City Council Meeting   8/19/2024

Sam, so I know Natalie's going to be here, so I think we can... We should be good.

Thomas, will you please call the roll?

Councillor Payne?

Here.

Vice Mayor Pinkston?

Here.

Councillor Snook?

Here.

Mayor Wade?

Is there a motion to approve or amend the agenda?

Second.

Then we will go into closed sessions, and then we'll come back at 6.30 for our regular business meeting.

We have two reports to date.

All right.

I'll let them introduce themselves.

Hi, my name is KJ Howard with the Food Justice Network, and I am a program associate.

I'm the newest addition to the team as a co-executive director.

Welcome.

Oh, yeah.

So I'm enjoying the cool weather here this summer.

Next one, please.

You can grab the clicker here and control it.

in the food system and the work that Food Justice Network has been doing.

And what did you say, ma'am, that had been shut down or closed?

has been around for more than a decade and they stopped operations in June and are sunsetting the entire organization, another non-profit, at the end of the year.

What did those two organizations provide in sort of the ecosystem of food equity?

But the fresh pharmacy program for sure is something that people have relied on for a long time.

Yeah, absolutely.

Do I have to play that at something?

I don't know.

Okay.

Just say next slide.

Next slide, please.

And then next slide.

and this is what people are asking for when it comes to food justice in our city.

Which city departments do you work with most often?

So all of those meetings are very important.

Great, thanks.

Is that the very next one?

It's possible to go back one slide.

And so we're really excited for the opportunity to join the county and the city and UVA in this effort and other nonprofit leaders and continue to be that voice for the importance of local food systems and how we bring the lens of equity and community involvement into shaping our local action plans and comprehensive plans.

Are you all having some say in that or input, I should say?

Thank you.

Is there any questions I could answer?

Is that still need some final approval or something?

We wanted to make sure that you don't forget about us as we're talking about it.

I know we talked about it.

I went through those

I don't know if you have any closing comments.

Vibrant community fund?

No, you fund us directly.

So you would have to make a determination on continuing through the general fund or inviting them to apply through the VCF like all the others, which is different, but that's a question.

Any other questions?

Well, thank you.

So we want to thank you for that as well.

It's good to see KJ, a member, a student.

I know, I know.

So thank you.

Thank you all.

Parks and Rec.

A is here in a new capacity.

Mike?

So we'll probably have some work to do in terms of bringing the rest of maintenance up to stuff.

For the dog park off-leash maintenance and care, does that mean there's not enough dog park space or people think that people are letting their dogs off the leash in parks when they shouldn't be?

Exactly.

Okay, but it's not an issue of people letting their dogs run loose when they shouldn't.

No, we're not necessarily seeing that at all.

Thank you.

So again, this is not to say that we're going to focus on just five programs because you start to recognize that based on where you live and who you are, you may have very different needs that the department needs to focus on.

Or are we looking at the fact that the nearest lap swimming for them is going to be at Smith Pool?

But how do we make sure that we are providing programs and services of the greatest need at a much more granular level?

Locus Grove said, I want to do lap fitness, lap swimming, but they were the only ones, so there's no dot.

Right.

If five people from Rose Hill responded, but a hundred people from Rose Hill responded in general, and five people from Belmont responded, and five people from Belmont responded in general.

It's in the entire report.

Thank you.

Next slide.

Is this something we're legally allowed to do?

a separate parks tax I don't know that this is saying that you want a separate parks tax it's just saying that if what people's willingness to fund in terms of what they're willing to fund but I don't think we're getting into defining that as a hey we're just gonna have a one cent permanently dedicated parks and recreation fund I think it's generally stating that you know what you have financial support but at what level you have financial support

Okay, thanks.

So at this point, I'll take any other questions that you may have.

So we'll just start down with Michael if you have any questions or comments.

Location

We are doing park-by-park improvement plans, but it also may not necessarily work within a park and so it will become a part of that ongoing conversation with the understanding that your community, at least through the lens of parks and recreation, has raised it to a pretty high level of priority to resolve hopefully sooner rather than later.

And within Tonsler Park and Washington Park, is the plan going to be thinking about, are there physical infrastructure improvements that could help facilitate programming and community gathering?

Plus we also did park and facility assessments that have to play into that as well.

And if there's an opportunity for kind of park connectivity to that?

You're welcome.

Shorter question, how long are these surveys available for the public to take?

So, yeah, the numbers continue to climb, but we've got to cut it off at some point in order for us to work.

I just want everyone in the public who might be tuning in to know that they have until Sunday, and I have taken those surveys, and they're very brief, so you can definitely fit that into your day.

You know what?

Park by Park Improvements.

Thank you much.

And yes, we still do create or park school grounds are certainly treated as neighborhood parks.

Is that part of what you're thinking about when you're doing this?

So it's not just in narratives you can physically see on a map where that needs to be.

Is that right?

We just didn't do any community engagement because that's already been done.

Facilities, which has used opportunities to improve.

All the other parks are getting at the words and the cost estimate, but you basically will end up with an improvement plan for every park and a cost estimate for implementing that as part of this master plan.

Great.

But then there's the problem of biking infrastructure in particular is not yet adequate enough to get everywhere you need in town.

Correct.

How closely are you all working with our transportation department to ensure that access by bike and ped is included in the plans for all these parks?

and that some of what Parks and Recreation Control is what we want to focus on, but fully recognizing that other potential prioritization through the bike-ped plan potentially realized with transportation.

So we, as we implement all this, I'm right there with the transportation team, engineering and all that kind of stuff, VDOT, so yes.

Okay, awesome, thank you, appreciate that.

And just to make sure that they're everyone's forces being, being heard with they, they, I know y'all met with them earlier this month, actually.

So, but yeah, absolutely no problem.

So, in the beginning of the year, time frame, roughly, we should have it done.

We'll be able to provide the exact timelines in which we're to you in the next few months.

Thank you.

Can we get a motion to go into closed session, please?

One second, sir.

Thanks

Human Rights Commission, Jaunt Board of Directors, Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board, Jefferson Madison Regional Library Board, Local Board of Building Code Appeals, Minority Business Commission, Retirement Commission, Sister Cities Commission, Social Services Advisory Board, Towing Advisory Board, Vendor Appeals Board, and the Youth Council.

Can someone certify the closed meeting, please?

Yes, I move that this council certify by a recorded vote that to the best of each council member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion convening the closed session or heard discussed or considered in the closed session.

Okay, the motion passes, five to zero.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Are there any announcements?

Thank you.

loopdevill.org.

I don't think we have any.

So each speaker will have three minutes and we now have the first speaker assigned up, Nicholas Cole.

Thank you so much for your help and for your significant step towards a more representative democracy.

The next speaker is Miss Hudson Talley.

So thank you very much for taking this on.

Thank you.

I think we should pursue that.

The next speaker is Joel Keyes and Shell.

And then I'd like to give my time to Eddie, which I think he's like the seventh speaker.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That's it.

Eddie.

Will be residents will be crash test dummies for poorly implemented zoning rewrite and the city may find itself legally liable for betraying the purpose of zoning and promoting the health safety or general welfare of the public.

We, we, um, we have the statement and, um,

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Hey.

Thank you.

Who else would like to?

Thank you.

Yes, Don.

Thank you.

Yeah.

The website is like a long URL, so just Google, like, Charlottesville Park Survey.

Part of public matters or community matters.

Thomas, can you please read the consent agenda?

Resolution to appropriate Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act, grant $452,704, one of two readings.

Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Before we move on, we made some appointments to various boards and commissions during the closed session and Vice Mayor Pinkston will read those off.

for the Youth Council, Joyce Brown, Lucia Clarence, Dylan Grist, Eschen Paniker, and then we have another person who will appoint in October.

I would move approval of that list.

Can we please vote?

Second.

I thought that you were seconded.

Square?

Let's see.

But I'm going to defer to Deputy Marshall and have her go first.

on the City Manager's page and will later be on several pages, but this is the first and I'm really excited and thankful.

And we can continue to identify where there may be gaps and where there may be opportunities for the city to partner.

Thank you very much.

This is the first of two readings.

Available for any questions.

Any questions or comments?

Okay, so there's two separate, and this will resume.

The next item we have on, I guess all of those will be for next week.

We're now for the ordinance for council salaries, increasing salaries.

The first adjustment since 1996.

And so we can have some additional discussion.

Sure.

And we would love to bring that to the City Council for kind of your thoughts, the public's feedback and recommendations thereof.

I don't have any further comments from last week.

A long time.

Almost 30.

And it wouldn't go into effect until July of 2026.

But then, as I said, I'm not on the ballot this next time anyway, so I'm not running again.

Some people would have to do something like this.

And then there are 50,000 people who will not benefit from that.

Well, if there's leadership that expands, you know, and have their more voices heard, they could benefit in that way.

I move to pass this ordinance and increase the salaries of City Council and of the Mayor effective July 1, 2026.

Second.

The next item on the agenda is the ordinance resolution for ranked choice voting and you're going to introduce it.

So we are here to discuss Ranked Choice Voting.

So first we'll start with the legal authority to implement.

So, might be it's really quick.

Robert, if you speak into the mic, it helps people at home.

So if voters and council decided they wanted to use this method going forward, they would have to pass another ordinance that would then extend rank choice voting to the November election.

I think Ryan's going to play it for us.

We built the suspense out there because I hope you feel it

Visit our website at rcvresources.org to learn more about RCV and how it works.

This is really your area of expertise, so I'll defer.

So that's where it differs a little bit in the sense that surplus is a fraction of it, but the candidate that came in last place when their votes are distributed, it's their entire second choice vote.

Yes.

Great.

I think I'm good on this.

And this is adopted by the city council.

Did we vote on something then or was that more just an update?

It was during the like 430 session, just kind of getting a feel for how everyone.

Okay.

So we'll go back.

But I thought early on, Michael, you had made the point of, you would be in favor of a proportional scheme, but this wasn't it.

I think I may have just gotten my terminology confused if that makes sense.

And you're telling me now that no, that's actually intended, that that's a feature, not a bug.

and it cannot read anything past that so that's what we have to use the tabulation software for but on the first round on election night say if two candidates hit 35% there's no need to do the instant runoff method so you have your results on election night so everyone's first round result and first choice is the only ones that are counted.

What you're suggesting is a very different experience from what we did 10, 12 years ago.

And that's where it differs a lot, bringing in the fractional transfer that would not be the case in a single seat and stem run off race.

So it's my understanding that when we talked about, when we discussed this a few months ago, that it's going to be a significant public education process.

Can we go to the next slide, Remy?

You'll be there to educate, but it's going to be our job and so we will be there to say this is something that we support as a council and to help with that process to let the public know that you are the staff behind it, but we are here to support it as well.

So that will be on everyone else.

The legal and voters was very upset because they were basically being told you can't do what you used to be doing.

But my office could not be a part of any of those programs.

and do what's necessary to make sure folks are ready to go with the selection in June.

As far as I'm aware, you can't.

Yes, correct.

You and the electoral ward.

Correct.

And that's why, as Sailor said, this is going to be a partnership between the two of us.

I want to get down the track and someone says, you know, well, you, you took a wrong step, you know, Bud Spatt type of thing.

We can certainly do that.

Thank you.

several days or a week, but also discuss the tabulation software?

We will have the initial results, but they are very subject to change.

We'll see where things shift.

It is not certified software.

What's the distinction?

So this is approved to be completely honest They haven't given necessarily clear answers on what the differences between the approval and the certification process But they're very clear that they are not certifying and it's not required to be certified in the code It is given that any sort of hardware that's attached to software is required to be certified This is clearly just software so it is not required to be certified.

definitely did jump in.

We've talked about this before.

We talked about it.

Yeah.

I've brought this up multiple times.

Okay.

And I, I, you might, there's some more slides.

Just one that says thank you.

It would just be the City Council primary that uses ranked choice voting and anything else on the ballot would be the standard, more traditional voting that people are familiar with.

But that will be the only one that's only one actually allowed to be ran by right choice voting in Virginia.

Correct.

Thanks.

Are there questions or comments at this time?

Does your office feel confident that will be sufficient to do all the implementation on your end that's necessary?

So that means we will have to purchase rather than being able to print in-house.

And then so it sounds like in addition to that the work you all will be doing there'll be a separate Effort that funding would be available for for within the city's communications team to do education and outreach or did I misunderstand that?

What strategies are going to look like, what the resources they have, and what might be needed and allocated accordingly.

Yeah, and totally understand kind of on hold until after November, but I definitely feel like we just have to fund all ends of it because it will obviously be a big change and we want to reach every potential voter who may turn out to make sure they're not, you know, surprised as they get to the ballot.

It's just kind of putting together that strategy and making it happen, which I'm confident that we will.

The ordinance and the resolution to the September 3rd meeting for second reading and vote and we can decide whether that's a consent agenda or action item.

I would be fine with consent agenda.

Thank you guys.

So that will be updated to match the title.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Hubbard.

Basically all that does is it removes the provisions in the city code which allow bicycling at the reservoir.

We're just kind of cleaning things up from what we

We knew that there would be that to be done.

Before I open up the public hearing, I just want to see if there's clarifications or questions from Council.

This just throws, it's their decision.

Bicycling, they could do so.

Correct.

And so if people are pro bicycling at the reservoir advocates, they should direct their communications to the Board of Supervisors.

Other questions or comments from Council?

And so I think this supports that.

If anyone liked it, Sally?

I just wanted to follow up on a handful of loose ends that came up in the conversation about ranked choice.

No, this is actually this is a public hearing on the.

Oh, we have a lot of biking.

So this is a public hearing for the yes.

Thank you so much for your time.

Didi?

Thank you.

If not, I will close the public hearing that there is a motion for the discussion first council.

Is this just one reading?

It seems like just one.

Yeah.

It was listed without one or two, but because it is a general ordinance, it would require two unless council decides to vote with a four-fifths vote after the public hearing.