City Council Meeting   4/19/2021

All right.

Ms.

Yeah, you want me to do it?

Okay.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councilor Hill?

Yes.

Next I'll call the regular meeting to order.

Thank you, and we can't hear you now.

Vice Mayor McGill?

I am here.

Councillor Hill?

Here.

I moved out for the agenda as presented.

Ms.

Mayor Walker.

Yes.

Vice Mayor McGill.

Yes.

Councilor Hill.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, Mayor Walker, I have an announcement.

Let me pull this up.

The city of Charlottesville is currently accepting applications for boards and commissions.

Applications are being accepted through June 11th for City Council consideration at its June 21st meeting.

For information on individual boards and to apply, visit www.charlottesville.gov.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

No?

Next, we have recognitions and proclamations.

We have one proclamation for Fair Housing Month.

Whereas the Fair Housing Act enacted on April 11, 1968 and strined into federal law the goal of eliminating racial segregation and ending housing discrimination in the United States, and whereas the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion,

sex, familial status, national origin and disability and commits recipients of federal funding to affirmatively further fair housing in their communities.

And whereas the city of Charlottesville is committed to the mission and intent of Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities for all

and whereas our social fabric and the economy, health, the environment are strengthened in diverse inclusive community and whereas more than 50 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act discrimination persists and many communities remain segregated and whereas acts of housing discrimination and barriers to equal housing opportunities are repugnant to a common sense of decency and fairness

Now therefore be it resolved that I, Mayor Nikuyah Walker on behalf of the Council of the City of Charlottesville do hereby declare the month of April 2021 as Fair Housing Month in the City of Charlottesville as an inclusive community committed to fair housing and to promoting appropriate activities by private and public entities

to provide and advocate for the equal housing opportunity for all residents and prospective residents of the city of Charlottesville.

Signed and sealed this 19th day of April 2021.

There's no one accepting that tonight.

Next up, we have the consent agenda.

Ms.

Number one minutes, February one, I'm sorry, bear with me just a moment.

Number one, minutes, March one, regular meeting, March 4th, budget work session, March 11th, joint budget work session with city schools.

Two, ordinance, city of Charlottesville COVID ordinance repeal, second reading.

Three, ordinance, designation of trees for protection under the tree conservation ordinance, second reading.

Four, Appropriation, Reprogramming FY 2020-2021 Community Development Block Grant Funds and Minor Action Plan Amendment, one reading.

Part A, Resolution, Amendment to Community Development Block Grant Account, Reprogramming of Funds for FY 2020-2021, $64,097.82.

Part B, Resolution,

FY 2020, 2021 Minor Action Plan Amendment of the 2018-2022 Consolidation Plan.

Number five, Appropriation, Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, DCJS, Coronavirus Emergency Supplement Funding, CESF, Fiscal Year 2021, $50,000, first of two readings,

Six, Appropriation, Firehouse Subs, Public Safety Grant, $26,971.10, first of two readings.

Seven, Resolution, Donation of the 1967 City Hall Signed to the Albemarle Charlottesville Historic Society, one reading.

Okay, thank you.

Counselors, are there any questions or comments at this time?

It has it on here.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you're in the audience on the webinar and you'd like to comment on one of those items on the consent agenda, click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

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

Each person will have up to three minutes to address counsel.

There will be other opportunities tonight for public comment under community matters and at the end of the meeting under matters by the public.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

And for me, you know, if we could take out and vote on two separately.

Is there a second?

Second.

Ms.

Thomas?

Mayor Walker?

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

I move that we adapt a consent agenda item two, the ordinance for the city of Charlottesville's COVID ordinance repeal.

Ms.

Thomas?

Mayor Walker?

No.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councilor Hill?

Yes.

All right, next up, we're doing good.

We have the

Thank you, Mayor Walker and Council.

Just a few responses from questions both at previous meetings and that have come in from several of our constituents.

Special events, we've had quite a number with the changes of our COVID ordinances.

and while we are still in a state of emergency our special event applications have been halted but staff are currently working on a way to identify safe uses of our public areas so that we may begin to consider special event applications again and do so in some type of a phased approach so that we can allow the simpler of activities to occur

but still being very cautious with the larger events and so staff continues to work with that and we'll present that to you as that progresses.

We're very very happy an item discussed at an earlier City Council meeting the Parks and Rec Department worked very closely with both the citizen community and business community

and this past weekend completed a repairs to steps at Riverview Park providing access to the Ravanna River was a very successful program that came together very quickly and hopefully met the community needs.

Can I just have a quick, Claire?

So the special events, are we aligning those with what parks and recs are?

If someone's activity is similar to something we are opening back up, are we allowing that?

It's probably more a special time in the future.

Right now, the state of emergency is that we're not accepting any special event applications.

So if it requires a special event permit, we're not accepting.

Any other questions?

No.

So next up, we have Community Matters.

Looks like we have six speakers that have registered in advance.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

I see five of the six have already joined us.

I'll keep an eye out on the other person.

And if you want to get in line, you can click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

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

If you're watching us on Fox, I wanted to say Foxcast, I meant Facebook and Boxcast.

And if you're watching there, you need to come to the webinar and register, and then you can participate and speak to council.

Each person will get three minutes.

We'd appreciate if you said your full name and place of address.

and first up tonight is Emily Little, who I saw earlier and now I don't see.

Oh, there she is.

Emily, you're on with council.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Good evening, councilors, Mayor Walker.

Just wanted to bring this list to your attention.

the Splendid Poison Frog, the Jalpa Falsebrook Salamander, the Lost Shark, the Smooth Handfish, the Lake Lanao Freshwater Fish, the Chiriquai Harlequin Frog, the Spined Wharf Mantis, the Bonin Pipistrel Bat, the Lord Howe Long-Eared Bat, the Wolseley Conebush, the Agave Lurita, the Afonze Hortensis, the Hawaii Yellowwood, the Golden Fuchsia, and the Spix's Macaw.

Those are the species that we have lost thus far during the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

And as of today, we've lost 567,000 Americans to coronavirus.

And the ones most likely to die from coronavirus here in our country are Indigenous Americans, Black Americans, and Pacific Islander Americans.

Loss of human life and of biodiversity on the planet are deeply disturbing and not unconnected.

These two losses are not in isolation, and they are not a one and done experience.

They are a preview of what is to come.

We are entering a new era of pandemics that go hand in hand with the climate crisis.

Climate change is shaking up our natural world and changing disease algorithms on the planet.

To name a few, mosquito and tick-borne illnesses are worsening.

The pathogens being released by thawing permafrost in the Arctic are reemerging from history, and of course what caused coronavirus to emerge, a new pathogen from an animal.

Animals are in a dire situation, adapt or die, and that is causing migration, and so their contacts are new and are putting us in as vulnerable as a place to them.

And, of course, BIPOC communities and low-income communities are the most vulnerable amongst us.

The reality is that we have seen what happens when a new virus emerges.

I don't have to tell you how awful it is.

But is there any chance to prevent disease emergence?

What scientists are saying is we need to consider how we do business with the biosphere.

We may not be the particular place where coronavirus emerged from this time, but it is our habits and our addiction to fossil fuels that is turning the world into a place where new diseases will more easily emerge.

It feels like right now there are a million coronavirus fires that need to be put out.

But we have to continue on in being part of the prevention for the billion more fires from disease from climate change, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss.

I want to thank you and the new city manager for taking the local call to action seriously for funding a staff position dedicated to climate action planning.

We need to keep our local end of the bargain in changing the course of the climate crisis.

Next up will be Marcia Geyer, followed by Lisa Glasgow.

Marcia, you're on with city council.

You've got three minutes.

And you'll need to unmute.

I'm gonna try to unmute you now.

Thank you.

We can.

Sorry, I got a little lost there.

So I'm Marsha Geyer.

I live at 1008 Pear Tree Lane in Charlottesville.

Good evening, City Councilors, Mayor Walker and City Manager Boyles.

Thank you, Mr. Boyles and Councillors, for putting a new dedicated climate action position into next year's Charlottesville budget.

It is so needed.

In honor of Earth Day this Thursday, I'm going to speak about a service for income-qualified households

to both minimize electric and gas bills and reduce their home's contribution to climate change.

It's LEAP's home weatherization program.

What a great program for the city and county to be backing and have been backing for years.

Income eligibility for 100% free home weatherization services has become

very, very generous this year.

Income of up to $150,200 qualifies if any household member is age 60 or older, up to $75,100 for younger households.

Renters are equally eligible with their landlord's permission.

Mobile homes

residents are newly eligible.

This is something that just started.

To get started, call LEAP at 434-227-4666.

This year, LEAP has more subsidies money than ever, and they're actively seeking more climates

Clients for the home weatherization program, LEAP staff can go into homes now with their masks on so there won't be a long delay.

I'm speaking as a former weatherization client.

The insulation and other improvements cut my electric and gas bills by more than a third.

and my conscience is satisfied that I'm doing one person's worth to keep Earth's climate catastrophe from getting worse.

If your home has an uninsulated or underinsulated attic, LEAP will arrange for it to be very well insulated.

In my case, they added a whole foot of insulation to the measly two inches my attic already had.

attic insulation gives the biggest benefit of LEAP's standard weatherization services.

LEAP's team will also air seal accessible spaces in the attic and crawl space or unfinished basement and make a number of other improvements that I haven't got time to mention in three minutes.

Other possible improvements which are decided based on how bad your home's energy situation is include replacements of very inefficient heating and air conditioning systems or refrigerators and adding insulation to walls and floor toilets.

Wow, more big expensive improvements.

Thank you.

If needed.

Happy Earth Week.

Mayor Walker, next up is Lisa Glasgow, who will be followed by Evan Brown, but I don't see Evan in the webinar right now.

Lisa, you're on with City Council.

Good evening.

We can.

My name is Lisa Glasgow and I live on Lake Forest Drive.

And tonight I want to talk about trees, specifically urban tree cover in Charlottesville.

As you may already know, trees provide many benefits to individuals and communities.

First, of course, they reduce air pollution by absorbing carbon, the primary cause of climate change, and expressing oxygen.

Trees also absorb or intercept other particulates that are bad for us to breed, such as those produced by smog.

Tree roots reduce soil erosion by holding the dirt in place when it rains, which then helps clean the water as it slowly percolates down.

And that slowing of the water means the area needs less storm drainage, like pipes, gravel, cisterns, processing facilities, etc.

Trees also reduce noise pollution by blocking and editing it, making a place more comfortable to live in.

This attracts birds and animals, creating biodiversity.

Humans are some of the animals who are attracted to trees.

They improve quality of life in a variety of ways.

Recent research has proven how being in a natural setting improves mental health.

Trees offer shade in the summer and a windbreak in winter, very nice, and make for reduced energy costs in homes.

In the same manner, trees reduce the heat island effect in a city, including glare.

According to the U.S.

Forest Service, the beauty and cool peacefulness of trees encourages economic and community stability.

People want to stay where they are comfortable.

They go outside to walk and talk to neighbors.

They stay longer in shops and restaurants and they buy more.

That brings in tax revenue and who's going to argue with that?

So during this Earth Week, I hope you will consider the tree canopy of Charlottesville.

We were designated a tree city by the Arbor Day Foundation in 2007.

Let's continue to grow a hardy urban forest that will release the fresh air of natural renewal for everyone in the city.

Thank you very much and have a good Earth Week.

Our next speaker should be Evan Brown, but again, I don't see that person in the webinar.

Next will be Elizabeth Stark and Bill Emery.

Again, you can get in line by clicking the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

If you're watching on Facebook or BoxCast, go to charlottesville.gov slash Zoom to register for the webinar and join us.

Next up is Elizabeth Stark.

You're on with counsel.

Elizabeth Stark, Okay, thank you so much.

Hi, Mayor Walker and Councilors.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Elizabeth Stark.

I live on Fairway Avenue in the city.

I appreciate I wrote to you earlier this week about the lifting of the COVID ordinance in the city.

and how that would affect special events permits.

So I do thank Mr. Boyles for giving us additional information on that with the consent agenda.

But I did just want to make sure and clarify as the city goes and does this work where they start looking at events permits that protests and demonstrations are something that is prioritized for the community as long as those are within the state COVID limits of

attendance and size and things like that.

Our free speech is very important and, you know, with outside of newsworthy events and fines, we haven't been able to exercise it for the past year.

So I just really wanted to say I hope that will be a priority for you all as you look at how these regulations are lifted in the city.

Our next speaker is Bill Emery.

Bill, you're on with council.

Thank you so much, Mr. Wheeler.

My name is Bill Emery.

I live at 1604 East Market Street in the city.

A month ago, during matters from the public, I mentioned the community's desire to fix the stairway at Riverview Park for safe access to the river.

Now, city manager somewhat covered this earlier, but since that March council meeting,

City Engineering staff had provided technical expertise, departments of parks and recreation delivered repair materials, and 25 Rivanna River enthusiasts volunteered 200 hours of labor.

The individual contributions of time ranged from less than an hour, that was me, to the champion of the project, Gabe, who worked close to 60 hours.

Having multiple access points to the Rivanna River benefits people who live in our community.

It is important that the river be accessible to people.

The Rivanna is our hometown river and a regional treasure.

So I just want to thank the council, city manager, and the city departments for making this stairway repair happen.

Thank you, Bill.

That's our fifth speaker.

We have room for 11 more.

Right now we have two hands raised, Tanisha Hudson and Robin Hoffman.

Tanisha, you're on with counsel.

Good evening.

I have a few things that I would like to cover.

One,

is with everything being lifted a little bit within the state, you all really need to sit down and talk about opening up council chambers.

This is the only city council in the research that I've done, other than Stanton, who's actually trying to take away people's rights to even bring up

Community Matters, that you guys have to open up council.

It's a way that you can do it and maintain social distancing, number one.

Number two, special event permits.

You know that there's a major trial happening right now in America with the George Floyd murder trial that's happening.

And as soon as that verdict is released, you know there's going to be protests.

So you may as well get ready because people are going to protest with or without an event, a special event permit.

because that's their free speech to do so.

And they're able to do that.

And there's been other protests happening since we've been in a pandemic that's been allowed from a state level.

So you better get prepared for that.

You better get ready for it.

Number two, I mean, number three, the skate park.

Do not try to shut down other events that happen in local parks when you have people at that skate park that are not wearing masks.

They're not following social distancing rules.

There's a lot that's not being followed over there.

And I don't hear nobody complaining about that because they're your kids and it's not kids that look like me.

Another thing that I want to bring up is security at CRHA properties, but maybe I should bring this up at the Housing Advisory Committee.

They're about to not have a contract with a security agency because that security agency is running out, I believe, the end of the month.

So what are we doing for safety in these neighborhoods?

Would they get warm outside?

I have residents calling me all the time, advising me of what's happening.

I don't know if the mayor is aware of it, but the contract is done at the end of the month with the current agency that's doing security over there.

So something needs to be done.

I have one more thing to cover.

Please.

but I'll wait till later.

Next hand is Robin Hoffman.

Robin, you're on with city council.

Thank you.

Hi, everybody.

I just wanted to say

Happy Earth Day.

If you want to plant some trees, by the way, you can get free trees from the Department of Agriculture.

You just get on their website and order them.

And they're little trees, but like one year, some of the events they had outside the

Sierra Club and whatnot, giving out trees that they got from the Department of Agriculture.

And I took 10 of them and I went around my neighborhood and I gave everybody a tree.

The other thing is I saw Gabe Silver building that landing.

I want to say that the Rivanna River Company is awesome.

They actually have a bus that I painted and each

um image I did in a canoe so you can do things uh there uh at the river and be outside and jog or whatever bicycle ride and enjoy nature and then please pick up the garbage you know for Earth Day that would be great now Daily Progress had the retreads the retreads are the senior citizens that have been out during COVID and now vaccinated

they're competing for Down Syndrome and other things and they're on my TV show and so I want to again plug CCMC and thank you very much David Dillahunt for putting up with my editing and all the terrible things I do to mess up the show but it looks seamless and then the Daily Progress picked it up

So I just want to say that that is a venue that we all can do through our phones now.

And you can have your own show.

It's very cheap.

$50 a year.

You can be on TV and, you know, really talk about things that are your story and are important to our community.

And then I want to say that I'm a nurse.

So the female black bioengineer who invented this way of giving protection against COVID has done this three years ago.

that this is not a new science and that this science is going forward, by the way, to treat Parkinson's and MS and sickle cell and things like that.

So please pay attention, the side effects.

I'm going to say the street side effects that I, when I talk to people is that they need to drink Gatorade, like a lot of Gatorade before you get your shot and then after.

And I think that helps a lot.

Robin was our seventh speaker.

Right now, there are no hands raised.

If you'd like to speak to council, click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

Now we have one.

Next up is Adrienne Dent.

Thank you, Brian.

Okay.

I just wanted to put in a word of gratitude to Dr. Andrea Douglas and the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center for their discussion entitled Removing the Mask with Mayor Walker, Naya Bates, Surad Davenport, Will Jones, and Dr. Lisa Wolfwork.

And I would like to encourage

the community who's listening to please tune into this conversation.

It's vital for the health of our community.

If you say anything about inclusive community, if that's a word that's left your mouth or something that you aspire to be part of, then I would encourage everyone to tune into this talk.

It's available right now on

YouTube on the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center channel, as well as the Facebook page.

And again, just wanted to encourage listeners that this is a wonderful opportunity for learning and growth.

And we'll give one last call to see if anyone else would like to speak to council.

Click the raise hand icon.

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

Next up is Don Gathers.

Don, you're on with council.

Good evening, everyone.

Don, I may have hit the wrong button there.

Are you back?

I think I'm back.

Okay.

Go ahead.

I was saying, whereas Wednesday as administrative professionals, they just want to wish all of them well and thank them for all that they do, especially those in the city.

I also wanted to make sure that we take a moment to recognize and if it is within your faith belief, say a prayer for all the communities that are dealing with issues across the country and pray that it never happens here.

but I don't ever want us to become so haughty or complacent that we begin to think that it can't possibly happen here because in a blink of an eye that one thing that one instance can go wrong and we've got some other issues to talk about also hoping that we can at some point begin the discussion about the statues I know that there's something on the agenda later on about that but I'm not sure exactly what that is or what it means

But I'm hoping that we can at least begin the conversations about those.

And let's see, I believe that might be it.

I had something else, but I can't remember what it was.

If it pops back to me, I'll just come back on later.

But yeah, thank you all very much.

Okay, thank you.

Ms.

Robertson, would you just remind the community the difference between the special events and the spontaneous, is it called a spontaneous event?

A demonstration is a reaction to some sort of occurrence that has just happened.

So it's in the nature of some sort of breaking news.

A spontaneous demonstration is not something that's planned, you know, a week, two weeks, a month in advance.

It's something that's really just sort of a natural reaction to something that's just happened.

A regular demonstration is similar.

It can happen at any time, but our events regulations specify that once a regular demonstration reaches a particular size, the planners of that demonstration should obtain a permit from the city just to

primarily to allow the city to plan for the safety of the event.

And then a special event is an activity like a food festival or a marathon or similar activity that's entertaining or community oriented but is not as focused on

All right, thank you.

Counselors, do you have any comments or questions from the comments?

I just wanted to, again, might put it in an email today, but thank staff as well as the many volunteers that came out in such, you know, I mean, I think it just, as Mr. Emory said, in pretty swift order over the last few weeks to just bring that access to the river to fruition and just really want to echo.

I think it's just a great example of the public and the private side coming together, or the community in this case.

And so I just want to, again, thank staff and the community members that came out and really showed up.

And I ran down there over the weekend and it's just, it's really a great access point.

Thank you all.

Any other comments?

And I think all of mine are, I'm just going back to look.

So I just wanted to comment on the

So I think we addressed the special events permits that Ms.

Hudson was talking about.

I made, you know, similar and have had discussions about the skate park and just keeping, you know, just alignment with what we are opening back up and being very mindful of citizens, staff, everyone's safety in that process.

The CRHA security, that was

contract is coming to an end and there are discussions.

There's a security meeting that happens every other Tuesday with residents that's occurring.

Mr. Sells is attempting to explore other options.

We met maybe a week or so ago.

a week and a half maybe with the police chief to try to figure out what that relationship look like and how it can be a safe and healthy one during this time.

So that's an ongoing discussion.

So there are conversations happening around security.

Nothing has been quite resolved and it's not an ideal time.

Not that any time over the past few years has been ideal to not have these things in place and the weather and anyone who is from here understands what happens when the weather

changes, which is unfortunate, but it's something that is on the top of our conversation list and radar, just trying to do it in a really holistic way, which is what the attempt has been.

And the current circumstance, I don't think anyone wanted to be here.

There has been a shift in the budget to allocate dollars to maintenance.

And I sent Mr. Sales after having a conversation with a community member today.

And there's just not enough money for everything.

So just wanted to address that.

I am on the CRHA board, but that is probably if you want more information.

in-depth conversation, either the safety committee meeting or the entire board to ask that questions to, but just wanted to answer it from my perspective.

Yeah, so that's all.

And the council chambers, and that discussion will happen a little bit later during this meeting.

So I don't have any other, those were all the comments that I had.

All right, any, no other, okay.

All right.

So this is this item is a proposed lease from the city of Charlottesville to the bridge PAI and PAI stands for Progressive Arts Initiative.

I'd like to point out that while I worked together with PAI on the agenda materials

We didn't catch until today that the name in your agenda memo was incorrect.

Your agenda memo calls the organization the Bridge Progressive Arts Institute.

So everywhere you see the word Institute, please just substitute the word initiative.

Otherwise, the proposed lease is very consistent with the terms of the original 2005 lease

to the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

That entity has since wound up its operations and is no longer operational.

And so the bridge PAI is very interested in undertaking responsibility for maintaining

the First Amendment monument otherwise known as the community chalkboard and for continuing to have that property available within the city of Charlottesville for the general public as well as its own mission.

So attached is a resolution proposing to approve a lease of

All right, thank you.

Counselors, any questions?

All right.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you'd like to address counsel on this topic, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

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

All right, thank you.

So we'll close the public hearing.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

Okay.

All right, I will also present this one.

In your agenda materials, there is a proposed ordinance to assure continuity of government

This is an updated version of an ordinance you originally enacted in March of 2017 or one of the ordinances.

And what I have noted in the materials is that under the state statute that authorizes city council to take

actions necessary to assure continuity of government.

Any ordinance that you enact is effective for not more than a six month period of time.

And so every six months, you've been looking at the ordinances and resolutions that you've passed and the date you have each time chosen to extend them for an additional six months.

The proposal tonight is for this updated and amended ordinance to continue in effect for another six months.

And as noted in the materials, what I have done is I have taken the various ordinances that City Council enacted in March of 2020 and amended or extended in September and October of 2020.

and I have rolled all of those ordinances into one document so that anyone looking at it can see all of the regulations that will be in place for the next six months and not have to put together a series of multiple documents that started from last March.

I've also referenced a couple of key resolutions that were adopted during the

the course of the past year.

One was the original emergency declaration that remains in effect.

And the second was a resolution that granted the Haven permission to operate without regard to zoning special use permit conditions.

And that resolution also continues in effect for so long as

the emergency remains declared at the local level.

And there was another ordinance that extended certain mandatory review periods that I have also rolled into this ordinance.

And so staff's recommendation is that you should enact the continuity of government ordinance as updated

for the next six months period and continue all of the actions that you currently have in place, including how public meetings are taking place, extension of mandatory deadlines and the waiver of fees for city-owned areas that are used by businesses as outdoor cafes.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I'm sure it's like staring right at me, but how this lines up with the local state of emergency?

Like when was last time we did that one?

So the declaration of emergency was last March and you only have to do that once.

The declaration of emergency remains in effect until city council takes some sort of affirmative vote

to make a finding that all of the emergency actions that are necessary to address the emergency have been taken.

Once you are no longer within a declared state of local emergency, you could not continue the actions in this ordinance.

So you'd have to go back to business as usual, especially in connection with how you're conducting your meetings.

Any other questions or comments?

All right.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thomas?

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Next, we have an appropriation.

House Bill 5005, item 408, number 1C,

Public Safety and Homeland Security Department of Criminal Justice Services, local police department funding $67,913.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Thank you for this opportunity to be in front of you.

During the special session of the General Assembly, in conjunction with House Bill 5005, there was funding appropriated to be distributed by the Department of Criminal Justice Services to local police departments statewide.

It was based on shares and percentages and headcounts.

The purpose was to either attract or retain

the police department swarm personnel that they currently had within their agencies.

A $500 allowment was to be provided to each officer.

In January of 2021, the city actually received those funds.

They had already been encumbered.

And the appropriation is to ask for that funding to be distributed.

There is currently no budgetary impact on the city as that funding has come from the state.

All right, thank you.

Counselors, are there any questions, comments?

No?

All right.

So this is a no vote, so it'll move to the May 3rd consent agenda?

No?

Okay.

All right.

I don't think this has ever happened.

I was going to say we're under an hour right now.

Doesn't feel right.

Last week we did have some exchanges around if we wanted to modify our agenda moving forward to add an additional section, Mayor Walker, that you had raised.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

So we were talking back in January about adding a similar section to the city manager's response to the community matters to city manager response to counselors just for questions that'll come up and to have the city manager not have to

be expected to answer them that meeting, but to be able to discuss them the next meeting.

And so it was just whether we were going to add that section to the agenda or not.

I would be more than happy to.

I think that would be great.

Especially for those things that are especially important to the public and the community to be able to discuss during and present during a council meeting.

Thank you.

It's fine.

Counselors, any?

Ms.

I think we could do it here, but Ms.

If you all would like to adopt a motion tonight, then I can work with Ms.

Okay.

I believe it would coincide with community matters.

do we want to proceed community matters?

I think it could come after, but Ms.

Thomas, what are your thoughts?

So the provision would include both having the city manager

Yes.

Okay.

Or anything that's come up during the meeting.

Okay.

That makes sense.

Okay.

So if we changed it, response to community matters and previous council questions.

Or maybe it doesn't have to be two sections.

Maybe we'll just collect questions and then answer them all for the community and for counselors during the same segment of the meeting.

That sounds good to me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yep, we're at the vote.

So Vice Mayor McGill seconded.

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Okay.

So the only thing I think, because the other things I can address for more through email was just what came up earlier doing the reports with the pathway funds to not let that get to zero, which it sounds like it's at.

And if we can put some dollars towards that until the American Rescue Act and whatever funding we put in there, then so that there won't be a break and so their families won't have to delay there.

So I didn't see.

Miss Demick and I were just texting earlier of getting together first thing tomorrow to make sure of where the balance is and how we can go ahead and try to initiate additional funding so that there is no break in that funding.

She and I have had

Counselors, are you all?

Just to be clear, the Pathways Fund is the fund that had historically been about $84,000 a year, which in the past year we've increased rather substantially.

Okay.

I don't think there's any money.

Yeah.

So we were talking about increasing it annually, but

Yeah, yes, I think you're right.

Oh, go ahead.

Ms.

I think we actually might have put more.

We did.

We did.

We put, I mean, that was one chunk we put towards that, but I want to say we put $800,000 at one point, too.

If I recall early on, we... Surplus allocation?

We had the surplus allocation.

We had CARES money that went to there.

Right.

That was the year-end surplus.

That was back in January of 2020 that we decided that.

But in the report from United Way, it did say that there was a total of $3.58 million of total pathway funding, of which the county spend was $2.5 million and ours was

just over one.

Yeah, that was also the CACF, right?

There was a large collection.

I also think it might be important for us to put out there to people that, you know, if you have a chance right now, donating to the CACF

Well, the community has been very responsive throughout the pandemic, too.

Even when Emily was given the presentation earlier, dealing with the PPEs and the masks, you know, there was a well-coordinated community initiative during that time.

So they have been

assisting.

I just think it goes to show how great the need is with the money CACF raised, the dollars, because that million may be just the money that we've allocated, but I'm not sure what the total.

I wasn't 100% prepared to have that conversation that we have allocated to it, but whatever money we're going to

is going to be requested from the American Rescue Funds.

I hope that we have enough.

Mayor, I think one of the things we'll have to be watching closely there too is that there will be some money coming directly for rent relief to families, but that will be more restrictive than the funding that we get directly, which was very similar to the CARES funding as well.

Okay.

I believe that's what we did before.

I know Kaki worked really hard with a number of community agencies to make sure that we were making sure everyone went to the place that they could get the most resources that they needed.

And then they leveraged the CARES money quite well, making sure that as many people as possible got the assistance they needed.

because there were a number of people who couldn't qualify for the rental relief or the mortgage relief.

And we also did the housing funds through the Economic Development Office to those four parts.

Okay, so we'll have an update and maybe something to consider on the on Tuesday.

Okay, thank you.

All right, and I'll just send my other two questions and we'll figure out because I think the chat and that program we were we had talked about having a work session on anyway.

So that's what I wanted to bring up so I can send an email to see

for that.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, I started doing some research on it.

Thank you for bringing it forward.

And I would only add, would other counselors think for the discussion on CHAP if it would make sense to include like progressive taxation more broadly?

Because I know I've had a few conversations about like

what potentially could be done through the General Assembly or get creative to figure out like just to gear our taxes more progressively generally.

I agree.

It was one of our topics we were hoping to do last year when things kind of shut down.

We had actually identified the month we were going to discuss it.

I am.

OK.

Yeah, me too.

Okay, so we're going to have the what direct payments to families could look like that discussion and then schedule a work session with CHAP and other progressive taxation ideas.

All right.

Okay.

That's it.

I think

I had one note that I don't have written down in that law.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you're in the audience, you'd like to address council on any topic for up to three minutes, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.

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

This may be the only opportunity you ever have to speak under matters by the public before 8 p.m.

Don Gathers, you're on the city council.

Excuse me, allow me a moment, but this is just outright scary.

I'm not sure how the planets align for this to happen, but anyway, I remember what I was,

what I was missing earlier.

And that was the question about the honorary street signage and city manager Boyle's report.

I just didn't hear any mention of that.

And I'd like to know where we are with that and that designation that I asked about at the last council meeting.

Yes, please.

Yep.

Next up is Robin Hoffman, who will be followed by Trina Cooper.

Robin, you're on with City Council.

I wanted to add also that go Maxine Waters for her outspoken deliberation on the protest

of the horrible, hopefully trial comes out good for the benefit of everybody to follow and stop

killing people aimlessly and that sort of thing.

But also I want to say that we in Charlottesville, I was very proud when we came out for Floyd and we, you know, Zy Bryant and a whole bunch of people, Don Gathers, everybody organized.

We didn't, you know, we were masked.

We stood, people didn't even want to go near each other at the time.

You know, so I think we can do that again because I think it's very necessary that people get to be with their community and get to, I felt I had to come out and I was so glad that people were out because it means that you care about your community and, you know, to show presence.

And so I just want to say that if there could be an organized one again, I would love to attend.

Next up is Trina Cooper.

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

Trina, you're on the city council.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Katrina Cooper.

I am a Public House of Residence.

I live over on Riverside Avenue.

I'm here to speak today.

I want to just go off of what the mayor said about shall we come to an end, what they're saying.

and I feel that I don't know who I need to talk to but I feel that the police department need to come and address some situations and how they address situations need to be I don't know how I'm trying to say it but it was last week

I said I stayed two to three hours out here with five police officers, an ambulance, and a man that's hallucinating out his mind.

to find out that yelling, everything, and the police did not take him.

They did not take him.

They let him go back in the residence.

And I felt for my safety and my child, my kid's safety.

So I don't know what the protocols is when somebody's off these drugs or whatever.

But that night, I felt unsafe.

I don't know what the police department protocol is for stuff like this.

But I know it wasn't for them to let this man go back up in the residence and stay all night with me in fear.

And I would just like for someone to address that with the police department since I can't get through to nobody.

And Ms.

Cook, I didn't hear the part

You went out until about two to three hours.

Okay, so it was a situation over here where I live that and I was woken up and I did stay out here for like two or three hours because the person was out here yelling, screaming, yelling, saying just out of their mind and I stayed out here and the officer stayed out here and they let this gentleman yell and

to the top of his lungs and did not take him away from here.

They let him go back in there knowing that he was on some type of drugs.

They could see it, I could see it.

But my whole thing was it should be some type of protocol that Charlottesville police have because I felt unsafe that morning for somebody to stand out here three hours, two to three hours and just yell and the police stands out here and does basically nothing, not even escort them off the premises, let them go back into the residence.

I felt unsafe and I just want to see what is the protocol for the Charlottesville Police Department when things like this happen because I know it's not for them the person to go back into residence because they never know what could have happened.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I apologize.

I knew I had a response for this, and I thought it had been set out, and I see now that it hadn't to Mr. Gathers.

But regarding the installation standards, in October of 2020, due to some issues with the size of the signs and the loadings of those signs on the street posts,

A new policy had been adopted again October of 2020 with a new standard that allowed more flexibility and then change to the different signage that you're seeing now.

The locations that were mentioned had been

installed prior to October of 2020, and therefore they were put on the more standard street sign.

But all of those coming after that policy had been adopted would fall underneath this new standard.

So I know that that

That's the information regarding the sign and the policy that was changed in 2020.

And, you know, I do remember the question, too, of notification.

And I think that that got lost during the pandemic, which hopefully we will make sure to do at any time in the future of whoever requested the signs to be able to coordinate some type of an event around the new installations.

Mr. Boyles do you think it would be possible that we could keep a record going of the various signs that have been put up during the pandemic so that we could after once the pandemic restrictions have been lifted we could look at doing some ceremony some you know delayed ceremonies possibly a one-year anniversary ceremony I do believe there was another one over

off of Grady Avenue.

I don't know if there was any sort of ceremony for that.

When I first inquired about it, staff was certainly very

And since we're on signage, I do want to go back to Ms.

Cooper.

But I did send the letter from Ms.

Carey.

And we hadn't moved.

There was the last communication was whether we were considering any other

or whether there was a policy change and there was a delay in being able to consider.

So I think that's what staff was waiting on.

Chair Walker, it was my understanding that that whole process is on hold right now.

I think we discussed the starting point of that was a lot of the recommendations that came out of the Historic Resources Committee and then us aligning on kind of formalizing that.

Yep, so I did send a letter and the application to Ms.

Carey, but I did note that I believe the policy is on hold right now.

But it's something that's going to be worked.

Like will something will come before us at some point in the near future or?

Maybe not so near, but because I know it was whether we were going to have it a once a year or twice a year, like that, that part of the discussion will get this.

Right.

It should be NDS staff, Public Works staff.

And I believe Mr. Boyles is involved in that.

All right.

Thank you.

And my only comment without knowing everything

that was taking place.

And I know that it is probably difficult for anybody involved in a situation that takes hours.

But I, you know, the fact that this person didn't end up in jail and, you know, is

something that I think we've been trying to figure out how to make that happen and for people to get the assistance they need.

And so those would be my questions.

Was there some assistance that they needed?

Did we help with that?

But it sounds like that the officer may have been patient through a process that was unsettling.

for the individual, probably the officers and to, it sounds like from Ms.

Cooper, community members.

And so, you know, I don't have any, I don't know everything that was happening, but I can understand Ms.

Cooper's frustration.

But I also know that these are the type of situations that we're trying to figure out how people don't end up in jail over.

And what does that look like where the individual needs and the community needs are served?

They're not harmed.

They are not in jail where they can't be helped.

And we know that we're not spending the money to house them at a jail when that's probably not their need.

But I think this is part of the overall discussion that we have.

are trying to have, and I think maybe Counselor Snook and Vice Mayor McGill, this is more along the lines of what you all are discussing in your working group, but what could have been a better response to a situation like this that wasn't the cop taking the individual off to jail, which is the things we're trying to avoid, so this may be a situation that

That's, I mean, there's so many pieces to this that are kind of, if it's a mental health emergency, the officer has very little, like it's,

And regretfully, well, from one perspective, it's very complicated, regretfully.

I wish there was an easy black and white answer to some of this.

I know as many of us know, if it's a mental health emergency, an officer is trying to make the decision if the person is a threat to themselves or others,

Well, the one thing I wanted to point out, last year around this time when we began to get a lot of calls for defunding the police or for more mental health responses and so on, there was a call for more de-escalation training.

And what Chief Brackney pointed out was that in fact all of the officers have had de-escalation training.

All of the officers have had

some CIT training.

This is not a case where we're sending out officers who are oblivious to the psychological issues that are at work.

I note that Chief Brackney, her name is appearing and is on the call.

I don't know if she would like to add something in particular at this point or whether she'd rather stay out of it.

I don't know.

I'll leave it up to her.

Personally, I look at it as this is an instance of the Charlottesville police perhaps

So thank you.

I stepped away briefly to check on the demonstration that was going on out front that seems to be coming to an end that has been going on since about 5 o'clock this evening.

So as I caught the tail end of it, what I understand is that there may have been someone who wanted a police response or a police

out come that they didn't get the police outcome that they possibly had desired.

I don't know enough about it.

It does appear again that Miss Cooper, who seems to be the one being discussed, is the one that had her hand raised.

And from everything I say that hurt, there might have been a bad connection to it.

so we may be better informed if we got a little bit more information from her and then we could then move to what that might look like as we talk about much more robustly what are options for police and what are their legal obligations as we have these discussions and Mayor Walker part of those conversations moving forward is we create systems

You'll hear me say over and over, we may have resources, but we don't have capacity.

Or we may have resources and we don't have legislative authority.

So we might want to consider what those balances look like when someone is asking for a police response.

As a matter of fact, on Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee under U.S.

Senator Cory Booker is taking up exactly these issues and has asked us to weigh in on it, knowing we are doing a lot of this forward work around these issues.

I think that might benefit us.

I do see Ms.

Ms.

Cooper, I think the best

thing would probably be for you to have a conversation with the chief and I can give you a call too.

Mayor Walker, did you want me to enable her mic?

Ms.

Okay, that sounds great because... She really did catch the end of it.

I'll transfer my number.

No, you want to.

Yeah, we'll get it.

I'm happy to organize a meeting with Chief Brackney, if that would work, with Ms.

If it's beneficial, do we want to just start with a simple phone call just to set the context versus trying to set up a full-blown meeting?

That way it's often much more responsive, a lot quicker than trying to set up a Zoom.

So Ms.

I think this is the type of situation, especially when you're talking about community response, if it's the kind of thing we may see in the community, it's worth talking about and making sure that we are having the discussions during those working groups, task force, whatever they are.

and I think that Ms.

Thomas, do you have Ms.

I don't.

All right, any other comments?

Okay, I feel like I forgot something, but all right.

All right, meeting adjourned.

Thank you.