What Virginia Beach’s Mayor Does—and How the Office Works

Virginia Beach’s mayor is the public face of a city government organized under a council-manager system. That structure gives the mayor an important civic role while placing the office within a broader municipal framework led by the City Council and professional administration.

The mayor presides over City Council meetings, helping guide the body’s public proceedings. The office also serves as the city’s ceremonial head and spokesperson. Those responsibilities make the mayor a central point of visibility for residents following city policy, public events and official communication.

Virginia Beach voters elect the mayor directly to a four-year term. The office has no term limits, and the city’s municipal elections are nonpartisan. That means mayoral candidates run without party labels in the city’s elections, including contests that determine leadership at the local level.

The current mayor identified in the source material is Bobby Dyer. Dyer first reached the office through a special election in 2018, which filled the remainder of Will Sessoms’s term after Sessoms resigned. Dyer later won reelection in 2020, facing Jody Wagner, a former Virginia secretary of finance.

The modern system is different from the one used before 1988. Before that year, the mayor was selected from among City Council members who had been elected to represent the city’s boroughs. Beginning with the fall 1988 election, voters chose the mayor directly. That change shifted the office from an appointment by fellow council members to a citywide electoral post.

Meyera Oberndorf holds the record for the longest tenure as Virginia Beach mayor. She served for more than 20 years, from 1988 to 2008, and lost her reelection bid to Sessoms. Her tenure began during the transition to direct mayoral elections and extended across the early decades of the current system.

The mayor’s office is located inside the City Clerk’s office at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. For residents—including people seeking to understand how local decisions are represented—the office offers a starting point for following the city’s formal leadership structure. The mayor’s duties are primarily centered on presiding over council meetings, representing the city ceremonially and speaking for the municipality, while the city’s council-manager arrangement defines how those responsibilities fit into local government.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “Mayor of Virginia Beach” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Virginia_Beach The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/article_d08802d2-e9e9-11e8-b041-7b9d3a7962ab.html - https://www.wavy.com/news/bobby-dyer-wins-virginia-beach-mayoral-race/ - https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/vp-nw-virginia-beach-mayor-wagner-0610-20200609-ekifkthlhnadtmbknvzmgzn554-story.html - https://www.wavy.com/news/politics/virginia-politics/jody-wagner-to-run-for-virginia-beach-mayor-in-november-election/ - https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/article_bc16662e-42b2-11e8-862b-3b52f28af3ca.html - https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/article_4fd99b32-43f4-11e8-a6b5-6b78e7284487.html Image rights Photograph description: Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf (1941-2015) speaking at CCC Dedication Creator: Virginia State Parks staff. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVirginia_Beach_Mayor_speaking_at_CCC_Dedication_(5853384487)_(2).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.