Portsmouth City Council Work Session and Regular Meeting - May 12, 2026
Portsmouth City Council Work Session and Regular Meeting - May 12, 2026
The Portsmouth City Council held a work session beginning at 9:15 AM and a regular council meeting in the evening on May 12, 2026. The work session included presentations on the Portsmouth Broadband Authority, a proposed citywide public art master plan, amendments to the refuse ordinance, and a framework for community organization funding. The regular session adopted the FY2027 operating budget and capital improvement plan, approved pay and fee increases, and appointed a new city attorney. Several items were deferred for further discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Donna Biggs (Woodvine Farms) spoke on multiple agenda items, expressing opposition to budget increases, water/sewer rate hikes, and waste management fees, and questioned the city's spending priorities.
- Mark Godal Digitrowski questioned the large percentage increases in cemetery fees and argued that pension supplements to retired city workers are unnecessary and divert funds from other needs.
- Tiffany Stewart (Lieutenant paramedic, Local 539) thanked council for increasing pension payments for legacy retirees but criticized the lack of a comprehensive pay plan and the removal of fire department positions, urging collective bargaining to improve staffing and retention.
- David House (Simonsdale) raised concerns about the placement of a new fire station in Craddock, noting it would eliminate a skate park and recreation area, and asked that the city consider other locations such as the former Craddock High School site.
- Tony Goodwin (High Street business owner) advocated for improved tourism wayfinding signs and updated brown interstate signs, and submitted an unsolicited proposal for tourism services that has not yet been acknowledged.
- David House (second appearance) detailed long-standing code enforcement failures at a tire repair and auto sales property, citing multiple unresolved violations and citing failures in the ClickFix system.
- Sheila Joseph (Grant Street) discussed flooding and drainage issues in Hampton Roads communities and updated council on neighborhood projects.
Discussion Items
Work Session
- Portsmouth Broadband Authority (Item 4): City Manager Stephen Carter and others explained the history and purpose of the Broadband Authority. The city has built a fiber ring to connect municipal facilities, provide redundant 911 service, and lease excess capacity to internet service providers to reach underserved areas. The ring is not yet fully complete, with two sections needing fiber pulls on the Churchland Bridge and near ODU (Tri-City area) due to easement issues. Target completion is December 31. The authority also plans to connect to the regional South Side Network Alliance (SSNA) but will cost-share for connections to subsea cables only with a partner. Discussion included how leasing fiber can generate revenue and the importance of connecting to Northern Virginia and Georgia for internet traffic.
- Public Art Master Plan (Museum of Fine Arts Commission): Kiera Underwood (Vice Chair) proposed developing a citywide public art master plan to coordinate murals, functional art, and installations. The commission seeks to be the central review and approval body. A one-time planning investment of $95,000 for FY2028 was requested. Long-term funding could come from capital improvement budgets, transient occupancy taxes, or redevelopment taxes. Council expressed strong support; Councilman Dotson recommended visiting the Wynwood Walls in Miami as an example. The commission will work with organizations like Support Portsmouth Public Art.
- Refuse Ordinance Amendments (Public Works Director Gerard Roberts): Proposed updates include requiring 95-gallon automated containers, a scheduled bulk pickup appointment system (call-in or web), yard waste in clear bags only (not black bags), contractor exclusion for yard waste, and enforcement fines ranging from $50 to $2,500 for hazardous waste disposal. Bulk pickup must be scheduled; early placement limited to 5 PM the day before. Commercial businesses with multiple 95-gallon cans may be required to switch to dumpsters. Enforcement officers will have conservator of the peace designation. Grace periods will be provided. Council discussed communication challenges (e.g., confusion over blue vs. black cans) and the need for clear public education, including QR codes and water bill inserts. Councilman Hugo requested an infographic for neighbors who use his property for bulk drop-off. The ordinance was adopted later in the regular meeting.
- Community & Regional Organization Funding Framework (Trey Burke): A new structured process for FY2028 was presented with two options: Option A (council members serve on the evaluation team) and Option B (council liaisons provide feedback but do not evaluate). Policy guardrails include a three-year consecutive funding cap, annual applications, no guarantee of future funding, mandatory impact reports, and a maximum number of previously funded organizations per cycle. The process runs August through March. Council selected Option B (liaisons only) and appointed Councilwomen Thomas and Bryant as liaisons, with recusal if family members are involved.
Regular Meeting
- Budget Items: The council adopted the FY2027 operating budget ($598,146,297) and capital improvement plan ($140,813,798) after public hearings. Multiple fee increases were approved: water/sewer rates (5-2, with Councilmembers Thomas and Tillage voting no), stormwater fees (7-0), waste management fees (7-0), and cemetery fees (5-2, with Thomas and Tillage voting no citing high percentage increases).
- Deferral of Items: Council voted unanimously to defer two items to the June 23 meeting: Item A (blighted/derelict property tax increase) and Item F (parking fee increases and High Street parking changes). Councilmembers expressed need for further discussion on blighted property definitions and potential unintended consequences.
- City Attorney Appointment: Derek Challenger was appointed as City Attorney effective May 13, 2026, at a salary of $200,000, with contract details to be negotiated by the personnel committee. The vote was 5-2, with Councilmembers Tillage and Thomas voting no, stating they preferred to continue the search process.
- Other Approvals: The council adopted a resolution for an interim agreement to design a new city hall and parking garage (6-1), accepted state funds for judicial and constitutional officer bonuses (7-0), and approved the FY2027 classification and pay plan (7-0).
Key Outcomes
- Adopted FY2027 Operating Budget ($598,146,297) – passed 5-2 (Councilmembers Thomas and Tillage dissenting due to state budget uncertainty).
- Adopted Capital Improvement Program ($140,813,798) – passed 7-0.
- Approved Water/Sewer Rate Increase – passed 5-2; includes an automatic annual 5% escalator.
- Approved Stormwater Fee Increase – passed 7-0.
- Approved Waste Management Fee Increase – passed 7-0; new bulk scheduling and enforcement rules take effect July 1 with a grace period.
- Approved Cemetery Fee Increases – passed 5-2.
- Deferred Blighted Property Tax Increase and Parking Fee Changes to June 23, 2026.
- Appointed Derek Challenger as City Attorney – 5-2.
- Authorized Design of New City Hall and Parking Garage – 6-1.
- Directed City Manager to investigate updating wayfinding signs and the unsolicited tourism services proposal, and to follow up on code enforcement at specific properties (1131 Crawford Parkway and the tire repair business).
- Council committed to improve public communication on refuse ordinance changes via infographics, water bill inserts, and QR codes.
Meeting Transcript
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.
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