City Council   10/16/2017

All right, good evening, everyone.

Welcome to Charlottesville City Council.

Ms. Rice, will you call the roll?

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Okay, tonight we're going to open the meeting with a public hearing at the very beginning to share information about some of the things that the city is doing around our community response to events of the summer and fall and the issues they brought up in the community and to get your input.

We'll begin our meeting tonight with a statement from Vice Mayor Bellamy.

Councilor Szakos will then share the public hearing and we'll make a statement there and then that will begin

We will then open up the public hearing to each of you.

There's a sign-up sheet right here.

There's a good number of names down there already.

Like all public hearings, there'll be no limit to the number of people who may speak, and everyone will have three minutes.

Yes, thank you.

So I think as a community, it's important for us to hear from as many people

as we can as well as empathize with those who are hurting.

Those who are passionate in the quest for change and equity and those who are emotionally scarred must be heard.

Many are still hurting for what has transpired in our city and not just from what happened on August 12th, but also what has been happening for generations here in Charlottesville.

As a city council, we understand and respect the right of everyone to express themselves.

Personally, I agree with those who have called for no longer doing things in the way in which we have before.

I've been using the hashtag New Seaville in almost all of my social media posts because it's important

for all to understand that we can't go back to the ways of yesteryear.

But with that being said, in order to make a change, we have to actually go through the process of creating change.

Our job to city councilors is to create change through policy.

And we want to be clear, before we get into the matters of the business of the meeting, we are going to provide everyone with the opportunity to speak and express themselves during a special public hearing.

This will take place right after my comments.

And I know Ms. Szakos has something that she'd like to say briefly to bring up the special hearing.

And everyone who wants to speak, express themselves, and who wants to be heard can do so at that time.

However, I want us to be clear.

Now is the time to do so.

Those who signed up for and are selected for the matters of the public will also be allowed to speak.

And after that portion of the meeting is over, we have to move on to business of the meeting.

In addition to other items, we will be discussing solutions to bringing about affordable housing via housing vouchers and in other business I'll be bringing up the idea of a citizen review board, an independent community-led independent review board.

People are counting on us to make a decision tonight.

The same people who many of us in the room are fighting for are counting on this decision tonight and we must move forward.

I'm not asking for anyone to stifle their feelings or not express themselves as they see fit.

None of us are.

However, I am asking that you do so by, excuse me, I am asking that you do express your feelings and how you feel during the public hearing or the matters by the public in the beginning or at the end of the meeting and the second matters by the public

at the very end, again, if you choose to see fit.

A lot of people are counting on us, again, to make decisions tonight.

Affordable housing will be decided on and we can make a big dent into it tonight.

The Citizen Review Board that a lot of people are calling for, we will be discussing it in other business.

So please allow us to do so.

Thank you, Mr. Bellamy.

On behalf of Council, on everything Mr. Bellamy just said,

Tonight, if there are disruptions that threaten to prevent our being able to conduct this meeting, we will, and depending on who is chairing the different part of the meeting, so we have different chairs for different parts of the meeting, we will ask our sergeant-at-arms and their colleagues to remove those who are being disruptive.

We have tightened our policy on removals, and all counselors, the city attorney and the city manager have agreed to them.

is guided by the chief of police as well.

If an attendee is instructed to leave the meeting, they will not be permitted to return.

If an attendee refuses to leave the meeting, they'll be escorted out by an officer.

They will not be permitted to return to the meeting and will be barred from attending all city meetings for a specified period.

If an attendee is arrested during a public meeting and subsequently charged, they will be barred from attending all city meetings for an extended period.

Thank you, and I'd like to also just really thank Mr. Bellamy for his words.

I think as counselors who ran for office, because we care about issues of racial justice and systemic racism, it really is important that we be able to start responding to some of the things we've heard, and tonight that's one of the things we're going to do.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for a lot of people, an eventful couple of weeks with the reappearance of alt-right demonstrators in town, arrests and hearings, lawsuits filed, new policy efforts to protect people in our city from further violence, schools threatened, and this is all on top of generational inequities.

Many of you are aware of what happened at last Tuesday's Planning Commission meeting, when a group of citizens decided to try to shut down the meeting with disruption.

I want to make it very clear that that will not be tolerated tonight.

The purpose of a public hearing and this entire public meeting is to allow everyone to speak and be heard, and we will not allow any group to use disruption or intimidation to prevent the furtherance of public business.

I know that feelings are running strong about these issues, but this is not the venue for that kind of action.

We're scheduled to make several very important decisions tonight.

As Mr. Bellamy said, the housing rent voucher program will make it possible for 80 some new families, very low wealth families to achieve stable housing.

Our acceptance of $10 million in federal funding will enable us to repair bridges throughout the city and keep people safe.

The Belmont Bridge design approval will keep the project on schedule to replace the bridge before it deteriorates further.

The West Main Street revenue sharing proposal could bring in $5 million in state funding.

to make that important corridor between downtown and the University of Virginia safer and more vibrant.

An assistant city manager position we're discussing could improve the way citizens are included in decision making and make sure the development in the city reflects our priorities and our collective values.

And the trails and bridges at the end of the agenda will open up new routes for people to be able to walk and cycle and commute safely in addition to the item that will be coming up in new business.

But first, the presentation and public hearing on community response.

Thank you, Councillor.

I'll just spend a few minutes talking about the steps that the City has taken over the course of the last two months since August 12th to respond to the concerns raised by many after the attacks on our community.

One of the steps we've taken, and we talked a little bit about it, actually extensively at the last City Council meeting, was an independent review of the events of May 13th, July 8th and August 12th.

The law firm of Hutton and Williams was retained to lead that review.

with Tim Hafee, former U.S. Attorney from the Western District of Virginia serving as the lead reviewer for that.

A final report is expected by the end of November with a formal presentation to the City Council scheduled for its meeting on December 4th.

A community group has been formed to proactively address some of the issues

that have been raised by the public at city council meetings since August 12th and at the town hall meeting that was held on August 27th.

That group will weave these issues into its path to recovery, its vision and work plan for the city.

The city has already provided updates to the council and the public on a couple of those issues including affordable housing and equity issues such as workforce and business development here in Charlottesville.

The city announced last week that it will be a plaintiff in a lawsuit by Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

It's an effort to prevent unauthorized paramilitary organizations from returning to Charlottesville.

Various community groups also joined on as plaintiffs in that lawsuit.

The suit was filed in Charlottesville Circuit Court last Thursday.

On November 6th, the City Council will be discussing the development of its legislative package to the General Assembly that will include sanctions against certain types of guns in public places and gatherings, adjustments in the laws that prohibit open flames in public, and laws granting localities the authority to remove their own memorials and monuments.

We're exploring various steps to equip the police department with the capacity to sustain the monitoring and gathering of intelligence concerning groups that came into Charlottesville and did harm to our community back in August.

We are having mandatory staff training that will be implemented regarding relevant local policies in the state code, as well as semi-annual public safety response training to large scale events.

and the city attorney's office has been working closely with outside counsel to develop new rules and procedures to give the city additional authority in controlling the conditions under which a group or organization can hold a rally or demonstration in our city.

Craig Brown, our city attorney, is here to provide additional information about that review.

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

The city currently has a set of standard operating procedures that govern

when someone can get a permit for a special event, a demonstration, or a protest on city property.

I know and you all know and everyone on this dais knows those procedures did not serve us well in the days leading up to August 12th.

They did not serve the purpose of protecting this community, which they were designed to do.

and for that reason we are taking a comprehensive look at how those procedures can be revised consistent with the First Amendment and the freedom of expression, yet place a greater emphasis on protecting public safety and requiring accountability and responsibility from people that apply for those permits.

Shortly after August 12th, we were approached by a national law firm, the law firm of K&L Gates, offering to help in whatever way they could on a pro bono basis.

No cost, no fees, no expenses.

And they have taken the lead in drafting a new set of procedures for us.

And I have been extremely impressed

with their analysis, comprehension of their work, and just the thoroughness of how they have helped us.

And they have produced a working draft.

It is currently undergoing review in my office and the police department, the fire department, and Department of Public Works, Department of Parks and Recreation.

These are designed to address

Those things that were most problematic in the demonstrations that we've had this summer.

We hope to have a final version very soon.

I will note that I don't think this is a problem unique to Charlottesville.

Last month, Governor McAuliffe signed Executive Order 68, which created a task force

on public safety preparedness and response.

As part of that task force work, they're developing a model process for permitting activities and gatherings that local governments can adopt or use as a resource.

We're not going to wait for that.

We will certainly consult it and see if we benefit by it when it comes out, but we're going to forge ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

There's also been questions raised about the arrest of DeAndre Harris, a gentleman who was beaten in our city on August 12th by a group of folks in the Market Street parking garage.

Mr. Harris was arrested last week.

after a warrant was issued by the magistrate for our district.

That magistrate issued that warrant after being approached by the victim of that crime, came to the magistrate and asked for a warrant to be issued.

The magistrate at first said that they needed more information

So they called a police detective from the Charlottesville Police Department who verified some of the facts that had been laid out by Mr. Cruz and after that

the Magistrate issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Harris.

That decision then led to Mr. Harris turning himself in and Mr. Harris was turned in, he was processed and then the Magistrate released Mr. Harris.

And at this point the decision for moving forward with the charges in that case will rest with the Commonwealth's Attorney as they investigate the alleged incident with Mr. Harris.

All right.

So the rules for the public hearing are the same as always.

There'd be no cussing, no interruptions, no speaking out of turn.

Everyone will have three minutes to speak during matters from the public.

If you can make your comments in less than three, that's great.

People behind you in line will appreciate it.

The timer right here will help keep track of the time when the yellow light goes on.

I don't think it's 30 seconds.

20.

So when the yellow light goes on, you have 20 seconds left.

And if you go over, I will ask you to stop.

All right.

So we'll go through the people who have signed up.

And then if there are still additional people who want to speak, we can line up over here at the end.

Shane Pleasance.

Is Shane Pleasance here?

All right.

Dan Schleifer.

Bailey Hampton.

Hi.

My name is Bailey Hampton.

I'm a former resident of Charlottesville.

I've been gone for four years.

I came back on Wednesday.

I am extremely hurt.

and disappointed in the decisions that were made by the city council to allow the permits for Jason Kessler's terrorist attack.

The city has changed immensely in the time that I've been gone.

I drove down West Main Street and cried because I didn't know where I was.

There has to be something more important here than making money off of real estate.

There are people who live in public housing here who don't have basic needs met.

There are elders living at Crescent Halls who are dealing with mold still.

Five years ago I sat here and it was the same business.

Like what are y'all doing?

I don't say you because you've been doing good shit and you've been doing decent shit for the most part.

Okay.

Y'all know because I ain't been here.

But I'm extremely disappointed in your decisions and I'm extremely disappointed in you.

Like I still haven't read anything from city council owning any sort of responsibility for the choices that you made.

And the first meeting that I saw was y'all trying to go back to business as normal and you can't.

Every single person that I've seen since I came home are extremely traumatized.

Everybody is super on edge, don't want to leave their houses alone.

I chased Jason Kessler around town for two hours the other day.

like this has to stop.

You guys need to take that statue down because they're going to keep coming back.

They're going to keep coming back and if y'all don't do it, other people are going to do it and it's going to affect the black community of this city.

and it continues to affect the people of color in this community and y'all are all responsible for that.

I don't see anybody sitting out on Sixth Street cooking out like I used to.

There's nobody out except for people that are doing the bar crawl, which is seemingly the only way that this city can make money.

The soil here is poisoned.

The soil here is poisoned and it's on y'all and it's on fucking Thomas Jefferson's slave owning hands.

So please, please do your job and listen to what the citizens of this community want.

This is what, this is all on y'all, all of this.

So that's it.

I mean, I don't know what else to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm just going to remind future speakers that cussing is really not allowed in here.

We have people watching.

Nor are interruptions.

Are we going to have to start now?

Dave Gamondi, Albemarle County.

Calling Charlottesville a, quote, world-class city is one of the biggest lies in this city.

So it's no surprise that Signer, who lives in a bubble, puts it in all his emails.

The police, who are professional liars, so it's no surprise that they use it along with their other big lie, you know, that they protect and serve.

You can say that this is a world-class city, but I say it's a tale of two cities.

One, Charlottesville, is owned by the 1%.

The other's for the 99%.

In one, Charlottesville, Kathy Galvin, in twisted language, calls the area south of downtown, including Friendship Court, a strategic investment area.

Our brothers and sisters call it home.

Million-dollar housing is found all across downtown, but there are homeless in Lee Park looking for emancipation.

Neofascists are free to terrorize us, but the Andre Harris and Cory Long get arrested.

Cops watch neo-Nazis put hands in their pockets and pretend like they don't know how to make an arrest.

But peaceful protesters are declared an unlawful assembly and threatened with arrest.

Cops provide fascists with an armed escort out of town, but Black and Brown brothers are stopped and frisked.

The commonwealth's attorney prosecutes Veronica Fitzhugh and Jeff Vogel, but two of DeAndre's attackers are still at large.

Fenwick told The Daily Progress that Jones and Thomas, quote, stopped the alt-right, but Heather is still dead and others are still recovering from injuries.

The business council who owns Signer says we stand for love, but in the real Charlottesville, we stand for each other because we know the cops stand down.

In one Charlottesville, disorderly conduct means getting arrested for demanding justice at a city council meeting.

To us, disorderly conduct is a mayor, a council, a city manager, police chief, and judicial system who don't do their jobs.

In one Charlottesville, civil disobedience is an inconvenience, but for the rest of us, it's the only option left.

You can rename Lee Park Emancipation Park, Ms. Szakos, but no one is free when those statues still act like nooses around our necks.

You can pay Signer's boy Hayfeet $545 an hour to come here and don't answer questions.

We're out here begging for affordable housing and jobs to pay $15 an hour.

Maurice Jones has the nerve to take a vacation before the fascists invade town.

If the rest of us did that and failed so bad at our jobs, we'd be fired.

Signer is the mayor for the 1%, Nikaya Walker is from and for the 99%.

Signer pulls the wool over our eyes, Nakaya is unmasking the illusion.

This is not a world-class city, this is a tale of two cities.

The choice is clear on November 7th.

I think I just got a splinter.

Don Gathers, City of Charlottesville.

Prior to the meeting, myself and some friends met over in the park where the Lee statue resides and symbolically extinguished the torch that represents white supremacy.

This represents a dismantling of white supremacy.

That's just a symbol.

We're calling on you all now to step up and do the same.

Our people are still hurt.

Our people are still pained.

There has been no recovery.

There has been no healing.

65 days.

I appreciate the the the preamble that we got from everyone.

That's that's that's to be applauded.

Can we move to a proactive role, though, as opposed to being reactive to these clowns when they come into

Can we plan for some things to prevent them coming here so that we're not constantly running around in circles chasing our tails?

Someone much wiser than me said that the tail does not wag the dog.

Can we please be the dog?

And while we're at it, let's be a big dog and sit on the porch and dare anyone to walk by.

Let's stand up and do what's necessary and what's right for these people.

I appreciate the efforts and what you all are saying that you want to do, that you're trying to do.

God bless you.

I truly do appreciate that.

We need more.

When they make reference to coming in and doing something to our littlest ones, to our children, that's going to set off something different in everybody in this town.

And I promise you, you don't want this to devolve and to dissolve into riots in the streets.

But God help them if something is done to our children, I can only tell you what this is going to look like.

This is going to look like something remnant to Mr. Fenwick, something that you may have seen in Vietnam.

And I promise you it's not going to be pretty and no one's going to be able to explain it for years to come.

Let's get a handle on it.

Let's get a grip on it right now.

Let's step up.

Let's do something.

And for God's sakes, please give us some answers.

We're still waiting for answers.

I'm appreciative of everything that you said that's coming, but we still haven't gotten answers from 65 days ago.

I mean, the money that we've offered to Mr. Hefe and his law firm, we could have taken half of that and I promise you that Jeff Fogel would have given you a comprehensive review and an investigation that we would have been able to chew on by now.

Please, for the love of God, step up and do something.

Please.

Thank you.

and Mary Carey, resident of Charlottesville.

Before I get started, I'd just like to say I started trying to fight for justice when I was 12 years old.

I was in the civil rights movement.

I fought for you, Mr. Bellamy, you, Mr. Jones, to get those seats you got.

I was kind of disappointed in you, Mr. Bellamy, because you talk a good talk, but you don't walk the walk.

And another thing you don't do, I can't understand how you could sit in a room with four other people and vote for Emancipation Park.

I don't know how deep south your blackness go, but it go further than Charlottesville.

And you should not have voted for that, okay?

Law of the land are Mrs. Szakos.

That's what you be saying.

So you are a Supreme Court Justice because they're the only one that can say that.

Charlottesville, Virginia don't have no laws of nothing.

Not even the land.

Yeah, blink your eyes.

Because you were very, very busy a couple of weeks ago on Facebook putting down my petition talking about a supporter from Tom Garrett's whatever wrote it.

See, you don't do your history.

You don't dig deep like I do.

You didn't dig deep when you came back home from Texas with that Emancipation Park name and then you forced people off of that group because you kept going in there, worrying them to death to put the justice and Emancipation Park on the list and they wouldn't do it so they quit.

Now here you are.

Time to let it go, girlfriend.

You almost out of here, which is good because just because you the senior member of the city council don't mean your word mean nothing because you don't stab the black folks in the back in this town for years.

And you got so many in here right now in this room that think you all right.

You might be all right, but you ain't all right.

But I'm going to tell you something right now.

I want that park, that name to go before you leave.

I got 600 paper signatures, 200 and something more online, and I got 130 right here.

I got my thousand, but I can get a thousand more.

Because this has only been two weeks, two weeks, two weeks since I put that petition out.

I think two more weeks will get you going.

And I got something for you.

People out there in the public decided that y'all need some help with the naming.

I'd like to get some names here before you leave, girlfriend.

I know it.

OK. You look at it, because I'm looking at this.

No, not thanks you.

Thank you.

But I'm going to tell you something now, city council.

If y'all don't get up and out, Ms. Carey, your time is up.

Y'all going to be out.

Ms. Carey, your time is up.

Bye.

Rosia Parker.

Rosia?

Rosia Parker.

Why did y'all get a call from the FBI at 2 o'clock in the morning?

It took till 7 for the information to get to the school.

Any other time y'all government will shut things down just for the snow.

But when it comes to the threats of our children, not only this one, did they just have one a couple weeks ago or maybe in the same week.

Where was the police?

in the beginning and not waiting so long.

Five hours.

The kids had to be at school at 7 something.

They was locked down at 8.

The parents couldn't get them until like 11 something.

And then even on the message, oh, this threat is behind DeAndre Harris.

How did that sound for a school authority?

to say that putting parents in a panic, kids got a disorder now.

Y'all done harmed these kids tremendously, not only on October the 7th, but we gonna go all the way back to May.

My grandson asked me last night, what is the KKK na na?

And I said, what?

He said, what's the KKK na na?

He said, in school, the kids talk about KKK.

He said, I played along like I knew what it was.

I went home and looked it up.

They bad people now, now.

Why do them white people allow them to come here?

And that's a child speaking, nine years old.

They shouldn't have to ask that question, why are these bad people coming here?

and then for you to keep allowing them to come here, walking around.

I'm a black broad, but if I had me one of them tikis, where I would be?

160 paracord.

So if they can not be locked up, well, I can't have the same law they got.

I might have a black face, but I also got a freedom of right to speak, to stand, but most of all to live.

I shouldn't have to watch my back everywhere I go.

But because of that Judge Moore that signed that paperwork for good old Kessler for this rally.

But ain't nobody talking about how they messed them students up at that school.

Where a man got burnt, and he don't know what he's gonna do.

He done had a stroke, done had an heart attack, and they didn't even know the man was gonna continue to live.

But I don't hear nobody talking about that.

I don't hear nobody talking about that day we was burnt, we was held hostage in the church with all of them torches.

But you still allowed them to come back with these torches again.

But y'all better get it together, because when that judge said if it wasn't for the people, didn't nobody tell the people to be at the courtroom, he said if it wasn't out there, wouldn't nothing happen.

But the main thing he said, if Heather wasn't out there, she wouldn't have been dead.

and not only that, if you don't like what I said, I can get you, you can leave or you can get escorted out.

And if you take a blind Mr. Brown was there.

Ivy McCall.

Is Ivy McCall here?

Ivy McCall, last call.

Judith Kahn.

Oh, are you Ivy?

Hello, my name is Ivy McCall.

I'm not a resident of Charlottesville anymore.

I live in Albemarle County, but I was raised here and I would like to address the decision by several of you to participate in the Seville Stands for Love campaign.

which I first heard of and which first came to fruition hardly two weeks after a woman was murdered not far from where I stand.

I would like to know why you decided you needed to help businesses heal from the violence of August 12th when members of our community had barely begun to do the same.

To me, this is an unconscionable decision to put profits over people.

Everybody wants to say love wins but love hasn't won while Nazis can still flood our streets with impunity.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I am sick of empty platitudes.

At every meeting that has happened since August 12th, you have for some unknown reason expected business as usual and seem shocked and offended when your constituents refuse to comply.

But what you have to understand is that while the state of emergency has technically ended, August 12th is not over for a lot of us.

Okay, I was there and it's not over.

And I wasn't even there for the attack, okay?

My best friend's brother was there and now you will be traumatized for life because you didn't do enough and I want an answer for that.

And it's not gonna be over while they're still allowed to come back, okay?

It's not going to be over while the people that are in power are primarily concerned with the image of our city rather than at the pain of its residents.

And honestly, it's not going to be over until the statues come down.

I think we all know that.

Judith Kahn I just wanted to throw out a couple of names.

Charlottesville City Park and Court Square Park.

I think it's very easy to do a pendulum swing from one extreme to another.

but I think names such as that which are appropriate to the location of these parks and also inclusive might be worth putting on the list, might be worth considering.

I thank you for the opportunity to throw out Charlottesville City Park as the name of one of the parks that is pretty central and Court Square Park.

I said Shane Pleasance, Dan Schleifer, Bailey Hampton, Dave Jamondi, Don Gathers, Mary Carey, Rosia Parker, Ivy McColl, and Judith Kahn.

But now that's the end of the written names.

There's matters by the public, which is later.

I will say that if you would like to speak now, this is the time to do it.

So we can line up this way if people want to speak.

Tanisha Hudson, y'all already know me very well.

Thank you.

I want to say that we keep having these meetings, these commissions formed, and nothing's being done, right?

We go, we have these little lunches, little bit of salad, little garden lettuce or whatever, and you know, little cornbread, and then we leave and we go back to our regular life and nothing happens.

You know, when the incident happened with the schools, I need you guys to understand that bullets and bombs don't see color.

So as much as they thought that they were going to target people that looked like DeAndre Harris, it could have very well affected your kids as well as ours.

So it's not that you keep allowing them to come here because I think I made myself very well damn clear when I said that they will continue to come here because this is the heart of supremacy.

And while you guys feel the need to continue to deny that this is not the image of Charlottesville, you need to very well accept that this is what Charlottesville is.

This is one very segregated town.

This downtown mall is not for black people.

It hasn't been since Woolworth left.

We are not welcome here, and you have made it very well clear all the way back to 1975, April 23rd, when you posted an ad in the Daily Progress, actually an article stating that you needed funds for redevelopment of the downtown mall.

And I know if you guys know your history while you're sitting up on council, then you should know that there was a riot.

April, the end of March, beginning of April, right in Hardy Drive.

The State Police and the National Guard came here.

You are very well headed for that again if you do not straighten up.

You had your police, your entire police staff, I'm not going to just name individuals because some of them in the room and they know very well where I stand with them.

Some of them are in the room, but I'm going to name everybody that was out there working that deprived people of their rights to safety and failure to prevent.

That is a federal crime.

Your city, your police department, and your state police department, as well as the state, will continue to be sued because you had a group of individuals that took an ironclad

to uphold the Constitution and failed.

So while you're here trying to tell people don't cuss, we have every right to cuss when you continue to want to look out for businesses.

You guys remind me of when you go to South Beach.

When you go to South Beach, you got to buy dinner just to sit at a table on Ocean Drive just to view the beach from Ocean Drive.

All you care about is somebody going to Hamilton's or the downtown grill to spend money.

You don't care about the people that's physically traumatized.

My life is threatened every single day that I walk out my door.

I probably get just as much hate mail as you guys get.

My children lives are threatened, and you guys have yet to apologize.

You won't take accountability, but the least you can do is apologize.

The least you can do is say, we are sorry, we failed.

Good evening.

My name is Aaliyah Jones and everybody knows me.

I just want to say that I am very disappointed of my city leaders.

I'm disappointed at the police of the way I keep getting targeted by them, arrest by them.

I'm also disappointed of the way that Charlottesville is right now.

And I thought that Charlottesville was about lovers or love.

But everything that's been going on in the city of Charlottesville,

Each and one of y'all, I'm telling you right now, and I'm looking you dead in your eyes, y'all are going to burn in hell.

Oh, what?

Y'all have allowed to happen in the city of Charlottesville.

Y'all going to burn in hell.

Y'all going to set it on fire.

And the way y'all gone, you right, it's going to be a war zone around here.

Because any time that y'all allow

People to come to our schools, threatening our kids, coming in our neighborhoods, threatening us in our neighborhoods.

We came to walk down the street.

I came to sleep at night because of all this mess that's going on.

I am crying at night.

My stress level went from here to here because of all this shit that's been going on.

Something needs to be done.

God don't like it.

And I'm telling you, I'm hurt.

I'm stressed out.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Formerly of Charlottesville, now residing in Orange, but I have family and friends here.

Freedom and justice for all, right?

The more these people keep coming here, the more not just worried I get, but the more angry I get because nobody seems to do anything about it.

The cops just stand around.

They don't do anything.

And I'm going to tell you right now, I'm ready to gather citizens to do that job.

And y'all don't want to see that.

I'm from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I have the post-traumatic stress syndrome from how I came up.

These people, they do not want to see me do what it is I have to do and get people together.

You have all these people over here talking about they're scared for their life.

that their kids can't go outside, they can't go to school.

My daughter, she comes here with her mom, she still has to walk around here.

She still has to walk around here.

My other daughter still has to walk around around here.

Those people, they know who I am.

They know who the rest of the people in this room is.

I have seen plenty and plenty and plenty of hate mail and snarky remarks over the internet and everything.

It's more than snarky, dangerous, threatening remarks over the internet.

Alright, enough is enough.

The cops just sit there, allowed neo-noxics to just come in and they just sit there and talk to them.

They get escorted out.

When we go and we protest, we get arrested.

That's not right.

It's not right.

That's not freedom of justice at all.

You expect me to sit there and salute this flag.

Nobody's making anybody live up to what that flag represents.

I will not.

I will not say your anthem.

I will not salute that flag until it's being done for everybody.

Everybody.

Not just some.

Everybody.

And I'm very worried about the people in here.

Alright?

Some are my friends, some are my family.

I'm not going to let nobody hurt my friends and family.

I'm sorry, y'all.

I don't care.

Police, no police, it don't matter.

I'm not going to do it.

That's not the way we do it from where I'm from.

It's not.

It's not.

People will go and stand up for their neighborhoods.

We didn't let drug dealers do it.

We didn't let cops that came in and brutalized people do it.

And I'm not going to let nobody do it right now.

It's just fair warning.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Dan Schleifer.

I live in the city of Charlottesville.

I grew up here in Charlottesville and I moved back to start a business.

I live downtown.

I operate a business literally across Market Street.

When August 12th happened, I got calls from customers all around the world.

I was getting text messages from London and Hong Kong, blah, blah, blah, wondering what in the hell was happening in Charlottesville, because they knew that that's where my business was based.

And I'm proud of the fact that I grew up here and I came back to start a business here.

And I've had to defend not what happened with the people that came here, because we don't have control over that, but I've had to defend the actions of Charlottesville and the city and the police and the lack of response to what happened here.

Because in the end, we can't control who comes into Charlottesville.

Those people have a right to speak and I understand that.

I understand that they have a First Amendment right whether I find their speech aberrant or not.

However, however, we have laws and we have ordinances in this city and the police refuse and refuse to actually implement them.

And so, you know what?

If you want to show up in the park and you want to be a fucking asshole, go for it.

But you know what?

Follow the rules.

And you guys are going to go through and you're going to put new ordinances in place, you're going to strengthen the rules, you're going to have lawyers come in and tell you what you can and cannot do, but the police are refusing to enforce it.

And I live one block north of Emancipation Park, and when I sit on my front porch and I watch guys with swastikas walk past my porch, it's offensive and it's disgusting.

And I get it, you can't stop them from being horrible, horrible people, but

When they come back, and they came back a few nights ago, and they parked in front of my house, and they illegally park in front of my house, and they use a bullhorn, and I can hear them from where I am, and we have ordinances about sound in the city.

You know what?

When I walk up to the police and I said, why aren't you enforcing the rules on sound?

Why aren't you enforcing parking ordinances?

Now I know that's some trivial stuff.

But you know what?

I want to see the police do something.

We all watched on August 12th where they stood and watched violence and didn't step in.

I want to see them enforce the laws.

And right now I see no accountability coming from you guys as City Council towards the police that refuses to enforce the rules.

And you can put all the rules in place that you want, and that's all well and good.

But I want to see some governance and some oversight from you guys to actually make sure the police do what we pay them to do.

It's so funny that what May 13th, August 11th, again on October 7th, they were able to come here with torches.

October 7th though, I saw where they were.

Lay it in with the police.

And then lay it out with the police.

Why is that?

Why were they escorted here walking with torches down the street?

Okay, Mr. Gathers, as he says, we were at Emancipation Park tonight with one little torch lit.

Do you know a cop came running with one torch lit at the park tonight?

Because he's seen the torch.

Now, come on now.

You're going to escort all these people in town with torches, but you're going to see one torch lit and get worried?

Really?

He was over there concerned, didn't know what was going on.

Yeah, he thought we was over there fighting.

Really?

You gonna see a whole lot of torches and don't think nothing going on but one torch, oh my God, the city is falling down?

Really?

This is totally getting, you know, ridiculous.

I know when I come here, I talk about slavery a lot.

And I talk about that because my family was slaves in Buckingham, and I say that a lot.

But when I got my DNA test done, I was literally in shock.

Didn't know exactly.

Lord help me, don't know how much.

But if anybody in here is Irish, top of the morning to you.

Because I got a whole lot of Irish in there.

And I don't know how it got there.

And you know, so that's one thing.

These people are fighting for their heritage, right?

They know their heritage.

I don't know anything.

I know nothing.

I got to a point in my ancestry where I can't find any of my family hardly.

Why?

Because these people fighting for their heritage and what they did.

to erase our heritage.

But we're still allowing this to keep on happening.

And this statue, as everybody said, this statue is not going to do what keeps causing trouble.

and another thing, they haven't come to the right neighborhoods yet because if they come to the right neighborhoods, the police will be coming to the neighborhood with body bags.

Well, everybody knows me, I'm sure by now.

I'm Gloria and I'm a citizen here.

And I'm just so concerned.

Now, I didn't realize those people came back last week.

It was Friday, Saturday, whatever day it was.

Now, you mean to tell me they're going to continue to keep coming in this town, just walking on through?

I mean, I'm serious.

It's scary.

I told you I was going to take that class because I am a nervous wreck at night.

See, I live alone.

I hear stuff outside.

I don't know what the devil is doing.

It has me watching my bed.

I'm always busy, so I might be out late.

Before I get out the car, I'm looking around.

I mean, I shouldn't be living like I'm too old for this.

I came up in those years.

Golly.

And now my grandchildren.

I have two grandkids.

I called the school myself when I found out somebody had made a threat.

And I wanted to know, should I come and get my babies?

See, we can't live like this in a town, man.

This is supposed to be home.

We can't do this, you all.

I don't know what you can do.

But you need to take it.

You want us all to go down to Richmond or DC or somewhere?

We've got to change policies.

People like that cannot be able to just walk into town and terrorize people.

Well, if they live here, they need to go.

I'm serious.

This is 2017, y'all, not 1800.

Because one day, I was talking to a young girl.

She asked me where they could start lynching people again.

Children should be asking that question in 2017 now.

We helped build this town.

We worked hard.

I worked hard for what I've got.

I wasn't on no systems.

I worked for everything I had.

And now this is supposed to be my home.

I wasn't born here, but I've been living here long enough to call it home.

And I shouldn't have to live in fear, you all.

And I'm not blaming you all, but y'all can change the laws.

Isn't this what city council's supposed to do?

Change some laws?

We got to go to Richmond.

I'm willing to go.

I mean, we can't let these people just walk into town any old time.

We don't ever know where they're going to be.

My name is Danielle Honore, y'all should know I go to UVA by now.

It's like y'all want to hear our voices, but it's like y'all listen to respond instead of listen to learn about our communities and where we come from and the issues that we face.

It's like how can you make a policy for a person that you don't understand?

You don't understand the environment.

You don't understand the struggles we face.

You don't understand the obstacles that we go against.

How can you make a policy for us?

How?

How?

And then you say you want to hear our voices

But you listen to shut us up.

You don't listen to hear us out.

I, this summer, interned for an attorney that she was in the first 100 black students at UVA.

Not much has changed since the first 100 black students at UVA.

Not much has changed in the city of Charlottesville.

I shouldn't have my mother in fear for me.

I can't go to the library to study.

because she's afraid of a terrorist attack.

I cannot do my work in a public place because she is afraid of an attack.

How can I succeed academically at a university like this when the people in charge, the administration allows things like this to go on?

It's traumatic.

I was there on August 12th.

I have a lot going through my head.

I'm a leader of an organization.

I have to put my feelings to the side.

And you guys don't care about what I'm going through.

You can say you care.

but we're like screaming out for you guys to do something and you say you're doing something but again it's a response it's not that you're actually learning to put something effective in place and you can say it but until you show it it's like how many times we got to come up here to keep telling all the same exact thing we warned all for August 12th

We warned y'all afterwards, and now we're warning y'all again.

What is going to be the final straw?

What happens?

Clean off that panel.

That's the final straw.

It's sad.

It's really sad.

There's no words to express the things that we go through.

I got a paper tomorrow, two papers doing a quiz.

And have I started doing it?

No, because I'm here, still engaged.

Like, I can't stop myself from coming here.

But I still got work to do.

Like, I'm a full-time activist and a part-time student, and people saying, take care of your mental health.

How?

How?

Hi, my name is Johanna Moncada.

I'm a second year student at UVA, so I haven't been here for long.

I'm an out-of-state student, which is the main point of what I'm about to say.

I am from a small town in South Carolina.

Clearly, I'm not white, so I have experienced numerous amounts of racist encounters in this town of South Carolina.

I am always around white affluent people.

Donald Trump even came to rally in my town.

And I just want to explicitly say that I have never seen something so vile.

You guys have given a platform for white supremacists to be here and to say what, like, that's, no.

First Amendment doesn't protect what they're saying.

They are here to intimidate the people of Charlottesville.

It's not okay.

You guys are hearing these people.

You're not even, Mr. Jones, you're not even looking at me in the eye.

Stop hearing them.

Fucking listen.

Do your job.

Why are you here if you're not doing anything?

So I just want to say from South Carolina, I have never seen this.

I'm in Charlottesville.

I would have thought that the North is more liberal.

No, it's even worse.

That's fine.

Do you mind standing up and just introducing yourself and giving your time over?

That's the procedure that we use.

Everybody gets to speak now.

So if you can just come up and give your name and then give your time over, that'd be great.

Thanks.

I cede my time.

The thing I forgot is

There's two brothers who have charges against them in a slew of other counter protesters that have charges against them.

But we have Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer walking around free.

In my eyes, they're murderers.

They're conspiracies.

They are conspirators to murder and attempted murder of 30 plus other people, most of whom are also my friends.

It shouldn't be that way.

Those boys was there defending people.

And you can't tell me, oh, well, they had weapons in their hands or they were armed.

Well, there was evidence prior that these people were coming to hurt people.

What do you expect people to do?

Nobody's going to come unless somebody hit and beat them.

And DeAndre, my brother took it so bad.

And I wish I was there.

If those two are locked up for something so petty because people are

are countering charges against them, then Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler should be locked up with Nobel also.

Thank you.

My name is Atalir Romero.

I was present on August 11th and 12th.

I was also there on July 8th.

I'm one of the students that was hit by the Nazi on the 12th.

I still have my scars.

I still have the stitches on my forehead and in my lip.

I have to get a root canal on Friday because

I was hit like in the face, so I have a fracture in one of my teeth or whatever.

And I feel like that's kind of beyond the point, but I just feel that the city releases statements and then seems to say like that we can just move forward, that things will continue.

And when people tell me that this is not Charlottesville, but I was attacked in Charlottesville with your permission.

And when I'm called from Houston to tell students they should apply to UVA, that they should get the same scholarship that I applied to, I can't in good consciousness let anyone know that they should come to Charlottesville because it's not safe at all.

I walk outside my house and I see Confederate flags.

And since the attack, I've only been to downtown mall once.

And that day, I was also attacked by a white supremacist.

and I just think it's ridiculous that what happened on August 11th and 12th was not enough.

I think it's ridiculous that you say that you tried your best because you gave them the permits on July 8th, right?

Fully roved and clothed.

I don't know how in good consciousness you can say that you are for the people.

Before they even arrived, they were putting threats all over their Twitters and Facebooks so they did not come to express their freedom of speech.

They came to threat, came to brutalize people.

They wanted blood and they got their blood.

It is in your hands, sir.

It isn't in all of your hands.

I expected so much more.

I get...

I got like six threatening phone calls, people trying to sell me Dodge Challengers, telling me to join the KKK, telling me that I should have died at the hospital.

And when I call your police department to get some help, I've been told that there wasn't enough, that there was not enough threat for me to be assisted or helped in any way.

So that person who keeps calling me, who is the same person, has the same voice, has not been like,

got or found or there's no case for me because apparently my life doesn't matter.

So I just I think that if you're a good human being or just a person who lives and breathes the same fucking air as I am like that you would think that you would care about my safety as much as you care of yours and you don't.

Yeah so just

I don't know, you're not doing your jobs and I hope that my scars on my face remind you that because I see it every morning and I hope that you see yourself in the morning and you think about all the people that will hurt and it was over 30 of us.

My name is Angeline Kahn and I was at the rally in July, the rally on August 12th as well.

I want to bring attention to the lack of police efforts on August 12th.

I literally sat or stood near the right side of the library where there were eight, twelve police officers.

I see it very vividly.

and when I turned to them, when the clergy and others that gathered there were getting ready to emerge, I looked to my right and I said, there's about to be violence, somebody is about to die.

They literally stood there and didn't say anything and projected forward.

Now, I have pictures on my phone and I will pass this to each and every one of you.

When you had militia men come into a city

with guns as tall as toddlers, there is an issue.

There is a very big issue.

And it's beyond city council.

Systemic racism.

Hold on one moment.

What I wanted to say was 812 provided an accurate display of the systemic racism that exists in Charlottesville

Had there been a large group of people of color gathering on a local street corner, everyone would have been arrested.

I am concerned that these courtesies that have been extended to these neo-nazi groups will only continue to welcome groups with similar agenda to Charlottesville.

has been traumatized this past week.

Twice her school is on lockdown.

She is very, very woke.

She understands what is going on and taking place in the political system.

She understands who to vote for.

She understands how that process works.

Ma'am, the most important thing is, have you gotten the footage and the videos to the nobody?

I'm just asking, have you gotten them to the investigation?

I didn't get them anywhere, they're all over line.

These are my pictures.

I don't send anything to anybody other than, you don't want it, trust me.

We do.

We do.

On there, I have neo-Nazis that were actually fighting other neo-Nazis because they couldn't figure out who they were, which is a damn shame.

Thank you.

No, no, no.

It's fine.

No, no.

And your time is up.

So I happened to go to court on Friday where three of the neo-Nazis were in court for failure to disperse and I think that it's a crime shame that we have speeding tickets that cost more than the fine that they were given.

They were given a $100 fine and a $200 fine and we have speeding tickets on Elliott Avenue and other residential zones that cost more than what they were fined.

Again, these are issues that you guys do have the power to make changes to, to make sure that they are given heavy stipends.

I've also received information, people inbox me like I got y'all job, just so y'all know.

I've also gotten inbox from parents who have children that are incarcerated at the jail, and they're saying that they're over there being treated like kings.

In the Charlottesville, Albemarle Regional Jail.

So again, we have an inside problem going on.

It's also been told that Wendy Lewis as well as Officer O'Donnell have a very meaningful relationship with these people.

So we know that they have informants.

within their group as well that's contacting the Charlottesville city police.

And that was released from a FOIA request.

So you guys want us to talk to Hayfeed, go to the police, report this and report that?

And I said this before.

You're asking us to do your job to complete your investigation when people have their own lawsuits that they're going to file against everybody sitting on this panel, probably, in their individual capacity, the city police.

the city of Charlottesville and everybody else in their individual capacity but I mean again I just I guess I just why is it so hard for you guys to just apologize?

Why is it so hard for you guys to just take accountability?

Like you're going to court, I know you are Mr. Brown, and y'all go and speak to all these meetings and y'all just walk around and eat this garden lettuce like it's just no problem at all.

And like you didn't even really offer like any type of assistance to the citizens to go and talk to people.

and you got the money to do that.

The churches did that.

Seth Whisperway and other churches allowed for people to go and express themselves.

Churches opened their doors for people to express themselves.

But people are using their health insurance to go and talk to people because their life is threatened or their children's life.

I took my son to the police station and there's some officers in here probably that can testify.

I went to go file a complaint on three officers that I went to that refused to help me and my time of need.

And my 10 year old son told me, Mom, yeah, I kind of don't want to go in here.

I said, Zaki, why?

He said, you know, because the police don't like black people.

My 10-year-old shouldn't feel like he's not like because he's black.

And see, it's different for me.

And Wes and Maurice, then again, I don't know, because depending on people's upbringings, some people privileged, some people not.

I know we wasn't privileged.

So at a young age, we were taught how to act, how to act accordingly with the police, and so forth.

We have to sit down and have these conversations all of a sudden now because you guys are just

I just want you to wear it.

The same way my cousins had to wear a rico and a game charge, you guys need to wear it and you guys need to pass hate-influenced organization crime bills and push it to the general assembly and push it to the federal government so they can be charged like a gang or a group how you do people that grew up together.

And until we get that, you know,

I just don't know.

I really do feel sorry for y'all.

I really do.

And I just feel like if it's hard for us to sleep, I don't understand how you guys are sleeping at night because I mean some of y'all look like y'all lacking rest.

So I know that it's wearing on the inside of y'all and it's showing on the outside because y'all know really that y'all not doing the right thing.

My name is Kirsten M. Saxon.

I am 14 years old.

I should be safe in my hometown.

I don't feel as safe as I did when I was 10 and 11, strolling downtown alone by myself, having the best time of my life.

But since the neo-Nazis have came,

and threatened the schools that I used to go to.

I just don't know because when they threatened the schools and they were on lockdown, my friend came up to me at the end of the day and she's like, did you hear what's happening in Charlottesville?

And I'm like, no.

And she told me and I was like, well then,

I just don't know what to say because we should feel safe as a community and the children, the younger generation of the community should feel safe and should feel like they don't have to march around looking behind them

seeing if people are coming and attacking them.

I feel less safe.

I have lived here for the majority of my life.

And I feel as if y'all need to take charge and say something

and not just sit here and look like y'all care when y'all really don't.

I saw a few of y'all pass that lady's phone not even caring.

Me and my sister are mixed.

and most of the people in this community know us.

We are pretty big in this community and everybody has to come together and they have to stand up for what they believe in and y'all should believe in the same things.

I live in Orange County and

There are a whole bunch of people that come to school wearing the rebel flag.

And I just am like, really?

Y'all go to school here.

Y'all have friends who are black.

Brown, whatever skin tone and y'all come to school wearing the flag of the racist.

I'm Elliot Brown.

I live in the city of Charlottesville.

Can't take a moment to take that in.

If that can't make any changes in the laws that you guys are making and the work that you do every minute that you are sitting here making, doing the work for the city, please keep her in mind.

That was the most heartbreaking thing.

And I stand here, I'm wowed by what Katrina said about the torches.

and one torch held by a black person got brought policemen everywhere.

My white privilege allows me to be wowed by that and I'm so sorry to all my brown and black brothers and sisters that cannot that's not acceptable and I'd love to see

the next city council meeting to see some laws that y'all are doing to change systemic racism.

I know that y'all are doing things with housing and whatnot, but there's some laws that can be made.

And I said this before, Mike, I would love to be the capital of the end of systemic racism.

And we're definitely not showing that here.

I really want to share something.

I am finding there are numbers that are for help for people that were August 12th that aren't being given out right now.

And one is the victim, can this be on record so people can find it?

The victim witness fund, I think you have to be heard or at least talk to the police on August 12th and that's 970-3176.

There's another number that if you were just down there on the ground or being impacted, you can get help with counseling and some other needs if you're missing work for stuff.

And it's 234-4490.

Again, that's 234-4490.

And you have to make the call between 11 and 2 during the week.

and there's also you can get massage, acupuncture, yoga, meditation, for pay what you can one dollar to the full cost of it for people being impacted by August 12th and that phone number it's Common Ground Healing Arts and that phone number is 218

7677, 218-7677.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I promise I'll be brief.

Look, before we talk about later tonight spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new Belmont Bridge that from the design that we've seen is not going to work, can we please funnel some of that money towards affordable housing and homelessness before we do anything else?

because the designs that I've seen on that bridge is going to create a traffic nightmare like 66 headed into DC.

That's one thing.

Two weeks ago, we were promised transparency from the report that we're going to be given.

Two days after that, word came out that you all were being, the recommendation was coming to you that you may want to invoke the attorney client privilege on that.

Please.

We don't need any of that report redacted, we don't need any of it erased, we don't need any of it omitted.

Please hold up to that Pledge of Transparency.

Please let, we need to see the full report, whatever it may be that comes forward from Mr. Haffey and his group.

The pledge brings me back to this thing and please stop asking us to pledge allegiance to a flag that does not have allegiance to us.

I asked for that two weeks ago and I'm still going to continue to ask.

It will be just much more better and much more transparent if we would just have a moment of silence.

Don't worry about Trump tweeting on you in the morning.

It's going to be okay.

I am going to call on all of the neighborhoods in town, not just the neighborhoods of color, because we weren't the only ones who have been attacked, but all the neighborhoods in town

organized not neighborhood watch committees, but neighborhood safety committees.

I'll throw in there and do whatever you need to with that because we're under attack.

Miss Martin, I would hope that and pray that and asking that the NAACP and Mr. Turner that you all would lead the charge on that.

But please do whatever you have to to protect your homes, your families, your neighborhood.

by any means necessary.

If you haven't heard, your people are still hurting.

We're still hurting.

We're still suffering from stress.

We're still suffering from PTSD.

Jamie Dyer, Charlottesville.

After the 12th, I talked a lot about the statue and taking it down.

And I still feel like it needs to go.

White people put it up.

White people need to take it down.

I just want to make it a public record that it's a one-person job.

I need a heavy-duty truck and some steel cables.

It would take about five minutes.

So I'm just putting it out there.

I'm not taking the statue down.

I haven't done it yet because the rednecks that are about heritage and not hate would probably fire a bomb at a black church or hit a target.

So I have not taken that down yet because I haven't talked to enough people in the community yet to be like, hey, here's what's up.

I'll make sure everybody's on the same page.

Thank you.

Mary Curry, Citizen, Charlottesville.

I watched that on July 8th, and I had went to the church a couple days before.

And I told them at church that when I was growing up, black people weren't supposed to get no more than three in a group.

If you got more than ten in a group, I mean, that was like a ride.

and I told them, let those people go down there and do their little thing and leave, because you might not get no more than about 20 or 30.

That's what happened on July 8th.

How many came, 40 or 50?

And the citizens of Charlottesville didn't know that.

So they got together to protect the town.

Now after they escorted the Halloween costumes and everybody out of town, the police decided that they had to break up this unlawful assembly with their hometown people.

I was out of town, I was in New Jersey watching it on a telephone how the police did the people of Charlottesville.

I mean, it was disgraceful.

And like the young man over there had said, my family is from Pennsylvania, Delaware, California, places like that.

My niece, like I told you all one time before, she flies American.

She's a flight attendant.

She's over there in England and Spain and things, and people want to know what's going on with Charlottesville.

See, don't nobody want to come here anymore.

and the folks that's lived here five years or ten years or something, they're getting ready to move.

Ms. Galvin, you should be ashamed of yourself.

You're still building.

And you down there telling those people down there in Friendship Court what you want to do for them.

They told me to tell you keep your carrots and give it to your rabbits and your horses.

Because what they need is homes.

Now you still billing out there today as I speak.

Getting paid, girlfriend.

Don't tell me you're not, because you're getting paid.

You're not going to keep on tearing up Charlottesville like this and not getting something out of it.

Now when I was growing up, I got spit on, called nigger, and everything.

And the police stood around and let it happen.

They're doing it now on this white on white crime.

and affecting the black people.

But see, I'm going to tell you something, you don't want the black people to get in no group like that, like them KKK do, because we don't know how to stop.

See, we'll burn this town down.

And on top of that, Mrs. Szakos, it'll go further than Charlottesville.

I'd still like to know who's shot at us.

Who shot at us on 4th Street to make us become a cluster?

so that that car can come down that street.

I like to know.

I still like to know what happened to that blockade.

It's still missing and still there's no answer.

Still need to know who ordered, what's that word?

The stand down, yeah.

We still haven't got an answer for that.

And we keep waiting for Tim Heafey to come up with something at the end of November.

But y'all already knew what it was.

So why we gotta wait till November?

The community gave you all the information.

You flowed with it.

So, I mean, what more do y'all need to ask?

I mean, the citizens already done did your work.

So what is Leafy, he gonna come back and tell continuous lies?

Cause who was he talking to?

And then also, I wanna know,

Who was that lying police and that lying judge to get that warrant for that young man that was damn near beat to death?

I also want to come back to you what Mr. Corey Long.

This man shot at this man.

And there's a what?

What kind of petty charge he got?

Firing into something?

By the school ground.

But this man get locked up.

But all of this is two months later.

And you got these white supremacists making these such accusations against these people.

But our people get locked up for the slightest little thing.

So you still watching over the police department and not my mayor, not my chief and not my manager.

So what are you all going to do?

It seems like we've talked about this and talked about this and talked about this and talked about this.

My mental health is gone berserk.

I'm bipolar.

So you might think I'm crazy, but I'm still tell you the truth.

PTSD, Can't Sleep at Night, what they call night terrorists.

These things are playing over and over like an action movie.

And then for Trump to sit up there and say that mess that he said, because y'all's Parks and Rec allowed them to admit that y'all had the wrong policy that y'all allowed these people to do.

But like we said, where's our First Amendment?

13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment.

My name is Nancy Carpenter.

I'm a little late to the meeting this evening, so I hope I don't repeat what everybody said.

First off, I want to say for the city of Charlottesville, for the people of Charlottesville, for the people of Albemarle County, thank God for Shaun King.

He is doing the hard work that our police department should be doing.

And I'm going to tell you what, I read Talking Points Memo.

I'm sure that it's a story that's out there in other types of websites.

There's something that stinks in the police department from the way that that story came out about how that warrant for Mr. Harris.

came about.

This is a man that has absolutely no criminal record, has a responsible job in the city, has a good family, and because some white supremacists want to manipulate this situation, oh hell no.

At NBC 29, I look at you as well as being duplicitous.

And just because Spencer Snowflake says I'm going to be back with the flash mob, don't you think that we won't defend our city?

We won't be there.

We will be there every time we possibly can.

We are developing the systems we need for rapid response.

Because we're not going to let this happen.

Because I for a long time believed in LEO.

I for a long time believed that the people in blue were there to help us when we needed it.

I'm questioning that.

And for me to question that is major in my mind.

And I cannot believe that what I saw July 8,

August 12th, here in the city council chamber when three people were taken away for using their 1A rights.

This is what Charlottesville is about.

We have a lot of answers.

We have a lot of questions.

And I don't know if we're going to get them from the investigation because I do not know how impartial it will be.

Because there is some rotten stuff going on in our police department.

Don't think it isn't because the FBI has been certainly monitoring the right supremacy invasion of LEOs.

Hi, y'all.

My name is Alexandra Dillard.

I am 17 years old.

And I just want to know, when do y'all go listen?

Because everyone is saying the same thing.

And there's no action behind what you're saying.

So then you're lying.

Because you haven't looked up one time.

Okay, all right.

I just want to, I never in my life thought I would be standing up here talking to people that I look up to about something doing wrong.

Where I expect you all to try harder.

and put forth more effort.

It makes no sense.

And I know I'm a child, but I don't even, you all are like below me sometimes.

Because you're staring in my face.

Like you don't understand what I'm saying.

I'm not speaking English to you.

All you want to do is go home.

Even though you all signed up for this job, saying you can handle it, but then again, there's no action behind what any of you all are saying.

And if you don't want your job, plenty of people

Again, I say plenty of people can be for you if you cannot make what you say happen.

The door.

Get it together or go home.

Either way, Charlottesville is going to handle Charlottesville no matter what the police say or what you all play to exhibit for the law.

Because no one cares anymore.

If they're not going to do anything, we're going to do it ourselves.

If you put me in handcuffs, it's going to be somebody else.

And after that, somebody else.

So make your mind up.

Do you want your job, or do you want to go home?

Because finding new board members is simplistic.

Decide for yourselves, as a child, hollering at grown men and women about your own jobs.

There is no age limit.

My name is Jelena Seed and I was at the July rally and I'm 10 years old.

Thank you.

I'm back again.

I just want to say one thing.

We all can agree

They picked this town for a reason.

So when you say this is not Charlottesville, Charlottesville is a place of love, they keep coming back because they believe that Charlottesville is a place that will conduct their behavior and allow their behavior to continue.

We all can agree on that.

We all can start at that point to say that the neo-Nazis believe that Charlottesville welcomes them and we also believe it as well.

So you cannot sit here and say that this place did not welcome that.

That's why this city failed us.

That's how the city felt.

And it's up to you guys.

You guys owe everybody an apology.

It's up to you guys to do something about it.

Again, this city welcomed it.

And you cannot expect people to want to tell people to come to Charlottesville.

And oh, Charlottesville is so beautiful and Thomas Jefferson.

Nobody want to say that.

All right, anybody else?

All right, I'm going to close the public hearing.

Thank you so much.

Everybody got a chance to speak and I'm just gonna say that we did and it's clearly not enough and that what we need to do is continue to work to make this better and that's what we will try to do.

We were specifically asked about the apology tonight.

What I'd like to say is, do any...

Okay, you're called to order, sir.

You're called to order, sir.

And we do, we have a whole lot of business to get to tonight.

And we have another matter to the public right after this where we're going to hear from another 15 folks.

So that special hearing, that public hearing is special, specifically about this.

So we're going to hear from a lot more folks.

We typically take a break at nine o'clock.

And then we have about six or seven agenda items set, including on affordable housing.

Do any city councilors want to say anything in response to

Well, I would like to tell people in the room here there's a news report that the Florida governor is getting ready to declare a state of emergency because the Unite the Right is after them as well.

That's all I got on the phone.

The Florida governor is getting ready to declare a state of emergency because Unite the Right is down there.

Now, you come up here and you say nobody listens to you.

People around the city do not believe it when you say the alt-right is here.

They are here.

They are here every single day.

They were here today.

They were here tonight.

They were in this room.

You may know, but the people around town who are watching this may not know this.

And they listened, they listened to what you were saying.

And you ran them out of here.

I don't know if you saw them leaving, but they were leaving in a rush.

So what you say does make a difference.

And I'd like to say one more thing about the tiki torch business.

When I see a tiki torch, I'm thinking of a picnic.

When some other people see a tiki torch, it is painful.

It brings back memories of what they have grown up with.

That is a clear and present danger.

That is a threat.

So I am encouraging the Commonwealth's attorney, who is an independent department, to revisit his decision not to press charges on Richard Spencer for his rally, whatever it was, a week ago.

The system of justice has to catch up with this problem or it is already out of control.

Mr. Mayor, I don't have a comment about what has been said tonight, only that somehow our reciting announcements about

WaterSense partners and conservation kits right now doesn't seem appropriate in light of the pain and the anguish that we have just heard right now.

I would like to make the announcements later on in the meeting when we've had time to get back into

I think it's important for us to

Definitely acknowledge and empathize with those who have spoken tonight as well as those who have not spoken, who didn't have a chance to come here tonight, but they've been saying the same things that we've been hearing now for, what was it, 65 days, if I'm not mistaken.

Undoubtedly we owe the community an apology in several different ways.

There are a lot of different things that we could have done better.

I think that everyone can agree and attest to that.

I think it's also important for the community to know that when you speak, especially as passionately as we did tonight, as I kept account, there were 24 different people who took their three minutes tonight to speak.

It doesn't go on idle ears.

So we hear you,

and I think that the community does have a right for us to respond to them in a way in which they're looking to hear from us, whether that be with park names, whether that be with different laws.

I think it's imperative that we do try and do something.

The issue where that comes and lies is that even when we try our best to do something like call on different entities and parts of the city to enforce

State Statues or call on different entities within the city or ask for questions about why did X, Y, and Z happen, we are met often with a system or laws or justice system as some would say that obviously was not created to protect individuals who look like me or many of you in the crowd.

So it makes it very difficult for us to bounce around and then find ways for us to have justice in a justice system that very much so has shown itself

is not intended for us.

But we are committed to continue to try and find those ways to not only address your concerns, but do everything that we can within our power to make this community a better place.

When individuals say, do something, I agree with you.

What we do, though, is very important that we do our best to get it right, because these clowns who we're dealing with, they like to go to the tip

in the edge of the wall, and they don't go over, and all they like to say is that we're playing in the confines of the laws.

So a lot of people have said, well, lock them up the same way in which you would do others.

I would agree with that.

However, they play, again, within the confines.

And I think it may be time for us to test the same laws the same ways that others do.

Well, I'm prepared for action.

So I mean, some can say that individuals have just been talking.

I very clearly will say that for a long time, there's been a lot of action on my behalf, as well as others within this community.

So if we want to come up with action ideas, I'm all for action.

However you want to have action, I'm with trying to find solutions.

But I'm not with the talking either.

So again, if you have solutions or you want to come with ways for us to do action, then let's do it.

But the talking and pontificating isn't going to get us anywhere.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry we couldn't do more.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry we failed you.

I'm sorry that, I mean, let me say it.

Well, if you won't let me say it.

But I am sorry.

And let me talk a little bit about the law.

People are saying, so we've been, we've been trying to listen.

There is pain and the pain is continuing, gets worse.

Every time these maniacs come back, that was horrible this weekend.

It makes my blood boil, as frightening as it is for, I don't know what it is like to look at the world through a black person's skins and eyes, but I know what it's like from the Jewish community and the Jewish community is terrified because these people are chanting things like Jews do not belong here, a block from the synagogue here that

I and my family are a member of.

And that's a horrifying experience in the year 2017 in America in the South.

And so I do know what that terror and that visceral slap in the face and beckoning back to a history where millions of people were killed is like.

And I want to put a stop to it as much as anybody does here.

I want to focus people's minds a little bit on just what we did last week.

We sued

Terrorist groups that are paramilitary organizations that came here using the law, using a provision of Virginia's constitution and laws that prevents anybody from organizing paramilitary organizations that are underneath, that are not under the civilian power.

That is, the law matters in this country.

That is a lawsuit for an injunction where these people could not gather in our city ever in the future.

Yes.

Yes, it absolutely could.

And the torch is what Mr. Brown referred to, overhauling the permitting regulations, which we have to do carefully because we already lost a lawsuit.

We pushed things very hard here, and we lost a lawsuit in the eve of the election in a federal court.

I'm sorry we didn't try to do that earlier, but we did lose a federal lawsuit under the same crappy laws around the First Amendment that were forcing us into the position of weakness that we were in all the way along.

And we were talking about the state of the First Amendment law.

about incendiary threatening public speech all the way through these.

It is, we are going to try harder here, we're going to work harder, you're going to see careful work on how do we deal with these events.

The public here in this city that's being victimized repeatedly, these are not

free speech.

This is now conduct that is meant to hurt, intimidate, frighten, threaten, make people feel unwelcome here.

I do think that, and, but we're, we're working on that.

We have to be careful about it, folks.

We have to be careful or we'll lose another lawsuit and then you all be back yelling here again.

And just, we are trying.

So we sued these guys last week.

That is a big step.

Working on the permitting.

I have to address one thing that just came up here.

about one person said it about this stand down the mayor.

There was a fake news quote that you could tell was made up at the very beginning of this by an anonymous police officer who said that I, the mayor of Charlottesville ordered the police to stand down.

I, that is, you can tell that's fake because I do not have that authority under our system of law.

I'm not in the chain of command in relation to any police officer except

in City Council Chambers.

That's under our rules.

That's enough.

You can ask questions when we have the next full hearing.

Seriously.

In Zeamer Hall.

You may leave now.

Ms. Carey, well, I'm the chair of the meeting at this point.

I really don't want to call you.

So I'm the chair right now.

I don't want to call you in order.

I want you to say, we love your voice.

Your voice is great tonight.

So please don't, I mean that.

And if you have some Aleve for me, I'll take it.

All right.

So, okay.

And those are the things that I wanted to say.

And we have another public hearing coming up right now.

We're going to take our nine minute break and let's say about nine o'clock.

But we're back for our, for our matters with the public.

We're going to hear from another 15 folks.

Right now.

Take a ten, five minute break.

and Michael

you

you

Wes, if you can hear us, come on back.

All right, so we're coming back into session.

Now we're going to, we'll do our announcements, which were delayed a little bit, and then go into the second, first matters of the public, which Vice Mayor Bellamy will chair.

Yes, we will resume with the announcements, and the public does appreciate these announcements.

It does keep them informed of all the accomplishments of the cities, but all the important news that we need to be aware of.

So I'm going to start now with

So I have a Sister Cities Commission seeks grant applications.

The Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission, also known as the CSCC, is now accepting grant applications for projects.

The commission invites Charlottesville nonprofits, arts organizations, schools, businesses, and individuals to apply for project funding up to $3,000.

Grants are available to projects that benefit the Charlottesville community, as well as our sister city communities in France, Bulgaria, Winnebagoana, or Poggio Acciano, Italy.

The mission of the Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission is to promote understanding and foster relationships between citizens and organizations in the Charlottesville area and our sister cities through cultural, economic, educational, and humanitarian activities.

Grants will be awarded for a wide variety of activities that promote

this mission.

The grant application deadline is November 15, 2017.

Applications must be received by this date to receive consideration.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Grant recipients will be notified within 60 days of the deadline dates.

All applications must be submitted by individual groups.

Completed applications should be sent to cvillesistercitiesatgmail.com or to Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission by way of Paige Rice, the city clerk.

Next up, the announcement from the voter registration office.

Today was the deadline to register to vote or update registration information before the next election.

If you have a Virginia driver's license or DMV issued ID, or if you are updating your existing registration, you still have until 1159 p.m. tonight to complete and submit your application online.

at vote.virginia.gov.

You may look up your registration on the same site.

Again, that's vote.virginia.gov.

Absentee voting is well underway.

In Virginia, voters must have a reason for voting absentee.

For example, if they will be away on election day or have a disability or illness.

Eligible city registered voters may vote absentee in the city voter registration office until Saturday, November 4th.

The office is open from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Monday through Friday and will be open for absentee voting on two Saturdays, October 28th and November 4th from 8.30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on both Saturdays.

The voter registration office is in the city hall annex next to the pavilion and across from the transit station, curbside

Voting is available in the car for absentee voters who are disabled or age 65 or older.

Call 970-3250 for more information and voters must show a photo ID when voting in person just as on Election Day.

Voters who do not have an acceptable ID may apply for a free photo ID for voting during office hours in the voter registration office.

The deadline to apply for a mailed absentee ballot is October 31st.

but voters are encouraged to apply much earlier to allow time to receive, vote, and return the ballot by Election Day.

Voters may apply for a mailed absentee ballot online at vote.virginia.gov.

Ready, Mr. Thorne?

Okay, ready to go.

Is Helen Cawthon still here?

Helen Cawthon mandatory drought restrictions weeks of dry weather have resulted in lower than normal river and reservoir levels and area residents and businesses are being notified to restrict outdoor water usage and implement other water conservation measures

In order to preserve our community water supply, we are asking all of our customers to not conduct outdoor watering.

Some of the mandatory restrictions include no washing of any vehicles except at a commercial wash facility, no exterior surface washing including sidewalks, streets, driveways, parking lots, service station aprons, and outside of buildings, swimming and wading pools requiring more than five gallons of water may not be replenished or refilled,

Water will not be served in restaurants except upon request.

No use of fire hydrants for any other purpose other than fire suppression.

Commercial lodging establishments shall adopt a policy which limits the daily changing of washable linens and towels.

For a complete list of mandatory restrictions, please go to charlottesville.org forward slash drought, D-R-O-U-G-H-T.

Now this may strike some people watching on television as a kind of silly little thing to mention.

There is a clerk downstairs who, in the utilities building office, who had a leak in two toilets.

Two toilets.

She had the innards replaced.

And I believe that program for those pieces of equipment are still free, is it not, Maurice?

Put you on the spot.

For the toilet repair?

You mean the actual kit?

Yeah, the kit.

Two toilets and she was monitoring her bill.

It saved her $100 a month.

Yes, that's what I said.

It's incredible and amazing how fast this mounts up, so I would urge people to keep an eye on their water bills.

And I'll turn that around a little bit because if your water bill skyrockets, that's an indication that you have a leak.

And if you don't fix it, it's going to cost you a lot of money.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, do you have any announcements?

No.

All right.

Final fall special waste collection date.

to help keep our environment safe and clean by participating.

It's the final bulk waste amnesty day on Saturday, October 21st.

And if you have any old tires that you want to get rid of without charge, you can take them to the Ivy Material Utilization Center at 4576 Dick Woods Road, anytime between 830 a.m. to 4 p.m. That's October 21st.

If you want more information, you can go to www.rivanna.org slash hhw for more information.

We also, the City IT Department won the 2017 Governor's Technology Award at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium on September 6th through 7th.

The City of Charlottesville's Information Technology Department was presented with a Governor's Technology Award in the category IT as Efficient Driver, Government to Government for their Utility Map Viewer, a recently developed software program.

The award recognizes the innovative use of IT to promote efficiency in government, and the specific category recognizes projects that enable organizations to do more with less.

Results can include a dollar return on investment, realignment of staff time, and or newly transparent processes or information.

Collaborating with the city's Information Technology Department, a geographic information GIS-centric database-driven software system was developed for use on department-purchased mobile devices.

The system, called Utility Map Viewer, allows crews in the field to view city utility data, gas, water, waste water, and storm water, on a map, and be able to collect data when inspecting and repairing gas distribution equipment, all from a mobile device.

The Utility Map Viewer system was designed and built for the City of Charlottesville's gas utility, which needed a system to provide crews in the field with accurate and timely utility line information, and also help manage their mandated gas distribution inspection and repair programs.

Both of these goals serve the gas utility's customers by aiding in the resolution of gas leaks, preventing gas line breaks whenever citizens or contractors dig near utility lines, and meeting a state safety mandate that all gas utility distribution equipment be inspected and repaired every three years.

Congratulations to the city's IT staff that made this happen.

And finally, the city is looking for a tree for the grand illumination.

The city of Charlottesville is asking for the donation of a large tree for Grand Illumination, the city's annual holiday celebration.

The tree should be an evergreen, approximately 25 feet tall, and have access for removal, which will be handled by city staff.

In other words, we'll come get it.

The resident organization who donates the selected tree will be recognized at the tree lighting ceremony on Friday, December 1, between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The Grand Illumination is a free event for all ages and includes live musical performances, fun kid crafts,

Character Photos, Family Holiday Movie Screening, and a visit from Santa Claus.

Anyone interested in donating a tree should contact Michael Ronane, Urban Forester, at 434-970-3587 or email him at RonaneM-R-O-N-A-Y-N-E-M at Charlottesville.org.

Okay, great.

I just have two announcements.

The first is that the upcoming council meeting, there will be a joint meeting of the City Council and the Planning Commission on Thursday, October 26 at 4 o'clock at the Carver Recreation Center.

The topic is going to be the form-based code, as well as the comprehensive affordable housing strategies.

Those are the topics discussed during the Charette in mid-September.

And the members of the general public are welcome to come, as well as the members of the Board of Architectural Review, the Housing Advisory Committee, and the Place Design Task Force.

The Shostal wins the WaterSense Partner of the Year Award.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized the City of Shostal with the 2017 WaterSense Partner of the Year Award.

for major contributions to WaterSense and promotion of water conservation.

And Mr. Fenwick should have gotten an extra star on his announcement tonight.

The city of Charlottesville received one of 20 WaterSense awards on October 5th in the Water Smart Innovations Conference.

Mr. Fenwick, you could have led a panel.

So over the past decade, the city of Charlottesville and nearly 2,000 other WaterSense partners have helped consumers save more than 1 trillion gallons of water or more.

That's more than the amount used by all U.S. households for 75 days.

In addition to water savings, WaterSense labeled products and homes have helped reduce the amount of energy needed to heat, pump, and treat water by 284 billion kilowatt hours.

That's enough to power more than 26 million homes for a year and save 46 billion dollars in water and energy bills.

So the city's program was honored as a 2017 WaterSense Partner of the Year for several key programs and community engagements, including the Imagine a Day Without Water campaign and art contest, 445 youth entries were made, a new focus on being water smart outside with weather-driven messaging to help inform the community when to water lawns and promote ways to save water, consistent participation in numerous community events throughout the entire year,

Promotion of conservation messages and tips to save water through commercials, ads, radio ads, and social media.

And distribution of over 500 water conservation kits.

That must have been what Mr. Fenwick was talking about.

Plus an additional 1,100 WaterSense labeled shower heads and 1492 WaterSense labeled faucet aerators to city residents.

For more information about the city of Charlottesville water utility and water conservation program, visit www.Shawshville.org slash water.

And you can visit the www.epa.gov slash water sense.

And that's it.

So I believe it's now the second matters of the public.

No, no.

Mr. Jones is going to deliver the city manager's response to public comment from previous council meetings.

Ms. Galvin, read my end.

That's... Mr. Alexander sent us.

Oh.

Yes, I do.

So Alexander's YOGO, which stands for Yo Let It Go While Driving, is a proactive, safe driving initiative to address anger, aggression and road rage.

In a recent AAA study, approximately 8 million U.S. drivers engaged in extreme examples of road rage, including purposely ramming

another vehicle or getting out of the car leading to a confrontation.

Yogo while driving and it's 13 steps to avoid conflict.

Confrontation cards which are 6 by 9 inches and Yogo stickers are designed as supplementary preventative tools toward making the Central Virginia area and beyond a safer place.

Alexander Yogo creator will provide and distribute 1,200 Yogo cards and stickers at various locations throughout the area.

One, the Walmart north of town, Pantops, Reed's Supermarket, 5th Street Station, South Volvo, Charlottesville West, and a variety of other locations.

All participating drivers will be encouraged to place the Yogo sticker within the vehicle sun visor dashboard to serve as a constant reminder to

Let It Go.

The official Yogo driving kickoff will be Saturday, October 21st, 2017 at 10 a.m. at Reed's Supermarket, 600 Preston Avenue in Charlottesville.

Anyone who's interested in further information should contact Alex Zahn at 202-0773 or alexzahn at i-c.net and the website is yoletitgo.wordpress.com.

Okay, thank you.

And Mr. Fenwick, I'm sorry, I was supposed to have ceded the floor to you.

So there you go.

No, but isn't it right after announcements?

See, that's why you didn't cede it to me, because it wasn't my turn.

But it says Fenwick.

It says Fenwick right there.

You're right.

You're right.

It's you.

You announce Mr. Jones, Mr. Penwick.

I announce Mr. Jones.

Get your notebooks out, I guess.

I'm not sure.

I'm sorry.

Just one item to report back to Council from the last City Council meeting.

Ms. Nikai Walker had raised a couple of questions about Dogwood housing.

We are looking into those questions and we'll have those

entered within the next week or so and we'll provide an update to council with specifics at the next meeting.

That's all I have.

So now we'll be opening up the floor for matters of the public.

Call us into session.

First up we have Ms. Laura Jones.

Next up we have Shane Pleasance.

Shane's still here.

Next up, Annie Stupp.

Hello.

Michael Payne, Decline to State Address.

Just wanted to bring attention to council.

The other week, Bloomberg did a profile of John Dewberry and dubbed him the Emperor of Empty Lots.

It was a full profile.

They profiled his development projects across the country and outlined a clear pattern of overselling to local governments, exaggerating his claims, and then taking benefits from local government, but never developing the projects.

and I thought you know that name sounds familiar.

Sure enough that is a developer of the proposed remaking the Landmark Hotel and I think it is very significant that City Council has given him 1.1 million dollars, a 50% tax break and I think over 70 lots in one of our parking garages with no guarantee that he actually has to start or finish that development project.

I think that local government has been taken by a ride by this developer and furthermore I think it would be good if this development project doesn't happen.

It wouldn't fit in with the character of the downtown mall.

It would accelerate gentrification.

I believe Dewberry's only remark when asked about what this would do with in terms of affordable housing and income inequality is he said the workers will get tipped well.

We don't need a needless, gentrifying five-star hotel that doesn't fit in with the city, especially when that developer has a pattern of lying and overselling to local governments.

That $1.1 million would almost cover the entirety of the gap in the Charlottesville affordable housing fund that we're having to cover with other funds.

That's it.

Next up we have Mike Stoneking.

Mr. Stoneking.

Okay.

Good evening.

I'm Nancy Carpenter.

I'll be a little less passionate right now.

This is October.

At the end of this month, October 28,

The Pacham season will start again, once again to house the people who are without shelter in this community.

A little bit later you're going to be talking about a $900,000 fund to go to providing vouchers for people and I think 10 are earmarked for homeless either families or individuals.

I'm not sure exactly what the definition will be.

I think that sounds pretty good, but even though I have a lot of faith in Mr. Duffield, I know that there are a lot of problems administratively with a lot that what CRHA does.

I'm very concerned about how they will administer those vouchers.

I hope to listen to some of the conversation that you all will be having shortly regarding that.

I think it's a very important program for this city to undertake and to make sure that it's done right.

And I don't think that they can't do it, but I'm just concerned about

the individual stories I hear about people who have vouchers and of course sometimes incomes go up and down but the administrative part of what CRHA is supposed to do in regards to Section 8 vouchers sometimes is very lagging and I've had people call me and say that they're under threat of eviction because perhaps CRHA has not been able to process their change of income

effectively so that it puts their family at risk.

One of the other things I wanted to talk about was community engagement, which is a very important topic that's going around now.

We hear a lot about how to do it, what it is, why we don't have it.

One of the things I'd like to ask, if you all could inquire about NDS, when they do have special use permits or rezonings or

special permits, anything that affects development in a community.

Not only should the adjacent landowners be made aware, but why not the neighborhood associations?

You have the contact information available to you, and I think that it would provide a chance for communities to talk about what's going on in their neighborhood.

Perhaps a little earlier than hearing about it at a public hearing, whether it's at

the planning commission phase or at the bar phase or even a public hearing here at the city council.

I think it would be very helpful for neighborhoods to know.

I'm not talking about just the initial conversations.

I mean, yeah, that would be great, but a little bit further in the process when there's something that's going concrete that's going to be coming forward.

I think it would be very beneficial so that the neighborhood presidents or whatever they happen to title their group name

can get out in front of this and let people know what to look for, even if it's three or four streets away, or even if it's five or six houses away, would be very, very beneficial.

Thank you, Ms. Carpenter.

Next up, we have Ms. Jeanette Boyd.

Martin, excuse me.

Jeanette Boyd.

Martin.

I will address two issues.

First has to do with safety and next about changing the name of the Emancipation Park.

Maybe I should have fitted in with the first group.

However, I did sign it up.

There are few modern day organizations that cover the freedom of speech and right of assembly more than the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP.

while being beaten by police with clubs, terrorized by police dogs, almost drowned by high pressure water hoses, and blooded by fists, bats, rocks of protesters over the years, thousands of NAACP members weathered many storms seeking both justice and equality in this, the United States of America.

Freedom of speech and the right of assembly not only ring as buzzwords, as hate-filled groups literally terrorize not only citizens in this once peaceful town of Charlottesville, but also in other cities and towns with their vile chants, pistol-toting and KK-like late-night tiki torch parades at UVA and here in downtown Charlottesville.

Interestingly, the NAACP now receives calls from concerned citizens regarding the fact that they no longer feel safe.

Our NAACP branch is increasingly being asked by national and state NAACP officials and other NAACP branches about what is next for us here in Charlottesville.

We are calling on the mayor, city council members,

City officials to determine a plan of action that will ensure the safety of the citizens here in Charlottesville.

We are asking for your help and we need it.

My next issue deals with Emancipation Park.

We had

We asked a couple of people to come to us about the name of the park and actually after doing some research we thought that perhaps city council had good intentions

to engage the community in the renaming of Lee Park.

It appears though that you are not successful in communicating the process and being transparent in every step along the way.

After researching Lee Park history dating back as far as 1927,

and we created a timeline of events leading up to the present date and how the name change occurred.

The Albemarle, Charlottesville, NAACP wants to go on record that we support the change of the name Emancipation Park to a more appropriate name.

Some suggestions to a path forward in that direction would be make sure all suggestions that are submitted are reviewed by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Historic Resource Committee.

Explain how the selection is made from the suggestions.

Communicate to the public and publish the chosen name.

Thank you, Ms. Martin.

After Mr. Henry we'll have Ms. Joy Johnson.

Hello my name is Chris Henry, 200 Garrett Street is my address.

What I'm talking about tonight is not nearly as weighty as some of the other issues we heard from but nevertheless it's on the agenda and we spent a lot of time with various organizations getting support for this memo and I'm just going to read it to you now.

Mixed use transit oriented development is complicated.

It takes collaboration, problem solving and a can-do attitude from the public and private sectors.

It also requires careful planning and codification of a community vision for itself now and in the future.

The city of Charlottesville is growing quickly and the need for proper planning and coordination of this growth has never been greater.

Properly coordinated and codified long-range land use planning can help create a more sustainable, equitable, and desirable city for all of its residents.

Currently, land use planning in Charlottesville is performed by ad hoc teams of volunteer, private sector stakeholders, volunteer planning commissioners,

and part-time city councilors and city staff.

The heavy lifting is done by outside consultants on expensive contracts, which require significant management effort from staff as well as rework to familiarize each consultant with our community.

The results are predictably slow and disjointed with frustration on all sides.

There is a better way.

Cities across the country are recognizing the need for the consolidation of expertise and leadership in long-range land use planning to guide community-centric smart growth efficiently and effectively.

Charlottesville is not immune to this need.

The concept of long-range planning capability within City Hall has been recommended on multiple occasions.

This memo serves to reiterate the acute need for additional long-range planning capacity at Charlottesville City Hall and recommends that this new capacity have multi-departmental decision-making authority within the city manager's office.

Barring the expertise and authority described in the April 3, 2017 council agenda,

it is virtually certain that Charlottesville will continue a haphazard growth pattern that is detrimental to current and future residents and especially at-risk communities.

Thank you.

Ms. Johnson?

My name is Joy Johnson and I'm here on behalf of the Charlottesville Low Income Housing Coalition.

I live at 802, I reside at 802 Hardy Drive.

I'm delivering copies of a letter we emailed last Thursday and wanted to highlight some key points.

First, if you want to trust, if you want us to trust you and participate in your process, you need to meet us where we are.

You are in one place talking about development and looking for ways to make our city more beautiful but we are in a different place entirely after experiencing time and again that the city does not do right by poor people, especially poor black people.

If you want to engage in true conversation with us and you want to be a part of this process and not try to block it, you need to understand that all of this has to be in the contents of racial justice and improving our people quality of life to address the harms that have occurred in the past, but some of which people in this very community remember very well.

The foreign base code consultants were an example of how we feel that the city does not know or understand where we are coming from.

A, they didn't listen.

They were condescending and at times they were damn right rude.

B, the consultants did not understand the connection between urban renewal and this proposed zoning change.

We have written you letters and we have given public comment, but we are not getting an answer.

I'm asking for you to reply before October 26th about the demands in this letter, such as the following.

One, we need a citywide affordable housing and equity policy before a foreign base code is adopted.

We need to know the city is listening and responding

and has a plan to address the affordable housing crisis for low income people.

Two, residential friendship court, Crescent Halls and Sixth Street, should have a chance to give an input of the first draft before it goes to any city official.

Improving the city community involvement is a very important need that affect all of these issues.

Three, we need data about the loss of diversity in our community between 2002 to 2012.

There was a 12% decrease in black families in the SIA area.

We need to know what has happened since then in all city neighborhoods.

The plan shift by the foreign-based code consultants could have a very negative effect on low-income people.

Displacement is already ripping our community apart by the roots.

More damage should not be allowed.

Good evening.

My name is Peter Krebs.

I live at 1022 Tufton Avenue.

I'm starting a new role with Piedmont Environmental Council.

In cooperation with the Planning District Commission, the CACF, we are working with communities in both Charlottesville and Albemarle to envision and implement

a comprehensive network of connective greenways and trails and Charlottesville and the Albemarle urban area.

We will launch that effort with the community conversation on Wednesday, November 8th at the Jefferson School.

You can learn more about that by visiting PECVA.org slash events.

We'll also make sure to get the word out so you'll be hearing more about it in the next couple of weeks.

Tonight I would like to speak in support of two projects from Charlottesville Parks and Rec.

One is a bridge over Meadow Creek at the Senior Center and the other is a portion of multi-use, mixed-use Greenway along Route 250 between Derry and Hydraulic.

We see both projects as important parts of a larger strategic endeavor.

They will connect multiple schools

Jobs, shopping areas, numerous recreation facilities, parks, and a primary transportation access between downtown and 29 North as well as points East and West.

They are consistent with our values.

They will connect communities, link people to resources and opportunities, and most significantly improve the lives of residents.

Both projects will have an immediate impact and are smart uses of resources.

They are both of regional significance and significantly will lay the groundwork for future joint planning with the county, which is something we all want.

Although we are at the beginning of our round of conversations, many smart projects are already in the pipeline and some opportunities cannot and should not be missed.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Ms. Judith Kahn.

On the wait list, lastly we had Don Gathers, who could seize his time.

That concludes our Matters by the Public, the first portion.

Yes, Vice Mayor Bellamy.

I'd like to acknowledge Ms. Johnson's reference to the letter from Elaine Poon.

It was addressed to council, so this council has to decide who is going to respond, and that is something I'm going to be bringing up under Other Business.

So it could be a blend of a counselor, two counselors, or city staff or counselor.

But we are taking it very seriously and we just need to figure out who the people are that's going to respond.

I'd like to, as the person who actually voted against the incentives for John Dewberry, I'd like to respond to a little bit of what Mr. Payne said.

One is that, unlike some of those communities, because the trust level was not terribly high, those who did vote for this, in order to receive any of the benefits of the incentives, he has to build the building and complete it by a certain date.

And if it's not completed by a certain date, he forfeits them.

One, just on the parking spaces, we're also not free.

They're negotiated.

There was a discount to them, but they had to go through a whole RFP process that we were prior.

It hasn't even been done yet, but it's still being negotiated approved by the city council.

It was approved recently, but they will not be how they were being described.

A good point.

I like to address Miss Johnson's points specifically in regards to her

the demands that were placed on the document in which she gave us one, a city-wide affordable housing and equity policy before a form-based code is adopted.

Secondly, residents of Friendship Court, Crescent Halls, and Sixth Street should have a chance to give input on the first draft before it goes to any city officials.

And lastly, we need data about the loss of diversity in our community.

I'd like to ask Mr. Jones, whom would be most applicable to

address these concerns and how could we address them.

I actually agree a great deal with them.

Sure.

The affordable housing policy, we're actually coming back to city council in November with the housing policy.

The equity policy, we need some more time to talk about what that would be, but the housing policy we are working on right now and we'll be bringing back to council, I believe, at the second meeting in November.

Having the residents of Friendship Court, Creston Hall, and Sixth Street receiving the draft, I would recommend that it goes to them at the same time it goes to the city officials so they both can take a look at it and then provide some input.

And we can work on the data about the

about the concern over loss of diversity in the SIA and provide that back to city council.

So Ms. Johnson, this was, well, I was technically talking back to the comments, but to the, no, not coming up, but just,

So this was brought on behalf of the Charlottesville Low Income Housing Coalition.

Would it be possible, Mr. Jones and Ms. Johnson, I'm assuming that maybe we can talk about this at a later time, but if we could set up a meeting between... Mr. Bellamy, that's my hope was that we, council, would appoint members of our body to do just that.

Do you think it would be possible?

But if we want to talk about it now, I have no problem with that.

I would like to serve on that body.

And I'm sure you would also, Ms. Galvin, if our colleagues had no opposition to such and then maybe we'll be able to move forth with having a meeting before to answer some of these questions before the October 26 deadline, if I were

You have my blessing.

And I do think it would be great to have a staff member, maybe Brenda Kelly.

Great, thank you.

Ms. Galvin.

And Elaine Poon was the one who sent the letter, wrote the letter.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

And the main thing is to get on a track to address them all.

The adoption of the form-based code is a while.

So there's a lot of input.

I don't have anything else.

Is there any other comments, responses?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so, folks, ten to ten and we're now moving to our regular agenda and we have

We're going to try to chair as efficiently.

I would ask for my colleagues grace and blessing and cooperation and in trying to move efficiently through a lot of this important business that we have.

We're going to begin with the consent agenda.

Okay, minutes for October 2nd, 2017.

Item B, appropriation Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act Grant, $452,704, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation Virginia Department of Health Special Nutrition Child and Adult Care Food Program, $32,000, second of two readings.

Item D, a resolution Washington Park Madison Avenue Bicycle Connector Path, first of one reading.

Item E, a resolution Allocation of Charlottesville Affordable Housing Funds, first of one reading.

Item F, a resolution, capital funds transfer to Charlottesville affordable housing fund, first of one reading.

I'll make a motion that we adopt the consent agenda as read.

I would like to make one comment, which is just to call the public's attention.

the fact that quickly funds were found to restore the funding for Habitat and for AHIP, which was a subject of some debate in a prior meeting.

So that happened tonight.

It was moved to the consent agenda.

That was several hundred thousand dollars for each.

It was directly in response to concerns that were raised.

So that's in the consent agenda.

Any further questions, comments?

All right.

All in favor.

It carries five to zero, thank you.