Virginia Beach City Council Special Meeting Retreat - January 27, 2026
Virginia Beach City Council Special Meeting Retreat - January 27, 2026
The Virginia Beach City Council held a two-day retreat (January 26-27, 2026) at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. The meeting focused on budget guidance, an in-depth review of city dedications, a governance self-assessment, and policy discussions on election signs, use of city resources, town hall staffing, honorary namings, board appointments, and meeting scheduling. The council provided preliminary budget direction and directed staff to explore adjustments to several dedications to address infrastructure and other priorities.
Discussion Items
- Dedications Review (January 27): Director of Budget Kevin Shelly and Deputy Director Katie James presented a detailed overview of city dedications, including the Outdoor Initiative, Parks & Rec Special Revenue Fund, Sandbridge Special Service District (SSD), Economic Development Investment Program (EDIP), Agricultural Reserve Program (ARP), Open Space Fund, Tourism Advertisement Program (TAP), Central Business District TIF, Flood Protection Bond Referendum Fund, and Major Project Fund. Key points included:
- The Sandbridge SSD, established in 1994, generates about $6.1 million annually from hotel and real estate surcharges; it is fully funding two sand replenishment projects at $53.2 million.
- The ARP has a fund balance of $26.6 million, with a $5 million annual budget for land acquisition (goal of 300 acres/year, but average purchases are ~150 acres/year).
- The TAP fund has a healthy balance for tourism advertising; the CVB director noted spending $12-15 million annually on advertising and salaries.
- Several council members expressed interest in right-sizing dedications to free up funds for other city needs, particularly infrastructure and employee compensation.
- Proposed Dedication Adjustments: Councilman Stacey Cummings proposed reducing the ARP dedication from 0.6 cents to 0.3 cents per $100 of real estate tax, redirecting the savings to specific CIP projects (e.g., Indian River Road). He also suggested moving Open Space Fund resources to the Outdoor Initiative for action sports facilities, including a cross-country course in the ITA. Councilman Josh Shulman supported a rate adjustment but emphasized maintaining flexibility for land acquisition. Vice Mayor Barbara Henley cautioned against altering programs without input from citizen advisory committees and noted legal constraints on fund use.
- Roles of the Governing Body: The council participated in a self-assessment exercise from ICMA, ranking their natural tendencies and desired emphasis across six roles: strategic vision, representative, community builder, decision maker, trustee steward, and oversight. Results showed a mix of preferences, with notable absence of oversight as a top choice. Discussion centered on balancing district representation with citywide governance.
- Election Signs: The council revisited policy on political signs at city property. After discussion, they directed staff to draft an ordinance allowing signs only on the day of election (6 p.m. the day before until polls close) at city polling places, but excluding the voter registrar’s office. Signs would be limited to 4x4 feet. Enforcement would be handled by city staff. The council also agreed to reach out to school administrators to encourage uniform policies across school properties.
- City Resources Within 90 Days of Election: Council members agreed to extend the existing 90-day blackout period on using city staff and resources for election-related forums to all elections (not just city council). A carve-out for emergencies (e.g., natural disasters) was included, with the mayor authorized to make exceptions. Staff will prepare an amended policy.
- Staffing Town Halls: The council discussed limiting staff support for council member town halls. Consensus was to allow quarterly staff-supported town halls per member, with flexibility for emergency or exceptional circumstances. Staff will provide a written summary of available resources and draft a policy.
- Honorary Street/Facility Naming: Councilman Michael Bellucci raised concerns about inconsistent criteria for honors. Many members supported developing formal criteria, but opinions differed on whether a waiting period (e.g., five years after death or retirement) should be required. Staff will prepare a presentation with options for council consideration.
- Board Appointments: Councilman Cash expressed frustration that his district’s planning commissioner was appointed by a predecessor and does not align with his views. City Attorney Mark Stiles clarified that removal for other than malfeasance is not legally permitted. The council agreed to receive a list of boards with district residency requirements and discuss further at a later date.
- Agenda and Closed Session Scheduling: Mayor Bobby Dyer reviewed the current process for adding items to the agenda (direct request to mayor or via two sponsors). The council generally supported the existing system. For closed sessions, the council agreed to use special meetings more frequently to handle non-appointment items on second and fourth Tuesdays, preserving appointment time. Councilman Bellucci emphasized the need for more time for deliberation; the mayor noted that extending to Tuesday/Thursday would provide flexibility.
Key Outcomes
- Budget Direction: Staff received preliminary guidance to develop the city manager’s proposed budget, with a focus on meaningful conversations during budget hearings and shorter presentations.
- Dedication Adjustments: Staff will explore scenarios for right-sizing the ARP dedication (e.g., reducing to 0.3 cents) and redirecting Open Space funds to the Outdoor Initiative, and bring proposals back to council.
- Election Signs Ordinance: Staff will draft an ordinance limiting signs to election day at city polling places (excluding registrar’s office), with a 4x4 foot size limit, and coordinate with schools for consistency.
- City Resource Policy: Staff will amend the 90-day blackout policy to apply to all elections, with an emergency exception.
- Town Hall Staffing: Staff will draft a policy allowing quarterly staff-supported town halls per council member, with exceptions for emergencies.
- Honorary Naming: Staff will develop a presentation with criteria options for council feedback.
- Board Appointments: Staff will provide a list of boards with district residency requirements.
- Closed Session Scheduling: Staff will more frequently call special meetings for non-appointment closed session items to allow more time for deliberation.
No formal votes were taken on these items; all were directed to staff for further development and future council action.
Meeting Transcript
In accordance with Virginia Beach Code Section 2-21 and by the authority vested to me as mayor of the council of Virginia Beach, I hereby call for a special meeting of Virginia Beach Council on Monday, January 26, 2026. And today, Tuesday, January 27, 2026, beginning at 830 Virginia Beach Convention Center. 1019th Street Suite 3. The purpose of the meeting is to uh conduct uh city council retreat as listed in an attached and published agenda. The special meeting will be broadcast on Capable TV, Virginia Beach.com, and Facebook Live. Sincerely, Bobby Dyer, Mayor. Okay, thank you. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. And once again, compliments on both of you and your entire staff. Uh you know, for the presentation yesterday. It was beyond excellent. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I appreciate that. Staff worked really hard in putting all the information together in collaboration with all the city departments that helped uh gather the information. So I really appreciate that. Um, Mr. Mayor, I'm just gonna do a quick overview of the agenda for today. Quick recap of what we did yesterday, and then pivot to talk about dedications this morning. So the yesterday we talked about the budget a lot, and you all gave some preliminary budget guidance to the staff so that they can work on the budget to meet your guidance. We've got a few of the notes still on the wall, but um process-wise, staff is going to come back with an opportunity for you during the budget hearings to have more meaningful conversations, and so presentations um will probably be shorter to start with, with a whole lot of information in your packets, so that there'll be more time for you to focus on conversations with revenues and expenses and CIP. You heard the presentations and gave some preliminary feedback as well for the conversations or the the budget development. Um so nothing totally finite at this point, but enough uh guidance for the staff to move forward. Uh today we're pivoting and talking a little bit more about dedications and speaking of um super staff work. This was a request late yesterday, and they were able to pull information together today. We'll then talk a little bit about different roles of the governing body and do something a little different than just presentation, and then we'll have governance discussion on a variety of topics. So that's the plan for today, and we plan to adjourn later than so with that. Absolutely. All right. Good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. Good good to see you again today. Uh credit for pulling the presentation together so quickly goes to uh deputy director of budget, Katie James. Um she took all the information and put it in this uh digestible format to begin the conversation discussion of dedications, which city council um requests a deeper dive on yesterday. We had some preliminary information in your packet for discussion for context, but this will allow for a little bit more granular look at that information. Uh so this slide here provides a summary of the dedications, uh kind of working down top to bottom and left to right. The outdoor initiative, uh, it's a dedication that was established, and you see in second column, 1990. The dedication generates about 3.9 million dollars a year, and that's generated from a.47 cent uh real estate tax dedication. So this is specifically for the purpose of funding um three or four CIP projects in the Parks Rex section of the CIP documents, such as tennis court renovations and replacements. Um I happen to know for a fact that Parks Works has requested additional funding in the upcoming CIP process for further discussion as we're developing the city manager's proposed budget, as there's a maintenance backlog in these existing um areas of need within the parks infrastructure system. So there's likely uh not much capacity for discussion and redirection from there. Uh the Parks and Rec Special Revenue Fund dedication. We talked of this um pretty good length yesterday about how the dedication to the Parks Works Special Revenue Fund, the 3.467 real estate dedication is primarily for the operation um repair and maintenance of the existing rec centers throughout the city. The Sandbridge Special Service District, this is was established in 1994. Total dedication amount is about 6.1 million. That comes from a 6.5% hotel dedication, $1 per room night of the flat tax that is generated within that geographical boundary. And there's additional real estate surcharge tax of one cent. And I'll talk about a little bit more about Sandbridge on the next slide. The economic development investment program or reference to EDIP. This is a dedication from 16 cent equivalent of the cigarette tax rate generated about $1 million a year, and this is transferred to a CIP project for utilization and economic development to provide performance grants and in SIDM grants to the business community.
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