Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City Council Meeting, Monday, July 20, 2026

Date: Monday, July 20, 2026
Place: Manassas City Council, Virginia
Length: 0h 47m (video)
Official meeting video (Wistia / RegionalWebTV): https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/dloq5l613l

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-16. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:05] Present. Vice Mayor Wolfe. Council Member Ellis. Here. Council Member Smith. Here. Council Member Osina. Here. Council Member Vasquez Luna. Council Member Hussein. Here. The quorum is present. All right.

[00:00:21] Thank you all for being here. We'll do ask for Mr. Osina. Can you make the motion to approve Council Member Vasquez Luna? He may come on. Make the motion to, I guess, approve them both.

[00:00:37] Yes. Okay. Yes, I'd like to move the electronic participation in our city council meeting of Vice Mayor Mark Wolfe and Council Member Sondra Vasquez. Second. Seconded by Council Member Lucena, seconded by Council Member Hudson, to approve the electronic participation in the city council meeting for Vice Mayor Wolfe and Council Member Vasquez Luna.

[00:01:00] Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none, Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Council Member Lucena? Yes. Council Member Hudson? Yes. Council Member Ellis? Yes. Councilmember Smith? Yes. The motion carries. Thank you. We have a pretty straightforward agenda.

[00:01:17] We're going to go ahead and dive in. Item one. Our soccer balls arrived. Oh, okay. That's what the FedEx wanted. FIFA gave us like 200 of their official soccer balls. I thought it was like some type of scam through the Mayors, the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

[00:01:36] They asked if I wanted them, and they delivered them. I said no, but hey, they were like, no, we want to give them to you. I'm like, okay. We just need them autographed now. Are we playing? They just offer them.

[00:01:52] That's awesome. They got 200. I think like 200 to 300. I'm not sure. Perfect for parks, parks, rec, and culture. Okay, so we're ready? All right, we're good. So item one for discussion items.

[00:02:08] Item 1.1 is ordinance number 026-1094, ZTA-2026-0003. Zoning ordinance, annual updates, and technical amendments. And Autra is here to help us with that. I'll start off. Yeah, team.

[00:02:24] Yeah, so since the annual update to the zoning ordinance tends to be a laundry list of changes, both customer service-driven, technical code change-driven, so on and so forth, after we do the public hearing, we always take time with the council in a work session to go through any other questions you might have had.

[00:02:41] In a moment, we'll clarify the one topic that we got the most questions on, manufactured housing, which isn't as scary as it sounds, and we'll take you through that in a moment. I did want to touch on one other change that we have included in this draft. So Council Member Hudson was asking some questions about one of the technical updates that allows banner signs without permits for institutional uses, and she asked at the public hearing what's the maximum square footage allowed.

[00:03:04] We went back into the text. There wasn't a maximum square footage allowed, So we have made an edit recommending that that be capped at 50 square feet for banner signs so we don't have the unintended consequences of someone putting up a giant banner. And that's consistent 50 square feet with a lot of other codes. We use that for freestanding signs as an example.

[00:03:21] So we did make that edit based on a very good question from the council member. And I'm happy to talk about any of the other technical changes, but I wanted to pause. I want to spend a little bit of time on manufactured housing. We have just three slides to take you through. And then after I go through these, Audra can answer your questions on manufactured housing.

[00:03:37] because she actually understands it better than I do. Thank you. So remember, this is being generated by a change in the state code that requires manufactured housing in all of your residential districts. So this is a mandatory change in the state code that went into effect on July 1st. So we wanted to take a second and kind of back up to what it actually means, which is really an evolution in construction over the last 40, 50, 60 plus years. So our ordinance and most ordinances kind of reflect two types of housing construction, site or stick builds.

[00:04:11] Everyone knows what that is. That's your good example right up there. And then most ordinances you'll see in the Commonwealth nationwide use a manufactured home term that's really coming from a federal definition. Side note, that federal definition was repealed two weeks ago. So we'll be coming back to you next year to change that as well. But essentially, a federal definition of manufactured housing that followed some state code. And that's the traditional mobile home or trailer that you see out, including in the city of Manassas. Construction types have obviously evolved over the years. And so the state legislature, with the goal of reducing housing

[00:04:48] construction costs, had made an amendment that I'll show you to the state code in a second. But essentially what's happening is as construction types have evolved, you would have the ability now to build large portions of a home in a factory, get all the plumbing, the wiring installed, basically have it fitted out, and then bring it onto site and place it onto a foundation.

[00:05:08] That's actually, although our ordinance that we're proposing is only talking about single family, that's actually happening in the city as we speak at Ashbury. Van Meter's building those units, bringing them in pieces and placing them on a foundation. So what the state was trying to capture, really, is this evolution where to save construction costs, large portions of the home can be brought into the site and placed on foundations.

[00:05:27] It's something, as I mentioned, we already allow, but the state has asked us to clarify that in our regulations. So this is the updated state home state definition. The highlighted piece really covers what happens, which is the property, essentially manufactured homes, that old definition, as we thought about it, can be converted into real property by placing it on a permanent foundation or footing.

[00:05:49] And so I just highlighted the pieces of state code. And this is really the main piece that they, the state wanted to get at, is that you can basically bring a unit in, either take it off its chassis in the old way of doing things, or now bring it in from the factory and place it on a foundation on site. And we as a jurisdiction, all jurisdictions now have to allow that. You can't basically say just because it's being trucked into the site, it's not allowed in single family districts. And so basically our edit picks up on that change, which is required to meet the requirements of the new state code, and they are considered single family dwelling detached. So we have a fairly straightforward or an edit that picks up on what the state is allowing.

[00:06:31] And that is the sum total of my presentation for the state. So we can answer questions on that, but I just wanted to clarify because a lot of people see, and we've seen a lot of chatter around the state that, you know, we're allowing mobile homes, the traditional mobile home in every neighborhood and unintended consequences. But really what the state's intention was is to recognize that newer way of building houses and bring them on site.

[00:06:51] And again, if you have other questions on the technical amendments, I'm happy to answer those as well. Ms. Hudson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Does this new state guidance consider how the homes are delivered and like the space that's required for trucks and cranes within a neighborhood or like sound that trucks and cranes would make to place a home?

[00:07:13] Is anything talked about like that? Those would be covered under, so noise, construction noise or bringing it in would be covered under some of your other codes. You have codes in our public street ordinances that govern getting an oversized permit if you need that from both the state and then sometimes through our police department and public works. If you bring in a bigger truck, that would damage our street. So we have ability to regulate that already. And then noise ordinances, they would be subject to the same construction limitations as any as a stick built on. And should we expect that we'll start seeing

[00:07:47] manufactured housing in the required size of our ADU limitations? I guess what I'm imagining is, Are we going to see a manufactured ADU-type dwelling lifted over existing homes?

[00:08:02] And is that allowed? I guess it's a possibility. I haven't seen any specific things from the industry about building smaller units, but I know the housing industry is looking at any which way to bring down housing costs. So I could see it being a possibility.

[00:08:18] So if you did that, you'd have to go with the crane to bring it in. That would all have to be regulated in accordance with our building permits. So it's a possibility. That type of thing would come to the city first. and it doesn't have to be within the supports. Yeah, all those pieces, including, I should mention, the foundation, that all has to be permitted separately through our building.

[00:08:37] The unit itself, even though it's built in the factory, still has to be inspected once it's on site for compliance. The biggest thing is a lot of the internal pieces of it, the wiring, the plumbing, are done. Actually, they're in some ways better than the stick built because it's all factory controlled, and so that all gets built off-site, and then it gets hooked up once you're on site, and it's all permanently inspected once on site.

[00:08:57] And we saw manufactured bathrooms at the Polar Veterans Center that they were, you know, most of that was manufactured off-site. So it's pretty common. But yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. I didn't understand your question. You said, will we see manufactured being lifted and put in?

[00:09:13] Yeah, like as an ADU, like let's say there's a mini house that's built and then somebody's lifting it over their current home to put it in their backyard. Or let's say, you know, maybe they can't get it over their home, so then they got to put it over top of their neighbor's home. Like lift it up to be placed. I mean, I guess people do the same type of thing with swimming pools, but it just sounds different than what has happened in the past.

[00:09:36] So I'm just wondering about it. And there's actually in your code already a certain pre-ADU, very similar to what you're talking about, that was specific. And I forget the exact name, but it's specific to an elderly infirm relative that the state had already passed a piece of legislation.

[00:09:53] We already have to allow that. And we'll pop in this section. Temporary health care facility. So basically what happened was a couple of years ago, family health care structure, the state, someone came up with the idea that they could build essentially what you're talking about, a family health care facility, bring it in on a truck and put it in your backyard, got the General Assembly at that time to pass a law saying all jurisdictions have to allow that as of right.

[00:10:17] So that actually, a version of what you're talking about already exists. I could see ADU's, ADU developers going down a similar path. Yeah. Thank you. I did. I'm trying to understand, because I know I'm going to get a lot of questions, so I'm trying to get the answers before.

[00:10:39] So, are building codes, do they override this ordinance? They don't override, they work in parallel, so you still have to meet building code requirements. This doesn't override the ability to have to get a building permit in the inspections. Are building codes specific to the city, or is that a state code?

[00:10:59] Statewide. Okay. All right. Um, when you go to the slide with housing types, is there a difference between manufactured and modular? You have manufactured and there's a picture there. And then the next page you have a, you mentioned modular. So the biggest difference in between what you see in terms of definitions for manufactured versus modular is that a manufactured home would have the HUD seal on it and a modular would not necessarily have that HUD seal on it. And it

[00:11:36] would be more towards the Ashbury development where it's built in pieces and brought in is what is what people typically think of when you do the difference between manufactured and modular. Okay. So if it has a HUD seal, usually they have, they're transported with almost like trailer under it would that have to be removed in order it for it to be put on a lot and be considered a permanent residency so that trailer part would be removed it would be placed on the permanent foundation and then that is when it would start being assessed as the real property

[00:12:12] can all manufactured homes like that example previous page have that removed or is that building to this in theory the older ones so really and especially prior to 1976 it would almost be impossible to do it you would compromise the structure we've run into that before but in theory there's there was a time the idea was that these were mobile regulated vehicles they'd move into a neighborhood and then theory I guess you could drive your house to another personal property attacks and then just pick it up and go to the next place yep that's an actual like trailer

[00:12:47] instead of it it would have the hitch on it and on wheels and you might see like the bordering or along the outside of it to hide those wheels but you could hook it up skirting you could hook it up to a vehicle and pull it so that has all been dismantled those would all need to be removed okay and you're saying prior to 1970 1976 six okay um uh i think we talked about this the last meeting, I think you said that, is it the minimum is 80 feet wide or that type of manufactured?

[00:13:26] Yeah, it's eight feet wide, eight feet or more in width, 40 or more in length, 320 square feet when erected on site. And then we also added the height under 13.6 on the height. Again, big caveat, so about two weeks ago, the federal government passed that big housing bill and that went into law. So our understanding is this definition has been repealed, which means next year as part of the technical updates, we're going to have to come back and address that older definition. But we're still assessing, obviously, what changes are in that federal bill. So we're, tonight we're only really addressing what the state said, but there's going to be, as we always do every year, more

[00:14:04] technical amendments come. So 13 with six inches is the maximum or the minimum? Is the maximum height that a unit can be to ship it to site. Once it arrives at the locality or the location, then the height would be dictated by our zoning regulations. So they could put it on top of a garage or something like that? Is that what you mean? If it meets all of the structural requirements, that would be more towards building regulation question.

[00:14:38] Or on piers, like up high. More typically they brought in and put on small piers or a small brick a block foundation okay are the are they restricted okay and then they have to have all the hookups which is like 30 to 40 000 from utilities yeah if it's new construction it needs to pay availability fees just like any new home in the city connected to water and sewer yes uh thank you mayor so first of all uh on this powerpoint

[00:15:17] we're on we're just covering manufactured housing and this this is this is required by the the state of virginia correct yes sir this is not optional this is this is a must do not a native yes sir okay um did this general assembly pass anything related to modular housing this is manufactured housing but make any any nothing nothing no nothing specific but it's all it's a lot of it

[00:15:56] it's becoming more and more interchangeable modular and manufacture quite frankly i mean the idea is essentially it's built off site brought on site placed on foundation um do we when you have discussions with a developer who wants to do a housing project do you you does your staff discuss whether it's going to be stick built modular manufactured housing yes along the

[00:16:32] way yes so you know in their plans what they what parts may be stick built with part maybe yes you know how much right along the way right and i i will say we'll probably ask earlier in the process knowing that it seems to be becoming more commonplace so ashbury is an example was we were further in the development process when we learned about it so we'll probably be more of fun to find know how it's being built? I would certainly like council to be apprised of that in future developments as they come along for the reason that, well, I've been interested in modular housing

[00:17:11] for the purpose of helping to lower construction costs. I worry that those savings are not being realized in what is the product that's being sold when it finally comes to retail market.

[00:17:34] I understand on one hand, we as a city government can't interfere or don't interfere with the cost of what an item is sold for. On the other hand, if there's a savings along the way and we're serious about any kind of lower housing to assist, you know, to be available. It would seem to me that that's part of what the process, when we're talking to developers, has to be moving forward

[00:18:08] now. How much of this is going to be passed on to the ultimate purchaser, for instance, the savings, if any, what do they think will be done along the way, as opposed to, because I certainly embrace the idea of being able to do modular housing or even manufactured housing with the idea that you could save some money. But if what you end up having to pay is the same thing, it is a little troubling along the way. So it would certainly, whenever possible, to know that.

[00:18:43] It would be interesting to see it done at the state level, to have the state do some follow-up housing bills to see what the actual cumulative impacts are on the state if you're imposing it on the entire commonwealth to see some of that data lowering the cost and that may be something legislatively we we want to track at some point in for the future you know once this has had some time to to percolate around the state and and see what's going on okay you're going to talk about other other things the rest of the uh suggested not suggested required changes as well but this

[00:19:17] okay this is all i had on the manufactured house so did it so that if we're if we have any more questions i can give a quick little overview of everything else that's left hurricane break the presentation i'm just going to kind of go through the without going into a so this is this is the presentation from go down one more slide sorry thank you so again as i mentioned we've talked a little bit about the state code we have customer service enhancements which really talk about um again these are things that we hear throughout the year basically brought to the parent calendar things it would be better if you could a great example is restaurants really don't they struggle

[00:19:55] with 90 days for their temporary tents in the winter so we've proposed a customer service enhancement same with the temporary signs which i talked about um obviously driveways is another one a myriad of technical corrections and i'm happy to talk about anything in detail but again these are usually things identified by um either code enforcement or permit staff to as we as we administer the ordinance throughout the year. I'll pause real quickly on the home occupation and home business change. I think Audra really explained this well at the public hearing.

[00:20:27] If you bring a take-home vehicle home, there's no city requirement that you cover up the signage on that vehicle. However, in our current code, very old regulations, been in fact for many years, for if you have a home occupation, you do have to cover that signage. So, and it's a not an easy thing to cover up. You basically have to go out and buy a big magnet. We've seen some real bad ones where people go out and get tarps and throw them over their vehicles on the street and get complaints about that, believe it or not. So the idea on this one is to standardize that requirement since you can't make everyone with a take-home vehicle cover up their signage. It's just to

[00:21:01] standardize that across the board and remove this outdated requirement. And then our code enforcement staff, this gets to Council Member Smith about how we track other ordinances. We have the ADU ordinance, which is not up for discussion this evening, but we're looking at all of our codes throughout the year to see if there's other things that may be picked up as we bring other codes like the ADU online. So being able to address some minimum standards for driveway maintenance in our ordinance, that's included in here. And then the big state ones, we've talked about manufactured homes, a temporary wireless facility ordinance, and then the parking ordinance is also a pretty significant change where the state has basically said the minimum requirements within

[00:21:41] a half mile of your VRE stations has to be reduced. And that is again, mandatory July 1st, went into effect on July 1st. So we have those edits in here as well. And that's the high level and i'm happy to answer any questions on these as well thank you um on page four the motor vehicle sales and rentals does that effectively remove the ability to unload cars on route 28 this is and this is a requirement every one of the special use permits the city council has adopted since the 70s so um we realized it was probably time after the last motor vehicle sales supa we did was to

[00:22:20] put it into your performance standards and yes it would say rather than having to write a condition each time into an SUP, yes, you can't unload your vehicles on Centerville Road. Act as businesses, but it should impact the traveling public positively.

[00:22:37] And it's always been a condition that council has imposed. So when you see that in an SUP over the years, eventually we think it's better to put it into a performance standard and have it apply universally. Councilwoman Vasquez-Luna, do you have any questions?

[00:23:01] I didn't know. Okay. So another one, going back to the manufacturer. But it says on here, manufactured, I don't know if it's a must or may, be converted to real property, the manufactured homes.

[00:23:17] Is that maybe? Is that optional? It's a must. Is that a required? Any state code? Yeah. It says maybe, but I thought they have to take off the trailer.

[00:23:38] Sounds like a lot of work to get it converted to real property. It's a lot of work if, again, if you go back to the older example of something that's actually built onto a chassis. That's a huge issue because you're cutting a vehicle, you're cutting the residential piece off of a chassis.

[00:23:57] If it's what the state is trying to get at, what the goal of this ordinance is, it's being built off-site to be placed on a foundation. The foundation is built on-site, it's being brought in on a trailer, essentially, and then taken off the trailer and put it on. So in terms of modern construction, no, it's not a big deal.

[00:24:13] If it was something like prior to the older example, yes, that's a... Well, also to legally have it converted to real property, you have to go through a lot of steps. Yes. So once it is on the site and on a foundation, that's when they convert it to real property.

[00:24:35] It's not before they buy it. It's not when they buy it. It's actually when it's... Essentially, it's going to be taxed. It's going to be brought on site, put on a foundation. It's going to be taxed as real property, per our commissioner wrote. Oh, it's going to be taxed automatically. They don't have to go change the. Yeah, that part.

[00:24:51] Sounds like a lot. Again, if it's. It has to be accepted. Right. If it's the modern way of doing things, no, it's part of the process. The contractor builds the foundation on site. They bring it in. They put it on the foundation and hook it up. It's all part of the home construction process. The idea is the cost savings is you're saving some money by having the pieces built in a factory.

[00:25:10] Again, yeah, if it's something that's existing, including in our existing mobile home parks, we want to convert that to real property. That's a huge, very technical. You have to have a professional engineer certify that can even be severed from the chassis. It's something you don't want to do. And if they bring the manufacturer home into the city, somebody has to go out and make sure that that's been removed in order to have it convert to real property.

[00:25:35] And they have to remove that. Well, manufacturing homes aren't brought in with wheels attached to them. It literally has to go into a flat trailer. Flatbed trailer. Well, there's not some type of a trailer under it? That's a flatbed trailer, yes. But they're not connected other than strapped.

[00:25:50] like they used to be correct okay so they're automatically then everything is permitted inspected for our buildings yeah if you went to cardinal homes and bought a manufactured home it is delivered as a real problem okay thank you any other questions or comments yes ma'am so let's go to parking favorite topic here so i see uh i'm i'm i'm looking at the red line version that's what i

[00:26:22] just to let you know where I am. But what I don't see, and so it's hard to tell which page I'm on, but talking about the parking changes, essentially administrative waiver outside designated mass transit areas and things of this sort. So first of all, we have the all street parking and designated mass transit areas. And it says here that we can, that parking can be reduced within

[00:27:01] and one half mile of mass transit stations, for instance. - It's a shall, but yes. - It's a shall, not a must. - Not a may, it's a shall. - All right, meaning that is up to the developer to choose to do that, is that correct?

[00:27:20] - Well, meaning the state has prescribed new parking minimums, which override your existing parking minimums. The developer can go with those, and then I believe where you're going is then, obviously the developer is gonna, because these minimums are I'll just riff here because these minimums are lower than anything you're going to see in a city like this.

[00:27:41] A developer is likely to come in with something higher regardless of what the state has said at this point. So as a good example, multifamily at 0.5 per parking space is not going to happen in this city. Even if the state says we have to allow it, a developer is going to. And you've heard these conversations with other apartment developers over the last year or two.

[00:27:58] Typical market rate or affordable units comes in at 1.2. That's what the market says. they go out and do parking studies across the United States, that's what you're going to get. You're not going to get 0.5. It's this notion the state has set this kind of one-size-fits-all regulation and applied it to every jurisdiction while perhaps well-intentioned, again, trying to reduce the cost of parking. In reality, in a city like this, you're not going to see 0.5. So it's basically putting it back on the market to set your parking minutes as opposed to the city.

[00:28:27] And while none of these technical updates specifically refer to this, how does this affect uh handicapped parking it does not it does not change any handicapped parking requirements are set by the building code first off the number of spaces required so that that doesn't alter that it would reduce the number of spaces by bringing down the number of total required parking so there's an indirect indirect but the number of spaces is always set by the building total number of handicapped spaces so the number of handic if i'm saying that back to you so to indicate i heard

[00:29:05] correctly number of handicapped spaces would still be the same based on the amount of parking provided so right you actually are correct there's a there's a if someone were to come in and build at 0.5 it would reduce the number of required handicapped spaces because it's proportional essentially but the actual number of spaces you can require is set by the building okay very good Thank you ma'am. Any other questions or comments? Thank you both. Your honor, the intent is to

[00:29:40] bring this up on next Monday for first reading with the changes. We will be ready. All right, next item on the agenda is item 1.2, the Distort Manassas Inc. F527 Funding Affirmament. Who's helping us with basically the funding agreement that the city has with HMI last year the HMI requested and council did approve an increase to $400,000 for the

[00:30:15] annual funding provided to HMI for the various functions that they perform for the city. The agreement was updated to include basically information from HMI about how that dedicated funding is used by HMI in the performance of those various efforts. And staff simply brought that to you all as a mechanism to allow you to see what HMI is performing for the city and the

[00:30:45] costs associated. You can go to that last page of 2026. Yeah, that last page of it. Okay. Not the last page. Sorry. Before all of their information, last page of the actual period. Yes. So it's just

[00:31:19] a matter of if council had any questions or thoughts about different efforts at HMI and HMI has a representative here. Two of us. Two of you. Oh, sorry. So what changed? I, nothing changed.

[00:31:36] So this last page of the agreement, identifying where the money was going to, was not part of the previous agreement. And so we updated the agreement. HMI included a breakdown of the cost that the city is providing through the funding, just so that you have an idea of what.

[00:31:55] So basically, the agreement hasn't changed. Services are basically continuing. This is just an itemization. The other piece that we added into this, and this came up during your retreat, was what benchmarks and performance measures is HMI using to measure success.

[00:32:15] So the pages that come after this is HMI's they've adopted a strategic plan. So the agreement makes reference back to the strategic plan. So when council wants to get updates on a quarterly or annual basis from HMI, the expectation is that HMI will be able to report out on those metrics that are in its actual strategic plan.

[00:32:33] So we wanted to tie the funding a little bit back to how are they performing versus their strategic plan. Are we staffed now? HMI? Yes, ma'am. Any questions, comments? Mr. Smith.

[00:32:53] This may not be the time for this discussion, but at some point, I think a couple of years ago at a retreat, I raised a question about the interaction or potential liaison with the council with HMI.

[00:33:09] Does the contract, I mean, what is the operating process now for the, uh, well, please, actually, you go, or, uh, actually, Patrick is, serves as, as the city's representative on, on HMI and reports back to us anytime there's anything, uh, challenging them or something new that they're considering.

[00:33:29] The proposed new agreement says the space is the city manager's or his designee, which is Patrick. Another change in the agreement, Councilman, as HMI will now be providing you with quarterly reports in addition to their annual report.

[00:33:45] Okay. And quarterly reports coming how? Via email. Via email. Although certainly, Madam Mayor, either you or they are welcome to schedule it for an appearance at a podium or a work session anytime you choose.

[00:34:02] I like to be in a public meeting, but that shows when we talk about it. Well, we can do both. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can supply you with the data beforehand and then come speak. that way the problem can't see any other questions comments miss vasquez luna do you have any questions or comments

[00:34:59] in their business, but, you know, the city is a little hard to hear you, Ms. Vasquez-Luna, but did you say, are they meeting and providing information? I didn't hear the front part of what you said. I apologize. It's kind of hard to hear. Can you repeat what you...

[00:35:29] The biggest complaint I get is that the more there's no meeting or they are just a meeting that they don't end up meeting. I don't know if they are meeting their meeting requirements or calendar requirements.

[00:35:45] The current board policy is to meet once a month.

[00:36:16] We meet here in this room, and it does go out to counseling. goes down. The HMI board meeting, notice you get an email from HMI and it tells in it that's in there too. Is there any? I could not hear it. I heard about meeting, that you're not meeting, but you are meeting once a month here in this room. Yes ma'am. The board does meet.

[00:36:47] Do you have minutes from your meeting?

[00:37:02] Yes, ma'am. We're going to submit those with the quarterly reports to you all. Did you hear that? Vasquez, Luna, did you hear what he said? Yes, thank you.

[00:37:19] My next question will be for an hour. We are waiting on feedback on, I believe, we're supposed to be an update whether the visitor's center or the market staff will become part of the city staff.

[00:37:42] I don't know where we are, but I would like an update. Visitor's center. Well, with the provision of the costs from HMI, we did take a look at what the cost would be if the city were to assume either function and they were significantly greater.

[00:38:01] So at least, well, we've gone forward with HMI continuing both of those activities for now. We can provide that.

[00:38:22] Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Mr. Ossian. I might add, and I briefly mentioned this to Mark here, I would certainly love seeing the attendance numbers for the first Fridays, and if those have been provided, that you continue to do that sort of thing along the way here, so that we can see that.

[00:38:53] And then, of course, any of the other, you know, special events, you know, Railroad Days and stuff like that. As you know, sir, the HMI has invested heavily in technology to determine the number of events at specific times, where they come from, and where they go.

[00:39:10] So we have a year's worth of data now, and we can go back and check other times, too. That would be great. That would, I think, be very helpful. Because, again, we hear things just like you do at times and being knowledgeable about that here.

[00:39:29] So it's my understanding that the quarterly reports will come into the Department of Economic Development, but that will be ultimately shared with the council. Is that correct? I'm looking at staff. And those monthly attendance reports for all the events come into Matt and me on a monthly basis as well.

[00:39:51] So we'll start putting those perhaps in the Friday update or however the city manager would like us to get them to you. Great. And then, again, as Mark and I talked earlier here about getting grant funding and so forth, I'd certainly love to know about who's participating, you're getting grants from along the way, who's in addition supporting different...

[00:40:17] And sponsorship that we receive also. Because our HMI's funding is far greater than the 400. Yeah, exactly. And it's accumulated from vendor spaces, sponsorship. along the way on on that and that's covered in the audit you should be receiving last year's audit by the beginning of october oh okay all right so those numbers are always in the audits all right very good and the last thing is um so you know in terms of uh your your board members

[00:40:57] and so forth here uh how do you handle do you have a conflicts of interest policy as part of your bylaws? The board, yes, we do. The board just updated its board recruitment policy, and there's a process that's public now on how you get on the board. It's on the website, and there is a conflict interest policy in the bylaws. All right. Excellent. Wonderful. All right. Thank you.

[00:41:22] Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Any other questions or comments? Well, thank you to my folks for being here. Appreciate y'all being here tonight. Thank you for what you do. Moving forward item 1.3 FY2028 budget development discussion. This was an item added by the request of Mr. Osina. So if you want to share your thoughts about what exactly. So folks I had approached the mayor and the city

[00:41:56] manager about putting this on. You know, we have our retreat where we talk about a lot of different things, but that's held generally in January. By then, a lot of the hard work by staff on the next year's budget has already been done here, and I did think it was appropriate for us as a council in the fall to have a moment at one of our work sessions to provide the city manager any, I'll call it, budget guidance that we might have, things to be

[00:42:35] considered for him to consider as he's working with his department heads that we would like to see included or discussed or explored or what have you in that regard. So, Rad, it was not intent to have a discussion at this point, but to ask your indulgence and your support to have time at our September work session where we would come in prepared that if we did have any of those sorts of things we wanted to talk about, we would have a time on the September work session agenda to do so.

[00:43:10] And it's more to just provide ideas, anything we might have so that it's not done. So we've had some input along the way instead of waiting till January when a lot of the sausage has already been made, so to speak here.

[00:43:28] But to to make sure we set everybody up for success along that way, I would hope I had your support in joining me to have that put on the September agenda. When is the September date there?

[00:43:44] 21st. 21st session? The work session? Okay, sir. I didn't know. I didn't have a date. I'm sorry. I didn't look at us at 21st. I would nod with that. You would nod with that. Thank you, Mr. Smith. He's nodding with you. All right, good. This side is. Your idea is that when the work session happens, 9-21, is that council members will come with a list of things that are on their mind about what to put forward and what we want to discuss in january things that you know you want more details information okay that and anything else

[00:44:18] for for the city manager to to be looking at along the way or if you consider it may not make it into the budget but at least he has the benefit of our thinking in that regard I want to make sure Ms. Bergeron is aware when it comes to budget time.

[00:44:40] I was checking the date. Yes. Okay. Anything else? Ms. Vasquez-Luna, do you have any comments on that item? Okay. Thank you. All right.

[00:44:56] I will move forward. Item two, city manager time. Mr. Burke. The only thing that I have to report, Chief Mills let us know that former firefighter Justin Laidler passed away. He was battling Lou Gehrig's disease. So our thoughts go out to this family, and I just wanted to let you know in case you've known about it.

[00:45:17] I guess we'll go into our co-session when we're doing the resolution, item 3.1.

[00:45:33] So the next item on your agenda this evening is a closed meeting of the council. This item involves one, consultation with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters related to the proposed Center Street PPEA development project requiring the provision legal advice and two the discussion of the disposition of city-owned real property for discussion in an opening would it virtually affect the bargaining position on negotiating strategy of city council in accordance with virginia code section 2.2-3711-a-8-3 this item is eligible for discussion and duly completely closed to city council to convene a closed session

[00:46:12] I recommend for your adoption, resolution R-2026-1146, resolution authorizing a closed meeting of city council. So moved. Second. I get a motion by Councilman Ossina to approve resolution number R-2026-1146, authorizing a closed meeting of discussion.

[00:46:36] Hearing and seeing none, Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Councilmember Hudson? Yes. Councilmember Ossina? Yes. Council Member Ellis. Yes. Council Member Smith. Yes. Council Member Vasquez.

[00:46:51] Motion carried. Thank you. Go ahead and make sure. I guess we'll stay here since we got Sonya on the phone here. She's also on the Zoom, so you can feel free to go in there. Okay. Let's go in there.

[00:47:09] Great. Could you make some comments with this for me? Okay. Are you going to have time? Yes. I don't need it right now.

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