2024-02-08_NSAG-Meeting_Intro

The founder of the Norfolk Safety Advocacy Group, Jennifer Gruber, shares the mission of the group, which is to connect Norfolk residents and address public safety concerns. They aim to learn about the criminal justice system, make connections with elected officials, and protect communities. Gruber encourages group members to attend meetings on the city and state level and share summaries with the group. She also mentions upcoming meetings of the Norfolk City Council and Norfolk School Board. There is a discussion on the upcoming elections, including the primary and presidential elections, as well as positions to be voted on, such as the Norfolk School Board and mayor's office. The group has several upcoming meetings, featuring speakers on topics like homelessness and crime in Norfolk. The Chief Magistrate, Ryan McLaughlin, is introduced as the speaker for the day. Okay, so thank you all for coming. My name is Jennifer Gruber, and I'm the founder of the Norfolk Safety Advocacy Group. Please sign in if you have not done so. And just wanted to share the mission of the Norfolk Safety Advocacy Group is to connect Norfolk residents together as we share our public safety concerns, learn about the criminal justice system, and make connections with our elected officials and public servants. As we learn more about crime, the criminal justice system, and what we can do to protect our communities, we become more empowered. We seek to become more informed by attending meetings on the city and state level. Since there just isn't enough time for one person to attend all these meetings, my hope is that individuals from our group will maybe attend one or two meetings each month and share a summary with us. So bottom line, the more engaged we are as citizens, the healthier our city will be. At the beginning of each meeting, I share what meetings are coming up in our area. The Norfolk City Council will be holding meetings starting at 6 p.m. on the following Wednesday evenings, Friday the 14th, the 28th, March 4th, and March 28th. Public comment is accepted. You have to either sign up in advance or you can call or email the clerk. The Norfolk School Board will hold business meetings at 7 p.m. on the following Wednesday evenings, February 14th, and March 20th. In addition, the superintendent of the Norfolk Public Schools presented her budget yesterday at 4 p.m. Regarding elections, the first day of in-person voting for the primary is May 3rd, which is a Friday. The actual primary election is Tuesday, June 18th. The election itself will be held November 5th. In addition to this being a presidential election, the following local positions will be voted on. So Norfolk School Board, Ward 5. Ward 6 incumbent is Dr. Noel Gabriel. Ward 7 is Rodney Jordan, the incumbent. Other positions include the mayor's office. And Dr. Kenneth Alexander has Tommy Lehman running against him. And Super Ward 6, which is Andrew McClellan. And Super Ward 7, Danica Royster. And last but not least, our group is having a number of meetings coming up. On Wednesday, February 28th, from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m., Rachel Cropper, the vice president of community engagement of the Urban Renewal Center, will be speaking about her organization and homelessness in Norfolk. This meeting will take place at the Park Place Multi-Services Center. Detective J.A. Hughes, coordinator of the Norfolk Crime Line, will speak about the Norfolk Crime Line and take questions and comments about crime in general in Norfolk. This meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 27th, from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. at the Huntersville Community Center. On Wednesday evening, April 10th, Dawn Bush, the outreach and training specialist of the Virginia Victims Crisis Assistance and Response Team, VCART, which is a state-level program, will be presenting about VCART, so the exact time and location to be determined. That's the end of my opening remarks. I'm going to briefly introduce our speaker. The Chief Magistrate, Ryan McLaughlin, was appointed to serve in the Norfolk Magistrate Office in 2014 and appointed to the position of Chief Magistrate in November 2021. He graduated from law school in 2013 and previously worked as a judicial law clerk for the Tazewell County Circuit Court and as a legal intern for retired Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan. Thank you, Chief Magistrate McLaughlin, for joining us. You may begin. You have approximately until, like, 3.35 to do your presentation, and I'm hoping we can do questions and comments from 3.35 to 3.55. Thank you.