City Council   11/6/2017

And his post is just as fast as we can.

Thank you.

I.

Thank you.

Say bye easy, baby.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Welcome to Charlottesville City Council.

We'll begin as always with our with our Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Fenwick?

Here.

Dr. Bellamy?

Here.

Mr. Signer?

Here.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Yes, we will begin with, I believe, the Poppy Proclamation for Veterans Day.

And I think that's on your docket, Mr. Mayor, followed by an overview by David Blount on the legislative agenda.

Right, OK, Poppy Proclamation.

Recognition of Veterans Day, whereas America is the land of freedom, preserved and protected willingly and freely by citizen soldiers, and whereas millions who have answered the call to arms have died on the field of battle, and whereas a nation must be reminded of the price of war and the debt owed to those who have died in war, and whereas the red poppy has been designated as a symbol

of Sacrifice of Lives in All Wars, and whereas the American Legion Auxiliary has pledged to remind America annually of this debt through the distribution of the memorial flower.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council, David Blount with the TJPDC.

I am taking around the regional legislative program draft, all the local governing bodies in the region here during the month of November.

I'm going to give you just a little sneak peek tonight and then we'll look forward to coming back and having a more detailed conversation with you about it in a couple of weeks.

First thing I'd like to tell you and I'm just going to have three brief points.

The top three priorities in the regional legislative program this year have the same request as the 2017 top three priorities with the exception of some updated text to reflect more recent conversations and to update some of the data.

that are in those positions.

The priorities are in the areas of the state budget and funding obligations, also public education funding, and thirdly, local revenue authorities.

Secondly, one of the new priorities that I've put into the program this year is an update, really an overhaul to the Children's Services Act position, elevating it to a priority position to really reflect some concerns about a proposal that we saw during this past General Assembly session.

that could limit state funding for certain CSA services.

The specific concern is in the proposal is that it would have moved CSA dollars for special education over to the Department of Education, which mean that they would then be distributed on a per pupil basis and that the state dollars would not be some sufficient for services that would be necessary.

So in the event of a gap in funding for those services,

the localities would be left holding the bag.

The other desire in the position is to have more local flexibility in the use of state funds for services such as services for autistic students that can be provided in schools rather than under the current requirement those services having to be provided in either a day placement or in a residential setting.

And this is an issue that's been worked on pretty much the entire year since the last session

the local CSA coordinators and local social services folks have been very involved so I'm expecting that we'll revisit this issue during the next session.

Finally, I wanted to let you know there is a new position statement being proposed that would urge new state funding sources for transit capital infrastructure in light of the coming fiscal cliff in this funding.

As you know, some capital bonds for transit are expiring.

They're actually going to be winding down over the next two fiscal years

unless the General Assembly takes some action here in 2018 or 19.

For our region, the estimates in the lost funding for CAT are in the neighborhood of $1.7, $1.8 million and over $700,000 for John.

Got a quick question here.

Since I'm working with the local governments, it's done through you, through Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the local governing bodies in the region.

And there are two separate, just to remind the council and the audience, there are two separate initiatives when it comes to the legislative packet.

There's the regional packet that Mr. Blount is speaking of, and then there's the city packet that's much more specific to our needs and wants and concerns.

And we've been working on developing that and we'll be coming back to the city council on the specifics of that in November, on November 20th.

Any more questions?

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Millon.

I look forward to hearing from you again next meeting.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And with that, we're going to resume now with the regular announcements.

Sorry.

Oh, well, I mean, I don't think it matters.

No, you matter.

Okay, okay.

Announcement November 6th.

The African American Military Experience.

The community is invited to commemorate the African American Military Experience on Friday, November 10th, 2017 from 9.30 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center Carver Recreation Center.

located at 233 4th Street Northwest.

The day will be filled with exhibitors, reenactors, and military historians.

The event is hosted by the VET committee, and you can reach them by sending an email to mmaxineholland at gmail dot com.

mmaxineholland at gmail dot com.

or by calling Mr. Frank Walker at 9620754.

This is a very interesting day, so I would recommend it to everybody.

Announcement November 6, 2017, Greenway.

Please join us as we begin a series of community conversations

about ways for Charlottesville and Albemarle to develop a bicycle and pedestrian system in the urban core that links together places where people live, work, shop, and play.

We have invited two guests to share their experiences, inspirations, and lessons learned.

Chuck Flink, one of the nation's leading designers of greenway systems, will talk about the community benefits of greenways

and provide concrete examples of successful approaches.

He has worked with more than 250 communities around the United States and internationally.

Max Hepp Buchanan, director of Bike Walk RVA in Richmond, will give a local perspective with special focus on their approach to bringing grassroots and government together around a shared vision and successful implementation.

Light refreshments will be served

For more information, go to www.PECVA.org forward slash events.

And that's on Wednesday, November 8th at 6 p.m. at the Jefferson School.

And of course, tomorrow, announcement November 6th, tomorrow is election day.

Election day is Tuesday, November 7th.

All polling places will be open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Voters may look up their own registration, polling place, and ballot information online at vote.virginia.gov.

Voters must show a photo ID at the polls.

Voters who do not have an acceptable ID may apply for a free photo ID

and the Voter Registration Office whenever the office is open, including 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.

The Voter Registration Office is in the City Hall, annexed next to the Pavilion.

The first hour of parking in the Market Street garage is free.

Voted absentee ballots must be received by the office by 7 p.m. on Election Day, either by mail, overnight delivery service,

or delivered personally to the office by the voter.

No other person may deliver the voters ballots.

Postmarks do not govern.

Please call the voter registration office at 970-3250 if you have any questions.

Thank you.

I have a couple of announcements.

One being on Sunday, November 19th from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Baptist Church on 632 West Main Street.

There will be 200 turkeys that will be provided to any and everyone in need.

So regardless of where you're from, what your socioeconomic background status is, if you need a turkey, please feel free to come and get one.

And this event is sponsored by First Baptist Church.

100 Black Men of Central Virginia, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, and a few others.

So again, that is Sunday, November 19th from 3 to 5 p.m.

If you need a turkey, please feel free to come and get one.

If you'd like to make a donation in terms of donating a turkey, please do so at 100bmocv.org.

Again, if you'd like to make a donation, 100bmocv.org.

Save the date, Sunday, November 19th, 3 to 5 p.m. Next, I have something for a local hero.

It is Mr. Eugene Williams, a representative from his family here.

Okay.

Even in the event that he's not here, today, for those of you who do not know, is Mr. Eugene Williams' 90th birthday.

And this past weekend, on Saturday, November 4th, we had a celebration for Mr. Williams as well as his wife.

His wife is 92 years old.

and again today November 6th is his 90th birthday.

We have a proclamation that we'd like to read for him celebrating this gentleman.

I won't go through all of it but I will touch on some of the highlights.

Whereas Eugene Williams was born on November 6th, 1927 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He is the oldest of two boys born to September and Tom Williams and whereas on August 14th, 1949

He married Lorraine Payne of Ivy, Virginia, and they had two daughters, Carol Lorraine and Cheryl Eugenia.

Whereas Mr. Williams attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a proud historically black college university.

served in the United States Armed Forces, worked as an insurance sales executive for the all-black insurance company Universal Life, formerly known as Richmond Beneficial, and founded Dogwood Housing Limited Partnership and 511 Associates, business partnerships dedicated to providing affordable housing, and whereas he is a member and former Sunday School Superintendent of Ebenezer Baptist Church,

former president of the Charlottesville NAACP, which he proudly proclaims was at its peak in Charlottesville while he was president in the 1960s, former active member of the Blue Ridge Mountains Rotary Club, and honored as a Paul Harris fellow for decades practicing service over self and recipient of the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce Vail Vanguard Award.

And whereas Eugene Williams as the recipient of a joint resolution from the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate number 743 commending him

as a longtime community leader and advocate for civil rights.

And one of the things that Mr. Williams is most known for, whereas Mr. Eugene Williams led a movement to file a lawsuit to integrate the public schools of Charlottesville, Virginia.

The suit was filed and won, and his daughters, Carol and Cheryl,

The plaintiffs of the suit were escorted to the new school by Charlottesville policemen and whereas he and his wife Lorraine, brother and sister-in-law Albert and Emma formed Dogwood Housing to revitalize neighborhoods and provide quality housing for low-income residents of Charlottesville, Mr. Williams has served as a symbolic conscience of Charlottesville for what is right and fair for all people.

and for bridging the diverse parts of the Charlottesville community on his 90th birthday today.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the city of Charlottesville honors this day and proclaims it as Eugene Williams Day, signed by Mayor Mike Signer and the rest of city council.

Let's give Mr. Williams a round of applause.

He told me that he may not be able to make it because of his age he doesn't like to come out after dark after 6 p.m. but he did say it was important to pass on for all of the troublemakers out here to continue to cause trouble because while he was fighting for equality and looking to integrate the schools people called him troublemaker every day and he is a proud troublemaker so thanks again.

I don't have anything else.

You're more than welcome to say it now.

Okay.

Alright.

So, I'm going to read something that I believe to be very important.

And I know tomorrow is election day.

And while I'm not here to tell anyone how they need to vote, I do think it's important to point out something that occurred over the weekend that was reported from the Daily Progress.

And in my personal opinion, a very distasteful piece

So I'll read this, and if you could just give me a couple of moments, please.

It says, Seville, I have intentionally been staying out of the local election for a variety of reasons.

However, I can no longer stand idle while both covert and overt racism shows its ugly head and attacks Nikaya Walker.

I'll be clear.

Again, I'm not here to tell anyone how to vote.

However, I do have an obligation to make you all aware that the daily progress and other powers that be are terrified of Miss Walker.

This latest attack on her is infuriating.

People are afraid of her strength, afraid of her intellect, afraid of the fact that she is unapologetic in her stance on equity, addressing systemic oppression and racism, and afraid because she speaks her mind.

The article that was posted in the Daily Progress is a clear example of an entity or entities working to tear down

a sister because she is bold, she speaks out, and does not play the game that others want her to be.

I for one will not stand idle while this news publication, if that's what you want to call it, tears her down.

It's not by mistake that this article came out just three days before the election.

I want to also be clear, I don't always agree with what Ms. Walker says and she doesn't have to agree with everything that I say.

I also don't agree with 100% of everything that Heather Hill, Amy Laufer, Ken Jackson, Paul Long, Mike Signer, Kathy Galvin, Bob Fenwick, Kristin Szakos or any

local political figure says.

They don't always agree with everything that I say.

We aren't all supposed to agree with each other all of the time or do the same thing or think the same way.

That's what makes us different.

And differing opinions is what can lead us to making our community a better place.

It's not by mistake that this city has never in history had two people of color on city council at the same time.

It's not by mistake that in Albemarle County we haven't seen a person of color on the board of supervisors in nearly 15 years.

Again, let me be clear.

I'm not telling anyone how to vote or who to vote for.

But this isn't about voting or politics.

This is about right and wrong.

And the attacks on Ms. Walker are flat out wrong.

The Daily Progress, a news publication that has not one black writer or reporter, the same publication that endorsed Ed Galepsy for governor, even with all of the blatant hate-filled rhetoric Ed has spewed in the campaign ads,

I'll leave it there.

The same publication that published editorials in which blamed me, not the actual white supremacist who killed someone for the events on August 12th,

is also the same publication that essentially published an editorial that carried the tone of a slave master telling his slave, speak up boy and do something.

I didn't do what they wanted me to do during the days leading up to A-12.

It's also the same publication that published this article that paints Miss Walker as the angry black woman.

This media source does not represent the Seaville that I love.

However, the Daily Progress and its staff clearly prove that we as a community still have a long way to go.

They write, publish, and put out stories to cater to their base.

Obviously, it's a base that stuck more in the 1950s opposed to 2017.

I rarely read it, and this article is a clear example of why I choose to spend my time doing other things, like actually helping people in the community who are underserved opposed to writing about how they want to tear down a person of color.

Oh, don't be fooled.

They are going to publish an article or two highlighting someone of color very soon, which they did in Sunday's paper, and try to make it seem as if they are balanced.

Trust me, they are not.

Don't allow someone to give you a crumb here or there after not allowing you to have anything to eat and then tell you it's a five-course meal.

Trust me, it's still crumbs.

What I'm writing isn't anything different from what I told the editors on the senior management staff of the Daily Progress.

The same staff that told me they get it, quote unquote, because the members of their senior staff who read one book by Tanya Issa Coates, Between the World of Me.

Yes, my friend, that means you understand all of the issues regarding race in our history.

Insert sarcastic emoji here.

People speak about the need for the community to come together, but there can be no unity without acknowledgement.

There can be no let's all just come together and love each other moment without acknowledging the fact that we have a lot of wrong in our community and it needs to be addressed, rectified and atoned for.

Don't get it twisted.

I love this city.

I love our community.

But we do have a lot of work to do.

The fact that we will not remain silent makes people uncomfortable.

And because Miss Walker has been vocal, she is now being attacked.

I won't stand for it.

I won't be quiet.

I won't just allow it to happen and do not say do or use my platform to speak on it.

Nope, not happening.

I wasn't raised that way.

And again, I want to be clear.

I'm not telling anyone how to vote on tomorrow.

That's on you to do what you choose.

However, for me, as a black man, a brother, a father of three black daughters, a mentor of young women of color, and a husband to a beautiful black wife, I will not allow anyone to blatantly disrespect, devalue, or demonize Nakaya Walker, a sister.

This isn't about politics.

It's about humanity.

Again, this isn't about politics.

It's about humanity and standing up for what's right.

Before I'm an elected official, before I'm a teacher or anything with the title, I am a band of principal.

My wife, my mother, my aunt, my sisters and the sisters in general have always stood up

and represented for us.

It's time that we stand up for them.

Some will not like what I've written.

Some will say that I'm not showing party loyalty.

Some will say that I'm race baiting or find some way to critique or find a criticism and that's fine.

I've come to learn that it's better to be a band of principle and live your truth rather than play a game for personal gain.

That's all.

I do.

So I have a statement to follow on Mr. Bellamy's about the same matter.

I hope that you all will let me get through it.

I'll try to keep it short.

It's election day tomorrow, and this is one of the most important decision elections in our lifetime.

On a matter who you vote for, everyone needs to vote.

You can go to the state elections website to find out.

You can call the Charlottesville registrar with any questions at 434-970-3250.

It's election season.

We're seeing a lot of political attacks that unfortunately distract from important issues we face.

So I want to give a few facts about some allegations that have been online in relation to this particular election.

In my opinion, this council's most important action this year has been to double our spending on affordable housing.

to the tone of almost $10 million.

The Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, AHIP, receives almost $1 million from Charlottesville every year and is a vital partner in our work against gentrification.

If folks can't afford to fix their roof or put in a new HVAC system, then they may leave our community altogether.

AHIP squarely addresses that problem by fixing those homes.

and saving them.

An AHIP staff member recently approached me several weeks ago with concerns about what they described as a vendetta against this organization by a council candidate.

They were even concerned that the organization's long-term health was at risk, especially because council, we had to take action in restoring 50% of their proposed budget had been cut in a draft plan we got this year and we restored that a couple meetings ago to about $500,000, so gave them back the full million that they usually get every year.

I've been on neighborhood tours with AHIP.

I've had friends who have had their work done firsthand.

I believe they are a hugely valuable partner in our fight against gentrification here.

Since that conversation with the staff member, I have openly shared with folks in this community my concerns about emails council received from this council candidate about AHIP containing profane attacks against our staff and against AHIP.

On Saturday, a front page story in the Daily Progress used those emails to describe this council candidate, who is also an African American woman, as aggressive, confrontational, and outspoken.

Email sent to Counselor of Public Records, but I want to be very clear, I did not direct or issue any FOIA for these emails.

I also want to make clear, I want to make clear how frustrated and disappointed I was by the paper's decision to use this language and by the questionable, by the question, I'd like for you to let me finish, by the questionable timing of the article

by the questionable timing of the article the day before the paper's endorsement of two other candidates, which I thought was ridiculous.

In 2014, so let me get finished.

In 2014, you're out of order.

Let me finish.

No, I got a little more, two paragraphs.

And then we've got a lot of folks speaking.

In 2014, Fortune magazine found words like aggressive were frequently used to describe women, but almost never men.

These coded words can perpetuate the marginalization of women in any workplace, including city council and especially African American women.

I'm personally sympathetic to the impact of such coded language.

I've experienced coded attacks related to my faith.

My mom was the president of the Virginia National Organization for Women.

I'm married to a strong woman, if you don't want me to say that, I have two.

Three strong, accomplished women.

And in my fragile, in my family environment, I have been aware of the danger of these oppressive stereotypes.

All women and all of us deserve better than coded discriminatory descriptions.

I'm sorry for what Nikai Walker had to go through and had to experience the result of this article.

Going forward, I hope that the Daily Progress reflects on the stereotypes the article both invoked and provoked and that they

I wish you'd let me finish.

I don't have the gavel.

There needs to be order in this room.

Miss Hudson, please.

Miss Hudson, we need to have you please have order in the room.

I'm asking you to stop.

I'm asking you to stop.

Can you please leave the room, Miss Hudson?

So we will now begin with the next, I think this has been unusual, very unusual to have individual counselors make statements that none of your colleagues knew about.

Going back in history to the 1840s, I have a proclamation honoring someone from this community named James Thomas Sammons Taylor.

Whereas James Taylor, an African American man, was born in Berryville, Virginia to Fairfax Taylor and Ellen Sammons Taylor on January 14, 1840 and moved to Charlottesville by 1850 after his father earned enough money to purchase the family's freedom.

and whereas James Taylor enlisted the United States Colored Troops 2nd Infantry Regiment on August 24, 1863 in Washington, D.C. and in 1865 sent letters to the New York Anglo-African describing military engagement and protesting the lack of African American officers.

and whereas James Taylor, while stationed in Key West, Florida, married Eliza Ann Delancey, the freeborn daughter of Bahamian immigrants, and returned to Charlottesville with his bride when his military service ended in 1866.

and whereas Congress in 1867 required states that had seceded from the Union, including Virginia, to hold state conventions, establish new constitutions, and ratify the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution as a condition of readmission into the Union, and further required that black men be able to vote in the elections to implement these actions.

and whereas at a Republican meeting held in Charlottesville on September 1, 1867, James Taylor was nominated to represent Albemarle County at the State Constitutional Convention.

And whereas 24 African American men, including James Taylor, were elected to the 1867-68 Virginia Constitutional Convention,

which created the Virginia Constitution of 1869 that among other things provided for universal male suffrage and established Virginia's first statewide system of public schools.

And whereas James Taylor later ran competitive races for the House of Delegates and continued to advocate for civil rights for African Americans, now therefore be it resolved that the city of Charlottesville honors the memory of civil rights advocate James Thomas Sammons Taylor

for his many contributions to the community and celebrates the 150th anniversary of his election to the 1867 Virginia Constitutional Convention.

And I believe that we have members of Mr. Taylor's family in the room.

Thank you.

This was actually something that was planned for a month ago, but

family members weren't able to make it and again they weren't able to make it this evening so we still went ahead to have it done this evening.

Obviously things have changed since we were in those times as a society but we still have work to do and I think that's been pretty obvious this year with things that have gone on here in Charlottesville.

But our family does go back a couple centuries here and with Fairfax Taylor he was the

James's father was the first freed African American to have property here in Charlottesville.

And that was an important thing.

But with James, he was much more active of politics.

And that's one reason it's good for today is because it's the day before we go to the polls tomorrow.

So that's one of the things that we need to look at.

And happy birthday, Mr. Williams.

I know you're watching this.

So happy birthday.

But I just want to encourage everyone you all know but make sure you go out and vote tomorrow.

There were a lot of people that made a lot of sacrifices to make sure everyone had the right to vote.

It's not a privilege, it's a right.

So you make sure you exercise your right to vote tomorrow.

And again, I'm not saying you need to vote for it, but make sure you vote for people that will take your interests and take what you want and bring that to the level of government that we're voting for.

And we've got local government and state government positions tomorrow, so just make sure you vote for everybody, but please make sure you vote tomorrow.

And that's all I have to say.

I just would like to say that Fairfax Taylor was my great-great-grandfather.

I never saw him.

I have been trying so hard to find a picture of him.

We all would like to have it.

I have a little history about him and the family, but this

Starting this Friday night, which is going to be November the 10th, we are starting to celebrate at First Baptist Church at 632 West Main Street the 154th church anniversary.

The church has been there for 154 years and Fairfax Taylor was a minister there at one time.

So I just wanted you all to know that

He did help put the, build the foundation there and also preached there at that church.

That's all.

Thank you so much.

So there will be a Veterans Day ceremony held at the Sprint Pavilion at the downtown mall on Saturday, November 11th.

All are invited to attend.

On, let's see, November 9th through 12th, so next week, the Virginia Film Festival is coming to town.

This year we'll feature some of the most highly anticipated titles in the film world, while also showing off the talents of rising stars in the industry.

They'll offer a carefully curated selection of transformational classics, fascinating documentaries, outstanding foreign films, and more, all combining to offer up a thought-provoking creative window on some of the most important issues in our world today.

And just from a personal perspective, I'll say that I know that the kids in the City of Promise, working with Lighthouse Studios, produced two films that have been accepted into the

Festival.

So those will be available to be seen.

And also, a friend of mine who I've played music with for many years, Lovell Coleman, who's 94 this last week, is also featured in one of the films that they're doing.

So for more information, go to www.virginiafilmfestival.org.

and finally the Community Input Budget Survey.

Almost as important as elections is the city budget.

As we plan for the next fiscal year budget beginning July 1st, 2018, your views on how tax dollars are spent are essential to creating a budget that best serves all of our citizens.

City Council invites you to be a part of this process by identifying your service and spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

Your input will be considered in the development of next year's budget.

Visit charlottesville.abalancingact.com to submit your feedback.

If you have any questions about information provided, you can email budget at charlottesville.org or call 434-970-3174.

There's also a paper version of the tool available here in council chambers tonight.

It's right here.

It's called Balancing Act.

It's also available at the city manager's office, at the city treasurer's, customer service desk at the main entrance of city hall.

Paper responses can be returned by mail.

to City Hall, 605 East Main Street, or by fax, does anybody still have fax?

Thank you.

And I only have one announcement, and it's related to election day tomorrow, so it's some very important information about the CAT services, the Charlottesville Area Transit.

It's gonna be offering fair free service all day tomorrow.

and the free service will give area residents an opportunity to try transit while offering reliable transportation to and from the poles.

Residents may reach the Schonsel City and Almonte County polling locations by using the following CAT routes.

So I'm going to just be naming the precinct location and then the CAT routes associated with it.

So Recreation Precinct, CAT routes 1, 10 and 11.

Clark Precinct, routes 1, 2 and 3.

Carter Precinct, 8 and 9, Tonsler Precinct, 2, 3, 4 and 6, Johnson Precinct, 4 and 6, Buford Precinct, 4, 6 and the free trolley, Venable Precinct, no direct CAT routes.

You have to refer to UVA's University Transit Service, the inner and outer university loops.

Alumni Hall Precinct, 5, 7 and 8, and Walker Precinct, 9 and 11.

And that's all I have.

Thank you, Councilor Galvin.

One response from the October 16th matters by the public.

that the coalition sent to the council in October.

There was agreement to develop new ways to engage the public on affordable housing and the foreign-based code, especially low-income residents to seek their input.

And so we are working with the coalition to develop that approach.

Oh, thank you very much.

Sure.

All right, so now we're going to do matters from the public.

We have several people who signed up, 10 who signed up online.

There was also an online waiting list, so we'll go through those 10 if there are spaces, if some of those folks aren't here.

Jeffrey Fogel

And Mr. Fogel, if you just wait a second, we won't start your time yet.

Just wanted to make sure that I always give the rules, same as always.

So no cussing, no interruptions, no speaking out of turn.

Everyone will have three minutes to speak.

If you can make your comments in less than three, that would be lovely.

But you're welcome to your three.

The timer right here will help you keep track.

When the yellow light goes on, you have 20 or 15 seconds left, Ms. Rice.

20 seconds left.

If you go over, I will ask you to stop.

We have officers in the back.

If you refuse to stop and if I ask you to leave or if you're interrupting and I ask you to stop, you will be asked to leave.

Hopefully you will not need help leaving.

but I will say that this is the night before an election and there are high emotions on a lot of sides.

I know people are upset about the article but I urge you to listen to your fellow citizens as they speak, to not interrupt, to let us get through this.

It was a very friendly greeting.

I'm sure everybody in the audience very much appreciates your attitude toward the citizenry here.

I am here to call out the mayor, and my only disappointment with what Mr. Bellamy said is that he didn't call out the mayor.

The fact is that you told us the daily progress

Look at these emails, FOIA them, because they will prove my spin.

And your spin is, this is a candidate who cannot collaborate with others and should not be voted for.

You use your position as the mayor with access to that information in order to corrupt the process right here.

And you do not deserve to be sitting there as mayor, no less, on the city council for having done that.

Did you all determine who had leaked that memo before?

Did you make an effort to do so?

Well let's find out because what the paper said was it was an official at City Hall.

I'm looking at all the officials at City Hall.

Do we really need to go further than this?

Now Mr. Signer has admitted it was him.

So now we know that Mr. Signer attempted to alter this election to do so in the last days of that election and to use his position as mayor in order to do that.

That is absolutely and completely outrageous.

Now, whatever fault lies with the daily progress, it started with you, Mr. Signer.

I know you don't want to look at me.

I know you don't want to acknowledge how bad you have been, how un-collaborative you have been.

Your colleagues had to call you out on being un-collaborative with them.

And you have the gall to call somebody else un-collaborative?

You are, as people have said, afraid of the strong black women.

And the rest of you, except for Mr. Bellamy, haven't said a word about this corruption of democracy.

And it's about time you do something about it.

If this was come from in-house, you need to do something about it.

If this came from the Democratic Party, you need to do something about it.

I was arrested a week before my election to the glee of the command of this police department.

Did any of you say anything about that in an effort to get my candidacy derailed?

And now we have another instance?

I wouldn't even call this a third world country.

This is ridiculous.

You people really think you can control things any way you want.

And Miss Galvin, for you to criticize Mr. Bellamy because he didn't tell you in advance what he was going to say, you really have to think about that.

You have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, do I have the right to hear what everybody else is going to say before they say it?

Well, that's going to be a tough act to follow.

But I will try.

And I'll mention that Jeff was arrested by the police.

He's been an attorney asking for review of the police.

And then they go and they arrest him in the middle of the night.

They get a mug shot of him.

Completely not normal process.

And he's found not guilty.

I mean, and that article in the paper

It seems like the same kind of thing where people are trying to influence the elections and honestly I don't like it either but I came here to talk about something related.

Today I was at the court when Donna was tried and given her sentence for the protest here the day after the first meeting after the Unite the Right rally.

And let me tell you something, when people feel that strongly that they have to come here and they say they're not being heard, you shouldn't be arresting them, you should be listening to them.

Maybe that process that you follow is why some people feel that they have to stand up to city staff and to council and that they are argumentative or uncooperative because we don't agree with the way things are being done because a lot of people don't feel like they have access to the decision making process here which is what I came here to talk about.

What you'll hear about tonight with the civilian review board of the police is that it was done in a rush.

It's same as the housing policy.

It's done very quickly to try to make a point.

It's like you hired this marketing thing and you want to show you're doing something without actually involving the people that want these kinds of things being done.

Simply having something

at a public meeting is not the same as going out to the members of the public and saying we want to know what you think and we want you to be involved in this decision making process.

We see decisions happening very, very quickly and or a bunch of them at the same time like right now we've got the strategic investment area, the code audit, the form based code, the comp plan, all happening at the same time and so that you have to be part of a professional organization to be able to participate in it.

There's right over the couple days, there's this standard and designs consultant having stakeholder meetings.

So the developers are invited, but the public doesn't know about it.

I know about it because I happen to be a meeting who happened to have somebody who happened to be invited to it.

Let's not interrupt so she can finish.

Thank you though.

Having all these things being done by people who have been appointed by a very select group of people and then they have stakeholder meetings where they invite other people that agree with them is not what we want.

Thank you.

I'm here to talk about the Citizen Review Board and why we need it.

One, because the police are not ever held accountable for what they do to the citizens out here on the street.

Complaints against the police officers are unheard of.

I know that for a fact because like I said this is how I met all of y'all because I came forward about a complaint

against two police officers where my son called for help but yet and still they chose to assault him and arrest him and then after we filed the complaint and everything against the police officers they never even said that he put their life in danger when they arrested him but all of a sudden after the complaint came four months later we find out that he all of a sudden put three officers lives in danger

When I came to Mr. Jones and Chief of Police spoke to you all, do you remember how it was said that reports can be changed?

Do you remember that, Mr. Jones?

So how is it that reports, I came to you because we told you reports were changed.

And right there in that office, Chief Thomas told you how reports can be changed.

So why is my son still in this situation?

See, he's in right now.

is what I want to know.

This is why we need this board, because the complaints that the police people are making against the police, y'all are protecting them, but for what?

Why are y'all protecting the police?

Why are y'all allowing them to do what they're doing?

Every complaint that's coming to you, the only thing I see is you don't believe what the citizens are telling you.

You're upholding everything these police officers do, and you need to stop.

Police officers were trained

to shoot to kill.

That's their training to kill or be killed.

So when is all this going to change?

What more do y'all need to know about how the black and brown people in this community are being treated by these officers?

How much more do y'all need to know?

This has been going on for generation after generation after generation.

When is it going to stop?

That's what I want to know.

When are we going to be able to live in our community and walk the streets and not have to worry about these police?

Not until the citizens get a review board and are able to come behind the police and review what they did.

Thank you very much.

I live on Monticello Road and I've been involved in several community conversations lately where various residents and organizations have come together to discuss what a civilian review board with oversight of the police might look like in Charlottesville.

These conversations have been thoughtful, thorough, and productive.

I was thus dismayed to learn that on October 16th City Council discussed a civilian review board during other business without consulting with community members, especially those who are most directly impacted by such discussions.

The civilian review board was not on the agenda and the public had no way to know it would occur.

It occurred five hours into the meeting after midnight when all the residents had gone home.

Many community groups have called for a civilian review board, just like Ms. Katrina mentioned.

So why weren't they publicly invited to give input from the beginning?

A conversation about police accountability behind closed doors is not what the community has asked for and it will not build trust.

I stand here today with many community members to demand the establishment of a truly independent Civilian Review Board to address the issue of greater police accountability to the residents of Charlottesville.

The process for creating the Civilian Review Board must be public, accountable, and transparent because independence starts from the beginning.

A group of residents that reflect all of Charlottesville's communities that are directly impacted by policing should be equal partners in the creation of the review board, including creating its bylaws.

So then I was further dismayed to learn that instead of consulting with engaged and concerned community members who are already having these conversations, the city council suggested that the matter of the civilian review board be directed by the police citizens advisory panel.

This, even though PCAPP has not been able to effectively address policing issues in Charlottesville.

Most troubling, PCAPP has made no progress on its investigation into racist stop and frisk policies by the police, even though we know that black residents are nine times more likely to be stopped by police officers.

PCAPP continues to defend and allow white supremacy to go unchecked in this community.

What did PCAPP have to say about police collusion with white supremacist violence in Charlottesville this summer?

Nothing.

It's an outrage to think that PCAPP would be capable of designing an independent civilian review board that would meet the needs and address the concerns of the community.

It's even more disgusting that city council would suggest such an outlandish recommendation under the cover of night with so much community mistrust of the government because it has done nothing to defend the anti-racist residents of Charlottesville and instead has pursued charges against anti-racist activists for pointing out that there's blood on y'all's hands.

It's more important now than ever to operate with transparency and in good faith.

We demand a process for a truly independent civilian review board immediately.

Good evening.

My name is Dornita Herndon.

I'm here because on October 30th, I received some papers that really disturbed me about my employer.

So I called everywhere, all over Charlottesville, Richmond, DC, everywhere.

I ended up getting in touch with the office here where Ms. Green is.

picked up the phone.

I talked to Ms. Green and I poured my heart out to Ms. Green about what was going on with me and my job with Region 10.

I couldn't say their name because I know tomorrow I'm not going to have a job of them discriminating against me because I have mental illness.

Because I was in an accident that they made me do a job that they made me do.

And in three more years I might not be able to walk or see

and they're doing everything to keep from paying my bills.

I can barely live.

On your notes about public housing, let me tell you about public housing.

I stood last year when I came before you all.

I went down to see if my application that was in there for five years was still there and it wasn't because you hired new people that purged documents

So I had to fill out another application and during that time when I filled out that application and turned it in, you had a young lady that came in there that ain't never paid their dues.

I'm 54 years old, I'll be 54 years old in January.

I retired from the University of Virginia for doing my time over 30 years and didn't work part time because I could not get public housing.

and you know what, a lot of people are doing that, working two and three and four jobs to get food on their table, to get what they need for their children and then when their name does come up on that list, you're not qualified.

That's me, that's me.

I was offered $7,000 and my job dismissed from me and me never being able to work for Regentee,

and my bill's still not paid.

If you don't believe me, I have the documents in my pocketbook, I can give it to you.

But wait, that's not the only documents.

They sent me another document again today with less money.

That they want me to walk away, walk away because I have a mental illness and they don't think anybody cares about people who have mental illness or have children who have mental illness.

I'm tired.

I work in the public.

Every day I go out here in this community and I beg people to give it another chance.

Give them another chance.

Do you think those words will come out of my mouth again after tonight?

No, they won't.

Ms. Green disappointed me because I poured my heart out to her.

I cried like a baby because I've been holding it in for three years.

This accident happened in 2015.

Last year when you asked her to help me, I did the work.

I did the work and in the process I had a seizure.

I had to be put in a hospital.

I couldn't even spend it first and I'm in my apartment.

I'm tired.

I done paid my dues.

That person that got that place over me, young, never worked in her life, allowed her boyfriend to burn up the place, don't have lights on, can't pay her rent.

I wish somebody would in here rent a place to me for $300 a month.

I'll come and clean your house.

You hear me?

I pay $920 a month.

$920.

My name is Jessie Bryant and I'm going to cede my time to Ibi Han.

I'm also here to talk about the Civilian Review Board and the establishment of an independent CRB.

I was really disappointed and really disturbed to see that the discussion didn't happen until after midnight, after everybody had left.

I've watched the footage of the meeting.

Even after watching it a couple times, I still don't even understand what y'all are talking about.

I'm not sure that y'all understood what you were talking about.

It was pretty confusing.

It was also disturbing to see on the proposal that the first option was actually to turn PCAPP into an independent review board.

I'm not sure that can happen.

I don't think that can be a truly independent

transition because we've already seen that PCAPP has been very ineffectual.

As recently as this July, after the Klan rally, the chair of PCAPP said a civilian review board was not needed because CPD's current review process for civilian complaints is rigorous.

PCAPP's chair has been on the panel since its inception in 2008, yet has not engaged the community to come up with creative solutions to the persistent problem of community mistrust of police.

Instead, he's continually waited in vain on CBD to agree to be more transparent.

We've already seen so many different problems with the police.

Many of us in here were tear gassed on July 8th.

Sage Smith is still missing.

Where was PCAPP in any of those discussions?

Thank you.

Dave Kumandi.

I'm going to start off with the words of Assata Shakur.

I have declared war on the rich who prosper on our poverty, the politicians who lie to us with smiling faces, and all the mindless, heartless robots who protect them and their property.

Mike Signer, you are a racist.

Black sisters are not going to stand down like this council and the police did on August 12th.

People of color know that our silence will not protect us.

And Mike Signer, that has you shook.

Nikaya Walker, who will win tomorrow, exposes you, reveals you to be a fraud and coward.

The fact that she stands for truth and justice and that people are rallying around her and not the candidates who you want to control like puppets as you scared.

So you worked with a weak newspaper to put out a hit piece on Nikaya that's full of dog whistles and racist tropes.

That cowardly attack on her is an attack on all of us.

Do you and the Daily Progress really think that we can't see through this?

That we're stupid?

Sitting here, you're actually the world's worst anonymous source.

You're so anonymous throwing Maurice Jones under the bus after August 12th that the council had to spank you.

But your ego and your Ivy League education makes you think that you're the smartest person in the room.

Party politics is killing this town.

Does the Daily Progress have any credibility left after writing that fake news?

and then the editorial board endorsed the two Democrats and Gillespie.

Does the Democrat party have any credibility left, this party that's rotten to the core, especially after last week's revelations?

Wes, thank you for speaking out.

Welcome to the election.

But party politics demands, unfortunately, that Wes be a Democrat first, and that's why he couldn't actually endorse Nikaya.

Signer, I also feel sorry for the students who are in your classes at UVA.

You dare teach a class on leadership.

I actually found a copy of the syllabus in case anyone's interested.

Week one is how to vote twice to keep Confederate monuments.

Week two is how to threaten to fire the city manager while the neo-fascists are attacking the city.

Week three, you teach your students on how to order the cops to arrest us.

Week four, you teach them how to illegally hire your crony to help cover up the negligence.

The week after that, you accept the award for defending democracy.

And then this week you taught them a lesson on how to launch a last minute racist attack on the candidate that this city really needs.

We're not going anywhere and we're not going to be shutting up.

In fact, to borrow your words, we will pray with you, pray for you with love tonight and bless your heart.

And tomorrow we're going to remember Assata's other words in case anybody wants to follow along.

It is our duty to fight for our freedom.

It is our duty to win.

We must love each other and support each other.

Hi, I'm Arianna.

Good evening.

So I'm here to also speak on the Citizen Review Board.

We demand the establishment of a truly independent civilian review board to address the issue of greater police accountability to residents, all residents of Charlottesville.

The process for creating a CRB must be public.

Accountable and transparent.

Independence starts from the beginning.

I've said to several counselors, Mr. Bellamy is pretty aware of it, is that when you say we, when you all say we, you are the we.

It doesn't include the citizens.

When we say we, it includes the citizens and you all also.

So your we's a little different when you say we.

So a group of residents that reflects all Charlottesville communities that are directly impacted by policing should be equal partner in the creation of a CRB, including creating its bylaw, not PCAPP, not the current board.

PCAP is not independent of the shoulders for the police department.

One member is formerly a deputy sheriff who worked for decades with CPD and PCAP on a whole has not stood up to CPD.

Everyone stand up if you agree with this statement.

Thank you.

I have a few more minutes.

I never thought that I would see the same thing that happened with Trump and Hillary Clinton in the city of Charlottesville.

Never thought I would see that.

I have more respect.

Even though there are things I don't like in the city, there's a lot of things that I love in the city.

Whoever put it out, shame on you.

Mary Carey.

Mary Curry, city resident.

This is my third time standing in front of city council to present to you a petition.

First time was in the 80s when I was in Garrett Square and they had no lights on those buildings down there.

So I came to city council with a petition.

At the time, the mayors were elected by the public.

They took my petition, and Mr. Jones co-hinged it with the city manager, real nasty man, but they took my petition, they talked to the private owners of Garrett Square, they took us three stabbings,

15 Muggins and a death before we got the lights up down there in Garrett Square in the 80s.

In the 90s, they put up fencing inside of Garrett, fencing the people in.

They couldn't even go see their family members came down here with a petition.

They moved fencing with the help of the late, great Emily Cork.

She said, Ms. Keriff, they put that fence back up.

Give me a call.

She was running for governor at the time with Tim Kaine.

She passed.

I moved in 2003.

What did they do?

When they found out those people had no one to speak for them down there, put the fence back up.

But this time, they put it around and fenced them in.

I'm here again.

Emancipation Park.

I got a petition going around the city.

These are the people online with something to say.

They put their statements down here on this paper.

I want you all to look at them.

I got, I wanted a thousand.

I got twelve hundred so far.

I got the written statements, the written petitions that I will show you at your next meeting because I'm looking for two thousand because I'm greedy like that.

So I'm going to say, you know, with all these sisters around here that's trying to fight for right, justice, and excuse me, Mr. Flagg, the American way, I'm one of them.

And I'm going to fight until I'm dead.

Do you understand me?

I'm 71 years old.

I think I got about 20 more years left.

And I'm going to tell all y'all something in here.

The only problem is over there.

You know the black community is the only one that's buying your papers.

I mean, they did yesterday.

But anyway, I want to give you this petition so y'all can look at them.

Go behind closed doors like you got the name, whatever you do.

But remove that name down there, because this ain't going to end.

It's been a long time coming.

and I know a change's gonna come, oh yes it will.

Thank you.

Is Michael Weber here?

So this will be something a little bit different.

I signed up to talk about marriage counseling.

My son, when he got married, was given one piece of marriage counseling by Rabbi Dan Alexander.

And that was to describe a couple who was engaged in an argument that became fiercer and fiercer and was spinning out of control.

Until finally, the wife turns to her husband and says, look, would you rather be right

or would you rather be married?

That's not a very popular thought tonight where everybody is concerned about being right.

But I was thinking about going back into my long history from when I was in Berkeley in the 60s and I heard Eldridge Cleaver talk about the three levels of political consciousness where people first fight against the symbols of oppression

then they fight against the instruments of oppression like the police and then finally they get to think about the oppressors and the oppression and the consequences of oppression and so what I would hope is that and in the next 36 hours or so that we think about how many of our fights that were done mostly on symbolic issues

have actually compromised our ability to deal with the oppression itself.

How many opportunities are being lost with respect to giving people their freedom, giving people their housing, giving people the kind of education that they really need.

And what is the reaction in our larger state?

Because we need to be frank, you know, it's not just that

The people of color are a minority.

All of us blue people are a minority in a red sea.

And when we wake up on Wednesday morning and there's a Republican leadership in this state, I think we all need to be thinking about, did we do anything that made it easier for Gillespie to run those racist and fear-mongering ads?

It's a very scary thought and if he does win, heaven forbid, it'll be viewed as a victory for Trump.

And this is a guy who could turn the earth into a radioactive cinder and everybody will be equal, but that's not the kind of equality that we would like to see.

So what I would hope

is that people just be a little bit more strategic in thinking about how they stand up for social justice, be a little bit less self-righteous about how they stand up for social justice.

And in particular, just a second, in particular I think people who are individuals have a responsibility to do that.

People who are elected to public office when they stand up for social justice as individuals

A leak.

That's what we're calling it.

A leak.

Last time there was a leak like this, Noah built a boat.

Anonymous sources, fake news, backroom deals, high level interference.

Our election has been hacked.

The only thing that's missing is the Russian players.

Until recently, I was proud to say that I was a registered Democrat.

And I'll also say that I'll be voting Democrat tomorrow, mostly Democrat.

Mr. Mayor, are you complicit in a last minute concerted campaign to demean and smear the candidate known as Nikaya Walker?

This effort, launched apparently from your office and with the assistance of the local news rag, the daily lack of progress, is both sinful and immoral.

Those participating in it, in my opinion, are also sinful and immoral.

They covertly duck behind the veil of anonymity.

It's sad and it's not worthy of the mantle of journalism.

and most assuredly does not rise to the level of what our city needs most, which is strong leadership.

This effort is civically irresponsible in the name of partisan politics.

Some insiders have effectively engaged in attempts to demean, dismantle and derail what has been an incredible and positively run campaign by Ms. Walker.

Because some of you have only recently come to realize what many of us already knew.

She can and she will win a seat tomorrow.

Those of you who have gotten your hands muddied in this process have only further soiled your own careers and character.

She is not what you tried to paint her as, an angry black woman.

She is a strong, powerful advocate and role model.

She represents strength, confidence, decisiveness, and determination.

It is incredulous and inconceivable that the newspaper would participate in partnering with people in such a vile and malicious manner.

Those guilty in city halls should be both named and shamed.

People of color and those of conscience should boycott the daily lack of progress.

And you should immediately cancel their subscriptions and I'll happily be the first and begin the boycott by canceling mine.

So Mr. Suarez, please notify your circulation department that I already have enough crap in my life and I don't need any additional toilet paper.

So please keep it.

To those of you in elected office, and I'm looking right at you, Mr. Mayor, who are guilty of this foolishness, know this.

The tail does not wag the dog.

Several months ago, Vice Mayor Bellamy asked if we could begin to get answers on the investigation.

You might as well turn that off.

Mr. Gathers, I'm going to cut you off.

Because I sit there and I had my ears raped by what this man had to say moments ago.

Tonight I'm going to finish.

The response that came back was what Mr. Hefe wanted to do.

Mr. Gathers, I respect you more than most people, but I will ask you to leave.

My question, who hired him?

Who's in charge as the employer in this scenario?

We're in the city of paying him to do a job for us, yet we allow him to dictate terms to us.

What does the diagram exist?

The true dichotomy that lives here between what your citizens want and deserve is what you're willing to give.

We're now 86 days in and we're just now beginning to get piecemeal answers.

We're now finding out that you were warned beforehand of some of their potential tactics and intent.

We now know that you were made aware that a car may be used as a weapon.

We now know that in an August 12th tweet from the ACLU of Virginia, the organization claimed that police said, we will not intervene until given the command to do so.

While that in and of itself may fall of a directed stand down order, it also does not meet the standard oath of office and honor by the police.

I ask where's the honor in standing by watching citizens get the literal hell beat out of them and watching idly as a Nazi fires off a shot towards a crowd where people are terrorized and brutalized and yet we're expected to remain patient, to remain understanding, to remain silent and unmoved.

Many shallow, hollow apologies that ring of insincerity

Any opposition to what is expected of the citizenry is met with apparent viciousness and backdoor room deals of evilness.

The hatred that presently bubbles against this city is much like the same slime that ran beneath the city's surface in the movie Ghostbusters.

It's simply waiting for more evilness to give cause to rise.

Your efforts thus far have merely placed a band-aid on an artery cut.

What minuscule scab that has been allowed to formulate will again be ripped off once Judge Moore finally issues his ruling.

I say this because, and I'm certain that you know this, regardless of how that ruling comes out, the vermin that invaded us will return.

I sincerely pray that you're prepared when that day happens for the riots in the streets, for destruction, for more injuries,

My name is Constance Johnson and I live at 631 Davis Avenue.

I'm a native and long life resident of Charlottesville.

I'm here to speak about the Park Street PUD.

I am concerned about the proposal before the council to place a business in our neighborhood.

There are no other businesses in this neighborhood.

Currently, this area is zoned R1 low density and borders single family homes.

The next door home being historical with several others within a two block area.

The current nonprofit MACA educational facilities are set back from Park Street and are not bordering the busy Park Street area.

What is being asked is to place a for profit facility in our neighborhood.

placed two duplexes on the corner of Macca Drive and Park Street and moved the business office of Macca to the opposite corner facing Park Street by converting an existing single-family house and property, which is currently zoned R1.

This stretch of Park Street from North Avenue to the 250 Bypass is under terrific traffic pressure currently and continues to increase with the building on the Rio Road corridor.

I fear that once rezoning or PUD changes start on this stretch of road, the consequences could be significant inequality of life, character, and land values in our R1 zone neighborhood.

Currently, in our neighborhood, there is no four-story building on a hill with 24-7 lighting for that building and parking lot, plus the additional noise of vendor garbage and client and visitor traffic.

I attended the Planning Commission's hearings on this topic and submitted letters to the commissioners.

Their first vote on this plan was originally 3-3.

One commissioner changed her vote to send it on to you with a 4-2 vote.

Some comments the commissioners brought off were that MACA did not come to the city with their need to do something with the property and allowed discussion to commence between the city and MACA concerning possible uses for this site and for their continued existence.

There was concern that a PUD hasn't protected the intended use of other sites' development in the past.

There was concern that this PUD would adequately protect the rock gardens, its use, trees, and the environmental in general in this site.

And there was concern that future uses of the property, once rezoned, would not be protected.

Is this proposed PUD within a future envisioned by the residents of the city of Charlottesville?

The PUD is for a senior living facility which offers no low-income accommodations in the four-story facility.

The two duplexes for lower-income persons are segregated to the busy Park Street MACA corner.

The contribution to the affordable housing fund is an insult.

Where is the affordable housing in this proposal?

The PUD proposal income and jobs figured on face look attractive.

Our community needs jobs that allow people to live in Charlottesville and affordable homes.

This does not do that.

And I ask that the Park Street and surrounding neighborhoods do not become a rich street, which its current construction of a hotel or high street.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah.

and I thank you.

I think that bears repeating that this is a, there are no businesses in this neighborhood.

DV Smith.

Last call.

All right.

Okay.

Well, that is the end of public comments.

I will pass this along.

It's a new high and lows for City Hall, for city officials, and for the Democratic Party in this town.

And you're all part of one big happy family and we know it.

I kept asking myself, why now?

Why did this come out now?

Why did this happen now?

And it's pretty obvious.

Mr. Gathers referred to it.

The state of Virginia has completed a preliminary report on what happened here with the racist mayhem in July and August.

And they're pointing their fingers right at you.

And so the accountability is coming right back to you right now.

And who's the most vociferous advocate for accountability in this city?

And you all are afraid that she's going to be elected and work for accountability and your accountability from inside, inside the system.

Now, you have to wonder,

Thursday, the two Democratic candidates hold a press conference, the point of which is to say they're going to work collaboratively with city council and with the city manager's office.

Friday, a smear article comes out that says the exact opposite, full of lies about Ms. Walker.

As somebody else said earlier, we're not stupid.

We know that y'all are in this together.

And I've been taught that if you see something, you say something.

If you see something, you say something.

What are you saying about this?

You know what happened.

You know who the source is.

You know about the collaboration.

You know.

This is nothing but Reconstruction-era white supremacy in action.

Donna Brazile was right and it's happening here and you're not saying anything about it in your party.

The Russians and Trump are polluting our democracy.

You know it and you're not saying anything about it.

You're part of the same problem as the Russian buddies with Trump.

You're part of that same group.

You're polluting our democracy.

If it was a city official who did it in City Hall, that's a fireable offense from what I understand.

Are you going to do an investigation?

Are you going to fire them?

Lastly, think about the impact of what just happened.

If those two Democratic candidates win and are elected tomorrow, there will be no trust in this city.

No trust in those two people and in this city council and the disorder that you have seen in the last six to eight months is going to get worse.

Thank you.

And that is the end of public comment because there is no one else on the list.

She's not on the list.

There is no one else speaking.

And I will say we have done public hearings for many weeks so people can speak at length.

...just as much as he is, and I don't care, I don't care if you hear me loud and I'm black, but if you hear me out loud, you're gonna hear me.

You're gonna hear me.

I'm not gonna be like the state that the state claims about, because if you can't blame the federal government, the state government, and the city government...

They blamed all of y'all for August the 12th.

And I blame you for what happened to Nakai because, Chris, didn't you say it?

You said it, didn't you, Chris?

Go ahead and admit that you're sad that Mike told you to do it.

Don't go ahead and admit that he told you to do it, but guess what?

I know I sent a newspaper this morning and I know you didn't close your eyes.

So you just broke something.

We built this whole damn old country and y'all still mad at us.

and y'all still want us struggling in this city.

We didn't ask, I'm like Malcolm X now, we didn't let no flippin' rocks, flippin' rocks land on us.

I didn't ask to be in Charlottesville.

I didn't ask to come here.

But now that I'm here, you still want me gone.

You still want me gone.

I move down the street a little bit further, you push me out from there.

I move somewhere else, you push me out from there.

Eventually, y'all don't want nobody here but y'all, right?

I can't even start a business.

You put me with somebody that want me to work today.

If I could be his project manager and help him run his business, who makes you think I can't run my own?

Everything that y'all do, and then you got mad today and ask this man for accountability, y'all should have been dead that.

You know he leaked that memo.

You know he put that memo out.

Y'all know that he did that.

But here's another thing, and then I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to be quiet.

Because the way I'm feeling right now, y'all ain't ready for me.

What makes you think that Natalia can't work with restrictions though?

Because you know how she becomes a city council lady.

Tomorrow, she's gonna be restricted.

But at the end of the day, when you got organizations that's ran by white people, but see, a lot of this stuff been ran by y'all for far too long.

You put these liens on our houses, you take our houses.

Dragged them.

Dragged them for liens that they don't put on their houses.

And you expect this lady to not be mad when she's still got leaks in her home?

You was gonna try to not be mad?

You come fix my house and I still got a leak, I'm gonna drag you too.

And Mike, I think I'll drag you 100.

On the stand, off this mic, in the email, off the email, and every last one of y'all too.

The thing is, y'all so quick to blame everything on black people.

Black people this, drag Wes Bellamy, drag Maurice Jones, drag this person, drag that.

When y'all gonna get dragged off?

We're sitting up here doing nothing.

We about to get another Christian, and we gonna have another Kathy tomorrow if they win.

So y'all better vote wild, and y'all better vote smart.

One of them, she gonna ride the wave.

You know, Kristin been doing it for a while.

And then the other one, she's dumb as a doorknob.

So at the end of the day, when y'all gonna take accountability and stand up for what y'all did to everybody on this club.

We have had meeting after meeting where people have spoken, as many people as we wanted, today we have 15 people.

I said we will have a review.

I said we will be getting a review.

Done.

And we'd like to, by suggestion by my colleagues and audience members, we would like to do a moment of silence for the horrific shooting that happened today in Texas.

OK, we're going to move on to our regular consent agenda.

Item A, minutes for October 16, 2017.

Item B, an appropriation state of good repair for bridge repairs, $10,079,968, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation local contributions for crisis intervention team, $105,910, first of two readings.

Item D, an Appropriation Runaway Emergency Shelter Program Grant, $209,444, first of second readings.

Item E, a Resolution Reprogramming of Funding for Ambulance Purchase, $175,000, first of one reading.

Item F, a Resolution Extension of the Affordable Housing Fund Grant Agreement with Piedmont Housing Alliance's Down Payment Assistance Program, first of one reading.

I don't know that I need to pull it, but I would like to ask a question about one of the items.

I say this as a person with two dogs.

The proposal here to go to a long-term dog license rather than having to renew it every year I fully support, but

The long term, we currently have, I believe, a four dollar, well, depending on the amount,

per year license, and this would give a longer multi-year license for $10, a lifetime license for $10 for neutered or spayed dogs.

And it says in the memo that that would actually produce a loss of revenue over time.

I believe that the reason was that we just felt that that was a fair number for us to go with at this point.

I personally am happy to vote yes for this today, but I won't be on council next year, so I won't have a vote, but I would urge both the council and staff to look at over the long term

a higher amount because it is a lifetime thing.

You're saving yourself a lot of time, a lot of effort, and it's only, you know, you're paying for two years.

So I think a lot of people, including myself with ten-year-old dogs, would have been willing to go a little higher.

But I think it's fine.

If I could, if we're going to change it, we might as well change it now rather than having it come back.

So I support what you're saying.

If I make a comment, I just have no basis to make a call on what number that should be.

So right now it's like pulling a number out of my hat.

So if it is something that we're all interested in revisiting, then I do want to see some comparables with other communities.

What would make sense?

I don't know off the top of my head, but I can check.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, this is an ordinance that requires two readings.

And then we can answer any questions.

Thank you.

That sounds great.

Nicely resolved.

OK.

So any other questions for any other item?

All right.

Was there a second?

There was a motion for Mr. Fenwick.

I'll second then.

Second.

All in favor?

And I have some appointments to move.

Yes, Mr. Fenwick.

I'm sorry.

I'd like to move the following appointments to these boards and or commissions.

The Charlottesville Albemarle Airport Commission, Addison Barnhart, Chris Engel.

The Community Development Block Grant Task Force, Kelsey Cox.

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Committee Task Force, Melvin Burris, Mark Menefee, Andrea Copeland,

Kay Monroe, and Karen Totten-White.

The Human Rights Commission, Olivia Boykin, Kelsey Lofton, and Ann Smith.

The Parking Advisory Board, Joan Fenton, Andrew Knuppel, Kirby Hutto, and Chris Cantalones.

Personnel Appeals Board, Philip De Ronzio.

Social Services Advisory Board, Lisa Brown, and the Water Resources Protection Advisory Committee, Rebecca Glenn.

I'm sorry?

That's a motion?

It will be in just a second.

And the YMCA Board, Tom Bowe.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, all in favor?

Okay, congratulations everyone.

Alright, moving on to the first item on regular business.

This is a public hearing and an ordinance Water Street parking garage, parking spaces lease.

We've got 15 minutes allocated.

Thank you Mr. Mayor.

This is a proposed ordinance offered for first reading tonight and also this agenda item is for the receipt of bids for the lease of 75 parking spaces in the Water Street parking garage.

Those 75 spaces are designated on the roof of the parking garage and they are currently owned by the city.

Some time ago representatives of

The developer of the Dewberry Hotel in the downtown mall expressed an interest in leasing city-owned parking spaces in the Water Street Garage for use by the hotel's visitors, guests, and employees once the hotel was built and opened.

Virginia law provides that for a lease of city owned property that exceeds five years, the city must advertise and receive bids for the lease.

And we have advertised this draft lease in the daily progress once a week for two successive weeks as required by law.

Let me state briefly the process that we have to follow under Virginia law to consider the bids that may be made on this lease.

First the presiding officer shall read aloud or cause to be read aloud

a brief summary of each of the bids that have been received for public information and shall then inquire if any further bids are offered.

If further bids are offered, they shall be received.

The presiding officer shall thereafter declare the bidding closed.

The presiding officer shall receive recommendations from the staff relative to any bids received in advance and staff's recommendations, if any, on any bids received at the advertised council meeting.

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, for bids received in advance there is one and not surprisingly this is from Deerfield Square Associates 2 LLC which is a corporate affiliate of Dewberry Capital.

If acceptable to you, Mr. Mayor, I will summarize this bid.

Each of you have a copy on the dais in front of you of the bids submitted by Deerfield Square Associates.

The terms of the bid as proposed by the developer of the Dewberry Hotel will be a parking space lease for 40 years.

The lessee, which is the hotel developer, shall have the right to terminate the lease any time before April 1, 2019 on 30 days written notice or any time after commencement of the term of the lease on one year's advance written notice.

The lease will begin on written notice to the city which shall be no earlier than April 1, 2019 and no later than September 30, 2020.

The rent schedule is set forth in the lease and it provides for 40 years of rent payments in an escalating amount with year one being $40,000, year two $60,000, year three, four and five $80,000 and then the rent increases in five-year increments through 40 years when the rent is almost $156,000 a year.

This will cause, if this bid is accepted, it will cause a change in the current operation of the garage in that the hotel will need access to these leased parking spaces 24 hours a day, 365 days during the year.

So that is the summary of the only bid received at this point.

Mr. Mayor, by law, you're required to invite any other bids.

If there are none, you can declare the bidding closed and proceed to the public hearing.

And of course, ask any questions that you may have.

Any initial questions?

Oh, yes.

Are there any other bids present here?

I guess this would be the time to do that, Mr. Brown.

That's correct.

OK. Any other bids for this RFP?

Hearing none, it seems like we can move ahead to the next items here, which would be any questions.

I'll declare bidding closed.

Is that appropriate?

That's appropriate.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

OK.

I have just one question just from a financial perspective.

So under the terms that are proposed in this particular bid,

On the Exhibit A terms of the bid, I've got the little chart for how much it's going to be paid over those years.

How much, by keeping those particular spots out of circulation for general parking, is the city or the garage altogether going to not receive?

I know we said early on but I forgot what that amount was.

I think the best way to answer the question is to suggest that the discount being considered here is about 24%.

So this would be about 75% of what we would get?

Yes, if you average.

So it's a net loss in parking revenues.

I understand there are other possible gains, but in parking revenues, it's a net loss.

So I have a question.

Mr. Mayor, I have a question.

We have to remove those spaces from the pool

Would that be beneficial to it?

Is that something that you think we should look at?

So for the spaces that are available on the roof, could we, because I know that there may be a loss as it just was described, could we make that revenue back by charging a premium rate on the roof?

How can we get around this?

We are in, as you know, negotiations with CPC, the other parking space owner in the garage about how the garage is operated and what the rates will be.

I think I'm certainly not here to speak for CPC, but I think they have been aggressively pushing higher rates for the garage to generate more revenue.

So I think that certainly is a possibility that rates will increase.

I guess I do have a question about the logic behind the differential and the rates.

Am I right in thinking that when you have this long-term lease, because it's predictable, it's guaranteed, that is why the per unit cost is, or per unit revenue is lower.

That when you're dealing with the open

pool, there's not that guarantee that you're going to get all of those leased up on a weekly or daily basis so that you're giving up overall revenue for certainty.

Is that pretty fair to say?

No, the term a bird in the hand comes to mind.

That's what I'm thinking of.

I'm sorry, the next 40 years, 75 spaces for the next 40 years.

That could be a very good deal if demand for those spaces goes down and as a result the rates drop.

Or it could be a very good deal for the tenant if demand increases and that drives the rates up.

My name is David Gross and I'm the Senior Director of Business Development and Corporate Strategy for Dewberry Capital Corporation in Atlanta.

Thank you for inviting me in and thank you for looking at our bid.

I'm happy to address any questions that any of the council members may have about our bid.

If there are any questions, if there's any clarification required with respect to the discussion just now, let me also add that the

The parking rights associated with the development of the hotel are really fundamental to the feasibility of the hotel.

There's no other parking.

available to us right there.

It's not as though we control our own parking space as we do in other properties.

And we are very, very excited to move beyond this phase of the effort that we've been in with the city over these last several months so that we can move on to the next phase of developing and beginning the construction of the Dewberry, Charlottesville

in the very very near future.

The development and the opening of our hotel beyond the certainty of the parking spaces and the parking revenue that we're going to generate for the city is also projected to have very very significant beneficial impacts to the city in the way of additional property taxes, additional overnight occupancy and transient taxes,

additional sales taxes, additional new jobs, the driving of new guests to the downtown area.

So we think it would be a mistake to look at the economics of the parking arrangement in isolation to the rest of our plans for developing our next hotel here in Charlottesville.

I should also add that

certain members of our staff are going to need parking as well and when that time comes we'll come back to the city to talk about leasing up a number of spaces for our management and department heads and other staff there at the employees so that additional those additional spaces that we take up will and I don't I'm not familiar with Chris's analysis but

Well, we need to get approval from the city on the design and we're ready to come to the city as soon as our architects are finished with their work and I've just finished looking at

the architect's contract.

Well, I would appreciate it if John Dewberry occasionally visited here and kept us surprised, or y'all can come back anytime.

Okay.

Well, we haven't been recently.

I have a quick question.

This might be a little bit more background about how this fits into the business of the hotel.

These folks don't know necessarily a lot about how hotels are financed and how they put together.

So it's important to have this parking in your pro forma for getting financing, right?

For making the

We're putting the hotel together.

To some extent it does, but that's not the compelling reason.

The compelling reason is we're going to have as many as a couple of hundred or more overnight guests each night staying at the hotel.

many of whom will be driving their own vehicles to the hotel.

Those vehicles need to be kept somewhere.

In addition to our overnight guests, there will be other visitors to the hotel for meetings and special events for the restaurants that we're opening in the hotel, for the retail space that we'll be opening in the hotel.

So the real driver here

Mr. Mayor, if I could add one other point.

Councillor Fenwick's reference to Mr. Dewberry visiting reminded me that back in March Council discussed this when Mr. Dewberry was here and parking was discussed at that point and there was some discussion about a revenue sharing proposal where the city as rent for these spaces would get a percentage of revenue generated by those spaces.

I think Mr. Engle and I talked about that and saw it as being a real challenge just from a bookkeeping standpoint.

But at that time, I believe in March, the numbers that council mentioned were a minimum of $40,000 the first year, $60,000 the second year, and $80,000 the third year.

Great.

Yes, these are maximums.

Okay, I think that's it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So unless there's further discussion, are we ready for, was there further discussion?

Public hearing.

So we have a public hearing open now because this is an ordinance.

There's a sign-up sheet right here in the front, so I'm going to open the public hearing.

Rebecca Quinn, 1044th Street here in the city.

You know we do occasionally get really deep and heavy snows in this area and the reason that's relevant is a few years ago there was a parking deck in Northern Virginia

that collapsed.

I believe it may have been under construction, but what happened was the snow got piled up in the wrong place.

Don't ask me why, you'd think parking decks would be designed for a heavy enough load.

So I'd like to know, and I think it's incumbent on us, I don't know if we own the building, all that's too complicated,

but snow that's distributed has a different kind of load than if you pile it up.

So I'd like to, I think the city ought to ask, how do they plan to manage or will we or the parking condo association manage the snow to satisfy their needs?

Do they only plow now?

Do they use chemicals?

Does the hotel have any plan for cleaning

Visitors cars, you know, it's an upscale hotel.

We know people will want snow off their cars.

We have one more.

Good evening.

I'm here from the 757 Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

I'm the president of formerly Black Lives Matter 757 now known as BLM 757 and I am here to more or less ask what is being done about the neo-nazi situation.

I'm here to ask what is being done

about the Confederate situation and I am here to ask who everybody is representing tomorrow at the polls during the election because I am asking everybody to write Aubrey Jones in for Governor of Virginia.

I've contacted the necessary people and I'm here literally just to say that.

I'm sorry for taking up any time.

outside of normal business, but Charlottesville has been a prick in my heart since July the 8th when I came here and saw the police manhandling the citizens of Charlottesville, pepper bombed the citizens of Charlottesville.

Not sure if that's been addressed yet.

I was actually here to donate shirts to your citizens who were pepper bombed by your police or state police, however that went.

So I came back on the 12th where you were told

On the 8th that it would be three times as worse, rest in peace to Heather and those two officers, it was three times as worse as it was prophesied.

And I'm now here to say that Ralph Northam is not the man for governor, nor Ed Gillespie, nor anybody in the smear campaign ads that I keep seeing on my TV and hearing on my radio that I'm sick of hearing of, so I'm here to run for governor.

Alright, thank you.

Alright, anyone else on the parking spaces?

Okay, I'm going to close the public hearing.

I think it would be appropriate, do you all have any answers to the question that was raised about environmental concerns?

Maintenance.

Thank you.

I defer to Mr. Brown.

I think the proposed form of long term lease that's attached to the proposed form of ordinance provides that, just as the case right now, that the city and its partner will be responsible for, you know, overall maintenance of the parking deck.

We will have an obligation to police and maintain and

The city will continue to own these spaces and the spaces on the roof are owned by the city and Charlottesville Parking Center, Inc. and we, I believe, share on a proportionate basis the ongoing maintenance costs for those spaces.

Is that correct, Chris?

Okay, thank you.

Motion and a second.

So then we can have any comments.

Counselor is inclined, you can move and second the ordinance that is in your agenda materials and that ordinance will be filled in with the name Deerfield Square Associates to LLC as the lessee.

Okay, is there a second?

Second.

Okay, and would anybody like to make a comment about anything?

I'd like to, I don't have a prepared statement.

I did vote against some of the other things in the past, and I plan to vote against this when we consider it in two weeks, unless something monumental happens.

And I just want to clarify that I do look forward to this hotel opening.

I think it will be a good addition to the mall.

I think, you know, people do with their property what they can, and the hotel is a fine use, even though, you know, a lot of uses have been proposed for this particular property.

But I do think that for the city which has already voted to give this particular private business

a million dollars in tax abatements over the next 10 years if they billed it by a particular date and now is foregoing parking revenue that we would otherwise realize from these parking spots in a rather contentious relationship for the parking garage itself, which we don't know how this locks us into the future of, is for a business that is doing this and will continue to make profits off of this hotel for many years to come,

I do understand we will get revenue from occupancy tax, sales tax.

I love the fact that visitors will be coming downtown, but the jobs that it provides are generally low-wage jobs.

Most of the people who work there probably won't be able to afford to live in apartments nearby, so they'll be driving in and out.

And I just think that this is a company that is trying to

I'll give a quick counterpoint.

Running for this office I heard about the Landmark Hotel from every corner of every part of the city almost every day and it was usually in a tone of anger and it is

The reason it stayed empty for so long is it's a really complicated problem to solve.

The building was built the way that it was built as a hotel, but with the ceiling heights it had with no parking.

It was acquired in the way that it was is just a tough nut to crack.

And we hear all the time about, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of, you know, a lot of legitimate frustration with the things in the city, but we hear all the time about what are you going to do?

And this is a fairly complicated multi-part

approach that was heavily negotiated with a lot of very good work by staff, including, as Mr. Brown said, getting this parking deal down to the scale that, you know, away from what they asked for in the beginning to what we wanted.

And parking is just one part of this thing.

And all this is because there's not really another good option on the horizon that wouldn't leave this vacant for many more years.

And it is actually getting the landmark hotel this awful

you know stake in the heart of downtown Charlottesville as it is right now developed and prospering to the city and bringing in tax revenue.

All the things that people said where it was a giveaway, it's not.

It's a tax abatement on revenue that we get.

So they don't get anything from us until they start doing their business.

And I hear what you're saying about a discount on the parking revenue, but even that was negotiated very heavily.

So it's a legitimate point that it's a discount, and I see that.

But it is linked into the other parts of getting a hotel up and running that doesn't have parking.

There's no parking.

So how are you going to

Just to clarify I am not averse to offering this rooftop parking to the Dewberry Hotel.

Mr. Mayor, I just have one comment.

I'm reflecting on what motivated me to support this program and this program that winds up supporting the redevelopment effort.

I vividly remember when a beam or a structural element of the hotel was blown off by a strong wind and it came crashing down the CVS building next door, posing as terrible hazard to our community.

The place is falling apart.

It needs to be rebuilt.

It needs to be done as quickly as possible.

This was the way to get them to start committing the building.

We will not be giving them any tax relief at all until we see it coming up out of the ground again.

OK, so we have a motion and a second.

We're ready to move on because there will be a full vote on this in the next upcoming meeting.

Any further?

Okay.

All right.

Let's move on to the next item on the agenda.

This is another public hearing and ordinance.

We will do a public hearing on it.

First of two readings.

Again, we'll do a motion and a second.

Very brief time allocated to this.

Ten minutes.

Good evening Mr. Mayor and members of City Council.

The item before you this evening is a public hearing and first reading of an ordinance granting a utility easement to Dominion Energy at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir for the purpose of undergrounding an existing overhead power line that provides power service to the Ragged Mountain Dam.

The easement would provide Dominion with the necessary permissions to underground this power line.

Dominion intends to use a boring method of undergrounding which would eliminate the need for removal of any trees or vegetation.

along the alignment of the existing line as well as the proposed line.

City staff are working with staff of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority to ensure that the proposed undergrounding of this service line will not conflict with the future line connecting the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir with the Ragged Mountain Reservoir.

That project is currently in the very initial design phase.

Prior to the second reading of the ordinance, staff will continue to coordinate with Rivanna to confirm any conflicts with future projects are considered

and the final easement language.

Lastly, staff do not anticipate any disruptions of public access to the Ragged Mountain area as a result of the undergrounding of the service line.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Mr. Daley, you answered mine earlier today, or yesterday.

Okay.

If there are any questions, let's open the public hearing on this matter, which is right down there.

Public hearing open.

Nobody's signed up, but if anybody would like to sign up, it's right down here.

Going once.

Going twice.

Okay.

Close the public hearing.

All right.

Any further questions, discussion?

Okay, that's all we need to do right now.

This is fiscal year 2018-2020 strategic plan and city council 2017 work plan.

We've got 30 minutes allocated to this.

Ms. Leslie, a lot of work has gone into this.

A long time coming.

Ms. Leslie Beauregard, assistant city manager, will be presenting

All right.

Thank you, Mayor Signer, members of City Council.

This is the first report you've received since City Council adopted the strategic plan and the council work plan back in June.

I'll just remind you where we've been.

So this is the history you saw last time and the items since you've approved the plan, the summer and fall, we've been working with the strategic plan core team, which you received a charter of in your material, which is basically our department heads and staff that are working on implementation strategies and we meet monthly.

So here we are tonight.

We have the first report.

I'm going to talk mostly about the new webpage, the charlottesville.org slash data webpage.

and then in December or January we'll take a deeper dive into the strategic plan when you meet in January for your retreat as we start talking about the next iteration of your work plan and start talking about budget planning.

So I like this chart, I stole this chart.

So we talked about in the strategic plan what you all did was you told us what we should measure and so that's mostly what you had worked on in the year leading up to the new strategic plan.

We've worked since June and it has been a really, it's been a ton of work from a ton of people actually collecting and reporting that data and that's what's on the website now.

Now what we're going to ask from you is help in translating that data and information into insight and I'll talk about that at the end of the presentation.

So here's our new website, charlesville.org slash data.

You know about the open data website, which if this were live, you could scroll down to see that.

So now we have all of our data in one place.

We have, I'll talk about the economic indicators.

That's a feature, that's a special feature that we can change up frequently.

We have the strategic plan.

Each department has their own scorecard, not every department, and we're working on that.

I'll talk about that too.

And then the city council work plan, and then the efficiency study updates.

So this is kind of a feature we're going to try to do and I don't know how often we'll update this.

This is the first one we picked called Economic Indicators.

As we're coming up on the budget, this might be interesting to see.

These have been updated through mostly calendar year 16 and through June.

We'll be doing another update at the end of this calendar year on these.

So these were basically indicators that talk about our economy and if you were on the webpage you could scroll down and see revenue indicators as well.

So we thought it would be a nice idea to kind of have some kind of feature of the strategic plan on that link that showed you something, some area of the plan that was of interest and that we could really dig a little bit deeper on.

So as you dig into the strategic plan, when you click on that link you see each of the goals and each of those we've now completed the outcome measures and if you click on each of those you'll see the baseline for each of those outcome measures and that's for every goal at each of the five.

And then underneath objectives, if you recall, you developed intermediate measures and each of those also have data in them, except for the blue dots.

Those mean we're still working on that data and we'll be trying to get that information in the future.

And then, of course, every goal has several initiatives tied to it and those also have information behind them.

Here's an example of what an objective page looks like.

So this is under develop a quality workforce under goal four.

So each of them would have a current strategy.

It's linked back to the initiative.

Most of these, probably 90% of these, are tied directly to what some work a department is doing.

In this case, it's economic development.

And then you would see charts with the data that go with that objective.

This is just an example of a measure page.

They have a description and analysis and of course the data.

In this case it's the Commissioner of Revenue number of businesses by sector.

And in many cases you see more than one chart.

In this case there's another chart that I'm not showing which is really interesting that shows the type of business by sector.

So that's also really interesting data to look at.

This is just the total.

And then here's an example of an initiative page.

It has a description.

Most of them talk about why and what it achieves.

And then we talk about the status.

and again this is under economic development.

This is the growing opportunities report.

When you come to your work plan, that's on a different scorecard.

It's on another box within that data webpage.

Each of these initiatives were identified when you approved your work plan back in June.

and under each initiative there's a description and recommendations and then there's milestones.

You see the Gantt chart below and then the green typically means that that's on target.

We're still kind of figuring out kind of timing of things so if you see something that looks weird you just need to let me know or let the staff know and then we can discuss that.

So I showed this chart initially.

So what we're really asking tonight, I'm not going into detail, it's a lot of information on the website.

Staff really would like you to look at it, especially between now when we first start meeting on the budget in December, and of course building up to your retreat in January.

So how do we start translating data and information into the info?

So what we need from you is we prepare the 19th budget.

We want to know how we do this.

And partly this is how you need to tell us what your highest priorities are.

We have a three-year plan.

It doesn't mean everything can get done at once.

Some items, just by necessity, have to take precedent over others.

And so what we'd like to work with you on as we start the budget process and at your retreat is how do we prioritize these items so we can really dig deeper into those items that you care deeply about.

and as the new council members come on board, of course, we'll engage them as well.

The strategic plan core team will be providing the process and support that helped do this.

So for instance, these are just a few examples with lead team.

We were going to be looking and talking about the measures on a regular basis.

We've actually added a lead team.

We've usually had one department head meeting a month.

We've added a second meeting and so we're going to use that second meeting to be strategic.

So that will be the meeting that we use to discuss the measures.

If something doesn't look right, we'll dig deeper.

We'll have those conversations.

And half the battle of this is just talking about what those mean.

We're also developing department work plans.

So this aligns the strategic with operational programs.

So departments will have, through the end of this calendar year, which is less than two months from now, to come up with a draft plan.

And they've been provided templates and assistance to do this.

and then they have to have their final plans finished by next June of 2018 and they'll not only align with the strategic plan but then they also want to show what they care about in their own operational department that may not be strategic but they're important to the city and to the work that has to get done and they speak about the services they're providing.

So that is my presentation and like I said we will be continuing this conversation

As we start to talk about the budget next month, we have our first budget work session on December 7th.

And so, again, I'd like to hear if you have thoughts tonight about kind of some of the things you would like to look at deeper.

If not, we can wait until that time.

But I would be happy to answer any questions or take any comments.

Thank you.

Questions?

General question.

The city's going to be in recovery for some time.

So how is the recovery effort reflected in what you just presented?

I think that's up to city council that they have in the strategic plan.

There are strategic items on affordable housing, workforce development.

I think that just depends on the discussions you all want to have in terms of what that recovery looks like.

No it does not.

Do we meet in our core team meetings?

I have several questions and thank you very much Miss Beauregard.

So, and these are kind of high level questions because I haven't more gone into the details of each objective and initiative, but

It's my understanding that when we, when council gave the directive to go and move forward with an efficiency study, the main goal for that was to make sure that we had the most effective government bureaucracy that we could get in order to implement the strategic plan.

So that they were tied in my mind anyway.

So could you kind of in a brief narrative just explain or

How the recommendations from the efficiency study relates to the strategic plan and how does the work plan relate to the strategic plan and the efficiency study?

Right.

There are a lot of pieces.

Well, let me speak to the work plan first.

There are definitely some items in the work plan that tie directly with the strategic plan.

For example, affordable housing, community engagement.

There's several items on there that relate directly to the comprehensive plans, such as SIA, Streets That Work.

So I think those items very easily fall within the strategic plan.

There are others that don't so nicely fit, like the Dewberry Hotel.

Unless you were to somehow maybe couch that under economic drivers, which is under goal four,

So I think there's probably an element to every work plan item that fits, some better than others.

So we haven't paid for a lot of the recommendations in the efficiency study yet, but I anticipate that as part of the 19 budget process going forward, that will be the case.

And so it would be nice to align those with strategic plans so that you can have that direct alignment.

And we'll do that work once we know more kind of what the priorities are.

What can we afford to do?

I mean, I think there's several low hanging fruit off the efficiency study that we're going to try to do in 19 and others that take more decision making.

And so we'll just see how those all tie together.

But I think there are linkages to all three.

So I think I tied together the work plan and the strategic plan better than the efficiency study piece.

Does that answer your question?

Some of it yes and then the rest will be determined.

I read that we have a strategic plan core team and we have a lead team.

So the strategic plan core team is made up of 11 individuals and all but two are on lead team, are department heads.

I actually restructured the strategic plan team after this plan was adopted.

We used to have a much larger, we were called SPAT, Strategic Plan Action Team and it was 20 individuals and it was actually not the majority department heads and the difficulty with that was that it was, we felt, the team felt it was difficult to get that department head buy-in because department heads weren't engaged in the process as much as they should have been on that first reiteration of the strategic plan.

Once this new plan was adopted, I changed that up.

We have now almost all department heads except two and it has been much better.

I mean the engagement is there.

I'm really pleased with how the team is working together right now.

They are actually coming up with real action steps and it's at that lead team level and they're talking about how do they then drill it down into their own departments and start really focusing on how do we get the plan down into the culture of the organization.

It's just a smaller subset.

Okay, that helps.

Because the lead team's like 25, so this is 11.

So it's a distillation of the...

Yes.

And then the city manager relative to all this has been called the sponsor of the core team.

the sponsor of

Oh, right.

So basically, what we felt like that meant was that the city manager is basically telling us to go forth and do.

That's all that is.

Oh, so it's still the authority is within the city manager.

Correct.

But we're doing the work.

Okay.

Got it.

The way I look at it is kind of a champion for this effort.

Yes.

Okay.

Because it got a little confusing to me as to

was the core team somehow in charge and who had the authority to do what.

But it really is still, the authority still comes down to the manager.

And my last batch, so we have P3 measures from 2009 and strategic plan performance metrics and efficiency study recommendations from 2016.

So since the P3 system was instituted in 09,

I think as a result of P3, or is that what you're asking, resulting from P3?

I will say based on our previous kind of how we were set up, because P3 just kind of represents the mechanism of how we're doing our strategic planning process.

So my next question is, since we got

This new structure, and we've got the strategic plan goals, objectives, and performance metrics.

Well, P3, it's the same thing.

P3 just speaks to the mechanism through which we operate.

I just want to make sure there's no extra work and layers.

So kind of what P3 is kind of our brand now.

It's like when we talk about P3, we're really talking about the process.

So it's not really as public facing

That part.

So the people talk about P3 like as a thing, which is really cool because that's what they're talking about is strategic planning.

They're talking about, okay, intentionally being strategic.

And so that's kind of our branding, but it's much more internal, I think, than it is made public facing to the public facing piece of this is the data now.

which is the website that we've put out there.

Yes, so my preference, to be honest, is that everything kind of lives under the strategic plan and everything's built around that.

So even as you develop your work plan, you have that in mind.

And as we look at the efficiency study, we have that in mind because it makes it a lot easier because then you don't have duplication, to be honest.

And so when we refine these things in your January retreat, I'd like you to, I mean, we'll try to structure that so you say, okay, think of the strategic plan as like your main document.

Structure everything in that, around that, and if there's something that falls out of it, we need to talk about that because maybe it needs to be added or maybe it's not that important.

So that's where the prioritization is helpful because we have three years to do the items in our plan.

and so then we pick the things that are clearly the most important to this council and the other things kind of wait a little bit and that's okay.

I guess more comment than a question.

I will say I've been on council for eight years, and when I first met you, I wanted to talk about how do we figure out what's getting better, what's getting worse, how do we keep track of stuff?

And you had this incredible kind of in your head, and you were already starting to do it, this idea of how we could make data accessible to the public.

and to departments so that they would know if what they were doing was actually accomplishing anything.

And so I've watched you just work your tail off at first as budget director, no finance, budget director, and now as assistant city manager.

And I think what's really cool about that is that two major initiatives have come forward this year.

One is documenting what we were talking about today of looking at strategic plan and

and having charts and graphs and all this stuff to document that.

But you were already ready because a lot of the stuff you've been working on for eight years was that.

Now it's in a form that we can link to that and that's really helpful.

The other piece was when we did the open data policy to say that we wanted data from the city to be available to the public.

not only for transparency so people know what we're doing but so they could use the data and be able to manipulate it and get it out in different ways than we might get it out and you're already doing that through the same process and so it's really teed us up, it's teed you up to be incredibly responsive to the things that we've

I think in a city that hadn't already been doing that, this response could have taken years and instead it's sitting in front of us on the website.

It's certainly not going to be perfect.

I'm sure I will be among those who go through and say, wait a minute, what about?

But I think the fact that you have been just steady and the city staff has participated in this.

To me, it looks willingly.

I'm assuming generally it's willingly.

It's a lot of hard work.

Thank you.

Over the years, I can't believe it's been like nine years.

Over the years we've brought people on board as staff who share the vision and then can help execute it because I couldn't have done it.

Obviously I didn't do it alone and I would never take credit for that.

Take a little.

I'll take a little.

But we have over 40 people that are using our scorecard system now and Maya Kumizawa in my office has trained all of them and we just had a session with Clearpoint Strategies who is the company that builds the software

and they had a very high level discussion with us about why, how we could use ClearPoint which is the scorecard software you're seeing as a reporting tool but as a decision making tool.

And it was amazing.

And we had department heads there.

And it was really, really positive to see the positive feedback.

So I think we're kind of on the cusp of something really cool.

And we just kind of get over the boundary and get over to the next level.

And we're there.

I mean, we're so close.

And we just got to keep the momentum going.

But it's there.

The momentum is there.

And the core team has had tremendous momentum.

and yeah, I don't, I think in the short time they've been meeting, which is only maybe three times since you adopted the plan, we've done, they've done an tremendous amount of work.

So, but thank you very much for those words.

Yeah, opening up the hood.

Good for them.

That's it.

So I have a couple of questions.

This is meant to be very constructive as this takes iterations for the public.

I think we've got to be really

you know again because these folks who pay attention to platforms like this are justifiably very scrutinizing and so just a couple things the I am not totally sure we got to have the confidence people look at this like a hundred percent or close to and the way in which we use the

the symbols.

So if green is at or above plan, I think we've got to be very careful with that conclusion on some of these things.

So when I'm looking at the work plan, and this is the one that I focus on the most because we did this retreat last year where all of us went through our different priorities.

So, art support strategy I'm not sure is an upper green arrow yet.

We have had a good, really promising conversation about this with the county and there's a lot, there's a very interesting, promising discussion, but I'm not sure it's there yet in terms of

knowing that we are exceeding our hopes.

I think it will be in four or five months.

And small area plans too, I'm not 100% sure that that's an upper green area yet because the Cherry Avenue one, which has been in the works for a long time, that's slated for like

a year and a half away.

I want to be careful.

There may be a gradation in here that we can maybe one more.

And actually Ms. Szakos had a great idea.

I talked to her the other day.

She had a suggestion.

I think we can just build these legend icons out ourselves.

it's one of those we built ourselves to have one that was kind of green with red slashes to say it was finished but it wasn't done on time so that makes you kind of go back and question your timelines like well maybe we're being over competent in our timelines it got done but it was like two months late

and so I think if you have ideas about that we'd love to hear it because that was the hardest part of this was struggling with those icons like what does this mean you know and so I was kind of counting on departments to do that but then some of it was just judgment you know it's just like well this could be what this means and yeah we're on status for this but you're right some of those that aren't finished

We don't know, you know, you wouldn't really know what the stat, if you're looking at it from that perspective.

So I think there's, there's definitely, that's, that was the most uncomfortable area doing this.

Yeah, that's great feedback though.

So.

Yeah, so if you have suggestions or if you've seen cool examples somewhere else, but we would, obviously when we meet in January, that would be a really good time to dig into these things and say, no, maybe that's not this, it should be this.

without adding any work at all.

But I know in tech, in the tech world, you know, you commonly are sort of focus grouping platforms or apps to get just a regular person.

What is it like for them to sit down and use a water there?

Because we're all thinking through the lens of government policy and all that stuff.

And it might be worth pulling people aside at one of our

So it's interesting you say that because, Chris, I don't know if you remember nine years ago, or it wasn't quite nine years ago, when we were bringing out the first rearration of measures, we did that actually.

So that's not, we totally, we absolutely did that.

I had people from UVA, I had people from the community and they reviewed it and provided feedback and it was a really good experience but I would love to come to town halls and share this and have people react to it.

So I just, in terms of process, we should just keep sending you our comments because of, you know, like digging down into this and just let you know what would, like I know as a counselor it would be good on some of those charts as they get developed is to have some way of identifying a decision point that has to be made from council or the planning commission or whoever it is, some body so that it stays on track.

Yes.

and if it gets to the point where things are being delayed, what is that a flag to mean you need more resources?

When do you need a consultant?

When do you need extra staff?

and our open data folks when we have folks from UVA also on that.

Yeah, we hadn't really engaged them on this.

I mean, we've been focusing a lot on open data, but I think this is the time to do that.

All righty.

Thank you very much and we will, if you do have any suggestions please let me know and we'll be kind of preparing information for the budget work sessions coming up in the new retreat and so if something you know strikes you just let let me know and you know we can we can address that so great thank you so much.

and the applicant also has a brief presentation, so I'm going to try to be as brief as possible since we have 30 minutes.

So good evening, counselors.

Before you tonight is the PUD request for 1021, 1023 and 1025 Park Street plan unit development, otherwise known as the MACA PUD request.

I will briefly go over the actual application, the request, the council standard of review,

Staff's overview of the analysis, the Planning Commission's discussion and recommendation, and then the community engagement piece that has been throughout the ongoing process.

So the application started back in March 2017 with various meetings along the way, so many of you are very familiar with this project already.

the application went before Planning Commission August 2017 for an informal public hearing then at that point revisions were made by the applicant to address in efforts to address staffs and citizens in the Planning Commission City Council's concerns prior to coming back to the October 10th public hearing so the applicant as it stands now is as follows they're seeking to rezone the properties from low density residential R1 to plan unit development with proffers

The proffers include one, providing two duplexes, so four units total, of age restricted housing affordable to households earning 80% of area median income.

This effort, which would be coordinated with the housing program coordinator on compliance and reporting, and then two, a donation of $75,000 to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund.

The applicant's request proposes what they're calling an intergenerational campus that would locate a senior housing facility containing a mix of assisted living and independent units, 141 units proposed, on the current MACA site, which is located at 1025 Park Street, and that then they would relocate MACA's operation and facilities to the adjacent Stone House, which is located at 1021 Park Street,

with a new school building proposed behind the stone house.

And then finally at 1023 Park Street, the existing single family residence would come down and the four age restricted affordable units mentioned before would be constructed to front on Park Street as two duplexes.