Chesapeake, Suffolk, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Hampton have installed speed cameras in local school and work zones to deter speeding and enhance overall public safety.

Though law enforcement leaders tout the equipment as a safety measure to deter speeding, the cameras can also be significant moneymakers — with Chesapeake and Suffolk already raking in millions.

Chesapeake has a dozen cameras that have been active since 2022. The city reports a total of 158,075 violations since then, along with about $9.7 million in revenue.

Another 10 cameras in Suffolk went active in fall 2023 along with one at a work zone. Since then, the city reports roughly 196,000 citations, collecting $14.2 million in revenue. After paying the vendor, net revenue is $10.5 million. Suffolk did not specify whether the citation and revenue figures provided to The Virginian-Pilot were specific to school and work zone speed cameras only. The city also operates red light and school bus cameras.

Both cities previously said net revenue would go toward highway safety improvements and personnel costs.

The school zone speed cameras in Chesapeake and Suffolk are targeted in two lawsuits brought by former Del. Tim Anderson, an attorney who alleges the cities are improperly issuing speeding violations and allowing third party vendors to impersonate local government when collecting fees.

Anderson’s case in Suffolk is awaiting an order from a judge on whether it will move forward. A hearing in the Chesapeake case is scheduled for Sept. 18.

The Virginia General Assembly approved legislation in 2020 that allows state and local police to set up speed cameras at highway work sites and school crossing zones. Under that law, only motorists caught going at least 10 mph over the speed limit are ticketed up to $100.

Hampton is in the process of rolling out a dozen cameras in school zones this fall as part of a pilot program with staggered warning periods.

A 30-day warning period began Aug. 26 for cameras located near Bethel High School, Hampton High School and Hunter B. Andrews Pre-K. A 30-day grace period will begin for cameras at Jones Magnet Middle School, Kecoughtan High School, Lindsay Middle School and Machen Elementary School by Sept. 30. And cameras at another set of schools — Mary W. Jackson Elementary School, Thomas Eaton Middle School, Aberdeen Elementary School, Barron Elementary School and William Mason Cooper Elementary — will have a 30-day grace period beginning no later than Oct. 15.

Hampton city officials said about $3.5 million would be budgeted for the school zone speed camera pilot program.

Norfolk has 19 cameras in place across 10 public school locations. A 60-day warning period was slated to end in May, but a city spokesperson said last week that the cameras are still in an active warning period “until summons language can be resolved with the general district court and our vendor, Verra Mobility.”

Part of Anderson’s complaint in his lawsuits was that officers weren’t issuing an official Virginia summons document consistent with other traffic infractions when making the speeding citations.

Portsmouth has 16 cameras, and police began fining drivers in December. The city reports 28,289 citations and $951,061 of revenue collected between January and June. Of the total revenue, $565,042 will be paid to the third-party vendor.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the latest citations and revenue figures from the city of Portsmouth. The city provided the figures after the article published.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

“I would talk about team-building, marketing, management and leadership and people were good to go,” she said. “But as soon as I started talking about money, it was like what are you talking about.”

Reddix, the founder, president and CEO of ARDX, a Norfolk-based health care management and technology consulting company, spends a great deal of time helping create economic empowerment for girls and women.

She serves as a business adviser to women through her Reddix Rules program and is the visionary behind The Mustard Seed Place, an entrepreneurial hub and women empowerment center in downtown Portsmouth. Her nonprofit organization Envision Lead Grow teaches young girls and women valuable financial literacy, entrepreneurship and leadership skills.

“If you line everything up, it’s all the same,” Reddix said. “It’s different ways of opening women’s eyes and minds to using their skill and will to build economic empowerment for their households.”

Three years ago, she created the RRFund Investment Club, a monthly safe space for women to discuss financial concepts. Reddix said women of color tend to have more difficulty accessing capital. Over time, she penned the book, “She’s Got the Power.” It shares the stories of 25 women from the group and their relationships with money.

The female fund members are now owners of a Hilton hotel in Chicago and angel investors in other women-owned businesses. Reddix heard from more women interested in joining the group, but with a cap of 100, it was maxed out.

So, Reddix and 35 of her partners from the RRFund created the RRFund Wealth Accelerator, a financial wealth and health program for women with 40 hours of financial education provided by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America through Enoch Financial Group at the forefront.

“If we really want to grow businesses, households and communities, we have to get women more comfortable with talking about money,” she said.

The accelerator provides women with the tools and information to empower themselves and become sophisticated investors.

“We believe a woman who decides she is going to learn her value is a gem,” Reddix said, noting that is what each participant is called.

The 12-month program, which kicked off on Aug. 1 at The Mustard Seed Place, includes a mid-year in-person summit in March 2025 and an end-of-year retreat in January 2026. Additional cohorts begin every two months for the live sessions hosted on a virtual platform. The program starts at an introductory fee of $2,750 per person.

Participants apply what they learn to real-life scenarios and can explore what they can do in their households with one-on-one financial coaching. A licensed psychologist helps the participants with the emotional components of wealth, and a health coach advises them on improving their health and wellness.

“If women aren’t taking care of their health, it increases their rate of bankruptcy,” she said.

Goals for the program are set from Day 1. Reddix stressed that each woman becomes part of an encouraging tribe. Reddix isn’t afraid to admit that she’s made some mistakes along the way — both financially and in business — and she said they just made her dig in to learn more and teach others from her real-life experiences.

“We want women to feel that they belong at the table and when they are at the table, they have enough information to add value to the table,” she said.

For more information, visit rrfundwealth.com.

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com

Defined as a census tract without a physical bank branch within a certain geographic radius from the population center, banking deserts exist where banks are more than 2 miles from an urban area, 5 miles for suburban and 10 miles for rural communities.

While the 2008 financial crisis led to bank closures and consolidations, the pace of branch closures accelerated during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of bank and credit union branches in the U.S. declined by 5.6% and the number of banking deserts increased by 217 between 2019 and 2023, according to a national report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The focus of the report is full-service, brick-and-mortar retail branches, including those of savings and loan associations, commercial banks and credit unions.

Hampton Roads experienced a 38% reduction, or a loss of 143 bank branches from 381 in 2008 to 238 branches in 2023, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. market share reports. The region experienced a 22% reduction by 69 branches from 307 in 2019. These figures don’t include credit unions.

The branch closures coincide with the rise of digital banking, including mobile and online services, and the use of kiosks and ATMs. Long gone are the days when consumers had to walk inside banks for their transactions.

But banking deserts affect people who struggle with transportation, digital services, high-speed internet access and skills to navigate websites and apps, according to the report. It can also greatly impede consumers with lower incomes, disabilities or language barriers — who may still tend to favor in-person banking.

The Fed study shows that 5% of census tracts in Virginia last year were banking deserts and 3% may become a desert if a branch closes. Of those tracts, 80% are suburban and 46% have limited access to broadband.

In Hampton Roads, the Federal Reserve’s interactive dashboard map shows that the southern parts of Virginia Beach (including Blackwater, Sandbridge and part of Pungo), Chesapeake and Suffolk are all banking deserts with the nearest branches from 2 miles to 9 miles away. The region is considered a mix of urban and suburban.

A small urban tract in the Lee Hall section of Newport News, with a population of approximately 3,400, shows its nearest branch is 3 miles away. In Willoughby Spit and West Ocean View on the northern end of Norfolk and in the Lynnwood section of Virginia Beach, consumers have to travel between 2 to 3 miles for their banking needs.

Parts of Isle of Wight and Gloucester counties and the northern Outer Banks area of Corolla also fall within a banking desert. Hampton, Portsmouth, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City County and York County show no banking deserts although Mathews County is marked as a potential desert, meaning the area is one branch closure away from becoming a desert.

Both larger banks and community-based banks reduced their physical presence in Hampton Roads over the past several years, according to closing notices with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The merger of BB&T and SunTrust as Truist in late 2019 led to a major consolidation of branches in the region. Bank of America and Wells Fargo have closed multiple branches across Hampton Roads. Bank of America closed its Fort Eustis and Lynnhaven Square branches this year. Wells Fargo most recently closed its Richmond Road branch in Williamsburg in January and its Wells Fargo Center branch in November in downtown Norfolk, where it maintains an ATM.

Hampton-based Old Point National Bank has also closed multiple branches over the past several years and recently announced it will close its downtown Norfolk branch in September due to cost-cutting efforts.

Suffolk-based TowneBank’s acquisition of Windsor-based Farmers Bank also meant the closure of the Farmers branches in Pungo and Chesapeake last year as TowneBank operated locations nearby. TowneBank also closed its Harbour View branch at 6255 College Drive in Suffolk last year.

PNC Bank plans to close a standalone branch at 3012 Pacific Ave. in Virginia Beach on Oct. 18 in an ongoing effort to optimize its physical bank network, spokesperson Kelby Krauss said. Customers will be directed to the branch at 1324 N. Great Neck Road. PNC Bank has 10 branches, ATMs and video banking machines in Hampton Roads.

“Branch locations remain an essential aspect of how we connect with and support our clients and the local community,” Krauss said.

View the banking deserts dashboard at fedcommunities.org/data/banking-deserts-dashboard/.

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com

In a statement, Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen Jenkins said a 15-year-old boy was shot due to an unsecured firearm around 1:45 p.m. He was wounded in the thigh and abdomen.

Jenkins called the shooting a “shocking and completely preventable incident” and said police haven’t yet been able to determine how the boy was shot.

Police said they were called to the 1100 block of Virginia Avenue, where they found the teen. He was transported to the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters for treatment.

The investigation is ongoing, and police did not provide an update on the teen’s condition.

Police obtained warrants for child neglect for Maurice Savage, Naomi Savage and Demetric Ralph.

Adults attempted to remove other firearms and other evidence from the scene before police arrived, Jenkins said. He admonished those actions, saying they endanger lives and impede thorough investigations.

He also urged adults to keep firearms out of the reach of children and practice responsible gun ownership.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com

Steven Carter, 62, assumed the role of Portsmouth’s CEO in April after Portsmouth City Council pursued a nationwide search in 2023. At the time of his appointment, he was serving as city manager in Albany, Georgia — a city not quite as big as Portsmouth — in southwest Georgia. He marks the fourth city manager hire in as many years.

Raised in the small town of Waycross, Georgia — about 100 miles from Albany — Carter’s status as an outsider means he’s coming into the role with a fresh start. His arrival wasn’t without some conflict, however, as his hire was approved by a 4-3 council vote.

The division was created because some members supported retaining Mimi Terry, who held the interim role for more than a year. She also had previously served as the city’s chief financial officer, among other top city positions.

During Carter’s oath of office ceremony, he acknowledged the split appointment, noting at the time that “we have to agree that we are not adversaries.”

“One of the values of bringing somebody in that don’t have any alliances is that you get that fresh start,” Carter said during an interview with The Virginian-Pilot in his office last week. “I don’t know anybody here. I don’t owe anything to anybody here. Nobody owes me anything.

“I’m here to do a job. And again, I work for seven people. So anytime I’m dealing with a situation, I deal with seven people.”

The Air Force veteran has degrees in computer information systems and a master of business administration from Liberty University, according to his resume. Carter ascended to the city manager position in Albany through his background in technology as a chief information officer, where one perk of the job is working intimately with each department. He worked his way up to deputy city manager before spending three years as city manager.

“I’m really high on technology being a force multiplier for not just our police department, but for our regular working staff,” Carter said. “Because in the market today, labor is at a high premium. And the more I can get out of the things that we’ve already paid for, and the less labor I have to do, that means I can repurpose those people we have to do some more cool things for our city, other than just pushing paper around.” 

Carter said what appealed to him about Portsmouth is the opportunity to make a difference. Ultimately, he wants to leave a “legacy here that transcends” him. But in the meantime, he hopes to help the city figure out its vision through stability, consistency and a sense of calm through the storms.

Part of that comes from “protecting the brand.”

“It’s changing the mind of Portsmouth. Portsmouth talks bad about Portsmouth,” he said. “Portsmouth doesn’t have a good idea of who Portsmouth is.”

Some current initiatives include setting up a process improvement team, which will work to evaluate what’s working and what’s not. One area of focus is the city’s utility billing system. Carter also wants to improve the city’s leadership through quarterly forums with top city staff, including skill building opportunities.

“I’m trying to build better people, whether you’re at work or you’re not,” he said. “It’s difficult to actually have some consistency in how you perform when you don’t know what your next direction is going to be because it’s changing from day to day, from month to month, from season to season.

“I’m here to bring some stability to that and teach them how to do their job well, even if the head changes. I’m teaching philosophies that transcend who sits at the top.”

Outside of work, Carter spent the past two decades officiating high school and college basketball — an activity he believes has primed him for keeping a level head amidst chaos.

“(You) maintain your composure and make sure that everything else is going the way it’s supposed to go,” Carter said. “Even with my city council, I know they’ve been kind of tumultuous over the years, but I think one of the things that I bring to that position even is that I’m pretty level headed about things.”

Carter moved to Portsmouth with his wife, Maria. His two adult daughters live in Georgia and California. Away from the office, Carter enjoys amateur photography and said he’s read all of the books by John Grisham, who authored “A Time to Kill” and other legal thrillers. He’s traveled to 13 countries.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

The funding — part of a multi-year grant to increase public safety measures in elementary and secondary schools — comes from the general fund of Virginia’s state budget as part of the School Resource Officer/School Security Officer Incentive Grant Program. The funds are prioritized for localities lacking such officers in their school divisions.

Chesapeake received $330,060 in state funding that will be complemented with a $160,590 contribution from Chesapeake Public Schools. For the current school year, eight officers have been spread across all 28 elementary schools. But at Tuesday’s meeting, Chesapeake City Council approved a request from the sheriff’s office to expand the program and allocate the state funding for six additional officers, resulting in one officer being responsible for two schools.

In a memo, city staff said Chesapeake school resource officers have handled 500 incidents since the program’s inception this year.

How much security do schools need? Hampton Roads ramps up spending.

Last year, the Chesapeake School Board also approved revised policies that would allow security officers to be armed if needed.

Portsmouth received $1 million, including a local cash match of $210,098 and in-kind contribution of $121,248 to support 12 officers for the city’s elementary, middle and high schools.

In addition to basic law enforcement training, school resource officers will be trained to respond to active threats and crisis situations.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

Just after 2 a.m., officers responded to the 4000 block of Missy Elliott Boulevard for “an altercation and disorderly crowd,” according to a spokesperson for the department. While officers were dispersing the crowd, police say Shaquilla Oneka Cuffee, 29, struck two of the officers with her vehicle and fled the scene. Both officers were injured, and one was taken to the hospital. The officer was later released.

Portsmouth police pulled Cuffee over on Interstate 264 eastbound, where she was taken into custody. Cuffee was charged with a DUI and malicious injury to law enforcement officers, among several other charges related to the crash.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com

Now, his family is questioning whether the jail’s staff did all they could to prevent what happened.

Zackariah Alexander Pate, 29, was arrested July 1 on a public intoxication charge in Suffolk, with police officers learning that he had failed to show up for court hearings on a separate series of charges in his hometown of Portsmouth.

That’s when he was jailed on a felony bail violation charge, court records show.

At about 2 p.m. on July 5, Pate was found unresponsive on a bathroom floor at the regional jail, according to jail medical documents provided to his family. He was in a “semi-seated position,” with a thin rope around his neck.

“An attending officer used trauma sheers to cut the rope from Mr. Pate’s neck,” the documents say. “He was then immediately and safely placed on his back.”

Suffolk firefighter-medics arrived at 2:17 p.m. They found Pate on a gymnasium floor, as nurses were performing CPR and other life-saving measures on him, according to a Suffolk Fire Department report into their response.

“The patient is unresponsive, has no pulse and is not breathing,” that report said. But medics were able to restore a pulse within about six minutes.

Pate had a ligature mark on his neck, and a “short thin rope” was found attached to the hinge of a nearby door frame, the Fire Department report said. The “rope” appeared to be part of the netting cut from a nearby basketball hoop.

Jail staffers told medics that Pate and three other inmates were “in the gym together, unsupervised, for about 20 minutes” before he was found unresponsive, the report said. Pate was “last seen” at 1:45 p.m. before being found in cardiac arrest at 2:05 p.m.

The family got the devastating news at about 8:30 p.m.

Pate’s stepfather, Donald Tye — who helped raise Zackariah since he was 7 — said the family met at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital that night and learned that Pate “would basically never leave the hospital bed.”

“We were going to take him off life support so he didn’t lay there and suffer,” said Tye, 53. But officials with LifeNet Health, an organ donation service, told the family that Pate met the criteria to become a donor.

The nonprofit organization asked for a few more days to plan a heart transplant.

The family agreed. The organ donation made local headlines a few weeks ago. The Pate case marked the nation’s third “HIV-positive-to-HIV-positive heart donation” since a new federal law went into effect 11 years ago allowing such transfers.

Pate died at Sentara on July 9. The State Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled Pate’s death a suicide caused by “complications of asphyxia by hanging.”

But Pate’s family members now contend the regional jail could have done more to prevent his death.

For one thing, Tye said, Pate had mental-health issues that warranted more monitoring. Jail records indicate that Pate expressed suicidal thoughts while in custody at the regional jail in 2022, and that he attempted a suicide at a different jail in 2023.

“They were aware of his mental background, that he needed mental help,” Tye said. “It’s in the records.”

Tye also questioned how Pate could have cut the netting from a basketball hoop 10 feet off the floor without assistance.

When Pate was checked into the regional jail July 1, he told a nurse he had depression and bipolar disorder and “needs help coping,” the jail records say. He also mentioned the 2023 suicide attempt at the Portsmouth City Jail.

But Pate stopped short of saying he was actively considering suicide.

“Are you currently thinking about killing or hurting yourself?” the check-in form asked. “If YES, place on suicide watch.”

Pate said “No” to that question, according to the document. He also said no when asked if he was feeling helpless and hopeless.

This was the Western Tidewater Regional Jail’s first suicide since 2016, according to Marissa Dickens, the jail’s director of administration and support.

The jail said in a statement that staffers did a full medical and mental health screening on Pate when he was booked July 1.

“Medical protocol was followed, and he was seen by (medical staff) several times throughout each day,” the statement said. “He made no comment(s) of being suicidal and denied any other issues during any of the assessments.”

During his stay, the statement said, “Mr. Pate was being monitored by security staff per (Western Tidewater Regional Jail) policy.” (In most jails, the standard protocol is to conduct security checks twice an hour at irregular intervals).

Pate made four phone calls during his time in custody, the statement said. Two were to his sister. The jail said the sister told Pate that she was waiting until July 8 — or a week from her brother’s assault on her — to bond him out.

The jail’s superintendent, Col. William Smith, declined to answer questions on Friday, citing the ongoing investigation.

The unanswered questions include when the last security check was conducted and who found Pate unconscious — a guard or a fellow inmate.

Moreover, jail officials would not explain where the “bathroom” was in relation to the gym, or whether the area was observable to jail guards conducting their rounds.

Tye said Pate grew up in Portsmouth, the second of four siblings. He held jobs in the kitchen at Pizza Hut and as a manager at a 7-Eleven, though he wasn’t working recently.

Pate contracted HIV about 10 years ago, Tye said. But while he had a strict diet and was in good physical health, he also struggled with alcohol — a problem that worsened after his mother’s death in 2022.

“We all took a hit from it,” Tye said of his wife’s death. “But he took it really hard.”

On June 5, Portsmouth Police charged Pate with assault and battery on his sister, punching her during a drinking binge and giving her a black eye.

The family backed the assault charge.

“If you’re gonna function in society, you have to have a set of rules,” Tye said. “You can’t get drunk and put your hands on people.”

Pate was released pending a court hearing. But on June 9, he was charged in Portsmouth with being drunk in public, giving a false ID to law enforcement and obstruction. He was also charged with indecent exposure for what Tye said was “mooning a cop” during that arrest.

Then Pate was hit with additional charges for failing to show up for June court hearings before finally being arrested July 1 in Suffolk on a second drunk-in-public count.

Pate told a jail nurse during the intake process that he had been off his HIV medication for the prior month, jail records say. His treatment was instead targeted on alcohol withdrawal — a combination of the drug Librium along with Gatorade and over-the-counter drugs.

The records say Pate turned down Librium on both July 3 and July 4, once because he “didn’t want it” and another time because he “didn’t want to get up.”

Tye disputed last week that his stepson was off his HIV meds — asserting that Pate was “absolutely” still taking them. “He took them every day like clockwork,” Tye said, saying Pate had set a reminder on his phone to take them daily at 4:30 p.m.

Moreover, Tye contended that Pate’s apparent refusal to take the alcohol withdrawal medication should have caused jail staffers to take urgent action, especially given his stepson’s mental health history.

Tye said he’s still working to get to the bottom of what happened, and eagerly awaits a report from the Suffolk Police Department into the death.

In the meantime, he said, his stepson is sorely missed.

“When he wasn’t drinking, he was wonderful,” Tye said. “The grandbabies tell me every day that they miss their Uncle Zack.”

Reporter Katrina Dix contributed to this report,

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the organ donation service as LifeNet. The full name is LifeNet Health.

At a quarterly forum meeting July 31, Police Chief Stephen Jenkins touted a 6.2% reduction in violent crime this quarter — April through June — compared with last quarter. However, he did note the city had at least one additional homicide this year as of June 30 compared with the same time period last year.

The chief also briefed City Council last month on the city’s latest initiative to combat violent crime — a group called Portsmouth United, a community-based violence and prevention initiative that includes city officials, clergy and faith-based leaders, law enforcement and grassroots leaders.

Jenkins said the goal is to address the root causes of violent crime by combining efforts and resources.

“It really is about building the ecosystem and understanding everybody’s role within that ecosystem,” he said.

The coalition will be tasked with identifying the people and places driving the violence and creating a plan to engage them with “empathy and accountability,” investing in key areas with workforce development and policing, and emphasizing trauma-based healing.

Jenkins said the coalition also will strive to place responsibility for violence reduction “at the top,” such as the Virginia Attorney General’s office, which has provided resources through the Operation Ceasefire initiative, for example.

Portsmouth also was one of three cities to receive state funding earmarked for implementing community-based strategies to address the root causes and conditions of violence. It received a $2.85 million grant as part of the Safer Communities Program. With the funding, cities are expected to invest in more afterschool programming and mentorship, education and economic opportunities, case management for mental health care and credible messengers and violence interrupters.

About $1.5 million of the city’s share is being dispersed to roughly 23 grassroots groups and individuals in micro-grants following a June application period. Jenkins said the city expects to receive another round of funding next fiscal year, which will allow for more micro-grants to other nonprofits.

Norfolk and Richmond also received chunks of funding for the same purpose.

Part of the grant includes the hiring of a coordinator who can oversee all efforts, including Portsmouth United, while looking for other funding opportunities and resources. Jenkins said the department is working to hire six violence interrupters who can use their “street credibility” to help build trust in communities most impacted by violence, mediate disputes before a law enforcement response is needed and work directly with youth to connect them to resources.

“The way you measure a lot of that is the absence of shootings, the absence of additional crime, the absence of things of that nature,” Jenkins said.

After those positions are filled, Jenkins’ goal is to get Portsmouth United fully functional by September and meeting weekly. He suggested fitting the City Council’s new Crime and Gun Violence Commission into the overall Portsmouth United “ecosystem.” That group was formed in October following a tense meeting between the chief and council members who were urged to take action, such as forming a comprehensive crime plan for the city.

“One person, one entity, one group cannot solve this issue alone,” Jenkins said. “Literally everyone that has a stake in the prosperity of Portsmouth and limiting the gun violence within our city should be a part of Portsmouth United.”

In April, council members appointed nine at-large members to the commission. Original language called for two City Council members and seven at-large members, but council members voted to have all nine seats be filled at-large. They are James Cullen, Jaylen Drewry, Sheray Patillo, Keith Rice, Lateacia Sessoms, Roger Smith, Eugene Swinson, Sherman Tyler and Sarah Wray.

Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke, who works with the mayor to make board appointments, said no council members have yet been selected as liaisons for the commission but should be soon.

Meanwhile, the city also is undergoing a Request for Proposal process to seek consulting assistance for formulating the city’s strategic comprehensive crime and violence prevention plan.

At the chief’s forum, he said the department is seeing a nearly 20% reduction in crime overall, including property crime. Officers have responded to at least 500 fewer incidents this year as of June compared with the same time period last year.

Jenkins said progress is being made to hire additional officers, with vacancies hovering around 63. He said 11 are enrolled in the police academy and another dozen are undergoing the background process.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

Chicago-based Verano plans to purchase The Cannabist Company’s entire Hampton Roads operation in a $90 million deal, according to a July 29 announcement.

If finalized, the deal would make Verano the sole company allowed to operate as a medical marijuana provider in the region, per Virginia law. The state allows only one medical marijuana operator and retailor to do business in each of its five health areas.

“Today’s agreement further diversifies Verano’s portfolio, which, since the company’s inception, has remained focused on expanding our business into limited-license markets to scale both our wholesale and retail operations,” said Verano Chairman and CEO George Archos in the announcement.

The deal includes one cultivation and production facility and six dispensaries in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton and Williamsburg.

Archos said the deal also would leave the company well-positioned for if and when retail marijuana sales were approved in Virginia. In 2021, Virginia legalized possession of small amounts of cannabis but punted on establishing the regulatory framework for a retail market. Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed Democratic bills this year seeking to establish a retail market.

Under the agreement, Verano also would be able to sell throughout the state via home delivery and wholesale operations.

The $90 million agreement includes $20 million in cash, $40 million in Class A subordinate voting shares and a $30 million promissory note upon closing, according to the announcement.

The Cannabist Company will continue operating in the Richmond area, according to the announcement.

“As mentioned in previous announcements, we are continuing to optimize our footprint as we target building a better business, which includes deleveraging our balance sheet,” The Cannabist Company CEO David Hart said in the announcement.

Verano operates 13 production facilities in 13 states, and reported $221 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2024 ending March 31.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com