In a vote of 3-1 the Hampton City Council dissolved its police department. One city alderman was out of town and the other seat is vacant at the moment.
The meeting started late because of an offline discussion of the ability to pass the ordinance with only three alderman present. It was determined that the mayor could be included to make a quorum. After concluding that the mayor could make a quorum the decision to proceed with the business at hand (the dissolution of the police department) without the two other alderman was considered and it was agreed to continue, since this issue had been pending for a few months.
First on the agenda was an ordinance to dissolve the police department and have the county assume law enforcement of the city. The ordinance was read in its entirety and after suspension of the rules for the other two readings a vote was going to be taken but since the ordinance included an emergency clause the mayor would not be able to act to form a quorum when voting on an emergency clause.
Discussion about passing the emergency clause at a later time while going ahead and passing the ordinance led to a pause in the vote. A call was made to the alderman who was running late and they decided to wait on the vote until he arrived to make an official quorum. They proceeded with the rest of the agenda and upon arrival of the alderman the process to dissolve the police department was repeated and the vote was taken. The Ordinance passed with one voting against. Ordinance 2026-03 can be found on page 6.
