A retired Virginia Beach police officer making her first run for public office has 55% of the vote in the race for City Council’s District 4 seat, with both candidates pointing to the same flashpoint: a 2024 vote on whether city employees could collectively bargain. Janet Byrnes, 38, has 55% of the vote, according to unofficial results, though provisional and post-election ballots are still being tallied.
The race centers on a council decision from April 2024, when members considered a request from the city’s firefighters union to allow collective bargaining for all city employees. As The Virginian-Pilot reports, the council recorded a tied 5-5 vote that failed, and Ross-Hammond abstained, saying she wanted more time to study the issues. Collective bargaining is a process in which organized workers and an employer negotiate a legally binding employment contract covering terms such as wages, hours and benefits.
Byrnes said she would have supported collective bargaining had she been on the council during that vote, and she credited union support with helping her campaign. She was endorsed by several Virginia Beach law enforcement and public safety organizations that back collective bargaining, and per Ross-Hammond, union supporters rallied at District 4 polling locations on Election Day. Byrnes also said some voters in the district simply wanted new representation and change.
Ross-Hammond Stands by Her Abstention
Ross-Hammond said that watching union activists talk to voters at the polls made her think her opponent might win. Still, she said she stands by her decision to abstain in 2024 despite believing it may have cost her the election, explaining her concern was the long-term fiscal health of residents and finding the money to pay for collective bargaining. Ross-Hammond has served two nonconsecutive terms on the council.
District 4 stretches from Town Center to the Airport Industrial Park. Byrnes declared victory on social media by Wednesday afternoon after election-night vote tallies began arriving, while local registrars across Virginia must certify their results by November 13, with the state set to certify by December 7.
Who Backed Bargaining in 2024, and Who Didn’t
The 2024 vote split the council along lines that still echo in this year’s campaigns. Council members Worth Remick, Jennifer Rouse and Joash Schulman all voted for collective bargaining, while Barbara Henley voted against it. Remick is leading in District 6, Rouse — who ran unopposed for reelection — is leading in District 10, and Schulman is leading in District 9, all according to unofficial results. Henley is leading in District 2, which includes the municipal center area and Pungo, also per unofficial results.
Money flowed into the District 4 race as the issue heated up. Byrnes and Ross-Hammond each spent roughly $70,000 on their campaigns as of October 22, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Government That Works PAC, a Washington-based political action committee, donated $40,000 to Byrnes in September.
From Corrections Officer to Council Candidate
Byrnes, a first-time candidate, is a mother, military spouse and retired Virginia Beach Master Police Officer, according to a candidate profile published by WAVY. Originally from Pennsylvania, she previously worked as a corrections officer there before moving to Virginia Beach when her husband joined the Navy. She retired from her Master Police Officer job in 2025 after six years on the force, saying she was injured on duty before retiring.
Byrnes has three children and volunteers as a Navy ombudsman, liaising between command and military families. She said she plans to bring a different perspective to the council based on her police experience, and that public safety is a central priority, saying she wants Virginia Beach and her district to remain safe.
Virginia Beach Is Not Alone in the Debate
Virginia Beach is hardly the only Hampton Roads city wrestling with the question. Portsmouth and Newport News have both adopted collective bargaining, and Virginia local governments have been authorized since 2021 to allow it by local ordinance or resolution. A 2022 analysis by Virginia Mercury found 15 localities where municipal workers had organized around bargaining ordinances, with six efforts succeeding at the time, in places representing almost half of the state’s population, including Virginia Beach and Richmond.
Portsmouth’s path has moved furthest in recent months. According to WHRO, its council voted 6-0 in September 2026 to create a city-code framework letting employees — including police, firefighters and paramedics — negotiate pay, benefits and working conditions, making it the eighth Virginia locality to give workers that negotiating power. Portsmouth had already become the first Hampton Roads city to adopt collective bargaining back in November 2023, per 13News Now, while Norfolk’s council rejected the idea in a 5-3 vote the following month.
Back in Virginia Beach, estimates of what bargaining would actually cost the city have varied. The Virginian-Pilot reported the city pegged implementation at nearly $1 million, including about $400,000 to modify the payroll system and $500,000 to hire new employees, while WAVY reported that Councilmember David Hutcheson had estimated the cost at roughly $1 million annually, arguing that savings from improved employee retention could help cover it. A WAVY-reported poll of 576 randomly selected voters across the city’s 10 districts, funded by the Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association and Virginia Beach Professional Fire & EMS, found 60.6% in favor of collective bargaining and 20.3% opposed.
