Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Hi, I'm Al Neely. I've spent most of my life asking, " Why do people behave a certain way? Why don't people understand that most everyone wants basically the same thing? Most everyone wants their fundamental need for peace of mind, nourishment, shelter and safety."
What I have learned is that because of an unwillingness to open one's mind to see that some of the people you come in contact with may have those same desires as you do. We prejudge, isolate ourselves, and can be hesitant to interact, and sometimes we can be belligerent towards one another. This is caused by learned behavior that may have repeated itself for generations in our families.
What I hope to do with this podcast is to introduce as many people with as many various cultures, backgrounds, and practices as possible. The thought is that I can help to bring different perspectives by discussing various views from my guests that are willing to talk about their personal experiences.
Hopefully we all will learn something new. We may even learn that most of us share the same desire for our fundamental needs. We may just simply try to obtain it differently.
Sit back, learn, and enjoy!
Listen Up with Host Al Neely
Beyond Politics: Finding Common Ground in Local Government
What does it take to transform a community from the ground up? Councilman Michael Berlucci opens a window into local governance that few get to see, sharing the daily work that shapes Virginia Beach's District 3 and beyond.
After nearly six years serving his diverse community, Berlucci reveals how his journey from passionate volunteer to city councilman has shaped his understanding of effective public service. "We all need to be represented. We want to see ourselves in the government that serves us," he explains, highlighting the importance of diversity in leadership. As both an elected official and the newly appointed CEO of Arts Alliance, Berlucci brings a unique perspective on how creative expression can revitalize neighborhoods and bridge divides.
The conversation takes us behind the scenes of city management, from budget priorities (with education claiming half the city's resources) to constituent services that rarely make headlines but profoundly impact residents' lives. Berlucci's pride in helping underserved communities like Scarborough Square and securing improvements at the Animal Control Center reveals how seemingly small victories create meaningful change.
Perhaps most inspiring is the story of Mount Trashmore—the world's first municipal waste dump converted to a public park—located right in District 3. "If we can turn this dump into a park that becomes all this, there's no limit to what we can achieve," Berlucci shares, capturing the transformative spirit that guides his approach to public service.
Want to get involved in shaping Virginia Beach's future? Berlucci encourages citizens to attend upcoming budget hearings on April 16th and 22nd, or consider serving on one of the city's many boards and commissions by visiting virginiabeachgov.com to learn more about these opportunities.
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Hello everyone. I'm Al Neely with Listen Up Podcast and today we have my local District 3 Councilman, michael Berlucci. Michael, say hello to everyone.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, glad to be here, yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's been a while before I could get him here. Michael's been the councilman for District 3 for how long now, michael? For almost six years. Going on six years now, all right, so I've lived in my house for about 14 years, okay, so that's a good part of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You are from the Virginia beach area. Yes, sir, okay, um, what made you decide to run for councilman in this area?
Speaker 2:Well, I've been involved in volunteerism and public service for a long time many, many years before I decided or even thought about becoming a candidate for city council and my point of entry was really doing volunteer work and supporting organizations whose mission I am passionate about. And what I discovered in that work is that you need to work in partnership with people who make policy, whether that's your council member, your school board member, your state representative I know those allergies are tough, yeah, I'm sorry your state representative or your federal representatives. It's very important, if you want to be successful in any type of work related to our community, that there's policymakers who share and support your vision or, at at least at minimum, who understand it. Right, we all need to be represented. We want to see ourselves in the government that serves us, no matter what level. It is Right.
Speaker 2:And so I became active in supporting candidates who I believed in, also engaging with candidates who I wanted to change their mind about a topic. Engaging with candidates who I wanted to change their mind about a topic, and what that led to was for me, learning a little bit more about the political process in Virginia Beach and in Virginia. And then, and so I was active in volunteerism. I was active supporting candidates and then one day the candidate in our district I mean not the candidate, the council member from our district who was Shannon Cain, preceded me. She resigned for reasons. She moved out of the district. So that was the right thing for her to do, and Shannon Cain was a great council member. But all of a sudden there was this vacancy in the council district where I lived, and because I had kind of been involved I supported Shannon's campaign and supported other campaigns I thought, well, if there was ever a time when I was going to throw my hat into the ring, this is it.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. And so I did it. Okay, so you're involved in a lot of things. What I want to do is, of course, I'll see Michael quite often, but I want to talk about some of the things he's involved in and why Allergies are killing me. No, it's crazy out there. I know You're involved in the Virginia cohort of the Hunt Institute for Strengthening Educational Policies, right? So let's talk a little bit about that organization and what you do. You're the CEO of it, is that correct?
Speaker 2:No, I just became CEO of Arts Alliance.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, I'm sorry I got those confused, but let's talk about the Hunt Institute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I received this invitation several months ago from an organization called the Hunt Institute, and they're based in North Carolina, but it's actually a national organization that really fosters bipartisan collaboration in education policy, and this is vitally important because, as a city council member, we don't create education policy, but we fund education in Virginia Beach.
Speaker 2:So so the way the system works in our city is that the school board makes the policies, but the city council appropriates the funds, the local funds, to the school division, and that represents about half of our budget, al which I think reflects the prioritization of public education in our community. I mean, education is fundamental to our community, to our system, and so I want to do everything I can to learn more about it, to become a better representative of the people, to be a better public servant. And this kind of cohort gives me the chance to connect with other people school board members and mayors and city council members from across Virginia who share that same. And whether you're a Republican or whether you're a Democrat and in our city council is a nonpartisan, but we all have our affiliations, but whether you're a Republican or you're a Democrat, we have to work together. Most importantly, we're neighbors first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think on a local level it's not as polarizing. So because, like you say, we're all neighbors and we have to work together, and it's usually for the community which supports the family. So that's it. Yeah, absolutely you nailed it. Yes, I brought it up, but let's talk about the Art Alliance. You're the CEO of the Art Alliance, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Talk about that, I'm about a month into the job, okay, and so I'm still learning a lot. But the arts alliance has been around here for more than 30 years and it's a regional organization that exists to support our cultural community and in the region, and our culture community is so vitally important. Yeah, I mean arts and culture is how we express ourselves. It's how we can connect.
Speaker 1:Oh heck. No, I'm not an artist, you can't dance.
Speaker 2:I can't dance, I can't sing, I can't paint, maybe that's why I like it so much?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you get to admire those people that do it. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whether you can draw, we're all artists in our own way, right, right, we all are.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I think about public policy as an art, you know you have to have an artful approach, a creative approach to the work we do, and then sometimes that and I can give you some examples of that but sometimes that creativity unlocks potential, and I think the same is true for arts and culture in Hampton Roads and in our world. Our relationship with creative expression is so important. I think it's often under-resourced, I think it's often undervalued, I think it's often underutilized, and so having the chance to be the CEO of Arts Alliance, which is a more than 30-year nonprofit organization that provides financial support and it provides regional leadership and advocacy for and with our cultural community, is a great privilege for me to be a part of this initiative to uplift the cultural community and landscape and in Hampton roads Right.
Speaker 1:That's my job, absolutely. What would you say? The the democratic? Sorry, you got it bad. You got the allergies bad. It's really bad. Yeah, and it's been worse in the last few weeks. I think pollen's been really heavy. Yeah, what is it, to say the least? Yes, that's an understatement.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What is the demographic makeup of our district? Our district, yeah, do you know? Yeah, I mean, I know what my neighbors look like. Yeah, but, that's just my street.
Speaker 2:It's very diverse. It's very diverse. I don't want to quote you the exact percentages because I'll get that wrong. Yeah, I'm sure it's majority white, but a strong coalition of minority residents.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:The most largest share of that is black. Then there is of course large asian um constituency in district three and military military philip philipino american community is so strong in virginia beach, right, but not.
Speaker 2:But that's not the exclusive composition of the asian contingent, but but is the largest. I would say, yeah, there's a lot of Philippine and in particular in our district. I'm very, very I have to celebrate the fact that the Philippine Cultural Center of Virginia is located in our district, which is a highlight, highlight feature for District 3. And then, of course, there's a very robust and growing Hispanic community in our district. So it's quite diverse. It's not the most diverse district in the city, but it's quite diverse. I love our district because I think it really is representative of the community where we live. It's politically diverse, it's ethnically and racially diverse. It's politically diverse, it's ethnically and racially diverse and I think it's a really very strong reflection of not only our city but our country, gotcha.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you worked with various organizations. Let's talk about some of the organizations that you work with. Um you work with well, obviously I'm a product of Norfolk state university, so HBCs and we have um several in the area, uh, hampton and then Norfolk state. So you work with um area Hampton and then Norfolk State.
Speaker 2:So you work with HBCUs in what way I do? Mostly through the well, first of all, I support HBCUs generally, but specifically how I've worked with them is with the UNCF. I don't know if you recall, but about six or seven years ago the United Negro College Fund came to Hampton Roads in the form of what they call the Mayor's Masked Ball, and that's an event. It's an annual fundraising event that raises money for HBCUs and for minority students across the country. But this particular and this is something they do in every city Atlanta has a Mayor's Masked Ball, la has one and it finally made its way to us, I mean after lots of years. La has one and it finally made its way to us. I mean after lots of years. And at the time the chairs of that ball the inaugural ball were my friends, mark Johnson and Toya Sosa, and so they came to me and said we would like for you to be part of our planning committee to bring the mayor's basketball to Hampton Roads to support UNCF Virginia. And I said I'd be delighted to do that and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. And I'm still a member of the planning committee all these years later and we have this.
Speaker 2:It's a buildup to this annual event and locally we've raised now millions of dollars for HBCUs and for minority students through the UNCF and it felt very special that they recognized me last year with a special award because of that work. But even more so than that, it's relationships that that I treasure, friendships that came out of that work, and so I I always recommend to anyone if they want to get it, just just, I don't know, just get involved. I mean I I could go further in that, but get involved because it's not. You know, I mentioned the award. The award is nice. I don't want to diminish it, but the award pales in comparison to the friendships that I made that came out of that committee and how we've used those friendships to do other forms of good to help each other through our own professional journeys, and I mean I could go down the list to show up for each other at birthdays and retirement ceremonies. I mean it's really neat and so it's become an important part of my life.
Speaker 1:I have to say oh good, good, you're also serving the president of the Hampton Roads Pride. Yeah, talk about that. What is that like? And how did you wind up? It was a great experience.
Speaker 2:It was a great experience, a great learning experience. But you know, I'm a member of LGBTQ community, yeah, and so, and I grew up here and it wasn't easy. I'm not saying it was so hard for me personally. I have supportive friends, supportive family, but I saw how hard it was. So hard for me personally. I have supportive friends, supportive family, but I saw how hard it was for other people and I saw. You know, you know how you've seen, everyone has seen how much things have changed in the last 20 years in particular. Yeah, I mean rapid change, right and for the better. And so all all people really want is to live in dignity, to have equal opportunity and this is people across the board, I don't care what category of person To live with dignity, to be respected, to have equal rights and to have an opportunity to have a bright future. That's all we want.
Speaker 1:Right, that's what everybody wants. That's one of my reasons for doing this. I talk to so many different people, because if you don't talk to people, you don't know that y'all all want the same thing, yeah, and you're so caught up in your communities or your tribals' relationships you separate yourself.
Speaker 2:I even see people in groups that are historically oppressed or minority groups who are tribal. You know you got to get out of your bubble.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You got to get out of your bubble and connect with the people who are sitting next to you or live next to you, or they think differently than you do, but they're still good people, but anyway. So, but the point is there wasn't opportunity. There wasn't. I mean everyone I grew up with who was ambitious or you know, and who's really smart, or they went somewhere else. Talk about brain drain, and this is true, not just for lgbtq. It's true. I grew as a. Are you from here? No, I'm from philadelphia.
Speaker 2:Okay, large community very large community and I don't know if philly has its own set of problems. I know and I'm sure, but I don't care if you were lg, I don't care if you were, I don't care if you were LGBTQ or any anything else. And I'm not comparing because they're all different, correct.
Speaker 1:But my point is, if you were different, you got out of here, yeah, because you need to go someplace where you feel you were. It was safe and you're comfortable.
Speaker 2:Well, and where you had examples I mean, you try to be an example as you grow up, but where there were examples we didn't have presidents of banks who were black back in the day, you know we didn't have there weren't examples of minority people who were in leadership positions and positions that people aspired to be in, whether it was a president of a bank or whatever. Anyone who was different was pretty much the norm of the mainstream, and so that's how I got involved, because I thought we needed to change that in our community and make sure that there's integration and opportunity and equality for everyone. Yeah, I think that's great. I also see the commonalities. That's one of the reasons I was committed to UNCF, because, even though the categories and the experiences are different, there is commonality in that we want some of the same things, and so there has to be cooperation, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. Okay, so I should ask you this at the beginning, should ask you this beginning.
Speaker 2:What is the main focus or task of a councilman, council person? I think we there's three buckets. I've really um six years.
Speaker 2:I've really kind of figured this out it took six years, mike it didn't take six years, but but, but I, but I'm really sure of it at this point. Right, one is that the council creates the city budget, and you've heard the old expression your budget reflects your values. So that's vitally important. So where we invest hard-earned taxpayer resources or, equally important, create policy that lets people keep more of their earnings that the government doesn't confiscate to spend, is a reflection of our values. You know, I mentioned before that we prioritize education by investing more than half of our budget into education. Right, you can look at the budget and also see that we prioritize public safety, enhance prioritization of flood protection, which I know is important for your neighborhood and mine, right?
Speaker 2:So where the city council is 11 people who, in consultation with the people we serve, create a city budget. That's a roadmap. A budget is more than just numbers on a page. It's a roadmap for the future, and so that's a really important thing that we do. And we're in budget season right now, so we adopt a budget in May and then our fiscal year starts on June 1st. So we're in the middle of that now, isn't?
Speaker 1:there an event coming up where the public can attend A budget hearing. Budget hearing when is that? April?
Speaker 2:16th Okay, at the convention center at 6 pm.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And then there's another one, I think on the 22nd of April at City Hall at 6 pm, and then we adopt the budget in early May I forget exactly which date on a Tuesday, so that's very important. The other thing that we do and I'll try to keep my answers shorter is land use decisions. So talk about a roadmap for the future, and I didn't realize this going into it. Just how comprehensive and emotional land use decisions can be made can be for a community. But you know, do you rezone this piece of property for housing? What's the density? Do you preserve this space for recreation or do you use it for economic development, like there's all kinds?
Speaker 1:of reserves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, there's all kinds of really complex decisions around land use that council members do. And the third and and and final thing that all it's not a comprehensive list but the three main buckets, I would say is also now constituent services. So that means if and I got the phone just on my way here or this earlier this morning with a person who, a guy who I never met before, who called me because he was having some problems with the trash on his street, the waste management pickup so that's something that it's what an honor to have your neighbors, people that you know that you serve, call you for help and have a chance to help them. He's having a real problem and and it's my job to be his advocate within the city government to make sure that his, his concerns are addressed and that he gets the services he pays for. That's just one example.
Speaker 2:It could be that my neighbor's fence is falling apart and it's a hazard and it doesn't look good and you know there's city codes that say you have to maintain your property. So it could be anything. It could be there's a pothole on my street. It could be that, and these are all real things the school crossing markings in front of my child's school are worn because you know from the cars and school's about to start. Could you get it repainted so that the kids can go to school safely? Those are all. Those are all a volume of things that people reach out to their council member about and I could. I could spend another three hours giving you lists like that, but the amazing thing is that I get a chance to be their advocate in City Hall to make sure it's working for them.
Speaker 1:Right. One of the things I wanted to ask you about was, I think, a vote and the ruling by the Virginia Beach schools to a decision to remove all the. D's. Yes, were you aware of it?
Speaker 2:Only in the most, you know, broadest strokes, because I, we have our school board's independently elected body, elected by the people too. So I, I, I've got my hands full with those three buckets I just described. Yeah, so I'm not, I'm not in the deep policy discussions about it, but I'm aware of what they did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I I think, from what I was reading, they were talking about replacing DEI with DEO, opportunity, I think, the Department of Opportunity and Achievement. So what exactly? Do you have any idea what that means?
Speaker 2:I would not venture to explain their policy change, but I know a little bit about the background of it. Also, I'll give you the facts before I give you my opinion. The facts are that the schools receive federal funding Right, and the president issued the executive order that removed that wording dei. Right, you remove the wording dei. And so my understanding, my initial understanding, is that it's an attempt to comply with the federal executive order, because and again, this will be tested in courtrooms all over the country, because I know there's school boards that are not complying, like there has to, of course there are all over the country they're not going to do it Well, they want funding right, that's what they have.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the whole idea.
Speaker 2:That's the risk you're taking. Okay, the risk you're taking is that the federal government could say if you don't comply with this executive order, which you're required to comply with, then we're going to withhold your federal funding. That goes to your school division and we receive it. Most of the federal funding is like special ed and some of the more intensive, like people with special needs. That's where the federal funding comes in. Otherwise, the state and local funding for your general education practices, for the most part, yes and so, um, obviously, those are vitally important programs that we don't want to lose funding for Right.
Speaker 1:People don't realize. That's what actually a lot of the DEI is for people that are handicapped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Other school divisions are taking a different approach. I don't know enough about it to sit in judgment of what's the right thing or what's the wrong. I know some people would like them to see them stand up to the president because they don't agree with the policy. Right, I think the school board and I, you know, I trust our chair, in particular, Kathleen Brown, who I have a lot of respect for. I don't think she would do anything that I know she would not do anything that would harm the students she serves or their families.
Speaker 2:I think my general impression is they're trying to do what they think is the right thing. I think you have to do it sensitively. I think you have to do it with care for all the reasons we talked about. My experiences with Pride and with UNCF and with just working with the people I serve lets me know that there's a lot of people who feel strongly and I'm one of them that opportunity has not been available to everyone and we need to make sure that equal opportunity is available to everyone, and maybe that's why it's a change in language that may not actually change the policies. That's. Another thing that I understand is that they're not necessarily changing the departments. What they're doing. They're just changing the name. I don't know if it's that simple or not. To be honest with you, I want to qualify it by saying that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I get you. I'm still trying to figure it out myself now. I mean, I know the intentions of the whole reason for it, but I think there's a timeline question.
Speaker 2:If I'm being honest, that's one of the and I don't know because I haven't talked to anyone, I don't follow with that closely but I think some of the criticism that I've read is that the school board didn't take public comment, which it's always good to take public comment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah, you should. Parents would need to know, I think.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, how does it affect the yeah? How do those changes impact the families? I think we need to know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree All right, so give me an idea of some of the things that we have coming up in the area right now. Um first of all, you. You ran in november, was I?
Speaker 2:mean you ran last year right for the november election.
Speaker 1:that's when I I met you. But, um, um, how long is the your? Your term in office? Four years. It's a four year term, okay, so what events do we have coming up? Now that you need people to get involved with in the community.
Speaker 2:Well, I always would invite people to serve on a board or commission. I'm going to invite you to serve on a board or commission. What is that? The city has, I don't know? Dozens of appointed boards and commissions. Any interest you could think of? We have a board for it. A human rights commission, a social services advisory board I'm just listing the ones. I'm the liaison to Animal control advisory board, cannabis advisory board, economic development, arts and humanities commission. I'm trying to think what else. I'm a liaison to the 531 Memorial Committee, and I could go on. I mean, there's so many boards and commissions the library board, active transportation, parks and rec. There's so many boards.
Speaker 2:So would you select a board and then yeah, the council will appoint the board and their advisory boards and sometimes more than advisory boards, you know on a whole host of things that relate to the city. So, and they're very important and it's a great way to have an impact on your community. For example, if you're on the Parks and Rec board, you know you advise our Parks and Rec department on their policies and like where to build a park, where to upgrade a park, what programs to have in the rec centers. You know that's really important stuff. The Public Library Board, the same, you know, human Rights Commission is very important and I think they're all important. So that's a great way to get involved. I always encourage people to get involved in boards and commissions.
Speaker 2:You mentioned the budget. Hearings is coming up on April 16th and 22nd. There's another hearing when we vote on the budget in May and it's important whether you go to the hearing and speak or you call or email me or any other council member and let them know again. The budget reflects our values and so if you think there's something missing, you or anyone else think there's something missing from the budget or there's a gap or there should be this program for kids. I mean you could come up with anything More investment in open space To me. Obviously I'm an arts advocate, so we've done great work in enhancing arts programming in Virginia Beach and I'd love to talk to you more about how some of that is actually playing out. But boards and commissions are a great way to be involved. How do you find out about the boards and committees? Virginiabeachgov.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And then you go to city council It'll say boards and commissions you can search for that and there's a whole list and then you can be appointed by those are appointed by city council. So if you're interested, then you will let me know and I would say, al, we've got openings on these committees. Or you might say I really want to be on the open space advisory committee, just, I don't want to be on the library board, I want to be on open space because that's my interest. So I'll say, all right, well, there's no vacancies right now, but when one comes up, you know, we'll hopefully get you in there. So that's a great point of entry. The budget is a great point of entry.
Speaker 2:I'm excited about things that are coming up, like we mentioned before off air, this emerging Bow Creek Stormwater Park that's going to create recreational opportunities, importantly protect our homes and lives from floods that could be very damaging to property and safety. But in addition to that there's going to be like a kayak launch there and bird blinds and mountain bike trails, yeah, and I mean mean there's all kinds of stuff they do I think they're doing some frisbee something, I don't know but all kinds of recreational opportunities. Going to be a huge park on the scale of red wing park or I mean, it's a major new city park coming online. That's also has capacity to protect our homes so we don't ever have to go through hurricane matthew in 2016 again. Yeah and um.
Speaker 2:You've seen, if you've passed mount trashmore, you've seen um. There we realign the stairs and are building a kind of a playground thing up one side of the hill. There's a lot of renovations happening there. Mount trashmore is in our district. That's the most visited public park in, uh, the whole city over a million visitors a year. Mount Trashmore is great because it's like I almost call it like an old shoe. It just is comfortable and there's no pretension about it and everybody likes it.
Speaker 1:It's familiar. Yeah, it's familiar. Yeah, everybody, I just love it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I grew up here and Mount Trashmore is like our central park, it's our gathering. You can fly a kite, you can run, you can exercise, you can go on the playground, you can walk, you can bird watch you can skateboard, you can fish, you can't sled, though.
Speaker 1:Can you fish? You can fish. I used to fish over there.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can fish my kids, yeah, and believe it or not, a lot of people don't know about this but you can eat those fish. I think up to two per month is the max. They say Okay Because of the potential hazards related to the fact that it's still a historic waste site. But the thing this is a unique story I was out at Mount Trashmore with this event that was happening community event. There was a pastor speaking. With this event that was happening community event, there was a pastor speaking. And I don't know if you know this, but Mount Trashmore was a municipal waste dump.
Speaker 2:Of course that's why we call it Mount Trashmore, and we celebrated 50 years of Mount Trashmore last year and it was the first municipal waste dump to public park conversion in the whole world, really. And there's hundreds or thousands of them now all over the world in Japan, in Australia, everywhere, all over the country, all over the world. And the Mount Trashmore was the first one in the whole world, in human history, that we turned a full-on trash dump into a city park. That's now the most visited park in the whole city of Virginia Beach, right, and the pastor said it gives me goosebumps talking about it because I think about it a lot. He said we got to be like that person who looked at this trash dump and saw a beautiful park. He said if we can turn this park into I mean this dump into a park that becomes all this, there's no limit to what we can achieve. That's right. Somebody looked at a who looks at a trash dump and sees a beautiful green space city park. It's the opposite of a park.
Speaker 1:Yeah, isn't that amazing? Yeah, because it knew me. The chicken poop, the chicken salad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does.
Speaker 2:It really does. Yeah, and if they can do that 50 years ago, you can't tell me that Virginia Beach can't come together and fix our problems. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So it's a chance. I don't know how long it's going to take for you to talk about this. You could tell I'm a talker. You're a talker too well, obviously you know that's yes profession. You chose part of it. So what are you most proud of in your six years that you've done in our district?
Speaker 2:the things that I'm and I'll let you know if I like that yeah, the things that I'm most proud of and I don't even try to use that word, proud Accomplished yeah, the things that I feel most accomplished about they're not the things that you see in the newspaper, it's the things that you hear from the people you serve, that they appreciate what you did for them.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's getting that street, street marking, school crossing repainted. That was that they have been trying to do for a year, yeah, and couldn't reach the right person, right, and they feel safer knowing their kid is going to school with this freshly marked paint. It's um, it's um working with scarborough square, which is a community in our district that is underserved, and they have a lot of challenges there, such as a waste management challenges with illegal dumping. They're under, they are under-resourced, they're under served, under times, underrepresented, and it's showing up for them and hearing. You know like and I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but like you know we have you know like, thank you for standing up for us, you know, yeah, yeah, I'm leaving some of it because I want to reveal, you know, private conversation.
Speaker 1:But you know, it's things like that.
Speaker 2:You know it's being there for somebody when they need it and helping to make things better, and some of them are big things, like our flood protection program needs to be on schedule and it's not going to be on budget because of inflation and everything else. That's just a reality, right, but we need to make sure that we are continuing to deliver those flood protections that we rely upon on time and where we need to meet gaps in the funding, we need to have somebody strong who's going to say make sure, find a way to make sure those commitments are met. That's a big thing, right. We created um, and this is what I want to tell you about the arts. We created a new funding mechanism for arts and culture in virginia beach and part of that mechanism created what we call creative neighborhood grants, and one of them I was working with Scarborough Square on one of them, and what we did was we matched what it's a new grant opportunity for neighborhoods. It's up to $10,000 to do a creative project in a neighborhood, an arts project. It could be anything. It could be a concert, it could be a poetry workshop, it could be a mural, whatever. But the neighborhood Civic League has to work within the confines of this grand opportunity to do something creative and for Scarborough Square. I helped to introduce the Civic League to an artist that I have worked with and her name is Poetry Jackson and she's an amazing artist and community leader and at the first meeting I get goosebumps talking about this too. We met at Panera at Lynn Haven and there was Poetry Jackson and the members of the Civic League. It's intergenerational and the members of the Civic League, who normally are dealing with things that are very unpleasant, you know like we talk about waste management, issues around crime, code enforcement, really litter I mean just things that are not. And now they're at Panera, they're meeting with this artist. One person's 90. Poetry's like in her 20s and they're planning stuff. Just, it's just so positive, um, and the fact that we were able to create this grand opportunity, and then you see the results of it. But before there's a paintbrush pulled out, before there's a microphone plugged in, before anything creative happens, you have this connectedness that's happening. That wouldn't happen if it weren't for that and that's the power of art, yeah, but you know, that's something that I'm really proud of.
Speaker 2:Just this morning I was at a ribbon cutting for a new fence at the Animal Control and Adoption Center. New fence is so basic but something that I didn't know. I mentioned I'm a liaison to the Animal Control and Adoption Center. New Fence is so basic but something that I didn't know and I mentioned. I'm a liaison to the Animal Control Division and one of the things that I learned through that role was that we have a barn, so livestock is when livestock is rescued, and that could be a pig, it could be a goat, it could be a pony, it could be a cow, I guess I don't know. They haven't mentioned cow. It could be a pony, it could be a cow, I guess I don't know. I haven't mentioned cow, could be chickens.
Speaker 2:When livestock are rescued, they go to this barn off of Bird Neck Road and there was a fence there, like a vinyl fence with kind of the two panes, but anyway it wasn't a proper fence. So these animals that were being rescued were now confined to the barn, so unless they were being walked by their caretaker or something, they were not going outside. Isn't that crazy? And what I learned was there was a pig there for a year and a half that never got to go outside. That's not right and those animals have suffered. So in the budget process last year I was able to request and the council supported funds to build a new fence that creates a pasture so those livestock could go out into the pasture.
Speaker 2:Now those are the types of things that they're little, but it's not little to the people that work there. It's definitely not little to the animals that have already experienced abuse and neglect and harm. Now they can roam out into the sunshine and we literally just cut the ribbon on that this morning. So those are. I'm just listing a few. Those are some great things, but some of the things too are what you don't see. We haven't raised taxes. In fact, we've cut taxes. I want to make sure that affordability continues to be at the top of the list and on top of mind and that we can keep what we earn and we can afford to live here. I could go on. I'm sure you said you'd tell me if you like it. How did it go it?
Speaker 1:was very good. There's things I had no idea about. Never knew about the barn and bird net. Nobody really does. I'm there every day. Never took a look at it. I will now.
Speaker 2:It's in the back, go back there.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay, all right, so we got to go. Yes, I want to thank you for joining us on Listen Up.
Speaker 2:I'd like to come back.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll get you back. We're going to go a little bit more. I just want everybody to get an idea of who you are and what you're doing and where you are. But we'll come back and talk about more specific things. But anyway, thanks for following us on Listen Up. I'm Al Neely. We'll catch you next time on Listen Up.
