City Council Meeting   6/21/2021

Hello?

Can you hear us?

Can you hear us at all, Sena?

Okay, everybody's here.

All right, thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Ms.

Thomas.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

So I call the regular meeting to order.

We'll have a moment of silence.

Ms.

Thomas, roll call, please.

Present.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes, I'm here.

Councillor Hill?

Here.

Second.

Ms.

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

Councilors, are there any announcements?

Okay.

Recognition, Proclamation, Counselor Hill, would you like to read the board appointments?

Oh, it's next.

Yes, I move that council appoint the following to its boards and commissions.

The Charlottesville Albemarle Airport Commission, Matthew Murray The Historic Resources Committee, Jessica Livingston The Housing Advisory Committee, Gary Palmer The Jefferson Madison Regional Library Board, Meredith Cole The Minority Business Commission, Antoine Brinson and Karen Woody

Monticello Area Community Agency Board, Georgia Garrett, Piedmont Family YMCA Board of Directors, Ann Hemingway, the Piedmont Virginia Community College Board, Leslie Frable.

Just making sure I have so many pages here.

The Retirement Commission, David Hughes,

Ms.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Next up, we have the consent agenda.

Ms.

Consent Agenda 1, minutes, April 19th, work session, closed and regular meetings.

May 3rd, closed and regular meetings.

May 25th, work session.

Two, Resolution Appropriating Trail Fund Contribution from Milestone Partners for Meadow Creek Trail, $12,043.

Second reading.

Three, Resolution Appropriating Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Highway Safety Grant Funds, Alcohol and Impaired Driving, $9,453.

Second reading.

Four, Resolution, Appropriating Funds for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, $23,056.

Second reading.

Five, Ordinance, Amending and Reordaining Charlottesville City Code Chapter 15, Article 2, Section 15-39, Motor Vehicles and Traffic Regarding Electric Power Assisted Bicycle License.

Second reading.

Six, Ordinance,

amending and reordaining Charlottesville city code chapter 31 utilities to establish new utility rates and service fees for city gas water and sanitary sewer second reading seven resolution appropriating funds for covet homelessness emergency response program chirp grant amendment two hundred one thousand one hundred twenty dollars first of two readings eight

Resolution, Appropriating Funds, Charlottesville Student Victim Outreach Program, Department of Criminal Justice Services, Victim of Crimes Act Grant, $343,371, first of two readings.

9, Resolution Appropriating Funds for Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Grant for Charlottesville Albemarle Family Treatment Court Program Expanded Services $827,973 First of two readings 10, Resolution Appropriating Funds for FY21 Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services Body Worn Camera Grant $100,000 First of two readings

11 resolution approving the donation of a 1948 American LaFrance fire engine to the Charlottesville Professional Firefighters Association one reading 12 resolution climate protection program and local energy alliance program leap service agreement and this involves two action items the first is a resolution reallocating previously appropriated funds in the gas fund

Environmental Sustainability Cost Center to the Local Energy Alliance Program for support to the Climate Protection Program, $44,718, one reading.

B, resolution, establishing a memorandum of understanding between the city and the Local Energy Alliance Program, LEAP, for grant funds to support the Climate Protection Program and promote energy performance improvements, one reading.

13, resolution approving the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program contingency plan FY 2021 through 2022 minor annual action plan amendment.

All right.

Thank you.

I have a question about the number.

Okay.

So I'll just wait until we, after the public comment section, but I do have a question just about the example that they used for the substantial rehab and just what is happening with, you know, that family's needs.

And then, you know, Council, I want to, you know, do a vote on 1 through 12 and then 13.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you're in the audience, you'd like to address counsel about the consent agenda, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

If you're joining us via telephone, press star 9.

And if you're on Facebook, BoxCast, or watching on our Channel 10, you need to join us at charlottesville.gov slash Zoom, register for the meeting, and you can get a link to participate.

First up is Corey Demichak.

Corey, you're on with City Council.

Brian, I had only unmuted to let Council know that I was here from AHIP.

I don't actually have a comment right now.

That's okay.

Thank you.

Next up is Kate Fraley.

Hi, thank you.

I'm on my iPad tonight, so I might have a little bit of trouble saying what I want to say, but I want to comment on resolution number 10 about body cameras, and I want to correct a false narrative in the background statement of that appropriation of funding.

That statement says...

that the body-worn cameras have become even more important as they enable police officers to record events and the citizen interactions exactly as they occur and provide an impartial account to law enforcement officials and the public alike.

I believe that is a false narrative about body cameras.

And we know from the murder of George Floyd, that it wasn't a police body camera that showed us what actually happened.

I don't approve of the $100,000.

And I understand that 50,000 is from the state and 50,000 is from local money, that local money 50,000 could be much better used to

to support violence prevention programs in our town.

And one last call.

If you'd like to address counsel on the consent agenda, please click the raise hand icon.

Okay.

Thank you.

So I went back to that grant.

I think that that total $100,000 is a grant.

It's a local match, but it's coming from already previously budgeted dollars within the city police department's budget.

I would assume that these types of expenditures would happen regardless of the grant or not.

No, they're not answering.

And so this purchase is not to purchase the body-worn cameras, it's to

purchased 12 months of the data licensing fees to help the department comply with the Library of Virginia records and retention disposition schedule.

So that sounds like whether we approve this or not, something that CPD has to adhere to.

Yes, that is correct.

It's the licensing fees, which we're required to do for records retention under the Virginia Library or the Library of Virginia mandatory.

We're going to pay the $100,000 regardless.

All right.

Thank you.

and my only other question and maybe we're going to get some information at some other point but for number nine the $827,973 is that an expansion of staff members for a family treatment court or do we have that information yet?

I intended to send that in

and I didn't, so my apologies.

Yes, Mayor, the money is to expand the services that are currently offered.

I'll be honest with you.

I'm not sure if they've hired new staff members, but there'll be additional case management provided by either existing staff or an additional position.

I can clarify that.

There's been significant turnover in all three organizations that are part of this.

Okay, all right, thank you.

All right, any other questions?

Oh, I have a question about it.

Any other questions from the other counselors?

So my question was just there was a example used that there was I guess a 200 or so thousand dollar substantial rehab that couldn't be completed and then so these funds would be used for an already it for a building that has already been approved a house that has already been approved but I guess cost significantly less and I'm just wondering just what

Thank you.

Mayor Walker, the family in question that we had specifically mentioned in our proposal first contacted us in 2018.

They had what was reported to us as a leaking roof.

Back then, we were still doing preliminary inspections through NDS, and the inspection revealed not only a leaking roof, but severe problems due to deferred maintenance.

In addition to the roof, there was issues with the foundation and

the structural framing of the floor the walls windows and doors furnace pretty much top to bottom wall to wall there were issues throughout the home we have tried to fund this project over the years unfortunately Mr. Howard is no longer the the

Husband and wife.

The husband is no longer with us.

He has since passed.

We've continued to try to communicate with the wife who's still living.

We've put together a few proposals over the years.

Unfortunately, no one funding source, given the severe dilapidation of the home, is going to be enough to complete it.

In this specific proposal, I was requesting about $100,000

out of a cost of about $250,000.

So we're looking for about 40%.

The recommended allocation of $38,000 is only about 15% of the total cost.

And without the full allocation that we're requesting, it's just fiscally impossible to fund that whole project.

But we have been in touch with the family along the way to

Let them know every time that we're seeking a new avenue of funding to let them know at each turn that we're unsuccessful in funding the project.

It's one of those things where unless you

If you don't really fix everything wrong with it, the house is going to continue to fall in on itself.

If you don't, if you only fix the leaking roof, you know, the foundation and all the other issues that the house is built upon are still going to be an issue.

Um, you know, if you only fix the foundation, the leaking roof will still allow water to come in from the top.

So it's sort of an all or nothing proposition.

I met with NDS staff back in the fall of 2019 to try to brainstorm some ideas.

Um, Mr. Ikafuna, Mr. Werner, uh,

Liz Russell, who is currently a planning commissioner, also a board member of AHIP and a member of Preservation Piedmont was present.

And I want to say maybe two other folks, John Sales at the time is housing coordinator.

So we had some really creative people in the room.

We were putting our heads together.

We thought we had a path forward using some CAF funds, but then the CAF had been reduced that year.

So it's one of those things where

The family is still on our radar, but it's really going to take the perfect storm of funding and a lot of people getting behind this project to make it work.

Yes, I just, well, my main point was just how it was communicated to the family and just what was their current state, the substantial rehab.

And if there are any other questions, I'm always available by email or phone.

Counselors, are there any other questions or comments?

I move we adopt the consent agenda as presented.

Second.

No, the 1 through 12 and then... Oh, I'm sorry.

You did mention that earlier.

Mayor Walker?

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

Thank you, that carries 5-0.

Mayor Walker?

No.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councilor Hill?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Walker and Council.

A few responses from your previous Council meeting and then a couple of other items that had been on the agenda for a while.

To let you know, notices were published and mailed to nearby battlefields and museums requesting interest in acquiring the two Confederate statues from the city.

As of today, we've received three statements of interest.

Two are in-state and one from out-of-state.

City staff is once again working to assist the residents at Midway Manor with an outage of the working elevator there so our housing staff has been in contact with the owners and managers of the of the property trying to get that elevator repaired again the city's

Question came up at the last council meeting, the city's home to hope program.

This program of lived experience with city staff providing living support to peer individuals is currently undergoing some transition, but remains a very important growing program for the city and deputy city manager for racial equity.

Ashley Marshall is taking the lead on continuing this program.

The Department of Human Services is working with the ARP, the American Recovery Plan final regulations and with continuing state rental assistance programs of both CARES and the ARP to continue our financial assistance to prevent rental evictions.

City Hall and city operations continue to increase hours of operations as the state of emergency remains in effect for the city due to continued COVID cases but with full operations expected to occur in early September at which time all public meetings boards and committees will begin to meet in person if not before

All right, thank you.

Counselors, are there any questions?

Yes, Mayor, we're leaving that up to each of the departments based on their own workloads and operations.

That wasn't it.

But it'll come back to me later.

I just wanted to mention I don't know if this is being thought about or not I'm sure it is but if as we start going back in person if staff has to come if all staff have to be in person at city council meetings or if they could be presenting remotely to us I just I want

And we are considering that and planning for that.

And is that still a because I would want still that as many people who didn't have to be in a room and especially sitting close to me to not be there.

We're talking about that time of year.

It's going to be flu season picking up, you know, regular colds that fall winter season.

So hopefully by then,

There will be some changes to how, you know, they're looking at this from a federal and state level.

But whatever we can do to support that, I would hope that we consider that.

We will.

and that didn't mean that I don't think the rest of y'all should sit right next to people, which I'm sure everyone is aware of how I was pre-pandemic.

All right, next up we have the community matters section.

We have five people preregistered.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you're in the audience and you'd like to get in line for community matters, just click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

I'm looking for the first person who signed up in advance, Tyrick Mack, and I do not see that person, so I'll come back to them.

The second person who signed up in advance is Callie Gaston.

Thank you very much.

Good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak.

I am a downtown property and business owner with my work located equidistant from both the Lee and Jackson statues.

I'm on Northeast Third Street.

It is vitally important as a message not just to black people in our own community that the statues come down at the earliest possible time.

As long as they stand, they broadcast a message of intolerance, of subjugation.

I ask that if the council cannot come to a final decision on their disposition, that they be stored away from the public until such a decision is made.

There has been some talk about the cost of removal.

The City of Charlottesville must pay for them to be removed.

The City has been paying for the upkeep and maintenance for almost 100 years.

It is time that money be spent to right this long-standing wrong.

The city put money aside for this in 2016 and it is time to use it to bring balance Please don't give them to just any organization offering to pay They need to be in the hands of an organization that is trusted to speak for the whole community One that will help shift the narrative to one that is inclusive and anti-racist

Some object to the removal of art.

In the case of the Lee statue, it is bad art, and there are plenty of precedents for art being repurposed.

I hope that the Council will consider that the raw materials in these two statues represent an amazing opportunity for the creative process.

This is an opportunity for different voices to be heard, for different stories to be told.

Mayor Walker, our next registrant was Emily Yen, who I don't see on the webinar right now.

I'll search back for that person.

So the next person up is Roy Van Dorn, who will be followed by Tracy Hopper.

Chairman Walker and members of the City Council, I'm Roy Van Dorn, speaking on behalf of the Virginia Restaurant Lodging Travel Association, the Charlottesville Chapter.

The ARPA was signed into law specifically to enable localities who know their local market to allocate recovery funds efficiently.

Last week I sent to each of you a detail on sections 6001 and 9901 which outlines a recommendation that 25 percent of the ARPA funds be used to devoted to tourism, travel, and hospitality.

To help guide localities to determine industry specific proposals, we were asked by the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Association of Counties to provide industry knowledge to give localities insight about how best to help the hospitality industry recover using ARPA funds.

You have a copy of that presentation as well.

While it's true that starting in May,

We have experienced an increase in leisure visitation.

Recovery is not imminent even with a broader reopening.

For example, lodging.

Charlottesville has just devalued hotel building assessments by over 30 percent.

This speaks volumes about their losses.

Lodging is a big investment with big debt service.

It will take years of profits to pay the debt back.

Almost every hotel has cut their marketing budget to nothing, and most of it will take years to repay this delayed debt.

Restaurants.

While several programs like PPP have helped, well-intentioned programs, including the Restaurant Recovery Fund, which is part of ARPA, did not solve our local restaurant's problems.

The RRF portion of ARPA only funded 30% of those applicants who were approved.

The other 70% of the restaurants here in Charlottesville got nothing.

And there's a very slim chance that that will ever be refunded.

Most table service restaurants are still losing money.

The CACBB with the sharp decline of TOT funds, the necessity to chart effective marketing to a post-COVID environment is critical.

Many municipalities are adopting similar language as the Loudon Fairfax plan, which I sent you as well.

I urge you to consider the merits of their plans and adopt significant community recovery and delay until the next round the city income recovery funding.

I would request that the economic development team meets with industry as soon as possible to craft a plan for those left behind armed with a significant portion of ARPA funds.

Our next speaker is Tracy Hopper who will be followed by Emily Yen.

Thanks Brian.

So my name is Tracy Hopper and I live in the city of Charlottesville and I am before you tonight to speak about the PCRB and the ordinance that's going to come before you.

And Charlottesville is at a turning point in regard to justice.

It's a very exciting time.

We have an opportunity to once again be a leader in the state and even nationally.

The Virginia General Assembly has made it possible for localities to legally have strong civilian police oversight.

Charlottesville as you know has a multi-year history of advocacy for a strong civilian police review board the civilian population has a right to strong oversight of the agency that is designated to keep us safe and the new law allows for an oversight group to

And I know you know a lot of this.

This is for the benefit of the public as well as for you.

Review and make recommendations on policy and review civilian complaints.

Review and make recommendations on police department actions that result from complaints.

Assess data and trends and make recommendations for change.

Do independent investigations.

hold hearings on complaints, subpoena records, materials, and people.

And this is vital for this PCRB to be anything other than symbolic and a weak symbol at that.

And to have final disciplinary authority.

When a police department is fair to all civilians, follows policy, disciplines officers when the behavior is unacceptable, and most importantly,

is fully transparent with the public.

Many of the powers of an oversight body would not have to be used to the fullest extent, even though the ordinance gives them the ability to do that.

Police Department transparency and willingness to have a powerful oversight board is the best avenue for trust to be deep between the police and the civilian population, especially the disproportionately impacted civilian population.

And in that vein, quickly, I'll ask that your executive director and any PCRB members have lived experience

from being disproportionately impacted by the police and that they have a relationship with the communities that experience this disproportionate unfair impact.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Emily Yen.

Hi, my name is Dr. Emily Helen Anmayien.

I am a resident of the city of Charlottesville.

I'm speaking to you this evening in support of a collective bargaining ordinance.

I think that this is really vital here in the Commonwealth, which after, now that after May 1st, that municipal workers can collectively bargain.

and the city of Alexandria has passed this ordinance as well as other municipalities in Northern Virginia and I very much hope that the city of Charlottesville will take suit.

I think that this is just really issues very important

Many of our municipal workers, including the firefighters, have been frontline workers during this pandemic, have just really endured very difficult conditions.

And by allowing them to collectively bargain, they're able to shape their work

and I think that that would grant them dignity and respect.

I mean, most fundamentally, I see that allowing workers to shape their work environment is really most fundamentally rooted in dignity and respect.

And I really hope that as

City Council members, you really sort of consider about just sort of what type of example that you set about setting the conditions about for workers in our own backyard as we really just

want to take care of our community.

And I think that this is absolutely the best way to allow workers to collectively bargain and giving them this autonomy of knowing what would work best and just allowing them to have a voice.

especially for all the service that they've given and I really hope that passing an ordinance would really just set set the tone and also this ordinance would really help teachers who've also been frontline

I think that's a great point of view.

I think that's a great point of view.

I think that's a great point of view.

I think that's a great point of view.

I think that's a great point of view.

I think that's a great point of view.

I think that's a great point of view.

I think that's a great point.

being able just to keep the best teachers that we can, as well as just recognizing their service.

And this, I believe, is a very important issue.

And I hope that you're willing to support such an ordinance.

The city of Alexandria's ordinance that they passed is really exemplary.

Please take this into consideration and move forward.

Mayor Walker, that's the first four speakers.

The first person I called is still not on the webinar at this time.

So council will hear from up to an additional 12 people.

If you'd like to get in line, click the raise hand icon.

First person is Nancy Carpenter, who will be followed by Adrian Dent.

Nancy, you're on with council.

Thank you very much for the time to speak with you all this evening.

I think I hit the wrong button.

I'm sorry.

Anyway, in nine days, I just wanted to bring it to your attention that the CDC moratorium will end and I'm expecting a tsunami of unlawful detainers to be filed both in Charlottesville and in Albemarle County, I'm sure in surrounding counties.

A couple of things that we need to talk about is that

Individually, I will tell you that on June 14th, the National Low Income Housing Coalition sent a letter not only to President Biden, but to many other senior people, the HUD Secretary, Merrick Garland, so on and so forth, to ask them to

create a federal moratorium.

One of the reasons being is there has been capacity issues with states being able to process the emergency rental assistance fund, and that is so true in the state of Virginia.

It seems like when it went from, and Mr. Boyles, you probably can speak to this as well, when it went from local

You know, distribution of those funds to a more centralized process with one vendor for the state is just all mucked up.

I mean, I've heard that there are people that have submitted applications, the documents, the landlords, the tenants, and nobody is getting that necessary funding, which is for them.

All the national calls that I am on on Wednesday after, excuse me, Monday afternoons from the National Low Income Housing Coalition,

talk about getting that money rapidly into the hands of tenants or landlords by lowering the barriers, the requirements to getting that funding to people to keep them home.

Because one of the other things that I just read last week or on June 11th, Eviction Lab put out a paper, a short paper.

It was titled, Neighborhoods with Highest Eviction Rates Have Lowest Levels of COVID-19 Protection.

and they looked at Lower Manhattan versus West Bronx.

If some of you know New York, you know kind of what those neighborhoods are like.

They also looked at Austin, DFW, Houston, Indianapolis, South Bend, Philly and Phoenix.

and they found out that the neighborhoods, I bet the Blue Ridge Health District looked at this as well, the neighborhoods with the highest rate of evictions had the lowest rates of COVID-19 protection.

We have children that are not able to get vaccinations at this time.

We have a lot of people who are on fixed incomes with

community issues.

And I really want to bring up three words, right to council.

You said you were going to look at funding it.

I think now really, you know, it's go time.

If you want to, you know, cover your constituents, this is something that is desperately needed in this community.

And I'll bring the same conversation to Albemarle County.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Adrienne Dent, who will be followed by Kate Fraley.

Adrienne Dent Okay.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I have a few things I wanted to talk about.

The first is with regard to the Lee and Jackson proposals for removal that I'm sure you all are receiving.

I don't know if any of that is public, but

I definitely want to emphasize that you consider only institutions or organizations with a history of engaging in dismantling racist narratives.

It's super important as current custodians of these statues that wherever they go, the destination be one that's already established in the act of reclaiming inclusive and anonymous storytelling.

The other item I wanted to say is about peace in the streets.

I was attending the Human Rights Commission meeting and one thing that was said by Chief Brackney with regard to the increased gun violence is that some community members are asking for increased

Police presence and others are requesting that that is not a solution.

And so Peace in the Streets here is responding to already in this community to this emergent situation of a

the rise in gun violence and they're using a model that's recognized by the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform their approach uses credible messengers with lived experience and I think I would ask that you either amend their requests for a greater amount or identify other funding sources or some combination of both additionally the overall the

The organization, Conscious Capitalists, are already on the ground doing great work in juvenile justice reform and building relationships and enabling transformation of lives and youth.

So I would ask that you fully fund their requests and additionally look for other assets that could be allocated.

and finally I wanted to say thank you to everyone and there are so many names but Andrea Douglas at the Jefferson African American Heritage Center and all the numerous others who created an event for the community around Juneteenth and it's a tradition that's been going on in this community for a while but I think it's becoming more and more visible

I'll speak for myself as a white woman, the white community.

And unfortunately, my Vimeo froze, but there's a Vimeo video that's just exquisite and speaks very strongly about protecting this holiday from the propaganda

and of history and falsifying the narrative and adulterating and diluting it as it becomes a national holiday.

So I wanted to say thank you to everybody who organized that and also I appreciate the warning and the cautionary recommendation that we not correct something that is wholly beautiful.

We have one hand raised at the moment.

It's Kate Fraley.

If you'd like to get in line, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

Hi.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak about the

Police Oversight Board.

The Oversight Board is not a community sorry community members want their complaints investigated and they want their complaints investigated by an oversight board that is independent from the police department.

The police department has demonstrated a poor track record just this year of internal affairs investigations.

An ex officer had to be convicted of a crime

just for the department to fire him.

The department had previously cleared him of any wrongdoing.

A judge convicted him.

The police cleared him.

This case shows the need for non-law enforcement to be reviewing the complaints.

If the oversight board had investigated it, it could have used all the evidence gathered to pinpoint what police policies led the police to exonerate the now ex-officer.

I'd like to speak to another point.

An ordinance will come before you, City Council, soon for a vote.

The ordinance is based on the General Assembly legislation, which was screened by lawyers of the General Assembly for its ability to hold up in court.

This local ordinance is being developed through the very hard work of the current Police Civilian Review Board, who has had assistance from NACOL, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.

also the lawyer hired by Charlottesville for the PCRB also Charlottesville City lawyers also the Legal Aid Justice Center lawyers also the previous PCRB members and also many people in the public who have been watching and encouraging this evolution.

I feel certain that the ordinance that will come before you for a vote is legal.

I don't see any more hands right now, but you know how my luck is on this front.

If you'd like to get in line quickly, please do so.

Click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

We've heard from seven speakers thus far.

I knew he was out there.

Don Gathers, you're on with City Council.

Thank you, Mr. Wheeler.

Good evening, everyone.

I'll be brief.

We know the flashpoint and the lightning rod that those statues are represented here to our particular community.

So I just ask that as you move forward with the decision as to where they may go once they leave here, that you really keep in mind that we don't place that possibility of the same thing, the same

Trauma and torture and tormenting on another community anywhere else.

I just ask that you really give that some real thought and consideration as you move forward through your deliberations and decisions.

As Ms.

Carpenter said, we're facing a groundswell of at least the potential of a groundswell of evictions unless someone steps up and takes

takes the lead on that and then says, no, we're not doing it.

And if we're going to talk about and continue to grasp at the true liberal community, then we really need to consider getting behind the collective bargaining for the local staff and employees.

That's all I have tonight.

Thank you all so much.

God bless you, each and every one of them.

Next up is Marcia Geyer.

Marcia, you're on with counsel.

Thank you.

Just very briefly, I sent a word that there is a Jim Crow Museum

that is for the purpose of showing objects that have been used to the detriment of African Americans.

I sent that to Heather, who I believe has sent it to Mr. Boyles, the city manager.

So there is somewhere it could go if they wanted them.

and I hope that is being pushed.

Now I'm making it public to the rest of council if you didn't already know and to whoever is listening.

Thank you.

Yes, I did say that, Mr. Boyle, but I do believe that anyone who we would still have to have a communication from any source that would want to have interest in this directly reach out

in the same manner that others have to express interest.

Okay.

Councilors, any comments?

City Manager talked about this briefly in the response to matters for the public.

Sure.

And I'm going to look to see if perhaps our Director of Human Services may be on

But yes, that is one of the requests in our American Rescue Plans.

We're currently taking internal requests from all of our departments.

So we do have some funding that I'm sure will be coming to you with that package.

We're also monitoring the state as they receive their ARP funds.

But as Ms.

Carpenter said, the state

is quite slow in how it administers its funds.

And we have found that it does not get out as fast as it did when it was being administered locally, which is a very, very big hurdle to overcome.

Oh, go ahead.

When sort of like the

Can I add to that?

Because that was part of my part of my comment.

And since based on the information that we have that we received earlier, I mean, I think this is one of those items where if we can pull from somewhere else to just make sure that this is, you know, that the because I know we were deciding between

the Central Virginia legal aid or legal aid.

Yes, and I see Kaki is on, but yes, that is, I believe that for some of these programs that really can't wait much longer, that we can have you some recommendations on the 18th.

So that's what, so in, like, would this be a good use of reserves?

Like, could we consider, because we talked about the amount during the CARES funding allocations, right, for the eviction.

Was that during budget or during the CARES money conversation?

Yep.

We've got them on the list.

Kathy, were you going to share?

Okay.

All right, any, the only other comment I had was that this, Ms.

Fraley consistently this conversation around body-worn cameras keeps coming up and I don't, it's not something that I'm hearing from a lot of people.

I don't know and I understand that

you know what happened

in terms of the murder of George Floyd and that it was a bystander's camera, but we can't always count on the bystander's camera.

And I don't know why we wouldn't want the officers.

I understand that whoever is looking at it, you may not trust what they claim they're looking at, but at least it exists for a record.

And I'm sure anything can be manipulated with technology, but it's highly,

Unlikely that if that is going through a court system that that information couldn't be helpful to something.

So I don't know how we got to the conversation where we're trying to expand access to items to be able to review police behavior in certain incidents that we got to a point of having a conversation about eliminating body cameras.

So

Definitely just wanted to make that comment for the, you know, rest of the community to maybe start chiming in on that because it seems to be, you know, something that she's listening about.

Okay.

Yeah, and Juneteenth, yes, that was the only other, that was a, that again, Miss Maxine Holland put together a virtual experience just really to just recap

the past 21, well, 19 years.

Last year, we didn't have one, and this year was virtual, and then they did plan an event at the Jefferson School.

But there are some really good information in that, presentations from over the years where Mrs. Turner, who's no longer with us, Ms.

Holland, and then once we started celebrating at the Jefferson School,

you know that information and in the online video my you know kid is playing saxophone one of them another one is playing piano so it's a lot of years that we've been participating

in that.

And it's important what Adrienne said about these holidays.

We talk about this around Martin Luther King Day where we only hear the message, one of King's message.

And

just the whitewashing of it and what people are comfortable with displaying, you know, and talking about with Dr. King.

And so that's when people are saying don't let this become that.

Those are the type of things that they're saying.

Let the holiday be, you know, celebrated, but don't feel the need to eliminate the foundation of it, you know, for comfort or make it your own.

And so hopefully, and it's another thing that the city was ahead of the state and federal government on.

And so it's, I know a lot of those things were, you know, seeming as if it was meaningless at the time, but it does make a really big difference for people to see themselves honored.

and to see dates and events of historical significance that honors them on calendars.

Again, there's a Facebook post that's going around, and I'm sure it's going around on other social media platforms, where you're skipping over a major chunk of other things, Voting Rights Act, housing, eliminating structural racism, and you step to

celebrating, honoring a holiday, getting a day off.

And so there's frustration even in that too.

Mayor Walker, I just wanted to mention that David Dillahunt on our team worked with Maxine Holland on that video.

And whatever his prediction was on how long it would take, I think it was ten times longer because she brought in a pile of VHS tapes and DVDs that all had to be digitized.

No, David, thank you.

And anybody who's worked with Ms.

Holland understands that it is a, like she is on it and she is, it took me a long time to record the intro and I know that she was not happy with my delay.

But every time we talked, which was a frequent reminder for me to do my part and to look at, you know, other stuff that she was including, she praised David, just, you know, the thoughtfulness and his patience with her and understanding that sometimes it required a lot and that, you know, he was really thoughtful about all of, you know, the contributions and it really wouldn't have been able to do the three hours.

Yeah.

had he not invested a significant amount of time.

So yes, thank you very much for that.

Any other comments?

Okay.

All right.

And so we're at 736.

So we have an action item, public hearing resolution approving a lease of city property to the Virginia Discovery Museum, Inc.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

David Brown, Director of Public Works and as presented for the City Council is a resolution for lease of city property to the Virginia Discovery Museum.

The Virginia Discovery Museum VDM is located at 524 East Main Street.

Its current lease expires at the end of this month on June 30th.

The VDM provides the children of the area an opportunity to discover the historical natural world around them.

They offer many free and low-cost outreach programs aimed at addressing the needs of underserved children in our community.

The proposed lease is consistent with the spirit of past agreements.

It would provide for a five-year period.

And the resolution authorizes the city mayor to execute the lease agreement according to the terms and conditions set forth in the attached document.

For City Council's consideration, we request that a public hearing be held for this matter and then take the appropriate action authorizing the City Manager to execute the attached agreement.

All right, thank you.

Councilors, are there any questions at this time?

All right.

If you'd like to speak to Council about the Virginia Discovery Museum lease, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

Jessica Phillips is on with Council.

Hello, my name is Jessica Phillips and I am the vice chair and legal counsel for the board of the Virginia Discovery Museum and I just wanted to let counsel know that I'm here present for the meeting in case any particular questions came up that I could answer.

If there's anyone else who'd like to address counsel, please click the raise hand icon.

All right.

So we'll close the public hearing.

Are there any other questions?

No.

All right.

Ms.

Thomas?

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Councilor Hill?

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

That carries 5-0.

All right.

So next up we have a public hearing resolution for appropriating fiscal year 2021 supplemental federal funding for transit capital and operating assistance.

Good afternoon.

Good evening, Council.

This is Garland Williams, Director of CAT.

This is our normal allocation that we get from the state in our federal funding.

What we have is a combination of capital and operating dollars.

The capital is $4.32 million, which will allow us to buy rolling stock, which means buses, support vehicles, and additional, whether it's our APCs, which is our automatic passenger counters,

for all of our buses, Bobcat, so support items for operations.

Also, there's some operating dollars that will pass through from us to grant as a subrecipient, which is $634,000.

And then there's $11,886 for CAT.

This is our normal allocation, and this allows us to accept and appropriate it so we can actually begin the

All right.

Thank you.

The majority of them are replacement.

There are two new additional vehicles.

I'm sorry, four additional new vehicles that will be in the model.

Okay.

As a part of council's, council adopted the budget.

That's been considered.

There's 10 additional full-time positions that we added, and then we are converting some of our temporary positions to permanent part-time.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

That's correct.

We can't order until you allow us to do so.

So once this happens, we will probably put in an order more than likely the end of July, early August after we finish the boilerplate and make adjustments because every one of our vehicles are made to order.

so they're not sitting on a lot so and then we need to figure out where we're going to get in line.

The question that I have, I think I've raised this before, is I understand that right now, of course, all of our vehicles are diesel and that if we look five years down the road, actually, if we look one year down the road, the experts tell us that cars bought next year, if you're buying a new vehicle, you should be buying electric.

rather than gas because the cost curves are changing so dramatically.

The cost curves are changing not as fast as it is on the personal vehicle side of the house.

We are actually undertaking a study that will allow us to see whether we should be looking at doing whether it's C or G vehicles or electric vehicles or a combination of the two.

The electric vehicle component for transit is coming and it's coming quickly, but it's relatively new.

So there's not a lot of transit agencies and there's not a very good track record at this point.

I do believe in two years, three years, we will have what an established track record will allow us to potentially purchase.

Once the study is done, we'll have also the validation that we need to go and ask for additional funds from the state or the Fed to change our fleet over.

So I think, you know, it gives us a little time and we'll be able to tell you whether we think that the model works for Charlottesville

I wouldn't say transitional technology.

So I can appreciate that it is older technology, but it's technology that works.

And one of the things you're asking me to do is when I make a recommendation to council, I need to make sure that the vehicles that we buy are reliable because reliability is a key component for us.

Trying to make sure that people are willing and want to take transit

If we have vehicles that continue to break down or have to be pulled to be recharged or what have you, then it doesn't allow us to be reliable.

So we're working through that model.

We think, I know that CNG works.

I come from a transit system just two years removed that has, you know, they're pretty much 97% CNG.

I guess I'm just curious maybe you maybe this is something we have to find out from the study but how much how much is it going to cost us to gear up for a CNG technology that we don't now have we're going to need an entire infrastructure for that and if you're talking about going to CNG when you don't expect that to be the prevailing technology say five or ten years down the road

Technology continues to evolve.

The CNG model depends on what level of CNG fueling stations that we put in.

All of our capital items are supported by federal or state dollars.

So the cost to the city is fairly minimal, whether it could be as low as

I don't see where the state hasn't made a choice of, you know, saying that you aren't allowed to buy CNG vehicles anymore.

I don't see where the state hasn't made a choice of saying that you aren't allowed to buy CNG vehicles anymore.

The CNG model works.

It's reliable.

It provides the power that we need with the topography we have here.

We'll see whether it, you know, the topography issues here will kind of relegate EV vehicles to one or two particular routes.

And if that's the case, then we can't, you know, put it in as, you know, a full model everywhere.

But the study will allow us to kind of get a feel for whether

And so, I'd just be curious, when is the study that you're talking about going to be completed?

Where the study is looking at whether it's possible to use CNG and EV vehicles here.

The study hasn't started.

We're finishing up the scope now.

We're hoping to have the scope finished in about two to three weeks.

And then we'll be able to kind of put it out and get us a consultant to start the study.

We anticipate the study is probably going to take four to six months to get it done.

And then we'll have what we would need to make our case to the state and the feds to look at potential

changing our model over and asking for additional funding because there's a gap between what's funded at the state level right now for whether it's a diesel vehicle or a CNG vehicle for an EV vehicle.

I know they're changing the model and I suspect the model will probably change here fairly soon.

You're welcome.

Because we haven't had that study yet.

We haven't had the backup for whether

The various alternative energies might be useful here.

Diesel vehicles, the 26-footers are actually fast.

So we do have four gas, five gas vehicles in our fleet.

Those are the smaller vehicles that we use.

It could say, you know, the study could look at that's the

That's the sweet spot for us for conversion over.

Maybe we concentrate, you know, adding some more of those to our fleet and use those as a CNG model.

They're very reliable and efficient and provide us a longer time frame as far as mileage is concerned and wear and tear on the vehicles.

But there's a lot to be looked at and I think the study will help us to kind of move through that model.

This is primarily for those four gasoline vehicles and diesel vehicles.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Oh, okay.

Do we have the public hearing?

That's the kind of day I'm having.

No, right.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you'd like to speak about the federal funding being appropriated for Charlottesville's transit system, click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

Each speaker will get up to three minutes.

I don't see any hands raised.

Thanks.

Just real quickly in the spirit of highlighting positive things, it's a small thing in there, but I know the automatic passenger counters are a really integral piece to allowing us to get to fare free more permanently.

Well, the other highlight I think is the newer buses should be more efficient, right?

And use less fuel, maybe.

I mean, that's what usually happens with newer versus older.

Also adding four buses will hopefully increase route time, I mean, decrease route times and potentially increase routes down the road.

Well, we found a lot of positives.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

So how is everyone for do we want the break or want to keep going?

Press on.

Press on.

We're almost there.

All right.

All right.

Next up, we have

And then we have appropriating funds for the Conscious Capitalist Foundation $50,000 first of two readings.

I think you're turning it over to me.

This is Kaki Dimmick, Director of Human Services, and I'm happy to present both of these requests.

These are out-of-cycle requests that came directly to Council.

One is responding to the need for community-based responses to the increase of gun violence, and so Conscious Capitalist Foundation

is making both of these requests tonight.

The first program, the request is for $145,000 for a program they call Peace in the Streets, which uses a credible messengers approach to building relationships and providing authentic relationships and providing services to folks who need them in the community.

The credible messenger approach has been associated with positive outcomes including increased engagement in services and programs, reductions and re-arrest and violations, increased compliance with court school conditions and improved collaborations between system stakeholders.

Peace in the Streets program has not been around for very long, but in its short life, it has developed a positive relationship with many people in the community, particularly folks who have significant confidence in their structured model for de-escalation.

On the call today, we have Rob Gray, Derek Rush, and Nicholas Fagans from Pontius Capitalist Foundation.

Should you have any additional questions?

Yeah, we could do them independently.

Okay.

Oh, go ahead.

I was going to say this request is more of

stretch if we wanted to look at other funding sources such as ARP.

Is that correct, Ms.

Yes.

As you all have heard, as the ARP funds get sort of clarified with every new round of guidance, they're getting actually significantly sort of tighter than the CARES money was.

And so

There is a requirement to tie the activity back to specifically to COVID and to be able to talk about how COVID impacted that.

And I think in conversations with staff, I think we have a harder time making that connection to the increase in gun violence than we do, for example, to mentoring young people who are disaffected and disconnected from school and having trouble sort of in a more sort of community-based way.

I think it's

easier to tie that to concerns around mental health, which is reasonable to tie to COVID.

But with the increase just around the country, a lot of the conversations surrounding it has been like during the COVID time frame, even in places where

even where there's been gun violence before just even more than usual.

So how I'm wondering how just because in our community I think it's whether it's tied to COVID or not trying to figure out how we fund

I feel confident that I can make a very persuasive argument that both gun violence and disconnection from school are related to increased stress and increased sort of decreased community resilience and decreased sort of general mental health and that tie that back to economic conditions caused by COVID and COVID itself is sort of wrestling with national mortality.

I am not, however, as comfortable

Yeah, and even if not tying it back to the future funding that we'll be allocating, what options do we have within the city to consider expanding the funding?

And so that's what I'm asking more than anything, even if they are not linking the two with their restrictions.

Yeah, good evening council.

Yeah, I just wanted to say that there's a direct correlation between both the youth we serve, the demographic for the youth we serve, and also the adult population.

So if you look at gun violence, it's definitely picked up during the pandemic.

And if you take a pretty critical look at it, you'll see that some of the youth we're working with, even at the detention center at Blue Ridge,

Like a lot of these youth are locked up and being detained for gun-related charges.

So there's definitely a correlation between the two.

And then you can tie mental health into this as well.

So I just wanted to make that statement and make that clear that

We're working with the youth on the preventative side, providing credible messenger mentoring.

And the curriculum we're currently using, the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise curriculum, was created to essentially curb gun violence.

It was created in Oakland, California by a gentleman by the name of David Muhammad.

When they created this curriculum, it was for the likes of Curvin, the gun violence in Oakland for that youth population.

So it does seem like for this initiative that we are looking at the council funds and obviously they're off-budget cycle requests that can be limiting but when we get into the next discussion that ARP would be another viable source of funds in addition to whatever council may want to take of its own funds.

Is that a good summary of where we are from options standpoint?

Not that are coming to mind off the top of my head.

We're in this process of still trying to close out the current fiscal year and as we talked about it at the four o'clock meeting there's still a lot of unknowns around where the revenues are going to come in and what our final

I don't want to sit here and say, oh, we have absolutely zero funds that we could potentially look at as far as the general fund budget.

But at this point, given that we're at the last meeting in June, we've run out of time to be able to do through readings to be able to move these funding.

So, if we approved each of these at $50,000 at the off-cycle,

And we find out later that one of the programs cannot apply for the remainder through the ARPA funds or something.

I'm

I'm unaware of a reason why we couldn't do that.

I might have to defer to the city attorney on this if there's any legal reasons why we can't appropriate funds and then come back in a separate fiscal year and appropriate additional funding.

But to my knowledge, if we appropriate a first round and then we're looking towards potentially the ARPA funds for additional funding for these programs and they're not eligible, then

Female Speaker 1 And we're talking about the later in the year.

What is the date that that would be possible?

Because I'm, go ahead.

Male Speaker 1 No, no, no, continue.

No, because I'm just looking at this project cost budget and you are talking about the request to and I'm specifically right now talking about the piece in the street because I think if we want kind of a holistic response to what's going on, it doesn't require continual police intervention, which right now we're seeing that we need both.

And I think what we're trying to move towards is not having to use, you know, CPD in this way, in a prevention type of format.

Then these are besides two items on here, we are always talking about reporting and evaluation.

And as far as everyone knows, you know, past, I have always advocated so that we can know whether what we're funding working.

There are only two items that don't involve this organization attempting to hire the individuals to do the work.

and those two items are about $30,000.

So $115,000 is the staff to do the jobs and then the reporting and evaluation support so that they can make sure that we know whether these are investments are what we want to invest in in the future.

Timing is a critical piece, at least I know with the other item that we're going to discuss next in terms of just trying to capture at the time of greatest need, which is going into obviously the next one we'll talk about in a school year.

So I guess the question is, is what we're able to do within our kind of scope right now?

Enough for them to initiate and at work and

and then for us then to be able to be in a position as I think Mr. Boyle's kind of put an email to us earlier today that will be additional funds, at least for one of the programs that we feel somewhat confident we can allocate those funds for, but just not to disrupt like the progress that needs to be made in terms of hiring these folks and getting everyone up to speed.

And so I'm less aware of the impact it has to have not full funding for the peace in the streets because we're not really clear on when that would even be possible.

whereas I'm pretty clear that there is a time consideration and there is a certain amount to make this other project, this other initiative really successful.

So I'm not sure if Rob or Derek wanted to speak to just some of that.

I'd say in terms of if it's not fully funded, you know, with the way our organization is structured, we can move forward with some of these initiatives, you know, hoping that maybe there may be some further funding down the line, but in order to really maximize, I guess, to keep the momentum going and maximize what we're able to do as far as scaling out and having a broader touch

It would be beneficial to have the full funding for all the initiatives.

And if I could speak up a little bit, this is for my camera.

This is Martez Talbert.

How are you going?

Good evening, everybody.

A few of you guys know me, a few of you don't.

My name is Martez Talbert.

I'm the client partner navigator here at the local phone funds, the local nonprofit here in town.

And I'm a part of this organization as well, the Pits, the Peace in the Streets.

So the initiative that you guys are talking about is the initiative that me

and myself, Nicola Fagas, came on board under Conscious Capitalist.

So I just want to speak on a little bit more detail of what we do.

I don't know.

I haven't spoken to none of you guys personally about what it is we do internally.

What we have been doing over the past year and some change now since the pandemic hit, we really hit the grounds with Happy Saturdays.

I apologize.

I think the video may be on our end.

That's totally fine.

I also work with Redemption Youth Mentoring out of Chesterfield, Virginia.

That's what I have on today.

I'm not only a community member, a community activist and work for the Fountain Fund.

I also work for Redemption Mentoring.

I mentor kids as well as adults.

I bring a different component.

to the conscious capitalists and the peace in the streets, which we all do bring something individually collectively to make this a holistic approach.

What we're doing, we're definitely dealing with kids and we're definitely dealing with people with mental illness and mental health.

That's what we started with the resource hotline.

Don't want to be sporadic here and jump all over the different things, but I've been on this call for over an hour now, and I really wanted to talk to you guys personally about what it is we're trying to do, actually what it is we're already doing in our community, right, and it's working.

I wouldn't be, I wouldn't have jumped on just to speak about nothing.

We're actually doing action-oriented work here week in, week out, with our hotline, and we call it a resource hotline,

because, once again, I can affiliate what I do with my jobs to help the community out because I'm already affiliated with Favre in different community places, so I know about jobs.

I'm on the Network to Work Advisory Committee Board with Ridge and Frank Scalacci, so I'm plugged in different

other nonprofits and different avenues where I can help individuals holistically, not just in one form, but holistically, where I can help with child care, help with job employment.

And that's all through the resource line that we currently have operational now.

And so far, we had over 70-something calls from different type of resources, from mental illness breakdown to people needing an Uber and a Lyft and a ride to get away from domestic violence to people calling to neighbors and neighborhoods to

calling and asking us to come check on somebody in their neighborhood who's walking around who they suspect having mental challenges or mental struggles just because we're in a pandemic, guys.

It's a lot is going on outside of these meetings, outside of these doors, and I'm pretty sure a lot of you are privy to, right?

And everybody just don't want to call the law.

It's really concerned citizens out there who'd rather call us or rather call other agencies than the police department because we all know once the police arrive on the scene, that aggression or that

Passive Aggression or whatever have you or that traumatic or trauma from the past might surface again, right?

So when we're caught on the scene and we have a couple incidents of what has happened, you know, we're caught on the scene so we come with a calm understanding, not no badge, not no gun, not multiple cars, just with a conversation to just see where you're at.

And most of the time, people just want to talk.

And all you're there to do is just listen.

So I don't want to get too far into that.

But that's just some of the examples that have been happening so far.

And we have been coming through and taking care of those situations when they call, literally like this in the snap of our fingers.

There's been cases even other agencies that reached out to us.

So it's not just community members.

It's not just residents.

It's other agencies that have heard about us, who saw us on the news, who saw us in the paper, right, who says, you know what, I'd rather call that guy.

And it was crazy.

Sad, sad bar.

One of the neighbors in the neighborhood who decided to call us, I wind up talking to her after the incident got resolved.

I took care of the guy, took him to get something to eat.

We sat down, had a whole meeting, right?

But I didn't just stop there.

I wanted to go back to the neighborhood and talk to the young lady who called us, right?

And she talked to me, came outside.

She's like, you know what?

It wasn't me.

It was my husband.

He saw your guy.

He saw the number on the news and wrote it down.

Just saw the news and just wrote it down and saw if anything like this happens, he can go to it.

So we didn't even know about it.

And so we saw the guy and he said, you know what?

Don't call the police.

No, we don't know what his issue is, we don't know what his struggle is, and that's when they called us.

So that's just to give you an example of the type of stuff that we've been having and dealing with.

And not just the resource line, not just helping individuals with mentoring, we also do Happy Saturdays.

And that's another initiative that we started in the Peace in the Streets.

And that's been going on since the pandemic hit.

Yeah, Tess, not to, I don't want to turn my camera on because I may freeze, but I can give a little spiel on what we do for doing.

Thanks, brother.

Okay, so I'm just going to give a rundown of Happy Saturdays.

Our goal at Happy Saturdays is to continue to build healthy relationships within the inner city communities by providing useful resources.

One of our most effective forms of outreach is by providing neighborhoods with free Happy Meals.

We've also provided meals from local minority restaurants during the pandemic.

This has allowed us to bring in other community partners who may have had trouble reaching the same community members.

We've now been able to bring voter registration, mental health awareness, amongst other resources into the communities.

As sound of Happy Saturdays, I've been contacted or work with Wild Rock Regents and shelters for help in emergency, Frontline Foods, Charlottesville Community Cares, and that's just to assist in our Happy Saturday operations.

I'm also a part of PB&J's strategic planning team to help advise our plan to tackle neighborhood hunger amongst

and other relatable issues.

And before I go on, I just want to say that this is all self-funded.

So this is just what we've been doing out of our pockets for almost the past two years.

All over the country, balance the other negative behaviors spawn when there's a lack of activities of programming for our youth.

So in Charlottesville, Phyllis Boyd, I've connected with the director of Frosting Beach Club, Robin Wrightson, and Bonnie Gordon, VA Equity Center to provide transportation.

And my personal bus that I bought,

to get West Haven members and Friendship Court youth residents to attend Fry Springs Beach Club for free.

Conversations with Ms.

Wrightson, it has also led to possibly transforming Fry Springs Beach Club to provide our city youth a positive alternative rather than just hanging out in their neighborhoods.

So that's where we are with our happy space initiative right now.

Thank you.

And

What I'm hearing and what I know already, so I'm not going to acknowledge that I know most of these things are happening and follow the Facebook posts and Facebook comments.

And I think what's important here is that you're hearing that the work is already being done.

So, of course, they'll probably continue it.

But I think if we are trying to align with what we say we want to happen here, and we know how hard it is for startups that are run by Black individuals for them to get funding and the challenges that are tied to that,

and acknowledging black nonprofit run nonprofits, because that's what we're dealing with here.

But any non-white nonprofit to receive funding is just a challenge.

And I've been saying this the entire time I've been on council and even before then, how do we get the individuals who are most likely to lead us to the results

that we're actually seeking, how do we get them on a stable foundation?

And as we know, with the mentoring with some of our school younger individual during the school year, that this was an organization that responded to some of the needs of students who weren't doing well during the pandemic.

So whatever we can do to figure out how to support them fully, I definitely support that.

And also just wanna toss out there that we will be together for the interviews and hoping that this may be something we can do a second reading on.

at the interview, you know, that day since we'll all be together instead of waiting until the July meeting.

Just so we all are aware, we all are together tomorrow for back here with Kaki for the Vibrant Community Funds work session.

And I also think just hearing from just

The counts right now, just this work is not, you know, a singular focus.

It's touching so many facets and it actually gets me more encouraged that there might be opportunities to use some of this other funding source.

Just looking at the scope of what's being described, it's much broader for both initiatives than any one thing.

So I'm

certainly support that we do what we can as a council and the most immediate, but also just make sure that we continue to evaluate what other funding sources.

I'd like to enter there.

I just wanted to wanted to raise a question because I haven't really heard from other city council members.

Well, let me just say I've I've been impressed with the stuff that I've seen so far.

I think the need is crucial.

Yeah and as others have said you know the issue of the rise in gun violence as well as the other work that's going on have been focuses for the council for you know

The entire time I've been on council and before that and struggling to figure out how to make investments that can make a difference.

And I think the work that you all have been doing is definitely a critical part of that.

And there's a clear track record and plan for how these investments can make a measurable impact in the community.

Really, the only questions I have just relate to, you know, these off cycle budget requests are only matching part of your initial request.

and just trying to figure out is there ways through ARP or other ways to ensure that

I have actively talked to a number of people to try to nail down if we can use ARPA money for gun violence.

And everyone I have talked to is under the impression that we should be able to.

Now, obviously that wasn't the Treasury, which is who makes the final decision on that.

But that's why I was just wondering if we did the 50,000, if we approved the 50,000 now,

And I wanted to ask a question of potentially of Ms.

Robertson on this.

This is a resolution allocating previously appropriated funding.

And so typically those have been one reading resolutions.

And I'm just trying to see if there was something with this particular request that

Let me check.

As a general rule, that's correct if the money

being allocated here is already part of the annual appropriated city budget because it was the subject of the annual appropriation.

And if it's not the subject of a specific appropriation, so it wasn't previously you're not

You're not adding to an appropriation that was previously approved.

So if this is just moving money around within the budget, that should be correct.

It should only require one reading.

But I think that's how we've been approaching Mayor Walker, would it be possible for Kathy just to introduce the other item just so that we kind of have all the information in front of us?

So the second request being made by Conscious Capitalist Foundation is for $203,500 in support of an out-of-cycle funding request to provide intensive mentoring and support to youth referred by Lugo McGinnis Academy

between 40 and 50 youths would be served given full funding for this proposal over the course of a year again using an approach to mentoring called credible messengers people who use their lived experience as an opportunity to build trusting authentic relationships with students

engaged in the program.

A credible messenger approach is associated with the same positive outcomes I described before, which is increased engagement in services and programs, reduction in re-arrest and violations, increased compliance with court and school conditions, and improved collaboration between stakeholders and the broader community.

Using Credible Messengers, Conscious Capitalist Foundation engages a transformative mentoring curriculum and program model called Healthy, Wealthy and Wise, which Mr. Gray mentioned before, which has been identified as a promising practice by the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.

It's important to note that the principal or the primary administrator of Lugo McGinnis has written a letter of support in favor of this program and is prepared to make the necessary referrals and work collaboratively with Conscious Capitalist Foundation

Thank you.

And just based on this feedback from the reference to Miguel McGinnis as well as with Mr. Gray and Mr. Rush, I'm just hearing the stories of

Those that have been impacted, I can't imagine this not being something that can be tied to the pandemic as an even higher need than it normally would be pre-pandemic.

It's just, it's really critical at this juncture that this type of need is met.

I agree.

I think it's a very easy

connection to make between particularly for young people who have been out of school in virtual space for a long time, disconnected from their friends,

and disconnected from traditional social supports for both family and individuals.

I think community resilience and community mental health are really easy to tie back to COVID.

I think it's just one more step to get to gun violence.

And what I've heard from those who have been reading the regulations is that that feels like one step too far for the ARPA funds based on those folks.

All right.

Yeah, I'd just like to add just from an organizational standpoint, you know, we believe in long-term sustainability and being a staple in the community.

We've invested in the systems to be self-sustaining or self-sufficient long-term.

We've built relationships on a national scale when it comes to this credible messenger approach.

We're a part of a larger

Coalition that provides us technical assistance and spreading this credible messenger approach across the country.

So it is something that won't be a one off.

It is something that is sustainable long term.

And the only question that I have, and I should have sent it earlier, so I said this before during another session of the agenda, but in case we can figure out a way to fund the peace in the streets fully and support a portion or all of this, but if not, in terms of the collaboration with the school system, was there any conversation around

Yeah, so we had several conversations with the school system.

They don't have any money in their budget to support this project.

So I guess the question is, are we in a position that council wants to support both at the levels that we can do within our off-budget requests and then work through the ARP for additional funding down the road?

And I'm also interested in Vice Mayor McGill's question is if it's possible for us to, is it $50,000 total or $50,000 at one time?

And then

So, I will speak to the second part of your question.

As part of the agency work session tomorrow, one of the things we, one of the items we have brought up is the outside, or excuse me, the off-cycle funding request process.

This was a council policy that was adopted.

And so, I believe we'll look at that and council could

change and adopt a new policy regarding this.

Obviously, as we would go to make changes to the policy, we would have to consult with the city attorney and other things to make sure we're doing everything that we need to on the legal side with these types of requests.

So there is that potential to change that moving forward.

As far as the

funding $50,000 now in the current fiscal year and then potentially in the future fiscal year.

I would have to, I mean, I believe that's written in the policy somewhere as well, and I don't have that directly in front of me right now to be able to read through that and really digest whether or not that is possible.

But we could certainly explore that as part of potential policy changes as well.

But again, that would not be something we could do immediately tonight, I don't believe.

And I think we don't want to get into the business of changing policies based on who is presenting the funding requests.

I think we want to look at a policy that works for what has been coming before us off cycle in the past few years since that policy was developed just for some consistency there and not be able to, you know, just make decisions based on which agents, you know,

Well, I think, Mayor Walker, when you and I, our first year on council, actually the policy was approved to go from either 10 or 15 up to the 50.

Also, how much do we have left in the strategic initiative?

So currently, there's just over $327,000 left in that account.

Thank you very much.

I mean, and this is where I'd like to see if we can manage the ARPA funds to cover the remainder of the need first because these funds are so much more flexible to give

Do we get the resolution on what we can the answer on whether we can do all this tonight in one night?

I'm sorry, I wish I had a little more time to look at this.

So the answer to whether there are one or two readings required just depends on

a number of different circumstances.

The city code says you're supposed to have two readings for any appropriation in excess of $1,000.

There's another section of the city code that addresses that says that items that aren't provided for in your annual budget require a special appropriation by the council.

In this situation, you appropriate money each year to your special initiatives fund, but you don't, it's sort of just a placeholder.

You haven't really approved it to be spent for any particular purpose.

And that's what an appropriation is.

An appropriation is an authorization for money to be used for a specific purpose.

We recently, with both Ryan and Ms.

Hamill,

We talked about circumstances in which City Council sometimes has already sort of provided in the annual budget appropriation or otherwise.

What happens as revenues come in, they're sort of automatically

deemed to be appropriated back into a particular fund.

And to Mayor Walker's point about Wednesday being another opportunity where council will be convening to do interviews, maybe Thursday too.

We're still figuring all that out.

The main requirement is that three days have to intervene between introduction and passage of the resolution.

So it would have to be

Thursday at the earliest.

Can it be Thursday morning?

I suppose, I mean, your agenda was posted.

I don't know if it's deemed introduced when you actually called the item up on your agenda or when you actually opened your meeting tonight.

So, sure, let's do Thursday morning.

That would be close, as close as I can get it without, you know,

I'm sorry to ask.

And the notice hasn't gone out yet for the Thursday or Wednesday meetings because it was just decided today.

Okay.

All right.

We need to vote now or do we need to vote on Thursday?

I'm comfortable with

Likewise.

Okay.

All right, so that'll at least help with the time frame so that they won't have to wait until we return in July, the end of July.

All right, and I hope, thank you all for all that you do.

I hope that you heard the interest in us figuring out additional funding outside of these, the $250,000 allocations, and we will, you know, work on those and see where we get.

But we hope this is enough to get you all started, and thank you all for doing the work.

starting the work and assisting the community even without the funding.

But we know funding is important, so I'm not saying continue to work for free.

You know, support, do support that the entire community benefits from.

Because I think it's also important that all of you are also working.

I think Martez said it earlier.

But because you have been doing this work on, you know, like the side job, which is not really side, you all have been also trying to support yourself with other work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

You all have a good night, too.

All right, so now we'll take a break.

I'm joking.

Nobody.

So is there any other business?

No?

Okay.

Any questions for the city manager?

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

Mayor Walker might need water.

If you're in the audience, you'd like to address Council, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

First up is Wolfgang Kepley.

Wolfgang, you're on with Council.

Hi, good evening.

This is Wolfgang Kepley.

I live in Frye Spring neighborhood in Charlottesville.

I learned last week that Charlottesville's ADA coordinator has left their position and I believe this makes five ADA coordinators come and gone the past five years so I wanted to request that the city makes hiring for this position as well as retaining this for this position a priority going forward so I was excited to learn in late 2020 that the city had finally hired for this position which I think was left vacant for about half a year

I was also excited to hear that an aspect of this position would be to coordinate updating the ADA transition plan, a plan which is now eight years old and needs to be updated.

The ADA transition plan not only ensures that Charlottesville programs, services and activities are ADA compliant, but it also highlights and commits to areas where Charlottesville can lead beyond legal requirement to ensure access and inclusion for all Charlottesville residents with disabilities.

The ADA coordinator is critical to moving this work forward and ensuring that residents of the city have a clear point of contact and someone to respond to their requests.

Hiring for this position should be prioritized as well as to work on addressing issues and retaining this position.

If there's anyone else in the audience who'd like to address counsel, click the raise hand icon.

If you're on via telephone, you can press star nine.

All right.

All right.

Counselors, any final?

Mr. Bowles, any final?

No.

Thank you.

Oh, we'll be back tomorrow.

Oh, I forgot about that.

Don't be celebrating yet.