Virginia Beach City Council | |
---|---|
Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Founded | January 1, 1963 |
Leadership | |
Structure | |
Seats | 11 |
Political groups | Officially nonpartisan
|
Length of term | 4 Years |
Elections | |
Single-member districts | |
Last general election | November 8, 2022 |
Next general election | November 5, 2024 |
Meeting place | |
Virginia Beach City Hall Virginia Beach Municipal Center Virginia Beach, VA | |
Website | |
https://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/city-clerk/city-council/ | |
Constitution | |
Charter of Virginia Beach |
The Virginia Beach City Council is the legislative branch that governs the City of Virginia Beach and its more than 450,000 citizens. It has 11 members that serve four-year terms and are elected on a staggered basis. General elections are held the Tuesday following the first Monday in November in even-numbered years. All registered voters are eligible to vote for all members of City Council. Three Council Members and the Mayor serve "At Large" with no district residency requirement. All other Council Members are required to live in the districts they represent: Bayside, Beach, Centerville, Kempsville, Lynnhaven, Princess Anne, and Rose Hall. The Council holds regular meetings on alternate Tuesday evenings on the second floor of the Virginia Beach City Hall. [1]
Starting with the fall 1988 election, the city's mayor was chosen directly by voters. Previously, the mayor was appointed from among city council members elected to represent the city's various boroughs. In that election, Meyera Oberndorf became the city's first female mayor and first to be directly elected. [2]
In 1998, Virginia Beach abolished its system of boroughs from which seven council members were elected and formed in their place seven new districts including Centerville, Kempsville, Rose Hall, Bayside, Lynnhaven, Beach, and Princess Anne. Candidates were required to be residents of the districts for which they ran, but all voting was at-large. [3]
On October 6, 2020, a trial began in federal court in Virginia Beach between residents Latasha Holloway and Georgia Allen and the City of Virginia Beach. Filing their lawsuit in 2017, the residents alleged that the city's process for electing members to the city council violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit claimed that the system unlawfully diluted minority voting strength and denied minorities an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. [4] That same day, the city council cancelled their regular meeting after council member John Moss tested positive for COVID-19. [5] Two days later, it was announced that, due to the ongoing pandemic, council meetings would now be held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. [6]
In 2021, Virginia passed HB 2198, which prohibits local governments from using at-large voting for district elections. [7]
Later in 2021, the trial court found that the city's at-large voting system violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of the Black, Asian and Hispanic minority groups, and ordered that the city adopt a different voting system.
The city worked with a special master, who developed a 10 district ward system, plus one at-large contest for Mayor, late in 2021. Ward candidates would be elected only by voters in the ward. The court ordered the adoption of that system. [1]
In 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held in a 2-1 opinion that because HB 2198 had already prevented the city from conducting any future City Council elections under the electoral system that Plaintiffs challenged, that the case was moot, and overturned the district court's ruling. [8] The timing was such that the 10-ward system would still be used in 2022. In the future, it could be modified, but would have to meet both the requirements of both HB 2198, and the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, which prohibits at large election systems if those systems impair the ability of minority groups to either elect candidates of their choice or to influence the outcome of an election. [1]
District | Councilmember [9] | Took Office | Party (Officially nonpartisan) [10] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
At Large (Mayor) | Bobby Dyer (Mayor) | 2018 | Republican | |
1 | David Hutcheson | 2024 | Democratic | |
2 | Barbara Henley | 2007 | Democratic | |
3 | Michael Berlucchi | 2019 | Republican | |
4 | Amelia Ross-Hammond | 2023 | Democratic | |
5 | Rosemary Wilson (Vice Mayor) | 2001 | Republican | |
6 | Worth Remick | 2023 | Democratic | |
7 | Cal "Cash" Jackson-Green | 2025 | Republican | |
8 | Stacy Cummings | 2025 | Republican | |
9 | Joash Schulman | 2023 | Democratic | |
10 | Jennifer Rouse | 2023 | Democratic |
Year | District [11] | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
At Large (Mayor) | At Large (A) | At Large (B1) | At Large (B2) | 1 Bayside | 2 Blackwater | 3 Kempsville | 4 Lynnhaven | 5 Princess Anne | 6 Pungo | 7 Virginia Beach | |
1963 | Mayors chosen internally from among council members | Lawrence E. Marshall | James E. Snyder | Swindell Pollock | James E. Darden | S. Paul Brown | Kenneth N. Whitehurst | W. H. Kitchin, Jr. | |||
1964 | Earl M. Tebault | ||||||||||
1965 | A. L. Bonney | ||||||||||
1966 | G. Dewey Simmons, Jr. | ||||||||||
1967 | J. Curtis Payne | ||||||||||
1968 | |||||||||||
1969 | |||||||||||
1970 | Clarence A. Holland | Donald H. Rhodes | F. Reid Ervin | Floyd E. Waterfield, Jr. | |||||||
1971 | Robert H. Callis, Jr. | ||||||||||
1972 | John A. Baum | ||||||||||
1973 | |||||||||||
1974 | J. Henry McCoy, Jr. | John R. Griffin | |||||||||
1975 | |||||||||||
1976 | Roger L. Riggs | ||||||||||
1977 | |||||||||||
1978 | Donald W. Merrick | J. Curtis Payne | Barbara M. Henley | ||||||||
1979 | |||||||||||
1980 | Reba S. McClanan | W. H. Kitchin, III | |||||||||
1981 | |||||||||||
1982 | Louis R. Jones | H. Jack Jennings | |||||||||
1983 | |||||||||||
1984 | Robert E. Fentress | ||||||||||
1985 | |||||||||||
1986 | John Moss | Albert W. Balko | |||||||||
1987 | |||||||||||
1988 | Meyera Oberndorf | ||||||||||
1989 | |||||||||||
1990 | Robert W. Clyburn | James W. Brazier, Jr. | Paul J. Lanteigne | ||||||||
1991 | |||||||||||
1992 | Robert K. Dean | Linwood O. Branch, III | |||||||||
1993 | |||||||||||
1994 | Louisa M. Strayhorn | W. W. Harrison, Jr. | Barbara M. Henley | ||||||||
1995 | |||||||||||
1996 | Reba S. McClanan | ||||||||||
1997 | |||||||||||
1998 | |||||||||||
Year | At Large (Mayor) | At Large (A) | At Large (B1) | At Large (B2) | 1 Bayside | 2 Blackwater | 3 Kempsville | 4 Lynnhaven | 5 Princess Anne | 6 Pungo | 7 Virginia Beach |
District | |||||||||||
Year | District [11] | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
At Large (Mayor) | At Large (A) | At Large (B1) | At Large (B2) | 1 Centerville | 2 Kempsville | 3 Rose Hall | 4 Bayside | 5 Lynnhaven | 6 Beach | 7 Princess Anne | |
1998 | Meyera Oberndorf | Harold Heischober | Will Sessoms | Margaret L. Eure | A. M. "Don" Weeks | Reba S. McClanan | Louis R. Jones | W. W. Harrison, Jr. | Linwood O. Branch, III | Barbara M. Henley | |
1999 | |||||||||||
2000 | John A. Baum | Robert C. Mandigo, Jr. | |||||||||
2001 | Rosemary Wilson | ||||||||||
2002 | Ron Villanueva | Peter W. Schmidt | James L. Wood | Richard A. Maddox | Jim Reeve | ||||||
2003 | Harry E. Diezel | ||||||||||
2004 | Bobby Dyer | ||||||||||
2005 | |||||||||||
2006 | Bill DeSteph | John E. Uhrin | Barbara M. Henley | ||||||||
2007 | |||||||||||
2008 | |||||||||||
2009 | Will Sessoms | Glenn Davis | |||||||||
2010 | Rita Sweet Bellitto | ||||||||||
2011 | Prescott Sherrod | ||||||||||
2012 | John Moss | ||||||||||
2013 | Amelia N. Ross-Hammond | ||||||||||
2014 | Brad Martin | Shannon Kane | |||||||||
2015 | M. Ben Davenport | ||||||||||
2016 | |||||||||||
2017 | Jessica P. Abbott | ||||||||||
2018 | Bobby Dyer | Sabrina Wooten | |||||||||
2019 | Aaron Rouse | Michael Berlucchi | David Nygaard | ||||||||
2020 | Guy Tower | ||||||||||
2021 | Rocky Holcomb | Linwood O. Branch, III | |||||||||
2022 | Delceno Miles | ||||||||||
Year | At Large (Mayor) | At Large (A) | At Large (B1) | At Large (B2) | 1 Centerville | 2 Kempsville | 3 Rose Hall | 4 Bayside | 5 Lynnhaven | 6 Beach | 7 Princess Anne |
District | |||||||||||
Year | District [11] | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
At Large (Mayor) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
2023 | Bobby Dyer | Rocky Holcomb | Barbara M. Henley | Michael Berlucchi | Amelia N. Ross-Hammond | Rosemary Wilson | Worth Remick | Sabrina Wooten | Chris Taylor | Joash Schulman | Jennifer Rouse |
2024 | David Hutcheson | ||||||||||
2025 | Cash Jackson-Green | Stacy Cummings |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nonpartisan | Rosemary A. Wilson [a] | 108,723 | 53.89 | |
Nonpartisan | Brandon C. Hutchins [b] | 71,577 | 35.47 | |
Nonpartisan | Nadine Marie Paniccia [c] | 20,820 | 10.32 | |
Write-in | 649 | 0.32 | ||
Total votes | 201,769 | 100 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nonpartisan | Sabrina D. Wooten [b] | 102,645 | 44.90 | |
Nonpartisan | Eric V. Wray, II [a] | 84,098 | 54.81 | |
Write-in | 542 | 0.29 | ||
Total votes | 187,285 | 100 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nonpartisan | Jessica P. Abbott [d] | 116,971 | 62.38 | |
Nonpartisan | William J. "Bill" Dale [b] | 70,030 | 37.35 | |
Write-in | 498 | 0.27 | ||
Total votes | 187,499 | 100 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nonpartisan | Michael F. Berlucchi [a] | 106,091 | 57.53 | |
Nonpartisan | C. Conrad Schesventer II [b] | 50,986 | 27.65 | |
Nonpartisan | Garry B. Hubbard [b] | 26,578 | 14.41 | |
Write-in | 752 | 0.41 | ||
Total votes | 184,407 | 100 |
Virginia Beach, officially the City of Virginia Beach or colloquially as VB, is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Located on the southeastern coast of Virginia, it is the sixth-most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic and the 42nd-most populous city in the U.S. Located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach is a principal city in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the 37th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S.
The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the district is not part of any U.S. state and is overseen directly by the federal government.
At large is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population, rather than a subset. In multi-hierarchical bodies, the term rarely extends to a tier beneath the highest division. A contrast is implied, with certain electoral districts or narrower divisions. It can be given to the associated territory, if any, to denote its undivided nature, in a specific context. Unambiguous synonyms are the prefixes of cross-, all- or whole-, such as cross-membership, or all-state.
Meyera E. Oberndorf was the 23rd Mayor of Virginia Beach, Virginia. She was Virginia Beach's longest-serving mayor, and she previously served as the city's vice mayor. She was the city's first female mayor and was the first woman elected to public office in the more than 300-year history of Virginia Beach or its predecessor, Princess Anne County.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools is the branch of the government of the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia responsible for public K-12 education. Like all public school systems in the state, it is legally classified as a school division instead of a school district. Although Virginia school divisions perform the functions of school districts in other U.S. states, they have no taxing authority, instead relying on appropriations from their local governments.
Kempsville is a borough in the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, a historic section with origins in US colonial times located in the former Princess Anne County. In modern times, it is a community within the urbanized portion of the independent city of Virginia Beach, the largest city in Virginia.
Virginia Beach Public Library (VBPL), located in Virginia Beach, Virginia is a comprehensive library system serving Virginia Beach, an independent city with a population of 450,000 in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. The library supports the educational and leisure needs of citizens with a system of area libraries, a bookmobile, a virtual library, the Wahab Public Law Library, the Municipal Reference Library, and the Library and Resource Center for the Deaf, Blind, and Visually Impaired (DBVI). The collection contains more than 1 million print and non-print items.
The 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election took place in Virginia on November 3, 2009. The incumbent governor, Democrat Tim Kaine, was not eligible to run due to term limits established by the Virginia Constitution, though others in the state's executive branch were not restricted. Republican Bob McDonnell was elected as governor as part of a Republican sweep. Republican Bill Bolling was reelected as lieutenant governor, and Republican Ken Cuccinelli was elected as attorney general. The winners were inaugurated on January 16, 2010, and served until January 11, 2014.
Lynnhaven is one of the seven original boroughs created when the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia was formed in 1963. It is located in the North Central portion of the city.
William Douglas Sessoms Jr. is an American politician and bank officer who served as the mayor of Virginia Beach, Virginia from 2008 until his resignation in April, 2018. He was president and CEO of Towne Financial Services Group, a division of TowneBank of Hampton Roads, Virginia from 2011 to 2014.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA.
The 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia were held on November 8, 2016, to elect a U.S. representative from each of Virginia's 11 congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as House of Representatives elections in other states, U.S. Senate elections and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on June 14.
Brown v. The Board of Commissioners of the City of Chattanooga, 722 F. Supp. 380, was the restructuring of the election process of Chattanooga's Board of Commissioners due to its unconstitutionality as it contradicted Section 2 of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. Filed by twelve citizens in November 1987 under the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Southern Division, the case provided for a more equally distributed representation of the citizens, particularly the city's minority groups, of Chattanooga, TN.
The government of Richmond, Virginia, headquartered at Richmond City Hall in Downtown Richmond, is organized under the Charter of Richmond, Virginia and provides for a "strong" mayor-council system. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for the administration of city government. The Richmond City Council is a unicameral body consisting of nine members, each elected to represent a geographic district. The city of Richmond is located in the 13th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, and its court system consists of a circuit court and four district courts.
The 1963 Philadelphia's municipal election, held on November 5, involved contests for mayor, all seventeen city council seats, and several other executive and judicial offices. The Democrats lost vote share citywide and the Republicans gained one seat in City Council, but the Democratic acting mayor, James Tate, was elected to a full term and his party maintained their hold on the city government. The election was the first decline in the Democrats' share of the vote since they took control of the city government in the 1951 elections, and showed the growing tension between the reformers and ward bosses within their party.
The 2021 South African Municipal Elections were held on 1 November 2021, to elect councils for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. Being the 6th municipal election held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. These held - since then -every five years. The previous municipal elections were held in 2016. On 21 April 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the elections to be held on Wednesday, 27 October 2021. It had been recommend by Dikgang Moseneke to delay the municipal elections until 2022. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) requested the Constitutional Court to support the date postponement. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supported the date postponement while the Democratic Alliance (DA) was against the postponement of the date. The Constitutional Court dismissed the application to postpone the date until 2022, ruling that they had to take place between 27 October and 1 November. On 9 September 2021, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that the elections would be held on 1 November.
The Mayor of Virginia Beach is the head of the municipal government in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which has a council-manager system of government. The mayor presides over city council meetings and serves as the ceremonial head and spokesperson of the city. The mayor is elected to a four-year term through direct election and the office has no term limits. These elections are nonpartisan, as are all municipal elections in Virginia Beach. Prior to 1988, the mayor was appointed from among city council members elected to represent the city's various boroughs. The mayor's office is located within the City Clerk's office in the Virginia Beach Municipal Center.
The 2020 elections for members of the Virginia Beach City Council were held on November 3, 2020. Five seats on the council, including the Mayor of Virginia Beach in the 2020 Virginia Beach mayoral election, were up for election in this cycle. While officially nonpartisan, most of the candidates were affiliated with and endorsed by various political parties.
The 2022 Wellington Region local elections were held on 8 October 2022 as part of the wider 2022 New Zealand local elections to elect members to sub-national councils and boards. These elections covered one regional council, eight territorial authorities, and various community boards and licensing trusts.
Mayoral elections in Virginia Beach are held every four years to elect the mayor of Virginia Beach.