On June 3, 2026, the Virginia Beach City Council held a formal meeting that included updates on federal lobbying efforts, recommendations from the e-bike task force, a policy discussion on data centers, proclamations, and approval of the consent agenda. The council took decisive action on data centers and provided direction on e-bike regulations, emphasizing safety and state-level advocacy.
Well we're gonna call this meeting together or Mr. Douhaney if we can get started. All right, so Mr. Mayor, members of the council, the first presentation will be kicked off by Brent McKenzie. He'll introduce the members of our federal lobbyist team. So go ahead, Brent. The floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, and members of council. It's a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. Today we are joined by our federal government relations team from Becker and Polyakoff. We are joined by Anthony Bedell, Senior Corporate and Government Relations Director. Alfonso Lopez, senior corporate and government relations consultant, and Perry Adair, government relations consultant. They will provide a short uh update on our federal government relations program, provide uh overview of federal funds received over the last year, and an outlook uh for fiscal year 27. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Alfonso Lopez. Um, just wanted to uh do a quick background about uh each of us at the firm, and then also uh talk about some details and be open to any questions you might have. So um, just by way of background, we are a national law and lobbying firm, been around for 50 years, uh 15 years in DC. We're recently named one of the top 100 lobbying firms in the country, uh, number 77 to be exact, um, very diverse bipartisan firm with folks who were chiefs of staff, um, and then senior political and uh policy people in the uh Trump White House, the uh Obama White House, uh, and both sides of the aisle in Congress. Um the team is made up of uh myself, and uh uh Anthony and Perry, but also our true grants expert, um, Amanda Wood, uh Omar Franco, who is as knowledgeable of his appropriations work as anyone in the country, and then Clarence Williams, who is a policy person extraordinaire in the weeds, can make things happen, and a former chief of staff on the in the House of Representatives. Um, we've had an incredibly successful uh 2025. Um, as you know, working closely with Brent McKenzie, who is amazing, and Andrew Damon, who was equally amazing, and your entire Virginia Beach um staff. Everyone who works for public works, transportation. You you have to be incredibly proud of the work they do on behalf of the city and how responsive they are to every opportunity we present to the city. And so from the mayor on down, thank you very, very much. Um, in total federal grant funding just last year, 15.34 million dollars. In final FY26 earmarks, 12 million dollars. Considering what was going on with uh the appropriations process last year, we thought that was incredibly good. This year, already, as a result of the House and Senate, we have 35.6 million dollars already um set aside in the Senate, and then 4.05 million in the House. Those bills will be reconciled, but uh it's looking like the Senate version will carry the day uh for the majority of our projects, and we are in incredibly good position relative to other communities and municipalities in uh the region. In uh you Virginia Beach is doing incredibly well. Uh and you are near the top for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia as well. Um with the breakdown of your marks, I want to hand it over to our uh our basically our uh our appropriations guru, Mr. Perry Adair. Uh good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Thanks for having us. Um, Perry Adair at Becker and Polykoff. Just gonna give you a quick overview of the awards uh to date, uh, both finalized and confirm uh pending. So FY26, that got cleared up in the if you remember that long shutdown, the mini bus that ended it. Uh those included the final slate of FY26 earmarks, uh the largest 10 million for the I-20 uh 264 Independence Boulevard interchange improvements to relieve congestion, and the one million award for Bo Creek Stormwater Park to relieve flooding and one million for Pungo Ferry Road. Those are finalized, and we're working with Brent and Andrew and our federal counterparts to draw those funds down if they're not already. So stay tuned for that. Uh moving forward on the preliminary side, Alfonso touched on this as well in the Senate, uh, with their little bit further behind than the House, which is pretty standard. We have 35.6 million pending uh 10 million each for eastern shore drainage improvements. That's a flooding and stormwater project, the stormwater operations center, and uh kind of a recording project that we've had, uh Virginia Beach Trail Phases two and three, and then five million for Nemo Parkway, and then 600,000 for FEDACO mitigation barriers to the police department. That's the Senate side, and that's at the member level stage. So Senator Warren's and Kane have put in for that those projects.