City Council Meeting   1/2/2024

It's nice to be here.

Cool.

To get your pin.

It feels very official now.

Keeney came up with another one.

She's amazing like that.

Ms.

Thomas, will you call the roll?

Councillor Payne.

Here.

Councillor Pinkston.

Here.

Councillor Wade.

Here.

And I'll take the first step in welcoming Councillor Oschrin to the days.

It's nice to be here.

I'll move to approve the agenda.

I'll second it.

Any opposed say no.

Aye.

So this meeting is divided into several sections, including an organizational meeting where council will select its mayor and vice mayor, a work session to hear reports that require no vote, a closed meeting if needed, and then the regular council business meeting.

Self nominations are acceptable.

Yes, I would move for Vice Mayor Juan Diego Wade to be our next mayor.

The nomination.

Councillor Pinkston, is there anything you'd like to offer in regards to your nomination?

And so I think Juan would make a fantastic mayor.

Thomas, will you please call for roll call vote?

Councillor Payne?

Yes.

Councillor Pinkston?

Yes.

Councillor Snook?

Yes.

And Councillor Wade?

Yes.

Self nominations are acceptable.

I'd like to nominate Councillor Pinkston as Vice Mayor.

Mayor Wade.

Thank you.

Do you accept the nomination?

Yes, I do.

Thomas, will you call the roll?

Councillor Payne?

Yes.

Councillor Pinkston?

Yes.

Councillor Snook?

Yes.

Councillor Wade?

So Mayor Wade.

Vice Mayor Pinkston?

I feel like, yeah, I just feel like we've gotten a lot done and I'm confident we'll get even more done for the city and people of Charlottesville in the next two years.

I've enjoyed being your mayor for the last two years and I look forward to being a backbencher again.

The first presentation is the voter registrar's office.

Hello, everyone.

Hi.

I don't know if that will show up here for you all to view.

There you go.

Questions, do you all have for me?

The first.

This was the first general with that.

Yeah, but it apparently went very well.

This is where you vote at.

With the presidential election.

Yeah, typically in presidential year.

Both the primary and the general I guess.

Presidential General Election.

And is it, is it, we need, so are you hiring more people to sort of staff up there in that period or how does that work?

and a timely manner with our staff also having to check in 500 voters during the day.

Okay.

By the hour during that period.

Thank you.

Do you feel like the space that you have at the annex is sufficient?

We would never say no to more, but for this year, next year, we're totally fine.

Did you have any specific data on the number of people who were turned away from a polling location because of their confusion over

Just our election officers decided to.

Are you having any still concerns over the amount of people who may be confused on election day in terms of additional education being needed?

Reminder, this is your new polling place.

Is that something at this point that you feel like for 2025, if that funding is in place to do the outreach and education that's feasible, or do you still have any concerns about the timeline of implementation?

It's just a few of the legalities is what concerns me.

just to refresh my memory, that was a state agency that hasn't, I forget the terminology.

I think that's putting a lot more of the responsibility and legalities and potential concerns onto the locality rather than the state because they were not required to certify.

Thank you.

Was that extra mail going out before the primary or the general?

Thank you.

Next up, Clark Court

Any questions?

So I'm assuming that the positions that you're describing in terms of the pay rates and so forth are going through the class and comp study?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

The clerk, of course, is an unclassified position, but my chief deputy is in the supervisory track and then all seven of my other staff are in the big general pool for lack of a better term.

Yeah, and without going into it here, I'm assuming there are conversations happening between you and city manager and others in terms of what's the appropriate pay rate, I guess, for the folks that you're trying to hire and retain.

but HR city manager budget have been remarkably helpful as I go through the stages of how to get my staff paid adequately.

And then the money for the server, is that like a locally housed server or is it something on the cloud that you're having to

it backs up every night so that when we scan things into our records at night it backs up so theoretically tomorrow if everything disappeared my vendor can get me up and running relatively quickly as long as I have a computer and a place to plug in.

So the money you're asking for would replace the server that you have?

Yes, it's about eight years old and I'm told eight, seven to nine years is about the life span of a server in the way that we're using it.

Yeah, I would think so.

You would know better than me.

I'm just a construction person, but I would think that computer, you think computer related eight years seems like it's a long, long time.

Yeah.

Has it gotten better?

Are you asking about cases or the jury stuff?

That's what I'm thinking of.

So different challenges, different times, and it keeps the day exciting and not the same every day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Kamala Satterny.

I don't think we've met.

Nice to meet you.

So with that I'll yield the remainder of my time for any questions you all might have.

So it's like you have someone just like, OK, it's your slot to have your pager or phone available if someone has an issue comes up.

And most stuff happens at about 2 or 3 in the morning.

Joe, if you had to, like, just sort of own your radar, things that, you know, the next six months to a year that you're especially sort of seeing as, you know, either opportunities or threats, things that you could, you know, be really positive for the community or things we'd really have to address in terms of the work that you do, is there anything that rises to the top of your mind that you think would be worth us knowing about?

So I think if we all kind of grab and awe and pull in that direction, that's something that's might be aspirational, but I think it's really important.

Thank you.

Anyone else with any questions?

Thank y'all.

All right, Commissioner Rebner.

We are.

You did.

And this would be shared between our two departments.

Is it just sort of catch-a-scatch-can?

They just said, we're not doing it.

Really?

The only way to get them would be to go out and manually, you know, scrub these websites and it's just not, it's not an official use of time or resource.

So it seems like this $30,000 investment is just that, it would be recouped many times over.

Yeah, it would, yeah.

I mean, it seems like a no-brainer.

It's already paid for.

So would this software allow you to go after the property owner or would you go through that third party?

I mean, they'd still have to, you know, probably get a business license depending on how much activity they're doing, things like that, and tangible business tangibles, but it would make things a lot easier for a lot of people.

I think that the county is using one now that's very good as I understand it.

Thank you all.

Alright, Jason

Jason and Chad.

So with that, I will turn it over to Chad to discuss the next slide.

But you're right there.

Yes.

Okay.

So I think Chad is going to talk a little bit about the other city functions now.

Oh, and then we're also, so fiscal agent for city schools, KTEC and JMRL, that's where the cash management group is working closely with them basically day in and day out on, you know, the accuracy of their financial reporting.

So just wanted to highlight those.

But we do our best and in the last year or two we've added invoice types for the police department, for FOIA, for traffic engineering and then NDS with their new system out.

You want to talk a little bit about priorities for the next year?

That's sort of what we've been told and it seems like that's going to happen.

Is there anything that you've been wanting to do for the last 10 years that this now gives you the opportunity to do?

I get a window.

So yes, that's what we got.

configuration of City Hall is not ideal so that's really going to help with that and we have some plans and ideas that we're working on so this is not just a person that's going to sit at a desk waiting we're going to look for ways that we can make sure that this person supports the city as a whole and not just the Treasurer's Office I think one of those things we're talking about is taking over the mail responsibilities from IT which is a really sort of random thing and we've got some other ideas that we need to go over with the City Manager

There's our contact info.

Right, okay.

We don't have any unique responsibilities with procurement, but we do work with them regularly on all our contracts.

But I guess if there's any sort of external financial contact as it were between the city and some outside entity like cutting a purchase order, does that happen through y'all?

So in that regard, we do work with them.

Interesting.

Anyone else?

I wonder sometimes, I'm sure you wonder whether Boyd would be nice to outsource this to VRS, but I'll say that what y'all do is pretty impressive.

We appreciate you being on the commission the last two years.

and I just, I really appreciated over those few years knowing that one thing I didn't have to worry about was whether the projections were ridiculously optimistic.

You're welcome.

Great.

Like how much room is there left to grow for that?

So I could certainly get that breakdown and share it with everybody.

Thanks.

I would assume you probably already asked me about them, and we're working on it, but just wanted to do that as well.

For those joining by Zoom, there is a separate link for the 6.30 meeting, and your new mayor will be presiding at that time.

We're going to begin our regular business meeting with a moment of silence.

Thank you.

So we're going to begin with some announcements.

If you'd like to say anything on your first meeting, welcome aboard.

Thank you.

partner is Charlottesville Parks and Recreation.

So.

Ellis will be outlined in the following discussion.

Second.

Okay.

Okay.

Nice.

Some of them we're already on and certainly you don't have to stay on that one but you know a lot of times we already invested in some some work but the first one is Charlottesville redevelopment and housing authority.

Yeah I currently sit on the board and would like to continue serving on CRJ's board.

the Historic Resource Committee.

I am currently functioning as the ex officio member.

Okay.

Happy to continue.

I'm happy to continue serving on the HAC.

Okay.

So some other person.

I'm happy to do that one.

And we can meet anytime we want to meet.

That would be me.

It's very interesting, actually, what we did.

The next one is the School Capital Project Committee.

That's been you and me, but we've not really met.

But anyway, I will continue to serve on that, but I'm hoping.

I'm happy to stay there too.

the Social Services Advisory Board.

Okay.

Now these are some more regional boards, the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Jail Authority Board.

That's me, I'm happy to stay there.

I think that Chris Engel serves on it as well.

It has been too, but we changed it a few years ago.

We meet, I think it's the second Monday at two.

Okay.

And one, are you willing to?

The next one is the Charlottesville Community Scholarship Program.

Is that something of interest to you?

But that can probably be.

When does it meet?

In the mornings, 8 to 9.15.

Once every two or three months.

Yeah.

I'm on that.

I would be delighted to offer someone else an opportunity to be on that if Natalie, you were interested.

Yeah, twice a year.

I just have a full-time job to clarify.

With less flexibility.

Correct.

Yeah.

So you and Lloyd for that one?

Jefferson American Community Criminal Justice Board?

I think that was most recently, Leah, if I recall.

So if no one's interested, I could do that one, but we can change up.

I could be on the board again.

OK.

So I'm not desperately anxious to do it.

So thank you.

The next one is the Leap Governance Board.

I'm happy to continue serving there.

I have been on it.

Lloyd, you're the main person, I'm the alternate I think.

Yes, the two of us are on there, so I was thinking this one in the RTP would be a good fit for me and Natalie, but both of those, if that works for you Natalie.

Sounds great.

That gives us some continuity and I know you're interested in both these topics.

Okay, so can I get clarity on that one, the MPO, is that two people?

Yes.

So it's one and an alternate, not two required.

So let's keep me as the initial one and you be the alternate for now and then we can flip up later.

Thanks.

The next one is the regional housing partnership.

We need on that one with Michael.

I continue it that way.

I'm happy to.

regional transit partnership.

Yes, I think that I think it'd be good for me and Natalie to take.

I'm happy to step aside.

Thank you.

The Rivanna River Basin Commission.

I'm on that.

Yeah, I think me and Lloyd have, and I'm happy to continue being on out there.

Irregularly.

Maybe once, yeah, maybe two times a year on average, I would say.

Okay.

Natalie, is that one your?

That didn't have any times listed, so potentially.

or something like that, but I but it's like so variable that I'm not really like a set time they said they send out a doodle poll yeah before after work generally during yeah so we're gonna continue with Lord and Michael

Okay, the next one is the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority.

Yes, I'd like to stay on that.

The next one is the Plain District.

Now we've got the Water and Sewer Authority.

The Water and Sewer Authority.

Yeah, I'm happy to stay on that.

Yep.

Usually tag team.

The Thomas Jefferson Planted District Commission.

I think that that would be very appropriate.

When do they meet, Michael?

once a month, Thursdays.

So we just let them know, Max, that we're going to have two now, two counselors, and I don't know what commissioners on there now.

They've rotated through several, but currently it's Phil Duranzio.

I think that I don't think we have met on that, but I think I took over that from Sina and I will continue to serve on that.

Okay, thank you.

I don't have all the data with me.

I wondered about that, no.

But that's not a requirement?

It's certainly not an inflexible requirement.

Okay, so we're good.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, Ms.

Are we pushing buttons these days?

No, they're not connected to your new seats yet.

Oh, okay.

Councillor Payne?

Yes.

Mayor Wade?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pinkston?

Yes.

Councillor Snook?

Yes.

Motion passes 5-0 to adopt the new slate.

Will you please read the consent agenda?

and somebody short one today.

Okay.

Okay, I think we're ready to vote.

Councillor Payne.

Yes.

We need to get the motion and second.

Second.

Councillor Payne.

Yes.

Mayor Wade.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pinkston.

Yes.

Councillor Snook.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Motion passes 5-0.

City Manager of Report, Mr. Saunders, is there a report?

There's a lot ahead to do and we'll get it done.

16th.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Saunders.

and is the first speaker available and is Gudrun Campbell.

Thank you.

Ann Hemingway.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Dave Graff Good evening, counselors.

And with that, I'll turn it over to John.

Our next speaker is John Urtle.

We want most of all to get a fair contract for our members, and we believe this is the only way we'll ever realize the aspiration of having a robust, fully staffed transit system that serves our great community.

Next speaker is Mr. Matthew Ray.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Gregory Weaver.

Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Peter Gates

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The next speaker is Elizabeth Stark

Good evening, Councillors.

Good evening.

Thank you so much.

Those were our first pre-registered eight speakers and we had one from the waitlist and then we're going on to the waitlist and the first speaker from that is Joseph Oschrin.

Good luck.

Mr. Gilligan.

Thank you.

Let's see.

I forgot the date that you had mentioned, Lloyd.

I don't know if there's any particular problem with July 1st this year or whether we want to make that decision when we get closer to the time to see what else may be coming along.

I guess my initial thought would be just reserving it but understanding, you know, once we get a sense of what our workload or if there are any time sensitive things we'll need to vote on being ready to cancel it for a holiday as we've done the past few years.

Does that sound reasonable?

Here's hoping.

Everyone else comfortable with the dates that we have here?

The table of dates is in the board packet.

Can I get a second, please?

Second.

Miss Thomas, can we take a vote, please?

Councillor Payne?

Yes.

Mayor Wade?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pinkston.

Yes.

Councillor Snook.

Mr. Sanders, you're going to present this?

This is again to join the county in supporting closing the gaps so the project can move forward in May.

So there any questions or if not, you know?

Sure.

I wouldn't ask for your last dollar.

I understand.

I'm going to ask you to put it there in the CIP contingency so that other decisions can come to pass as we bring forth more information.

and then it got delayed or something happened or the cost came in higher than anticipated and they're looking for the city and the county to help bridge that final.

There was no reason for me to continue to think that that small amount of investment in a project like this was something that we should let continue.

I really like that sort of.