City Council Special Meeting   11/5/2021

I have found the participants.

Oh, no, I had grown up with DOS and, you know, IBM-centric computers, and then I switched over to Mac about six or seven years, or, ooh, no, before that.

I was starting to use Mac when I was, oh, anyways, so it's been a good 10 plus years I've been on a Mac.

And, uh,

I've had to switch back during COVID using my city laptop, which is not a Mac.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

They say, oh, the word processing is the same.

Mayor has joined us as well.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Pretty good.

Good.

Are we all here?

Good to go?

I call this meeting to order.

Ms.

Mayor Walker?

Present.

Vice Mayor McGill?

I'm here.

Councillor Hill?

I'm here.

Thank you.

Welcome to Mr. Mark Woolley and to the members of the public and press who have joined us.

Today we have announced through a press release the interim city manager that will be joining us and also announced the process for the search for the next city manager to commence beginning April 2022.

We appreciate all the efforts.

that all the patience and the efforts of the public and we know that this is not an ideal process and you have expressed your concerns to us before and hopefully the next process will be the type of process that you have shared with us to be your vision for how our city manager for our community is hired.

We will have opportunities for counselors, the press and members of the public to ask questions of Mr. Woolley and and counselors at the end of that will make statements today and then we will vote on Mr. Woolley being the next interim city manager for the city of Charlottesville.

Thank you all for joining us today.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

I just wanted to thank city council for giving me the opportunity to steer the city of Harrisburg during this transitory time.

Together with the assistance of staff, Sam and Ashley and council, I will be focusing on some key issues currently before Charlottesville.

mainly the budget and the completion of the comprehensive plan.

So no problem, but I know that'll come up.

So I just thank you for joining us and your resume and credentials that has been released to the public also, and I'm sure that it will prompt some questions, but thank you for being here today.

Mr. Woolley, I wanted to start off with just sort of

giving you an opportunity to explain a little bit about who you are, where you came from, where'd you grow up, where'd you go to school?

I am born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and I am number six of seven.

Wow.

There are five girls that preceded me and my brother afterwards.

My parents met a long, long time ago.

My dad is from

Haiti, and my mom is from East Texas.

Went to school.

Actually, I started off at Northwestern University, then I transferred to Georgetown, and then I went to law school at Boston College.

From there, had various jobs in and out of public service, most notably with the Philadelphia Housing Authority as general counsel,

but I was in a series of positions before then within the Housing Authority also was at the Delaware River Port Authority claims administrator and assistant to the chairman who at the time was Governor Rendell and from there went to Hersey Trust and I was deputy general counsel

Chief Compliance Officer and Secretary for both the trust company and the school.

So right there, I've been with the city of Harrisburg for the past four years as the business administrator, which is basically the same position as this, as the city manager.

But Harrisburg, I take it has a strong mayor system.

Yes.

And so when we talk about a city manager, you all would talk about a business administrator.

Correct.

Same set of functions.

And

So there are a number of things I wanted to ask you about sort of in the somewhat more distant past.

Your Philadelphia Housing Authority experience, of course,

I assume that that was dealing partly with properties owned by the housing authority.

Yes, I was involved in the voucher program.

I was also general manager of asset management.

And during my time there, that's when the HOPE6 program was in full swing.

And that's where the government was

deciding that they were going to, in certain cities, they were going to take down the larger high-rises and trying to integrate their properties into the surrounding neighborhoods.

So I was in charge of that, had about $700 million, $800 million construction going into one time.

So I'm sure you know we have got a lot of affordable housing issues in Charlottesville and

One of the things we were looking for was somebody with some strength in that area.

Yes, it's a complicated issue with a lot of stakeholders who are going to have to be at the table.

I wanted to ask you about one thing in particular regarding the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

If somebody Googles you, one of the things they find is that you got sued coming out of your experience with the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

But if they Google you more thoroughly, go back not just the first page, but about the seventh or eighth page, they find a federal district court opinion that basically says you did nothing wrong and it was the person who was complaining who was the problem.

Sure.

So the lawsuits actually occurred while I was employed by the 12th Housing Authority.

I was one of several defendants named, including the organization itself.

There were, I think,

believe there were three cases, four cases, three of which involved lawyers that were disgruntled.

One was taking corporate documents, another was living outside the city, and then another was representing both the housing authority and a wayward police officer.

And in those types of cases, particularly- And that would be a time when it would be a conflict of interest to do so.

Yes.

As the judge said.

Looking at the next 10 years or so of your career it seems like

you were often put in a position of having to kind of clean up a mess.

I think first assess what the issues were and then accordingly if there are things that needed to be done to implement those policies and procedures in order to rectify anything.

There were just some issues in the bigger agencies when I was coming up.

I sort of gravitated towards those because I wanted to test my mettle and I thought that I could be of assistance, particularly

at the Delaware River Port Authority when we're talking about economic development and what it meant to Philadelphia at that time.

And I think that there were some funds that were used.

I don't necessarily think I would have used them, but I wasn't there at the time.

But when I was able to be the steward of those funds, we were more in line with economic development, making sure that the counties that surrounded the four bridges

were actually going to benefit some matter from that money.

In addition, I was chairman of a school district, and that was through the empowerment legislation in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which allows the governor and the secretary of education to take over

School Districts that are in financial and or educational difficulties.

And then you ultimately, of course, ended up in Harrisburg, and I gather

Some financial difficulties.

I think we were in Act 47, which is for distressed municipalities in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

And years before I arrived in Harrisburg, there were a number of bond deals that were done and saddled the residents with a lot of debt.

and it turns out they just couldn't pay it.

The city couldn't pay it back.

The state sent in a receiver to develop what they called a strong plan, which is they sold off a lot of assets, almost $400 million worth of assets, applied those to the debt, and then set up payments for other general obligation debts.

And

Right now, when I when I arrived in Harrisburg, we're rounding the corner this year and actually starting last year was able to entertain actually getting back our credit rating.

We didn't have a credit rating looking to refinance that and then actually put out that for capital projects.

So

It's a 180-degree turn from where they were, and I think Harrisburg's going to be better for it, and I think they're going to get a credit rating.

Well, I wanted to ask you just a few questions to kind of get your record, your background out there, and I'll turn it over to somebody else to ask some other questions.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Willey.

Sure, my management style is

I'm really inclusive.

I really enjoy and I thrive in a team environment and particularly in a situation like this because I'm coming into a situation where I'm going to rely on folks that have historical knowledge and going to rely on them to kind of help me map a path forward.

But more importantly, I've realized over the years that when you're dealing with staff and colleagues, it's better to include them into the process, have them ownership of projects.

And of course, you're going to manage those projects.

But the more buy-in they have, the more invested they are, and the better results that they've gotten.

I see my role in this transitory

phase.

And I use that word on purpose because this is not necessarily the transition.

I believe the transition will occur when the new city manager is appointed through the process that you described that's going to begin in April.

But

Right now, there are certain acute issues that need to be taken care of, namely the budget and the comprehensive plan.

From then, it's really laying the foundation for the next city manager to be able to come in and establish priorities with city council that are probably of a more long range

in nature.

My role is to sit down with council and stakeholders and plot a course forward for the short term and laying some bricks for the future.

Somewhat specific question.

I know you mentioned in your work for the Housing Authority that at that time, their local government had chosen to pursue HOPE 6.

And I know public housing redevelopment is a huge priority here in Charlottesville.

And we've made a commitment to go a different route that doesn't follow the model of HOPE 6.

in terms of that model of privatizing and moving to vouchers.

Without a doubt.

So there are different time periods in terms of how the Philadelphia Housing Authority redeveloped a lot of its properties.

So early in, well, in the late 90s and early 2000s, it was the HOPE VI program.

Later on, a few years later, actually,

actually a couple of years later, there was sort of an experiment.

It was called Moving to Work.

And HUD realized that there were cities, especially particularly the larger cities that had distinct neighborhoods, that their model for housing and taking Hope 6, for instance, just wouldn't work.

And this program, Moving to Work, you really would

It enabled housing authorities to redefine the way they spent their capital and operating budgets.

Instead of being locked into the regulations of HUD, it allowed cities to apply to HUD and say, let's make these funds fungible because we know how to better attack housing issues in our city and different neighborhoods.

So we were able to do that as well.

So we had there's there's a point in time where there was hope six and then I was moving to work where we were more agile in addressing housing issues across the city because from one neighborhood to another, the housing issues are not always the same.

So, yes, I'm open to other other avenues to approach housing issues, affordable housing issues.

So I think that concludes questions from counselors.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

We've got at least five members of the local news media on.

And if you'd like to raise your hand to ask a question, please go ahead and do so.

We'll let each reporter ask one question and a follow-up and then we'll go to the next reporter and we'll do one more circle through them after that.

After this, we'll take questions from the community members and staff that are on.

First up is Sean Tubbs and Sean's with Seville Community Engagement.

Sean, go ahead with your question.

And we can't hear you at the moment.

Sean.

All right, I'm going to take Sean off for a second.

We'll come back to Sean.

Next, I'll go to Jesse Higgins with Charlottesville Tomorrow.

We can.

Hello and welcome to Charlottesville.

I'm Jesse and I'm the new managing editor of Charlottesville Tomorrow.

My question is actually kind of deep and spins off of something that Heather Hill was talking about earlier, which is the high turnover that Charlottesville has experienced among sitting managers and also other staff.

And the question I have actually first to the reasons that many of our city managers have stated publicly about wanting to leave is that the job was so stressful or so intense, I guess, that it created issues with their health.

They cited health reasons as related to their job.

So I'm curious what your reaction to that is and how you feel knowing that that is what's been happening.

Well, I think it's unfortunate for those particular persons and what they experience.

But from my vantage point, I've been in very high-stress environments since I graduated from law school.

and I try to have a nice balance and that balance includes spending time with my family, my son, daughter and my wife and also I have

I train German Shepherds, and so I'm always active with my German Shepherds.

And I'm not being flippant.

I mean, it's really important to have other interests.

I even make cheese.

And so these are the things I do to kind of decompress.

And I know that's odd.

It's just like, okay, you have dogs and cheese, but it provides the balance that I need.

And I've been doing this for many, many years.

And I've been in almost every type of situation.

I've been in the situation where I'm wishing people well on their nuptials.

And I've been in situations where somebody has passed away at work.

Those are the moments where you really that's where your emotions are high and low.

I think the highest and lowest.

But I think the other thing I need to do is to ensure that while I'm here, that the issues that are going to bubble up and they can be solely local issues, they can bubble up to national issues, is to keep that perspective that has been

that Hyatt always had in that in the at the end of the day, this too shall pass.

But we have to in order to get there, we have to pave the correct path, we have to do what's right, and we have to act accordingly.

So I rely on family, faith and friends.

And I hope that gets me through the tough spots.

And

and it's worked so far.

And so there's no reason that it shouldn't continue to work.

Thank you.

All right, Jesse, we'll come back to you and see if you have another question in a moment.

My check was Sean Tubbs again.

And I see, Sean, you've got two sessions going.

How is this one working?

I'm going to switch to the other one now.

Hooray.

Gotcha.

Yes.

Welcome.

Just a very simple question.

I didn't have a chance to take a look at your resume, but Virginia is a very unique state, we shall say, in terms of how local government works.

Do you have any experience in Virginia or anything that might assist you in that transition if you don't?

No, no direct experience in Virginia.

However, Virginia does not have the monopoly on

complicated or arcane forms of government.

Pennsylvania is right up there.

I've been in Pennsylvania most of my professional life dealing with local municipalities, local school districts.

And in terms of being able to really

Navigate some arcane policies and procedures.

I'm used to it.

And not to say that I look forward to it, but I'm used to it.

Not at this time, but thank you very much.

Oh, look, it's me.

All right.

Next, we're going to go to Ginny Bixby with the Daily Progress.

Ginny, you're on.

Ginny Bixby, Hello.

Hi.

We can.

Hi, Mr. Woolley, congratulations on the position.

I did want to ask you, I know that you and Mr. Snook addressed the lawsuits, but something that I did have a question about is that the Deseret News reported that in 2003 you resigned from the PHA after being accused

of ordering staff to violate federal rule and extending contracts to favor Philadelphia law firms.

And that also in 2016, you were fired from the Hershey Trust Company.

And I understand that there was no record of doing there.

So we'll go back to the Hershey Trust.

I was not fired.

I resigned.

The other...

with regard to the lawsuit about the law firms and my resignation.

My resignation had nothing to do with anything at PHA.

I was actually going to the Delaware report authority at the time.

So I went right to the Delaware report authority.

And with regard to the law firms and their bills, you can ask almost any.

Actually, you can ask every

managing partner of a law firm that did work for the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

I was the bane of their existence.

I marked up all their bills.

It was a pamphlet that we gave to all of our law firms that did work for us.

It was a compliance handbook.

and you had to follow certain regulations.

You couldn't have multiple lawyers working on issues.

You couldn't send those issues to lower level associates.

And I literally marked up bills, sent them back to them

and some bills were enormous and I would deduct $20,000, $30,000 from bills and I reviewed every bill.

So the stories that you're getting, they're anecdotes from lawsuits and not investigative reporting and in lawsuits, as you know, you can draft a complaint, you can say almost anything you want but I stand by my work, I stand by

all that I've done and I'm ready to defend it and I will defend it and have defended it in the past but as far as anecdotes taken from draft complaints or complaints that have not been

have not seen the light of day in a courtroom or have been disposed of, there's nothing to say about them.

And in that particular case, it was disposed of and nothing came of it.

Next, we're going to go to Isabel Cleary with NBC29.

Isabel, you're on.

Hi, thank you and welcome.

In the press release, you said that you were looking forward to taking on the projects and challenges in Charlottesville.

I think the first thing that I want to tackle is getting to know the budget process and to make sure we're able to deliver the budget on time.

The next thing that I'd like to do is to review the comprehensive plan procedure and get involved in that and make sure that we deliver that on time as well.

But I think those are objective goals.

Subjectively, I'd like to be able to further understand the complexity of the relationship between

the workers, employees and management and get to know why there seems to be a little bit of, there may be some discord and causing people in my position to leave.

And I'd like to see if we could address that in some way.

So that's more subjective.

I don't know the criteria.

I think Ashley calls it the soft sciences.

So to get a little bit involved in that,

No follow-up.

Thank you.

Next, we'll go to Sarah Robinson with CBS.

Sarah, you're on.

Hey, thank you, and welcome to Charlottesville.

And I wanted to ask, yeah, I wanted to ask, Charlottesville has a very delicate history, and we have a community with a lot of people who are very passionate and very involved.

And as someone from an outsider, someone from an outside perspective, I wanted to ask you one

What actually brings you to Charlottesville?

Why Charlottesville?

So Charlottesville in terms of the intensity is very much like Harrisburg.

Harrisburg, there are a lot of stakeholders that are very in tune with what is going on in Harrisburg and it impacts them directly.

Probably not the same, but Harrisburg, a lot of residents that have been there always think that they're forgotten in terms of the Commonwealth.

And so they're very passionate about not being forgotten and making sure that their needs are brought to the fore.

I think that's taught me a couple of things.

One, that all things are local.

It matters how does it impact me, whatever you're doing.

And that can be in a large community or a small community.

and the best thing that I can do in my position is to make sure that I'm very communicative, that the information that I give to one person or to one group, I'm giving the same information to other people and other groups.

And so in terms of navigating

passionate involved persons or entities.

I actually look forward to that because the passion there means that they care and that we have to find a way, a path forward in order so that where we may not agree on everything, we may not agree on the solution, we understand what the issues are and why decisions are made the way they are.

So I can't recall a time in my career where I've been in a community that wasn't very

involved and passionate about things that were happening in their community.

And that's from Chester, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wilmington, Delaware, and Harrisburg.

Everybody is very passionate about issues that impact their livelihoods and in particular their children.

So I want to make sure that the same

Methods that I've been using in the past, I use now, but I'm also open to finding new ways to address problems by, you know, listening to the people that I meet, that I will meet, and maybe I'll have a new quiver to utilize by having these conversations, but very open to

So we'll give the media one more opportunity to ask any final question.

Please go ahead and click the raise hand icon.

Hi, so this is actually kind of a two-part question.

One is actually one that was just asked, but I wanted to ask it again.

Is there anything specifically that drew you to Charlottesville?

Like, why did you take this job right here?

And then the second part of that question is, do you intend to apply for the full-time position once that's

So I'll answer the last first, and it's yes.

I think that Charlottesville, and this will kind of dovetail into why Charlottesville.

Charlottesville has a rich history.

I was part of it years ago, very briefly.

My sister went to school here, and I was small, and I just remember liking it.

My wife and I have traveled around and we love this area.

And so now that we're empty nesters and we're free to move about as we wish, and the kids have to follow us now, we are looking for a place where we can become ingrained in the community.

and to give back because there's a lot that Charlottesville is going to give to us.

So we want to make sure that we give back.

But and, you know, like I said before, I think that the passion that's here, issues that are occurring really dovetail well with my skill set.

in terms of being able to have objective goals and meet them, working well with elected officials.

And I think that communities in transition, I sort of speak their language and they speak to me.

Just to make sure you did say that you wanted to apply for the actual city manager position through that process in April.

Yes.

Okay, thank you very much.

Hi, I have a question for Mr. Woolley, but I also kind of, it's kind of a two-parter, and I don't know if I'm allowed to ask council questions at this time, but I wanted to ask Mr. Woolley, a lot of people asked why Charlottesville, but I'm also interested specifically, how did you find out about the position?

Yeah, I'll take it.

Okay.

Mr. Woolley was a finalist for the deputy city manager position that would be in charge of the finance, budget, HR, those departments.

And of course, when we landed where we landed last month, we started exploring or council started exploring options.

And because the counselors have had been meeting

Thank you, Mary Walker.

All right.

And we have a question from Ben Hitchcock with Seville Weekly.

Ben, you're on.

Go ahead.

We can.

Thank you so much.

As I'm sure you know, the last city manager fired the police chief.

Is working with law enforcement a priority of yours?

So for me, I'll give you a little history on me.

Right now, public safety in the city of Harrisburg, which comprises fire and police, reported to me.

A lot of issues have come up and had to deal with them in Harrisburg.

This particular issue, I am not well versed on in terms of all the

all of what happened.

And I think it would be presumptuous of me to, at this point, to offer any suggestions without knowing the true lay of the land.

But that being said,

issues that pop up with regard to public safety, be they fire or police, been involved with them for many years and am able to navigate that.

No, that's great for now.

Thank you so much.

All right, well, that concludes our media roundtable, and we do have four staff and members of the public with their hands up.

All right, so if you're in the audience and you haven't already asked a question as a member of the media, please feel free to go ahead and click the raise hand icon.

First off, prepare yourself for what you just experienced with the media.

The journalism around here is very one sided.

It's very racist.

So again, if you don't want to take my word for it, you can also just Google Dr. Richardson and see how they wrote about him.

He's also from where you're from.

And there's not just some discord.

There's a lot of discord.

Even some of the people that are smiling in your face right now, they'll stick a knife in your back later.

So prepare yourself for that.

Also, counsel, if you were gonna make this decision and Lloyd, you were just on the record on the Jerry Miller show saying that the public will have a say in who was hired for the interim city manager, you lied again.

All you do is lie, Lloyd.

All you do is lie.

Another thing, Mr. Woolley, the police chief wasn't just terminated.

She was wrongfully terminated.

And you walking in as the interim city manager, you should reinstate her immediately because Heather Hill,

Lisa Robertson, Chip, Mooney, Lloyd, and many others played a role in removing her as well as Sena Magill, the vice mayor.

They don't play fair around here, so prepare yourself.

Also, was this move made to set Brian Wheeler up so he can be the deputy city manager?

Because I know he was a finalist.

So did you all set this up to put him in another position?

And Heather, I see your cheeks getting red, boo.

Y'all know that nothing slides by me.

Nothing slides by me.

You can smile all you want, you little snake you.

Y'all are so messy in this city.

And if you think hiring a Black face is going to solve the community's issues that we have with you, it is not.

You play dirty.

you don't play fair and you only do it to black people.

So if you setting this man up to fail, shame on you.

And Brian, if you play any role in the media asking him questions about his previous employment because you were a finalist, you've been messy.

We know you have.

And as much as you cost the city, you shouldn't even be able to be a finalist to be a deputy city manager.

You should have been fired for denying me my right to speak.

If you all are setting this up and if Brian Wheeler becomes a deputy city manager or any other position because he shouldn't even still be in communication.

I am so sick of what you all are doing.

It's disgusting.

And how you treat black leaders in this place and allow the media to come on.

and do what they do to them from day one, from day one, and it won't stop, Mr. Woolley, so prepare yourself.

It will not stop.

They're going to drag you.

I'm giving you your warning publicly.

You can Google me.

You can find me on LinkedIn.

I don't care where you find me.

You can ask me questions later.

Next up is Kathleen Glenn Matthews.

Go ahead.

I'm using her laptop.

My name is Joy Johnson, and I am a public housing resident.

And I hear you talk about Hope 6 and all of the other things that was happening back in the Hope 6 era.

So I think you're pretty familiar with 24 CFR.

Are you familiar with 24 CFR?

Okay.

So then let me enlighten you.

That is residents have the right to organize.

and we can partner with the housing authority in all aspects of making safe decisions for our residents.

So in Charlottesville, we have a citywide organization called FAR.

is the Public Housing Association of Residents.

We are the duly elect RAB, the Resident Advisory Board, and so we advocate strongly about all aspects.

We are very involved in redevelopment.

We weren't qualified for HOPE VI, and we do not like RAD, because RAD take away the rights of residents.

So my view is that it's very particular to the community in terms of how it's going to be redeveloped and what the use will be after redevelopment.

So

We need more information about where these particular properties are, the makeup of the housing stock and the residents themselves, whether it's an aged population, so the seniors or not.

So there's a number of different facets we have to look at before we before I would be able to tell you what my opinion is on a certain development site.

So I know that it's not very helpful, but it's very fact specific.

And more importantly, it's site specific.

No, I just wanted to hear what his view is.

And I do appreciate you saying all stakeholders need to be sitting at the table.

But there is a practice in this community that certain stakeholders who sit at the table doesn't get listened to, that things, you know, still move on the way it is.

And I just hope

I cut it off.

Go ahead.

Okay, so did you also work with any residents in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Chester residents from public housing?

In Chester, I was the chairman of a school district.

So we didn't have any redevelopment going on with the housing authority at the time.

We actually wanted them to buy some schools from us because there were a number of empty schools.

With regard to public housing in Harrisburg, very involved with a particular redevelopment idea.

There is a so really involved with Sanger Wayne, who is the executive director of the Harrisburg Housing Authority.

And there is a

a aged property that abuts a city property that's a pool and we're looking to leverage

City dollars and federal dollars to incorporate that into a larger development that includes re-developing the housing stock, but hopeful that there's going to be a one-for-one replacement, which means everybody that currently has a house will be able to come back to the new development site.

And then in addition, we redevelop the pool and have a splash pad.

And next we'll go to Rahul Sharma.

Hello, you're on with the group.

Hi.

So I mean, I didn't get called on doing the media thing, but I'm actually from the Cav Daily, if that's okay.

Go ahead.

So one question was kind of related to what Joy was referencing there, you know, in all city related matters, but particularly in housing, there's historically in Charlottesville been a kind of slant towards the considerations of wealthier white, whiter residents for the most part.

And obviously, City Council and the Planning Commission has been attempting to kind of, you know, turn a page, focus on

focused more on renters, more on affordable housing.

So my position is that the most successful and prosperous communities have bandwidth, I'll call, in

every segment in terms of economic standing.

And I think there has to be the ability for all to have housing in a community.

I think it benefits everyone.

So my goal is to be able to work with council and have an affordable housing plan

that works for Charlottesville.

And in order to do that, we're going to have to sit down and talk to stakeholders and make sure that we hear what the issues are and that we can address them.

But that's a policy.

And that's driven more by counsel.

I would hope

and almost demand to be involved in those conversations, but the policy comes from council.

And the idea is that we would form a relationship, myself and council, that we would be able to move forward on this topic in particular and make sure that

Okay, just as a follow-up, I mean, one of the biggest stakeholders within Charlottesville is obviously the University of Virginia.

It kind of, in some ways, dominates and in other ways impedes the work of, you know, just everything that happens with the

Well, I think that we've had discussions about Charlottesville and its relationship with the university, but there are a number of

cities, and Harrisburg is one of them, that has either large employers, large landholders that are very interested in what happens day to day in the city.

For instance, in Harrisburg, the state owns almost 50% of the real estate, which means it's all non-taxable.

So that presents issues.

And we had to interact with the state in order to

really get them to agree that, you know, services that are being used by the state in terms of employers that, employees that come in and out and so on and so forth.

And we're losing revenue based on they own over 50% of the

real estate in Harrisburg.

And then there's large employers, UPMC, HACC is another university.

So it's about involving and getting involved in communications with these large landholders and employers, making them aware that there is a duty that is owed at some level to the municipality where they are part of.

and that they should be engaged in the conversation where they know that a city that is doing well and prosperous also benefits them in many ways.

So looking forward to having those conversations with the university and others and making sure that they know that their priority should be us and that we, because of the proximity of the university to Charlottesville, they are a

Thank you so much, appreciate it, and congrats to the new position.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mr. Woolley, and I'm Dr. Hezadeen Smith, the Fire Chief of the City.

I don't have a question today.

However, I'd like to simply welcome you and thank you for joining the team and certainly look forward to your steadying hand, philosophical approach and support of the Fire Department as the primary all hazards providers in this community for over 165 years.

And next up, we have Lindell Von Schill.

Lindell, you're on.

Thank you.

I understand that you may not have been fully informed about everything to do with the firing of Chief Brackney following her efforts to reform the Charlottesville Police Department.

However, I would like to hear about your experience with and commitment to the dismantling of racist practices in areas of government, including, arguably, especially in law enforcement.

So in terms of dismantling racism or

dealing with issues that are impactful to racist policies and disenfranchisement.

There are a number of instances in my career that I've

really hit these head on, most notably in housing.

You know, Philadelphia, you may or may not know, is one of the most segregated cities in America, big cities in America.

And the ability, and when I talked about Hope 6, I had a different view than some folks, because what Hope 6 enabled us to do was to deconcentrate

areas.

And then when I say deconcentrate, you look at a housing development site, the Martin Luther King site, mostly African American, but the surrounding community is almost all white.

And to be able to deconstruct those high rises and then build

duplexes into the neighborhoods and bring back people of color to integrate those once segregated communities is very impactful.

The other, in terms of racist policies with police officers in particular, there's just a, I think there's a moment in time now in this country in many communities where they're reevaluating

the role of police and how they police in communities.

And in Harrisburg, one of the big issues is that we have police officers who Harrisburg is majority African-American city and our police force is majority white.

And we have white officers patrolling

Black neighborhoods and neighborhoods that they don't live in because they don't live in the city.

And so we had to address these in certain ways.

And this is by training and ensuring that when we were recruiting people, that we were recruiting them and we knew more about their backgrounds and

We had psychological testing and things like that.

So we could hopefully have a foundation of police officers who are ready to serve in any community, but particularly in a community.

In this case, it did not look like that.

So a lot of different things along my career we've been forced to deal with, whether it's housing, education and policing.

And it's about how to deal with those issues head on.

and not take the ostrich approach and stick your head in the sand and hope they go away, but thinking of practical solutions in order to make sure that you're not caught in a situation where things bubble up and you can't get control of them any longer.

But one of the main things we have to do is to make sure that we listen to

or residents.

And if they have issues, make sure those issues are investigated and thoroughly and making sure that there's a resolution and that we address them.

But it's a very complicated issue, emotionally charged, and one that, you know,

And I'll give one last call for any hands.

And Myra Anderson, you're on.

Go ahead.

Can you hear me?

Good afternoon.

I wanted to first of all say welcome to Charlottesville.

But as someone has already stated and talked about the termination of the former police chief, which I'm glad you made a comment about listening to residents and trying to resolve that because I consider this

an unresolved matter looking at the level of deception, coercion, and entanglement that went into her termination.

And so what I would respectfully request for you coming in is to have open an investigation into the termination of Chief Brackney and look at all of

the emails and things of that matter that related to this situation.

And after you have everything before you, I would like for you to review that and see if that decision to terminate the chief was a proper one

after you've looked at all of that information, and if not, figure out what can be done at this point to rectify something that many members of the community have said was wrong.

Because when you talk about moving forward, there's no way to move forward

with piles of dirt still swept up under the carpet that have not been properly addressed.

So I hope, and I feel sorry for you coming in to all of these piles of dirt, but they do need to be resolved.

So I'm hoping somewhere, and because this is still a issue that is hurting many members of this community and this council that's on here, minus the mayor has not

been open and transparent about a lot of that.

And it's like a a a thorn in our side in the in the community and in this city that I consider to not be resolved.

So I hope in your coming in that you will look into this because the way I see it and many members of this community, it is a it was wrong and it's not over.

So thank you for listening to that.

And I hope that you will take my words to heart and come up with some actions or some type of resolution or investigation that leads us to believe you're coming in, that you are actually listening to the people and committed to picking up the things that were wrong and moving us in a better direction.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, could I just address one thing that Ms.

Hudson raised?

She's referring to the fact that on a, I think it was

probably October 22nd, 29th, somewhere in there.

I was on Jerry Miller's show and I had said, what was at that time our agreed position that there would be an opportunity for public comment before

anything else before a formal decision was made.

Subsequent to that, different people had different opinions, but at least at one point we had five of us agreeing that was the way we were going to handle things.

That changed fairly recently.

So at the time that I said what I said, it was absolutely true and it reflected the express intent of all five of us.

That's not ultimately what happened.

That doesn't mean I was lying.

Anyway, I just want to say, Mr. Woolley, I appreciate your willingness to come and help us out.

There are a number of things that you've got that we didn't actually talk about that will be helpful in days, months, years, hopefully to come.

One is your experience in dealing with public collective bargaining, which we in Virginia have no experience with, but which we're about to have to have experience with.

and that's a skill set and a way of thinking about things that frankly nobody in Virginia has.

So you will bring us some additional value there.

Looking forward to your coming.

Appreciate it.

As others have said, thank you for your willingness to serve the community and come here.

I know you've said you've worked on many strategic plans in the past, and I'm just really excited and looking forward to focusing on how we can implement the many policies that we know that we need to do here that we haven't been able to implement so far and really taking that strategic approach to look at

the full list of policies in terms of implementing our affordable housing strategy, public housing redevelopment, redevelopment of friendship court, climate action planning process, criminal justice reform, and just creating a full detailed plan for

The dollar amounts needed in the budget to make those things happen, the staff resources to make those things happen, and then working really closely together with you, the city manager's office and council to get these things done and lay out how we can actually get them done.

and I'm very excited and optimistic about what we can do over the coming months and years as a city and so again just thank you for your willingness to serve and looking forward to getting focused on the policy changes that we know need to happen here.

Can I just make some comments similar to what council shared with staff?

You know we look forward you know

obviously to the expertise that you're going to bring.

We appreciate your willingness to come into the organization at this time and in its interim capacity.

You know, we all recognize this continues to be a challenging time for the city and that, you know, for many folks, these transitions have been many over the course of a pretty short period of time.

And I just want to say again, I'm grateful for Ashley and Sam and their leadership and for our staff's collective commitment to the organization, especially now at this point.

I know that this council and I'm confident future council is committed to being a partner with our staff and community as we work to collectively onboard you to this organization and as we welcome the next council and then obviously as we as we look ahead to the future process that will take place publicly with the permanent city manager search and so again just want to thank you I want to thank the staff for everyone's patience and communities as we navigate this most recent transition and

just can't thank our staff enough for the dedication to this organization and this community that we collectively serve.

Thank you.

To address the, I guess, community concerns about the process, it's been

This has been a challenge for me and by now everyone knows how I operate and to have a fully transparent process that the community can participate in is ideal and what I would always advocate for.

I think this particular time and the last time presented us with some unfortunate

circumstances and time frames that, you know,

just turned out to be just not possible.

And because of Mr. Woolley's engagement with staff prior to us having to contemplate this decision, it made us have an option that we didn't have.

And

It's not something that I have even known, even in this very moment, could say that my thoughts are 100% certain about, but I don't know what, with all the circumstances that we're facing, how we even go through the process at this time and place that you all deserve.

and I'm hoping as I've stated with the last person that we appointed that you all deserve that process and hopefully that'll be the process that occurs.

The Jefferson School being full of people being able to ask questions and to our final candidates is something I will always advocate for even though I'm not gonna be in this position in April.

It is something that I would always advocate for.

So I just hope I know I can't for people who are exhausted with what has been happening in the city.

I know that that doesn't provide you with any relief, but I hope that this is the right decision at this time and that, you know, as we move forward.

that you all trust this decision and come to trust the process that the three counselors who are here right now and the two who are coming on will be leading

in April of 2022.

So that's my first comment.

My second comment is to counsel, especially the three who will be here.

But Heather, I know the level of engagement you had before now, your level of engagement since you have been on counsel and what it may be when you are no longer a council member officially, but what it could look like.

What we haven't done successfully is built a culture at the city.

And while most of the blame has been placed on me, you all, if you were honest to yourselves, you all could, and including me, we could sit and have a list of things that we hopefully all could do differently.

And what is going to make

Mr. Woolley, Ms.

Marshall, Mr. Sanders, their ability to be here and be successful is that the divides that have been able to destroy any type of progress, someone is gonna have to make a decision that that is no longer gonna be a part of the organizational culture

We often talk about employees, the pain that they're going through and the burdens that all of these transitions place on them, and all of those things are accurate for some.

But there are some employees in the midst who have been a part of that dynamic and have prevented us from making, from spending time creating a healthier organization and serving the community better.

And part of making sure that they are successful

the three leaders who are all black and will not be successful in this predominantly white landscape if that culture doesn't shift is for you all to dedicate and be committed to that changing.

And that will require for you all to also make that commitment for yourselves.

And so I am hoping that when we get to

Six months from now, 12 months from now, 18 months from now, that we're not having articles, you know, written in the newspaper that talks about discord created by upper level management staff and those type of things being fed from

internally and that you all create a culture where employees can tell you if they feel like something can change, but that you all are looking at that through a neutral lens and making sure that you're giving staff an opportunity to address those concerns versus immediately placing blame on someone for that.

We also know as engaged as the stakeholders are that showed up on this call today, there are a lot of stakeholders who never have to walk in a room and can dictate what happens.

And there's going to have to be a high level of trust for the three top leaders of this organization who none of them are from here.

None of them have those ties and relationships for them to be able to honestly say, based on everything that I see, maybe we should go in this direction.

And there shouldn't be a push.

from the outside of the organization or inside to force them into a different direction.

And so part of what has to happen is that there, and I'll be gone, so nobody can blame me for everything that's going wrong anymore.

And we know that there was challenges before I arrived, before you arrived, Heather, which is your platform for your campaign of wanting to repair some of those

things that were broken within the organization and we still arrived at this point where, if we are honest, there are things that everyone needs to do differently and I've had those conversations

with people who trust me and I have conversations with myself all the time to make sure that I'm challenging myself and hopefully that you all will do the same because the culture of this organization will drive everything that you all place on the strategic plan and the ability for those things to be implemented and for the citizens in this community, especially the Black

citizens of this community who made up over 50% of the community at the end of the Civil War for them to not continue to be displaced from this community and pushed out and seen as a side note in this community.

And so, Mr. Woolley, thank you for being willing to figure help

The Citizens Council navigate, you know, this time being the now sixth transition since 2014.

what 18 and, you know, being willing to uproot your family and come and see if you can help figure this out.

Thank you.

No.

All right.

I move we adopt the following resolution.

Whereas the city, sorry, Charlottesville City Council desires to elect and appoint Mark Willey to serve as interim Charlottesville City Manager pursuant to the Charlottesville City Charter as amended

in 1946, and where Mr. Woolley has agreed to accept election and appointment as city manager upon certain terms and conditions set forth in writing and accepted by Mr. Woolley on October 30, 2021, the offer now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, with the offer of employment given by city council and accepted by Mark Woolley is hereby ratified, approved, and city council hereby appoints Alexa and employees Mr. Woolley as interim city manager upon the terms and conditions set forth in the offer.

Second.

Ms.

Thomas.

Ms.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Ms.

Walker.

Walker.

Ms.

Ms.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Walker.

Ms.

Thank you, Ms.

Thomas.

That carries.

Welcome, Mr. Woolley.

December 1st.

And so we look for, we know there will be a lot of, you know, communication and transition and onboarding happening in between that.

Thank you.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Enjoy your weekend.

Bye bye.