City staff outline draft 2024 legislative agenda including vacant-building registry, FOIA fix and park-ranger retirement request

Ed Reed, the city's legislative representative in Richmond, presented staff's draft legislative package and asked the council for direction before the council adopts a final agenda in November. Reed described a carryover bill to expand a vacant building registry and said staff is working on a budget amendment to increase funding for the Hampton Health District and a separate one-time budget request to support Hampton Human Services' relocation and improvements. "This is something that we've been able to make incremental success with over the last couple of sessions," Reed said of the vacant-building effort.

Reed outlined additional priorities: a proposed code change to add municipal park rangers, 911 operators and animal control officers to the list of positions eligible for enhanced retirement benefits (per JLARC study findings); a permissive local option to seize and dispose off-road vehicles (ATVs) that create public-safety hazards; and a potential legislative response to the Virginia Supreme Court gloss v. Wheeler decision that staff and the FOIA council are reviewing to clarify the definition of public business and informational meetings. He also noted partner requests, including support for Fort Wool restoration funding (the Coalition previously pursued an $800,000 amendment; councilors discussed the possibility of a $1,000,000 ask).