VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Beach City Council rejected a request to have collective bargaining for city workers last week, but the issue isn’t fading away.

Mayor Bobby Dyer, who voted against the collective bargaining effort, says he wants citizens to share their thoughts on the matter via an advisory referendum this November. That was brought up during Tuesday’s informal session, where council members also discussed their budget reconciliation for the FY25 proposed budget.

An advisory referendum would be non-binding/wouldn’t change city code, but would allow city leaders to better gauge public opinion on the issue.

“Because once again there are a number of people that, you know, want collective bargaining and other people that don’t,” Dyer said. “And I think we’re split as a body. And I think we’re split as a public. And I think this will give us the opportunity to get information out to the public. Bringing them into the decision loop.”

This comes after council voted 5-5 last Tuesday on the collective bargaining request put forward by the city’s firefighter and EMS union. An abstention from Councilwoman Amelia Ross-Hammond, which she said was due to not having “sufficient time to fully consider whether authorizing collective bargaining would be in the best interests of the City,” meant the measure failed to pass.

Dyer said he also wants to get an outside analysis to get an objective looking “from an academic perspective,” as well as reach out to other cities to get their feedback.

The advisory referendum would require a majority vote of council. Dyer said he’s looking to have the matter on the agenda on the first voting meeting after the budget is voted on (set for May 14).

If collective bargaining had been approved, it would have applied to the city’s more than 7,000 public employees, including the police department, sheriff’s office and general wage workers. Workers said they were looking for a seat at the bargaining table to not only fight for higher wages, but better working conditions and more.

Collective bargaining was approved last fall in Portsmouth, and was also approved in Richmond and in several Northern Virginia localities.