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

Wanna welcome you to our public work session today.

Want to take a moment to acknowledge uh all of our city staff who is with us here today in support of this meeting.

Thank you all for being here.

Also want to take a moment to acknowledge our city manager, Mr.

Stephen Carter, Deputy City, not deputy, our interim city attorney, excuse me, Mr.

Challenger, attorney Derek Challenger.

Also, I want to acknowledge our city assessor, Mr.

Stephen Edwards.

And of course, um, I'm excited today to have with us uh our economic development authority.

Um course is the chief visionary officer.

I'm excited about what you guys are going to share from a visionary standpoint.

So it's good to welcome you again today, and um we'll ask that you all acknowledge your attendance here after we go ahead and ask the Madam Clerk to call the rope.

Here Hugo Mr.

Mooney here.

Mr.

Tilly.

Here, and I don't know how I left this out, but our city clerk, Deborah White.

I want to acknowledge her.

I just yeah, Deborah's always here and doing what Deborah does.

So thank you, Miss White, for being here.

And I I wanted to acknowledge that thank you, Vice Mayor, for reminding me.

And and I would ask now, um I want to turn this turn the meeting over to our our city manager, but before I do that, I'm gonna turn it over to uh Mr.

Mitchell, the chair of the economic development authority to introduce your team.

I am excited to be here.

Absolutely.

So we're extremely excited about the opportunity to share some of the work that we're doing.

Um to make sure we're in alignment uh with the objectives of city council.

Um before we go forward, I'm just gonna ask Brian if he would just do the call to order.

Yes, thank you, Chair.

Uh Mr.

Mitchell here, Mr.

Barber here, Mr.

Sonders Smith.

Here.

Mrs.

Cherry.

Here.

Mrs.

Herkel Resident.

Here.

Mr.

Harman?

Here.

And Mr.

Morgan.

Here.

You have a quorum.

Thank you, sir.

And Manager Carter, true protocol.

I'll hand the meeting over to you, and you can you can then hand it over to Mr.

That's pretty much what's gonna happen there.

Thank you all for being here.

Um I think Mr.

Donahue and the EDA has a presentation they'd be like to present to you this evening.

So it's it's in your hands.

Good.

Good.

Well, I hope we'll have a um informal conversation here about some of the things that uh we're looking to do um going down the road.

Um and um I'm excited about where we are at this particular point.

Um Crawford Bay is our is our most extensive um update today, and we'll have community engagement results and also where we stand in regards to the RFQ.

Um on the Link District, we'll talk a little bit about um concrete uh progress on multiple properties along High Street.

Um third, we're gonna talk a little bit about temporary activation of vacant EDA and city owned land.

Uh, one of the things that I thought was very noticeable a few weeks ago when we walked down high street, we saw quite a few properties that were vacant.

Um, and I think we would love to have some conversation in terms of what we can do short term and long term for those properties.

Um, and finally, we're very pleased with where we are with the um small business loan program.

This was a call out that we had heard many many times about um difficulty in getting capital, particularly small businesses, and I'm pleased that um our team has responded in a meaningful way to address that issue.

So we'll go ahead and start with the the big dog in the room, if you will, um, the Crawford Bay Waterfront Development Update.

Um this is a huge project, um, well over six acres, um, and it really um allows us an opportunity to connect to the Elizabeth River.

Um the site is currently underutilized, and that's both a challenge and an extraordinary opportunity for us.

I think our goals are clear.

We've heard from citizens in terms of what they like to see.

We've heard from local businesses, and we want to energize the waterfront and draw regional um visitors.

Uh Portsmouth has a deep uh maritime identity.

The project should honor and amplify that legacy rather than erase it.

Um we believe if we do this well, and I am confident that we will, um, that it's going to be an extraordinary transformation, probably the biggest transformation in decades in the city of Port.

Visually, this is where we are.

Um, as you can see, it's along the Elizabeth River steps from the high street business district.

Um, and if you think about the kind of work that we're doing and connecting all of this together, umtown high street, um, the link district um and the historical residential district.

It's one of the few areas I think that you can walk and be exposed to a lot of things.

Um, and I think that's a unique and positive characteristic uh for us here in the city.

We also include a vacant former hotel site, surface parking, the harbor court parking garage, um, and the bacon former visitor center.

The good thing is that um there are already meaningful things today.

You have the Renaissance Hotel close by.

You have the um historic homes that are close by, and so it's not like we're starting from scratch.

There is already a very strong cluster of activity that already exists, and our job is to build upon that.

The other nice thing is that we have some additional opportunities with the Harbor Stage and as well as the tennis course.

So, depending on where the project goes, that could be another big plus for us.

It would be really cool to have boats come in, get off the boat, and go right into a restaurant.

You know, would be really a nice feature that nobody else would be able to offer.

The thing that I'm um pleased about, and we talked a lot about this is bringing the city along with us and with the community engagement sessions.

Over 300 residents participated in two in-person sessions.

Many of you probably had an opportunity to see what happened at the Renaissance.

It was just an exciting night.

People were really excited about where the city was going and having more importantly, an opportunity to speak on those ideas and the things that they wanted.

So what did they say they wanted?

None of it is a surprise to any of us.

And so they did not want it just to be a structure with a lot of businesses and retail, but a place where they can bring their family down and also enjoy the city and have those really positive green spaces.

They want a nice place to eat, places to eat and drink.

One thing that we have already found is when we have these kinds of activities, it results in a significant uptick in businesses, you know, in terms of the services there that they provide.

And so as long as we can continue to keep that roller coaster of activities going on in the city, it is positive for finances and taxes for the city.

What will make it successful?

A unique experience you can't find elsewhere.

We already have the bones for that.

You know, we talk about that a lot.

Whether you bring your boat in to go to a restaurant, whether you come across the ferry to go to restaurant, whether you drive to down high street.

It is a unique characteristic that nobody has and is almost impossible to duplicate.

I mean, we've heard this, but the good thing is at the uh recent state of the city, the mayor indicated that we are making significant progress in reducing crime.

I think we need to need to do a good job of letting the citizens know that.

Um but um those numbers were really really very positive.

Um regular programming and events, we already talked a little bit about the importance of events and how it is an uptick for all of the businesses, um, and really just talking about a physical connection to surrounding neighborhoods.

And we've had some um meet some discussion, our meetings.

How do you connect all this together?

Do we work with a our small rapid transit?

You know, do we provide dedicated roads ways for people to move from the link district to the waterfront to the historic district?

So that's probably something worthy of a really detailed um conversation going forward.

So where are we today?

Um we did an RFQ that was issued on March 4th to really look at um companies that screen for their experience and their financial stability.

Um we did a virtual call on Monday, March 16th, which I think we had a reasonable number of people on the call, including citizens, um, but they were they were on there too.

Um but we were um open to any questions that were asked.

Um Friday, March 20th, written questions due from respondents occurred.

We answered their questions second round and the RFQ responses were due May 7th.

I think everyone has responded, so we have that in-house currently.

Um May 29th, we will do a short list of firms notified.

Um I don't know if we're at liberty to say how many people, okay.

So we're not at liberty to tell you how many people participated, but we had a a good number, um, a good working number, and we're pretty excited about some of the developers who responded.

So once the uh developers are identified, how are we going to select them?

And I know this has been um something that there have been a lot of conversations around.

Um we have a point system uh for a total of a hundred points.

Uh 15 points will go to the project team, the organizational structure, their experience, how long have they been in the business?

Um, have they been an active participant in MWBE participation and partnership approach with the city?

Um that's 15 points.

30 points around relevant experience.

system uh for a total of a hundred points uh 15 points will go to the project team the organizational structure their experience how long have they been in the business um have they been an active participant and mWE participation and partnership approach with the city um that's 15 points 30 points around relevant experience uh have they completed similar projects um somewhere um in the united states or in some cases outside of the united states um but they have demonstrated the ability to do these kinds of projects which is absolutely essential another 30 points is financial capacity um do they have the funds necessary to take on a project like this um and finally what is their vision and how does it align with our vision so why don't we just pause there are there any questions in regards to um the evaluation criteria um I know there um we are we are always actively trying to make sure that all citizens have an opportunity to participate in what is happening here um and we will obviously be looking at uh minority participation um uh as something that will obviously assist in the 15 points we do have a little bit of a model in terms of what we did uh with the casino um so we do have some um opportunity to see those things they worked well um and we'll continue to to build on that I did want to uh interject something on that on the minority thank you sir I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt um on the MW uh DE uh end of it the problem we've had in the past is the reporting and I'd love to see some stricter requirements on the responsibility of the reporting um along that that we have not required in the past to demonstrate that whether or not that's being satisfied um I would I would agree with that um I think and and Brian can help me I think we had a um a 30% objective with the casino I think we came in around 17% but a lot of that was tied to um just not enough contractors able to do some of that work.

One of the things that um we hope to do is kind of look at the contractors possibly that they had um see if there's an opportunity for them to expand and see there may be some opportunities for the EDA to partner with them but clearly uh having the data is something that we certainly want to look at and make some improvements on councilwoman Thomas Man you have the floor thank you so within the categories are they broken up further because I see uh NWPE is part of the overall project team are those out of the 15 points does it have a separate point system assigned to it um not to my knowledge no and that that's it's part of the overall category so each of those individual characteristics that are included within that individual criteria um they're all they're in the same lumped category I think I personally would have liked to see that separated a bit so that it can get a true score um because organizational structure you know you know you don't get a real idea of what the participation is because it's lumped in with the overall project team um same kind of idea along with the develop development vision um that that encompasses quite a bit so my question is can we when we do the further evaluation of the RFQs kind of break those down a bit so we can really look at what some of those subsections are in these broader categories I I think we can um this is kind of a top level view um and I think once a developer is selected uh we can have more specific criteria so I think in response to your question I think we are able to do um some of that um there are some out of my scope of response but there are clearly there's some legal issues that we have to kind of navigate through on on some of that um but I think we have an opportunity to try to work through that it's it I think um important to remember this is a two-part process so we're right now in the RFQ stage the RFP will be the the second part of the solicitation where we will act actually be asking for formal proposals as part of that we will have additional criteria that will be considered we have an ability to develop that um and that will really be tied to a specific project so this is really to uh Chairman Mitchell's point this is kind of a a high level consideration of of the development team but um there's no expectation that a team would have identified contractors subcontractors at this stage in in the process so it would be very difficult to do that now but working towards the RFP you could further flush out those details and that would be something that we would consider I think at that point in time too have one more question.

But working towards the RFP, you could further flush out those details, and that would be something that we would consider, I think, at that point in time too.

I have one more question.

Go ahead.

So for that process, this will be used.

This criteria will be used to kind of whittle that list down to that RP list, right?

So I I do want to emphasize I think that you know this criteria is just as important as the next criteria, but that's that's where my opinion on it.

Thank you.

Yes.

Uh and and I'm not lessening the importance of any other criteria, but the financial capacity.

And I speak from the former uh proposals that we got for that property back in way back in 2008, 2006.

Uh as it turned out, there was a little bump in the road, uh probably a big bump in the road uh with the recession, and the uh the developer didn't have the financial capacity to weather the storm.

Consequently, uh came back with a uh uh stake project uh that we rightfully rejected.

So my point is the financial capacity uh I think is extremely important, and probably out of those, probably the easiest to ascertain uh and you know, if you do your due diligence.

So uh I just want to emphasize how important that is.

Without that, we we we really don't know who we're dealing with from from a financial standpoint.

So hopefully we'll definitely pay a lot of attention to that and do a lot of due diligence uh on the financial part.

And as you can see from the point system, those two categories, financial and experience are 60 points.

So clearly that's what we were thinking about as well.

So and I think these are all the mayor.

Councilwoman Bryant has a question.

Thank you, Mayor.

The point system is used to evaluate every RFQ that came in.

Who passes on to the RFP process based on the point system?

Do they have to earn a certain point total to pass on?

How does that work?

I think first it will be the point.

Each one is scored independently, right?

Um so we're not sitting in a room discussing it.

I think once the points come out, I think the first round would be based on the points.

High is the lowest.

So let's say you have X number of RFQs and you're evaluating each of them independently.

How do you determine which go on to the next phase based on do you pick a certain number that reach a certain point level?

Do they have to earn a hundred?

How does that work?

Yeah, so that we do we do not have a minimum threshold that one would have to achieve to be considered for moving forward.

I think it ultimately will be determined based on the number of responses and how they score independently compared to one another.

Um so you could have um so rather than achieving a level you're comparing them to each other.

Absolutely want to make sure that uh whatever proposals we have for the strongest responses.

Okay.

Can I add something to I think may help you a little bit here?

Um we rank those independent submissions, right?

We have the opposite option then of establishing who we think are ones that actually can do this.

We have the option of doing all none or some.

Okay.

So when we look at this, there's there's no minimum that we have to take, or do we we don't have to take any of them?

Yeah, so we get to look at them independently and then determine do we think the firm's submission is something relevant to what we want in our city.

If it is, it's gonna get a uh our higher score based on this criteria.

Uh and then when we look at them overall, uh, we'll pick some manageable number.

We don't have that number yet, but you have you're picking some manageable number to move on to the next category.

Thank you.

That clarifies thank you.

I appreciate the conversation because I don't want to get tripped up on this part.

And um, this is a part where a lot of citizens have interpretations of what we're doing, and that's the way that we're gonna have to do that.

Yeah, let's say what is currently councilman Dodson, so you have the floor.

Um can I is it appropriate to go back to a different page at this time?

Sure.

Um back to page eight.

Okay.

Um some of the feedback and some of the design criteria have concerned me about the two parcels where we're really speaking about how we developed the whole waterfront, which is two parcels, not just this parcel.

And the feedback that we got and the design requirements that I've seen have seriously concerned me, and I'm not sure where to express it, express my concern.

But I in look at this parcel and think we're trying to drive business by some of what this is business activity over to this parcel.

And I look like at this, this would be more successful as a sleepy parcel, not as an active parcel.

And the other parcel we have this one right here, more as an active parcel rather than a sleepy parcel.

If we're trying to drive business over to this parcel, I think the walk from uh the old town link district over to here is going to be a business prohibitive to it.

And I think it would be more to our advantage to create this as a quiet end of town, uh, more geared towards the residential, and let the residents from there migrate over and keep our other business parcels more alive rather than try to have activities here.

So I know there's some concern that the waterfront be developed, but I'm not sure that and think that these this feedback from the public would be much more effectively applied to this parcel than to that parcel.

And I think we're overbuilding with the retail and the office space that was in the initial design initial requirements for this parcel.

Um so um I'm not sure I agree with all that.

Oh then that's what we're having a conversation here.

Um there are odd of a lot of benefits to that side, mainly because of just the view.

You're getting an extraordinary view across the water into Norfolk, uh, which I think in and of itself is going to attract uh people to want to come to that particular section uh for both retail, restaurants, and um hotel space.

Um I'm not sure I understand the quiet versus it's a it's a hotel residential area, and I think to try and drive a lot of noise over there is going to create problems in the future if we have large get large open gatherings, as some of this some of this is indicating on that parcel.

Large open gatherings would be better on this parcel.

Uh, where it wouldn't disturb resident residential areas or hotel areas or hotel guests that we might have.

Um in this area.

Yeah, it's it's difficult to speak to that because we're so early in the stage in terms of what things are going to look like.

Um I would say until we get a little closer in terms of really conceptual ideas and nail those down, but that's certainly something I think we ought to um all of us need to have some conversation around.

Um but I'm wondering when you're downtown, downtown's busy.

You know, that's the nature of living downtown.

And um, I think we also want to honor that as well.

Those are just my my expressing thoughts right now.

Yeah, uh I uh what I would say too about that is that when you look at other similar type cities like this, that when people move to that area, they have expectations, and that type of living is what they're looking for.

Is that in the places that we have a lot?

So I think that and we're not trying to draw anything to we want people to go to from there to the link district to the downtown district.

We want it to flow, not just in one spot.

So that's how we're looking at this.

Councilman Hugo, sir, you have a thanks, Mayor.

And I would offer as a counter all of this feedback came from those public sessions, and the focus of those public sessions did not include this parcel.

It was all that the holiday in Crawford Bay parcel.

So these comments were specific feedback to that parcel.

I didn't hear anybody saying, Yeah, let's keep it quiet.

I said, I heard let's have lots of activity, let's go eat and drink and be merry.

And I think they were turned out because they are going to be the next door neighbors and wanted to have a voice in what shows up next door.

And so I think this is specific feedback to that parcel and uh and uh and a whole lot of uh let's keep things quiet and that feedback.

Absolutely okay.

This is just a a top-level look at the um schedule.

Um about 14 months from start to finish and the RFQ phase we are pretty much done with in terms of developers have um submitted their information.

We will then move into RFP phase, and uh we'll identify the short list of development teams by May.

Um, and it's our hope that by December we'll be in front of City Council uh with our recommendation.

See anything that's gonna hold us up.

I think we're gonna meet those every expectation we're gonna make that schedule on the uh that's that's a that's a definite would not be a definite.

Council McThomas, did you?

Oh no, okay.

I'm smiling because I'm excited about the development.

Yeah, and one thing one thing I would like to say before we get into the next thing.

You you know, I I want y'all to keep in mind, you know, I pay a lot of attention to this stuff, and one of the things I think that we demonstrated when I say we the economic development, the city team, the council, and I go back to the casino.

When we started that process, um when we brought rivers in here, we went to see rivers in Philadelphia, we went to visit a lot of their places, and the the most important thing that came out of that was we were knowledgeable, we were informed about that and what it was going to potentially be.

I always say that Rivers, you know, underpromised and overperformed.

And I really really am excited about what people fail to realize.

We entered into a contract, we the council, we got minority participation, we got minority ownership, and I know because I talked to a number of those who invested in the casino, and they're really happy right now that they took advantage of the opportunity.

But what I want to share with y'all is Porchmith got that right.

We created a blueprint for getting these types of projects right.

We built a casino, a whole lot of square footage in 13 months without any hitches in the deal.

We had no issues for the most part.

The things that we dealt with, we dealt with straight up.

Our EDA was right at the table.

We did that right.

So I just want to caution us as we go in this.

These are exciting times, and we need to ask questions, but make no mistake, we have a blueprint.

We have a successful outcome.

As you can see, what's happening at the casino?

We just topped off with the hotel the other day.

There continues to be additional investment.

And by the way, when we looked at the financials of the casino, all of that was vetted, all of it was vetted, and you all know that.

And we went through that process, but the point I want to take away, want y'all to take away is we did our work, and on this project, we as a team, EDA council, we will do our work, but we intend to bring something that is going to be dynamic, attractive, bring joy and people back downtown.

That's the focus.

Just wanted to add that.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Sorry, I have one question before we go to the next slide.

I know you're changing subjects on the link district.

For this schedule, and I was just looking over it.

Um, when will council get updated as we move along the process?

I'm hoping we can get updates before the December Council City Council review.

Um, do we have some type of like milestone set for council um updates because that's very important for transparency in the city.

Our citizens love that they want to be brought along for the process as well.

I'm not I know we have two city council representatives, um, and we probably just need to decide how it can be shared in a way.

That's what I'm kind of looking for.

If we can put that so that we don't lose sight of being transparent with the city, that would be really great.

Well, absolutely put that in in the process.

If I may just add, we and we've made an effort from the beginning of the solicitation process to be uh transparent and engaged with the community.

Um we've had two initial community meetings.

We're going to have a third that will be done in June when we have uh identified the development partners that we are shortlisting.

Okay.

So we will have a another community meeting where that will be shared.

Um, and then of course, after that point in time as we work through the RFP process, we will be back before you uh with additional information when we can share it when it's available so that you and the public are aware of where we are in the process.

Um leading up to a recommendation for you know who that selected developer would be.

Thank you.

So you'll see us again.

All right, thank you.

We move to the um link district.

Um unlike Crawford Bay, which is a a single large um development.

This involves targeted um interventions across across high street.

Um so you know, when you think about it, it's a lot going on.

We're we've got two significant projects we're trying to manage at the same time.

Um, but I'm very happy with where we are with the link district um in terms of property acquisition.

Um one of the things that we wanted to do was to be able to acquire property so that we had some say so in terms of what was going to be done there.

Um, and I think um so far I think we've done really a good job.

Um, and very particular team is very proud of where we are.

We can start off with 1028 high street, um 1013 Queen Street.

If you've been down there, that building, the picture now is almost all gone.

Um, and it's gonna be a nice partial that I think um it's enough enough of a size that we can get a developer to come in and do a significant project there.

Um, and it's right on the quarter where we're having um great townhomes across the street, um apartments further up the street.

Um so I think it's gonna be a great location and a good destination if we get the right um developer there.

Um 1117, 1121 high street.

Um we are currently doing some roof repairs on that property.

It is a huge property inside.

If you ever get a chance to see it, it is really really much bigger than what it shows on on the outside.

Um we're also going to try to clean up the um landscape um to make it more attractive.

Um and we will begin to um flush it out a little bit and get it ready for developer to come in and size up that is an opportunity um moving forward, but it's at a key location, and we definitely want to make sure that we get um that right.

1220 High Street will be the latest coffee shop um in Fort Smith.

Um, and I think this is an absolutely fantastic location.

Um when you think about where it is across the street um from the townhomes, apartments, couple blocks away.

Um I think this is going to be going to be a really nice community spot um for people to engage and talk about what's going on in the community, have great coffee, great pastry, um, and I think we have a great um potential person who is looking to lease the property that I think is going to um really do a great job there.

So we're really excited about that and looking forward to um the work being done on that particular building.

934 High Street, um, which if you went to the uh mural festival, um it was in the alley there.

Um quite frankly, we had some learnings on this one, you know, in our attempt to um acquire property, um a lot more work needed inside than we thought, you know, to be honest with everyone.

So um I think the next time we acquire our property, we'll probably do some things differently to size up how much work is needed um and to help us with with the cost.

I think we got a good deal, but um I think it's gonna take a little bit more work um to get it stable for a developer than we uh initially thought.

Um when you say get it ready, what what is the potential use or what what is the vision for that place?

It's a it probably most likely be a mixed use uh development with uh residential on the second floor and with uh commercial, possibly a restaurant or or other type of commercial activity on the first floor.

Okay.

That's a good question because round one has been acquisition.

Right.

Round two is really trying to figure out what is appropriate to go into those locations and how much cost is it gonna take and what kind of partnerships can we get with developers to work with us.

This is our most recent um acquisition, and really excited about this one because it is almost the entire block.

Um 817 to 823 High Street.

Um, and we are currently going through structural issues, and we hope to start demolition on that.

Who would you think?

By the end of the calendar year is what we're projecting.

Um there's a lot gonna go here.

I mean, I I'm gonna hotel.

You know, we're running at about 80% capacity for hotels here.

Clearly, the market is saying we need more hotels.

Um that's a big enough footprint that you could do that there, and that's why I'm so excited that the properties that we're getting um are the right size, and they allow us to do some unique things that if we were just getting a little bit here and a little bit there, we wouldn't be able to do it.

But um, this is a really, really nice piece that I think is going to um if we do it right, it's gonna be a nice structure on high street there.

And if I could, one of the things that and I I like the vision of that because when we were in Greenville, you know, they they talked about how many more hotel spaces they were creating, and that was a big driver because of all the activity they had coming downtown.

It was very important that hotel space be available.

But in addition to that, for me, that parcel perhaps could even accommodate some parking to go in the rear of the building, or maybe on top.

I know when we were in Roanoke, we saw a hotel uh downtown that had parking, and the hotel was on the top of the parking.

So I think it it adds to that whole vision of walkability, accessibility.

Um, that's a good spot because you have a lot of activity in that corridor, and we do need a new hotel.

Uh an upgraded hotel, not not top of the line, but we need something that business travel, uh, things like that that has accessibility.

We have the naval shipyard there, 11,000 people per day.

We have the naval hospital, uh, several thousand of people.

Um, so that would be an ideal location for something like that.

I think I agree.

Thoughts, opinions.

Councilman Hugley.

So you have Brian, do you have insight with either the shipyard or with the hospital about visitors that are staying in local hotels, not in Portsmouth.

My guess is that that uh the I mean I know the Navy Yard has uh uh contractors and other shipyards that send their folks to come here and work for extended periods of time, and I wonder so so they don't all stay at the Renaissance, some of them are are staying in other places, and so when it comes time for us to have discussions with uh potential uh uh hotel owners get getting a census of uh what what what that business flow looks like maybe can help make the compelling case for something like this location.

Yes, absolutely.

We don't have um hard numbers at this time.

That's what we're going to be working to obtain.

Um I think there is a general opinion in the sense that what you just stated is in fact uh the the issue that we're challenged with, which is um a lack of capacity here uh to capture those stays.

Uh we're losing rooms to uh Suffolk, uh Chesapeake, even Norfolk.

Uh one of the things that has been identified as a demand for an extended stay uh product uh when you do have contractors that are here working in Portsmouth, whether it's for the the Coast Guard or general contractor working at the shipyard, there's really nowhere to accommodate that.

Yeah.

Okay.

I I also would like to say that I think our decision to be more aggressive and property acquisition over time will turn out to be a really really good decision that was made.

Because who knows what would have been in there.

Good point.

And our last piece is really about temporary activation of vacant ED, EDA and City land property.

And it was an eye opener.

People had things that hadn't done anything, looks like for years.

And it just was really just an unpleasant experience.

And I think if we're going to make this work, we also need to focus on this vacant property because that's the perception that sometimes people have.

Or can we come up with out of the box ideas that might make it workable for a period of time?

Here are just four properties that we just randomly took a picture of, they're vacant.

Maybe we have a joint task force that's the city arts department, um, folks in the community, and really just what would you like to see in some of these spaces.

Um we tear down the jail and the civic center, that's probably going to be vacant for a reasonable period of time.

Um so how do you stand it up in a way that it's attractive?

These are just some examples, and there'll be tons of things that we can we can think of.

Um some places have used it into a garden space.

Um people have used it into container parks.

Um in fact, um Brian and I went to a container park in Richmond that was really really nicely done.

Um it was activated with um an area for they had turned uh what was that like a like an old rail car trolley car.

They had turned it into like a little bar.

Um they had a sitting area where people could sit around, they had fire pits.

Um they really did a nice job of activating an area that was just an eyesore.

Um, so the ideas are unlimited um in terms of what we might be able to do.

Um, you have to thank you.

Um I really like some of the activation examples, and I was listening to your last ED8 meeting when you mentioned the idea about you know what do we do with these temporary vacancies as we're going through our planning so that they're not eyesores.

And I was looking at this, um, I didn't pull those pictures, but I was looking at this organization I remember called uh wait, I wrote it out.

Better Block Foundation.

Have y'all heard that?

Better Block Foundation.

And so they guide like through uh community to help them turn temporary transformations of spaces or streets in their communities into something kind of just like that.

Um, and I actually went to their website, they have um different chapters or different cities have set, you know, gone through their training process.

Hampton has, I know for example, and they're currently taking applications for uh people to go through their um current training.

So you when you mentioned maybe forming a committee or with stakeholders to kind of think of what do we do with our activation.

I thought about this foundation, and and it does have a cost, but I think uh with some of our EDA or planning or whoever, it it could be worth kind of just exploring since they already have a process of helping cities implement temporary spaces in some vacant um area.

So just wanted to throw that out there, and I love the examples you pulled.

I was in Dallas last week, and there were a lot of places where restaurants had extended into those vacant spaces and put tables there for night dining.

There were places where people had like fire pairs they could read books, conversations they have great signage around them and um I just like the fact that it's unlimited in terms of what you can do.

So that's pretty cool.

Councilwoman Bryant oh yes I've done thank you.

Okay thanks mayor um it was suggested to me the other night when we were at the um wall street at night that a dog park might be a useful um addition to this space with the apartments coming online in the townhouses coming online that that's often a very thought after third space for young professionals to gather and and without yards of their own that would be a nice addition I don't know if with engineering and parks and rec I know there's been a dog park in the works for a very long time in another area not too far away but if it's a possibility to move maybe move that along in this space as well that might be an option.

And I know we really had a wonderful time on Friday night and that's a space that's already set up so I know we would probably like to talk a little bit more about how we can use that space the mural fest space more often to do events like we had on Friday night.

Um councilman Dodson you have a flu so I'm familiar with the Miami mural mart uh If none of you are it's uh two blocks where they've got the interior where they do a much more extensive than what we did for the mural but the unique part about it was they had a museum where the artists could display their works and it'd be so nice if we could consider a place like an indoor space like that that would be continuously open where the artists could actually sell prints pieces of their murals to create more traffic in that way to help expand expand that facility.

I don't know if y'all can encourage that in some way.

In addition to that there's a parcel at the end of peninsula that's just off from these parcels right here that the owner is very owner is very concerned that he can't get access to his own property that the city can have rights to cross the river but there's a little dead end piece of railroad that they had that the owner is being denied access to his property that would tie in to the this this same area right here and there's an investor that would love to do it but we can't seem to get it to get the uh railroad to grant access to grant to the city won't grant it to the owners of the property I'd love to see if you guys have any channels to help us get access to that property that it would be much appreciated by the investor that's ready to buy the property and the owner's ready to sell the property I'm assuming that's a rail line I'd be in used right so it's just the if you look at the map it's a dead end.

Yeah I think we may have some experience with that is we work with um Norfolk Southern uh we have work requirements I want to say that's CSX insects as well I I'm not sure the specific property address we could look into that or where peninsula ends right there they can't cause the cross the river tracks to get access to their property and we tie right into this these two properties that you have right here also it's a unique investment for the city that I think would do well we haven't talked a lot about blighted um what the city can do to address some of the blighted property is this appropriate time that we throw that out 100% it it goes in line with what I mean you can't develop it if it's in the way so if it's blighted we need to absolutely and in my estimation we need to put some stronger controls um absolutely in place and that's probably we gotta look at our zoning ordinances and what we can do legally but as you stated through uh during the walkthrough particularly in our link district there are a number of blighted places uh that have not been activated nor any work has been done uh since the last 10 years I've been around walking downtown so I would I would say that that's a conversation that we as a council will have with our attorney and our and our zoning department um we're looking at some models that other localities have used so if there's any recommendations that you all have I know Mr.

Mitchell you and I talk a lot about different things and you bring up certain ordinances and other um things that are happening in other localities you we've shared information so if there's anything you have a model or something that we can can bolt on to by all means bring it to us because that's a part of our strategy.

Vice Mayor well speaking of that I I think uh Mr.

That uh where do we stand?

I know we had a we've had numerous conversations with that, but I don't think it's moved past the conversation uh point.

But I I agree with you, Mayor.

We we need to become much more aggressive uh because these places that uh most of the time there are people who who have no connection with Portsmouth other than they either purchase this property years ago or it was uh uh left to them.

It doesn't matter.

Uh it is creating a bad image for our city, and uh if we we should utilize any tool that we have, correct, and and the state code allows us some tools, it's just a matter of us uh wanting to use them.

Is that can you speak to that, Mr.

Challenger?

Attorney Challenger, you have the floor.

So yes, I provided a um memo to city council within the last month, yes, after probably the last couple of weeks about the different options that are available for this for cities to address flight, derrell up properties.

Um so we've been continuously um upgrading our ordinances to address those particular types of issues.

Um the the one thing I wanted to make sure we add, in addition to provide examples from other cities and other places where it works, um, it's also a question of making sure that we have departments that are adequately staffed and funded to be able to do some of this work as well.

It's not totally just the legal options, but also having the right number of staff that's able to do that as it relates to permits inspections, um, making sure we have an adequate amount of money to address uh demolishing buildings, um, because that that's an expensive process to the model as a building and making sure that we actually have the funds to do it.

Um so, but yeah, we we'll we remain committed to um addressing blight.

Um we we how is the part of the uh process of riding around on the golf course downtown, and it's certainly um we're not doing enough to address um that those issues because it stands in the way of development.

100%.

And so completely behind um that process.

Um the city attorney's office is not the one who is first and foremost.

We'll provide we provide advice to departments who are doing that.

It's not us leading the fight.

We're not out in the uh community looking at properties, it's you know, code enforcement, those are the folks who are out doing that work, and then they reach out to us as it relates to bringing them out of the court.

So it's a comprehensive process that's involved multiple departments, but we are fully invested in addressing this issue.

Okay.

Vice Mayor Moody.

Well, perhaps the next step is for staff to get back with us and see what we need to do either from a capacity standpoint to use some of these tools that uh Mr.

Challenger uh speaks of.

Uh because we don't I mean the blight is gonna continue.

It's almost a situation like uh we're giving them permission to make our city ugly, unattractive.

So it's up to us to put a halt to it.

And it sounds like we got the tools to do it if we have the capacity to do it.

And and Mr.

Manager, I guess uh you you're the only one can look into that and see okay.

Go go go ahead, sir, and then Mr.

Tillage has well I I wanted I wanted you to read respond to that one, and then Mr.

Tillich will have the floor.

Okay.

Uh I know that the city assessors offers and permanent inspections are already looking at a process for this.

So once they uh come conclude what they're doing, they will know better uh what plan to take forward.

So that's already a conversation that those two offices are having together.

Terrific.

Good.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman Tillage.

So my question would be uh since it's with the city assessor's office.

Do we have a timeline on when we could have this information back to council?

Uh the ordinance was coming tomorrow night.

Not this one.

It's not on the agenda.

Yeah.

Because we if we can get on the on maybe the next council meeting.

Um, but then the other piece, Mayor, uh, would be the piece in regards to the rehab program and the city changing the policy on that um so that we can really clean that up.

Uh so in addition to the ordinance and the penalties, the separate policy discussion on how we can modify this rehab program.

Okay the Nate City Council meeting is gonna be a closed session item that will be addressed to that particular point.

Okay, okay.

So I knew when we did our walkthrough, um let him give next you up next.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

I know we did our walkthrough um what a month ago through High Street and we saw so many properties that we're being used for storage and vacant and roofs caving in.

Um I know City Manager Carter, you referenced that you know, in some cities you worked in, there's been a follow-through in terms of um keeping in contact with these property owners that have these vacant properties and putting them on a list and doing a little bit of research.

We have an ordinance, um, it's chapter 17, Article 3.

We have a vacant ordinance policy.

The problem is there's not not enough follow-through.

So that could be amended to put in a request to possibly have them all put on a vacant list.

If you have a property that's been vacant for over a year, you are putting a vacant property list, a database.

It's a penalty if you don't put your property on this list.

Um, this enables the city to really have hands-on engagement with that property owner throughout the year.

They're given updates.

You have city staff that come at least uh every six months to give them documentation just to talk with the business owner to see what they need, talk to them about grants, talk to them about things that can help them better their property, um, and also possible solutions on getting the the property on the market.

Um that helps the transparency between the city and the the property owners is to show them that hey, we care and we also care about your property that looks like it does, especially in these areas that are literally the gateways to the link, the gateway to the Crawford Bay, the gateway to going to rivers.

Um sadly, um when we have guests that come into the area, I'm now I'm not the only one that redirects some of our guests through other ways so they don't go a certain parcel and see a certain parcel or certain neighborhood.

That shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be that way.

And we're doing that because we we know the area.

We know you come off the interstate, there are some properties that don't look the best.

We know when we go through the link district, you see all these vacant properties and and lighting issues and things that have been going on for years.

If there's accountability from the city, and I know it's a lot of staffing issues and whatnot, but if there was more communication and follow-through on that parcel or what we're doing, then the ordinance will be effective.

Without it, it won't be effective.

As if we already have an ordinance, but it's not effective right now in its current state.

So I think I sent that to the members of council that did the walkthrough.

Um just a recommendation.

I'm not the expert, but I know that's at least a start.

Mr.

Edwich, Mr.

Trust, Mr.

Tillage, we've been working, myself and Jeff Miller have been bouncing things back and forth, and every time we think we're done, we think of something else and add to it.

So we're gonna definitely get it wrapped up not tomorrow night but the next council meeting.

And for the vacant, when I purchased my house prior to COVID, it was on a vacant list in the city.

So they used to have that list at one point.

I don't know who kept it.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean that was 2019, but uh my contractor had to get it taken off the list.

So I think this is a good dialogue, but but uh I'll I'll preface it to say in the big picture.

Um, and I said this before, you know, we we we must we can't do everything at once, but in order to improve what we desire to improve upon, which is to get those get the attention of those vacant property owners who are not doing anything with their properties, but we've got to create a sense of urgency.

I keep saying that, and uh I'm not willing to sit back, you know.

What we ain't not gonna wait another five years to get moving.

We're getting ready to move right now.

And that's the sentiment that needs to happen, right, Mr.

Manager?

Absolutely.

See, right now is the time to strike and get things moving.

And I talked to the partnership today, had all those business leaders and folks in the room, and we've got a lot of momentum happening.

And each one of us, those business owners need to be talking to those people that they know that are down there with those properties that are not performing and they're not even interested in putting them on on on back active.

We've got to motivate them to do the right thing, and and we do that through a number of different ways through having conversations through legislative or policy issues that we can bring up to them.

But whatever it takes, because we can't wait another five years to get started.

We're underway.

So I want everybody to take away we need everybody's ideas and everybody on the table.

Um nothing is off of the table.

And that's where we need to focus.

Vice Mayor Moody.

To Commissioner Harmon's point, the the effort needs to be holistic.

100% throughout the city.

And when I say that, uh Craddock comes to mind.

Matter of fact, the boards have become rotten uh and decayed.

So, you know, shame on us.

We we we cannot allow that to happen.

We we've got to change that.

And I agree with you, Mayor.

It's gotta have a sense of urgency to address it.

So you beat that horse a lot.

Yeah, let's move on.

And finally, the uh EDA um small business loan program.

Um this is a program that is part of our discussions.

We heard from a lot of small businesses that it was difficult for them to get uh financing.

Um so we made a decision to step into that arena um and provide them with an opportunity um that was non-traditional to provide them with some financing.

So on the background, it's the Portsmouth EDA small business revolving loan fund, a joint initiative of the EDA and bridging Virginia uh with the purpose of supporting and growing Fort Smith-based businesses.

Um we made an agreement in January 26.

Um we allocated 250,000 from our budget um to capitalize the program, a hundred thousand for administrative services.

I'm hopeful that that number will go down in time, but that's the start of cost um to get us started.

Um we have currently uh referred um 10 small businesses to the program and two are currently in underwriting um for review.

Um I think this is gonna be a really solid program for small businesses to to move to uh the next level and um loans over 25,000 dollars are subject to review by the capital access committee.

Loans exceeding 50,000 require approval from the EDA and they're reviewed um at evaluated on the first Thursday of every month.

I wanted to say something.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Mayor, about that particularly, we were particularly looking at minority and women businesses when we thought about that program.

We thought about the fact that so many contractors, small businesses can't compete for contracts because they can't wait 45, 60 days to get paid to pay their uh employees.

So that is one of the ways we were looking at trying to get them into into the flow of things of how it operates and help them to be able to be eligible to apply.

And and that's critically important.

You know, I I often tell people as a small business owner, um it's important that you have access to capital, and it's important that we have a process to educate our our small businesses.

A lot of small business people who start out, they may not know the process.

And what you guys are doing at the EDA and at economic development, I think is really um game-changing for a lot of small businesses.

I don't know of a program that this that is this extensive with what you all are doing and the dollars you provide.

Uh there's none unlike that in like that in the region.

And and so we've set a standard and an expectation.

I talked to small women and mining minority-owned businesses a lot, and they're very grateful.

For example, the loan program that we did, where we did the funding, you know, 12 of those businesses last year, I believe, were women in minority-owned businesses, which we gave them seed money to start their businesses, and many of them have come up to me and said, Mayor, without that initial digital investment, we would not have had an opportunity.

And so we're seeing the results of that within our community, and that's good.

So we're gonna continue to do that, to continue to share with our businesses that we're open for business, doesn't it doesn't matter where you come from, doesn't matter which side of the tracks you come from.

We are going to do the work and we're gonna make sure that in Portsmouth, everyone has access because we need all people to make the city move.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Open discussion.

Did the commissioners did you all have anything else you wanted to add?

Because I know, look, you all see a uh uh a lot of things from a lot of different areas.

And I know, for example, um Commissioner Teresa Saundersmith, she was she was in business in the city.

Um, you guys have a lot of information.

I know Camille, her family is in business.

Uh uh, Mr.

Morgan over there is a banker.

We we encourage your input.

We need your input.

You know, we collectively can do a lot of good things and bring about a lot of good changes uh that we desire to have.

So I want to encourage you all to continue to do the great work you all are doing on the EDA.

I know Ms.

Hawkeroyd is participates in the real estate businesses and things like that.

Uh but we won't be able to get the work done without each of you uh putting in and helping us get there.

So thank you uh for your service to the city.

It's invaluable.

We appreciate your commitment.

I do have one comment.

Yes, ma'am.

I am working on our last EDA.

I went over and talked to work uh at work, Portsmouth.

So one of the dynamics in the citizens of knowing about the businesses in the community is through the civic clubs and the civic leagues, if you will, and there's really no direct contact to get that initiative and connect our citizens with the local businesses in their community just to support their local community or to they can drive by up sure.

Um, but one of the things is um apprenticeships uh locally available for our citizens and the workforce development to get the business initiatives in there to offer these services to our citizens.

And uh it comes in part with uh the lack of communication, if you will, to our citizens for these types of services because clear clearly they've developed it for our citizens, but it's not getting to them.

They don't have anybody knocking on their doors for this services that we're providing for our citizens.

So the communication of that gap and getting to our businesses, and hey, are you willing to participate in this with our city?

Um, this is what we can offer you as a benefit.

I'm not sure all the benefits that the at work development offers all the businesses, but to get it to our citizens and to offer our young elderly and unemployed and retired citizens within their community, whether they have to walk or drive or whatever, uh just kind of an initiative to support their local where they're reside.

And like, for instance, I live in Simonsdale.

There's a lot of opportunity over there.

A lot of businesses that particular service league, uh civic league, a lot of opportunity to engage in our assets in that community within that community.

And businesses yet alone citizens can work along to engage that type of uh business engagement.

So that's my thought on that.

Thank you.

You welcome Barbara that I just wanted to convey one one thought we hadn't talked about much here is expansion of the tax base.

And one of the things that I think is foremost in our mind is that as we encourage business development and property redevelopment, one of the central tendencies that we want to increase the ability of the city, and we do that through increasing the tax base and particularly the real estate tax base.

And that's sort of one of the foundations of what we're looking to try to accomplish as as we go forward.

And the second thing that I'd like to sort of mention is that the support that we've received from you all.

And I you know uh the vision that you've uh outlined and the commitment that you've made for progress, I think has been unprecedented in the short time that I've lived in the city, and I think that uh we want to thank you for the support and and uh encouragement that you have given us and the latitude that you've given us to uh carry out initiatives to meet our combined objectives and goals.

Yeah, and if I could real quick, one quick story I think is worth sharing.

I remember the young lady who opened up Hello Sweetie Cheesecakes.

I remember she had she started, if you all don't know her story, she started at the farmers market.

She had a little tent, she was selling her cheesecakes, and she said, you know, one day, mayor, I want a brick and mortar place.

Lo and behold, a couple months later, she ended up talking to Brian, and we put that young lady in a brick and mortar place, and today she is expanding.

She just told me she hired four more folks to cook cheesecakes or make cheesecakes.

That's the kind of business we want in our city.

You know, we like the big ones, but let's be clear.

We like them too.

And we want to encourage that, and we want to continue to promote that, but those are the kind of stories that come out of the collective effort and make people want to be here and find their way here and continue to help our city grow.

And you're right, Mr.

Barber.

Look, at the end of the day, the primary reason we want to grow business is to create tax revenue so that we can have more people paying into the pot, and that's gonna require less of a strain on the other businesses that are here, but most importantly, we can have the resources to do the things that we need to do to make our city more attractive.

Schools, public safety, infrastructure, growth and development, all of those matters.

So thank you all.

And wait, listen, we're just getting started.

Thanks, sir.

Um so I was here in the 70s and the 80s for the layoffs that we had from the shipyard.

Uh GE, the loss of Skippy, which may most of you in here don't even don't even know or remember.

Um, but it was devastating to our economy that we didn't have diversity.

And I'm I'm glad to say that we've got a wonderful economic development department working on the big projects.

And it's so nice to see you guys working on the diversity that we need in our economy to stabilize ourselves against uh government contracts, because I work government contracts as part of my life, and it is devastating to an economy when those government contracts are pulled or failed or move in that and to have you diversifying our income the way you're doing is just my dream country for Portsmouth, sir.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us.

Keep up the great work.

Thank you.

I moved to go into a closed meeting A pursuant to Virginia Code subsection 2.2-3711A8 for the purpose of excuse me of consultation with legal counsel employed or retain by the public body regarding specific uh matters re uh requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel specifically regarding section two uh 114 of the city code and B, pursuant to Virginia Code Subsection 2.2 3711 A1 for the purpose of discussion and consideration regarding appointments to boards and commissions, the position of city auditor, and the position of city attorney.

Second.

Yes, Dr.

Gots.

Yes, Mr.

Hugo.

Mr.

Moody.

Yes.

Yes.

Mayor Clover.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you guys again.

And two only such public business matters as were identified in which the motion uh which the closed meeting was convened were her discussed or considered in the closed meeting just concluded.

Second.

Madam Clerk, could you call the role?

Yes, sir.

Miss Bryant.

Yes.

Dr.

That yes.

Mr.

Hugo.

I Mr.

Moody.

Yes.

Ms.

Thomas.

Yes.

Mr.

Tillage.

Yes.

Mayor Glaver.

Yes.

Thank you.

We are closed.

Um there are a couple other items as you all know.

I just wanted to make sure we were all clear for tomorrow's meeting.

That is our budget adoption meeting.

So it will be a business meeting.

Uh as such, I wanted to give everybody if you have any questions related to the business meeting.

Um, or if you have any things last minute you want to ask the manager about, I think this is the forum because what what what we're not going to you you you what we don't anticipate and want to get involved with at the business meeting is a bunch of back and forth and and and reiterating what we've already discussed.

So it it may be a big crowd tomorrow.

We don't know what to anticipate, but we want to make sure that everything is orderly and that we run the business meeting as a business meeting.

So the floor is open now.

If there are any last minute concerns that you all want to get out, um I think the the opportunity is to do that now.

So I've uh two questions from Mr.

Carter.

The first uh we don't have a state budget yet.

What if any motion has there been between you and Dr.

Bracey around the school piece of the budget?

Anything new there?

Nothing.

Okay.

Okay that you will adopt tomorrow.

All right.

And then I have a budget today.

Yeah.

Actually, we're proposing nine million in a budget that you adopt tomorrow.

Okay.

And then the the second question, uh at the last council meeting, there was a non-agenda speaker who raised the question around firefighter positions.

You and I talked about that.

Can and given that that's public safety is our number one priority.

I want to make sure that we all understand kind of where things stand there.

Uh uh, from our discussion, I understand that there are some number of vacant positions in the fire department now that you're pressing Chief Mangabat to fill as the priority.

Um if and when those positions are filled.

Uh does that resolve the concern around numbers of people on engines uh that was raised at the at the council meeting or is there is that still gonna be a lingering issue?

Uh let me kind of unpack that a little bit.

Yep.

Okay.

So it's not just the fire department that was not, you know, uh approved for a position.

There were several positions all across our city that was not approved.

And does it fully if they hire if they have a fully staffed, they have all that they need to meet the standards for manning uh all of their fire.

Yeah, I would miss something in so and the the question that was raised was a standard that that requires four people on a truck, not three people on a truck.

And so what I think I just heard you say was that's the standard, and when we fill those we have right now, we fill all those positions we can do what's required right now.

Got it.

The 11 positions.

No.

Okay.

Yeah, the budgeted positions that are there but are not filled, correct?

And I did want to share with everyone, you know, I've I've been in contact with those folks at the state level because we did hear, I think, during discussions that I know the House proposed in the budget probably four million dollars to fund education and the Senate maybe two million dollars.

That's the communications that happen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, right, in terms of the percentage, but um I think that once um the leadership makes the decision, we'll probably end up with about three million or the percentage number will go up uh from the seven seven million that we've provided.

So we should be able to meet the standard of ten million.

Yes, ma'am.

Um Mr.

Carter.

So we had talked prior, and you had mentioned something about because the because of the state budget holding off on the on the school budget vote.

I just wanted to make sure that's that's changed now.

So we are voting.

What we're voting on tomorrow is our general fund budget, which includes ninety million dollars for the schools.

We're not voting on a school proposed budget for what their spending is going to be because we don't know what that's going to be yet.

We will have to come back at a later date to actually do that.

Uh I think the rule is 30 days within the time that the state passes a budget, we have to pass one for the schools.

Okay.

But the 90 million dollars that's appropriate in our general fund, it's just like we're we're appropriating money all over the city for all the things.

That's just one of the things we're appropriating money for.

Okay.

Okay.

Councilman Tillage, so you have the floor.

Um there was a uh email in the uh right inbox, I believe, this morning.

I don't know if you ever had a chance to read that email.

Um from Garland.

No, no, in regards to um Mr.

Bullock.

Oh, yes.

So I don't know if anybody has a chance to read that or not.

Um, so I would encourage people to read it if you haven't.

Um, and I guess Mr.

Carter needs no ASAP.

Oh well, do I need no?

Well, me in regards to the the request if if council decides to go with that request, but if uh my colleagues haven't read the email, then okay.

Okay.

Yeah, I read the email.

Um, I do think you know we should consider the request.

I will bring that to my colleagues as well.

Um, I thought it was actually a pretty good idea it mirrors something we've already done.

So um do you need an answer from us tonight, sir?

Yeah, we're voting tomorrow.

Okay.

Okay, well, I I would if so has everyone read that request?

No.

Uh-uh.

I haven't.

Okay.

So I read it, and what what I took away was he's asking for us to put money in the budget for um city sponsorship of three events.

So you have a process in place already.

When was it sent that evaluates city sponsorship of events?

Yeah, and so given that none of what none of it none of this has been through that process, right?

Well, actually, he's he's applied in other places and not not make the cut as far as funding is concerned.

Now, I think we've used some city sponsorships uh from council to do some other things for them.

But the max that you're gonna get out of that is ten thousand dollars.

Okay.

He's asking for I think it's 90, 30, 30 on each.

Ain't ever gonna fund that.

I only have I think eighty five million dollars, not million.

And at this point, that's not $5,000 for the whole thing.

This point that's not something that's this this this council is going to entertain at this point.

Um, you know, we we we can't entertain that.

We can't bring up stuff at 11 hour.

This is not Christmas time.

We don't we don't add stuff at the 11th hour.

So I agree.

That's that's not something we'll we'll we'll entertain at this time.

One last item.

Um I've spoke uh a couple of times about uh what I feel we should uh uh post our crisis and suicide line, the 988 line.

We've had two examples, unfortunately, recently with uh former lieutenant governor uh and uh also the incident uh recently uh just a few days ago on Greenwood Drive.

I think uh I I don't think we're talking a lot of money, those signs could be posted right uh uh adjacent or in in conjunction with the um uh panhandling signs that we have in most intersections, but I think this is important that we uh sends a message to the community that we care.

Uh and also you know, if it saves uh one life, it it'll certainly be well worth it.

So uh and uh I would like for those signs uh maybe maybe staff can get back with us on on uh how those could be implemented and if there is any cost to let us know what that is as well.

Can I address it?

If there's agreement for that mayor.

Mr.

Carter, you have the floor.

Yes, actually, not in the last report back, but I think the one before that we did address that.

Uh we are doing that.

Uh so we're gonna have the signs fabricated in a different place.

We work with our BHS group to get the case.

So that's where so that's underway.

That's on the way already.

I missed that uh apparently.

Yes, sir.

And I usually read your reports.

I made a feel back.

Thank you, sir.

Um I wanted to ask if we could address sometimes the posting of political signs pre-election times and provide some direction to our city manager as to uh how we should like that handled or whether we would like to have that just delegated to his discretion.

Delegated to my discretion, we're not gonna have any signs.

Thank you, sir.

I'd I'd say that's what's a guy here.

That's not different than want to make sure that was clear to the public then in advance.

So we won't have the gauntlet lines that we've had before.

No, that's people.

People have the right to be uh where they want to be.

Right to a symbol.

Right.

But they may not vote post the signs.

But we do have the authority to not have signs posted in right away.

All right, and that goes for right away everywhere.

I don't think there's a stipulation for city whole right away versus every other right away in the city.

I think that was just something that we adopted as a group and has been going on for a while.

Personally, I don't think it's right, but if that's the tradition of the city, I don't have a problem with doing there's a lot of traditions in the city that we just have to uphold because they're tradition in the city.

All right.

Okay.

Steve says no.

No to what?

Uh put the signs out around City Hall doing collection time.

Yeah.

Liberal policy in place now issue.

I think I think it looks ridiculous.

Uh myself.

I think it would probably be too.

I think it would probably be helpful to, as you said.

It's not that it looks ridiculous, it looks trashy.

Yes.

There you go.

We went from putting them up and taking them down to putting them up and leaving them up.

Yeah.

And then it was Katie Bar the door.

You you couldn't walk down the sidewalk for tripping over signs that were blowing on over every time a windstorm came along.

So I want to end on I'd be quite happy to not stick signs all over City Hall if that's the decision that the group decides.

I'm in favor of that.

Very good.

Um so so the question is are we calling for a consensus here?

I don't request it, sir.

Okay, so so Dr.

Mr.

Dyson is we call for a consensus of what what was your consensus against?

What are we Mr.

Zas?

That the cut the Virginia Virginia Code being be that prohibits these signs from being posted be enforced.

So we don't need a consensus already there.

If we have a policy that we put in place during the last correct election, yeah.

That wouldn't last.

Well, it's the last city council election.

Yeah.

So two years ago that overrode the policy that was in place.

That is correct.

That allowed signs to be put on City Hall property.

Mayor, I would I would think the demolition of the Civic Center might play into this a little bit too.

Is that is that at all worth considering that there's city owned property is demolition happening across the street.

I don't know what what does that signs used to be on that side.

Well, yeah, everywhere.

I mean, maybe this is the ear to just original question.

Do we have a consensus to not have signs placed on city property?

All my favor.

Thank you, sir.

And on a good note.

We'll end on a good note.

I did see the the the street power washers in in in action this morning.

So our streets, our sidewalks, particularly our sidewalks are being s being power washed, and it looks really nice.

I've already walked down that section and I think it looks really nice.

So the Jubilee statue, jubilation statue that's going up.

It's already in place.

It's called jubilation.

Right.

And we'll send out the there's an actual whole sheet that explains who the artist was when it was put in place in 1989.

And the whole idea behind jubilation, which is joy and and participation and the dancers rec represents something as well.

So this is going to be a good thing for our city.

Thank you, Mr.

Carter and your team for staying on task.

We're almost there.

And I can tell you the excitement is built.

And I got jubilation as well.

There you go, Bill.

Jubilation, thank you.

To the uh the ribbon cutting right now.

We're pressing for m May twentieth.

So I'll I'll verify that and make sure that that date is is good, but that's the date we're pressing for right now.

Before.

Yes, right before the goal.

Yes.

Uh if there are people other I got a list from Ms.

White about people that should be invited.

I don't know who all those people that had anything to do with this in the history.

So if you guys know of people that we don't want to miss doing this, please let me know who they are so we can make sure.

I will, sir.

We will, sir.

Thank you.

Done a great job.

Good to return.

Yes.

So ignore the being meeting business to conduct.

This meeting is adjourned.

Have a good evening.