Members of City Council in accordance with the Virginia Beach Code, Section 2-21.

And by special authority vested in me as mayor.

Hereby call for a special meeting of the Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday, August 26, 2025.

And Wednesday.

August uh 27, 25, beginning at 8:30, Virginia Beach Convention Center.

1019th Street Suite 2.

The purpose of the special meeting is to hold the city council retreat listed in the published agenda.

Sincerely, Bobby D.

But thank you all for being here.

We are here.

And I just want to thank everyone for being here.

You know, this is a time to pause and reflect and you know come together in public to talk about many of the discussions that we don't have the opportunity sometimes to talk about.

We come here to kind of refocus and you know get our act together because once again, you know, we take a look.

We are not the only city in the country, you know, confronting many of the realities of tough times.

And therefore, it's up, it really helps us to get uh know each other a little better, but it also gives us time to you know really get you know deep into you know some of the most troubling issues that going forward.

So once again, you know, these are very, very purposeful, and uh you know, we have a lot of area to uh uh uh cover.

And uh, you know, the first area that we're gonna be covering is a very um you know controversial uh discussion in the interfacility uh area and a discussion with the facilitator, you know, just in times of time and convenience.

We will have a timer uh on some of the discussions.

Uh but once again, please you know it's a matter of being succinct, but you know, just say what's on your heart and mind, and we want to hear from everybody going forward.

Uh so once again, I turn it over to our uh Patrick.

Anything else?

Uh Mr.

Mayor, I'll turn it over to Julie now.

Julie's gonna ask the council members to give a welcome and then talk about the things they want to discuss here today, and then I'll probably take a couple minutes at the end to kind of wrap up the focus action plan process and how it works in setting this um setting the pace and a cadence with the city's work plan.

Okay, and if we could start with uh you know um Stacey.

You're you know is this a point where you have you know people state?

Yeah, Mr.

Mayor, I think it'll be good if you let Julie kind of lay around where the ask is gonna be for the good morning, Mayor.

Um, members of council, thank you so much for having me back.

Julie Brennman with the Fountainworks.

I've got two members of my team with me today, Laura Gomez Nichols and Olive Newman.

And we are really looking forward to the discussion uh today and tomorrow.

I wanted to review the agenda for today and tomorrow, and then we'll do um some uh warm-up question to get you start thinking.

And the first deep discussion is going to be about the ITA.

You all have a folder in front of you with handouts that we'll be referencing during different parts.

So the agenda is um it looks like on the left-hand side.

It's up also up on the wall behind the staff.

So we're starting uh today with a welcome, and we'll talk about the ITA for a good chunk of time.

Staff needs direction on what council wants as next steps related to the ITA.

Um, we're then gonna after that take a break and talk about Virginia Beach's current context.

So the main um purpose originally for the retreat was to set uh a 24-month focused action plan for the next two years.

Two years ago, you set your priorities and the staff developed a focused action plan.

The um the purpose in doing this is to refresh that.

You've got new members of council, and the focused action plan really gives staff direction for how to move forward as we think about moving forward.

We think it's important to think about the current context you're operating in, and just remind you of some of the accomplishments and demographics and trends before you think about um priorities.

We'll then spend the rest of the day after that talking about your priorities and setting your priorities.

We're planning to adjourn today no later than 5:30.

I know that's a long day, so it's no later than 5:30.

We'll come back tomorrow if there's anything we haven't wrapped up today.

We can finish talking about the focused action plan and priorities, but we think we'll get through that today.

And then there's opportunity tomorrow for council discussion.

Several of you have shared a few things that you want to discuss at the retreat related to governance and some policies for the council to think about.

So we've got time to do that tomorrow, and we'll wrap up with you.

Um tomorrow, no later than 11:30.

We'll then take the department directors and um work with them on everything they heard you all set as your priorities to start mapping out the action plan so that they can immediately um take it out to the public to get their input and reflections on what you all have said, and then they'll be able to set their work plans for the next two years and bring it back to you.

I think in November for final adoption.

Um as we work together, we've got in our sailboats over there some roles.

Um we as Fountain Works are here as facilitators.

We're bringing you all together.

We're gonna make sure I tag team with the mayor, everyone has an opportunity to speak and we stay on time.