IT management consulting and like I said, merger consulting.

In general, I'm I'm a Portsmouth advocate, uh Portsmouth fan.

Both of my businesses are in Portsmouth.

I love Portsmouth.

I think it's it's our region's most misunderstood, uh, but at least utilize GEM.

Um, so I'm here to support in any way I can, whether that's uh to provide advice to the city if if that's desired or or partner in any sort of other way.

Okay, that's awesome.

All right, all right, um, once Ms.

Evans comes back, you're the chair.

Well, should we wait item number four?

Okay, uh, item number four that we are going to move to next is going to be the history and purpose of the Portsmouth Broadband Authority, which I believe you are going to you awesome.

But uh, I'm gonna need some assistance.

Huh.

I uh I'm gonna call on Kelsey.

I'm gonna call on Ms.

White, call on Adam Huell.

Uh all these people have more history than I do.

Um, but what I really wanted to make sure that the board understands is that where do we how do we get here where to come from, where we're trying to go, and they kind of what the roles are.

Uh I can't tell you when this board and the date this board stood up.

Can one of my uh lifelines help me with when this board was stood up before I was on city council?

So I got a board in January of 223, so it was earlier than that.

Yeah, that sounds right to me.

Because you've just gotten started in this covenant right before you came.

All right.

Now in organizing this board, in a Steve's belief, and please help me if I'm wrong.

I've been around these kind of boards before, and we're gonna make sure I'm not uh misspeaking when I talk about this particular board, is there's certain things that uh our city as a municipal government is limited in doing.

One of the things that a municipality can't do is enter into any kind of a competition for uh technical space like what we're talking about with fiber.

We actually have built or in the process of completing building a fiber ring around the city of Portsmouth.

To monetize that would be illegal for the city, however, an authority has those type of capabilities that can enter into agreements with uh other businesses or entities that can actually make those kind of arrangements.

Why would the city want to do that?

Well, first of all, a lot of times in this particular space, the expansion of that the expansion of that network is often driven by supply and demand.

But supply and demand is not the only thing that is driven by supply demand and ability to pay.

Our other internet providers have the supply.

Our neighborhoods have the demand, but a lot of them don't have the ability to pay the price that's necessary to make uh it lucrative for other providers to go into those networks, know those neighborhoods.

Normally these kind of things are designed to help encourage or incentivize moving into those areas that would normally be left behind.

There's a lot of uh grants that states and even the feds use to try and incentivize that, but normally they build in gaps, and the gaps that's built in is based on how they request and and data is reported to them.

They request data based on census tracts, so all of the world as far as this is concerned is is divided up into sections.

We call those census tracts based on uh how the federal government has laid that out.

When it comes time to report who's being served in those census tracts, you don't have to serve everybody on a census track to count that census track as served.

You only have to be able to serve somebody in the census track.

And then that census tract is counted as served.

So if I am a large provider, and I'm getting incentivized to provide service to a census track that if I'm going to charge $90 a month for a service, but there's probably not a lot of people in that census track that's able to pay $90 a month.

Anytime that I can serve somebody in that census track, I can count that as served.

The problem with that is there's a lot of people left in that census track that has not been served.

There's no incentive for that service provider to expand their network and provide subsidized service.

How do you incentivize those service providers to actually provide service to those people who are underserved?

For that's what I worked really hard on this when I was in the state of Georgia to get the language changed from served to underserved when we start talking about those census trucks.

Yeah.

What we want to be able to do is incentivize other carriers.

That's not what we're trying to be today.

Alright.

Just in case we do want to incentivize those known internet service providers to go into some of these areas and provide service.

We're taking some of the risk out of providing services in those areas by building the network and then just allowing some service provider to come on and use the network that we have built to help extend the services to those areas that are underserved.

That's kind of what this whole thing is in the nation.

This makes sense.

Well, to the greater community because they're often less expensive than hard lines.

They're less expensive than heart lines if you already have that type of infrastructure.

But for being in this business for quite a long time, this is what I will absolutely tell you.

I don't care how wireless a network is, there's some fiber running that network someplace.

Of course.

That's what we're providing that bike bond.

So that these so we're not saying that the internet service providers have to use a fiber drop all the way to the home or to the premise, as it's called.

They can use our network to build out a smaller area of wireless network if that is the service that they wish to provide.

We don't have a preference as to how they deliver the service.

What we're trying to do is take some of the risk out of them having to build that backbone that they have to deliver that service through.

So if I'm understanding correctly, so say I'm uh T Mobile and I'm looking to expand my 5G network in order to service both mobile and you know, home internet customers.

Um, we as the broadband authority could could work together uh with T Mobile, for example, to uh provide easements and whatever else they need in order to tap into the fiber network in order to one received internet and then brought up a note that they're gonna set up some place to provide that service, and we want to be the vehicle to help them move into that area that they wouldn't normally move into, right?

That's what this is all about.

Okay, makes sense, thank you.

Makes sense.

uh provide easements um and whatever else they need in order to tap into the fiber network in order to one received internet and then brought the note that they're gonna set up some place to correct to provide that service and we want to be the vehicle to help them move into that area that they wouldn't normally move into that's what this is all about okay makes sense thank you make sense so when we talk about what it is that we do as a broadband authority what Steve needs it's a forward thinking I don't care how we've ever done it in the past there's no reason we can't do it differently in our future don't be constrained by physical mental or any other barriers that we may think we have as to how we can deliver a service and how we can make that service beneficial to our citizens so uh traditional way of of how we handle things is what I would challenge this group to move away from and think of what we have as a blank piece of paper and we get to write whatever the story is going to be placed on the paper with no constraints about what can be done or how it can be done makes sense of course so you hate my book yes sir I have a historical comment there you go help it go so so I agree with what and you can correct me whenever I say something wrong but I want to add to what the manager's already provided as context so what he said about uh pushing technology into underserved uh parts of the community is an element of why we did what we did but I would say there are three other things that that kind of piggyback with that one uh we put fiber in the ground the Portsmouth ring uh with an ambition to interconnect the city I'll call it intramurally so all of the city things that need to communicate with other city things uh and so the the layout of the ring and the the strings that attached to the ring were designed with this notion that we could interconnect the city to the city on our Portsmouth uh uh fiber backbone uh and so at some point and this has been a discussion ongoing in in these meetings uh really for the last couple of years so where do we stand on on the inner connection of city to city because the intention right now the city uses somebody else's hardware to to make those connections the the goal one of the goals to allow us to use our own stuff to do city to city communication is we save millions of dollars a year I believe if we use our own hardware and not use Verizon or or whoever it is talk to support we use anyway so so whatever whoever's gear we're using right now we could abandon that and and use our own so that so there's potential savings to the city to use our own stuff.

When we put all that in the ground because we were digging anyway the folks that engineered the the fiber ring engineered enormous extra capacity of dark fiber.

So even when the city connects all of the city to itself and even when the city offers our ring to other providers to get into those underserved neighborhoods there's still excess capacity in the fiber in the ground so that you the authority could uh engage with businesses in in town to lease them or maybe sell but certainly lease them.

At least you never sell your fiber okay so so that's why it's here to lease to businesses and so one of the people that's normally in the room that's sit sits over on that wall is our economic development team uh who are out looking for businesses that might be interested in engaging the authority to lease portions of of our fiber now what why would they be interested well so this is the fourth piece because the ring that we have in Tortsmouth is connected to a regional ring.

Will be.

Will be.

And the regional ring is connected to the national grid.

Not yet, but will be.

Northern Virginia and really, you know, the world.

Right.

So there's all of those other tangential things that were kind of inherent in the way the thing was designed, the location of where it got installed, and the capacity that was uh that was uh installed uh because the cost was digging the digging the ditches and putting the fiber in, and and whether we put one fiber optic cable or a zillion fiber optic cables uh um costs become negligible the more you're some point some point the cost become negligible, but the opportunity to make that available to somebody else becomes uh potential for us to uh for the authority to to make money.

We also have extra conduit too.

So part of what uh the authority will be tasked with uh where we're ready to partner with someone actually do what Admiral Heagle is talking about.

Not the part where we're gonna put our own uh facilities on the network, but the part where we're gonna bring other uh business opportunities, educational opportunities, uh, even going into uh the residential areas.

We look to bring a partner in and allow them to kind of manage that for us.

So part of what this group will be doing when we get to that point, is we're doing RFP and you select a vendor or a partner that would be our manager and reseller of those services.

So we're not there yet.

But that is coming.

Part of what we're talking about today is an update on where we are with this, so we kind of we kind of vacillate back and forth between that uh and and where we are right now.

Um we have set uh December 31st as the day to complete all work on the uh internal ring.

And we'll talk about this other ring that we will be connected to.

It's called the South South Side Network Alliance.

That is a ring that goes from Virginia Beach.

Uh I think the north piece goes through uh Norfolk through us over into uh Suffolk, Chesapeake, and back around to Virginia Beach.

So it's just a ring around the southern piece of the Hampton Road cities.

Uh we've decided to build an internal ring around Portsmouth that will join with that.

Now Amor talked about uh the larger vision to connect to these South Sea cables.

Um I sit on that board for the South Side Network Alliance also, and that was one of the first things they started talking to me about was being connected to that.

I'm and I pushed back a little bit because as municipalities, I have no customers that would be needing access to the South Sea cables.

However, we may have the opportunity to bring all the businesses into this region that would need that.

And I propose that we don't make that kind of investment of that connection because that's a costly connection until we have somebody who's willing to help pay for that connection and not just absorb it through our cities.

You'd also be interested to know that there is Newport News and Hampton on the peninsula who's also interested in being coming part of uh the South Side Network Alliance.

So we're looking at expanding the network onto the peninsula so that those two cities become part of the same as the five southern cities.

I think is it Hampton that's trying to build an uh local ring also?

It's one of those two that's building a local ring.

I know Chesapeake has one, uh, but I'm not sure who else has local rings and and Chesapeake's the only one that has one kind of like ours.

Right.

Everybody has some amount of fiber that's not as structured.

Okay.

So where are we today?

There are three areas that we really need to share up to kind of complete this.

And I will tell you that we're already starting to migrate some of our facilities onto our fiber, even though it's the ring is not completely built out yet.

I think one was uh kind of forced out of us out of necessity.

Uh for those of you that don't know, we're uh demolishing the old jail civic center area right next to City Hall here.

There was a Cox connection inside that building that we endeavored to find out where it all went.

Uh we thought we had that everything off that's supposed to have a bit off.

But naturally, when we cut the cable, we found out that uh there's some things that uh we didn't migrate uh so that facilitated us having to find a different route, and it made sense to make go ahead and move that to uh our own facilities.

Uh so that was unplanned, but uh fortunately we had a backup when that did happen.

So we're already in the process of migrating some of our facilities onto that network, but we still have a couple of places that we have to take care of to get the ring completely built so it can be in a redundant fashion.

And the reason you build a ring, in case you fiber one on one again, is as you provide communications in it, the more critical your communications are, the more redundant you need to have for that particular piece of communication.

We have connections like our 911 center.

All right, it's critical that we keep that alive at all times.

So you want more than one path into that facility.

And the reason you build a ring is so that you have two diverging ways to go.

But fiber cuts happen all the time around our city.

I mean, frequently, you know, you don't hear about it because most of these large networks that provide services to us have diverse paths.

So something happened, yeah.

They started scrambling trying to fix that, but they have a fellow over to a different route to keep that communication going.

And you're building at a ring so that wherever you are, there's a connection from one way and then a connection from the other way.

So if one get cut, you just fell over to the other.

So that's kind of the philosophy in the ring building.

We have a crossing at high street bridge.

That's the trickling bridge, right?

That's the is that the same name.

The Churchland Bridge.

Yeah.

There you go.

We have fiber to that path.

We have conduit and junction boxes built across that path.

We have to complete the the pull of the fiber to come uh to complete that section of the ring.

The second area is a section that kind of moves into a little bit of Suffolk as we go through that northwest side of our ring.

It's on the um that you guys help me with this, the ODU campus.

Tri-City.

Tri-City is what it's called.

That was the name I was looking for.

Um one of the things Almond Hegel talked about was how we designed that ring, or we designed it to go close to places that we thought would be beneficial to use our ring.

And we're using some of our larger educational institutions as anchor facilities for that ring.

So we're passing by ODU.

So we thought that would be a great anchor institution that could use our fiber.

However, we've run into some easement problems of trying to actually get the fiber across some property that don't belong to ODU, so that we can get to ODU.

And we're having to figure out alternate routes, or and right now trying to work with property owners to get an easement to cross that property.

Once we get those two sections closed, that would complete the ring itself.

But again, as we're closing those two sections, we will still be migrating services onto our own ring.

But the the goal is by December 31st to have a complete ring built to have all of the pieces and processes in place so that we can really start trying to monetize the investments that we've made.

So that kind of gets you up to speed as where we are, where we're trying to go, what's the timeline, uh, where we've been, why we're doing it.

Any questions?

I think we kind of put both of our next two things into one.

But any questions, comments, concerns about what we talked about.

I have a question that's more pertaining to just fiber one on one 101 because I'm not really familiar with the fiber.

Um why is it important for the ports of ring to be on the regional ring and then on the national ring?

I was under the assumption that the more people on fiber, the slower it would go.

Okay, so yes, please let me know.

Um fiber uses light as the source to move data from one place to the other.

Um the only limitations to how much data you can actually move on fiber is the equipment that you put on each end of the fiber to convert it from a light signal to some other signal to be used in whatever other portion of your network that you're trying to use it into.

Traditionally, uh saturation is what you're talking about, would be a problem with our old infrastructure where we use copper, copper as a as a medium to move data.

The reason we moved away from copper as a medium was because of that saturation problem.

With fiber, fiber itself, the actual strand of fiber is about as thick as a hair on your head.

But I can move all the data that we need around this city, probably through one of those, just one of those strands of fiber.

And normally when you run fiber, you run in multiples of 12.

So you have either 12, that's normally what's called a buffer tube, uh, you know, a collection of fiber going someplace, right?

Um up to you know 248, you know, just depends on the size of the cable that you run at the time.

So we have more than enough capacity, but the reason we wanted to do this ourselves is because more and more things require more and more data.

You think you know, watching TV was probably, you know, everybody's streaming these days and cutting the cord as they're called, right?

That's probably not the most bandwidth hog that you do.

What we do on an inadvertently these days because we have lost sight of what it actually takes to move it, is mostly our emails.

If you think about a long time ago, I'm gonna date myself with this.

All right, you wouldn't have you wouldn't put large attachments on emails, it's just man, that's unheard of because it just would it would take forever for that email to go anywhere.

Today we'll throw a 25 megabyte attachment on it, as it that's no big deal.

That's because the more people understand about how to use data and what they want to do with data, the more they try to pipe, they they try to stick into a pipe.

And think of fiber as just a pipe that we're moving data in in any medium, just a pipe that we're moving data in.

But I although the fiber is about as thin as your hair, thinking of it is probably the biggest pipe that we have as far as moving data.

Think of copper as a small pipe.

So we migrate away from Carpenter onto fiber just so we have a bigger pipe.

Now, although we have our own ring, that ring don't go anywhere.

All right, you want to watch Netflix.

Netflix is not on my ring.

In order for you to watch Netflix, I gotta get connected to somebody else's ring who have access to Netflix.

That's why you want to get connected to some of these other carriers.

That's why you want to get connected to the South Side Network Alliance, because they haven't I have the medium to get you connected to those things that you actually need.

When you start surfing the internet, mostly if the internet traffic is gonna come through Northern Virginia, uh Alexandria area or Atlanta, Georgia.

All right.

So no matter who you're using as a network provider, somewhere they're connected to those two cities.

So even though we have a ring, our ring just connect us.

If you want to do all these other cool things that we think of as the internet, we've got to get connected to other places.

That makes sense.

Did it answer your question?

Yes, it answered my question.

Um as far as attracting people to to connect to our ring, obviously anyone who wants to connect to our ring will want our ring to be connected elsewhere, right?

Exactly.

So the if I'm if I'm a business owner and I own a company that is interested in being on a high capacity fiber ring, uh my first question would be well, when is it going to be connected to any other ring?

And if the answer is, well, we're looking to see if we can sign on a number of companies to connect to our ring before we connect to see if it's worthwhile.

Then I, as a business owner, were like, well, I don't know if if if I can commit to anything, right?

It's like a philosophy.

No.

No.

No.

Because it's a kind of like chicken or the egg kind of thing, right?

As far as I'm maybe misunderstanding, so help me out understand your vision.

The only the only thing that I'm cautioning the South Side Network about connecting to is the subsea cables.

Got it.

We still need connections to uh Northern Virginia and Georgia.

Correct.

That has to be there.

Because again, if you if you don't have that kind of connection, the only people you can talk to are the ones that's locally on your network.

And most of us have somebody we're sending an email to, you know, that lives outside of our own region.

So the philosophy is not that we won't be connected to anybody else, period.

It's just that because of the cost associated with the uh subsea cables, I wouldn't make that investment until I had somebody that's gonna help me make that investment.

So you're looking for partners.

That's on the uh South Side Network Alliance piece, not on us.

We're looking for a partner that will help be a net uh internet service provider locally or to sell to our uh anchor institutions or our businesses locally, yes.

But the actual connection to uh the subsea cables, that's not that's not a this group kind of a decision.

Um I remember I heard you say that fiber gets cut all the time.

All the time.

So um who would be responsible for maintaining the fiber in Norfolk if it I mean and Portsmouth, I'm sorry, if it got what Portsmouth probably same ones that's in Norfolk, uh company called Danella.

That's the that's a group that actually installed and maintained our cable for us.

They do locate.

Um anytime that you're about to dig, one of the requirements you call 811, people come.

You ever see people come out and spray paint on your lawn and you know, that's what that's all about, so that you don't cut something inadvertently when you start digging, but that's not always a hundred percent accurate, and when they start digging to cut things anyway.

Right, okay.

Just wanted to see who's gonna be responsible for the cut lines.

Oh, absolutely.

Okay, that is that's important.

Yeah, we have to have a maintenance on operations plan that makes sure that the network remains viable because it will get cut.

Okay.

Other questions, concerns, comments?

Didn't I just make sense to everybody?

Do it help at all?

Sure.

I mean, I I I would say that uh our new members might benefit from seeing some of the old presentations that kind of laid out the plan.

Or I guess the plan for the plan.

That would help.

I don't want to ask all the questions that have been answered already.

Yeah, we can do that.

Yeah, uh some of the visuals of what it is.

Uh kind of give you uh um a visual what the South Side Network is, a visual what the portsmith ring is, where those interconnection points are, so that you can see how that whole thing is laid out.

Yeah, it's not by happenstance, but it we it it was real thoughtful yeah well and and I know that uh we also had the list of you know the various um different agencies, whether they were city or not city, and when they were going to connect, which priority they were and who we had connected.

I think all of that could be really beneficial just in kind of helping you understand where we are today.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're gonna reward that list.

So I don't want to get that one too.

Okay, fair enough.

So we need the updated version of that.

So I think going back to your initial discussion around why did we do this?

Uh there's also some history associated with the uh surveys that were done in Portsmouth to identify where we have portions of the community that are underserved and and that there's state and federal money being made available and the mechanism or how to get to that money, who gets the money.

Uh so we've been through that history with the uh with the authority up to this point, but I think maybe uh next time we can go back through that history to talk about the whole bead funding thing and we can do that and where where all of that stands down and the mechanics because uh it's it's a little confusing.

Indeed.

Yeah, I think it's intended to be.

Yeah.

Perhaps I'm serious, I think it's intended to be.

Uh it's just like with most legislature, right?

It's not those guys sitting in the room vote loaded that wrote it, or it was presented to them by the people that have a good lobbyist and a good legal team that can present these things and convince everybody that it's in their best information to do it this way.

You know what I mean?

So that happens.

Yeah, I think I think having that the next meeting as well would be really beneficial for all of us.

But especially for we do have a lot of new members.

So the goal is to kind of move us all up to the same point so when we actually launch and start going.

Every everybody's moving along, know what was what is and whether it is to be uh so please please ask whatever questions that you may have.

Uh I can't promise you have all the answers, but we will find the answers for you and get you the information you need.

Uh same promise I make to my commission and the counselor.

I'm sorry, that um if you ask the question, we'll do whatever's necessary to get you the answer.

We're not trying to flavor the answer for you.

I just want you to have the information because I want you guys to be as smart as you possibly can about what it is that's being done.

Because I need you to be able to talk about this the same way that I can talk about it wherever you go.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's all I got.

Okay.

Are there any other questions?

It doesn't, I don't, yeah.

Oh, look, let's discuss it.

And I was just checking to see if we needed to do the there's anybody can I do this before we go?

Yeah.

Um this is Miss Scarlett Caprol.

She's the interim CIO right now.

Hello.

She's uh kind of managing that group down there for right now.

So we're trying to kind of reorganize, make sure that we're here to support this group, but our city in in general.

Todd is the um he's the guy that won't let you do anything on the network.

He's uh in my no man.

I'm also the reason you're safe.

There you go.

Very important.

But these are this is the team that's behind everything, making all this stuff work.

Very big all this stuff work.

Thank you for for coming.

Yes, we're joining us today.

All right.

Um there are any final questions before we move on.

No.

Okay.

Uh so I believe our new business.

We've got our next meeting will be scheduled for basically a month from now.

So uh that is a Tuesday, June the ninth.

Uh, again at four PM.

And anything else, I believe we are adjourned.

Okay, true.

All right.

No, you can't do that.

Good evening, citizens of Portsmouth.

Everyone's joining us online.

Welcome to our public work session.

I want to take a moment to also thank all of our city staff who is here with us today.

And thank you for all of the folks that are here with us to uh participate in the public work session.

Want to acknowledge our city manager, Mr.

Stephen Carter, our interim city attorney, Mr.

Derek Challenger.

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

Steven Edwards, and our city clerk, Miss Deborah White.

Madam Clerk, would you please call the room?

Dr.

Dotson.

Present.

Mr.

Hugo.

Present.

Mr.

Moody.

Here.

Miss Thomas.

Here.

Mr.

Tillage.

Here.

Mayor Clepper.

Here.

Manager Carter.

So you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Welcome, Council.

And everyone who is in attendance.

We have three presentations this evening.

The first one is going to be the by the Museum of Fine Arts Commission.

And Miss Carrie Underwood is going to make a presentation to us about a city art plan project.

That's going to be followed by our director of public works, Mr.

Gerard Roberts.

We'll prove uh introduce uh our reuse ordinance updates.

And finally, we'll get to Mr.

Trey Burke.

Uh we had a portion of this that was supposed to be at the last uh work session, but because of time, we didn't get a chance to present this portion of the uh and this is about the community funding uh process, but uh we want to bring that to you as a completion of uh a portion of that we started on the last work session.

However, first up is Miss Knight and Miss Kara Underwood or the Pierre.

I'm sorry, thank you.

If you don't mind, you come to the podium, I think Miss White has your presentation already queued up.

So please introduce yourselves and thank you for being here this evening.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Glover, City Manager, Mr.

Carter, and members of city council and guest.

As we continue shaping Portsmouth future through initiatives like the Link District, we also have an opportunity to strengthen the cultural identity that connects our neighborhoods waterfront at public spaces.

Um pleased to introduce Kira Underwood, who will present our um plan that we have for the city, and we hope that you'll be open to our recommendations.

Thank you, ma'am.

Hi everybody.

Um like you said, my name is Kia Annewitt, and I am vice chair of the Portsmouth Museum and Fine Arts Commission.

We had identified that there's opportunity in the city of Portsmouth for us to utilize our already beautiful spaces to uh be able to attract tourism, um, to be able to create strategies and consistencies across the board so that we may be able to have a more vibrant and uh lively community.

So today we are here seeking approval to formulate a public art plan um to be the kind of managing body to review and then artist selection.

So again, um today we want to be able to get approval to first develop the master art plan.

So what this would look like is over the course of an identified amount of time, we would um create different subcommittees and come together and give you guys a full planned out plan of what the art could look like.

So that means identifying different landmarks throughout the city, what kind of art we'll want, so not just a mural on the wall, um, identifying different walk spaces, being able to make those walkable.

And I think that last work session, we had done the presentation around what the vision looked like as a city.

So we could really just be that managing body to help execute towards that plan.

So again, with that being said, we'd also want to be able to be able to review the projects and approve because right now we don't have a centralized body, we just have these one off projects, and everyone would be able to have that centralized place to come to if they want to create art in the city of Portsmouth as well as keeping things consistent to tell a brand story for the city.

And then again, that just goes into overseeing the artist selection.

So Portsman supports art without a coordinated framework.

So as I had stated, um, we have an opportunity here because there are currently no formal public art master plan guiding investment.

Um there's no centralized approval process for public art projects that we are aware of.

There's also no identified structure for selecting artists, landmarks, and overseeing the funding and how that's dispersed, um, nor are there projects that are delivered on a or currently our projects are delivered on a case by case basis rather than through a long-term consistent strategy.

So because of that, Portsmouth is not able to fill fully use public art as a tool for economic development, improving tourism, placemaking, and neighborhood revitalization.

So in our subcommittee, and first thing we did was figure out is this really the thing that we want to do as a commission?

Is this something that you know another organization should be a party of, or did we want to take it on?

And our our commission came back and said, Yes, this is something that we would love to be involved with.

We think that is extremely important.

Um, and so they first started off by identifying what our regional and national kind of counterparts look like and how they were able to utilize art in a way to help grow economic development, again, bring tourism and all of those things.

So, as you know, locally, we have the neon district, we have the um, and then we have the vibe district in Virginia Beach.

As you can see, art isn't just mirrors on the wall, it can be functional art.

So, in the picture in Virginia Beach, those are benches, people can actually sit down as they walk through the city.

So, again, making it not only a beautiful place but utility.

We also look into Huntsville, Alabama, which I believe you all also toured, um, and then Raleigh, North Carolina.

So, again, not just locally but nationally, cities have found a way in order to stimulate economic growth through art, um, and typically that is managed by a art public art plan.

So, just to kind of give you some numbers on where we see the economic growth being able to be a possibility for um Portsmouth is for example, in the Vibe District, they have had an economic output of 33.9 million in retail growth.

Um, in Huntsville specifically, they have had an economic output of 89.9 million annual economic activity.

This also allows for job creations, um, so full-time job equivalent to like artists who typically wouldn't be able to do this full-time, would also be able to those jobs will be created through this project as well.

So, how um the Portsmouth Museum and Fine Arts will deliver, subject to your endorsement, of course.

Um, we'll create the comprehensive master plan, we'll identify the priority locations, funding strategies, policies, a multi-year implement implementation roadmap.

So we really just want to do all of the work for you, get your approval, and then help to drive the vehicle that executes it.

Um, we'll divide structure artist selection plan, so oversee public uh calls and review panels to make sure that the process is fair, inclusive, and maintains high standards and is transparent and responsible to stakeholders, and also have a transparent project review.

So establish a consistent process to evaluate and approve public art projects across the city, and then we would also like enter departmental coordination.

So we don't want to just kind of take this over and it's not our vision.

We want to make sure that we're including the city's vision, things that you have already kind of agreed upon and foresee for our future, um, as well as you know, all of the engineering and planning teams that go up into installing the art.

So we have uh suggested that for a one-time planning investment for fiscal year 28, 2028, we would like a budget of 95,000, and that is again to be able to create the plan.

So that is being able to call in any type of specialized consulting firms we may need, um, getting any type of estimates we may need, um, even if it's just being able to have community think tanks so that we can get additional information from the community if needed based on certain landmarks or identified neighborhoods.

Um, and then within the master plan itself, we will recommend a long-term sustainable strategy for funding.

So, in other cities, they have utilized different vehicles like a capital improvement budget, so that just comes at the city budget level.

Um they have done a transient occupancy tax.

Um, and then we've also seen where they have used a redevelopment tax.

So any type of new redevelopment, the thought process is that art helps to increase the value of that land, makes people want to move there, again, growing the economic growth, and so there's like a one to two percent tax.

But again, we will strategize and go through all of that and lay it out in the actual master plan.

So with this approval, if you guys do see so see fit, um, we will be gaining clear governance, strategic planning, economic alignment, grants and partnerships.

We'll be able to identify cultural districts, and then we'll also be able to have equity and transparency.

So we recommend that the council authorizes development of a citywide public art master plan with your approval for fiscal year 2028.

We would like to be recognized as a city's public art review and approval body, and we would like to oversee artist selection and funding recommendations in collaboration with city staff.

And then so this is just some of our references that we use in order to kind of gather the gather this data, um, and now we welcome any questions.

And did you say your name was Miss Kierra?

Kiera Underwood.

Okay, Miss Underwood.

Thank you for that presentation.

Councilman Dodson, so you have the floor.

Thank you, sir.

I'm surprised y'all didn't mention Miami.

Uh Winwood Winwood Walls.

Yeah.

Um, one of my favorite places in the world as an example of of how to implement this.

The two blocks you can walk in the middle of hundreds of murals, but the impressive part is they charge admission.

It's 13 bucks to get in, and they have two museums there where they can they are creating an economic engine there there for it.

Oh, did you say that was called Woodward?

When would W Y N W O O D walls, Winwood Walls?

Wow.

And it's definitely the epicenter of this type of this type of work that I'd love to see you and you guys visit and see just how impressive that place is.

I definitely will try.

I love Miami.

Thank you.

Any additional questions?

Um Councilwoman Bryant, maybe on the floor.

Thanks, Ms.

Underwood.

This is very exciting.

How do you all work with support Portsmouth Public Art?

So right now they are a grant awardee.

Um we do have a few people on the commission that are deeply involved within that organization.

I would say that they are the primary leader in who has been developing the art projects.

So the way we would think that this would go is kind of where the bank and when they have a project that they can come to us.

Um and again, we would just be that strategy behind making sure that it aligns with the city's kind of overall consistent branding, that it makes sense within the budget for that particular landmark, and again, just make sure that everyone has a fair chance at that opportunity.

But we do work with them.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, Councilman Hugo, did you want the floor into councilman too?

Thanks, Mayor.

So just a follow-on question.

Would uh Portsmouth uh support for public arts uh be involved in developing the master plan?

Well, we have again people on the commission that are part of that organization, but as we go into that strategy development, we would identify what organizations are kind of like our priority organizations and how that looks from a subcommittee standpoint, but they would all go into that planning process.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Tillage and Vice Mayor Moody.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um first of all, I think that this is great.

I think it's great timing.

Um we just had a presentation yesterday by our well meeting with our EDA to discuss uh vacant properties and ways to enhance those properties while they're vacant.

And I think that this goes hand in hand with that.

And so I want to thank you all for y'all's uh lead and for thinking on how we can do this.

And I think it's great to have a uh commission to help oversee this.

Um, for the equity piece, um, but then also two for us to be able to um better engage artists and uh you know, especially as we look at this link district and uh not just murals but the the art pieces and things like so uh I support this wholeheartedly.

I don't really have a question, just more thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Underwood.

Uh great presentation, and thank you for the vi vision uh uh bringing this together, the fine arts uh museum uh is definitely where the this should be.

I do have a question, uh the transient occupancy tax.

Can you uh uh kind of miss that uh when you were explaining that?

Yeah, so I cannot give you a deep explanation on how it works.

I just know that that is a funding vehicle that other cities have used, so that would be m potentially one of the suggestions we make within the master plan for long-term funding strategy.

Yeah, and I I think uh that's something and I've I've mentioned this before as far as a tax overlay district.

You know, as uh uh old town expands and uh we we need funds for things like uh what you're requesting here.

Uh uh, you know, it's hard sell to sell it to the people out in uh churchland.

Uh sometimes they don't see the value of that, although it all the all the funds go in the same kitty.

But uh that they don't uh especially have buy-in for the outlay uh of public funds, but uh a tax overlay, I think uh would uh certainly be useful in a lot of areas, not just uh in the in the arts.

So I think uh I think as time moves on that that's something that this council uh should take a serious look at.

Uh so we can uh plow more money into old town.

Uh you know, a lot of things that we need to do here to make it more attractive.

And uh I'm glad to see the presentation, see that we're looking at uh getting the uh the art organized, if you may, just painting the side of a building uh you know, here and there's there's got to be some master plan uh on what we want to do uh and what the benefit is.

You also mentioned the stakeholders.

Who who exactly can you expound on who who you've identified as the stakeholders at this point?

Right.

So we would definitely need to um have our city councilman involved.

Um engineering and planning.

Um I'm thinking more like the think tanks.

Um going into the community, what kind of art do they need, whether it's playgrounds, whether it's utility art, statues, um, and then again we would have more details to clarify what that looks like within the master plan itself.

Okay, but that's just a high level.

Thank you again, and that excellent uh presentation.

Thank you.

Uh fully support it.

Council one more time, Ms.

Mammy.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Underwood.

Very good.

Um fully support uh first of all, art and public spaces, which is you know, live and up a community.

And I know we mentioned our waterfront, our you know, link district.

Um I just want to make sure the commission would it encompass the entire city in okay.

Yeah, all right.

Just wanted to make sure for that.

And you mentioned some of your current stakeholders or partners with SPPA support force of public art.

Um I just want to also throw out the schools, Churchland High School, as you know, has an amazing sculptor art program there.

Um he's well known, has art pieces in galleries in Norfolk as well.

Um they're kind of known as the art school, uh, but they would also probably just want to throw it out, be a great partner as well.

Um as part of the think tank.

Perfect.

Thank you for that information.

Um, and so yes, to clarify, we are not looking at this from just a old town downtown Portsmouth.

I think that's why it's important that we have that master plan.

We get the buy-in, we all get on the same page, and then we're the governing body to make sure that the vehicle keeps driving on track.

Um so it's not just the things that the tourists want to go to, it's also revitalizing our neighborhoods that our kids are in that our schools are in, so that they can see the beauty and portsment as well.

Good.

Council councilwoman Brian.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um, we don't currently have council liaisons to this commission, correct?

I don't know.

Museum and firemarks.

Okay.

If that's something that as we move forward, if there's a need for partnership liaisons from council to this commission, I'd be happy to fill that role.

Yeah, that could be easily established for sure.

In going through this process.

Yes, we would love to have that.

Yeah.

So um, Ms.

Underwood, first of all, I think your timing is impeccable.

And and I will start and preface by I don't know if you've looked out the window lately, if you've been to our roundabout.

I've heard.

I haven't been able to get home quickly.

And a part of that, that was that was a project that was was born out of civic art engagement in the city.

Um it was put in place in 1989.

I'm sure you know the history.

Um it was an artist, uh Dutch artist who created that sculpture, bronze sculpture, jubilation.

It you you know, it brings all those things together.

Joy, community, the dancer, all of that good stuff.

So your timing is impeccable.

One of the things that I've always said and believed, just like when we took the group down to Greenville, they had a had a very robust organization that dealt with the arts raising funds because we can even raise private funds through this opportunity.

And believe it or not, a lot of private people want to give to these types of efforts.

So man, I'm so excited about you leading this effort and the commission being here.

The other thing when Vice Mayor talked about funding, we learned when we were in Greenville, and we got to see the art and what they were doing down there.

They have created different types of vehicles like TIFFs and things like that, where you can have a different taxing authority that can raise dollars for specific projects or specific areas.

So we are right on track.

So are you a volunteer or are you a worker for the city?

A volunteer.

Right.

So that's why I wanted to ask you.

I knew that's the answer to the question.

But see, this is the kind of things that we've been talking about.

Having leadership on our boards and commissions that are passionate and committed and really bringing ideas to us so that we can coalesce around you.

We need this.

I will tell you that.

We need this, and we need folks like you and the commission to continue to push this.

This is what we desire to become.

Art brings all good things.

That's that's what I'm told.

And I'm an art guy.

So at the end of the day, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for stepping up to the plate, and I encourage as many citizens that can get involved to step up to the plate.

As you know, I think we've got some good ideas already in the hopper, but I think you and your team are gonna bring even more ideas.

So kudos to you, man.

And I'd like to acknowledge my team that is here to support me.

They are all sitting behind you on the first row.

Um, and that is just a few of our commissioners.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great job.

Scarter, you have the floor, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Uh public works, the backbone of the city is up next.

Uh-huh.

We're gonna go through the uh thanks to uh our refuse ordinance.

Waiting on this one.

Yes, thought that afternoon, everybody.

Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Mr.

Carter, um, city staff, um, residents, people in attendance.

We are here to talk about our amendment to the city's refuge ordinance.

Um a while back we had a um a session where you wanted updates on how we plan to change how we uh collect uh waste throughout our city, manage the waste in our city, and how do we uh plan to enforce uh waste in our city.

So we went back and we took a solid look at our waste management division and found and and um through legal, we uh went through and and looked at our ordinance, and some things were um out of date and needed to be modernized and updated.

So we did um take a look.

We'll first go over um some of the definitions.

Reason being is because there is um some distinct definition between what we determine as bulk waste, what we can term as um yard waste, and um what is considered MSW, which is municipal solid waste.

Um bulk refuge, the appointment-based system, um, our enforcement violations and penalties that we are um proposing, and our updated fee schedule and um special provisions, litter receptacles throughout the city that we should have.

Um strengthen our approach with waste management through a framework of rules and regulations.

That's the ordinance is really uh it's a guiding tool for us to be able to manage how we how the residents and how we uh collect it, how we uh place it out, and how we uh dispose of.

Uh so our primary goal is to amend articles one and two of chapter 16.

Chapter 16 is our pretty much our I won't say it's our guide rules to um what we say we will do and um how we were collecting, what the definitions are.

Um giving you clarity as our updated definitions.

Um some of our old ordinance throughout our old ordinance, some of the definitions were kind of um has some little ambiguity, so we we kind of clarified everything.

Um, strengthening compliance.

We are taking our enforcement um seriously as it pertains to um placement and collection um throughout the city and becoming very efficient in what we do, meaning we have the guide rules, we and we operate within those guide rules.

Alright.

Approved containers.

So in the old language, it said our city was we had a 65 gallon to 105 gallon containers.

Reason being is because of the way the automation truck operates, it is easier for the truck to pick up uh 95 gallon containers versus a 65 gallon container or a hundred five 105 gallon container.

I haven't seen those in a long time.

Bulk refuge.

Bulk refuge is bulky items, furniture, household construction debris, tree trimmings, and large cardboard boxes.

Anything that cannot fit with inside that receptacle with inside that container that is that 95 gallon container.

Recyclables.

Recyclables, even though we are at a uh single stream, it's still considered recyclable, so they still go in that that receptacle, whether it's newspaper, cardboard, glass, bottles, plastics, aluminum ones, and twos.

We still have to use recyclables because we do have a household uh hazardous waste event and um residents will bring recyclables.

Hazardous waste is not to be categorized as anything that's flammable, anything that's explosive, uh pathological, radioactive, or in any type of that material that cannot go into a receptacle and has to be disposed of by a different means.

White goods is considered your large appliances, refrigerators, your um washing machines, your um dryers, um, those are considered white goods.

And um our automated service, like I said, we use 95 gallon containers.

All right, residential automated collection, mandatory 95 gallon containers.

And what I'm going through is like just a high level overview of what the ordinance really says.

Um 95 gallon containers, um, the lids must be closed during filling.

Um plastic bags are are acceptable.

Anything that can go within that that that 95 gallon container that is not considered household, that that is not considered hazardous waste.

Um commercial dumpsters throughout the the city.

We do have a duty to make sure that every business within the city has a um receptacle that they must use for to discard waste.

Um meaning we we can go around and kind of look at the businesses and make sure they're using the proper size receptacles so there's no overflow.

Um if they need an eight-yard, we make sure that they're if they got um overflow outside of them and we continue to see that, then we'll probably ask the business to upsize.

Uh multifamily um homes and any mobile parks, um, same thing.

Dumpsters have to be approved and it must be of adequate size.

Um and hazardous waste um is prohibited in any of those uh content containers unless it's properly uh unless you have a the means to properly dispose of all right collection process and procedure.

So enforcement also in guidelines meaning at 5 p.m.

24 hours the day prior of your your collection day, you will you will uh be able to set your receptacles out and your waste out at 5 p.m.

the day before.

Um you have from 5 p.m.

to 7 a.m.

and you know most uh residents will have it out either the night before or that morning of um to 7 a.m.

That's the placement window.

No early placement, meaning anything more, I mean before that 5 p.m.

Because from an aesthetic standpoint, if you your your your uh collection day is on a Thursday and you put your can out on Monday, just from an aesthetic standpoint, it just doesn't look look um look appealing.

Um our retrieval requirements, containers must be removed by the evening that it's collected.

And again, that's just from an aesthetics.

If you go down the street and we have at the end of the day, we've collected all of the waste two or three days later and the residents still have the cans out.

We'll be sending enforcement um our our enforcement officers out there to to tag and to notify that the residents that it have to be back in by that evening.

Yard waste must be in clear bags.

Um say that because from a health standpoint, no black bags should be allowed on the ground because that is a health risk.

They have to be manually picked up.

We can't see what's in the bag.

So placing a black bag on the ground, picking it up, assuming that it's yard waste is unhealthy.

Plus, from a bloodborne pathogen, it could be syringes, it could be anything within those, the that black bag.

So we will not pick up anything in a black bag that is sitting outside of the king.

Refuge, bulk.

The definition, like I said, anything that's bulky, anything that cannot fit in the fit in the receptacles, must be placed at least three feet away from the any structure or separated from the receptacles that we are the 95 gallon containers because a bulk truck will come and get it and it has a massive claw.

We ask that no residents place them underneath wires, close to any poles or any trees or any vehicles.

We will start requiring all residents to use our web based or call in to uh pre-schedule your bulk collection.

Um this gives us an opportunity to do this the most efficient way.

Instead of driving up and down each street, you call in, you let us know you have bulk collection, and we'll go come and retrieve it.

We also uh took a we looked at at our yard waste, and um so trees and shrub must be cut in the four to six length, four to six foot lengths.

Um prior, it was uh larger than that, and it should not exceed a six by six by six.

The previous was a ten by ten by ten.

Ten feet's a lot.

That's a that's that's a lot of area, a lot of space.

Um tractor exclusions.

We know um residents like to get their their yards done by contractors, but the chain of custody pretty much says that if that um contractor takes it and and he's charging you for the dispose of it, then that shut that contractor should take that yard waste with them as they go, not place it to the curb because they have um generated some revenue off of it, and they've probably already charged you to um dispose of it.

So contractor exclusions.

Exemptions, bulk refuse not collected from vacant lots, commercial establishments or multifamily complexes.

That has been in the uh ordinance for um we we didn't make any changes to that.

The the vacant lots, um of course, if we are going past and we get in request, um we will try to figure out if there is a dumping spot and if it's being illegally dumped it, we'll we'll take care of it.

But um, but commercial establishments, um we will not pick up bulk refuge from um any commercial establishments.

Move outs giving us a twin available in a 24-hour advance, um, and this goes to any um evictions, uh move outs that may occur, giving us 24 hours in advance.

We will um go out and pick it up.

Penalties and fines.

Penalties could range from $50 to $2,500.

And the scale is because household hazardous waste carries a cost to dispose of it if it's in a receptacle and we find it and we have to dispose of it.

It could cost up to $2,500.

So that's why the range.

First violation just of a violation is just a notice saying, hey, you know, there is a violation.

You can, I mean, your yard waste was put out too too soon, or your you didn't call in your bulk.

Um, that's just a general hey, a notice.

Um, second violation, um, repeat offenders is a $50 fine.

Um, the third subsequent violation within the 12-month rule is uh is a hundred dollar fine.

Now, containers that have substances that we come across that we have to, it's gonna be costly for us to dispose of.

That's when that uh penalty could it'll it'll be charged to the resident um for us to make those um make that disposal.

Um bulk refuge violations, unscheduled placement removed within 24 hours.

Um the fines we have 500 to a thousand, and that's only because abatement costs like anything that has that is a tremendous amount of waste to pick up.

Um sometimes people will move out and just leave everything in the yard, and it it takes a while to pick up and clean up that area, or they will move out of apartment complexes and place the stuff on a vacant lot.

If we can like we did in Brandon Square, we we put a camera out and we start identifying individuals who violate those those procedures, then we'll we'll start the enforcement policy.

Early placement violations, if not removed within 24 hours, it'd be a hundred dollar fine.

That's our tier structure for accountability.

So residential dwellings, like regular household collection.

This is the appendix A, where our fee structure, fee structure really is 2916 per household, and that's already, you know, already enforced, that is within the uh utility bill.

Um commercial residence, commercial district, um, their their rate is uh slightly high just because it's it's a commercial and they have a ten dollar actual additional pickup.

So if they get dumped, if they get a service and that we have to come back out, then they're charging uh air speed for tires.

Um that's one of the only things that was uh updated.

Um the the prior to that the disposal cost with part ties were five dollars.

Um I don't know anywhere in the city you can dispose of a tire for five dollars right now, so it's uh the average rate is about twenty-five dollars.

And this is this is after four tires for that year.

So you get four four tires, they must be clean, they must be off the rim, and you get four tire disposals, anything after that is twenty-five dollars per tire.

Um enforcement and an abatement, that is if we have an eviction, move out.

We have a large um thing to pick up, and they let us know and they they don't let us know, and the the yard, I mean the bulky items are already out there.

We will go get it, but we'll charge it to the uh residential um space.

Um mandatory public litter receptacles.

This is just you know, throughout the city.

Um any businesses, sidewalk, shopping centers, anywhere that um anywhere like drive-throughs, restaurants, service stations, anywhere throughout the city must have a a litter receptacle.

Um material preparation, um, cardboard.

Cardboard is considered bulky.

It cannot exceed 25.

If it's more than one or two boxes, we require you to you know um tie it down, place it neatly, and we and and call it, make a request to come pick it up, and we will uh make that request the same as as bulk pickup is considered bulk.

Hazardous waste is prohibited, and um throughout the city, every business that that generates a large sum of waste should have a a the right size can, not just a 95.

We do have some businesses that have several 95 gallon cans that should uh have dumpsters.

Um ordinance uh implementation next steps is pretty much uh our presentation um and after that is education to the public made through June.

Um June enforcement preparation training and staff.

That means because our enforcement officer have just went through the course for um enforcement, they're getting their background checks done now, so they will have conservative conservatory of the peace designation, meaning they will be able to write um fines and citations.

Um so they are already in the process.

I think that they're going through the background check now, right?

So there's um so it's just a matter of time before they actually have that designation.

Um register for bulk uh refuse for uh appointments.

That's just updating the the public letting letting the residents know that you know we are going to a uh appointment-based or advanced bulk scheduling.

Um, and then um that's all I have questions.

Vice Mayor, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr.

Roberts uh for the presentation.

You know, one of the frequent questions I get, and uh, and I had one this week, uh blue can versus black can.

But you know, our citizens were I guess trained very well to put all recyclables in the blue can.

So but in some previous presentations, the way the technology is sorting things now, uh it's my understanding that it doesn't necessarily have to go in the blue can anymore.

Uh so is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay.

And now if you've um had a chance to go over and visit ant robotics, um the recycling is done at ant robotics, right?

So there's no longer you have to separate.

Um ourselves in Chesapeake are the only two of the eight-member communities of SIPSA that is actually doing this currently.

Um, but all of the eight member communities will be doing it um uh coming soon.

The blue and the black cans can be used just as the the blue can can be used just as the black can.

Okay.

And and my other question is once the the blue cans age out, will people be calling the to say, hey, my blue can, the wheels broke, or the plastic broke.

Uh will they get a black can or will they get another blue can or will they not get any can?

We're not ordering any more blue cans.

It'll be black.

Okay, so the blue can will be replaced by the 95 gallon black can.

Yes.

Okay.

That's reasonable.

And um so you mentioned um I'm glad you mentioned the how the enforcement would work.

Uh that was one of my questions.

But as we all know, we'll have people who will not pay their bills.

So what uh what's the what's the recourse on that if I decide I'm not gonna pay my outstanding bulk uh refuse fines?

So the fine is supposed to be assessed to the water bill, if I'm not if I'm not mistaken, that's correct.

Okay, so the final come to me on the line item on your bill.

Okay, so what happens if uh decide to X out the refuse fine?

Okay, so the water being cut off is uh is the hammer.

Part of our enforcement, exactly.

There's there's you you don't when you get a utility bill, you don't get a refuge bill or water bill or something.

You get a bill.

Yeah.

If you either choose to pay your bill or choose not to pay your bill, you can't select the pieces out of it that you pay.

So if you short pay the bill, then that's that's a delinquent payment.

Okay.

And the other thing, uh the the commercial aspect of the 95 gallon, uh I know that we have some businesses that have numerous uh 95 gallon containers.

Uh uh is that gonna continue, or uh are we gonna uh let them know that they need to get a uh uh 30-yard container, uh traditional dumpster.

Uh what's gonna be so we are looking at all of the businesses that have multiple uh containers.

If they have multiple containers and that business needs a dumpster, then we will require them to go because they're paying a commercial price, we'll just uh tell them they need to go get a dumpster from a commercial entity.

Yeah, because that's that's very un unsightly without naming business, but uh uh you know the spills over and uh it's just you you know what it's like.

Yes, sir.

Uh that's uh I think that's all I have.

So thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Dotson, sir, you have the floor.

Oh, I'm sorry, you didn't know what's next.

Um yes, so we I don't think I have a unique situation, but I have a cul-de-sac that's very small.

And when the trucks come around, they have to pull in one of my neighbors' driveways in order to get the cans that are on a very small lot.

The neighbors want to use my property as they do with one of our other councilmen to put them in belt.

And last time you mentioned that would not be possible, they would have to use their own property.

No, they would they would need to call in that address that the bulk has picked up at.

So no, no, no, for the regular cans.

So all of the cans should be at when we was talking first.

I thought we were talking about bulk collection.

Using the yards for the bulk bulk collection.

That's what the other council member was talking about.

We're gonna get there.

Right.

Yeah, we're for both of them.

The cans, the cans can be collected from anywhere.

Okay, so we're not we're not restricting them to their yard.

But we are restricting the bulk.

Well, can I start to this?

Yes, sir.

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

If you let your neighbors say their can in front of your house, and they leave it in front of you, that's where I'm going next.

You're gonna get a ticket.

Okay.

Just so you know.

Okay, that's because we don't we don't know who cable is.

You we know it's in front of your house.

You know what I mean?

Okay.

That's the next question.

Okay.

Yes.

My neighbors tend to leave them out for a week.

It doesn't help I won't be able to go home tonight.

So y'all are putting me in a bad spot with my wife who has two places on our property.

So you have the floor.

Thanks.

Oh, so you're not done.

I'm sorry.

Thank you, sir.

So at the end of King Street coming all the way down to the water, there's an apartment complex there that usually does a eviction and they put everything out there.

How do we know which apartment or which condo or when it's from?

How are we going to determine that?

Well, based on the ordinance, um, we are not really supposed to collect from multi-family homes, meaning apartment complexes.

They if they just dump their sofas and chairs and for an inviction and just dump it all out there.

So we'll nine times out of ten, we'll get a bunch of calls.

We'll go and investigate and figure out where is this coming from.

We'll we'll have them force um our forces, our um code enforcement out there, and we'll either determine if it comes from a private resident or if it came from the complex.

Okay, so you all are gonna take the initiative, good.

If it comes from the complex, we typically go out to the complex, let them know that hey, they need to um remove it.

Most complexes are um most complexes know it, so they'll they they have they have staff that actually do this.

If it comes from a private resident, we'll we'll try to figure out where it came.

I gotta tell you every time you come in here, you got some of the best presentations we see.

Thank you very much for your work.

Thanks, sir.

Thank you.

Miss Ms.

Bryan and Den, Councilman Deagle.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Roberts.

Um there's a lot of changes happening with trash across the city in a lot of different areas.

So this is a good opportunity for us to communicate.

So I know you have some communication plans that that you've touched on here, but can you be more specific or maybe Mr.

Carter more specific about how we're going to help people understand the changes?

So I know we are working with Peter and his team to kind of get the message out.

Um I do know that uh SIPSA and has um got notices out as far as um the recycling portion of it and being able to use one can.

Um and then we we talk in punitive, but we also talk in grace periods.

So um residents will still have grace periods for um any fines or any any anything that's that's considered punitive.

So um I think Peter Team does a good job of getting words out.

I think um I know they do have a plan to get up.

Um he wanted to do it closer to uh July so that um a long-running campaign would kind of wash away.

So um I know I know we're working on that.

So I'll Okay, that that's helpful to hear that we shouldn't expect to start hearing this too early, but closer to the date.

That is helpful.

Um I would recommend aside from social media.

I think a lot of residents miss the message on the AI sortation piece.

If if it's possible to do something direct to homes, um, I think that would help people understand.

I don't know if we've considered that.

I also would like to recommend a QR code option if that's possible.

I think I raised that in the retreat.

Maybe something to stick on a refrigerator or a magnet or uh or a bulletin board or something that you can scan, which leads me to another question.

Do we have a limit on how many times we can request bulk pickups?

Currently, no.

No, so there's no limit, it's just a matter of it has to be requested.

Okay.

Um, and then one other question, and I'll leave it to my colleagues.

In the downtown areas, old town, Port Norfolk, where um I think Court Street, you you can't really set out bulk trash on Court Street, so um, especially with the retention areas, the bioretention there are known areas in this in the parking lots where people place their bulk trash.

I I assume you guys are aware of that kind of tradition of those neighborhoods and have a plan to continue picking up there, even though it's not technically at somebody's curb.

I know that I wouldn't I wouldn't suggest that because now I'm gonna call you a legal bumper.

Well, what so if I live if I live in a section of the city where I I have no there's no access for a claw to come and pick up what is the solution there?

I would still schedule it.

Uh and if there's gonna be you know, you've you got this collection point that is known.

Okay, schedule that collection point.

Okay, so obviously, yeah.

Right, obviously still scheduled.

Right.

But you when you schedule, you can you can clarify yes.

Okay, that was my question.

Yes, okay, thank you.

Councilman Hugh and Vice Member.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Okay, so I pled my case last time.

Fell on deaf ears.

So I'm gonna come back to what councilwoman Bryant said.

Providing me, because I'm the guy that's gonna have to go to my seven neighbors and explain to them the new rules that because they've been using my property in two different locations long before I ever built my house.

Okay, so this is gonna be a new deal for them.

I need uh a piece of paper with all of this written down that I can walk up to them and say, I'm not being a jerk.

These are the new rules, and I need to be able to explain to them if you don't call when you dump on my property, which is your habit, I'm gonna get the ticket, and I'm gonna hand you the 2500 bill, because I ain't taking responsibility if we're agreeing that I'm making I'm being a nice guy and giving you a spot on my property to dump.

So I know your guys understand and they have been very gracious in coming and handling all this stuff that happens on my property, but it's no different in old town where there aren't places to dump, they gotta find a spot.

It's no different with my uh colleague who has neighbors in a cul-de-sac that have to dump.

And so uh we can't overcommunicate.

I mean, still the fact that the vice mayor was asking about blue cans tonight, yeah.

We still get questions at civic leagues about blue cans and how long we've been doing blue cans uh as part of black cans since November.

Okay, so so it didn't been just yesterday that we started doing this, and still people don't know.

Now we're gonna I guess vote on this what next meeting, I suppose.

Actually, this is in your ordinance tonight.

Right.

Okay.

So so we're so we're voting tonight, and on the first of July, I got it that we're gonna offer grace, but but uh full ordinance takes effect first of July, and so speeding tickets gonna start being at least written on the first of July.

Correct.

And I'm telling you, it's gonna be Christmas time, and I'm still gonna be fighting with my neighbors over uh putting stuff in places on my property.

So we're gonna have to go into this eyes wide open uh and communicate, communicate, communicate uh what what we're doing and why I don't have a problem.

Must be mayor.

So you have the floor.

We don't have a problem with trying to create some kind of a one-page or an infographic or something like that that we can especially situation like that where uh you know you need to communicate directly with your neighbors, uh we can create something that you can hand them to kind of remind him of the process.

But understand when you guys come out and pick that up, they don't know who it you know what I mean.

Yeah, I'm not trying to put this on them.

My wife's put it on me to go have the conversation with the neighbors to explain what's going on, and and and I just be the only guy that's gonna have to explain to neighbors you've been dumping on my property for a long long time.

Now there's new rules and and the new rules put a burden on me, the property owner, right, to either stop being a nice guy, which I don't want to do, or y'all are gonna have to uh to help me play by the rules.

Well, we're explaining the process to them.

So I mean, if you still want to be the nice guy, you can still let them do it, but we we'll just try to encourage them to call and not just dump it, you know.

Yeah.

Well, and and you know, again, your guys won't know when my dumping spot has six by six by six with my stuff, six by six by six with the second neighbor, six by six by six with the third neighbor, and six by six with the Ford neighbor, because I got four neighbors plus me sharing one spot and two neighbors plus me sharing a second.

So, so and it's not on you guys, but it's very possible that y'all are gonna get like five phone calls with my address listed for bulk pickup because everybody dumps their crap on my dumping spot.

Right.

Not the young guy.

So you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I I think it's you know, you may mention to do an infographics or some one pager.

I think it would be uh beneficial to include those in a water bill so that people have this.

Um I say this because as may mention about these garbage cans versus the boot cans, every civic league ongoing something in the same complaint, same thing equal set.

Um I got a call last week um that Dr.

Coleman was able to assist me with when it came to a citizen and trash, and they called in uh because they didn't pick up their trash.

Uh they had trash outside the trash can.

And they were told that they would have to call they were told that they would have to call a private trash company to pick up the stuff that was outside of the trash cans.

And so the person said that that was a new rule at the time.

Well, the person said, well, if it's new rules, well, how come as a citizen I'm not aware of it?

If I was aware of it, then I'll do this.

And I think that would also help to limit any here he said she said stuff if citizens had in a document that these are the rules, and I don't see that I don't see how that's hard to send it in the water bill.

That's true.

Mr.

Carter, you have the floor, sir.

Uh you know we put this blue can black can stuff in the water bill several times.

I know that sounds great.

How many people open their water bill and look at all this stuff?

I've never received one.

Okay.

You do?

I've never I'm not received the notification in my in my water bill.

Okay, so I open every month.

And everyone gonna see it.

So we we have that's an option.

We can definitely do that, but we're gonna we we we gotta use several options and just talk to people at civic center, I meant civic uh league meetings is one of the things that we have to do.

We're gonna have to there's gonna have to be some voice with this, not if if you expect it to just kind of go out and everybody just gonna read it and everybody's gonna do it.

No, not gonna have to.

That ain't happening.

We're we we're spending a bunch of money trying to tell people these blue can black hands, and and people still don't know about the blue can black can.

So it's not a matter of not a lack of effort, right?

But if we got some brand new bright ideas about how we can how we could reach somebody, that's what we really need.

We're where's the place that we can do this and actually maximize the number of people that we're gonna hit.

Vice Mayor Moody.

I like Council Woman's uh uh Bryant's uh idea uh and we need to use all resources.

I would suggest putting the QR code on our public access channel and uh also uh uh providing it to the news news uh providing it to the news media uh as well.

You know, if they shoot that on the screen, uh uh that gets a lot of uh uh uh viewership.

Uh so I I think the more people the more ways we spread the word, you're right.

What two years now, but and uh this week uh uh uh I had an email from uh from uh uh gentleman saying uh can I put uh uh uh do I have to just put my disposables in the recyclables in the blue cans still?

I said, Yeah, for the last two years.

Uh I do but uh to switch gears a little bit but still talking trash.

Uh these these commercial uh containers, uh roll offs.

Uh are we charging a fee to drop those on uh public roads?

I don't think we Portsmouth does like uh have them sit on the side of the road while they're being feeded by some business doing something.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think we're charging anything for that.

That's that's a we need to look into that.

We're the we're the only city that I'm aware of that uh doesn't charge a placement fee uh for because in essence you're you're taking up parking spaces uh and in some cases creating uh uh uh uh inconvenience for for vehicle traffic.

So I I know from experience that other cities charge a fee like that.

I would suggest uh um maybe looking into what those other fees are uh and and for us to uh implement that uh to the uh commercial haulers.

It's the commercial haulers that pay the fee, not the uh not the uh the residents.

The residents, yeah, or the commercial business.

That makes sense.

Uh now if they place it in one of our uh designated places that we're gonna turn for parking, yeah.

You know, well uh and it's uh administered through a a you actually the private haulers actually get a permit uh for that uh to to drop a container.

Yeah, if you could look into that and uh just added one of the perhaps pieces that you can get a permit for there.

Yeah, I'll take a look at that.

Yes.

Well, you get the permit as as you need to drop the container.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Correct.

Last question on the trash because we've got to move on.

Yes.

So I've been by the sorting facility at least five times because my tour was canceled.

I've I've left emails, I've left phone calls.

Is there any way you guys can get me a tour of the facility?

Uh please.

We we can call the the the company, you know.

We don't want it, so we have to still work through them.

Right, and I have been I've exhausted a number of avenues to try and get their tour established.

I'd appreciate some help.

We'll do our best.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Very uh very informative.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

You have the floor, sir.

Thank you, sir.

The part that we've all been waiting for.

Not anymore, probably a couple weeks ago.

No, we still are not my welcome at this point.

Okay.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor Glover, Vice Mayor Moody, members of city council.

As we've been working through the civic organization funding decisions for fiscal year 2027, it's become clear that we need a more structured, documented process for how we app advertise, evaluate, and select organizations for funding.

Yes, we do.

What I'm about to walk you through is a recommended framework for the fiscal year 2028 cycle and beyond.

The purpose of the community, excuse me, the purpose of the community and regional organizations funding program is to support organizations whose work directly serves Portsmouth residents and advances the city's strategic priorities.

We've built this recommended process around three principles.

Accountability, every funded program will be measured through mandatory reporting, transparency, a documented process with published criteria, and clear timelines and strategic alignment.

Funding priorities will be set each year based on council's endorsed strategic pillars and not simply inherited from the previous year.

Before I get into the process itself, I want to walk through a few policy guardrails guardrails that will apply to every funding cycle, regardless of how the evaluation team is composed.

First, there's a three-year consecutive funding gap.

Organizations can receive funding for up to three years.

After that, they must sit out.

Second, annual applications are required.

Third, one year's award does not guarantee any future funding.

Fourth, every funded organization must submit an annual impact report or an impact statement at the close of the program year.

And fifth, each cycle will include a maximum number of previously funded organizations.

This ensures the program stays open to new entrants.

These cardrails create a healthy balance between supporting proven organizations and keeping funding open.

Phase one is goal and priority setting.

This happens early in the year in about August.

Staff establishes the funding priorities for the cycle.

And the prior year program review.

This is where the evaluation criteria and the weighting are defined.

So whatever however these are going to be scored, this will be set in this this part of the process.

Phase two is advertising and outreach.

So this would go from August through about October.

And this would be the publicizing, the advertising through the city website, social media, um, direct outreach.

So if anyone knows an organization, they can let staff know or the uh board know, and we'll use that information to actually reach out directly to organizations.

Phase three is the application window.

So this would run September through November.

Organizations would submit their applications with the firm deadline.

So if anything comes in formally, informally after that, it wouldn't be accepted.

Phase four is the staff review and check for completeness.

So we would um confirm the applications are complete, that everything is um in line, all the questions have been answered, and then compile it, or excuse me, and if there's anything missing, this is an opportunity to reach back out to the to the organization and say, um, you know, do you happen to have this?

Did you mean to leave it out?

Um if it's incomplete still, then it wouldn't be eligible uh to be considered for funding.

All right, and then that's also the point where we would kind of develop a a uh a single um a standardized packet.

So you know we're kind of regardless of the organization, everything should look the same, so you should be able to make some apples to apples comparison, even if things have changed slowly over time.

Phase five is the actual evaluation and scoring, and this would go from December to January.

Um, whatever the evaluation team is, um they would review the applications and score them against the rubrics identified in phase one.

Phase six is the recommendation and feedback.

So staff would present the evaluation team or the recommendations to any council liaisons for their input.

And then that would be considered for inclusion in the manager's proposed budget in late March.

Phase seven is the budget adoption and award notification, so that kind of happens outside the periphery or the outside the specific scope of the evaluation team, but it would be the point in time where the budget is adopted, the organizations at that point are formally selected, and then after adoption, we'll reach out to the organizations and let them know you have been selected for funding, or unfortunately you have not been.

All right.

So now and this is kind of a visualization of the process.

But it's all kind of a clear progression.

There's no kind of we're not sitting around waiting for six months for hey, we've you know, we've sent out the award letters, we started making payments, and then we kind of started back up in December.

This would kind of be through, especially the latter half of the year, there would be steady progress made up until February when we would kind of need I would need those those organization recommendations finalized.

All right.

Um, and then we have the criteria.

So, you know, and this would be something that you know would need to be arrived at from the committee.

Um, you know, the first one that's just a criteria uh threshold criteria is it complete, is it not?

Um, from there.

Um we have alignment with strategic pillars, alignment with priority priorities identified during um phase one, the organizational capacity, demonstrated community impact, the reasonableness, and the program design and measurability.

So, you know, if a organization's goal is to end homelessness, that's very difficult to measure, much less get a success or failure on.

Um, whereas we will house 10 individuals, we will house five individuals, or we will provide services to 20 people, 30 people.

We want to we want a level of measurability there, and that kind of gets also to your SMART goals as well.

Um, and how they would be way they would also be arrived at during phase one of the process.

Um, so here is kind of a key criteria point.

This was kind of a it kind of came out during the discussion, um, I believe back the first meeting of the month or of April.

Um we're gonna present two options this evening.

Um of them under option A, one to two council members would sit on that evaluation team.

So the same people who helped us develop the goal and priority setting.

Um also looked at the recommendation.

Um, council members, they would also be a participant in the evaluation team.

The other option is that they would still have the same role as far as establishing the criteria and you know, kind of setting the weights on them, and they would also kind of still provide a recommendation and feedback and kind of participate in the iterative improvement, but they would not be directly responsible for evaluating any um individual submissions.

Um part of that was just to kind of keep uh counsel out of the decisions as the mayor brought up last time.

Correct.

Um just to kind of I don't know, keep keep hands clean, keep your hands clean.

Um, not that any other one, if anyone goes for your hands are not clean, but that was the that was the controversy and the rec uh the rationale for it.

Um so you know, as we shape this, we are looking for somewhat of a a uh consensus and how we want to take this and what council's wishes are for both the um if they want to be involved in the evaluation process and how they would want to fill the two seats for the liaisons on the board.

I can continue the presentation or you can pause for consensus.

Go ahead and continue the presentation, then we'll go back to again next step would be kind of selecting how we want to move forward with um option A or B.

So again, next step would be kind of selecting how we want to move forward with um option A or B.

And then we'll kind of start the process.

So the first one would be to um finalize the evaluation criteria and scoring rubric rubric, uh develop the standardized application, um, establish the minimum number for newly required organization, excuse me, newly funded organizations, and draft the advertising and outreach plan and identify and confirm evaluation team members on the staff side.

So we would also need to kind of select who in the city um on the staff would be contributing to that team as well.

All right, and that concludes this portion of the presentation.

Um I'm happy to take any questions or comments on the recommended CR process for fiscal year 2028.

Any questions?

Very good.

So we do need to make a decision on option A or option B, um, as as Mr.

Burke indicated, uh, how we proceed with the process and how we appoint the liaisons.

Um I know the mayor usually can appoint point point folks to commissions and boards um as liaisons.

Um I suspect that since we do have a personnel committee, that we just use the personnel committee for that.

If individuals want to step up and volunteer, we'll certainly make that a consideration first.

But if no one volunteers, then we can as the personnel committee appoint um one person and maybe have an alternate or appoint two people.

That would be the first thought.

You have the floor, ma'am.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um to answer your question, I would raise my hand to be a part of the the this uh commission or um city council liaison for this.

Um I think it's needed that we have some order around our CRO process, so thank you for putting this together.

Yes, thank you very much.

And um, were we also at the point of what preference we like?

Yes, we're we're gonna decide on that.

So, in terms of the liaisons, do we want one liaison, two liaisons?

What is your pleasure?

You already volunteered, so we know we want one.

We want two liaisons for this exercise.

I think so.

Okay, two liaisons.

Yeah, just want to make sure I'm I'm following.

One of the options no liaisons.

And then the other option was uh I could have council liaisons.

Well, uh let's talk that through because uh you know I I think that having liaisons and and some part of the process, but I like option B because look at the end of the day, um, we don't want anyone on council to be in a position where they are accused of any type of uh impropriety.

So, in order to prevent that, I don't think we need to be engaged in the decision making process.

However, I think there's value in having us involved with the process.

Is that fair or not fair?

I agree with that.

And I would make a slight caveat.

You are the the full council is still involved in the decision making process because nothing's gonna go through without because it's it's adopted alongside the budget.

Okay, so you will still have decision making, but you won't have evaluation.

Okay.

So you won't be going in there scoring and saying, you know, I I feel like their cash on hand was a little too high for us to be giving more money to it.

That would not necessarily be a part that council would be involved in.

Yeah, we don't want that part, right?

I don't think we want that part.

That's what the liaisons will be involved in that okay.

So that's what I want to back up.

No, no, I think thank you for the clarity.

I I uh it would be my intention, certainly the floor is open, but uh I I just know that we we don't need to insert ourselves in that process like that.

So council council uh woman Bryant.

So are we looking at two liaisons to full set and come back at the end and discuss the outcomes and then report back to council and the in-between is staff and council through the budget process.

Is that how we're envisioning this?

Right.

Okay, which is that's one clear here.

I think that's fine.

Um I would be happy to be part of that if it serves the council well, unless there's somebody else that wants to council uh suggest also to those of us that serve or have family members that are on any board that might be considered in any of this funding that we'd be exempted from being on the on that liaison, they're liaisons.

Okay.

I'm fine with that.

I'm fine with that.

Is everybody else fine with that?

Councilman Hugh.

So mayor, I call for a consensus on option B and uh appointing councilwoman Thomas and Councilwoman Bryant as the liaisons from council.

We have a we haven't call for a consensus all in favor, show by show of hands.

Bingo.

Done.

Easy enough.

Manager Carter.

Thank you, sir.

There's a couple things that I do want to make sure we talk about just before we uh get into the review.

Uh was brought up about the parking ordinance uh item F on the um agenda for this evening.

Um that item does not just read over, it does not include uh bringing in high street, but it does include an adjustment on the parking fees.

Those parking fees would go from currently uh the first two hours is one dollar, and if we go to two dollars in hours three through eight would go to four dollars an hour, a maximum of twenty-eight dollars a day.

And for uh special events parking, it would go from three dollars to five dollars.

Those are the the changes again, those changes would not be in effect until not January, July one, if the council is okay moving forward with that.

If not, we'll pull that item and bring it back at a at a you know on a separate agenda.

So that's the first thing is you know um understand this too, though there is a an inherent cost for doing business the way we're starting to do business.

So I think what we do is we our our fees can't stay the same as they are when we had a a parking meter.

Okay.

Uh second of all is the fees that are allocated today are pre-pandemic fees.

They haven't been any fee and increase in in quite some time.

So it's not like that's you know, this is uh an increase on top of another increase that happened.

So this is the first increase that uh this body has seen as far as parking is concerned in quite some time.

But uh I need to know uh your comfort level of move forward with that before we move over.

Councilman Hughes, sir, you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

So because none of this has been talked through in the parking authority, my recommendation is that we pull it tonight, have the conversation with the parking authority, come back and do the work session that we still need to do regarding parking on high street, and then wrap that conversation and any recommendation from the parking authority into that work session and then act on any increased fees at that point in time separately from what's in the agenda tonight.

Call for consensus.

Let's let's hear what everyone else has to say before we come for a consensus.

Anyone else want to make a comment on that?

Well, I will make a comment.

Um, I I think that what Councilman Hugo has recommended is is prudent at this point.

I mean, we talked about communication, making sure everyone knows what what we're intending to do, so everyone would include the parking authority, and so I think that's reasonable.

Um at the end of the day, we get it.

You know, we we can't expect to park for free, and I don't think people should expect to park for free because we've got to pay for it.

But at the end of the day, we need to make sure everybody, particularly the parking authority, uh, is in line and then move forward accordingly and inform everyone in the public so that at least we we've done that part, and I think that's to the community.

So councilman till it sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I have a comment in regards to um item 26-21A that's on the agenda tonight.

In regards to the uh blighted property tax.

Okay.

Okay.

So I knew we've got conversations in regards to blighted property and derelict properties.

Um I would ask my recommendation to council is if we can defer this item.

Because we have not as a council had a conversation in regards to the policies and how what our intentions are as far as amending um this part of our ordinance.

Um and I think by moving forward with adopting an increased tax, I think it's premature when we don't have a fair when we we don't even know what amendments we want to make to um the blighted property policies.

And so I feel like it's so it's your increase in tax on somebody as an enforcement tool without having clear expectations of what where our desires are, and I understand trying to distinct you know, and how does it distinguish a uh predatory investor versus struggling homeowner?

So I think I would ask that we defer this until we have more discussion.

Uh hold on, we're gonna um go back.

Um councilwoman Thomas has the floor, so we're gonna sorry.

No, I didn't city maybe you can go for it, man.

Thank you.

Yeah, the floor.

Yes, now this um this is a brand new tax.

This is an increase of tax that uh because we heard this council say that that was a problem and you wanted that addressed.

That's that's the reason for this.

So uh we will acquiesce to it absolutely to what the council wants to do.

No, yesterday we had a conversation, and when I asked about the timeline, tonight was not the answer when we were gonna have it, and now it's on the agenda.

And so I think that in order for us to make sound decisions on policy, I think this is is encompassed in the overall conversation um of increased taxes on like I say because this policy doesn't differentiate between uh investor and a homeowner.

And so we have senior citizens and people with disabilities and low income who may not pay a water bill.

Well, if they get disappeared from water services, that makes them a derelict property.

And so you will see reproducations of that, and I just don't think that this is ready for prime time.

Repeat that last part again for when a person so we according to definition of a derelict property.

If a person is not connected to utility services, if a homeowner is behind on their water bill and they lose water service, they're not connected to utilities, which means technicalities you could connect that to being a derelict property, which would then increase the taxes on that homeowner.

And so I think we need to I think there's a lot of conversations that need to happen.

Oh, I'm I'm not gonna say I'm against this.

There just need to be conversations to go along with our conversations along uh policies and the amendments that we're looking to make.

Um so I just think that this is premature at this moment.

The other thing I would like to address is I think that's uh an oversimplification of what that process works like I have to defer to Jeff on you know on the actual interpretation, but uh simply not having water is not the only qualifying thing that would make your property derelict.

Absolutely.

However, that is one of the things that could make it, and so I think that there's needs there's conversations that like I said when I asked about this last night, nobody at this table said it.

They they tell they said meetings two meetings from now.

They didn't say tonight.

And so I think this goes with the conversation that needs to be had in two meetings from tonight, not tonight.

Okay.

Agreed.

It has no effect on the overall budget, so that is something that you're gonna do.

So I would recommend that we just defer here.

Right, but but but but I will add to that um and and I'll say it go ahead.

Sorry, thank you, Mayor.

Um, I wanted to add to that because I actually had a question on item 26121 B, which has the increased tax for the um derelict blighted properties.

Um going back to 26121A, I agree um that we do need more conversation around it is needed.

I know we're talking about making sure our neighborhoods um you know look orderly.

We have some type of way to make sure we hold community members to a standard.

However, I agree with councilman till it's there's a lot more that I think needs to be discussed.

One thing that stood out to me is that um we're not only taxing the building, but we're also taxing the land.

Um we don't have any exemptions listed in this ordinance.

I think uh deserve uh discussion regarding seniors, those with disabilities.

Um I take here um inherited properties, uh hardship exemptions, a relief process.

I know we have something in place in our prior uh uh subordinates right now, but it I think this one needs a bit more massaging before we put it ready for a vote.

So um my recommendation is also that we pull this one and have further discussions to really get this ordinance right is needed.

I'm not saying I'm not against it, but I think we need a few more exemptions listed in here.

Agreed.

Can I clarify something?

Yes, please.

We said B.

I'm sorry.

Uh it's A, but B is a little I had a question about B because the increased tax is also that increased tax rate of the five percent and ten percent is in the table and B, I believe.

I'm looking at my my chicken scratch here, but um they those two are connected to me because it this is the ordinance, but then the increased tax for blighted and derelict properties are in V.

Don't connect them because we're not B is just reenacting what's already the tax okay.

Okay, A is a increase in tax on derailing blighted property.

Okay, don't connect those two.

Okay, okay.

But yeah, I recommend that we pull A so that we can massage this a bit more.

Oh god.

Okay.

Okay.

Vice Mayor.

You have the floor.

Well, it seems like in the course of 24 hours we we've gone from uh we aggressively want to deal with blight, that's not a new thing.

Uh it's been going on for years and years in Portsmouth, and that's uh you know, blight doesn't happen overnight.

It's uh it's a process.

And and uh unless there's some incentive to reverse the process, uh the blight will continue.

So uh I don't uh I can see that uh we we need to certainly communicate uh the policy so I'm okay with that, but uh I don't like what I'm hearing about uh all the justifications on uh we got we gotta be careful of this, that, and that and you know it if I inherited uh a blighted property uh well I'm the I'm the new owner uh of a problem, so I need to fix it.

Uh so I don't think anybody gets a buy uh uh for having ownership uh however that ownership came about.

Uh I think if we're gonna de deal with blight, we we need to deal with it.

Uh so I guess I'm okay with uh uh removing it for one meeting.

Just one meeting, yes.

But uh no longer.

Uh and I thought last night we had a consensus.

So so in that respect, we're sending a little bit of a mixed message, but I'll I'll support uh councilman and the reason I ask for I'm not I'm not against the policy as I've been mentioned.

I just think in the council to have that conversation, and yesterday when I asked about it, uh nobody had anything prepared.

Right.

And so I think that that's an important piece for us to have this conversation as we're moving forward.

Because to your point we need to enforce it.

Yeah, and I just want to make sure that everything is correct.

Yeah, and and I support that.

Absolutely.

Right, but but let me let me let me just ask a question.

I think I think we're getting down the wrong road, and we can't spend a whole lot of time on this right now, and if we def defer it to whatever, but I need I need from our legal standpoint.

We need to because I think we're going down a different road.

I need you to explain what this whole blighted property, whether it's a state ordinance and city code, is it in place today, because um, you know, we can continue to deal with this, but but I need everyone to understand what we're talking about.

The state statute that exists that address this particular process.

We're instituting this process on the local level, but it already exists uh the state statute.

Um so that's the authority for it.

Right.

And the other piece of the puzzle is this is all designed to incentivize property owners that have neglected their properties to have a greater financial responsibility by virtue of tax to incentivize them to correct previously bad behavior as it relates to their properties becoming derelict, um, in the process.

So that's the hit authority for it.

Right, right.

But it is the I I just want to be clear.

The intent is not, you know, for a senior or someone who might be struggling and they can't keep up their property.

The intent is not to totally, you know, assess them or or or be punitive to them.

That's not what the intent of this is.

And so the implication of that, I think you you know, we gotta be careful when we start to talking about what we're trying to do to seniors and other people potentially.

I get that, but at the end of the day, what we're really saying is that people that have been neglecting their property in the way that the blight describes, we gotta start holding people accountable.

And I get I get all the sensitivities about it, but trust me, and those are those are valid, but that's not what we're we're saying here.

What we're saying is we're holding people accountable that have had blighted property.

We ain't talking about a situation for one or or two months or whatever.

We're talking about some serious blight and and and not taking care of your property.

So councilwoman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, in your opinion, Mr.

Carter and Mr.

Challenger, does this potentially put us in a position where we're missing something with someone who's vulnerable, or do you feel that this ordinance is targeted to the right um to the right goal, which is those properties on high street that we toured, properties that have been long-standing problems that we are trying to address.

Is in your opinion, is there a vulnerability here, or is this is this good to go?

So to answer your question, I think it's targeted to the right um audience.

Um it's the the definition of derelict and blighted is defined through the Virginia State Code.

It's it's it's not something that's um arbitrary at all.

It's designed to address these type of um blighted and derelict properties.

So it's not intended at all to address those issues.

Not to say that there's it's always unintended consequences of anything.

That's what I was going to say.

But but the purpose of this is to address blighted and derelict properties which have time periods that's associated with that and definitions that's associated that constitute blighted and derelict that's completely defined.

And the definition is not coming from us, it's coming from the state code.

In your opinion, is there work discussion that we could have that would eliminate those unintended consequences, or are they going to be state mandate part of the ordinance that we just we will address them as as the ordinance rules out?

Uh to answer your question, first of all, the the language is coming from the state code, that's the authority.

Right.

Um I think the way it it is all it's written addresses the concern that we have.

I don't I don't see any concern from a legal perspective or policy perspective, but the way it is written now.

Obviously, it seemed to me that um it may very well be deferred for another meeting, but uh as it's written today, to me is it's written and addresses the issue that we are concerned about, not addressing issues that um that we we all don't want to have.

I I think it's correctly written at the way it's written at right now.

Okay, I appreciate that opinion, and I completely respect the the council's um desire to be careful and tread carefully, but I I recommend we move forward.

This is something we've been waiting on, and I'm i I'm comfortable with your opinion that this is targeted and at the right blight.

So I say go for it.

And I just want to again, we all as a council agree this is something we need.

My concern is always the unintended consequences, and that we unfairly penalize the wrong people or the wrong person, that there are some gaps if I if you would agree with that or not, that it could have unintentional consequences to use your words, and I'm very careful about that, that we take one closer look, provide some feedback or questions regarding this before voting on it tonight.

Um part of that, again, I don't see hardship exemptions.

Um there is if we have that, let me know.

I think one thing will be helpful if I if I may.

So you have a so um session 58.1321.6 of the code of Virginia defines blighted property and defines directly buildings.

It's a relatively short, so if I could, I oh go ahead.

Um as amended, accompassing any individual commercial, industrial or residential structure or improvement that endangers the public health, safety, or welfare, because the structure or improvement upon the property is dilapidated, deteriorated, or violates minimum health and safety standards, or any structure or improvement previously designated as bright blighted pursuant to session 3649.1 of the code of Virginia.

So that's blighted.

Derelic are building a residential or non-residential building or structure, whether or not construction has been completed that might endanger the public health, safety or welfare, and for a continuous period in essence of six months.

It has been vacant, boarded up in accordance with the building code, and not lawfully connected to electrical electric service from a utility service provider or not lawfully connected to any required water or sewer service from a utility service provider.

So those are the definitions of derelict and blighted, which both involve either public health, safety, welfare concerns, being dilapidated, deteriorated, or same thing, public health, safety, or welfare for a period in Sets of six months as it relates to derelict.

So you're talking about pretty significant um issues.

Thank you.

Sir is an appeal clause in there.

So if one of the unintended consequences does clear its head, they have the opportunity to appeal and we can review it.

Ver very good.

So we need to move forward with the question.

Um the question um are we going to have a consensus to move forward with what we have to deliver tonight, or are we gonna move this or defer it to another?

All in favor of proceeding as it is written, show of hands.

I'm sorry, sir.

I think there's two issues that were brought up only we the the only question right now is if we're gonna deal with what we have on on on on the agenda tonight, as as what was just explained by the attorney.

That's that's the question for the consensus.

I'm confused about including item F in this also.

Item F.

What's item F?

Item F was more.

Parking, we that's the whole other one.

We already did that one.

We haven't made a decision.

I know we haven't decided, but I think we're already we're going back to that.

Right.

The question is we're going back to that, and I think we we're all in agreement on that.

But the question is, are we going to proceed as proposed with the language based on what the derelict and and and light properties all in favor of proceeding show of hands?

Okay.

We won't be proceeding tonight.

We'll have a further discussion on that.

Okay.

Okay.

Can I say something?

Yes.

Uh both items that we're talking about deferring this evening, uh, would not take effect until July 1.

Anyway, good.

We will have both those items before you, and we will have a decision made by July 1.

Thank you anyway.

Very good.

That does that help any of the that does.

It does help.

Thank you.

Yep.

It does help.

And so that's includes item F.

That includes item F.

Okay, very good.

So we don't need a consistent.

So we need a an amended city attorney's right.

Okay.

Not for this meeting, but when you go into your regular meeting, we're going to need to amend the agenda for the items that were just talked about.

Right.

No.

No?

No.

Okay.

When we get to that item, it can just be a motion to defer to the next session.

Yes.

Just a motion to defer.

That's all we'll have to have.

Unless you need it to be longer.

I need to be longer.

Then tell them how long you want it so they can defer it to that date.

How about defer to the second meeting in June?

Because we'll want to do a work session at the next meeting.

And then you know what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

That way.

Good.

Thank you, sir.

Okay.

And that's on both items.

That's on both items.

Yes.

But I would just ask that as we proceed through these tough decisions, I get the unintended consequence, but there's always going to be an unintended consequence.

And any decisions we make, there's going to be an unintended consequence.

And what if we are going to move things forward, we have to go by what is presented to us by our legal team and what we ask our professionals to bring before us.

If we're going to put everything in an unintended consequence, we're probably not going to move a lot of things forward.

But we got to do the right thing in our city too.

I just don't think unintended consequences should be placed on the backs of vulnerable systems.

That's all I'm saying.

So we'll conversation.

I'm fine with unintended, but what I'm saying is everything can't be an unintended consequence because, as he explained in the definition, the definition is the definition.

And it is what it is.

And so when we make these decisions, we have to be prepared to move forward.

And I think that it is prudent that we listen to the discussion and then we move forward.

So there you go.

Yes, ma'am.

Sorry, come here.

Well, we're actually, you know, we need to move on because we got another item.

If this is on the same item, we've already discussed that.

I can wait until after the meeting out of questions.

Yes, sir.

I'm not sure where to bring this up this meeting, and I hope you've advised me or not, but I have a piece of property that we have a road on that I'd like to see it vacated by the city.

No, sir.

Okay, that's something I think you can talk to the manager about this meeting after this.

Thank you.

That's off-cycle.

Council members, I have a quick question.

We just have a motion and a second to defer versus me reading all of that and you know, go through all of that.

You do have registered speakers, and like we normally do, we do not hear the speakers when you're gonna defer an item.

Right.

Right.

No, we don't just declare those when it reached the city manager's report.

Yes, sir.

That's exactly what we'll do.

Yes, 23rd.

Second meeting in June.

Okay.

We talked about that.

That's gonna be on the agenda tonight, so we can move forward with that.

As it stands now, we will have ten ordinances, nine budget items that we've removed to, and one ordinance to uh provide a bonus to uh uh constitutional officers, yes, that's what the other one.

Umspicuously missing from the ordinances that we will pass as a budget tonight is a portion of public school budget because we don't have the information back from the state about what their budget is gonna be.

Uh I did have opportunity to reach out to uh Dr.

Braysing and Mr.

Falk today about that particular situation.

And they're agreed that it is is best to just defer until we know what the state is going to do before we try to pass a budget for the public schools.

That's it, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

Okay.

And we do um have a need for a closed session.

Um I swear I'm we didn't read the closed session, which is a move to to go into a closed meeting pursuing to Virginia Code Subsection 2.2-3711 A1 for the purpose of discussion and consideration regarding the position of city attorney.

Second.

We have a motion and a second, madam clerk.

Would you please call the role?

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant.

Yes.

That sense.

Yes.

Mr.

Hugo.

Mr.

Moody.

Yes.

Ms.

Thomas, yes.

Mr.

Tillage, yes.

Mayor Cleffer.

Yes.

Thank you.

We're in close.

Seven minutes of the colour.

Good evening, citizens of Portsmouth.

Want to welcome you all to our council meeting tonight, May the 12th, 2026.

Want to thank you all for coming.

Also want to thank all of our invited guests and citizens that are in the audience.

Want to thank our city staff who is in the audience here with us tonight.

And I want to acknowledge those who are watching us online.

Now I'll recognize our city manager, Mr.

Stephen Carter.

Thank you.

Our interim city attorney, Derek Challenger, and our city clerk, Miss Deborah White.

Thank you all for being here today.

And now I will ask that everyone please stand for a moment of silence, followed by the pledge of allegiance.

Thank you.

Under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We now have the minutes of a call meeting on April 28th, 2026, and a regular meeting on April 28, 2026.

Do we have a motion and second to approve the minutes?

Move adoption.

Second.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

Thank you, ma'am.

Would you please read the council speaker rules?

Yes, sir.

Ladies and gentlemen, City Council rules require a limit of five minutes to speak.

As you approach the speaker's podium, you will 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 council 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.

It should be limited to matters that only the Porcens City Council can influence.

I live in the Woodvine Farms neighborhood in Churchland.

The total amount of 70 738 million 960,000 for the operation of the city government is out of control spending by someone with power over the people.

And this agenda item, the city's operating budget is 598 million, 146,297, and the capital improvement fund is 140 million eight hundred and thirteen thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight dollars.

Total equals 738 million 960,000 dollars.

And the budget book, the total revenues will be 752 million 300,08 dollars.

That means there will be $13,339 and $339,913 not being accounted for in this agenda item.

Also, the capital improvement fund in the budget book, the expenses will be $140,623,798 versus what is in the agenda item of $400 $140,813,798, which shows a difference of $190,000.

A is adding another code for blighted and the derelict buildings on a tax rate of 5%.

This city sets the example for not taking care of the public property.

So why should any owner take care of their property?

The city hasn't taken care of our property since the war.

B, levy taxes on everything tangible for raising revenue to support governmental operations and schools and pay the principal and interest on public debt.

The debt has occurred because the government is still under the reconstruction era.

This period was marked by significant political, social, and economic changes as Portsmouth wants to rebuild and redefine our city.

C increased rates for water and sewers.

D, increased stormwater fees.

E increased fees on water management.

Ma'am, ma'am, if if I could, um, this particular item, this public hearing item is on proposed real property tax increase.

Now we do have other items under City Manager's report that that might pertain to that, but this is on the proposed tax increase.

The information that you're not I'm reading on the agenda item ABCD.

If you look at the uh report, oh okay.

I just I just I don't know why you're interrupting me because you're taking away my freedom of speech.

I'm here to self-govern for my people.

Madam Clerk, you have the floor.

Good evening, Ms.

Ms.

Biggs.

Um you registered to speak, you asked to be registered for all of the agenda items.

Right.

That's why you're registered for the public hearing, which is 26120.

What you're speaking on is 26121.

We haven't gotten there yet.

That's what the mayor is trying to tell you.

Well, thank you for sharing it so I can understand English.

It's okay.

All right.

All right.

So the first one was then okay.

So I already said that part, so I'll come back.

Thanks.

All right.

Yes.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Biggs.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, item 26-120, public hearing on proposed real property tax increase.

If you wish to come forward and speak on this item, you are not required to have signed up.

However, if you do come to speak on this item, you must speak to the item that is on the agenda.

And you will have five minutes.

Seeing none, this public hearing item is closed, and we will move forward with the next item on the agenda, which is city managers report.

And that is item Vice Mayor Moody, so you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

When we get into this under uh item 26-121, item A, uh move that item A and item F be deferred until our June the 23rd meeting.

Second.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second to defer item A and item F.

Is there any additional discussion seeing none?

Please vote electronically.

These items are deferred 7-0.

And just for the public's edification when these items come back, if you register it tonight, you will have an opportunity to speak at that time.

Okay.

Correct.

So now we have come to city manager's report once again.

And item 26-121, item B.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the ordinance we are considering for this item?

An ordinance to amend and reenact ordinance number 2025-25 to impose and levy taxes for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027, on real estate, tangible personal property, privately owned pleasure boats, privately owned camping trailers, and motorhomes boats or watercraft weighing less than five tons, or and used for business purposes only, and machinery and tools within the city of Portsmouth, Virginia, for the purpose of raising revenue for the support of governmental operations and the public free schools, and to pay principal and interest on public debt.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And we do have a registered speaker for this item, item B, and that is Ms.

Donna Biggs.

Item B, ma'am.

Ms.

Biggs, just to clarify, you are registered for each of these agenda items.

So you speak on that particular agenda item, okay?

So I have to get up and down, up and down.

Pretty much, yes, ma'am.

Well, I wish I'd have known it before.

Okay.

B levy taxes on everything tangible for raising revenue to support governmental operation and schools and pay the principal and entrance on public debt.

The debt has occurred because the government is still under the reconstruction era, and this period was marked by significant political, social, economic changes as Portsmouth wants to rebuild and redefine their city.

So that's it for this one.

Thank you, ma'am.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Move adoption.

Any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

We're now moving to item C.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the ordinance we are considering for item C?

Yes, sir.

An ordinance to amend appendix A of the code of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia to increase rates for water and sewage services as authorized by sections 38-83 and 38-11 of the said code.

Thank you, ma'am.

Ms.

Biggs, ma'am, you are one of the registered speakers for this item.

If you would come forward, uh can I say that I need how to avoid doing it because of what I'm you got my presentation.

How do I just ma'am?

As a registered speaker for this item, you're asked to come to the podium, state your name and address, and you will have five minutes.

Okay.

All right.

My name is Donna Biggs.

I still live in the Woodvine Farms neighborhood and Churchland.

Increase in the race for water and sewer.

Many people are talking about how they're being charged for all this and they're not getting any uh relief from the city's got all this sewage.

Well, how are they gonna pay for it if all you're gonna do is tear down things and rebuild new stuff?

So let's monitor how we're spending our money, please.

Thank you, ma'am.

Council members, we're in need of a motion, then they second.

Move to adopt.

Second.

raise for water and sewer many people are talking about how they're being charged for all this and they're not getting any uh relief from the city's got all this sewage well how are they gonna pay for it if all you're gonna do is tear down things and rebuild new stuff so let's monitor how we're spending our money please thank you ma'am council members we're in need of a motion then they second move to adopt second any additional discussion on this item please vote electronically oh I'm sorry we we do have two two council members that want to speak I apologize councilman Tillage sir you have the floor thank you mayor uh for this item I'm gonna be voting no um I do not believe in increasing um our water and sewage rates uh especially during this time of um high costs being um out of control and affordability issues and so I'll be voting no on this thank you sir councilwoman Thomas ma'am you have the floor yes thank you mayor um I also would be voting no um I'm not the issue of the increase this year my issue is the automatic annual five percent increase so that's why I'll be voting no um against the automatic annual five percent increase thank you thank you ma'am any additional discussion on this item please vote electronically this item is adopted five to two thank you madam clerk and madam clerk item D could you please read the ordinance we are considering for item D yes sir an ordinance to amend appendix A of the code of the city of Portsmouth Virginia to increase monthly stormwater utility fees as of July 1 2026 as authorized by section 11.1-43 of set code thank you ma'am and we do have a speaker for item D and that's Miss Donna Biggs ma'am if you would come forward state your name and address you will have five minutes I wish I'd have known this before now all right Donna Biggs I live in the Woodvine Farms neighborhood in Churchland increase stormwater fees well if you go around in different areas of of the uhnexes you will see water and especially in uh in churchland area one area the water is all up on the side of the road and side the road and you want to up the fees for the water uh storm water but how are you gonna spend it all that water on the side of the road all the ditches need to be cleaned out uh you got all this fees now you don't do anything with it even look downtown going on uh London Boulevard all the water on the side of the road so you want to raise the fees so what are you gonna do with it nothing thank you ma'am council members we're in need of a motion in a second of adoption second any additional discussion on the item please vote electronically this item is adopted 70 item e madam clerk would you please read the ordinance we are considering for this item an earnest to amend and reordain Article 1 in general and article two city collections of chapter 16 garbage and refuse and appendix a of the code of the city of Portsmouth Virginia for the purpose of modifying requirements and fees pertaining to waste collection including waste thank you ma'am and miss Donna Biggs ma'am you are a registered speaker if you would state your name and address you will have five minutes my name is Donna Biggs and I live in the Woodvine Farms in Churchling increase the fees on waste management now are you with this fees increase how how are you gonna spend it and I'm seeing these young folks getting the trash up putting in a truck and all kinds of weather and they are serving us and yet are you going to use this money to give them a good uh salary so they can uh get the help they need if they have some problems physically from lifting everything and trying to take care of so we don't have uh problems with uh diseases and stuff or waste being thrown all around and uh when are we gonna teach our young folks uh when I was young growing up on the farm they told me to put the trash in the car don't throw it on the road but I'm seeing trash being thrown everywhere so somebody isn't teaching them so are y'all gonna teach them with all the money that you're raising to uh pay for everything thank you ma'am council members we are in need of a motion and they second to adopt second any additional discussion seeing none please vote electronically this item is adopted 70 thank you madam clerk and I believe we did defer item F.

To adopt.

Second.

Any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 7-0.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And I believe we did defer item F.

Correct.

So when an item is deferred, we do not acknowledge speakers for that deferral.

Uh, if it when it comes back, then you certainly have an opportunity to speak at that time.

We will then proceed to item G.

And Madam Clerk, could you please read the ordinance we are considering for this item?

An earnest to amend appendix A of the code of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia to increase city cemetery fees and charges.

And we do have two registered speakers for this item.

Ms.

Donna Biggs, ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Donna Biggs.

Within Farms and Churchill.

All right, the increase in cemetery fees.

All right.

Y'all have an $18,000 debt for a cemetery fee because the waste management did not pick up the trash.

And why doesn't the city council's historic preservation commission have a budget so it can take care of historic cemeteries instead of denying a small business owner to be in debt because the city hasn't paid their waste management bill to the small business owner?

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker is Mr.

Mark Godal Digitrowski.

Sir, if you come forward, state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and other neighbors.

Council, thank you for cutting my workload in half tonight by the deferral of those first two items.

When I looked at this item in the agenda packet, what jumped out to me, you can take a banker out of the bank, but he's still a banker, was the extraordinary percentage increase in the fees from top to bottom having to do with services provided at city cemeteries.

And so my question to management and to you all is have the costs really risen sufficiently to warrant 50, 70, even a hundred percent increases in fees since the last time this was considered.

I mean we're currently in a time of extraordinary inflation, but at the inflation rate that has prevailed up until the recent unpleasantness in the Middle East, these seem like enormous price jumps.

Now, I'm not in the burial services realm.

I don't know what the facts are on the ground, but again, as a banker, looking at these increases, I'd be interested to know why they should be so sizable.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Any additional discussion?

We do have two two council members who asked for the floor.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

And actually, uh, this was gonna be one of my my comments or questions during our work session regarding item G and that increase.

Uh my one of my concerns is what was just stated over the size and pace of the increases right now for that in that fee table.

So I can't support that right now.

Um, so I'll be voting no.

Thank you.

Councilman Tillage, so you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I will also be voting no on this uh for the same reasons as councilwoman Thomas.

Um to have spikes as high as 50 and 60 and more percent is a big burden, um, especially when families are already at one of the most vulnerable moments in their life, losing a loved one.

So I'll be voting no.

Thank you.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 52.

Madam Clerk, item F.

I mean, excuse me, H.

Excuse me, please read the resolution.

A resolution approving the community planning and development 2027, annual action plan of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia, and authorizing the city manager to file documents required to obtain the city's community planning and development grant entitlements.

Thank you, ma'am.

We do have a registered speaker, Miss Donna Biggs.

Ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Okay.

This grant is for the city manager's ability to file for the community planning and development grant entitlements.

This department divisions are split up, so how can the city manager manage this grant?

Okay.

Do you see the organizational structure?

How you divided it everything up?

But I went to the budget book to see how the divisions of the department are, and I'm seeing it's all split up.

Okay.

So how is that is going to work?

So who is entitled to get this money?

Who's entitled to get these grants?

Am I going to be entitled?

So I don't have to pay my taxes.

Am I gonna get a grant so I can I don't have to pay real estate taxes?

All right, and there's some entitlements and the budget book.

All right.

I'm not gonna say some words, so I don't want anybody's feelings to be hurt.

Pilot, public utilities, pilot, Norfolk uh Jordan Bridge.

Pilot.

Okay.

So the seventh commandment is being ignored, so the entitlement can proceed without consequences, except for the sixth commandment being used for revenge.

Thank you.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Move to adopt.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Thank you, madam clerk.

The next item, item I.

And madam clerk, would you please read the ordinance we are considering for this item?

An ordinance adopting the FY 2027 classification and pay plan for employees of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia.

Thank you, ma'am.

And the first speaker on this item is Ms.

Donna Biggs.

Ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening.

My name is Donna Biggs, and I live in with Farms section of Churchland.

Adopt a pay plan for employees of the city.

There was a pay plan that was given out, but the employees weren't given enough money to live on since the domination by the elected over the people has taxed us without our knowledge and consent.

There was a uh a pay plan that I copied and handed out to a bunch of folks.

And I'm not I'm not seeing people being paid what they deserve to live on in this city.

They need to be number one, not tearing down buildings, not uh doing all this demolition, and hey, uh, I'm gonna do what I want to do.

You're not honoring our history, you're not honoring our people.

And our people need to be paid a salary that they can live without having the everybody in the family has to work and let the children go roaming around the neighborhoods without any guidance or routines for themselves.

But y'all are causing that.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ms.

Tiffany Stewart.

Ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, members of council.

I'm Tiffany Stewart, a lieutenant paramedic and the executive vice president of local 539.

Foremost, I would like to thank the members of council who voted on April 28th to increase pension payments for our legacy retirees and widows.

These are men and women who've given their careers and in some cases their health to the city.

That vote was an act of dignity, and on behalf of my members, I thank you.

Moments like that also highlight a larger frustration employees feel during budget season.

Every year we revisit the same issues staffing shortages, pay compression, safety concerns, and retention problems.

Each year, every response feels like another temporary fix that never fully addresses the underlying problem.

As career public servants, that becomes exhausting.

Last meeting I spoke about 22 positions that were removed from the first FY27 budget.

Since then, the general response has been that because the fire department already has unfilled vacancies, there is little reason to restore the original 11 requested positions because they could sit empty.

With respect, that response misses the point entirely because fire department staffing does not work like other departments.

When firefighters leave today, they cannot be replaced tomorrow.

Fire recruits spend over a year in training before they ever respond to a 911 call independently.

They are not filling vacancies on the day they are hired.

They are entering a pipeline.

That means staffing decisions made today affect emergency response capabilities next year.

Authorizing those positions allows the department to hire a head of retirements, attrition, and recruit dropouts.

Without that flexibility, we remain permanently behind the curve while neighboring departments actively recruit our experienced firefighters with reliable pay plans and better schedules.

Losing those positions was not an administrative inconvenience.

It was the removal of our department's ability to proactively prevent future gaps and emergency response coverage for the people of this city.

I want to go back to my last comment about the step plan.

After reviewing this year's career progression guidelines, what I'm left with is this.

Yet once again, the proposed solution risks creating a new version of the same problem.

The concept of a structured pay development has merit, but what's been presented in this budget is not a path to correction.

It is a framework for limiting how much correction can happen at once.

There have already been multiple revisions of this process.

And what employees see is a system that evaluates them, determines where they genuinely fall based on experience and certification, and then places them in a recommended step several below that value.

The system identifies an employee's worth and then adjusts the outcome to pay them less.

After enough years of half measures, employees begin losing confidence, not only in the outcome, but the process itself.

That is why conversations around collective bargaining matter.

Because right now, the city largely creates standards, interprets those standards, approves those standards, and reviews the appeals to those standards internally.

To many employees, it feels like the city is grading their own paper without anyone else allowing to check the work.

Collective bargaining introduces accountability to that process, not hostility, not obstruction, just accountability.

It creates a framework where employees and management can sit across the gate table together in a neutral process with clear expectations and a shared responsibility for the outcome.

Because oversight is not a threat to good management.

If we truly want to break the cycle of staffing shortages, compression, burnout, and frustration, employees need more than promises that things will improve eventually.

They deserve a hand in shaping the system that governs their careers, their health, and their safety.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker is Mr.

Mark Godal Digrowski.

Good evening, Mayor Council and other neighbors.

I agree with much of what the previous speaker presented to you.

We do have one point of disagreement.

That is in the matter before you provision 8A, the supplements to retired city workers.

The retirement system is being funded at $10.1 million for this year, plus an additional $11 million to repay the debt on pension obligation bonds.

Those bonds were contracted to ensure the solvency of the legacy retirement funds.

Now I've written to you about this, so I'm not going to go through everything that I wrote because I've seen solid evidence that you all can read.

So that's pointless.

And for the sake of the public, the arguments that you received were also posted on my substack.

So it's it's pretty well known.

But the factor that is overlooked in year after year, so-called one-time supplements.

It belies the modifier one.

And at least this year, they were done in the budget process instead of being slipped in later in the year as a grab from the fund balance.

So congratulations to you for that level of transparency.

But they're still wrong.

So the $21 million, $21.1 million that I spoke of that funds the regular pension payments, coupled with another million and a half for other post employment benefits, exceeds the entirety of the social services budget for the city, and is nearly 25% of the school's local budget.

A dollar spent on supplements is a dollar that's not available for any other funding purpose.

They're not necessary, they're not required.

What needs to happen is the underlying fund needs to come up to the threshold value of 80%, so that under your policy adopted a few years ago, the fund can start paying some approximation of cost of living increases out of annual earnings.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Council members, we are in need of a motion in a second.

Any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Our next item is item J.

Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance we are considering for this item.

An ordinance approving the FY 2027 through 31 capital improvement program and appropriating 140 million eight hundred thirteen thousand seven hundred ninety-eight dollars in the FY 2027 Capita Improvement Fund, subject to receipt of the means of financing designated herein.

Thank you, ma'am.

We do have a registered speaker for that item.

And the registered speaker is Ms.

Donna Biggs.

And if you would sir, you I have you listed too.

Um the first speaker is Miss Donna Biggs.

And if you would state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

I'm Donna Biggs, Woodbine Farms Neighborhood and Churchland.

Okay, adopt the 598 million 146, 277 for the operating budget, and all this has been done without the permission and the information and from the people.

All this has been done with nobody up here saying y'all elected, supposed to be representing me in all, but you ain't doing it.

You're sitting up there, domination and control over the people, and that's tyranny.

Ask Virginia.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker, Mr.

David House.

Sir, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council.

My name is David House, and I live in the Simonsville District of Portsmouth.

So last time I came before you talking about uh capital improvement, and um one of the city council members um brought it to light that uh in Craddock the community was promised a community center that never progressed.

Um actually I I take that back.

There was a community center beside the school, and it's it's basically for adult or senior citizens, so there's no nowhere for youth to hang out.

It's the only community.

I mean, we're we're building houses across the street where Craddock used to be and West Craddock, and there's there's nothing.

So I'm I'm bringing bringing to the attention, you know, we're talking about building a new fire station.

So the fire station, the footprint is in the historic district of Portsmouth.

So I reached out to Bill Landfair, who is the one of the the head persons for the uh historic preservation commission, and he said that the city has not reached out to him or communicated to him anything about the about the new fire station.

Okay.

So my my concern is since it's in a historic district that it meets the historic footprint of the neighborhood.

Okay.

So the the issue was it's like, well, it needs to be at the front of George Washington so we can get to Highland Built more quicker.

We're talking about five blocks away from where it's currently sitting.

My question is, why don't they just revamp the old fire station, make it two-story, the same type brick and stuff.

You can and you can utilize that space because the old rec center that was there is no longer there, and it's just a dirt floor or dirt area, okay?

Or across the street, like I said, and Ollie's, okay.

There's a there's almost an acre and a half of property right out front that's got prime footage, so you could have a stoplight right there, so you're not having a double stop light going into afton and one to to work when the fire station they need to come out, and then how's the the new fire engines and stuff gonna transition into the small area where the BP gas jation used to be?

I think so.

I'm just I I'm in agreement that Craddock needs a new fire station.

I think in the hindsight, when they sold the property across the street, the Craddock High School, that would have been the opportune time to say, hey, we're gonna we're gonna take this much of that property and put a fire station there.

I'm all for it.

I think I think the footprint of the current fire station is outdated.

I've talked to the the some of the people that work in there and the and the living conditions is not something that you'd want to have to go to every day and and work at.

So I'm just saying, you know, consider other options than the skate park because when you put the fire station in, the skate park's gonna go away.

The rec area is gonna go away because everything's gonna be one to be put up in the front.

So then so when you take the skate park and you take the rec area, there's nothing anywhere in Craddock for the kids to play.

Nowhere.

So I'm just just asking that you would take that, you know, uh consideration about where we're gonna put it.

Like I said, I'm all for the the fire station.

I think it needs to be there, but I think the placement and where it's where they want to put it, there's other elements.

Like I said, the biggest thing is that is in the historic district of Craddock.

Thank you very much in having a blessing.

Thank you, sir.

Council members, we're in need of a motion in a second.

Second.

Any additional discussion on this item seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Thank you, madam clerk.

Our next item, item 20.

Well, item K.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the ordinance we are considering for this item?

Um hold on one second.

Okay.

Adoption of an ordinance to appropriate 598 million one hundred forty-six thousand two hundred ninety-seven dollars for the operation of city government during fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026.

Thank you, madam clerk.

And we do have a registered speaker for that item.

Ms.

Donna Big If you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

I might have made a mistake.

Which is unusual.

All right.

Adopt the 500.

I thought I'd said that the last time, but I'll repeat myself.

Five hundred and ninety eight million one hundred and forty-six thousand two hundred ninety-seven dollars operating budget.

Is really beyond imagination for a city that's poverty stricken to spend our money like that without thinking about our people first, especially those who are employed here.

When are y'all gonna start putting us first?

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next our next item, item 26.

Oh, yeah, I need to go and do the motion.

Sorry, guys.

Second.

Any additional discussion?

Yes.

Councilman Dodson, sir.

You have the floor.

I'm sorry, I need to ask a moment to confer with uh city legal council before I vote on this.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I need to uh make a disc uh public disclosure on this item before I vote.

And that item is that my wife is involved in one of the boards that's being funded by this, although she receives no compensation for that, and we receive no benefits from this.

I am required to disclose this before voting on this item.

Thank you, sir.

Our next speaker, uh, councilwoman Thomas.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, so um I just want to make the public aware um and my council colleagues.

I don't take this decision lightly.

Um I tonight will be voting no against item K, our operating budget.

Um, so my vote, I just want to be clear, my vote is not against the city's operating budget or the important initiatives included within it, but my vote is for ensuring we make commitments that are fully that fully account for the financial realities, still unfolding at the state level.

So with the state budget still unresolved, we do not yet know the full amount of funding Portsmouth public schools may receive from the state.

The city's contribution today could impact future budget decisions once those final numbers are known.

So for that reason, um in full transparency, I will be voting no today for that reason.

Thank you.

Councilman Tillard, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I too will also be voting no on this.

Um, it's not against the operating budget nor the incentives inside, however, it is about the uncertainty at the state level.

Um by voting on this, we're finalizing a local financial plan without having clear direction and guidance from the Commonwealth.

And as we know that there is a drastic difference between the Senate and the House budgets right now, and I think that this will pose some significant risk to our schools specifically as they've already requested millions of dollars uh to support teacher salaries and other initiatives.

Um and I just think in order instead of us being reactive, um, we need to be more proactive, and so I'll be voting no on this, and um we'll see what comes down from the state.

Council members, we're in need of a motion in a second.

We've already done that.

Well, we have an additional discussion.

We've already done that.

So please vote electronically.

This item is a is adopted for three.

Thank you, madam clerk.

And our next item, item 20.

Is it 26-122?

Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance we are considering for this item.

An ordinance accepting state share expense revenue in the amount of 213,809 from the Virginia Compensation Board and appropriating 194,127 of said funds to the judicial category.

And $19,682 of said funds.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

For this item, we do have a registered speaker, Miss Donna Biggs.

Ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Hopefully, after this meeting.

All right.

26-12 to accept state funds for 213, 809 dollars, and appropriating 194,127 to the judicial category, and $19,682 to general government division of the general fund budget for constitutional officer staff bonuses.

Why can't they have a salary that fits their needs instead of using our utility fund and cause our utilities to go up so that you can do that instead of doing what's right?

Y'all need to practice on how to manage money.

I keep a record of all my income and expenses every month.

And I'm not getting anything for it.

But I can see that y'all need to start doing it for yourselves, so you'll stop punishing us.

Thank you, ma'am.

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 7-0.

Our next item, item 26-123.

And madam clerk, would you please read the resolution that we are considering pertaining to this item?

A resolution approving and authorizing the execution of an interim agreement for the design of a new city hall and parking garage.

And we do have a registered speaker, Ms.

Donna Biggs.

Ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Who is behind this spending and demolition of the people's property without his or her consent?

This is absolute domination and control.

And I'm standing up for my people.

I am a Christian soldier.

I am praying that God will intervene on this domination by an unjust government.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Dotson, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Um I'll be voting no, and I need to express why, and it is not against the developer or the project at all.

I'd very much like to see this project go forward.

Uh, my objection is to a procedural um item in how this handled.

I have asked for a number of times for inform additional information on this project that I have not received, and that is my only objection to say that I don't know that the procedure we have for handling this is one that I'm I'm in agree in agreement with.

But I do would like very much for us to move forward with this project.

Thank you, sir.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 6-1.

Thank you.

And that concludes our items under city manager report.

We have now come to the content of new business.

Item 26-124 boards and commissions.

Councilman Hugo, do we have any boards or commissions to report?

We have no board and commission business for this evening's meeting, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

Our next item, item 26-125.

Item submitted by council.

Council members, do we have an item to submit by from council?

Councilman Hugle.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

I move for the appointment of Derek Challenger as City Attorney beginning May 13th, 2026, at a salary of 200,000, and that his contract details are negotiated by the personnel committee on behalf of the city council.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Councilman Tillage, you have the floor, sir.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just want to be very clear that uh my no vote tonight is not a reflection of attorney challenger, um, but a commitment to the integrity of the process.

Um, in February, this council agreed to a search um to a search firm to ensure a competitive and transparent um and thorough selection was made for this position.

Um moving forward tonight uh without adhering to this agreement that we came up uh came to the agreement on.

Um we're bypassing our own uh standards and undermining transparency that we owe to our constituents.

Um I cannot support a shortcut um in such a critical appointment as the position of city attorney.

So I will be voting no.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Councilwoman Simons, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I also, as my colleagues uh know that I'm gonna be voting no, it is in no reflection of Mr.

Challenger and his abilities uh as the city attorney.

My no vote is simply due to the termination of the hiring process, uh which you know our council agreed to, but I don't agree with that.

So um just like council uh mentilage said uh this is a very important position, and I did want the hiring process to continue with the search firm, um, just so that we had a plethora of candidates to compare, but this isn't no reflection to Mr.

Challenger and his abilities.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Hugel, sir, you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

So just for the clarification to the public, uh the city council did decide we wanted to use a recruiting firm to uh look for candidates for this position.

Uh we hired a recruiting firm, we used that recruiting firm uh for a period of uh five months.

Uh and uh uh across that five months we had one applicant uh and that applicant was uh Derek Challenger.

Uh and so we followed our process and uh and so I'm ready to proceed with uh with the vote uh given that uh that we did uh use a recruiting firm to uh to address finding uh qualified uh individual, and I think we found a qualified individual.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

Vice Mayor Moody, so you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I will be voting for Mr.

Challenger.

Mr.

Challenger has served as a deputy uh attorney for a number of years.

We've seen him in action.

He served as uh interim attorney.

He's also uh served uh uh this city uh very well during his tenure.

And uh as uh councilman uh Hugel mentioned, we we did do the search route.

What he didn't mention was uh at a considerable cost uh uh doing that search.

So I feel that uh we have in Mr.

Challenger someone who'll uh make us an excellent city attorney.

If it was uh if I didn't feel we wouldn't, I think people know me well enough I wouldn't be uh uh hitting this yes button.

So thank you, sir.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

We have one.

Excuse me.

We have we have a motion and a second.

Yes, thank you, madam clerk.

You're welcome, sir.

Any additional discussion seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted five two.

This item is adopted five to and before we proceed.

I would like to take a moment to welcome our new city attorney, Mr.

Derek Challenger.

Would you like to say something, sir?

Just want to say thank you for counsel for giving giving me this opportunity.

Um it's it's very much appreciated, and I'm gonna do my best to uh make you proud of me uh appointing me to the 50th law in the first place.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome, sir.

Councilman Dotson, you have the floor.

Thank you.

May I move to the next item?

Are you are you going for item submitted by council?

So do you want to submit an item?

I do, sir.

You have the floor, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Um, as Mr.

House spoke earlier, uh, we had at one point we need rec centers.

Let me just move on to that.

We need rec centers.

And I spoke with the school board about opening uh Craddock, and I was deferred to by them to um parks and rec to make that happen.

So I wanted to ask if I could add that item to the city manager's list to investigate the possibility of opening Craddock I as an athletic rec center available to the Craddock um residents uh and see what the feasibility of of this is.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Tillage, sir.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

On a more positive note, uh today we uh celebrated the uh senior sports day um at the sports complex.

And there was it was amazing to see so many seniors from across the city uh be able to come together and to show their youthful side um and to still be engaged in their health.

And so I just want to take my hats off to my hat off to all the individuals that particip the participated from all ages and they participated in all types of different sports, and so that will be happening between today and Friday at the Sports Center and um I believe church and high school and a couple of other different facilities.

And so um I encourage you all to if you know somebody to go out there and cheer them on and next year if you all like to participate.

Um go ahead and sign up.

Um, and so you can sign up through our parks and rec department.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Councilwoman Bryant, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'll add that they're looking for pickleball players.

So I was informed today that we had one pickleballer.

So if you play, get out there.

He's ready for a challenge.

Um, wanted to thank support Portsmouth Public Art for another wonderful mural fest with the additions this year.

It was a week-long event.

Um, if you were out there Friday night, it was a really really fun time.

Um, so thank you to the organizers, the volunteers, the artists who came from near and far to make this uh a really special event and something that um captures the energy and the vibrancy that we are building here in Portsmouth, and we're all very excited about that.

Um also looking forward tomorrow to uh rock the block, which will be in Old Town.

We are focusing on the old town downtown area tomorrow.

Thank you to our staff that will be participating as we prep for the sale 250 event.

So thank you for arranging that and look forward to seeing you all out there.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Hugo, sir, you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

So it's been busy here in Portsmouth, and it's been a good busy.

Uh so last week we celebrated National Day of Prayer here in City Council Chambers.

We celebrated a ribbon cutting at Baines Point on High Street.

Uh we celebrated the mural fest.

Uh and uh uh today the mayor and I were honored to uh to celebrate our small business of the year, eluso salon, which is uh located out in Churchland.

So uh that coupled with the senior fest today.

I mean, a lot of really uh good things happening around our city, and and uh and so congratulations to all and thanks to all who work behind the scenes to pull all of these events together.

Thank you, sir.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll be very brief, but I just wanted to say first um, and in addition to all the events that uh my my colleagues have mentioned, I have to give a strong kudos to the planning behind the state of the city, and kudos to the mayor.

Well done with the speech.

Um, I think we you know, yes, let's um all the planning.

Um I'm gonna also shout out Peter and the marketing and JD behind that.

As soon as our event was over, you just saw the marketing on social media with the website, the videos roll out.

Um, just an overall excellent well-produced event highlighting our city.

Um, and I I will say that I think we had the best one yet in the region.

So kudos to everyone there.

And then I'm also gonna just uh take the liberty to say congratulations to I think it was 34 Portsome Public School students that received their associates degree yesterday at TCC.

So I think that's an amazing highlight, an amazing advantage and program offered through Portsmouth Public Schools.

I just want to give those students recognition for taking their career further.

Thank you, ma'am.

Vice Mayor Moody, sure you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to uh congratulate the city manager and his staff for really a smooth uh budget adoption year.

Um I think it was well organized, and I think uh it was also very transparent.

Uh so I know a lot of hard work goes into that from a lot of people, and just wanted to uh give you kudos for that, and they deserve a applause for that as well.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am, you have the floor.

I'm so sorry.

I know I said I was gonna be brief, but I forgot one event I wanted to mention that was also another positive event in our city.

We had our spring Portsmouth Wine Fest um right here outside, and it was a time we had a great time, great energy, great music.

Um, I think I heard on just based on feedback I was there that you know people that missed it regret missing it.

So they're gonna make sure they're at the fall event.

So I just want to say kudos to the organizers behind um the winefest event.

That was a another great event festival for our city.

Uh more of that, more getting people to come over to this side of the water and really see the beauty of Portsmouth and the beauty of the people.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Vice Mayor Moody, sir, you have the floor.

Mayor, uh, it is May, correct?

It is.

And Memorial Day is coming up.

It is.

And I think one of the oldest Memorial Day parades in the nation will be occurring.

Is that correct?

It will, sir.

Yep.

Uh and I think to my right is gonna be the MC this year.

Again.

Would you like to expound on that?

Uh Councilman Hugo.

Uh, yeah, so thanks.

Um, so we do have the uh Memorial Day Parade upcoming.

Uh it's um Monday morning and Memorial Day.

Um, there will be a reviewing stand at uh the corner of High Street and Court Street, and a uh veterans uh reviewing stand directly across the street at High Street and Court Street.

Uh there had been some concern amongst the uh parade organizers uh with the shutdown in Department of Homeland Security that our Coast Guard uh neighbors weren't gonna be able to participate.

Thankfully, that's been resolved.

Uh and so we're looking forward to uh full turnout from our our uh military friends, Navy, and Coast Guard uh military friends uh for the parade.

Uh it's been a good turnout of uh of parade entries, and so we have the uh cooperation of the weather, it's gonna be a great day.

Indeed it is, indeed it is.

And a couple of closing things.

Um wanted to let everybody know you may have noticed at the roundabout.

There's this beautiful statue that has been placed there of three dancers.

The name of the statue is jubilation.

Many of you may remember the statue was at the old Willard Hall.

We are going to be celebrating the rededication of that statue on May the 20th, next Wednesday.

Time to be determined, but we are asking that everyone come out and celebrate jubilation and enjoy the fun and festivities that will be going along with that.

In addition to that, on May the 22nd, we will be celebrating, I believe, the 35th annual umoja festival, and that is the African Cultural Family Festival where you can come out and celebrate culture, have good food, fellowship, and good music.

And everybody, of course, is an invite is invited, and we look forward to having an amazing time.

And that concludes our item submitted by council.

Our next item, item 26-126 report on pending items.

And Mr.

Carter, sir, you have any pending items to report on.

Yes, sir.

Uh, you should have your report back from the last council meeting.

Um I'm really surprised I don't have many for this council meeting, but that's a great thing.

The only thing that I would like to say though, we talked about a lot of the events that's been happening around the city, and I do want to make sure that I take time to shout out to the team that supports us in making this happen.

All of these things that's happening across our city.

Thank you all for what you do.

Every one of you, there's there's there's not a department that I can't call on, and they show up wholeheartedly and make those things work.

So thank you again to all the team that make Portsmouth go.

Don't forget we have Rog the Block tomorrow.

Uh that's at uh in our downtown.

So please come out, help us beautify our downtown as we get ready for our celebration in June for Juneteenth, which is going to be the kickoff event, and then the sale to fifth events that will happen following that.

And finally, I want to say congratulations to my colleague, Mr.

Derrick Challenger.

Well done.

Thank you for being a team player and helping us get through all the hard work that your team does for me.

You wouldn't believe the amount of things I send to these guys, and they always show up and I'm truly grateful for their support.

So congratulations, brother.

The next item, item 26-127.

Non-agenda speakers.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the speaker's statement?

Yes, sir.

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, hear a 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.

It should be limited to matters that only the Portsmouth City Council can influence.

A speaker who fails to observe this basic rules of decorum will be deemed out of order and not allowed to conclude his or her comments.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Our first speaker, Mr.

Tony Goodwin.

Sir, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

But it's just a little thing that I've got to get through.

Own a business here on High Street in downtown and have been in the city working basically since 1995-96.

And tourism, of course, as you know, is a big industry for Hampton Roads.

It's one week, one of the legs of the three-legged stool that we call our economic engine here.

Portsmouth has a very valuable asset here with its history and its rich rich history of naval and also just revolutionary war, which is of course what we're celebrating right now in the 250th celebration.

And I commend everyone that's involved with that here at the city.

One thing is for certain we have some things that have been fallen to the wayside.

I believe our wayfinding system that was instituted in back in 2010 has come to the point where signs have been run over or now have completely rusted and are actually still trying to point in directions of where things are, and quite frankly, where they're not pointing to where things are today because they haven't been updated.

The uh one of the identifying uh marks that we had over a couple of years ago uh was wayfinding signs on the interstates, of course, the brown signs.

I championed that uh that program when I was the president of the business association a number of years ago.

And finally, with uh with some help from my friends up in Richmond, we ended up getting an old town Portsmouth Historic District sign over in Norfolk at Bramblon Avenue, pointing uh visitors from Virginia Beach in the Norfolk area to Portsmouth to stop here.

But that was only one of about 12 signs that Mr.

Carl Jackson presented to this board a number of years ago as well.

Um that sign didn't cost us anything because it was a favor that I called in, and of course, they also fixed some of the faded signs of Harbor Center Pavilion, which is the pavilion out here, and that's its legal name.

Um but there's still more work to be done.

Uh let's face it, Portsmouth has about a hundred has contributed in 2023 138 million dollars in tourism dollars for the for the city.

And when you talk about tourism dollars, those are not tax dollars, tax paying at citizens' dollars that are having to run the city government.

That's extra money coming in from visitors for a multitude of different reasons.

Of course, casino has been been one of those hotel rooms and a lot of other things that admissions taxes to the children's museum and so on and so forth have contributed to that dollar amount.

But we can do better.

We can do better, and we're at the world's fair right now of this country, and uh sale 250, which we referred to it as op sale years ago, is is g is upon us.

And I think that Peter's office and his staff over at marketing and communications and everyone involved has done an absolute fantastic job of getting ready for that.

But I wanted to basically get with I I've been speaking with uh Mr.

Cagola about possibly being able to assist in even more because in like last October we lost one of the best persons who retired in the tourism industry, and that was Keith Toler.

In October, he retired.

He left it in good hands, of course.

But more importantly, that was one person that law we lost that we have not yet replaced.

And so my wife and I both are in the business, as many of you know, she opened the Hall of Fame here, which of course in its peak reached up to 75,000 people in one year, and then added to that, she's now down at the Great Bridge Battlefield Waterways History Foundation.

But we want to help a little bit more.

And so I ended up proposing or put in an unsolicited proposal to help in tourism services and get some of these smaller projects off the backs of some of the city employees so they could actually get done.

And I'd like to see if that's something that would still be of an interest.

That proposal was put in back in February, but yet to hear anything back yet.

I know there's things that are happening and are busy, but I would really like to be able to have the opportunity not only as a resident and know the story and know the the history that we have, but also as a business owner, because the I can tell you the foot traffic has dropped dramatically on high street since Roger Brown's is closed, and so we need that activity to be a little bit more with the cruise ship, it's great, but there's obviously a lot of other things and components into that proposal.

So with any opportunity, I would love to have a sit down with you, Mr.

Manager, or any of the staff that are a part of that.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

You have the floor.

I wanted to ask if we could get an update from the manager on two items there.

One, the uh wayfare signs, and two, the unsolicited proposal.

I think the unsolicited proposal is supposed to come.

I think we talked about they're supposed to come to here, but I'm not sure about how that happens.

Is there a proper way to ask this, Mr.

Mayor?

The unsolicited proposal for City Hall.

No, no, no, he he he indicated Mr.

Goodwin indicated that he submitted some level of proposal.

Um we're not aware of that, so if you can look into it, right?

I think that would be appropriate.

All right, that's cool.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mr.

David House.

Good evening, uh, mayor, vice mayor, council.

My name is David House, and I live in the Simonsdale district of Portsmouth.

I want to say thanks.

Uh since the last time I was here, the issue that I brought before you I got some good feedback from the city, and I believe there were some issues that were resolved.

So I'd like to address a property that's uh this has been a nuisance since for at least four and a half years.

Um this property um has had no business license since December 31st, 2021, and it's continued to operate at this location.

Uh notice of violation uh number one was November the 18th, 2024 for tires and and debris.

And if you look at the second page, they gave a final notice to remove the debris.

That was December 19th, 2024.

The next page talks about an email that was sent to the fire chief and the fire marshal.

And if you look on the back page, the last the last issue was uh summons request.

No action was done since uh December 30th, 2024, 16 months ago.

Request for summons was never happened.

Inspector has now retired, so this violation will be closed.

And now a new violation will be opened, uh, starting the clock all over.

The next one is a notice of violation.

Um violation.

And if you look, there's several things highlighted where it says uh tie repair and auto sales.

It says there is a also a use business being conducted at the property without an approval of uh zoning clearance review and approval.

It talks about vehicles shall not be parked or stored as source of parts or for the purpose of sale, lease or rent.

The city tells them you must cease and desist storage of equipment and materials.

It says a continual offense where the violator has issued a notice for a violation but has failed to uh timely correct the violation.

This is the final notice.

So the inspector retired, so no action since March 13th, 2025.

So again, this violation will be closed and the violations will cease.

The next is a fire marshal report for the property.

They cited the property August the 4th, 2025 and gave them 15-day grace period.

August the 19th, 2025 was a grace period, and because it was not taken care of, it was forwarded to the city manager.

I mean city attorney.

It says it was.

If you go to the back page, the codes that are listed are the violations against the property.

And I highlighted 34-3404 distance from lot lines and buildings, tire storage shall be uh shall be located not less than 50 feet from lot lines and buildings.

So they basically say said failure to comply with the notice will take legal action.

So we're 19 months past the August 19th date, and we we still have a violation.

C click fix, which is the key thing that city's pushing now.

July 19th, 2022.

So 45 months later, and we still have a C click fix ticket open.

If you look at it took 33 months from the time it was open until it was assigned an inspector.

So we're 13.

So the last page, 11 months late, 11 months since it was last updated, waiting on the fire marshal.

Number five, use tires, no business license.

If you go to the back page, the fire marshal has cited the property with a notice of violation.

The business will be reinspected October the 11th, 2024.

The last one is a uh zoning C click fix because it has no business license.

It was written on May the 3rd, 2025, and on May the 6th, 2025.

Area inspector will investigate.

So we're a year later, and the C click fix ticket is still outstanding.

So I know you say the C click fix process works.

Okay.

Sometimes it may, a lot of times it may not.

One of our own your own city council members says he's not putting them in anymore because they're either getting closed or not, they're not getting addressed.

I see it all the time.

I've got dozens of tickets that are still open or that just say acknowledged, and they're just sitting in a queue.

I don't know what we can do.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Dodson, so you have the floor.

Thank you, sir.

Um, in addition to that, I wanted to add to the city manager's list another address, 1131 Crawford, where I've received uh some complaints about debris from the a roof that's falling into the public right-of-way from a third from the third top of the third story.

Um31 Crawford Parkway.

There's uh we could I could get an update on that.

I'd appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Hugel.

So you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Uh so again for the benefit of the public.

C click fix works.

Okay.

So yeah, there are some things that take a while.

They don't take a while because C click fixed, they take a while because there are processes that require us to go to court.

And court takes time, but for people to say C click fix doesn't work is simply untrue.

So I want to encourage everybody that's out there.

If you got things that are going on in your neighborhood that need fixing, please use C click fix.

The manager's done a good job of putting accountability into the process.

And I can tell you from my own experience, uh, and not just my experience, but experience of my neighbors who I point to C click fix who use C click fix and who comment back to me after the fact.

Hey, uh, thanks for pointing me in that direction.

The thing that was bugging me got fixed in a couple of days.

So and if there's a colleague of mine sitting up here that's decided not to use C click fix, uh you're doing a disservice to the whole C click fix process.

So please use C click fix.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Councilwoman Thomas, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, whenever I go to a civic lead meeting, I'm telling citizens to use Steve Click Fix.

It's not perfect, but it's what we have in place right now.

Um I do want to ask for this particular property, if memory serves me correct.

Um we had a discussion about this property a long time ago.

Mr.

Challenger, uh, my question is for you.

Is this something that's un is still in process, maybe with a legal matter that we can discuss or get a follow-up on later for this particular property?

Um yes, we could I can follow up with the property.

I'm not sure if this is something we discussed before or not.

I don't remember.

I remember the topic of the business license, that's all, but that's it.

That's about it.

But if we can maybe just get an update on this particular property, um, that would be very helpful.

No problem.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Moody, sure, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Mr.

Challenger, uh, would this be one of the state categories uh that we discuss uh with derelict buildings and hazardous uh buildings, wouldn't it fall into that category as well?

If possible that could provide in that particular um that determination as to whether it's derelict or or not, is the determination that the building official makes.

Yeah.

Um, and so we we just had a situation of that in the last couple of weeks where we got a search warrant, we went there, and the building official made the determination that it was derelict, and it would therefore condemn.

Right.

Uh so it looks like it's something that fits that, but I'm not qualified to make determination as to whether it's sure derelict when they and my point is potentially it it may be uh uh one of those that uh would have uh a tax added to give the ownership incentive to get rid of this dump and hazardous uh situation because it has uh I think councilwoman Thomas said this place is excuse me, this place has been there for a number of years and been storing tires.

Uh so we we need to deal with it.

And the challenger, you have the floor, sir.

The other thing I wanted to add because it involved tires, the first thing that comes to my mind is fire marshal.

Because I know fires are a hazardous thing by by nature, so that's something that we need to make sure that the fire marshal is also involved in because of the fact that it involves tires.

Thank you, Mr.

Attorney.

Thank you all.

So our next speaker for the evening is Miss Sheila Joseph.

Ma'am, if you will come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Um thirty-nine Grant Street, Sheila Joseph, Portsmouth, Virginia.

Um, I remember the last time I was here.

The question was asked to everyone from the mayor on back to Ms.

Thomas.

Did y'all receive email concerning the Hampton Rose community form that was gonna be held at the library in Churchland from 10 to 3?

Some people might can't stay for the whole time, and the question was asked by Mr.

Tillett and Miss Bryant.

Could they be first?

But we had a meeting, and I asked that question.

They had someone from out of town that was gonna be first.

We have some people coming in as far as not in Virginia and Maryland, so they getting hotels, and so they saying, well, who can you get to represent Portsman?

And again, I'm asking the ones that uh would like to share that they would like to come and be a part of this Portsman, North, or I mean Chesapeake, Sulfa, and Howton Row area and other civic leads.

We invited any civic lead.

We got 48.

And we asked them for those that are listening, please reach out to Simone.

Please reach out to Simone.

Our number is seven five seven three one nine zero one five nine.

Again, seven five seven three one nine zero one five nine.

And it's about the questions that different areas, North, Portsmouth, whoever in the Hamter Rose have flooding issues, which you know we do, and um sewage, drainage issues, and pretty much a lot of things I had talked about already.

Um I went and got the map in the beginning before I became a civil lead, and someone told me you got Douglas Park, Pop Field, Prentice Park, Brighton, and I said, F and Ham and Frederick.

And the man said, Well, we might as well give you the whole map of the city.

And so he did that.

So I start taking pictures in different areas and all the things that I remember that could help porcelain out.

You know, I understand we might be short with a lot of workers or whatever the case may be, but I volunteer and my son Valentine saying that we wanted to do what we could do to bring to y'all attention that we was aware about when you did the smoke test, when you did the uh the dive with the water, green and red.

I have pictures of all that, and it pretty much tell you the story that a lot of time they had to chase around and regroup.

And I know a lot of you probably aware that a lot of things was outdated.

So what I was talking about, the special project with uh Fairville, using that for an example.

Um, I was told that they working on it, but I say back when Miss Jones was in the seat, the last thing I seen done after she was about to leave was a tree removed and nothing else, but I do have paperwork talking about doing the the project, but I was told one time and then another time, and then again this year, January on that particular project that we were gonna have uh what you call it, the design, and then go from there.

The design from the umer had talked to me about so each time I talk to somebody, I'm being switched over now again to Mr.

CJ, and I'm waiting to hear from him.

And I will say some good news.

It took me from 2021 for to get a neighborhood map.

Um, so I just wanted to let you know tomorrow I have a meeting for the neighborhood sign.

Thank you, Miss Joseph.

And y'all have a good day.

You too.

Thank you, everyone for participating tonight.

If there's no more business to conduct, good order.

This meeting is adjourned.

Stay safe.