet states one per seventy-five patrons as if it can be actionable if there's 76 or not, but that's not what that's saying.

That's just saying basically you need he needs nine total security guards there because uh capacity could fluctuate very quickly.

So you're asking for him to have at least nine.

That's there.

During those operating times.

That would be correct.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Joe.

Commissioner Coleman?

I just um mathematically.

If that event space is only used for events, then the proprietor seems like he's amenable to saying, okay, we have an event on Friday night, and we expect the next number of people will need extra.

Otherwise, he won't.

So is that not a reasonable solution to this without him going broke by having an extra nine full-time employees almost, basically, for hangaround reasons.

I believe that comes down to the commission's decision in this case, but ultimately my my mind is a police officer is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

In this case, we've had instances where violence is broken out at a moment's notice and manning becomes an issue where we need to get resources to this situation quickly.

I would like to not only have the coverage of the DCS security guards there to manage crowd, but also our officers.

Again, I I appreciate that he has been so open and been willing to reach out when he needs extra, but really I have to plan for that um that bad scenario, that that worst case scenario.

Okay.

Um sorry that you look at it that way.

Um the reason why I ask you about your minimum age, because I know the previous proprietors had a 30 year as their minimum age.

And so I was wondering if 30 was yours, because I know that your clientele tends to be in my age category.

Right.

Um couple things I want to say.

Um so to your point, I try to give everybody a fair chance because it's very mature 21-year-olds out there.

Again, we have a lot of college students that attend and a lot of upper grads that attend, so I try not to single them out, you know, as far as and again, once you could do as much as verbally be verbally combative with security, if we see that energy from you, we ban you from the establishment.

Um secondly, I always want to have Hampton police outside.

I would rather them more than the security guards, because patrons respect HBD more than uh more than they might look at a security guard as just another patron.

Um I think the level of the threat of them getting in trouble supersedes the threat of seeing a security guard like them next to them.

Also, there's been all the time, actually, it happens to where we schedule security guards and we send them home throughout the night.

Once we see it gets to a point in time of night to where, okay, we're not gonna have anybody or we're not gonna have this many people to leave security guards, they cut security guards and send them home.

We hate to do that, but Mr.

Zankowski, like he was saying, we prepare for the worse every night.

So therefore, like we would already schedule security guards, and once we see that, you know, the night is not there, or the energy or the patrons are not coming, they cut security guards as needed.

So again, the only thing that I would be rebuttaling in this uh recommendation would be the amount of security guards that's mandated, because again, I just think that um I've been doing a pretty good job with handling you know problems or you know, I'm very proactive with things in that nature, and again, those nights have some of those nights have put me in a red.

And if this is mandated, I kind of wouldn't know what to do to stay out of the red.

Like, you know, so sorry, but yeah, again, I don't I don't uh we always have adequate security, and I'm always looking to have adequate adequate security there for sure.

So never have a problem with HBD, but I would like to, you know, just basically do the same thing I was doing that you know got me here before I made this clerical error that where everything was just running nice and smooth in my area with the business.

Yeah, I think we are saying the same thing.

That it's just that I asked my question more concisely why why thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other comments or questions by uh the commissioners or any questions for Mrs.

Mkowski or for um the applicant?

Thank you both.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Just real quick to our staff attorney, just want to make it clear uh this is a use permit.

So if can you explain to the commission that in the future, if there are security incidents or things of that nature, is there a mechanism by which this use permit can be revoked?

That that's exactly right.

Use permits can be revoked in the same manner that they are adopted, which is to say that you would consider the revocation and then make a recommendation to city council, which would either agree to revoke or not revoke.

So even not having some type of security language in there if it comes up in the future to say, look, this is a uh establishment that had multiple security incidents, is not good for the city.

We can just revoke it without even having a specific security component.

If it it doesn't have to be a violation of the security terms, but there has to be it has to be based on a violation of the existing use permit terms.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

One other question about use permits.

Once a permit is issued, it's not able to be adjusted or changed after it's issued.

Is that correct?

It can be amended by the same process we're going through today.

It could be amended.

So for instance, if um, you know, let theoretically, if we approved it as written, and you know, six months from now there's been no incidences.

The applicant could come forward and ask for an amendment and we could perhaps reduce the amount of security.

I mean, I'll be honest, I'm not comfortable with not having anything about security in this use permit.

I'm not comfortable with that at all.

Um, but I'm I'm not knowledgeable about how a use permit is changed after it's been issued.

Uh I I think the if he chose the applicant could come in at some later date and request that you amend the use permit to provide different security terms or whatever else.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, yes, so my question is uh what's and we've seen we've seen these, but what security term could we put in there if there's uh uh incident where we could revoke it or nullify the use permit?

Is there some standard language reviews in other places that didn't have this component number?

So aside from uh aside from the specific number of security personnel, there are other requirements like uh uh uh monitoring the parking lot to protect against acts of violence, that sort of thing.

So um the the failure to have the specific number of officers is only one possible violation of the security terms.

Thank you.

Any questions by the commissioners?

Any comments by the commissioners?

I do have one other question.

Can you explain um whether the um use permits transferable to another owner of the business?

Yes, sir.

That's a good question.

Um so because of new State Code Authority that I think went was it went into effect in approximately 2020, um the city adopted um a condition in our code that says that any use permit where the applicant or the owner is serving alcohol or has an ABC license can is not transferable to a different owner or tenant.

Um and additionally, if that um applicant loses their ABC license for three months, I believe it is, then it would also um nullify the use permit.

Thank you.

Any other comments by the commissioners?

Uh I would tell you my position on this is you know if the applicant would be okay with deferring it, or maybe we could defer it to come up with some language security like especially security language or meeting some some happy medium um where the applicant isn't bogged down by the the cost of security, especially based on this record.

Um I think it would be reasonable to do that.

Um that's my position.

I don't know what the other commissioner's position is if you want to speak on it.

I agree with you, Chair.

You have the floor.

I agree as well.

It it clearly seems as though this will be a major business burden and a challenge.

And um I would like to see some other security language.

I realize the importance of security keeping our community safe, but if there is another way that we can work through this, I would appreciate that opportunity.

Perhaps there's um a middle road, a compromise.

Uh I definitely would want any changes to this to be um in conjunction with conversation with HPD, certainly.

Um maybe there can be some give on both sides.

So uh a better question is for the applicant, would you be okay with deferring this?

You can come up there.

Let me ask your question.

How would you be affected if this is deferred uh for a couple of months?

Um drastically for sure, because I really haven't been open.

So it's gonna take probably a little while for the value of customers to understand that we're back open in the business to pick back up.

Um if this helps, I just kind of like would like I would accept any punishment if I under any violation.

I feel like um I feel like I don't want to word this the wrong way, but I just kind of feel like um, you know, if if it was being shown that I wasn't properly handling uh, you know, to build in the safety, the public safety, then of course we would I wouldn't mind coming back here and have you guys mandate whatever you guys wanted to mandate because that then my choice of judgment is wrong and it's not upholding the city standards.

But I feel like I have been upholding the city standards, and you know, I just asked the committee that if if it could be the same that it basically was until proven otherwise that you know I do things like make bad decisions or or just like I'm not in compliance with the safety for the patrons in the community, and I think up to this point I've done a very good job of it.

Then let me let me ask you another question.

When did you stop operating?

You said you stopped operating.

I want to say is June we went to reduce hours about six months now.

Okay, you went to reduce hours, and before that you were operating for how long?

Four years.

Four years.

Okay.

And now you're on reduced hours.

Okay.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

Well, and uh explain again the reason why you uh our downgrades are hours, yeah.

Because when I first filled out for my use permit to be accepted, I didn't I of course the inexperience to me, I didn't know that I was supposed to put the hours that I wanted to operate because it was COVID.

And during that time, the city was shutting down at 10 p.m.

So me just thinking that I had to close at 10 p.m., those are the hours that I put on my use permit by mistake.

That's how we got here.

So I mean, is that use permit in uh active now?

Can you be open till 10 p.m.

now?

So those are my hours right now.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd just like to clarify.

So when we went through the history, so in 2020, like he stated he got a zoning administrator permit.

So it's a little bit different than a use permit.

Those hours were um limited to 10 p.m.

like he said daily.

Correct.

Um and then it was recently that he came back to get uh a zap per restaurant too that now allows him to operate until 12 a.m.

and I believe that was in September of this year.

Yeah.

Okay, so you so you can stay open until 12 a.m.

presently, right?

Correct.

But I had um I had asked the city, is it was it anything that they could do to understand that because the business was falling, it was failing.

I was very close to you know, losing the business because of the restricted hours because the people knew, you know, basically what I've been doing for the past four years, and that's what we've been doing.

And um it was very hard as a stream for me.

You know, I saved a little bit of money up because I you know I have a family and things like that.

So I've been digging into my family savers for the past six months with these restricted hours.

So when I asked the city repeatedly, is it something that they could do until this process was here today, they granted me uh 12 o'clock.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

Um I I'm somewhat reluctant in recommending this because we've I've done this before and and and you know it hasn't worked out great.

But um, I mean one of the things that we have done in the past is we've forwarded to council a recommendation for approval and with the sort of stipulation that you know we'd like to look at one of the conditions um in the uh the application.

And so, you know, uh and that would essentially give time potentially for staff and the applicant and HPD to to come up with something that may be more workable since that's what the concern is.

And so I've done that in the past because that basically kind of keeps at least the process moving, and council is the final authority that that makes the decision as to whether or not this gets approved or not.

Um you know, we just make recommendation to council.

And so I I I am, you know, I I have some of the same concerns that were expressed by um Commissioner Rogers, where I I don't feel really, you know, particularly some of the things that we've had to deal with lately.

I don't feel um comfortable just saying, you know, not having any sort of parameter because people make you know decisions based on you know financial considerations and other things, and it might lead to some some decisions that you know might be regrettable later on.

Um but uh but you know uh I think one of the things that we could potentially do is say, you know, we do think that we would like staff and um the applicant to work through what maybe some other options might be relative to how we satisfy the security conditions.

Um and and you know, you know, include that as part of our recommendation so we can advance this and kind of get this moving.

Um it saves some time.

Um, you know, and then it can be before council and they can make the final decision as to you know what they feel is is um is uh is appropriate and and it doesn't leave Mr.

Um leave the applicant basically waiting at least another month, maybe more before sort of going to the next step.

Um it saves at least some time in the process.

So I'd offer that as uh another alternative for the com Commission's consideration.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Um and when does this come?

When would this come before council?

What meeting will it be?

Um they uh email me uh sorry, I was asking staff.

It's all good.

So I think right now it would be December 10th.

Okay.

Go ahead, Joe.

Uh I think that approach would work, at least from where I'm standing, and I I think I agree with everybody here.

Uh my colleagues all express themselves well here, and I echo that sentiment, but you know, I just want to make sure that we um we don't put undue pressure on staff if it's if it's something that they can do and work with the applicant, and I think we should should move ahead with that possibility.

Then let me ask another question for staff attorney.

Um so in this case, with the amended amendment, it would be the language that Commissioner De Profio stated, or how we state that with this this amendment to move this uh motion forward.

Uh first I I I'd want to ask what I mean without words missing anything, what kind of changes you would like to see?

I'm I'm struggling with how to articulate that.

Um would it perhaps be uh staff is directed to revise section 8B of the conditions and the requirement that the number of security staff be based on the maximum occupancy?

That was great legal language.

So I'm pretty sure you're not going to get any pushback from us.

But I think that's that that sounds uh correct.

But go ahead, Commissioner.

So if you could repeat that for one of our commissioners to state it if they want to, please.

So I I am looking for a motion to adopt excuse me to recommend approval of this use permit with direction to staff and the applicant to revise section 8B and the requirement that the number of security staff be based on the maximum occupancy.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Chair, I think you've got some questions.

Yeah.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

I'm sorry.

Commissioner Brooks first, Commissioner Coleman.

It sounds like that's what this is saying already.

Aren't they basing the nine on the maximum currently?

Yes.

I I as I intended, and I think as I stated it, it would be to revise that requirement.

Oh, that it is based on maximum occupancy.

So there would be some lesser number.

Terrific.

Thank you.

Thank you for that clarification.

Thank you, attorney.

And Commissioner Coleman, you have a statement.

Okay.

All right.

Uh any other questions for the applicant.

Thank you, sir, for your explanations for answering that questions and being patient.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

Now do I hear a motion?

Sorry, that this is a public hearing item.

Forgot about that part since we've been so far into this.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak?

No, sir.

Okay, wonderful.

Then we will open and close the publices.

All right.

So we're open and close the public hearing now.

Do I hear a motion?

I make a motion to recommend approval of use permit application 25-0285 with the recommended adaptation of 8B requirement to work with staff and applicant before moving uh before moving the item to council.

I'll second.

All right.

We have a motion on the floor for approval of use permit application number 25-0285 with 14 14 conditions, one being to the direction of staff directing staff to revise Section 8B, which is a requirement of the security personnel be based on maximum occupancy.

Do we have any uh comments by the commissioners before we take a vote?

Be no comments, Madam Clerk.

Can you recall the roll, please?

Commissioner Griffith.

Aye.

Vice Chair Rogers.

Aye.

Commissioner Brooks?

Aye.

Commissioner Coleman.

Aye.

Commissioner Mugler.

Commissioner DeProfio.

Aye.

Chair Harris.

Aye.

That motion carries.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

The next item is 25-0323.

This is a revocation of a use permit issued to Karma Restaurant and Lounge for Restaurant 3 in the downtown business DT1 District at 85 and 87 Lincoln Street.

LRSN 2003249 due to violations of conditions contained in the use permit.

Here to present on behalf of staff, our interim deputy director Stephen Lynch and Officer Zemenkowski.

Good afternoon.

We're here for the proposed revocation of use permit number 24-0489, Carma Restaurant and Lounge located at 85 and 87 Lincoln Street.

Revoking a use permit.

Procedures to consider the revocation are the same as approving a use permit.

This is the more specific location of the operation in the shopping center off of Lincoln Street.

Some background and some history.

So on February 26, 2025, a new use permit was considered and granted.

So passed and superseded, excuse me, the law, the use permit that was submitted prior or approved prior.

The same conditions were maintained that were in 23-0312, but what was changed was the hours.

They were now allowed to operate on a daily basis to 2 a.m.

of third-party promoters were prohibited.

And the security plan is specifically required monitoring of the parking lot.

Next, I will go through some of the conditions that we'll speak to tonight related to the proposed revocation.

Use permit condition number seven dealt with security.

And it was to be secured until all patrons have dispersed from the parking lot.

Again, the security were also required to patrol patrol the parking lot to ensure guests exiting the parking lot safely.

All security personnel were to maintain and have radios so they could communicate with each other during real time.

And security was required to maintain an accurate count of the patrons entering the restaurant.

Cooperation with HPD and any investigation or criminal activity was also required.

Condition number 10 dealt with the ABC license.

Additionally, they must comply with all restrictions or requirement that was imposed upon them by obtaining the alcohol license.

Again, I've spoken to no exterior or internal interior windows or to be treated so that visibility was impeded.

That was condition number four.

Neither the facility nor any portion shall be leased, let or used by any third party to stage an event for profit, and that was spoken to in condition number nine.

Condition number 11 dealt with for any violation of federal, state, or local law, the permit could be subject to being revoked.

And again, as a part of number 11, uh the permit holder shall not allow any existence to lapse or its certificate of author authority or registration to transact business in Virginia to be revoked or canceled.

So tonight I'm going to speak a little bit about the interactions that HPD has had with the bar or with the um lounge since receiving their use permit in January or February of 2025.

There have been consistent issues with violence at the business that we've had to address.

I'm going to highlight several of these incidents tonight, which you see above at the board, but this is not an exhaustive list of all calls for service that HB has responded to.

First, that I want to point your attention to is that around 1 a.m.

on January 18th, HPD received multiple anonymous calls that were placed for fights in the parking lot of Karma.

The caller indicated that there was talk of getting firearms.

All parties had fled the scene prior to officers' arrival.

Security did not contact HBD reference the evolving situation.

At around 1.30 on April 11th, several calls were received for a shooting in the parking lot of Karma.

The investigation revealed that several parties were loitering the parking lot after leaving the club.

A verbal argument then escalated when the suspect retrieved a firearm and shot the victim, ultimately leading to the death of the victim.

I'm going to be diving a little bit deeper into this call in particular later on, but I want to touch on as we go about to show this common theme that we're seeing.

At around 1.30 on June 7th, extra duty officers working in the parking lot observed a highly intoxicated patron shoving a female after leaving Karma.

The parties were separated by officers but refused to cooperate with the investigation.

The suspect was escorted to his vehicle and removed from the property.

He returned several moments later after having been pepper sprayed in the face.

He claimed he was pepper sprayed by the unknown party as he exited the parking lot.

He became uncooperative with the officers' investigation again and left the area.

At around 1 a.m.

on September 1st, 2025, ex-duty officers observed an intoxicated suspect punching another patron in the parking lot for leaving karma.

The officers separate the parties and the suspect is allowed to walk off while the officers work to clear the quickly forming crowd around them.

Several moments later, the same suspect is seen fighting with a different patron and shoves the officer who tries to intervene, ultimately resulting in his arrest.

At around 9 30 on September 21st, extra duty officers are flagged down by security in reference to a fight.

The reporting party and potential victim was bleeding from the face with a swollen eye.

He was highly intoxicated and would not provide officers with a statement as to what occurred.

Officers on scene interviewed the security team that escorted him outside, but they couldn't identify the party that he was fighting with, and as a result, couldn't interview the suspect.

On November 8th, at around 12 30 a.m., officers driving by Karma observed what appeared to be an agitated person in the parking lot.

Upon stopping to investigate, they observe a highly intoxicated patron bleeding from the face.

The potential victim said that a member of the security team had assaulted him but did not wish to provide officers with a statement.

When interviewed, security told officers that they acted in self-defense after being shoved.

Video from the parking lot revealed that the security guard initiated the physical contact with the victim and then proceeded to strip his security vest and began punching the victim multiple times.

We have the video from that parking lot to show you today.

So I'll point your attention to where my cursor lands in the center here.

These are members of security team.

There are initially three in the parking lot with this intoxicated patron.

Additional security arrive on scene as the suspect begins or as the security guard begins to strip his vest and get into a fist fight with this patron.

At no point did his co-workers intervene to attempt to control this subject, or no calls were made to HBD in order to get him under control.

Again, you'll see that verbal altercation begin to start.

Security guard pushes off of the victim, strips his vest, punches the victim in the face, knocking him to the ground.

The victim then gets up and the fight continues.

With the security guard again punching him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

The parties involved have been identified in this case.

However, due to a lack of victim cooperation, we are unable to seek charges at this time.

My apologies.

The investigation later revealed that during an argument inside, security attempted to escort a disorderly party out, which led to a fight.

Videos provided later revealed that security was holding the disorderly patron against the floor, kicking and punching him repeatedly.

Multiple injuries were reported, and this investigation is ongoing.

Again, security did not contact HBD per the agreement in the security plan.

So in these calls for service, we see this common theme of security being involved, not contacting HBD, HBD either coming up to the scene or being called by a third party.

And again, this over serving intoxication being that common theme in all of these cases.

The commission and ultimately the city council asked HBD to work with the applicant when this use permit came up to create a security plan to ensure safety of patrons as they exited the building.

A couple of these conditions that I want to touch on again would be the security presence in the parking lot, the use of two-way radios to communicate, and the monitoring of patron behavior.

On April 11th, 2025, as we explained, this shooting occurred out in the parking lot.

There was no security monitoring the parking lot at the time.

The nearest security officers were two that were standing at the front door.

All others were inside.

When the shooting occurred, those two uh security officers come up to the victim with no communication going on between the inside and the outside, where there was still a crowd inside of the bar.

Um, the first communication that occurs is when a female unrelated to the call comes into the bar and says they're shooting out there.

That was the only way that the inside security was even made aware that this was going on outside.

Um again, there was no use of two-way radios to communicate, no monitoring of patient behavior, and ultimately there was someone who passed away as a result of that.

When we look at calls for service, we want to go ahead and point to the violent nature of these calls as the major driver.

This is going to be from January 2024 to October 13th of 2025 for a total of 97 calls between those two years.

What we've done is we parsed out the natures because in our system, when we go to record crime data, some of the self-initiated can be captured in that.

That would be a keep check, a directed patrol, a traffic stop.

We wanted to make sure that anything that was self-initiated from officers is separate from what citizens call in needing our help.

So when we look at those stats, we look at assaults, fights, domestics taking up 13 calls.

We look at disorderly conducts taking up five of those calls, weapons related offenses taking up six.

Suspicious activity robbery, largeny theft, stolen vehicles taking up four of those calls.

And it gives you a breakdown in each of those categories as to how much of that calls for service load comes from violent offenses as opposed to these self-initiated calls that we talked about.

Again, looking at this year, the 65 calls for service that were not self-initiated.

Of those, 35 of them occurred in 2025 alone.

Eleven of those were from FISE, disorderly conduct and assault.

We have crowd management concerns and lack of security oversight that we've been addressing as operations.

We talked earlier about the need to go ahead and keep operations resources separate and keep them available for calls for service throughout the city.

Unfortunately, we've had to go ahead and dispatch multiple units, three, four officers deep because we'll have crowds of 20 people that we need to intervene with that we need to push out of the parking lot, even with the security staff that's in place.

Public concerns are brought on by these fights and firearms related offenses.

We've received multiple calls from citizens asking HBD what our our strategy is and what our plan is for making sure that patrons can leave this restaurant safely.

Originally we had extra duty officers assigned nightly.

This would have been two officers as a part of Karma's conditions to receive their license back from ABC following the homicide.

They were instructed to have two officers each night to monitor the parking lot.

HBD staffing is available for this.

Unfortunately, we reached a point where there was so much of an outpaid invoice that we had to suspend extra duty because the owner of the business was not paying that invoice.

Essentially, since then we've made sure that the Chesapeake bid officers are picking up that slack.

Chesapeake bid officers are assigned from 6 p.m.

to 2 a.m.

in that area to make sure that they are able to respond to calls for service which originate.

And as you heard from the call for service report, usually that 12 to 2 a.m.

is our major hotspot as far as call service at Karma.

Again, we spoke about multi-officer responses, three or four officers to make sure that we're adequately staffing for crowd control situations.

And we've also had to do a long-term deployment of an Arctic camera repositioning facing towards the parking lot to gather video evidence due to the amount of uncooperative victims and suspects that we've run into, mostly through means of intoxication.

Just briefly speaking to the ABC license suspension that occurred on April 15th.

It was a result of the homicide on the 11th of April.

One of the big points that we want to stress here that ABC has asked the business or demanded from the business is that they take responsible measures to prevent an act of violence relating in death or serious body injury from occurring on the licensees property or any public property immediately adjacent to the licensed premises.

This was done through multiple state and local agencies where we would just walk into the bar, make contact with the management, speak to our responsibilities, and make sure that they are complying with all laws and ordinances, as well as making sure there's a safe atmosphere at the bars.

HBD's responsibility in that check-in was to verify DCGS compliance.

Upon arrival on July 11th to Karma, Karma's staff and owner was instructed to make sure that we had six DCS compliant officers and to ask them to produce the IDs to verify that that was the case.

Initially, when we arrived, there were only three DCS certified guards, with the owner not being able to account for the other three that were missing.

We stood by for approximately one hour to allow him to provide the other three to meet the compliance standard of six, and he was unable to do so.

At the end of the night, we ended up with five DCS compliant officers and one officer who identified himself as security for the nightclub or for the lounge that uh was not DCS compliant, and we ended up seeking charges to that effect.

Um, one of the concerning factors here, and the reason why I bring this to your attention is that as we approach the business, you can see what appears to be the manipulation of the capacity counter by security staff.

And as they see us approach, they are dipping into the um business.

There was security members who were clearly wearing security gear, well spelt out on their shirt, standing in front of the business in the manner that a security guard would who decided to go inside and not identify themselves to us as we approached.

And we also have a video of that today to show you what we interpret to be deceptive practices.

So you'll see this car going by.

These are our units as we approach.

I'll ask you to pay attention to the individual with a tan hat.

He's the individual that does not come out to identify himself later in the night.

So the owner is stepping out and they're beginning to swap security staff.

This security guard is handing what appears to be a um capacity counter, and as he looks at it, he begins rapidly clicking it and then holds it behind his back as we approach, indicating that he was attempting to uh manipulate that counter prior to our inspection.

Um again, this was a simple matter of verifying whether they did or did not have the required amount of security.

It's possible that they had more than the three security that we saw initially.

However, with them fleeing into the business and not identifying themselves, I still don't know who that individual is or what his capacity is, whether he was certified or not certified at the time.

So again, before I turn back to Mr.

Lynch, I have um a lounge that unfortunately we can't trust the security to make sound decisions.

As you've seen multiple times, they choose to engage in fights with the uh patrons as opposed to calling us and allowing us to resolve it or attempting to control the subject prior to our arrival.

And I have a business owner who I believe is deceptively practicing not being open with us when we ask them for basic compliances such as security.

Um we see a history of violence that is continuing to accelerate, especially in the month of November.

In the month of November, HBD has received or has responded to calls for fights every weekend.

Um the ultimate recommendation from me and from HBD would be to revoke the use permit in keeping with the city's ask.

Do you have any questions for me before I turn it back over to Mr.

Lynch?

Thank you, officer.

Any questions by the commissioners?

No questions, thank you.

Again, just to review the grounds of revocation under condition number seven, and these are the same conditions I spoke to at the beginning of the present presentation.

Uh there was a responsibility to monitor and control patron behavior and patrol the parking lot to ensure guests exit it safely.

But again, the officer spoke to the April 11th homicide that took place on the premises.

Also, condition number seven was the use of radios and communication between the guards in a real-time situation, and to maintain an accurate count of the occupants and load in the building, and you saw the video which demonstrated and appeared that the count was being manipulated.

The last of these was condition number 10 was to employ the six DCJS certified security at the establishment every day.

And the officer spoke to not being able to verify that number of security or on the premises, the failure for them to patrol the parking area to ensure that the patrons did not lauder and to comply with all the restrictions and requirements imposed by the uh VABC.

Uh continuing with the grounds of revocation, uh the property again was not supposed to be leased or let or used by a third party.

Uh we do have evidence that that took place as well, and having the appropriate treatment on the windows that did not impair being able to see into the establishment.

I understand that has been corrected now.

Uh the permit holder has allowed its corporation existence to lap with the SCC, and we understand that still has not been renewed.

I believe the uh owner of the uh business is here and would like to speak or would be if you would be permitted to speak after which a public hearing will be held, and what is recommended by staff is revocation of use permit number 24-0489.

I will entertain any questions.

The commissioners have any.

Thank you, Director Lynch.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Uh is the applicant which you speak.

Hello, sir.

All right, and some of the uh stuff on the uh my name is Courtney Ray, owner of Carmelage.

Um stuff on this slideshow I was completely unaware of, being in this my first time seeing or hearing about it.

Um, but I'll try to best uh address those issues as best as possible.

Um I want to uh start by addressing what was actually given to me uh from the city through um mail and um certified mail and hand delivery.

And I'm gonna start uh I'm gonna start from the kind of like the easier stuff that's kind of like already handled, and then we'll go into more uh of the security uh measures, which is uh probably the most that is the most important thing.

Um it stated that um my LLC uh laps and it has not been renewed.

Uh however, um my LLC uh was renewed.

Um I have uh a receipt for it.

It was after April 30th.

Um reason being is I had someone helping me, but uh my business my business wasn't open at that point because of the incident that happened on um April 11th.

So the last thing on my mind, and the person that was helping me at the time was um not the the um LLC.

So it was renewed um in September.

Uh when we caught it, um, I went through a whole bunch of changes, um, a whole bunch of POS changes, a whole bunch of um uh payroll, things like that to try to help restructure my business because um after the incidents um April 11, I learned a lot of things was uh on the business side was very unorganized and stuff like that.

So I took the time to uh get all that back straight.

Um when it came to the uh window tent or transparency, uh we did get that straight yesterday.

Um I guess they assumed that I had put it was said that I put I took the treatment down and I put it back up.

That was never the case.

Once the treatment was down, it was always down.

So I was able to show the city attorney yesterday that that was uh taken care of, and so they uh let that go.

Um in this paperwork that I received, uh, it talked about third-party promotions, right?

So um third-party promoters promoters were or are not allowed apparently, but and if you look at the council meeting last January, um Mr.

Hayes.

I don't I don't know who that is.

Um he was uh he was the um plan zoning manager at the time.

He explained to uh the council what a third party was, and he said it was a huge gray area with the city because they sell promoter license, and um, but he explained to the council, and you can go back and look at the video, that a third-party promoter meant essentially you're handing the keys to somebody else, and you're pretty much uh giving them free will to do whatever in your building.

I had never done anything like that.

The video that he's referencing that's referenced to the paperwork that I got was a video that I used as a marketing tool to solicit for private events.

And when I mean by private events, I mean like private birthday parties, baby showers, 50th birthday parties, things that we had already been doing.

And because things have slowed down, I was just trying to generate revenue.

So in my video, and it's still on my social media page, you could see me advertising, like, hey, look, normally we'll charge a fee, but with just this time we're not gonna charge a fee.

And the fee that we charge when we do private events or private dinners or anything is like a cleanup fee, a separate bartender fee, um, break down a setup fee, which we I have to bring employees in to do that for people.

So my way of advertising was say, hey, look, I'm not gonna charge you uh anything for the month of October if you celebrate your special occasion with me.

So I think those words got misconstrued or whatever, but um never have I once gave um anyone the keys to my establishment or let anybody run my establishment.

I have between all my social media, over 50 some thousand followers between all of mine, I do all my marketing and promoting myself outside of my DJs and my staff.

Um now when it comes to um let's see.

That was my first time seeing that video.

Um I I did request it.

Um they sent it to me, but it would the file wouldn't open up.

Uh I was there at the location that day.

Um July 11th is my actual birthday.

Um I was, as you saw in the video, I was there.

Um I do remember particularly that we had five security guards and one was running late.

Um he eventually showed up, which meant our meant the minimum six, which I agreed with with ABC.

However, you know, with the city with the amount of people that was there at that time, and um we had enough security along with Hampton Police Department already there at 7 p.m.

And I believe that might have been around eight, eight o'clock, eight o'clock p.m.

when they came.

That particular night, I had um 11 security guards and two Hampton police officers employed that night.

One was just running late, and just like any other job meeting, something like that when he showed up, we couldn't account for him.

He was on his way.

He eventually showed up at 10 o'clock.

Um the rest of the guys showed up to make that uh number that we had.

Um I want to go um into with with that with up back on the backtrack.

In the video, I saw that he was clicking, we all saw that.

Um this happened in July.

As a business owner, how is this fair to me that I'm just now finding out about something that a security officer that I pay did something like that.

Now, we don't know what he was doing.

All we're doing is speculating what he was doing.

He could have really went inside, counted how many people was inside and came out.

I have no way now of going back to the inside of my building to really see how many people was in there.

Something like that should have been brought to my attention right there.

You know, if some if we if we witnessed it and we're talking about public safety, I should have known then, so I could have corrected it then, and I could have found out what he was doing.

Now I saw the guy that was standing outside with the hat on backwards.

He's actually a customer.

I can't remember his name, he's a regular, so he was just more so hanging out there, and when he saw the everybody came out, he probably like, oh, let me get out of Dodge.

So I do know he's a regular, um, but he is not uh a security guard.

Um I also saw that in our paperwork we had uh it was a lot of things that um, and I'm going into the more social security now, um saying that you know it was videos circulating, or it appeared that we had a um drunk females or abbreviated females in the parking lot.

I I want to see that.

I never saw that.

I never was privy to this that information, so I was blindsided about that.

Um as far as the the trend on my business, um I opened in May of 2023.

Um I think most of the people on the council, and and y'all probably never even heard about me until last year.

Uh I'm not a person or individual that um attracts a lot of negativity.

You know, I have a zero policy of fighting, assaulting, or anything like that.

And if you know me, that you know that's that's how I am, and that's always how I've been.

I got into this business because I used to host events prior to I used to host events while I was in the military, and I said, you know, when I get out, I'm gonna uh expand and try to do you know, open a business.

I chose Hampton because I love Hampton.

Uh I live in Hampton, and um some of the things that are occurring with patrons really does not reflect on me.

You know, I can't control what people do.

You know what I'm saying?

People get drunk, they fight.

People I I don't know why I've never got drunk or wanted to fight in the club.

I just always want to look at women.

But people do things.

Um the night of the incident of April 11th, it was a trend of things happening in the city that week.

It was a shooting at a location um the Thursday before it was a shooting uh, I believe at a restaurant was shooting at another incident on that Wednesday, April the uh 10th, or that Wednesday, I reached out to officers in Kowski and I expressed my concern about um the trends of what's going on in the city of Hampton.

And um and I asked them, I was like, hey, look, I know it's last minute, but maybe you know you could send somebody through to do a wellness check on us, uh um and check on us, make sure we're good because of what it was.

Some patrolmen did show up.

We talked for a little while outside, they had to leave to go to a domestic um incident.

I had plused up my security during that time, and then we had a that particular night, it was RB night, we was having a great night.

It was no fights inside, no arguments, no anything.

There's just two individuals had a problem with each other, and it just happened.

It was like instant.

As we was closed, we was pushing everybody out, was clearing off the the breezeway.

Is that my time?

Yeah, that's your time.

And so, and then that asked incident happened.

So let me uh well let me see if the commissioners have any questions for you, sir.

But but thank you for your explanation and clarifying some things.

Uh any other commissioners have questions for the applicant.

Go ahead, Joe.

Yes, sir.

Um, you said that on July 11th, the security guard that was running late eventually did show up.

Uh we'd heard from um Officer Schmikowski that the uh security guard was not certified, even though he did show up.

Is that true?

I I have no idea that so my security is contracted out.

So I have a company that provides security for me.

So I don't keep all their records.

They they have I think the structure of the security companies, they have compliance officers, you know, and they make sure all that they guards are certified that they send to me.

I don't know about the sixth dude.

I know I had 11 11 or 12 guards at night because it was my birthday, so I was expecting a larger crowd than normal.

So um I I can't honestly answer that question.

Okay, thank you.

Officer Zimikowski, can you come please?

Would you like me to answer the previous question?

Yes, please.

So when we arrived, we asked for the identification cards for all of the DCS guards working that night.

We were only with three to identify themselves.

Again, we found out later that there was more, however, those three were the original.

We then sat at the parking lot, told Mr.

Ray as well as the head of security that night, if you guys can get six people here, bring them to us, we'll verify them, we'll make sure that you get checked off.

Unfortunately, they brought exactly six, and one of them was not certified.

And again, chargers were sought for that guard that was working without certification.

Thank you.

Any of the other commissioners have questions.

Am I able to say something about that?

Yeah, go ahead, you can respond.

Well, or the next day.

Like, hey, you had six people, but one was certain.

So I can take it up with my security company that I contract out, you know.

Uh so that that's kind of like this is throwing me off.

Uh, this is coming to me in in November and that was July.

So you're saying you never made aware of that situation.

Okay.

Can the officer can you?

Yeah, you may need to stand by.

I'm sorry.

Yes, please.

Uh, in regards to compliance, we reached out to DCJS.

Um, this is a third-party security company.

So ultimately, my primary goal was the the charges being sought against that officer who was not at the end of coordinates.

Um, if Courtney Ray was not notified, then I I can't explain why that was the case.

Um, however, uh multiple agencies have been this has been reported to multiple agencies as a result of the compliance check.

So thank you.

Go ahead.

Um, so when you discover that the uh that the security officer was not certified, did you tell the um head of security?

Did you dismiss that officer?

What what what was the step that you took?

The reason why we have to take the information night of is that we have to run by the DCS compliance agent who was not on scene with us.

It wasn't until the next day that I discovered that and communicated with her.

I provided the DCS numbers and the names and identifying information to her that night.

Okay.

Okay.

Um but yes, in a situation where I'm able to verify on scene that that person is not um DCS certified, there would be a dismissal and someone's issued on scene.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions for the officer or for um the applicant?

So I have a question, I have a question for you.

Um let me ask the officer first.

Um the applicant spoke on the uh being in a dark about the video uh with the clip or the guy clicking.

Um do you know when that was first brought to the uh do you know if that was ever sent or brought up to when that was sent, I'm sorry, and brought up to the applicant?

It was actually pulled directly from his system.

This was uh part of the use permit agreement was that we have access to the external systems, but that doesn't mean that Mr.

Ray lost access to that.

Um it wasn't directly sent to him.

And was he a made obviously when you pulled it from the system and you were made a aware of this specific incident happening that you ever call the applicant?

Anyone ever make that aware to him, even though he has it in his possession?

Obviously, it's a lot of footage.

Was it ever brought up to him that specific incident?

I don't believe so.

Okay.

Any other thank you, officer.

And for the applicant, once again, can you explain the the SEC laps?

You say you've gotten that corrected.

Yeah, it is is corrected.

Um I renewed it when I caught like I said, I changed a lot of my business structure after the incident sector, um April 11th.

Um I caught it uh when I was changing my payroll systems and stuff like that.

When I went I went to a more cheaper system, affordable system, the system still works very well.

Um I say system, I mean the POS system, point of sale system.

I went to a cheaper payroll system uh to save my business money.

So uh when I went to do that, I noticed myself that oh, I did not renew this, or the person I was supposed to do it didn't renew it for me, and I renewed it myself.

Okay.

And another question for you.

Uh there were several incidents.

I believe the officer showed that happened in the well, spoke on some of them and showed at least one of the incidents that happened in the parking lot dealing with security.

Uh I know you hire security, um, but at the end of the day, I believe the ultimate responsibility lies with the person being hired.

Were you made aware of those incidents in the in the parking lot?

So the one from November 8th, I didn't know anything about that.

So that's something that now I'm gonna have to go back and it I should have the footage because it's recent.

Uh I can go back and look and find out what happened, find out what officers was involved, and um come up with a solution.

Um being nightlife security is really tricky.

I I don't do that job.

Um, and I wish I had someone that was um has signed up with me that was here.

Um I don't tell them how to handle business.

That's why I kind of contract it out.

They have their own share insurance, they have their own liability, and when they handle situations, um I don't tell them how to handle situations.

I don't know what was said in that parking lot with the security guard and that guy.

Uh I don't I don't I don't know what led to that, you know.

But I know one thing, my security is just not gonna just start beating somebody up.

Um they they know they know I I'm all about the lease lease meant uh measures, taking at least measures when it comes to uh dealing with someone.

Okay, then let me ask the officer.

In these situations where you're catching obviously, you're pulling the video from hit from his cameras and he has access to it.

Um are you catching these incidents because you're getting reports on top of it, or you're just reviewing it and randomly reviewing it and then finding it?

Um how's that work where you're being able to catch these where he's not?

No, these results from call for services as well as information from officers who responded.

In this case, the Chesapeake bid officer had responded, as I mentioned, to an agitated individual in the parking lot.

His investigation ultimately sprang into me reviewing these cameras.

Um and I can roll back the video, but I do believe Mr.

Ray is on scene on November 8th.

In fact, I believe he's captured in the video.

Can you go back to the other?

Yeah, absolutely.

So that'll be Mr.

Ray in the uh what appears to be a Navy hoodie stepping out.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, so like I said, I never seen this video.

Uh that night I was um and I gotta go back and talk to my officers, but I can't recall the actual incident that happened, but I want to say, if I'm not mistaken, but don't quote me, it was something between a a dad and a mom or something, and then it trans something transpired with the security, and all the security told me is like, hey, I I defended myself and I I said okay, and I walked away.

That's just what it was, but I never seen a video before.

Okay.

One other question.

What what is your current standing with with your ABC license?

It's current.

I mean it's it's operable.

It's operable.

Yes.

No system under conditions.

Uh my conditions don't my conditions don't um release until April.

April of uh 2026.

2026.

And can you remind us again why that restriction?

Uh uh the homicide.

Okay.

Yeah.

Any other commissioners have questions?

Go ahead, Commissioner Bourfield.

Um did you receive a letter um that was dated November 4th, basically uh referring or uh notifying you that we're proposing to re revoke the use permit?

I got um that hand hand delivered to me.

It was in an envelope.

Uh I think officer dropped it off.

Yeah.

I I got a certified letter yesterday or the day before Tuesday.

The the the letter outlines the various um issues that presented here today.

Yes, that's what I have right here.

Yeah.

And I guess you you're you're saying that this is the first time you're hearing about some of this stuff.

Some of the stuff like the the um the eighth about anything about when I went when I went through the letter, what I'm saying about the security plan with the the the clickers and all that, that's that's all new evidence to me.

That's all I never knew anything about that.

I read about that.

I found about that when I got this.

When when the letter was dropped off to you to you on November 4th, did you ask any questions of I didn't receive the letter?

I thought you said that that the officer dropped it off.

He dropped it off for me.

I I went and got it later.

I signed for the I signed for the certified copy on Tuesday.

Uh Mr.

was notified via phone that I had a letter for him, dropped it off with his staff, notified him who the staff was the staff member was that I dropped it off with for personal service.

So were you not curious about what was in the letter that was um proposing the revocation of your use permit?

Yes, and I read through it.

When did you write it?

And like I said, that's the first time I heard about security plan with tampering with clickers and stuff like this within his letter.

There was no need for me to call him, and uh at that point I knew I had to come stand before y'all.

So uh this is the first that I'm hearing about that.

I guess you know, this is the revocation of your use permit.

And you didn't think to call anyone to basically ask, okay, can you tell me what you know you didn't have any questions about any of the items on this in this letter?

No, the only thing I did was uh request the actual video because I wanted to see the video and I couldn't open the file.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh any other commissioners have questions.

Uh yes, sir.

For the applicant, um these are incidents that we're aware of through service calls.

What is the atmosphere?

Like have uh what are the other incidents that we have not heard of through service calls because service calls didn't take place.

You know, did you have any other uh assaults or um anything at your at your uh business during you know, between all of these incidents that we should not that I know of.

Not that you know not that I'm aware of.

Okay.

I'm just asking because we haven't had, you know.

Well what we've been told is that these service calls are a result of either officers being called to the scene through a third party, or you know, they just be they might be driving by um and they witness it themselves.

So I'm concerned that like if something does happen that it's not being reported.

You see what I mean?

I understand.

Yeah, we we don't have issues like that.

I mean, we have like I said, you know, our typical things that happen at all the bars and um stuff like that.

So um I know that my security team, I d I d I know that they have procedures if somebody's having an altercation, how to separate them, how to get one out of the building and get them off the premises and then dismiss the other, things like that.

But um, I haven't up to my knowledge had any other uh incidents that's not on this actual report.

Thank you.

Um I have one question for uh the proprietor.

Are you currently operating in a profitable manner?

Um I have some challenges right now.

And I I have some challenges right now, and it's um more that's more so um on me, what I agree with with Virginia ABC as far as the actual time and the staff and the security um is something I went into, and I uh mislaid um I personally miss um misunderstood the language, and it has nothing to do with y'all.

It was more of like uh me and the ABC thing, and I actually have somebody working on that for me.

I don't know how it's gonna go, but um uh but it's it's tough, very tough.

Were you profitable prior to the homicide?

I was after the homicide and the ABC and all that.

It it declined.

Um my clientele hasn't declined though.

So um the people who come uh are faithful customers.

Um ninety-nine percent of my customers are are good people.

There's always that one percent, that one bad apple out of a hundred people, and you know, you're gonna get, you know, unfortunately in this business is a tough business.

Uh, you're gonna get that.

Um, you know, for me, I I don't try to track that.

I have a good track record um with events, large events and major hotels in this area and stuff like that, prior to me even opening my own establishment, and I can go back to any of those places and they'll tell you I don't have, you know, um problems like that.

But unfortunately for like a business owner as myself like this, we we kind of get the blame of somebody else's action.

And um to me that's unfortunate, you know.

Um I don't solicit people to come down ahead to my establishment to cause problem.

I I realize I'm downtown, you know.

When I stood here last year in front of y'all, all I can remember is the uh um chairman um speaking about how we want to make it vibrant, how we want to um start thinking forward and things like that stuck with me.

Um, and I've always tried to do my best ability to make sure that uh my people are safe and that I'm providing services to people in the city where we can meet those standards and um do things like our neighboring cities are doing and stuff like that, and keeping people safe where we don't have incidents that happen inside the establishment December 29th or 30th.

We don't have incidents that happen outside of my establishment outside of the um uh April 11, outside uh May 5th, or even at the Coliseum in September, you know.

Unfortunately, that stuff happens, and um hopefully y'all find some type of compassion or I mean it would regardless.

Um I never try to attract something like that.

Go ahead, you got another question.

I have a question for counsel, McCourtney.

Let me ask Commission.

Um, first of all, let me say thank you for staying.

I think we've had a hearing before, and I think the business owner wasn't here.

So it's thank you for even coming here and answering questions.

One thing I have for you is what do you think you can do better when it comes to the security component, or do you think that you're doing everything that you could do?

Well, for one, um even after seeing the uh the actual seeing the actual video of what happened in the parking lot on November 8th, I'm gonna start having um some real conversations with the team lead.

Um right now I have I have two things going on.

I have uh a team uh totally dedicated to the parking lot.

Then I have my inside team, my team that works my ID scanners, my team that's working in uh in the actual inside.

And so um I think it's something where I need to um get both teams together, um, some uh come up with some type of uh formula where we can uh make sure that we're doing everything uh at the minimum force, use of force versus going straight to fighting or whatever the case may be.

I don't know really what happened.

They just told me to try to swing them, he defended himself, and I left it alone.

Um but uh I believe we need to um maybe possibly have more trainings or meetings or stuff like that.

I knew I do know that every day that we discussed if we heard anything in the city, if we saw anybody um, you know, posting on Facebook or beefing on Facebook or having problems on Facebook.

Uh I do know that we um we do talk about those things prior to opening.

Um I uh before this paperwork was even served to me, um, one of the other uh nightclubs posted a post about you know people fighting and um recording it and sharing it on Facebook, and they said, hey, look, if you're fighting your band, if you're sharing this type of media on social media, we're gonna also ban you too, because this is how people feed their kids, pay their uh bills and stuff like that, and they don't condone violence.

I reposted it, and um, and then of course they reposted it back, and me and that management talked and we even had a discussion like, hey, look, I'm tired of people just cutting up.

Like, if they're banned from your establishment, let's make some type of coalition that they banned from mine too.

Because I think that's still gonna be the only way to get through these um problem child, if I can use that language, to say, okay, if I cut up over here, I'm not gonna be able to go anywhere in Hampton.

I'm not gonna be able to go anywhere in Newport News.

And that's something that me and that particular uh club talked about.

I haven't talked to any other um locations about doing something like that, but even something like that will help um with with things we had to do.

All right, thank you.

Any uh any of the other commissioners have questions for the applicant.

I know that uh commissioner uh Coleman wanted to make uh statement to the commissioners.

Yeah, yeah, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Uh you're in a very tricky situation as far as my assessment of what's going on.

You said you contract out for security.

So these aren't really your employees.

They work for someone else.

So then they don't have a really vested interest in your well-being as long as they get paid.

Um unfortunately, I I don't I'll tell you my my position right now is to defer this.

I think this rewards more discussion based on the fact that you said that there are things you were just hearing for the first time today.

I just wanted to let you know that I sympathize with you because you're being judged partially on what's going on at your establishment, but you're also being judged by what goes on at other establishments as well.

My opinion.

And we've seen it before with other owners trying to get use permits.

Um occupant behavior and their clientele.

So you and uh hope that you can manage whatever our vote is today.

Yes, ma'am.

Any other comments or questions by the commissioners?

Go ahead, Commissioner Brooks.

I'm sorry.

Rogers.

You made a comment along the lines of the behavior of other people doesn't reflect on you.

Um I beg to differ with that.

Uh it's my opinion that the atmosphere that you nurture, not you, but any business owner nurtures inside their establishment encourages particular kind of clientele or particular kind of behavior.

It's hard for me to believe with 97 calls for service to the police department, the numbers of fights in the parking lot.

If you were not aware of what's going on in and around your establishment, the communication between you and your employees it must be non-existent.

I mean, I understand that your security people are employed by are provided by somebody else, but this is your business, and and the fact that you don't know what's happening in your parking lot and the impact that it has on the citizens, not just the ones in that area, but really citywide.

When I read what happened when the homicide happened, I was so affected by that because we had a part in that.

Our commission had a part in that.

And now somebody is dead.

It appears that there's many incidences of inebriated patrons in the parking lot, fights in the parking lot.

Um it's it's very hard for me to think that the atmosphere inside of your business is calm and wholesome and friendly when there's so much violence outside of it.

Um that I I have a hard time saying that you don't bear some responsibility for the behavior of your customers.

Any of the other commissioners?

Go ahead.

And this this has relevance.

I was wondering how many businesses do you own, sir?

Um just that and um a small smoke bake shop in Fevus called Cloud 9.

Thank you for clarifying.

Go ahead.

Um did you have another uh restaurant in another locality?

Yes, I had one, um, a small one in Newport News.

Okay.

Is that one closed?

Uh yeah, I let it go.

I focused on karma.

Thank you.

I guess one one one other question if you want.

Um so what were the hours of operation that you were operating?

Sorry, your daily hours of operation.

Uh currently operating or was then during the period when we've had these uh incidences.

Um 11 a.m.

to 12 a.m.

And 11 a.m.

to 2 a.m.

The 11 a.m.

to 2 a.m.

what what was that every weekend?

No, no, that's during the week for lunch.

And then we go into dinner, then we go into kind of like lounge.

So so every every day you were operating until 2 a.m.

Close close month um close Monday.

Um 12 o'clock Tuesday through Thursday.

Okay.

Um then uh Friday, Saturday, two o'clock, 12 o'clock on Sunday.

All right.

The reason why I asked that question is because when you came before the commission for your use permit, one of the things that you had said is that you weren't intending to open every weekend till 2 a.m.

You you asked the commission to give you some flexibility to be able to open when you had events when there were events, you know, like New Year's Eve was one of the things that you had mentioned, and then there were there, you know, other things, you know, homecoming for uh for Hampton University.

Um when there were events, you know, like New Year's Eve was one of the things that you had mentioned, and then there were there, you know, other things, you know, homecoming for uh for Hampton University.

Um did you change that what did you call this?

Did you mean weekday?

Well we can I was always two o'clock weekend.

Okay, weekday.

Okay, I was closing at 12.

Uh that particular um, if we want to go back to uh 11, um that particular uh Thursday uh was open later.

Uh we had a lot of birthday celebrations and stuff like that.

People was coming uh that they participate in that day, and so that's why it was open uh a little later than normal, even that day.

But uh typically during that time frame I was closing at twelve o'clock during a week.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions for the applicant?

All right, thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Is anyone signed up to speak?

So we do have one person signed up to speak, although she did sign up accidentally on the wrong sheet if you want to allow that, and her name is Francis Vorno.

Yes.

Yes, ma'am, come on up.

Uh I have a lot to say.

Well, you have uh three minutes.

Well two minutes.

My name is Fran Warnham.

Hello.

Three.

Um sorry, sorry, ma'am.

Can you pull the microphone down?

Can you state your name for the record?

All right.

The HPD announced sorry, can you state your name for the record?

Fran Warnham.

Okay.

I own the shopping center that's Karma Center.

Um the 97 calls, I would love to know quarter dress that was called to in the shopping center, because I have a camera doing the home shopping center, and I bet you most of those calls were made by me.

I had windows broken there, I had bumps man in the street.

I had I call to get help from the police.

There's new weed, there's 27 calls of parking violations.

It's a public parking lot.

How can you get who what are the violations?

Is it open parking lot?

Disorderly contact, I call conduct, I've call for that.

I just can't say they're attributing these all to 85 and 87 to Karma.

We've had robberies at Dollar Tree.

Assaults, I don't know, disorderly, of course.

Hit and run.

I never heard that.

You would think as an owner, I'd be called.

Well, I guess they call it city because I don't own the parking lot.

But all this doesn't mean this goes to 85 and 87 Lincoln Street.

Other than the April incident and one more, as all I'm aware of, except for 87.

Oh, they they broke the window.

I think it was the window.

Anyway, there's been things that's happened down because it used to be a lot of homeless people down there, and Courtney has given most of them jobs if they come around.

And they don't want to work, they don't come around anymore.

And he feeds them.

He's a good tenant, he's a good man.

And Dollar Tree, the post office, and the market on the corner, they all love the man there because they they shop at the center.

All his security cars.

And when he was closed for the April, I think it was 11.

Every day I went down there on the hair was when they're gonna open again.

When are they gonna open again?

It's not bad.

This numbers I especially 27 calls were caught my eye on the parking violations.

Doesn't it make sense?

The Dollar Tree is not bad down there, and they like having him there.

Matter of fact, two months ago, the Dollar Tree just renewed their contract, the lease contract for five more years.

Thank you, ma'am.

That's your that's your time.

And the U.S.

Post Office did too.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can you come back?

Can you state again?

You the you're the owner of the shopping center.

The shopping center, okay.

Yes.

Thank you, ma'am.

Is there anyone else signed up to speak?

There's not.

Any of the commissioners have any comments?

Or we can wait until we make it on the vote.

Or you have any questions for staff before we take a vote.

Are there any amendments?

I know you mentioned something about a deferment, someone.

Um I move that plan and commission recommend revocation of use permit 24-0489 Karma restaurant.

Second.

We have a motion on the floor for revocation recommending revocation of use permit number 24-0489.

Um is there any comments by the commissioners before we take this vote.

I'm sorry, Commissioner Coleman.

No, I just wanted to reiterate my referral to deferral.

Reference to deferral.

Anyone else want to make a comment?

I'd like to make a comment.

I like I said, once again, thank you for coming and standing here.

I would say I believe in a couple of these contexts, you were not made aware in advance.

However, there was a letter sent.

Secondly, I think your security, whoever the your security personnel has failed you.

Um so obviously hindsight now we know that.

And but if you have the opportunity to continue operating, I would look to getting the new new security personnel.

Third, I've went downtown, I've talked to people that live there, of talking to HU students, and one of the things they have stated was we had chances that's gone away.

Now where we're gonna go now, right?

They have nowhere to go except for leave the city.

So balancing really, you know, bringing in revenue to the city, places for people to enjoy with public safety is always a hard component.

So you know this is and this is pretty tough for me.

But one of the things is once the April 11th incident happened, I would have thought that it would be more attention paid to security incidents at that point and highlighted.

Um but at the same time we have uh uh owner of the shopping center who's vouching for you.

Um and so when those things are heavy, and so what I would say is I kind of agree with Commissioner Coleman.

I know we gave him chance after chance.

Um I'm sorry, Commissioner Coleman and uh doing a deferral on this to see if there's any type of resolution.

Maybe you can work with the city, you can work with uh police department and then show that you're getting the new security team, and that would be a little bit better.

Maybe you can talk to the gentleman there and use the security team that he has or some of the methods that he has, but um I I wouldn't vote for rec revocation here because I think there's an area for improvement based on some of the testimony that we've had, um especially from the owner of uh the shopping center there as well.

So that's my position, but we have a motion on the floor for revocation of use permit number 24-0489.

Madam Clerk.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

Uh can I just clarify?

Um what this revocation does is it takes away his ability to stay open later, and so he would be able to continue to operate uh just not at those extended hours.

Correct.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Madam Kirk, can you call the roll, please?

Commissioner Griffith?

Aye.

Vice Chair Rogers, aye.

Commissioner Brooks, aye.

Commissioner Coleman, nay.

Commissioner Muggler.

Commissioner De Profio?

Aye.

Chair Harris.

Nay.

But that motion carries.

And thank you.

I know we I know we moved the community development directors report, but do you have anything else?

Nothing else, thank you.

Okay.

Is there any other items by the public?

No.

All right.

Any other commissioners have any comments they would like to make?

I now call this meeting adjourned.

Hello and welcome to Round Robin.

I'm your host, Robin McCormick with the City of Hampton.

And today we are going to hear about a wonderful organization that is helping youth right here in Hampton.

It is called Catch More Kids, and my guests are Troy and Chanel Catchmore.

Yes.

Thank you for having us.

Absolutely.

So first, you two are siblings.

Yes.

Man, I don't know if my brother and I could do something together.

I mean, there has to be something good about your shared background and the way you grew up and things like that, but do y'all fight?

No.

Not really.

No.

You know, I think that uh we have common cause, right?

And what we're doing.

Yes.

And so that keeps us on the same page.

Now, do we have challenges?

Yes.

That's what I call them.

We have challenges.

You know, but but I think we do a really good job of working through challenges that come up and we make it.

We was raised to always have each other's back.

Uh our mother did a great job.

Yeah.

Instilling that in us.

Like that was first and foremost.

Bump heads, like she makes sure, you know, we talk, what have you.

None of that drag out stuff.

So that's really good.

You know, that's my partner.

I'm her, you know, I'm the big brother, but you know, in some regards, she's the big sister at times.

So she are you running more of the operation, or is it really like kind of equal?

It is kind of equal.

Like we just play different roles, and so that's one of the beautiful things is that uh we've been able to kind of figure out what you know, who's better at handling what types of roles we need to do, and it works good that way.

All right.

Well, I started out kind of backwards.

So tell us what Catch More Kids is and what you do.

Well, Catch More Kids is a nonprofit uh community-based organization.

We believe in hands-on uh go and serving our community.

Uh, our model is to catch more kids in the streets, catch more kids than the drugs, catch more kids than the uh prison system, the gangs, the violence.

And we take a hands-on approach.

You know, we do multiple programs, whether it's uh triple P parents, and we use uh healing with hip-hop culture where we take, you know, and try to translate the lyrics for the young people to show them how you know this can help, you know, really help you get over some things like we got over some things growing up.

Uh, we do our facilitate what's called a think tanker program that I created, uh six-week program where I'm dealing with trying to transform the consciousness of our young people and get them to thinking better, questioning things that we've always been told or heard, and to try to, you know, push our life forward in a positive manner.

So we do a lot of programs, but we it's a hands-on approach.

We have a lot of partners that come to the table and um add or add their um work as well.

So that is wonderful.

And I know that you've recently gotten I think two grants, maybe more from the Department of Youth and Young Adult Opportunities, which I will also credit City Council for saying a lot of our federal money related to COVID has gone into prevention services for you.

So tell us what that money is allowing you to do right here in Hampton.

Yes, absolutely.

So that money allows us to open our program up for free so that um youth and young adults actually have access.

That program's a lot, it allows us to um get out into communities so that we can engage residents directly through the think tank, specifically providing conflict resolution skills, but skills that are tangible that our young people can use at home in the community in schools in their work and all life domains to help um, you know, decrease violence that's taking place, so things that they can really use that will ultimately help save lives.

And that's a part of what the funding that we receive allows us to do.

And that's important.

You know, that's important.

One of our focuses right now is really gun violence prevention.

What are we doing to help have an impact in that area?

Another loved one, a classmate.

So it violence doesn't just affect the person who does it and the person who is the victim.

That's right.

It's a ripple to the domino effect.

It is like those traumatic stress for people who are around that.

Yes.

And desensitizes people when it happens in the neighborhood where it happens far too often.

And then we have the expectation, you know, that our young people are able to go to funerals on Fridays and get right up and go to school on Mondays over and over again and function, right?

And so being able to address some of those factors that come up, that is what the funding allows us to do on a consistent and regular basis, and for um for more young people and young adults to have access to the services.

Well, well, Troy, tell me more about Think Tank because obviously you guys learn conflict resolution.

I mean, maybe I didn't start out the interview backward.

So, you know, you're taking some of that, but but young people today have a real short-term outlook.

Like, you know, even my son is like, I'm not gonna live to 30.

There's just there's no reason to have a long-term outlook for for some kids.

And they and so they think and act very in the mo moment, and maybe think isn't even the right word.

Maybe they act in the moment and and then think, you know, too late.

So, how do you work at reversing that?

Mm-hmm.

So I haven't lived a conflict free life.

So I come from where they come from.

I did 26 years, eight months in prison, wrongfully convicted.

However, I haven't lived a conflict free life.

So I understand the mentality, the thinking that a lot of our youth have because I had it.

So I had to really dig deep to change my mentality.

That's the first thing.

So we go self family community nation.

I had to deal with self first.

And I had some great teachers inside that help me transform my mind and challenge me.

So we have to challenge each other and we have to uh confront these spheres.

Uh these impediments to our growth and and development, whether it's fear, uh peer pressure, uh, uh emotion.

We have to understand these elements and then and and and define these things as they relate to us and begin to challenge ourselves repetitiously, you know.

So it's like like in the think tank, we have what's called a uh um uh we have a drill that every time a negative thought comes to your head, automatically replace it with a positive one, the replacement drill.

So it's like so it's like, you know, dude over there, whack, he got them little pants on.

Then you replace it automatically, brother I he doing his thing.

You know, you have to do this over and over and over throughout your day.

But what it is what it does is help you discipline your thoughts and gain control of your mind, you know, and that's called a replacement drill.

So it's little things like that that we utilize to challenge them to change your thinking to try to gain control of this because our mind is gonna be all over the place.

You know, so we just want to get them to see the ditch before you fall in it.

Now it's not exact science.

I don't do math, but we will get some of them.

Trust me, we will get some of them, but it has to be repetitiously done.

And you may not get them all at that time.

Exactly.

If something happens, they can fall back.

It's a frame of reference that's land in the subconscious, that's right.

It does.

It's a process.

And I like to look at it in the concept of we are either planting the seed, we are watering the seed, or we are harvesting, right?

And so we don't know where we're we're getting them at, the the young people and and young adults we work with when they come into our program, but we know that we are a part of that process.

And so you're absolutely right.

At some point, these things are still gonna come up and they're gonna show up in their lives, you know, and we know that we are a part of helping to make that happen.

That's important.

So, how do young people come into your program?

Yep, so we get referrals through a lot of the partners that we work with.

So that can be through um through our partners through social services, through Centera Healthcare, we get referrals, and then families can contact us directly and say, hey, you know, I have a young person that I would like to sign up for your program.

So we do a lot of promoting when we have our different um workshop dates and times scheduled.

We make sure that that information is available so that caregivers, young people can sign themselves up, and that's done through our website, which is catchmore kids.org.

And we should say at this point, because you talked about catching more kids.

Catchmore is K-E-T-C-H.

K-E-T-C-H.

Which is your last name.

Yes.

But it it works in a marketing way, because I'm in marketing.

Very good to point that out.

Absolutely.

And so it's K-E-T-C-H-M-O-R-E, and then kids, K-I-D-S.

But the website is catchmore kids.org.

Our registration information is there.

And we we encourage um individuals to get social with us on Instagram, on Facebook.

We're up there as Catch More Kids.

We get a lot of direct messages of individuals that want to sign up or sign someone else up that they know for the program.

And so those are some of the ways that we get on registrations into the program.

So what other um programs or services do you have in addition to the think tank?

So as um my brother mentioned, we also offer our triple P parenting program that stands for um positive parenting program, and that is absolutely free.

It's for parents of all ages, and it's where we help to empower empower and you know, help parents become a little bit more confident with what they're doing.

No child comes within an instructional manual, and it's tough, right?

Yeah.

So you may be dealing with supervision issues, it may be um just not following through with directions, it could be just wanting strategies to help the family bond a little better.

So when we work with parents, we don't go in saying this is what you need to do, this is how you need to do it.

Yes, it really is from a strength-based, non-judgmental perspective, and we just help parents kind of figure out different ways to handle situations differently, what's gonna work with them for them and their family.

So Triple P is um one of the programs that we also have that we're offering.

Well, and I think that's so important, and and it is because when you're a first-time parent, especially, you have no clue what you're doing, and you fall back on the way you were raised.

And if that's good, you've got good instincts, and if there are more challenges there, you know, you just it's you have to learn to drive.

You have to take a class about learning to drive.

You don't take a class, you don't have to take a class about learning to parent.

Right.

But you're gonna do better if you do.

You know, and then you're absolutely right.

And the other thing is, you know, it goes hand in hand with the think tank program because if we're working with our young people, and then on the other end, we're working with parents or caregivers, they're in the home environment together.

It is really a lot of the challenges and different dynamics that come.

It takes the family unit as a whole to work through those things, and so for us it's really important to have that balance and to make sure that the parents and our young people are both feeling and being supported, you know, as everyone moves through their lives.

That is great.

Also, we're currently doing uh what we call the pop-up tour.

So we're galvanizing our partners and ourselves, and we're uh popping up to these hot spots, you know, projects, and we we we we come out there as a force, you know.

We're feeding the kids, we're taking one-on-ones with them, we building with those them and the parents, um, you know, just showing them that that that it's somebody that do care.

You're not out here on the island, yeah, and we'll be back.

It's a repetitive repetitious thing.

And we're um we're actually ready to do FEBA's Friday.

We're going to wise Thomas, we're gonna go through shell roll, we're hitting all of these areas out of Hampton.

And you know, they're easy to spot because you can look at the the crime reports of where gunshots are.

And it it data helps us all be more effective now.

Yes.

Um, sadly, sadly, there's too much, you know, of that data.

But you gotta you gotta work with the areas that are just so impacted.

You really do, and see, and I love the the pop-ups that we're doing because it eliminates barriers like transportation or timing or anything.

And so for folks who may not be able to sign up and come sit down with us in a room for an hour and a half for a workshop, we are taking the services to them.

It's on site.

And so that part of it is is beautiful because it's it's real informal.

We are just there.

We're engaging, we're building a rapport, we're able to have conversations and communications, we're building trust with community members, and that part is amazing and it goes a long way in having a positive impact as well.

Now, since you mentioned um YH and at least North Phoebus, they have for a very, very long time, both of them have had youth athletic leagues.

And a lot of the research about young people is that you you are more resilient if you have an adult that's outside the family, or you know, a coach or somebody else.

But there are a lot of young people for whom athletics is not the answer.

Yes.

So explain how you know you started and how you you deal with kids who have other ways of expression.

Oh, we have fun with it.

We allow them to come in.

We have access to um different studios and things like that.

So for our young people who are interested in music or some of the artistic elements that we mentioned earlier, then we have ways to kind of link them in to some of those activities.

And then with some of the partners that we have, um, all of them bring different elements in.

So we rely on the support system of our partners.

And as we see these young people come in, as we get to know them, a part of that engagement and learning who they are and what they really like, then we're able to then link them to some other um folks that we work with, you know, and kind of fill some of those gaps and make sure they can tap into their natural talents or explore some areas that maybe they haven't even explored before.

One of our partners is working on a lacrosse program.

A lot of young people have haven't heard of the sport, even though it's still sports, it's different than your typical, you know, basketball, football.

Yeah.

And so, you know, that's something.

Um, we have partners who work on etiquette, business professional etiquette.

We have another partner who's looking at um drone technology and teaching young people how to fly drones and different things like that.

So when we know what they're interested in or what that spark is, you know, curiosity, then we are linking them to partners, even if we don't have it in-house.

We use it and with this partnership, we're bringing resources and connects to them on a grassroot level that they uh you know normally wouldn't have contact to these individuals when know how to get in touch with them.

We bring it right there to them, you know, through conversation, and you find out certain information.

Well, hold on, let me make a call.

Yeah.

You know, and and we can connect the dots like that.

So that's key.

And and those partnerships we value greatly because it is bigger than Troy, it's bigger than Chanel, it is bigger than Catch More Kids.

There are a lot of amazing programs out here doing amazing work, and it really takes all of us to be in this together.

So we're very grateful to be doing our part, and we're going to be honoring some folks who are doing amazing things in our community.

Yes, we are.

We have a um our second annual Black Excellence Gala is going to be in Hampton at the Virginia Air and Space Center on November 26th.

But we are honoring other folks in the community who haven't been recognized.

They're working, they're out there every single day, and uh putting in the work, changing lives, and so we're gonna be helping to bring some attention to them.

That is wonderful.

And I think you know that you can't you can't fix a problem after you have it.

You have to figure out the prevention, and it's very hard to measure.

How do you measure um you know, no one got hurt?

Uh it's a really hard thing.

It is, but you can measure it by you know, number of people graduating, number of people um getting jobs, finding, you know, what their passion is uh and all that.

So it it is just it's just so important.

And it's so important that the groups work together because you know, some kids might be interested in skateboarding and need to have that resource, and some kids might be this, and yeah.

It it's also really cool that different people have different life experiences.

And you can speak, you know, on some things, you can speak on other things, and and other people bring that into the picture.

So creating a whole community, yes, of nonprofits, of government, uh volunteers of schools that all work together to benefit kids.

There's not one sol, it's not one solution.

It's all hands on deck.

That's going back to that village.

That's that village you recreating the village that will attack these problems, you know.

And um, that's what we try to manifest with what we do with catch more kids.

Um we're always open to partnership and people coming in and doing their part, or not just when we do something, when some of our partners have something, we're there.

Yeah, we there, you know, so it works like that.

And when you work together, you're gonna draw more people, which means you're serving more people.

Absolutely.

So I'm just fired up.

I get so energized when I talk to people who are out there doing the work.

It's just exciting to have you in our community.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate that.

And see, and that goes both ways because when you get excited, that keeps the fire and the passion and everything burning within us to keep going.

And especially think about when we're running our programs and we have caregivers saying, we don't care where you all are at, what location, just tell me the time, I'm gonna make sure my son is there.

Or when kids are telling us, hey, we loved it today, can you come back tomorrow?

That is the fire that helps to keep us going and and do what we do.

And not just other organizations, people period, show up what you want me to do.

Like, like people hit me all the time, I'm getting off work, I'll be there, what y'all need me to do, and they just lend their help and support.

Yeah.

You know, see, they so they're basically similar, they've been saying we need help.

So as long as they got somebody that's consistently coming, and now they feel like they have help they want to add on to.

Yeah.

You don't want to be one voice in the wilderness.

You want to be a chorus.

And even though we grew up born and raised in Newport News, I know I was in Hampton a lot, right?

Yeah, I graduated from Bethel High School.

We ended up relocating to Hampton, but as a teenager, as a preteen, like I had friends in Hampton.

So these areas that we are working in, like I've been in these areas, I've walked in these areas, I've hung out in these areas, and so on on a personal note, right?

Just being able to go through challenges, come out, you know, be successful, and show back up in the places that we grew up in, that is so powerful.

And that also helps keep us going.

That's why what she said, what we're doing on November 26th with Black Excellence.

No, we're recognizing those that shoulder to shoulders with us in these trenches, people that have changed their life just like me, and we're recognizing them in front of everybody.

Yeah.

You know, so we want to invite you out as well.

We're recognizing them in front of everybody.

That way, this thing is balanced out.

We don't want it to I I I when we do nothing independently.

We're not on the island.

So we have plenty of help, plenty of pro partners, and that's key to us.

That means something to us.

So November 26th, I want to see you together.

Yes, because seriously, even this platform and allowing us to share what we what we do, you know, and the questions, like this is not anything that we take for granted at all.

And, you know, because you have amazing guests that you have up here.

And so yeah, this is one way, you know, that residents are able to find out because they can't connect with us, they can't register for programs if they don't even know.

Right.

Well, hopefully today they know.

Yes.

Yes.

So thank you.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Thank you for the work you do.

Thanks for so important.

Thank you, City of Hampton, City Council, Sentera Healthcare.

Like again, we have amazing partners.

So it's important.

And it's important for people with resources to realize that those resources are extended when working through grassroots organizations.

Absolutely.

Government can't do everything for sure.

And there's a lot of times when there's somebody more effective that has more credibility in a community.

Um, and it's important that we all do it.

It is.

Everybody helps.

When those connections happen, they are very meaningful.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

And thank you all for watching.

I think, you know, I'm like, I'm developing tears, my heart's beating.

I mean, this is really one of the exciting things going on on our community, and everybody is working together to support the youth of this city and make sure that they have successful, productive, happy lives.

That's right.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks.

Hello, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of Fusion Fitness.

I'm your lead instructor, Alexis, and right now we're at Bug Row Beach, right in the heart of Hampton Roads.

I'm very excited because with me I have Marquita, Taishana, Kiera, and Frankie.

What I need you to do right now is go ahead and get yourself a bottle of water and a towel, and we'll be right back.

Use your business with the Lexus.

Tune in weekdays, six thirty AM, Mondays, seven thirty AM, two thirty PM, and seven thirty PM.

Very good, just two steps.

We're gonna walk it up.

Take it up.

Slide over.

Knee lift out, knee lift.

Very good.

Hold here.

Very good.

All we want to do right now is get your heart rate up.

Good.

Take it up.

Take it up.

Good.

Take it up.

Try knee lift.

Knee lift it.

Good.

Take it easy.

Get that arm up.

Head here.

Look it up.

Good.

Keep that cord tight.

Pull back.

Good.

Pull down.

Good.

Two steps.

Good.

Good.

Fight it over.

Good.

All right, your body should be warmed up by now.

We're gonna go ahead and keep it moving.

Nice and easy.

All right, great by feeling so hands up.

Good.

Good.

Keep it going.

I can explain this family.

My miracles begin with.

Hold here.

Good.

Back and forth.

Back and forth.

Very good.

Knee lift.

Come up.

Here we go.

Walk it up.

And back.

Knee lift.

Four.

Three.

Two one.

Take it up.

Here we go.

Two steps.

Hold here.

Now you can stay right here with the great five.

Or you can add the turn with us, okay?

Turn here.

Here we go.

Hold here.

Hold here.

Good.

Here we go.

Take it up.

Take it up.

Two.

Good.

Good.

Nice.

Lean into it.

Two.

Good.

Very nice.

This one right here, we're gonna cross his foot back and have our arms with it.

Keep core tight.

I like the boys in the band with the flights.

Maybe after the show, we can go for it.

I can bet.

I don't like play nice.

Very nice.

Good, good crazy.

I feel like I can walk on the ceiling.

So don't you be surprised.

We might punch it down.

I'm just not wild.

Good.

Wow, I'm gonna like to go crazy.

I can't be saying I'm a wild thing.

Rock it up.

Some I like to go crazy.

I can't say I'm a wild man.

Back to the top, hold on.

You like them boys that are set in.

They just don't get no ass okay.

No, I'm not the sun is high.

I need an hour later, get it back in a sun egg.

It's just going crazy.

Crazy find a mess with we can get good.

I feel like I go walk on the ceiling.

So don't be surprised.

Keep it going.

Sometimes I like to go crazy.

That's it.

Cause I'm a wild thing.

Wow.

Cause I'm a wild thing.

Wow bang.

Good.

Sometimes I like to go crazy.

Oh here.

I'm gonna smash it.

Just sit back, relax and put around.

Very nice.

I feel like that the wall on the ceiling.

Very good.

So don't be surprised.

I can't be saying I'm a wild bag.

Sometimes I like to go crazy.

I can't be saying I'm a wild bag.

Wow, bang.

Very good.

Here we go.

Sweet steps.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, here we go.

Step it out.

Very good at this.

Turn time around.

Side steps.

Keep it going.

Put those hands on.

Put your hands up.

If your problems at the door, if you're trying to get a cracking, good play.

Watch that.

We've been making a small job.

I'm in that be a turn.

Just watch it on time.

Good.

Go back to that two-step, great five.

Jimmy turned so why in the hell are you sitting down?

Could a party all night on while the DJ getting down?

So it's just looking bright.

I'm loving a good time.

I'm loving good.

Put your hands on your hands.

Just watch him, turn it up, got that thumb, while it did play in my song.

DJ making this part of me at the turn.

This white channel, turn it, turn me down, turn here down, should come at me, gotta be low sell the new other side.

Try your sound.

Don't forget, so much to add a weak sell a little bit.

Take it to the back.

Press back.

You got where to take someone over.

Other side.

How about you?

I don't think low so too.

Back to the side.

I try to pull it out.

Cause you are my eye.

Take all of your clothes off like you want to.

Other side.

And I'm gonna put you out.

Yeah, the boy wonder what you want.

Turn it up.

Yes, messy.

I'll be turned.

Turn it up.

Turn it up, turn it up.

Turn, turn.

Yes, sir.

Hey, smart, turn it up, turn it up.

Nice and easy, keep going.

Nice and gentle.

Yeah.

Just turn it from.

Just turn it up.

Just turn it up.

Uh uh.

Very good.

Circle, tap, tap, bring it in.

Circle, tap, tap, bring it in, circle.

Good.

We're gonna have a change here.

Here we go.

Front side over, step up and back.

Front side over, step up and back.

Here we go.

Three, two, one, hold here.

We can slow it down tonight.

Somebody told the DJ.

Good.

There's a pretty little thing I like.

Hold here.

Let me just roll it.

Roll a core.

Tonight by being my door.

I don't want to pass to slow it down.

Tonight might be my last one.

Come up.

Nice and easy.

Hip roll.

Slow it down.

Rock rock.

Let me gonna go too fast.

Tonight might be my last.

I don't want to get back.

Here we go.

Circle, tap, tap, bring it in.

Circle, tap, tap over.

Very good.

Good.

Here we go.

Step if we slow, freed down tonight.

Somebody's other game.

DJ.

There's a be a face.

Yeah, we just slow it down.

Rock it out.

Tonight might be my glass.

I don't want to grass.

Just slow it down.

Then we give me going too fast.

Tonight might be my last.

I don't want to come up.

Step if we slowly down tonight somebody's other game There's a baby slow Rock it out we go too fast be my last I don't want to pass to slow it down to fast tonight might be my last come up Hip roll I go down you do it down too fast tonight might be my last I don't want to side and glide and glide right side back step up and up and the ladies in the back right game slowly down good mama lovers love us tonight mama love us above us tonight the ladies in the back slow down hold here slowly rocky give me good be my last I don't want to pass too slow it down too fast tonight might be my last I don't want to take it up hip hips when I go down you does it down too fast tonight might be my last I don't want to keep going too fast tonight might be my last I don't want to pass too slow it down we go much tonight might be my last I don't want back it up when I go down you did slow it down to that tonight might be my last side cat can you do that for me tonight and the ladies in the back right the fellows can be mag right and you slow down slow down my love us tonight so I was tonight at the ladies in the back right game slow down slow down all right here we go we've made it to the end just snap easy step snap it's unheart to say good I don't know what I do it on the good snap it's not good it's muscle I'm thinking hold here let your hips go be when I'll submit and I do right there in the back I like it take one arm over some less you move both hands up you move hip circle four yeah yeah lunge it down here we go so we are good this boy good hips me right on side I like it right in the I like it and when I'm over both hands up you four hip circles four three three two one to down here we go so sexy fall back me on way you look so sexy turns me on babe on scrap you cross when I'm over one more inhale good one

Cross when I'm over.

One more inhale.

Good.

One more.

Sidestebbing.

All righty, you made it to the end of the workout.

I know here at Fusion Fitness, we always like to let you guys know we love you.

And one of the things about that is being honest.

So right now, the team is hot.

We're hot and sweats in my eyeballs.

I hope it's in yours too.

That means you got a good workout.

Now, if you tune into the credits, you will find all of our contact information, all of our local classes you can go to whenever you want in the Hampton Roads area.

We also have all of the information listed for all of our music contributors.

So just check out the end credits, or you can just Google Alexis Perkins, anything you like.

Now, once again, thank you to Marquita Taishana, Kiara, and Frankie.

We absolutely love you guys.

Thank you for tuning in.

Until next time.

For nearly a century, Farm Bureau.