City Council Meeting   1/21/2020

I call this meeting to order.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thomas, roll call, please.

Mr. Payne.

Present.

Mr. Snook?

Here.

Are there any announcements?

Oh, that was an announcement.

Second, yeah.

I'll second that.

So please vote.

To your right.

So that carries five to zero.

Could I make a motion to add an item to the agenda at this point?

Yes.

Okay, I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to add an item 3, a resolution endorsing the we are still in letter to the Virginia General Assembly.

Alright, so we'll, does that need to be other business or do we?

It would be added as item 3 if there's a second.

Alright.

And then vote.

Alright, please vote.

Thank you.

Thomas, would you read the consent agenda, please?

Financial disclosure by certain officers and employees, first of two readings.

Is there a motion?

I would move to remove item C from the consent agenda.

So I move that we adopt the consent agenda with item C pulled for a separate vote.

Second.

And Councillor Payne.

We can do it right now, Mr. Blair said.

I have filed the required disclosure statement with the Clerk of Counsel.

Is there a second?

I'll second it again.

All right, please vote.

All right, city manager's response to community matters from the January 6th council meeting.

That finalizes my report.

First up we have William Edwood.

Good luck.

Wilson Hunter

Hopefully we can fix it and that's all.

I'm Garrett Trent.

Thank you very much.

So that's why it was added back to.

And do you want to share the CRHA update to you or no?

Alyssa Duncan.

Thank you.

Kate Ralick.

Thank you.

Um, Angel Turner,

Thank you.

and to do it and to know how happy they are with the house so we know the stories personally too and I just wanted to you know share that one because where normally the families who buy that it becomes a market rate property and that's you know so we understand Mason Pickett

It was a pleasure.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Susan Cruz.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't recall you telling me that it was in a black neighborhood and as I look back I was never told that because Mr. Richardson was supposed to have answered that that following City Council meeting so that's the only thing that I kind of wanted to you know for clarity and transparency.

So I said open at the meeting and then I gave locations the last meeting.

So, but why were the cameras taken down out of the community?

I didn't know they were down.

It's very confusing that they went up unannounced without the community knowing.

So would they be mobilizing around the community?

but I also understand based on the limited information that I have why they have been motivated to put them up and again like there were incidents over I think two weekends ago and there was a community member from the prospect area where one of the cameras were originally located who was calling about why they weren't up in, well emailing about why they weren't up and operating.

That makes me more iffy, you know, as to what's really going on.

Tanisha Hudson.

But I'll keep y'all all in mind for the next one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone who would like to speak?

Thank you.

Did we have that discussion?

OK.

At the end I'll be happy to go over what those actions are.

and I think that's the goal which we'll have the discussion about funding but to get the individual seated and making sure that the membership criteria's are covered and then at that point the board assisting with the tiring of the ED is the goal.

I wouldn't say so, but

Did you have any?

but there is a policy component to the current CRB ordinance.

So next we'll have a year in appropriations, first of two readings.

That may be what the discrepancy that the commenter pointed out.

Okay.

Thank you.

So are there any clarifying questions?

Could you just kind of go over just the flow of those funds?

Hamel up to the microphone to provide some of those details.

So checks have not actually gone out yet, but will be very soon, within the next month or so.

So what is our typical policy for how much we would like to have in that reserve?

and so not all of that was allocated or spent so the reserve had a larger balance which could absorb the radios right now and doing the radio purchase now and using the reserve funds actually lets us save over half a million dollars had we waited.

If our reserve fund is usually 250 to 300 thousand dollars, but we're putting 600 thousand in it, that's two times what we normally have in there.

in terms of what was already expended with the past August 12th so there was a higher balance than normal because of that reserve that was set aside.

Yes, sir.

when they had discussed the potential of the study with companies that do the work, that this is probably the dollar amount that would be used for the study, but I would like for us to receive a timeline on that.

We wouldn't have a concrete timeline until we actually hired a consultant that would be able to tell us exactly what the timeframe would be to implement the entire process.

Thank you.

And in broad terms, what's sort of the goal of when that compensation study is finished, the policy changes or investments that are made after that study is completed?

Chris, you want to talk about the history?

the year-end process because that was a source of funding to do that.

I don't know if anybody wants to add.

I agree and that was certainly a priority that we had going into that whole budget cycle but we're in a position to allocate the funding for at that time.

Do I understand that we have not had such a study done in like 20 plus years?

That's my understanding as well.

So we've got some salaries and wages that are so far out of whack we don't even know how far out of whack they are.

And so I just want us to be I really want to focus on things that are truly one time allocations.

Well, I think

You know, we are still, we are just further away from the goal.

I'm just trying to understand.

So what I sent was putting five, and I mean this is hard without, because we had a discussion about whether you make that

That has already been said publicly, so we can talk about that.

If the community is saying, and especially the individuals who work for those organizations are saying, no, these are things that we intend to apply for immediately, and we get applications for all the funding in there, I support it.

And also those will come back to us to approve anyway, the applications.

For this reserve fund for future housing needs?

I just really wanted to get us to thinking about the fact that we will probably have a lot of emergencies coming up with these multi-million dollar developments.

Does your team have?

and how we move forward instead of, as I mentioned, a couple minutes ago was piecemealing the conversation across the city.

Is that the kind of thing you're thinking about, Mayor Walker?

That was like a land strike fund where we had money aside that we could purchase land once it came up.

I mean, that's something that Dr. Richardson, we've discussed that, too.

It is a good thing to have some cash readily available to do things such as if we need to purchase land or different things like that in the community.

This would seem to be at least the start of a fund like that.

your market additionally beyond the CAF and saying like only make this money can only be used for expenditures of this particular type of like housing opportunity whether it be like purchasing land or I'm just not entirely sure how it varies traditionally

The CAF has been used to go through the application process for allocations by the HACS subcommittee.

For 100% of the dollars.

Certainly we get the last say in any allocations from the CAF.

Correct.

And that will be made public.

And so that $200,000 would just be, I guess, sort of earmarked outside of the HAC process.

Like, I want to see what the projects are before I would.

Right.

Because if there are things that are ready to go right now, I would want us to be investing in them.

Those are the sorts of things that if we don't know the answers to those questions, it's hard even to figure out how to assess them come budget time, much less right now.

But we already know that there are some people and they are at a higher level than this lower level that are paid more than the compensation study would probably.

I just don't want, because then you create a bigger gap in terms of equity because you're giving some people a significant raise but then you got other folks who have been here for a long time and then they don't get a raise at other levels so what I want to do is make sure that it's fair and equitable across the board.

We know you had that right.

those we designated as an equity fund but it was all council strategic initiatives and it could have been council could come back and said yes we know they we said these were for equity but we want to use it for this strategic initiative over here even though it's not specifically equity related so it was kind of a melding and it kind of confused things when we presented it so at this point we've and based on our records we basically expended what was left in the equity fund and now it's all council strategic initiatives

Is there any description of what we're going to do with that money or simply whatever council decides on the spur of the moment?

I'm not sure if there was anything where we specifically said if it's going to be used for equity, it has to go through these additional steps.

Thank you.

And so the conversation around doing away with the Equity Fund, when were we going to have that?

So it's not that we said we were doing away with the Equity Fund, it's just that it's been spent down to the point where it's all, should be considered as one pot.

One of our upcoming budgets, it would be great just to kind of have a history of that fund.

That's not a problem.

Black females make 12.2% less than the average hourly salary rate for all employees in the city.

What's going on with that?

and so but we need to carry them over into this fiscal year to give them the legal authority to spend that in this fiscal year and so they're a handful I think they're also a handful of grants.

$924 state fire grant.

But there are a few things that we get through the year that we have to include as part of this as just sort of a housekeeping item.

What's the deal with that?

A little more detail on that, a little more involved in that than I am.

So the contingency funds that are set forth for 20 will automatically go to the CIP account.

And I can't tell whether this is money we're spending or money we're getting back or

So basically what's happening on that last page is that's just establishing a budget in the capital projects fund for the contingency monies so that when they do come make a request there's a budget there to actually pay that out.

Not actually spending the money yet?

Correct.

Thank you.

I am inclined to, at a minimum, support those requests from Mayor Walker in terms of the Equity Fund and the Human Services Program, especially hearing some of the data about the unmet need in terms of applicants to that.

We were trying to get to 1.5 was the commitment that we made.

You're right.

So that was why.

That 700 got us there.

Right.

but in terms of the benefit to the employees that it would be very helpful for them.

I agree with Dr. Richardson's perspective on that.

So can Michelle come up?

Yeah, sure.

Good evening.

The downside of that is that there have been short term fixes implemented over time and

So it's almost like two projects going on at the same time.

How long would a compensation study take to accomplish?

We have over 420 job classifications, which is very large for the number of employees we have.

How many employees do we have?

I think if we can find the right company to come in, there's an opportunity to do something very creative here.

So I do get it.

I know you do.

the wait time for people who've been waiting a long time and that with the studies that have been done, the information from the department, your expertise, the fact that Dr. Richardson has been doing this work for a very long time that we should be able to get enough information to figure out some solution.

because that money does only go so far.

or for whatever because we don't know the dollar amount right so we don't know how many phases there will be but you know how is that communicated so that there's an understanding there.

And so, again, I'm just concerned about focusing on any one concentrated area and that recognizing this is an issue citywide.

I'll be honest with you, this time I could be working on the RFP and vetting consultants to try to keep this moving forward in a reasonable timeline.

I just said I would hope that we would be able to do both.

If we said, yes, we're approving this money at the next meeting, boom, go write an RFP, how long would it take to get the RFP out, to get somebody hired?

before we get someone on board to actually begin their work.

Which would be another three or four months after that.

Right.

OK, so we're looking at getting some kind of answers, perhaps by the fall.

Yes, I think that's right.

Not in time for the budget.

Right.

I don't have a solution for you at this time.

It's something to help that if somebody's having an emergency in their life, they have some assistance from us, their employer.

Not that I'm aware of.

I just wasn't sure if you've ever heard of that someplace else.

But not all employees, you know, feel that they have that extra money, so to say, to invest in that.

Those are also the employees most likely to be running into an emergency that they can't do.

that worked in the budget office for a long time that have worked on some of these, you know, like the compression analysis and maybe if there was actually just some thought given to, if this were possible, what we could... We could certainly do that.

It's still something.

I know there was mention in the meeting about maybe bonuses to certain employees, but again, that's not the same impact as an increase in pay.

Do we have agreement on that?

What is the current balance if there is one in a CIP contingency account?

So this year actually this would be the smallest amount that's ever gone to the contingency.

The 624?

But right now, to answer your specific question, there's $1.9 million that is there.

OK.

And that's different from, yeah.

So a legal question, Mr. Blair, if we were to pass a particular formulation as a first reading and then were to amend it at the second reading for whatever reason we may have, is there a legal problem with that?

Well I think tonight it would probably just be best since it's the first reading to give guidance but certainly the second reading you still have to have the public hearing and so any changes that council wishes to make between this reading and the reading on February 3rd you could certainly enact on February 3rd.

just maybe be able to answer the questions more thoroughly when we have this discussion next month.

you know looking at specific groups or you know not doing the whole study but and I mean well funding the entire study but also doing you know little pieces segments of the city until we get the final study completed so what is it exactly do you want us to go back and do because I don't want to bring them have them do all this research and it's not really focused on a particular area

I mean, I don't know.

But you're still going to have the folks who make $51,000 or $52,000.

But to come back with ideas, you have to be open to it potentially happening.

I really don't want us to lose the focus of doing this comprehensive study and doing it expediently as possible.

And I would hope that I don't know, I work at a pretty high capacity, so I don't understand not being able to do multiple things, but I hear you.

All right, so are we... Do we need a motion or what's the form?

There's a no vote tonight.

In terms of direction, are the majority of folks in support of the staff recommendation or we want to consider some of the other things that have been discussed?

But I see that as still in the category of a legitimate use of a year-end surplus rather than something that creates a new obligation year over year as a salary change would.

I am in favor of both.

I don't know if it could be now, it could be later, but yeah.

It may not be well done by the city, however, and maybe what needs to happen is to go looking for looking to see how Richmond has done it, because I know they've not done it just with city money.

Well, what was if you happen to have it up, what was the data again about like the number of requests there were last year and like the

for their emergency assistance.

So it's at 325 individuals.

Thank you.

There are a number of programs already in existence in the city, some administered by churches like the Alliance for Interfaith Ministries and so on.

But it's not enough funding in any of those.

from one place than they would get hitting each priest's discretionary funds and it was a problem that was able to be significantly ameliorated by having a city-wide organization instead of individual little funds and maybe some greater degree of organization could be used there or an existing organization could be facilitated, I don't know.

The bigger you can get it, the more people you can serve.

But I think to answer some of your question, the reason that people are going from place to place was not because they were trying to take advantage of the system in any way.

That's not what I meant at all.

And that's the goal for those funds.

And I'm fine with the equity fund request.

I know for years there was talk about really trying to do a one-stop shopping for emergency either through the Haven, through the city, through, I know there's been, we've been, there's been a lot of iterations of trying to make that happen.

So there is a collaborative effort with them and I sent that information to you all.

Is that enough direction?

Yeah, if not I'll... No, if you have questions.

Mr. Cullinan looks like he has a question.

I don't think so.

Follow up.

I think that's some guidance we need to know.

Not for the surplus decision.

I think the greatest priority is assisting at the lowest pay scale.

I hear that.

But they haven't been assisted.

We'll look at it.

And if those had been the answers, that it would have been easier for me to just say, hold on.

and

the transfer, the contingency.

So by policy, if we don't do something, then it falls to the CIP contingency.

I do.

Let's just say reflecting what it shows anyway, then you're saying how we could use it that way.

Yeah, I'm just offering that as an option that if you let it go to the reserve, you still have options to talk about it.

Yeah, my question just for council now is that is there an appetite to continue the discussion to get the information from staff?

Only 26, right?

Yeah, that's all.

Sorry.

So is there an appetite for us to continue this discussion for staff to have some information for us during the budget process?

In the budget cycle?

operational expenses without knowing what the continuous study stream of the budget is on a year-to-year basis.

If you all can look at something to have as a presentation during the budget cycle instead of saying we're going to wait two budget cycles to do anything, if that's possible.

It's HR, how to do it.

There is budget implications that they'll have to work on, too.

And I would just like to understand if it's going to prevent staff from being able to put the full throttle on this broader compensation study I'd want to know before I'm asking them to do more.

Do you want the smaller scale, or do you want the larger compensation study?

I just said, my priority is that we go full throttle on this broader RFP compensation study.

What do you want?

Full throttle on the class and compensation study.

I agree.

So does that mean you want to move the are you leaving it like this for the citywide reserve or are we changing anything?

I think the only thing that was discussed that there was consensus on was looking at some of that funding for the equity fund that was identified.

The 58.

And the human services program.

The 80,000.

Right, and we do want more information on that.

So do you want that to come out of the 624 or did you want to rearrange something up above?

So if staff can be here to discuss that and if you all can, yeah.

So you're talking about taking from the 614 to fund those other two things?

No, I just think if we should discuss increasing, I want to discuss increasing that amount for the emergency assistance fund.

It's available now.

So if it's possible for us to look at putting more funding in that, I would.

Well, I just definitely want to hear from the staff.

I understand.

But I understand.

I mean, the next emergency, where are we going to pull from?

That's what I heard in the meeting.

We wouldn't have been able to purchase, I know it's a sore subject, pay for the parking deck on Market Street.

So whether that's community members who we know that this crisis funding is very helpful to, or whether it's employees and salary increases.

What I'm saying is when you look at your bottom line, why wouldn't you take it from your bottom line?

something related to taking care of people.

I'm trying to do that.

Thank you.

as we talked about you know even with the funding for CAF.

So I guess you all can just let us know where you all would want us to take it from.

And that would be up to you all how much money you wanted.

I'm going to try to find out some more through some of my sources, but maybe we can find out more.

And I sent you the email and hopefully staff will be here to discuss it.

It's just if we put it in the reserve, this is exactly what it's for, is to give you flexibility to address things as they come up.

and I think it's a clear nail.

And then 82 human services or we're not doing human services.

Well sounds like we can do it.

I would suggest putting the ADN Human Services just preliminarily for the council at your meeting and you can change that.

Is that the only other follow-up?

Thank you And now we have a resolution The resolution I'm trying to remember The resolution we were going to have as on the

We're still in program.

Absolutely.

We hope that you can come and join us and if appropriate, I'm certainly happy to answer any questions.

That was great.

Thank you.

Looking forward to the tour.

Like you all, emails use the best way to start, even if it's a scheduled phone conversation.

Thank you very much.

Have a good evening.

Thank you.

So we're back to the resolution.

And that would be my motion.

That carries 5 to 0.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.