City Council Meeting   5/20/2024

So, she's on, okay.

So, Maxis, Ms.

Robinson, is okay?

Are you ready to get started?

Good afternoon.

I'm going to call the May 20th, 2024 Charlottesville City Council meeting to order.

Ms.

Vice Mayor Pinkston, Councillor Snook, Mayor Wade.

Councillor Oschrin?

Just a moment.

Having established a physical quorum, Council will consider requests from Councillor Oschrin made on May 20th to participate electronically pursuant to Council's adopted procedures in compliance with Virginia Freedom of Information Statue for meeting participation through electronic communication means.

Ms.

Yes, I'm here.

Can you hear me OK?

Miss Oschrin, you noted in your request that you would prefer to participate remotely as you are recovering from sickness.

Sure.

Yes, I am still ill and I don't want to spread that to anybody else.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Ms.

So is there a motion to approve or amend the agenda?

Move for approval.

Okay, you move.

I'll second it.

And it didn't register.

Do I say I or thumbs up?

Thank you.

The motion passes.

This meeting will be divided into three sections.

The first one will be a work session where we will hear and discuss presentations that do not require a council vote.

Then the second will be a closed session.

Then we will come back for a regular business meeting at 6.30.

on a Youth Council report.

Ms.

It's my honor and privilege to be here to introduce Youth Council.

As you know, Youth Council is appointed by City Council to look into issues that are facing the young folks of Charlottesville today and be able to do some work

to raise those issues, research those issues, and bring to you sort of what they've learned over the course of the year and any sort of recommendations that come from that research.

So this year we were able to partner with UVA's Youth Next Program, which I'll have them introduce themselves, to help facilitate this research journey to look into issues at Charlottesville High School and some changes that they've made over the course of this last year.

So we also have three members, and hopefully the fourth will join shortly.

We had a senior picnic today at Charlottesville High School, so there was a quick transition time to get here.

So hopefully they'll be able to join shortly, but I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to the youth next staff, and then I'll let youth council introduce themselves and their presentation.

Thanks, Misty.

My name is Liz Nigro.

I am a grad student at UVA.

Myself, along with Olivia Burke, who is present, and Jessica Forrester, who could not be here, are the YouthNext representatives that helped the Youth Council with their project this year.

We're really excited for them to both introduce themselves.

Hopefully you'll learn a little bit about them personally and their stories through this presentation, and also a little bit about what is happening and their concerns within Charlottesville School.

Hi, my name is Nicole King and I'm a junior at St.

Ann's Wellfield.

And these wonderful people and I, we make up Youth Council.

So Youth Council is a group of students from Charlottesville schools who work on amplifying student and youth voice and pinpointing challenges that our peers may have and finding solutions to these challenges.

So through previous projects, Youth Councils worked a lot with the middle school and helping with the hard transition made from elementary all the way

Thank you.

Sorry.

From the elementary all the way through high school.

And for this year, Youth Council has started by brainstorming with anchor charts.

And a simple question that we asked ourselves was, what frustrates you?

Our second essential question was how has educational segregation and inequality changed since the pandemic in Charlottesville?

This was, we focused this on the redesign of Buford, the development of the gifted in programs and tracking systems through high school.

So our data collection methods, we built upon the work of past use councils, as well as interviews.

We wanted to do some group

focus groups, but we ran out of time.

So in general, from our research, we found a number of things that we learned and themes from the things that we learned.

And so some of the things that we learned were about the D-leveling that's happening.

And so a quote that one of the people we interviewed said was, I want to know if teachers are getting the supports and the training that they need to teach a D-leveled class.

And if students and if all students at both ends and in the middle are reaping the benefits of it.

And so that was a quote that really stood out to us in regards to D-leveling.

We also learned a lot about the reconfiguration that's happening within Buford.

And another quote from one of our interviews, one woman said, I think that the reconfiguration of the grades is important.

And I think that the renovations are great.

But we also need to figure out how the changes will play out on the ground.

And as youth council, I would say that we agree with the statement and we're just

curious to see what more will happen with the reconfiguration.

We also learned a lot about advocacy initiatives.

They were things that a lot of the people we interviewed were really passionate about and really cared a lot about.

One example of that is Brian from the Buck Squad.

One person stated that Brian from the Buck Squad has also

has talked about some of these things and has said that we really need to allow the community to heal its community and resourcing for that to be able to be something that's possible.

And then one last thing that we learned or in a way did not learn is that there's a lot of uncertainty about the

the reconstruction and the de-leveling in the school systems in Charlottesville.

And one woman said, so I feel like there's less about pushing for change than kind of wanting to see like is this, is it working?

And so it's less about what am I pushing for and more about is this in the best service of the students and what's the outcome of it?

And as youth council we agree we're really curious about sort of how these things are working and what are the results of the changes that we're making.

And oops.

Sorry.

And so moving on to some of the themes from the things that we found.

The first one is that parents can take actionable steps towards equity.

And one story that I sort of want to mention is one of the people that we interviewed.

She mentioned the story about a Girl Scout troop and she was a parent at one of the elementary scores.

at the elementary

asked like, is it okay if we share this information with City of Promise?

Is it okay if we put the flyers up so that we can share it with the whole community of Charlottesville?

And I think that's a really good representation for the sort of actions that parents, that community members of Charlottesville can be taking.

Thank you.

through school, we sort of see a lot of inequities coming and so we want to recognize that there are inequities and think about the solutions to that.

And so that was one of the themes that we saw from that.

And another theme that we saw is the importance of mental health resources and a lot of the people that we interviewed were really passionate about

bringing in more mental health resources into the Charlottesville City Schools.

And the final theme that we saw is the importance of community, which I think that we all hear are definitely fond of.

But one parent said, it is really important for parents to recognize that although we are very much like come from different ways of life in different places, even different countries, to the core of every human is the same thing.

Hi, I'm Nova Kergal.

I'm a senior at CHS and I'm going to talk about our reflections and our recommendations that we learned from this process.

So when we started out our research process, we thought of the ideal way we wanted to gather data, which was through interviews, but we also wanted to do focus group interviews that would have multiple people.

We wanted to get focus groups with students, possibly teachers and parents.

Unfortunately, we had some setbacks given that the time that we started which was around January seemed to not be enough to get through the different levels of people we had to get approval for our interviews and so unfortunately we were unable to interview students and teachers and we had to go through parents who the parents we happened to interview did also have

Roles in the community which we were fortunate to get and we also discovered that when we were still thinking about the students that COVID-19 actually meant we would be looking at a different grade of students than we had expected because some kids had missed out on the years that they would have been with or without the gifted program.

And so because of these reflections, we have some suggestions for the next steps in mitigating inequity.

Starting with parents, we hope that parents follow the moral of the story from what the anecdote Josie shared about the Girl Scout troop and that they increase their awareness so they're able

to make just small changes in their inclusion both in the classroom and telling their kid to look out for, to making friends with different types of kids and also to make sure that extracurriculars can include kids from all walks of life.

To school administrations, we recommend that mental health resources are made more widely known and made more accessible.

For example, Region 10 is a great resource that the City of Charlottesville has, yet a lot of kids

and

You continue to share results of how these changes to the schools and curriculums are going to affect students and not only because it's good to just keep a level of general transparency with the public, but it'll make it easier for future youth councils to do their research and it'll make it easier for the community to reflect on what they need to do and how they can respond.

and we also have some recommendations for next year's Youth Council just to start earlier than us so hopefully they don't have those same setbacks and to be prepared to use multiple different research methods as we did especially because that can make your findings all the more reliable and to be open to change.

Thank you so much.

Thank you guys, Rob.

That was great.

It was really good.

So I know I had some questions, comments.

I just had one question to start off with.

You mentioned D-Leveling.

Yeah.

So D-Leveling was the practice of making honors classes into opt out.

So what's the practical effect of de-leveling?

I confess that when I heard you talking about de-leveling, I was thinking about an issue that had arisen back when my kids were in school about what we call, at that point, tracking.

I think it's the same thing.

It's making the honors classes.

It's something we started several years ago when I was on the school board.

We realized many of our honor classes and things had primarily white kids in it.

changed the requirements for it, but still making it rigorous.

And what we actually found is that when we had the classes with all the students in there, it's still an opportunity to take AP courses.

I recall this is that the students that were honors, they found themselves helping out other students

So they were still learning, but the students that may have been in the general course, they, you know, they stepped up to the plate and they saw other students achieving.

So it really was a good thing that we started to do that.

So I'm glad that it's still continuing on.

Well, just my recollection,

And now I guess I'm going to go back to when I was in high school, where the discussion was about specifically in English classes and history or social studies classes.

It was felt that there was more advantage to be gained by making sure that we had a broader mix of both levels of competence and also just life experiences.

It's obviously easier to think about de-leveling or untracking as we called it back then.

in those kinds of fields as opposed to calculus versus algebra versus, you know, other math and science kinds of things.

Is that basically what's going on here?

Okay.

And to add on to that, I think that we all agree with the fact that D-Leveling is a really good process, but sort of focusing also effort on making sure that teachers are prepared to teach classes like that.

And that is so important that the teachers have to understand how to teach in that environment.

I know that when I was on school board, Jennifer Horne was one of the first teachers that

that's doing it.

I know she's doing it because her students are writing me now, you know, for different things, writing really well written letters and I'm finding myself have to, you know, respond.

Yes, I know.

Yes, yes.

But anyway, yeah, that is, I love that recommendation.

So I just wanted to chime in that these are some great recommendations and insight.

Are you, have you made this presentation to the school board?

Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for the presentation.

I can tell that you all have worked hard and hopefully learned a lot doing this.

Are we going to get a copy of the slides?

Absolutely.

Yeah, we've been.

Okay.

Okay, I might just be on an update then.

Great, thanks.

My question was actually the definition about de-leveling as well, so thank you for asking that, Lloyd.

Can you repeat again?

I was taking notes, and so I missed.

When you said you weren't able to do the interviews and focus groups with as many people as you wanted, because you were limited by time and structure,

Yeah, so we started out wanting to do the focus groups as our interviews, but then we were only able to do one-on-ones with two different parents.

Okay, great.

So ideally, you would have liked kind of a broader range of responses.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Okay.

Lloyd, were you finished?

Yeah.

Okay.

Just one question you mentioned throughout the presentation several times the lingering impacts of COVID-19.

I'm curious whether the

Through data or even just anecdotally, what are some of those impacts that are remaining?

Well, I think like one of the main impacts that we still see a lot of is just having a gap in education.

Like we were basically missed a year and a half of school and we can really see the impacts of that in high school.

And so I think that that's something that makes it hard to gauge like

The effects of de-leveling and the gifted program and all of that just because there's such a big gap that we just don't know how to account for that and in regards to mental health I think that that's also a really big effect that happened from COVID-19 but I think that one's a little bit harder to see the direct effects of just because it's more internalized and less like put out on paper but um

I would say, yeah, and also just the fact that there were so many restrictions or I guess there's so many restrictions that were pulled off of school during COVID-19, like there's no penalty for being late.

If you don't complete an assignment, you get a 50 instead of a zero.

Like there's a lot of these

And I'm telling you, this is some rich, this is some good stuff.

The school board needs to hear this, you know, this is really good stuff.

No, no other questions, but yeah, very, very interesting.

I think just even that question alone is definitely worth a deep dive for what the impacts were and how we kind of still recover from it.

So I've been chiming in, but I just kind of had one

Question of something, I think that, is it Josie?

That you said, but I would like to get all of y'all's insight, a short insight, and I think that you said, maybe it was you that said, that inequities that are reproduced in the schools, I think that's what you said.

Yeah, what can you explain how you believe?

Well, I think that to an extent it is true because of the tracking initiatives that still are present.

And we're trying like with the D leveling like that is helping, but it's only helping to a certain extent.

And like as a senior who I'm taking like basically all AP classes,

like most of the people in my other classes are white and many of them went to private school and it's just like I'm really not experiencing the entirety of the CHS population in my classes and so I think that that is true to an extent because because of these tracking because there's advanced classes and not advanced classes like it just it's so hard to

Just get, it's so hard to fix it when it already exists so much and it's already causing all these problems.

No, no, I get, it's clear, it's clear.

Y'all had JP exam last week, right?

Yeah, I heard.

Yeah, I agree with what Josie said.

I think we could definitely see that the

Different economic backgrounds kids come into the schools with they tend to also leave that with that same economic potential especially because of the class tracking and also because we can see a lot of social segregation in our school where kids because these classes are not mixed with economic socioeconomic background or racial background

At lunch, if you look around, you can see that kids from the same neighborhood, same backgrounds, are mostly sitting together.

And so even there, they're not mixing with each other.

And because of the classes and then the different, and then some kids come in with more cultural capital than others.

Any other questions or comments?

Appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Ms.

I was going to share that you shall be considering several applications that came through.

These folks really did a nice job of creating a flyer and trying to get the word about applying to the next cohort of youth councils.

These two young folks are going to be moving on to college.

It just so happens that it's decision-making.

Oh, it's decision-making.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good luck with everything.

Thank you.

So, Nick, we will have the downtown action, the downtown law action plan.

All right.

Good afternoon, Mayor Wade, members of council.

So, yes, we're here today to talk about the downtown law action plan.

My name is James Fries.

I'm a deputy city manager for operations and this work was done under my NDS director hat.

So before I begin on the presentation, I did want to recognize the members of the committee that are here in the room.

I was going to ask them to stand, but I think they're pretty easy to pick out.

So maybe you all could just wave.

So several committee members were able to join us.

Alison wanted to recognize our downtown mall intern who hung with us for the entire year.

Alison Gibson kept us all organized and on track so that staff was able to pull together a presentation for every meeting and then she was the primary drafter of the action plan that you have in front of you.

So very proud of the work that went into this

Project and want to say that this committee was really just an excellent group of people to work with, very thoughtful, very engaged, some very interesting conversations were had with this group of people about the downtown mall.

So on that note, the committee was formed recognizing that the 50th anniversary of the downtown mall is approaching.

The city manager directed us to start thinking about what does the next 50 years look like?

What do we have to do to maintain the success of the mall?

And so preserve and protect that mall while also recognizing that the mall is going to need to change.

It's going to need to evolve to meet not only our current needs, but needs of the future.

The committee was formed from a diverse array of stakeholders and charged with expressing the values of the city that should help guide the decision making that the city makes on those changes to the mall and help us to prioritize what actions we take.

The lead designer of the mall back in the 70s was landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and I

with each meeting shared this quote with folks because I thought it really embodied in a lot of ways what we were talking about because what happened really anticipated at the time is that the mall would be a place for all of the city's people to gather and to be successful had to continue to offer a platform for

that would be welcoming to everybody but also recognizing that in order to be welcoming to everybody that it would need to change, that there would be a changing degree of activities, events, uses on the Mall and that we need to recognize that.

A perfect example of that is that the original Mall was not conceived with cafe spaces but those came to be a significant aspect of the Mall that we have today and part of its success.

So this is the overall schedule that we were working from with the committee forming and then doing their work and then moving forward, preparing this plan, preparing what we anticipate will be a series of studies and tasks, a creation of a new maintenance program for the mall and ultimately carrying us forward through to the next 50 years.

The committee itself meant monthly.

This involved both a staff meeting where staff got together and prepared the materials that we were going to present at that meeting to help create a space for discussion.

And then the committee met and discussed each one of these issues that's shown up here on the slide.

So we had meetings devoted to trees and fountains, lighting, transportation and parking.

seating in the cafes, a lot of different topics over the course of about a year.

So the plan itself is a plan for respecting and protecting the essential design features of the mall.

So that's the historic aspect, the historic, what's been recognized now as a historic feature while also recognizing and a plan for evolving it to meet the needs of the present and the future.

We identified in the report three significant themes that came up repeatedly throughout the conversations at the mall.

One is that the mall should be a welcoming space, that the invitation to the mall should be to everyone who lives and visits Charlottesville, not just specific demographics.

That a feeling of safety is a fundamental attribute of the mall and important to achieving that welcoming environment and that's

It's a feeling of safety.

It's recognizing that safety is more than just a set of dry numbers.

It's also how people feel when they're in the mall and also the accessibility of the mall.

Do people feel safe getting to the mall?

That's also looking at transportation infrastructure around the mall.

and then also that the process going forward as we dig deeper into potential changes to the mall should happen within a collaborative environment that we need to continue to engage the various stakeholders in the mall, whether that's businesses and property owners or users of the mall, residents within the area, that there needs to be an ongoing system of engagement so that we're continuing to check in on what people want to see and what the needs are relative to the mall.

The action plan itself is divided into three categories of actions, organizational, looking at basically how are we going to go forward, do the things that we need to do to maintain and advance the mall.

Programming related to the social, physical and psychological well-being of the residents, but basically how are we using the mall, how are we making sure that people when they arrive at the mall are safe.

and then amenities, the physical elements of them all.

How do we maintain them?

How do we enhance them over time?

A foundational element of those action items was the management structure itself.

The idea that there has to be a management structure within the city that places the management of them all in one place, where the vision of them all as both a community gathering space and as an economic driver of the city, that those visions are driving the decisions that we then make around

maintenance around capital investments and so on.

So this is envisioned as including both dedicated staff, a defined maintenance plan and associated budget, and then capital investments.

And those are the types of capital investments we're thinking about are outlined further within the plan.

And then what I wanted to highlight here is just what we identified as the four highest priority items.

So in their last meeting, we asked the committee to prioritize all of the action items within the plan.

And these were the four that kind of rose to the top.

The first of those is creating a consistent presence of staff on the mall to enhance cleanliness and safety for all users.

Now, this can be represented within police or within an ambassador's program.

There's a number of different ways this can happen.

But one of the things that we discussed is that consistency is important, both consistency in there being a presence, but also consistency in who those people are so that they have an opportunity to build relationships with the various people on the mall, from the unhoused individuals who are residing in the mall, to business owners, to regular visitors to the mall, and so on.

that those relationships are

The second of the four items that were identified as priorities was implementing the proposed tree management plan.

Some really excellent work has been done to date on a plan for ultimately maintaining and replacing the trees in the mall as they reach the end of their lives.

And the committee received a presentation, I believe the same presentation that Council received and prioritized implementation of that.

Another item was creating a plan for safety and aesthetic lighting of the downtown mall and creating guidelines for current and future lighting.

So the guidelines aspect of that is thinking about the private side of the lighting on the mall, how to different property owners, shops, light their spaces, light the area in front of their spaces and how that contributes to the mall.

The plan part is looking at our public lighting plan and how that can be enhanced

both for safety, particularly on the entrances to the mall where the streets or the entranceways of the mall tend to be darker than the mall itself and that presents a potential concern safety issue but also aesthetic in that there's a lot of opportunities for things to enhance the nighttime appeal particularly in the fall, spring, winter when it's darker earlier.

And the last item is reimagining the outdoor cafe spaces.

So the committee did not feel that we should be removing the cafe spaces.

There's some discussion in that space in the broader community that the cafe spaces have come to dominate.

and

leased out for small events, other ways of allowing people to otherwise engage with the mall other than coming for lunch or dinner.

Some of the interesting ideas.

One interesting idea that came out of the committee was the notion of inviting vineyards and breweries to create temporary pop-up spaces at times on the mall.

So lots of interesting ideas of how these spaces could be used in a

that we could diversify the uses of these cafe spaces.

So going forward, the big conversation will be as part of next year's budget, thinking about how we incorporate these ideas around management of the mall space and creating dedicated staffing, incorporating that into

the proposed budget for next year.

But even in the meantime, there's a lot of opportunities to advance these various action items, particularly with our various partners in the mall, friends of downtown in particular, but other organizations I'm sure as well.

Yeah, I appreciate this and it's exciting to me that

I've heard lots of, when I first ran in 2019, excuse me, there was a lot of concern by the business owners and others on the downtown mall just in terms of its maintenance and so forth.

It's really great to see that it's taken a bit of time, but there's been consistent focus to actually come up with what seems to me to be a good plan.

Is it fair to say so this is broken into organizational programming and amenities?

Yeah, and what you gave us were the kind of those were the four priority items that came out of the committee.

I didn't

That's on page 12 of the... Yeah, and so I guess going forward you mentioned the fact of the budget.

So the committee at this point in time, they had a defined task.

It was to work with us and discuss these issues with us over the course of that year, meeting monthly, and then it ends with their final meeting was to discuss the draft action plan and then prioritize the actions identified within it.

It doesn't mean that we wouldn't necessarily consider the idea of an ongoing or permanent downtown law committee.

That was something that was talked about.

But at this point in time,

Yeah, I can appreciate that it You know, there's always the tendency to when you go through a Process or a project like this and you have a set of recommendations for it to sort of sit on a shelf right and I'm confident that won't happen given the folks involved but

I would suggest or think that there might be value in having regular check-ins with the stakeholders.

I don't know, once a quarter or something like this is all working on.

This is what's going on.

And I know that I would appreciate, you know, once a quarter, maybe just the, even if it's just an email, like these are the priorities, these are things we've been working on, kind of like we get with the transportation plan from Mr. Chambers.

Yeah.

And I appreciate that concern.

Yes, it's very easy for things to kind of drop away.

And that's one of the reasons for there being a dedicated staff person.

I mean, the downtown mall is a kind of an amenity like no other, not only within Charlottesville, but really nationally.

There's very few places, successful places, like what Charlottesville has.

But we are also recognizing that that's going to require ongoing work.

And so the notion there is that

Well, I think it's great that we have a person focused on this because it needs the attention for sure.

I'm going to get Natalie and then Lloyd out.

Thanks.

Yeah, it's so weird being so big on the screen for you all.

So I've got a couple questions.

Yeah, so there's basically an annual lease agreement.

So the

There's an annual lease agreement.

Each restaurant basically is able to hold on to their space.

Spaces don't become available unless a restaurant kind of goes out of business, you know, leaves and then that space is then made available to others within the vicinity to

to essentially apply for getting a lease for that space.

There's a body of rules that govern that whole process.

There's also a section of the city ordinances that governs that process.

Yeah, yeah.

Just like generally, what is it to have that secure?

The something that you mentioned right at the top was Halperin's quote about all of the city's people but I didn't see any plans in this other than the occasional like special event for kids like the potential to have a playground or hit zone of comp some kind.

Okay, I think there would be interest.

You know, we've seen that when kids are able to access places where their parents are, when the parents get to stay longer, which of course means they get to spend more money, but also enjoy company together more.

And then there's, like,

A train, I believe in Finland where there's half a train car that's a playground and so that's great for families.

There's, you know, squares in Barcelona where like the parents are at the cafe and then there's the playground and then everyone can enjoy that space together.

And I know there's the carousel and of course the Discovery Museum but to have a non-staffed, non-private, kind of passively accessible kids space on them all, I think a lot of families would enjoy that.

And then my last question is for the lighting, actually I have two more, sorry, for the lighting plan.

I know you all will probably be aware of this, but I just want to reiterate it.

The iconic down cone broad lights on them all are great because of reducing light pollution because they focus the light down.

But then the string lights are cute and warm and welcoming and make it an inviting, engaging space.

Yeah, and that was an issue that was discussed during that, during that committee meeting.

I'm sure.

I know you all are thoughtful.

And then the last question is kind of expanding on what Brian was talking about.

What happens next?

Okay.

Good to hear.

Sure.

A few questions from the recommendations in the report.

What are them related to seating on the downtown mall in a recommendation to add additional seating?

That's obviously a debate that's gone on for years.

My understanding is there's a number of seating that have been in storage for a number of years.

I don't know if that's still the case.

That's one of the ideas as identified within the plan is that that's kind of part of how you make it a more welcoming space, right?

Create spaces where somebody effectively doesn't have to pay to stay and enjoy the mall space.

No, it's identified in the plan to actually repair or restore the existing seating where we can track down where it is and get it.

I've gathered that some of it may be in storage and some of it may have been dispersed to other places.

The other question

The recommendation to update the BAR guidelines and regulations applicable to the downtown mall.

Is there an existing timeline for that?

Yeah.

But that's fair to understand.

I'll just say I feel like in terms of our guidelines balancing this national historic resource with growth, I don't think we have struck the balance yet at this point.

And I think we're going to see a lot of tensions over the coming years that maybe people will be surprised by.

Another question relates to the side crossings and making them safer or more accessible for pedestrians.

No.

This plan at this level is very high level.

One of the things that we talked about in the context of that though is

Particularly, you guys have heard me say this before when we're talking about issues of safety.

I tend to lean towards can we move quickly and inexpensively and then come back later with something that's more permanent.

What can we pilot?

What can we do as a quick build project?

And I think that's something we would also explore in this space is what are the things that we can try out and get feedback on?

What are ideas we can explore?

Yeah, fair.

And again, understand.

Looking at this afternoon, I was reminded again, the second street crossing, I think, was completely bricked only for pedestrians until the 90s.

And it was 2006 that the fourth street crossing was de-pedestrianized and made for cars.

Of course, Fourth Street is also the site of a terrorist attack and the site of an event of national significance and is just for

normal vehicular travel at this point, which I think is odd.

But that aside, I think it could be, if it's too scary to have that conversation, at least maybe in programming, think about what would potentially closing off some of those streets for events on a monthly basis or something like that.

I think that could be interesting to kind of, and I think it would help the safety there as well.

The final question is with the fountains.

Is there any

So the fountains are highlighted.

We also discussed the fountains a fair bit during one meeting that was on trees and fountains.

So we talked about those a lot.

So I think the plan ultimately is to reopen them.

The big issue remains the concerns around

issues of ADA accessibility, right?

So with the smaller fountains, we need to be cognizant of the fact that the cafe spaces come right up to it and create kind of narrow spaces.

So part of the solution might be there that we need to widen those spaces out and create better accessibility around those fountains so it's not so constrained.

And so we reduce the trip and fall hazard there.

That may also mean

detectable strips of some kind, patterns on the ground that signify that there is something there.

Part of the conversation was also looking at this idea of reopening the central fountain.

Currently, it's closed off.

We're not supposed to go into it.

All four fountains were designed to be interactive originally.

Yeah, and I'll just say my personal opinion, I think they should be reopened.

Again, my personal opinion, if the last BAR discussion I watched where they discussed this is to be believed, I think the current situation is a little absurd, and at least in their accounting, the current, to my mind it seems a lot like ADA theater, because even the elements right now, at least if their discussion is accurate, are not even ADA compliant.

Well, there is an issue around the central fountain on that note, I believe, maybe.

Sure, and again, I don't profess to know the exact right path forward, but it's just always struck me as a very strange bureaucratic outcome where we are right now.

Those are all the questions I have.

I will say reading through the report, it just got me thinking, I guess this was more strictly on the public owned.

But I feel like what the mall is is still kind of contested a little bit for the community.

To me, it's a space where people from different class, personal backgrounds can meet.

And it's a place where there's amenities that they want to go to are inaccessible.

And I do worry that we're on a trend for it to be more of a boutique, high end, exclusive.

area without where you won't really have that meeting of different class backgrounds.

And I think to avoid that, it just got me thinking a lot about the history of something like the Paramount Theater, where it took local government, nonprofit, community partnership to create an amenity.

Is the Paramount Theater the highest and best economic use?

Probably not, but it's probably, it's an incredible community resource.

And it just got me thinking, what could those partnerships look like in other areas for them all?

Because I think we'll just have to be

very intentional long term.

So just got me thinking about that and it was interesting to read through all the recommendations in the report.

So I was, of course, I was part of your committee and although I wasn't at all of the meetings, I tried to keep track of what was going on.

I note that there are

Within the report, there are a couple of headings that are rather all-inclusive to the extent that there's some specific things that aren't specifically mentioned when we talk about existing maintenance plan or a budgeting source to implement the plan and so on.

The couple of things that I don't remember whether we ever talked about specifically,

It's been probably 15 years at least since there has been any serious attention paid to the brickwork.

And while I don't think it's as bad as it was when we re-bricked the whole mall at a cost of many millions of dollars, I think that it would probably be a good idea to try to figure out some way to be able to go in and

and take a couple of areas and say, OK, we're going to just redo that particular section so you don't end up tripping every time you walk down the mall.

And when you step on bricks and they give, it's a little disconcerting.

And so we didn't talk about that specifically, but I hope that there will be some attention paid and some thought given to, I mean,

So I believe, Sam, there's money in this budget to do some spot improvements at some of the crossings where it is particularly bad.

But beyond that, to the point that you're making, that's one of the conversations we had.

Parks and Rec has done really an excellent job in maintaining them all overall, particularly when one recognizes that the mall is completely different from any other facility that they maintain.

Right, and when you think about the space as it's a community gathering space, it's an economic driver, it's a pedestrian wall, the level of maintenance you need is literally somebody who is on a pretty frequent basis, somebody or somebodies, who are walking them on looking for those loose bricks and doing that spot repair on those bricks, that kind of

kind of ongoing level of maintenance is what you need for this type of environment.

And that's just not really been the capacity or the direction for Parks and Rec.

Last summer I was talking with some folks associated with Friends of downtown Charlottesville about the question of whether either they or the city and they together in some way could basically get somebody to have as their job to go around and reseat the bricks as they pop up.

Right, absolutely.

And in part because one of the things that was suggested many years ago, which the city decided not to do, was to have a slightly higher tax structure for downtown to be able to fund those kinds of things.

And we decided not to do that, but that doesn't mean there's not the need.

and so if the businesses downtown are willing to, in a sense, tax themselves to do that, that could well be a great way to go about it.

No, no, it's in the works.

We had a presentation at the final committee meeting.

I think it's still in the works at this point in time.

I don't think it's done yet.

And then related to a lot of the other discussions about the water and sort of

Related to the trees in particular, the question came up about the constant problem of as the trees grow, they put more pressure on the surrounding brick areas and how

How that's all going to get resolved.

I'm just wondering, have we given any thought to, I mean, assuming that at some point we say, okay, the willow oaks have reached the end of their useful life.

We're going to have some kind of a program of replacing them and so on.

Necessarily they will go back, necessarily a smaller tree.

will go into the space that is being vacated by a larger tree.

And in many cases, we've already cut the metal great around that in a way that is now all of a sudden not the right size.

And I'm just thinking about all the different problems that are associated with it.

I think somebody pointed out that when

Jason, after 30 years or something, people looked around and said, my goodness, we never thought these oaks were going to last this long.

Yeah, I mean, I have to defer to that tree plan and the expertise of those folks.

I know that they are thinking about those issues that you're describing in their presentation.

They actually talked about the problematic aspects of those grates that we put in because there's a number of cases where the trees have kind of grown into those metal grates and that's now damaging the trees themselves.

So it's an important aspect of how that

management and replacement strategy goes forward.

I raise it now not because I expect an answer right now, but to highlight the problem.

Absolutely.

Anyway, I think that the health of the downtown mall is absolutely vital.

The physical health is absolutely vital.

I was reminded of this

this past weekend that we spent in Champaign, which we were in a hotel that had been on a pedestrian downtown mall that was put in in about 2002, and it failed.

And they had to remove it.

And so the hotel was still there, but basically what happened, as I understand it, was that the businesses that were on the newly pedestrianized mall

just kept going downhill and they weren't being replaced.

And one of the things that we've learned in Charlottesville over the last 40-some years is that keeping the downtown mall happy and healthy is an expensive proposition and it's a proposition that we have to renew our commitment to every year.

And if we take a year off or if we cut the budget

Thank you.

I just had a couple of comments I was going to chime in with.

Lloyd said about when we visited Champaign Urbana this weekend that

What we have here with the downtown mall is a jewel.

Many cities would die to have that and so it is something that I want to continue to make sure that it's open and I might sound like I might be on my campaign speech again but I really think that we can do something

to the mall.

We talked about ambassadors.

I think we can have a youth ambassador because now that the summer is here, it's going to be a lot more youth with nothing to do.

They're going to be on the water.

Somehow we can, you know,

Michael Payne

something that we can do a lot more, because that's certainly something that I hear a lot from the community of color that they just don't feel welcome there.

And I said, you know, it's true.

I love it.

I was there this morning, you know, before it started seven, four few hours to meet with individuals.

I'm walking, meeting there tomorrow to meet people there.

So it's just a wonderful space to see pretty much every one in the community

and the history is phenomenal.

I think the Historical Society, they've given different tours of the world.

I've been doing that.

I'm learning about that building was the first to have the solid moving this one and, you know, to have a photography.

So it's really unique, these different buildings, the history that they have, but we have to, we want to continue to make it

open to all and I'm glad we have a discussion about the benches and I know the conversation about the unhoused on the community and I mean on the downtown mall and that's something that we need to continue to have discussion on as council and as a community how we're going to deal with and I know that we're continuing looking at long-term solutions and it's just going to take a lot of work to do that.

What I would like to see is the investment in it because I think that what we get out of it as far as, you know, that the investment is well worth it with the resources that we can use to help with the affordable housing initiatives.

are transit initiatives.

Other things at this, the corner and other places are economic drivers.

It allows us to do things we do and not lean so much on real estate taxes.

So I'm constantly talking to classes about the downtown mall, graduate classes doing some really in-depth study on it now, but I also talk to

great schools students on because it's an interest it's of an interest to them because it's a place where you can that everyone kind of knows about so very good study I I'm happy with it I know that it's still some more work to do but I I would like to see more information on what we can do to get the youth involved I know

that a lot of them use the Discovery Museum, the carousel there, but it's a lot of families that come to them all and for some things that we can do to have them engage, not just like at Christmas time for the trolley.

The Santa trolley.

The Santa trolley and other things, you know.

I love the trolley.

I haven't liked the trolley, you know?

You don't have to inhale all the fumes that's going down, yes.

But I'm glad that, you know, the careers here and the work that they're doing to promote the downtown mall and it's made a big difference.

So thank you and the property owners that you work with and Mike.

So it's great.

The future is really bright, but we have to

continue to support it, put resources into it so that it can stay the jewel that it is.

Yes, sir.

So I want to take a moment to thank staff as well as the members of the committee, those present and those that couldn't join us this evening.

Just thank you for responding to the invitation when Mr. Rogers made the decision that he wanted to prioritize this work group.

James and I both looked at each other and said, yeah, we get the responsibility for leading this.

And I then made James do it.

So that worked out for me.

And then I didn't realize that in starting it when he started it that I would be the one bringing it to a conclusion for this presentation today and then immediately having to start working on its implementation.

What I have learned over the past year is that we have a special amenity out there.

that has a lot of passion associated with it.

There's some controversy associated with it as well and I wish we can get past that part.

That's what one of my priorities is to get past the controversy of it all and to recognize them all as the amenity that it is for the entire community and to figure out what can we do to keep it strong and vibrant for another 50 years.

to address some of the various issues that are happening there.

It's important that those that are relying on their livelihood by opening a business on a day-to-day basis, that they actually have an environment that they can thrive in, the same as those that are choosing to frequent them all, enjoy that moment and want to come back and continue to engage and appreciate each and every one of those moments.

We talked about the mall experience often throughout this past year and we have a lot of work that still needs to be done and we all must admit that and some of what it's going to take is for some of our passions to be set aside a bit and we have to come together on what are the things that we can do and get those things done.

Part of what I recognize that the team has to do now

is to determine what are a series of recommendations that we plan to bring forward and to bring those to you.

But we're going to need this council to make a decision and to hold to that decision.

And you're going to hear from a lot of people who are going to tell you parts and pieces of what we're bringing to you is not the right thing to do.

We know that because we heard that for the past year.

Every topic had layers and layers of complexity to it.

But we're going to have to make a decision on some of those things and move

If we're going to ensure that this amenity can thrive, we can't continue to wait.

We're seeing the evidence of what happens when you wait.

Bricks are tripping people up on a regular basis.

We have had people fall into the fountain, as well in one of the fountains, at least, and into the tree well.

We have to be cognizant of those things, because if we don't pay attention to those things, we will pay for those things later on when we get lawsuits and other things that come.

It's my job to tell you that.

We have to make sure that we prioritize what are the things that are just going to make it the special amenity that it is so that other communities will continue to come here and say, I wish I had that.

I desperately want that.

I know a few places that wish they had what we already have.

and would take it in a heartbeat.

So there's a lot of work to be done, and there probably is some significant conversation that we're going to have about options, and we'll bring those options forward.

But when we get through that particular conversation, we're going to follow that up with a request for action.

And it's going to cost.

And I'm telling you that up front.

In order for us to invest in amenity and to prioritize it, we're going to have to spend money on it.

And it's been here for 50 years.

It's due.

It's overdue.

Sorry, I wanted to follow up on a couple of things that people have said and also something that I realized I wanted to mention earlier.

The first is that I wanted to applaud the couple of points about bringing more people to the mall by a public transportation and bike pad access.

I just wanted to give kudos there.

I'm glad that those are included in the report.

And then I also wanted to draw everyone's attention to page 11 of the report.

This is page 16 of the total packet.

because I echo the sentiment counselor Payne about how it's odd that we still have

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

has and is good require.

And if the only difference there is cars, then we can see how the continual allowance of car traffic over the mall is going to increase our maintenance bill long term.

You know, there's large patches in broken areas and on the on the car crossing and there's

Pretty smooth, looking nice mall on the left where it's just pedestrians.

So I did want to point that out as well.

Can I just note that this was a topic that was discussed at length on the committee.

And the committee ultimately decided not to make that recommendation.

I don't think they took it off the table either.

Brian Pinkston, Juandiego Wade, Lloyd Snook, Michael Payne

Bricks can support vehicles very well.

The problem is that they were not properly installed in the first place, and so they have deteriorated under the car wear and tear at that point.

So when we do the projects that have been funded, they will be able to handle vehicular traffic.

Yeah, well, if and when that topic comes up again to council, I'll probably leave towards closing, especially since even though these were might not have been installed with car traffic in mind, you can still see like now here's maintenance that we have to go back and do because of the cars.

So even if there is the potential that they wouldn't be this damaged in the future, they are now because of cars, which is going to require an investment.

And then the last thing is that what I like and love and care so much about them all is that it gives a sense of place.

You visit other communities and you're kind of just one street or one strode bleeds into another and you're kind of

Can I just follow up on one thing that Natalie said?

Yeah.

And if we're going to move to heavier buses because we're going to have more different kinds of buses and batteries and so on, I wonder whether the structure underneath is going to need some attention.

Any other questions or comments at this time?

Sam, is there's nothing that's supposed to do at this point?

Nope, that was it.

James, thank you and thank you so much.

I'm sorry, I'm wishing on you Allison.

Allison for your work is great, great work.

Yes, I have a motion to that effect.

Excuse me, pursuant to Section 2.2-3712 of the Virginia Code, I hereby move that City Council close this open meeting and convene in a closed session.

As authorized by Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1 for the following one to interview prospective candidates for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board.

and two, discussion and consideration of prospective candidates for appointment to the following boards, commissions and councils.

Albemarle County Regional and Jail Authority Board, Board of Architectural Review, Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board, Historic Resources Committee, Jefferson Area Board for Aging Advisory Council, Local Board of Building Code Appeals, Piedmont Family YMCA Board of Directors,

Piedmont Virginia Community College Board, Retirement Commission, Sister Cities Commission, Social Services Advisory Board, Towing Advisory Board, and the Youth Council.

Can we vote?

Okay, we are now in closed session.

We will, are we at Natalie?

Yes.

Natalie gave a thumbs up.

She gave a thumbs up.

We'll return at 6.30.

Hi.

Hi.

Yeah.

With a different link.

Thank you very much.

Max, let me know when Natalie's up.

When she's logged in.

She's on.

She's already OK.

I just want to make sure she still can read the A.L.

She said that she will.

Okay.

Yeah.

So do we have Natalie up yet?

Welcome back, Natalie.

Will you still be able to read the ALS proclamation a little bit later?

Okay, thank you.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, certification of closed meeting.

Okay.

And we got an aye from Ms.

Oschrin.

So we were in a closed session.

So we're going to, Ms.

Robinson, we read the names now for what we went into closed session for.

Excuse me.

So these were folks that were appointed to various boards and commissions.

Thank everyone who applied.

I know it's a lot of commitment to do so.

The first board is the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail Authority Board.

To that we appointed David Brown.

To the Board of Architectural Review we appointed Jerry Rosenthal.

For the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board we appointed Bridget Wicks and Earl Hicks.

For the Historic Resources Committee, we appointed Denny Berry, Nancy Damon, and Kayden Martz.

For the Jefferson Area Board for Aging Advisory Council, we appointed Evelyn Boatwright and L.D.

Perry.

For the Local Board of Building Code Appeals, we appointed Diane Kayton.

For the Piedmont Family YMCA Board of Directors, we appointed Mary Esselman Roberts.

For the Piedmont Virginia Community College Board, we appointed Delia Clough and Nina Schueneauver.

Thank you.

For the Retirement Commission, we appointed Joshua Bontrager, Ben Cullop, and Phillip Garber.

For the Sisters City Commission, we reassigned Kimberly Hayes, who's on that commission, reassigned her to the Winneba Seat.

For the Social Services Advisory Board, we appointed Sherry Stewart.

For the Towing Advisory Board, we appointed Agrin Fazlia.

And finally, for the Youth Council,

We appointed Jaylin Bailey, Emma Bennett McConnell, Nora Erklins, Madeleine Clautfelter, David Darring, Dashiell Jackson, Zena Parker, and Alex Zimmering.

And the following were removed from the Youth Council.

Okay, so that was a motion.

May I get a second?

I'll second.

We'll begin with a moment of silence.

I guess we can call it an announcement to make note of the fact that the Charlottesville High School students from the Bacon Club won the Northeast Drone Competition and set world records

in the drone competition.

I confess, I don't know what exactly happens in a drone competition, but I'm impressed.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, I can tell you as a career counselor, those are some very valuable skills that those students are learning, and they'll be very employable.

So thank you so much.

We just got that word today for that.

That's really good.

It was just over the weekend.

It's the 55th anniversary recognition.

And as whereas the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded

on January 13, 1913 on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.

by 22 phenomenal collegiate women who saw no limit to their vision for sisterhood, scholarship,

and Waz Delta Sigma Theta Seward to Incorporate it is an organization of predominantly black college educated women committed to using their collective strength to promote academic excellence and assist those in need with a primary focus on African American community.

since the establishment, more than 300,000 women have joined the sorority.

It is a sisterhood that has over 940 collegiate and alumni chapters located in the United States, the Bahamas Bermuda, Canada, England, Germany,

Japan, Jamaica, Liberia, South Korea, and the Virgin Islands, and whereas the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter was charted on June 7, 1969 by 12 local members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated who were committed to improving the political

Education and Social Economic Condition in the Charlottesville City and surrounding areas through the five-point programmatic Thrust, Economic Development, Educational Development, International Awareness and Involvement, Physical and Mental Health, and the Political Awareness and Involvement.

And whereas the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter has clearly distinguished itself as a public service organization that boldly confronts

the challenges of the African-American and hence all Americans and citizens of Charlottesville for 55 years and realizing its mission and the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter has developed and implemented a wide range of programs with special emphasis in the areas of education, health, international development and strengthening of the Black family.

recognizing the achievement of African-American students providing over $10,000 of scholarships to high school students participating in community cleanups and presenting cultural enrichment opportunities which are ongoing activities.

Now, therefore, the Charlottesville City Council takes great pleasure in recognizing the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated on its 55th anniversary

Celebration June 7th, 8th, and 9th.

You all have a good time.

2024.

Be it further, proclaim that we join the chapter in paying tribute to members Virginia, Belle, Faye Benton, Florence Bryant, Rosa Berks,

Dorothy Conrad, Zelda DeBury, Daisy Holmes, Gertrude Mitchell, Nancy Pritchett, Felicia Rowe, Murray Janet Scott, Josephine Wissett for their efforts and foresight in establishing this organization in our city and surrounding communities.

Good evening.

I am Dr. Nikita Wade, President of the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.

First, I would like to ask the members of the chapter to stand.

On behalf of the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter, I extend our deepest gratitude to Mayor Juan Diego Wade and the entire City Council for this esteemed proclamation recognizing our organization's commitment to public service, scholarship, sisterhood, and social welfare.

Since 1969, the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter has provided services and programs such as those highlighted in the proclamation to enrich the communities,

and our service area, which include not only the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, but also the cities of Wingsboro and Harrisonburg and the counties of Nelson, Lovanna and Louisa.

This chapter and our members continue to maintain a legacy of trailblazers in leadership and excellence in our communities.

From the late Lorraine Williams, civil rights pioneer and advocate in the Charlottesville community, to our surviving charter member Florence Bryant, who at 102 years young remains an active member of our chapter, who was also an iconic educator and principal in Charlottesville City Schools, to Dina Reed, mayor of Harrisonburg and the first black mayor

Black woman mayor of the city.

These are just a few examples of the impact of our local members.

Today's acknowledgement not only honors our sorority's century-long legacy of dedication to empowering communities and commitment to public service, but also reinforces the values we hold dear.

We remain steadfast in our mission and we are inspired to continue our efforts in enriching our communities and upholding the legacy of our founders.

Again, thank you for this honor, for acknowledging our contributions and for supporting our endeavors.

Thank you.

Dr. Wade, I didn't realize that, you know, we're not kinfolk, but good to know we got a doctor and a family, you know, who work.

So Florence Bryant, when I first moved in this community, we had a mutual friend and I stayed at her house.

It was just, just a wonderful person.

And so I'm glad that, you know, it doesn't surprise me she's still active.

I would love for the ladies to come down and we can get a picture together.

One, two, three.

Thank you so much.

Okay, great.

Leroy Ogranis, month 2024.

Whereas amiotrophic laparosis, ALS, known by many as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive, fatal, neurogenerative disease in which a person's brain loses connection with the muscles, only taking away their ability to walk, talk, eat, and eventually breathe.

And whereas every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS and someone passes away from ALS on average, patients don't

ALS only survived five years.

I'm a diagnosis.

And whereas people who have served in the military are more likely to develop ALS and die from the disease than those with the military.

and whereas securing access to new therapies, durable medical equipment, and communication technology, the vital important people living with ALS, and clinical trials have been a role in evaluating new treatments, enhancing quality of life, and fostering assistive technologies for those living with ALS.

And whereas ALS has no cure, our commitment to accelerating the pace of recovery remains unwavering.

is billed by the hope that ALS will be a livable disease for everywhere until we can cure it.

And whereas we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ICE challenge through renewed commitment to galvanize public awareness and support funding-leading significant investments in ALS research, and the ALS Association as the largest philanthropic funder of ALS research globally has committed over $154 million to support 550 projects across the United States and 18 other countries.

and whereas ALS Awareness Month increases the public's awareness of the dire circumstances surrounding ALS and acknowledges the terrible impact this disease has on the person, their family and the community and recognizes the research being done to eradicate this disease.

Now, therefore, the City Council proclaims the month of May 2024 as ALS Awareness Month.

We call upon the community to join in supporting ALS research advocating for increased funding and standing in solidarity with the affected by this relentless disease.

Thank you.

Do we have anyone here at the scene now from ALS?

We'll be sure to give it to them.

Next proclamation is that this is Public Works Week, whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, solid waste, street maintenance, engineering, and traffic field operations and services to make Charlottesville's quality of life better for people to live, work, play, and visit.

and whereas these infrastructure, facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, skilled tradesmen, skilled trades people I suppose we should say, equipment operators and employees at all levels of government who are responsible for rebuilding, improving and protecting public buildings and other structures and facilities essential for our community members.

and whereas the Public Works Department maintains 160 miles of streets, 155 miles of sidewalks, over 1,500 ADA ramps, 75 traffic signals, 13,000 traffic signs, 70 buildings consisting of 1.6 million square feet and 645 vehicles and pieces of equipment and whereas the Public Works Department manages the engineering, project management and construction

to include $157 million for transportation projects and a $221 million five-year capital improvement program.

And whereas it is in the public interest of Charlottesville to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works programs in their respective communities.

and whereas the year 2024 marks the 64th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association and the Canadian Public Works Association.

Now, therefore, the Charlottesville City Council proclaims the week of May 19th, 25th, 2024 as Public Works Week in the City of Charlottesville, urging all community members to join in activities, events and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals

and to recognize the substantial contributions they make in advancing quality of life for all.

Signed and sealed this 20th day of May, 2024, Juan Diego Wade Mayor.

Mayor, Council Members, and City Manager.

Thank you for passing this proclamation.

And I think

When I look back through my career, if you really think of when it comes to community members really seeing how improvements can be made in the city, I think when you look at the public works operation, and just not public works, even including utilities and even parks and recreation piece of operations, it's the frontline people who are out there every day

They need to be available 24 seven to make things happen.

And so if it worked for them, you would see a drop in quality of life here in the city of Charlottesville.

So I appreciate this moment.

I will pass this on to all of our staff.

So we're now at Community Matters.

There's one registered speaker leaving opportunities for 15 additional speakers on Community Matters.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak.

Good evening.

You know I'm here pursuant to a request I made about ten days ago for this council to apologize to the people who were subjects and victims of the brutality that was

presented against students, faculty, and community members.

Students, many of whom are members of our community, faculty members who are members of our community, and members of our community.

Now, I don't think I'm going to convince any of you because there's been substantial information presented about that.

I would hope that at least you've read The Daily Progress, which has done an extraordinary job here.

I am convinced that the blame for this lies at the foot of

who said the same even the day before the state police went in to brutalize and arrest students, faculty members, and community members.

And he assured his audience on Fox News, one of the more enlightened stations, that there will be no encampment.

The next day, because tents went up, there was an attack by the state police.

Now, the university has claimed it wasn't about the tents.

It was about the threat and danger that we were faced from certain events.

Well, let's just recount a couple of those events.

Number one, people had used umbrellas in a threatening fashion against Chief Longo.

Not true.

I've watched three different videos from three different angles.

Nobody threatened Chief Longo at all.

He walked away in frustration because they wouldn't talk to him, but there was no threat.

The second was the claim that when the state police came, the protesters held up umbrellas in a threatening fashion.

Simply not true, and you can prove it by looking at the video.

And when there were umbrellas that were held up for self-defense,

The police just came across, just came and ripped them out of people's hands.

Nobody resisted that.

And finally, of course, we have the statement by the chief of staff of the university that the proof that there was danger there was Kristen

Faye, the one person who was arrested for assaulting, punching a police officer that the prosecutor dismissed within a week.

It wasn't true and it was used as justification.

I don't care how much they tell you, to the contrary, I don't think Jim Ryan had a choice except for the timing.

This was dictated

and I understand the situation that Chief Cotches finds himself in.

You cannot refuse another law enforcement agency that you work with on a regular basis.

Certainly not if you expect them to ever help you.

So I don't think it's a time for pointing fingers.

I simply think it's a time for an apology to those who are badly affected by something that never should have happened.

Thank you very much.

Are there any other speakers at this time?

Public speakers on public matters?

Yeah, and I'll just say very briefly, I've expressed it and I'm happy to say it again.

I apologize on behalf of everyone who is subject to that police action.

I think that kind of use of force, including against members of the press on peaceful protest is chilling to peaceful, the peaceful expression of free speech, as well as very serious charges being levied at members of our community that were subsequently dropped assault of an officer because it was found that there was no evidence at all for it.

Thank you.

That was our final speaker on community matters.

There will be another opportunity at the end of the meeting.

We're now at the consent agenda.

Ms.

Can we vote?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Mayor Wade, uh, have a couple of items for this evening.

Uh, I think we have two videos, uh, teed up to play that we were unable to have played during her presentation during the four o'clock session at the last meeting.

I was just going to say thank you.

All right, very good.

Okay, you can play the video.

The only trip you will regret is the one you don't take.

This is a trip that I will never forget.

Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia have left a special place in my heart.

I've discovered so many people and experiences here that truly reinforce my love for travel.

There is so much to do and see.

from Line Hastings at Beautiful Vineyards to immersive art and cultural experiences.

Oh, this is gorgeous!

My soul feels refreshed.

Don't let anything stop you from exploring.

You are not limited to the walls within your home.

You will never know what you're capable of until you try.

And you will only regret the tricks that you don't take.

I've seen this several times and it still brings a smile to my face, Courtney.

I love that.

Was that another one?

Yeah, there's a second one.

Good evening.

I'm Craig Chamberlain, a senior member of the Wine Enthusiasts tasting department and reviewer for Virginia.

Today we're recognizing Charlottesville, Virginia, for its place in American wine history.

They attended these parties.

They tilled this land with their hands, and now, the world renown wide as where we land.

What makes this unique, you ask?

Inhale, breathe in.

What you'll smell is a sweet promise of petite mansang, and the bold defiance of the Norton.

Together, let's honor the past, close to the present, and pay tribute to a future yet unquart.

Congratulations, Charlottesville.

Charlottesville, Virginia has been at the forefront of American democracy and innovation since our nation's beginning.

Collaboration and the determination to succeed are hallmarks of who we are.

Our wine embodies the spirit.

Just like our cab Franc, we stand well on our own and also mix well with others.

After decades of pouring our passion into the land and our craft, we are now stepping into the world spotlight.

Historic finds new roots.

These four words speak to the heart and history of our region through the lens of wine.

Our roots have grown strong despite the storms we've weathered.

And the work that we're doing has paved the way in making wine more accessible, inclusive, and approachable for everyone.

It is this intersection of phenomenal wine, grit, and approachability that has led to this recognition today.

By showcasing Charlottesville and the Monticello AVA as a welcoming and inclusive line region for all, we have made our community proud, attracted new to audiences, and dispelled myths about who we are.

This recognition is a testament to the dedication, passion, and outstanding quality of the wines produced by our collective efforts.

our phenomenal great growers, winemakers and visionaries who have seen the potential and possibilities in our terroir and innovated such beautiful wines.

I'm sitting right back there.

I'm going to give you so much love.

Thank you wine enthusiasts for recognizing this work in our wine region at this unprecedented level.

We are overwhelmed and blessed to be recognized in this way.

Thank you on behalf of Charlottesville and the Monticello AVA.

One more night, one more meal with a glass of wine.

So thank you, Courtney, and sorry for the technical issues before, but I'm glad that the community can see this.

So I wasn't sure if you had anything else to add.

I know you talked before.

Thank you.

Camisha Spencer, who's the program supervisor of the Community-Based Services Unit, which houses the KIP program.

And Ms.

Annie Seacrest, who is the KIP coordinator and has been for many years.

When I was first starting out at my job at the Department of Human Resources in 2007, City Council asked our department

Community Attention and Human Services to create a small pilot program to put youth into meaningful work opportunities, provide some compensation for their learning and achievement.

And we started off with a cohort of 17 youth that year, and I was

Lucky to be able to be in the program development of that.

And it went from 17.

Now we are expected to host 150 this summer.

So over the course of the last several years, we have really been able to grow and we continue to see investment from our community members who want to mentor youth and youth who want to be mentored.

and

more specifically from last summer and what we hope to see for this summer.

So four steadfast program goals, these haven't changed much over the last years.

One, to teach workplace readiness skills through hands-on learning and career exploration.

Two, to help youth identify their strengths and build resiliency.

A lot of times in the interview

and I just did a few.

We asked them, what are some of your strengths?

What makes you a good fit for KIP or why do you want to do KIP right now?

It's really hard for teens to be able to elaborate on their strengths.

So our staff, when they're interviewing them, have to kind of help coach them through those responses and help them name and take ownership of what they're good at.

And that's one of the things when I was more directly involved with the program that I would say at the end

at the beginning of the program kickoff, I would say.

Hey, at the end of the celebration, I may tap you on your shoulder and ask you again what your strengths are, and I really hope that you'll be able to highlight some of those.

So help them identify their strengths and build resiliency.

Three, connect youth to positive adults and resources in our community.

One of the recommendations in the community safety working group is making sure

that youth have connections to positive adults in the community.

That's one of the most salient factors in ensuring the success of a youth.

So we want to make sure that they're not only connected to their work site supervisors, but also to folks like Annie, Camisha, and the rest of the KIPP staff.

and then provide additional help to local agencies, businesses and schools.

There's no requirement for agency, business or school to have to pay to participate in KIP.

We cover the costs through general fund contributions from council, the stipend, the experience and the staff.

the business owners or the agencies or the nonprofits, they provide the work experience and the on-the-job coaching.

And so it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

And we want to be able to provide additional hours of service to those agencies and businesses.

Program components.

So the first thing that happens and what we're in the middle of doing right now, so our deadline to apply to KIP for the summer session was I think May 3rd.

May 1st, and we got over 220 applications for 150 slides.

We weren't expecting that many applications, but we were pleased that there was such a huge support from students who wanted to be involved in KIPP this year.

So the first part is we interview them.

So each person that interviews all 220 of them have an opportunity to spend about 20 or 30 minutes with one of our staff.

And we go through understanding why they want to do the program, what they hope to achieve out of the program, what are some of their proudest achievements, what are some hard things they learn to overcome, and then some of their job interests.

Because one of the things that happens with matching is we want to match a kid with something that they're actually interested in because we find that it

make sure it increases our success rate if a kid actually cares about what they're going to every day during the summer.

Before they're able to start their on-the-job experience, from June 24th until June 28th, they'll be doing what's called KIP Academy.

It's basically learning some of the hard skills and soft skills that's required to be successful in the job, communication skills, being able to identify your strengths and know what you're good at, setting your smart goals at the beginning of the year,

being able to meet your KIP counselor, which we'll talk about next.

So they have this sort of foundation they're able to learn and grow from their peers and they sort of have that a little boost of confidence before they start their on the job learning.

So we're not just picking them up and dropping off the door stuff of a business owner.

We are

making sure that they have some relationship and some context to be successful in the way.

Which leads me to one of the key ingredients why KIPP has been so successful for so long is that every single intern that's accepted into the program gets a KIPP counselor.

It's part-time seasonal staff on our staff.

They visit with the site on the job once a week.

They meet with the

Youth and say, hey, how's it going?

What's working?

What's not?

What do you need help with?

What are you learning?

And they sort of catalog those experience, help the kid reflect back on what they're doing.

They also meet with the supervisor at the job to make sure, hey, how's it going for you?

Is this working for you?

What are some things that I can provide as far as additional support so that the youth is successful in the end of six weeks?

And then the third component is measuring progress.

So this is a performance-based stipend that they earn.

This year, we have made a program decision to increase the stipend pay to $15 an hour for the 20 hours that they work.

So this is more in line with our equity principles and our wages for city

you know beginning staff and so and liberal wage so we wanted to be able to offer that to the youth because we don't want any sort of financial obligations to be a barrier for them to join on decay up and we found that this adjustment in the stipend has been able to

increase interest for kids to participate in the program.

But it is performance based.

So those KIP counselors that I was talking about, if someone is needing some additional coaching, they're not showing up on time, they are not doing their work, then they may get some deductions out of their performance stipend.

So just a brief snapshot into summer of 2023.

69% of our youth reported receiving free and reduced lunch.

100% of the youth who participated said that they would recommend KIPP to another youth.

94% of parents and guardians believe that participating in KIPP was beneficial to their child.

And 100% of our site supervisors who are our partners would recommend KIPP to another agency, program, or business.

Just saying, we had a

86% increase in program participants from the summer of 2022 to the summer of 2023.

And we similarly project this, similarly this increase is projected for the summer as well.

We're looking at about 86% for the summer.

In addition to this we are excited to have 73 site partners who are already committed to partnering with us this summer.

with 28 of those being new sites.

So, Andy, just quickly on this.

Would the Housing Authority be considered City Department?

So, they aren't currently, but there's also different capacities in terms of everyone with different departments, and so we understand maybe if they can't host this year that they would be able to host in future years.

And in terms of youth applications, as Misty was saying, we have had a significant increase this year, so it's a total of 69% increase in application submissions from 2023 to the summer of 2024 so far.

And I just wanted to share a few quotes that we have from participants.

During the KIP interview process, when returning interns come in, we ask them the question of, in your own words, what is KIP?

And so these are some of the beautiful things they've shared with us this year.

KIPP is a place where you learn more than you think you would.

It's a place where people come together and show each other how to build each other up in the real world.

Another student said, KIPP was a turning point for my life.

It helped me turn my life around and made me see that life was worth living and I have something to offer the world.

You are all a great group of people, always supporting youth and wanting the best for us.

I hope that this summer I will get to see many of you that I saw last year and get to know you all better.

We also survey parents and site supervisor every year.

And so last year, our parents shared with us.

They think the program is amazing.

And I can't imagine the coordination and dedication it takes to pull this off.

They still offer individual attention to the kids and their families.

And I wish this program for every community.

So that is the end of our presentation.

Yeah, I guess there doesn't need to be an answer now, but it just makes me curious if that level of interest from the community is sustained, what in the budget or other things are necessary to kind of better meet that demand going forward.

That's really exciting.

Those quotes at the end were amazing.

So I can see how this would be a real life-changing sort of opportunity for a young person.

Absolutely.

I just wanted to reference, I think Annie sent you all

the end of summer, like the full end of summer report for more quotes like that and more of the data that she's collected with her staff from the end of summer evaluations and the participant feedback and the site feedback.

Yeah, I just have a quick

You said that they increase the pay to $15 an hour for the 20 hours of work.

Good question.

It's one week of KIP Academy and KIP Academy is about 20 weeks.

So it's 20 hours a week for six weeks total.

So they have the opportunity to earn $1,800 at the end of the year.

as long as they're meeting all the performance expectations and show up to work on time and work all their full hours.

This is real.

So it's because of your contributions to our department from the general fund.

Currently it's fully funded with city council dollars and that's historically how it has been in order to serve Alamo County youth.

We've had to

apply for additional grants in order to serve Albemarle County youth and apply to Albemarle County for those funds.

So this year, we're expecting to have some small contribution from the county.

And so those county would apply through the city and then get placed in the same pool as the city youth.

So they are considered in the same pool.

Yeah, that's great.

That makes sense.

But does the county government supply any opportunities the way that the city government does?

Yeah, I did it for many years until my schedule got so crazy.

I had several youth with me in my capacity as a county employee, so it was great.

Yes.

Only city residents are qualified for what we call a city scholarship.

That's how we sort of make it work in our brain as far as breaking down the general fund contribution.

So we call them city slots and county funded slots.

So on our website there is a Perspective Sites link where they can directly click on that and fill it out and it will go to me and I'm happy to reach out.

Yeah, I think it's important for the, you know, to count it because they are bigger and they have more businesses and, you know, it's good to have their employees.

I mean, their businesses involved as well, so they have a lot more.

of Businesses and Things.

and out now and so I remain a resource for them.

So it's just a great program.

It was a perfect match that you were able to match what my needs were for the Career Center and they were able to get coaching and they would check with me and they would check with the students.

It was great.

They really learned some

skills that they can use in college or in life.

And you all do a good job.

You make it fun when they're going through training.

And I'm glad that I was asked to come and speak to the young people again this year on 24th.

So I'm looking forward to it.

It's really cool.

I really appreciate y'all's work.

It sounds like an amazing program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The last item is our quarterly financial reports.

Ms.

He made us sit on the other side of the room so we're all confused.

So thank you for having us tonight.

We are here to present the third quarter financial report.

Remy, do you have the memo part or just Jason's?

There you go.

As you recall, our adopted budget for 2024 was $228 million, just a little over that.

And with the revised projections that we're anticipating, as we've been telling you through the second quarter,

and now through March 31st, we are anticipating a revenue surplus of just over 5.4% or a revenue surplus of about $11.5 million.

Couple things to keep in mind.

These projections include the tax increase, half of the tax increase that you all just approved as part of the 25 budget.

That was the two cent real estate tax increase and the 20 cent personal property tax increase.

That is effective as of January 1st, so the bills that are being paid in June reflect those new rates.

and in addition the real estate tax increase accounts for approximately 11 million of the surplus that we're going to talk about in just a second here and then Todd was also finishing his personal property assessments and with the rate increase there was an additional about $600,000 of personal property tax revenue that are included here.

Additionally, nothing's changed here, but I will note that due to the timing of the state passing its budget, there is about a million dollar surplus for what we were projecting for state revenues.

We are receiving or will receive just a little over a million dollars more than we anticipated.

So, can you scroll to the next page or can I?

I'm not sure.

Thank you.

So largely, the $11 million is largely made up of the ones we talk about all the time.

The one more meal, one more night, right?

The sales, meals are on here in addition to real estate, personal property, sales tax, business license, and interest income continues to do well as the rates continue to remain high.

and the ones that have really changed here are those for what you saw as of the second quarter.

So moving on to the expenditure side, right now if you look at our budget explorer, which you can find a link from our budget webpage, you can go there, you can review the expenditures both on a city-wide basis and a departmental basis.

Currently we're tracking about 76% of expenditures.

If you break down the personnel position, vacancies still continue in 24 to be

A thing that we are trying to manage, and as you know, we made some changes with the 25 budget to address this as well, but the vacancy savings are about 65% of the budgetary savings.

I'm sorry, that's not correct.

Position vacancies are accounting for about 65% of spent of what is available or budgeted for salaries.

And one other thing, we did provide a breakdown of the tax relief.

So with the next council member meeting, we will be bringing a memo to you now that we have gone through everything.

The buckets of tax and rent relief, we know what those actuals are.

And so the pot overall was sufficient, but we're going to reallocate based on the actuals.

so that the budget lines up with the actuals.

But here's a snapshot of what the tax relief looks like.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Any questions on that?

All right, and then one final update.

The finance director did who is working on the ARP money and those are the reports to the US Treasury did just recently make a report to the US Treasury.

He is continuing to monitor the progress of our spend on those funds.

And I believe we'll be bringing an item back to council with a status update of where they stand.

So this is a very rough estimate, but I think based on the numbers that we brought to you from second to third quarter, about a million dollars on real estate, and then not just the tax increase, but assessment increases as well on personal property was about an additional 600,000.

Yes.

All right.

Good evening, City Council.

Jason Vandenberg, City Treasurer.

So I'm switching over to, oh, there we go.

Oh, now I'm going the wrong way.

and

see if you have any input for us, but one of the examples that we were thinking of is in November when the annual financial report is complete, swapping out the investment portfolio update for possibly something like the retirement fund.

It's a fund that has an excessive $220 million in it and it's not one that we talk about very often, so that's something that we thought we might be able to do over the next few months and just bring some more information on that and

I know Councillor Pinkston you're familiar with that as you sit on the commission but not everyone is as familiar with that item.

So I will jump in here.

So the first thing here

These are some slides that you've seen before that we just update each quarter, but at the end of March, the funds available for investment were just around $144 million, and I know there was some discussion about this number because it seems like it's a rather large number, but this isn't money that's just available to be spent.

There are 50-plus funds that are commingled for investment purposes, from the general fund to CIP, cash balances,

the health care funds, risk management so operating funds for all of the utilities those sorts of things just for efficiency and economies of scale we combine those balances and invest them so we're able to take advantages of different cash flows throughout the year and so I just wanted to point that out that that is why that number looks high when you compare it to perhaps just the general fund balance but when you look at all the balances on the whole across the city that's comprised of all those together so

So this slide here is just showing some of the differences in the portfolio composition from December to March.

One of the things that we mentioned last time was that rates right now are fairly elevated.

We're able to achieve rates in excess of four or five percent.

And so we've actually added some funds from our short-term investments into some of the longer-term investments.

And you'll see that a little bit later.

But as we do that, one of the things that we're trying to balance, of course, is

Michael Payne

One of the things that we're trying to do is sort of balance the need for achieving the highest rate of return that we can in this fiscal year, but also making sure that we're able to lock in those longer durations.

and we're not just looking at FY24 returns but we want to be able to have those higher returns out over the next few years as well.

So from a budgetary standpoint trying to smooth out those returns and lock them in where we can.

One of the slides that we added last quarter was sort of this one that is from the Atlanta Fed.

They used different market indicators to sort of forecast what the market's predictions are for rate cuts.

And you might remember that that was approaching 100% in January.

And obviously that didn't happen.

And so you can see that the market forecast of rate cuts went from approaching 100% to now under 25%.

And so that just sort of highlights some of the volatility that we're seeing in the market right now.

Michael Payne

So this last slide just shows the changes in the duration in the portfolio going from a shorter duration where almost 30% of the portfolio is going to mature in a year.

As those securities have matured, we've looked to invest them out longer term, some of them approaching three or four years.

Any questions?

I do.

A couple of slides back, you were talking about the moving something around and what

I don't quite remember you said something about I think you said securities or treasury bonds or something would be the most liquid or most secure.

I don't quite remember, but the important point was that you said you added $10 million to that fund.

Where did that $10 million come from?

Was that shoveled from somewhere else?

Was that new money?

Sure.

So this might be the best slide to show.

The portfolio that we're talking about is the managed portfolio, and that's on the bottom.

It's the yellow highlighted section.

So this scale is rather large, but you can kind of see towards March that there is an uptick of about $9 or $10 million in that managed portfolio.

And that's the portfolio that we are actively buying securities in.

And that came out of our cash overnight holdings.

No, about 70% of it comes back to the general fund and the rest gets allocated across other funds like utilities and risk management, things like that that get specific allocations.

But a lot of that has been built into the forecast and I think you've seen the estimate went from about a million dollars for the general fund to over three million dollars in the current fiscal year.

But yes, that is fun so you'll have access to at the end of the fiscal year.

Michael.

I have no questions.

Thank you.

And two last items to close out this extensive city manager's report this evening.

Deputy city manager Marshall is not with us this evening because she is in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating with her master's in public health.

So I wanted to give her a shout out for that.

She did send me a picture.

She has graduated.

And second, just want to congratulate Sue Moffitt on her retirement.

June 1st, she will sail out on the sunset and enjoy life not having to deal with some of us.

And we wish her well in that.

She has earned that retirement.

At one point, there was some reference that maybe something else was going on with personnel.

No, she's done.

She's tired.

She's retired.

And she's going to live another part of her life.

So we wish her well in that as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Can I see something?

I don't mean to step on the nerve, both of those good news things.

But I also wanted, this was something I was going to announce at the beginning, but then I saw it was an advantageous report.

I just want to highlight that there is a Parks and Rec survey going on right now.

If folks want to go to the Parks and Rec website, they can respond about

There's some general park issues.

You can pinpoint on a map where you want to talk about and give feedback about what you'd like to see happen in our local parks.

Thank you, yes, yes, real important that we hear from people about the Parks and Rec and what that should look like in the future.

It's a public hearing for ZT 24-01-01.

It's only a text amendment to hold properties harmless for violations created through the acquisition of property for public use, and it's the first reading.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yes, so this is our first amendment to our new zoning ordinance.

And this is to provide a clarification for a problem that we will run into if we do not include this in there.

It's language that allows for lots that become non-conforming because they're obtained for public purpose to continue to move forward with the rights that those lots have.

So for example,

This comes up when we're doing transportation projects and we need to obtain right-of-way to expand an area where we don't have the right-of-way.

Typically, and in our old code there was language specific to this, there isn't in our current

and in checking with the consultants, they thought that there was a state code provision that would allow for that explicitly and it was determined that that was not a factor.

So we wanted to clarify and make sure that we had this language in here that would assist in the work that's done when transportation projects occur because it will make it

much more difficult for folks who are trying to negotiate right of way to gain access to that additional property, whether it's temporarily or permanently, if the person is going to lose rights on their zoning parcel.

So that's the gist of this.

It is definitely worded very complicated.

We worked with multiple people, including the attorneys, to make sure that this came across the way it needed to come across.

and we're bringing this forward to you all this evening for public hearing.

Yeah.

Yes, I've got a question.

If I could go.

So does this mean like if we have to, in order to expand the right of way to build a sidewalk, the city is building a sidewalk, and then that makes the homeowner's piece of property smaller than the minimum lot size, like they're not in trouble?

Yes, that is a very good example of this kind of situation.

So they're not decreasing their lot size just on a whim.

It has to do as part of a public project and a public purpose.

It could come up at a point in time where perhaps someone's selling their property and they need to make sure they have clear title.

And if there's not a statement that denotes that, yes, this is smaller than typically, but it is for this public purpose reason.

So again, we're trying to make sure that we can

Okay, and so this provision, just because it is very complicated to read, I want to make sure it's I understand it correctly.

This is not setting or this is only applied to private homeowners.

So that's very specific to to if if they're

Property is obtained for a public purpose.

It can only be done by certain groups that have that certain legislation that allows them to do so.

Oh, no, no, no.

That would, right of way acquisition goes through a very specific process.

There's

negotiations that do occur as part of that process.

I've found that the city's process is very, very open on the side of the private owner, which I think is good because in a lot of places it can be very, very difficult.

And this just adds to the they're going to receive whatever compensation they're due per any sort of

right-of-way acquisition need, but they also are not going to be held harm for that parcel if there's a change in the skirt footage.

Any other clarification comments or questions?

I will now open the public hearing.

If there's anyone who'd like to speak on this item, you can please come up.

If it's not, I will close the public hearing.

Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

I'm sorry.

Okay, never mind.

I would move the resolution.

All in favor, please vote.

Natalie, how do you feel?

She said aye.

Okay.

Thank you.

The next item we have is a public hearing for the program 2425 first year annual action plan for CDBG and home programs and appropriation of associated CDBG funds, approximately $438,616 in associated home funds, approximately $83,016

Thank you, Mayor Wade, Counselors.

Ms.

McStillard.

Thank you.

So I'm very pleased to be up here to get to talk to you again about the Community Development Block Grant Program.

We've recently had some activity before Council and I'm pleased to report that those projects are going wonderfully.

The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank has been able to take down their refrigerator unit and they're moving ahead on getting the newer unit installed.

The Beacon Commercial Kitchen is progressing very well and we're here tonight, well it's also public works acknowledgement and so hopefully we'll be back before you shortly with a public works related project that we're very excited about but tonight we're here to talk about the one-year annual action plan

If you remember last year we passed the five-year consolidated plan and each year we required to submit to HUD annual plan updates in which we outline specific programs that we want to follow to try to meet the goals that were outlined in the original five-year plan.

A little bit of background.

The process this year, and I give all the credit to the volunteer members of the CDVG and Home Task Force, because HUD was extremely late in releasing their final allocation numbers.

And so we operated in kind of a vacuum, which made actual conversations about how to move forward very difficult.

We came up with a plan, worked around for that, and I have

something I can share with you with, but when the final numbers came in, there was quite a bit of change and I'll be talking about the CDBG part and hopefully we'll be able to loop in my colleague from the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, Lori Jean Tolune, to speak a little bit more about the home portion.

But when the numbers finally came in, the Community Development Black Grant Program saw a nominal increase

from $410,400 last year to $438,617 this year, or an increase of a little bit over 6.86%.

But the home consortium, which are the City of Charlottesville and the five counties that we work with together, the funding for the consortium was cut by $134,175, which was a hit of about 17.09%,

and so

that operating in a vacuum without those numbers was problematic.

And then getting those numbers was problematic as well.

That'll be reflected in the numbers that we're actually putting forth before you.

So the total allocation that we're looking at for the CDBG side and the full home consortium is a little over $1,089,728.

It's the funding recommendations that you're being asked to review tonight, broken down.

based on last year's numbers and then calculated out to the trillionth of a decimal point so that we could then take that back when we forgot the final numbers and use those percentage values to calculate what the actual final allocation would be.

That's just to give you a little bit of by way background about how difficult that part was.

We think we have a robust plan before you.

A couple points are prior to this process, the city received 17 applications and the task force was asked to review.

Those, 14 of those were for the community development block grant program and three of them were for the city's portion of the home funds, which is about a little more than $83,000.

All the applicants were required to go through a mandatory pre-application workshop with me where we went over program goals, introductory HUD guidelines.

Then the applications were submitted.

They were vetted for completeness and then passed on to the members of the task force.

throughout this whole process and even going forward technical assistance is available for all of the applicants at any time they can just email me or my colleague Taylor Harvey Ryan and we can set something up for them when you

See the final funding recommendations.

You'll see kind of where the priorities were.

I'll mention that the affordable housing plan was a core point of reference in our discussions, trying to figure out ways that we could support those to the degree possible.

Hi.

Sure.

Yeah, so I am Lori Jane Talun from TJPDC.

So I have the privilege of working with Anthony on this annual plan.

So I'm looking at it from the point of view of the entire home consortium, which is the entire TJPD region.

So yeah, I mean, in the past year, we completed 32 projects and used about $540,000 worth of home consortium funds across the board.

and this year we're expecting 37 although with the funding amounts decreased we may have to shrink that number a little bit because we created this plan based on the previous grant year's amounts which were slightly higher.

and then we received the allocations later on.

But yeah, overall it's about expanding and preserving affordable housing.

Our region does a lot of preservation for low income homeowners.

So we're anticipating about 20 of those projects being homeowner rehab projects across the board.

Although in the city of Charlottesville, there's also rental assistance, down payment assistance, and developing home buyer units as part of the plan within the city.

Thank you.

I also want to mention before we get into the details of the funding.

The draft plan has been made available on the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission website.

It's open currently for a 30-day period of public comment feedback.

We made a printed copy available at the customer service desk of the NDS office and anybody who wants to submit written feedback and email myself or Lori Jean or

Michael Payne

You'll see that the way they're presented, we have the actual funding recommendation and then a percentage of the ask the requested amount.

And then it breaks out.

So you'll see that some programs were not recommended for funding.

And I want to put it out there that this is the part that I don't envy the task force members in their work because these discussions are incredibly long, detailed, difficult.

Every application we received, I can guarantee you, is one that they would have liked to have funded in full.

And the fact that some are recommended for not being funded is in no way a reflection of the quality of the application or the quality of the organization.

One primary consideration in the recommendations that the task force is presenting

is the fact that some organizations are receiving funding from the city through other means, primarily the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund or the Housing Operations Program Support, HOPPS Program.

And then some of them have funding awards with us that are actively open currently.

and I will say here, for example, one group in the homeless services side received about 180,000 in the upcoming program year through the hops program and we knew in the task force deliberations about those recommendations because they're public and so it was kind of a question of if this group is getting money

through another source.

The task force members knew that they were getting over $100,000 for a very similar purpose through the CAF fund.

And so that was taken into consideration.

Again, not funding recommendations in no way an indication of the application itself.

But if anybody who is eventually not funded wishes to meet with me, we can schedule a technical assistance program as well for them.

Thank you.

And then you'll see that some groups may have received more than their requested amount based on that allocation.

We didn't really have room, but maybe I should have put what their ask was.

All we were trying to do was there was try to show the level of commitment that was made.

That wasn't determinative in any of the final recommendations.

But where it plays out the most is in the home programs.

So one of the applications was one that kind of required

to be fully funded in order to be successful because it inquired property acquisition.

And the ask was more than the entire pot available for the home program by a considerable amount, almost two and a half to three times the amount of money available.

So when the task force moved away from funding that one, they split the money up among the two other programs, which were both high

Quality programs, and that's why the recommendation comes out a little higher.

They took the money that was available, they slit them.

It just means that it was a little more than the ask.

It's not a reflection of belief in the quality of any of the applications or programs.

With that, I'm available for any questions.

Thank you, sir.

So if I look on page 66 of the packet,

This includes three separate things, I guess.

One is the resolution approving the City of Charlottesville annual action plan for both the CDGB and home programs.

And then two separate resolutions actually appropriating.

Yes, I apologize.

I should start at the very beginning.

There are three resolutions before you.

One is to approve, to review and approve the actual action plan itself, which then gets submitted to HUD for their final review and approval.

And that's part of the process that they require in order to, for us to maintain our eligibility for future allocations.

Michael, did you have any questions?

No, I don't have any clarifying questions.

Okay, Lloyd?

No.

Okay, so I will now open up the public hearing.

Is there anyone who would like to speak on this?

Yeah, I'm good with that.

And I appreciate all the information.

I think it's valuable, not just for council, but also for the community to have the opportunity to understand how we make decisions and the investments we make.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I used to be on the CGBG task force.

Thanks.

I'm grateful to you and the staff and all the volunteers who supported this.

Thank you.

So do we have the vote on this?

Nope.

Nope.

Okay.

I just wanted to be, we will, the third.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

It's been a long day.

We now have a resolution appropriating the Community Development Bar Grant funds to receive from the HUD in support of the program for the year 2425.

That's all right.

So I will now open up the public hearing for this resolution.

If not, I will now close the public hearing.

Yes.

Yes, I'm sorry.

It's okay.

We can move that to the consent agenda.

I think I see everyone in support of that.

Natalie, are you okay with that?

Okay.

We're now a resolution for the home and investment partnership.

I will now open up the public hearing for that.

I see no one wanted to speak on that.

I would now close the public hearing and is their Agreement occurred this also to the consent agenda on June the 3rd.

Michael Payne, Michael Payne, Natalie Oschrin