City Council Agendas & Minutes

City of Hampton, VA 22 Lincoln Street Meeting Minutes Hampton, VA 23669 www.hampton.gov City Council Ross A. Kearney, II Christopher G. Stuart Angela Lee Leary Donnie R. Tuck Will Moffett George E. Wallace Molly Joseph Ward, Mayor Staff: Mary Bunting, City Manager Cynthia Hudson, City Attorney Katherine K. Glass, CMC, Clerk of Council Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:05 AM Council Chambers, 8th Floor, City Hall CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Molly Joseph Ward presided Present: Angela Lee Leary, Will Moffett, Christopher G. Stuart, Donnie R. Tuck, George E. Wallace Absent: Ross A. Kearney, II MAYOR’S COMMENTS The Mayor welcomed everyone to the 9:00 work session. Public Hearing 1. 10-0370 Use Permit Application No. 1067 by Kings Way Montessori School Ltd. to allow a school at First United Church of Christ located at 1017 Todds Lane (LRSN 4000574). USE PERMIT CONDITIONS 1. Issuance of Permit: The Use Permit applies only to the property of First United Church of Christ located at 1017 Todds Lane and is not transferable. 2. Location of school: - The location of the school will be in substantial conformance with the submitted floor plan and conceptual layout titled “FLOOR PLAN-FIRST UNITED CHURCH of CHRIST”, dated June 29, 2010 and the “TRAFFIC CIRCULATION PLAN –FIRST UNITED CHURCH of CHRIST” dated June 29, 2010. 3. Traffic Circulation: Traffic circulation will be in substantial conformance with the submitted traffic circulation plan which is titled “TRAFFIC CIRCULATION PLAN – FIRST UNITED CHURCH of CHRIST” dated June 29, 2010. Drop off along Todds Lane shall be prohibited. City of Hampton, VA Page 1 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes 4. Hours of Operation: The hours of operation for school shall be limited to 8am-4pm Monday through Friday. 5. Enrollment: The school shall not exceed the maximum enrollment of 26 students for the site or the number listed on the Capacity Certificate or the number allowed by the State Department of Social Services whichever is fewer. 6. Certificate of Occupancy: The applicant must receive a Certificate of Occupancy prior to operation of the school. 7. Licensing: The applicant shall obtain a license or Religious Exemption from the State Department of Social Services prior to operation of the school. 8. Ledger: The applicant must maintain a daily ledger containing the names of children enrolled in the school which shall be available for inspection by authorized personnel of the City of Hampton without notice. 9. Grounds for Termination: The Use Permit may be terminated for violation of any terms or conditions of the Use Permit, a violation of federal, state, or local law pertaining to any licensing required by the State Department of Social Services, or any criminal violations of federal, state, or local law pertaining to the care of minors. Ms. Mary Bunting, the City Manager, said Council is aware that the applicant is interested in getting the use permit required to operate the Montessori School at the First United Church of Christ located at Todds Lane. She stated this was discussed at last month’s meeting, so she was not sure if Council wanted to hear the full presentation again. She said there was community outreach and no one had opposition to the proposal. She explained that it is necessary to act on this today so that the Montessori School can open for the school year. She said the school will serve approximately 26 students. She stated the applicant and Planning Staff are present should anyone have questions or the desire for a full presentation. Councilman Stuart stated he abstained from the vote at the last meeting because he has a relationship with the Church and had attended the school. He said as a business person, he is very excited to add two new entrepreneurs to that system and he wished them the best of luck. HELD PUBLIC HEARING - there were no speakers on this matter. APPROVED Motion made by: Vice Mayor George E. Wallace Seconded by: Councilmember Christopher G. Stuart City of Hampton, VA Page 2 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Aye: 6 - Angela Lee Leary, Will Moffett, Christopher G. Stuart, Donnie R. Tuck, George E. Wallace, Molly Joseph Ward Nay: 0 Absent: Ross A. Kearney II Agenda 2. 10-0380 Resolution Requesting that President Barack Obama Reject the Recommendation of the Secretary of Defense Regarding the Proposed Closure of the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) WHEREAS, the country is actively engaged in fighting on two fronts and joint interoperability among the military branches is absolutely critical and requires considerable coordination among the services; and WHEREAS, the ability to engage in multiple engagements as a joint force has always been a hallmark of the military strength of the United States and the USJFCOM develops and trains the expertise required by the military to orchestrate its forces to operate jointly in what remains a very dangerous and threatening world; and WHEREAS, the recommendation to close the USJFCOM by the Secretary of Defense will result in the loss of approximately 10,000 jobs in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia; and WHEREAS, the closure of this facility would have a devastating economic impact on the local economy including business closures directly and indirectly related to USJFCOM as well as higher unemployment; and WHEREAS, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) legislation has been established by the Congress to ensure that sufficient time and opportunity is available for review of such proposals in an open and transparent manner, and the BRAC process ensures that such critical base infrastructure closure and realignment decisions are made only after a complete review, without political interference and within the national strategic framework; and WHEREAS, the closure of one of the United Combat Commands of the United States Armed Forces should be considered as a significant base realignment and closure action that must be treated as such and follow the BRAC process so that the significant USJFCOM closure, and its impact on national security and the potential negative economic result on the Commonwealth of Virginia as a whole may be appropriately considered; and City of Hampton, VA Page 3 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes WHEREAS, the Governor of Virginia along with the Hampton Roads Federal and State elected delegation and regional partners have expressed deep concern and disappointment in the announcement of the Secretary of Defense and have urged the Department of Defense to conduct a more complete review of USJFCOM’s mission and enlist the BRAC process without a predisposed intent to close the command. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Hampton that we respectfully request that the President of the United States reject the recommendation of the Secretary of Defense to close USJFCOM and require that any such recommendation be subjected to the BRAC process so that the necessary analytical research and public input process may be a part of any decision relative to the future of the USJFCOM. Ms. Bunting stated Dr. Robert M. Gates, the Secretary of Defense, proposed the closure of Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and since that time, there has been a lot of regional activity to look at what we can do to try to reverse that decision and if we cannot reverse the decision, to protect the unique elements that JFCOM brings to our region, specifically the Joint Warfare Center and the modeling and simulation components which are unique and critical to our Nations defense. She explained as part of that effort, all localities have been requested to adopt a resolution in support of these efforts so that our Congress knows of our position. She said Mr. Bruce Sturk, Director of Federal Facilities Support, would give an update on the activities and where we stand. She asked Council to adopt the resolution that has been prepared in support of the region. Mayor Ward asked Mr. Sturk to also speak on what he believes the economic impact of this might be on the City of Hampton. Mr. Sturk stated the Secretary of Defense made the announcement a few weeks ago and it was a surprise to the region as to how it unfolded. He said there has been some misinterpretation of Dr. Gates’ announcement and how it unfolded in some misconstrued relationship or connection to the Base Realignment and Closure process. He explained in reference to Joint Forces Command, it is a Command, it is not an installation, for example, Fort Monroe or Langley Air Force Base or Naval Station Norfolk. He said in this case, the Secretary of Defense has the right to close a Command. He further explained that in these closures of a Command, there should be a process in place to notify Congress with regards to closure. He gave a personal example of when he was in the Air Force and moved a unit comprised of 50 people from Florida to Virginia. He said to move these people from Florida to Virginia required Congressional notification, so the State of Florida and the Congressional representation could do an economical impact on that movement of 50 people. He explained what may happen over the next few weeks is more Congress involvement in the proper analysis and process of the closure. He said we also have to view this from a holistic perspective as to how it affects joint war fighting for our Nation’s war fighters. He said if it is viewed from a parochial perspective in not trying to help the Secretary of Defense best analyze and look at the impacts, a holistic approach is going to be important as we move forward in this process to understand the impacts for the region, country and for the forces that are trained here by Joint Forces Command. He said our Economic Development Department has sent out personal letters to the businesses in the City of Hampton that have some impact with respect to the announced closure of Joint Forces Command, so we can assess the economic impact. He said we have a heavy presence of business-related defense contractors here with people that work at Joint Forces Command and some of these City of Hampton, VA Page 4 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes defense contractors provide services. We are trying to capture that impact from a City perspective so we can add that to the analysis and give it to the decision makers as we move forward. Mr. Sturk stated this week we will be meeting with Senator Mark Warner and his staff to try to assess what the region’s and the Commonwealth’s response will be and what the engagement plan will be. He said the newspaper stated Senator Jim Webb has called for Congressional hearings on the closure. He stated he believes all of these pieces will come together to help review what the real impact is and what plan B should be. He said he believes plan A will be a closure of some aspect of the command, and plan B should be what do we look at from a unique capability and what pieces should remain intact to do the training for the war fighters and some of that experimentation, innovation, modeling and simulation aspects would be things you would want to keep. He said there has been a lot of investment and training in the work force, and we want to protect that so that the war fighters have that joint training. The Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 set up the joint training services because typically fighters went to the battlefield not trained to fight as a cohesive force, therefore Congress addressed the issue by establishing joint training and planted that in Virginia and it is important to continue this type of joint training, but it will be a matter of the outcome of the final decision. Mr. Sturk stated Internal Joint Forces Command leadership is working toward a time frame next year this time, they fully expect the Command to look restructured. They are providing internal assessments to the decision makers as to how to deconstruct Joint Forces Command to make it an efficient, effective operating organization. He said we will continue to keep Council apprised as we get more information. He said he, the Mayor, and City Manager are participating in numerous regional discussions and events. He said by Council accepting and signing the joint resolution, they will be showing solidarity that the City of Hampton joins the other regional partners as we voice our concern over this announcement and look toward ways to work through for a better good. Councilman Kearney arrived at 9:10 am. Councilman Kearney apologized for being a few minutes late due to traffic. He asked Mr. Sturk what prompted the JFCOM move. He said he read about Dr. Gates and the debate about his authority, but wanted to know what led to this. Mr. Sturk said as Dr. Gates looked over the Department of Defense in a large context with respect to the upcoming budget challenges and issues they will face from the Department of Defense internally, he started a process about six months ago to internally review efficiencies to see where he could make cuts out of the Department of the Defense, and JFCOM was one component of that broad look at all of the variables in the Department of the Defense’s budget. He said for example, something that will impact us and all states that have defense contractors working in various organizations is the reduction in the contractor work force. He explained Dr. Gates is trying to save money and be efficient while sustaining current and future conflicts, he is trying to lead turn in what he sees as the inevitable cuts in his budget and save money so he can continue to sustain a force, grow and modernize the force as they move forward. He reiterated that it is a broad look that has been underway for at least the past six months. He explained what triggered the announcement was a defense business study done by City of Hampton, VA Page 5 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes an outside source made up of people from various organizations as well as an internal study his department conducted over a course of time. He said until there is something in writing with a signature, you can not be certain what will occur, so he would be hesitant to say that is the fact, so it is best to wait to see what happens. He said our Congressional leadership is fully engaged and aware and asking the proper questions and hopefully will get the answers. Councilman Kearney said there are many people involved with JFCOM that used to be stationed at Fort Monroe that moved there after the hurricane. He said this means there is a considerable number of Hampton businesses and residents that work there. He thanked Mr. Sturk and the City Manager for their efforts in the regional aspect. The Mayor said there is no doubt that this will have a large impact on the economy both from the ripple effect across the water, but also because of the contractors here and all the jobs that relates to. Councilman Stuart stated as a Hampton citizen, a large percent of his Rotary Club are former military, or employed by contractors working on practical things, for example, injury prevention. He said it is hard to believe that our Federal Government has decided not to follow through on these things that protect our men and women from harm. He asked Mr. Sturk to elaborate on how modeling and simulation plays within this closure. Mr. Sturk stated he personally used the simulations to train to go to battle. He said it is a very large component that has been built in the Suffolk area at the Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center which is in support of Joint Forces Command. Their joint training is a large piece of what war fighters depend upon to hone their skills to go into battle. He reiterated that modeling and simulation is a large component and he believes is one of the things they will study in terms of making sure they preserve that unique capability which is focused on how to bring together all branches of the military into an environment to simulate joint war fighting. He said his thought is if we can keep modeling and simulation, it will rebound and grow into other areas even outside of the Department of the Defense. Councilman Stuart asked given the announcement came with practically no notice to the average citizen, what was the draw down time line. He said the plans to save industries can not be put together in a week or month. Mr. Sturk said the internal plan that Joint Forces Command is marching to shows about a year long draw down with certain stages. He explained during that draw down, they will do the analysis as to what impacts are potential on certain components of the training aspect. He further explained that from that, they will probably say a certain amount of money will be used to continue one thing and so many dollars will be set aside to stop pieces of the training. He reiterated that all of this would be phased over a year’s time frame. He said there will probably be course corrections during that time as Congress gets back in session as questions are asked about what we are doing and what is the analysis, what is the process and can we add to the analysis from a Congressional stand point. He said these are all things that will be in the mix to find out the correct solution to move forward. Vice Mayor Wallace stated as part of the plan B mechanism mentioned, we should be getting our Economic Development office alerted as part of the strategizing process so City of Hampton, VA Page 6 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes that if we were unfortunate enough to lose this situation, we salvage and maintain and sustain as much of the modeling and simulation piece as we can as an economical development engine for the State of Virginia. He said if that thought process had not been introduced as of yet, perhaps Mr. Sturk could get that introduced for us. Mr. Sturk stated he would. PRESENTED by Bruce Sturk, Director of Federal Facilities Support. ADOPTED Motion made by: Vice Mayor George E. Wallace Seconded by: Councilmember Angela Lee Leary Aye: 7 - Ross A. Kearney, II, Angela Lee Leary, Will Moffett, Christopher G. Stuart, Donnie R. Tuck, George E. Wallace, Molly Joseph Ward Nay: 0 3. 10-0369 Approval of the minutes from the retreat of June 30-July 1, 2010, and the evening session of July 14, 2010 Councilwoman Leary stated since the minutes have not been posted on line since April, or she could not access them, she would abstain from approval. Ms. Katherine Glass, Clerk of Council, stated for the public’s benefit, the minutes have been backed up, not from being approved, but from being posted on line and with the Municipal Code since the budget hearings due to a myriad of reasons, but they were brought current yesterday. APPROVED Motion made by: Vice Mayor George E. Wallace Seconded by: Councilmember Ross A. Kearney, II Ayes: 6 - Ross A. Kearney, II, Will Moffett, Christopher G. Stuart, Donnie R. Tuck, George E. Wallace, Molly Joseph Ward Nays: 0 Abstain: Angela L. Leary 4. 10-0373 Follow-Up Discussion on Council Visioning Process Ms. Bunting stated today we will continue the work started as a group on June 30th and July 1st. She said for the benefit of the public, the purpose of the retreat was to begin team building with the new members of Council. She said we also wanted to work to solidify some agreement on the Council’s vision and the issues they would like to see the staff and community address. She said this becomes the basis of work planning for our community. We do day to day service delivery and we want to move the community forward. She explained moving the community forward is critical in making sure our community remains viable and we don’t just focus on day to day operations. We work to identify the effective roles of Council and staff to include the identification of operating guidelines. Ms. Bunting said there are two things on the agenda to continue that work. The first is specifically related to the visioning follow up. She said we wanted to work with Council City of Hampton, VA Page 7 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes to refine the focal issues identified and look to see how they tie to the existing community plan and where they don’t, to determine if that was intentional or just a focus of where the conversation went. She said we also wanted to discuss how we move this vision forward into the larger community. The citizen engagement around a vision plan is critical because government is an important provider, but is not the sole solution provider in a community. She explained there are many other elements in our community that can help to make our community stronger, ranging from residents to businesses to non-profits and many other institutions we have in our community and region. She said we want to find a way to capture citizen and business interest and energy in our efforts. She said we will propose a strategy for doing that and would like Council’s reaction. She said she would also discuss the integration with our work plan and how we will report back to Council the performance reporting and accountability that Council and the citizens can expect to achieve as we move forward with our visioning work. The second is the discussion on the Council meeting format, but first we will focus on visioning. Ms. Bunting said Mr. Terry O’Neill, Director of Community Development, would give a presentation as the Community Development Department takes the lead responsibility in the community plan made up of comprehensive land use tools and the strategic plan for the community. She stated the Hampton Core Vision is meant to be a picture of what Hampton will look like in 2025. It should be a picture that draws people forward, it should be positive and inspiring and dream focused versus problem focused. She explained this does not mean we won’t attend to problems in the community, but we want to build on our strengths and assets and know how we want to grow and sustain our community in the future. Ms. Bunting said when Council met in late June, early July, they put forward a proposed core vision. Hampton has long espoused through our strategic planning efforts in our community engagement that we want to be the most livable city in Virginia. She said Council felt it was important to elaborate on what it is that makes Hampton the most livable City in Virginia. She explained Council did this with the following proposed Core Vision: Hampton will be a vibrant waterfront community and regional partner that values and maintains its historic roots and small town feel while offering leading edge amenities that meet the needs of its diverse population. She said Council looked at eight core issues they thought would be important in achieving that vision. Ms. Bunting said they discussed Economic Base focusing on Fort Monroe and other Federal Military assets, our transition as Fort Monroe closes next year and how we service from a service delivery perspective as well as how we ensure Hampton does not feel an undue negative economic impact from that. She said they also addressed the need to focus on small business and job development, working to continue efforts to address minority contracting, maintaining and expanding existing businesses here and working to foster entrepreneurship in our community, engaging Hampton University and other assets in our community, and focusing on our history and waterfront as distinguishing assets for economic development. She explained all of this is important for ensuring that there are quality job opportunities for our residents in Hampton and the region, but also to sustain our tax base so that the City services our residents and businesses enjoy do not become over burdensome from a tax base perspective for the larger community. City of Hampton, VA Page 8 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Ms. Bunting said on the Housing Stock, it was important to Council we ensure Hampton maintains a healthy balance of the various housing offered in our community. It is important to have affordable housing, but it is also important to have higher value housing so that as residents move up in their housing stock, they can choose to stay in Hampton and not feel they need to leave Hampton to go to another community because we don’t offer the housing stock they need. She said they discussed ensuring housing stock is well maintained, issues surrounding codes compliance, blight management and the distinction between what we can do through code and what we need to do through assistive neighborhood efforts. She said the housing is important to our tax base, but also in terms of the image of our community and ensuring our residents are proud to call their neighborhoods home. Ms. Bunting stated in reference to waterway related challenges, there is a wide variety of water issues including shoreline protection, flood mitigation and dredging. She said we want to make sure we are addressing these proactively as we believe our water is an asset that needs to be protected and enhanced. Ms. Bunting said it was important to Council that we look at aesthetics from a broader perspective and not just what it takes to meet codes, but what it takes to make our community visually appealing to our residents and visitors including a variety of things from ensuring our City property looks well and is maintained, but also the encouragement of green space within our community, the protection of existing green space, the protecting of our parks, and that residents and businesses do their part to upgrade the appearance of their properties. Ms. Bunting said in reference to Image, we discussed how Hampton is viewed internally and externally, including City Government and other institutional partners such as the school system, businesses, retailers, and neighborhoods. She said, for example when military people move to the area, they see Hampton as a good place to live as opposed to feeling they need to go to another community. She explained some of this is perception and some of it is real; regardless, Council and staff want to address the perceptions that exist in and outside of our community. Ms. Bunting said with regard to Schools, we discussed the need to support our school system and ensure they have what they need to ensure all students do well and graduate and are able to move on to productive roles in our community. She said something that was on the minds of Council and staff is what we do as a community separate from what the schools do. She stated, for example, preventative efforts such as Healthy Start which help parents do what they can to ensure their children enter school ready to learn. She said what we do in out of school time with young people in our community center on work and neighborhood partnerships to make sure youth have productive things to do outside of school is important to the schools success. She said they did not touch on this, but it was implied and would like to verify with Council today as we move from presentation to discussion. Ms. Bunting said they discussed State and Regional Issues and how it is important. She explained the JFCOM discussion today highlights the importance of the State and region on us jurisdictionally but also in terms of the vibrancy of our region. She said Council was very clear that they think it is important for Hampton to take an active role at the seat of those conversations and strengthen how we take a regional leadership role to protect the interest of Hampton, and the interest of the entire Region. City of Hampton, VA Page 9 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Ms. Bunting said communication and engagement with the citizens and employees was very important to Council. Ms. Bunting said as the retreat concluded, Council tasked staff with several things: compile the Councilmember’ suggestions for each issue area, examine the relationship with what you did with the current community plan and where there was overlap and where something did not get covered; were there any issues staff felt were important that Council did not cover that we should bring to your attention to make sure you didn’t want them included because you thought they were being adequately addressed or if it was an oversight because of the lateness of the day when we concluded. She said Council also asked us to suggest opportunities for citizen engagement, the work plan integration and the performance reporting. Ms. Bunting stated Mr. O’Neill would give a presentation on the work done in reference to the community plan, and how the work did or did not integrate with it. Mr. O’Neill said our first task as a follow up to Council’s beginning conversations was to provide them with information as to how this relates to the strategic priority and issue areas in the adopted community plan. He said they put together a matrix and the important part of it is those roads which represent areas where there is a reference of an important issue in our existing community plan adopted in 2006. He said the chart lists all of the issues Council identified in their retreat and the left side shows the issues referenced in the adopted 2006 community plan. He said there are some issues that do not seem to be specifically discussed or referenced, this doesn’t mean they are not important, but it just represents a work in progress. He explained in the rest of the issue areas, where there is a cross reference from the early indications of Council’s discussion, there is some identification of that being an important issue in both documents. He said the other conclusion is there is a great deal of synergy between Council discussion and a reflection of the community discussions in the 2006 community plan, but there may be some differences in new issues we need to move forward with. Mr. O’Neill explained the next step is to discuss the best way to move forward. He said there are three members of Council that participated in the 2006 process, Vice Mayor Wallace, Councilman Kearney and Councilman Moffett, and he stated the rest of Council may want to discuss their impressions of it with them. He said we proposed to do a similar process if they concur to move forward. He explained this would be to engage the community in a process that allows various forms of conversation and dialog that then provide Councilmembers with a check point as to the issues and discussions they have had at their retreat. Mr. O’Neill reminded Council and the public that the community plan is comprised of two pieces. The first piece is the strategic piece identifying the most important issues that face the community as we look forward. He explained the community plan has additional pieces to include the land use piece, the transportation piece, the environmental element, all of the master plans that follow on that work based on the direction set by these key issues Council and the community identify. Mr. O’Neill stated it is required by State code to review the document approximately every five years. He said the conversation that Council is going through aligns with what would be the five year anniversary or midterm review of the community plan document. City of Hampton, VA Page 10 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes He said our document was adopted in February 2006 which means February 2011 would be the five year review time. He said this is a good time to merge those processes and conversations. Mr. O’Neill said what we propose for Council’s consideration is to begin mobilizing the City’s organization to support this process immediately which would involve a number of steps. In response to Councilman Kearney’s request for examples of the steps, Mr. O’Neill stated he would be going through those in the presentation. Mr. O’Neill explained the internal logistics would be getting the internal organization ready to go into the community and engage in the conversation. He said Councilman Kearney and Councilman Moffett participated on focus groups the last time we had this process. He explained that the behind the scene process is it takes about 100 people within the City organization and community members to support that conversation because there were multiple focus groups going on at the same time. He said there were a lot of logistics involved such as a summary of the minutes being recorded and sent out. He said if Council wanted to direct the City Manager to move forward, we would begin the process of mobilizing our teams to support this process with the suggestion of having a kick off sometime in October. He further said, we are suggesting that the kick off meeting be a large gathering of invited guests from the community. He said there could be poling done using our new technology, or some up-front surveys to help feed into the process to give Council some information going forward. He explained this would help us form memberships of the focus groups centered around the key issues which would meet on a regular basis focusing on where we are today relative to that issue, and where we want to go and what strategies we can use to move forward. He said the last time this was done, those focus groups met approximately twice a month. He said these groups are made up of approximately eight to 15 people supported by City and school staff. Councilman Kearney stated this process is what led to the desire to build new schools. He said the flooding issues came up at this time also which changed the approach to issues that existed in our community. He said it is not just about have meetings every five to ten years and writing a report, it is a road plan as to where we want to go. He said he thought the first meeting had approximately 300 people. The City Manager stated it was a very large number. She said there are opportunities in the process to have the larger group, big community type of meetings where people who cannot devote two times per week, but get their input at the beginning and at the end. She said the smaller work groups where people who want to delve into strategies and work through what the City, private sector and residents should do and what time tables and other things are involved is the strategy and implementation development. She explained there is a role for all citizens in this process whether they want to come to the larger input meetings at the beginning and end of the process or whether they want to be in the work groups where they roll up their sleeves. Mr. O’Neill said he counted the focus group members and there were 187 community members that populated various focus groups and there were about 80 City and school staff who worked directly with each of those groups to provide them with data, record the minutes and schedule the meetings. He said the responsibility of the focus groups was City of Hampton, VA Page 11 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes when they got to certain points in the discussion process they were to go into the community and test the ideas and issues. He said with our expanding technology capabilities, he said there may be more ways to do that in this process than may have been utilized in 2006. Councilman Kearney asked in reference to the time frame, if budget discussions could be included since we start the budget right after that. The City Manager said there are budget implications to all of this work. She said typically we don’t have much success in getting people to turn out during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday time frame, so we were suggesting taking a break in November and December and concluding in January, February, March and April which is when we do the budget conversations. She said she can see it being integrated, but does not want it to substitute for the budget outreach and wants to continue what we did with the budget outreach last year because she felt it was effective. She said these focus groups and community outreach meetings would need to touch on budget implications. Councilman Kearney stated this could also be done electronically. He said you could put in the savvy questions that would connect with what they are focused on with budgetary success and that would help us with our determination. Ms. Bunting said what this does for us is provide a road map for the next three, five, ten years knowing it is updated roughly every five years. She explained the budget conversations tend to reference what we are doing annually and we want to marry that with the forward thinking vision for our community. She said the here and now is very important, but if we only focus on the here and now, we won’t protect our future generation, therefore it is important to do both. Mr. O’Neill said in concluding the schedule for phase one, we would be looking at asking the focus groups to bring their recommendations to Council around the April time frame which is a strategic time as we go into the budget and resource allocation process. Mr. O’Neill said we would have a kick off meeting where community members would be invited and from that, the focus groups would begin their work. He reiterated that the charge of the focus groups would be to look at each issue, either issues Council identifies or ones percolated out of the kick off meeting. He said in addition to the eight to ten community members, we asked Councilmembers and Boards and Commissioners to help populate those groups. He said they felt it was important for Council to be part of the conversation and hear what the community members were discussing. Mr. O’Neill stated the focus groups would be asked to become educated on the issue, develop a vision statement around each critical strategic issue, propose for Councils consideration broad goals around each of those issues, and determine how to measure success. Vice Mayor Wallace said he would like to see incorporated in the element that the group convened to develop the strategies be part of the formal process that there be a review process at least semi annually by that group and have that report come to Council so Council can monitor the success or lack thereof of those assets and know how to City of Hampton, VA Page 12 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes strategize thereafter. He requested a formal reporting and review process be incorporated in the plan. Couniclwoman Leary stated this was a very good report, but did not see anything in it regarding seniors, unless you look at Customer Delight. She said she has been corresponding with the City Manager about senior issues. She said many seniors come to her, therefore she would be glad to take a focus group on seniors and bring information back to Council. She stated seniors represent approximately 35% of our population and she believes there are times when they need to participate in discussions, but they may not necessarily be able to participate during the evenings. She said she would be glad to support something specifically for seniors possibly during the day. Councilwoman Leary said in reference to the focus groups, she believes our citizenry has a variety of interests they want to discuss, but when they are put in groups isolated from each other, they do not have the opportunity to engage overall. She said she has heard positive things about the electronic process and has heard some dissatisfaction in it because the questions are programmed. She suggested we need another way for people to ask questions. She said she wants everyone to be able to participate and see that their needs are met overall. Vice Mayor Wallace asked Councilwoman Leary in making these suggestions to staff, if she has specific issues and methodologies for framing the questions she mentioned that may be perceived as being programmed to help them get what they want. Councilwoman Leary stated that is already being done and she would be glad to furnish it to them. She said there are people watching from home that have already addressed this and have some good ways to accomplish this. Vice Mayor Wallace said if we already have the input, then that is great. Councilwoman Leary stated she appreciated the opportunity to address the issue on behalf of seniors and looks forward to participating in this. The City Manager stated as far as the groups are concerned, we are trying to have the type of conversation about whether we inadvertently missed something in our work as to the focus groups you would want us to convene. She said for example, the youth issues and healthy development of children may have overlapped with the school issue and rather than call it schools, we call it How the Community Supports Schools, so that it is the schools and our role in out of school time or would we want two separate groups. She explained staff would be willing to run whatever focus groups the Council agrees you want us to run, but we need clarity from the larger Council before we initiate this process. Mayor Ward stated many may have participated in the Hampton City Schools stakeholders meeting which is very helpful and the way the focus groups are set up is that they mix them up during the process so you are with your peers, then everyone gets to talk and participate. She said this is a great way to get people to think differently. The City Manager said there are multiple opportunities for citizen engagement in this process. She said the kick off meeting, the larger check point meeting and the work that City of Hampton, VA Page 13 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes the focus groups do is taken back to the larger community and these meetings are an opportunity for people to talk about all of the issue areas. She reiterated that in order to get the work done, we need focus groups organized around specific issue areas so we can provide necessary background data and analysis to issues that people want to look into. She said there is a need for singular focus sometimes, but that does not preclude the larger community coming together to discuss the larger issues. The City Manager reminded everyone that we have developed a work group and approach for the waterways issues. She said we are at work getting that process moving forward. We’ve been getting experts on board and this Friday there will be an update on that process. She said what we are discussing now will not substitute for what we have already stated we would do for the waterway challenges. Councilman Kearney asked if at this point Councilmembers should be providing to the City Manager whatever suggestions they have regarding dates, process, information provided to groups, people to be involved and location of the meetings. The City Manager said if Council has any particular ideas about those things, yes, they would like to hear them. Councilman Kearney stated some of the seniors stated it is difficult for them to go to Hampton High School in the evening for a meeting. He suggested having a Saturday morning meeting. He said he would also like to remind everyone, especially the new members of Council, that when we had all of the focus groups, most individuals first, second, or third choice was education because they all felt we needed to build schools. He noted the similarity as to what they all saw as a problem, yet meeting in different locations with different goals. He said he was amazed at who was in the meetings, the age of the people and considers 72% of people in the City do not have children in the school system. He said even though 35% of our people are adults 55 and over, we also have people who are 22 and under which is about 32% of the population and there is no one there to speak for them except us. He requested the report that came from that last meeting be provided to share with all of the members of Council. Councilman Moffett asked for clarification in reference to water challenges. He said he thought we discussed water challenges as well as opportunities. The City Manager stated we did, but that was the verbiage in the report from the facilitator, but his point is well made and we should rename that issue area. The City Manager said we need to begin to get our staff mobilized. She said currently, absent any conversation from Council, we would have begun working on forming focus groups around economic base and housing. She said we already had one in the works for the water opportunities and challenges, aesthetics, image of the schools, State regions and communications. She said she needs clarity if Council also wants them to do one on the youth issues or if they wanted it integrated with the schools as a larger focus group. She also said she needed to know if Council as a group embraced Councilwoman Leary’s suggestion about the seniors or do they want to do some other titling to a group about service needs for our diverse population. She said she needs clarity because we need to begin staff work of mobilizing focus groups. She asked Council to give some direction today. City of Hampton, VA Page 14 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Mayor Ward said it would be helpful to consolidate because the more focus groups created, the more meetings created, the more staff time required and less attention each individual focus group gets. She said consolidating them and incorporating Councilwoman Leary’s suggestions would be a good idea if that is okay with the rest of Council. Councilwoman Leary stated this may be coming up under item 5 on the agenda. She said we have cut our public meetings back to one a month, but if there were two per month, we could have all of the citizen input anyone would desire and we wouldn’t have to have staff go out and hear comments, we could engage in those ourselves. She said there is an opportunity there that we may want to engage in. She said we are calling for staff to do all of these additional meetings, but maybe if we gave more consideration to putting the second meeting back, we may benefit from that as well. Mayor Ward stated there is a point to that, however, we have never used the full hour we have set aside now. She said we need to go into the community and meet with people that don’t want to be on television and would rather be in a setting where they can openly discuss issues without having to speak in a microphone in front of Council. She said we need to explore all of these opportunities. Councilwoman Leary said she has met with three separate groups in the last month that want an opportunity to get on the agenda and come before Council about a variety of issues. She said these are homeowners’ associations, and while they have talked to the City Manager and staff, she thinks we should give an opportunity to put community issues on the agenda down the road. Vice Mayor Wallace said the genesis of this process is to give as many people an opportunity to come and present their view points on various issues related to our community. He said with the volume of individuals who participate in this process, there are indications where we have 180 people in a particular planning process, but nowhere at anytime do we have 180 people coming to address Council. He said probably because the issue that may be pertinent to them at that time may not be on our agenda in the context we do and plan for what will transpire in our community between now and 2025 or whatever time frame we design our planning process. He said there is no substitute for community and citizen participation in this process, and the connection between them and having two council meetings is not a connection at all in his judgment. Mayor Ward suggested wrapping up the issue at hand since we have a separate agenda item for the issue of holding two Council meetings per month. Councilman Stuart stated he wanted to make a motion to add under the topical areas “senior issues”. The City Manager said she understands the interest in the senior issues; however, her concern is we have many unique populations in our community, for example the disabled community. She said it is important to make sure when Council calls out focal areas that they don’t send an inadvertent message to the community that they care about the needs of one segment of our community and not others. She suggested if we do add another area, making it broader to include population with unique needs, for City of Hampton, VA Page 15 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes example, past Council discussed the socially vulnerable population which includes a broader group of people. Mayor Ward said an example of individuals with unique needs would be the voucher group and may be what the City Manager is referring to. She said we have a large un- served population that if there was availability would qualify for Medicaid vouchers and we haven’t been able to care for them. She said the City Manager is trying to encompass all of those populations. Councilman Moffett stated he supports the City Manager’s presentation that we be as inclusive as possible by taking the broad approach and be inclusive at the same time. He said some of these themes are going to run through the various groups. He said he believes the process used with the school priorities increases the opportunities for engagement and addresses Councilwoman Leary’s concern about people being able to speak on more than one subject. He said he hopes Council will support the City Manager’s recommendation to move forward. Mayor Ward asked Councilman Stuart if he was going to make it all inclusive in terms of the Manager’s recommendation or if he wanted to make it for seniors only and leave out everyone else. She said the motion needed to be confirmed. Councilman Stuart said his goal in making the motion was to support what Councilwoman Leary proposed which was to add seniors since we had a section for youth, but it lacked a second. Councilwoman Leary stated that she would second that motion. Councilman Kearney stated we would like to have the views of seniors. He said veterans are included in every one of the focus groups we have. He asked again if what the City Manager is asking of Council is to report to her what Council feels need to be included and then she would share their ideas with everyone. The City Manager confirmed it can be done that way. Councilman Moffett said he understood Councilwoman Leary and Councilman Stuart’s concern in making sure seniors were included but he supports the broader approach which would be inclusive. He suggested that, if possible, Council come to some consensus, so that they might move on to discuss other important agenda items. In response to the Mayor, the City Attorney stated if Councilman Stuart’s motion is withdrawn, another one may be solicited. The City Manager stated there is a general will to do something around the diversity of our citizens, and staff will propose something to Council that reflects the spirit of the conversation that looks at the unique needs of various constituents. Councilwoman Leary stated she thought the City Manager asked for Council’s input and that is the reason she brought up the topic of seniors. The City Manager stated she wanted to bring to Council’s attention that there are other groups of people that Council cares about and she wanted to confirm if Council wanted City of Hampton, VA Page 16 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes them all integrated or if they wanted to call out one group. She said the direction she is getting for staff is Council wants to recognize the needs of seniors, but also the disabled, veterans and other groups. She stated staff’s job will be to try to find a way to do this. PRESENTED by Mary Bunting, City Manager, and Terry P. O'Neill, Acting Director of Community Development. 5. 10-0374 Follow-Up Council Conversation Concerning Public Comment Period and Structure of Council Meetings The City Manager explained the current Council meeting format. She said the first meeting of the month is held on the second Wednesday and is deemed a business meeting. The afternoon session specifically focuses on staff briefings or transactional items Council needs to be prepared for in their evening session. She said this is when Council does Rezonings, Use Permits and Conditional Privileges and Ordinance reviews. She said in preparation for the evening session, Council members delve specifically into State statutory issues, for example, things that if they were dealt with in the evening session, would be time consuming and take a long time to get to the public hearing component of the meeting. She said we use the afternoon session to get Council prepared and give them extra time needed to understand what is on the evening agenda. She said we also have the 6:00 pm Public Comment session reserved time for audiences wishing to address Council members on any subject, and the evening section where Council does the transactional items including public hearings where citizens are also welcomed to speak. She said the second meeting of the month held on the fourth Wednesday, is the strategic work sessions of Council. She explained when we went to this format, it was a deliberate decision that we needed to focus on the future direction of the City, not just the transactional items. She said prior to moving to this format, we spent two afternoon sessions per month getting ready for two transactional meetings. She said although staff was working on the future direction of the City and implementing the strategic plan and master plans Council adopted, we found Council was never getting the opportunity to engage in those far reaching issues that impact our community. She said we made the second evening session of the month dedicated to citizen proclamations and recognitions, because prior to doing it this way, we would sometimes spend an hour doing proclamations before we got to the public hearing items. She said we were also trying to be cognizant of the citizens who wanted to speak at public hearings that needed to get in and out quickly for whatever personal reasons. She said to resolve this, we took the proclamations and recognitions out of the transactional meeting and made it the evening session during the second meeting of the month called Spotlight on Citizens, but it is intended to be a meeting of Council. She said there is not a public comment period during that fourth Wednesday. Vice Mayor Wallace stated in reference to the current format the City Manager outlined, the first meeting on the second Wednesday of the month, prior to coming to the public session, is devoted to staff explaining in detail the issues and factors associated with the budget that Council will be developing on that day. He further stated that the second meeting held on the fourth Wednesday of the month is an opportunity to orient the new members of Council on history, strategic, and budget issues associated with the subjects to be discussed. He said that information is critical for the old and new members of Council in terms of the new nuances involved in developing that process. He said we devote that not to issues that are going to be on an agenda, but strategic issues that are germane to us being good stewards of our public responsibilities. He said we need City of Hampton, VA Page 17 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes those sessions, and if we had a second session where we had public hearings and issues, we would have to devote that time for issues associated with that particular budget presentation and we would never get much time to do strategic issues, planning, orientation and historical prospects, unless we started having special meetings. He said from his personal vantage point, this is the reason why the second meeting is critical in terms of Council’s orientation, initiation and the learning process. Ms. Bunting summarized the current meeting schedule. She said we meet four times a month with the exception of certain months which have historically been one meeting per month such as November and December for the holidays and the summer months, June, July and August. She said this practice goes back at least 20 years or more. She said the purpose of having this on the agenda today is to acknowledge that there have been concerns expressed about there only being the one public comment period per month. She said last month she presented statistics that suggest that the one public comment period per month has accommodated the individuals wishing to address Council. She explained we have never exceeded the public comment period time allotment and if we look at the statistics in terms of the number of people participating, the numbers have gone up. She said we have also initiated many new opportunities for civic engagement. Ms. Bunting said she previewed three potential options staff developed for Council. She said the first option was to leave the meetings the way they currently are scheduled because there is logic in terms of having them that way and the statistics do not suggest a need for change; however, the con to the first option was there is public criticism about it. She said the second option was to maintain the current format, but add a second public comment period which staff suggested would immediately follow the Spotlight on Citizens program. She explained this would allow us to keep what is working, for example making sure Council takes time to deal with the future direction of the City. She said there is a way to keep that special time and acknowledge a second comment period, if Council thinks there is a need for it. She stated option three would be to go back to the way it previously was, having two formal meetings. She said these are not the only three options. They were designed to get Council thinking about the subject. She requested a sentiment from Council as to how they wish to resolve this issue. She said staff will support whatever Council decides to do and is willing to do whatever necessary to help Council make their decision, and once the decision is made, will implement it. Councilman Stuart stated in reference to other tools, such as email, social media, organized public meetings and online chats, the thing that intrigues him is all he knows about online City Hall is that it is an interactive online tool for public comment about Council agenda items and long term community issues. He asked the City Manager for an explanation on this because it seems very exciting. Ms. Bunting stated this is something that staff has been working on and hopes to bring to Council soon. She explained this is a tool the Innovation Group, an alliance of local governments committed to innovative practices, has put forward to localities as an option. She said it is an online opportunity for individuals to comment about items before the Council. She said it could theoretically also be used for Planning Commission and other groups. She explained a third party that runs the software conducts a registration process for individuals to post semi-anonymously or using their name. She said the semi-anonymous implies that the individual register so the independent company can City of Hampton, VA Page 18 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes verify people are posting just one time under their registration. She said this prevents one person from posting 100 times implying 100 different people have expressed an opinion. Instead individuals get to voice their opinion, but it is under one registration. She said the third party also verifies whether or not the individual is a Hampton resident and this information is posted with the comments. She explained when the comments come back to the members of Council, it is clear who posted the comment. Whether it was a Hampton resident, business owner or non-Hampton resident, Council knows where the comment came from. She said some people choose to post with their name, but some do not, and the registration process allows for some order. She said for example, when the agenda is posted online, this opens the opportunity for people to comment on the Council items using this registration process. She said prior to the meeting, the comments would be closed out and provided to Council. She said this is simply another point of data for people who do not feel comfortable with coming to the televised open forum. She said it also gives the opportunity to explore topics of a more long term nature. She said for example, the City of Williamsburg used this technology for its budgetary comments and found it to be successful because it brought out more voices in addition to the voices that came to the public meetings. She said preliminary research suggested this would be a tool that would add to our citizen engagement efforts. She said she hopes to be able to demonstrate it for Council in the near future. Mayor Ward stated one of the reasons we went to the current format was to become more efficient and to give staff more long term visioning opportunities the City Manager discussed, rather than constantly working on meeting planning. She said for example, JFCOM, Fort Monroe, Langley, the VA and other issues take time and resources, but when staff spends the majority of their time preparing for meetings, they do not have much time to work on these issues. She said we have also taken into account that since we made this change, there has been a fundamental change in the economy and budget realities. She stated there have been cut backs throughout the City, including staff on the eighth floor and the Clerk of Council’s office, which went from four people to three. She said as individuals have gotten more comfortable with technology, email traffic and phone calls have increased. She explained this creates issues, for example on meeting days, when two staff members from the Clerk’s office attend meetings, only one staff member remains available to respond to requests such as proclamations, letters, meeting requests, invitations and other miscellaneous requests. She said the volume is enormous and staff often completes these numerous requests quickly. She explained when we add work in terms of a meeting or time period staff has to be here, they have to get paid in comp time which means they will not be here other days. She said many times, there are last minute requests, and these often are the only times citizens have interaction with the City. She said every time we add an extra layer of work, something else has to be given up. She said last year when we went through the Council budget negotiations, one of the things we tried to do was if something was put in the budget in one area, a cut was made in another area. She explained there is less staff and fewer resources and when we add something, there is a cost to doing that. She reiterated that the volume of various requests that come through the office is large. She asked Council to take all of this under consideration, and if they consider adding work to staff, they will need to consider what will have to be given up. She gave the example of Councilwoman Leary mentioning minutes not being online and explained that is a direct function of staff time and resource availability. She said Council will need to give up some luxuries, for example package preparation or phone call responses because three people can not do all of the work and have an extra meeting added and expect the standard of work to remain the same. She said we have to consider all of the citizens, and staff often has to City of Hampton, VA Page 19 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes stop what they are doing to produce an emergency letter, proclamation, resolution or meeting arrangement. She stated she understood the reason for wanting to add another public comment meeting and business meeting, but she said Council needs to consider all of the other citizens who will not be served, and who may not be interested in appearing on television. She also asked Council to consider we have not used the full hour at the public comment period, and if there are citizens that claim Council members or the Mayor did not respond to them or there wasn’t time for them to speak, then there would be a reason to give up these other things. She said she has never turned down a citizen meeting, and she and Council always return phone calls. She asked Council to keep in mind that there is a cost benefit analysis that goes along with the change and it is not free. Vice Mayor Wallace stated in addition to what the Mayor explained, we often request special reports to be done by staff. He said two things emerge from that. One is that once that report is done, it has to be digested and reported on and analyzed by the full body, so we have to have time in order to do a thorough job of doing an assessment associated with those reports we request. He said having our work session in the second meeting of the month allows time to do that. He said in addition to that, in terms of the staff being pushed to the maximum capacity and capability it has, additionally to being one of the smallest in the region, it also requires a lot of time to do those reports. He said for example, he asked for a report recently, and nearly 50 hours of staff time was required to produce that report and if you put an average time of 2,800 hours worked per year, that report costs in excess of $3,000 and we don’t know how or if it will be used. He said in terms of what the issue is on the table, we are talking about when we need a strategic meeting for the second meeting being held in a month, those reports that need to be explained is another indication why we need that second strategic meeting. Councilman Tuck stated Councilman Moffett has been keeping track of the amount of time spent on segments during Council meetings. He said he observed in the meetings of July 14th and August 11th, work and evening sessions, that we have not been very efficient because the presentations and sessions went on much longer than needed. He said being more efficient should be a part of what is being discussed today. He said he understands the Mayor’s concern about not having large numbers of staff and when we have meetings, two people are being taken away from a four person staff (information was shared by the Mayor and City Manager that there are actually only three City Council staff members). He said perhaps we could bring in a temporary person to answer phones or do whatever clerical duties may be done by a temporary person. He said in reference to the proposed 6:00 pm format which he spoke against, it makes sense, but he felt he had to make a decision based on what was important to him. He said he believes there are people that can not make it at 6:00 pm and when the topic of the full hour not being used is brought up, these people were coming when the public comment period was at the end of the meeting. He said meetings ran long, so there were people who signed up, and left. He said to allow those citizens to have two opportunities to speak, you bring up something on your first meeting and people have already commented at 6:00 pm and something gets said at the 7:00 pm session, now they have to wait a month. He said of course there is the understanding they can email or go online to get their information known, but there is a sense that if a citizen has something to say and a month later, is not relevant. He said something may be said that the person hasn’t thought about and they come the next time. He said we have numerous exchanges of email that most citizens are not aware of and it does concern City of Hampton, VA Page 20 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes them and probably represents something they have thought about. He said having a second meeting at least for public comment, whether or not it is a full meeting, is not unrealistic. He reiterated if we run more efficient meetings, we can accommodate that and it would not be a burden on anyone. Mayor Ward agreed with Councilman Tuck on the efficiency issue. She said we have had a tough time the last two meetings and we are on a learning curve as to how we will be operating, keeping in mind we have three new members of Council. She said this is one of the reasons operational guidelines will be discussed at the next Council meeting. She said it is important to remember that public participation has increased and almost doubled. She said there may be people who may want to come after the meetings, there are also people that can not stay for personal reasons. Councilman Stuart stated having sat through two marathon Council sessions and watching the faces of people who have one item of interest that brought them out, he thinks it is a respectful act on the part of Council to put citizens’ comments first at 6:00 pm because it shows they are the priority. He said he could not vote to put those comments back to 9:45, 10:30 or 11:15 pm because this appears that they are the last priority rather than the first. Councilman Moffett said this has been a challenging matter to him because as a new member of Council, there has been so much work which led him to initially want two business meetings per month. He said he can separate the meetings, but can not compromise the citizen’s engagement piece. He said he researched the minutes trying to get an understanding of the thinking of the previous Council and how they arrived at this point. He said he has tried to consider the comments he heard from the citizens and as he looked at this, it made sense to be able to have additional time to review strategic issues. He said this gave him an understanding as to why things were done that way. He explained at the same time, he agrees that this is an information age and we do a good job with citizen engagement with blogs, 311 and other opportunities for citizens to engage and participate, however a month is a long time to react and things evolve quickly. He said he believes citizens do need another opportunity to respond to things that have occurred or emerged. He said he would be willing to support the City Manager’s recommendation which includes citizen participation at the Spotlight on Citizens Program which will provide a second opportunity for citizens to speak. He said he would be challenged to go in any other direction. He said he would support option two as a reasonable compromise. Vice Mayor Wallace asked if he could make that as a motion. He said he would like to move that in order to address all of the issues expressed as a body today and in previous meetings, Council approve the option the City Manager presented to Council in terms of option two which is to maintain the current Council agenda format, but add a second public comment period which would immediately take place after the Spotlight on Citizens Program. He said he thinks this is an appropriate compromise and is something we should try. Councilman Kearney stated he believes the discussion was healthy and he concurs with just about everything that has been said. He said years ago, Council meetings were held at 2:00 pm in the afternoon and in order to attend, individuals either had to take a late lunch break or were not working at all. He said all of that changed when evening meetings came about. He said it also gave opportunity for people to run for Council City of Hampton, VA Page 21 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes because they could attend those meetings. He said we progressed in many ways including: televising Council meetings which opened the door for new members of Council that had been at the public meetings and stated the televised meetings were a good idea, televising work sessions which made people feel like things were not being done behind closed doors and gave them the opportunity to see what was happening, televising Planning and Housing and Redevelopment Authority meetings, creating a Finance Committee in which citizens participated in developing and reviewing our investments, creating the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities to reach out to those people when no one was speaking for them, creating a Veterans Affairs Committee in which we look after and honor Veterans and their loved ones, having the Neighborhood Associations, having the budget process in which public meetings were held where people could say what they wanted, and charettes dealing with development of neighborhood plans. He said all of these things were done to make the process more open to citizens so that they could be more satisfied with what was happening. He said when WHRO did an event at the American Theatre, they mentioned Hampton has the reputation of having more citizen engagement than any other City in the Tidewater area. He said people in Hampton have the opportunity to get involved and voice their opinion. He said he is proud of where Hampton has gone in the last 20 years and how it has developed itself to be friendlier. He said there was a letter to the editor by a Hampton resident which said she hoped that the call would take place of people knowing they do not have a chance to speak in Hampton and they should get in touch with their Councilmembers. He said he received no call saying we needed to have an additional Council meeting. He said he did an unofficial survey of citizens about having an extra meeting and their concern was how the City handles the need to discuss an emergency item and he responded that we call a special meeting and the citizens stated since emergencies can be discussed during a special meeting, there was no need for a second meeting. He said for the sake of staff and because of the fact that we have to do so much with less people, he would hate to burden staff with something that we really may not need. He said in the past, meetings would go from 7:30pm to approximately 8:30 pm and that is what led to the idea of one meeting per month. He said we were having meetings that were ending so early, it wasn’t fair for everyone to come in and do something that did not need to be done. He said he will support Vice Mayor Wallace’s motion because it follows the direction of Hampton’s involvement of citizens. He thanked the new members of Council for bringing up the topic while running for office and for listening to the citizens. Councilwoman Leary said this motion gives her half of what she wants. She said she would like the opportunity to be able to do business if a developer has something he needs to get before Council so he can meet a certain time line. She said it still could be done and she believes the citizen engagement should take place predominantly in Council Chambers. She said for that reason, she is going to vote for this particular motion. She said one of the things we have lost sight of is the fact that people benefit from having the opportunity to hear their peers on a given subject. She said they may hear someone bring up something that they thought nobody else would listen to, but by bringing it up, they feel they are part of their Government. She said she wants to be supportive of this and requests an electronic copy of the summary of the minutes of all these meetings that have taken place she heard about earlier. She said there is always room for improvement, whether as individuals or as Governments. She said in talking with the Virginia Municipal League, which we are members of, of the 40 jurisdictions with a population between 3,000 and 25,000 there were 5 that held one meeting per month. There were 35 that held two or more and Hampton was listed as holding two or more City of Hampton, VA Page 22 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes because of our daytime meeting where we hear reports. She said there have been times when she has listened to a 20 minute report when she could have gotten the benefit from reading it at home, but it is being presented so that the public can see it as well. She said perhaps if we put it online that would save time. She said in reference to cutting things like some of people’s tasks, perhaps staying off of Facebook during working hours would be a good way to increase productivity, as far as proclamations, letters and that type of thing. She said she doesn’t use Facebook herself, but has had people tell her they see employees using Facebook during the day and she doesn’t know what they are doing. Mayor Ward stated if Councilwoman Leary has a personal issue, it should not be discussed here. Mayor Ward asked those in the audience making distracting noises and issuing dissatisfaction with comments to please refrain from doing so because it is distracting and disrespectful. She said she would have to ask people to leave if they do not discontinue because it makes it difficult to conduct business. She told Mr. Eddie Deerfield that it was completely inappropriate for him to be talking to her, saying things and sighing while they are trying to conduct a meeting. She said she was not certain who was making the noise, but it was very distracting for those trying to conduct the meeting and she is requesting whoever is doing it to discontinue. Councilwoman Leary said using the City of Williamsburg as an example of following us, their population is 13,000 which is not even 1/10th of our population. She said the incorporation of the latest technology is wonderful. She said she saw it in Indianapolis when she first came on Council. The Legisoft software we use today and those types of things are happening all the time. She said this is a good move to engage our public, and the opportunity to congregate is important to every phase of our government. She said she is going to be in favor of this motion, but at the same time she would like to work with the City Manager on the opportunity of having Neighborhood Associations come and give us a five or six minute presentation on issues that concern their given community. She said we spend a lot of money on neighborhood initiatives and Neighborhood Office, Unity Commission and many other efforts. She said she believes something similar to what we did on February 14, 2007, having a group come before us and talk about flooding structural issues which was vital to the community and led to the thrust to what we are going through today to try to address those issues. She said she wants to hear from the public in this room (Council Chambers) and already listens to them in the community in restaurants and at other meetings. She said this is very important to her, so she will vote in favor of it. Councilman Stuart said there are several journals he subscribes to and should this vote be in the affirmative, it would be interesting to see if the fold of one of those journals could have a headline stating Hampton City Council doubles Civic Engagement Opportunities. Mayor Ward said she will support the motion. She also said she wants everyone to remember that adding another meeting would result in the Clerk’s office having to stay later and do more work which they could do, however we need to remember to give them more room and expect a little less in other areas. City of Hampton, VA Page 23 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Councilman Stuart said the Spotlight on Citizens is a positive reaffirmation of things that people have accomplished. He said his suggestion is to have speakers, given the fact that some of the issues they bring are challenging issues, he would like to see the Boy Scout receive his acknowledgement, the Girl Scout that sells the most cookies, the active neighborhood participant that is being recognized, those individuals be recognized first and then the citizens be able to come and utilize engagement to bring important issues to Council. Mayor Ward stated she thinks that is a good idea and we could start the Public Comment section after the Citizen Engagement period. She said she is hopeful that this will increase Council participation in the Spotlight on Citizens Program and that we will get more public participation and perhaps people will show up on time to watch the Spotlight on Citizens Program so they can be here when the public comment period begins because we have not had a lot of outside citizen engagement in that part of our meeting. She said it is a ceremonial meeting and she hopes more people will attend. Councilman Moffett stated he believes Council should agree to have roll call because if we are going to meet to hear citizens concerns, then Council needs to be accountable. Councilman Kearney concurred. Mayor Ward stated that she thought that would be procedurally required. Ms. Katherine Glass, Clerk of Council, stated once the body has a meeting where Council is present, she has to call roll. She said you may recall previously when Councilman Randall Gilliland discussed the streamlining initiative; the Spotlight on Citizens Program was designed as a way to shorten meetings. She explained Council collectively expressed that they would hope all members of Council would appear to recognize citizens. She said she has given the public notice of those, but we have not formally called roll as a meeting of the body. She said she does not know if we have ever had more than three or four members of Council there. She said there have always been members there, but she can not remember a time when all seven were present. She said the motion says to accept the City Manager’s recommendation number two, once you add the public comment piece, this is going to become a formal noticed meeting of Council. She said she envisions item number 1 on the agenda will be citizen recognitions and item number 2 will be public comment. She said there will be a formal roll call and minutes, etc. She explained currently, minutes do not take place at Spotlight on Citizens Program because of the format, but that will change if this motion is successful. Councilman Tuck said he has the Parliamentary procedure primer from the City Attorney dated June 2, 2010, included in the Council orientation booklet. He said in the code, it shows the meeting begins at 7:30 pm, but we actually begin at 7:00 pm. He asked if that needed to be changed. The City Attorney stated the meeting time is set in the City Code, and we changed that code provision to 7:00 pm by an amendment of City Code. Mayor Ward stated the primer may be wrong, but the ordinance was changed. City of Hampton, VA Page 24 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Council listened to information presented by the City Manager and held a discussion concerning potential changes to the current meeting format. MOVED TO accept the City Manager's recommendation of Option #2 on Slide #25 to keep the current meeting format with the addition of a second period for public comment. Motion made by: Vice Mayor George E. Wallace Seconded by: Councilmember Donnie R. Tuck Aye: 6 – Ross A. Kearney, II, Angela Lee Leary, Will Moffett, Christopher G. Stuart, Donnie R. Tuck, George E. Wallace, Molly Joseph Ward Nay: 0 Closed Meeting 6. 10-0371 Closed session as provided in Virginia Code Sections 2.2-3711.A.1, 4 and 7 to discuss personnel issues; to protect the privacy of individuals in personal matters not related to public business; and to consult with legal counsel employed by the city regarding contract negotiations which require the provision of legal advice. APPROVED - Councilwoman Leary indicated that she would not be able to attend the closed session. Ayes: 7 - Ross A. Kearney, II, Angela Lee Leary, Will Moffett, Christopher G. Stuart, Donnie R. Tuck, George E. Wallace, Molly Joseph Ward Nays: 0 Certification 7. 10-0372 Resolution Certifying Closed Session WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, has convened a closed session on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote made in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act; and WHEREAS, Section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia Law; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, hereby certifies that, to the best of each member’s knowledge, (i) only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed session to which this certification resolution applies, and (ii) only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the city council of the city of Hampton, Virginia. ADOPTED City of Hampton, VA Page 25 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Motion made by: Councilmember Ross A. Kearney, II Seconded by: Councilmember Christopher G. Stuart Ayes: 6 - Ross A. Kearney, II, Will Moffett, Christopher G. Stuart, Donnie R. Tuck, George E. Wallace, Molly Joseph Ward Nays: 0 Councilwoman Leary left prior to the vote being taken. ________________________ Molly Joseph Ward Mayor ________________________ Katherine K. Glass, CMC Clerk of Council Date approved by Council __________________________ City of Hampton, VA Page 26 of 26 Printed on 10/14/2010