City Council   6/19/2017

Music playing

All right, good evening everyone.

Call this meeting of Charlottesville City Council to order.

All right, we'll begin with awards, recognitions, and announcements.

I'd like to begin with a special one.

President of the Student Government at University of Virginia is going to say a brief word about a recognition for Otto Warmbier, who we all learned today has died, sadly.

So unfortunately this afternoon we learned that our fellow previous student Otto has passed away and the Student Council is going to be holding a Candlelight Vigil tomorrow evening at 9 p.m. at the Rotunda.

At the Rotunda.

And do we want to give any

background, he was a young man who traveled to North Korea and was arrested and has been held in prison.

And he was released last week, I believe, after several months, and he was in a coma.

All right, let's begin from Ms. Galvin.

I think I'm ready.

Well, yes I am.

So the first announcement I have is about holiday closings for the 4th of July weekend.

City offices will be closed on Monday, July 3rd and Tuesday, July 4th in observation of Independence Day.

Offices will reopen on Wednesday, July 5th, 2017.

On Tuesday, July 4th, Independence Day, the Charlottesville area transit will only operate the free trolley route 2 and route 12.

The trash and recycling will not be collected on Tuesday, Independence Day.

These services will resume on the next working day and continue a day behind through the rest of the week, including Saturday.

I found it.

Sorry.

I was just waiting for you to say move on and then I found it.

So the council has previously taken a position supporting the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

The US Senate is currently working on legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act that has brought access to health insurance and quality care to millions of Americans.

While no one claims the current system is perfect,

Senate leaders have indicated they plan to take away many of the guarantees and popular elements of the Affordable Care Act and leave many Americans once more without access to the kind of medical care all people should have.

I'd like to encourage Virginians to contact our Senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, to stress to them how important these protections are and urge them to defend the right of all Virginians to affordable quality care.

Here are their phone numbers, if you want to call.

Senator Warner is 202-224-2023 and Senator Kaine is 202

244-4024.

So if you call them, generally you get a message line.

You just leave your message.

If you talk to a person, just tell them what you want and tell them you live in Virginia and you're their constituent.

Thank you.

So Mayor Signer, now I'm ready because our guests of honor have arrived.

and so can you catch your breath?

Yes, it is with great pleasure that I announce that we have two visitors from the continent of Africa and they are here visiting us as part of the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow Program at the University of Virginia.

So we have Mr. Godfrey

Quironi from Zimbabwe, the City Council of Masvingo, and Kaia Palushi Kapata Moyo, sorry, Sulwezi Municipal Council from Zambia.

And I will ask you to please come to the microphone so that you can actually say more clearly where you're from and your council.

But they are both city councilors from their localities back home.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Oh, OK.

My name is Councilor Kiapalushi Kapatamoyo.

I'm from the Sulawesi Municipal Council, the northwestern part of Zambia.

And my municipality is in a district called Sulawesi.

Thank you very much for having us.

We're so privileged.

Thank you.

Great.

Good evening everyone.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Councillor Godfrey Pravoni.

I'm from the city of Mashingo in a very popular country called Zimbabwe.

I was elected as a Councillor in 2013 and I was just 26 years old.

I'm now 30.

I'm glad to be with you today.

Thank you very much.

I just would like to add that they're here for six weeks.

And so all counselors feel free to extend your cards.

And we did have a short meeting beforehand where we talked about something, a misery that we all share, which is budgets.

And we also talked about how do you keep your elected officials honest?

and it's always a perennial problem.

And then also planning.

How do you create such a beautiful place as we have the downtown mall?

So that was something that we talked at length about is the beauty of public places and how do you ensure that that happens?

So again, thank you very, very much for coming.

You've made this a very special meeting tonight.

Thank you.

Oh, the other thing I have is that

Tuesday, June 27 at 5 o'clock in these City Council Chambers.

We will be celebrating

in acknowledging the 40th anniversary of our very first sister city, and that's Poggio-Acano.

And we are going to have a delegate from Poggio come here and visit Charlottesville from June 26th through June 30th.

And that event on Tuesday is to exchange proclamations and appreciations for each other's country.

They're going to take a tour of City Hall, look at a painting that they gave us 40 years ago, and it's still hanging up on the city manager's wall, as well as the original proclamation that enacted the whole Sister Cities program.

And now, how many Sister Cities do we now have?

It's four?

I thought it was even more than that.

It's just four?

Okay, well it's grown.

So anyway, so please come at five o'clock.

The mayor and the vice mayor and another city councilor and their spouses.

Yes.

And I should say that the reason why that became the very first

Sister City and it was through the vision of actually Mayor Nancy O'Brien 40 years ago is that a very good friend of Thomas Jefferson was Filippo Mazzi and he grew up in Poggio O'Connell and Mr. Mazzi was working in London to promote the importation of Italian products to England when he met and befriended Benjamin Franklin and

Also, they then got to meet Thomas Jefferson.

He highly influenced Jefferson's ideas about democracy and as well as growing Italian grapes.

So we have, in many ways, the Virginia wine industry as a result of that original friendship.

I have two quick announcements.

On behalf of Mr. Alexander, he wants to let everyone know about YOGO, YOGO at the Cookout, 12 Steps to Avoid Conflict in Confrontation.

You can contact Mr. Alexander at alexxan-i-c.net in regards to getting more information about that.

Mantra, Yo, Let It Go in terms of peaceful conflict resolution.

That's something that he's been discussing within the community for several different years and he thought that it would be appropriate that we discuss it tonight.

In addition to that, I must also show a lot of love and respect to everyone in the room as well as the elders as we celebrate today being the anniversary of Juneteenth.

For those who are not familiar, Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery

in the United States dating back to 1865.

It was on June 19th that the Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

That was essentially two and a half years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which had become official on January 1st, 1863.

The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on Texas due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new executive order.

However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865 and the arrival of General Granger's regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

So with that being said, we had a phenomenal showing this past weekend at the African American Heritage Center, the Jefferson School, celebrating Juneteenth.

Much love to Ms. Maxine Holland and all those who had a hand in planning that event.

And we will continue to stand strong and honor those who came before us.

The Virginia Environmental Excellence Program Sustainability Partner announcement.

The City of Charlottesville has been approved as a Virginia Environmental Excellence Program Sustainability Partner for calendar year 2017.

This approval is in recognition of the numerous significant environmental achievements the city has made to date.

including the previous participation as a sustainability partner and the ambitious sustainability goals we have set for the future.

And I believe Ms.

Crystal Rittervold is here to accept.

It says award on the dais.

I hope there's an award up here.

It's right here.

OK.

Well, we'll be hearing from Crystal a little bit later in the evening.

Ms. Fenwick, any further?

OK. All right, one quick announcement.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councillors.

I'm very happy to report that the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association, in the 100th anniversary of its existence,

was named the Virginia State Bar's Conference of Local Bar Associations Bar Association of the Year.

And that only goes to one association and that includes all the local bar associations and all the specialty bar associations throughout the state.

And this year, which is the fourth year that that award has been presented, it was awarded to the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association.

It speaks very highly for the members of the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar, of which the mayor is a member.

Congratulations.

A quick note about, we have cookies up here for everybody.

A little salt in your oatmeal.

I just need to clarify, we're going to, in our consent agenda tonight, be talking about

the cancellation of the July 3rd meeting which is being moved to July 5th so that it's not the night before a holiday.

So we're moving it out of a holiday weekend and we're gonna, I just needed to clarify that this will involve, we haven't made the decision yet, it's gonna be in the consent agenda, but it will involve both cancellation and rescheduling of the meeting.

And I have a statement that I would like to read in light of last week's shooting in Washington and then some upcoming

events here in Charlottesville.

I want to tell the community we will be holding a press conference at 3 o'clock p.m. tomorrow at City Space to talk about our plans both in the government and then some community events about public safety and unity on both July 8th and August 12th and also continuing through the summer.

In the wake of the tragic shooting last week in Alexandria, Virginia, and events here, including the quite shocking torch lit rally at what was formerly known as Lee Park, what's now Emancipation Park, several weeks ago, I believe we need a redoubled focus on the bedrock of our democratic process, which is civility.

In a column in this weekend's Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan observed that we look down on each other, fear each other, increasingly hate each other today.

She noted that the President,

particularly, and this is a conservative writing this, is controlling many Americans by trapping us in increasing cycles of rage, whether for him or against him, that he alone is generating.

We've seen these dangerous trends come to the fair city of Charlottesville in recent weeks.

I believe that these folks, like some kind of body snatcher from a sci-fi movie, are trying to take us over from the inside and turn us into our opposite.

And more is coming.

Our democratic system is set up for us to be able to compete, to deliberate, to push, to argue, to debate, and ultimately to make a decision through bodies like this.

But today we're seeing a dangerous new increase in intimidation and shifting the game to one where it's not about persuasion or facts or deliberation or debate or a vote that wins the day, it's about power and it's about force.

In this new world, we deem the victor not who wins by the rules that we have, it's by who bloodies and bows their opponent.

It's as if a boxing match became a UFC match without even a referee.

Our rules, our principles are what make us great in this country.

In Charlottesville, that ranges from having a great police force, a fire force that acts strategically to having the First Amendment,

which short of imminent incitement, unlawful action does protect those who say hateful and horrible things in public spaces and it ranges to the rules that allow us to conduct a city council meeting civilly and efficiently and with an end in mind, with order and deliberation.

These are all pieces of a constitutional democracy.

I've spent many months trying to understand what I'm seeing in Washington and particularly the constant pugilism of the president and the people around him and I think I finally do understand it now

The reason that they constantly seem to pick fights and do so many things that seem irrational is that they prefer not only conflict, but conflict that gets into their opponents' heads.

This is shifting the boxing match to the UFC.

It is our job as one of the great cities in our constitutional democracy not to get distracted, not to let rage take us over, not to play someone else's game.

Recently, I received a voicemail on my cell phone of an audio clip of Adolf Hitler ranting in German about Jews.

Somebody sent that to distract me and to intimidate me.

And I see that as part and parcel of a much broader wave sweeping across our country.

When we let somebody get in our head, when we start playing by their rules, when we take their bait, then we are letting them tell our story.

And our story here has too much promise for that to happen.

Here's what I believe our story is.

We care about being a welcoming, a safe, and a tolerant community.

In the coming weeks, we will hold fast to those first principles.

We will, first of all, work to keep people safe, and that work will be done by our great Chief of Police, Al Thomas, and the fine men and women of Charlottesville's finest.

We will also protect our cherished Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

that has served us so well for over 200 years.

What makes us great is precisely the fact that everyone does have a right to speak, no matter how noxious their opinions are, that hateful and ignorant views will perish through exposure to sunlight and oxygen and facts.

And finally, we need a return to civility.

There is nothing weak or controlling about civility.

Instead, a robust, strong competence of civility binds together the word civil that, after all, is in the word civil disobedience,

and the tradition of debate that Stephen Carter referred to in his 1990 book, Civility, where he observed that our general problem is that everyone tries to find ways to put their own cherished positions above debate and beyond debate.

When we hold fast to those principles, we can deny hatred and violence and chaos the toehold that the haters and the bigots and predators want to have.

We can and we will confront and defeat these dark forces and we will do so on our own terms.

Thank you.

Okay, so let's move on to our, anything else from anybody?

Any other colleagues?

Sure, thank you Mr. Mayor.

One item to follow up on that was raised by a couple of folks at our last meeting,

That involved the issue of homelessness.

Our staff is researching additional ways to help address homelessness in our community, and of course, affordable housing in the region.

This evening, the City Council will be addressing some of the recommendations from the Housing Advisory Committee, and as the Vice Mayor mentioned at the last meeting, there are very preliminary conversations that are taking place that could help the city serve as a catalyst in developing additional affordable housing.

on session, guidelines for public comment.

I'll read what we read at the beginning of every meeting.

We welcome public comment.

It's an important part of our meeting.

Time is reserved near the beginning at the end of each regular city council meeting.

Four matters by the public.

Please follow these guidelines for public comment.

If you're here to speak for a public hearing, please wait to speak on that matter until the report for the item has been presented and public hearings been open.

We don't have any public hearings tonight.

We have a lot of business on this agenda.

I should tell everybody

If we get through this meeting tonight relatively straightforwardly, we're probably going to be here past 1130 because we've got 10 or 11 items on the agenda and a lot of really important stuff that's been in the queue for a while.

Each speaker has three minutes to speak.

This device here will show you when you're beginning, when you're close to your end, which is a yellow, and when you're finished and you're red, and a chime will come up.

And because we have to keep a tight clip tonight,

The red is when you're finished with your time.

Please give your name and address before beginning your remarks.

I'll now read the portion from our rules that, again, read every time.

Improper comments and disorderly conduct are not permitted.

Persons appearing before the council may not use this platform to campaign for public office, promote private business ventures, use profanity or vulgar language or gestures, threaten violence toward council city staff or members of the public,

Engage in behavior that intimidates others, interrupt other speakers, or engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting.

Any speaker violates the rules that be called to order by the mayor.

If their marks or conduct persists, the mayor shall order the speaker to cease speaking and be seated.

If the order is not heeded, the mayor shall direct the sergeant-at-arms to escort the individual from the meeting room.

Officers, would you mind just standing for a moment so that everybody can see your friendly faces?

These are our friendly officers here.

Terrific public servants, great people.

You can make their acquaintance tonight.

Don't really want you to have to.

We want to keep this meeting a good clip again.

And I want to say something that Ms. Szakos has said a number of times.

If you disagree with something that a speaker is saying, give us a hand sign to that effect.

You can go like this.

You can use a hand sign.

If you agree with it, please.

What is it that you said?

Come put your hands up, we pay attention to this, people on TV will see this, but if this

disintegrates into audible explanations.

That is a violation of rules.

I'll call you to order.

If it happens a second time, then the officers will escort you out.

And it's as simple as that.

And you'll end up giving the person you don't like what they're saying a lot more time up here at the microphone, whereas what we want to do is get through this expeditiously so that everybody can be heard and then we get on to the business of the night.

And the one piece of feedback we had a lot go on in the last meeting was that

It went fairly well, but to enforce these evenly and early across the board, and these are our rules, we will, you're called to order, you get one bite at the apple and then we're just going to have to escort you out and we'll suspend the meeting, but we'd like not to have to do that because we've got 15 people to hear from today.

Mark Heise, I live on 29 south of the city.

I'm here to ask city council to deny or revoke the permits for the July 8th KKK rally in the August 12th unity and security unite the right rally in Charlottesville.

I find it deeply troubling that at the community forum at Mount Zion Baptist on Tuesday Chief Thomas stated that the city will not consider the Klan a terrorist group because you are not the federal government.

But you Mayor Signer have declared this city a capital of the resistance

Well what does that resistance look like?

The most violent expressions of fascism and white nationalism supported by the fascist white supremacist regime that you supposedly resist are asking for permission to occupy our city and we are saying yes because the federal government says they're okay.

I've seen the flyer for the August 12th march on Charlottesville.

Please make no mistake, these groups are coming not in defense of free speech but to attack our community and to promote their genocidal ideology.

A lot of the justifications around approving permits for the KKK and Unity and Security center around the city's fear of violating the First Amendment.

Yet when it came to making it illegal for our city's poor and homeless to ask for money on parts of the downtown mall, the city was not afraid to take on the First Amendment in the interests of the comfort of restaurants, mostly white clientele.

The city spent four years in paid settlement of nearly $126,000 taking on the First Amendment and the poor on behalf of the interests of private business and the comfort of consumers.

Now the city bawks at taking on the First Amendment in the interest of the safety of all residents of Charlottesville, but especially people of color.

Make no mistake, these groups are coming to do physical and psychological harm to Charlottesville's residents, and the local government of the Capitol of Resistance intends to let them.

I've seen the flyer for the August 12th white nationalist attack on our city.

and includes an image of white men and Pepe frogs marching with rifles on their shoulders.

It is full of fascist, Nazi, and Confederate imagery.

Its list of speakers, including Richard Spencer, Mike Enoch, and Matt Heimbach, who in reference to Richard Spencer, Mayor Signer himself said he was not welcome here after the white nationalist torch burning on Emancipation Park on March 13th believed that multiculturalism is white genocide.

They don't recognize the right to exist of people of color.

How can this city sit back

and welcome these groups into the city in deference to the First Amendment.

The First Amendment does not prevent the government from regulating obscenity.

How is the racism, Islamophobia and violence of these groups not obscene?

How can this city fail to resist these groups out of fear of violating the First Amendment when the city so readily challenged the First Amendment to criminalize being poor or homeless on the mall?

How are these groups attacks on our city not the equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theater?

How is this city going to allow violent white nationalists who promote and are carrying out murders of people of color all over this country

on the same day as the back to school bash at the pavilion where many children of color will be present.

Because of the First Amendment, you intend to welcome Richard Spencer to the city to terrorize the city's children.

I'm asking you to show more concern for the lives and wellbeing of the city's children than for the First Amendment.

Resistance is costly.

I admit that I had a difficult time understanding what the speaker was saying the entire time because of the very audible interruptions.

OK, so any further thank you for bringing that up.

And is everyone OK with even even interruptions?

I will.

OK, so I will I will enforce that.

Thank you for that request.

So even exclamations will be enforced after this.

All right.

All right.

My name is Mimi Arbeit.

Hi, my name is David.

Thank you for giving me this time.

First of all, I want to say sorry for your loss.

Second of all, I want to say I want to meet the guy that makes your suits.

Nice to meet you, Mr. Resistance, and not talk through Mr. Bellamy to get to

hear what you have to say.

I guess I'm just going to piggyback on what Mark kind of said.

This was ISIS.

You would have disallowed this permit.

This was Al Qaeda.

You would have disallowed this permit.

If this was ISIL or Hezbollah or some North Korean oppressive regime, you would have disallowed this permit.

So I'm wondering why this city disallows foreign terrorism and not domestic.

and the Ku Klux Klan has been known, and you know, and you know, to terrorize this country and the South for hundreds of years.

And to tolerate it is allowed racism by proxy.

Revoke this permit.

Resist the siege of terrorism that is coming into our town, trickle by trickle,

by trickle until it pours, until it bleeds.

You're going to wait for another Richard Collins?

You're going to wait for another Portland?

Another South Carolina?

I mean, it's your choice, sir.

Mr. Resistance, do what you got to do.

I'm going to go because I got other things I got to do.

I got to go and support my community and organize and do the things that I wish my community leaders would do.

so I could sit home and enjoy the free time that I have because I can't because my friends are being watched and pursued and photographed and terrorized by people that wish to do harm.

And I feel like my city and its police force and everybody around me is just allowing it, just allowing my friends to get hurt.

And I'm tired of it.

and I'm going to do everything in my power to see that it doesn't happen.

So help me God.

Okay, that's one.

That's one.

You're out of order.

Good evening, Brandon Collins.

I live at 418 Fairway Avenue in Charlottesville.

I just want to say that I'm speaking on behalf of FAR, Public Housing Association of Residents, this evening and we do support the statements that were just made previous to mine.

And, you know, I will say that the folks that are really standing up for this community are really defending this community against

some really disgusting ideas, disgusting actions and potential for extreme violence and for an escalation of extreme violence.

The people who are out there protecting communities of color in this city are activists who've been out there almost daily seeing these folks.

And then as we saw Saturday night when those activists stood down because they weren't taking the bait,

that the community itself organically came out and confronted these guys.

This is showing what our community wants to see.

They want to see leadership and right now they're seeing it from regular folks.

They're seeing it from people who are saying racism should not be tolerated here, violent extremism should not be tolerated here, and I think it would be wise if our elected leadership in the city of Charlottesville would show some spine to stand up to these assholes.

All right, you're out of order, too.

We can't have profanity here, seriously.

My bad.

I would like to speak about affordable housing recommendations this evening from the Housing Advisory Committee.

FAR supports these recommendations, and we very much encourage you to support these and pass them.

It's been a long time, and this is really your opportunity to take action to expand affordable housing for extremely low income people in Charlottesville.

Now when we say extremely low income people, it's really important that we talk about that, because what we're talking about is people who can afford only $600 a month in rent or less for a family of four.

That's really hard to process that number.

You're not going to find $600 for a family of four in this city, and we desperately need that housing.

And I think you need to take much more bold action on this, but the recommendations before you tonight are going to help.

Particularly within the strategic investment area and as you look at the form-based code, that is your opportunity to expand affordable housing for extremely low income people, that is people, families that earn under $20,000 a year

in this community.

That is your opportunity.

You're hearing it from the public, you're hearing it from FAR, you're hearing it from CRHA, you're hearing it from the Planning Commission, and tonight you're hearing it from the Housing Advisory Committee.

And I think that should show you all that you really need to take that effort seriously.

We do support those recommendations, and most of the staff recommendations, though we desperately do think that there should be no time limits on this city-sponsored voucher program,

We need to have everybody's addresses.

I'm personally concerned for my safety because of the people in this crowd.

On Wednesday, June 7th, as I was cornered by Jason Kessler and William Loudermilk on the downtown mall and they were chanting White Lives Matter and screaming, go back to your country to my face, I thought the most dangerous thing about these men is not their opinion but their insecurities and the way they take them out on others.

Fast forward to last Saturday night and we have Jason Kessler and a group of regional Proud Boys getting denied service at business after business and eventually chased off by a varied assortment of about 100 Charlottesville residents, if not more.

I want to give a shout out to all of the strangers and service workers who stepped up to the plate.

I also want to focus on these Proud Boys.

In the week leading up to their meetup, they set up a public and a private event

and laid out how the Saturday meetup was a chance for regional Proud Boys to go through their next rite of passage.

For context, the Proud Boys operate with rites of passage that get you into higher echelons of their group, much like a gang, although they will insist on being called a fraternity.

It is rumored that one of their higher rites is to actually beat up an Antifa individual, although they call anyone who confronts them Antifa.

The reason I know this is because a large chunk of their members are infiltrators who compile this information and then leak it publicly across the internet.

So I stand here to expose them and make clear who they are, insecure men who wish violence to those who oppose them, whether through doxing like they did with cinema taco workers or through explicit death threats.

I also stand here to call upon all white men who hear this message and understand the threat of white supremacy

Hello, my name is Frances Rosette and I live at 182 Brookwood Drive, a home that gets 100% of its electricity from the solar panels on our roof, purchased through the Solarize Charlottesville initiative.

Although that makes me a direct beneficiary of the city of Charlottesville's commitment to being a part of the solution to man-made climate change, my main reason for going solar was for the future, which will bear the brunt of the difficulties spawned by our society's reliance on fossil fuels to do our work.

My sense is that concern for the impact of our current actions on our future society is what also drives this body to consider a response to the recent proclamation by the President of the United States that the U.S. was to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.

A response is certainly in order, and I applaud your effort to continue Charlottesville's commitment to reduce our carbon emissions and to adhere to the goals agreed to in the Paris Climate Accord.

In addition to my personal encouragement that you pass the proposed resolution that outlines why Charlottesville will continue to support the Paris Climate Accord, I also speak on behalf of the organization 350 Central Virginia.

350 Central Virginia is a chapter of 350.org, an international grassroots climate movement with a network that is active in 188 countries of this big, beautiful planet, Earth.

In this time, in this place, there are a myriad of concerns that can draw upon our energies.

Fortunately, the energy needed to do the right thing is a renewable resource.

Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Emily Kingsley and I live in Ivy.

I'm speaking tonight as a member of the group showing up for racial justice to voice my support for three concrete actions that SURGE is calling on the city council to take.

These are tangible ways in which Charlottesville can demonstrate its forcible rejection of white supremacy while using its resources to support the community members who have been treated most unfairly by this city.

The first ask is that the Lee plaque be removed from Emancipation Park before the Virginia Flaggers rally on July 1st.

This action will send an important and necessary message about the city's decision to change the narratives we tell about the Civil War and its generals.

The second ask is that the City Council rescind the permits for the KKK rally on July 8th and the white nationalist convergence plan for August 12th.

According to the Charlottesville City website, the events coordinator can rescind a permit if the planned event is found to be dangerous to public safety.

The KKK is a known terrorist organization with a deep history of violence.

Kessler's crew spouts white supremacist rhetoric that devalues the lives of many people in this community.

Is this not enough to prove these events are dangerous and should not be allowed to take place?

I understand that this brings up questions of free speech and potential legal ramifications, but even so, I refuse to believe that granting these public platforms to hate groups is our city's only option.

The mayor of Portland recently called on his city council to rescind a white supremacist group's rally permit, and I'm calling on you all to take up his lead.

Charlottesville claims to be a capital of the resistance, but acquiescing to white supremacists seems pretty far from resistance to me.

By giving the KKK this permit, the city has legitimized their white supremacist views.

Even if Charlottesville were to follow the ghost town approach on July 8th that some community members are calling for, the KKK has already wheeled its way farther into this community through the simple knowledge that they will occupy this space and that they will do so with the city's blessing.

Serge's third ask is for City Council to continue working with urgency and integrity to provide affordable housing to residents who make $16,000 a year or less.

We ask that the requests of the Public Housing Association of Residents regarding affordable housing and the redevelopment of public housing be kept always in the forefront of these discussions.

I urge City Council to take up the Housing Advisory Committee's recommendations as soon as possible and to center the community members most directly affected by these decisions throughout the process.

We must stop allowing shiny new development projects and outside interests to dictate a decision-making process that rightfully belongs in the hands of the people who live and work in these communities every day.

Good evening.

My name is Claire Hitchens.

I live in Albemarle County and I'm sharing my time this evening with Sarah Tansey.

So I am Sarah Tansey.

I'm a city resident.

I'm not telling you my address.

I come here tonight to address the extremely unconscionable actions of the white members of this city council in regards to the permitting of the KKK and the alt-right.

Mayor Signer, you're the one who declared this city the capital of the resistance, but your actions speak louder than your words.

You come here saying that you want to keep your communities safe, but by allowing the KKK to have a platform here, by allowing Richard Spencer, who you did tell was not welcome here, Richard Spencer, whose area in Northern Virginia last night saw the murder of a young

a Muslim girl named Nabra Hassanin, say her name!

Nabra Hassanin, say her name!

It is not a coincidence that that young woman was captured and murdered brutally in the area where Richard Spencer has set up his base camp to spread his hate.

He is coming here

by allowing them to come.

You are telling us with your actions that you do not care about the black community in Charlottesville, that you do not care about the Muslim community in Charlottesville, that you do not care about the communities of color in Charlottesville.

There is a person sitting up there with you tonight who has faced threats against his own life and his own family.

I cannot fathom what it must be like to sit beside you right now and understand that the same people that everybody was clutching their pearls about in Emancipation Park back in May will be back and they're bringing more people.

You understand this, right?

And they're not here just for free speech.

they want to cause havoc.

In their own forums, they are saying that they want to draw blood.

It is dangerous.

The only action that will tell us that you give any, I'm not guessing, that you care at all about the communities of color in Charlottesville is to revoke the permits.

It is a public danger to invite them back.

I don't want any more words.

My name is Emery.

I live in the city of Charlottesville as I have my whole life.

This city, and by extension, you, are planning to protect the KKK, and I want you to think about how that sounds.

The city of Charlottesville is planning to protect the KKK.

This city has endorsed simply standing in silence to oppose approval

of people who are truly violent terrorists and advocate for the eradication of people of color.

You can go on and on about their right to assemble, to speak, but do nothing to address the fact that their presence in this city is putting the most vulnerable of us at risk.

And beyond just the KKK, who are so easy to oppose in this day and age, what you somehow fail to do.

You approved a permit for, not just a gathering, but a march on Charlottesville to the people who are effectively replacing the KKK's role in this country, who proudly use Nazi imagery in their flyers.

These people are bragging about the violence they will bring here openly on social media.

It's not some secret that you're failing to see.

These people who believe that white genocide is a real thing simply because black and brown people are being given rights that they should have had all along.

Who believe white people conquered this country fair and square, so screw everybody else.

We can't pretend to be this liberal bastion and this capital of resistance and love and at the same time allow these people to threaten our communities.

You have to resend the permits.

If you're worried about legal backlash and the tax dollars it would use, fine.

But tell me, what is the cost on the black lives of this community?

We will suffer by your hand.

And why should you be so concerned about the money you theoretically have to spend?

We had a surplus last year and just in the time I've been alive, the budget has been increased by tens of millions of dollars.

And to what end?

We have a growing homeless population and more and more people are becoming impoverished.

Our infrastructure is decaying and we built a parkway.

You let developers wrangle you into giving them a loophole to give a few thousand instead of much needed affordable housing and the money just sits there.

So I'll ask again, what is the cost of black lives?

Resend the permit or it's quite literally blood on your hands.

And I would ask anyone who supports the resending of the permit to stand down.

Thank you.

John Hayden.

Nazi.

That's a warning, wherever that came from.

I'm entitled to three uninterrupted minutes.

I handed you a section of the city code that calls for the arrest of those who interrupt city council.

If you refuse to have them arrested, I will start over until I get my three uninterrupted minutes.

You will either arrest them or me because I refuse to leave until I get my three uninterrupted minutes.

Ms. Szakos, I resent your spurring on your useful idiots with your obvious hand motions like last time.

At least be a little creative, you know, an ear tug or a nose scratch, but then again, that might be too hard for them.

Your purposeful interruptions ends today.

Why is it that you not only promote interruption of my First Amendment rights, but then also fail to enforce city code

All right.

No interruptions here, but proceed.

Disorderly conduct in the obstruction of my first.

Why is it that you not only promote interruption of my First Amendment rights, but then also fail to enforce city code for disorderly conduct in the obstruction of my First Amendment rights?

Is it because of my age, disability, or conservative values?

When one promotes one's own culture, as Wes Bellamy does with his various programs, he's lauded as a community organizer and advocate.

When we see parties in Lee Park celebrating LGBT rights, they're lauded for standing up for diversity.

However, when one advocates for and celebrates white culture, you are automatically branded a racist.

Mr. Bellamy, Mr. Turner, Mr. Gathers, and other black advocates are not victims.

You never picked cotton, and I never owned slaves.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating your history and culture, but not to the exclusion of other cultures.

Had you advocated for inclusion

and wanting to celebrate black history alongside white history, I think you would have gotten far more people willing to accept your proposals.

Only what you and others did is advocate the dismantling of white history, branding all white people as racist and demanding we pay reparations in the form of Afrocentric programs only aimed at black people.

Your racist tweets call for firings and boycotts.

Dismantling the white history and intimidation tactics promoted by your useful idiots has created a backlash where we now have the KKK coming to town.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

No, I'm not leaving until I finish my three minutes.

You had your three minutes and you were not interrupted.

Somebody coughed you were not interrupted.

We gave you your full due.

But your rights weren't interrupted.

You had three minutes.

I was not.

Yes, you did.

I have three uninterrupted minutes.

Okay.

Bye.

All right.

Good evening, I'm Marta Kane, CEO of Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

I live at 2040 Earliesville Road in the county.

We're passing around two things tonight.

I wanted to share some of our newer stories about what we've been doing at the Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

It's a great way to understand the breadth of our services and also our newest resource guide, again, to make it available to as many

Citizens of the City as possible.

We also now have that guide translated into Spanish and we're working on a Spanish language message so that we can try and expand the services and the people that we are able to assist.

I did want to share one story with you at the Governor's Conference on Aging.

Governor McAuliffe spent a couple of minutes at the very beginning giving a wonderful

summary of some pen pal volunteering that we had done.

And I wanted to particularly point it out to all of you because it was with Miss Rachel Savoy's second grade class at Burnley Moran.

And it's just been a wonderful year.

She initiated it with our Mary Williams Community Center members and some other volunteers and that it made its way all the way to the governor and that that's the story he chose to tell about the impact

that seniors can have on people's lives I think is just wonderful.

And I wanted to congratulate you on having such wonderful teachers in the school system that they thought of a creative way to do this and we've enjoyed it.

The students came to Mary Williams in January and the seniors went to Burnley, Moran in May and so the field trips have been a great way to reinforce relationships that have been built.

And that leads me to the last thing I wanted to share

Knowing that this is shared with a lot of your community, now is the time of year when we do a lot of volunteer recruiting.

We have a lot of volunteers that make a big difference at Java.

So people who are interested in being trained to be insurance counselors, who are willing to give their time as ombudsman in skilled nursing homes, who would like to help out at community centers, or would like to do data entry and

and other work at the office.

Last year we had enough hours that it was the equivalent of 17 paid people, and that was a big difference in our ability to serve more people than we have the funds to do.

So it makes a big difference.

Our volunteers always reflect on feeling a part of the community and engaged in having purpose.

So we know it serves everyone, both those who receive the services and those who give it.

So I just want to thank you for your continued support and try and share some good things for you to continue to reinforce to those of your residents.

My name is Jason Kessler.

I live here in the city of Charlottesville.

So the first thing I want to talk about is I think we've pretty much settled that none of you guys are for the First Amendment, right?

Every single speech coming up here is about how you rescind the permit, rescind the permit.

You guys aren't even liberals because liberals agree with the First Amendment.

You guys are totalitarians.

You are communists.

You agree with these mobs of people telling people where they can and can't buy a drink, where they can and can't have food.

You think that any speech that you disagree with is violence and that's complete bull crap.

And it's really rich when Mike Signer, professional victim, comes up here and talks about Trump being to blame for the lack of civility when he allows

Mr. Bellamy, who has talked about violence to white women, who has had so many hateful things to say about white people.

Well, white America has heard you, Mr. Bellamy, and we will have our voice, too.

I know you are used to being

a person who has used racial solidarity to get away with violence against police officers, who's used racial solidarity to take advantage of bourgeois and upper class white liberals who needed a token in their place of power, but you are being called out.

I know that you

Only do media with friendly people who won't bring up your questionable past talking about not listening to white people.

And I don't understand why you can't address the concerns of people like me.

You can't even look at me in the eye.

It seems very disrespectful.

And also as far as these First Amendment abuses, this is all being recorded when we've seen Mayor Signer say to these people, it's against the rules for you to applaud, blah, blah, blah.

And you saw how he cracked down on me when I reprimanded him for his unprofessional conduct.

Very unprofessional.

Mike Signer is an embarrassment to the city.

He thinks that he's some kind of James Madison.

He's not.

I've already outshined you, and you will never be half the warrior for our civil liberties that even Richard Spencer is, because Richard Spencer is at least standing up for his people.

He's not turning his back on them like

individuals up here on this city council have.

You don't care about the white working class.

You can't even look a member of the white working class in the eye except for you, Ms. Szakos, in a pedantic sort of stare, a patronizing stare.

I wrote an email to Mike Signer before this whole thing started and he wouldn't respond to me.

You know who he responds to?

His trolls.

So he can say, oh, I'm a victim.

You're done.

I'm not done.

You're done.

I can't read the next name up here.

It says Scrawl.

Clifford Hall, 112 West Market Street, Charlottesville, Virginia, 22902 Dream deferred.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun or fester like a sore and then run?

Does it stink like a rotten meat or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?

May it just sag like a heavy load or does it explode?

Now, in 2017, are we living the dream of King?

Do we, as human beings, can we not coexist?

Can we not live on and move on?

Do we... Bellamy, do you bleed red?

Jason Kelcher, do you bleed red?

We all bleed red.

Can we agree to that?

Can we find a happy medium to where we can get beyond not allowing someone to have a beer at a place?

Can we get beyond this black and white that we've been fighting for hundreds of years?

When is it can we, as humans in a community, move on and get over our racial differences?

A racial difference that was started in Africa because of economics.

Do you all realize that?

Because of economics.

We are having problems with relationship issues today.

Can we get beyond that?

Can we move past these differences?

Which eventually we will.

Can we move beyond this hatred?

This sense of injustice, right or left?

I mean, acting like children.

Many of us.

On both sides.

Wow.

In 2017.

We're still fighting the hollowed fight that we fought in 1852.

When can we move on?

My name is Paul Long.

I live at 1410 Grady Avenue.

I wanted to come to city council tonight to talk about the homeless people that live in the city.

And during the winter months, there's many churches, because of the cold weather, take in the homeless people so they don't freeze to death.

And we're having a particularly series of hot weather, which I think is just as detrimental to the health of the homeless having to live in the streets.

And I think that the city has an obligation to do something.

Governor Huey Long of Louisiana 80 years ago used to say that America is the wealthiest country in the world and we are a wealthy country.

Charlottesville is a wealthy city and there's no reason why anybody should be sleeping on benches or in parks or in tents in the city of Charlottesville.

I would like the city to convene a meeting of faith groups, of churches, synagogues and mosques

to see if the faith community can come up to temporarily house homeless people during the summer.

But I would also like to suggest that with all the millions of dollars that's being invested in this city and high-priced housing, that the city commits some money to build a permanent facility

so that anybody who's homeless can go there and be housed during the night.

You know, we don't have that.

Many cities do.

We have the wealth to do it.

I think that we have the moral obligation to have people not living on the street, not living on benches, and cities do something about it.

My name is Mary Carey.

I've been in Charlottesville for 71 years, and I live in Midway Manor.

I'm here tonight to talk about Juneteenth, which is, doesn't have anything to do with emancipation.

Park.

That's not a slave word, Ms. Szakos.

It's insulting.

It's disrespectful.

It's inhuman.

It's heartless, it's uncaring, it's thoughtless of the feelings of the black race.

It's also a racist name that black people are trying to get over.

We'd rather say Juneteenth and not emancipation.

That's happened already.

Now, Mr. Signer.

as a mayor.

The mayor of Louisiana said this statute is coming down.

Sue me.

It's coming down because I want peace in my city.

That's a man.

Okay?

As long as that statute stands out there in that park, you gonna have all this protest going on.

See KKK, I grew up through that era.

I grew up in the 50s and the 60s.

I was spit on.

I couldn't even walk down Main Street without being called N-word and had to deal with it.

This is 2017.

Why do I still have to deal with it?

Why do you keep reminding me of slavery?

It's here.

Where is it with you?

I don't know, but Emancipation, you gonna take down Lee's statue, but you gonna put another form of slavery name out there, where we gotta ride down the street every day, 24-7, and see that name, and remember, why?

You can't answer me that, because you don't know why.

It ain't no celebration.

Juneteenth is a celebration.

Don't you get it?

No, you don't.

Well anyway, we're not going to deal with you with that.

But the KKK and the SIA seem to be sister and brothers.

KKK don't want any black people in America.

SIA don't want any black people in Charlottesville.

You're taking away all our communities.

You're taking away everything that black people stand for.

All these communities.

What do you got?

Fifeville, Cherry Avenue, Red Street, Main Street.

Who knows what's next?

But Ms. Galvin, think about it.

Ain't no affordable housing for black people in this town or low-income people.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Deborah Bookum, citizen of Charlottesville.

I live at Crescent Halls, president of the Tenant Association there.

I'm just going to leave my book shut because first of all, I like to say I agree with all that was said about the statue and about not letting the KKKs come to Charlottesville.

It's a danger to our community as well, elderly and disabled.

Also, I'd like to say I don't like the name of the park also.

Why couldn't it be Market Street Park or something like that?

not to do with slavery.

And also I'd just like to say that nothing is getting done at Crescent Halls as planned and as promised.

We've been waiting on new washers for over a year now.

We've been told to be patient.

We've been told to wait.

We've been told to write a letter.

We passed out lists.

Nothing has been done to this day.

So we're hoping that you all will get on CRHA, see why nothing is happening at Crescent Halls.

Any responses anyone wants to make individually?

First of all, we thank everybody for coming up.

It takes a lot of courage to come up here.

It's down here.

It's on TV.

It's looking up at city council.

We really appreciate people who take the time to come and talk to us.

I'll take these comments very seriously, the ones that went to concerns that there is a staff response to, a response from the government.

Mr. Jones will address the next meeting.

And we read all the emails.

We get sent many.

And we read them very carefully.

You can send them to us individually or to us collectively at council at Charlottesville.org.

I'll just add a couple of quick comments.

In regards to Mr. Mark, is it Mr. Mark?

So it's a point that he's made that several others have made and one thing that I would love to hear from not only our city manager but I guess the community would also like to hear in regards to rescinding the permit of the KKK.

Now I've heard a lot about this and also the group on August 12th but one comment that you made that I wasn't quite aware of in regards to a lawsuit in regards to the tune of $126,000

On the court, if we could get some clarification on that because I think his point in that matter holds some merit, especially in the fact that he's willing to state that we were willing to go and fight the battle.

In that specific case, what would be similar to this one?

I know many people have stated, and I think all of our colleagues on council have said, essentially if we go

And we denied the permits of these two hate groups, which we know that they're hate groups.

Oftentimes what happens is they sue, and then they win, and then they wind up having their rallies anyway.

But his specific point in regards to that, we've already been down that route, or to a similar route, is one that I would love to hear about.

And also, in regards to some of the other comments, I know that we're going to be touching on some of those items later in the meeting.

But that's where I am, Mr. Jones.

Yeah, these are two completely separate issues, right?

So the issue with the lawsuit that we had several years ago was a law that was put in place to restrict the requesting of money on the downtown mall in a 50-foot buffer around the 4th Street crossing.

So it was a public safety issue and concern that the city council had at the time and passed that.

It was not a restriction of solicitation on the mall.

It was a very specific place where that was restricted for public safety.

The court decided in that case that actually free speech superseded that and the city lost the lawsuit.

on free speech grounds.

I'll just add, we initially won that case.

That's right.

In federal district court.

And it was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which reversed the district court decision and sent it back.

Yes sir, so just for the public in regards to what we often hear is I'm sure individuals will ask the question and I even ask the question myself

If we were to deny the permit and if it were to go to the highest level of court, the state supreme court, the federal supreme court, whatever the case may be, the likelihood would be what?

Meaning we would lose and then we'd have to pay or is that normally how this would go?

And it's my understanding that that is what happened in Portland.

The mayor

of Portland, did they put it to the courts and that Portland lost.

At least the permits that I'm aware of in Portland were not on Portland's property.

They were on federal government property and it was the federal government that issued the permit.

OK, so I'd like to go.

No, no, no.

But generally, we keep in responses to specific comments.

Yeah, I mean, thank you.

And I think the question that several people are asking is,

us getting the lawsuit or us taking on having to pay the fine is that worth the cost of us ensuring or showing our community that we're trying to make them safe and I know one thing that what we're talking about is that we have other ideas in regards and I know they'll be talked about tomorrow in ways in which we're setting up different ways to make people safe and I wish that we could do both but we're essentially stuck in a rock

I mean, it sucks.

We can't have a, no comment so far.

Thanks.

Okay.

All right.

I guess I, I was hearing one of the new pieces of information that I was hearing in public comment was that some of the folks organizing the August rally are saying on, on Facebook or on social media that they are planning violence.

And I would like to, not tonight necessarily, but to look into that because I think that the public safety for specifically something that is coming in specifically as violence, I would be interested in seeing if we could deny that permit.

It's also a permit, from what I understand, to be in places that they'd actually need a permit for.

The KKK, from what I've understood and the intelligence that's been done about that, is that they are not planning violence overtly.

I mean, clearly it is a terrorist organization.

I think we all agree with that.

I grew up in Mississippi.

I've seen their terrorism up close and I know that a lot of my neighbors were victims of it.

And, you know, it horrifies me that they're coming to this town.

That said, and I'm going to read just a paragraph that many of you got when you sent emails to us about this issue and I'm sympathetic with the ask and I really appreciate your asking if we can deny the permit, but when we took our oath of office as city council members, we all said that we'd uphold the laws of the city and the constitution.

The Constitution guarantees all Americans the right to free speech and the right to assemble publicly.

And it's my understanding that if they're meeting at a park that they would be able to assemble whether they had a permit or not.

So even if we denied the permit, they could still come because it's a public park.

After the attack on New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon, Congress tried to limit our constitutional freedoms of speech and assembly, namely applying it to people who were critical at that point of the government.

I believed then, and I believe now, that even abhorrent speech is protected by our founding document, and that limiting the right to voice ideas that others find abhorrent would eventually be used to stifle democracy.

The courts have repeatedly ruled correctly that speech in the public square cannot be limited on the basis of its content and that all groups have the right to assemble peacefully.

We do not have the authority to stop such assembly, even if we refused or rescinded a permit.

Thank you.

Yes, Mayor Signer, thank you.

And thank you, everybody, for your comments tonight and

The KKK is a terrorist group.

It's a domestic terrorist group.

I've looked it up.

The United States does not identify domestic terrorist groups.

The United States only identifies foreign terrorist groups.

I can't help but think that that change in designation would help us if it was identified as a domestic terrorist group.

The US government does not do that.

To me, though, that along with the Proud Boys, when I've read about them, it strikes me that they are, and someone mentioned it tonight, they're gangs.

They have gang behavior.

They have gang signage and language and uniforms.

I saw them, the Proud Boys, walking along the downtown mall Saturday night as I was going to the Juneteenth

Festival, which was wonderful over at the Jefferson School.

It was like night and day.

So my question is, and it would be to the police and Mr. Jones, would we allow gangs to be assembled if they are officially on a gang list?

That's my question.

And I don't think that we would let MS-13, for example, have assembled.

We'd have to look into that, but if we know that people are members of a gang, if they have not committed a crime,

We can't do anything about that.

So whether or not they've declared that they're a member of a gang doesn't mean that they can be arrested or denied the ability to assemble.

I guess then the next question is that though when gangs are identified, what does that give us in terms of

I think if it's a gang that's proven that they are violent, meaning they've committed acts, then we can take action based on what they have done.

Not as far as we know with this group that's coming in.

The KKK has a history of that without question, but not necessarily this group has committed a crime in the city of Charlottesville.

The legal test is incitement to imminent lawless action.

That's the constitutional case law.

So when

you look to when you can suppress somebody because of something that might happen.

It has to be because they are inciting or advocating an unlawful action that will happen imminently.

Otherwise you get into very perilous territory because it could be about somebody's status in relation to a fear as opposed to something that the state, the government is really worried about happening imminently.

And this is in very, very, very tough cases, this is how

This is how the courts have figured out how to resolve.

How do you balance the First Amendment with our interest in a lack of violence?

And this is why you see, you know, I mean the

outside of abortion clinics, you've seen a lot of harassment and threats, but as long as it doesn't get into the territory.

Excuse me.

I appreciate that.

I understand that.

I just wanted to get an extra clarification on whether these can be defined as gangs.

And if they can be defined as gangs, does that give us any other latitude in terms of controlling them, preventing them from coming?

And I certainly want to follow up on Councillor Szakos' concerns about the expressed violence

activities for the August 12 event.

Just a few comments.

As you can see, we're almost trying the case up here on the fly.

It's a very difficult problem.

It is not a simple, it does not have a simple solution.

They have attorneys and the attorneys are telling them you can do this and you could probably go a little bit further than that, but beyond that you're going to be in trouble.

They have attorneys giving them legal advice on what to do and how to do it.

So what we're concerned about is

One event at this point that the KKK is planning to come up to Charlottesville.

They do that for recruitment purposes, they do it for publicity, and they're going to get a ton of publicity probably.

I would be very careful about giving them a second opportunity to recruit, and that is to file a lawsuit that the legal people tell us very likely would be denied on the grounds of free speech.

So instead of just one problem, I wouldn't want to end up having two big problems.

So I think I'll leave it at that.

It is a very difficult situation.

And that's why the chief of police and the city council and the faith community are working very hard to figure out what the city should do and how to do it.

I'll just add a couple of notes.

Public safety is paramount.

We are consulting very actively with our police chief every day who is doing a ton of work behind the scenes and publicly and with a lot of stakeholder groups on how, what is the strategy of our public safety force, number one job of

Government is to keep people safe and there is a ton of work going into this with guidance from the law and with guidance from constitutional law.

So these are very difficult issues.

I think that if we do get guidance that there are constitutional grounds for acting against these events, then I think there's interest in that.

the constitutional law is, and I hear the pain and the concern in the community and I've felt it and I think we all have felt it.

I'll just give one specific example.

One of the foundational texts in American constitutional law is called Nazis and Skokie and it was about an incident where Nazis did a march through the town of Skokie, Indiana which was

which had a significant population of Holocaust survivors and it was as much of a hate act, as violent as anybody could perceive somebody marching through their town and the town stood by the right of that group to have that parade through their town

and they stood by it because of our First Amendment and because of the different philosophical idea that you expose this trash to sunlight and it suffers a worse fate than by suppressing it and what that does to the broader country if you stop the noxious ideas if they don't come to the point of imminent incitement, imminent unlawful action.

The concern is what it does to the whole country, to Ms. Szakos's very eloquent point,

and this is kind of a question of taking a short term reaction to something that's happening on one day or one month versus what does it do to the system or the country as a whole that really does depend on the First Amendment and on if it doesn't come to unlawful action imminently, you

We're going to deal with it and you turn your eyes much as they did in Skokie.

It is the best accommodation we've come to in this country for a very very difficult problem that we're going to deal with unfortunately here in this community.

And you will hear a lot of plans tomorrow that are coming up from the community for how to give people an alternative that is robust, that is to our values, and that denies these people what they're looking for, which is confrontation and celebrity.

So that'll be tomorrow afternoon.

That's the last thing I wanted to say about this, but we will continue grappling with this.

Ms. Galvin, I apologize for interrupting in your remarks.

And we understand that people are frightened.

And we're going to do everything we can to try and reassure you in the weeks ahead.

OK. Moving on now to the agenda.

All right.

OK.

Ms. Rice, would you mind reading it?

Mr. Mayor, before we do that, do you mind if I read, just read the tweaked resolution for the, this is under item, let's see, item I.

Just wanted to read the tweaked resolution so folks can see this in council.

Sure.

So this is the cancellation of the July 3rd City Council meeting and the approval of a July 5th special meeting of the City Council.

The resolution reads, be it resolved by the Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia,

that the July 3rd regularly scheduled city council meeting will be canceled in observance of the July 4th holiday weekend.

Be it further resolved that the council will hold a special meeting of the city council on Wednesday, July 5th, 2017, beginning at 7 p.m. in the city council chambers.

Be it further resolved that these changes will be publicized with the city press release, updated on the city's calendar, and posted at the clerk of the council's office.

Thank you.

Item A, minutes for June 5th, 2017.

Item B, appropriation transfer of funds for the Thomas Jefferson Health District Building to the Joint Health Department Building Fund, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation, additional funding for Family Services Program, $82,694, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation, Virginia Department of Health Special Nutrition Program Summer Food Service Program, $90,000, first of two readings.

Item E, an appropriation, $23,312.37 to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund for Repayment of Rehabilitation Loan, first of two readings.

Item F, a resolution, Darden Tow Park Agreement, first of one reading.

Item G, a resolution, adoption of Department of Housing and Urban Development Handbook 1378, first of one reading.

Item H, a resolution, converting long-term temporary commissioner of revenue business tax auditor to regular full-time, first of one reading.

Item I, a resolution revision of council meeting calendar for CY 2017, first of one reading.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make the motion, but I also want to call out one item on the consent agenda.

The commissioner of the revenue position, the assistant, I believe, to the

Long-term temporary commissioner of the revenue business tax auditor to regular full-time.

I just wanted to say that when we first considered that, we wanted to make sure that that position was going to pay for itself before we made it a permanent position.

and since most people just have the one page agenda within our report on this, it does say that that position has been responsible for bringing in $907,140 in taxes that were due to the city that weren't being paid before.

So that makes a lighter burden on other taxpayers, it makes the system more fair and so I think it's a great thing that

They were right.

Mr. Diver's twin brother, who does not have a goatee, is here with us.

All right.

That's my motion.

Thank you.

OK. Any further discussion or questions?

All in favor?

There's five to zero, thank you.

All right, we now move to a very meaty agenda with a lot in it.

All right, item number two, Resolution Fiscal Year 2018-2020 Strategic Plan and City Council Annual Work Plan, first of one reading.

We're 20 minutes in this, we might make it a little quicker.

That means we have a full vote.

Leslie Beauregard, Assistant City Manager will be presenting.

All right.

Here we go.

Yeah, that's great.

Thanks, Page.

All right, good evening, everybody.

It's been a while since we've talked about the strategic plan, but we're getting close to actually needing to start implementing this, so I'll do a real quick PowerPoint.

We'll go over the history really quickly.

Almost, gosh, four years ago, we decided to embark on a citywide plan.

That next summer, city council adopted their first citywide plan for 2015-17.

and then we decided last summer, July, to start refreshing our existing plan.

We didn't want to say we were redoing the entire plan.

The plan itself had some really great elements to it.

We wanted to just simply refresh it and I'll talk about that in a minute.

In November 2016, city council reviewed and you provided input on the plan and then city staff took the last several months to actually take that input and rework those parts of the plan that you wanted to see adjusted.

which we have done.

So the current plan is like I said is an update not a total redo.

We've kept many of the same elements of the plan.

We looked at the surveys again, the citizen surveys that we have, the employee surveys that we have for that community feedback and then we did several interviews.

If you remember it was about a year ago that we first did interviews with city council

and then we talked to several subject matter experts throughout the organization and throughout the process.

Overall we had about 10 meetings, 100 plus more staff and city council were engaged and we spent at least 40 hours refreshing this plan, probably more than that.

So characteristics of the refresh plan, it's more strategic.

We've simplified it where we're able to.

We focused really hard on the performance management and measurement system.

If you're a member of city council, I know it's been a while, but when we had your retreat in November, we really had you focus more on the measures and that was very helpful.

We wanted to know from you what you would, what's assessment for you for this plan in terms of the data that you wanted to see.

We were able to cut the initiatives down from 60 in the current plan back to 23.

Doesn't mean those other initiatives went away.

They just went into departments unnecessarily or they were more refined as part of the 23 initiatives.

It's a more cross-functional plan, whereas it's really looking cross-departmental rather than individual departments.

And it takes advantage of the current studies, plans, surveys, and partnerships that we have successfully that are already underway.

So we're not recreating the wheel in that respect.

So here are each of the goals, and the red represents City Council's changes at that November retreat.

So under the Goal 1 title, you'll see where that change was made.

It's now an inclusive community of self-sufficient residents.

The only change made on this goal under the objectives was that an objective was added to intentionally address issues of race and equity.

The other measures, the outcome measures, which speak to the goal did not change.

We talked a lot about them.

You wanted to know about what we could get in terms of census data, what we could get in terms of demographics, and we'll talk about that a little bit more in Goal 2.

So we're going to be working on that as well.

Here's the intermediate measures.

You asked for a lot of housing data, which we were able to expand.

I spoke to our housing coordinator and got a lot of great information here.

So all that red is information we added that you requested that we add as part of the plan.

And all that really has to do with housing.

The rest of those were there already as part of the plan that you would review back in November.

Under goal two, a healthy and safe city, we added three outcome measures, one on crime rates and percentage change over time.

Traffic was talked about a lot at your retreat, so we added an outcome measure about traffic incident rates and percentage change over time, and then we added infant mortality rate.

The objectives did not change from the plan that we presented to you back in November, or you did not have any feedback on changing those.

Under the intermediate measures, we wanted to make sure we captured the DMC measures, which we will do, and then gun activity.

We talked about that quite a bit as well during the retreat.

We talked about heroin opiate use as well.

The rest of those measures on there we talked about, and there were no changes to those.

Under Goal 3, the When Outcome measure was added, trying to capture revenue generation before and after development.

and then under the objectives, those did not change from the original objectives that you were presented with.

Under intermediate measures, that percentage of tree canopy citywide was added by you as well by city council back in November.

The rest of these intermediate measures were a part of the original plan.

There's a lot of good measures here.

Under goal four, this did not change.

The only thing that changed here was the name of goal four.

You added creative, so it's now a strong creative and diversified economy.

The outcome measures, those four listed there and the objectives did not change.

And the intermediate measures also did not change from the retreat feedback that we received.

Finally, under goal five, this is the internal goal.

This is how we as an organization measure ourselves.

Again, the outcome measures did not change and neither did the objectives that we presented to you last fall.

And under the intermediate measures, you wanted to make sure that you could capture citizens engaging in open public comment at all city government meetings with public comment.

And that was added as an intermediate measure as well.

So those are the extent of the changes made since the retreat and a lot of that work was confirmed with staff between January and April to make sure we actually could collect this data and we actually had the means to do that.

I'm sorry, this is hard to read.

In addition to that, you were presented an email a few weeks ago.

Mr. Jones sent out an email about your annual work plan items.

Remember, this was part of the efficiency study recommendation.

This was actually the first efficiency study recommendation that came out of that report.

was to develop an annual work plan.

The really important aspect of this is we should try really hard to make sure those work plan items are actually tied to the strategic plan.

Some of these were very easily able to tie to the strategic plan.

For instance, workforce development, that is obviously a part of the strategic plan.

Affordable housing as well.

I have a question is, do we need to add a redevelopment initiative?

We probably should think about adding a redevelopment, I'm sorry, yeah, an initiative about redevelopment.

We have affordable housing there, but it seems like redevelopment's a little bit different animal that we need to think about adding that.

Under goal two, traffic management, that's obviously a safety issue from what I understand, and so that fits well within that goal.

Under goal three, there's several work plan items that fit well, SIA, West Main, Streetscape, Code Audit, small area plans.

and then there's one initiative actually that was added under goal three to administer implementation tools consistent with comprehensive plan priorities that was added as part of the retreat as well.

Moving on to goal four, the work plan items listed include art support and strategy, creative economy promotion, parking strategies and implementation and under goal five, one initiative was added to develop a framework of citizen engagement which is also a work plan item.

So those are the work plan items we were able to identify that fit very easily within the strategic plan framework itself.

It can be easily aligned with those initiatives.

There are several that didn't quite fit as nicely into the strategic plan, but we assume that you want to report out on these on a regular basis, and so that's what we're proposing tonight.

Those include the Belmont Bridge, Dewberry Hotel, UVA Relationships slash Projects, Efficiency Study, which actually have its own reporting mechanism and scorecard.

I put under that the NDS review, which I'll talk about when we talk about the Efficiency Study in July.

Historic Memorials and City Innovation which actually we considered as a wraparound value.

It really is a value because it's very specifically in our creativity value that says innovation in that value.

So we didn't really see that as a separate issue although we have initiatives around innovation such as open data which you'll hear about tonight and we have an innovation team which is a staff driven team that is looking at innovation across the city.

So there are definitely things to report out on but we didn't really see that as a separate item necessarily and we saw that as kind of a wrap around to a lot of different things.

So we have some

In terms of recording mechanisms and frequency, we're building all these scorecards in ClearPoint, which has been our scorecard software that we've been using since 2010.

And I hope this works.

I had a heck of a time with it earlier today.

I just wanted to show you what this looks like, what it could look like.

Oh yeah, I'm continuing.

This is goal one.

And you have the objectives listed here.

On the right, all these are able to be clicked, by the way.

So you can drill down even further into each of these.

You have intermediate measures.

I'll drill down into the affordable housing one in a moment.

And then you have initiatives.

And you can see here where they're tied to certain departments.

Here, human services, community attention.

economic development and such.

And then we have one more here.

There's a few others.

So we have neighborhoods.

So you can see how we're also tying these to specific departments as well.

But let me click on the affordable housing measure just to show you what that could look like.

So this is not limited to this.

There's a ton of ways you could represent this.

But just for simplicity, we have a description.

We have the data.

We have analysis.

and then any recommendations that we will have.

So this is what you would see quarterly.

Yes, ma'am.

So this is a great question because it's exactly why we're gonna show you this data.

My assumption at first was that is the number of new supported affordable housing units per year.

but that could be clarified.

And that's why it's really good to look at this data and have people ask questions.

Because I looked at this and I assumed that's what it was.

But it doesn't say who.

And it would be great to have a companion bar of existing units

Total, so that you get a sense right away of what that percentage is.

Exactly.

No, that's perfect.

That's definitely the right direction.

No, that's great feedback.

I think, you know, I appreciate that because that's exactly the type of feedback we want to hear from city council and the public as to what type of data, how that should be represented to help you make decisions with this information now and in the future.

So this again, this is not limited to what you see here.

There's a million different ways you could show this information.

Go back on the screen.

So this will be, like I said, we'll start rolling this out in the next couple of months.

Let me show you what the other chart looks like for the work plan.

And again, this is something that where we could align it with the strategic plan where it makes sense we would do that.

Come on.

Are we on?

Well, I said yes to that other thing and it didn't work.

Oh no, what did you just do?

Anyway, I'll send you the link to that.

I was almost done, so I think I just had one more slide and I can talk through that really fast.

So your first report on the strategic plan and your work plan will be mid to late October so we'll go by fiscal year quarter.

The annual work plan as a whole will be revisited in 2018 in February once we have a new council member and a new council in place.

So tonight what we're asking is for you to approve the 2018-20 strategic plan as is or if you have any modifications.

We're actually working on the roles and responsibilities of implementing the plan right now.

We're going to make it much more robust than we had for the former plan and then also tonight to kind of approve that work plan either with or without modifications and we can talk about those if you like.

I have a question.

I seem to recall in the past that the idea was that the strategic plan would have a three-year life before it has to be renewed.

I mean, my personal opinion is let us work with the outcome measures we have before you.

Now, the strategic plan is supposed to be a dynamic document, so it changes.

So you may decide later, well, that's not the measure we want to see.

Maybe it's this one.

And so that's what I like about strategic planning is it's not static.

You can adjust things as we go along.

If you're not getting the information you think you should be getting, then we can make adjustments.

But right now, the preference is let us move forward with what we have in front of us.

What was that?

And it was related to, we added all those measures for affordable housing.

Right.

And I thought we were going to also look at it by geography, by census tracts.

So I have a note, it's not in here, but it is a note in a document that's kind of my working document where we can get census track data, we should have census track data reported.

Perfect.

So it's on my mind as we move forward.

Okay, I just didn't see that.

Yeah, it's just not in here because it's kind of a side note, but we did talk about it.

That's OK.

It's a scorecard that lists the initiatives, and it would be linked also the ones that link to the strategic plan.

And again, this is something that would be reported out quarterly as well.

And again, this is your work plan, so it can change as you wish as well.

Yes, ma'am?

One thing that I'm not necessarily

saying that we have to alter it tonight because I really sense you're like, we got this far because of what you already gave us.

And so before we start adding more, let it run for a little bit.

But there was something that was brought up in public comment this evening that I think probably is something we will want to be looking at ongoing.

We don't have to put it in the strategic plan if we don't need to.

But I think that specifically when we're looking at affordability, supported affordable housing,

some way to keep track of affordability at the very lowest level, the up to 40% AMI.

I think that that's often the most desperately needed housing, if not the most needed housing.

And so I think it's good for us to at least have some sense of where we are on that.

And you've said yourself that you were talking about adding an initiative on redevelopment.

I mean, if there's agreement to that, we can easily come up with some wording on that.

I think it became apparent that that was becoming, that's really, I mean, I'm surprised we missed that, actually, to be honest, because we've been talking about it for a while.

So we'll just add some wording on the initiative for that.

I thought it was exactly, well who knows exactly, but it was very much what I anticipated which made me happy and I personally am very pleased that it's what we've been talking about some kind of bringing some order into a lot of the different you know octopus legs that we have going and I know that this makes it easier to have the interface between staff and council but I think it also as it goes online and we can and people can get at those data measures

I want to say thanks to, I mean a lot goes into this sort of thing and there's a platform and it took a little while to do carefully.

There's a lot that goes into the interaction that we have with Mr. Jones as well.

We're counseling, do this, do this, do this and we want all this done because CEO of the government and this is a way that to put it all in the one place I think you see how this is what we try to do with a with a well-run government that can absorb all the different stuff that we

you all with our pet projects with different imperatives and you've got a very active council, a very active citizenry so a place to put that into one place that also not just can absorb everything that we've put into so far but that can grow and expand with whatever else we come up with over the next

A few years I think is really good.

And we'll be putting things in place that put the strategic plan more in the public eye in terms of the discussions, having you all talk about it on a regular basis.

I mean, we'll just make sure it's a lot more places in the organization, not just for city staff.

If I may add, I would not have had to spend most of my weekend going over my questions and I would not have had to send my questions to Ms. Pethia today because they would have already been available.

All those data points on housing were what I basically asked for.

So this is excellent work.

Thank you so much.

You have been

The champion of this, Ms. Beauregard, and you should be applauded for it.

Great.

OK.

So do you need a motion to adopt the work plan?

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I move that we adopt the strategic plan and the work plan as presented.

Second.

And the census tract, but you're going to do that anyway?

Questions, comments?

All in favor?

I have zero, thank you.

All right.

Item three was, as I mentioned, moved to a future meeting.

That was the Verizon Wireless Bar Appeal.

Item number four is a resolution housing advisory committee recommendations.

This is another first of one reading.

We have 30 minutes allocated to this on the agenda.

We may

And Mr. Mayor, just wanted to remind you that we are at our two hour limit.

We're at nine o'clock.

Okay.

We're already at nine o'clock.

I think we should probably take a break.

Do you mind waiting 10 minutes and then we'll

Everyone back in your seats.

Well, let's try and do a quick break.

If you could do six minutes.

Dr. Patia, so reconvening.

Item number four, Housing Advisory Committee recommendations.

Good evening.

Last November, I was here before you, and I presented a list of 35 recommendations that the Housing Advisory Committee, or HAC, had compiled based on the results and recommendations from the Charlottesville Comprehensive Housing Market

Analysis and Policy Recommendations Report by RCLCo or Robert Charles Lesser Company.

At that time, the HAC had not prioritized that list of recommendations in any type of priority for action.

So during their quarterly meeting this past February, the HAC identified the need to further refine that list of recommendations by identifying a number of policy priorities for actions that city council can take action on.

and tonight I am here to present that list of priority recommendations.

The recommendations I'm about to give you have been reviewed by all members of the HAC and received unanimous approval during a special HAC meeting on March 15th of this year.

The recommendations are divided into two categories.

The first category is recommendations for immediate action with immediate

The first category, immediate action with immediate benefits, includes five recommendations and they are as follows.

Number one,

Direct the city manager to immediately identify and sell or lease appropriate city-owned properties for affordable housing development and to investigate additional land purchase for affordable housing.

Staff has already actually begun addressing this recommendation.

I have compiled a list of current vacant properties, city-owned properties throughout the city that are located within residentially zoned areas.

I am going to network next with our GIS specialist,

to identify vacant city-owned properties in other areas, non-residentially zoned areas.

Once we have that together, I will work with the HAC to review those properties and see which ones might be appropriate for affordable housing development and bring those to you at a future date.

Second recommendation.

is to double the annual contribution to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund or CAF.

You have already approved that and we would all like to thank you for doing so.

The third recommendation is to create a landlord risk reduction fund.

Landlord risk reduction funds which provide financial assistance to landlords

to offset the cost of unit repairs due to tenant damage have been successfully implemented by cities across the country and they are often created in response to very low vacancy rates combined with high rental housing costs in their respective areas.

Research conducted in 2016 by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness reports that city programs they studied experienced low usage of the funds by landlords

while adding, while allowing them to successfully use the funds to recruit new landlords into affordable housing programs.

Locally, if created, the goal of the landlord risk reduction fund would be to reduce private market landlord concerns regarding rental income lost due to excessive property damage.

It would also

helped to preserve the number of rental units available in the city to low-income households and would also help to increase the number of city landlords willing to lease affordable units to low-income families.

Landlords would be able to access the funds in exchange for green to relit the unit at an affordable price.

Additionally, the fund may also act as a security deposit waiver tool.

in which landlords would agree to waive a new tenant security deposit in exchange for the ability to access funds if necessary at least termination.

The fourth recommendation is to waive developer fees for either A, all developments providing a minimum of 15% onsite affordable housing units or B, projects triggering the city's affordable dwelling or ADU ordinance that provide the required ADUs onsite.

The HAC has not identified any specific fees that could be waived for affordable housing development.

However, staff has reviewed the city's current fee schedule and suggests the following waivers.

Site plan review fees, both preliminary and final site plan reviews.

and building permit fees.

Combined with those fee waivers combined with the current fee waivers for water and sewer meter connection fees that we already provide for affordable housing development, that would save approximately $5,000 per unit in development costs and requiring the affordable units on site will help ensure a mix of incomes and new residential developments throughout the city.

Finally, the HAC recommends providing approximately $900,000 to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to establish and administer a supplemental rental assistance program.

According to a December 2016 report from the CRHA, the agency is currently authorized by HUD to issue approximately 533 housing choice vouchers.

However, due to high cost of housing in our area,

This has led to a shortfall of program funding of approximately 130 vouchers.

The Supplemental Rental Assistance Program will allow the CRHA to assist those additional families.

The program would operate similarly to the Federal Voucher Program and would be administered by the Housing Authority.

And currently, an intern from University of Virginia's Batten School is working with the Housing Authority to determine the most appropriate program structure.

The final three recommendations presented tonight fall under the category of immediate action with future benefits.

The recommendations in this category include one, prioritizing inclusion of affordable housing and all city-led development.

Two, instructing staff, consultants, planning commissioners, and other persons parties involved in the development of a form-based code to prioritize and maximize increased floor area ratio and other allowances as tools for increasing affordable housing development in the city.

and three, instructing staff consultants, planning commissioners and other persons parties involved in code audits, zoning ordinance updates and other applicable policy updates to prioritize all allowable land use and planning tools including increased density in order to stimulate affordable housing development in the city.

Each of these three recommendations, if approved, will help ensure the City's affordable housing needs remain a priority in current and future development efforts as well as in the City's planning activities.

The preceding recommendations have been shared with and reviewed by other city staff.

There were some concerns that were raised during that review process and I will present those now.

So first, staff strongly supports waiving developer fees for developments triggering the city's ADU ordinance in exchange for providing the required ADUs on site.

Currently, non-profit developers are able to request funding from the CAF to support construction of their affordable housing projects.

Second, the city has explored landlord risk reduction funds in the past and this was in relation to

Youth Aging Out of the Foster Care System.

During that review process, it was found that the models that they examined actually raised some significant litigation and liability issues for the city.

So staff recommends that that program be placed on hold until further research can be done and a model identified that will address those liability issues.

And finally, city staff have a number of questions and concerns related to the recommendation to create a city-funded rental assistance program.

And these concerns include one, who receives assistance through the program.

Ideally, a city-funded rental assistance program would draw recipients from the housing choice voucher waiting list.

However, households from across the country can apply to the program when the waiting list is open.

The questions were would everybody on the waiting list be able to receive funding or would it be limited to City of Charlottesville residents or other priority populations.

also rental assistance programs managed by other cities tend to prioritize special populations such as homeless individuals or families or other households with special needs and questions were raised as to whether the city would prioritize certain populations such as those for assistance.

Number two, which locations will be approved for rental assistance?

Would the city require households receiving assistance live in the city of Charlottesville or would they be able to use their vouchers or rental assistance outside anywhere in the region?

Three, is there enough affordable housing available in the city to make the program work?

According to the RCL Co study, the demand for housing that is affordable to families earning less than 50% of area median income outstrips supply by approximately 400 units.

So the housing and demand supply mismatch really needs to be considered when any program is being put into place.

Four, will assistance be ongoing or will assistance be provided for a set term such as two years?

Number five, does the Housing Authority have the capacity to administer an additional program or is there another city department that can administer the program such as the Department of Human Services or the Department of Social Services?

And the final concern is will a supplemental rental assistance program be sustainable?

What would happen to households receiving assistance should a future city council choose to defund the program?

If that were to happen and we had placed, say, 100 families into housing,

those 100 families could potentially be at risk of becoming homeless.

To help address these issues, staff recommends the following considerations in developing a supplemental rental assistance program should the City Council wish to do so.

First, the staff recommends prioritizing program assistance for households currently on the Housing Authority's waiting list, giving highest priority to current City of Charlottesville residents,

Next in line would be those applicants who have been working in the city for two years, for at least two years, and then homeless population.

Second, the city recommends prioritizing use of rental subsidies within the city of Charlottesville itself.

However, given the lack of affordable housing within the city, staff would recommend providing waivers to those families who have not, who have been seeking housing for 90 days, have not been able to do so.

They would then be provided a waiver to look for housing within the

Albemarle County.

Third, staff recommends identifying the maximum number of households that can be served by the request of $900,000 and then guarantee rental assistance for half of that number for a period of two years.

That way, should a future city council defund the program, those families would be provided several months cushion in order to locate new housing or assistance.

And finally, staff recommends no funding

be committed to a rental assistance program until further research has been conducted to better understand the potential feasibility of the program and until a program structure has been developed.

Mr. Mayor, I'm wondering if I see that the chair of the HAC is here.

I'm not sure if he's... Mr. Geronzi, are you interested in doing that?

Do you have any comments you'd like to make for a couple minutes about what went into this or the ideas here?

We need you up here if you're going to even do the back and forth.

Or you don't have to.

I mean, you could just wait for questions, but I think it'd be great.

Yes, Phil Veronzio, HAC Chair, 1110 East Market Street.

So we, as Dr. Pathier pointed out, the remit to the HAC was find us the low hanging fruit.

from this rather extensive list.

And we pared that down to things in the two categories as described, the things that can have an immediate impact that an immediate action would take, an immediate action that would have a relatively brisk impact moving forward.

On most of these issues and most of the things that we have drawn the conclusions about, there really isn't, doesn't seem to be any difficulty

On the point of this housing voucher program, some of the concerns of staff, I think, frankly, are things that the HAC has already decided to address and has already decided.

We've already formed a committee for the purposes of exploring these step by step by step.

And the concern would be that if we're looking for immediate action and relatively quick

relatively quick response that if we go back and essentially punt on that piece of it, it's sort of self-defeating and we're not going to be able to move forward.

Some of the issues that staff address, and I really have not addressed them deeply and have not looked very deeply at each and every concern, but it seems to me that some of them can be addressed

relatively quickly and those that can't can be addressed within a framework of we're going to do this, we just need to sort of sharpen up the policy on how to get each one of these items done.

So that's sort of the stance of the original intent was we've got it now, we have an immediate need, we can satisfy this immediate need fairly quickly, let's, you know,

with all of the statement of let's develop some units, well, here they are.

Thank you.

I should note we also have Mr. Duffield, who's the executive director of CRHA, who could perhaps answer questions.

I wonder, given the centrality, if you'd want to come up and give a couple minutes on what's envisioned here.

Is that OK?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of Council.

My name is Grant Duffield.

I am the Executive Director of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Thank you for giving me a few minutes to speak with you this evening.

As Dr. Pethia has presented to Council this evening, significant work has been done in recent months concerning the proposed city-funded

and the Rental Assistance Program.

Numerous hours have been spent by the HAC and by the subcommittee of the HAC to investigate this program and to begin to lay some structural groundwork around the program itself.

As mentioned earlier, we have an intern who is working with us who is also investing their research hours or course credit with CRHA.

To the extent that

that I'm able, I would recommend to council that council adopt the funding of this program and to the exclusion of the staff recommendations number one, three, and four.

Number two certainly seems quite reasonable.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

Number one seeks to set the prioritization for

the funding as far as which households individuals would receive potentially receive rental support.

Two allows a participant to find housing outside of Charlottesville if they encounter a lack of housing, affordable housing within Charlottesville.

Three sets a cap of

$900,000 to be basically expended over two years.

In that case, we're probably looking at serving 50 to 60 families as opposed to 100 to 120 families.

I fully support, would ask council's favorable consideration, funding the program with the exclusion of recommendation 1, 3, and 4.

As to capacity of CRHA to administer the program, as

shared with Dr. Pathia and HAC over the past several months.

CRHA is permitted by HUD to administer up to 533 vouchers.

We currently administer about 400.

We have got the design capacity within the system to handle another 130 with our existing staff.

I would commit to council without going to my board, which I need to do, but

and as much as I can, I would commit to council that 100% of the funding that's provided by city council would be placed back on the street, back in the use of the vouchers, i.e.

Does that make sense?

So 130,

How many people does that work?

It's absolutely going to depend on the household size.

Our average

So that's about $120,000.

A lot of people forget, I just want to highlight some people have said Charlottesville, you know, has so much impact.

We feel like a city of 250,000 people, but we are a city of almost 50,000 people.

So just numbers of a hundred, couple hundred are not a small percentage of our

And these are all dollars that flow back into the local economy.

I'll lose that point.

So any questions?

So I want to say thank you for your work.

I know this is a long time coming.

My only question or comment for that matter would be, what was the collaboration between the HAC

and the CRHA in this process.

I know Mr. Duffield was involved, but I would love to see us kind of move towards a model of collaboration and communication with both boards because I've heard this from a few different members of the community and members on the CRHA board.

So Mr. Duffield is a member of the HAC, so he was there throughout this entire discussion and helped set these priority recommendations.

The HAC meetings are open to the public and they are announced, so we have had members from far come to the meetings and provide input into, or at least comment on things that have been going on, so we know we have their support for these recommendations.

I'm happy to find new ways to collaborate with anybody through all of this with the hack.

I just have a comment.

It's very hard for me anyway as a policymaker to receive a report that is kind of like gives me a few steps forward, but then is

I'm hacked with questions that pull me about 10 steps back.

And I'm struggling with this quite a bit.

And I'm not sure how much time was the hack given these questions to grapple with before this proposal was brought to us.

That's fine.

So the HAC didn't get those questions?

Okay.

And maybe this is in the realm of hypothetical, but if the HAC had some time to work with you and all the parties involved, these questions could be answered and then we could actually get much more clarity.

All the questions from staff on Pages.

Of those questions?

Yeah.

Mr. Duffield said to exclude one, three, and one, two, and four.

I mean, it's very difficult for me to think about adopting this resolution as it's written with these questions.

And then furthermore, a layer of qualifications by some of the members of HAC as well.

So I'm just expressing that.

I just think it would

As a member of the advisory group, I do sit on the hack and I missed a couple of the meetings, but I've been involved in this discussion.

Inclination with this recommendation is that we accept it and try to figure out where we actually need to get more implementation time, like for things like the $900,000 for the vouchers and the landlord risk reduction fund.

I would like to see us approve those and say, yes, we want that.

And I know that there are some, you know,

issues that staff has brought up that are very reasonable issues.

And so give staff and the HAC until, say, September 16th to come back to us with an implementation plan for making it happen rather than say, we're not sure we want it to happen, so let's just punt it down the road a little bit further.

So I'd rather kind of make it a motion of exclusion rather than the other way around.

or inclusion rather than exclusion.

So I'm inclined to say that I would want us to approve all of these and in the case of those two, which are the most seemingly problematic as far as staff is concerned, to say council instruct staff to research and propose implementation plan by September 16th for appropriate program structure.

I mean I'm interested in what, what Councillor Szakos has just said.

I've written my approach which was to create two different buckets.

One was immediately adopt tonight.

I could go with that.

I could certainly go with that.

And the other two remaining bullets for the public's information was to establish targets.

I mean, real hard targets for new constructed units, rehab units and voucher units, and then also to establish

implementation strategies to create places where these go.

And that would take time.

That would take time and probably would need to be in sync with the quarterly report of the strategic plan.

So that's

So the public understands this has been about a draft.

A lot is going on in this.

Which we'll read out loud.

Councilor Galvin prepared a draft resolution that I'm working with staff and councilors to figure this out.

So yeah, I think we're probably ready to get to the.

Does anybody have anything else they want to include in the motion?

OK.

Well, I'll just read it as the friendly amendment as proposed by Ms. Szakos.

So again, the motion reads as is in our packet.

but the first be it resolved is by the Council for the City of Charlottesville, Virginia that the Charlottesville Conference of Housing Study Priority Policy Recommendations as listed below and presented to the City Council on June 19, 2017 are hereby accepted and approved for implementation and the list is as follows.

Identifying city-owned property for affordable housing development and sell lease those properties to interested developers.

Such properties include vacant parcels with or without associated structures and city owner occupied buildings nearing obsolescence.

Second bullet point, waiving developer fees for developments, triggering the city's affordable

dwelling unit ordinance in exchange for providing the required affordable dwelling units on site.

And then may I interrupt to add, to put in my language for the next section?

Okay, so those are the next two.

Be it further resolved by the Council for the City of Charlottesville, or by the Council that the Charlottesville

Priority policy recommendations listed below and presented to City Council on June 19, 2017 are hereby accepted and approved.

And Council instructs staff to research and propose implementation plans by September 16 for appropriate program structure.

And then the two bullet points are prioritizing program assistance for households currently on the CRHA's HCV program, the use of rental subsidies within the city and the inclusion of affordable housing in city-led development,

and Bullock, too, creating a landlord risk reduction fund and providing $900,000 to the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority for the creation and administration of a supplemental rental assistance program.

And then, OK, I think I get what you're doing.

So be it further resolved by the council for the city of Charlottesville, Virginia that the Charlottesville Comprehensive Housing Study Priority Policy Recommendations, as listed below and presented by the city council, which

as listed below, are accepted and approved for further study.

And those are, first bullet point, establishing targets for newly constructed units, rehab units, and voucher units for supported affordable housing across a three-year period to be in sync with the city's strategic plan horizon and based on valid growth protections by

the AECOM's water supply plan study and other research such that the 15% supported affordable housing goal is achieved over time citywide and second bullet point establishing research based policy and implementation strategies to provide supported assisted units in keeping with the city's conference of housing goal to encourage mixed-income neighborhoods and discourage the isolation of very low and low-income households.

Be it further resolved by the council that

May I make one more?

I'm okay with that.

I'd just like to make a friendly amendment looking at the structure.

Is there any way that we could include the staff and the HAC to figure out the structure in terms of how all of this is going to be worked out?

Like, we direct in the staff and the HAC to work together to do that?

No.

I mean the city staff.

How about council instruct staff and the housing advisory committee to research and propose implementation?

I do, I just...

It's her motion, I'm sorry.

Ms. Galvin, you're in charge.

He was distracting you, that's what it is.

I wasn't looking at my iPhone.

Oh, I see, okay, I misunderstood.

Yeah, and I think what Mr. Brown was trying to suggest to me was that that could happen

I would prefer that it would be included inside the resolution just so that there's no confusion later down the line.

Oh, it doesn't matter where you want to put it.

It could be, so where as the Housing Advisory Committee with staff reviewed the report and approved a set of priority policy recommendations?

No, but then where do we, the coordination comes at the very last, because as I had written it, was that these

Recommendations would be further investigated by staff, the Housing Advisory Committee and Planning Commission and brought back to City Council for review.

Mr. Bellamy is the mover, I think you have to suggest where it will go.

We adopt this and we direct staff to make sure it's coordinated.

Thank you.

So again, to reiterate, it's

For clarity's sake, we've got basically a three-part resolution where the first part is adopting all of the HAC recommendations and implementing them.

The second part is taking those HAC recommendations that needed additional

Research in putting a time frame on it, saying that that needs to be resolved by September 16.

And then the third piece of this resolution is new challenge, new task for the HAC, which is to establish unit targets for new construction, rehab, and the voucher program based on growth projections, as well as researching what you're already doing, but coming up with policy and implementation strategies

to help us figure out where they go so that we meet our comprehensive planning goals.

And that one has an October 23, 2013 deadline to be in sync with the city's first strategic plan quarterly report.

2017, sorry.

This was really a team effort.

We have a motion and a second.

Okay, any further comments?

One really quick comment, which is I just want the public to understand a ton of work has gone into this.

We have a big affordable housing challenge ahead of us.

We hear about this frequently.

The city's in demand.

Population went up 12%.

We just had a, in the last six years we just had a city council race and this came up a lot.

We are making a big decision the city council made was to double our spending on affordable housing.

That big commitment with a lot of dollars, about eight and a half million dollars over five years.

We are making a decision in this to put over 30% of that total money every year into rental assistance, which is a specific thing that we can do under Virginia law.

This is not rent control.

It's rental assistance.

It's going to help a bunch of people.

It is a choice.

It will mean that we can't put some of those dollars toward other things.

We have to make choices with limited dollars with two times as much money.

I will just counter, but I know our time is up and I'd like to ask for maybe two more minutes, that the other items on this list will hopefully generate funding and financing for affordable housing from other sources than the city.

So I think that that balance is shifting a little bit, but I think we're also lifting the other side of the equation.

And I'm also just going to point out, I'm heading tonight, well tomorrow morning,

It seems like 5.30 in the morning to a National League of Cities meeting and on Thursday I'm on a national task force on economic mobility and on the subcommittee of that task force on housing, affordable housing.

And I will say that although I've learned a lot and we're coming up with a lot of ideas that we haven't been able to implement either because of state law or because we haven't done them yet,

The efforts that Charlottesville is doing are noticed by other cities that are looking to us for leadership, so I think we always have more to learn.

There are things that we're clearly not getting as right as we could, but we have been working on this now for about nine years in a really intensive way, and it's showing.

Thank you.

Okay.

All in favor?

Busy, busy night, everyone, tonight, really.

We're not even, so item number five, resolution disadvantaged business enterprise update.

First of one reading means we have a full vote again here.

Ms. Jennifer Steffenhofer will be presenting procurement and risk manager for the city.

So back in May, Vice Mayor Bellamy requested that council consider action on several issues.

One is a draft ordinance for the formation of the Charlottesville Minority Business Council.

One is the Charlottesville Minority Contracting Resolution.

Another is the number three is the Bonding Ordinance for Charlottesville.

And the fourth document is a resolution outlining procedures for prequalification of prospective construction contractors.

All of these documents fall under the scope of the city's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

The city is required, both under state statute and federal regulation, to have a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

The state program encompasses small businesses, minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, as well as micro businesses, which are very, very small businesses.

In addition, businesses owned by service-disabled veterans

and employment service organizations and in Charlottesville, that's work source enterprises.

Under the federal program, the definitions are much narrower, but they are for minority business enterprises, women business enterprises and disadvantaged business enterprises.

So in reviewing this, all of these items fall under the scope of the city's disadvantaged business enterprise program.

So the last many years the city has been focused on outreach to Charlottesville businesses because many Charlottesville businesses qualify under the scope of the state program and possibly the federal program.

Appendix A includes items that we're currently doing in support of the program.

So the first document that Vice Mayor Bellamy provided was an ordinance to create the City of Charlottesville, Virginia Minority Business Council.

So staff was asked to review the document and in that review the scope of that, the scope of the council is more broad.

So the draft includes minority owned businesses but it also includes women owned businesses and small businesses which seems more fitting

to the city's larger Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

So the recommendation is to establish a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Committee that will assist in furthering the city's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

And a resolution is included for your consideration.

The second is the Charlottesville Minority Contracting Resolution.

And that draft resolution is to set a specific goal for minority participation in city contracts

This cannot be accomplished without first having a disparity study that shows that there is a disparity.

The staff proposes the recommendation there is not to approve that resolution at the moment, but allow the newly created Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Committee to thoroughly research the current conditions for DBEs in the area, establish best practices for increasing the number of DBEs in Charlottesville,

Providing those DBEs with the assistance they need to successfully compete for city projects and to establish realistic goals.

The third and fourth documents provided are somewhat related.

Document three provides a bonding ordinance for Charlottesville, and then document four provides a prequalification process to enable the city to waive certain bonding requirements.

I included the definitions of the three bonds that are referenced within that draft, bid bond, payment bond, and performance bond.

The Virginia Public Procurement Act already does not require

payment and performance bonds for construction contracts less than $500,000.

So state law caught up with that several years ago.

As far as bid bonds, there is a prequalification process required by state code in order to waive bid bonds for contracts between $100,000 and $500,000.

However, state and city code, the Chapter 22 of city code 22-7 already includes a process for prequalification

So that is already in place.

So the recommendation, as far as the bonding ordinance, it's just the authority and framework for that, which enables the city to waive bid bonds.

It's already established.

As far as the resolution outlining the prequalification procedures, again, the authority for the city to prequalify prospective contractor

is it already exists.

The last item, which is a recommendation from city staff, staff is proposing the creation of a new buyer two position to lead the city's DBE program.

The 2016 efficiency study recommended adding a buyer two position and redistributing buyer workloads.

We were planning to submit that during the FY19 budget process, but considering the recent request to increase the DBE efforts,

We believe hiring this position in FY18 will help speed up the process to advance the program.

The city believes that funds are available for the position currently in FY18.

Alright.

Great.

Thank you.

Any questions?

So if I may Mayor Signer, I'd just like to first of all really, really, really, really, really, really, 20 more times really thank you for your hard work.

I know that we've been going back and forth in a respectful way.

I don't want people to be arguing with each other or anything, but

You've been helping a great deal in terms of collecting this data, getting this information, and you've been phenomenal.

Not only you, but also kudos to Mr. Jason Ness and Chris Engel and the Office of Economic Development.

You guys have been great.

We've been having a lot of conversation about this in terms of looking at bringing about equity throughout the city.

And this is one of the areas in which we personally, I believe that we really have to catch up.

in terms of not only just getting individuals with skill trades or teaching them how to do coding and getting them skills like that, which we have several programs and different initiatives working on, but also helping individuals become entrepreneurs and not just in the regular traditional avenues in which we oftentimes, I'm just going to be frank here, see African Americans going into.

We had this conversation at a minority business roundtable.

I was hosted by myself and Ms. Andrea Douglas, and one of the things that we often heard from, it was probably about 17 people in the room, and we heard from them so often is that we have a lot of people going into catering over here, a lot of people going into the food industries, or again, quote-unquote traditional industries that they see African Americans going into specifically within this area, but we don't have enough general contractors.

And if I'm not mistaken, during our research when we were talking,

Right, so like those are the things that we have to change and while we were working on trying to figure out different ways in which we can create resolutions or excuse me solutions to address this problem we started working together and there was a lot of travel and going to different places and seeing how they do things and I saw that you know I think it's also to be noted that my colleagues have stated

as well as what was in the report.

It's somewhat difficult to try to compare ourselves to larger cities such as Virginia Beach and so forth, but I do think the method in which they're using and the path and the trends in which they're setting are things that we can mirror here specifically if we're looking at equity.

So with that being said, I won't belabor the point.

I agree with your recommendations.

I think specifically the last one in regards to us looking at hiring someone as a buyer to position, specifically looking at DBEs and even using that language of disadvantaged business, wait, disadvantaged business enterprise.

I have no issues or no qualms with using that language.

My only concern would be with that we focus it, not just, as you alluded to, it's rather broad as I wrote it.

but I do think we have to put some emphasis on the minority businesses and here's the reason why.

So, but they're doing

I don't recall the exact numbers but I know when I pulled women owned businesses out that was a much smaller number than what we were talking about originally in our meeting because the

Okay, so if you were to combine those two you're looking at roughly from the FY 15 year roughly 16% and then from FY 16 combining those two you would be roughly over 18%

and then this year 36.8% and as you look at, and again I know those two are combined but when we look at minority owned businesses from FY13 in terms of spending we're at 0.7%, 14, 1.1%, 15, 0.5%

16, 1.6% in this year through April 25th, 0.4%.

For those reasons, and I don't want us to say we have to pit one against the other, but I do think that we have to, I think it would behoove us to look at the formulation of a task force of sorts because

There's a disconnect somewhere, and I know that we're working hard.

I don't even want to think that the city staff isn't working hard, but I do believe that there's a disconnect in some regards as to the individuals who we're talking to in the community who say, hey, we want to get involved in these initiatives.

We want to start our business.

We don't quite know how in terms of them having the relationships with the current individuals who are helping them kind of put those pieces together.

and a task force that could consist of individuals who are from the community when you look at people such as Melvin Burris who I've spoken with or

or even Dr. Andrea Douglas and others who attended the different meetings, I think they would help us be able to reach out to different community members.

I was looking at some language that we could look at in terms of the DBE, for example, establish a task force of the following members and you can name different individuals to advise staff, not to say that we're going to be directing you to do XYZ, but this task force could advise staff in the outlining of a strategy

Can I just get some clarification on that?

The DBE committee?

No, no, no.

I think the DBE committee would be the task force.

But I don't personally, I wasn't, it didn't quite sit well with me how the task, or how the DBE committee was written.

Like how we would want, or how it was written that staff would want to see it go.

So I just want to figure out how to get this process going toward a motion when we're going to debate that.

So I think maybe the best way right now would be to say, because I know that Mr. Bellamy, are you going to propose a