City of Wilmington Agenda Briefing Meeting - November 3, 2025
City of Wilmington Council Agenda Briefing Meeting - November 3, 2025
The City of Wilmington Council held an Agenda Briefing meeting on Monday, November 3, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. in City Hall Council Chambers to review the agenda for the upcoming regular Council meeting scheduled for November 5, 2025. Mayor Bill Saffo presided. Present were Councilmembers Clifford Barnett, Charlie Rivenbark, Salette Andrews, David Joyner; City Clerk Penelope Spicer-Sidbury; City Attorney Meredith Everhart; and City Manager Becky Hawke. Councilmember Kevin Spears attended via video conference. Councilmember Luke Waddell was absent.
Consent Calendar
The following items were presented as part of the consent calendar for the November 5 meeting:
- C1: Approval of minutes.
- C2: Resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter into a supplemental agreement with Axon Enterprises Incorporated for a virtual reality use of force simulator system.
- C3: Resolution authorizing the City Manager to apply for a Bureau of Justice Assistance 2025 Body Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program grant in the amount of $339,367 with a required local match of $169,684.
- C4: Resolution adopting the updated Lead Planning Agency Agreement between the City of Wilmington and the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO) and authorizing the City Manager to execute a lease at 525 North Fourth Street.
- C5: Resolution establishing the City of Wilmington Housing Advisory Committee and bylaws.
- C6: Resolution amending membership of the Downtown Municipal Services District Advisory Committee.
Discussion Items
Councilmember Charlie Rivenbark raised a question regarding Item C4 concerning the lease and maintenance fund. He noted that the rental payment was to be placed in a separate account for a brand-new building and asked for an explanation. Mr. Mike Kozlosky, Executive Director of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO), responded that the building cost $5 million. The intent of the separate account is to accumulate funds for future maintenance and repair needs, such as hurricane damage. The tenant (WMPO) will be responsible for maintenance and upkeep in collaboration with the City. The agreement outlines limits on the Executive Director's authority to make improvements or repairs; beyond those limits, the Executive Director must seek Council approval. Councilmember Rivenbark inquired about improvements on the horizon; Mr. Kozlosky stated there are none planned. He explained that the rent payments from WMPO are directed into this maintenance fund, with contributions from all MPO members, not just the City.
Other Agenda Items
- Councilmember Salette Andrews brought forward a resolution opposing the expansion of Camor's favor of works facility. (No further discussion was held on this item.)
Key Outcomes
- No votes were taken; the briefing was for review and discussion only.
- The meeting adjourned at 8:34 a.m. following a brief discussion.
Note: The meeting was an agenda briefing; all listed consent items and the opposing resolution are scheduled for the regular Council meeting on November 5, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
Meeting to order this pre-agenda meeting. I'm going to do a roll call at this time. Mayor Pratem, are you here? Councilmember Reinbrook, are you here? Councilmember Spears, are you here? Here. Councilmember Waddell. Councilmember Andrews? Here. Councilmember Joyner? Here. And the chair is here. We'll begin. C one consent agenda approval of the minutes. C2 is a resolution authorizing city manager to enter into a supplemental agreement with Axon Enterprises Incorporated for virtual reality use of force simulator system. C three is a resolution authorizing the city manager to apply for a Bureau of Justice Assistance 2025 body worn camera policy and implementation program granting the amount of 339,367 with a required local match of 169,684. C4 is a resolution adopting the updated lead planning agency agreement between the City of Wilmington and the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and authorizing the city manager to execute a lease at 525 North 4th Street. C5 is a resolution. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, Mr. Romba. Well, I noticed in one of the paragraphs that when it talks about the rental, it's placed in a in a separate account. The building's brand new. I mean that that's going to build some, it's going to build up. Anybody out there I'm looking at Mary, she's nodding her head. Isn't could somebody explain that to me? I mean maybe we got Mike Kozlowski here with the uh urban area. He'll do. He'll do. I mean, we got a what a 10 million, 15 million dollar building down there, brand new, and we're gonna put this away for improvements and repairs. It's five million dollars was what the cost of that building was, and the intent of this would be so that when there's maintenance or repairs that are needed, we would have an account that we could tap into to make those repairs. So the the tenant is gonna be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the building? Yes, sir. Okay. In collaboration with the city, there's a as part of the agreement. It outlines that there's certain limits in which the executive director would have the authority to make improvements or repairs, and at after those limits, then the executive director would have to come and ask permission. What improvements are on the horizon? I mean, is there things that we'll put off during construction? No, sir. Um, you know, this was the intent of this behind this was that the MPA would pay some sort of rent toward uh that building, and and so as part of the negotiation, we agreed that the rent would go towards a maintenance and repair fund so that we could have the ability to tap in. If we needed, say there was a hurricane and we need a new roof, we would have this fund to go and tap into, and it's being paid for by our members as opposed to just the city. Is anybody else participating in this? Yes, it's all of the MPO. The lead planning agency agreement is between the MPO and the city, but the members are also contributing toward the the lease. Okay, thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. C5 is a uh resolution establishing the City of Wilmington Housing Advisory Committee and bylaws. C six is a resolution amending membership of the downtown municipal services district advisory committee, and then we have uh resolutions, resolution opposing the expansion of Camor's favor of works facility. This is coming forward from Councilmember Andrews, and then reports is RP1 report of council's appointments, committees for boards, commissions, and committees.
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