Deputy City Manager (DCM) Tom Leahy opened the meeting with a discussion of sea level rise and the impacts to Virginia Beach. The group was polled on their knowledge of sea level rise on the web site www.publicinput.com/2383 You are encouraged to take this survey yourself to determine your knowledge. This Public Input application is an enterprise solution and is available for departments to use. It was recently used for the Dome Site public survey. Do you know what the average elevation of Virginia Beach is?
David Bradley, Director of Management Services (the budget office) presented findings of the bi-annual Citizens’ Satisfaction Survey. This telephone survey polls 500 citizens of Virginia Beach once every two years. Compared to other cities nationally, the results were very favorable.
Survey Highlights:
- 94% of citizens very satisfied with living in Virginia Beach
- 2% overall satisfaction rating for value as a taxpayer
- 94% say Virginia Beach is a good place to live
- 7% of citizens use public beaches
- 8% reported City Employees are courteous (down 5.2% in two years)
Full survey results are on Beachnet: Survey Results
Dave stressed that we all need to be cheerleaders for the great thing the City does.
Warren Harris, Director of Economic Development, introduced Chris Lloyd, Sr. VP of McGuire Woods Consulting who presented the state of economic development. Chris helps businesses with public private partnerships and is a lobbyist in Richmond. He introduced the topic with a discussion about the disrupters in the economy like Lyft, Uber, Amazon, AirBnB and Pandora. He noted the demise of travel agents, insurance agents and stockbroker’s whose store fronts have become web based services. Virginia Beach added 2,508 new jobs last year, had $240M in investment and added 1.5 million new square feet of buildings. The public generally has a negative view of developers. They want more transparency, less backroom deals, less silos in government and to see returns on investment.
Dave presented results from City Council’s recent retreat. Each year the Council sequesters to discuss upcoming priorities for the City. The results can be found here on Beachnet: 2018 City Council Priorities
Note that on slide 4, Policy Agenda, that the Sports Center, Dome Site and Pier Place Development Agreements are top priorities. Of particular interest are the private investments associated with two of the projects. While the City may contribute $24 million (M) for a pier, private investors are slated to add another $250 M in surrounding projects. The Dome site may need $66 M and another $24 M for parking from the public, but it gains $250 M in private investment. Dave reminded everyone that in order to remain competitive as an east coast resort destination that we needed state of the art attractions.
Announcements from the group –
- Virginia Beach Human Services will be presenting a Mental Health Forum April 12 at VBCC. The goal being to provide a coordinated and holistic response to citizens in need of mental health services and their families.
- A new session of the City’s Mentoring program will begin soon. For information on applying to become a mentor or mentee, call 385-8807
- Police Chief Cervera said farewell to a 29.5 year veteran of the force who is retiring. He was thanked for his service.