Good evening, citizens of Portsmouth, those who are watching us online.

Welcome to our public work session today on December 9th.

Before we get started, I want to acknowledge our city staff who is with us today, and thank you all for being here.

Also want to take a moment to uh welcome Mr.

Carter, Steven Carter, our city manager, our interim city attorney, Mr.

Derek Challenger, and also our city clerk, Miss Deborah White.

Good to see y'all.

And I also want to send a greeting to everyone for the most wonderful time of the year.

I hope everyone is getting getting prepared for the holidays and getting all the things done that needs to be done.

Now, Madam Clerk, would you please call the role?

Yes, sir.

Miss Bryant, present, Dr.

Dyson.

Here.

Mr.

Hugo.

Present.

Mr.

Moody.

Here.

Miss Thomas.

Here.

Mr.

Tillage.

Here.

Mayor Glover.

Here.

Mr.

Carter, sure, you have the floor.

Hey, good evening, everyone.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have a presentations this evening.

First is first up at the YMCA, followed by the retirement board, and then our public works department with a bulb work news collection.

Our presentation.

Please take the podium.

I think this point already have you cued up, sir.

Good to see you, sir.

Oh, good to see you as well.

Yes.

Okay, I'm eating it.

Thank you, sir.

Um the floor is yours.

Um let me first start off by saying um good evening to to all of you.

Let me acknowledge Mayor Mayor Glover.

Um, thank you for having us this evening.

Absolutely.

Umsteemed city officials sitting around uh the tables team, city council members, all those here in attendance.

Um good evening and thank you for engaging the YMCA of uh Southampton Roads as listed here.

I'm gonna try to play DJ and um speaker all at the same time.

Um this down.

Um as previously stated, my name is Anthony Walters.

I have the pleasure of serving as the president and CEO for the YMC of Southampton Roads.

Um it is definitely a privilege to be here in Portsmouth, uh City whose vision for safety, belonging, and empowerment aligns so closely with the work that we do, and I can tell you that Mayor Glover's been very pointed with me in our in our conversations about those things.

The Y has been a part of that story for a very very long time.

Portsmouth YMCA was chartered in 1888 and served this city through generations of change, challenge, and progress.

This community is known for.

What you see in front of you is a bit of our history and timeline.

The Y, if you can imagine, was founded in 1844.

Young people on the streets of London almost 175 years ago.

Not much different than how we are today.

Kids running buckwild on the streets of London.

And they are doing that a little bit so here in the Hampton Roads community.

Here in the United States of America, the Y took root as well, inspiring a wave of local movements that power our communities, and of course that took place also here in Portsmouth.

We have over 2600 YMCAs today, over 11 million members nationwide.

And the YMCA Southampton Road serves over 220,000 people annually.

We have local membership and participation.

We have local centers, and I just told you about the founding dates of those.

But from the beginning, the Y stood out by welcoming people from all walks of life, much like the table you sit around today, very diverse, very inclusive.

That spirit remains so today.

But we had to evolve.

In the early 1900s, boys and older men filled the YMCA.

But after World War I, women and girls joined in growing numbers.

By the 1960s, the Y became a hub for families.

A role we proudly carry forward today.

It's a place where civil rights movements were constructed, plans were made, civil rights movements were carried forward.

What makes the Y very, very unique is structure.

We're not a top-down organization.

We are a nonprofit, contrary to maybe what some believe.

But we are focused on what you see here today: youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility.

We have our vision 2030 plan that we are focused on, which connects community, empowers youth, and we are inspiring hope.

The YMC of Southampton Roads serves, as we said earlier, over 220,000 people annually across this region.

We have 26 locations across Southampton Roads and in Northeast North Carolina and up to and through the eastern shore.

What's most important about that is we are led by a dedicated amount of volunteers who provide fiduciary responsibility in our corporate board, but also locally at each one of our centers.

They have their own advisory board, they provide local leadership and they stay very rooted in their community, providing voices to our mission, our vision, and our values.

That's something we're very, very proud of.

You may have heard at one point in time that we had two different kinds of YMCAs.

That's not really a secret around here.

But we're very, very proud to have completed a merger of that YMCA with the YMCA of Southampton Roads.

So in 2018, the Portsmouth YMCA merged with the YMC at Southampton Roads, uniting a community where everyone's valued, welcome and connected.

Volunteer-led, as we we talked about before, with uh two advisory boards representing the Portsmouth YMCA and the Effingham communities.

We are unified in that association responding to the Portsmouth as they uh arise.

I'm really really proud that took a very, very long time to do, but we are very, very happy with how that has uh come to fruition.

We are uh a community anchored in Portsmouth.

We're reliable with resourcing for families, working parents, teens, and older adults, uh contributor to community health and social connection, the economic impact.

We are an entity that brings on uh staff into our workforce by drills.

We have uh employed approximately 850 local residents into our YMCAs, supporting the workforce by providing child care access and help reduce long-term health costs with preventive programs that help keep people active through our health and wellness activities.

We have volunteers, partners, and community groups who use our wise to support youth, expand access to resources and create a safer and more connected Portsmouth for everyone.

Some of our areas of impact and key programs are youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility.

And this focus is very evident in some of the programs that you see listed here on the right.

These are just small samples of the programs and services that we provide, but widely known for.

So before and after school programs, preschool, youth sports, which I know you're keenly interested in.

Swim lessons and water safety.

We have programs that are really important.

We have a lot of water that we're surrounded by in this area.

We think it's really, really important to make sure that no kid drowns on our watch.

So we do a lot of swim lessons to make sure that's the case.

As stated about the history of the Y, kids were running around.

They needed somewhere to be.

Any Y.

You come in the morning or midday, and you're gonna see our active older adults being engaged.

And it's it's their why during those times.

Don't try to try to get in their way.

Volunteerism, advocacy, critical need response, and bridge building.

I'm always proud to see us take a stand on some of these things, but I don't think it's a whole lot to argue about when it comes to child advocacy and making sure that our children are safe.

That's something we put our flag in the ground for, and we go to great lengths to make sure that our representatives, delegates, etc.

understand how important it is to make sure children come first and are protected.

Our cause and our case, uh, we think is a powerful bullhorn of what we stand on.

Our cause is to strengthen the foundations of community, and we while we do that in 27 different branches.

The strength of our union are the people, those 220,000 people are what represents the why.

It's the advocacy that those individuals have.

Um, the last two words of our mission statement are for all, and we are very, very proud of that.

Uh, that we bring people together to represent that mission state.

Um, we also believe that the community is built on relationship and connection, and that when you come into the YMCA, um, we might be very fancy, fancy dress tonight, but when you get on that treadmill, you get in that pool, uh, you have on workout gear and swim trunks, swim bathing suits, and we're all just one community trying to get healthier, and that for me is what a community is all about.

Our vision 2030 plan has uh four strategic plan goals that um I just want to simplify for you.

Um, you can read there on the screen.

Um, we want to be the catalyst for connection and unity.

Um, not many malls anymore where people kind of come together, but when you come into that YMCA, you're going to see your friends.

Uh, increase philanthropic engagement and service.

There's a lot of cases that you can give to, we think ours is a really compelling one.

We want to develop leaders and change makers.

Um, a lot of places that you can go to see where the community comes together.

Go over there to that football field or that basketball court and watch those parents coach those kids, and you'll see some amazing things happening there.

Um really unique is when you watch other kids young people coach other young people, that's also very interesting to watch as well.

Um, particularly when you're hiring some of those young people, 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds, 18-year-olds.

They're developing life skills right in front of our eyes.

And we want to transform lives through enhanced member experiences and innovative programs, and some of those things we listed for you already.

Uh, but those are important to us and hope they're important to you.

Drowning prevention.

We had a partnership with the Portsmouth Public Schools already.

We want to make sure every second grader knows how to swim.

And um, as we said, we don't want any young person to uh drown on our watch.

This year, our Portsmouth YMCA continued a powerful partnership with PPS to ensure that every second grader learns essential water safety skills.

We provided over 1,200 students hands-on instruction at the Y with safety around water programs.

They built confidence and uh helps to prevent uh drowning.

Forschment Public Schools contributed 10,000 to cover transportation, which removed a major barrier for families and ensured all students could participate in that.

This initiative reflects what our Y's enforcement do best, which is respond to community needs, remove barriers, and help young people thrive.

For many of these students, this is their first experience in a pool, and it opens a door to life to a lifetime of safety, of confidence, and of possibility.

We provide this life saving program through a partnership through that partnership and generosity of this community, and we're really, really proud of that.

We offer free summer team memberships.

Imagine, I try to imagine if we didn't do that, and that's it's not a great great thought trying to think about our our young people or our teens running around with nothing to do.

And so we want to make sure that they have something to do and that they're very busy.

We provide 164 free summer team memberships at our Portsmouth and Effingham YMCAs.

This initiative was created to help reduce youth violence and increase access to safe supervised activities during those hours when teens are the most vulnerable.

Our partnership with police chief Jenkins has been an essential part of that situation.

Together, we focused on the Effingham area, which could be described at times as fragile.

By opening our doors and offering meaningful programs, we're giving teens a place where they feel supported, connected, and safe.

Community partners also step forward in powerful ways.

Our Left Co partnership recognized the need for dedicated space and funded and built in teen center at the Effingham YMCA.

And you can see our esteemed mayor and our executive director, Aisha Williamson, right at the center of that ribbon cutting.

We're really proud of that moment.

Across both of our Portsmouth branches, these efforts show what happens when a community works together to invest in its youth.

The Y is proud to be a part of that effort, offering teams encouragement, structure, and a place to thrive.

We're supporting our neighbors by offering monthly food pantries, food bank mobile pantries, and senior focused wellness and social connection programs.

This year, our Portsmouth Y strengthen our community commitment by caring for our neighbors who face food insecurity or isolation, especially our active older adults.

Each month volunteers lead a food pantry at the Effingham Y on the third Saturday, creating a reliable source of support for families and seniors who count on these groceries to stretch their budget.

In addition, the food bank's mobile pantry brings fresh, nutritious staples directly to our community.

By hosting this resource at our Y, we help remove barriers like transportation and ensure that older adults can access healthy food very close to home.

Our Y senior focused classes and gatherings offer more than exercise.

It just brings people together.

It gets them away from isolation and it brings belonging.

Affordable and accessible child care is something that we really take seriously, and you'll see all of our Y's focused on it.

It's really a focus here in Portsmouth for us.

Just some stat lines that you should know.

Virginia's working families spend on average for dual families, dual-income families, almost 12% on child care, while single-income families almost 41% on that same item.

Across Virginia, including right here in Portsmouth, our families face a critical shortage of child care, especially for ages 0 to 5 for after-school hours.

And the Y's filling that gap by providing safe, reliable spaces that supports academics, character development, and social skills.

And for working parents, these programs are more than convenient, they're absolutely essential.

Child care costs continue to place a significant strain on family in Virginia dual income, as we stated, 12%, and then for single single parents, 41%.

Across our region, the YMC of Southampton Road serves over 10,000 children in licensed child care programs.

And one in five of those families receives a Y scholarship.

Last year alone, we provided over 1.6 million dollars in scholarship support from our Y that our volunteers and members help raise.

These investments help parents stay employed, help children grow with confidence and strengthen the overall stability of our communities.

A proud to play a pivotal role in meeting this urgent need in supporting families who depend on us every single day to provide care.

There are currently 125 children in our preschool and after school programs at Portsmouth Y and 94 children in our care at the Effingham location this week.

Of those 219 precious children, 187 are there because of their families' need to receive financial assistance to help with affordability.

It's real data in real time that we take very, very seriously.

So where are we now?

As we look to the future of our Portsmouth Wise, we recognize both the strengths of our presence and the limitations that we're working to overcome.

The Effingham Y remains an essential resource for our families, for our teens, for our older adults, and yet the geographic location is I've spoken to Mayor Glover about aging and it's limited in how effectively we can serve.

Our transportation continues to be one of the biggest challenges that Portsmouth family space.

We know that you understand that as well.

Many of our young people simply cannot reach Y safely or consistently.

Councilman Dotson pulled me aside and already talked to me about that at one of our Y events.

So he and I are paying very close attention to that as well.

And trying to help those standards bridge that these barriers also affect parents who rely on dependable child care and after school options to stay employed, most importantly.

Our current building constraints also make it difficult to expand an area that Portsmouth has identified as high priorities, including teen engagement, child care, senior health, and food security.

Even with strong demand, the physical capacity of our facilities restricts how many people that we can serve.

These realities guide our focus moving forward.

We're committed to strengthening access, expanding programs, and building partnerships that allow every Portsmouth resident, regardless of location or income, to benefit from the Y.

That should sound very familiar.

Indeed, it does.

Yep, you told me that.

This is a movement for growth through collaboration and bold planning so that we can increase our impact where it's needed most.

We want to continue to reimagine Portsmouth just like we know that you're working every day hard to do yourself.

And you're doing a great job at it.

We are intentionally reimagining the footprint in our Portsmouth YMCAs as well, so we can better meet the needs of our community.

Our goal is simple.

We want to increase accessibility for residents in every neighborhood, particularly those who face the greatest barriers to reaching the Y today.

We're exploring modern, efficient models that allow us to serve more people more consistently.

This includes evaluating every facility design, location, and program delivery so we can expand our reach without adding unnecessary obstacles for families, teens, or adults, without increasing prices, without adding burden to our members as well.

Just as important, we're aligning this work with the city's priorities, and we paid close attention to your plan and strategies.

Whether the focus is youth safety, working family support, senior health, or equitable access to community resources, our efforts are designed to complement the city's vision for a portsmith that embodies hope, resilience, lifelong learning, and innovation.

I believe and our team believes we can build a future where every resident can belong and contribute.

We seek a stronger footprint in Portsmouth, a high-touch youth and teen engagement environment, greater access to child care and family support, and efficient use of city and YMCA resources to reach and have greater impact to residents.

I want to pause there and see if there are any questions.

I'm grateful for the time that you've allowed the YMCA South Angel Roads.

We've seen tremendous, tremendous sleep-spounds and progress here in the city.

I love hanging out in this city.

And I told the mayor that this is where I'm going to have one of my most significant events birthday parties is going to be here.

And so I'm really proud of if you haven't heard this.

Um and I want you to continue to do the great work that you do.

So on behalf of all of us at the YMCA South Hampers, thank you for what you do as leaders of our community.

And with that, I'll pause and take any questions that you have.

Okay, so Councilman Dodson, so you have the floor.

Every time you and I connect, you solve a problem for me, sir.

Thank you very much for your service and for your service to the city.

And like I said, transportation that we've been talking about is a number one problem because the programs you have are excellent.

I don't know that we've solved it yet.

Um, but I'd love to have more discussion with you on that topic, and thank you for helping out the people I sent you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Challenger.

Uh, I just wanted to thank you.

Um, I'm one of the members.

Uh I go to the location in Portsmouth, and uh it's one of the few places where I can where I go, and I can see a cross session of people, they're progressing.

I mean, I see people who are uh school age, all they have to senior citizens, and they're all used in the facility.

Um I also want to appraise you as it relates to child care, and I know that's a big deal, and how often you are available, even in bad weather and everything else, and I know that's a very needed thing for people who do to work.

So I just wanted to thank you and your team for everything that you're doing, it's it's recognized.

Certainly appreciate that.

Thank you for your membership as well.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Moody.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um particularly uh interested and glad that you have the swim swimming uh part for our school kids.

You know, as a waterfront community, we we need to teach all of our children how to swim.

Uh so not a single one drowns.

Uh my other question, we all know the acronym uh of the YMCA is a young man's Christian organization.

How's that still manifest itself uh in your mission on the Christian part?

Oh, it it's uh we have uh a significant focus on uh Christian emphasis, um, but it's really in our mission, vision, and values and our behavior.

And so what we talk about as a staff team is how do we exemplify those behaviors.

We think that um regardless of religion, that there are some uh consistencies and behaviors of those uh religions and backgrounds.

Um we believe in welcoming and uh inviting all to the table, and um those um characteristics we have five, uh four, and a fifth um character values that um are taught and practice at each one of our YMCAs to all of our programs that talk about character, um, honesty, faith, uh, respect, responsibility, and we you'll see those flags flying high in each one of our YMCAs, and we think that's where Christian emphasis, Christian values are based, and um are practiced throughout every uh uh background.

We do recognize that people come from all walks of life, all faiths, all backgrounds, and so we respect that and want to make sure we create space uh for that to be um respected at all at all terms of our uh practices and policies as well.

Great.

I'm also glad to see that uh Churchland Y is now part of the overall uh YMCA community.

When when that opened, uh I used to travel to Richmond uh a few times a week.

So when the Y and Churchlin opened, I said great.

I joined it.

So my first trip to Richmond, I go into a YMCA in Richmond.

They say, Oh, you we don't recognize that.

So uh I'm glad now that uh it is part of that part of that family.

It is reciprocity nationwide, yes, Vice Mayor Logan.

Yes, sir.

That that was definitely a good move.

Thank you, and hopefully, if you ever have any issues with that, please don't hesitate to give us a call.

But it should be widely accepted.

So I don't run as quite as often as well.

This goes back uh a few years ago back when I used to run around the the track uh inside there.

Councilwoman Thomas.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much for the presentation and for the YMCA partners that they came to present to us today.

Um I echo the sentiments of the YMCA being a vital part of our community here in Portsmouth.

Um again coming from the school board, our schools that have swim teams but no place to swim and being able to utilize some of the pools at the Y for their swim practice has been very crucial as well as the uh partnership with PPS in the second grade free swim.

I do think I wanted to go to this slide um and just kind of follow up with some questions for you.

We have a lot of I think alignment and what you presented with your strategic goals and where we're working on our strategic goals here in Portsmouth for 2026 to 2030 uh with the whole premise of connection and unity, and one of the things we're floating around as one of our pillars is safe connected and thriving communities.

And so when you ask for the uh what the Y is seeking in terms of partnership with the city uh to improve efficiency and reduce duplicative costs and a stronger footprint enforcement.

Can you give me some examples of that of how you partner with other cities?

I think we have some goals that we want to also increase our opportunities for recreation and connecting communities and swim and child care.

So, how have how have the why partner with cities and other ways to align with the partnerships that you that you're requesting here?

Sure.

Can I give you an example about your city?

Yeah, uh you have uh you have a sports plex.

Yeah, that's what I was going.

Yep.

Um and again I I'll be completely transparent.

I I um approached Merrick Lovera and said here one of the things that we do really really well is we operate facilities.

And um maybe one of the gifts or the curses about that is it we have to operate that in perpetuity.

And um, but what it does do for um for you is it takes that expense you know that operating expense away from you in perpetuity as well.

And so the initial um investment is on the front end from a capital standpoint.

Um we've had this happen before in other uh areas, and so in Curritark, North Carolina, uh the county built the building.

That one, okay.

We operate that that operation ongoingly.

So their cost was more on the front end in partnership with us, but we we operate it.

We we take on all the uh the expense of that operation ongoingly every single year.

But it's it's mutually beneficial for them.

They've given their residents a place to um recreate, swim, gym, before and after school programs, uh places for their volunteers, or places for their senior center to co uh habitat as well.

But we operate that facility, and there's a few instances in in that vein that uh can be duplicated or replicated, but it's really a partnership, it's a great great partnership for that uh for that community, and so I I see an opportunity for us to at least have that kind of conversation where you're not dealing with the the overhead, the human capital, the um occupancy costs ongoingly um forever.

So there are there are things like that that can be discussed, and we're open to um doing that.

And I think we have a YMCA that's not reaching its full potential for a number of different reasons, as I stated earlier.

But I just wonder what if, you know, what if um the Y can bring their expertise to the table in that space uh in partnership with the city in whatever fashion that looks like um to operate a facility, something we do fairly well versus it being something that the city has to take on the long term.

Okay, thanks for giving some examples um with the curat so and and what you were envisioning with those two billets.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Thomas.

Councilman Hugh, yeah.

Thanks, Mayor.

I want to follow up on the question that uh councilwoman Thomas asked around partnering with the city.

So it sounds like you don't have an active partnership with our Parks and Recs team.

Not currently.

Okay, and what about with Portsmouth United?

Because Portsmouth United has kind of become our group to untangle, look for duplicative uh things and and kind of unscramble that.

Are you all plugged into Portsmouth United?

My entire team back there is nodding, yes, we do.

So we have we have a report with them and have some programs and services there.

Okay.

Um I appreciate that you all provide free summer access for teens.

Do you also provide summer teen jobs?

Yes.

Okay, because uh one of the things that we invested in the last few years anyway, is looking for jobs for for our teens uh help get them off the street.

I mean they like free activities, but they like it even better when they get paid.

Yeah, uh thank you for that, Councilman.

So um the it's both and for us, and in fact, what we're working on as we speak is um a more robust sort of uh 360 version of that kind of program where there's internship shadowing experiences and ultimately a job that can be contiguous in nature uh for them to think about do they want to do X, Y, or Z in from a collegiate standpoint or trade.

Um and so we're working with um all the area universities on what that can look like and being a resource for that so that they do get paid.

So the why wouldn't we get paid for that?

They get paid for it, but we would provide the the job for that to occur.

So we're in the middle of trying to make sure that we solidify that partnership and relationship.

We've been invited to um apply for that grant and and receive it.

But we have a relationship right now with um D library C enforcement public schools, and so um he's sitting on the committee that uh works with us with our um program services in that space, so we this is just it's not if it's just completing um that process.

Okay, well, and again, uh I extend our thanks to you and your team for spending a little bit of time with us this evening.

Well, we're grateful to you, uh councilman.

Thank you all for just giving us a few moments.

Thank you.

And thank you, Mr.

Walders.

Um I would love to share that.

We have been Y members for ages through very many different stages of life.

So um, including my youngest who just completed the second grade swim lessons and happened to be the week of her birthday, and she just thought she won the lottery.

Going to swim every day that week was not only really important for kids that grow up around water, but also just a really great way to spend part of their day.

So thank you for that.

All three of my kids learned to swim at the Y the Eppingham YMCA, and it's just been a wonderful experience.

Um I also when I stopped working full-time and transition to be a stay-at-home mom for some time, found a lot of community in the Y.

That was really important to me during that difficult time, and having child care and people and access was it's it's another facet that is is important, like you said, malls are gone, and that's kind of a a throwback to think of that we used to get socialization there, but that was really important for me during that phase of late.

Um so I have um a 14-year-old who is too young to work, but is part of that young teen group that um needs to get out a little and and do gain some independence, but isn't quite there ready to be paid yet.

So I think that's an interesting part of this conversation.

Um, and I I love that you are offering youth programming because it's important to kids throughout the city, particularly in neighborhoods where they need safe spaces.

So can you give us an example of youth programming that maybe we don't have yet imports with because of some of our limitations, but maybe some ideas of what's out there that we could maybe look forward to?

Sure.

We um we have um I just wrote down as you were talking, we have a counselor and training, a CIT program, in case your 14-year-old's interested, um, that can get your 14-year-old ready for uh work um and uh potentially interested in a black career or white job or just get some practice um at it.

So um that he's engaged and involved all day long.

Um we are we have a few things that would be interesting to a you know what I call a sort of young teen or middle teen before they get to a place where they only want to do what they want to do versus what you would like for them to consider.

Um we have youth and government.

Um this would be obviously applicable to the things that you're dealing with today, but it's a long-standing uh program initiative inside of our YMCA that kind of gets them ready for healthy um discord that is um you know things that they're thinking about that things that you're talking about, but um that's a Y staple in our in our history of Y programs and curriculum.

Um teen leaders club, so we have uh multiple YMCAs that have a teen leaders club, and they get to decide the things that they want to do and multiple versions of our YMCAs um have that program.

So we're happy to share some of those concepts with with you and uh advertise that.

Um we last time we met with Mayor Glover and teen, we indicated that we would you know access to some of your website opportunities and said we'll forward anything that we have to have in a in a timely way be able to um advertise some of the opportunities that exist for all residents, citizens, young people, and the like.

So we're happy to present that forward.

Councilman Tillage?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

First of all, thank you for the presentation.

Um the affordable and accessible um child care pay slide.

Um you made mention to of course the 12% for dual family incomes, it's 41% for single family incomes.

Outside of um financial barriers, what is your biggest barrier for child care on that you've seen in Portsmouth?

Um yeah, that is the that is the biggest barrier.

Uh it's it's access to it as the issue across all of our YMCAs.

It's you know, um we are right now we're discussing our own version of are we equipped inside of our YMCAs to serve those needs.

Um right now it's sort of situated Portsmouth YMCA is probably a great example.

It's one of the few YMCAs that has classrooms for that, but we have in many instances, not just for the YMCA, but across our region, um child care is directly connected to workforce development.

And so all of our YMCAs we're discussing how do we make sure that we're prepared to serve the zero to five situations so there isn't sort of a bottleneck on the ability to get inside of uh uh you know child care so I can get to work.

Okay, I mean which are just real things in in general.

So that is the barrier.

It's it's access to it so that I'm not on a waiting list, or there's one of two parents who now can't work because child care is not available to them, is what we're talking about.

It's an availability issue, and so that available availability issue is a workforce development issue which prevents people from moving to Portsmouth.

Yeah, so the domino just continues to be sort of moving down, which prevents our whole region from growing and developing and um allowing taxpay payers to come in here and grow our city.

So I mean that's that's important to all of us, but it starts with the basic sort of theory of needs is we just need to have somewhere for our kid to be from this time to this time, and no one's available to do that.

And so uh we want to have our infrastructure ready to deliver on that.

We need to have again.

I'll go back to councilwoman Thomas's question.

Um is our Effingham YMCA currently situated and prepared to do to deliver on that.

It's questionable.

Could the sports pledge be somewhere that we could partner to really um create our wildest dreams?

I think so.

I think it could be that, and uh we in that partnership could create um child care facility, education facility, team um center.

We could we could probably solve all the needs uh and be responsible for running it so that we don't have that accessibility issue, we don't have idle time on our hands for our teams out there.

There's a lot of things I think that we could accomplish by working together solving some of that.

Yeah, most definitely.

I think um you know the point you made about workforce development going hand in hand with child care.

Um that that's a real a real situation, and so um for the families that are participating in the child care, is it uh like a sliding scale on how they receive uh funding?

Okay, yes, um, that's the short answer.

Gotcha, okay.

Um do you have you know an approximate cost of how much it costs per child to provide child care?

It again slight sliding scale.

Um what is in general for that you know that the average let's just say student X, right?

Regardless of bad girl, how much does it cost to actually provide child care to a child, regardless of assistance?

Yeah, it's it's gonna range.

It's it's it's gonna range on average um you know, six seven hundred dollars a week on average, um just really depends.

Uh we have we are uh DSS eligible as well, so it really just depends on on your background.

All right, thank you.

Income uh background.

Nice mayor.

Uh question on membership uh rates uh for families.

Is that indexed to income levels or how does that work?

Yeah, our normal rate um is on average for a family in the 90 plus dollar range, but yes, it's indexed, it's on the sliding scale as well.

And so we do a sliding scale according to the number in the family or uh your income level.

Income level.

Income level, okay.

So um, but it's not necessarily based on just how much you make a certificate ratio that is utilized in that mix.

So it could be your your career could be amazing, your job would be amazing, but it's about um full and around debt.

Is that paid on that annual basis, uh monthly basis?

Monthly, monthly, yes.

Thanks.

Councilwoman Thomas.

Yes, just to add on to that conversation about the workforce, child care.

Um I do know that the Y also partners with uh regional partners, uh Center or CHKD, where those employees get a discounted rate um at the YMCA, and I feel like that's a partnership that helps encourage workforce development of child care.

But to the point that we started talking about rates, um, in your example that you provided with Curate, and if there was some type of partnership with the city, does the YMCA, and if you if you don't, if this is in the proper form, if this needs to be further discussed, does the YMCA's pay structure over kind of over line over line with the city's pay structure because and I ask that because like with our city recreation, our citizens get a deep discount of being a part of those recreation facilities to encourage more participation.

So, in your examples, how have you all kind of handled that structure?

And if that's something that we might need further discussion about, that's fine.

I'll take further discuss.

I think it's um uh there's no idea off the table as far as we're concerned.

I think I think the better way for me to say that would be could we invest in that for the city?

Yes, is the short answer to that.

I think we could invest in in that, uh raise dollars for make it a part of our case uh going forward and fundraise for it on our end to make sure that we can all set or supplement that fee-based structure.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

So, Mr.

Walters, first of all, thank you.

And I want to acknowledge all of the board members and folks that are here with the Y, if you would please stand up and just let us see your smiling faces.

Thank you all for being here on behalf of the city council.

We appreciate all the work that you do in our community.

I I I too have have been in our been experienced with the Y over the years in my youth.

I don't know if I was one of those wayward young men that needed something to do.

But I will say that the Y has played an integral role in my life and my development as well as the development of our children who learn to swim at the F and Ham Street YMCA.

Uh Mr.

Walters and I and some of the leadership of the Y have had that conversation about what next?

Where do we go next?

Uh, they're in an aging building um that needs much work and renovation, and that building is historical as well.

Many folks don't know the building that they're in at the Yam Why was once um a Catholic school for our African American community.

Um so there's history there in that building, and we've had the conversation about where do we go next?

And I indicated to him our vision as we've talked about as a council, we've invested a lot of money in the sportsplex property, and that is the ideal spot for what we desire based on my understanding.

We need to get something done.

How many years, Vice Mayor Moody, has it been since we bought that property?

At least 10, at least 10 years.

And we and and I don't endeavor as we have met as a council to have us wait another 10 years to get things moving.

I think where we go from here is to continue the conversation, but in a more defined way.

What can it look like, right?

Because at the end of the day, you do recreation.

We desire to have a first-class recreation facility in our city that meets the needs that we've discussed, the swimming needs, the the teen needs, our senior needs, our place to go within our city, where everyone in the city is welcome.

And by the way, I think we can work out a deal where everybody in the city pays a limited amount.

I think that makes sense.

But at the end of the day, we need a partner.

Cities don't build recreation facilities very well.

But I think with the right partner, um, we can make something happen.

I'll give you a good example.

Today we did a ribbon cutting at one of our senior housing developments here in the city of Portsmouth.

Uh, it certainly was was done by Portsmouth Redevelopment Housing through partnership with the city, but we had a number of different outside partners that helped to make that dream a reality.

In this day and time, we as a city have to look at ways that we can do things efficiently on time.

But we can't wait another 10 years before, excuse me, we can't wait another 10 years before we get the moving on something.

So what I shared with Mr.

Walters and the why was we need to have another conversation.

And that conversation needs to look out what can we do?

We have some renderings of what we would like to see.

What can we do as a team together?

I think with the why, with the city, with the philanthropic community, and others, we could get something done.

And it will be innovative, it will be accessible, and it will meet the needs of the citizens of Portsmouth.

So that's as the chief visionary officer of the city of Portsmouth.

That's my vision.

And I'm not selling it to my council right today, but I think if you ask me what next steps are, those would be the next steps.

What can we do together?

We need to get in a room with my manager and of course his team and really talk about the space, how it could look, what it could look like.

We're not making any financial commitment today, but I welcome that partnership with the Y.

You all have a long storied history in communities and making a difference, and I think it's worth us moving forward.

So I'll end with that.

We don't need to keep going on the discussion.

I think we we start by having another discussion with your team and our team and our manager and see what can we potentially do.

Does that sound okay, folks?

Because we're here to get stuff done.

Get stuff done.

We're here to get stuff done.

And we don't want to keep waiting because as my mama used to say, weight broke the wagon down.

Oh, it depends what kind of weight you're talking about.

I got it.

Thank you, sir, for your time and attention.

Thank you, board members, for your commitment to the city of Portland.

And look forward to continuing conversation.

Thank you very much.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Gardner, sir, you have the floor.

Thanks, sir.

The retirement board presentation is next.

Uh, do I have Mr.

Brian Burk Burton Burke?

Is that pronouncing it right?

A close now.

All right.

You're on day, sir.

Please step forward and uh provide your presentation to my board concerning uh the retirement process here in Portsmouth.

Sounds back.

Just ask your name for me, sir.

So I'll make sure I give that.

I'm John Morrison.

I'm with Manual Life John Hancock.

Uh we are the retirement plan provider uh for the Portsmouth retirement systems.

Uh so we're here to provide our our annual update.

We have Brian Bernbaum from Greystone, uh company Horton Stanley.

So it's kind of like a three-part update.

So I'll give an overview, a brief overview of the system.

I'll have a few slides on the annual valuation that we perform for the system.

Uh and then Brian will come up and he'll cover a little bit of the investment asset side of the system.

So we talked about the the Portsmouth retirement system.

It is a defined benefit retirement program consisting of two plans.

There's fire and police and the supplemental systems combined as of uh 930, 2025, they have approximately 200 million in assets.

Uh that money is invested in a separate trust held outside of city funds, uh, combined with uh John Hancock and Morgan Stanley.

Uh that is to provide for the payment uh current and future benefits to those retirees in the system uh for 2025.

There were over 11,000 monthly benefit payments during the year, and then to give you a side or uh idea of the scale, it's about 29 million that was paid out over the fiscal year.

We did see an improvement in the funded status, uh look at expenses slightly lower compared to our two prior years.

So I mentioned there are the two systems, fire and police and supplemental.

Both of these systems have been closed for over 30 years.

Uh so when we say closed, that means there are no new entrants entering the system.

So any of your current employees, they would enter the VRS.

The retirement system at this point is almost entirely inactive.

Um provided under ordinary retirement uh disability and death.

But again, at this point, primarily an inactive system.

So when I say inactive participants receiving monthly benefit payments, the retirement board meets on a quarterly basis.

Uh the board oversees the system uh they get updates from John Hancock, so we provide ongoing administration record keeping issuing of the checks.

Uh I come to the system on an annual basis for the actual evaluation to discuss that.

And then Graystone will also prevent on a quarterly basis to give updates on investments of funds, prudent asset management, etc.

The committee itself is made up of citizens and other individuals with ties to fire and police.

Overview.

So we look at the funded status of the system.

Again, I have a couple slides on a little bit more detail of this.

But the two measures we look at are those assets that are held in the separate trust.

Those cover the benefit payments or future benefit payments.

The liability then is a representation as of the valuation date.

It's the present value of that future payment stream.

So I have a slide that shows some of those future benefit payments.

So each year we perform evaluation where we project out a stream of payments for individuals.

That gets discounted back using the assumed rate of return at seven and a quarter, and that represents the liability as of the valuation date.

So that's the amount of funds that you would need as of that date invested at seven and a quarter to fully cover those benefit payments.

As of 630 2025, we're about 75% funded.

When we look at the history, we can see over the 10-year period, relatively stable.

There was the flip in 2021 and back down.

That's tied to market performance.

So in 2021, strong market performance, and there was the economic downturn during 2022.

So kind of leveled it out, but overall the system has maintained around 70, 75% funded over the period.

Typically, we like to give a little bit of benchmarking over here, just give you an idea of where your system is relative to other public pension plans.

So the average system, there's a Center for Retirement Research at Boston College provides a start an estimate annually of funded status of public pension plans.

So their estimate for fiscal 2025 is about 77, 78%, and your fund is about 74, 75%.

So you're tracking pretty closely with uh with average retirement plans.

I mentioned I have a few slides on the actual valuation.

So one of the primary purposes of the valuation is on an annual basis.

Um we perform calculations to represent an actually determined contribution to the city.

Um that is the contribution that we are recommended that if made continuously will help fund the retirement systems in addition to those assets already there, and eventually will grow you to the point of full funding.

Um the figure for fiscal year 2026 is approximately 8.9 million.

That is up from where we were at fiscal 2025 from 8.1.

I'll provide a little bit more detail on that shortly.

Um, and then important to note that this does not include the 11 million payment on the pension obligation bonds.

That is separate from the actual oral determined contribution.

Brief overview before I go into actual evaluation results of expenses or expected expenses in the fund for the year.

Uh generally speaking, these are basis points relative to the size of the assets.

Um, so that we see that these are slightly lower than they were in the prior year, uh, but overall consistent on an annual basis for the fund.

I know I'm moving along here, so I'll pause before I get into the actual evaluation, uh, see if there are any questions at this point.

Okay.

Um put two slides.

You said uh the wrong way here.

Oh, there we go.

No, you fund um that one, yes.

You said um it has recommendations.

Um, the ADC is recommended from your group.

Okay, to make sure that the system is fully funded in the future.

Fully funded means what what level?

Sure.

So that the gap that exists between the assets are held in the funding, the liabilities, that's that those stream of future payments.

Um so that's where you're at 74% funded at 630.

So that gap is what's made up with mainly contributions from the city over a period.

Uh, the current funding policy of the plan is that gap is amortized over an 11-year period, so it's similar to like a mortgage payment.

So that it's about 70 million as of 630 2025, is amortized over an 11-year period, and then the goal of the system or the plan is that payment is made annually, that time frame decreases each year with the goal of getting to full funding.

So when I say full funding, that would mean your assets are equal to your liabilities, assuming all assumptions are made or met, I should say, which they won't be because we're making assumptions about future events, but over the long run, we expect those to be pretty consistent.

Assuming those assumptions are met, um, then the assets should be sufficient to cover the liabilities of the plan.

So based on the plan, how many years left to get there?

So we're the current amortization periods is 11 years, so it decreases annually, so 2037.

2037 funding the system to reach full funding.

What's the average age in our system?

Don't know that off the top of my head.

I think it's in the 70s, given that you're primarily uh retirees, so participants that are receiving payments, not a whole lot of people uh currently active, but is an older population.

So okay, thank you.

Councilman Dodson.

So you have a little bit I see this line running but 70-75 percent continuously.

That formula is based on that 2037 date.

How would that change if we decided to do that as say a 90% funding rate?

Would that change the target date or would it decrease the payments?

What would be the formula change?

It would both, I mean it would decrease the payments.

So the current policy is to get to 100% funded at 2037.

So that gap, that's 70 million is what you're amortizing over the 11-year period.

Um so if you were to go to 90% funded, for instance, as a target, that gap would come down.

Since you wouldn't be at 100% of that believe bar, you would be around 90%.

Um so it would lower the contribution and would obviously push out the years to full funding, uh, on annual basis that would lower the contribution.

Um, we look at kind of our expectation of where we are.

So I mentioned we're about 11 years out of that amortization period in the short term, so say over the next five or six years, uh, we really expect the contributions to maintain the funded level of the system around that 75% funding or so, uh, around I think it's 2030, 2031.

We project the system to get to about 80 percent funded, and then we would start to see improvements in the funded status thereafter if we uh continue along this path of full funding and making the actual determined contribution.

Right.

So when I first joined the committee as the LEAS on, um you all had this big bump in the funding, and I was concerned about it at them, but I I understand that what I wanted this committee to be aware of is that you tried to nominalize uh that contribution, even it out to an even number, correct?

Uh a little more so that we could budget uh more by having an even number by using that target number is uh if I understand around nine million dollars.

So we're at nine million this year, we expect it to go up slightly to around ten million next year, and then kind of level out in that nine to ten million range in the future.

The the the smoothing that you mentioned, so when we look at the the gap that exists in the funding status, there's two measures of that value of assets.

There's the market value of assets, so that's when you get an asset statement you look at that.

That's the amount of funds that are held in the trust.

When we determine the actual determined contribution, we use an actual value of assets.

So that smooth investment returns over five-year period, exactly for the like what you see here when it was 86 and then drop down to 68.

Those gains and losses that we see over that period are smoothed in a little more incrementally, so that you will have to recognize you know, market performance obviously.

The goal of the actual real value of assets is to your point allow slightly easier budgeting and smooth in some of those gains and losses over a five-year period so that you don't see those wild swings in contributions.

What we are currently seeing at why the ad the contribution is projected to go up next year, is that drop in assets that that market downturn from 21 to 22 full weight of those losses during the year are not currently reflected in the actual value of assets, so we're still deferring some of those losses next year.

Those losses will be fully recognized.

Um Brian has a slide.

In the three years since uh there have been double digit returns around our assumed return of seven and a quarter.

Right.

The actual value of assets, it smooths in gains and losses equally.

So those positive returns are helping to reduce contributions, but they're not fully recognized in the actual value of assets.

So what's happening in the the interim or the upcoming is that loss is fully recognized.

Some of these excess returns are not yet fully recognized, and that's why we see that slight bump in the contribution, and then eventually a thousand.

So as far as us budgeting, we should expect that that variation to be reduced to less than a million a year, and it should remain between nine and ten million per year.

That's our budget purpose.

Yes, I mean that's our current expectation of uh the projections as a 630.

Just wanted an awareness around the table.

That's an actuary requirement.

So that'll change so we do the valuations annually.

Obviously, we're subject to market conditions.

Um, the actual asset, the actual value of assets will help smooth some of those fluctuations, but they will ultimately work away in the system.

And then when we do the valuation annually, we reflect updated census.

Uh we use that as an opportunity to review assumptions that go into those projections.

Um, so we will see gains and losses annually as well as we update um census and assumptions.

Thank you.

Councilman Hugel.

Thanks, Mayor.

So two questions.

First, the liability forecast assumes that the payments remain flat forever.

Jump ahead.

No.

So when we perform the annual valuation for each participant that's in the system, we project a future stream of benefit payments.

And then that's what this is a sample of that future stream of other things, and then all of those payments get discounted back to the valuation date using that assumed rate of return.

For the retirement, most of the system at this point is current retirees.

So correct, we assume that their pension benefits are currently in pay remain at that level, so there's no future cost of living increase included in this projection because it's not currently in the system.

So for those participants are in pay, yes, we are assuming flat payments throughout their lifetime, which gives us this stream of payments.

We then discount that back to the valuation date, and this is what makes up the liability that we see on an annual basis.

Okay.

Um so as we're having these discussions about what to do to try to help our legacy retirees given that the assumption going forward is that their benefits are gonna be flat.

Um you all provide us kind of a uh distribution of uh so there are about 900 900 people or so in the participation.

Yeah, so there's 914 total 14.

So some of those 914 are making something every month.

Yes, and some of those 914 are making something every month.

Can you give us a distribution of those 914?

What the monthly, yes, we have that information so we can provide.

So you could provide us a graph that shows kind of the distribution of those payments, yeah.

Essentially, like in monthly bond, yeah, making it like zero to a hundred, hundred to two hundred, whatever the appropriate yes.

Okay, so that would that would be helpful as we're trying to figure out you know who's making what, yeah, and who's an extremist because they're making so little, and who's not necessarily an extremist because they're not making so little.

Yes, we have that information.

When is the pension obligation bond paid off?

I believe it's also tied to around 2037, it might be a year or two before.

So it also all kind of comes together in 2037.

We're at 100% and the pension bond is paid off.

That the policy had those statements in there, so we it's not like an arbitrary thing we'll work towards.

There's a policy that states these things that that would okay.

All right, thank you.

Can I ask you to add something to his request?

Yes.

You when you fulfill his request, and don't just say how many are paying.

Can you tell how many are actual retirees versus uh beneficiaries or retirees also?

Yes, we should be able to provide information.

And and maybe one more thing since we're well since we're asking, um, a distribution of age.

Okay.

So, you know, how many 55-year-olds are there, and how many 95-year-olds are there?

Yes.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Moody.

So our liabilities uh gap is uh large measure determined by the market uh performance.

How's our investment stance?

Is that changed?

Uh does that change from year to year?

How would you describe that?

Uh by staring at Brian.

And uh Brian's gonna handle that.

Yes, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Brian will be able to help with it.

Come on up, Brian.

Yep.

Yeah, I'm uh I'm happy to answer that question.

Um the portfolio is managed according to investment policy statement, which describes and outlines the parameters around which we can manage the assets.

There's target exposures to different asset classes and strategies, and there's ranges around those targets in which we can operate.

In round numbers, we have 70 percent invested in stocks, a little over 20 percent invested in bonds, and eight percent in what's referred to as alternative investments, it's mostly real estate and a couple of hedge funds.

So, round numbers, think of 70 percent stocks, 30 percent bonds, and other stuff.

So that ratio stays constant, or how how often is that adjusted?

We look at it constantly, and there's ranges around those targets within which we can operate.

Um, I'll show you a slide in a second.

At the end of June, we were at about 74% stocks.

Um, and that was a conscious decision on our part because there's a lot of momentum and uh in the equity markets and strong momentum in the economy, despite you know, some of the noise that we experience.

It's been a very good place to be.

So the overall strategy in terms of 7030s been relatively constant.

It is something that we are going to start working with the board um to re-evaluate.

Um, but we can go a little bit higher and a little bit lower than that 70-30 target, and that's a that's a very fluid decision on our part.

So you you make the recommendation to the board.

We we have discretion.

So there's two ways that we've worked with the board, and I've been involved in this relationship going back to 2016.

So in 2016, um, we provided advice to the retirement board, and we said, hey, we think you we um you should uh have 70 percent stocks or 75 percent in stocks, and we'd get the rationale for that recommendation, but ultimately it was the retirements board decision on whether to take that recommendation or not.

Um, towards the end of 2018, our relationship evolved with the city um to one that is referred to as a discretionary mandate.

So instead of providing advice and recommendations to the board, if we believe we should change the exposure to stocks and bonds, we have the discretion and ability to do that.

We then report to the retirement board about what we've done, we talk about performance.

Um, but that doesn't need to be approved by the by the retirement board at this point.

What would need to be approved by the retirement board is if we change that 70-30 stock bond mix, and that's the process we're um just beginning to undertake with the board to see if that long-term strategy should remain the same or should it be different.

Thanks, sir.

And and one thing I'll say is when I participated as as liaison to the board, I said in a lot of those discussions, and even the board was in agreement with the discretionary position because it allows you the opportunity to move because the market is fluid, and if you got to wait every time you need to make a move, then we lose out.

That's part of the rationale, is that fair?

That's absolutely correct.

And there's been a massive sea change in the institutional investment world, including public retirement systems across the country, moving away from the advice model, which had really been in place since the early 70s, to one where advisors like Greystone and other firms like us now have discretion, Mr.

Mayor, um, for the exact reason you suggest markets are volatile.

Um, and if we need to if advisors need to wait for a regularly scheduled quarterly meeting of their clients, oftentimes you miss opportunities to either pull risk off the table or put risk on if the opportunities present themselves.

And and and the last thing I'll say to that is you certainly don't need my endorsement, Brian.

But Brian has been a steady hand at the helm of his organization since I came on the council.

He helped educate me on a lot of things and help me understand what this stuff really is, and I appreciate that.

I don't do it every day, so it's it's encouraging and nice to know we have a consultant that really pays attention and that really cares about the job that they do for our city.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

So one important thing to note when we would talk about the investment mix is so this stream of payments ticket that liability is discounted back at that assumed rate of return, that's seven and a quarter.

Um, based on that 70-30 asset allocation, to the extent that asset allocation would change and would impact the term rate of return.

That would also impact the liabilities for the fund.

So if it the assumed rate of return were to come down, that would increase the liabilities because there's that the return, you know, these payments are not tied to the return.

The discounting of them to the valuation date is tied to the return.

For the extent that we're assuming a smaller growth in the assets, if you will, we would expect the liabilities to go up so that the the fund for not the fund performance, the fund allocation is tied to the liabilities first.

So I mentioned we perform an annual evaluation of the plan.

So every year we look at updates to the value of assets.

We collect new census for all participants.

We also use that as an uh opportunity to evaluate the assumptions that go into our valuation model.

Um this is a reconciliation of where we were from June 30, 2024 to June 30, 2025.

So we have the value of assets.

This is based on that market value of assets.

Again, it's different from the that smooth value that we use for funding purposes, but this is what you have in the fund as of that point in time.

Uh the liabilities, like I said, represent that present value.

And then we can look at either you know the deficit that exists in in two manners.

One is the gap that exists, so do the assets minus the liabilities, or you can view it as a percentage, so the assets over the liabilities.

And both are useful measures in determining that the health of the system.

The interest cost and plan experience, that's the expected growth of the system.

So those stream of payments is discounted back to the valuation date.

Each year the liability is expected to grow at that seven and a quarter, the first year stream falls off in those benefit payments.

That's the you know, the time value of money, so you lose a year of discounting.

That expected growth is in the 18 to 19 million range, um, and then we update for census on an annual basis.

This year we had a law overall loss of about six million, which we've seen in plan experience, really tied to a change in assumption.

So, as I mentioned, annually we review the assumptions.

Uh, the society of actuaries, just as exciting as it sounds.

Um, release to new mortality table in 2025, specifically related to public pension plans.

So we did update the valuation to reflect this new mortality table, which you know we think is a better fit given it's tied to similar participants in your fund, but they did create a small loss, it's about 2%.

And I have a slide later.

It did increase that actual determined contribution approximately 750,000.

So that 8.9 already reflects uh that change in liability.

So that's the interest cost, the benefit payments come out of the assets and liabilities equally.

There's no impact on the deficit.

Uh the contributions from the city, that's the actual oil determined contribution.

So that helps to close the gap in that funded status.

Uh the investment return, as I mentioned, we're assuming seven and a quarter.

We had over a double digit return for the year.

So that does that's primarily the reason we see the improvement in the funded status as of June 30, 2025.

Again, offset by some of those uh liability losses that we saw.

Um here's a reconciliation through 930, 2025.

So similar breakdown.

Uh we did have a strong quarter, and therefore we saw that the deficit decreased further from there.

We talked a little bit about this, so this is actual determined contribution.

That's the nine that we expect to go up to about 10 million next year, and then kind of level out the update to the mortality table.

Uh, two other kind of key points I wanted to mention before I turn it over to Brian are we'll go back a little.

So we did see the asset, the market value of assets decline slightly from June 30, 2024 to 2025, despite the double digit asset returns.

That does not mean that the system is underperforming.

We actually at seven and a quarter would expect to see the assets start to shrink.

Given that this point the system is primarily inactive, you're paying out benefits to retirees.

You're not really in an asset accumulation mode per se.

So the negative that the drop in the asset value doesn't necessarily mean that the fund is underperforming.

Um, what we expect with the contributions and over the system is that these benefit payments are still a significant portion of the liability of the assets, uh, about like 14% or so.

Um, the goal of the funding is really we're gonna maintain funded status over the next couple of years.

I think that was your question about what we project over the short term.

Um, but we the goal is that the liabilities will shrink faster than the assets, and that's how you make up that gap.

So it wanted to make it point out that if you see a declining market value, that doesn't necessarily mean that things are not going as expected.

Over time, we expect both the liabilities and the assets to shrink, but they will shrink at different rates, and that's where we're gonna start to close that gap.

And then we mentioned that the system of 100% funded by 2037.

In the short term, we're really maintaining funded status.

The contributions are more or less keeping us where we are.

We expect to get to 80% funded around 2031.

Um, and then at that point, we would start to see incremental improvements in the funded status until we reach that level of full fund.

Good.

All right.

That is the end of my presentation.

So I'll pause for any other questions or comments before I turn it over to Brian.

All right, thanks so much for having me tonight.

Council Hugo.

So our policy is no cost of living changes to the payout until we're above 80%.

Yes?

Yes.

Yes.

So, but your assumption is that even when we get to 80%, we're still doing flat payments.

Correct.

So we're valuing the provisions that are currently in place as evaluation date.

So the stream of payments does not assume any increases or automatic cost of living dependent on the funded status.

So that would have an impact on the liabilities.

And so and how much you have to contributing to your so what does our policy say happens at 80%?

Do we automatically then start triggering indexed increases or it's a year by year decision?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Since I've been on it, I'm aware.

Since I've got a fetal thing, there was there was a colour, but it didn't come out of the retirement system.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, the general fund.

Yeah.

Isn't that kind of what we're doing anyway?

Yeah.

That's kind of what we're doing.

Yeah, it is.

What do you take money out of the general fund to put into this or put it out of the general fund?

That's what it's injecting.

And the formula was 50% of whatever the general wage was.

Right, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, City Council.

It's a pleasure to be here with you tonight.

I'm just gonna walk through a few slides, talk about the investment portfolio results in a little bit.

I'll provide a little bit of context around those results as well.

Um, but just real quick background.

Um, I'm an executive director uh with uh Greystone Consulting, which is the institutional consulting group within Morgan Stanley.

What that means is we work with big public retirement systems and corporate defined benefit plans and charities on structuring investment solutions, customized investment solutions for each one of our clients.

I've been in this business for 31 years, um always uh working with uh public funds um in institutional investors that look like you just uh a quick um commercial um we uh we regularly participate um in surveys of uh our clients and compare ourselves relative to other consulting firms and how they're doing relative to theirs.

Participate with a third-party organization called Coalition Greenwich, and I'm happy to say that we've uh in 2025 this year, the fourth consecutive year where we were rated one of the top uh advisory firms in the industry, um, and importantly um large firms because we are a large firm, we consult over 600 billion dollars in client assets, and so um Greenwich goes through this process of looking at like firms.

So for the biggest firms out there in the industry that work with the largest clients, we're we're happy to say that we're awarded um the uh award for one of the best consulting firms in the industry for the fourth year in a row.

Um Vice Mayor Moody, just to answer your question here, this um takes a quick look at how the portfolio was allocated as of June 30th of 2025, the end of the plan year.

Uh I mentioned we have targets and ranges around those targets that we can operate.

Um, at the end of June, we had 74% of our assets invested in stocks, public equities, both here in the US and overseas.

Uh we had about 19% in bonds and 7% in alternatives.

And if you compare that relative to how other public funds are allocated, you can see a pretty stark difference related to our stock exposure and the offset being use of alternative investments.

Alternative investments um have gotten a lot of traction in the institutional investment world over the last 20 years.

Um the reality is is some of those strategies worked, some of those haven't, but what is always true is when you invest in alternatives, um, you don't have immediate access to those assets, so they're less liquid.

So they're less liquid.

And because we are a closed system that's you know, to use John's term, that's sort of at the tail end of our life, we don't have the ability to do a lot in alternative investments because we need though the access to the capital to be able to meet the benefit payments that we pay each month.

That's why there is this big difference in allocations.

The other thing I'll say about this slide is alternative investments can mean really risky stuff, and it can mean really conservative stuff.

So if you if you make an assumption about how that alternative bucket really acts relative to public stocks and bonds, I think what you'll find is that our allocation, once you parse the alternatives bucket into conservative and risky assets, it's not all that different from what other public funds are doing.

The only difference is we have access to our capital on a daily basis and they don't.

Okay.

That's the 12-month return uh of our plan as of June 30th of the year that's indicated there.

So for 2025, it's the 12-month return ending June 30, 2025, and then going up the the table would be 12 months ending 24, 23, etc.

Um, our return net of all fees uh was 11% uh this plan year, and that's an important number because it relates to what John talked about that 7.25% return assumption that he uses to forecast um cash contributions required from the city.

You can see the last three years have been really good.

Right.

Yes.

Brian, what happens when, for example, in the forecast on 2022?

Yeah, we were negative 16.

Well, how do we make that up?

Or is there such a thing as making that up?

Um, there is such a thing as making it up, and I would argue that we've made it up, and that's um over the subsequent three years.

That's right.

But you're right.

I mean, the stock market goes up and down.

2022 was a unique period in that we had historic declines in both the stock market and the bond market.

Right.

That doesn't happen all that frequently.

Typically, what happens is when stocks go down, bonds go up.

Correct.

But um that's what made 2022 such a unique and unusual period.

They were both down at historic levels.

Got it.

Um importantly, when we were going through that, and when markets go up and down, we have the ability to shift the portfolio, but we're gonna go up and down with the market.

There's no ability to avoid this stuff because that requires you to accurately time when things are gonna be bad and then get back in the market when things are gonna be good.

I'll tell you if if anybody says that they can do that, I'll show you evidence that nobody can do it.

Um when we were living through 2022, we didn't change the strategy.

Right.

And because we didn't change the strategy, that's why you see three consecutive years of double-digit positive returns.

Good so, mayor, that's um that's how you how we make it up.

Thank you, sir.

The other thing I'll I'll point to here a couple other things.

Um, there's 13 plan year periods in the top of this table.

We're not going to generate seven and a quarter percent every single plan year.

The the markets don't provide uh that.

However, since 2013, we've generated at least a 7.25% return in eight of the 13 planned years.

That's 60 over 60 percent of the time.

The bottom part of this table looks at um average annual returns over, we're getting away from plan years, and we're just looking at average annual returns over different periods of time.

All the way down at the bottom since 427 of 2016, our group joined Morgan Stanley in the early part of 2016.

That's what that um reference point is.

The average annual return since that period of time, net of all fees was 8.2%.

Um a lot higher, about a percentage point higher than the seven and a quarter percent return that's um that the actuary uses over the last five years.

You can see a very similar number there.

And since we took discretion, where our model and um uh in in the the way we worked with the retirement board in the city changed, uh net of all fees 8.6 percent again higher than the seven and a quarter percent.

What that means is that from the city's perspective and the taxpayers' perspective, the ultimate cost of providing the benefits that you all provide for the retirees is reduced because the investments did a lot better than the the actuaries that we would have assumed.

Right.

Okay, um, this is data that um that uh John went through.

I'm not gonna spend any time on this, other than to say um he made it a point.

Uh John made it a point to say that um on a cash flow basis.

Um when you look at the amount of benefits we send out each year in round numbers, about 27, 28 million dollars.

City contributions are about eight million dollars.

The net of those two uh is what is that uh about right around 20 million dollars, let's call it twenty that's 10 percent of the value of the overall pension fund.

Right.

So to John's point, even if we earn seven and a quarter percent, we're sending out ten percent of the value of the pension fund.

So the the value of the trust fund is likely to go down over time.

It's only when you get to the returns well on the prior slide, right that that you see the actual assets go up because of that significant cash flow.

Um, and just to provide a little bit of perspective, if you looked across the the United States, the average cash flow in the public retirement system space is about negative two percent.

We're running about negative 10.

Okay, that's because we're closed, we're a closed system, so not as much new active participants coming in, right?

And and so that's why we've got the strategy we do, and it relates to that liquidity and the alternatives that I talked about earlier.

That makes sense.

Um here's just a quick look at another way to look at performance.

So um we have access to the performance of uh uh returns earned by public retirement systems across the country.

Um that triangle in the middle, right at the 50th percentile, or the median is our return of 11 percent in plan year 2025.

It's it's average, it's right in the middle of the returns earned by other public retirement systems.

If we looked at plan year 24, and I I showed this to the city council last year and 23 as well, we were at the top of the distribution.

We were the best returning public retirement system pretty much in the country.

So we don't ever expect that to always be the case.

Um, but um you know we're we're right in the middle of the distribution for plan year 2025.

Good.

Net of all fees again, that's important uh to keep in mind.

So um that's all I had.

Short and sweet, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, happy to take any questions that anybody um has.

Maybe uh maybe one thing that I I will say one more um uh data point.

So the data was as of uh 630, 2025.

We're almost six months into the new plan year, and I just looked before I came over.

Our return so far in the first six months of the current plan year is about six point seven percent.

So we obviously have a half of the plan year to go, maybe a little bit more, and we'll see how the rest of the um rest of the next six months shake out, but um we're off to a pretty darn good start uh for the current plan.

Good point.

Thanks, Brian.

Councilwoman Bryant.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you both for your presentations.

Um this is a lot of new information for some of us, um, and probably in particular for our our listeners.

If you could offer a very high-level summary of what all you presented tonight, I think that would be very helpful.

Um so at a high level, um the pension fund is doing well, it's performing as expected.

Um know that you have and and the citizens, taxpayers, and and the council should know that somebody is i.e.

me and our team watching this stuff constantly, always reassessing whether we're positioned well relative to how we think the the future is going to play out.

We have the ability to act, we do take that discretion.

Um, and uh again, I I guess I just reiterate um things are working well, and the ultimate cost to the city of providing the pension benefits is reduced as a result of that.

Thank you, Brian.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate all your time.

Thank you.

Keep up the good work, man.

Thank you.

You choose last one.

Uh Mr.

Gerard Roberts, public works director.

Is going to talk to us about bulk refuge.

We had this discussion a while back.

Uh we gotta bring this back again because we need a decision.

Thank you.

He could do a better good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Mr.

Carter.

Um, we are here tonight to talk about our bulk collection solutions.

I say solutions because I think uh we do have to make a decision and address um illegal dumping uh throughout our city.

Uh illegal dumping challenges throughout the city.

Oh shoot.

Um, agenda tonight we'll talk about our um our current operation.

Um current operation exists of our bulk collection, our routing, and our operational procedures as it pertains to uh um our bulk collection, our operational challenges.

Um our key issues would be uh equipment, fuel, uh, labor, and our um environmental uh consequences.

But also we'll also discuss our financial impact, um our financial impact as it pertains to how much the it actually costs for the program and how we are operating today versus what how we could operate in the future, and then recommended um the department's recommended next steps.

Uh our current operation consists of um seven dedicated trucks, seven dedicated bulk um trucks, four uh service days, Tuesday through Friday, with one service day a week.

Um with a hundred percent coverage, street coverage.

And what I mean by 100% street coverage, I'm I mean seven dedicated trucks going a specific area on a uh specific service day, and they ride the truck.

I mean they drive street by street up and down the um the street looking trying to identify bulk collection or um illegal dumping.

Um the uh part of that collection is once the the items are collected, um items may not be you may not know exactly what it is, even though it's bulky, um waste has uh specific designations.

So some of the material can be CDD, which is uh construction, demolition, and debris.

Um of it could be MSW, which is municipal solid waste, and some of it could be considered white goods, your appliances, your refrigerators, your stoves.

Um without being odd without proper identification or any advanced scheduling, the driver doesn't know exactly what he's picking up.

So as he picks it up, his identification he uh he or she um has the ability because they've been doing it long enough to know how to separate it on the truck.

Those uh materials go to uh three of um one of three um disposal areas.

Either goes to Crane Island because we have a uh construction debris uh landfill, or it'll go to uh uh the regional landfill, which is SIPS regional landfill that takes construction demolition debris, also MSW, or to go to a CIPSA transfer station, um, which currently right now is at robotics.

Um after that the driver um after the disposal, the driver will go back to whatever route that he was on, he or she was on, um, wherever they broke off at, and then continue to ride the streets up and down, trying to identify what is uh considered bulky.

Whatever's in the right-of-way, whatever's considered bulky, they will um pick up and put on the back on the trucks.

Um this is an example of a Tuesday route.

Tuesday route where we have seven collection vehicles out.

And as you can see, street by street, turn by turn, the drivers go up and down the streets trying to identify uh bulk collection or waste in the right-of-way.

However, there are seven vehicles on this particular day.

This screenshot was taken right before the drivers uh were getting off.

There are 40 stops for a 10-hour day with seven trucks.

It's 40 stops.

That means 80% of the day, the driver just drove up and down the street, trying to identify what was bulky and what was an appliance or what was considered illegal dumping operational challenges.

The street by street is one of the biggest operational challenges.

Street by street coverage is one of the biggest operational challenges.

Um it puts a strain on resources.

Unpredictable loads, we don't know without advanced scheduling, we do not know exactly what we're picking up.

Um as the mayor said earlier about inefficiency, it is extremely inefficient.

Because that would be like the equivalent of the mailman driving up and down the road and delivering 40 pieces of mail throughout the entire city, is extremely inefficient.

Um not only does it does it um as far as our resource management goes and our strain on our equipment, it's labor, it's fuel, it is the drive, it's the truck going up and down being underutilized on a daily basis for four four consecutive days.

Um it also increate, I'll talk about illegal dumping later, but it also is an environmental impact.

So environmental impact, because let's just say you you you you put your bulky um your collection out on a Tuesday route after the truck has gone through.

There's collection route is Tuesday through Friday.

There is a possibility that that could sit until the next collection day.

We do have inspectors and we do have inspectors going over on the route, but there is a real possibility that that can happen.

It also invites vermin, rodents, and it's a it's a blight to the city.

Um and if it's mixed with MSW with rainwater, it creates leeche.

And those are environmental impacts, environmental hazards.

Those are real hazards.

Also, public dissatisfaction.

Um dumping on bulky uh pickup, I mean bulky waste on the right-of-it creates a public dissatisfaction because no resident wants to see those type of items sitting on the curb side more than 24 hours.

Um the economic implications is really the fuel, the labor, the cost to the program, the realized cost for uh the actual disposal cost because everything we pick up, there is a disposal cost um to it.

Illegal dumping, illegal dumping is a real problem within the city.

Um I know the previous presentation we had about Brandon Square, but that is not the only place that is um illegal dumping.

Um illegal dumping is rampant throughout the city.

You have contractors come through.

I'll show you some slides in um in the future where uh you can clearly tell that those are either contractors or renovations, they're dumped off in either private spots or vacant lines.

Can I ask a question about that real quick, Mr.

Sherman?

Yes, sir.

What's the remedy to that?

I mean, I mean, how do you I I I guess I don't know what the remedy would be, but do people just disrespect our city that they think they could come and dump stuff here?

There's no consequences.

What is I think because um just speaking um because we have allowed our residents or just knowing that we can put it on the on the right-of-way and that they're gonna pick it up.

I think that was a that is a part of the problem that we're having.

So people feel freely to just put stuff on the right-of-way, and they know that they can call and make a complaint, and then we'll we'll go and continue.

Okay, that's good.

Thank you.

Umlegal dumping, I wanted to emphasize because illegal dumping is after looking at the C click fix and looking at the complaints that come in and how we schedule the complaints.

Illegal dumping, because it's 30%, it is very costly.

And the most the highest months were March, April, and May, which are your spring cleanings, your move outs, your sometimes evictions, when people start moving around, and you know, school lets out.

So those were found to be the highest months seasonal.

This time of this time also a year where we have you know um you know Christmas trees and presents and whatnot.

So this is a picture of a vacant lot which had installation, um, a pile of installation um placed out in front of it.

You also have um in certain in this second picture, there are items that cannot go to Crane Island.

So, like your tires, um of the material is is not considered because Crane Island is an unlined landfill, there are certain items that cannot go into Crane Island.

So when the truck picks it up, he has to spend time kind of separating items, not knowing what to put where, so they'll kind of separate them on the truck so that when they do get to Crane Island, they'll drop off what's in cranial goes to Crane Island, and then they'll take a load to either the regional landfill or like I said, uh Sipson.

Here, I mean, been in the industry long enough to know that this is considered either a move out or an eviction.

Um it's on curb side.

Um this in the neighborhood with uh stormwater, if it's been sitting out for a long time, this creates uh, like I said, environmental, real life environmental impact.

Um this uh was a private, and you can see in the picture if it was blown up, you can see that's pretty much like drywall construction, um probably a renovation of some type was just dumped off in the legal, and so we had to uh go out and pick it up.

The financial impact for the program itself, a real large financial impact.

If you take uh the base cost of collection is just the disposal piece, so it's $65 a ton to go to SIPSA, but also at the C and D uh at the Crane Island landfill, it it cost us a little less to dispose of waste because we own.

So if you take that in the Delta, it's roughly we came up with roughly $52 a ton to dispose of $5,199 tons of waste.

Um that's $360,000 a year.

Um the labor cost for seven drivers with an average of $52,000 a year is $364,000.

The only discrepancy I did make, and and that's the fuel cost because that $4,000 should be per truck per annual.

So it's $4,000 a year per truck, and that's eight, eight miles per gallon.

Um fleet said we get fuel at $2.43, and then the average truck drives 50 miles a day on its route, whether it picks up a load or not, it drives 50 miles a day.

The maintenance cost on the average working truck that is less than 10 years, it is $15,000.

Our trucks are a little older than 10 years, so that cost is higher, but just we kept the benchmark at $15,000 for seven trucks.

Administrative overhead is our customer service, the temps that we hire to answer the phones, our uh complaints, um uh inspectors, all of that.

That's just we just added a 10%, pretty much 10% overhead.

We took it and we divided about all of our administrative staff that works.

Um so that's um a real lost cost, and with the legal dumping, it's about 30% of just the program itself.

Um that's this is the op this is the cost as as we do it today.

Um the recommended solutions is advanced scheduling system.

An advanced scheduling system actually aligns us with all of the other cities in the region with the exception of Suffolk.

Suffolk just went back to um sort of um they were charging uh after your 12th uh load, but I guess they they um they went back to another, but advanced scheduling is is typically the way most cities do, and it gives us an opportunity to optimize the truck.

So optimizing the truck, meaning if if we call in, if you call in and you say I have a washer or have a dryer, then that truck that we put out specifically picks up washers and drivers.

If you say I have certain types of furniture, then that truck that we send out picks up those types of furniture.

We have a better ability to optimize the truck so we're not wasting fuel, we're not wasting labor, and we are, as you would say, efficient.

Like I said, it also aligns us with the cities regionally as it pertains to our area.

Strengthening penalties.

We do have inspectors in the waste management division, giving them the ability to issue civil citations and so that we can expedite the removal and at the at the owner's uh expense.

Um the public education campaign, putting together a campaign that uh that is wrapped around I didn't letting um the residents know that hey, we are going to go to this advanced scheduling system.

Um this is what's considered um items that you can put out, these are considered items that you can't put out and and just putting out a making it um a real campaign for at least a to physical year, the next fiscal year to give everyone an opportunity to understand that we are going to this advanced skip system.

It does.

Um it really does.

Like I said earlier about some of the operational controls, being able to control um how we put out items.

We are we we do have customers, I mean you know, representatives answering the phones, um, and then being able to put in a portal to where they can put online requests in.

Um that would help us in advance and be able to optimize, especially with with no less than 24 hours notice.

Um an administrative fee, a 25 administrator fee for any resident that puts out um their bulk, not considered illegal um dumping, but more so um putting out their bolt pickup without scheduling or if we have to go back and pick it up.

So, for example, if we're on a Friday route and they call and say, Hey, I got bolt pickup, and we try to do a same day, then it's a $25 administrative fee just to send the truck back over there because there is a cost to um that's a realized cost.

Um shrinking the allowable cubic yards.

Right now, our our uh ordinance says eight by ten by eight, that is huge.

Six by six by six is a more reasonable amount of waste to be able to control um one resident.

Eight by ten by eight is essentially almost a move out or an exit uh uh or um um eviction.

That is that is essentially what it is.

The typical resident is not going to put out an eight by ten by eight.

That that's a lot of a lot of ways.

Um and maintain strict guidelines for uh contractors and any construction debris renovations.

If you uh are contractor in the city and you are doing renovations for a resident, then it's nine times out of ten, most contractors they charge you for disposal, then they take that disposal and they actually take it and dispose of it properly.

Um said about the illegal dumping um and empowering our code enforcement, um, but permitting uh flexibility when it's natural disasters.

So for hurricanes, tornadoes, those things will we'll have uh the flexibility to be able to respond to because at the end of the day, we still want our residents to feel you know comfortable and that we are we are we are making sound judgments.

We just want to be able to make sure that we are um doing it in a systematic manner.

Um next steps get nervous sometimes, but um the next steps is is what we are doing tonight um presenting this to council um so that you can make an informed decision about our scheduling, the real lives cost of the program and uh enforcement opportunities that we do have going forward.

Presenting this to council so that you can make an informed decision about our scheduling, the real lives cost of the program, and enforcement opportunities that we do have going forward.

The next step would be us drafting an ordinance, and we do have somewhat of an ordinance to be drafted.

We uh prepare um uh ordinance so that um you agree with the language and we we get that that information out, and then like I said, the public education campaign.

Um putting out the word, getting and giving giving residents enough time to get used to um hearing it, advanced scheduling, um, and then implement and then deciding on an implement implementation date and and then execute.

Um the last thing about advanced scheduling.

Advanced scheduling is really optimization and it's really route optimization, and it's uh it's routing, it's planning the routes ahead of time, planning the the labor ahead of time, knowing exactly where we're gonna go, how we're gonna get there, how many routes we're gonna um, how many loads we're gonna pick up, where our breakoff point is, how much we're gonna dispose of.

Uh, timing in coordination means thinking everything together.

How many trucks do we need?

Um, how long does it take?

And as we dial in what we do, we'll know exactly how long it takes to do an average stop pickups and disposal.

And our collection execution is being able to one and improve the blight of the city without having waste, I mean, uh, you know, bulky waste just sitting around on the curves with in the right-of-way, and also being able to know exactly what we are picking up, um, because in the description you'll explain to us what you're picking up and where we're gonna take it to dispose of.

So with that being said, uh leave it open for questions.

Yes, okay.

I'm sorry.

So I'm all for this with a caveat.

I give you personal example because it's because I got a personal situation.

So the seven houses that live around me put all of their bulk waste on my property.

That's okay.

We've we've agreed with the other households.

You put it here, you put it there, you're good to go.

Um I'm happy to take the information around to all those houses and explain to them when you use my property, you're gonna call ahead or go online ahead.

But when you all come, how are you gonna know when there's what looks like illegal dumping uh and it's four households worth of stuff in one location?

So I guess I would ask you as you're writing the ordinance to think about those uh I'm sure I'm not the only guy in all of Portsmouth that provides access to neighbors that don't live on uh kind of the main route and offer their neighbors the opportunity to stack stuff in one location, which hopefully saves you guys some work.

But I don't want to get sighted and importantly, I I want to I want to make sure that that the rest of the neighbors understand what the rules are gonna be going forward because if I gotta tell them you're done using my property, you gotta do something on your own property, they're not gonna like it, and it's really gonna create a mess for you guys to come and pick it up.

That's a request and a comment as you're drafting an ordinance.

Secondly, I'm interested to know based on the the fact that uh I'm sure you got a lot of history that shows uh on the average day you do 40 pickups or whatever the number on average is so you're spending over 900,000 a year today doing bulk pickup.

Do you have an estimate of what the annual cost would be if you go implement what we're talking about?

Because again, I think it's a great idea.

I think it's the right thing to do.

I'd like to go to the civic leagues and to our neighbors and say, hey, the reason we're doing this ain't just to make you mad.

The reason we're doing this is twofold.

One, because we're sick and tired of contractors throwing their crap in piles all around our city, and two, we're actually doing this because it's gonna save the city money in terms of labor and equipment costs.

But to understand are we talking about half, two-thirds, one third.

Well, I don't know what the number is, but I bet you guys can predict it.

It would be helpful when you come back with the ordinance to have have done a little history and figure out what what are we uh likely to say by implementing.

Vice Mayor Moody.

I would say the third thing is beautiful too, as you ride around the city.

And Brandon Lane's a good example.

In fact, uh Mr.

Roberts Brandon Lane now uh I don't see any uh illegal dumping since we erected the signs.

And I don't know if we uh enforced any of the fines.

Uh there was evidence uh of the people who were doing the illegal dumping.

I think that had a lot to do with it.

And many uh many of them were construction people uh that that hopefully were we're fine.

But whatever uh it it has worked, Brandon Lane is clear.

I'm a hundred percent supportive of this.

I think uh I think we need to get a handle on it uh for uh the reasons uh that have been mentioned.

Uh obviously saving money, beautification, um environmental uh and getting the word out to construction people that Portsmouth is not a uh uh a dump.

Sure.

So Brian.

So I have the same situation that uh Mr.

Hugel has is that neighbors use my property to put a lot out.

So there's more to more than one of us that could do that.

Um the system that we that I have at my son's house in Orlando is very similar to the one except they're limited to a four by four, they can have more than one four by four, so the trucks can easily pick it up uh in there too.

And the trash men there are admant about not picking it up if you don't have it right, they will leave it in front of your house for two months.

And uh it would be really helpful though if there was some way of communicating it to the owners at the time.

Um what's wrong, why isn't it picked up, why are they being fined um at the time?

I also know that so if the tra if the uh driver could somehow inform the person, uh it would be also be helpful too as to how they could how they could best package it.

Um because calling in all calling in may not get a solution.

I found that out down there too.

Um gosh, there was one more item I had to say.

Um uh code enforcement also is overworked.

I know you in your proposal you're saying that to authorize code enforcement, but I think it would be also wise to consider other methods than code enforcement as their department, I don't know has yet has the uh both or manpower in order to help your enforcement, so you may think they can enforce it and they make it the authority, but do they have the manpower to do it?

And that would restrict us from implementing the plan effectively.

Thank you.

Councilman Tillage, sir.

Thank you very much.

So I understand the the why behind wanting to implement um the schedule pickup and things of that nature.

My question is pertaining to the solutions for the illegal dumping.

Yeah, like for example, in this picture that's underneath this uh uh I guess the MLK it looks like.

Um what is gonna be our strategy solutions to addressing this?

Um understand the scheduling, but that's not gonna stop a contractor who is gonna dump it anyway.

Right.

Uh so how are we gonna address that part?

It would use this process similar to what we did on Brandon, where uh we go and get it, all right.

We'll put more signage out, but we work with our police department to put some technology there just to take your picture and take you to court.

Absolutely.

And that's what I want here because I think uh to Vice Mayor Moody's point that has definitely helped in that area at least, and also I think um I don't know if there's any technology along Cavalier Boulevard and Missy Elliott, but I've noticed that over the last 12-15 months has been a lot less.

So it must be more I don't know if it's more riding around more police control or something, but uh I definitely think we need to include some more technology.

Thanks, Mayor, and thank you, Mr.

Roberts.

This was an excellent presentation.

You included a lot of detail that I had not considered, and I I think there's a lot of evidence here that really makes a strong argument of why we need to change.

And I love the fact that we have this coinciding with the switch from regular trash pickup where we'll be using AI sortation to increase recycling.

So we have a really great opportunity to present um all of the environmental factors, the other factors mentioned, of course, but we have a really strong message here about how we are paying attention to environmental needs.

Um these pictures that Councilman Tillage just showed, even if you pick up that mess, there's going to be debris that remains and gets into our waterways.

Um and so I love that your presentation includes messaging.

I think we have all seen that even with the last couple weeks since we've started sending out blue and black bins on the same day that people are still confused, and there's a lot of distrust that we're not really recycling.

Well, we all know because we've seen it that that we really are, and that it's it's far better than anything that we had been doing before.

And I I love that this fits with that piece.

So thank you for a really great presentation and bringing those arguments to us.

I think it's so important that we tell people what we're doing and why we're doing that.

Well, and the last thing I'll say because we're running short on time, but the optimization program.

So right now at HRT Hampton Roads Transit, they have a route optimization program, and the whole purpose of it is to your point official.

Um the same thing that you're doing with with our trash pickup, I think is the right way to go.

And and it is going to take education, but it's going to take all of us to help with that education.

I think you know, we'll have to decide what the best opportunities are to educate our communities.

But but thanks, man.

It was a very detailed presentation.

And you know, it at the end of the day, emporchment.

Well, we've got to change some of the things we do.

We've got to change our behaviors.

If we're going to make our city the city we desire, we've got to get everybody online, and it's gonna be trust me, it's gonna be a little pain and heartburn.

Oh, yes, but but at the end of the day, change it and always gonna be a happy thing.

But optimization is what we're seeking, efficiencies, and ultimately that will show up, I do believe, because I've seen it happen.

Uh, you just talked about Brandy Lamp, Brendan Lane, and other places.

We have made a difference, and you and your team have made a difference, so we appreciate it.

Right.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Roberts.

You did a great job.

That was very informative.

If you you forget how to pronounce implementation, but uh other than that, you did a great job, man.

I do appreciate it.

It was a really good presentation.

Uh, my final thing tonight is is the agenda review.

We have four items on tonight's agenda, one public hearing, two ordinances, and one resolution.

The public hearing is considered notification of a use permit for bar nine due to documented non-compliance with conditions of approval to ordinance of granted or or grants or grant related rather.

The total of four million two hundred and seventy-five thousand four hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents.

One accepts and appropriates 45,433 and 33 cents from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to support the city's litter and prevention and recycling programs.

The other is a $4,250,000 grant in state funding for sanitary sewer plump station upgrades.

The final item is a resolution establishing the official city council meeting schedule for 2026.

This concludes all that we have for uh the public works tonight.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

And we do can I add along with what Mr.

Carter is saying?

Um I know that council wants to go to consent agenda, and I'm gonna be working with the city attorney's office to bring language to you all to adjust your rules and procedures for dealing with consent agenda tonight because it's a very short agenda.

We're gonna do it the basic way that we've been doing it.

Um, but in January, we will be bringing you language and we'll probably provide it to you ahead of time.

So if you have any comments, please let us know.

But we will be bringing that to you in January to get your opinion on adjusting your agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam clerk.

And we do have a need to go into a closed session.

So uh Vice Mayor, if you would read the closed session motion.

Yes, I move to go into a closed meeting a pursuant to Virginia Code subsection 2.2-3711A for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel employed by the public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by search council specifically regarding zoning enforcement and B pursuant Virginia Code Subsection 2.2-371187 for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel pertaining to actual or probable probable litigation where search consultation or briefing to open meeting would adversely affect the negotiator or litigating posture of the public body specifically regarding City of Portsmouth versus Swenson Restaurant Group and all Portsmouth Circuit Court case number CL 2500 1599 zero zero.

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant.

Yes, Dr.

Mr.

Hugo.

Mr.

Moody.

Yes.

Yes.

One only public business matters lawfully exempted from the opening meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

And two, only switch public business matters that were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened, were heard discussed or considered in the closed meeting just concluded.

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant.

Yes, Dr.

Datson.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Mr.

Tillich.

Yes.

Mayor Clever.

Yes.

Close meetings.

I want to thank all who are in attendance, in addition to our city staff and those who are watching online.

Welcome.

And welcome to our last council meeting at the most wonderful time of the year.

And with that, I will acknowledge my colleagues on council as well as our city manager, Mr.

Stephen Carter, also our interim city attorney, Mr.

Derek Challenger, and Miss Deborah White, who is festivally dressed tonight.

Thank you all for being here.

And now, if I could ask, well, if I could ask you all to stand for a moment of silence, and afterwards, we will do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and the Republic for which stands one nation under God, individual liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We have the minutes of a call meeting on November 24, 2025, a call meeting on November 25th, 2025, and a regular meeting on November 25th, 2025.

Do we have a motion and a second?

Second.

Please vote electronically.

The minutes are adopted 7-0.

Our next item, we have a presentation to CW Luke McCoy.

Sir, if you would come forward, please.

Yeah, but you've been you've been in this role a number of times.

Good to see you, Miss Mimi.

Good to see you, ma'am.

So I just want to take a moment on behalf of the citizens of Portsmouth and the Portsmouth City Council to acknowledge this amazing young man.

C.W.

Luke McCoy with our sincerest appreciation for your unwavering dedication throughout 50 plus years of service to the city of Portsmouth.

That's amazing, y'all.

You gotta give them a hand for that.

50 years, that's the golden anniversary, right?

50 years.

Well, man, listen.

Presented to you, and I'll say to you in the way of Navy tradition that we certainly wish you fair win, sir, and following seas.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

It's hard to believe in that in 1975.

I started my career with the city.

Spending 30 years behind this dies.

Deborah White would tell you I loved every minute of it.

There were tough times, there were good times.

But somehow we always came out the winner.

Mayor, on behalf of my family, I'd like for my family to stand.

And this is just some of them, not all.

This is all I can say.

And one was just born last month.

Caitlin, stand up with Luke.

This is little Luke.

Cayley, stand up.

That's my oldest great granddaughter.

And my second third great granddaughter, a son.

I'm sorry, I said granddaughter, but son.

My third great son is in Newport News.

Four days differs between them.

Oh wow.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Members of City Council.

You have an awesome task.

You've been elected by the people.

And you represent the people.

Mr.

Carter, you've got the most awesome task in this city.

I believe it.

One that I loved every minute.

And I will tell you, I wish I was sitting there to share some of the excitement that y'all have coming in the future.

You finally got an opportunity to open up the waterfront.

You've got a chance to make Portsmouth different.

And you can't do that if you don't support each other.

You need to support each other like citizens support themselves.

Mr.

Carter every day you sit down in that seat.

It's an awesome task.

I wish you godspeed.

Thank you, sir.

Mayor.

Vice Mayor Moody.

You and I have shared a lot of times together.

Some good, some bad.

They were good.

The other members, you members of city council.

I wish you godspeed.

I wish you made the right decisions.

You're not always gonna make the one that the public is gonna like, but you gotta make the right decision.

And when you leave here at nighttime, if you go home, if you're satisfied, that's what it's all about.

Did you do the right thing?

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and God speed.

Thank you, Lady.

Madam Clerk.

Yes, sir.

Would you please read our council rules?

Ladies and gentlemen, city council rules require a limit of up to five minutes to speak.

As you approach the speaker's podium, you would notice a timer.

At the beginning of your five minutes, you will see a green light.

Four minutes into your remarks, you will notice a yellow light.

At the end of five minutes, you will see a red light here beep, and we ask that you conclude your comments at that time.

While speakers have an opportunity to address counsel on matters of public concern, all comments should be made in a manner that respects the seriousness of the forum.

It should not be made in a belligerent, sarcastic or demeaning fashion.

All remarks shall be directed to the city council as a body rather than to any particular member of City Council, staff, or the audience, and should be limited to matters that only the Portsmouth City Council can influence.

A speaker who fails to observe this basic rule decorum will be deemed out of order and not allowed to conclude his or her comments.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The first item on our agenda.

The next item is public hearing item 25-359.

And madam clerk, would you please read the public hearing resolution we are considering for this item?

Yes, sir.

Adoption of a resolution revoking the use permit UP 2503 issued to R.

Brown to operate an entertainment establishment on a portion of 2012 Victory Boulevard designated as 4806 George Washington Highway in accordance with section 40.2-533L of the City of Portsmouth zoning ordinance.

The property is owned by Washington Victory LLC.

The resolution you will be considering is a resolution revoking use permit UP 2503 for the operation of an entertainment establishment on a portion of a parcel having an address of 2012 Victory Boulevard.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Is the applicant present?

Present counselor.

If the applicant would come forward, state your name and address.

You can stand next to her, sir.

My name is Renata Brown.

Address is 3570 Ratford Circle, Chesapeake, Virginia 23321.

Um I am here tonight, represented with counsel as well for the revocation of the entertainment license for Bar 9, which I do not agree with because Bar 9 didn't have anything to do with the incident that occurred on that day.

We cooperated with the ABC board.

We cooperated with detectives.

It was our footage that helped the city of Portsmouth to come to the conclusion of what happened on that night.

So I will let my council talk now.

Thank you.

Members of council, uh, good evening.

My name is Tim Anderson.

I have the privilege of representing Miss Brown in Bar 9 before you.

Why we are here is because somebody was murdered in the city of Portsmouth in this parking lot.

That's what star started the process of what got us here today.

A 19-year-old shot and killed somebody in Portsmouth and shot and wounded somebody else.

This 19-year-old had nothing to do with bar 9, was not a patron, was not part of bar 9, was not allowed in when they tried to enter.

This was an event that happened in the parking lot of an establishment that the petit that the business owner had nothing to do with.

Now, following that, the city has found there to be a few non-compliance issues with uh her application.

First off, there was a question of whether she has submitted a security plan.

She has that has been submitted to zoning.

There has been a question of whether her business license was brought from the commissioner's office to zoning.

These are technical violations, not warranting of revocation.

If Miss Brown had served this 19-year-old alcohol, if had contributed to this 19-year-old's behavior, all four this council taking some punitive action against her.

But she's been in business since March without one single problem with her business.

And now she's before you with a complete and total revocation of her operator's license, her conditional use permit, because a 19-year-old murdered a fellow citizen in the city of Portsmouth.

And I would just ask you to not take this extreme step.

To take a step of cooperation with Miss Brown.

Maybe her paperwork is a little bit out of order, not so much to revoke her.

Maybe there has to be some collaboration with zoning.

Maybe there has to be another I dotted or a T cross, but to shut her business down is is an outrageously punitive action to take against her.

And I understand the city is concerned about violent crime, but that crime would have happened whether that restaurant had been there or not.

It was in a parking lot with no contact with this establishment.

So for the good of Portsmouth, for the good of this business that is a good business, a good tax paying business that has had no problems.

I ask that you to not approve of this ordinance to revoke her conditional use permit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will yield to any questions if council has any to either of us.

Does any of my colleagues from on council have a question for the applicant or the attorney?

Councilman Tillage, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Anderson, for uh coming up to the talk and was Ms.

Brown.

Uh, you may mention that you all did submit a security plan.

Yes, Councilman.

We have it here.

It was submitted in the initial documents and the initial application, and I do have that uh to present to anybody who would like to see it.

Uh Mayor, so my question is to uh zoning, if I can maybe planning as well, first of all, we'll start with the manager.

So the manager didn't have to be able to do that.

It was submitted on August 22nd, 2025.

If that helps narrow it down.

So my question would be is this does the plan that was submitted, does that match what city council had asked and um had asked after the vote?

This the uh security plan that uh Ms.

Brown presented as part of her package.

Uh is that security plan not um valid?

Or is it something needed to be different from what was already submitted?

Carter so you have the floor I haven't seen the security plan so I can tell you if it's valid or not I can tell you that has not been approved by the zoning administrator okay so that plan was not approved by the zoning plan has not been approved okay so I take it wasn't approved because it didn't meet requirements or it wasn't approved because of can I get uh Dr.

Russell to help me out with this on the particulars of that but please yes um councilman Tillage the security plan was one of several items that are required to demonstrate compliance with all of the conditions that were approved with that um conditional use permit request and so um that submittal prior to the public hearing was incomplete and not considered got you so the security plan that was submitted was not complete and it did not meet the conditions set forth by city council all of the conditions set forth by city council yes sir all right thank you councilman to that that's never been communicated to miss brown if that's the case that's never been communicated yeah so so part of my my concern uh is just technicalities um but i'll I'll yield my time at this time are there any questions any other questions from my colleagues on council councilwoman Thomas ma'am you have the floor yes thank you mayor um so this question is not for the applicant it's for uh Mr.

Carter um and then to probably Dr.

Russell the security plan if it's not approved the original based on the new conditions set forth by council um the next steps would have been for a new security plan to be submitted or the applicant to be informed that that security plan was not approved Dr.

Russick might need you to help me with whatever your actual steps are that you take to go through this process okay so okay so the applicant the expectation of the applicant any applicant with the conditional use permit request is that they would submit evidence of compliance with all of the required conditions and that evidence for compliance would be submitted with a request for a zoning clearance permit um and it's a package so it it's not submitted piecemeal um I would say that that because of the number of conditions this would have been a uh a pretty heavy lift a lot of information that would have been required and then that would have been evaluated and resulted in a determination of of compliance and once that compliance had been rendered a zoning clearance would have been issued that could then be used uh or presented to the commissioner of revenue um for a business license and that's that's the process councilman hugel so you have the floor yeah thanks mayor uh ms uh question to mr carter uh so my understanding is that when we passed UP 25-03 there were 21 conditions uh imposed and my understanding is that currently only nine of those 21 conditions have been uh satisfied and and in compliance is that is that correct information again I'm gonna need uh Dr.

Russell helping with the particulars I know that there has been some um some compliance but the level of compliance I can't tell you without her so of the conditions 12 of the total conditions are non-compliant at this point in time and so most of the conditions um approved with the approval of the conditional use permit application remain unmet councilman dotson so you have the floor so I'm a little confused was the conditional permit issued or not is that uh mr carter you can you can certainly uh take the floor and address who you whom you need to address on your staff actually this council approved a conditional use permit with conditions so yes it was approved with conditions the conditions have not come been all the conditions have not been met so they they don't have the authority to act or or use that permit as it was issued by this board you this this council voted to grant a conditional use

So yes, it was approved with conditions.

The conditions have not come been, all the conditions have not been met, so they they don't have the authority to act or or use that permit as it was issued by this board.

You this this council voted to grant a conditional use permit with conditions until all those conditions are met.

So a operating permit from our department was never issued after our approval.

Well, it's not it's not them that issue an operating permit.

What they do is verify compliance, then there's a another process where once they verify compliance, get with the uh commissioner revenue to get a business license that give the full operating authority for the business that they want to operate.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Thomas, you have the floor.

Yes, thank you.

And Mr.

Carter, directing to you, but it's probably gonna go to Dr.

Russell or zoning.

Um just looking at the non-compliant items.

It looks like 10 of the 12, just to confirm, 10 of those 12 items are related to items that should have been included in the written security plan.

So 10 of the 12 noncompliant items are really related to the overall security plan.

Is that correct?

The way I'm reading this uh that table.

Yeah, I don't have the particulars of those.

Okay.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna have to defer to Dr.

Russell Items that should be included in the security, the one security plan.

So item it beginning at item 11.

Yeah, regarding the rear doors, um I'm sorry, it begins at item 13.

So 13, and then it goes from double A through Double H.

Yeah.

Those are all the all the security plan items, and each of those are considered one non-compliant, even though it's one security plan.

Each highlighted item is that correct?

Well, I did.

And okay, you're right.

So um if we want to six, seven, seven non-compliant items.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Hugel, so you have the floor.

Uh yeah, thanks, Mayor.

So, Mr.

Carter, following up on your uh last answer.

Um, my understanding is that once the conditions of that use permit permit were met, the business owner would then ultimately apply for a business license amended to allow for entertainment.

So my understanding again is that she currently has a business license to operate as a restaurant, but does not have a business license to operate to uh include entertainment because the conditions of the use permit were never met.

Is that true?

Carter, you have the floor.

Yes, sir.

That's an affirmative.

You that the weightiest right now is exactly the way you stated it again.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mr.

Mayor, we had a little time left.

Could I could I Sir?

Thank you.

Uh members, none of this has been communicated to Ms.

Brown.

I would like I would love you to ask zoning what communications have they given Ms.

Brown that her uh security plan was defective.

There's been no communication.

She's been running this establishment as an entertainment establishment since you approved her without any enforcement from zoning, and it was only because somebody was murdered in the parking lot that we're here.

That can't be how the city runs runs a runs zoning.

It can't be this way.

Um so at the very least, defer this, put her on conditions to comply with zoning and let her get her plan together.

Um she's happy to comply.

She has a business license.

She didn't even know she had to go get an entertainment business license.

This ball has been dropped.

Um, so don't shut her down for this.

And then I just asked to seriously consider her side of this uh equation before you decide what to do.

Thank you.

Councilman Tillage, sir.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh so for point of clarity.

Um to Councilwoman Thomas's question about the uh number of unmet conditions, um, and X number being part of one security plan.

Can you reiterate how many unmet conditions there are?

Yes, sir.

If I understand the numbers right, Ms.

Dr.

Russell said there were six items that were part of the security plan, but there were 12 items that have not been met.

Gotcha.

So those six being a part of one security plan would be technically six six unmet outside the security plan.

Yes, or seven with the security plan.

Gotcha.

And so the question uh that I have, which I've I had earlier was in regards to how is this communicated to our applicants?

Uh once they leave city council, uh, how do we notify our applicants of the process of the next steps on obtaining that final uh business um license with entertainment?

Uh can somebody speak on what the process was with uh Ms.

Brown.

Yeah, part of the process uh is when this body approves a use permit, they approve the use permit with conditions.

Those conditions are stated, so it's not like when somebody leaves, they don't know that there's conditions in the use permit.

Part of the actual name of the permit is a conditional use permit.

So there are things that have to be met in order for the the permit to become non-conditional because you've met the conditions.

Second thing is um there is communication uh before and after uh the event with the establishment owner that kind of takes them through what that process is.

I know that there is a an email that was actually sent that I have access to that was sent with uh the actual conditions in it.

Uh the third thing is it is um the onus is on the business owner to understand those things that's required to operate a business and comply with those things.

Absolutely, we'll do all that we can to help and move them through the process.

But at the end of the day, the onus is on the business owner for whatever type of establishment they want to operate to know what the rules of the establishment are or ask questions so that they can become clear on what those rules are, and we will provide the information.

Thank you, sir, and thank you all.

Your time is up.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come speak on this public hearing item, you would come forward and state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Seeing none, this public hearing item is closed.

Council members, we're in need of a motion and a second.

Move to adopt second.

Please vote electronically.

This item is adopted for three.

Madam Clerk, we're now moving to city manager's report.

And if you could start with item 25-360, please read the ordinance we are considering for this item.

Yes, sir.

An ordinance accepting litter prevention and recycling program funds and the amount of $25,433 and 33 cents from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Appropriating said funds and the FY 2026 grant fund for use in connection with the Portsmouth litter prevention and recycling program.

Thank you, ma'am.

Council members, we are in need of a motion in a second.

Move to adopt second.

Seeing no discussion, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 7-0.

Item 25-361.

And madam clerk, would you please read the ordinance?

We're considering for this item.

An ordinance accepting $4,250,000 from the Commonwealth of Virginia and appropriating said amount in the F excuse me.

Thank you, ma'am.

Council members, we are in need of a motion to second to adoption.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adapted 70.

Next item on the agenda, item 25-362.

And madam clerk, would you please read the resolution we are considering for this item?

A resolution to adopt the 2026 calendar of city council meetings.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Second.

Any additional discussion on this item seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next item on the agenda is new business.

Item 25-363 boards and commissions.

We have no board and commission business for this evening, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

Next item, item 25-364, items submitted by council members.

Are there any items to be submitted by council members?

Councilman Tillage, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, considering this is our last uh city council meeting of 2025.

Uh I just want to wish everybody a happy holiday season as we enter into the uh well, I guess we're already in holiday season, but as we enter into uh Christmas Kwanzaa or whatever you may celebrate, um I wish joy to you and your families and a prosperous new year.

Councilwoman Bryant, ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to offer congratulations to the Portsmouth Public Schools Citywide Teacher of the Year, Miss Deshauna Honore, who is a teacher at Hodges Manor Elementary School.

Several of us were present uh along with our school board partners to honor her service along with the other individual schools, teachers of the year.

Um, and so we're very proud of the work that our school partners are doing for the community.

Um we know that that's a big part of keeping our city safe.

Um also want to offer congratulations to Judge Johnny E.

Morrison.

Several of us were present this last week as we honored his 25-year commitment to the Portsmouth Adult Recovery Court.

Um, it was a real inspiration to hear him speak of his goals um in reuniting families and establishing stability within this city, safety within the city.

Um, and so we are grateful for his service and um grateful for his work to establish that particular court.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Dodson, so you have the floor.

Thank you.

Yes, I wanted to reiterate about Johnny Morrison's uh retirement that it was a learning experience, and I I wish many of us had been educated on the effort and the work that he's done in uh reforming the I guess the drug court, as some call it, um, to really give people a second chance in the city of Portsmouth rather than incarceration.

Uh it was an eye-opening experience to find out what he and his wife Cynthia have done for the city.

Um, secondly, I'd like to uh this is the time I asked the manager for updates in the future.

May I do that now?

Um there's been some public questions that I've had on the details of the statute that's being installed, uh, some details on when it's to be finished, uh, what it's to look like.

I can't seem to dig up that data uh uh on it.

Could we get an update for the date and some pictures and some information that we can get out to the public on that uh in the near future?

I'd also love some details and the same kind of depot details on the demolition of the jail that seems to be progressing, uh, who's doing it, the dates that it might be completed, that so that we could disseminate that information out to the city and let them let them go.

Also, the uh one thing we've asked I've asked for before is the cleanup at the holiday insight.

Um why the contractor left that in such rubble, and some of our public is using that as access to the waterfront, and it seems like going through that property is a danger given the rubble that's sitting there.

If we get an update on whether that's gonna happen, I'd appreciate it too, sir.

Thank you.

Councilman Hugo, sir, you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

So uh a couple of things from this morning.

Uh I started my morning uh at four kids.

So uh four kids is uh headquartered in Chesapeake, but provides uh uh services to uh to to all really to all of Hampton Roads.

They run the uh the homeless hotline uh and additionally provide uh uh eviction avoidance uh service to uh uh to to Portsmouth citizens.

Uh it was interesting that one one of the comments that was made during our uh session of four kids was uh uh the way you address homelessness is through housing uh because the very next event that we several of us attended today was the uh ribbon cutting uh uh at uh Lexington Reserve.

Uh so uh congratulations to uh Portsmouth Redevelopment Housing uh and the Richmond Group and a whole bunch of other partners that all came together to to uh build out and open uh the Lexington Reserve uh senior uh a living center.

Uh so we um the the community now has 105 brand new one and two bedroom residences for for uh folks age 62 and above.

Uh and so uh um you know kind of connecting those two events uh uh was uh was really meaningful to me and I appreciated uh uh the opportunity to participate.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman uh Vice Mayor Moody, sir.

You have the floor.

Thank thank you, Mayor.

It's been brought to my attention that our 11 and under uh Pop Warner football team from Portsmouth uh recently participated in the Pop Warner Super Bowl, and they were the only Virginia team to do so.

And and mentioning this uh reminds me that uh I participated in a Pomp Water Championship representing Portsmouth uh a few years ago.

Uh and uh in fact that was the height of my football career.

Uh didn't didn't go any further than that.

But uh I mentioned this mayor because uh they they were the only team from the state of Virginia in the uh under 11 class to uh participate.

So I I would like to maybe we can reach out uh to those uh kids and uh have them come here and uh give them some recognition.

Uh I think that's quite an honor.

So I think that's a wonderful idea, Vice Mayor, and I think we'll ask our amazing clerk to make that contact and set up the team coming in and us recognizing them for their achievement.

Very good.

The the recognition that the Oliver Branch Apaches, as they were called, uh God, we we were invited to to a local TV show called uh Poop Bet Pappy.

Uh which uh was Channel 10 here in Portsmouth.

I'm sure there's nobody but me that probably remembered that.

But uh right after Captain Kangaroo.

Yeah, yeah, or Paul Winkle the Moose or something.

And and other than that, uh Mayor, I I want to wish uh all of our citizens uh uh Merry Christmas, uh safe holidays, and uh it'll be a new year when we come back here.

So Annette uh Vane uh happy new year as well.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well stated, sir.

And if I may uh just to echo what all of my colleagues said, we are so grateful to be in the city that we are in with our city leadership under Mr.

Carter, our city staff who have done an amazing job in keeping our city safe and clean and doing the heavy lifting to run our city this year.

Um I cannot say enough about how proud I am as your mayor and all of the things that we have done together to make our city better.

And on behalf of a grateful city council, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you to our city clerk in her office for all of the work that they do to keep council straight, and of course the mayor straight.

It is really a team working to make Portsmouth better, and I could not be more proud.

Happy Thanksgiving excuse me, Merry Christmas.

I know I'm on Thanksgiving, y'all, but Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

I know my colleagues talked about the other holidays, of course, Kwanza Hanukkah and any holiday that you celebrate.

But the most important thing I want each of you all to know here today is that we are working very hard to continue to improve the quality of life and make our city the best place to live, work, play, and raise a family.

Thank you.

And so moving right along, our next report is 25-365, and Mr.

Carter, that is a report on pending items.

Thank you, Mayor.

Everyone should have a report back already in your packet.

So that is the information that you've requested from the last meeting.

I too want to say thank you to all the city staff that have supported this city.

My appointed peers, all the staff that shows up for all these meetings and work well with us to make these things happen.

Thank you to City Council who has made this year a really good year to be in the city of Portsmouth.

Congratulations to you on what you've accomplished.

What we have done.

But more amazing to me, it's the way it feels to have gotten it done together.

Yes, we agree on, we disagree on some things.

We have some really spirited debates about some things.

And that's really the beauty of who we are now as leaders in this city that we can do those things and still come to a point where we're working together getting things done.

So again, happy holidays to everyone.

Thank you so much to this council.

Thank you so much to all the staff that have made this year a great year to be in Portsmouth.

And thank you to the citizens who make all this possible.

Thank you.

Now we have come to item 25-366.

Non-agenda speakers, and Madam Clerk, would you please read the speaker's statement for the last time in 2025?

Ladies and gentlemen, City Council rules require a limit of up to five minutes to speak.

As you approach the speaker's podium, you will notice the timer.

At the beginning of your five minutes, you will see a green light.

Four minutes into your remarks, you will notice a yellow light.

At the end of five minutes, you will see a red light here beep, and we ask that you conclude your comments at that time.

While speakers have an opportunity to address counsel on matters of public concern, all comments should be made in a manner that respects the seriousness of the forum and should not be made in a belligerent, sarcastic or demeaning fashion.

Our remarks shall be directed to the city council as a body rather than any particular member of City Council, staff, or the audience, and should be limited to matters that only the Portsmouth City Council can influence.

A speaker who fails to a speaker who fails to observe this basic rule decorum will be deemed out of order and not allowed to conclude his or her comments.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And our speaker tonight.

Sir, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

And Merry Christmas to you.

Good evening and Merry Christmas to everyone.

My name is G.W.

Thompson.

I reside at 4065 Windabrow Drive in this beautiful city of Portsmouth.

I'm a member of Virginia Organizing, and there's another member present with me tonight.

And I'll just ask her to stand at this time.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

Virginia Organizing is a nonpartisan grassroot organization that empowers diverse communities in Virginia to advocate for social, economic, and environmental justice by working together on local and statewide campaigns for policy change.

Focus on issues like health care, housing, immigration, and racial equity, aiming to give a voice to those who are traditionally excluded.

Our organization had an opportunity to meet with Miss Anna McCrae, Deputy Coordinator of Emergency Management last week.

She shared an informative presentation about the role of emergency management services during severe weather events such as hurricanes.

She explained the need for various community aid organizations to partner with each other to address the need for shelter and distribution of cold water kits that could be given to those without shelter.

We recently had an unusually early snow event this week.

A lot of people were caught off guard.

Last year during a snow event, the city partnered with Dr.

Diane Sparks, Washington, Director of Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless, Emergency Management Services, the Department of Social Services, OASIS, Social Ministries, Parks and Recreation, and Public Safety to provide shelter and transportation to Portsmouth volunteers for the homeless shelter during a snow event.

Additionally, though, additionally, those services were broadcast over the media, the city's website, and signs were posted around the city where the homeless frequent.

Thank you for your support.

At the last meeting, I asked that the status of the permanent homeless shelter could be an agenda item at an upcoming meeting.

Working together and responding decisively, Porsum can make significant progress where every neighbor is cared for and no one is left behind.