Portsmouth City Council voted unanimously to adopt a grouped set of manager and consent items covering donations, appropriations and several grants and funding transfers.

The clerk read a long package that included a $100 donation to Social Services for foster children, $6,000 in judicial personnel bonuses, a public utilities settlement appropriation, HAZMAT cost-recovery funds of $4,636.41, STEP-VA peer and family support funding of $92,000 for behavioral-health services, permanent supportive housing funding of $830,462, a $200,000 behavioral-health workforce development appropriation, multiple reappropriations for Portsmouth Public Schools, and other items. The clerk also read a dam-safety/flood-prevention assistance fund grant from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation that was read in the clerk’s statement as $334,334,117.76 to evaluate the spillway at Lake Kilby Dam.

City Manager Steven Carter provided program updates: he said the state stepped in to make Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits available when federal disbursements were delayed; a deferred-utilities payment process is open through mid-December, allowing qualifying residents an extended timeframe to bring accounts current; and a gift-card distribution program run with a community partner (referred to in the meeting as "Plan U" or similar) is underway and expected to wrap up by year-end. The manager read several figures about card counts and card values that were unclear in the floor reading; council later and public commenters asked clarifying questions about the gift-card values.

Council approved the consent items as a package by roll call, 6-0. Several items in the package allocate state grant funds to city projects and programs that council said will be managed by the respective departments.

At public comment later in the meeting, volunteer G.W. Thompson urged the council to accelerate development of a permanent shelter and expand emergency shelter capacity for people experiencing homelessness; Leon Hammonds raised concerns about perceived low value of the city-distributed gift cards and said he would speak further with the city manager.