City Council Meeting - April 20, 2020   4/20/2020

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Wheeler.

Good evening.

I would like to call this virtual meeting of the City Council of the City of Charlottesville to order.

Ms.

Mr. Payne?

Here.

Mr. Snook?

Mr. Snook?

Ms.

Walker?

Present.

Ms.

Magill?

Present.

Ms.

Hill?

Here.

And I did not hear Mr. Snook.

He is.

Let me make sure his mic is activated.

Mr. Snook, can you hear us?

How about now?

Mr. Snook, can you hear us?

I'm sending him a message.

Okay, so just to let the public know, we just have a glitch that we're trying to work out.

Let me try one more time.

Mr. Snook, can you hear us?

Yes, I can.

Great.

And Ms.

Mr. Snook, can you hear me?

All right, thank you.

I would like to move to amend the agenda.

Okay.

All right.

So I heard a five vote or in favor of that.

All right.

Vice Mayor Hill?

I'm sorry, Councillor Hill, apologies.

If I could, could I get a Councillor to make a motion to approve the agenda as amended?

So moved.

So, Mayor Walker, I do have a couple of quick announcements.

Any announcements?

This is regarding the city's website, and the city is moving to a new website and internet address starting on Monday, April 27th, a week from today.

Next week, we hope you'll visit the completely redesigned website at www.Charlottesville.gov.

It is a mobile-friendly and modern design that makes it much easier to find what is most important about city services.

New website, new domain, same commitment to service.

Secondly, I want to remind everyone about the Charlotte Seaville 360.

Council is pleased to announce that since our last meeting, our communications team has launched a new program called Seaville 360, a program to inform and engage the Charlottesville community.

Airing twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m., the show allows you to hear straight from city leadership about our response to the coronavirus pandemic and learn about other news from the city.

You can find the broadcast on the city's website, Facebook,

Twitter, and Comcast Channel 10.

In addition, the program allows us to hear directly from you.

A companion Zoom webinar, like the one we are using tonight, allows you to ask questions and to get answers.

Tune in live or on demand, all while practicing social distancing.

Visit the city's website calendar for program details.

I just want to follow up and just say thank you to Brian and the communications team for all the great work that they've done to kind of pull that together over these last weeks.

It certainly has been a great resource for our community, and we encourage you to look back at those

programs that we've already had that you may have missed, and I hope you'll tune in in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any other announcements?

No?

Just one quick announcement.

For Charlottesville housing residents, we were contacted through former counselor Wes Bellamy

to get a, for Sentara, to partner with Sentara to get testing in our housing community, specifically targeting African American residents of the community due to the COVID-19 and the effect that it's having on the African American community across the country.

So we are working on that as we speak with a group of community

And I just had one really quick announcement as well, which is just for anyone in the community who's watching this who is either looking for resources for support or interested in donating to just check out supportcville.com, which is a website that the community has put together that collects a bunch of different local resources as well as ways you can donate.

and they're also starting an initiative for folks who are receiving that $1,200 check if they would like to donate it to community members or non-profits who are addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

Thank you, Council Payne.

Are there any other announcements?

Okay, so we decided to each either

make a statement or read a prepared statement just so that we could connect with the community.

There are only a few ways that we can connect with the community and keep the community safe and ourselves safe.

And everyone's trying to figure out what that looks like during COVID-19.

And we have not mastered it, but we've been working really hard to try to figure out how

keep a connection, make greater connection, and make sure information is flowing.

And so each council member will just spend some time making remarks that they have on their heart or have prepared.

OK, so.

Yeah, and I just froze too, I think.

Yeah, I don't think it's from my end.

Am I freezing now, or am I going?

OK.

Can you hear me?

No?

Yes.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Just told me it was, I was disconnected.

Sorry.

What I would like to share is that I'm very proud of our community for as much as we have come together to work towards supporting each other.

And I know that we need to continue doing that.

And one of the ways that we're going to continue

are opening their doors like Georgia right now that it just disturbs me greatly to think that that economic pressure is making people risk their lives.

In every way that we can and to encourage everyone to keep supporting each other as best we can.

Thank you.

Counselor Snook, would you like to share?

Okay.

Counselor Snook, would you like to share your statement prepared or just from the heart?

That's where we are now.

Let me try.

I note that my bandwidth is also low, which I don't understand, since I've got Ting and I'm only about 50 yards from City Hall.

But anyway, the thing is, I think all of us have on City Council and certainly in the rest of the city is

with the placing on some consequences.

We know that there are roughly 40 people in the city of Charlottesville who have come down with COVID-19, according to the latest data from the health department.

But in terms of what we see, the information that's given to us and the decisions that we are called upon to make, we're spending a lot of our time right now, because it's the budget season, talking about the budget.

And the dilemma, the real problem is that the essential conditions that are going to determine what we can do are not within our control.

We don't have control over what's happening nationally.

We don't have control over what's probably going to be the most important decision, the thing that's going to most directly affect our financial well-being, and that's whether the university reopens physically in August.

My best guess at this point is that it will not.

in which case we're going to have some even more serious financial difficulties than what the budget we will be talking about in a little bit is going to deal with.

On the other hand, we also have a plan for that and that's also I think something that's worth noting that

The staff, and particularly the finance staff, have been working, I know, nights and weekends, because I've talked to them nights and weekends, over some of these issues, and just a lot of work and a lot of struggle and a lot of agonizing going into it all.

As I say, we don't have the ability to write checks, except in a very limited degree.

We have some ability to make grants, of course.

We were intending, as recently as about a month ago, to be making grants totaling about $2 million, and we had spent a lot of time agonizing

over what those grants would be.

Now it looks, I think that the draft budget that has been submitted to us by staff at the moment basically says we're not going to make those contributions or we're not going to apportion that money right now.

I want to emphasize, because I got a lot of emails just in the last couple days about this, we'll talk about it more, but the decision, number one, no decisions have been made yet.

Number two, the only proposal here

was to hold those decisions in abeyance and to not make the decisions right away.

But we will obviously have to make decisions about giving money to nonprofits that are going to be dealing with the most important issues, issues of food, issues of safety and medical care, issues of housing.

And we're going to have an opportunity or a problem, depending on your perspective,

to rethink a lot of things that we've been doing over the last few years and we will end up making different decisions this year and that's going to be stressful for everybody.

So the main message that I would have is everybody please understand that everybody else is facing pretty much as difficult a decision as you are probably facing and certainly I recognize that.

Councillor Hill.

Sure I'll be brief but I don't echo what was said earlier it's just been really

Just energizing just to see different groups come together and support each other.

As I said during one of the 360s that I was on, I think it's important that we don't silo our community in any way, whether the city or the county is doing one thing or the community is energized and doing other things, that we all are working together.

And going back to Michael's point, like the Support Seville site is a perfect example of that, of just everyone kind of aligning behind, like this is where people are coming.

Okay, let's get all our resources in one location and work together because it's going to take a community effort to get us through this crisis.

I also think obviously right now top of mind is our budget and I know that topics that are coming up involve both

how we're going to allocate those resources that counselor Snook was just referring to and I think it is important that we kind of clarify it's not that we're zeroing out those dollars we're just taking a pause to kind of recalibrate like where those dollars best going to serve the most people in our community that are in the greatest need right now obviously there's housing funding dollars that are being that are kind of in a holding pattern as well we were going to be allocating our CAF dollars and now we're in a position where we just need to really look at

what the housing needs are that are most urgent for those in our community.

And so the bar theme for me is both as you look at the city as an organization and the community that the people have to come first.

And so our employees are certainly at the top of my priority list, as well as how do we best serve the people in this community.

And so I look forward to working with my colleagues and with staff who has been diligently working through this pandemic over the last five, six more weeks.

so that we all can kind of march to that vision.

And I do believe it's a shared vision.

As Mayor Walker said, or someone said earlier, each of us kind of has different formats to communicate with the community.

And if you feel like you need to hear more from us, we're certainly open to that.

I know that some of us are more comfortable in social media.

I certainly try to keep up with the emails that are coming and going and try to be responsive to that.

And so I think that each of us is trying to find our way to communicate out to different members of the community

that we, you know, that we have more community networks with.

And so just if we were happy to have people about ways that we can do that better and ways that we should be speaking to the community more often and in what formats are most appreciated.

So really just looking forward to hearing from the community tonight on ways that we can do this better.

And again, just for me, it really comes down just to the people and prioritizing the people in our community and in our organization.

Thank you.

Sure.

Yeah I mean I just echo a lot of what others have said I know certainly for ourselves and I think everyone in the community this is a time of a lot of uncertainty a lot of fear and you know we are talking with phone calls, texts, emails, social media every day with community members who are facing crises and concerns about both the public health crisis aspect of this but as well as the economic crisis that it is created you know there is not a single

who has not already been affected by this pandemic.

And that's something which we are deeply aware of and we're committed to doing everything that we have the resources and legal authority to do to try to address that.

And both as a council and as a city government, we've been working every day to figure out creative ways to respond to this.

and have taken a number of actions including, you know, suspending Section 8 voucher terminations and evictions in our CAHA properties, suspending utility shutoffs.

Brian Wheeler in the Communications Department working on new programs with CVOS 360 and ways to get the word out to the community, as well as encouraging public comment while still maintaining social distancing.

We've seen the Office of Economic Development work to create

programs with loan funds and marketing campaigns to support our local restaurants and small businesses.

We're working within city government to try and do everything we can to make sure that our city employees are still able to be employed and receive their checks.

And that's just a little bit of some of the actions that we've taken, and we're still looking to

do anything we can and work creatively with the community to find ways to take action.

As others have mentioned, I think some of the most important work that's being done is a lot of the community work, the mutual aid work and solidarity economics that's going on in our community that we, as a local government, want to amplify and support.

Again, in terms of supportseville.com, the initiatives to make masks and personal protective equipment and get that to frontline workers and nurses and city employees.

And I think that's going to be one of the most important things going forward is our partnership with community groups who are on the front lines really working to address the economic and social impacts of this, as well as being aware that in terms of both positive cases and deaths around the country,

The impact of COVID-19 are not being felt evenly, and in terms of the disproportionate impact on black communities, the low-income communities in our country, that we're doing everything to intentionally address that.

And finally, I'd say we're doing everything we can locally, but an important piece of this is just that as a locality, this is a national crisis.

We're doing everything we can locally, but we're also going to need action from a state and federal level when we look at the shortages of testing, PPE, when we look at the amount of money needed to support small businesses, when we

Looking at getting money into the hands of families, our budget is $190 million.

And this is the kind of problem that is going to require billions and billions, if not trillions of dollars across the country, as well as substantial action at the state and federal level.

So we are continuing to do everything we can to try and encourage that and try and make sure that we are positioned to take advantage of actions that are being taken at a state and federal level.

And finally, I just want to thank the frontline workers, the nurses, grocery workers, bus drivers, firefighters, everyone who is dealing with this on the front lines and risking their life every day.

And I think we need to thank those workers, not just in words, but with providing them unions and collective bargaining and living wages and good benefits.

And finally, I hope a major priority, I think, in Virginia is the COVID-19 outbreaks we're seeing in jail, prisons, and detention centers.

And that's not something that we have direct control over, but just continuing to make sure that folks in our detention centers, jails, and prisons, as many are released as possible.

I know we're seeing a lot of COVID-19 outbreaks there as well.

Our local jail system has taken a number of actions to police inmates, but our state prisons and other local jails are not necessarily taking the same actions that our local regional jail system is.

And I just know that's a major crisis.

Okay, thank you.

And I guess that's me.

I just want, you know,

first to just say thank you to the community, the people who have offered maybe what only seems like their willingness to figure out how to survive this.

If that has been your only contribution at this point, that is a great contribution.

And then for the community members who have stepped out

and have been attempting to coordinate at a community level to make sure that we are connected and that the individuals who need have the most needs at this time.

We appreciate you more than we would ever be able to verbalize.

To the employees who are working

who are staying at home and remaining safe to those who are on the front lines and making sure that things that the rest of us never have to think about are put in place so that we are safe.

We appreciate you again more than we'll ever be able to verbalize.

I think what I should spend my time on is that

hoping that we all understand that we have created a pretty unequal and unjust society.

And we don't wanna learn the lessons that I think we'll learn with COVID-19 if we don't respond to this differently, that we all need each other to get through this, and we won't make it through this without one another.

What is most important when you think about unequal societies and unjust societies is that there are usually people that are disregarded as those who lack the ability to even contribute.

And what we are learning and what I am very proud of

is the effort that the community and staff have made to ensure that people who normally we don't see, that we speak and that we make sure that their needs are met.

And by making sure their needs are met, every one of our needs are met.

And as long as we continue that path where we put people first, and we know that there will be great economic consequences, and in a society that's built the way that ours is, there's no other way for it to happen.

That lesson will be learned.

But every decision that we make today will determine what our recovery looks like, like how we come out of this.

And we can make those decisions off the backs of other people or we can make those decisions and uplift and care for each and every one of us.

And I just hope that we're making those decisions where when we get to the end of this,

that we can look back and say because we did that in a way that was full of grace and compassion that we're in a much better place today.

But we'll take a lot of hard decisions.

I'm sure we will all lose something that we find valuable.

We, you know, may feel like we're losing our minds at times.

This is such an unknown.

No one could have prepared for this.

It's one of those things, even if you've had, I'm sure, bioterrorism training, that there was no way for you to be ready when it happened, until it happened.

But I am just, you know,

Happy to be a part of this community and the work that we're doing together.

and the way that we're taking care of one another.

And I appreciate all of you who are stepping up in every way that you can.

And if you need something for us that you don't feel like you're getting, and we don't have all the answers and we're trying to figure that out too, just send an email, send a Facebook message.

you know, try to connect with us through phone.

But I ask that all of us understand that these stressors that each and every one of us are under and try to send those requests with as much compassion and grace as possible.

All right.

Is everyone there?

I saw some people leaving the meeting.

So next we have

The consent agenda?

I just got, what was it?

Get back on.

I got kicked off for some reason.

OK.

Ms.

Thomas, did you get kicked off or had you?

I may have frozen.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

OK.

Okay, consent agenda, A, minutes, March 12th, budget work session, March 16th, special and regular meetings, March 25th, special meeting, B, appropriation, domestic violence services coordinator grant, $49,336, appropriation, C, appropriation, Charlottesville area transit, supplemental appropriation of FY 2020,

transit grants $2,021,606.

First of two readings.

All right, thank you.

We do have somebody, and we do have one person, and this is Sean Tubbs.

Sean, you're live for city council.

Go ahead.

Yes, thank you.

Yes.

Perfect, great.

Just one small observation on the CAT appropriations budget that's in there.

There's a line in there about that there, and this might, oh sorry, I should say who I am, Sean Tubbs, Piedmont Environmental Council.

I just want to say here that

There's a line in there about public comment and public community engagement in the staff report.

And the question I have is that I didn't know that that could have triggered a public comment session at the MPO level.

I don't think there's necessarily anything in there, but I would just say that I'm not saying you should or should not talk about this item tonight.

I would just say that transit obviously is being hit pretty hard by this.

I don't think there's anything in this particular preparation that's bad.

But I do think, though, that as we think about what's going to come out on the other side of this,

We should be maybe looking at this appropriation a little bit differently and perhaps a public hearing about that might be something that the MPO might have in the future but obviously not trying to hold this up just want to make a comment about it.

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Aye.

Okay.

Aye.

So that carries 5-0.

And the transit supplemental appropriation, it will be on the next agenda for a vote.

So if there are any questions or comments, maybe members of the public could get those in before the next meeting.

OK.

All right.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council, and to the public.

Good seeing everyone again.

Nothing really major to report.

I just want to say that we're trying to convey to the public as much information as possible and in a timely manner.

So what we want to do is make sure that that information is getting out to you and one of the things that we're planning to do is at our next either work session or next city council meeting or even both to be able to convey some of the information that we provide to the city council on a daily basis to the public about what we're doing in all of our respective departments.

And also too, another method that I thought would be very beneficial was the introduction of the Seville 360 program, which is ran by Brian Wheeler to make sure that all the information that we're actually doing about this COVID-19 crisis is being shared with the public.

as well as the different things that we're doing internally in terms of our day-to-day operations and the services that we're still providing throughout the community.

Okay, thank you.

Next up, we have the first session, section of our community matters.

And if you're on the webinar, all you need to do is click the raise your hand icon and we'll call on people in the order in which they raise their hands.

Do we have anyone that's... We do have people raising their hands now, Mayor Walker.

Nancy Carpenter.

Nancy, you're on with City Council.

Good evening, and thank you all for allowing me to address City Council this evening in some very important topic areas, which is the intersection of public health and housing.

And we know from the data out there who in our community is most adversely affected by the housing crisis and the health crisis.

And I'll just speak on the housing crisis, because I don't know much.

I'm not an expert at all about housing.

this health crisis, although we're learning a lot.

One of the things I really have heard during my webinars about a lot of this funding and a lot of activities I think would be beneficial for the city to look at to commit to people in their housing.

Looking at ways to perhaps provide grants to landlords

that have tenants who will not be able to pay any or even a portion of their rent for the next few months.

We see the economic news that's happening in the stock market and a lot of resource

markets with oil and everything like that, that this is going to be a very deep situation for a lot of people.

And I think the city has made a tremendous commitment to housing and affordable housing over the last few years.

Certainly, you know, the impetus was there until we kind of went off the tracks with this pandemic and trying to get back on the tracks, how that new track looks.

It's not going to look like it did before March or January.

So if we can maintain that deep commitment to scrap to those vouchers, I've seen how important it's been to people, the redevelopment of our public housing and friendship court, the commitments made there.

I hope that we can still maintain those because housing is now, but it's also still in the future.

We still have to think about what that's gonna look like five years from now, because at some point we'll come out of this.

you know what will look like you know is up to us to write it I think but I do believe that you know creating to look at tenant preservation I think that's what Dr. Desmond was talking about today was tenant preservation initiatives that can keep our folks housed because we don't need to see tens of thousands of people

sleeping in the different parks that we have.

So I'm probably getting close to the end of my time, but please look at funding housing initiatives as much as you possibly can over the course of this budget cycle.

I know that everybody's taking a hit, but I think that if we can maintain your commitment and the community's commitment to housing, that will also

impact some of the public health issues that many people in our community are facing.

And thank you for my time, I appreciate it.

Next up, Mayor Walker, Brandon Collins.

Thanks, good evening, everybody.

I'm Brandon Collins, I live in Charlottesville.

I work for the Boston Association of Residence

Farr, which is also a member of the CLIP coalition.

And just want to build on what Nancy just brought forward, how important it is to recognize there was a housing crisis two months ago, and this entire community spent a number of years moving towards addressing that.

and that's awesome and of course now we probably have an even bigger crisis and so there's this priority for the city and I hope that your new budget still moves things forward to address that crisis with the understanding that things are significantly worse now.

I think April's rent being due

for folks wasn't too hard.

Really worried about May 1st rent and June 1st rent and what happens when we come out of this.

So one thing that I think would be important is gathering the Housing Advisory Committee, finding a work session or at least a meeting of that group possible.

with the focus on addressing the current emergency as it relates to housing would be a really wise decision, bringing the hack together, housing providers, government folks so we can kind of see what are the needs, what are the priorities, what are the resources so there can be really good coordination on sort of a mini housing strategy moving forward as well as just

I know it's hard.

I know everybody's feeling pretty bummed that a lot of great progress may have to be slowed down for the coming year, but prioritizing housing development, making sure there's money for projects that are ready to be built, that have been approved, that just need to move forward as fast as possible, and making sure those resources can still get pumped out there to the community in a big way.

Yes, councilor.

Correct.

Thank you.

I guess that next is that we would just need to have a discussion about where we were and if there are any, because I don't even remember what the last decision point was made regarding HAC, but Mr. Blair, would there be any reason that

Well, good question.

The hack, as you recall, before the city manager's emergency declaration, there were questions about

some reforms as to accessory dwelling units as well as an affordable dwelling unit ordinance but the hack independent of that and what you're speaking of Mayor Walker if they wanted to convene a session to say what is our commission's or I should say committee's response to COVID-19 and what can we

recommend to council or the planning commission directly related to the emergency itself and the housing issues that it will provide.

They can do that right now under the ordinance.

Now, certainly I think if council requested them to meet, that's certainly more impetus for them.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Mayor Walker, next is Tanisha Hudson.

Tanisha, you're live with council, go ahead.

Tanisha, can you hear us?

Now we can hear you.

Hello, this is Tanisha Hudson and I live at, oh right now I'm just bored in the house bored.

So I would like to address a few things.

One, at the last council meeting, I

Well, I made a comment about what you guys were going to do with utilities with us possibly starting to come out of the COVID-19 crisis.

What do you guys have in place as far as taxes are concerned?

Are you going to give people time to pay taxes?

I know because I've been doing some research on this that certain creditors are asking people to call back in within 30 and 60 days to give an update on where they are financially.

Are you guys going to put something like that in place?

As much as I feel like the city should do for the community members, I do feel like we have to

also do something on our end like check back in and say if or when we're able you know to pay certain debts especially for people that lost their jobs like they should be checking in with you guys to see where you know to update where they are with paying taxes and utilities and so forth because that's what most creditors are doing mortgages, credit cards, whoever.

Also the housing vouchers for people who have emergency vouchers that was part of the equity package

that you guys voted on a few years back, some of those vouchers are ending.

And so while we're in a crisis, people are about to be homeless.

What are you doing to extend those vouchers?

Are you going to extend those vouchers and let people stay in the units?

And if so, like, you guys got to get a jump on it, because some people are already being put out of their place because they're losing emergency vouchers.

So, like, some people have already lost theirs.

I know a couple of girls who have reached out to me who lost their vouchers, and now they have nowhere, like they're staying with someone.

So like, these are things that should have already been discussed before we even got in a pandemic crisis to begin with, like what was going to happen after those vouchers ended in two years.

And I felt like that was thrown on the back burner.

Like, so now

You have people who will issue those vouchers in July that's possibly going to be without a home and kids put in the street in the middle of a pandemic crisis.

Because even though we may come out of it a little bit, we're still going to be in it as far as how the world is going to feel.

And who's going to feel safe enough, even if the world opens up in a month or two months, who going to feel safe enough to go out there?

Like we seen this play before with the flu pandemic.

in the early 1900s.

They opened everything up and more people got sick.

So I just think that there's some things beyond the budget that should be talked about.

And maybe y'all talking about it, but I feel like you need to do something about it.

Like you shouldn't be talking.

So just a couple of those.

There hasn't been any

information from the housing authority that they have pulled any that I have seen so I will check on that again and see if there have been people who've lost the vouchers.

We would have to come back for discussion because the

Original intent was to give some people the ability to get a break and some assistance and then to open that up so that other people could get a break and some assistance knowing that we don't have the resources to keep everyone on and bring in new people.

I would agree that at this time that no one should be losing whatever is supporting them in housing.

and to my understanding based on the information CRJ has put out that has been the case but we will check with them and in terms of utilities I think we have that pretty much figured out and again it was a discussion that Councillor Payne had brought up before our meeting and we had been making some you know we had had that discussion

and giving some direction to the city manager about our desires for making sure that people were not cut off.

And then as everyone read in the paper, I didn't read it, but what was in the paper, that was just follow-up discussions as we will have those follow-up discussions as things come up to just ensure that people who may have been previously disconnected

We're reconnected.

I would add about taxes as well.

Todd Divers, our Commissioner of the Revenue and the Treasurer, announced several weeks ago that all late penalties and fees for late due taxes will be suspended, as well as one of the agenda items for tonight is to push back the due date for real estate, personal property, and machinery and tools, tax payments,

Yes, and the extension, there also is the ability for individuals to call in and get on a payment plan.

and the staff is very aware that everyone will have unique needs and they are expecting to have those conversations based on individual circumstances.

And as long as people keep in touch and let the city know where they stand and what their needs are, staff is committed to working with them.

No one else at this time has raised their hand.

Somebody else just did.

If you're watching via the webinar and you would like to speak during Community Matters, you can click the raise your hand icon and that will put you in the queue to speak to city council.

Next up, Mayor Walker is Rory Stolzenberg.

Rory, you're on the webinar, go ahead.

Whoop.

Let's try that again, Roy, hold on for just a second.

I'm gonna, Roy, I'm gonna, if you just hold on just a moment.

And Roy, I'm afraid it's giving an error message about your version of Zoom.

So I was not able to promote you

to a panelist or enable your microphone.

If you want to rejoin the meeting after upgrading your Zoom client, that might resolve that problem.

And you will have an opportunity to

speak during our Matters by the Public at the end of the meeting, too.

You can also reach us through email.

And again, if you can't, you

called you zoomed through the webinar and you would like us to read your statement.

We will definitely do that during the time or at the end of the meeting we will make sure that that information gets out there.

And we're also exploring additional ways for people who may have challenges with online

Yeah, hopefully you guys can hear me now.

Now we can hear you.

I guess Zoom webinars don't like Linux.

So I want to commend you guys on getting a new website.

It's definitely much needed.

I wanted to ask about what the plans were for the existing website and whether you guys were going to leave it up from now on at Charlottesville.org so that things aren't lost forever.

There were some plans to archive it as we transition to the newer Slim Down site.

Sure, Mayor Walker and Council and the public.

The good news is we have the current site on our own server.

and so we will be maintaining a copy of all of that information.

Given the dramatic changes we're making to the website, we've gone from about 2,000 pages down to about 500 on the new Charlottesville.gov site.

Obviously, a number of links are going to be broken and there's not a lot we can do about that.

We will be redirecting the most common public links back to their counterparts

on the new website.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

There is not.

Okay, so we're gonna close Community Matters.

And next up, this is not eight, we have a resolution establishing June 30th as the city's fiscal year for 2020.

21 budget adoption deadline.

That is correct.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and members of city council, and the public.

As all of you are aware, on March 12th, 2020, I declared an emergency due to the potential spread of COVID-19.

And then on March 25th, 2020, the city council

enacting an emergency ordinance which waived statutory deadlines created by local laws.

And due to the COVID-19 emergency, Council was unable to conduct its budget work sessions as well as its April 6 regular meeting.

This has caused Council to miss its April 15 deadline, which is mandated by the Virginia Code.

So with this resolution,

Okay, thank you.

Are there any questions from council?

No.

Any questions?

No?

All right.

All right any further discussion?

Aye.

So that carries five to zero.

Thank you Mayor Walker and Councillors.

The tax rate is set on a calendar year basis both the real property and the professional property.

Okay and last year the council set the tax rates by ordinance.

The council it does not appear from discussions wishes to alter the personal property the machinery and tools or the real property tax rate for the coming calendar year 2020.

There's no formal action that's actually required since an ordinance remains in place, but in order for more public transparency, there's a resolution before you that simply states that the tax rates for those classifications of taxes, meaning real property, machinery and tools, and personal property,

will remain the same in calendar year 2020 as they were assessed in calendar, I'm sorry, not assessed, but levied in calendar year 2019.

Thank you, Mr. Blair.

Are there any questions, council members?

No questions?

All right.

I move we adopt a resolution establishing these tax rates as presented.

Second.

All right.

Any further discussion?

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

Missing one.

Mr. Snook.

Aye.

All right.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

All right, next up, we have a resolution establishing June 19, 2020 as deadline for real estate, tangible personal property and machinery, tools, tax payments.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, council, public, once again.

As a result of my declaration of a local emergency, as I mentioned previously, and the declaration of a state emergency by the governor,

they both basically altered our government operations and since that was the case and it continues to be it was only right to recommend moving the due date from June 5th to June 19th and by passing this resolution the council will extend the tax payment deadline to June 19th but I would like to say also too as I've talked to

Mr. Vandiver, the treasurer, that we strongly encourage folks to call in and basically talk to his department in terms of if they need any assistance or a payment plan moving forward.

And his department is willing to work with our residents in the community if that should be the case.

Yes, Mr. Vandiver, would you like to share thoughts?

Good evening, Council.

As Mr. Richardson indicated, we would welcome anyone to contact us on a case-by-case basis if they're having trouble meeting that June 19th deadline.

And we can definitely work with anyone who needs a little more time to make their payments if they're under a financial hardship.

Thank you.

Just to add to that,

I guess I do that during discussion.

I just want to make sure that we clarify this for the public that this two weeks is kind of the extent of what we're able to do by code.

Councilor Hill, to answer your question, this is based on the calendar and adopting a fiscal year starting July 1.

June 19th really seems to be the last date since the fiscal year starts on July 1 part of the June taxes go towards actually supplementing revenues for fiscal year I shouldn't say supplementing but actually completing the revenues for fiscal year 20 which as you know the council has to have a balanced budget

and those taxes are integral to balancing that budget before the June 30th deadline for fiscal year 20.

So I think June 19th and Dr. Richardson or Mr. Vandiver can jump in.

I think that's kind of the last date that you can that the city can in effect collect taxes and still have the collections come in and have enough time

Thank you.

Are there any other questions?

I move we adopt a resolution establishing June 19th 2020 as a deadline for real estate tangible personal property and machinery and tools tax payments.

All right is there a second?

Okay, any further discussion?

And I would just, because I was on a radio interview, and

on a shipping show and there was a call in about this.

And so we fully understand that some people, just a two week extension may not be sufficient.

And that's why we wanted to ensure that there was a payment plan option for individuals who may not be able to pay by June 19th.

And to give you the ability to call in and communicate with staff about

What your needs are and that's not every detail of your personal life but just that you're experiencing hardship and that it would be helpful for you to be able to pay X amount and How long you think that will be and even if it's an unknown?

Just keep an open communication, you know about that will greatly help us but for individuals who can

pay your taxes, understanding that that is how the city operates and to keep the city afloat, that that is why that date is there.

And we appreciate every effort that people are making.

OK.

Actually, Mayor Walker, this is Todd Divers.

I thought we were under the impression that we were going to be talking about PPTR next year.

Maybe it didn't make it on the agenda.

I didn't hear you, Todd.

You were going out.

I'm sorry.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

I was under the impression that we were going to be talking about the personal property tax relief percentage tonight.

And I guess I just assumed it was going to be under this agenda item.

Okay.

No, I didn't, Mr. Blair, what are your thoughts?

I didn't have that.

During our 221, I asked for the information from the closeout, but that isn't a discussion that we have had.

OK.

We've got a memo teed up.

I thought we'd send it in.

OK.

All right.

Any further discussion?

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

OK, that carries five to zero.

Music playing

you

All right, ready to go?

I can see Michael Payne.

I can see Heather Hill.

Dr. Richardson is getting ready.

And then we just need Mr. Snook.

And now we have Mr. Snook.

All right, thank you.

I call this meeting back to order.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

Mr. Divers had spoken earlier in the meeting during the recess I spoke with the Clerk of Counsel and Mr. Divers about the personal property tax relief and I think there was there's been a lot of emails going back and forth and there was some confusion about the agenda but

I'd like with the council's indulgence to read the resolution which establishes the personal property tax relief for this calendar year and then turn it over to Mr. Divers to explain that.

The resolution itself reads that

Now therefore be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia that the personal property tax relief percentage on up to $20,000 values for vehicles valued over $1,000 is set at 42% for tax year 2020.

I'm happy to.

Yeah, this is the percentage of personal property, essentially car tax, that the state pays.

Going back to the Gilmore administration, if you recall, when former Governor Gilmore ran on the no car tax

platform, the state began paying an increasing percentage of everyone's personal property and that reached a point that was essentially unsustainable and so they capped it.

And the dollar value that they capped it at is the same amount that localities get to this day.

And so what we have to do every year is determine how much of the

The taxable fleet is going to receive that relief.

So that's sort of a 30,000 foot view of it.

If you need more detail, I've got my deputy, Roz Collins here, who actually does the math.

I think that was a very good summary.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you both.

Okay, we got you.

So moved.

Could we just say what those percentage, what they are?

42 percent.

So you got that Heather?

42% on the tax on up to $20,000 value of qualifying vehicles who are valued over $1,000.

OK.

Just wanted to make sure that we have those numbers.

I don't necessarily know that you have to include them.

I just wanted the public to hear them.

Thank you.

And for us to know.

All right.

So we move to establish the 2020 tax year rates for personal property tax.

Yes.

Any further discussion, questions?

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

I'm missing one.

I think Lloyd is... Yeah, waiting for him.

He is on.

He explained to me he needs to turn off his speakers before he turns on his microphone.

So there may be a slight lag.

And I see his picture now, Mr. Snook.

And he disappeared.

I'm sorry, I was turning off the wrong thing.

Alright, an aye so that carries five to zero.

Alright, thank you all for that.

Next we have the resolution establishing a plan for adopting the budget for fiscal year 2021 and establishing a budget public hearing date.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council, to the public.

One thing that I want to do before I go into that, and I'll cover the basis in terms of establishing the plan for adopting the budget for fiscal year 20 to 21.

But I want to be able to provide some background as to where we ended in March.

and to where we presently are and our path forward.

As we talked about before, there's been some changes in our dates due to COVID-19.

And we want to be able to provide everyone with a basic update about everything that's going on and what we plan to do moving forward in terms of the budget.

And although we are going through the, I would say, trying time,

I think that we'll be able to continue to maintain our public services as well as our personnel as well as continue to do one of the things that we've been able to do in the community but you know there will be some struggles and as we see now and as I talked about it too when we were back in March when our original projections we were just anticipating a loss of

1.25 million in FY20 and just 4.7 in FY21.

But as we continue to look at our financials overall, we started seeing the impact that it was having on our overall revenues.

So what I wanted to do is just give you a snapshot of FY20, what the adopted budget was.

which was 188 million.

And after we did our revisions in terms of looking at our overall revenues, we dropped it down to 185, which is a $3 million loss in revenue.

And then moving forward as we were planning and continuing to do our planning for FY21, I was proposing a budget of $196 million

But after we started looking at the overall economic conditions within our community, we revised that down to $191 million.

So we're looking at right now as an anticipated loss of revenue of over $5 million.

I just want council to understand and keep in mind that that number can continue to go downward or if the economic conditions change, it could move upwards.

But we'll talk a little bit more about that as I go through this presentation and give you more information about the budget.

So what I wanted to do right here was basically, I'm not gonna go through every single line item, but what I wanted to do is show you some of our key categories

that you see in the document that you have within your packet in terms of where we are as far as our overall taxes and how we looked at the overall revenue reductions pertaining to each line item.

And I outlined that per year.

As you can look through your packet and you look at the budget, you can see where we

had made those reductions in FY20 and 21 for local taxes.

And then also too, as you move on, you look at the other key line items, license and permits, and also a miscellaneous revenue.

We don't have anything as far as it decreasing in FY20, but in FY21, as you can see, that revenue reduction as well as with miscellaneous revenues in FY21.

The charges for services and intergovernmental revenue, like I said before, with those, you know, their key reductions, as well as the intergovernmental revenue.

As you can see in FY20, we don't have anything, but in FY21, we see some reduction in those particular areas.

Moving forward with our designated revenue in those key categories,

And then also, too, what I wanted to do is just outline some of our major increases in addition to our original FY20 appropriations.

And this was things that we did throughout the fiscal year and this current fiscal year with those dollar amounts, as you can see in those particular budget line item categories.

The reductions from our original FY21 proposed

As you can see, some of those key areas that we reduced in order to be able to showcase where we are currently for our proposed FY21 budget.

Keep in mind that we are using, as mentioned before, we're using FY20 budget expenditures.

So that's why you see these proposed reductions for FY21.

The additional information and considerations, as we mentioned before, we are holding $85 million as far as our reserve.

right now just to make sure that we do have enough funds to get us through.

And this is basically the reserve.

And 1.6 from this is change in revenues and expenditures.

6.9 of that is a deferment of the capital projects.

And as you can see there, we have the brief explanation of what we're doing in terms of the capital projects.

We're still working on that.

and then as we move forward, we'll provide more information to the council in terms of what our overall plans are.

But as I like to mention too, that reserve, we wanna keep it at that level and not dip into that as we move forward.

So we're doing everything on our side to be able to maintain our overall revenues as well as try to manage our overall expenditures.

within fiscal year 21.

And I know we're going to talk a lot more about the Vibrant Community Fund.

I know everyone has been asking a lot of questions about that.

But I know that we're going to have a revised funding strategy to talk about the availability of funding as well as provision of services that are going to be provided in the upcoming fiscal year.

So I know we'll have more discussions pertaining to the Vibrant Community Fund tonight.

But one thing that we wanted to do was basically talk about what we're going to try to do in terms of making sure that agencies who are receiving funding from the city that, you know, in those agreements that we do have the right to withhold or adjust monthly and their quarterly payments due to them

having ceased operations or reduction services to our residents.

And then as we talked about before, any new programs or positions at this current time will be deferred.

But as we come back, and we'll talk a little bit more about that too later on in the fiscal year or in the first or second quarter of the fiscal year, we'll have further conversations in terms of

what our overall plan of action is as things start to level out if we start to see a shift in our revenues that are outwards how we can basically put a plan together and then we talk about that in terms of how the council wants to move forward and I say like identify the priority list in terms of what's number one, what's number two, what's number three that we want to look at funding as we go through this fiscal year and our revenues increase

that they decrease, we have to look at further cuts in different areas and we'll have that discussion as we move through the fiscal year.

What we want to do is basically look at overall, you know, as we do have plans in place in terms of looking at our short and long term financial strategies,

you know one of those things that students do return to the university or if they don't return look at the overall financial impact that it will have on the community as well as look at you know the peak that was provided to us in terms of the UW peak model which was in April which we were reached

or the other models that we will reach in June or which the governor has stated that we'll reach in August.

So, you know, we're trying to plan out our budget so that, you know, whenever we reach whatever timeframe that we can also give council, you know, those updates.

I'll tell a little bit about that in just a moment.

But, you know, as we said before, our key goal is to maintain our overall priorities that we talked about before.

in terms of protecting our most vulnerable populations, which is our homeless as well as our senior community, as well as our folks that are in our affordable housing communities, as well as staff making sure that they are protected also as we go through this.

But the main thing too is to also ensure our community that we are maintaining our public services

and, you know, we're doing that by maintaining our services and staying open in terms of, you know, anything that they may need from City Hall.

We have still our public utilities, public works, our police department, fire departments, and also to all of our billing departments.

And we're still working in City Hall to be able to maintain those services.

And, you know, when people do call in for different things or they need service, we're there to answer the phone.

to be able to assist them as well as to ensure that we are maintaining our infection control policies.

The other thing is to maintain our partnerships as we have been through our CIMT as well as our unified command and working with the University of Virginia, Albemarle County as well as our non-profits.

to be able to make sure that we are providing the necessary human services as well as social services to the public.

And we continue to do that on a day-to-day basis.

And I think that we're doing a relatively good job in terms of providing assistance to those folks who are in need.

As I mentioned before, we talked about the budget amendments.

This will be based upon the economy.

and we'll bring that information back through council budget updates but we want to make sure that when we start doing those budget amendments maybe in the fall but you know that gives us enough time to be able to look at overall revenues and expenditures and for the council exactly you know where we at in terms doing the budget amendments but the main thing is that

You know, we're going to continue to work here in the city and we're going to continue to do the internal review of our revenues and expenditures on a weekly basis as well as provide to council on a monthly basis information pertaining to where we're at in terms of our revenues and expenditures.

So this is, like I said, it's going to be ongoing throughout this entire crisis in terms of, you know, our look at the budget in terms of our revenue and expenditures overall.

And as I was getting back to as far as this resolution is to talk about the key dates in terms of where we're at today as far as having this beaten and talking about it in terms of establishing the tax rates and the budget adoption deadlines and the overall budget adoption plan.

And as you can see between here April 20th and April, I mean in May 18th, time is very short.

and it is of the essence for us to be able to have our meetings with the folks who are going to be impacted through these budget issues that we're facing.

So, you know, I want to make sure that we are utilizing all the time that we have in between those two dates.

But keep in mind, we do have to

This is my train of thought right here.

We have to advertise for April, I mean, for our May 18th meeting to have that public hearing on the budget and have the first reading.

So we want to kind of get everything basically done in between that timeline between April 28th, I think May is the 10th, not mistaking, as far as our advertising timeframe.

You correct me if I'm wrong, my folks from the budget team,

but you know we want to make sure we have that but also too if there's any amendments between the 18th and the 1st we would like to get that prior to well a week prior to June 1st so we can make those necessary changes into the amendments different things like that from the council so that's our overall plan for adopting the budget in terms of where we at with our financials

Anything that's helpful just to kind of discuss openly what the process is from here once we kind of

you know, kind of get behind the strategy around what that total budget number looks like.

Can you push your microphone next to your mouth?

It wasn't too loud.

Okay, can you hear me now?

Yes, thank you.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure that we start these meetings right away

in terms of not only meeting with the district, but also with our personnel to talk about the impact that this budget that we're proposing will have on their departments.

And that's also a key discussion I'll be having with Dr. Atkins in the district.

about our overall finances that we're going to be providing them.

So between now and next week, we will be getting with the council as well as with Dr. Atkins, which you can schedule with the school board.

And do you have any

No, I don't at this point.

We've been in preliminary discussions and I know that she's been working on her budget as it relates to the district.

But as I said before, I didn't want to move too fast and not have things in place for tonight and be able to tell them the wrong information.

So we will be on the phone in the morning.

And well, just with the dates that were presented as June 1st being presented as budget approval, Mr. Blair, do we need to have at least two public hearings for

Sorry, I was on mute.

Actually, the code only requires one public hearing for the budget.

However, the Virginia code does require that there is a time period that must pass between the public hearing for the budget, I believe it's seven days,

I'm sorry I just want more clarification around so over right now tonight we're discussing kind of the overall budget amounts holding study from fiscal year 20 but

as you move on to these conversations within departments and obviously with the schools, there's still some prioritization that's gonna happen within that budget limit.

I'm just trying to understand.

We haven't gotten to that granularity as a council yet.

And so I guess this is our opportunity to kind of share where our priorities might be to give you further guidance.

I would say yes, provide us with your recommendations because what we're trying to do is be able to move forward.

As I said, our time is very limited in terms of what we can and can't do based upon our legal obligations.

I think what's helpful in that is the 221s that I requested that we have with the department heads and with Dr. Atkins.

I think that that will help us have a better understanding of where we are internally and what the school's needs are.

And if we all have a quick, like these would be my top three list, I guess we could give them, but I also know that any time that we get that new information that we usually change course too.

I just think that if we can get those two to one scheduled at least this week and determine what we need a work session on other than Vibrant Community Fund and then we definitely need to set up and hopefully staff will be getting that information in from the nonprofit agencies about what their current structure during this time looks like and what their needs are if they're still the same or if they're greater.

And Nikuyah, to that end, I think we should probably have either staff or one of us kind of represent that this, what we're looking at with the Vibrant Communities Fund, because as I've acknowledged to several people I've responded to today, the little confusion that we didn't zero out that funding for all nonprofits.

It's just that we're putting it in a holding place while we assess where those dollars are going to be most effectively spent in the short term.

And so I know that's a process that I think that the community is eager to understand a little better.

Sure.

I had a quick midday Facebook Live after we kept getting the emails and Facebook messages in to just say that's what we were planning to do.

So the only agreement that council has made at this time

is that we don't have enough information to make a decision about where the $2 million for the vibrant community fund will go.

And so we plan to, we've asked staff to communicate with the nonprofit agencies and just get a response to give to us just where you are

as an organization, what it looks like moving forward for you in COVID-19.

If you don't need the resources that you had applied for, then let us know that.

If you still need them, then let us know that and just let us know why.

And that's what we'll be basing our decisions or attempting to.

And we understand that everyone's need is great.

Everyone is trying to keep their staff employed so that they can serve the community.

So we acknowledge that.

But we just wanted to get a little bit more time to

review some updated information.

The original plan to go back to like 2020 numbers in this case didn't work because we attempted to revise the move from ABRT, the vibrant community fund, and there was a revision in the process.

and so simply going back to fiscal year 20 numbers wouldn't have worked in this case.

And then we also acknowledge as a council that the needs of the community are shifting and what we may be funding is different.

and so we didn't want to make those decisions without giving the nonprofit opportunity to share some new information.

We didn't just want to assume that we knew how your agency was functioning during this time.

Yeah, so just like you, I'm sorry, just like you said,

Mayor, as well as Councilwoman Hill.

We are and that is our plan in terms of having the 221s with the council to be able to get a better understanding and so we can move forward as expeditiously as possible but also to using great caution in terms of how we go about funding the various departments because we know as we've as we talked about before

that some departments will be impacted more than others.

And some departments had things that they just had to, you know, that they need in terms of expenditures more than other departments.

So we'll be able to better evaluate that as we move forward about this process in the next few weeks.

But, you know, this is going to be a lot of work, a lot of time and energy put into this because it's a big turnaround.

But I think that, you know, the plan that we have in place will get us there.

as well as being able to look at our overall revenue that's coming in throughout the period of time from now until we're able to look at it in terms of our amendments and then come back to the council throughout our discussions overall and through our monthly meetings as well as updates throughout the coming weeks to talk about that as well as looking at ways that we can

to prioritize the areas where we want to put money back to if our revenue outlook improves much sooner than what we think.

But, you know, as I said before, you know, it's going to be it's going to be you know,

a tall order in terms of what we do and how we do it because of the current economic conditions.

But if things do go in a different direction, we also have a plan for that place too that we will share with the council.

What it is is basically looking at how our revenues come in once we look at it and be able to do the amendment.

Basically what you're doing is you're mending the budget to be able to put money back into your overall general fund for the revenue that's coming in and you're basically looking at adjustment in terms of

the increase to the overall budget?

Or do we go in a different direction if the amendments that we have to amend it again to reduce the overall budget?

But as I mentioned before, the council has the opportunity to prioritize and look at what are the key things that you wanna do first in terms of those amendments?

Is it for personnel?

Is it for education?

The other topic that's come up from some folks is the CIP itself.

So right now we haven't talked a lot about our CIP.

You've stated that obviously there's a portion of that that we're going to be kind of holding as kind of a backup source for additional funding.

But can you talk to what the process looks like for how we're going to prioritize

I'm going to turn it over to the person that handles that.

Hi, I am.

So we are still looking at that part of the CIP and figuring out what else we need to do and how that will work exactly.

One of the things that we put in front of you in terms of the expenditures, as you know, was the $7 million that was to be transferred to the CIP.

We have put that into a citywide reserve to help offset any other potential revenue losses or estimations that may or may not be correct.

So at this point, there would be no cash going to the CIP in FY21.

what would be left to be decided would then be looking at the projects that were perhaps bondable to determine if we still wanted to keep all of those in.

The original proposed copy of the CIP that you were given in March had projects that exceeded the potential bond sale by just under, I think, $4 million.

So even if we just go with the bonded projects, we'll need to be looking

And just for the public to know, so for projects that were funded out of this current budget, like the housing projects for, and I know CRHA is a bondable project, but PHA was not.

So anything in this year's CIP moving backwards is technically already funded.

Part of the problem we were looking at a couple weeks ago that I think we spoke to council about was the fact that there

There was just no bond market, so going to the market to sell bonds, we had planned to actually do a sale this spring, and so we had to pull that back.

But there are some sales that are starting to happen, so that problem seems to

Be getting a little bit better.

So anything that's in this year's CIP or backwards is still funded.

We are trying to make decisions in terms of what is essential and non-essential just because of where we are and what's happening right now to just make sure we're sort of taking a pause to make sure that

You know, we can afford to do these things and not need to make up somewhere else.

Okay.

Correct.

And one other thing is we have a lot of big projects in the CIP that are funded by federal and state dollars.

And it's unclear at this point in terms of what the state budget will look like or if any of those dollars will be impacted.

So we are working now both regionally with other localities to figure out what they're doing and also trying to get some information

Okay.

Thank you.

and so I, you know, to, you know, Counselor Hill was making a point.

I didn't know if you all wanted to, you know, just say as of this date, if you have a top three priorities, if you want to share that, if you want to wait for the two to ones and share that, if there's any member of council who feels comfortable at this time, then I think,

This would be that time or if you want to wait until our next meeting or doing the 221 meeting.

So I'll just say from my standpoint that I think making sure that

You know, the community members who are most vulnerable and the wide spectrum that that falls to, that we make sure that we are making the best decisions internally to make sure that we don't let them fall through the cracks or suffer any more than they've already been suffering.

would be my first priority.

The next priority for me would be employees and understanding just the state of laying off or at this point that we would have to make that up in another area.

And the same would be for the school system.

to make sure that whatever needs that they have, that we are listening to those needs and making sure that our school staff, from teachers to teachers

janitorial staff and nutrition workers who've been with the city for years that they are not laid off during this time.

Mayor Walker, I'll just follow up because that had my list and that's very consistent with where I'm coming from.

Certainly looking at our most vulnerable community members,

and I kind of put our employees and the school's employees into one bucket at this point because we should be consistent across the board.

Obviously, as a council, we don't decide how school's funding goes, but as a parent of three kids under 10 right now, I can tell you that our schools coming back as strong as they possibly can is a top priority for many parents throughout this community and we need to be recognizing the value that that group of folks that are so committed is providing to our community and will be through this recovery.

And that's not it for me.

I mean, there was definitely a full opportunity that, you know, I'm on the minority business task force.

I understand the business community impact.

I was on a call with Elizabeth Cromwell from the Chamber of Commerce.

So I understand

The business needs, I've talked to Chris Eagle and Holly Lee, and we understand for the community to recover from this that businesses will have to be intact, and especially for those small business owners who have committed

you know had made a commitment to this community that we as that information comes in you know to us we are figuring out how to also you know to get the business community

needs met.

And from everything I'm seeing and reading, it is very, you know, it's unlikely that the students will be back in August.

And I just think having those upfront conversations as quickly as possible

and looking at the potential impact and trying to figure out how we can avoid the worst case scenario is in all of our best interests.

We have an economy that's built off of the university and tourism and we're going to have neither of those things and so we're going to have to make sure that we're making the right decisions, that everyone is, you know,

No, and I agree, and I mean, I certainly feel like the businesses are like foundational and that getting them recovered is going to be foundational to us, funding all of these priorities that we're discussing.

And so, I mean, at the appropriate time, I think it's important for council to consider how some of those revenues might be diverted to helping with that recovery.

Obviously, with the TOT, the transient

that's like a delayed route so what we're feeling right now that the CACDB will feel that, the visitor's bureau will feel that down the road because it's all based on the current revenues that we're getting but I think it is going to be important for us to kind of really look hard at like what resources can we provide to those industries because if they're not successful we're not able to allocate the funding we want to these priorities and

How do we partner with them and understand how we locally can, how do we advocate for that kind of support beyond obviously the local level.

We're limited to what we can do as a locality, given our budget amounts are not going to be able to recover this local economy on its own.

But one of the biggest things, and I brought this up in an email today, was like, what are we doing as proactively as possible as an organization to make sure that when these opportunities to take advantage of grants or

funding that's coming up, stimulus packages, like what are we doing to make sure that we're best prepared to be in a position to get those dollars from other sources.

Yeah, I think that's of paramount importance.

As you can see, as we brought here tonight, even CAT has gone out to look for grants and different things like that.

And I know various other departments are doing the same thing.

I mean, I guess just sort of a high level, I guess three priorities are definitely affordable housing and both in the CIP budget, trying to maintain those commitments, especially where there may potentially be impacts on low income housing tax credit applications or other outside sources of funding for some of these projects.

as well as trying to, you know, I'm definitely curious what the state of the money allocated to the CAF is slash will be and what the state of that RFP process for allocating some of that money will be.

Second, as others mentioned, I think trying to as much as possible keep the city's workforce employed.

I think we're the, what is it, third largest employer, we're up there somewhere.

So I think, you know, the impacts

Our workforce being able to maintain their payroll definitely has an impact in terms of the community's needs and people's ability to afford rent and other basic needs.

And third, just kind of some of those emergency frontline needs in terms of food security, homelessness.

thinking about the emergency relief fund we have and our partnerships with PACHA and the Food Justice Network and food banks, particularly if we see a less optimistic scenario unfold where we're still in a similar position in terms of economic impacts two, three months from now in terms of just priorities.

I have a question in terms of the,

There's the May 18th and June 1st dates.

I know it's extremely difficult both because of the tight timeline and the fact that we have to do social distancing, but are there any sort of work sessions or sort of community input sessions or anything beyond those two dates?

I think obviously just because of the amount of cuts there are and the amount of uncertainty, it's just going to be really important to

And that's the overall game plan in terms of having those community meetings and discussions as well as with the 221 with the council, with staff as well as with the district in terms of being able to have those discussions.

Like I said before, it's going to be a lot of work and a lot of time and energy put into this,

So to Councilor Payne's point around the CAF, I mean Council I think we've just had some email exchanges but I think it's important for us to talk about it publicly.

We've kind of decided that we're going to hold those dollars.

So obviously, we had some dollars that were coming back from our original allocations because one project didn't go through.

In addition, we have surplus dollars from last fiscal year that we allocated to get the CAF up to the 1.5.

Those haven't been basically allocated at this point.

And then obviously, whatever comes into this next fiscal year.

What I've heard from our just our one-on-one exchanges is that we want to kind of hold that in a pot as we kind of start to get a better picture for what the most immediate needs are relative to housing and they're going to meet the greatest need of the most members of the community versus going through a more traditional allocation process but I'm curious of folks thoughts on what that might look like and the committee that might be formed to evaluate that because we were going through a lot of changes with our housing advisory committee at the time

when all of this was kind of unfolding.

From my perspective, the conversations that we were having around HAC, I think we still need to continue those.

While at the same time, if any citizen

including members who were on the hack, if they have information that they feel like we need to make a decision, that they can submit that for us to think about.

And that's in any area.

We're going to get a lot of information from the nonprofit communities.

But I think we definitely need to be looking at any dollars we spend holistically and making sure that they're going to have an impact.

And looking at this long term, if we are a semester or two without students, if we're going through this

you know spring summer season where we have everything from weddings, you know regular tourism to graduations and things like that and that those dollars are not going to come in this time then I think people will understand

those priorities, because if we aren't very strategic with this funding, we're going to get to a point where there is no funding to be strategic about.

And so we need to treat every dollar as if it's the last possible dollar, because it could be, and we need to make sure that it makes the most impact

Well, I think just realistically, during this period, we're not going to see the Planning Commission

visit those recommended changes to the hack and get to a point where that is finalized, I think just for reasons as simple as the fact that we can't meet electronically about that if it's not directly related to the pandemic response.

But it's definitely a longer-term conversation that's always there.

I know Mr. Collins in public comment brought up the hack potentially coming together to discuss emergency response.

To me, that seems like a good avenue to not say that

what they discuss or say as final by any means, but as a way to sort of kickstart that conversation and maybe brainstorm some of these potential different uses of money in the CAF and coordination among our housing providers, again, to just sort of kickstart that conversation and see if they have any ideas.

I mean, that to me seems like a natural entry point for that kind of discussion.

and I do think both with this as well as the Vibrant Communities Fund I think we also just need to be realistic about what is feasible in terms of changes to the process and changes to how decisions on what gets allocated get made because I think there's just going to be some real limitations in terms of the timeline we have for say developing like a total, like with the Vibrant Communities Fund I really just don't know what that process could look like you know if in terms of

If we develop different priorities, does that mean that there's applications from the nonprofits?

Is it a different scoring system?

Is it decisions that city staff or city council just sort of makes holistically without any rubric?

Yeah, and I agree that we won't be able to put a lot of the processes that needs to change in place, but I am not going to not acknowledge the comments that I've made in the past about how some of these processes were just wrong and they were not serving the greater good and that doesn't change because we are in a pandemic.

and we have to be more strategic and more holistic with the funds.

And that's why I asked Mr. Blair the question.

I'm not going to vote to have HAT convene, but as he said, if they want to meet, they can meet.

And I always read what I receive from them, but I hope that we

are also understanding that that's just one avenue of information, just like we're going to get these updated narratives from the nonprofit community.

And just like all of us have our list of what we think is the top priority, everyone else will too.

And we'll have to evaluate that to the best of our ability based on the

Madam Mayor, I wanted to just offer a couple of thoughts on sort of my priorities.

A lot of this of course is going to depend on funding decisions

that are still being made in Washington.

We know there's another bill that's being hashed out right now.

The rumor has it may include some assistance for local governments.

Who knows?

We also know that there's, for example, there is one check that has already been determined that we would be getting, I think it's $269,000 in new CDBG funding specifically for things that pertain to dealing with the COVID virus.

One thing that we need to do, obviously as a council, that's what you were asking for comments on, is to decide what our priorities are for spending the, and I'll sort of lump things together a little bit, roughly 2.2 million dollars that we had set aside in either vibrant community funds or

education and arts support funds however much money we think we may be able to get from other sources for example if we decide not to spend the money that's allocated for the capital improvement fund the seven million dollars roughly coming from the

The General Fund, the Capital Improvement Fund, if we want to take some of that, apply that, or we want to take some of the money, as Counselor Hill was referencing earlier, from other appropriations that we're not going to be making.

We need to figure out how much money we're going to have.

for those kinds of purposes.

And when we do, to me, the first priorities are to make sure that people are fed, that they have medical care available, and that they have housing.

And short-term critical needs will be more important in this respect than long-term needs, something that gives us housing five years from now or three years from now.

is less important to me at this moment than an expenditure that might help keep people in their houses right now during this crisis time.

So those three major priorities, food, medical care, housing, we also hear anecdotally that domestic abuse is up in the last month, and at least it's been reported so over in the valley.

It stands to reason that as stresses mount in the family, domestic abuse will rise.

So organizations that deal with domestic abuse and families in crisis are going to be important here.

And certainly people have been making the argument to me that these are just as much health issues as what might happen at a medical clinic, for example.

So other top or near top priorities would include programs like the Boys and Girls Club or the YMCA or things that would help keep kids busy in socially productive ways.

And my preferred model at the moment

and this is

Something that I like the metaphor of holding onto an idea lightly, because it's subject to change, is to put the word out that we're looking to fund specific things aligned with those priorities, rather than just say, as we in essence did in the Vibrant Communities Fund, here's another $40,000 to do more of what you did last year.

And it may be that there's some things that we want done differently this year.

That may mean that some programs at some agencies that we've been funding for years may need to be reoriented, or it may mean that we fund again programs we have long supported with a renewed sense of how they fit into a broader picture.

in 2020.

I don't envision this rethinking as happening in a vacuum.

I am envisioning it as being a wide-ranging process, including the city staff, county staff, as well as nonprofits themselves.

I also don't envision it as being over by June 30th.

Number one, because we'll have to adjust to constantly changing economic conditions.

Number two, because how we perceive the needs may be different in July than it is in May.

So it's a long process, it's a difficult process, but those are my basic priorities.

Okay, thank you.

I am.

and I was just going to speak up.

Definitely as far as priorities go, keeping our most vulnerable community as safe as possible just because our most vulnerable community is already stretched with its resources.

Additionally, I'm very concerned about kids who need some sort of normalcy in their life as well as keeping up with school and staying in some sort of regularity and additionally about our city employees.

Councilor Snook brought up the additional money coming in through CDBG.

That's definitely something I'm interested in trying to figure out, you know, if there's any ideas or plan for how that additional money may get spent.

My understanding is that it can be spent pretty broadly on COVID-19 response.

I know there's community members who have sort of

informally discussed if there are ways to use that related to homelessness services.

And definitely would be interested in hearing from John Sales or if the hack comes together again, if they're just even just brainstorming it, if there's any strategy for how that additional money could be used more strategically.

And I think we're all on the same page with this.

But obviously, I think with all these partners, it's not just a city thing.

It's a regional thing.

A lot of people accessing these resources are going to go back and forth across the county and city line and really coordinating Albemarle County and maybe even other surrounding localities, especially if this continues on long term.

I mean, I know city staff is already doing that.

And I want to be more proactive in trying to reach out to board of supervisors, members.

Well my final comment I think

Just to the community, I think it's important to recognize that these numbers are still really uncertain.

There's a lot of uncertainty.

The revenue picture could get better, but it could also get substantially worse.

I'm sure people have seen the news today about oil prices and some of the GDP projections over the next few quarters.

We could see the revenue gap grow substantially larger.

there's going to be very difficult decisions to make.

And we're not going to be able to avoid trade-offs.

And I think it's just going to be really important for the community to really be a part of that process and understand exactly what the budget situation is and understand what the trade-offs in front of us are so they understand and have some understanding and input over the decisions that we will make.

Because no matter what, they're going

very difficult and tough.

And it's definitely going to be, you know, across the country, you know, a period of sacrifice across the board.

And again, you know, the frustrating thing always is, is, you know, our budget is around $190 million.

We cannot run deficits.

We have to balance it.

It's not like the federal government where we've got a central bank and we can, you know, run up how much- Print money.

But I think the budget numbers that you're talking about with the general fund, and then depending on what the decisions are made around the CIP, that looking at it instead of two separate, looking at it holistically will help us

You know, to and especially once we figure out for those major projects, if we are continuing, if we are still going to receive state and federal dollars, if we're going to receive them now or at a later date,

I mean, I think once we have just more information about everything, that we'll be able to make better known decisions, which as rapidly as things are changing, we will make it feel very differently just a week away.

And we may not even be talking about months.

So are there any other comments?

No?

I move we adopt a resolution establishing a plan for city council to adopt a budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021.

And the only thing I want to point out again is that

You know, we understand that we are having to amend things that we're still providing.

We're getting input from departments, from nonprofits, from citizens, and that we know that none of this is final at this point.

Any other comments?

Yes.

All right.

Aye.

Aye.

So that carries five to zero.

If only anything that we could just agree as a council on what type of information we want staff to bring forward during future council meetings would just be helpful.

Yes.

With limited opportunities to get in front of people, and we want to make sure that staff, that they're not having to get in front of cameras in a traditional way either, that having the updates from key leaders would be vital to the community understanding

you know what's going on but also want to make sure that the Seville 360 and as many people who can watch that and it's streamed on social media channels too know that we have attempted to get information out in that way but I think that

during the council meeting just having maybe a COVID-19 response.

And even if we did, you know, I don't know.

Yeah, and that was the ultimate plan that we were coming out of this with was that we were going to provide those updates at the city council meeting about COVID-19 as well as continue to do what we've been doing on Seville 360.

in terms of putting our different departments on different discussions and talking about different things that are going on with COVID as well as some of our overall operations in the city and how we're conducting our day-to-day business.

We will have that and as I mentioned before, the questions that we get from the council a lot of times we'll be able to develop

And I do know that this has been discussed on one of the 360s and Mr. Blair and I have talked about this offline, but I think it would be helpful just to kind of clarify for the public where we stand relative to land use decision-making in this emergency situation.

Yes, we actually had that last week.

We had NDS folks on there.

And then also from the questions that came out of that in terms of what are we trying to do to try to help the development community.

At a procedural standpoint, the city has taken the position that land use decisions in general are not considered for new decision making.

It's not part of the emergency.

Yes, the idea of a discretionary legislative act based on the emergency ordinance adopted by council on March the 25th would not be covered by that ordinance or

the authority that flows from that ordinance again that's because these are you know a rezoning or special use permit is a discretionary legislative act the Attorney General's opinion that was issued earlier this year which talked about emergency ordinances

it really in my opinion it's sort of limited what boards and councils can do in terms of purely discretionary activity I mean the Attorney General's opinion seemed to focus a lot more on the emergency nature of what was going on and the essential functions of government

But as Dr. Richardson stated, there will probably be a presentation by NDS and the development staff of the city at one of the updates about COVID.

And I imagine that the longer we're in this, at the state and federal level, they'll have to relax some more, you know, be more relaxed with the rules and more flexible.

And, you know, we should expect

Correct.

But Mayor Walker, to your point,

I think it is important to note that I agree that the Attorney General's opinion talked about essential functions.

I think that you know we're approximately one month into the social distancing executive orders by the government.

I think if we get into June and July and there are still social distancing requirements that

the council is meeting and also that the governor is continuing to enact.

I think that the definition of essential function starts to turn.

You go from, I consider things like budgetary matters, things that absolutely have to immediately be addressed by the city council as the essential functions right now.

But it's probably fair to say that

Okay.

Mayor, could I make one point about the budget?

You and the other councillors have mentioned the amendment process and let's keep our fingers crossed and let's say that the revenues are better than expected.

You know, when there are budget amendments, I know this council values public participation and let's say that

the revenues come in greater than 1% of what's been projected and the council wishes to expend those funds then Virginia Code section 15.2-2507 requires a public hearing for the expenditure of funds greater than 1% of the general budget so

But I think either way we need to be as open

The only thing I would add, Dr. Richardson, for the COVID updates is I think that it's just important, just because we've heard from a few folks, but just to reiterate and just to be displaying how much we are working on some of these issues regionally.

This is not a city issue.

It's not a county issue.

It's not a university issue and surrounding counties.

But there's so much really great collaboration going on regionally that I think it's great for us to share with the public when we can reconvene.

Yeah, and one more comment about the expectation from the public.

We are trying to stay alive as well, even though we've been elected and we are public servants.

And one thing that I've been stressing since the very first conversation

is making sure that we understand that we have to respond to this virus very differently than we would have responded to an August 2018 or you know, anniversary

year of that.

And so this is new to all of us.

And so we understand that normally for those members of council or staff that talk to the press that you have been able to just jump in front of a camera.

And that's different now.

And some of the comments that I have been

It's like, where are you all?

And we've been making every effort to make sure that we get information in front of you from our own personal efforts to, I think, really, you know, great efforts from our communications team to make sure that there are, you know, the Charlottesville 360 is on media streams and on our access channel.

And I just think it's important to also make sure that you are chiming in and understanding that through all the stress that everyone may be missing something.

But we are working, and even with working from home, I wasn't able to celebrate my son's birthday until the day after.

because we were working on budget stuff so we're busy and you know we are trying to make sure that things are in place and staff is working really hard and some of them are frontline out in public

and also trying to figure out how to continue to do their jobs and make sure they're not exposing their families.

We're so grateful for you all.

In addition to staff, I'm giving a shout out to those teachers because they're the only thing getting me through every day right now.

I talked to three of them personally today.

I want to say as well, people reach out to me, either elected officials or community members in other localities asking about some of the things that we've been doing here in Charlottesville, both at a local government level and at a community level in terms of initiatives like

equipcville and supportcville.com.

And I think both our community and our city staff have really been state leaders in doing everything that's possible at a municipal level to address this issue.

And there's always a lot more to do, and there's always a lot more that has to be done that's beyond the municipal level.

But I think the work that's been done really is making a difference.

Yes.

Stay home sometime even when you can't think you can't.

I want to give the community credit because we have to kind of look at the broader scheme.

I mean,

We still have relatively few cases, and we just have to thank the community for the responsibility that you're taking to minimize your interactions with others in the community.

And it's hard for all of us.

We're social beings.

But I think you all should be commended as a community for all that you've done to keep our numbers in the city and in the surrounding region down.

And I'll just add time into that.

You know, we really appreciate all the efforts that people are making, but we also want to make sure that people understand that there has been limited testing done in the community.

and so the asymptomatic part of this virus that we really don't understand is critical for us to just keep in the back of our minds and I posted over the weekend an article from Boston and it was at a shelter

for individuals experiencing homelessness, and of almost 400 people tested, 146 were positive and asymptomatic.

That's one thing I think we just really need to make sure that we're communicating as well.

While it may be perceived that the numbers are low, the fact that the update we received today, 222 people in the region.

and we know how many of our employees work outside in the surrounding counties and how many people are driving in from the surrounding counties to work at our stores and you know things like that that we have to look at and that's just five counties and they are regions that connect you know like Louisa, Orange is right next door right and so understanding that while those numbers may not be that a lot of people are

you know possibly you know positive that we don't know about and so hopefully they're not but since we don't know it's just the social distancing and staying away until we figure out and get more information about this virus.

Okay so I think now unless there's any other comments we're at general business

Other business?

Any other business here?

No?

Okay.

And Mayor Walker, if you don't mind, there's a couple of questions that came in earlier.

Okay.

I want to make sure that we just cover them.

I'll just read them off.

Can council clarify which taxes, bills and fees are suspended, just delayed?

So I believe that right now we just have delays.

on all those things with an interest in people sharing their plans for if they need additional time.

Is that right?

Is that what I think I heard?

Yes.

Okay.

No.

I can weigh in on that guys if you want yeah basically since the city manager declared the state of emergency all local taxes well the treasurer and I to the degree that I can are gonna be waiving penalty and interest until May 31st that applies to

All local taxes.

So essentially the clock's going to stop between March 12th and May 31st.

That applies to anything.

And then the, of course, what you voted on tonight was an actual extension of the due date.

Thank you.

And the only other question that came up, and it looks like it's been pushed off, but

Relative to the advisory committees, Mr. Blair, wouldn't every advisory committee be able to meet based upon the significant impact of this on every activity, or how directly related would it have to be?

And can I just also ask or make a comment before you?

I also want to make sure that people understand that we are asking them to have these meetings virtually if they do convene meetings and that we do that because we don't want people in the rooms together, right?

And then the public engagement part, and just to know that all of that stuff needs to be considered.

Yes.

I think it's, to address that question, Ms.

Councillor Hill, the emergency ordinance, the purpose of it was exactly as Mayor Walker stated.

It waives FOIA's requirements for a physical quorum.

And almost every jurisdiction in Virginia has passed some version of that.

In terms of

what can be discussed right now it again should be related if if boards and commissions want to meet virtually as Vice Mayor Magill stated still the advertisement requirements of FOIA which are a three business day notice for these meetings have to be posted

All right.

That's it for the questions that came in online.

All right.

If you're joining us via the webinar and you'd like to address council, you can raise your hand, clicking the raise your hand icon.

We do have several people signing up, Mayor Walker.

First, we have Walt Heineke.

Walt, you're on with city council.

Thanks.

First of all, I just wanted to reiterate a great thanks to everyone, everything that you're all doing on council.

I know that this is above and beyond the normal scope of your business and your duties, and also that extends to the staff.

and I just have to say that I have a high level of confidence knowing that the five of you are in charge and are looking out for us as a community.

It makes me sleep better at night, so thank you for that and I appreciate that.

I wanted to just push back a little bit on this idea of the advisory committee's meeting and specifically thinking about the hack.

I know that there are issues with the hack, and I think through discussions that were had prior, there were sort of like two subgroups of the hack that were working and there were some issues that were brought up with one of the subgroups, but the other subgroups seemed to be working fine.

And I just wanted to remind you all that the hack, at least the policy committee,

seems to be a place where two things happen.

One, it's a place where the community can weigh in on these issues and in a way that brings issues and ideas that are deliberated upon by people that you have trusted to be on that advisory committee.

to distill those ideas and possible solutions as they come up in your direction.

I just wanted to reiterate that whatever part of the hack you all can agree is the positive thing for our community,

I hope that you enable them to think about the COVID issues related to housing.

I was really happy to hear that most all of you are basically saying that housing, health, and food security are high on your levels of priorities moving forward with the budget and I think that's really important and I thank you for that.

I also wanted to just throw out the idea of the model of the hack being sort of a community-oriented advisory committee for housing.

I'm curious if you've done similar things on health and on economic development because it seems like having a couple of advisory committees that are really focused in on health issues and economic issues that have

The opportunity for the community to weigh directly in, think about things like a kitchen cabinet for you and people with subject matter expertise thinking about these issues in the context of community input, I think is a really important addition to sort of helping you all think through and address some of these issues.

But thank you very much for everything you've done.

I really appreciate it as a citizen in the community.

Next, Mayor Walker, we have Tanisha Hudson.

Tanisha, you're on with council.

Go ahead.

yep we we can hear you okay okay so back to the gentleman with the taxes he's saying that the taxes

He said the taxes were deferred until May 31st.

That doesn't make sense to me when we're on a shutdown until June the 10th.

Not deferred, but they're waiving late payments and penalties and interest or whatever until May 31st.

A government shutdown until June the 10th.

So I think that should be discussed to be pushed at least until Governor Northam makes a decision that

what we're going to do beyond June the 10th at this point.

Like, that just doesn't make sense to me that we're not matching up with the state at this point.

Yeah, I'm confused there.

And also, I just want to thank you all for all your work.

I mean, all of you are working really hard.

You've gotten a break from me for a little while.

But yeah.

There still needs to be some type of deferment program for businesses that aren't going to hire employees right away.

Like, people aren't going to go right back to work.

Students are already not coming back through summer classes.

So you have Aramark employees that's not going back to work.

through summer.

I just think it's a lot of things that you guys need to really sit down and think about moving forward up until, like, fall.

Like, it has to be, as I stated earlier, and I kind of been doing the work for y'all, calling and seeing what other, you know, people are doing.

Like, there's, like, there has to be some type of deferment program.

that you're offering to people beyond the date of the shutdown.

Like, we can't just say the 31st of May and people still not going back to work until June the 10th.

And we don't even know if we're going to go back June the 10th.

Does that make sense to y'all?

So what Todd just said, what I heard him say, and Todd you can fill in, but that for right now they have weighed the interest and penalties till May 31st.

And then in terms of the

Real estate taxes and personal property taxes due date, we have pushed those to the June 19th date.

And we've also stated that people who may not be able to pay, that we will, that staff will have conversations with them on an individual basis.

that they just need to call in and let us know what their circumstances are.

I can address some of this.

The May 31st date, that was the date that we

early on.

Can you guys hear me okay?

Yep.

Yep.

That was the day we picked early on.

I mean, we could still revisit it.

But the thing that you, I mean, we can revisit it later as we get closer to the end of the governor's shutdown period.

But the thing that you got to remember is these taxes that, most of the taxes this applies to are like your trust taxes, like meals tax and lodging tax.

And while, you know,

Basically, when these businesses are not making money, they're not going to owe any tax, if that makes sense.

So I can't really defer, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to defer out a payment that

is not going to get paid, if you guys follow my reasoning.

If they didn't collect any taxes in April or May, they're not going to owe any taxes on April or May.

So it doesn't really make a lot of sense to push it out.

Heather Hill will have those conversations

you know based on you know businesses were asking for well what if they didn't have to pay you know de-taxes and we had the discussion around that you know when people make those purchases that they are understanding that they are paying the tax that

That's exactly right.

Mayor Walker, we have one additional person who's raised their hand.

That's Nancy Carpenter.

Nancy, you're on with council.

Thank you very much for the last word.

I know that I talked earlier about protecting tenants and one of the ideas that's floating around, but you're talking about the CDBG money coming back to $246,000 and how to help some of the most vulnerable communities, and I don't want people to forget that the

Incarcerated community is also vulnerable and we've already had, through the Department of Corrections, death in Fluvanna attributed to COVID-19.

And I know that our local ACRJ, as far as our individuals that are our own community members,

They've worked pretty diligently on trying to get them out of the jail.

I think that there's more that could be done, more people that probably could be released.

And since the CDBG money won't necessarily need community input as far as a community plan used for that money, like some of the other CDBG stuff,

that hopefully that some of that can be earmarked for that and the very last comment would be the Human Rights Commission.

I would hope that you would consider strengthening that as far as housing violations because as we've seen throughout communities in Virginia and the nation there are some

I don't know if Richmond, if a representative

that's going to be based in Richmond will be able to handle some of these things that might be coming up.

So to put that bug in the ear, to kind of go forward, and also the ancillary services that might be needed as part of the, oh gosh, I've then forgot the acronym, the old ABRT money.

you know those services that might also help in that regard when it comes to representation and information.

So thank you and also I Mr. Heinecke I agree with what he said as well as Ms.

Hudson you all are doing a great job through an extremely traumatic trying time and I appreciate the five of you being on council at this time thank you.

Okay.

No, Mayor.

Stay safe.

Thank you all for everything.

Staff, thank you all for your, again, hard work and your commitment to the citizens and

I hope that you all are well while you're trying to take care of the community and staff members.

Budget team, I can't imagine.

You know what you all are going through right now either along with like police, fire, utilities, DSS, human services.

I know those phone calls that they're getting in just for the emergency assistance lines are just one part.

And that's a new part of their duties.

We, you know, really, you know, appreciate all efforts.

The individuals who are still working, you know,

you know the buildings you know clean we just drivers yes bus drivers keep them safe Mr. Williams thank you for all that you're doing for your team and

making sure again once we hear concerns that people are on the front lines having that we're moving quickly to address them and I know the stress that all of you department leaders are and management that you are under at this time trying to figure out how to make everything work and so

just want to say that we appreciate your efforts and let us know too what we can do as a council to help you take better care of yourself too.

All right.

All right.

Stay safe, everybody.

All right.