City Council Meeting   10/4/2021

All right.

Vice Mayor McGill.

Yeah, okay.

You're here.

All right.

Ms.

Thomas.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Okay.

Chair Walker?

Yes.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councilor Hill?

Yes.

All right, thank you, that carries 5-0.

Okay.

Sorry, I'm just getting off mute.

This fall, with the support from the City of Charlottesville's Climate Protection Program, C3 is hosting energy clinics at various city parks and locations.

is aimed at helping homeowners and renters save money, save energy and help us reach our community climate goals by accessing public funding set aside for income qualifying city residents, seniors and veterans.

Attendees will learn where opportunities to save energy and money reside in their home,

while what funding streams are available for energy efficiency improvements like new heating and cooling systems, attic insulation and more, and how to sign up for free one-on-one consultations and or energy assessments.

Their next fall clinic, the first fall clinic coming up is Wednesday, October 6th from 4.30 to 6.30 at Tonsillar Park.

there will be free snacks and drinks and there's no need to RSVP.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are two things that I'd like to mention.

One is that I was pleased to meet last week with Hansel Aguilar, our new executive director of the PCRB.

He arrived last week and is getting up to speed and is going to help us get up to speed and get the PCRB ordinance finished and procedures worked out.

He's an impressive guy and I think we'll all enjoy working with him The second thing I wanted to mention was last week the Greenbrier Neighborhood Association had a Zoom call to Zoom meeting to talk about the future land use map

and Alex of the Neighbor Development Services team was on the call and Missy Creasy was there providing all kinds of useful information in the chat and it was a good event and it would not have been possible without their assistance.

So Greenbrier Neighborhood Association has asked me to thank Alex and Missy publicly for their help.

Those are my two comments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

I'm going to, this should be a fairly brief update since you just got one two weeks ago.

So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen.

Okay.

So here we are today.

I actually think we have the beginnings of good news today.

We're beginning to see a slight downturn in our current infection rate.

Really, for the first time last week, we did not have any triple digit days with regards to cases.

They were all below 100.

And if you look at the graph down below, you can see that we're beginning to trend in a downward fashion here.

So

Generally, I think we may be past the worst of the peak, at least with this particular surge

We are still seeing primarily the Delta variant.

I've shown you this graph before.

The darker colors are Delta.

As a reminder, we don't genotype everyone, but we do a fair amount in our health district because of UVA, and we're still seeing predominantly Delta.

We have not yet seen any substantial change in new variants, showing new variants either.

We continue to vaccinate as you can see in Charlottesville 63% of total population have at least one dose so at least some immunity and 57% are fully vaccinated so that's the total population and includes individuals that are not eligible for vaccine if you look just at adults you'll see that number is considerably higher 71% of adults have at least one dose and 60

The new news that's come out is there are boosters now available for those who were initially vaccinated with Pfizer.

You need to obtain your booster six months after the completion of your second shot.

And so people who started last year in the winter and early spring are now eligible if they got Pfizer.

So who should get a booster?

This is not a universal recommendation that was given by the CDC or the FDA.

People who should get a booster, that is, should sign up to get one right now if their past six months are adults age 65 and older and adults age 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions.

And I've listed those underlying medical conditions three boxes over under individuals who may get a booster.

Additionally, residents who live in long-term care settings, adult residents who live in long-term care settings should get a booster shot.

So that would be individuals who live in assisted care or skilled nursing or a memory care unit, but also those who live in other congregate type of settings.

So individuals who are in group homes that are adults should consider getting a booster at this point in time.

There are two groups who may get a booster if they feel that they are at high risk.

Adults age 18 to 49 who have underlying medical conditions and I've listed those here below.

They're all the conditions that we know that put you at higher risk if you have a case of COVID-19.

You're more likely to be hospitalized if you have these conditions and more likely to die.

And then finally, another group that may get a booster if they feel they're at higher risk are employees.

And here we're talking about first responders, individuals in a healthcare setting or an educational setting, individuals who work in the food or agricultural business, manufacturing, corrections, U.S.

Postal Service or public transit.

This is a really challenging category.

It really is requiring an individual to weigh their risk of getting COVID based on where they work.

I think if people have questions, they should really talk to their healthcare provider and describe what they do to see if that will put them at higher risk of coming in contact with individuals who have COVID-19.

So we are offering boosters right now at all locations.

We do ask that you schedule an appointment so that we have enough Pfizer on board there, but they are available everywhere that we are vaccinating.

I showed you this map last time.

This is the census track map showing the percentage of adults who have been vaccinated in various census tracks.

I remind you that the lightest ones that the white one that's 19% is actually the census track of UVA and the other lighter ones around them, particularly the 24% and the 44% include a lot of student housing.

and we believe that students listed their home address for vaccination rather than their school address there are despite that still some areas where we are seeing lower vaccination rates than we would like in the Charlottesville area and we continue to do outreach to those areas providing mobile events and showing up at community sponsored events to encourage vaccination

Our expanded sites, we are vaccinating at the health department every Friday.

You can either make an appointment or walk in.

If you're getting a booster, we really do ask that you make an appointment, though.

We continue to vaccinate at Fashion Square Mall and the old J.Crew store.

and of course move to health at a cut above the rest every Thursday.

Our homebound program remains in effect that's a great partnership between UVA and Charlottesville Fire and as a reminder you can get your vaccination and you can get your smoke detector checked.

We will do boosters this way.

Our mobile unit provides vaccination all over town.

It is on the mall on Mondays, Moby on the mall, and you can stop by there and pick up either your first or second dose of vaccine or you can get your booster.

Please schedule your booster.

And then, as I've said, many place-based clinics.

We do have a new site that will be opening, we believe, on October 12th.

It's going to be in the old Seminole Square Big Lots location, which is where UVA was vaccinating out of last fall.

This is actually a vendor-run vaccination clinic.

It's a contract that our central office, VDH, has with an emergency response organization called ASHBrit.

We will have the hours and appointment information available and put out a press release at the end of the week providing all the details but we wanted to make you aware that we are standing up a large scale site to handle what we believe will be a fairly large volume of vaccinations

It is primarily geared towards providing boosters, but this particular vendor has agreed to provide all three vaccines, and they will also provide either first or second doses if you need them.

They can vaccinate both adults and children, and they will have translation services available.

So look for the announcement of the new community vaccination center.

Again, it will be at the old Big Lots location in Seminole Square Mall.

There are two upcoming events that you may have heard about on the news that we believe will change the demand for vaccination.

The first is the FDA Advisory Committee meeting on October 14th and 15th.

This is to review the data that has been submitted to support boosters for those who received Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

They're also going to talk about mixing and different vaccines for the booster.

So, for example, they will discuss whether adding Johnson & Johnson instead of an mRNA vaccine is an appropriate way to receive your booster and whether there's additional benefit that might come from this.

This will be emergency use authorization again, and it will still, even if it's approved by the FDA on that date, we'll still have to go to the CDC Advisory Committee.

At the end of the month, on October 26, the FDA has tentatively scheduled the review meeting for Pfizer use in children 5 to 11 years old.

The data has been, they've announced results via press release, Pfizer has, but so far the data hasn't actually made its way to the FDA, although they anticipate it should be submitted any time now.

They wanted to go ahead and get this meeting on the books.

It could be delayed if there are any questions about the data or they need to review anything additionally.

And again, this would be emergency use, but I think it'll really relieve many parents in our community when they're able to get their younger children vaccinated and hopefully relieve some of the burden that we're seeing on our school and educators.

just a reminder we continue to provide lots of testing with the increasing vaccine mandate and with the outbreaks that we've seen testing has been in very high demand we do testing every day at one of our localities across the health district additionally every day in the Charlottesville and Albemarle area there is testing available either through UVA Monday and Tuesday nights

or through a partnership with Next Molecular on Wednesday and Thursday at the Fashion Square Mall or Fridays run by the Health Department at the Fashion Square Mall.

You can see there is lots of testing available.

We're not filling up at this point in time.

So if you need testing, if you're symptomatic, please give us a call.

We can schedule a time or you can drive up to any of these locations.

And then finally, just a reminder of our hotline.

We are still getting a large volume of calls to our hotline.

We're working to try and hire additional operators for this surge.

And we do have Spanish speakers available.

And of course, vaccines.gov.

Just a reminder that the health department's not the only place that you can get a vaccine.

So if you're looking for your booster or you've decided to get your first shot, you can go to vaccines.gov and find either a clinic or pharmacy that's near you that can provide your booster.

and that is my presentation tonight.

And let me stop sharing.

Thank you, Dr. Bonds.

Counselors, are there any questions?

No.

And I think the mix up in the schedule, the alternating between Louisa and here, and I think when our original meeting, maybe Mr. McKay wasn't available, which is why they're back to back like this, but we shouldn't see you again until November.

But thank you for being here.

I had a question, you know, I was reading earlier about it's, you know, they are now saying that there's a two month, it appears to be a two month spike.

for these variants.

And so that would put us in mid-October if that is the case.

Yeah, so you bring up a really great point.

I think it's really important that everyone get their flu vaccine this year, and now is the best time starting in October to really go get your flu vaccine.

So if you haven't gotten it, please go to either your primary care provider or your pharmacy, or you can come to the health department at one of our flu clinics and get your flu vaccine.

And of course, the best way always to deal with these is to get vaccinated for COVID.

We have not yet seen the other variants that have made the news appear in large numbers in the state of Virginia.

We're really not tracking that at all at this point.

So far, the vaccines seem to be doing their job at keeping people out of a hospital and preventing death.

People who are hospitalized for the most part are people who are unvaccinated.

So really the best strategy right now is to get your flu shot, get your COVID shot.

At the health department, we've brought back a lot of our case investigators and contact tracers.

We'll plan on leaving them on staff for a few months in case we do see another spike of a similar variant to Delta.

We will have the large vaccination center.

So if boosters are available, that CDC community vaccination site

can do up to 1,000 vaccines a day.

So it's really capable of producing a high volume there.

Okay.

And just wondering, because this summer, I think some of the missing, you know, mixed information that went out is the reason that people kind of laxed.

And then if we start seeing this downward trend, by the time we really get, you know, into that curve, it'll be headed back up again, based on what the history and I just wanted to make sure that people were aware that this isn't a time to

You bring up a really great point.

And I think it's critical that in addition to getting vaccinated, people continue to wear a mask when they're in an indoor space and continue to socially distance.

We see lots and lots of events.

People really want to get back to their normal activities.

And I certainly understand that.

It's been a long, long two years.

But I really encourage people, if you are going to go to an event, please wear a mask when you're indoors.

And even outdoor, you know, I sent UVA World Health Organization article that just said you're in close proximity to people at like football games and things like that.

And so consideration of wearing a mask in those at those times that they recommended that we are getting CDC may be doing some different things.

But I think that translation from when you're in and when you're out

Yeah, no, that's a great point.

you know I don't that particular report is generated by the state for us and they don't break the census track data down by race and ethnicity I will ask our data person internally if that's at all possible

Clearly we have the data because we're able to tell how many people are vaccinated in that census tract.

It's just whether we can manipulate it at a local level.

Okay, thank you.

Counselors, any questions, comments?

I always appreciate your time here.

Thank you and we will see you next month

Enjoy your evening.

All right.

Yes, I have a motion.

Is there a second?

Ms.

Mayor Walker?

Did you hear me?

Oh, you're muted.

Your microphone's on, Ms.

I did get your vote.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

All right, thank you, that carries five out.

Next up, recognition or proclamations.

Okay.

Whereas the problems of domestic violence are not confined to any group or groups of people but cross all economic racial and societal barriers and are supported by societal indifference.

And whereas the crime of domestic violence violates an individual's privacy, dignity, security and humanity.

due to the systematic use of physical, emotional, sexual, psychological, economical control and or abuse with the impact of this crime being wide ranging.

And whereas

No one person, organization, agency or community can eliminate domestic violence on their own.

We must work together to educate our entire population about what can be done to prevent such violence, support victims, survivors and their families,

and increased support for agencies providing services to those community members and whereas the shelter for help and emergency has led the way in the city of Charlottesville and addressing domestic violence by providing 24 hour hotline services to victims survivors and their families offering support and information and empowering survivors to chart their own course for healing.

and whereas the Shelter for Help and Emergency commemorates its 42nd year of providing unparalleled services to women, children and men who have been victimized by domestic violence.

now therefore be resolved in recognition of the important work being done by the shelter for health and emergency.

I Nikuyah Walker, mayor of the city of Charlottesville on behalf of the Charlottesville City Council do hereby proclaim the month of October 21st as domestic violence awareness month and urge all citizens to actively participate in the scheduled activities and programs sponsored by the shelter for health and emergency.

and to work towards the elimination of personal and institutional balance against women, children and men.

Is there anyone here from she that the shelter for help and emergencies that would like to speak?

No.

All right.

All right, next up we have, oh, that's where that went.

Sorry about that.

Next up we have the consent agenda.

Ms.

Consent Agenda, one, Resolution Appropriating VDOT Funds for VDOT Highway Safety Improvement Grant for Washington Park to Madison Avenue Trail, $88,350, second reading.

Two, Resolution Appropriating Funds for Virginia Department of Social Services Temporary Aid to Needy Families Grants, $257,479.76, second reading.

three ordinance amending and reenacting the transient occupancy tax of the code of the city of Charlottesville 1990 to conform the city's process for collection and reporting of transient occupancy tax

with changes in state enabling legislation.

Second reading.

Four, ordinance amending and reenacting the meals tax to clarify that meals tax reports are due to the sellers, due from the sellers to the city every month.

Second reading.

Five, resolution considering an off cycle budget request from the buck squad, $50,000.

Second reading.

six resolution appropriating funds for the Charlottesville victim witness assistance grant $257,024 first of two readings

Seven, Resolution Appropriating Funding Award for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training.

$112,708, first of two readings.

Eight, Resolution Appropriating City Space, I'm sorry, Approving City Space as Central Absentee Precinct for the November 2, 2021 general election.

This may be enacted on one reading with four fifths vote.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you'd like to address counsel on any of those 11 items on the consent agenda, please click the raise hand icon.

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

Each person will get up to three minutes.

And let me just, okay, now we have a hand up.

First hand up was Tanisha Hudson.

Tanisha, you're on with counsel.

I just want to speak on one of the items on the consent agenda.

Okay, so the second reading for the Buck Squad, I really want you all to definitely consider everything involved with the Buck Squad.

Call me what you want.

I've had my own conversations with Herb Dickerson about them getting this money.

I've had my own conversations about situations that have happened where they've been present and nobody's done anything to

deescalate certain situations.

So I want you all to really think about that again.

What you think may or may not be a good program in these communities, these community members are not wanting this.

So please stop making rational decisions.

for community members if you're not physically talking to the community members who are dealing with and who are suffering from whether it's shootings in the neighborhood or fights in local parks or whatever.

If you're not having these conversations, if you're not going to the scene of any of these situations, then please don't be making decisions.

Don't think because you give money to a black organization that you're helping the people who are suffering the most.

You are not.

All of you have definitely not helped in more than one way the black community.

I think the mayor has been the only one that's been adamant about pointing out certain things in these neighborhoods because we've known people that have been directly affected by it.

The rest of you have not.

Our next speaker is Mike Fox.

Mike, you're on with counsel.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, counselors.

and we both live in Crozet.

Organization is part of the Virginia Community Violence Coalition and we encourage council to approve funding for the Buck Squad.

During the pandemic frontline violence intervention and prevention workers have risked their own health and safety to mediate conflicts to prevent violence and respond to crisis mental health needs as well as delivering food and other essential services to people who lack access to them.

Even as demand for community violence prevention and intervention services remains at record highs, overall support for this work has been limited by the economic impacts of the pandemic.

As the nation grapples with the ongoing conversation about how to end mass incarceration and other criminal justice issues, now is the time to support effective community-based approaches to reducing violence.

And Mayor Walker, our next speaker is also signed up under Community Matters.

So I just want to check in and see if Shanna Larkin wanted to speak to an item on the consent agenda.

I can hear you.

Sorry.

Okay.

Go ahead.

My name is Shada Murray, and I'm here to represent the voices of hundreds of UVA parents who are concerned about the escalating violence in Charlottesville.

Larkin, you are on our agenda for the safety matters section.

Yes.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

All right.

I wasn't sure.

I wasn't sure when I was supposed to speak.

No, I just wanted to respond.

Obviously, there has been some feedback, and as a council, we've heard from some folks, and I know a few of us had gone out and shadowed with the Buck Squad, and after receiving some feedback after our last meeting, Vice Mayor McGill and I met with some members of the Buck Squad just to articulate some of the concerns that were raised.

I was hoping that someone might actually was going to come and speak on behalf of the group during this time, and they have presented with council

you know some formal policies that they want to have to address some of the issues that took place under former leadership and so I think the main question I think for me right now is just ensuring that we are treating this organization like any other outside organization that we provide funding to so that there is some level of accountability obviously given even some of the concerns that have been raised and so I just wanted to raise that and actually do see that Ms.

So my question actually was to Ms.

Robertson more directly to Ms.

Robertson in terms of just with the way that the resolution is written does this ensure that council can have the same levels of accountability for the funding as we do with any other outside organization

Yes, we drafted the resolution very similarly to other resolutions that you've used for similar purposes.

So, you know, I don't think there's anything about the resolution that would preclude you from seeking accountability or for following up to make sure.

But if you

wanted to make the resolution stronger.

Well, I think that you can certainly ask, but this particular resolution doesn't impose any conditions or reporting requirements.

Mr. Bowles and I have discussed this, and they have monthly reporting requirements, unless that has changed, because I didn't think they should have monthly, but they had monthly, and so we talked about that.

And I was just saying that that's just not necessarily because of the resolution.

And that's what I was trying to understand.

We could still have that consistency despite whatever is on this resolution right now.

Yes, it's been done outside the context of the resolution.

For the since we are talking about the conscious capitalist, I made sure the entire time that I was talking to that group and to staff about that group that they were providing updates and so that we went in it with the understanding of

that they would be providing those updates.

I talked to the city manager about that.

I thought we were giving them funds for programs that they hadn't established before and to make sure that they were successful.

Now, that did translate at some point to them giving monthly updates that no other organization is having to give.

And I didn't understand why it became a monthly versus quarterly or monthly.

twice a year.

We wanted it to be more, because right now most of the organizations are only required to give a year, that annual update, and it's really just the information they submit when they're requesting new funding.

And I have said, and even when I was talking with them about that, I thought that for us to ensure that the community needs are getting met, that I even asked for it, even though it wasn't required for us to

looking, you know, monitor that group a little bit more just to make sure no one came in at the end and said that they were not doing the things that we wanted them to do.

That's primarily why I made sure that they understood that.

So I wasn't a part of these conversations about the buck squad.

So I just wanted to correct that.

to make sure that what Ms.

Robertson's statement, I didn't want people to think that they were being asked to maybe ask things that other groups were not.

I think all of our performance and management office, I think that needs to be up and running.

And that's why I'm raising it at this juncture because it wasn't clear to me what I was aware that those

those follow-ups were being done and there was that expectation and I think that we should have that same expectation with this organization.

Or any organization that we give, not just those two.

Yes, right.

There's just a more of a formal process when you go through like the vibrant community funds versus these off-budget cycle requests for council and so just going through the packet again this weekend I just wanted to make sure and obviously just given just some of the feedback so.

All right, so do you want Ms.

Hayes to come on now or do you want to make the motion?

I mean, it's up to the group.

I'm finding the way.

Okay, so Ms.

Yep, just a moment.

Ms.

Okay, thank you.

I just wanted to say that the Buck Squad was made aware of some concerns and we worked quickly to address those by

Deploying an accountability and grievance policy that was posted on our website, and we've, you know, been making strides to be more visible.

Our past leadership is no longer working with the organization, which was also a concern for a lot of people with the Buck Squad.

And please keep in mind the newness of the organization.

So there are

Still a lot of areas where the organization will need to grow and the request for the funding will help us to probably hire someone that can regulate that.

We've been in touch with FAR and CHRA this week talking about monthly reporting to try to make sure we're regulated or held accountable to a standard and we plan to do that.

We plan to be very visible about

the expenditure of the funds if we're granted the off cycle request.

So I just wanted to weigh in to let the community know that, you know, there are some new concerns that the group has not been aware of that has just recently come to light.

And we've been working quickly to address those and, you know, try to make the organization, you know, overall a good organization, which, you know, the intent is there.

But, you know, there are some kinks being, you know, so new, less than a year old.

So I just wanted to relay that.

And we have communicated with the council about the grievance policy and accountability policy that has just been enacted.

So, you know, happy to answer any other questions.

But we are, you know, trying to be as transparent as possible and trying to, you know, in good faith serve the community in the ways that we set out to saying that they're trying to reduce gun violence.

So that concludes my comments.

Mr. Wheeler, is Ms.

I'm not sure.

Why don't we check in?

Joy, did you want to comment on this item?

Oh, so the I know that George Johnson from Hardy Drive.

I know that CRHA and far had had a meeting.

I don't know what the update is.

I just heard from the young lady who just spoke about that.

And I guess that has to go back to

the Safety Committee and the FAR Board because it wasn't just one individual that I understood that there were some issues with.

Thank you, Ms.

Johnson.

All right, is there a motion?

Second.

Okay.

Ms.

Yes.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

I move to adopt item 5, considering an off-cycle budget request for the Buck Squad in the amount of $50,000.

With obviously just the conversation we had earlier around levels of accountability and reporting that are requested.

It was 5.

Didn't you say 5 and 11?

Yeah.

I just said item five.

Oh, I only heard you say five.

Item five.

I thought we want to do both together.

Okay.

And item 11 to approve the formation of a joint entity known as the Blue Ridge Cigarette Tax Board.

All right.

And my question before we vote on that is, you know, we've been talking about since the other, the former three members were on council, the cigarette, the potential of increasing the cigarette tax.

And I would like for you all to just consider who that then tax.

And I know that we

you know discuss it from a public health form but the most people are not going to stop smoking because they there's an increased tax on it.

So the it just you know the amount of money in the con section for why you know to pro or con whether to do this or not.

on the first year costs and the ongoing administrative costs.

I'm not sure why we would spend that amount of money when it's such a small percentage of our overall budget.

to begin with.

And if that increases, you're talking about the majority of smokers being the most vulnerable members of our community.

And if it was something that would possibly prevent them from smoking, that would be probably the reason to do it.

But we know that increased

increasing taxes has not curbed consumption of nicotine in the past.

And so that's my statement here.

And I think that it should be something that we should reconsider.

Hey, hi Mayor Walker.

I just wanted to comment that there's no chance to raise the cigarette tax rate at this point.

When the General Assembly authorized localities to start forming these boards, it capped everyone at where they are now.

Okay, well that's helpful.

So,

We've talked about, you know, in our budget conversations, even our cigarette tax rate versus the county, which I don't remember in this moment, but that, you know, people may just drive a shorter distance to pay.

So if that's not the purpose of it, maybe I misunderstood what I was reading.

I mean the purpose of it really is regional cooperation saving

Labor that the Treasurer's Office currently expends in administering it and kind of sharing costs with our neighbors.

That's the real benefit of it.

We also think that this is just kind of the way things are going to go in the future.

Currently and in the past, cities have been allowed to administer their own cigarette taxes.

In the last session, the General Assembly expanded that to counties

with the caveat that it really, really wanted this to be done on a regional basis because they didn't want the wholesalers to have to deal with 100 and some odd localities and different stamping requirements and things like that.

Right now, it's just sort of a strong recommendation.

Mm-hmm.

But that could be another couple of cycles of General Assembly before.

So could be.

Well, I mean, the, you know, other than sort of the good faith that the other localities have put into the process, you know, we're not obligated to do anything, certainly.

because we already have our own cigarette tax and we can still administer it.

I think in the interest of kind of regional cooperation I think there are some benefits to be gained in

will probably have some enhanced enforcement of cigarette taxes, whereas now when we're doing it by ourselves, we don't really have the capacity

to do a whole lot of enforcement.

I just think it's a good way to do it.

David Blunt, who's with the TJPDC, who has helped quite a bit in crafting this stuff is online.

Just real quick, could you just remind us of what the annual revenue that we bring in from the cigarette tax while he's talking?

Thank you.

Yes, good evening Mayor Walker and members of council.

Just to reiterate a couple of things that Mr. Divers has indicated.

I think we're expecting that as this moves along and right now we have six counties that have so far agreed to establish this board.

We know of one additional county in our greater region and even one town.

that is showing some interest in participating.

I think that when we actually get the board established and start collecting the revenues, I think that we are going to see some efficiencies in terms of the administration of the tax collection effort.

As Mr. Divers had said, you're then dealing with one entity if you're a wholesaler or a distributor in terms of submitting your revenue and submitting your report.

So I think it would be from their point of view will be simpler.

but then you know I think that you know as we move along

We're going to see probably a smoother administrative effort throughout the region, and that would hopefully lower the cost that you may have in the city right now for administering the tax.

You're not going to be having to be responsible for purchasing stamps.

You're not going to have to secure them.

You're not going to have to store them.

It looks like in the last budget,

Projected.

It was 602 and FY21 was the actual.

I mean, we don't know.

Right now, we're expecting kind of neutral impact.

I think long term, we probably will see an increase.

I think when you have a combination of things, our neighboring localities are going to now institute cigarette taxes.

I think if people are currently leaving the city to buy cigarettes, they have less of an incentive to do that.

I think we'll have just kind of

But I thought you said that it was capped.

Mayor Walker, if I could chime in.

The legislation that Mr. Divers referred to earlier in giving the authority for the first time to most of the counties in Virginia, they are capped at a 40 cent rate.

But also included in the legislation was, as referenced, legislation that caps any locality that already was implementing a tax.

Every locality has their, I mean, counties are capped at 40 no matter what because they didn't have the authority to institute a tax previously.

So the highest that they can go is 40.

Any locality that had a cigarette tax prior to that

which is cities are capped at whatever they were in January.

And we were at 55.

What the counties are doing, Mayor Walker, at this point in time, those that I had mentioned earlier that have adopted an ordinance in the accompanying memorandum of agreement, that was kind of step one.

They're going to come back in the next month or two and they will adopt, assumingly, they will at least consider where to set the actual cigarette tax levy for their particular jurisdiction.

So it may be 40 cents in one locality, it may be 20 or 30 in another.

Thank you.

That is it's helpful and you know information but I still think um

for me, you know, my original thoughts and in terms of the expected, you know, making this investment and into the regional board and what the benefits to the city.

So I still have those, you know, but thank you all for the information.

All right.

All right.

there, Ms.

Mayor Walker?

No.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

Just a brief comment.

I don't have an issue with the cigarette tax and I think the Buck Squad program is something

really important, that model.

But I would say just given it, I would just want to have clear lockstep assurance that CRHA and FAR are all on the same page in terms of what they're doing.

And just not being 100% sure to that, you know, I'm going to vote no for that reason, hoping that, you know, that partnership can evolve and become successful and

Yes, I think that'd be best.

Okay.

So is there a motion for item 5?

Mayor Walker?

No.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councillor Hill?

Yes.

All right, that carries three to two.

Number 11.

Ms.

Thomas.

Mayor Walker.

Vice Mayor McGill.

Yes.

Councillor Hill.

Yes.

And that carries four to one.

Before we leave, there's a, Mr. Wheeler, did we miss the hand that's up?

Okay, thank you.

Just wanted to make sure.

All right, thank you all.

This will be fairly quick as most of the questions at the last meeting were regarding the police chief and those I think will be answered.

It has its own agenda item later tonight.

There have been some questions regarding the housing voucher program and numbers there.

and we're trying to schedule Mr. John Sayles to come to one of our council meetings and make a presentation on the voucher program not just the program itself but the numbers

Finally, coming up for a future meeting which has come up at the last couple of council meetings is a request for a road name change.

I originally thought that it was for an honorary road name change but it is for an actual changing of a roadway so we will come to council for your direction on how to move forward with that and then come back to you with the final approval.

And Mr. Bowles, Mr. Sales recently gave an update to us about the program.

That's just been in the, well, Mr. Sales' hand is up, so maybe we can, but I just think he recently gave an update.

Am I incorrect?

Yeah, and I think maybe, I mean, I think any time is great, but I think if maybe Ms.

Kahn didn't have that information, and maybe if we can just, unless we want them to do the report that close together, then maybe we could just have her questions answered or send her to report in or both, and maybe that'll be helpful.

But I am, again, if everyone feels that it's time for them to, you know, give that report again.

All right.

Yes, good evening, Council.

My hand is up to address the questions from Ms.

Kahn a couple meetings ago.

So the question was how many vouchers expired before families could lease up a voucher?

So the typical HUD standard is 60 days that we provide a family to search for housing, then we can provide two additional extensions of 30 days apiece.

So we have been providing 90 days since COVID since last year, March of 2020.

We've been providing 90 days initially, and then up to two extensions for a total of 150 days.

So since that has occurred, three families have been expired in 90 days, eight in 120 days, and three in 150.

So out of 117 families.

Okay.

You're looking at 14 families that have had to turn in the voucher.

And I will say it's more than the searching that's an issue.

It's the barriers that are in place of individuals getting housed.

So you're looking at criminal backgrounds from some of the private landlords who are pretty strict.

So an assault from 15 years ago.

could negatively impact you from finding housing.

It hasn't been a financial barrier because we've been providing security positive assistance.

So that hasn't been an issue, but it's really the barriers that are in place from the private landlords, which we really don't have any way to change that.

We work with landlords, try to provide references for the families that have lived in public housing.

or have come from another landlord.

But it's really up to the private landlord to decide who they will allow to rent their units.

The city could play a large role in that.

So when you're making decisions with like SUPs and providing funding, you could make these housing providers open up

Will do.

If there's any other questions, please just let me know.

All right.

Any other questions or comments?

Next up, we have the Community Matters.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you are on the waiting list, please go ahead and raise your hand because all eight of the people who signed up in advance are on the webinar and we expect them to speak tonight.

You can get in line by clicking the raise hand icon.

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

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

And our first speaker is Shana Murray.

Thank you.

My name is Shana Larkin, and I'm here to represent the voices of hundreds of UVA parents who are concerned about the escalating violence in Charlottesville.

Every weekend from Wednesday to Sunday, I hold my breath when I open Facebook and see an alert about a shooting that's happened in the city.

I text my kid frantically to see if he's okay.

This is my life every single weekend, worrying, watching, and waiting, hoping the next stray bullet doesn't get my kid or anyone else's.

because up until two weeks ago, the statistics were pointing in that direction.

There are students reliving the night at Boylan's that can't forget it.

They are now afraid to live in the city they love.

My student lives at the standard.

70% of your student body lives in the city.

When this council talks about UVA as a separate entity, you all need to be reminded that a large number of students live and work off grounds and that UVA is the largest employer in your community.

Last year, Jim Ryan's email stressed the UVA community needed to be responsible and protect the community at large from the virus.

The students abided by the rules the council laid out.

They did what they were asked to protect the community.

I'd like to ask you what you're doing now to protect the community.

This year, there have been more warnings and alerts than any other year, more shootings, and we're only in October.

I want to thank Chief Longo for meeting with parents and for the extra time and patrols he's running.

I would also like to ask that Jim Ryan keep his promise he made at the Board of Visitors meeting to make safety priority one

Finally, I'd like to thank Chief Mooney.

I'm extremely grateful he has taken over command.

Since he has taken over CBD, there's been a dramatic decrease in shots fired in the last two weeks.

He's stretching his department thin to put more patrol in place and make police presence known.

I appreciate knowing CPD is working overtime.

Their presence is deterring crime from happening.

It is making a difference.

Seven firearms removed recently from the hands of criminals.

That's seven less guns out of the hands of people who would potentially hurt or kill someone I

or you love.

CPD and UPD must work together.

There must be a cooperation and sharing of technology and communication.

They both need to work together.

I know both of the current chiefs understand this.

I hope that you as the city council understand how critical it is that these two departments work together to keep every single person safe.

I've listened to these meetings in the last several weeks.

I've read the articles.

I've been paying attention.

This council needs to start taking the safety of the entire community seriously.

You need to start to support their men and women at CPD every single day to protect the community.

This police department is down to a skeleton crew.

They are underpaid, underappreciated, demoralized, and leaving in record numbers.

all while we sit back and watch the record numbers of violence and shots fired climb.

I implore the city council to do their job and hire police officers needed to fill the hole, work in conjunction with UPD, hire a new chief of police who is willing to work with everyone in the community, including UPD, and finally to wake up and realize that someone you love could be the next victim of assault or gun violence.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

Our next speaker is Connor O'Donnell.

Hello.

Thank you.

I should be

Quick, I just want to talk about the Barracks Emmett Improvement Plan that you all, I believe, in April, the UVR Architect, Alice Rosher, gave an update, and it involves a multimodal

pathway going from Barracks Road towards Charlottesville.

But what I want to focus on specifically are the intersection changes at Barracks and Emmett.

Heading westbound on Barracks, the proposal is to change

the three lanes into four lanes with a dedicated right turn lane, which I believe is going to affect traffic coming eastbound on Barracks Road.

Unfortunately, I can't share my screen with you right now, but one issue I want to highlight as the area grows is the turn lane on Barracks eastbound crossing 29 is currently

the right turn lane and straight turn lane are shared as one lane and I believe that the that lane the double left lane should be sorry this is hard without showing you the map there are three lanes going eastbound and there's two double turn lanes left

and then the right lane is shared as straight onto barracks or right onto Emmet.

So basically what I'm trying to say is that moving westbound on barracks by opening that up to four lanes exiting barracks and restricting to one lane entering barracks going eastbound, it's really going to cause a negative traffic flow.

By having four lanes exiting barracks, you're obviously saying that there's a significant amount of traffic that travels that way.

but only one lane going towards the city is going to create a clog there and one of the other problems is that the Kroger parking lot entrance shares the same lane that moves both forward onto barracks and right onto Emmett and backs up significantly so

There are just overall a few problems with that and I think with the redevelopment will exacerbate those.

I'm currently a master's in urban planning student and I do plan to work on a project for this specific piece and submit it to you all and I know that the plan for this development is already pretty far forward.

I just moved to the area right off Derricks Road so every day that I drive this I'm sitting in about five or ten minutes worth of traffic

in this specific spot.

And I do believe it will get significantly worse if the proposed plan goes forward, specifically just the turning lane changes.

Our next speaker is Emily Little, who will be followed by Peter Gray.

Hi, my name is Emily Little and I live at 807 Moor Ave.

I have three children that will be attending Buford Middle School in the future.

I would like to show my support of choosing a zero energy design at Beaufort and Walker schools.

I think that the Charlottesville City Council should support the school board resolution to authorize the design team to proceed with the design plans for the school reconfiguration.

But with my support, I would like to request the city prioritize and fund the design elements needed to make the buildings zero energy.

I think that the school reconfiguration is a beautiful and generous commitment and gift to the children of our Charlottesville community.

But we must look past their futures as middle school students and to beyond where their children are middle school students.

And the only way our children are going to have the option to have their own children is to tackle the mitigation of climate change now.

I'd like to make three points.

The first is cost savings.

Every year the school district spends $30,000 in electricity and energy bills for Walkert and Buford.

That is money that goes out of this community to fossil fuel companies that have no regard for our children's futures.

We could be instead saving that money and putting it into education opportunities for students.

Power purchase agreements could make solar easily financially available for the schools.

The second is really about Charlottesville being a leader on climate action and mitigation.

The city made a promise to be a leader on climate action, and there's still actually not really a lot of action happening on that front.

The city set a goal to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030.

That's not happening.

The pandemic has understandably slowed things down, but climate change has not slowed down.

And it feels like from a citizen's point of view that Charlottesville keeps kicking the climate action plan down the road.

We don't have time.

We don't have road.

This needs to be done as soon as possible.

And having a school that is net zero would be a great first step in keeping climate promises.

Thirdly, we have to give our children hope.

It is hard enough even for an adult to conceptualize what the future might be if our climate continues to change at the rate that it is changing.

When I looked at students striking for climate in front of the freedom of speech wall on September 24th, I see fear.

They know that the timeline for making big enough climate actions is shortening, and by the time they are starting their lives as adults, there may not be any time on that timeline left for change.

their school should not be a place that is adding to the destruction of their future wouldn't it be a beautiful thing to look at our students and say your futures are important and so we helped you build a school that will reflect that we have to do these things at the local level

so that we help humanity have a chance to have a future and for our children to have a future.

To quote Whitney Houston, I believe that children are our future.

Treat them well and let them lead the way.

Our next speaker is Peter Gray, who will be followed by Chris Meyer.

Peter, you're on with council.

Hi, everyone.

In June, I alerted you to a disturbing pattern of interference by a small number of members of Planning Commission in the development of the future land use map and comprehensive plan.

Today, I call your attention to the reality that this interference is ongoing.

Since the spring, we've seen the following sequence play out several times.

First,

First, RHI uses their best professional judgment to create a proposed plan and map.

They share these with Planning Commission where a small number of members instruct RHI to go against their professional judgment and make revision that the members personally want to see.

RHI then do what they've been told, and when they share the next revision with the public, they realize just how extreme the Planning Commission directions were in the eyes of the public.

RHI then produces a more nuanced proposal that is closer to their original professional judgment which of course gets squashed again and they aren't even subtle about this these planning commission members are on record reprimanding RHI for not doing exactly what they were told when they sought to overrule RHI's professional expertise

This cycle keeps happening over and over again and it reflects an alarming abuse of power on the part of a small number of unelected planning committee members.

Astonishingly, the September version of the plan omits important developer related details that were present in earlier versions.

For instance, things like maximum building heights and units per lot.

Why would the city pay a million dollars to have experts in their field produce a plan where vital details are now missing?

I can venture a guess, given how this process has transpired so far.

Regardless, admitting these important details severely limits the public's right to participate in this process.

For instance, the general residential category in the new version caps all building heights at 2.5 stories, except that this limit may not matter at all for affordable units, quote, depending on the site characteristics and context, unquote.

This is a meaningless phrase.

The affordability bonus in this plan refers to, quote, certain levels of affordability, unquote, but refuses to make firm affordability requirements.

On all the important developer related issues, affordability, density, height, parking, this new plan simply ignores all the earlier affordability requirements.

How is that an acceptable step forward?

We've been told to wait and that all these details will magically appear in the forthcoming neighborhood zoning plans, but it is impossible for anyone to engage in a healthy dialogue about how this plan will promote affordability when these crucial details are curiously absent.

At some point, you, Council, will be asked to vote on this plan.

As City Council, you deserve to vote on a strong and principled plan that promotes long-term affordable housing in Charlottesville.

If you walk away from this historic opportunity by approving a plan that promises good things but literally refuses to provide the details, you will be doing your constituents a real disservice.

I humbly ask that City Council please do whatever it can to allow RHI to exercise their professional expertise free from interference and create a plan and map that includes specific requirements

on affordability, height, density, and parking.

Our next speaker is Chris Meyer, who will be followed by Martha Smith.

Yes, I'm at 124 Oakland Court.

Thank you, councilors and city staff for the time and effort you're all contributing to make our city a better place.

Also, I want to welcome the Charlottesville City Schools new superintendent, Dr. Gurley, who started today and I think we'll be presenting later.

This evening I'll be speaking to the reconfiguration funding item on your agenda, an item that I want council to move forward and finance.

I'll start with my appreciation for prioritizing school funding and upgrading our school facilities in your recent budgets.

School infrastructure funding was not prioritized by previous councils before you all, which left the city's school system with a huge deficit in building modernization that you inherited.

I'll note that while city school modernization was not being prioritized prior to your terms, just one local private school, STAB, between 2006 and 2019 raised more than $90 million.

While not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, when I compared the city's 2007 to 2020 CIP budgets for school-related allocations, I was only able to calculate $34.8 million allocated to school investments.

So the private school basically outspent the city by $45 million in the same time period basically.

The bigger point I believe here is that there's plenty of money in this community that is supporting education, just not always the public system.

Additionally, I'd also like to bring your attention to a petition supporting reconfiguration on change.org started by a number of concerned parents in the community.

At this moment, or at least earlier this evening, there were 123 signatures and growing on this petition.

I specifically noticed a number of the reasons why this plan should be forward, move forward, and that are very similar to those all listed in your presentation later this evening being done by BMDO.

Thus, I highly urge you to approve the VMDO moving forward with final design based on the nearly $75 million budget and recommend additional final design for Walker to be updated in the near future.

I am clear-eyed that this will mean that the council will need to raise revenue in order to afford that cost.

Unfortunately, again, this is the case because of previous council's budget decisions, which left you all in this challenging financial situation that you're all dealing with.

I'll note that many parents like myself are willing to work with you and our state representatives to secure the ability to raise sales taxes through a subsequent ballot initiative and get it approved if this will help the city raise revenue.

Again, please approve the reconfiguration as next step so that we can finally put a stop to the proverbial kicking the can down the road on this issue.

And our sixth speaker is Martha Smith.

Martha, you're on with Council.

Good evening, everybody.

My name is Martha Smyth.

I live on Rutledge Avenue in Charlottesville.

I wanted to let all of you know that I support the development of affordable housing for our hardworking neighbors.

So do all the residents I've spoken about, I've spoken to about the comp plan and the map.

Many of us residents are distrustful about the way our city has handled this issue to date.

For a few examples, developers have been allowed to proffer the smallest permitted concession minimum numbers at 80% AMI, then renege in favor of paying the city a nominal fee.

Has the money been spent on affordable housing, its construction, maintenance, or enforcement of standards on rental units?

I've learned that the state permits larger proffers for AMI and larger fines than the city has assessed.

Why hasn't the city pursued those to fill Charlottesville's affordable housing coffers?

The past has proved that density does not by itself produce affordable housing.

Vacant lots and derelict buildings that are not yet being improved are scattered about the city.

These are a sensible place to start building affordable housing.

If we add oversized parking lots and perhaps unused stores at shopping centers to that list, we might meet the immediate need for affordable housing.

A recent proposal from the consultants, I'm speaking of RHI, recommended adding ADUs and enlarging or dividing existing homes where possible Many homeowners favor this because it generates minimal disturbance to neighborhoods and potentially leaves the properties in the hands of current owners who care about them

However, there are not as many opportunities as one might think because of the size of many lots well under a half an acre, the placement of the current homes on those lots, and the topography steep hills and large trees included.

What assurance do we have that these spaces would be affordable?

None of the consultants

recommendations lead to increased home ownership, just more rentals.

Yet planning commissioners speak of wealth building and ownership to the press.

Is that a goal?

Then let's adjust the plan.

The consultants have not provided data about the cities that took this approach.

The cities they named Minneapolis, Portland, and Austin are far larger than Charlottesville, and no results or data from these communities have been produced.

In fact, they have sidestepped this question when asked.

I have not heard any references to using newer construction materials and methods that lower construction costs or cause more rapid building.

They also, those materials, also minimize utility costs greatly and reduce maintenance costs for renters and owners.

Why not?

Granted, it's not a land use per se.

Thank you.

Oops.

Okay, well, I want to thank you for giving me time to speak and urge council to develop land use plans that ensure urgently needed affordable housing for our hardworking neighbors while protecting our city.

Our next speaker is Mary Bauer, who will be followed by James Groves.

Good evening.

I'm here in my capacity as chair of the Human Rights Commission.

The Human Rights Commission believes that affordable housing and policies that promote such are critical to the development of a more racially just city.

We've taken a position in strong support of the Livable Seville letter, and we noted that it would be difficult to identify policies more closely derivative of and linked to white supremacy than our current zoning laws.

We shared with you in a letter dated September 20th our recommendations for legislative priorities for this General Assembly session.

and our recommendations were entirely related to housing and are very specifically the same recommendations issued by consultants hired by the city in its extensive report.

We recommended that the city support enabling legislation to allow rent control and just cause evictions as recommended by the consultants.

And we also advise that the city either codify the right to counsel in eviction proceedings in an ordinance if it is determined that that is permitted by law or seek a change to state law

if it is determined that that is necessary.

That too came from the consultants.

But I would like to raise one issue in particular related to right to counsel in eviction proceedings.

After substantial research, we recommended some time ago that the funding needed to establish reasonable access to counsel on eviction proceedings based on pre-pandemic and thus very conservative data was $460,000 in the first year with increases over time as more people learned about the right.

As we understood it, city council and city manager agreed that they would set up this program and the city manager was authorized to operationalize this.

And indeed, some city councilors went on social media and announced that the Charlottesville was the first city in the south to adopt right to council.

Since that time, however, the program that has been negotiated thus is so far from adequate as to question whether those earlier statements were made in good faith.

At this moment, as we have been told, the city is contracting to provide $300,000 over three years, a mere $100,000 per year to allow for the representation of about 100 tenants, woefully short of the 700 who were in proceedings pre-pandemic.

City residents deserve to understand how this happened.

How did we go from an announcement that we were adopting the right to council to a place where this really tiny amount of money was allocated and no effort made to codify the right.

The commission specifically asks for response on this topic as to how this happened and asks you to revisit this.

Thank you so much.

And our next speaker, the last one of those who signed up in advance is James Groves.

James Groves Hi, I'm James Groves and a city resident.

I want to draw attention to a topic that deserves the council's consideration.

And that topic is the future of the city's gas service.

The topic is time sensitive for two reasons.

First, because of climate change.

Second, because of comprehensive planning and potential citywide rezoning.

In 2019, the City Council voted to adopt the goal of a 45% reduction in community-wide greenhouse gases by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

That vote acknowledged the time sensitivity of climate change.

Now, as the Planning Commission puts its finishing touches on our comprehensive plan, it appears that the Council will be asked to endorse a plan that seeks to promote affordable housing through new home construction.

The Council needs to think carefully about whether it wants such homes to be outfitted with gas.

New homes could stand in our community for 75 to 100 years.

And if those homes are outfitted with gas appliances that emit carbon dioxide during use, it will be difficult to reach the city's stated carbon reduction goals in 10 and 30 years.

Others have acknowledged that the time for gas is past.

In 2013, Denmark implemented a gas ban in new buildings.

Now, nearly 50 California communities are implementing bans.

By 2030, New York City intends to implement a ban.

Last month, the City Council of Richmond, Virginia, signaled its intention to eliminate gas when it passed a resolution that stated, quote, the council hereby commits to working with the city's administration

on an equitable plan to phase out reliance on gas and shift to accelerated investment in city-owned renewable energy and hereby recognizes that the continued operation of the city's gas utility is an obstacle to the city's goal of net zero emissions, end quote.

As you consider the city's path forward, there are early steps to take.

First, eliminate the subsidy currently provided for the installation of new gas service.

No new gas lines for free.

Second, end the city's rebate for conversion to on-demand gas water heaters.

As a licensed professional engineer here in Virginia, I stand ready to provide guidance on this issue.

Please reach out with any questions you may have.

Okay, Mayor Walker, next we'll go to the hands that are raised in the audience.

We have seven hands raised, now eight.

So we have our eight slots for the next speakers.

First up is Tanisha Hudson.

Tanisha, you're on with counsel.

First off, I want to respond to Mrs. Sheena Larkin, the mom from UVA.

First off, UVA students did not take all precautions during COVID.

They were having several gatherings that was outside of the state mandates at the time.

So don't act like those rich, privileged kids were doing what they were supposed to do.

They were not.

Second off, Chip and Mooney, if you wanted longer back, why didn't you just say that?

utilizing parents to come on here and give comments that exposes your whole plan, which we already been exposing anyway.

Now onto some real business.

Where's the Human Rights Commission, Mary Bauer, since you were on here talking about affordable housing, where are you advocating for black leadership?

This falls under, not only does it fall under the civil rights issue, but the dialogue on race.

Did you do any research?

Do you know what that stood for at all?

Black leadership is being mistreated, not just the chief of police, but the previous city manager, the previous deputy city manager, the previous chief before that, and the previous city manager before that.

need I go on and why are I mean why is the Human Rights Commission not speaking up for Brackney is it because you Mary Bauer and Katherine Worrell have your own issues with her I mean because all you got to do is look at the meeting where you all tried to come for her too see this is about white people ganging up on black leadership when black leadership don't do what you want them to do

Chip was hired to stabilize the city.

Michael Payne read a whole joint statement that all counselors, except the mayor, because there ain't no way I know she supported all of that fully and truly, and maybe she did, I don't know, but she's seeing now.

Chip was hired to stabilize the city, and he's not doing that.

And let's talk about Ashley Marshall.

Did she fully accept the job initially, or did you make a phone call to her, Chip, asking her to take the job after she had denied it?

Which one was it?

This city, from an equity and civil rights standpoint, you are the absolute worst.

And I hope that this gets national attention, worldly attention, and I hope that you're all exposed on the role that you play.

Heather, twitch.

You twitch every time I talk, baby, and you know that you are so far up in mess, girl.

Girl, you so far up in mess.

Did you promise Baxter that he would be a deputy city manager?

Did you promise him that?

Shake your head no.

Definitely not.

All y'all secrets coming out now.

All of your secrets.

All of your secrets.

Heather, are you working with Emily Policia to try to get Chief Smith gone like you were with Baxter for Richardson?

Because, I mean, it surely seems like this is your type of work.

This is right up your alley.

Chip and Lisa Robertson told this man not to meet with cars, and it came out in the last meeting.

And none of you all are coming down on what Chip has done.

that hasn't stabilized.

He has not stabilized the city.

He hasn't hired anybody but Sam Samuels and the NDS person.

And you said in your offer that you hired him with the offer to stabilize Charlottesville and give it the governance that it needed.

Thank you, Ms.

Our next speaker is Lori Shirk.

I'd like to just have you turn your attention to this audio briefly Sounds like a war zone, doesn't it?

That's from a home security camera right here in Charlottesville capturing the sound of gunfire on a Wednesday night, almost four weeks ago, a mere 500 feet from the apartment from where my son and 600 other UVA students live.

Twice stray bullets have entered apartments in his complex and as this fall semester got underway he reported hearing gunfire every single night.

Just six weeks into the school year, UVA has issued 11 safety alerts about off-ground incidences, including armed robbery, aggravated assault, gunfire.

Shoot, a fellow student was even struck by a stray bullet.

You go back and combine all five years and there weren't 11 alerts and none of those had firearms.

Students are terrified to go about their daily lives and we call upon the university and the city of Charlottesville to collaborate on solving this escalation in crime and acting with the sense of urgency equal to the threat level.

Last week, President Ryan announced that this issue is now his number one priority.

Chief Longo has been working overtime toward that goal, but he can't succeed without the full cooperation and commitment of the Charlottesville Police Department since two thirds of our students live in the community.

In the past two years, there's been little to no cooperation between UPD and CPD.

In contrast, in the brief time that Acting Chief Mooney has been at the helm, the cooperation is evident with noticeable increases in police presence in areas experiencing the greatest threat.

These patrols have been uniformly welcomed and we're grateful for Major Mooney's swift response to this crisis.

The relative calm of just the last two weeks is evidence that the police presence is a deterrent.

Thanks to the skilled work by officers and detectives, seven firearms are now off the streets and out of reach of those intent on terrorizing not only UVA students but residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.

This year Charlottesville has experienced double the number of shots fired than all of last year.

The singular focus on reforming a police department in the image of a small but vocal group of activists has come at the expense of the safety and security of all its residents.

Your police department has been demoralized, gutted, experienced officers leaving in record numbers, violent crime units being eliminated, all the while elected and appointed officials have been wasting time pointing fingers, blaming and shaming this directionless, unsupported, understaffed and underpaid police force.

A new permanent police chief needs to have a backbone to empower officers to do their jobs and end this crisis.

No college in America should sound like a war zone.

Our next speaker, Susan Cruz, who will be followed by Greg Weaver.

Susan, you're on with counsel.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Susan Cruz and I am the Executive Director of the Community Climate Collaborative or C3.

I'm a city resident.

I have two boys in Charlottesville City Schools and I am an occasional transit rider.

I want to touch on a few topics this evening.

Two years, three months, and three days ago, you set a climate goal to reduce our community-wide emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

2030 is now just over eight years away and the systems change necessary to reach carbon neutrality will take decades to complete.

Tonight I think you'll be hearing from someone else about a letter encouraging our cities to adopt to move our city school buildings toward net zero energy.

It is unlikely that our city will renovate these buildings again before 2050 the year when we are set to achieve carbon neutrality.

Now is the time to support the change that is needed to reach our climate goals and ensure a better future for all of our students.

C3 supports this investment in our schools and I hope you will too.

On another topic, last week C3 released a new report, Transit Equity and Climate.

Our report outlines the importance of a robust electrified transit system to build a more just and cleaner community.

It includes 14 recommendations to improve our current system including equitable access to transit and reduction of transportation emissions.

Recommendations like doubling ridership, improving bus stop safety, and increasing frequency to no greater than 30 minute intervals between bus arrivals.

C3 will be bringing these and other recommendations to you for action later this fall.

These are the types of decisions that should be guided by a climate action plan.

The community is still waiting for that plan.

two years and three months of waiting we aren't even certain of our progress as that has been five years since our last greenhouse gas inventory until these are complete you as a council will be making these decisions one at a time it is in all of our interest for council to prioritize the development of an ambitious climate action plan

Until it is final, I encourage you to keep our ultimate goal, not of 45% reduction, but of carbon neutrality in mind as you make the structural and systemic decisions that will help or hinder our ability to get there.

Next up is Gregory Weaver, who will be followed by Nancy Carpenter.

hi can you all hear me we can good evening city council my name is Greg Weaver I live in Friday spring um just as Susan just mentioned two weeks ago the community collaborative released their transit equity and climate report this report takes a comprehensive look into the state of transit in our city what it would mean for climate inequity if the city took significant action on overhauling transit actionable steps the city can take to address the current systems and adequacies

Last Wednesday, C3 had a webinar in their report at which my wife and I asked the panel whether they had heard from any of you or from any county supervisors about the report.

DeAnthe McKeel from the county was on the call, but otherwise C3 very diplomatically said that while they know that they have strong support of this work from members of both bodies, they hadn't heard from anyone else directly just yet.

I do know that there are supporters of leading into transit work among you, but I wonder if they haven't heard any acknowledgments from you, how many of you have taken the time to read the report or even the quickly digestible executive summary.

It's my duty to nag you on this because climate change is here.

It is happening.

Two Fridays ago, you heard from Charlottesville High School students at the Youth Climate March demanding action on transit and on density.

They demanded you step up in these areas specifically in order to meet your own greenhouse gas benchmark.

They know, as the rest of the city and I do, that taking action on these issues is not like homework.

You can't wait till the last minute to start it.

In fact, we have already procrastinated.

The deadline has already passed.

Our work is late.

If we're generously at a grade B future now, if climate is not a number one priority, yes, we will get a failing grade, and there is no chance for makeup work.

That might be a cute analogy, but I hope you recognize it as a real one with harsh truths.

We all know that increasing ridership is key.

Key to getting people to choose to ride instead of driving their car to lower emissions.

Key to getting necessary funding to make the changes in the system to encourage people to make the change in how to get around.

With the rest of my time, I want to focus on the lowest hanging fruit in C3's report, their suggestion to move swiftly to invest in increasing safety at bus stops.

37% of the surveyed respondents rated bus stops unsatisfactory or unacceptable and over half listed bus stop enhancements as a top priority for improving CAT services.

This shouldn't shock you if you've ever ridden the bus.

If it does shock you, please work riding into your schedule this week.

It is revealing.

In my own travels over the past few weeks, I've noted things like 9 p.m., Chariot Shamrock Westbound.

Can hardly make out my wife's face in the darkness.

Westmeade at 11th Street Southwest.

Giant bush could be replaced by a bench.

No stop, I've seen, has benches with back support making it difficult for the elderly and

and disabled West Main at the standard sidewalks thin bikers dodging bikers dodging joggers in their lane dodging pedestrians 10th 10th page northbound no cover no trees sits in the blazing sun.

Every stop should have protection from the elements.

Every stop should have adequate lighting.

Every stop should have seating that works for those of all ages and conditions.

Global warming is not waiting and is as not ever waited on us start taking action today.

Our next speaker is Nancy Carpenter, who will be followed by Thomas Penney.

Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak.

I had several things on my mind, but these Moms for Cops that Mike Wells, you know, amped up to make these public comments about the safety or lack thereof in the UVA area just kind of didn't sit right with me.

Apparently these Moms for Cops don't understand the history, the troubled history that Tim Longo has with the communities in this city.

I think if they really want to get behind something and not use Mike Wells' talking points, even down to parroting his local activist comment, they should talk to Jim Ryan and tell Jim Ryan to come off some of that endowment money that UVA has and start building

Housing on grounds, back on grounds for some of those students, get those third and fourth years out of these neighborhoods so that that housing can once again become connected back to people who live here full time.

Okay, there's a lot that is very charged by what they said.

It's a little bit the caucasity of the fragility speaks to me a lot about what they said.

And as far as that soundbite, I don't know what that was, you know, unless I saw the clip itself.

It sounds like, you know, scratching on an old chalkboard.

But the other thing that I wanted to talk about really was giving the Office of Human Rights, really looking at that ordinance and giving them some capacity to prosecute, not prosecute, but to weigh in on some of these rental situations because the criminal history can also be considered under fair housing under certain circumstances.

It can be considered a racist crime.

action.

Because a lot of the criminal histories that I see and the people that have to deal with, like somebody said here on the comment, 15 years ago, you have an assault, you haven't done a damn thing since.

And yet that can hold you back from getting

a housing option that can also be translated into racial profiling because of our carceral system and who we've decided to make examples of and everything that has been talked about over the course of the last couple of years since 2017.

So basically, I'm discrediting what the Moms for Cops said, but I'm also saying that Jim Ryan needs to stand up and do something right for this city.

Our next speaker is Thomas Penney, who will be followed by Janice Redinger.

Good evening.

My name is Thomas Penney and I'm the president of Donahoe Hospitality Services.

Donahoe is the operator and one of the owners of the Draftsmen Hotel.

We based the decision to build the Draftsmen on perceptions of the city in advance of the events of August 2017.

Although we found the events of the white nationalist rally deeply troubling, we believe much of the anger and hatred was brought to Charlottesville by external forces.

While we acknowledge more work remained to rebuild trust and address institutional barriers to equity and inclusion, we were hopeful that local elected officials and city leaders would be responsible stewards in pursuit of justice, equity and true inclusion.

Though I may not have all of the information surrounding the termination, I can say the optics are not good.

At a time when there are national calls for police reforms, the optics are a city manager with some degree of support from council members fired an African-American female police chief that was reprimanding officers within a majority white police force without support from the mayor.

While the public may very well not have all the information, they never do when it comes to personnel matters.

Based on the history of Charlottesville, especially the recent history, it invites heightened sensitivities.

It is for this reason I believe such a decision required significant support within the African American community prior to moving forward, including members of the business community.

We all have a responsibility for strengthening relationships within Charlottesville across racial and socioeconomic lines.

I welcome the opportunity to have a meaningful discussion around repairing the damage this has caused and bringing the community of Charlottesville together.

And our 15th speaker is Janice Redinger, who will be followed by Tish Taplin.

Thanks, Brian.

Mayor Walker, Councilors, thanks for having me.

I'm Janice Redinger.

I'm a City resident and live in the Belmont area.

Just wanted to comment on a couple of issues.

I'm really, really hoping that you all, as well as Chip Oils, will not hide behind privacy or personnel or some such nonsense when you discuss Chief Brackney later on.

especially when each of you has dragged her reputation through the mud and especially when you have told conflicting stories.

Each of the four white counselors I'm sorry to describe you that way but all of the four except for the mayor have remained virtually silent in the last two meetings when the mayor has attempted to engage you in this discussion although you have felt quite free to comment to the media.

You may feel like you're doing the right thing, maybe following Lisa's advice, maybe trying to stay out of the fray or fly under the radar, but the reality is your silence is complicity and it actually conveys the loudest message of all, and that is that you don't care and you don't care to govern.

You should care deeply that Chip wrote an op-ed that suggested reasons for firing that are inconsistent with a no-cause contract termination, and you should care deeply that he admitted in the same op-ed that he should have but didn't even bother to have a conversation with the chief about his concerns.

That is truly unbelievable.

Is that what the kind of manager we expect from our city manager?

Is that how employees are going to be treated?

It's astonishing to me that a city manager would fire a department head with less consideration than you will probably give Bellamy Brown for a volunteer board appointment.

And you should care also that he mocks the mayor in his notes when meeting with her And by the way, as an aside, kudos to the city for actually providing them to me

I think that there is a pattern of open disdain and disrespect towards black women.

We've all seen it on display.

You as counselors have an obligation to ensure that Chip is fair.

You are his employer.

To put your heads in the sand and only say it's his decision is an abdication of your responsibilities to this community.

And I look forward to your fulsome discussion later on.

Secondly, and I'll try to whip through this, as to Bellamy Brown, he should be removed, not because of the content of his words at all, although I don't think they were anything more than a personal grievance, but because he has demonstrated malice towards the chief, he has celebrated her termination, he's claimed credit for it, and he has failed in leadership on the board.

he has expressed condemnation for the chief based on what he says was a year-long investigation of his which we all know is a lie and because of the PBA survey some of which he read from the pulpit of the PCRB is that the kind of due process Bellamy Brown intends to dole out

as the PCRB chair.

He has completely undermined the integrity and credibility of the board, and for that reason, he should be removed, along with his sycophant, Jeff Frazier.

Not one thing of substance, not one thing of substance has been done under his chairmanship, not one.

It's one thing to be incompetent, which is bad enough, but to actively harm the board is beyond the pale.

Thank you.

And our last speaker at this part of the meeting is Tish Tablan.

Thank you, Council, for letting us speak tonight.

My name is Tish Tablan.

I'm a city resident in the Belmont neighborhood and I'm also a parent with two children at Jackson Viatt Elementary who will be attending Buford Middle School in the next handful of years.

I'd like to share with you a letter from representing over 24 community businesses and organizations in support of zero energy design at Buford and Walker schools.

And I'll read to you a little bit from that letter tonight.

We have a tremendous opportunity before us right now to make a once in a generation investment, modernizing and revitalizing aging school buildings at the Buford and Walker school sites

in a way that will yield long-term benefits for our students, our educators, our taxpayers, our community health, and our planet.

We support the new conceptual designs for Beaufort Middle School and Walker Preschool selected by both the Charlottesville City School Board and the multi-stakeholder community design team.

The redesign of these buildings will give us unique opportunity to meet financial, community, and climate goals by making zero energy design a priority.

We're asking City Council to support the school board resolution to authorize the design team to proceed with the plans at a projected cost of $75 million.

And we ask the city to prioritize and fund the design elements needed to make the buildings as close to zero energy as possible.

We outline in the letter reasons to support zero energy design for our schools, which include annual and long-term cost savings.

So I'll remind you that zero energy also means zero electricity and zero gas bills for those schools.

We have the opportunity to go solar with no upfront costs.

So the cost of those solar panels do not need to be included in the building costs.

And we will see annual savings and long-term savings by doing so.

And that's how 90% of the schools that have gone solar in the state of Virginia have funded their solar arrays.

This also gives us a chance to demonstrate our climate leadership and meet our climate goals.

Buford and Walker Schools can be the first zero energy schools in central Virginia and among the first in the state of Virginia.

And the other ones that have been designed were designed by VMDO.

We have the ability to do this.

We think investing in Buford and Walker in high quality zero energy schools can also help us simultaneously meet our equity and our climate goals.

with the student populations in these schools having greater racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity than the city as a whole.

And I'd like to just spend my reigning time lifting up the organizations that have shown their support for this, which includes city residents, city parents, and city students, including 2RW, Carter Myers Automotive, Charlottesville 350, Charlottesville Renewable Energy Alliance, Charlottesville Youth Climate Strike, Citizens Climate Lobby,

Community Climate Collaborative, Cultivate Charlottesville, Generation 180, Indoor Biotechnologies, Kids Climate Club, Local Energy Alliance Program, the Piedmont Environmental Council, Shift Sustainability Consulting, Sun Tribe Solar, Sunday Solar, and U.S.

Green Building Council.

And that was 16 speakers.

Thank you.

I was curious, and I understand it can't be done now, but for the next meeting, Mr. Boyles, if you could give us an update on the program that Ms.

Mayor Walker, there is one thing that one of the speakers mentioned in particular, Ms.

Smythe, about the questioning the fact that there is asserting the fact that there have been no studies

of how cities such as Portland have responded to an upzoning such as what is being proposed for Charlottesville.

There's a very interesting article that was done for I think it was Shelter Force that cited the example of Portland.

And what they found, they actually did have a fair amount of data from Portland.

And what they had found was that the consequence of upzoning in Portland was, first of all, that there were very few teardowns and new structures being built.

that what was happening was happening slowly, that what was happening mostly was duplexes and an existing building being converted to a duplex or there would be an add-on to an existing building to make a duplex.

But most of the sort of the catastrophic projections of what's going to happen in the event of an upzoning simply weren't happening.

First, I'm going to start with the one that impacts the most, even though all of these do impact, especially our most vulnerable citizens.

But I'm going to start with the two UVA parents and the fact that, again, none of you understand.

And I don't know where you all spend your time, but if it's in America, then even understanding a national of how we get from a President Obama to a Trump, to a Joe Biden, and then Lloyd, Heather, since I know you all are very active in the party, understanding what comes after this administration.

At a state level, the governor's race

and why they are close.

And all of that is centered on racism that I know you really understand and you all understand what's important, but you don't under, you won't, you can't, and maybe you just don't really know how to articulate it because it doesn't affect you.

But to have two UVA parents come on and praise the leadership for getting rid of the chief,

Ms.

Sherk's comments says police chief.

It doesn't say safety of the students.

It says police chief.

As if we couldn't possibly be concerned about the safety of the community.

Because had they been paying attention, this has been a topic of discussion.

While something like the Buck Squad is in front of you, while something like the Conscious Capitalists have been in front of you, is because I have been talking since I've been here about how the community heals the community.

That's how we got here.

Chief Brackney's greatest fault here is not wanting to over-police the community to lead to mass incarceration, not allowing people who committed crimes to go be in the community able to commit crimes, which is what their comments allude to.

I sent an email to Jennifer Davis, CC Jim Ryan on it, which he didn't respond.

I met with him, talked to him, but it was addressed to her.

And I talked about the Daily Progress article that talked about a reinterpretation of the MOU and the expanded jurisdiction that the article referenced.

I didn't make it up.

It was written in the article.

from a reporter who apparently had gotten that information from one of UVA employees.

What I said was that expanding the police chief they hired, which they should have never hired, if they were concerned about how he treated this community, but they didn't care.

and I talked to her about that when they hired when she called me and said we needed to present a unified front on this and told her based on all the information I had based on being a member of the community that has been targeted I would never present a unified front I sent this message last week to say similarly that at no point should Longo's jurisdiction be expanded

Now, if you all understand racism, put in a police chief who has terrorized the community back in charge of it.

And if that was your goal, then you're on it and it's public.

But if it was not, you should be more concerned about his practices and policing than expanding his jurisdiction.

Now, if Mooney wants to come on, we can talk about this because we've talked about it before.

As other citizens have talked about before, increasing police patrol has not curbed violence in the neighborhood.

One, which I never do because we need to focus on home, we can talk about increased violence across the country.

during COVID because you're talking about people who already have severe mental health challenges and having to deal with them through poverty.

Now, white families can't even stay at home with their kids because they're not used to taking care of.

Like, it's just simple stuff like that.

Yes, I said it, Heather.

You heard me.

And you can comment on if you like because you struggled.

We're talking about people who have been abused by the systems in this country forever.

You can send however many police into the neighborhoods and all you will do is increase incarcerations.

And I thought as a nation, I thought as a state,

I thought as a community, we were working on solutions that decreased incarcerations.

Does that mean you allow crime to be rampant?

No, but just as the parents who talked to us on South 1st Street, who wanted some relief,

We need to give them that same energy that you all are giving the parents.

And the answer for neither the UVA community, because we can start talking about what those students have gotten away with over the years, if we must.

But we don't want to have those conversations due.

Because white people are afforded the opportunity to get the help they receive.

A police chief, former police chief who terrorized this community will never be the person that helps heal it.

And the only thing he can bring to this community is increased incarceration.

Lloyd, you've made comments in the past about being a defense attorney, defending people, being in court with people under the tenure of that police chief.

But you're not going to make them publicly, right?

The only people who are affected by these type of decisions are the most vulnerable members of the community.

This isn't as they are trying to characterize that I, because it's not you all, because you all get the privilege of not, one, sharing your thoughts,

and of course being white and for their safety while I am not according to the two parents that spoke.

What we need to do here is one, you all should not allow people to come on here and praise Mooney because Mooney hasn't done anything.

It hasn't been long enough.

to do anything.

If you got seven guns off the street, Lloyd, how many guns are still on the street?

Do you want to answer that?

People who live in these communities understand that that is just the tip of the iceberg, not just in the Black community.

You all have the Rugby Avenue example when they were white, how much access to firepower they had.

They didn't get the time that black people have in their little precious house on Rugby Avenue, but they had a lot of firepower.

And so here, what we should be talking about, and what I told JJ Davis today, who responded and told me that my assessment of Longo is inaccurate.

and I told her the same thing I'm telling you all.

You don't get to sit in the comfort of your white privilege after I've lived in these communities and tell me who he is.

I understand who he may be to y'all, how he may interact with y'all.

That is not our experience with him, nor will it be if he's allowed to expand anything.

So that's my first comment.

God, again, the shame that you all apparently don't have the capacity to feel.

I just don't understand.

It is freaking beyond shameful.

And those kids who came and spoke to us from human services, I am hoping that each and every one of y'all, they were all white and

Children, they're in a much better position to help heal this world than any of your adults are at this moment.

I'm struggling with this being about any one person because I think we've had this conversation before.

We all have a shared goal of having safety throughout this community.

I think the heaviest part of this is like knowing that there are children in some of these communities that have no choice.

and it's a heavy place to be to see that those children have no choice.

But whether you're the mother of a 20 year old or a two year old, you're the mother of someone and you do not want your child to be inflicted by gun violence.

And I think we have, I'm sorry, I'm speaking now.

Don't nobody want you to get on here and talk about this from your white fragility perspective.

Okay, this is why I don't talk.

You ask me that.

You ask why no one's talking.

I'm not talking because every time I open my mouth, that's what you throw in my face.

You should have learned something different by me.

I will mute myself.

Go ahead.

I think I'm done.

Thank you.

This evening, we were talking about providing funding to an organization that isn't a traditional law enforcement interception.

Clearly, there's feelings, mixed feelings about that in the community, but we have to be able to attack this from many different angles.

And it can't just be traditional policing.

It has to be from people who have relationships in these communities for it to stop, which is the reason I still leaned in and support on this, despite the fact that I think there's still work to be done with these organizations.

I just don't know

What the other answer we're looking for is we can't just sit around while these things are happening.

I have more to say.

If you heard me say anything that led you to sitting around, because I think if you admit nothing else, you know I work my butt off every day, all day.

This is about making sure that whatever decisions are made by the city manager and the person who you all have allowed for him to put in charge does not terrorize the same community that you claim to care about.

Because right now, if you are making those kind of decisions,

and history shows if you want me to send you some more reading materials if you want me to give you some local examples once white people start having concerns their concerns concerns will trump anybody else's concerns and it will not be a holistic response that's how we ended up with mass incarceration in the first place okay

So all I'm asking is for us to ensure that those parents who came in with very one-sided concerns apparently have been getting information from the University of Virginia that slights the former police chief as if she was the problem does not become the focus and that we make sure that the community

that there's a healthy response, which if you want to help, that $50,000 is a drop in the bucket.

You would need to triple the police department contribution, which is at 19 million.

And every time you make a decision, it needs to be double, triple, quadruple the investment that led to the destruction.

So if you are in the business of decreasing balance, you have to be in the business of eradicating poverty.

And every decision you make has to lead towards that.

You have to be in the business of not what Ibram would say being anti-racist, okay?

And your decisions would need to be anti-racist policies.

And the time that you all think that you can take

on needs that the community have you have to move with a sense of urgency as if like we are moving with a sense of urgency because those parents are complaining and UVA was complaining you got to move with that same sense of urgency and responding to the community needs and giving them the resources that they need don't act as if

the same response that they are getting that you even have poured into the community.

Ms.

Marshall, are you on camera?

Do you have a comment?

No?

Okay.

Are there any other comments?

Okay.

So it's 846, so 901.

901 for the public.

Thank you.

All right, call this meeting back to order.

It's a public hearing and a second reading.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just quickly, since this is a second reading, over the past decade, City Council's been discussing and planning a botanical garden to be established within McIntyre Park.

This began back around September of 2012.

and most recently in September of 2017 final site plan approval was made and then at your last meeting the first reading of a lease agreement with the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont which is a non-profit and a newer name but the same group that has been discussing this with the council.

The proposed lease, of course, is with this nonprofit.

Included in that is an Exhibit A with the set of rough boundaries.

The exact boundaries will be defined later as part of the written deed.

The proposed term of the lease is for 40 years, which is the maximum amount allowed in the Commonwealth.

As I said, the leasing is a nonprofit.

It also allows the city to put public utilities that include a pedestrian trail and bridge and some stream restoration projects within the lease area.

And the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont has allowed a five year period to commence construction of the Botanical Garden itself.

Then they have three years to complete this construction.

At that point, the city could have a callback feature that they will be able to take the lease back if necessary or to review that for any types of extension.

It's very important for the nonprofit to obtain a lease so that they can complete their fundraising efforts.

The city does not have any funds in the CIP for this project, and therefore this would not be a project that would go to construction under city management for any number of years.

So we're not sure if and when that could occur.

And so a nonprofit partnership is probably most appropriate.

from a financial standpoint about the only thing that the city would have involved is Parks and Rec has agreed to do parking lot maintenance of cleaning the snow off of the sidewalks, making sure the parking lot is maintained properly and then monitoring it for wear and tear.

With that, I'm not sure if there are any questions or if you'd like anybody from the Botanical Gardens to provide any additional information.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Council, do you have any clarifying questions before we open the... I do not.

Ms.

No, ma'am.

Jill?

I would just like to further the remarks from Mr. Boyles the layout of the master plan for McIntyre Park East requires the city to fund infrastructure adjacent to the botanical garden such as the parking lot and the utilities before the garden construction can begin however there is no funding to accomplish this infrastructure in the CIP budget for the next five years

Approval of this land lease places the garden in a position to begin a capital campaign to fund its construction without the need to wait for the city to fund the required infrastructure improvements.

We currently have a very generous challenge grant that needs to be met dollar for dollar within six months.

This land lease agreement will provide the confidence our donors are waiting for to invest in this community asset so that we can meet this challenge.

With these funds, it's the garden's intent to complete the next two design phases, the site work and begin to install the children's garden all within the next three to five years.

In our current rustic state, we've hosted a story hour for the Jefferson Madison Regional Library, a work training opportunity for work source students and gave tours to representatives from the Women's Initiative, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Master Gardeners and to a class from UVA in just the past month.

Just think of how we will serve the needs of the community as a fully functional botanical garden.

We know that we can build this high performance public space to benefit and include the entire community as well as attracting tourists and visitors to local businesses.

Environmentally, the garden will strengthen the local ecosystem and help curb pollution.

Economically, it will attract tourism and contribute to commerce in our region.

Socially, it will support the fabric of our greater community as an education center and a new social hub that is public, open air and free.

But most significantly, research indicates that physical and mental health outcomes are improved for city dwellers of all ages who have regular access to natural environments.

So public gardens such as Botanical Garden of the Piedmont play an important role in sustainable community development.

So we ask that you please vote to approve the land lease agreement and help the garden to grow.

Thank you.

Councilors, any other questions?

All right.

Mr. Willow, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

If you'd like to address council on this public hearing item, please click the raise hand icon, which I need to activate.

Hold on just a moment.

Now you can raise your hand.

If you'd like to address council on the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont lease, please click the raise hand icon.

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

Our first speaker is Aaron, and I'm going to let you pronounce your last name.

You've got three minutes with city council.

Hi, good evening, city councilors and Mayor Walker.

My name is Aaron Eichhorst, and I live on Belmont Avenue.

I have the privilege of serving Charlottesville City Schools as the Coordinator of Fine and Performing Arts and I am also the Director of the Reflections Middle School Art Program for Central Virginia.

I'm an artist as well as a gardener and I'm speaking this evening with the hope that you approve this request to change the city's MOA to a land lease agreement

with the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont.

The land lease agreement will release the city from the obligation of funding infrastructure costs and allow the garden to proceed with the construction of their nationally recognized designs.

In my role as the Fine Arts Coordinator, I have seen up close the benefits this space has had on students and local arts programming.

In June 2021, after a year's hiatus due to COVID, the Reflections Regional Governor School resumed its summer programming.

And as we began planning for our program, we were in search of an outdoor space that would allow students to experiment creatively in response to their sensory experiences.

the botanical garden embraced our ideas and warmly welcomed 46 seventh and eighth grade students allowing them to explore their grounds and create site specific sculptures which were on display until August.

This positive experiences nurtured the relationship with the city schools and forged a creative partnership that continues to develop in such projects like a trailblazers art installation recognizing the Charlottesville 12

a creative collaboration by elementary and middle school students which will be installed along the trails of the botanical garden.

It is exciting to realize that we are just in the early stages of a meaningful partnership with this local resource.

Please approve this request to change the MOA to a land lease agreement and allow the botanical garden to move forward with their plans bringing more accessibility to the site as they manifest their vision.

If anyone else would like to get in line, please click the raise hand icon.

Next up is Nathan Walton.

Great.

Hi, my name is Nathan Walton, former executive director of Abundant Life Ministries, a community development nonprofit right here in Charlottesville.

I'm also a resident of the FIFO neighborhood.

I'm in full support of the Botanical Garden's hopes to change their MOA with the city to a land lease agreement, and I would like to speak to the ways that this organization benefits the Charlottesville community.

In my role as director of a nonprofit that serves local youth, I've seen firsthand the impact that the current pandemic has had on some of Charlottesville's most at-risk children.

One thing that the pandemic has highlighted has been the vital role that outdoor space can play in the social and intellectual development of kids, not to mention their safety amidst a rampant virus.

This is one of the reasons why we at Abundant Life have been so grateful for the potential garden and the opportunities that it presents for youth to learn in and from nature in a safe environment.

The current pandemic has only exacerbated the need for Charlottesville city youth to experience quality outdoor programming and engagement and expediting the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont's ability to provide such opportunities is essential to effectively supporting the city's youth.

As Executive Director of Abundant Life, a ministry that serves local youth, I've appreciated the intentionality with which Botanical Garden leadership has sought the feedback and involvement of our staff and our community and our organization's constituents.

They have complemented this collaborative approach to partnership with quality resources and quality programming that enable youth to not only learn about nature, but to do so in ways that further their creative development and their imagination.

As the father of two young girls under the age of five, I've also personally witnessed the impact that the Botanical Garden has had on my own kids.

They simply love the space and area and the future land development plans at the Botanical Garden of Piedmont team has in mind will take the space that they have to the next level.

The additional financial investments that the shift to a land lease will engender will allow the Botanical Garden to maximize what their space can offer and increase the creative potential for providing quality programming for Charlottesville City youth of all ages.

Not to mention this shift will benefit the city because of the financial obligations that the Botanical Garden would be assuming.

I deeply hope that this request will be granted, not only for the sake of the Botanical Gardens development, but as a communal gesture of stewarding the development of this city's kids.

Okay.

I'll close the public hearing.

Counselors, are there any further questions or comments?

All right.

All right, Ms.

Yes, I'm sorry.

I just wanted to briefly flag that in the draft before y'all, there are just a few typos really where we didn't update the sections.

So it's in paragraphs 8D, 21, 23, and 24, where we refer to, for example, section 8A, and it should be 7A.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

No problem.

Okay.

All right, Ms.

Councilor Hill?

Yes.

Thank you all.

Thank you all.

This is a great

Public-Private Partnership, and you guys are carrying a lot of the weight, so thank you.

Thank you all so much.

All right, next up, we have ordinance, the continuity of governance ordinance, and it requires fourth, fifth vote.

Thank you again, Mayor.

In March of 2020, Council approved a continuity of government ordinance due to the increasing COVID pandemic.

This ordinance, after a renewal, is set to expire on October the 18th.

It's staff's recommendation to extend this for the maximum amount of an additional six months with the hopes that we will come back to you for a termination prior to the six month period, but having it in place.

it would keep all of the same orders that are currently in place of as long as there is a state of emergency all of our public bodies will continue to meet virtually and in addition it does allow the waiver of some of our fees and time limits that would run through October to be placed

But it keeps everything else or actually keeps everything exactly the way it is now for an additional six months.

and so we'd be glad to try to answer any specific questions.

But just because I would just remind you that just because this is for six months does not mean we will recommend to enact it the full six months.

All right.

Thank you.

Do we have to take a vote just to allow for it to be one reading?

Can we just do it with a four-fifths vote?

It's a four-fifths vote, and if you look in the ordinance, towards the end of the ordinance on page 142 of 170, spelling over onto page 143, that's spelled out in detail, so it's in there.

Okay, great, sorry.

And my only comment would be the same.

Of course, everyone should know by now that I believe that we should not be meeting in person.

But I also have stated before that, you know, concerns about in-person schools.

I know the school board is on here, but I've stated it, you know, before.

I've also thought that we needed to have more restrictive measures in place for businesses and organizations.

So I will say that

and citizens have asked if we are meeting virtually, then what's, you know, going on in the in the world and the message that that sends.

So I would just ask, you know, that Dr. Bonds presented that the numbers are decreasing, you know, at this point and whether that's a two month point from today or two month, you know,

I mean, we adopt the ordinance to enact temporary changes in certain deadlines and to modify public meeting and public hearing practices and procedures to address continuity of city government operations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic disaster for a six month period ending through March 18, 2022.

Second.

Ms.

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Vice Mayor McGill?

Yes.

Councilor Hill?

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

Next up, we have a resolution approving the Shawlisville City School Board to proceed with a design concept process for a school reconfiguration project.

Thank you, Mayor Walker, Councilor City Manager Boyles.

Thank you for your time and attention tonight.

I'm here on behalf of Charlottesville City School Board to again bring forward our request to move forward with the conceptual design plans for Charlottesville City Schools configuration project.

The resolution you're considering tonight was passed and approved unanimously by the Charlottesville City School Board on September 23rd, 2021.

And I would like to now introduce the superintendent of Charlottesville City Schools, Dr. Gurley, and he will introduce our presenters tonight.

I hope everyone is doing well.

I am Royal Gurley and today was my first day and so I'm very excited about being here.

And so before I introduce our presenter, I do want to say I want to thank everyone who's participated thus far to help us get our project going.

I've really been appreciative of all the feedback from our community members and other stakeholders.

Thank you, Dr. Gurley.

Nothing like bumbling this.

Well, I feel like I'm sharing the screen with you guys on it.

There we go.

Okay, my apologies.

So I'm excited to be here.

Any moment we get to talk about making great spaces for kids is a great moment.

So thank you for sticking with us in a long meeting.

Really excited for Dr. Gurley's first day and to begin to work with him

on this project and get his input and his stamp on it.

I also, this may be the last time that we talk to this council on this project, so I really want to thank both Councilor Hill and Mayor Walker for their attention as part of the reconfiguration group.

and for their four years on council.

Thank you for a thankless job.

With that, I want to get into a little bit about what this project's about.

Essentially, it's about improving our system by reconfiguring where our grades are and it's about improving our facilities by redesigning them to better meet the needs of our students and our teachers.

There's lots of reasons to do this project.

This is the moment to intervene.

Early childhood sets the foundation for learning, lifelong learning, and middle school is the point where you either get it or get left behind.

We know that the transitions we have in middle school right now are really disruptive to that, and we also know that our pre-K resources can be a lot more than what we have.

They're scattered among our six schools by consolidating them in one point

one place at the Walker campus.

We can also allow for the expansion of pre-K like everyone has been talking about as a goal.

Also our spaces are just old and they're not meeting the specific needs of these age groups.

We've got issues with indoor air quality.

We've got issues with energy use.

One of the speakers earlier tonight

quoted $30,000 in annual energy use at Walker and Buford.

They left off a zero.

That's $300,000 is the number there.

So not only is this a great chance, one of our biggest chances to meet our climate commitments, but it's also a great chance to have better spaces to attract and retain teachers that we so desperately need and staff in our school systems.

Why now?

Our buildings are obsolete, really.

We haven't had a major investment.

Our buildings are well maintained, but we haven't had a major investment since we built CHS 47 years ago.

We said we would do this.

It's been really 20 years that we've been talking about it, but 13 years that we've been talking about it in earnest and studying it.

And we know that time is money.

The more we delay this, the more inflation gets us.

When you're talking about a project of this size,

A couple of percentage points of inflation is millions and millions of dollars.

Reconfiguration is also the best way to create capacity

across all of our campuses will have more capacity because you can put at the elementary schools because you can put more fifth graders into the same size classroom than you can pre-K for the teacher to student ratio requirements there and it also gives us the opportunity to potentially open up some space at CHS if central admin could move some people over to the Walker campus.

And finally, tomorrow is today.

The decisions that we make today to keep this project on track allows us to achieve reconfiguration in 2026, five years from now by staying on track today.

When I presented those bullet points to you guys two weeks ago, Mayor Walker had a great point, which was, you know, where's equity on that list?

It should be the top one.

And she was absolutely right about that.

I went back and tried to work on an equity bullet point, which

just didn't seem adequate in any way whatsoever, given how big that topic is.

So I thought it was best just to show the demographics of this.

According to census data, Charlottesville has 34% of our population as residents of color.

If you look at the pre-K population, that number is 84%.

If you look at grades five through eight, that number is 62%.

So it's definitely higher than the city as a whole, but also it's definitely higher than the Charlottesville city school system.

as a whole as well.

So again, a great opportunity to impact where we need to do it the most.

Same thing on socioeconomic diversity.

24% of our residents are in poverty, again, according to the census data versus 66 at the pre-K and 56% at grades five through eight.

So these are the population.

These are the people that we are looking to invest in in this project.

our process throughout this has been to design in public we've throughout the process and we continue to pursue this philosophy that we want everyone at the table everything that we're going to show has been has been public and will continue to be we never assume that we know what people will accept and we also know that everything we show is going to be wrong right we're going to we're going to keep showing it and keep getting feedback until it's better and better and better until we have it right together in the end

Through that process, we have been doing both virtual in-person and one-on-one engagement process throughout the city over the past six months that we've been working on this.

Throughout that, what we have heard from the citizens of Charlottesville

The first thing is, hey, make sure this really happens, right?

Is this really going to happen this time?

That's what we've heard over and over again.

After that, we have to prioritize the student experience.

We should have spaces that are inclusive, that are safe, and that are welcoming to everyone.

And that we're only going to get there if we continue to do a community-driven design process where all voices are listened to and included in the process.

what those voices today have been telling us is that any buildings that remain at these campuses should be thoroughly renovated we shouldn't build something nice and new and shiny next to something really old that our square foot per student is important we should at least meet the state averages for what middle schools are being done fresh air and daylight outdoor space are incredibly important and that we need to have an appropriately sized learning communities particularly when we're talking about a middle school

of the size that we're talking about of over a thousand students.

So throughout this process, we're at the end of concept design.

We are bringing recommendations before you tonight for a redesign of Beaufort with construction started in 2023 for a idea of occupying

Walker temporarily in 2026 when we achieve reconfiguration and then a concept for a future new elementary, new early childhood center, pardon me, at Walker that we would do as a step two.

So tonight the main ask is to set a budget.

We're looking to replace the $50 million placeholder in CIP with a $75 million budget item that would start spending in FY24, simply to set a budget.

We will come back in March with a further advanced design, more cost estimates, and a request that we commit spending that money.

So there's not a request for allocation of public funds tonight, but setting a budget, which is incredibly important so we have the parameters to design to.

the details of that are listed here you can see what's needed both to get furniture back in the elementary schools for fifth graders to get Walker up to a temporary condition and the big item 73 million dollars for the concept that was approved by the community design team at Beaufort for a total of just under 75 million dollars

and then looking ahead for that early childhood center 22 million dollar project in today's dollars and then we'll see when that can get budgeted and implemented.

In the RFP that you released two years ago one of the things that you said was you're looking for someone to discover define and design to the city's needs which has been the charge we have taken in this community design process

and this graph kind of shows the design process of expanding and diverging and converging to see where we are.

We've looked at things that were as small as $35 million, just a simple little small addition without touching the rest of Buford.

We've looked at things that range from 50 to $80 million as options with the working group and with the community design team.

We've gone all the way up to $123 million, an $89 million project at Buford and a $34 million phase one project.

at Walker, which was just way, way too much, right?

We came back down and looked at, you know, hey, maybe we really do little to nothing at Buford, which we heard loud and clear was not acceptable.

So we're back up to the numbers I just showed you, which starts off with that $75 million project starting in FY24.

To put this in context, our neighbors have been spending quite a bit around us.

Over the past 10 years, we estimate $700 million has been spent in neighboring districts on school capital improvement projects.

And on the right there, you can see all of the public school procurements just in this year in 2021, which range from a $40 million elementary school to $150 million high school in Alexandria.

If this is funded solely through an increase in real estate taxes, we're talking about a nickel increase to the real estate tax.

or what and what I think everyone is hoping for is the 1% special sales tax which would require approval by the General Assembly this upcoming session which starts in January and then a November of 22 approval by Charlottesville voters.

That revenue could only be used for school capital improvement projects and would be a dedicated stream of revenue for that purpose.

so let's look at Walker quickly this is the current aerial view of what you have there and what we're talking about is renovating and repurposing buildings B and demolishing building C while we are occupying building A as a temporary home of a preschool and then opening up a new early childhood center to sit on the southern side of the site we talked about this is the Rose Hill option

in the community design team because the front door would be from Rose Hill.

So some plans on this an aerial view and then kind of taking the top off.

You can see the classrooms in blue.

We work really hard to make sure that our classrooms can be arranged as much as possible with direct access to the outside.

Children learn through play.

And it's very important that we can have enough opportunities to get inside and out to support that, particularly at a secure level in the middle of the site.

And then even down on the ground level, dedicated play areas around that.

So if we look at, if you come in on Rose Hill Drive, this is what you see.

That's building C, the gym, the Walker site straight ahead and Crow Pool on the right.

It would be replaced with a new early childhood center that would look like this.

and then zooming in a little bit on the entryway as to what that project could look like.

By building on the south end of the site, what we do is we have the opportunity to use a building to navigate a really challenging terrain and fix some of the accessibility issues.

So on the left here, you can see building A and then we come down to the enclosed secure childhood play space and then a building that takes us down

to the entryway coming off of Rose Hill Drive.

So right now, this is the existing condition.

That's building B straight ahead, building C straight ahead, building B on the left.

By demolishing building C, we can build up to the level of building A. Building A sits about six feet higher than building C. We can fix a lot of ADA and accessibility issues and turn it into something that could look like this.

So the process of renovating B would be a pretty comprehensive renovation and the connector space between the two could be a pretty vibrant art scene, art space that also looks out into another courtyard between the new construction and building B.

At Buford, we have four buildings at Buford.

The main building is building A, the arts building is building B, building C is the gym, and building D is really almost temporary construction that was put up in 1988 that we're still using that is really, really worn out and needs to be replaced.

Smith Aquatic and the Boys and Girls Club are the two buildings at the bottom of the screen with the white roofs.

We're talking about a project that would go from this

to this.

This is the build in the bowl scheme that CDT talked about, because it would be occupying that space where the trees are in front of building A, which allows us to keep a lot of daylight into building A. And let me show you that from another perspective.

So this is coming around from the other side.

So now the Boys and Girls Club and Smith Aquatic are at the top of your screen.

we would demolish building D and C. We would renovate A and B very heavily.

and then add on enough to really double the size, double the capacity of the students and teachers that are there now.

So starting off at a top floor, some academic spaces in blue on an upper level, higher than you are now at the entry level.

Coming down to the entry level, renovated and expanded arts area in purple, a new admin area that comes up to the main entry level.

you can see the distinct learning communities in blue around a expanded library at the center of the school coming down the dining commons and academic commons for students additional classrooms some fitness spaces and then down to the level of the field and the gym and additional art spaces and maker spaces down at that level

So let's look at some of the renderings of what that could look like.

Right now, this is your entryway to Beaufort.

It is not to the left where the gentleman that's walking there is.

You have to go down the stairs to get to the main entryway.

And if you're in a wheelchair, you simply cannot get there.

It would be replaced with something like this, where the entryway would be between building A and the new construction, allowing us to kind of change the look and feel of the building as you come in from Cherry Avenue.

If you walk down those stairs, this is where this is the actual current front door right now.

And then the covered walkways that connect you over to building C that would get replaced with the new space.

It looks like this that uses again, use the building to navigate the terrain.

So the elevators in the building would provide an opportunity to connect the levels of the site and the levels of the building.

and create spaces like this, spaces that are for and about middle school students that are spaces for all students, regardless of their academic pathways to meet, to mingle, to combine.

Coming down a level, the academic commons that would come off of as a separate space from the cafeteria for project-based learning and mixed opportunities.

And right now, this is what your public corridors look like in Beaufort now.

Quite different than something like this.

this is a rendering showing the space off of the dining commons by not building immediately to the west building in the bowl we keep daylight and views from that cafeteria space we keep the covered dining space for but are also able to build some better and more accessible spaces for students and a more enclosed area for outdoor space outdoor learning

You've got a lot of this space around Euford right now and it's just underutilized.

It's just not we're not able to get to it in a way that we could.

So down at the field level spaces like this could be transformed into spaces like this with outdoor learning spaces.

These are the art rooms on the ground and field level opening up for project spaces.

Easy access from inside to outside really enhance the learning experience.

This is the resolution that was passed unanimously by the school board on the 23rd, which I will not read.

And that concludes that presentation.

All right.

Thank you all for that information again, and for all the hard work that, you know, everyone from

your team, WIC, to the school board and to the public and council members who were on this committee.

Ms.

No, no, thank you so much.

And again, thank you to the entire team and to councils, this current council and prior teams that have had input into this throughout the years.

Spent a lot of hours with the CDT team this summer.

It's just no doubt this is the area that we need to be focusing a lot of our resources on, but just want to reinforce with the public, you know, that this does have impacts on other priorities of the council over the next several years.

And it's just the reality that we're in and also just where we're going to get the revenue.

And so just ask the community and everyone on here that we all have to be committed to doing everything we can to see how we can uncover some of these other sources of revenue, including the sales tax, including like

the private sector.

Wherever we can get revenue is just going to allow us to more quickly get back to other priorities of the city.

So I agree.

It's been a tremendous effort from the community and from this design team in conjunction with the leadership here and so many people.

So I just, I just, the progress that's been made, and I know it was a year delayed because of COVID to even kind of start this phase of the project, but just has been tremendous.

But, um,

You know, it's there's a long road ahead from a revenue standpoint to what we have to do and decisions are gonna have to be made.

My comment is simply that, yes, there has been a lot of work done on this and a lot of meetings that I've attended by Zoom.

And while I haven't been as deeply involved as either you, Mayor Walker, or Councillor Hill, I think all of the councillors have spent a lot of time looking at this, wondering about this, worrying about this, thinking about it and trying to

to make sure that we were persuaded in our own minds that this was the way to go.

At one of the last meetings, I can't remember, it may have been two meetings ago, there was a question of a number of options for Buford and the degree, virtually all of the options were within

were within a few million dollars of 70 million.

That the economical version was 67 million and the bells and whistles version was at 73 million.

There really was no option that was going to be

significantly less money than that so that we would be able to say, okay, we can do that and various other things.

We clearly are having to say, we're all in.

We're all in for the schools.

We are taking, I mean, my own view is I want the version that has, as many of the people today spoke, that has the greatest ecological impact as well as economic impact and educational impact.

I see no reason to spend $70 million and not spend another $3 million to do it right.

to get the geothermal, to get the solar panels, to do the rest of that.

First of all, because in the long run it will save us money.

Second, because it is absolutely the right thing to do for the environment for all the reasons that we've heard tonight.

So although I know it is going to require a lot of other

changes and modifications of budgets and of other plans, at least unless we can get the sales tax add-on that we've talked about.

I think it's absolutely what we have to do.

I'm glad that the financial staff has been able to figure out a way that we apparently will be able to get started on it, even if we don't immediately get the benefit of that extra one cent.

I'm all in favor of it.

Thank you.

Councilor Payne.

Two questions.

Are you thinking of the 75 million as sort of a hard limit or is there an anticipation that as with all projects, you know,

there's some room anticipated for unexpected cost increases or it going beyond the 75 million.

Are you thinking that again is sort of just like a hard limit?

Is that for me, Councillor Payne?

Yeah.

Sure.

That's always a risk.

As you recall from the two joint work sessions that we had, we were showing you two numbers.

We were showing you kind of today's high dollar numbers from the supply chain issues.

And then we were also inflating that, even beyond that.

The $75 million number is the today's inflated number.

And

I did that to reduce the confusion over discussions of it, but also knowing that $3 million has been allocated in 2019 to start the project and that that could be that cushion if we do have those overruns.

That's number one.

Number two is this is a total project cost.

So part of the

the soft costs we've called them which is 27 and a half percent of the hard construction costs you would pay the contractor that includes the owner contingencies that are designed exactly for those overruns that do that do occur.

So the expectation is that for the 75 that is being asked for in the CIP starting in FY24 that it would cover everything without having to come back.

And it's important to set it now because the decisions that we'll make over the next year in design, that's the opportunity you have to save money.