I might uh you know what I need to choose my own thing.

Formally do something probably tomorrow.

Okay.

Council meeting.

Very well.

Thank you.

It's been a pleasure.

I'm sure.

No one should be able to speak.

We'll have to do that.

100%.

Madam Clerk.

Yes, sir.

Would you please call the room?

Miss Bryant.

Present.

Mr.

Dr.

Dotson.

Present.

Mr.

Hugo.

Present.

Mr.

Moody.

Here.

Miss Thomas.

Here.

Mr.

Tillich.

Here.

Mayor Glevin.

Here.

And so we today for our agenda item is the post 2026 state and federal legislative initiatives.

And we have here with us our team member, Miss Sherry Neal, who is our intergovernmental affairs manager.

Miss Sneal, you have the floor, ma'am.

Thank you, Mayor.

And good evening.

Mayor Glover.

Vice Mayor Moody, Honorable Members of Council, Deputy City Manager Coleman, City Attorney Ram, Madam Clerk.

It's my pleasure to be before you this evening to share with you the recommendations of the Portsmouth City Council Legislative Advisory Committee for Initiatives for the 2026 state and federal legislative initiatives.

And before I delve into this, I just wanted to give a special thanks to council for creating this committee.

The members of council that have on there now and passed our staff that are on there, the city leadership has been a tremendous help in creating a much more dynamic and diverse legislative package than we've had for many many years.

So I I personally thank you guys for doing this and creating this.

And thank you for all of you who serve.

It's been a great team effort.

So moving forward.

Not to be so again, I said I'm presenting on behalf of the committee this evening, and I'm going to share with you our recommendations for council adoption of our state legislative uh initiatives and budget amendments, as well as we have some things for the federal initiatives.

We'll go over some next uh important dates and next steps and the questions and answers that you may have.

So starting with the legislative initiatives, we have five legislative initiatives that we're recommending.

Uh the first one is um the issue there is there is a need for the city to exhibit better control over special use permits in the city.

Um we're looking to enhance the oversight of special use permits by adding another tool and zoning's toolbox to help to um prevent their misuse.

The city of Port Smith uh we're requesting that the General Assembly amend uh this particular code section, adding Portsmouth to the cities of Hampton and Norfolk, which quote may impose condition upon any special exception or use permit relating to retail alcoholic beverage control licenses, which provides that such special exception or use permit will automatically expire upon a change of ownership of the property, a change in possession, a change in the operation or management of a facility, or the passage of a specific period of time.

The next item here, the next four items are dealing with public safety.

These are all to enhance and help our public safety members in Portsmouth and statewide.

The first one, the issue there is there's a need for public safety departments throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia to provide relief and support in addressing temporary detention orders, TDOs, and emergency custody orders, ECOs.

For over ten years, public safety departments have needed support with TDOs and ECOs execution.

Although some pilot programs for alternative transportation providers were established, no permanent solution has been implemented.

Staff shortage shortages worsened strains as officers spend extended periods of time executing these orders impacting their ability to serve communities.

So all we need to be leave to our public safety departments by passing legislation enabling the employment of approved retired law enforcement officers to specifically provide transportation and processing services for people subjected to TEOs, DCOs.

Next item is legislation creating a class two misdemeanor for the act of leaving a firearm in an unlocked vehicle.

Oh before I go any further on that one I just spoke of the TDOs and the ECOs, we've also shared these items with Virginia Municipal League, and we've shared them with Virginia First Cities.

And the TDO ECOs is in both of their legislative packages as well.

On the firearms, this one is also included in Virginia First Cities.

This figure highlights a growing problem with profound implications for community safety.

And they convened several meetings this year to uh which in conjunction with the University of Virginia's law department and the police departments that are representative of each of the member cities to address the problem of gun violence with use.

So the request here is that the General Assembly create a class two misdemeanor for the incident of leaving a via.

Yes.

When you get done, I'd love to ask a question on that.

Okay.

For leaving uh via a firearm and an unmarked vehicle, um, which would result in uh six months in jail or a thousand dollar fine or both Dr.

Dotson, you have a full.

Would it be appropriate to add loss of a concealed permit to the owner on that one also?

I understand what you're saying.

Could you speak up a little bit?

Would it be appropriate to add loss of concealed uh permit authorization to that one also?

In order if they have a concealed permit, they would lose it.

Um for discussion.

That's a separate process done by the court.

I don't think we would have the authority uh to be able to do that.

There's no provision under the code rule that allows us to regulate do that by council, and so I don't think this body has the authority to do so.

No, we we wouldn't, but um to propose it for the legislation.

I I think suggesting that that would be something that the locality would be doing would might be problematic.

Um class two misdemeanor is a crime.

The person would be would be convicted of a crime already, so it's pretty significant.

Um, but it would go because of the conviction, it would go towards the consideration given on whether they would get a um a permit in the future anyway.

So because it is a separate provision, I think it would be sort of um easier to keep it separated.

Okay, yeah.

Thank you.

The next item the issue there's photo enforcement authority, extended time needed to review stop light and speeding it for infractions.

There is a need to extend by law the review period for stop light and speed violation videos.

Currently, red light violations must be reviewed within 10 days, while speed violations in school zones are permitted uh to be done within 30 days.

All right.

Excuse me, Miss Neal.

When you say must meet must be reviewed from 10 or to 30 days, is that review meaning that actually looking at it and then distributing or sending out a bill or whatever they send out notification that time frame is all included in that.

Yes, so right now in code is they only have 10 days to review these um infractions.

And from our understanding is that if it's not done within 10 days, then they can't uh issue a summons.

And the review is a law enforcement review, so there has to be a police officer review every one of these before a ticket can be issued.

In the case of stop lights, it's a video review, and the current requirement is got to be done within 10 days in the case of school zone speed speed tickets, it's picture review, which is generally takes less time than a video review.

Sure.

And so the the chief's point is in in asking for this is to ask the General Assembly to make the review periods the same for both and uh accommodate with longer review periods uh so that that the law enforcement person can actually get the reviews done right in order to issue uh tickets to the offenders so have their tickets been dismissed due to the there have been tickets not issued because the review takes longer than 10 days and as soon as you hit 10 days then anything that's in the queue is is uh discarded how many officers or are there officers dedicated to that process yes and and I'm not sure if it's officers or officer in that point uh but uh I think it might just be one police officer that's assigned to do to do the reviews because of the the overall shortage of uh of police officers and the reason why I asked uh I wonder given the number and the addition of uh red light cameras is 30 days gonna be sufficient well I uh I I think we concluded let let's at least bring the rules into sameness as a starting place and and see if that gives uh our law enforcement folks the time they need to complete the the reviews yeah and council may and also vice mayor to the appoint the last bullet point of allowing training special conservators of the peace and technicians employed by localities to review that will uh increase the manpower and allow police officers to do their actual job um and free them up to go back onto the streets yeah that's an important uh well thought out very good here too Ms.

Mayor oh yeah go ahead um I don't I need to express an opposing uh uh view on this one I'm 30 days if I were to get a violation I would forget not know I would not be able to defend myself because the information would be long lost in my opinion as a defendant in that I can't support a 30 day um oh it's being in putting it in paradise sorry councilman go ahead mayor go go and dawson it's just asking to put it be put in parity with the same uh way that they review school zone infractions for for and there's 30 days for that I understand I I still have to express my opposition to I mean and parity I agree it needs to be in parity but I don't agree that's 30 days is I I ability to recover information to defend myself or something like that in court would be gone in 30 days.

Understand I don't know if it matters but the picture of the video will still be there so I I don't I I mean I don't know if it matters but you know the they're probably gonna use the video of the picture as evidence of the infraction.

Yeah whatever your recollection is whoever was driving that car when it went through that light or whatever.

And then when I got mine I sent the picture it took a picture of me too so I really had to say anything I hate those so but I'm sorry go ahead we got because Councilman Tillers answered and addressed the last bullet on there which was by the time the councilman Moody thank you so that's what the last one is to try to uh have the legislature pass that will allow the hiring of um and the use of special concepts of the peace and technicians employed by localities to review these films which will free up the officers to do more community work on what they were hired to do.

Yes.

And one other question uh can you educate me and us perhaps on what is a special conservator of the piece put it there who is that um I've seen that term before I just didn't know sometimes they refer to magistrates that way this is a uh a term of art for uh an official who has a very unique set of abilities uh given to a certain circumstance it's defined in a state code got it sorry are they appointed by the courts they can be um it depends on where where they're serving it and what role so but oftentimes that's uh depends on what they're gonna be doing their law enforcement sometimes they have special conservators from law enforcement purposes or um magistrates um uh so it just depends on how they're serving times okay thank you uh for the second bullet on the TDOs and the ETOs with I don't remember can you help me recall was that regarding um having the retirement are those regarding like kind of

But oftentimes that's depends on what they're gonna be doing.

They're law enforcement.

Sometimes they have special conservators for law enforcement purposes or magistrates.

So it just depends on how they're serving.

Councilwoman Thomas.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Ms.

Neil, for the second bullet on the TDOs and the ECOs, was I don't remember.

Can you help me recall?

Was that regarding having the retirement?

Are those regarding like kind of mental health type things?

Like is that what that was?

Okay, I could recall like what that was tied to, but I thought we had that discussion.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilwoman Bryant, ma'am.

Did you want the floor?

Um I didn't, but I will take it now that you offered it.

I'm thinking back to the special conservatives, conservators of the peace um line there.

Is that is that something that any of our neighbors already have in place?

Do we know what that's potentially going to look like for us, or is it are we am I getting too far ahead of myself?

I'm wondering if that will be somebody employed by the police department and trained for that purpose, or maybe we don't have that much outlined yet.

Um as I recall, uh the the chief told us that no one has that authority by state code now, and so this is for us asking for General Assembly to put this into state code so that we could take advantage of it.

I like that.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Ms.

Very good.

It's wonderful having committee members.

Section 19.2.2-12 lists a whole list of various conservators of the piece of the code.

So it just depends on where they're serving, and so they this would just add another, I guess, list of folks to that.

Um thank you, madam attorney.

Yeah, thank you.

I think we're good.

So then we have four potentially five budget amendment requests that we're looking at.

The first one is for phase one and two of the apprentice street transmission, waterman transmission project.

Um this was something that was included in our 2025 legislative package as well.

Um specifically, we were trying to address a transmission line that's um water distribution system that's in downtown Suffolk.

We were awarded 4.5 million dollars, which was vetoed by Governor Youncan.

So we're going back to ask again for that 4.5 back plus any funding we could possibly get for the second phase of that project.

Okay.

The next item on there is 17 million for the new housing resource center.

Um so this uh this project consists of creating a one-stop housing resource center for the city of Portsmouth that offers a variety of services for up to 54 single displaced individuals experiencing unhoused or homelessness, and would include um supporting programs such as short-term housing units, day services, learning centers, and dining service.

The next item on this 4.25 for the sanitary sewer pump station rehabilitation project.

And um the total overall cost for that project was a little over 21 million.

Um we were awarded 4.25 in this last general assembly session, and I believe that was able to address five of the pump stations of the 25 that need to be rehabbed.

So we're going back to ask again, so about to another 4.25 so they can continue the process.

The next item on the list is uh 1.2 million for the lead service inventory enhancement for lead service line, lead service line inventory.

That's lead.

I'm sorry, lead, yeah, not lead.

Oh, it's lead or lead, lead.

Thank you.

I wasn't sure.

I had lead before, I had a lead and copper, then he said then I saw it as I'm like, maybe it's not lead and copper, but lead, thank you.

Lead service line inventory enhancement for lead replacement program.

So this would enable uh us to make field samples to inform a machine learning predictive model that uh to enhance the ability to locate lead and copper and meet regulatory requirements for the service and identification and replacement of these lines.

Yes, Mayor.

Yes, so question on the 17 million for new housing resource center.

Um I need to understand housing resource center.

Is that for the development of a housing resource center and building or whatever?

Is that for the development of a housing resource center and building or whatever, however, we're gonna do that?

And then if that's just for putting it in place, um, I guess going forward we would have to determine where the funding would come from for such a operations operations, correct?

Yeah, so to my go ahead.

Councilman Hugh.

Yeah, so this housing resource center is otherwise known as our homeless shelter.

Okay, so you'll recall that we the last council set aside uh ARPA funding for the homeless shelter project, along with several other projects.

Uh because time has passed, every one of those projects is now more expensive than the ARPA funding that we had set aside.

Yes, sir.

And so I so I asked the city manager about basically the same question you're asking during our committee meeting.

We're asking for 17 million for homeless shelter because that's the current price tag to build and outfit the homeless shelter.

Very good.

Uh and the ARPA funds that we had set aside for the homeless shelter would end up being used for all of the other projects that are more expensive now than the ARPA money that we had set aside.

So basically, what what the CFO is gonna do is use ARPA funds on those projects first until it's all gone.

Yes, sir.

And because we have this specific need for homeless shelter, uh, we're asking the General Assembly to uh to help fund that project for us.

Thank you, sir.

Can I follow up with that?

So my question is is the same as his second question is where do the annual funds come to support this entity in the future?

Out of the city budget.

I mean, it would be in the the DSS portion of the budget.

Which we currently don't have.

Well, we don't currently have a homeless shelter uh with the exception of the the shelter that the sheriff's department has made available to our line item in our budget for starting correct.

We would have to we would have to fund the sustainment long term of the shelter, but that's in the plan.

Ever since we decided we wanted to build the shelter with ARPA funds to city councils ago.

Do we have an annual estimate of what that will be?

We don't know what it is.

Mr.

Coleman?

We do not have an annual estimate at this time, Councilman Dotson.

Um Councilwoman Um Yes, thank you.

So for the I had another question, but since we're on the topic of the Housing Resource Center, um when I was at the last PRHA meeting and uh Ms.

Neal, I brought your name up, they told me they already worked with you as well.

Um they mentioned possibly requesting for council to uh provide funds for a housing bush funding housing funding trust.

Um and apparently those are kind of funds that are set aside for the creation and preservation of affordable housing.

I was wondering is that fund can can those funds if we requested from the state legislative legislations to fund um and then provide in our general fund, could that also be kind of lumped into this 17 million um for this home for the housing resource center as well.

Like are those type of funds available to use all at once?

Is that I see a smile, Mayor?

Do you know the answer?

So so I don't know the specific answer to that, but I do know uh we have discussed we um folks at PRHA uh just conceptually, and I've mentioned it to Mr.

Tillage of we all need to sit down as a council with PRHA and have a conversation of what that potentially could look like.

I think it's premature for us to at this time to even consider putting something like that in our legislative package, but there's a way forward.

We have some models, we just need to sit down as as that body and this body and really kind of lead that discussion.

Would you agree with that, sir?

Yeah, I would agree.

I think that that's something that we have we need to develop this plan first, and once we identify the plan, I think we can put the dollar figure to the oh yeah, absolutely.

I I think but that'll be separate from this housing resource center.

Okay, it's only for housing individuals experiencing okay, not for affordable and okay.

I didn't know if they could all be blunt.

Um we'll go towards the show.

Okay, this is a separate project.

Okay.

All right thank you.

Councilman Dodson thank you.

I'm sorry but before we add more line items to our budget I think we should be responsible for defining the revenue stream that's going to support it.

And I I look at this and I could just ask we haven't even we're taking on more expenses without even a projection of where the money's gonna come from we just got an estimate from our CFO that we were going to be 30 in five years we get another 30 million dollars.

So 30 or 50 million dollars short on our budget I'm concerned that we're not as we demand of legislature we if they're gonna have an expense they have to define a revenue source.

Why aren't we being as responsible as we ask of them thank you sir I will add councilman Tilling I will add that this the housing resource center is not a new project.

It's not a new project that no it's not myself or Councilman Hugo added to the books.

This is a project that two councils ago put on the books the bar for dollars back in 2020 and so this has actually been on our budget books it's been planned and it's been it's actually if you look in the budget is actually a part of the projection because already listed as a CIP so it's part of that 30 year projection.

Now to your point as far as the operating costs now that is totally separate from this conversation but we do have money that as may mention earlier money that came from ARPA that we're using we are asking for money to be able to supplement um in addition to the construction the addition of the construction costs but what you're saying that's that's a separate item yes it is I know I understand I just think it's irresponsible for us not to take responsibility for the revenue stream to support it but it and I'm not saying this is we shouldn't do this because I just think we need to take the responsibility to initiate a revenue stream well I think I think there's two things I I can appreciate what your position is but there's two things um as we move this process forward to completion of the facility that will all be a part of the future ongoing conversation we can't determine at this point what the actual cost and needs to operate the facility are going to be we don't have any specific models to look at that we have time as we go through the process I don't think it's irresponsible I think it's it's a process and in the process we have to come up with the funding as we work to complete the the facility and I think that's an ongoing conversation here's and here's why I say that that's that's because I think there'll be an opportunity for grant dollars there could also be some public-private partnerships uh because it is an it it it is an opportunity for us to do a different different program I believe and I know that that will be a part of the process I just I I don't disagree with you we will be responsible in how we pay for this it will be transparent but at this point we we're working on getting the facility done you said we're on the same page yeah vice vice mayor you know in a whole different uh discussion uh you know we talked about re regionalism each city has a homeless issue this would be one area if there were real regional cooperation where all the cities in the Hampton South side of the communities should should join together to uh build something that uh would alleviate the housing problem no I think I think all of us are richer than one of us so it's it's a very good point uh you know just another example uh of uh a problem that's regional wise uh wide but each city is is doing its own little thing to try to put a dent in the homeless situation um that probably won't even put a dent in the portsmouth's uh homeless situation well if I could just add to that and then I I'll give you the floor so what we're doing just on a homeless side regionally we do have a regional footprint at our Hampton Roads planning district and and we have an individual even today we're using those resources to manage our home program here in the city of Portsmouth.

So we are pooling resources and best practices together from a regional level we haven't taken on the homeless issue as a region yet but housing we are engaged in that process so those things are happening I welcome you all to to certainly share these kinds of observations with me I can bring it to the regional level in terms of that so we've got more work to do but housing we do have a regional program that does and is assisting our citizens today but we can do more councilwoman Thomas you have the floor um no I just wanted to say I agree with Vice Mayor uh Moody on that that point about the regional um consideration to address the homeless homelessness population um because it is a rising issue and probably will rise even more as we kind of you know tread through these economic times but

But we can do more councilwoman Thomas you have the floor.

Um no I just wanted to say I agree with Vice Mayor uh Moody on that that point about the regional um consideration to address the homeless homelessness p population um because it is a rising issue and probably will rise even more as we kind of you know tread through these economic times but I I definitely think we need one enforcement but I wanted to bring up to see that EV Riffa that we're a part of and we just um became a part of I think what two last year year before last um they were looking for possible projects to partner with um on a regional level so that might be to your point Vice Mayor Moody something we can bring to to them as a a city thank you.

Thank you.

Miss Neal you have the floor thank you um and the last item on here is uh a one that's potentially may fall off.

Um in the um 2025 legislative package we have requested funding for the rich regional jail renovation project um which we were successful in getting thank you and uh for all of you who work really hard on that one we all did um the issue is that when the language was written in the budget for reimbursement we have been asking that we can use the reimbursed as we expended and the language didn't come back that way.

So the thought is here to ask for uh that language to be amended so that we could be uh reimbursed on a more regular or at least a quarterly basis as money's expended um I um had some conversations with some some folks up at the state level and there and the city and specifically it's Senate finance and um they made a call and they looked into it and they said that it might be a we may they may be able to address it and on the um administrative side through um the Department of General Services the Treasury so that we wouldn't have to do anything legislatively with this um but they'll let me know by December and if they can't then we will go with a budget language asking them to amend that piece.

But based on your conversation uh you do you you you're pretty confident that we'll be able to get something done on this though.

From what I was told basically yeah they say that they think they could do it administratively without us doing it legislatively so we'll just see what comes out of that one.

Moving forward going along with wrong thing so we have several public policy state position statements.

I'm not going to go through all of them for time because I know you guys have another something to do after this but um this is not exclusive this is just giving you some highlights of some of the public policy positions that we're stating that we support and the next one would be those state public policy positions that we oppose and the one I highlight on here is acquisition of the Virginia International gateway by the Port Authority or by the commonwealth without adequate compensation to the city of Portsmouth for any tax revenue that's lost in that transition.

Correct so we're definitely opposing any and we're watching that.

Hey Miss Neal before you you go further I did have a question on and this is always perplexed me and I maybe I need you to explain it to us um the funding for the 599 program which supports financial assistance to local police departments to my understanding this has been on the books for a long time I know probably when when our councilman was a legislative aid up there.

Yeah right right but I I remember this but I guess my question is what what is the gist of this what what is the hang up why that can't get done do you have any idea?

Um it was before my time and despite it's been how long it's been there.

It's been out there a long time but to my understanding uh there was an agreement that was struck some years ago um in the Commonwealth of Virginia when they were going through annexations and so to for cities like this that couldn't annex anything because city can't annex the city agreement was made that um this House Bill 599 which is why 599 is called because it was a house bill right and which uh localities with police departments would receive X amount of funding.

Right.

Um when they receive rivers revenues from the state, and they would look at a portion of that, every increase we would get a portion of that would go into 599.

But the state has never really held to what they agreed to.

Right.

And so that's why you know we always fighting for them to fully fund 599 because they have seen increases and they put the money in rainy day funds, they put the money here and there, but 599 is always getting slided.

Um listening to some of the discourse up at the Richmond, the some of the legislators have some angst about it because of the fact that the money comes down to the local governments, but they can't they feel that local governments are not actually using it for their police departments because money is fungible.

So there's no way to really track the state that you got this money, and this is exactly what you're using it for.

So there it's a route comes in there with that.

So that conversation has been going on.

I've been on council 26 years.

Thank you.

And that's that's been probably in almost every legislative package since I've been on council.

And uh you know, I I just think it's uh a case that state needs to put up or the localities need to do away with it and call it a day.

But uh I think it's just a case of states that are this year, flush and cash not upholding their agreement.

Exactly.

Okay, so first I'm gonna go to the councilman till it's then you, madam, what's doing?

Okay.

Um I just want to so this is separate from the 599, but uh there will be a statement here regarding tolls, uh, our stance on tolls.

Um, but with the toll situation, we're looking at doing a study uh with a local university, um, as well as some regional organizations on how we can better leverage the argument for tolls across the region.

So I just wanted to let me know that we are continuing to fight tolls um in addition to what we were able to achieve last year with the uh toll mitigation program.

So we're continuing to build on it, and as soon as we get some information from our study, we'll begin to share that uh with council as well.

I was just gonna mention uh the JLARC study piece with with respect to the port um and also our initiative on um the the pilot program which is gonna come up in the federal section.

J LARC did a study for us when the port first went private, part of the port went private many, many moons ago on the impact of ports on port cities, Portsmouth was highlighted.

I think it might be good, I don't know how a JLARC study is ordered, but maybe nice to have that updated for us.

I think it'll be helpful for both initiatives to have a new study done, uh, particularly because we know the port has their money to do what they want to move forward on, and so it'll be helpful to have those official numbers and data from the entity that does those studies on its impact on port cities.

Okay, thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Dotson, sorry.

I was gonna say the same thing.

No, you weren't in here.

Yes, I was is that we really need to understand in order to take two legislation what the impact is, and otherwise we can't go.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Councilman Hugo.

Yeah, so one one other uh policy discussion that we had in committee has to do with the uh pop-up event issue that Virginia Beach raised.

Uh the gist of our discussion was we support in principle what Virginia Beach wants to do, but there were some clarifications that we were looking for from Virginia Beach on how to implement what they're talking about implementing.

Uh and so I think we'd have a little bit more homework to do to understand what it is that we're supporting, but in principle, we uh we like the their proposal that uh that there should be uh some uh discipline into popping up.

Right.

And if I could just add to that, um we were called to a meeting of the mayors in the region uh by Virginia Beach and their leadership um to support this effort to go to the General Assembly to ask for some guardrails, as my colleagues likes to say in terms of pop-up events.

Virginia Beach is experiencing a phenomena that's not unusual for beach areas.

It happened in Miami, where these young people and people that are on social media are having pop-up calls for parties and events.

Thousands of people show up for these events.

Most recently, Virginia Beach had one on the ocean front, and there was an individual that chose to show up with a semi-automatic weapon and start the shooting.

There were only 11 police officers on site.

They knew nothing of this pop-up event.

And when the shooting started, they had the video, they showed it to all of us.

All you saw were mass people running in all directions.

I don't know how no one got trampled.

It wasn't on the news, but they have an issue with that.

And these pop-up parties, what happens is, I guess through social media, don't quote me on it because I'm not a social media guy, but they make an all call for all these people to show up, and literally thousands of people show up.

The problem is the police, EMS, no one has any pre-warning that this amount of people are coming to an area.

On the books today, I think most localities have an ordinance of getting groups of people together.

I think the number is 50 or something.

I know in Virginia Beach, I think it was 50.

So as you can see, it presents some very challenging issues for an ocean front.

They gave an example of what they've done in Virginia, excuse me, Miami, where they cut all that stuff out.

And so they were able to make some headway in that, but they want to go to the legislature.

Bottom line, they want us and other localities to sign on to that legislation.

Councilman does.

So this to me, this is a top issue that needs to be handled and gives that neighborhood where it occurs, which is not far from Nybert, my neighborhood.

We've had three of them in the last year.

And to your point, I will say we did bring those up that it's not, it's in every locality.

It's not just in Virginia Beach.

It may take a different form, and it's not as many people, but it's in every locality because my colleague in Suffolk said, Well, I don't have those kind of problems.

Yes, you do.

You just don't know about them.

But in any event, the reality, we're trying to put some type of controls in place, and we're gonna need each other to help.

And I agree with my colleagues here.

It wasn't clear on what that needs to look like.

We need some more defined, like actionable things so we know what's happening before we just sign up for it.

I agree that it needs to be controlled, it needs to happen sooner rather than later, but I don't know that this session it'll be able to get done.

Thank you.

The mayor have a question.

Um thank you.

Miss Neal, can you for the inclusion of all stakeholders and sorry, Constable?

Sorry, go ahead on the top.

Before you go there, can I just add on two?

Absolutely, yes.

So uh the our committee had me reach out to our delegation members about a couple of these items that came in and pop-up events was one of them.

I've discussed it with them.

And um, I call it more clarification is needed.

You don't see it listed here, but when you receive your actual booklet when it's all finished and done, we have another whole list of things that we support.

Okay.

And it is listed in there that um we're going to we put it in as legislation.

Uh where to that, uh legislation to help control and or contain to the greatest extent possible pop-up events and support the IR issue.

Sure.

So we'll monitor it as it develops to go out, and our committee is going to be meeting periodically throughout the General Assembly session as well.

So everybody will be kept informed, kept updated as we move forward.

And not to belabor the point, but one of the things that they talked about, when these individuals who are the promoters of these pop-up events, they want some type of acknowledgement before they actually have the event to let law enforcement know and other responsible parties know, because that's a big problem when you bring thousands of people, you don't have the resources to manage it.

It's very man, when I saw that video, I'm like, my grandkids could have been standing out there for anybody for that matter, but it's something that needs to happen.

No, fine.

No, that's that's great for information about that serious issue.

I wanted to know for that bullet about the inclusion of stakeholders and discussions involving future juvenile detention in Virginia.

Just a little bit more information about what some of those discussions or changes for juvenile detention in Virginia that were, you know, supporting on a public level.

Is it just to include people that haven't been included before?

Different.

Um there is a move underfoot by a state senator.

Yeah.

And he's been basically trying to somewhat close them down and eliminate and things of that nature.

And so we've been able to keep him at bay for a little while.

But he's going to come back again as General Assembly session.

So this particular something that's also in Virginia Municipal League, Virginia First City's statement.

Yeah, if you're going to do something like that, you need to sit down with all the stakeholders to have an issue in it so that we could have a discussion, a fair discussion on how to handle this because it's a it's it's an issue.

And it's not just an issue in Portsmouth.

Suffolk has a problem.

There are other areas with similar issues.

I won't call Senator Shimonelli, but what if you call him?

They're trying to close juvenile detention centers.

Or regionalize.

Regional.

Regionalize it, okay.

Not closing the contrary to the plan that we're pursuing to our own juvenile determination.

They are on that one of the pods at the Hampton Rose regional.

Yeah, the new chair, yes.

Okay.

I just wanted to know kind of what that bullet point, because that's a major um concern for me, especially because my family.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

But let me ask you some on that on that.

Because I met the the state senator who is behind that.

He's very, he's very well educated in juvenile detention.

He's done it.

Yeah, he's well, he's done it all over the country, and he he's very knowledgeable about it.

And when he showed me some data, I think it might be beneficial if we invite him here or his representative to educate us.

Look, we can agree that we need to have places for our juveniles and they need to be appropriate and adequate.

But the way we do juvenile detention in in the state right now, we are spending a lot of money and we're not meeting the needs.

And I think it really needs to be a conference.

This is just my two cents.

We need to be as a body engaged on what the system is.

Is that fair?

And what's being put in and what the system really needs.

There was some amazing statistics that I saw where we're having to have, just as an example, like five or six paid educators for like one or two children.

I mean, that's I don't know why that is.

That's just an example, but we'll bring them in.

But but the state requires certain things that that has to be in that environment.

And and there's a lot of dollars that are being wasted that could be used to take care of those children appropriately.

So I just think we need to have those folks come in and talk to us so we can have a better understanding.

Because I didn't have an understanding of it.

And the gentleman came down, he met with the sheriff's people at the jail, and I got called on a uh night, and he was there the next morning.

And what happened was when I showed up the interest, he's a state senator now.

I can't even recall his name right now.

Martin.

Senator Morrison.

Yes, yes, that's his name.

Nice guy, affable.

I mean, knowledgeable, very not.

He does this all over the country, and so what he has to say is worthy of listening to.

It's not, he wasn't promoting when I was there, he wasn't really promoting closing juvenile.

He was talking about giving it the best chance to meet the needs of our children.

That's what I thought.

I think we need to hear about it.

I think he was also closing the state ones, the state-run facilities.

Yes, he was he was because that's where a lot of the waste that he was saying they need to be local.

They need to be run by the local communities, and that effort needs to be more those stakeholders need to be at the table.

So that's uh what I'll do is I'll get with Mr.

Carter.

I'll try to get him to come down and speak with us because I think there's a lot of value in hearing what he has to say.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

So the the reason the language the language here ended up being the language here to include all stakeholders is exactly because we have opinions on how this needs to go.

And kind of where the committee started out with was well, it's interesting that people have opinions, but we got a problem.

And we need to fix the problem, and so at some point you gotta say, okay, thanks for your opinions, but now we got a plan and we're gonna go execute.

Well, we have a plan that we're trying to go execute, and so now it's time to get the stakeholders together to say, look, we don't have time to dilly-dally around here.

We need to settle on a plan, and we want everybody's opinions on the table so we can have the best plan uh to to go execute, but but then once we get a plan, get out of the way because we're gonna go execute.

Yeah.

And that was the recommendation when I talked to him that day.

I said we need to get everybody in the room.

You all know.

Now we need everybody in the room.

So when you leave the room, you might be a little bit better educated, but more importantly, we can come to a conclusion that says, yes, that's the way we want to go.

Instead of listening to all this anecdotal stuff off on the sidebar, the people talking that have no idea about what they're talking about.

So one of the things I'll ask Mr.

Carter after the election cycle is over to bring the senator in, I'm sure he would he would welcome the opportunity.

And maybe after we he just talked to us in a group, we can then get that stakeholder group together.

Because I don't want to necessarily, I don't know, I'll take input, but I think we need to be educated, and then we bring all the other people.

What do you think, Madam Attorney?

I think you're spot on the gentleman.

Yep.

Spot on the case.

Any further conversation on that?

And I think that's a great idea, Mayor.

Um, little show on time because after the election, you're gonna run into the holidays and then general assembly, but I'm gonna make a real plea.

If anybody can do it, I'm sure you can ask woman, yes, please.

Ms.

Neal, could you could you on the previous slide?

The state prioritizing its resources for vital services.

Could you review this last point with us, please?

Okay, so again, this is uh something that we're in in lockstep with Virginia Municipal League and Virginia First Cities and the other organizations, sister cities that we're affiliated with.

So as you we all know, there's a lot of cuts coming down from the federal government to the state government, and the state is uh even though we went through our budget amendment request, you know.

I'm encouraging people to try to temper your expectations because it's such a big hole that the state has to backfill for the funds that's being lost from the federal government.

And so what it's asking here is that the state prioritize its resources to help protect serve children and families in our vulnerable communities in the face of changing relationships and not push all that down to local governments to try to backfill.

I mean, for instance, if SNAP benefits are being lost on the first of November, um, if in fact the governor, even though he had a declared emergency situation where he could try to backfill some of that money, um, if he's not able to, whatever he's working with and tells it's not sustainable, so it might be a month.

It might be a portion of what they get.

But from what I'm understanding in the city of Portsmouth alone, there's over 22,000 people who are on SNAP benefits, which is costing about four million dollars a month.

Which if it's not backfilled at the state level, it's going to come down to the local government.

So we're trying to encourage the state to whatever they do with their money to make sure that they take care of these vulnerable communities first and don't push it down to local government to do.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Oh ma'am.

Oh, councilman Dunston.

Yes.

So I you know, I'm gonna sound like a broken record over and over and over until y'all start calling you a broken record, but I really want to keep on the back page somewhere that change the sunshine law to allow less than a quorum.

And I'm gonna keep harping on it, hopefully happily and cheerfully.

But sometime if we can keep it in there.

We we need better communication amongst us, and if three of us could get together, it would really help.

Thank you.

Communication in the city.

So councilman Hugo, you have the floor, sir.

So uh process thing.

Part of the process to get to this list is we took everybody's inputs, including the sunshine law input, and we put them all together, and we sat down with our general assembly reps for the first time back in July.

And so everything that has survived on the list are things that we looked in the eyes of our general assembly reps and said, Will you commit to supporting these things?

And their answer was yes or no.

And so the thumbs up made it on the list, right?

And the thumbs down were left on the cutting room floor.

Sunshine laws was uh left on the cutting room floor.

I just want to keep it forefront if I could.

I get it.

We'll continue to next year put it up back on the list and look for a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Thank you.

And I'll add that all four Portsmouth ropes were present.

And all agreed.

Well the ups are down.

So all four.

Yeah.

Good work, guys.

And and last but not least, and I and our try to remind you guys in the General Assembly, there are 100 members in the House of Delegates, and there are 40 in the Senate.

The city of Portsmouth has two delegates and two senators.

Right.

And um there's a big gap in there.

Out of the ones that we have, the ones that could actually carry legislation, we have one delegate that can actually carry legislation, which is delegate Hayes.

Um Speaker Scott could try to influence on the back end, but he does not submit legislation.

Right.

Senator Lucas, because she has such so many more uh committees she's serving on things she's doing now because she's uh chair of the Senate House Senate Committee on Finance, she's limiting how much legislation she's actually carrying.

So that just leaves Senator Jordan.

So we have to be kind of circumscript about how we do things and moving forward and what we're asking for and things of that nature stuff, just to keep that in the forefront of your minds.

I think that's good information.

Thank you.

It's good to know.

Um moving forward.

So on the federal level, we have uh two items that we've been working with and looking at.

The first one is something that's been um an issue since I've been here before I got here, and probably be an issue after I leave.

And um, so uh after some conversations that we've had, and when we were in in DC, and our council members who went to meet with our federal reps, um came back and said that uh one of our council, our council, uh Congressman Scott has shown some interest, I think, and also Secretary King has shown us some interest in possibly having to do uh updated study on the pilot fee program.

And for those who don't understand what it is, it's payment in lieu of taxes, which is what the federal government pays localities for properties that they have or uh facilities that they have and governments that's taking them off the tax rolls, so you get a percentage back for their presence.

Um we do not receive pilot fees for the uh military installations in the city of Portsmouth.

Um primarily because when they initially put the program together, the properties had to be on the city's tax rolls before it was taken over by the federal government.

And at the time when they developed the shipyard, uh City of Portsmouth had not been charted.

That's a fact.

So yeah, that's a fact.

So and there's been some changes in the program since then.

The hospital too.

And the hospital, yes, yes.

Portsmouth was chartered in 1858.

This is true, and these they go back to 1700s.

So founded in 1752.

Thank you.

So um there's been some changes over the years to the programs, but it there's nothing that changed our status.

So I have been conducting, but the committee with the committee's assistance, uh, did some conducting of some um did some surveys so we could try to find out statewide if there were other localities that were interested in joining us in this effort.

Um we have about nine of them right now that has said that they would be interested in supporting an effort of this nature.

Uh councilman Hugo also serves on the National League of Cities um Military Affairs Committee, and he's been talking with his committee members about also looking at something of this nature.

So it's uh work in progress at this point.

Um we couldn't go too much further with it at this time because of the federal government being shut down, staff is not there, so we're kind of like in the state of pause on this way right now, but this is one of the ones that we're working with, the committee.

The next one is um looking at exploring federal grant funding to study federal safety needs in Portsmouth for the railroad crossings, and again, with the federal government being in the state that it is right now, there's not a whole lot going on with grants or funding or anything, so it's kind of on hold as well.

Any questions about either of those two before you move forward?

Keep moving.

Here is this some public policy items, and this is a compilation of items that's from the International City Managers Association, um, the public policy committee that I sit on, as well as national leader cities.

I'm not going to go through all of them, but you know, CBDG is always up for grabs.

So yes.

And one thing, if I could say to CBC D BG, you know, we use a lot of that funding here in the city of Portsmouth to supplement our program, particularly for a number of our underserved families and our home programs and things like that.

Just so you know, I was on the committee at the mayor's level, the national uh mayor's association.

You know, we support adding funding to CDB G grants because they haven't been funded in the last 40 years.

40 years.

So just understand that, you know, this is a wholly underfunded program throughout the nation, and it's something that we need to pay attention to because this directly impacts people's lives.

The CDBG.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

And also in some um literature I've read over the last few months.

Uh one of the the new budget that if they ever get through this continuing resolution at the federal level, the in the new budget, they actually are cutting these programs, C and home, and all of these the safer grants, all of this is stuff that's being cut out.

This is their proposal.

So on the flip side, of course, we have the support, then we oppose.

So again, we're posed to cutting these programs, home, CBDG, um, Section 8 programs.

Section 8 is definitely on the chopping block.

And we talk about housing problems and housing issues.

That's going to be a huge one should they cut their program.

Uh it's going to cause a lot of unhoused people.

Uh not just in this city, but period.

Nationwide.

Any questions on any of these?

If not, I'll move forward.

So our next steps, of course, we know election days around the corner.

Um, I'm sorry, yes.

I'm sorry, I just pointed for clarification re understanding the grant that we lost for the dam.

Was that state or federal?

The brick grant that was uh federal.

Federal.

Can we uh this unfunded federal mandates?

They falls under that, doesn't it?

On that screen right there.

In other words, they mandated that we upgrade it, but they did not fund it.

Um sorry regulation for dams.

Yes.

Oh, sorry.

It's not a federal mandate.

Oh, but the funds state regulation.

Okay, but the funds were state or federal.

It's funds were for the federal government to help this program, but the regulations are state.

Then would it be wise to include that same line on the state for for unfunded state mandates too?

And from the state mandates, I'm pretty sure we do because that's a we specify.

I didn't see it specifically in there.

Any statement.

I think um Mayor.

Go ahead.

So you if I may, I think on your on the PowerPoint, they were you just put the big ones up there, but a longer list.

One or two no longer PowerPoint was the unfunded mandate.

Okay, I'd like we're just like to see that one as a specific line item.

Absolutely.

Good.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

So here we are.

So election day is uh a week away or so.

Following the election, uh pre-filing of state legislation will begin.

Um, and that's the period of time when we're able to have our delegation members begin submitting legislation to be drafted.

Um, which why this is important is because they have a rule that they have placed upon themselves, there are the rules committee about how many bills each legislature legislator can submit.

And so prior to um the cutoff period, they can put in extra number of bills, but after that, they're limited to how many bills they can put in.

And it goes against their personal count.

So we always try to get our stuff in and early so that it doesn't go against their personal count.

Right.

So right now, because of there being election in November, they're not starting pre-filing until the 17th, and it's gonna cut off in December, so it's gonna be maybe like two or three weeks for pre-file.

Um the 25th, we're having a joint meeting with city council and uh delegation members to go over our state presentation, our state initiatives.

limited to how many bills they could put in and it goes against their personal count so we always try to get our stuff in and early so that it doesn't go against their personal count so right now because of there being election in November they're not starting pre-filing until the 17th and it's going to cut off in December so it's going to be maybe like two or three weeks for pre-file um on the 25th we're having a joint meeting with city council and our delegation members to go over our state presentation our state initiatives following that meeting that work session and your regular session is when you'll adopt your resolutions to adopt both the federal initiatives and the state register and then in December on the 17th the governor's going to present his final budget moving into next year second half of the United States Congress on the 19th session will begin general assembly session begins on the 13th of January our committee is going to have an interim meeting at the end of January so that I we can get caught up on what's going on where our things where our uh I initiatives and issues lay out in preparation for VM local government day which is on the 5th of February and then NLC's uh congressional conferences in DC in March those are the dates and one of those dates in there probably the 15th or the 16th we'll be going up to the hill to meet with our congressional reps and that's all I have one question for you is it your recommendation and I'm sure the committee will have something to say about this that during the legislative session uh that we pay a visit to our legislators as a body individually or as a group I mean what are your thoughts on that that's always good to be seen okay all right I just wanted to make sure that that I was thinking right um and in addition to that I must say that in all my years that I've been on council and in the mayor's seat this has been one of the most comprehensive discussions we've had in terms of our legislative package and it's not because there wasn't content there to discuss but I have to commend my colleagues you guys have done some very thoughtful work and this is why we're here to do this thoughtful work and make sure that we're getting the best out of ourselves and going to our state leaders and making sure our citizens get the best results so I thank you guys for putting in the work because there's a lot of work that's required and people don't always get to see the behind the scene work that goes in but this was very thoughtful and I appreciate everybody's effort but most importantly our committee thank you thank you may and and to bring me back to my initial comment I am truly grateful for this committee for the staff that serves on the committee with me for the council people that serve on this committee with me for the leadership that serves on committee with me including our uh lawyers here and in the back so thank you for everybody for all your help this is a teeth truly a team effort and it makes it my life a lot easier so thank you and I'm done you have anything else for me I'm out anybody else for Miss Neal thank Councilman Doctor he beat me to it about what an excellent job this is so much better than the collab's term the collaboration pays off thank you thank you appreciate you all yeah have a great night thank you Ms.

Neal thank you for having thanks same thoughts so folks we do have a need to go into a closed session and at this time um I would ask vice mayor to please me read the closed session motion I move to go into closed meeting and Virginia code section section 3.2-3711A for the purpose of acquisition consultation I mean uh with legal counsel appointed by the public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by search count council specifically regarding shootings in the city and B pursuant to Virginia code subsection 2.2711 A1 for the purpose of discussion and consideration regarding the positions of interim city attorney and uh city attorney second we have a motion and a second madam clerk would you please call the roll yes sir miss Bryant yes Dr.

Dotson Mr Hugo Mr.

Moody Yes Thomas yes Mr Tillage Mayor Glover yes thank you we are in closed let's take a five minute break and we can read

Only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and two public business matters that were identified in emotion by which the uh closed meeting was convened or heard discuss or considered and the closed meeting just concluded.

It was shared with me by someone in our planning department.

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