Senator Lucas introduced Senate Bill 872, a charter change requested by the City of Portsmouth that would authorize the city manager to require city departments to implement enhancements or remedial measures where certain conditions are met.

The proposal, as described by Senator Lucas, would permit remedial actions if there is (1) a compelling government interest, (2) “an analysis that documents a statistically significant disparity between the availability and utilization of minority owned and women owned businesses,” or (3) “direct evidence by minority owned businesses or women owned businesses, of the impact by race and discrimination.”

The bill’s sponsor cited a 2015 disparity study conducted for Portsmouth by MGT that found minority‑ and women‑owned business utilization “was less than 1%,” which Senator Lucas described as the genesis of the requested charter change. Lavonda Grama Williams, city attorney for the City of Portsmouth, said she helped draft the legislation and said the city stands in support.

The committee chair called for public testimony; no opponents appeared. The subcommittee then moved to report the measure. The motion to report passed with a roll‑call tally of 7‑0, and the bill will be reported out of subcommittee.

The committee record includes a prior, related House measure: Delegate Hayes carried HB 1634 and the committee was reminded that HB 1634 previously reported out of the full committee 12‑10. The subcommittee did not debate implementation details such as timeline for new analyses or enforcement steps during this hearing.

The subcommittee’s action advances the charter amendment request to the next legislative step.