City Council Meeting   12/16/2024

Charles Bendy, December 16, 2024, meeting to order.

Ms.

Councilor Oschrin.

Here.

Councilor Payne.

Second.

Second.

Can we vote?

The first one will be work sessions where we discuss presentations that do not require council vote and then will be followed by a closed session.

All right, this one has a lot to say, so I need to notes.

Good evening, counselors and members of the public.

This is what I have referred to as a budget brief.

And I shared at the start of the series, three-part series, that I wanted to spend a little more time in advance of bringing council the balanced budget that I am required to bring in March.

a chance for you all to begin to see and hear some of the challenges that we face as a budget team as we work to put together this next fiscal budget.

So a budget brief is defined as an opportunity for us to share trends as to what's impacting the budget so my goal will be to help you begin to see those things.

I'm not assuming that you're not aware of them as you talk to me about them all the time and you're talking to others about them as well.

But the goal is just to begin to help you see that as we're working through the budget period, we're thinking about those specific items and looking at what impacts they may have to the overall budget.

Highlighting the fiscal demands, that's taking a look at some of the challenges that are just happening in the nature of doing the work.

In a number of instances, I've referred to the cost of doing business.

We're beginning to see more and more things that are just increasing in cost for our annual renewals for this and that.

that we're having to absorb.

Those don't always come as opportunities for us to do something different.

We just simply have to absorb the increase and therefore we're spending more money in that category before we start doing something new or more of something else.

We're wanting to identify some of the fiscal drivers.

When I make the presentation of the budget, we have historically always tried to identify at the start what we see the fiscal drivers to be.

And that's just the categories that are of larger amounts, new amounts, higher dollar amounts that are making up the biggest part of the budget overall.

example, transportation and some instances, some year it might be public safety because we're doing something special in that category.

But the goal is to begin to identify what those drivers look like in that way.

When we're making that presentation to you, you're connecting to it as well.

And then lastly, of course, anytime we talk about budget, my responsibility is to connect your priorities to it.

So the goal is to make sure that we're demonstrating that.

And as you look at the budget and the series of breaking it down, you'll see that your priorities are highlighted throughout.

So we're on the last one.

This is the last time you hear me up here talking to you about the budget in this manner, but it doesn't end here.

With this, we're going to talk about public safety and transportation and just go through a few of those items.

This again is a slide that's been in all the prior ones, and this is meant to just help anyone who's jumping in for the first time just to kind of see what it is that we're talking about.

Putting the budget together is a long process.

I bring forward the proposed budget to council on March 4th as required as a function of my job.

But it is important that we take the steps necessary to get all the information so we have been receiving all departments and offices have submitted their budget requests for FY26.

We are doing budget meetings right now.

We finish up this week I think we the budget team are all excited about wrapping up budget meetings because it's a lot to go through all those different things But that really was the easy part going hearing everyone describe what their budget needs are is one thing now We have to go through and make a series of decisions and that becomes the more challenging thing

We always want to make sure that we're linking the budget to the strategic outcome areas as you have identified them in your strategic plan framework last year.

You have nine outcome areas plus the commitment to JEDI, so our responsibility is to make sure that the budget reflects that.

We have presented the CIP to the Planning Commission.

We've concluded that process, although we still have to do an additional public hearing to ensure that it is your public hearing on the CIP, so we'll be scheduling that shortly.

We have a budget preview session, joint session with the school board on Thursday.

That is a new item as well.

That was a decision that I made to work towards adding that to help give the schools an opportunity to preview their priorities for you as well as for me as early in the process as possible.

So this is a full month in advance of what we would normally be able to hear from the school board directly because you do have a work session that is a part of the regular schedule.

that will come and will still have that.

This just gives a preview opportunity for them to begin to share what they're seeing.

We'll be confirming revenue projections at the end of January.

That begins to help us shore up what money we think we have and therefore the work of putting the budget together.

Half of it is done because then the rest of it is now how do we spend that and is there enough to do everything that's on the list.

That leads us to the making decisions side of the slide where we're reviewing the requests, evaluating vacancies, determining new requests as well.

determining new requests that we might be interested in adding ourselves that we're not asked for by departments, identifying funding gaps, and then I will come to you with a proposed balance budget in March.

I did have the community budget form last week, so there's information from that particular experience that we will use as a checkpoint on what the community would like to see in the form of our budget as well.

So again, two sections for tonight, public safety and transportation, public safety being fire service, police and emergency management.

and Fire Service.

And what you'll see in this set of slides different from the two prior is I have fewer numbers in these, mainly because there's still a lot of decisions that have to be made.

These are a lot of big ticket items that fall into these categories, which is why I didn't want to get into the game of identifying a dollar amount and have anyone focus on that too much, more or less just showing some of the key things that are happening in the consideration as we work through each of these budget areas.

For fire service, we have a pharmacy tech mandate.

There was a change in the law.

We have been receiving the drugs that we use on the ambulances from the university hospital.

They put that package together and we received that.

And that's how we would outfit each of the units that we use that's changed.

We now take on that responsibility ourselves.

It has caused a shift in operations in the fire department in that we now have to have a staff person available to do that, who has to have the credentials for managing control substances.

We had to have safe keeping additions added for how you store those items because they're drugs.

There's just a series of things that were different about this particular change, and this was the law going into effect making it possible for the hospital to not do this anymore.

So Sam, quick follow for that.

We're going to have to add, because we don't have anyone to serve in that capacity, because it's not a position, it's not a function that can just be covered.

It's a new responsibility.

I know that it affects a number of institutions.

Are you, go ahead.

I could tell he was grabbing the microphone.

Yeah, absolutely.

Any fire department that is running was called Advanced Life Support or paramedics where they're dealing out drugs is going to have to have

One of the things that I'll add to for you on this item, because this was a law change, and this was one of those things that somehow it got past some of the conversations that we might participate in with VML or Virginia First Cities.

So there's an opportunity there.

We are right now working with our counterparts in Lynchburg specifically.

They've responded expressing an interest in having that kind of conversation that might lead to us bringing a series of fire chiefs in full uniform to the General Assembly and saying please fix this.

So this is really

maintaining control over those into the bags, the locking mechanism, the usage of them, the documentation.

So I think our perspective is that we want to try to get really strong in that process before we start opening it up.

Candidly, I think there are other organizations in the area who would be interested in a partnership in part because it would give them the opportunity to kind of transfer that liability to the city, which brings an element of concern to us.

I don't think we had the full advent of time to be able to figure that part out.

I think everyone started just shuffling the idea of, oh my, we've got to figure this out.

I mean, I just, you know, I was on a grand jury or jury for something that took place at UVA and about the dispense of medicine.

And the system they have set up over there is like,

It's pretty complicated so that every aspirin that goes out theoretically has to account for it.

Yeah, the chief and I talked about it for months.

I know he and Eden talked about it more specifically because they had to implement it.

But it was something that we've had some time.

There was a possibility that maybe the university would figure out how they wouldn't necessarily drop that on us.

And I think they opted to go the other way.

There's still a chance that maybe we could soften some of the impact.

But as it stands right now, to absorb our responsibility, that is the mandate.

We do see that there is an additional FTE requirement.

I think we're just supposed to be up and operational about July is my understanding.

So we'll work around that and work backwards at some point.

But the goal was to avoid possibly even having to go beyond just one because there's there's a concern that there might be more than one day's work for per person in managing this.

Second item there is plans reviewer capacity.

We've been relying on a long-tenured employee that has come back as a returning retiree and Steve Walton is now retiring officially and he's not coming back.

So for that we're needing to replace that capacity.

What we have discovered is that we also could benefit from some expanded capacity because the fire department is a part of the plans review team for all of our projects.

So we're now expanding that to a full-time employee equivalent instead of what is a temp in a returning retiree capacity.

So that's an additional item that we're working on.

And then we have equipment replacement items that are appearing in the next five years that add up to a little over $4 million.

That's fire trucks and other things.

So we're adding that into the CIP.

Those are not items that we're really wrestling with because I know that you want me to make sure that we have the equipment to fight fire.

So that's not really a negotiable.

Is that four million based on concrete

No, no, it's it's tied to what we believe the cost is with an escalation.

Our fleet team is is who manages that process for us.

So we're just setting aside what we think.

But of course, that continues to change and it continues to get more expensive.

The goal is for us to have hopefully as much of the money as possible by the time the expense comes up.

There's a chance that there could be a slight offset that might need to happen when it's time.

But what the goal is to try to predict what it would cost.

Actual costs.

In police, I didn't put numbers here because these are just things that we're wrestling with.

We have additional equipment costs and take home car program is costing more as well.

And these are just simply tied to the idea that we're at full capacity where I think we're down three officers and that's probably it at this time.

Last year, we were far from that.

And we've been able to see the results of

Chief Focus on Committed to bring in as many of new recruits as we needed.

And as we bring those folks on board, then we have to outfit vehicles, provide them the resources that they need, and that would include a car fully outfitted.

So take home car program is literally what that says.

Each officer has a card they get to take home.

That's a part of their benefits package.

It is one of the things that in the industry has become more commonplace and is something that employees begin to look for when they come to work for a police department to see that they have the opportunity to have a vehicle to take home.

It has more than just that benefit.

There's an internal benefit to us in that they are ready to respond as needed.

So that gives us the ability for when we make an all-call for police officers, they don't have to come here and get their cars.

Is there some kind of assumption or management system that

There's a policy.

Yes.

So the chief has a policy that he's required to maintain as it restricts the use.

It's not for you to pick up your kids in the carpool lane and go to the grocery store and things like that.

Yes.

Thank you.

And then also listed here as I have listed in many of the other categories and probably could have put it on every slide operating increases or examples here.

I'm sorry, back to the take on car program.

For readiness, I know that not a vast majority of our police officers don't live in the city.

Yes.

So I don't know somehow that feel like if they're out in Pluvana and there's a call in the city, I guess they're not going to be the first person to respond.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Yeah, so I guess I would just say that nationwide take-home car programs are super common.

It's also implications within our collective bargaining agreement.

So some of this is implementation of regulations that are already imposed on the city as part of that function.

In addition, there is a mileage requirement.

I forget exactly how many error miles it is.

So it's not like you can be someone who's commuting down from Maryland, you know, to work your shifts in your take-home car.

Yeah, but that is a program that has already been determined and it is in the unit in the agreement, so it becomes one of those things.

It's hard to undo.

We get to work on it over time, but there is a policy that's attached to it that we will be taking a look at as well.

The last part of this is emergency management.

I just listed readiness investments and equipment investments.

The main thing that I wanted to just continue to talk about in this space is you've heard me reference the idea that emergency management is important.

It's important for every local government to have its plan or series of plans in place.

We have been through a major event that we still talk about today.

and for that reason I think the motivation to ensure that we are ready for the next time or the next event or the next big natural disaster that is possible to happen in our area that we have thought it through thought about it in advance and set ourselves up to be

able to respond.

Right now what we're looking at is a series of requests that have come in from our emergency management coordinator that are aimed at ensuring that we're ready as well as having equipment that makes it possible for us to respond in certain situations.

I'll give an example of under the equipment space, there's been conversation about do we put bollards along the crossings on the mall and therefore we no longer have to have personnel and vehicles do that.

We just go and

attached the bollards to serve in the capacity of blocking a car from being able to continue on.

A radio system for non law enforcement employees to be able to engage in a response effort.

And then under readiness, funding to set aside for drills and practice.

How do we get ready for if we had to evacuate a big part of our city?

What is our approach to doing that?

That doesn't happen by happenstance.

You have to plan for that.

And in many cases, you have to test for that.

So that means we have to get somebody in here who can walk us through that and set ourselves up for having more people, more employees on hand that day to execute whatever the vision is that we want to be able to see ourselves able to do in a true emergency.

All that has to be planned for and all that comes at a cost.

So part of what the conversation is right now is to what degree do we plan for that?

to what degree do we, the city of Charlottesville, have to independently be able to address that.

Because we also are very, very integrated in a region, and we have a county and a university that both have their own plans.

I would say that we are not congruent in what each of the jurisdictions has done in the space of emergency management.

So my desire has been for the city to catch up.

And in doing so, that means we have to make some investments.

So we're having conversations about what that looks like right now.

Transportation is the big one.

Last year I told you that transportation was going to be a driver, and Garland Williams and his team has ensured that I have not made up a story.

That is true.

Transportation is very expensive, as you know.

We have a lot of things that we're talking about doing right now, and they're all very expensive endeavors.

Brian Pinkston, Juandiego Wade, Lloyd Snook, Michael Payne, Natalie Oschrin

The authority can embark on but shortly after that the authority will need to do something.

It will be ready to act.

We have to begin to anticipate what that might cost and therefore I'm thinking about what might that need to be in the way of some set aside amount to begin the work of the authority and we would look to the county to join us in that as well.

Implementation of battery electric school buses.

That is where we're headed.

We have already been awarded funds to make it possible for us to have two buses.

Just today I have begun to review a proposal from staff where we're suggesting that we would go after two additional buses so that answers the questions that came up in your last council meeting where the push was please make it possible to go after this last application.

The team has responded.

They were working on it already so they have now

Michael Payne,

And then the consideration of hydrogen fuel buses.

We took two groups to Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, as you all know, as many of you were able to participate.

We learned a lot.

We learned that this is an opportunity for us to help stabilize the idea that maybe a fully battery electric bus fleet is not stable, that we might be able to mitigate some of the impacts by having a duly-fueled system.

So the hydrogen fuel opportunity is now being viewed as maybe there's something that we can do there.

I think that is where we are on the planning side, but there then becomes a true expenditure that we're going to need to begin to consider.

And there'll be more for you all to talk about because I'm leaning towards there being a work session in January on transportation again.

I think we're pretty close to needing that.

and then capacity.

As you know, the system itself today, if you were to just push away all issues related to climate innovation and just simply focus on our transit system, we all have acknowledged that the transit system today for the City of Charlottesville is deficient.

It is not what we want.

It is not what we aspire to have.

And for that reason, there are improvements that are needed separate and apart from the bus fleet itself and the fuel type of those buses.

We have done the work with the consultants to identify what does fully optimized look like.

And in seeing what that looks like, every year from here on out, there will be a request for new drivers.

And the reason I say there will be a request for new drivers is because I am going to find it very difficult to say yes to what the transit director asks for in the way of new drivers every single year because the number is so big.

The number today to get to optimization would be 12 new drivers.

That's a million dollars.

I cannot say at this moment that I see a million dollars just for that particular line item, but I do recognize that there is a need for us to make significant improvements and changes to our routes.

We just rolled out some last month.

We need to be able to roll out more.

So the question right now for me is how many of the 12 can we identify and approve?

But that goes in addition to and he's asking for additional mechanics and he's now asking for additional HR support.

because collective bargaining has proven to be a challenge and it requires additional hands to help us do the work that needs to be done.

All those are valid requests in my opinion.

I've spent my own time with the transit director and now Mr. Freeze gets to do it and I'm sure he's enjoying every minute of it because it is just one thing after the next and big tickets attached to every single one of those things.

So, that's not negative.

Garland to defend himself.

No, that's not negative on transit at all.

That's the truth.

It just is.

When we work with the transit team and they all just sat through, we had a four-hour budget meeting with the transit team.

We don't spend that much time with anybody, but it took us four hours to get through it because there's so many different parts and pieces to what's going on.

It's complicated and expensive, and it just causes us to have to make sure that we ask all the right questions.

and I was very ready for that one to be over because that was a long night for all of us.

Last item there, a micro cat pilot that is focused on the city.

You all haven't really engaged with micro cat as much because micro cat is a county project.

It's a county grant funded project with local funds from the county that is orchestrated, operated by cat.

And basically what it amounts to is Uber public transit.

That's what it feels like.

You call, they come pick you up and they take you where you want to go.

There is an opportunity for us to look at doing a city pilot and the reason for it being of interest

and of any consequence is that it helps to connect the two county areas that are served by the microcat program and it gives us a chance to test it out and see how does it work.

In order to do that it's about $475,000.

I am right now trying to find an ability for us to say that the funds are available and I leave the decision for you to make on whether or not you want to spend it in this area or not.

And that is the reason why, again, I'm saying that there's probably going to be a work session on transportation that's coming in January.

and

and it's an opportunity for us to ensure that that service, which has really, really been extraordinarily above all expectations, it's a chance for us to try to distinguish bus service in this area.

So it's of interest to us to see if we can make something like this happen.

So we'll bring more details for you to think about in January.

And then capital investment, one of the key components here is the realization of no federal funding.

And that isn't from CAT, because CAT overall, because we will always be able to get federal funds from the federal government for transportation.

But this is the federal funding that you all, as you have looked at our prior budgets,

The city local match has been depressed artificially by the presence of federal funds being available to be used, CARES money that was earmarked for transportation.

That's now over.

The FY26 budget is the first budget that we will realize where there is no federal funds to reduce what the local match is.

Now we all

City and County will pay full freight.

That will be an increase, so there is some $400,000 if I remember correctly more that we will have to pony up in our local match category for the service that we have today.

That doesn't get us anything new.

That's just what it costs to do business and the fact that we don't have federal funds to offset it.

And then there's infrastructure assessment.

As we look at battery electric buses and or hydrogen as a fuel source, our current bus yard is not sufficient.

We've known that.

We've looked at what alternatives are available to us.

That means additional work that needs to be done, additional investment that needs to be done.

We have to have more buses in order for us to be able to fully operate at the optimal level that we've all said that we want.

We have to have more battery electric buses if we go more heavily in that direction.

We're going to have to have both battery electric and hydrogen fuel buses if we want to go that route.

So all of these things take space and the current space allotment that we have is insufficient for what we imagine an optimal system will be with climate innovation being live.

So I think those are things that we are having to wrestle with now and decisions are needing to be made because anything that requires us to look at land acquisition or using certain parts of land for transportation goes through a state process and then a federal process.

So it's very, very time consuming and it's usually a very protracted period of time before you actually can start to do what you need to do.

So Sam, I was just recently over at procurement

in the city yards and it's used, seemed like every spot is used up back there.

Right.

Is there any capacity there for

So the Avon Yard, there is additional space that the city already owns that we have begun to consider how we can use it.

The question is, does it get us as far as we need to go?

So,

The microcat in the county is going really, really well.

I mean a lot of the new residents to this community is using it because they are in hotels up in 29 North.

It's a great way to connect them.

But for the city, I don't know what the current transit service is in that area of

Best Buy, that neighborhood, a lot of times people don't realize that is kind of part of the city over there and I know we're looking to get in the park and

things over there.

This will be in addition to.

We're already servicing the area with the CAT network, so it's only eligible because of its proximity to the standing service area that is micro-CAT.

That's the only reason for us being able to pick that particular footprint versus any other footprint.

Right, so I mean I'm saying that if I lived on North Berkshire and I think that's the city but and I could call someone to come pick me up or you know wait 30 minutes or an hour for I'm just saying that probably people will call Michael Kat the Uber instead of waiting I just I just asked that yeah that maybe if there's more

if we can remove that service and maybe increase it along Main Street.

I'm going to let Garland answer that question because the answer I can tell you is probably not that easy.

That's usually what it's all about.

Yes.

Is to make a change is basically a federal act of some kind that somebody in DC has to weigh in on.

But I think I get your point is that if we're going to offer an opportunity to make it better in this area Can we pull something back and make it a little better in some other area?

Go back to any

No, it's not a part of this presentation and I wouldn't say it would be a call out because these are meant to be the areas where there is big numbers associated with it as new and changes to the approach that we're taking.

But specifically bike pad

We're doing bike pad.

When we go over the CIP, I think that'll be one of those opportunities where we could spend a little more time focused on what new things have been added, what additional resources are there to do what.

I think that'll be a chance to do that.

From a bike pet perspective, I don't know that I can call out anything specific, but we could probably get ready for that.

I'm looking at you saying, can we?

from a budget perspective on bike pad.

Sure.

So I think that I don't have to give that some thought.

But I get your point that I didn't.

This is transportation and not transit.

Maybe it should have just been transit.

Thanks.

I would encourage you to share with me what you're most interested in understanding.

Categorically,

under transportation and then let me see if I can get answers for you.

That might help too.

Okay.

So bike lanes, if there's other specific things that you're curious about, I could probably give you some specific feedback too.

How did staff ask about those things?

What particular items are we considering and that becomes a part of the same scenario?

I'm sure you do.

Sam, much of what, I mean, most of our work in the bike pet environment is captured within the CIP.

And then we have a couple of, just looking ahead, we have our

priority infrastructure.

Urgent infrastructure.

Urgent, thank you.

Urgent infrastructure list coming up probably in January.

We'll be presenting that list to you here at council.

And then we do an annual transportation update.

It's usually in the April timeframe.

That kind of goes over all the projects we're engaged in because

We're kind of in a lot of different spaces, right?

We're applying for additional VDOT funding for projects.

We're using the allocated CIP dollars for a variety of projects, and a lot of that is spelled out within a variety of different adopted plans and policies.

So that way if you if you share the specifics then I can let you know did that come in in the form of requests from staff?

Okay.

The CIP meeting that was held with the Planning Commission last Tuesday.

Now, what we discovered is that we made an error in that that should have been a joint public hearing.

So that would have been counsel present with the Planning Commission.

Therefore, you would have actually been given the packet and encouraged to review said packet and get to know it.

We are going to have to schedule another public hearing.

And that public hearing is your public hearing.

So you'll get the CIP document specifically as a part of that packet.

It does.

I mean they gave us initial input in September.

Yes.

So in September, we got their initial input.

We worked that into the preparation of the new five-year CIP.

And when Ms.

Hamill made that presentation, she actually went through their line items responding to how we addressed them.

And that was a part of our original CIP presentation.

For the public hearing, there wasn't any real changes to that.

Because of course, everything that comes from the Planning Commission is recommendation.

So even though they may have said we should do this, we should do that.

If I felt confident that we had addressed what we really could handle addressing, I have done that and what was presented as a draft.

Correct.

Lloyd, do you have any questions, Michael?

Thank you.

Closed session of City Council pursuant to Section 2.2-3712 of the Virginia Code.

I move that the City Council close this open meeting and convene in a closed session.

It is authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as follows.

1.

The Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1 for discussion and consideration of prospective candidates to be appointed to the following boards and commissions.

May I get a second?

Second.

Okay.

We can vote, please.

Okay, we're in closed session.

We'll be back about 6.30 to have a regular business meeting.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'll call the Charlottesville City Council business meeting to order.

Second.

Second.

Okay.

We'll now have a moment of silence, please.

Yes, I have one announcement, which is that the City of Charlottesville is accepting applications for boards and commissions until February 1.

Applications are due February 1, unless otherwise noted.

There are openings on the following boards and commissions.

Affordable Housing Fund Committee, CAF, Board of Architectural Review,

Economic Development Authority, Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee, Community Development Block Grant Task Force, Human Rights Commission, Local Board of Building Code Appeals, Minority Business Commission, Police Civilian Oversight Board, Sister Cities Commission, Toeing Advisory Board, Tree Commission, Vendor Appeals Board, and the Youth Council.

And the Police Civilian Oversight Board application is due Friday, January 3rd.

But all of their applications are due again February 1st, 2025.

Yes.

So to the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport Commission, we've appointed Susan Pace Lochte.

To the Housing Advisory Committee, we've appointed Peppy Linden, Sunshine Methon, Mike Parisi, and Nicole Scrow.

To the Piedmont Family YMCA Board of Directors, we've appointed Melissa Carter.

To the Ravana Solid Waste Authority Board, we've appointed Mike Gaffney.

That's a motion.

Second.

Can we vote?

Yes.

So this proclamation, I'll read the proclamation and you'll see what's going on here.

It's proclamation to honor Rosalind Collins, December 16th, 2024, whereas Rosalind Collins, am I saying Rosalind Rosalind?

Rosalind.

Rosalind Collins has served the city of Charlottesville with great dedication and distinction for over 34 years as a vital member of the Charlottesville Commissioner of the Revenue's Office.

obtaining the professional designation of Master Deputy Commissioner of the Revenue and whereas Rosalind Collins has always displayed boundless energy and enthusiasm for her job and for ensuring fair and equitable taxation for the citizens of Charlottesville.

and whereas Rosalind Collins has been directly responsible for numerous innovations and initiatives in the Commissioner of the Revenue's Office and whereas Rosalind Collins has participated in and led innumerable interdepartmental city teams usually in the area technology resulting in modernization and efficiency improvements city-wide.

and whereas Rosalind Collins on September 25, 2024 was honored by the Commissioner of the Revenues Association of Virginia as its Margaret Ann Anderson Outstanding Deputy Commissioner for 2024.

Now therefore, the Charlottesville City Council congratulates Rosalind Collins for this significant achievement and further extends appreciation for her contributions to the city

and for her enthusiasm and dedication to serving the citizens of Charlottesville.

Signed and sealed the 16th day of December 2024 by Juandiego Wade.

The Margaret Ann Anderson Award is the highest award we give to a deputy in our association.

The namesake was Margaret Ann Anderson who was Commissioner of Revenue in Waynesboro.

She served that city for 50 years, highly regarded in our association.

If you read the recommendation letter that I wrote for Roz, I mean, your jaw probably dropped.

I wanted to let you know that back in 2021, Roz retired.

And we immediately ran into the great resignation and I started losing staff.

hand over fist and we were trying to fill spots and it was tough and I went to Roz and I asked her if she'd consider coming back as a returning retiree and thank God she did.

I think the world of her, she's done so much for the city.

Brandon, did you want to get a picture with Lloyd?

That is right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your service to the city.

There are, we're now at the time on agenda for community matters.

There are six pre-registered speakers leaving 10 slots for additional speakers for community matters.

At this point there's another opportunity at the end.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes.

So thank you, Mayor and members of the Council and the public.

It is important for me at this moment to express to you all some things that we've been addressing, discussing, and considering as it relates to the story about a low barrier shelter being proposed for the Cherry Avenue site of the current first door.

There was a meeting held last Thursday.

I was unable to participate because I had the community budget form at the same time.

I have committed to come to the Fifeville Neighborhood Association meeting in January and I recognize that a number of people are planning to speak this evening on this subject.

I do want to share that there are some things that we need to consider as we discuss this issue.

One, we do not need to villainize the homeless individuals who are here in our city, and that has been happening based on some of the comments that have been made and things that have been sent to me and said about individuals who find themselves in that difficult situation.

I think it's also important for us to appreciate that no decision has been made

and while it may feel as though a decision has been made, no decision has been made, it is a concept that we are looking at.

We are seriously looking at it because it is a viable opportunity to bring a low barrier shelter year round shelter to this community.

And if anyone has been paying attention to what my experience has been here in the city for the past year, you would know that October of last year was a very difficult time for me specifically.

as it related to the plight of the homeless individuals who live here in the city and what happened at the Market Street Park.

It was a very volatile situation, it was a dangerous situation and it was one that we were able to successfully navigate and we were able to get out of that situation without there being any threat to human life and there were real opportunities that they might not have gone that way.

I have been working on this issue since then.

It is not a new issue.

There have been some folks who feel as though they're surprised by the idea that there's a discussion about a low barrier shelter in this community.

I've been talking about it for a year.

consistently talking about it for a year.

Been working on it for that long.

It is my desire to help as many people as I possibly can who live here in this city to live inside and not outside.

That's my motivation.

I'm not looking to injure any neighborhood in this city.

I care about them all.

That's my job.

That's what I'm here to do.

It is expected of me by these five people that I will never lose sight of the idea that I have work to do for everyone who calls Charlottesville home.

So I just wanted to be able to express that to you all as why we are having the conversation that we are having.

And I don't believe there is a neighborhood that is ready to volunteer to say to me, bring the low barrier shell to here.

I knew that all along.

So I knew it was going to be a challenge.

I knew it was going to be very hard to make this decision as to where it would go.

But I also want to say that

Our friends at the Salvation Army, while anyone may want to criticize what anyone does, they're doing good work.

I have not questioned that.

I believe that they are doing a great job in trying to help as many individuals who find themselves unhoused.

And the conversation started with them as, can we consider this site as an alternative and would that work for you?

That's where this came from.

and I said, yeah, let's talk about it.

But again, no commitment has been made.

I made recommendations to council in October after spending many months trying to figure out what is the best way to go about trying to figure out how we can make a difference as it relates to individuals who find themselves unhoused.

In reaching the conclusions that we reached, I had conversation with the Salvation Army about their current project for Ridge Street to expand that site.

and made a recommendation to council that they received in October to make a contribution to that project.

I still stand by that.

I also made a recommendation that we consider investing in a low barrier shelter at the Cherry Avenue site.

That still wasn't a commitment.

That was just to say that that's what it's going to take and I needed to test this group to see if they were willing to make that commitment.

In being able to get their support for expressing interest in the solution that I had identified, the goal was then to begin work on figuring out who would operate this facility and how it would operate in this community.

We still don't have an operator yet because those conversations are still going.

So again, I expressed that to say to you, no decision has been made.

We are not doing this to anyone.

We're trying to figure it all out.

There is work.

that is involved in all of this.

So I just want to make sure that that was clear.

I wasn't able to be there to express it myself.

I'll be there in January to express it myself.

Many of you have come to know I have no problem expressing myself and my goal has been to be honest and be upfront about everything that it is that we're working on and as it relates to this issue which is challenging.

I want you to know that I'm taking it very seriously how complicated it is and again I know that no one wants a shelter in their neighborhood.

Thank you.

Actually, I'm Robin Hoffman and I'm filling in for her time because it just happened that way.

I guess I will talk on the fact that we have homeless people everywhere in Charlottesville, particularly near East High.

And every day we're sad to see them have to deal with the climate problems of very hot weather or very cold weather and not have a place to live.

So, although the greenway that's been or is being developed right now at the Ravana River is for people to really just to have a space to calm, you know, be calm and

and that sort of thing from everyday life with nature at the same time, you know, it is a situation where we are very cognizant of people who are suffering, but that's not why I was here today.

So I just want to piggyback on the idea of transportation and having no canopies in the bus stops on East Isle, though there's been improvement for the pedestrian crossings.

They're still very iffy and there's still a lot of speeding.

And people are noticing that, like it's very hard to navigate on East High.

So I hope that you guys haven't lost that.

And I do want to also thank everybody.

The Christmas elimination was amazing this year.

they did this video lighting that was really cool and I was able to talk to a lot of people who were tourists and so I just want to thank you all for putting it together and also the relief program I got two sycamore trees so I just want to say thank you very much for your improvements to the city and that

After this, I'm actually introducing Louie Open Source Recycling.

He is giving computers to people at Crescent Halls and many other people, and he's going to be talking later.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Matthew.

Good evening, Councilors, Mr. Sanders.

My name is Matthew Gilliken.

I'm a Fightful resident.

I'm also the co-chair of Louisville Seville.

We're an all-volunteer group that advocates for good housing, transportation, and land use policies in the Charlottesville area.

And I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of Louisville Seville to express support for

the plans that Mr. Sanders has laid out in terms of addressing homelessness in Charlottesville bathrooms on the downtown mall additional case workers and both of the shelter options the city's affordable housing plan that was approved by council a few years ago calls for a ladder of housing opportunity and I really like that metaphor for how we need to think about giving housing access to everyone in Charlottesville and currently if you look at the part of the ladder that addresses homelessness it's

It's not functioning remotely like it needs to.

We have the Ridge Street Shelter, which is at capacity at all times.

We have Pochum, which only operates part of the year and also is at capacity pretty much all the time.

And then we have the streets.

We also have the jails.

And we have UVA Hospital, Martha Jeff Hospital.

That's kind of the network right now.

So we need the high and low barrier shelters that are being proposed.

We need the expansions, hopefully those

Don't continue to need to be a growing area of need because we also need transitional housing and supportive housing But I want to talk about two things as relates to how at least I have come to think about this issue that I think are really important Maybe you're missing from some of the conversations going on right now One is that the people in our community that are most harmed by homelessness is the people experiencing homelessness and I think that gets a little bit forgotten sometimes it's devastating to be homeless and

Your likelihood of being assaulted is much higher.

Your likelihood of not having access to food and medicine is much higher.

At the hospital where I work, I see people all the time that are in the hospital for health issues that exist solely because they're homeless.

Those are the people that are harmed the most by homelessness.

There are other people that are harmed.

There are other problems, but keeping those folks at the center of our efforts are really crucial.

The other thing is that homelessness is a housing problem.

That's how we address homelessness through housing.

We don't address homelessness by shaming people.

We don't address it by policing.

We address it through housing.

And that's what you all need to be doing.

And I think that the one thing I would add to Mr. Sanders plans is I think we need more plans for more supportive housing, potentially at the Avon site.

So I'd like to see you all think about that a little more.

But when we don't keep the folks most affected by homelessness at the center of the conversations, they end up getting dehumanized.

The dehumanization of those people results in a loss of political will to address the correct solution, which is housing as a solution to homelessness.

So thank you for your consideration this evening.

Good evening.

Didi Smith.

I live in Fry's Spring.

And I'm just here to talk about something that I hope you will consider, because I'm here tonight to speak on segregation through the lens of housing and education.

As you may remember, in 2018, shortly after the Unite the Right rally, the New York Times and ProPublica came here to investigate racism within the Charlottesville, specifically education.

and publish their findings on the front page of the New York Times entitled, You Are Still Black.

Ziana Bryant had sent them to me because I have been so vocal about segregation in the school system.

In talking with them, I referenced the north side and the south side schools and they said, well, what do you mean north side, south side?

And I explained that basically it's north and south of the railroad tracks.

They were stunned.

They said, you mean there are literally railroad tracks?

And it's true, this is what segregation looks like in Charlottesville, the other side of the tracks.

South of the railroad tracks is where you find most, obviously not all, but most of the largest and most concentrated pockets of poverty.

This is why the schools are so segregated.

And Seville has exacerbated this pattern with recent decisions to significantly increase low income housing, concentrating it.

in First Street and Kindlewood and now Cherry Avenue is on the books to be next, all on the other side of the tracks.

Now the school board is struggling with this because rumor has it they would really like to significantly, to better demographically balance their schools in the upcoming redistricting and are finding it really hard because Charlottesville is so geographically segregated.

And you'll say

What choice do we have?

But you do.

And look no farther for intent than your recent decision to route a giant pipeline that's going to go from UVA to Pantops, both north of the tracks, through the south side along Cherry Avenue and Elliott, right past First Street and Sixth Street public housing, up past Kindlewood, that requires digging under those very railroad tracks, coming and going,

Does it sound familiar yet?

All to avoid routing the pipeline through wealthy neighborhoods north of the tracks where there were better options and at great expense because this is what Charlottesville does and always has.

Charlottesville puts things where they don't want to see them on the other side of the tracks and they are willing to pay for the decision.

And you will too likely because despite having a huge chunk of the population, the south side has no representation on this council.

You prove that with a pipeline, and I just really hope you'll think about it in your future decisions.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Matthew Ray.

Okay, the next speaker is Kate Rutman.

Hello Councillors, my name is M Gunter and I live off of Jefferson Park Avenue here in Charlottesville.

I'm here today to voice my support for the proposed low barrier homeless shelters on both Ridge Street on Cherry Avenue.

I want to emphasize however that shelters are only the starting point for meaningfully addressing homelessness here in the city.

I grew up in rural Virginia with a life influenced by poverty and all of its trappings.

From 2011 until my arrival at the University of Virginia in 2021, one of the few constants in my life was homelessness and housing insecurity.

I was intermittently homeless for, I think, just over three years during this period.

I can't remember the specifics because the trauma of homelessness has a way of turning one's memory into Swiss cheese.

When we weren't living in a car or bouncing between sleazy motels, lack of affordable housing made eviction a constant threat.

Nearly every day I walked home from school terrified that there would be a pink eviction slip taped to the door.

It is critical to understand that experiencing homelessness as a child makes it extremely difficult to do well in school that alone graduate.

These days, the high school graduation rate sits at just under 90% nationally.

For homeless students, it's less than 70%.

Which when coupled with the fact that not graduating from high school is the number one risk factor for experiencing homelessness as a young adult, it is no surprise that homelessness is such a multi-generational problem.

I also wanted to bring something up that I haven't seen mentioned in discussions surrounding homelessness all that often, which is the issue of youth who age out of foster care and teenagers who are kicked out of or forced to flee abusive homes.

Just days after I turned 18, with more than six months left before graduating high school, I was forced to run away from home to escape a lifetime of physical, psychological and emotional abuse inflicted on me at the hands of my mother.

I spent the remainder of high school crashing on couches of various friends whose parents were sympathetic enough to put up with me until I inevitably overstayed my welcome.

I need to impress on you tonight, counselors, that I was lucky.

I went to high school with a girl who moved in with a 25-year-old boyfriend during our senior year of high school to escape a similarly tumultuous home life.

A week before graduation, her body was found in the Rono River.

I could have very easily been her.

To this day, I still don't fully understand how I managed to graduate from high school, let alone matriculate to UVA less than a year after once again becoming homeless.

What can be done to support young adults who are in similar situations to the one I found myself in?

I know there's no easy answers here or solution here, but I'm more than happy to sit down and have a longer discussion with any of y'all about this.

I believe the clerk has my contact information and she's welcomed the pass-out on should y'all like it.

I've consciously made the decision to be a very open book insofar as it concerns the hell I live through as a child and teenager.

I don't do it for pity or to show that I've suffered and have since risen above.

I do it because these stories need to be humanized, just as Matthew was speaking a moment ago.

I hope that this tiny piece of my own story helps you to understand how destructive homelessness is.

Thank you so much.

So that was the last of the pre-register speakers.

We have opportunity for 12 more.

So who would like to speak?

I didn't plan on speaking, but I did want to just make a couple of comments about what's been said.

I was at the Fifeville Neighborhood Association.

Your name, sir?

Sorry, Benjamin Effort.

I live on 7 and 1 half Street, Southwest.

Ben Effort.

and I know we all saw the Seville Tomorrow headline that said, Fightville said not in our neighborhood.

I was there, there were a few people that voiced that complaint, but for the three of you that were there, I think, you know, the thing that kept getting said over and over again was, like, not beside the playground, which is understandable, especially as we heard from the South Asian Army that, like, the whole goal of the low barrier shelters to serve people that may be on

I don't want to demonize them, I agree with you, the unhoused have to be helped, but people that may be on sex offender lists, etc.

And so it just seems like common sense that at the very least, both of these are in our neighborhood by the way, but at the very least, you'd put the families by the park and the folks that are the high-risk group on Ridge Street,

and I felt like as we walked out of there, I mean really this was the first time that all of us that lived there had a chance to hear about this and that was what we all came away with was like just switch the locations and I know we're very far along in the planning but the question is like how much is the sunk cost?

Is it tens of thousands, a hundred thousand?

It doesn't seem like it would be so much for such a permanent decision

I also want to echo what Dee Dee Smith said, which is that, like, Charlottesville does have a problematic history with race, we know that.

And so it does seem like it is somewhat distasteful to, because you know it, this is going to lead to an influx of homeless people into Tonsler Park, which has historically been the home of this vibrant African-American community.

And so it does feel disrespectful and also unsafe.

And so at a minimum, like it just switched the locations.

Sorry.

I think that's what everybody at the Neighborhood Association felt coming out of it, is these folks need to be helped.

But let's do it in a way that's appropriate for everybody that's safe and

Yeah, so it's not the Charlesville Tomorrow headlines off.

It's not not in my neighborhood.

It's not by the playground.

Thank you, Mr. Great.

Someone here from in the middle section would like to speak.

Hi, I'm Louis Desabri and I run an organization called Open Source Recycling.

We take used computers, we fix them up and we get them to people who can't afford one.

And last year we received a grant from the CACF.

and we use that to go to Crescent Halls and provide all the residents there with computers in their apartments.

So I go in and set it up for them and show them the basics and I do that once a week, all year.

And the reason I'm here today is we would like to do more of that in the future.

Some of the staff at Crescent Halls

has expressed an interest in doing some of the other properties as well.

And yeah, my friend Robin here convinced me to come let you know that we're under the 501c3 of Virginia Organizing so we cannot accept city money, but I figured this would be the place to let everybody know what we're doing and hopefully you know of a way you could help out.

Thank you.

What a meaningful workout.

Would anyone over here like to speak?

Hello.

Good evening, Mayor Wade, Council and

City Manager Sam Sanders.

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

On this final City Council meeting of the year, I just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge the incredible work the City team has done this year around climate

a lot has been accomplished this year and I just wanted to take a moment to make note of it.

The city voted to achieve a zero mission transit fleet by the year 2040.

We are implementing LED streetlight conversions.

The city voted to up zone and provide more housing in the city and more opportunities there, which is an important climate solution.

The city voted to adopt SeaPace, which is commercial property-assessed clean energy.

Also in June, the city adopted a new transit strategic plan, which improves frequency and reliability of our bus system, and also launched a decarbonization study of its gas utility this year.

Tonight you have the opportunity to take one more action which is voting to create a regional transit authority which is really important in terms of our ability to get additional funding for transit and transit work.

There's much more we have ahead of us in the new year.

Want to see the city do more to electrify school buses and really lean into

The remaining opportunities that are available to get funding for that.

Also, I know the city is working hard to figure out solar and on all a lot of city buildings, particularly schools.

I think we're going to really have to tackle in the new year energy efficiency incentives to bring energy costs down for people who live in the city and I'm really looking forward to see the results of the decarbonization study.

We haven't heard much for months and so we're really curious what's going on there and there's going to be a lot of hard work there.

I just want to acknowledge the conversation that's happening tonight though around

housing and low barrier shelters and C3 really embraces housing affordability creation and housing for all climate risks are are no laughing matter for many in our community and there are the heat risks and other climate risks are only going to be increasing so I want to acknowledge that conversation too but I just want to thank particularly the city team who's done a lot of great work this year

But we can't take our eye off the ball.

We have to continue to lean into this work and find all the places we have to make these climate decisions.

They happen all the time.

And it's not just the city's sustainability office that is a part of these conversations.

The city transit team has really been stepping into it, but we need our utility.

We need all of our departments really working on this.

Thank you, Susan.

Anyone need a second?

Good evening, Mayor Wade and Councillors.

Nice to see all of you today.

My name is Karen Waters and I am the co-chair of the Board of Cultivate Charlottesville.

I am here to thank you for your support of Cultivate Charlottesville over the years as we begin to move into the vibrant communities funding cycle.

We just want to make sure to acknowledge the city's investment in the work that we do.

and also want to encourage you as you consider the master plan for the parks of our interest in being able to create a community garden at Washington Park and we hope that you will continue to consider that request and just a word on what Miss Smith was talking about earlier.

It's a very valid point that I hope you all will bear in mind as you think about uses for the city

properties in creating a film about the history of Washington Park and about Cultivate's work in the city.

I learned that the entire footprint of Washington Park will fit into the land that has been set aside for the botanical gardens.

So when we think about this north-south thing and what happens where,

Having done and published a study of the history of residential segregation in Charlottesville, I can tell you that sometimes these things are unintended consequences and they do have historical ramifications that last generations.

Thank you, Karen.

Anyone over here would like to, we have a time at the end.

I'll come back over here.

Jessica Jackson, listen to her talk about Cultivate Charlottesville.

I'm on the Parks and Rec advisory board and one of my concerns on board is the garden plots that we have

and the way that they are currently rented out that people are allowed to rent a garden plot and keep having it year after year after year.

And that means that out of a community of over 40,000 people, there's a few who are monopolizing those few plots.

Part of our discussion that I've been very vocal about is that that needs to stop because it just doesn't make sense to me that a few people can keep having all these garden spots when there are other people who should be allowed to do it and there should be a term limit that if you've had five years, you shouldn't be able to keep going and going and going.

and I know I'm from African American communities and most of the people I've spoken to, they don't even know about the garden plots.

And I guess they wouldn't if the same people get to have them over and over.

So she'd think about equity and, you know, just how to, you know, distribute the resources in our community

a little better than what we do.

Thank you.

I don't know the policy on that.

I'll inquire and we'll get back to you.

Hi, counselors and city manager.

My name is Aline Carey.

I'm the co-executive director of Cultivate Charlottesville.

and we've been able to speak to you all before.

We're still in the very last year of our food equity initiative with you all.

As I said, it's the last year we'll be applying for funds through vibrant community moving forward.

I just wanted to address the fact that we are in a funding gap right now, so many people have heard about that.

We're still pushing forward in our work, our programming in the city schools, in community gardens and also talking to folks about food security.

and the overlap.

So tonight, as folks were talking about housing and the different challenges for housing, whether it be affordable or basic housing for people, it kind of feels like, oh, we can't talk about gardens if we're talking about something as important as housing or maybe even as important as climate action.

And really, those things are all, they all overlap.

They're all intersectional.

So Cultivate Charlottesville is working with PHA

on what it looks like to have edible gardens at Kindlewood.

We're working with the folks from C3 on what tree canopy means and, you know, along with affordable housing in the city.

So we thank the council for investing in us over the last six years with the Food Equity Initiative.

Hope to get to continue that work through vibrant community.

and the other fundraising measures that we're taking right now to keep our programming going.

And as it relates to the garden at Booker T. Washington Park, we're very anxious but excited to hear the presentation tonight from the consultants who have been working on the master plan for all of the park spaces in Charlottesville.

So we're kind of keeping our fingers crossed on that and hoping to come positively out of

the process that they have done which has brought more community members in alongside the engagement that we did as well with the communities that have traditionally used and are around Booker T. Washington Park.

I think one of the things that the co-chair of our board, Karen, just mentioned about the equity between the parks.

When you talk about McIntyre, when you talk about the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont and Booker T. Washington Park, there is a history of segregation there.

Thank you Eileen.

Anyone else like to speak right now?

We will go on to the consent agenda.

Ms.

Consent agenda number two minutes from December 2nd regular meeting three resolution to appropriate funding from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development housing opportunities for persons with AIDS HIV grant.

in the amount of $389,312 second reading.

Four, Resolution to Appropriate Bama Works Special Event Funding, $38,700 second reading.

Five, Resolution to Appropriate Grant Funds from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation in the amount of $393,456.60 for the Pollux Branch Pedestrian Trail Bridge.

One of two readings.

I would move approval of the consent agenda.

Okay, can we vote?

So there are just a couple things that I want to share as a part of my report before I then turn it over to Rion Anthony, Director of Parks and Rec for the presentation this evening for Parks and Master Plan.

I just want to share with the public that the sidewalk that's being constructed on Monticello that leads around the curb down to Corey Road or Avenue will be open this Friday.

Just a good thing.

We're excited about that.

I just want to do a shout out to the staff who worked on that.

We did that project internally, trying to turn over a new leaf and show that we can do projects ourselves and help people appreciate that that can be done.

And hopefully that'll add to more things getting done because we as well as our contracted partners can get things done.

Did we mix the concrete ourselves?

I didn't ask that many questions.

I just wanted to know when it was going to be finished.

Okay, cool.

So we do know that that's going to get done and we're excited about that.

Also, earlier today I did receive a request from staff who've been working and considering the opportunity to pursue an application for battery electric school buses.

We already have two in the works.

now considering going after two more so I am reviewing that so that is good news to our friends at C3 and others I'm looking at Susan as I say that and others who've been advocating for us to to move forward on that I do have a proposal so I'm now looking at that and we might be able to go for it so

The goal is to make that determination before the January deadline that we heard about.

And I think that's it.

Will, sorry.

We'll pass it.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Will Bassett with the Parks and Rec Department, and we are here tonight to give an update on the Parks and Rec Creation Master Plan and where we are in the process.

We have our consultant, pro's consultant back with us tonight to share some information, some concepts with everybody, and Mike Snites, I'll turn it over.

He's got a lot to say.

Thank you, Will.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, City Manager Sanders.

As Will mentioned, this is an update.

We are actually getting close to landing the plane on this master plan early next year.

But we wanted to kind of share with you all in advance of the community meeting tomorrow evening, some of the more technical work associated with this plan and some of the opportunities that we had the opportunity to talk to you about

last year.

cost estimating for capital improvements and then discuss with you some of the next steps.

So as mentioned previously, we really had, we knew that there was going to be a focus in the community around creating better shared use paths, better paved trails.

And we knew that that would be a high priority.

It's been a high priority of this community for quite some time.

So part of the scope associated with the master plan was really to identify

not to redo the bike bed master plan, but really to identify segments that were really focused on paved trails, shared use paths, identify those opportunities to expand that system, and then we're working through the process of prioritizing those opportunities.

I know that this is very very busy, but I just kind of want to point out that you see most of the black lines on this screen are existing paths.

You see some green line paths that are associated with things that are in construction and then just a few

and

in Charlottesville right now is north of the tracks.

And so in working with staff and working primarily with Chris Gensik from Parks and Recreation, we've really identified significant opportunities to expand this system.

Opportunities to take your system, which is only about seven or eight miles to upwards of 20 miles.

We are going to be very assertive with regards to this recommendation as part of the master plan.

in particular because it was the highest priority of the community associated with those focus groups, survey work, outreach efforts and so on and so forth.

So this is not an intention to kind of run through each and every one of these segments, but the red lines on this screen give you a pretty good indication of all of what those segments look like

and where they're located.

And so this is something that we are going to work to kind of try to prioritize over the next couple of weeks.

This is what that system would look like if you combine what's existing, what's in construction, what's design, and where there are opportunities to improve upon this.

Obviously, we're not focused on the UVA area.

They have plenty of network walking network there.

This is really focused on the Charlottesville residents.

In terms of prioritization, we certainly are working through the factors, the variables that we need to consider.

We want to turn this, not just have this be qualitative, but we need this to be quantitative in nature.

So the commitment to the, you know, JETI and the EPA equity model, geographic distribution, land acquisition opportunities, or is that a barrier?

Purpose of the trail?

Is it recreation?

Transportation?

Is it both?

What are these trails connecting?

And also, are there any kind of special considerations?

So we're actually going to be working with staff tomorrow to finalize this work to help prioritize the improvements of this shared use path system.

Moving on to the framework plans, which has been mentioned a couple of times this evening.

These are the five framework plans that we've worked through setting Kindlewood aside for now simply because that is an effort that

was led prior to the Park and Recreation Master Plan effort.

There was a significant amount of really hyper-focused community engagement around Tonsler Park, Washington Park, Court Square, and Market Street Park.

We've shared this previously, just kind of putting it back up there to let you know that they're a significant, just hyper-focused associated with these framework plans.

So just kind of running through each one of these parks, I know that this is a lot of detail,

A couple of overarching things for all of these is shade and really not just necessarily what we would call

mechanical shade or people built shade, but really emphasizing the need for trees, adding picnic shelters, improving ADA accessibility, adding outdoor fitness and not outdoor fitness in the sense that you see these mechanical kind of outdoor resistance training, more functional fitness, almost like it's on a basketball court.

That is the an opportunity for people, adults to really be able to recreate

alongside the playground.

So other components that we want to respond to is some of the changing demographics in this area.

The immigrant population and the Indian population adding cricket to this park considering footshole for tennis courts and looking at opportunities to really utilize, have this park be utilized in ways not just the way it has been used

but also for future residents.

So these are some of the changes we're not necessarily making what we would consider to be wholesale changes to this park but what are the things that we can add to it that better meet the experiences that the community is desiring?

Washington Park.

In essence, Washington Park almost functions right now as two different parks.

You have the upper end and you have the lower end.

Focusing on the upper end, we're really talking about trying to improve connectivity throughout that upper side.

So walking paths back from the parking lot to the playground areas.

thinking about opportunities to utilize that space between the pool and the open lawn and the facility there as an opportunity for event space but also improving pedestrian access.

Expanding the playground area.

Not having a basketball court up top and also having a basketball court down below.

Preserving the sledding hill.

Preserving and really improving that stairwell from the upper area to the lower area.

Sir, not what we would consider to be significant wholesale changes on the upper side, where I think we see the most amount of change is certainly on the lower end of the park.

Adding a restroom, one of the things that people have always talked about is

We need ADA accessibility from the lower end to the upper end.

Well, why is that?

Because the only restroom in the park is on the upper side.

And so we're adding restroom.

We're adding picnic shelters.

We want to refurbish both the diamond field and the rectangular fields, really address some of the drainage issues there.

We want to work through and kind of changing that playground that's on the lower level to more of a natural play.

Have it fit in better with that setting.

and then of course the community carton.

This has been identified as a significant need.

It does not displace or replace any of the existing experiences.

It fits exceptionally well on this site.

We want it to be accessible.

We know that there is always potentially going to be a need

for people to drive and to that park.

So ensuring that it has good parking, good access, 80 accessibility to it is really important to us.

So that is kind of Washington Park.

Moving on to Court Square.

One thing that we recognize with Court Square overarching is that we have to be respectful of any of the archaeological findings at this site.

So I really want to emphasize that this is a 30,000 foot level framework plan.

We're not looking at this to be construction.

As you interface

The ongoing archaeological studies associated with this site, with the framework plan, this potentially could change in some way, shape, or form.

But again, we're not calling this a park.

This is a public grounds associated with a government facility, the court building, so to speak.

It's meant to be a passive site.

It's meant to be a historical site.

It's meant to be a site of beauty with great landscaping shade and recognize the history, both the good and bad, associated with this site.

So we are considering art features.

We are considering a plaza.

We're considering a fountain with a focal point.

None of this is necessarily in stone.

There will obviously be a significant amount of conversation both with many, many entities for this site as you start to really dive into what we would call an improvement plan.

including the county as well.

One thing that we do want to really take into consideration, and this may seem like it's a small thing, but it is kind of a big thing, to represent this entire site, it should be branded the same way.

We should be using the same trash cans, the same benches and so on and so forth.

It's very very different on the quote-unquote county side.

versus the city side.

And obviously tree preservation, adding trees whenever possible is certainly a part of this.

Moving on to Market Street, this does not significantly change much.

We really want to bring in the opportunity for re-establishing this as a smaller venue for events, considerations of such things as bollards,

to be able to block off the road in front of, or Second Street in front of the library.

But we also have to be respectful of the neighbors, right?

The library, the historical society.

So this has been a park that historically prior to all of the issues at the end of the last decade had been a pretty strong event park.

And so we want to establish that again.

We want to establish it as an extension of the mall.

We want to establish it as an extension of experiences that people have at the library and the historical society.

But we don't want to have this park become over-programmed and take away from the experiences that people have at the library, historical society, and others.

really looking at event lawns, really looking at a plaza with some sort of focal point decorative planting, adding picnic table in the tree grove area.

And even as we were talking, one of the impediments to doing events here has always been restrooms having to bring in portageons and line those up.

We want to put in a permanent restroom at this site, which we think would really support

downtown, we think it would support the users of this park and certainly encourage, you know, more productive use at this site.

and then the last one is Kindlewood.

This is just a park that, again, I think we're just bringing it forward as part of the master plan.

This does not exist now.

The location of it is not even a location in which it's open or a vacant land.

But as was mentioned earlier, there is a significant focus on having the residents of Kindlewood be able to grow their own food.

So you see a significant amount of community garden land

as well as a pollinator garden.

Open spaces, courts, you know, certainly picnic shelters.

This is about one acre of property.

So it's not what we would consider to be a significantly large site.

I think it looks significantly large on the map more on this site plan.

But at the end of the day, it's not crazy in terms of size.

So this is something that is down the road.

It is certainly going to be what could be considered a new park.

and it will become a city park but there will certainly be partnerships with Kindlewood as well as Cultivate Seville to help manage this site and ensure that it presents itself well over a 12 month period especially with the significant number of community gardens that are there.

So the last thing we wanted to kind of cover is just cost estimate for capital improvements.

So you're going to get cost estimates with a master plan.

But I want to make sure that you know that as you consider the master plan,

and you consider adoption of the master plan next March or April.

You are not adopting a capital improvement plan for parks and recreation at the same time.

These are what we have identified as the cost improvements that are necessary over the next 10 years

for your Parks and Recreation System.

So bucket number one really addresses, or tier number one really addresses, life cycle replacement.

There's nothing else that you take away from this entire master plan.

If it's just about cost, it's that life cycle replacement in a park system never stops.

A playground is supposed to last 15 years, but no two playgrounds are ever put in at the exact same time.

So if you just think about playgrounds, you're always going to be continually replacing playgrounds.

But then think about all of the other assets in your park system.

So this is important, and it is something that has to occur because it directly impacts the safety and the quality of the experience that people have with your public spaces.

Bucket number two is really about expanded experiences in your park system How can we make the most of your existing parks?

The framework plans are a really good example of that and then the visionary bucket is for bigger picture ideas such things as the shall we say the the new paved trails that we talked about

So just going to run through this.

I know that these numbers seem somewhat shocking, but you have a park system that probably from a built environment perspective exceeds a couple hundred million dollars in just assets.

Think about the buildings, think about the pools, think about the recreation facilities, think about all the amenities within your park system.

It seems shocking, but if you had to build that system today, it would easily cost you a couple hundred million, if not more.

So the life cycle replacement is about 22%, really taking care of your improving existing parks within your system is about 20% of that.

And then the visionary projects, a lot of this is going to tie back to the trail system is about 60%.

So overall,

It's not a light price tag, but it's not one of the greatest ones I've ever seen.

It's about 75 million How does this look like in terms of improvements by project type?

So 40 million of that is reinvesting in existing parks facilities trails The framework plans that we showed are about 4.2 million Some new parks such as the high street property and a small pocket park in the Meadows area

about $600,000.

We are not committing dollars right now to the development of the high street property.

We're just putting dollars in there specifically for a site planning process because that could become so many different things.

The shared use paved trails about 25 million.

The nature parks about 4.2 and then just some administrative planning efforts.

that's how that breaks out and then looking at it from a timeline perspective just very quickly we are not looking to impact the upcoming budget year this is a plan that we look at from fiscal year 27 through fiscal year 36 about 80 percent of this is in the out years what this allows us an opportunity to do is really to identify

The funding strategies and hone in on those that are very specific to those out year projects.

The 16 million, most of that is reinvestment in your existing system of which a couple of those are the framework plans.

So we just kind of wanted to give you a temperature check of what this is going to look like because implementing a plan obviously is not free.

but managing a park system over time is also not free and we know how important parks and recreation is to the City of Charlottesville.

So our next steps, we have on the project website which will be the last slide here.

a public comment period on the framework plans as well as the connectivity analysis we're also holding an open house tomorrow evening at Carver at six o'clock I will have a very short presentation but most of this will be easels and boards and having people an opportunity to get up close and personal with these framework plans connectivity ask questions provide comments give us an opportunity to tweak these and then really the last bit of the plan

is really about acceptance, discussion, and adoption.

Can you go back, please, to slide?

One.

Please, yes.

Sure.

I mean, I guess I'm curious in the master plan how the schematic maps you've drawn of each park, how that would guide investments, how you're seeing that be flexible, just how it would work.

Because looking particularly at the maps of Quartz Square Park and Market Street Park, I know there were specific areas called out for public art.

They're separate from this process.

Community efforts about creating public art that are ongoing.

Well, I think the best way to look at this, and I appreciate the question, I think it's a great one, and I think it's a point of much needed clarification.

As soon as you put something in pretty pictures, people have a tendency to think that's what it's going to be.

This is an opportunity in which we took the overarching needs of the community master plan efforts.

We had hyper-focused community engagement to create what we would call framework plans.

So these are meant to be guides.

These are not meant to be in any way shape or form a Bible.

Locations of public art.

and or some of the elements within the park are certainly subject to change.

The sooner you act on the framework plans, the more you can take advantage of the advocacy that has been built up around them with all of the community engagement.

But we would expect that you will go through a much more deeper community engagement process as part of a site-specific master planning effort

that ultimately ends up in construction documents or phased construction documents.

So the details that I think you're mentioning are certainly subject to change and have certain other potential influences that may impact them one way or the other.

I think so.

Exactly.

These are not in any way, shape, or form done.

The other thing I was curious about is if you got really clear feedback in terms of, particularly at Tonsler and Washington Park,

and

Community Civic Spaces, was there anything that came through?

I would say from a tonsillers park perspective, we know that that is a park that in many cases gets used informally.

It is something in which

I don't think parks and recreation is actively programming that space.

It's not really actively programming the spaces at Washington Park with the exception of obviously the pool.

What this has allowed you to do is to have parks that even back when we had our first public meeting

that are really community park oriented.

They provide community experiences and so the opportunity is to say how can you take, for example, tonsiler park and create experiences within it that allow groups to form their own events, allow groups to form their own social connections, use the facility at tonsiler park as a safe place as a

restroom location as a way for folks to really engage and come indoors and play.

But the purpose of Tonsler is really this really active park.

There's not a lot of passivity to it.

Basketball courts, tennis courts, facility, diamonds, playgrounds, fitness courts.

So it's a really active park.

Washington Park is the exact same way.

Washington Park however I think has a natural component to it that we have to be respectful of.

Washington Park I think is challenged in the sense from an event perspective because

The upper end is really, really packed.

The lower end is less, it's more open space, but it also feels very, very disconnected.

I can see in the future, if you have opportunities to really improve the drainage that is on that rectangular field, that that could be a space that you could add events to.

Because if you add that playground, it has the parking

and to have the space to do that.

It was really that we want a lot of these experiences to remain the same and anything that you can do to enhance the existing experiences

add such things as community gardens, add such things as restrooms to improve those experiences.

We're really kind of the major takeaways.

Yeah, that's it for me.

Thank you.

Thank you for this presentation.

This is really nice to look at.

I don't mean just in a graphic design way, but the work that's gone into it and the details that were considered.

Okay, I just, because like in the tonsiler park graphic, it points out a bike rack, but then in the Washington park graphic, there is no bike rack listed.

Does that mean there is no bike rack or it's just

That's interesting because we had that same conversation with Tommy Sfrandrick today in the city staff about emphasizing that for talking about people getting two parks on bikes and walking that we have to add biking elements.

They have to become a part of a park no differently than trash cans and picnic tables and so on and so forth.

So yes, I think that is something that we need to call out, make sure that that kind of nuance in these plans is consistent, especially between Washington Park and Tonsler.

It could simply be without necessarily pulling them back up and running through all the nuances, but it could be that we've identified

Okay, great.

And I have, I'm on the bike ped advocacy committee with Tommy as well, so I've read his comments and generally support.

the push for playgrounds that are bike specific and also bike accessibility.

Correct.

And for Market Street Park, you've got a couple of trees marked for removal, which I know some trees are bad, some trees are diseased.

It's actually trees that can be quickly relocated because they've just been planted.

So they're not like these huge shade trees that we're talking about cutting down.

The idea is to open that space back up and not have trees become an impediment to having events there.

So the idea was to focus the trees.

All those darker green circles you can see where we're adding trees.

I think there was only two that we were talking about removing.

Great.

And then so for just reading the graphics, the darker filled in trees are new.

The existing ones are just the outlines.

Correct.

Okay, that helps.

Cool.

Thank you.

and then our, you might have mentioned this and I didn't catch it.

Kimberly Horne.

They are, used to be land planning and design associate here in town and they were bought out by Kimberly Horne.

And so they've got a landscape architect in house.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Okay.

For now that's, thank you.

Lloyd.

I have two questions.

On Washington Park, I'm trying to figure out what is currently where the community garden would be?

Where it currently is?

Oh, it's just open space.

There's nothing.

It is just really space that does not get used by the rectangular field.

I'm struck by one comment that I saw that surprised me a little bit.

Michael Payne

You would not want to have it use more than 600 hours a year in order to just manage and maintain it.

So I think that is one of those things that we have an idea in terms of how the city programs it.

I think we also have some of these very loose partnerships in terms of access to those fields that doesn't necessarily allow us the opportunity to track them hour by hour.

That is certainly an operational improvement.

which is why it's been left on that site.

I think it's more or less a settled conversation based on what I understand but again I would look at this again as a framework plan at a 30,000 foot level that there are opportunities because there's really only three maybe four significant flat spaces on that lower end that if you wanted to look at it and say hey you know what

We want to blow up that entire rectangle, that entire lower area and redo it.

You might redo it in a different way.

The thought that I had behind it really was going back to a discussion we've had for many years in City Council and also on Planning Commission of making sure that our parks and our school properties and so on that we allow room for impromptu events.

that if kids were to get together and somebody decides let's go play some softball that there's a softball diamond that they could play on.

And one of the concerns that I've had is that if we end up programming everything

that there's no space for that kind of impromptu activity.

The other thing, while I'm looking at the same page, I want to, I hope that people will not make the same mistake that they did in when they thought they were preserving the sledding hill at Greenbriar Elementary School, where they preserved the hill alright, but they put a chain-link fence at the bottom of it.

That is not our intention at all.

I want to put it out there so that nobody gets the idea that you're going to put a chain link fence at the bottom of the hill.

It'll stop right at the bottom before they get there.

Thank you.

I don't know if my memory is failing me.

We did present that in August.

That was it?

What I really like about what this shows is kind of the closest Charlottesville maybe is going to have in the near future to like a Barcelona style super block

where there's apartments all along the edge and then community space in the center which is efficiently in use and really great access for the people who live in those and so I just wanted to point that out.

I thought the presentation was great.

I just want to add on we had a couple of comments on the Washington Park Garden and after the first meeting we had several months ago actually some leaders from the Rose Hill neighborhood expressed concern and so I was able to get those leaders together with

leaders from Cultivate Charlottesville to just to hear their concerns and and it was some valid concerns and I think it was good for all sides to hear what it was and I was able to get the you know kind of a

Compromise a resolution, if you will, to re-ind that, you know, they'll still be able to keep it there, but I think that that park has a rich history in this community, and I think that those leaders just felt that we could do a lot more and just also had some functional events.

I mean, functional ideas that they can do.

When I was out there doing that walk-in meeting with those leaders,

Several people were in the park using it, and we asked them, well, what do you think?

And we got some good ideas, and it was incorporated in those comments.

And I think that's also kind of a good way unofficially to get some input.

Just go out there and ask people that are out there using it, and not sometimes people who come to meetings, they plan to use it.

You know, we get this a lot with transit plans.

A lot of people talk about, you know, they're going to use transit, but

They don't want to give up their cars.

So anyway, I think that we're able to, I appreciate Elaine and Ryan, you know, and your staff coming out here and the concern of the residents and willing to make some changes, not much, but I think that we can move forward with

the plans and we'll get more in those details as we move forward with with it but as the neighborhood changes I think that we want to incorporate those those additions so that future generations can understand the history of that that park because I'm from Richmond I'm still learning about this community and I learned a whole lot you know doing several meetings so anyway

Great work.

The next public meeting is tomorrow evening at 6 p.m.

at Carver Recreation Center.

The best part about that meeting is you will not have to listen to me, stand up there and talk very long.

Sam, was that it?

I thought you wanted me to say something about how much all this cost.

You know, I think, Mike, you said you wanted a temperature check.

That's what it is.

Yes, the only thing I wanted to mention is that we did build in cost escalator.

So we started with today's cost and then built in a cost escalator for everything that's in year one through five at 25%.

and everything that's yours, 6 through 10 at 55%.

So you're getting what we would consider to be very reasonable future costs built into this.

It's not $75 million in today's dollars.

It's $75 million escalated along the way.

Spoken like a true consultant, right?

As mentioned, the framework plans and the connectivity and the shared framework or new shared paths, shared use paths are approximately 40% of that.

What makes that so expensive?

There is anticipated land acquisition.

There is certainly quite a few barriers because Charlottesville was not built.

It was not built to handle cars, let alone handle a shared use path system that interfaces with cars.

So there's bridges to be considered.

There is land acquisition to be considered.

It's not this straight shot development, easy lay down a trail.

If you think about

Think about John Warner Parkway and think about that trail system and all of the up and down.

Think about Riverview and that small little segment.

There are a lot of intricacies that go into building paths and if you wanted to spend a lot of time learning about each one of those segments, I would say do a workshop with Chris Gunsick.

I will just say that what I like about this, and I want to thank Mike specifically, and I'm assuming Rion may have said, yeah, we're not going to get this approved for FY26.

So let's think a little bit out there.

It gives us time to really think about this.

So after you get the final version of it, then the budget team will get the opportunity to take a look at

What does affordability look like as we process and balance all the other priorities that are in front of us?

And it also gives the team the same amount of time, that same time to start figuring out how to break down what does an annual scope of work look like for what can we do in all the different areas?

Thank you, folks.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Could I ask as part of the city manager's report section question?

Sam, I know that earlier in report, she'll mention that you were going to have an update in the early part of the year about some of the interventions Mr. Freeze's team is working on for some of the, I guess, high priority items that were brought up a couple months ago when we had the

the tragedy on Elliott, I wondered if you could just say a few things about where that sort of identifying those

Sure.

So we've been having that conversation recently.

When I asked Mr. Freese to present that back in October, I believe it was.

The statement that we made was that we would have an identified list of what we were referring to as urgent infrastructure projects by the end of the year.

So that's the end of this month.

The team is working on that.

We have

of Looking at Brennan, who's smiling at me.

We have a list in the works.

The goal is to have that list finalized.

And the intent is that we will bring a report to you at the first meeting in January.

Good.

Yes.

He's hearing that officially.

I haven't seen that yet.

That's what urgent means.

And ideally, the point that I want to make in that regard is that was a commitment that was made to get the list prepared.

And I also have to identify the funds to make it possible.

Yeah, and I don't want to like prejudge anything that we're going to see or whatever.

Just some of these, like for example, I think the point has been made where Rose Hill ties into

Preston, there's a traffic signal issue there.

It may be simple to fix.

I don't know.

It may be like, let's just go look at this, spend a couple of hours and fix it.

Some things may be like you do one of these, what do they call them, quick build sort of interventions.

I don't know.

I'm sure you all have some good ideas, but I do think we just don't need to lose sight of the fact that we got some significant feedback back a couple of months ago.

No, I would agree with that.

I was just going to say, I don't know if others agree, but I know the first meeting of January is January 6 and a lot of people in the community are still getting back from the holidays to pay attention.

I think we might be okay if it's the second meeting in January.

Can I just offer one other thing on that point?

So we began with a list of

Places where people were looking for safety interventions that have been emailed to council over time and that that was a starting point in the conversation But we did make the decision at one point to crowdsource a little bit more reaching out through the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee To help us identify other places that you know, we haven't been emailed about and my understanding is that we gave them until

at the end of this month to provide us with that list.

So they just publicly pushed back on me.

You see that?

That works.

I think that's fine.

Yeah, that's true.

So I'll talk to them later about that.

Thank you.

Let's see.

The first item is a public hearing and resolution for supplemental appropriation of $7.5 million for state and federal and local funding for the Charlottesbury Transit.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is Garland William, Director of Sharks Area Transit.

Tonight, I'll get an opportunity to present to you a good story.

We're getting $7.5 million combined between federal, state, and local to support transit expansion and also some capital projects and equipment purchases that we need at CAT.

$5.1 million of it is coming from our state partners.

$2.1 is coming from the federal

and then our local match is about $302,000.

What you have listed here is a number of items.

We are buying 10 buses as a part of the $7.5 million.

two of the buses are battery electric.

That is part of our expansion.

We have also eight buses that are four of them are 35 footers and four of them are 29 footers.

Those vehicles or will be diesel vehicles.

One of the last purchases of the diesel fossil fuel that we read upon us

as our transition, but this allows us to get the reliability in as we're starting to do that transition.

The goal is to have this purchase.

We will be making a PO for the battery electric vehicles in January.

We are also very fortunate.

We have pre-ward authority, so we've actually already put in for the eight diesel vehicles.

We were told about 60 days ago that we were able to move up in the production line, and if all goes well, they will go to production at the end of January.

Just a really basic question, just kind of help me understand in your funding mix, like what part of this is this kind of like formula funding or formula combined with what you apply with or is this inclusive of like money from the bipartisan infrastructure law and inflation reduction act that gets filtered through FTA?

Absolutely, great question.

So this is all our formula of funding money.

This has zero to do with any of the discretionary grants that we will be applying for.

So if I can bring your attention to, remember we were still in the process of completing our transition study.

I took the opportunity and

with great consultation with the city manager to take an opportunity to put in a request to do two battery electric buses.

We were granted that even before we had our study complete, which is not normally what happens.

So we were very fortunate to get that.

So it just falls in line now that

We got that as a part of our normal allocation, so they added it onto our normal 5307 money that comes from the feds.

The state was very generous in matching significantly to the point of $2.1 million of it.

It's coming directly from the state.

There's a little bit that's coming from the feds, about $300,000.

But with that portion there, we were able to actually buy the battery electric buses.

and then our normal allocation when buses came up for replacement, our rolling stop, we were able to replace the aid.

So we are Gillick Shop.

On the battery electric ones, we did the demo day with Gillick.

We've reached out to New Flyer seven times.

They were non-responsive.

That is not a good sign when we were trying to order something from them.

So what we are doing, so we gave them one more opportunity in our last email.

to them.

I think it was either the last week of November or the first week of December.

We told them that if we weren't here from them, we were going to go ahead and move forward in January with our purchase.

We have not heard back from them, so we are moving forward.

That starts our clock though for the infrastructure that needs to be done.

So, you know, all things have to come together before we have

Great vehicles though, great vehicles.

Yeah, I'm sure you're all on top of it.

Thank you.

So it's entitled under infrastructure, but there's no infrastructure in this part of the... This is purely for rolling

This is mostly rolling stock and some equipment.

So we're getting software improvements for our AVL.

That would be separate.

OK.

All right.

We've got to get through some steps before we're in a position to get the chargers in.

Understood.

Those will all start, though, by the way, in January.

Well, let's have, if there's no other comments right now, can we have a, now we'll open up the public hearing.

Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this?

If not, close the public hearing and it will be on the NICS agenda.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council.

I'm Chris Cullinan, the city's director of finance.

This is the report on the annual financial audit for fiscal year 2224 from the city's auditors.

Before I begin my presentation of this agenda item, I'd like to publicly introduce Mr. Charles Clemmer.

He's the city's new comptroller.

Charles has been with us for about six months now.

He oversees all the accounting functions, accounts payable, payroll, sort of the

Business Functions of the City.

He joined us from the city of Univista, where he worked for about 10 years, most recently as their director of finance.

So Charles, welcome.

As part of my introduction of this agenda item, the city manager asked me to provide some extended comments about the rationale and scope of the annual audit.

Just starting at the big picture level, the overall objective of the audit is to obtain reasonable assurance from a neutral third party about whether the city's financial statements and position as a whole are free from material misstatements or mistakes.

And as for the rationale, there are really two that come to mind immediately.

First of all, it's a legal requirement.

The Code of Virginia requires local governments to contract with an external independent public accounting firm to perform their annual financial audit.

This requirement is echoed in both the city charter and city code.

And as a recipient of funds from the federal government and the Commonwealth, the city is also required to conduct what is called a single audit, which examines compliance on the administration and use of these funds.

The second rationale is accountability and transparency of the use of public funds.

The process helps demonstrate to taxpayers, citizens, and to other stakeholders such as bond rating agencies, bond holders, etc., that the city is managing its public resources responsibly.

The audit also helps myself and my team identify areas where improvements may be necessary in promoting better financial management practices.

The scope of the audit includes a thorough review of the city's financial statements, including its balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.

The audit verifies that these financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles or GAP GAAP.

and some other places and ensures that it fairly represents the city's financial position and performance, but it also involves a testing a sample of transactions to ensure they have been properly recorded and comply with applicable laws and regulations.

In addition to reviewing the financial statements, the audit examines the design of the city's internal controls to ensure that they are appropriate.

And so that's what's within the scope, but I also just want to briefly mention what's not in the scope of the audit.

It doesn't evaluate the efficiency or effectiveness of the government operations beyond the financial realm.

The audit also does not assess the quality of public service policy decisions or long term financial planning.

It also does not provide a detailed review of all individual transactions, as I previously mentioned, it's a sample.

The city does easily several hundreds of thousands of transactions a year, so examining each one of them individually would be impractical, and instead they use a sampling technique to test representative portions of transactions, also more material ones in terms of the size of those transactions to inform their conclusions.

The results of the audit are summarized in an audit report,

which includes the auditor's opinion on the financial statements.

And with that, I'd like to segue to introduce Mr. Michael Lupton from the firm of Robinson Farmer Cox and Associates who will make his presentation.

Thank you, Chris, for that great summary.

You nailed the head there, so that was awesome.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of City Council.

My name is Michael Lupton, as Chris mentioned.

I'm one of the partners in charge of the audit for the City of Charlottesville.

And there are just a couple of items I would like to add to Chris's comments here.

Most notably, the requirements that we are, what we're required to convey to you all is the governing body.

the first of which is what we call our governance letter and one of the main points of that is to distinguish the difference between management's responsibilities and the auditor's responsibilities management is responsible for the financial statements they're responsible for the preparation and the fair presentation of the financial statements management is also responsible for maintaining a system of internal controls

relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements, again in accordance with, as Chris mentioned, generally accepted accounting principles.

Our responsibility as auditors is to perform the audit in accordance with professional standards and ultimately to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence to render an opinion on those financial statements.

So with that being said, there are other items listed in our governance letter for significant audit matters, the first of which relates to accounting estimates.

Estimates are used in almost all financial statements and the city is no exception.

They are integral to most financial statements and that they estimate future events.

The downside to that or potential downside is that they are subject to sensitivity.

The future events that occur may be different than the expectations that are set.

That being said, the most notable accounting estimates are

for the city that the city used for the FY24 financial statements are depreciable lies of capital assets, pension and OPEB liabilities, and actuarial information provided as part of that, and also the allowance for uncollectable property taxes.

Second, difficulties encountered in performing the audit.

I'm pleased to report that we encountered no difficulties when working with staff in performing the audit for the fiscal year 2024.

Miss statements that were detected as part of the audit process were accepted and corrected by management throughout the audit process.

Also, no disagreements with management to convey to you all at this time.

And finally, no opinion shopping.

We deem that to be a red flag or our profession deems that to be a red flag when management seeks other opinions on audit matters and accounting matters.

But I'm pleased to report that to our knowledge, there were no opinion shopping

that occurred for the audit process for FY24.

So I'd like to move now to our opinion on the financial statements.

We will be issuing an unmodified opinion on the financial statements.

That means that the financial statements as presented are materially correct in accordance with general accepted accounting principles.

That is the best opinion that we can offer in our profession and is a clean opinion, as we like to say.

But again, an unmodified opinion on the financial statements for the fiscal year 2024.

It's a loaded question.

We work well with Chris and Charles and finance staff.

Yeah, I was happy to hear of the unmodified opinion.

Sure.

I think that one thing to keep in mind going forward is the timing of state and federal reimbursement requests.

Obviously, there are significant projects that the city undertakes, specifically relating to transportation.

And that definitely is something that we want to keep in mind and stay cognizant of, that filing timely reimbursement requests for those projects is key in maintaining cash flow for

No, I don't have any.

Thank you for coming to talk with us and thank you for doing our audit.

Yeah, I have a couple questions.

You mentioned an allowance for uncollectable property taxes.

Can you talk a little bit more about that?

How much is that usually?

How does that happen?

I would have to defer to Chris to speak about the specifics of that.

But generally speaking, there is a consistent and historical precedence that is set for calculating that allowance.

And essentially what that is, it's the amount that's estimated to be not collectible of the outstanding property taxes receivable or the balances as of a certain fiscal year.

and generally it's a mechanism of those balances over a certain period of time.

I get the exact number from Mr. Vandiver, our Treasurer.

Our collection rate is north of 99.5% on a regular basis.

But it's generally not a huge...

Thank you.

And then you also mentioned that it's generally frowned upon to do opinion shopping.

Well, just because, you know, whenever there is a difference of opinion, obviously it is something that needs to be addressed.

However, if management is trying to seek other opinions to get to the right answer, that's when we are to be concerned.

So the idea is that it's not double checking your work.

That's correct.

You're welcome.

Any other questions or comments?

Michael gave you the verbal opinion this evening.

We're still waiting to get it in writing, hopefully by the end of the week, if we finish up everything.

And so once we get that written opinion, then we're able to publish the annual Comprehensive Financial Report or ACFR.

We'll publish that on the city's website.

We'll also have hard copies available as well for anybody who might desire a hard copy.

We also need to file a series of reports with the Auditor of Public Accounts and some other

both state and federal entities.

And then the final action that we need to then sort of close the book, so to speak, on fiscal year 2024 is we'll be coming back to you in the near future with the year end appropriation.

That includes a series of housekeeping items to close it up, but also includes any recommendations regarding the year end surplus.

At this time, because the audit is not finished yet, we don't have that final number from our financials, and there's also a series of analyses that we have to do.

and so we will be bringing that to you at that time as well.

Otherwise, I'll forget to go check the website.

Glad to do that.

The next item we have on agenda is a resolution to reallocate the remaining, is that

You mentioned that, but you still need to regroup.

Okay.

Good evening again, back to back.

So this agenda item serves to obligate the city's remaining American Rescue Planned Act or ARPA funds by the December 31, 2024 deadline from the U.S.

Treasury Department.

So go back a little bit in history, but not dwell on it for too long.

So ARPA was signed into law in the spring of 2021.

to provide funding for state, local and tribal governments and assisting individual and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

In total, the city received about $19.6 million in two equal tranches in May 2021 in June of 2022.

Since then, Council has made a series of appropriations, appropriating all of those funds for roughly 50 plus projects supporting a number of eligible uses.

The ARPA legislation contained two deadlines for using the funds.

The first, as I just mentioned, is the end of this calendar year, which is to obligate the funds for eligible uses, and then December 31st, 2026, to fully expend those funds.

And so when we talk about obligating funds, what that means is that we have a formal obligation to pay, either on a purchase order or a contract, a memorandum of understanding, something like that.

The Treasury Guides is very clear that an appropriation does not meet that criteria.

And so as we've been working with these funds for a number of years now, we've spent approximately $13.5 million of our ARPA funds, about 69% of the total.

of the remaining funds, about 2.4 million has already been obligated per U.S.

Treasury guidelines, which leaves a balance of about $3.7 million of unspent and unobligated funds.

And that's the subject of this agenda item.

And so in the resolution itself, there's a detailed listing of projects which have unspent and unobligated balances.

I'm not going to read through each of them individually, but to just give you some idea of kind of how these balances came to be.

In some cases, these are projects which we undertook and are finished and there's a leftover balance.

You can see some fairly small amounts.

there in different places.

In some cases, they were projects that the original estimate, the actual costs were much less than were originally estimated.

Again, when we received these funds and in the in the in the throes of the pandemic, we were doing our making some of our best guesses as to what the scope and cost of some of these things were.

And then some of these projects are just simply things that just didn't happen.

And it was for a number of reasons.

As you as you look at some of these,

You might chuckle a little bit and say, oh, we were going to do take home COVID tests for city employees.

But again, in 2021, 2022, tests were not readily available.

And so there was a thought at that time that we should undertake something like that.

But as the pandemic and the response to the pandemic evolved, those tests became more readily available at Walgreens, CVS, etc.

So that project never really happened.

And so again, you can see those those projects detailed there.

And so the proposal is that these funds be reallocated.

Again, they've already been appropriated.

So we're asking you to reallocate these, and then we will obligate these funds before the end of the calendar year.

Roughly $3.7 million are for two uses.

The first one is $3 million for the Salvation Army Center of Hope, which is their facility on Ridge Street to both expand

and Renovate That.

and then the second piece is the balance of those funds to reimburse the city, to reimburse these general funds specifically for eligible public safety payroll expenses that we've incurred since July 1.

This is a very similar approach that we used back in 2020 to go way back when we had CARES funds.

Again, that was sort of the first round of COVID relief money from Washington.

We did a very similar thing and had to do something very similar at the end of calendar year 2020.

to fully utilize those funds.

And what that does is it allows for us to reimburse ourselves for eligible uses, to use up those funds.

It also then creates a, for lack of a better term, a surplus in our general fund.

We're replacing our general fund dollars with these federal dollars.

And so again, this is a very similar approach to, as Mr. Sanders and I have both told you on several occasions, we have no intention of sending money back to Washington.

And so this allows us to use those funds in this way

and this figure in the memo, you'll see a figure of $759,774.43.

I will tell you that number will likely change a little bit because as we go through the end of this month, we'll be paying some bills, finalize some projects.

So that number may fluctuate a little bit, but this is definitely in the ballpark.

And so it does note that in the discussion, but I just want to draw that to your attention that that number may change slightly, but not materially.

And so with that, that concludes my presentation.

So I just want to also state that this is for the general public's benefit of appreciating this ARP item.

This $3 million is about the existing Ridge Street property only.

That is the project that is scheduled for a significant expansion.

As a part of the recommendation that I made to Council on October, there's more money involved in both facilities that is still to be determined as to source and Council's commitment to those items because I have simply made a recommendation.

We are at this moment prioritizing $3 million of that recommendation being fulfilled through this action for the registry property.

And the strategy behind it for me specifically is, as I've talked to Chris about all of this, with the change in administration, these are federal funds.

There's always a clawback available for any money that's not spent to be pulled back by doing this and doing it now.

That won't happen with $3 million of this money.

Likewise, I mean, for the benefit of the community, you stated $3 million is for the high bearer shelter on the existing Ridge Street site.

In addition, that roughly $700,000 for reimbursement, that's for money that's already been spent, correct?

Correct.

Yes.

If not, I just wanted to say, Mr. Collin, you've done a really great job helping us navigate all of this over the course of the I've been on council for three years.

I know you're doing that even before that point.

But I feel like that we've used these funds for the community in the best possible ways.

And I think a lot of that credit goes to you.

I have one question separate from the list of the unobligated amounts.

You mentioned that there's also an amount that's obligated but unspent.

over the last few months that we have asked that question just because it's it's obligated then as you just mentioned the next deadlines two years away which again seems somewhat far off but it's really not and so I'm confident that those have approximately 2.4 million that we have that we can execute on those and that there are already contracts written obligating those funds or memorandum of understanding so again having that you know more than just appropriate actually obligated

The two that I can tell you off the top of my head, there's a couple hundred thousand dollars for what's called success factors.

It's the city's implementation of a human resources management information system or HRMIS that's been sorely needed for

a while now.

I think Mr. Sanders refers to it as part of modernizing our human resources function.

This is actually a tool in a system that allows us to do that.

That's a fairly large expenditure.

We also have some money that was set aside for safe routes to schools, and they've got several contracts written.

They're going to utilize bits and pieces of that money.

And I'll also share that as Chris was working with all staff who are managing individual awards, they've not only been reminded by him that they had to confirm for him that they could deliver on expending these funds because once we pass the December 31st deadline, I can't move it to anything else.

We have to spend it in that appropriate category.

We might be able to adjust exactly how it goes out, depending on how loosely we may have written an agreement.

But what we said it was for is what it's for.

And that's a commitment.

So I also came behind Chris and said to everyone, do not make me send anything back to the federal government because I don't like to do that.

So that has been expressed strongly.

And when I looked at the list, I did feel comfortable about what I saw.

But part of what I also was looking for

in trying to clear as much of this money as soon as possible.

That was the stressing point that I have is should a clawback occur

It goes back to the federal government, but whatever it is that we were planning to do doesn't disappear.

It still needs to possibly be done.

And in some instances, as Chris just gave you the example of success factors, I need that program.

Like I can't afford for there to be a clawback and not have the money to fix it.

So I have said to the budget team that we also need to make sure that we're thinking about how do we have

resources available to offset any potential loss that might occur because it's possible that something could get pulled back.

We just don't know.

Thank you.

So trying to plan for that as well.

Okay.

Second.

Second.

Can we vote please?

The motion passes five to zero.

Thank you, Sam and Chris.

I appreciate you, sir.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, Council.

Ben Chambers.

I'm the Transportation Planning Manager with the city.

I'm here to bring a resolution for the city to join the Regional Transit Authority as one of its initial members.

Before we jump into our presentation, I'd like to introduce our partner over at the county, Deputy County Administrative Executive, Anne Wall.

She's going to take us through the first few slides.

I'll follow up with the last few, and then we can answer any questions you have before you vote on this resolution.

Good evening, Ann Wall, Deputy County Executive, Albemarle County.

As Ben indicated, Ben and I will provide this presentation.

It's important to point out that this effort has been a partnership between the city, the county, and the TJPDC and staff, particularly Lucinda Shannon and Christine Jacobs.

We have also met several times with our transit partners, including representatives from CAT, jaunt, and UTS.

We wanted to start off by talking a little bit about how we got here, what's really the history of this effort.

In 2008, the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Report explored the formation of a regional transit authority.

The authority was intended to promote the development of regional transit services with the goal of providing travelers with an attractive alternative to driving on increasingly congested roadways throughout the Charlottesville Albemarle area.

In 2009, the General Assembly passed legislation to enable the formation of a regional transit authority.

The legislation, however, did not include state authorization for revenue generation.

In 2016, the regional coordination study explored opportunities to improve communication, coordination, and collaboration among transit partners.

This effort and ensuing study resulted in the development of the regional transit partnership, which was intended to serve as a precursor

to a transit authority.

In 2022, the Regional Transit Vision Plan was prepared.

Local leaders, transit agencies, and a wide variety of stakeholders collaborated to develop a clear vision for the future of high quality transit in the region.

The Regional Transit Vision Plan identified short-term, long-term, and extended long-term actions that the community must take to support

the community's vision for high-quality transit.

The first step in achieving the vision was the initiation of the Transit Governance Study, which really guided the governance structure around the Regional Transit Authority and looked at likely revenue sources and key funding sources.

And finally, fast forward to 2024, the Transit Governance Study recommended that the region initiate the formation

of a transit authority envisioned in the 2009 legislation.

It recommended early discussions regarding regional planning efforts with the idea of a shared vision, establishing bylaws, engaging rural localities, and engaging transit partnerships.

The 2009 legislation required an act of the city of Charlottesville, as well as Albemarle County, to enact the authority and the item before the council this evening

is the consideration of a resolution for the City of Charlottesville to consider membership in the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Authority.

Finally, we just wanted to remind the Board of the role of a regional transit authority.

First is that authority is intended to serve as a collaborative multi-jurisdictional entity for identifying and solving transit issues.

All right, so that was sort of the background of how we got to this year and now I'm going to talk about sort of what we've been engaged in over the past year.

So the transit governance study came out at the beginning of the year and said we should set up a regional transit authority.

And when that study came out, the regional transit partnership turned to us as staff and said can you please help us figure out what are the next steps for this?

How do we get this to actually being an authority?

So our first step was talking to the other localities that aren't represented at the Regional Transit Partnership directly.

So we reached out to the surrounding rural localities.

We also reached out to UVA leadership and to the transit agencies in the region to get their sense of what could this authority do to benefit them and how can we potentially collaborate in the future.

We've also been working on drafting bylaws that are conformance with the CARTA legislation and

A couple months ago, we held a joint meeting between City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

You all were there.

You may recognize some of these slides.

They are familiar from that presentation.

So looking at the bylaws, we wanted to make sure that it was aligned with the legislation.

That's kind of the point of setting up this authority.

The difference between the partnership and the authority is that

It has legislation that lays out exactly what it's supposed to be.

So our legislation describes what the powers are for regional transit authority.

Largely that is focused on planning.

It can also be focused on funding, but right now we're looking at it primarily being a planning agency of some sort.

It initially identifies the members as the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

It also says that Lovanna, Green, Louisa and Nelson can come along as partners.

We have had conversations with them and they'd like to see how we pull this together ourselves first before jumping in with us.

But there is still interest in watching to see how this progresses and seeing if there's an opportunity for them to join in the future legislatively and through the draft bylaws.

We want to enable that, make sure that that is going to be feasible.

There are other duties and responsibilities that are described.

There are technical committees, finance committees,

sort of roles within the board that are described in that bylaws and within the legislation.

And so our bylaws are reflecting that legislation and they'll be put before the board in their first meeting for consideration.

So going forward, what is CARDA going to be doing is kind of the next question, right?

In general, it's going to be setting up CARTA.

That's sort of the initial work of CARTA is approving bylaws, electing chairs and vice chairs, designating committees, continuing that outreach work to other participating jurisdictions, potentially participating jurisdictions, and seeing if there's a potential to expand CARTA.

It would also be looking at planning, figuring out what the region's transit

with the city and the county sitting at the table together pulling together our planning work, considering our transit improvements in services and customer services that could be implemented at any of our transit agencies in the region.

What is CARTA doing in the next fiscal year?

How much funding are they going to need in order to carry out their work?

Right now we're looking at a lot of the work of CARTA going forward, being done with city and county and TJ PDC staff.

But over the next year or so, we're going to need to evaluate, is there a need for additional funding, additional resources for this agency?

Preparing a grant application is one thing that CARTA is going to be useful for going forward.

We are actually, as a next step, going to be coming back to you in January for a grant application that would support CARTA and would provide a consultant support to study what its priorities out of the transit vision plan would be going forward.

In the future, we would want CARTA itself to be applying for those, but since it's not formally set yet, TJ PDC will be doing that on its behalf and will be bringing that to you

in January, along with some other transportation items.

making sure that we are coordinating with the state and federal government about what our regional needs are for transportation.

Right now a lot of that's done at sort of the agency and jurisdiction level and we'll have a place where we can do that together.

That's going to be important, especially if we are going to be using this as a vehicle for bringing in additional funding in the future.

Currently our legislation does not allow CARTA to do that.

But if we are able to sort of get together what our legislative priorities are and work together as a region, we would be able to do that through CARDA and figure out how to apply that in a future legislative session with the state government.

So the key takeaways that we've learned over the past 15 years, we have a lot of needs, a lot of different needs across our region, and we have a lot of different providers providing the transit that fills that need.

We know that we need more funding for transit going forward, we need to continuously improve the services that we have currently, and right now

We're at a new opportunity for having that conversation.

For about 15 years we've been saying we want to have this authority.

There have been some opportunities in the past that we've tripped up on a little bit trying to figure out

All right, if we have this authority, what are the relationships between the agencies?

What are the relationships between the jurisdictions?

And we sort of made those discussions preliminary to having an authority.

The thing that's making us successful this time around is that we realize we need to have those conversations, but we can have them under the umbrella of the authority itself.

So what this authority is giving us is a table to sit down at.

so that we can collectively, city, county, and all the various transit agencies decide what we need for transit going forward and figuring out how we resolve some of those questions between the agencies and the jurisdictions.

would be voting

City Council to serve on CARTA.

We'll also need an endorsement of the grant application that TJPDC will be going after in January as well.

That's a DRPT application.

Their grant cycle ends at the end of January, so it'll be a bit of a tight turnaround for us, but we'll be back in January with more.

Thank you, Lloyd.

I'll start with you, sir.

I don't have any questions.

Yeah, same here.

I want to again point out the folks from TGI PDC all done just an amazing job and staff as well.

Um, this has been a long time coming and I think good things are going to come from it.

I think it's a great example of what we can do when we work closely with the county.

Yeah, no questions.

Just likewise, I know there's still a long way to go, but I think this is still a historic and important moment because the only way we'll get a transit system where the majority of people see it as a feasible alternative to driving is with Charlottesville Albemarle and the region closely collaborating and sharing resources.

I would just add, I know there's differences as an opinion, but I think we need to start having the conversation around how we will fund it.

immediately and think about how we interface with the General Assembly about that.

I could see that taking multiple sessions and taking a while for even Charlottesville and Albemarle to align on what kind of revenue mechanism we would want.

And likewise, I think UVA's participation will be vital because I could see that doubling ridership in the amount of money we get.

I think it will have, its ultimate impact will be limited as long as EVA is not fully at the table with us.

And yeah, I just appreciate all the work of county, city staff, playing district commission, you know, and I have to shout out as well Paul Long who