City Council Meeting   8/19/2019

I'd like to make one announcement about the

Ms. Thomas.

Dr. Bellamy.

Ms. Hill.

Here.

Ms. Walker.

Present.

Mr. Signer.

Here.

Here.

So, sorry.

So, Mayor Walker, I'd like to just acknowledge the fact that by your signature, you've endorsed for the council proceeding with an application to the Dominion Energy to use the Ivy Landfill as a utility-scale solar power installation.

The landfill is open land.

It can't be built on.

Not useful for anything else, but to have solar arrays on that landfill is a great way to generate revenue through the electrical grid.

So if we make the application, we at least are in the running to get a permit to begin doing that with the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority.

That is correct.

Oh, you will be.

OK, thank you.

And Mayor Walker, I do have a statement to make, if I may.

And I'd like to hand it out to everybody that are here.

And I was hoping that Councillor Bellamy would be here as well, but he is not.

And at some point he will join us.

But I'd just like to make a statement of principles on behalf of the Councillors Bellamy, Galvin, Hill and Signer concerning city councils functioning within council chambers.

Number one, treat each other with mutual respect.

Number two, do not condone outbursts and interruptions by the public as they hamper thoughtful deliberation and decision making when conducting the people's business.

Three, disallow an abusive environment consisting of verbal abuse, threats, and personal attacks as it weakens mutual respect and trust between counselors and between the city council, city staff, and the public.

for follow the rules that were adopted by the city council in February 2018 and support the mayor in the mayor's efforts to conduct council meetings in accordance with these rules.

Failure to meet these principles will render this duly elected representative body incapable of effectively governing from the dais.

It's just a statement of principles that I heard my colleagues say to me and I compiled them.

It's not a resolution, it's just a statement.

Good evening everyone.

My apologies for my tiredness this is the first day of class and so it is a time at Virginia State as well as getting back here.

But in any event, I had the opportunity to speak to Councilor Signer as well as have some conversation with Councilor Galvin.

on Saturday and I've been speaking to Mayor Walker over the weekend and I saw Vice Mayor Hill this past weekend.

I wanted to say also I really appreciate Ms. Galvin for working on this proclamation and just me personally as one individual, I wanted to share my support for my colleagues on council.

I think that it's important to note that while we may have disagreements in terms of policy, I genuinely don't believe that any of you are quote unquote racist.

I've worked with all of you on different

capacities and different specific policy measures, specifically Councilor Galvin, Councilor Signer, and Ms. Hill, Vice Mayor Hill.

So for the things in which you all had to endure a couple weeks ago, just me personally, I want to say it's not cool.

And I hope that we as a community can make sure that while we're speaking, no matter what the topic is, as passionate as it may be, it's important for us to be able to be respectful of each other because at the end of the day, we're all here just trying to make the city better.

We're not always going to agree.

but that doesn't mean that any of us should speak to each other in a way in which is just completely disrespectful and out of line.

And I'm also, just as one individual, I wish I would have said something last Monday and I know it was me who said at the retreat in the spirit of collegiality that we should have each other's back and

And it's certain things we shouldn't tolerate and I'll let y'all down.

So for that, you know, I apologize.

I should have definitely intervened.

And I just hope that the community as a whole can take a cue from that, that again, we don't, we're not supposed to agree on everything.

We're five different individuals with five different personalities.

but that doesn't mean that anyone needs to be subjected to certain things and I appreciate all of you for when the attacks come to myself and I know for Mayor Walker, I can't speak for Mayor Walker, but when we get things that are said kind of like here, we get them to our house

and to our families and we're subjected to them on a regular basis.

It doesn't make one right, doesn't make one wrong.

I know you guys always say, you know, you all are sorry that we have to be subjected to that stuff.

And I appreciate that support.

And I hope you all know that me, I'm willing to give you guys the same support today, tomorrow, moving forward.

And we're one team.

Teammates don't always agree, but we are a team.

Thank you, Dr. Bellamy.

I have a statement also, Mr. Mayor Walker.

This will be along the same theme.

And I wanted to begin just by thanking Dr. Bellamy for that very appreciated statement.

And we did talk, and it really was just very appreciated.

Just a couple words.

So I wanted to start by saying I wasn't sure I'd be able to come tonight, whether out of protest at the breakdowns that are happening or just my continuing revulsion of being called one of the most vile things I can ever remember in these chambers.

These meetings have become like a coliseum where the levels of abuse directed at counselors and staff and citizens has become like sport sometimes.

In remaining in the meetings when our own rules have been abandoned, I've been worried about becoming complicit in a spectacle that's effectively telling kids and parents and members of minority communities, whether faith-based or

other that you were not psychologically safe inside these chambers and we have all experienced too much abuse in this community in the last years.

I deplore the racist and the violent and the threatening messages that have been directed toward my colleagues and their families, what Wes was just talking about.

I've only seen some of it and it's awful and horrible.

and the last meeting was awful, too.

And it's not about me or any other single one of the other counselors, about a constituent.

It's about the message that these meetings are sending and about the business that we do for the public here.

We wouldn't allow this in a school board meeting or a PTO meeting, a student council meeting or in Congress.

Why are we then allowing it in Charlottesville City Council?

My wife and I can't let our four-year-old twins watch these meetings, and I've heard the same

from too many other parents.

We are just ordinary humans trying to do our best in a time of a lot of motion.

There was a dispute about an allocation the last time we had.

We wanted a debate about it.

But the response from the floor before the slur that was uttered was there was somebody calling shut up Signer from right in the back there, interrupting and trying to shut down debate and not allowing us to do our jobs up here.

We did receive a written apology from the woman who said the Hitler's Best Friends thing, which I want to acknowledge.

But because that wasn't public, it doesn't address what is happening in public.

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

Please wait until you have your turn, okay?

I'll leave this up to the mayor.

We have done our best work on equity, I believe, not by shouting at each other, but by listening and working hard.

We made significant investments in public housing, for instance, by working together.

When I supported Mayor Walker and Councilor Bellamy on the decision regarding Jefferson's birthday, I changed my mind during that meeting after listening and hearing you guys.

The fact is that under our rules, only the mayor can act to bring these meetings under control and is required by the rules to do so.

We've had some very hard emails among the last week about this topic.

I won't go into it here.

I will just say that I stand firm in respectfully requesting that the mayor, as the officer in charge of the meeting, enforce the rules that we have unanimously affirmed three times this council term.

I know from personal experience that this is a hard job.

but that it is easier with the support of colleagues so I'm glad that this council is unified in supporting the mayor and doing what she can to bring these meetings under control.

And I don't have much of a response, but I will say that this making the decisions, because if you go back and look at meetings prior to my term and especially after August 2017, those meetings were as hectic and as disrupted

and it did not go well.

If you go read an article about the first meeting afterwards there were three people arrested charged with disorderly conduct obstruction of justice and I believe that we haven't done enough healing in this community where we won't have only those two options.

escorting people out of the room in handcuffs or having meetings that are as contentious and it's unfortunate that that is our only

Two options.

And so for me, it has been hard to make the decision to do what was formerly done and have people, and especially when a lot of the hurt and pain is associated with the criminal justice system, our police office, to have that tension occur

twice a month when we are still working as a city with how this work is done.

There is not an easy answer.

I have not had this discussion with any, you know, we had an email that was between Councillor Signer and ourselves.

The other Councillors were copied.

I did not have a conversation with Councillor Galvin or Councillor Hill since the last meeting.

All the other meetings where this request has been made have been public.

have been public meetings, but those are the thoughts that I'm weighing.

I received an email where this is somehow advancing my agenda to allow the disruption and chaotic situation in council meetings.

It actually doesn't advance.

any agenda of mine if you all have paid attention to the work that I do and it also has given this council and I'm sure individuals running for council a reason to say why my term as mayor hasn't been

So it would be easy if I was only concerned with myself and those messages that are being passed around among council members and in the community for me to make the decision that would affect citizens in the community.

I appreciate you stating that, Mayor Walker.

We had this talk this morning.

You're in an incredibly tough position, as many of us are.

Council Signer and I talked about this this afternoon.

Nobody wants to see people drug away in handcuffs.

None of us up here want to see people arrested at a city council meeting.

That's not the goal in any shape, form, or fashion.

I think we all can agree with that.

but I do think, and I think my personal opinion is all five of us also agree that when we're up here, there has to be a certain level of respect in which everybody shows each other.

So we can agree to disagree on certain things, we can agree to be disagreeable on certain things, but that doesn't mean that we have to disrespect each other up here at all.

I'm often the first one when people say different things that I don't like to Mayor Walker, I often interject, because I definitely don't like people

Stating certain things to her and I think all of my colleagues We all want the same level of respect from myself and others We just all want to be able to be on the same page and not feel blatantly Disrespected over policy measures because at the end of the day we're still people So we didn't some people say like we sign up for this we didn't sign up for

for this per se.

Nobody signs up to be subjected to certain levels of abuse.

So we have to figure out a way to be, again, if we disagree on policy issues, then let's disagree on ways in which we still don't act as if we hate each other because that doesn't get any of us anywhere.

And I think that today is a point

that we can all move forward.

It's a chapter in the book, and we're going to turn the page.

And I'm foreseeing things are going to be cool, and everybody, if we do disagree, it's going to be all right, and we're going to move forward.

Today is going to be the day of the start of something new.

All right.

We don't have any proclamations.

Mayor Walker, I'm sorry.

Don't beat me up.

While we don't have proclamations, I got one announcement.

Can I have my announcement?

Thank you.

In light of the last meeting that we had, I do think it's important.

I want to show some love to everyone who participated in the Unity Day events throughout the month.

We've had a phenomenal month in two months, three months of outstanding Unity Day events.

Last night, I also want to give some kudos to Ms. Hudson.

We had Gogo in the city and Reclaim in our city.

It was a phenomenal event at Tonsil Park.

My team lost in the championship, so I'm a little mad about that, but I will say that the Go-Go event was phenomenal and even after, I think we can announce it now, even after we had the debate, the last meeting, Lil Artist Wale is coming Tuesday, October 8th.

It's going to be a free concert at the Sprint Pavilion.

I had some conversations with Red Light Management today about ticket distribution and whatnot.

So it's going to be a great event for the city and everybody wins.

So thanks to everybody who put together Mr. Wheeler, Ms. Green and everyone else who put together Unity Seaville, Ms. Turner.

Can we give them all a round of applause?

Thank you all for your hard work.

I'm John Edward Hall, Fry's Springs.

Starting with 1B.

I wish City Council to consider changes to make OAR more efficient in treating all substance abuse.

First of all, OAR is a misnomer in that the O in the title puts the court in the frame of mind that the defendant accused before trial of drug abuse is guilty.

Thus, we need to change OAR, offender,

to DAR, Defender or Defendant Aid and Restoration.

OAR is not properly equipped in staffing to facilitate justice.

There is a fine opportunity presented here to have city council to direct OAR to hire more, one or more paralegals, psychologists and psychiatrists to act hand in hand in interviews

with accused traffickers, police officers, alcoholics, or drug abusers to establish proof of guilt or innocence and have a brief written by a paralegal, perhaps, if that's all we can afford, put in the hands of a court-appointed pro bono lawyer.

The paralegals can prepare briefs to facilitate justice.

This two-tier justice system we now have, one for the wealthy, even UVA students drunk in public who hire lawyers that argue down CPD or UVA police officers.

who often can show videos to prove guilt beyond a shadow of doubt.

The accused persons are clearly guilty, are found innocent and told, you are free to go.

Case in point, William Barkley in Charlottesville District Court this morning ruling for two drunk UVA students, clearly drunk and presented as such, taken away in a squad car by a UVA police officer on video cam, CPU monitored,

Officer failed to be bold and did not know measures to be thorough in determining their guilt.

Because skilled lawyers were hired by student families or students themselves, they were set free.

Consider what would have happened if they were poor, not well served by a court appointed lawyer, or chose to argue against a skilled prosecutor pro se.

They would be jailed, convicted as felons, their life ruined by cold, cold court.

Justice in America is a two-tier illusion, as Mayor Walker would say.

I say law gear is burdened by packed dockets all suffer from delusion, true reform and restoration for all accused must be at hand now.

Thank you.

Okay.

1A, Minutes, June 17 Special Meeting, June 17 Regular Meeting, July 1 Special Meeting B, Appropriation, Charlottesville, Albemarle, Adult Drug Treatment Court, Grant Award, $240,000, first of two readings

C, Appropriation, FY 2019-2020, Virginia Department of Transportation, Revenue Sharing Program, Multimodal Improvements, and Local Match Transfer, $826,436, first of two readings D, Appropriation, VDOT Revenue Share Program, for West Main Streetscape Improvements, Phase 1, Additional Award, $163,478, first of two readings

E. Appropriation, Bama Works Fund Fire Safety Trailer Grant, $3,500, first of two readings.

F. Appropriation, Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act Grant, $452,704, second of two readings.

G. Appropriation, VDOT Primary Extension Paving Project Funds,

$633,442, second of two readings H, appropriation, Thomas Jefferson Area Crisis Intervention Team training grant $20,708, second of two readings I, appropriation, moving from foster care to adulthood rental assistance grant $300,000, second of two readings

J.

Resolution, WTJU sponsor request, city sponsorship of the Black Business Expo on Saturday, September 14, 2019, $2,000, first of one reading.

K. Ordinance amending Charlottesville City Code Section 26-29 for leaf collection, first of two readings.

Is there anyone after hearing the consent agenda items, is there anyone who would like to speak?

Okay.

I just have two comments.

Just want to make sure that individuals, the citizens know that K, leaf collection, there will no longer be bags for those who may not have read it and that you will break your leaves to the curb and the vacuum trucks will come and pick them up.

So just don't want anyone to be.

caught off guard with that.

And then just for counsel, I have the same just comment I had about the WTJU sponsor request.

Just when we get these requests that seem like they're for advertising dollars or, you know, something like that, I would just like for them to be, you know, for us to get the proposal instead of just a request of what the dollar amount is going for.

So I had said something similar for the welcoming week allocation last council meeting.

I appreciate your consistency in that regard, Mayor Walker.

I think for WTJU, I don't see the rep here.

But in fact, you're right to a certain extent, those dollars are used for marketing for the Black Business Expo.

There's a great deal of marketing that goes into it, so they don't get the same kind of

nonprofit rates on local media because they're not under one nonprofit entity, which is why they're requesting those funds.

And just for FYI, for anybody, please be sure to come out.

Minority Business Week is the 5th, September 5th through the 12th, September 14th through the 20th.

There we go.

OK. All right.

Is there a motion?

I move that we adopt the consent agenda as presented.

Second.

All right, please vote.

All right, that carries five to zero.

I move that the following are appointed to our boards and commissions to the Building Code Board of Appeals.

Diane Caton, Charles Lewis, Kip White to the Community Development Block Grant Task Force for the Belmont neighborhood.

Olivia Gavee, Historic Resources Committee, Sally Duncan, Deirdre Smith, Jordi Yeager,

to the Jaunt Board of Directors, Lucas Ames, Christine Eppert, and Raymond Herron, to the Minority Business Commission, Andrea Coplin-Wissett, Anthony LeCount, Mark Menefee, Kay Monroe, and Tessa Thompson, to the Personnel Appeals Board, Robert Woodside, to the Place Design Task Force, Navarre Bartz and Cliff Fox,

to the Region 10 Community Services Board, Dawn Pryor, to the Retirement Commission, the employee-at-large, Scott Hendricks, to the Sister City Commission, Vincent Baisson-Repp, Emily Martin, to the Social Services Advisory Board, Janet Morrow, and to the Tree Commission, Anson Parker representing the Fifeville neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you Madam Mayor, members of the council.

I had to have five items tonight.

One comes from Brandon Morrisberger,

who was asking or basically requesting for lights at the skate park.

Apparently, the skate park was built without the funding for lighting, but it does have the infrastructure in place for when we do get to that point.

So that'll be funded in a future CIP.

Also to Ms. Gloria Beard, as well as Mr. Gaines often come before council to talk about the signalization at 10th and Page.

Currently,

It does not meet our criteria for a signal light.

It has to meet one of the nine traffic signal warrants.

Next item, oh she also asked about having someone assist the seniors in terms of removing snow and different things like that in the community.

At that meeting Dr. Atkins as well as members from the school board were here and they said they were going to take care of that.

But we'll stay in contact with Dr. Atkins to see if she can

provided us with some additional information in terms of what they've been able to do for providing those services to the senior community.

Also, she asked, could there be some type of function for the senior citizens?

So I said that I would work with our Parks and Recreation and try to provide them with a Friday evening out periodically.

So we'll work on that.

The other item moving forward is from Miss Katrina Turner.

She requested and wanted to know if there were any complaints against Chief Brackney.

There were only two that were filed and those two that were filed were from Ms. Katrina Turner.

But also too, we're going to be meeting with Ms. Katrina Turner as well as the police chief and we're going to have a discussion about some of the matters that were brought up at the last meeting.

So we'll be scheduling that within the next couple weeks.

Also, too, there was Adrian Dent, one of the many students who provided us with a petition to increase our number of days over at Washington as well as Honesty Park.

But as everyone is aware, most of our pools are staffed by our high school students as well as those that are in college.

I can imagine when August starts to taper off, we start having less folks being able to be pool monitors as well as lifeguards at our pools.

So what we looked at in terms of our Parks and Recreation Department was to actually extend

all past types for Smith Aquatic and Fitness Center up until the end of September to provide folks with the opportunity to still have a pool to go to although it's indoors.

And then the other item I'd like to mention too that we do keep the spray parks open two weeks after Labor Day so they will be open and fully functioning.

I just want to address one more thing before I close out.

It's pertaining to a comment that was made at our last meeting, and it was how much money was put aside for the first year anniversary of the Summer of Hate.

let the public know that we did not exceed the $1 million mark.

And with that $1 million, that was for transfers to our police department for providing public safety for that day, as well as public works to put up the equipment to close off roads and other things that they had to do on that day, on that anniversary.

The other $100,000 was transferred to Unity Days for the different events and the other dollars was for mutual aid expenses with our other partners that we utilize for public safety.

During that time period so with that said We still have a remaining balance of over five hundred plus thousand dollars in that account so to say that exceeded one million dollars That was incorrect.

May I ask a question?

Dr. Richardson, thank you very much for the thorough report.

And I was just wondering, back on the item 2 regarding 10th Street, and there's a flashing yellow light at the intersection with Page.

Could there be the possibility of another intersection on 10th Street to put another flashing light in because that

combined would slow the traffic overall because I know how fast people pick up, especially as they go down the hill and then they gain momentum to go up.

Yeah, that's you know, that's something we can look at, as I always mentioned to all of council members is nothing's impossible.

Thank you.

So maybe not for this meeting, but I would like for us to have a further discussion on the upcoming agenda in regards to what we plan to do with the $500,000 plus that's remaining in the budget from the anniversary from the summer of 8.

Good evening, thank you everybody for letting me, having the opportunity to speak tonight.

I'd like to address the topic of general safety of the downtown mall.

There have been several newspaper articles in the Daily Progress and some general scuttlebutt about the possibility of closing the two vehicular cross streets on the downtown mall, 2nd and 4th streets.

Public safety is a major concern of not only the city of Charlottesville but also all the downtown merchants, restaurateurs,

Mall vendors, businesses, and restaurants.

I have been told that there are more than 20 places that a car could enter the downtown mall.

The two most obvious are the crossing streets.

I would like to suggest that closing these streets would be the nuclear decision, kind of like building Trump's wall.

Except when riots are occurring, I have never seen any driver be anything but cautious as they gingerly drive across the mall.

It is imperative that everyone working, playing, eating, or shopping on the mall feel safe.

We the entire downtown community need to come together to increase safety and at the same time increase accessibility.

The cross streets provide vital link both visual and actual to anyone looking for or using the downtown mall.

These crossings allow for people with limited mobility to be dropped off or on immediately adjacent to the mall.

allows for deliveries, trash removal, buses, moviegoers, etc.

This is not only a discussion about safety, it's about accessibility and design.

What if we had uplighting below the trees to create a beautiful nighttime light?

What if we embraced technology and installed cameras that could be monitored from police headquarters since there is a shortage of officers?

What if the crossings were a different texture or color so that there was a more visual cue to pedestrians that vehicular traffic could be coming?

What if they were bollards that could recess in the mall for cleaning or fire access?

So many options for improvement.

In my business, Magpie Knits, about 60% of our traffic is from tourists.

Most of them find the mall by accident, by driving across it, then they hunt for parking.

The signage guiding people to the downtown mall is almost non-existent and the parking options are expensive and not easy to find.

We also get a number of folks who come to town to look at the university.

They hop on the free trolley and they get a tour and discover the downtown mall.

We also have a fair number of older customers that come by taxi who get dropped off and cannot walk from the garage.

If we as a community decide to go down the path of looking at ways to increase safety on the downtown mall, I'm hopeful that you will be thoughtful in your process and invite representatives from the downtown businesses as well as design professionals to the table to look at the big picture of accessibility.

You might also look at the signs for 10th and Page that flash and show the speed limit.

To all city council members and city staff, thanks for your work and your efforts.

I'd like to discuss the recent development of West Main Street, not to criticize past decisions, but to reflect on that development and use those reflections as an influence on future city decisions, not just on that street itself, but throughout the city.

I'm not going to pretend I'm any sort of expert on zoning and development issues.

I'm just a citizen who's lived here for the last 40 years.

Roughly 30 years ago, along with Reid Arshland, I made a documentary film about Charlottesville called West Main Street.

Through that work, I had the true blessing of meeting and getting to know several wonderful citizens of our community, including three who grew up in the West Main Street neighborhoods.

These include George Ferguson, Rebecca McGinnis, and Sonny Sampson.

As many of you hopefully know, Mrs. McGinnis and Mr. Sampson were wonderful educators.

Rebecca taught at the Jefferson School for around 45 years.

and Mr. Ferguson, who literally was born on a house right on West Main Street, was a funeral director who also served as the head of the NAACP during school desegregation.

His daughter was part of the first class to integrate our local schools.

As members of the Charlottesville community, we are also lucky to have had them as strong and positive influences on our world.

I bring them up to remind us that at this very moment there might be a two-year-old playing at a neighborhood playground and a recently born baby crying for his mom and each of these children could grow up to become positive future leaders of Charlottesville and beyond.

And yet what I think of West Main Street today, other than First Baptist Church and Mel's and perhaps one or two other stores,

None of the recent development enhances the bordering neighborhoods and its people.

In fact, I see these neighborhoods as cut off from the street.

This so-called progress seems to be more for the people moving to this town and for those making money off of these changes.

Plus the jobs created are mainly service jobs, which continues the way too long history of the poor serving the rich in this town.

This is not what I think we should be doing when the future development issues arise around Cherry Avenue, Preston Avenue, and Rose Hill Drive.

And we need to step back and make sure those decisions will positively affect the bordering neighborhoods.

I think this past development points out a sort of hypocrisy of this town, which is supposedly a liberal town, and yet the money invested to make more money seems to have the power more than our regular citizens do in making those decisions.

To me, this connects with Mayor Walker's unmasking the illusion mission.

I am not against free enterprise or economic progress, but I do feel that our democratically elected leaders need to take on the responsibility of protecting all of our citizens, especially those without the power of money, as we consider development issues that their lives are also enhanced by our future community.

Hi, my name is Megan Giltner, and I'm here representing Dairier de Soie, a store located at 110 4th Street Northeast.

In April of 2016, I found myself kind of an accidental entrepreneur.

The business that I had worked for for two years went up for sale.

And it was deeply important to me to keep that particular business in Charlottesville.

I've been working in lingerie and bra fitting for about 10 years now.

and I've cried with my customers.

I've hugged them.

I've rocked their babies.

I've pushed their elderly mothers in wheelchairs and helped them learn to dress after a stroke.

And in the last week or so, I've had a lot of customers coming in and saying, we've been seeing this petition going around to close the mall crossing streets.

and in 2016 when I needed to find a new home for my business because our existing lease at 105 East Main Street was due to expire in 30 days, I found a spot on 4th Street.

And I was really, really excited.

Customers could potentially park right across the street.

Often they can't, but they think they can and that's kind of important.

And I feel like the cross streets

do many important things.

They keep people driving through the mall instead of driving around the mall.

And my concern is that if they close, downtown will just be a little island that people just keep cruising right on past.

If they don't immediately see somewhere to park or don't understand that there are two conveniently located garages, why would they stop?

They're not going to see all the vibrant businesses that are serving tourists and locals alike.

They're not going to be able to shop at the many different businesses that serve all sorts of different interests.

And my concern is that if we close those crossings, we're really going to be closing down part of the community.

And so I would ask that as we look forward towards ways of improving this community, making it safer for everyone to enjoy,

that we do so in a way that makes sense.

There are numbers of pedestrian malls around the country that find ways to have vehicular crossings operate in a safe and effective manner.

And I think that there are a lot of ways that we could improve the existing crossings safely without having to do away with them.

And I want to echo what Miss Williamson said, that there are improvements we can make.

And I hope that should a petition come before council, should you decide to take up the mall crossing issue, that you look into all of the available options so that we can make the best decision to keep people flowing into the community instead of just going around it.

Thank you.

My name is Nelson.

I'm from Charlottesville, and I would like to speak to an ongoing problem with the police department.

A few weeks back, I had an issue with a car trying to back into me.

Yeah, car running over people in Charlottesville.

Imagine that.

I was issued the ticket.

And it was done without an ID, without even me saying who I was.

Here's the documentation that was given to the courts.

Two police officers.

There are many lies in here that the officers said.

I get to court, DA.

Oh, well, we're gonna give you 10 days in jail, but if you plead guilty, we'll waive those 10 days.

And we're gonna put you on paper for two years.

If you plead guilty, we'll let you go, but you got to plead guilty.

But because of the narrative that's on this piece of paper from two police officers, still was found guilty because of it.

Of course, the public defender, he didn't want to argue at all on my behalf.

So now here I am, I've got this big bill in the courts that I can't afford to pay.

And it's a shame that, you know, the general public has to put up with officers lying.

Because as a matter of fact, I went to the magistrate's office to try to file against the driver of the vehicle.

I stood there and the sergeant and the officer actually lied to the magistrate.

Now if they're doing this to me,

What are they doing to the black and brown community to keep them under and keep the paperwork on them?

It's rather depressing and matter of fact, you can't get an interview, you can't get an appointment with the chief of police.

She doesn't want to speak to anybody who wants to speak and this is all from retaliation because the chief of police and police officers don't like the videos that are on YouTube about Charlottesville police.

They don't like the police reports that have been filed against the police.

The same words that they put here that stuck up in court, I use those same words in a police report against police officers and police staff.

All of a sudden, oh no, that's not the same narrative.

So again, something needs to be done.

So I'd just like to say, excuse me, sir.

Just me personally, as one individual, counselor, I didn't include Chief Brackney earlier when we were talking about just the way in which we conduct ourselves and how we speak to individuals, although you weren't yelling and whatnot.

I do think

It's important for us to respect our chief.

We can have disagreements with her.

We don't have to agree with everything she says.

So I appreciate you stating that she's here.

I think just my personal, the way in which I know Chief Brackney,

I've been with her on countless occasions in which she will talk to anybody.

That is correct.

I'll move forward with that.

I mean, because again,

There are body cam footage from the police.

There is also footage on YouTube.

I'm Marta Kane, CEO at Java, and it's really wonderful, Mayor Walker and counselors, to be back here again and share some updates with you.

We're getting ready for the fall, and that means several different things that I wanted to let you and the residents of Charlottesville know about.

The biggest one is our insurance counseling, especially the Part D.

which is for the prescription plan.

Last year we saw 2200 people in the eight weeks and we saved people 1.2 million dollars by helping them change their plans.

And I'm not trying to sound like a Geico ad but the point is then that means that people didn't have to make a choice between buying food and buying prescriptions.

And so we're very excited this year

that thanks to a foundation grant, we are opening an additional counseling space on Allied Street so that that will help make it more convenient for Charlottesville residents and expand the numbers of people that we can serve.

We've also got a lot more counselors that have gone through training, so we'll have over 50 counselors available to help with that.

The ribbon cutting is August 29th at 10 a.m.

If any of you are available, we'd love to have you join us.

and at that space for the next six months we'll be holding Getting Started in Medicare Counseling which we do all year round because we all turn 65 at different times.

The Part D counseling for the eight weeks starting in mid-October and we also have 15 counselors that help with the Affordable Care Act counseling when that will be open and last year it was open for a much shorter time with no federal dollars for marketing.

and we were able to get a grant to help us let people know that Legal Aid Justice Center and Java were offering that counseling for people.

The next thing we've been working on is providing presentations on assistive technology that provides small ways to help people maintain their independence and age in the community.

So just simple little adaptive devices that can make it easier for someone to stay independent.

presented that presentation at Timberlake and that included Woolen Mills neighbors as well and we also did it at the Mary Williams Community Center and we have a date scheduled for Crescent Halls and we'll probably be looking at some other places as well going forward.

And then we also have a new options counselor, Kristin, who's been doing some outreach and trying to spread the word about home delivered meals

which is a program that we have for people who can't get out to do the grocery shopping or who aren't able to prepare their own meals and so this provides them with nutritious meals.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I wanted to speak to you about the mall crossings.

The downtown business community in the last few days became aware that there's a petition trying to close some of those crossings.

And we've started our own petition drive.

I believe we will have several thousand petitions within a week that will be signed and more of that if need be.

But the overwhelming response from our businesses, our customers, UPS drivers, postmen, anybody that uses the downtown mall frequently

is that those streets should remain open.

When Second Street was opened, there was an agreement between the owner of that property and the city that that street would be opened

in return for the movie theater being opened and the city at that time said it would enhance the street, making it safer, do upgrades to the street to make the crossings better.

When we lobbied for three years to get the fourth street opening, we asked repeatedly that second street crossings be upgraded and that fourth street also

be upgraded to make the crossings better.

That street was open temporarily for six months, so nothing was done at the time.

When it was agreed that it would stay open and that it was effective and that it worked, we were told that something would be done.

I understand that in 2005, the city did an extensive study on how to improve pedestrian safety downtown.

And again, nothing's been done.

So if the issue about those mall crossings is safety, then I think it's really the city that needs to take responsibility to upgrade.

I sent all of you a photo of how Colonial Williamsburg has signage.

But I think every city that has a pedestrian mall, it does not mean it's only pedestrians.

There are cross streets.

You have to have deliveries.

You have to have trash pickup.

You have to have

The ability to drop off handicapped people.

Parents want to be able to drop off their children where they can see where they're going and not drop them off on a side street.

The visibility of the mall is a huge issue that we for years had people tell us they couldn't find the mall and they just kept driving.

and when we got these two cross streets, people say to us all the time, oh I was driving by, I saw you.

When I was trying to get the petition signed in my store, one customer looked at me and said, oh yeah, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that crossing because we were going to PVCC and we drove across the mall and we saw it and said this looks great and we stopped off.

And then the woman next to her says, well yeah, while I was just coming in, I noticed some parents picking up their kids on the second street crossing.

So those are used in a variety of ways.

and if the only issue is safety, then I think we need to look at Water Street, we need to look at Market Street, we need to look at the crossing at every street because none of them are well done and it's an issue of better lighting, better crosswalks, how to do this best and it's not simply a matter of

Gee, if you closed these two streets, things would be better.

And the mall crossings are essential for the vitality of the downtown mall.

You close it, and you really hurt downtown.

But I don't think that the issue for a lot of people in terms of the petition, I can't speak for everyone, but I think a big issue is the fact that Heather Iyer was killed on that street.

It's not a matter of like just the safety, it's the fact that a lot of people don't like the fact that we now have an open street where people can drive through where someone lost their life.

So it's the commemorative effect and kind of honoring that space in which not only someone lost their life but hundreds of people were hurt, traumatized and then left a really bad stain on our city.

So I'm really interested in thinking about whether or not there's a compromise of sorts and I know that's not for tonight but I just wanted to state

I don't think it's all just about people wanting to close those two streets for safety reasons.

Well, I think there's also issues of how do you commemorate?

And what is it that you as a community do, and is that the best place to do it?

And, you know, to just pick one spot and say this is where we want to do it, let's look at the whole city, let's look at the park, where other actions took place, let's look at other parts of this.

I know she didn't die there, and Susan

Mayor Walker, can I say one thing?

Good evening everyone.

My name is Karen Walker and thank you for letting me speak this evening.

I'm here to speak about the closing, potential closings of 2nd and 4th Street.

I own a flower shop at 115 4th Street and I'm personally with my business opposed to closing the streets and the reason being is that

I've been on the mall for 10 years.

And four years ago, I moved from a non-crossing to a crossing street.

And over the next two years, my business grew.

It actually doubled.

And I was able to hire two more people.

And so I've been employing eight people.

There's no question in my mind that closing four streets to traffic will cut off sales and reduce sales tax to the revenue of the

Sales tax revenue to the city.

Vehicular access to my business has made a big difference, both for customers and for deliveries.

Older customers or customers with children do not have to make their way down three or four flights of crowded municipal parking to reach my store.

they can park right outside.

Proponents of this closure claim that is for safety reasons other than August 12th in four years I have not seen a single accident or injury due to cars crossing the mall.

I am there virtually seven days a week and I was in my shop preparing for a wedding during August 12th confrontation.

If the city had not vacated its blockade at the top of 4th Street

There wouldn't have been casualties on that day either.

If there is evidence of a non-August 12th related safety issue, I would like to see it, please.

I can tell you that I have seen people tripping on the mall because of uneven bricks.

The cars are far more obvious and avoidable hazard.

I can tell you by closing 4th Street, you will hurt my business and other businesses on 4th Street.

But don't just take my word for it.

Survey my fellow business owners and ask them how closure will affect their businesses and sales tax receipts.

Then you can make an evidence-based decision about the street closure.

Thank you.

I'm speaking about the Special Events Ordinance.

I live in the Will and Mills area.

Hi, my name is Kijan Campbell.

I'm 12 years old and a rising seventh grader at Beauford.

I've organized two school strikes for climate and am in the process of planning another.

I've also attended the CHS Black Student Union's protest for equity in the school system and a rally to protest Dominion's plans for two unnecessary new pipelines and a compressor station in Union Hill, which will harm the state's environment.

All of these protests were intent only on helping the community, and all the people in attendance could have been criminally charged.

Literally hundreds of young people could have faced criminal charges for standing up against injustice.

Of course, the city attorney has stated that no, the city has not and will not charge children, establishing that this is not being enforced equally.

Clearly the ordinance is outdated and deeply flawed.

However, if the proposed amendments are adopted, then what?

Literally hundreds of Charlottesville residents could face civil charges.

Under this ordinance now and with the amendments, the city will be nurturing an environment in which the wealthy and privileged can speak up while those affected most by these issues are not able to because now some have to fear unnecessary police contact or fines they're not able to pay.

This is why I'm asking you to take a closer look at the special events ordinance.

I introduced myself before.

I'd just like to reiterate that our court system is overburdened with very high caseloads.

Video eyes clearly show guilt versus innocence of defendants as well as plaintiffs.

Officer or not, thorough and skilled lawyers overcome what is clear evidence in the video eye.

Contrast the justice served to the poor, no matter the color of their skin, they often are found guilty, are not heard, are not given a fair chance to present their truth, even given an adequate defense.

Council appointed them

Those reporting to OAR are already convicted in the minds of the judges.

Offenders need to be changed.

Offender needs to be changed to defendant or defender.

D.A.R.

to re-discuss the old landmark hotel now.

Once the city passes the old landmark hotel rights to the hall campaign through eminent domain or through gentle negotiation with John Dewberry, we as one select people will act to refurbish the concrete and steel shell.

Robin Hoffman tells me that Sun Tribe solar power

Powers the Nissan Car Mall with 92% efficiency at the Ryle Hill Shopping Center in Albemarle County.

The old landmark is intact, she says.

It need not be demolished.

A study has been done.

Once the refurbished landmark is done for government subsidized low rent affordable housing for vets, the homeless, mentally ill, Charlottesville area transit drivers, and other first responder families with city and social services, funding, vetting, and Habitat for Humanity direction, real estate rental tax abatement, we will put

We will point the way to solar power all merchants on the downtown mall and bring blessing to the 100 families vetted and selected to participate in refurbishing the landmark under Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville Direction.

These are the golden 100 families in a Beacon Hall hotel seen flashing light as a flashing lighthouse all across our nation.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, city council members.

Thank you for giving me time to speak.

I'm a big fan of the city market and an advocate of eat fresh, eat local.

I've noticed, however, that some of the prepared food vendors understandably purchase their meats from wholesale houses due to low prices.

However, most of the patrons I've interviewed from the radio program

have an expectation that the prepared food vendors use local ingredients.

Having been in the prepared food vending business myself in a former lifetime, to make a profit when sourcing locally, the price of the finished product can be cost prohibitive.

This presents a challenge for small vendors, many of whom are refugees operating on a thin profit margin.

My goal is to have the vendors in the spirit of real food and health source their meat and egg ingredients from fellow city market vendors.

As an example, a sign which might read, quote, we source our pork from Double H Farm, our eggs from Free Union Grass Farm, end quote.

One solution could be that the city give a real dollar for dollar tax break between the discount house price and a special wholesale price that could be negotiated with the local farms.

I would be glad to volunteer as a negotiator between the vendors and the farms.

Hello, I am Kevin Cox.

I live at 311 Fairway Avenue, and I want to add my voice to support for keeping crossings open.

For 32 years, I've walked through those crossings twice a day, five days a week.

OK, they are some of they are the safest pedestrian crossings in Charlottesville.

It's much more dangerous to cross Market Street or Waters Street to get to the downtown mall than it is to go across those crossings.

I wish all drivers would behave at other intersections in Charlottesville the way they behave at those two crossings.

I really don't see any need to close the crossings at all and they are important.

They provide disabled access and they provide a way for deliveries to be made.

There's lots of reasons to keep them open.

In the many years that I walked, I was frequently stopped.

This was pre-GPS.

I was frequently stopped by lost tourists.

and it wasn't at all uncommon for people to stop and ask me, where is the downtown mall?

And after a chat with them, I would have discovered that they had driven around the mall several times but they hadn't crossed it.

This was before the crossings.

So that's an important function of the crossings.

I would like to ask one question and that is why two years into the terrorist attack,

Is it possible to drive from the crossings onto the downtown mall?

There are bollards on the side streets.

There are bollards at both ends.

There are hydraulic bollards available that can be controlled by remote control to allow emergency access when necessary.

But as it stands right now, people can and do drive onto the mall proper from those crossings.

It happens all the time.

Usually they don't get very far and the vendors stop them or citizens stop them.

I've stopped them.

I have heard from some of my friends on the mall that there have been occasions where people did not stop and drove the length of the mall.

OK. And I think this is a terrible oversight.

And I would like to know, is it going to be corrected?

It's the goal.

The safety studies.

Thank you.

First I want to say I don't have a voice because I was turning up last night, so I'm sorry.

But I want to give my cousin Brian right here some acknowledgement.

Brian worked with me all day yesterday.

Y'all need to get this man a raise.

He worked all day.

Mayor Walker, how you doing?

Yo, he did a good job.

I was out there at 9, you came at 10.

You left at 11, I left at like 11.40.

We did a good job yesterday.

We really did.

So I want to give Brian and Charlene a shout out for contributing.

It was a lot of work, but we pulled it off.

I also want to add that while people are complaining about the mall crossing, I wish y'all listened to people of color and their community, and our communities, I mean, and their concerns about their community, the way that you listen to the downtown businesses.

Because Mr. Gaines didn't want 10th and Page.

Mr. Gaines wanted Preston and Ninth Street, where Cardinal Hall is.

Y'all forgot all about that.

Another thing is,

P.O., I mean I P.O.

the street, Wortland Street.

You need to do a traffic study on Wortland Street and take the traffic light from Wortland Street and put it on 10th and Page Street and put a caution light on Wortland Street.

But that make more sense to do because a lot of people don't make that right turn.

So you need to move the do not turn on red off Wortland Street

moved the traffic light and put it on 10th and Page Street.

Then the downtown mall being safety, I mean having safety issues with people crossing.

I go to Miami all the time and Lincoln Road is just like the downtown mall and they have a pedestrian crossing light that people gotta push the button to cross the street and cars have to stop.

Put a light right there and make it a pedestrian stop light.

It's really not that hard for us to figure out safety ways to make this thing work.

Maybe I need to be the director of traffic, probably.

Because I think traffic has been an issue here for a long time.

Our streets are tore up.

It takes 30 minutes to get from Wegmans to McDonald's on Ridge and McIntyre.

It's 50 million stoplights.

It's 9 million pedestrians crossing in certain neighborhoods and then you come to the black neighborhood and we jaywalking.

I mean, I don't know what better way to give it to y'all and I'm sorry I can't really talk because

Last night we had a good time, but y'all get what I'm saying.

Like you have got to listen to us too in our neighborhoods.

Mary Kerry, city resident.

Oh my goodness.

I came up to talk about parents getting our children taken away from them and stuff with the Department of Social Services, but there was a lot of other stuff that came up that seemed like a knee-jaw attention.

And the downtown crossings, like Mr. Bellamy said, girl, they'll get killed down there.

A lot of people got hurt down there.

But my mom and family buried over in Oakwood.

But that don't stop me from going down there.

And I don't see why we should stop people from going down 4th Street.

because I've been in Charlottesville longer than most of the people.

I see a lot of people out there with white hair, but that don't mean that you're old, that you've been in Charlottesville just as long as I have, but I was here when everything was a street.

You could go any kind of way until they built that mall.

That mall was a problem.

It's still a problem.

I don't go down there.

I hate it.

But to cross it, Fourth Street, I like it because when I be invited to free lunches at the Nook, I get put off on that corner.

And I get picked up at that corner.

And I don't have to walk that far.

Down on South Street, I'm trying to get to Charlie to go down through Second Street.

And the lady back there was saying about her business, I agree with her.

I mean, I know a lot of people.

I have family that come here from out of town and stuff that don't even recognize y'all's fear and they grew up here.

And they don't even go down to the mall either because they don't even care about the mall anymore.

You're cutting off stuff that's relevant to this community.

But anyway, now let me say some things that y'all are gonna get angry with me about, but that's okay, I'm used to it.

The freedom of speech started when you three got up there.

Y'all cut everything out.

And then you sitting here telling people to respect y'all.

When y'all came in here,

Mr. Signer, you was acting like a dictator.

You was telling us what you was going to do, how you were going to do it, and how we were going to act.

And then you started off with this lottery BS, which nobody liked.

Mr. Bellamy talking about his friends couldn't get off, they don't never come down here and sign up and stuff.

Don't see no black people up in there but the same ones that come all the time.

Where is his friends that couldn't sign up?

When all this rhetoric y'all call disrespect and yelling and stuff, it started with you three.

We didn't have that stuff when Ms. W, you know it.

Because you was on the council when Hoosier was the mayor.

You didn't have all these people in here current on like that till you and Chris Sankos and a whole bunch of y'all and Signer and all y'all was arresting people and carrying them out of here because they disrespected you because y'all didn't give us no respect.

It started with y'all right here.

So stop going around still trying to tell people how to talk and respect you because if you want to listen to those sending hearings and stuff on TV, they call each other worse names than that.

My name is Robin Hoffman.

I live on Caroline Avenue behind Jack and Jill's in the Willam Mills area.

And I'm here today, I'm sorry, I haven't been here in a while because there's a lot of catching up to do.

These meetings are great.

So are the debates for city council, so are different politicians' meetings.

It's ideas that people are sharing, but what I would love

is for everybody to sign up to CPATV.

Mary Carey's like, oh, but you've been saying that for two years.

But guess what?

This Saturday right here in City Chambers, Calvin Tate, Lewis Tate is going to be here and he's going to sign you all up just

Put your name on every single time slot.

And because there used to be 100 producers, now there's only 12.

Most of them are church, which is good.

Like for me, I was in firm for three months because my ankle broke and I didn't watch the church, but I watched other things on stream TV.

I was on TV.

and everybody here has a story, so that's the idea.

So Mayor Carey has a story, the Mayor has a story, Brian Wheeler has a story, Wes has a story, Miss Hill has a story, Mr. Richardson has a story, everybody has a story.

And you can have that story in 28 minutes every week.

So sign up and then people will, it'll be famous.

People will actually stream it.

The young people want to stream it.

I canvas a lot.

I volunteer a lot for different things.

For solar, for schools, and I get petitions for people to get.

I do all these things.

Don't ask.

It's just fun to do.

But anyway, here's the thing I wanted to say is

Also, I want to pass this around.

I don't know if I'm allowed to, but I probably will do it anyway.

This is Home Energy Challenge, and I've got a whole bunch of names going back to school.

What it is, is if you put your name on here and your cell number and your email and the location of your neighborhood, the person on the other side of the sheet will give you a call and ask you to do a little party.

and that will enable Charlottesville to be the first city who is energy efficient in Virginia.

So, we already are doing that.

Actually, they showed that at the Paramount.

They had three years ago, they had 10 businesses and then two years ago, they had like half the auditorium of Paramount and then they had the whole auditorium of businesses.

So, those are the things that I came here to say today.

Thank you.

Tomika Moten.

All right.

We have two slots.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

No?

All right.

So we're going to close the community matters.

Are there any comments?

All right.

So we'll break until 805.

Music

Alright, I'll call this meeting back to order.

Next we have a public hearing appropriation.

Good evening.

I'm Jeanette Janicek, UCI Program Manager for the City of Charlottesville in the Neighborhood Development Services Department.

And I'm here to request an appropriation of $4,009,265.

It's all in state funding.

It's for Phase Two of West Main.

between Sixth Street Northwest and Eighth Street Northwest on West Main.

Two million of it is from the state revenue sharing program, so we have to match that with two million in local.

And then we also received smart scale, purely state funding of $2,009,265.

Are there any questions, counsel?

All right.

Thank you.

So I'll open the public hearing.

There isn't anyone signed up.

Is there anyone who would like to speak on the state revenue sharing and smart scale funds for West Main Street streetscape improvements on phase two?

No, it's a public hearing.

All right.

Any discussion?

I just wanted to address the comments that Mr. Farina made at the beginning and they were very

He was the gentleman who spoke with his concerns about the neighborhood and gentrification.

And I just wanted, they're very heartfelt.

I was on the committee for two years before, way, way back before even running for council.

Those were exactly the concerns that we put a lot of time into trying to address with many subsequent iterations of the West Main streetscape plan was making it more inviting, cognizant of the surrounding neighborhoods, not making it be some glass and steel, you know, wealthy corridor.

This was on top of a major decision that happened, which was very controversial when when

When Wes and Kathy and I came on, which was cutting the building heights on this part of West Main Street, slashing them down to four stories, I think, which was out of this desire to make West Main Street not a commercial corridor and have it actually be consistent with the surrounding neighborhoods as much as we could, given that development was going to come to it, which it does.

So there's a lot of elements in the West Main Street plan that are meant to be inviting

to go into the surrounding neighborhoods to have a lot of history.

We want to talk about the Drury Brown Bridge and enhancing the history, which others may be wanting to speak about.

And the major things are trying to make it the city's living room.

So a lot of the design is meant to make people want to, of everybody, want to hang out there and have it flow into the neighborhoods.

It's meant to be a sitting and socializing place.

Making safe bike lanes is really important.

It's really dangerous now.

It's been three years since we voted and moved this forward.

I mean, I kind of can't believe it.

We voted in early 2016.

You know, like I'm biking a lot more with kids now.

And like, I wish it's not a safe corridor.

It's a very dangerous corridor.

There's a lot of accidents that have occurred there.

And that's one of the many things we wanted to address.

I just wanted to address what Mr. Farina said.

If I could just follow up on that a little bit.

And Councilmember Signer is right.

We did the rezoning of West Main Street East and West Main Street West in 2015.

And so we removed the special use permits and we made it so east of the Drury-Brown Bridge, the maximum height was four stories, down from six stories, but they could have gotten a special use permit to go up to

70 to 80 feet.

No, it was actually 100 feet.

It was like downtown extended zoning.

And then west of the Drury Brown Bridge, the by right was six stories.

And again, the same thing was all the same thing.

There were six stories by right to go up to one hundred and one feet with a special use permit.

And that's why you got the two buildings.

the two luxury student housing projects that we see there today.

So that that rezoning is a direct response to the community's loud cry against it.

And plus, there are these things called the bulk plane step down.

So even in the back, so the buildings now step back.

You can see that with the Cork Hotel to pay deference to in this in that case, the Jefferson School.

So that

that also with making the pedestrian infrastructure kind of evened out and wider.

When you look at the pictures and you've experienced it, the broken sidewalks because of the roots bubbling up, a large part of that is to underground the utilities.

But we have since learned that Dominion Energy will not pay for the undergrounding of utilities.

So the city has to cover it completely.

And that's despite every year we've made requests to the

General Assembly to at least make arrangements where we could go 50-50 on the cost.

But no, we have to absorb the entire cost, and that's about a third of the whole corridor's expense is putting the underground utilities in a duct bank.

But increasing the tree canopy 400 percent also is incredibly important for the environment.

Not only keeps us cool and cuts down cooling loads of the buildings, it starts doing this important work of decarbonization, getting the carbon out of the air, which is what we've got to do all over the city.

And the syllabus cell technology that the trees will be planted in are going to be filtering the stormwater runoff

so that we're meeting our requirements with the Chesapeake Bay Act, i.e.

meaning we're getting rid of the nutrients that go and pollute the rivers by filtering it out before it gets there.

So the streets doing a lot of stuff with the improvements.

And I wish Mr. Farina was here to hear that.

And thank you for kicking that off.

But I think it's an it's an important corridor.

All right.

Thank you.

The only thing I just want to echo was around the Drury-Brown Bridge.

Any other comments?

Thank you.

No objections.

All right.

Thank you.

Alright next we have a petition to close an alley off of Carlton Avenue next to 931.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Councillors.

Before you, you have what is the first petition to vacate a street or alley within the city of Charlottesville based on the new street and alley closing policy adopted May the 6th of this year.

The rubric that you approved stated that if a petition for a proposed vacation of a street or alley scored less than 1.5 then it would advance for the council's consideration Tonight, and I do want to point out that based on your policy

This does not need to be referred back to the Planning Commission.

The council can go forward.

Well, tonight will be your first of two readings for this item.

OK. All right.

Are there any questions from council?

All right, I'll open the public hearing.

We have one, Reverend GH Gaona.

Good evening to all.

Good evening.

I'm here actually on behalf of my mother who owned the property at 931 Charlton Avenue.

She passed on June 8th of this year.

Regarding that, the adjacent property at 929, Mr. Mary is here and he is the owner and seller of the property at 929.

and there was a concern about the property and the property line.

My mother agreed to a signed statement saying that she would assume that that line was just part of the alley.

That alley truly has been closed since 1967 when Burley ceased as a high school the last year.

That alley was used for a lot of times for students coming through that alley between 931 and 929 to go to Henry Avenue to go to Burley High School.

No one has used that alley since that time.

However, there's been a house that is directly behind 931 and 929.

So you cannot go through that alley onto Henry Avenue because it's someone's property and so my concern is why now to close that alley since no one is using it.

It has not been used since 1967.

And so my concern again is why is it necessary to close an alley when initially the land was assigned over to my mother so that the house can be sold at 929.

So again, I'm not understanding why it's necessary now to close an alley when initially it was because of the survey in the property line.

May I ask a question, Mayor Walker?

Right.

Yes, not close the alley.

I mean, because it's not been used at any time since, actually since 1967.

OK, thank you.

All right.

Is there any?

Yes, ma'am.

I am the sole owner of RT2 LLC, the entity that owns 929 Charlton Avenue.

To answer Reverend Gojana's question, the reason to close the alley is that the house, 929 Charlton Avenue,

encroaches into the alley five and a half feet to four and a half feet from front to back and therefore is a defect on the title to the property.

I have contracted to sell the house to a nice young family back in six months ago and am unable to sell it because the buyer cannot get a bank loan with a title defect.

So this house

Reverend Gohena once told me that the house was built in 1920 before the city acquired the alley by dedication.

There has been an error made by somebody.

Either the builder built into the alley or the city failed to, back in the 20s, failed to discern where the alley was in relation to the house.

But there is now a house in Charlottesville that cannot be sold unless the city abandons the alley.

I have a question for Mr. Blair.

Well, I think what Mr. Murray is saying is that ultimately the city has this interest in the alley.

And the structure that has been built

encroaches in that alley and so legally the city at any time could use its right to in effect to the reverend's point reopen the alley.

If the city maintains that interest in the alley, what typically happens is when a title search is performed on a residential lot, you have to get title insurance in order for a bank to give you a commercial loan, or I'm sorry, a real estate loan or mortgage for the house.

So, if you can't get clear title,

and I certainly have not talked to the title company as that's a private matter but if a title company will not give you title insurance then a bank will not provide you a mortgage because the fear being that the bank is giving you a mortgage on that property and obviously the bank if they have a loan on the property their security is the structure.

But if there is an alley, a right to an alley that runs through it, then the title insurance company won't give the title insurance because there's always the fear that the city could reassert its rights to use the alley.

And then the bank, since its security is the house,

So the property was built

Part of it is in the alley how much is remaining that's closer to the 931 property.

So in a matter like this, would discussing the issues with the title company, even though it's a private matter since this is the request, be an option?

And if not, would the

Maybe vacate a portion of the alley.

And if the city were to abandon the five feet on my side, that's fine with it.

OK.

But then you have a five-foot wide easement.

You also have a sewer line that runs under it.

Right.

And I understand you need a 20-foot wide easement for that.

That's creative thinking.

Right.

There is a sewer line easement there.

Well, that's a good question.

In effect, and I can double check before the next meeting, in effect, if you vacated the entire alley, what would occur is half should go to one property owner and half to the other if it follows the usual street vacation principles.

And that I don't know if

Would that resolve the concerns?

Thank you for the dialogue.

I don't have a problem with that.

However, I'm just an administrator of that property now.

So I don't know what my rights are regarding that property other than being the caretaker administrator of that property since she's passed.

and concerning that, I know you've mentioned there's a boundary line issue with the two properties.

This in and of itself doesn't affect the boundary line itself.

It just vacates the city's portion, the city's alley.

The property owner still and as an administrator of the estate and ultimately whoever would inherit the property,

that if there's still a boundary line dispute, that's again, sort of a private legal matter between the two property owners.

But if a alley or street is vacated, the principle is that property owners on both sides of the street, if we're talking like this flat piece of land, it goes halfway and both property owners then once the street is vacated,

It would be split in half the property itself that underlies the alley or street.

And so that's what, in effect, if the city council at its next meeting vacated this street, that alley disappears.

The city no longer has any interest between those two parcels.

It needs to be surveyed so we know the exact markings for whose property and the property line because without that information then you still have a problem.

Right, I understand that, but I'm just simply saying that if you say that that alley now will become private between 929 and 931, it still needs to have a marking

That was established, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

That's that's my concern.

Yeah.

No, no.

Certainly.

OK, so that sounds like

It would be an agreement.

OK. OK.

OK. All right.

Great.

Are there any.

So it just will move to the consent for the consent.

Good evening.

Carrie Rainey with Neighborhood Development Services.

Rainix LLC is requesting a waiver from Section 34-1120B, the critical slope waiver section, to allow for construction of a mixed use development that would include two buildings with 28 one and two bedroom multifamily residential units in commercial use, along with surface parking lot, which would include vegetated canopies,

at 915 Sixth Street.

This property has frontage on both Sixth Street Southeast and Second Street Southeast.

The Planning Commission discussed the critical slope waiver requests at their May 14th meeting this year.

The following information is relevant to this request.

Much of the site is wooded.

There is currently a single family home located on the property.

There are no major rock outcroppings.

Approximately 36% of the critical, excuse me, property, approximately 36% of the critical slopes are in excess of greater than 60%.

And approximately 30% of those would be disturbed with this critical slope waiver.

The waterway in question is the Pollocks Branch daylighted portion, which is within 200 feet of the property.

The applicant has proposed two buildings, one of which is almost entirely in the critical slopes area of the property.

This development could potentially be accommodated outside of the critical slope area.

However, the height and other aspects of the design may be different.

The Planning Commission discussed the following items at their meeting.

The sensitivity and potential degraded health of Pollock's Branch, the height of the proposed retaining walls and related existing tree removal located in the critical slope area, the possibility of clustering the development outside of the critical slope area closer to Sixth Street Southeast, possibly through taller buildings to maintain similar uses,

the possibility of exploring an off-site cooperative parking arrangement with other properties in the area to reduce the required parking provided on site.

The Planning Commission took the following action.

Mr. Alejandro moved to recommend denial of this application for the critical slope waiver.

Ms. Green seconded the motion.

The Commission voted three to two to recommend denial of the application with Mr. Mitchell abstaining.

Thank you.

Are there any questions?

I do have a question, Mayor Walker, because in reading the staff report,

It does.

There's a statement, however, a development of similar use and residential density could potentially be accommodated outside of critical slope areas with a different site design.

So that's kind of the bottom line that the planning commission had come up with.

Correct.

Does counsel do any of you need any further information?

Is there a motion?

Mayor Walker, I move to deny the critical slope waiver as recommended by the Planning Commission.

I'll second.

All right.

We asked.

No, I was not.

For the vote that's been taken.

So Dr. Bellamy, I asked if there was any counselor who needed more information.

I've reviewed the Planning Commission.

OK. All right.

Thank you.

Kaki have been working on this for a period of time and they're gonna be here tonight to give the presentation pertaining to their findings Members of council so

As you know, we made a presentation to you at the first meeting in May about the efforts of the group that I am paneled last year to work on this important issue and I want to start again today with my thanks to that group for their efforts on behalf of the city.

We had a tremendous group of folks and I want to thank CACI and Charlene in particular for the work that they did with those folks.

As you'll recall, the history of this comes from a lot of discussion with the council and concerns that I had in my role about the number of community indicators about disparities and disproportionality and a lack of equity in the community.

but not a focus over time on the city's role in addressing equity and so really before we can continue to pour money into many different initiatives all

serving important purposes, we have to look at what our role is in the city.

And so what did the group do?

As you'll recall, they looked at other communities who are doing this work on diversity, equity and inclusion.

They gave self-evaluations to each of the departments and we did some salary study.

And a lot of that is in your report today.

Much of it is a repeat of the work that we gave you in May.

We're back tonight with recommendations, but short of recommendations with a budget behind them because we do need questions and direction from council.

You know, I guess the question for Council is why, you know, CATEC would go through the recommendations, but why do you need this, some of this stuff to happen in the recommendations?

Why do we need the office and various staff?

And so I want to address a couple things, you know.

The principles of diversity have been talked about in the city for a long time.

I know that we've talked about them specific to some departments and as an organizational goal.

But diversity, just sheer numbers, you know, which already mirror the population with the absence

of equity and inclusion of those people is meaningless.

And so we really need to focus on all of these items.

So, you know, diversity is not really a choice for the city of Charlottesville or any other organization.

You know, we're going to be a majority minority country within the next 20 to 25 years.

And actually,

This is what I was going to say.

Will not be tolerated.

Mayor Walker, I just want that to be noted.

Just trying to help set where we're talking about.

So there's a number of different grounds that we might talk about the importance of such an initiative and many of them have been expressed on the social importance or the moral importance, ethical importance of

having an equity or an inclusion focus.

There are other reasons and those are all compelling to me, but we've spent a lot of time on those in the past.

I think there is ample evidence based on our work and what we know out in the world that there is an economic case to be made.

We know that diverse teams and those that

feel more inclusive, have better efficiencies, they form better teams, there's less disruption and, you know, for organizations sometimes who have employee disputes, there's less disputes and perhaps less lawsuits, less cost.

I agree with everything you just said.

Well, let me keep going there, there might be more.

You know, there is the market case also to be made.

I think

We've talked a little bit about this the past.

If we want to look at how we will best serve the city and the citizens, our residents, we have to have people who reflect our customers and their values and understand them.

There is also the matter of results and outputs.

It is certainly researched and studied that diverse teams are more productive, more creative, better tuned in to customers.

So I'm going to ask Kaki to talk a little bit about

The specific recommendations, I will anticipate that one question is, well you've got these recommendations about new positions, but you know, isn't that something that some people do in HR, or couldn't we do that in human rights, or don't they want an outreach person in the civilian review board?

Good evening.

In the report, much of the data as Mr. Murphy has indicated is data that we submitted to you all without additional conclusions that the committee had drawn or recommendations.

And so tonight really is about walking through the recommendations that the committee spent a considerable amount of time on.

There are two broad recommendations.

The first is to prepare city staff and the organization, the organizational context for culture change.

The second is to create an office of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The conclusion that this group had after doing its analysis, both of the internal data and external sort of steps that have been taken by other communities, is that we had considerable work to do

internally before we could benefit from having an office of champions for this issue that we really needed to prepare this context.

And we spent a fair amount of time talking about whether there had to be one before the other or whether they could be simultaneous.

And there was agreement in the end that we could do both concurrently, but that we had to do both in order to benefit from having any kind of office of diversity, equity, inclusion.

One of the the

primary recommendations around preparing the context is to create an internal and external combo team to shepherd the equity work.

They would be an advisory team of which there would also be a subcommittee called a Human Resources Council that would be entirely internal.

So each one of those members of that team would both be staff and directors from each one of the departments whose job would be to sort of make sure that there are champions throughout the organization and multiple

sort of kinds of positions with kinds of power but also informal influence as well to participate in this conversation.

We talked about having education, lots of formal educational opportunities but also a lot of informal educational opportunities where

This conversation on the need for equity and inclusion was happening at all levels of the organization, both formally and informally, in order to prepare us for making the kind of culture change that would be most receptive to the work of an office of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In addition, we had talked about having a work session.

Actually a lot has been done by the city around the issue of equity and having a work session where we talk about all of those things, not in depth about each one of them, but look at the array of attempts and efforts that have already been made and then talk about where the gaps are so that this council and senior leaders can agree on where the sort of holes might be or where the next opportunity is for influencing equity in the community.

We also talked about the need for developing intentional strategic goals around the issue of race and equity as part of the city's overall strategic plan, but also the departmental goals.

And so that's particularly hard to do, but it is also, in order to get to a meaningful goal, reflects some authentic engagement around the question about how your interest or commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion actually influences your behavior

in your department, the kinds of services you deliver or the way you deliver them.

So our interest is not just in having conversations, but actually having those conversations influence the way we deliver the services to the community.

And so having some very intentional strategic goals by department, but also the city as a whole around that issue.

We also felt like it was important to join GARE.

I believe that Councilmember Bellamy brought this up before about the need to join.

I think we made an attempt to join last year, but we hadn't done enough sufficient work around this issue to actually be warranted a worthy member.

Okay, good.

We'll do some name dropping.

And I do think that they'll be really instrumental in providing us with good resources about how to move this conversation around and also access to other communities that are in the midst of this sort of developmental process.

I think it's really important to be able to learn from other communities.

as they're moving forward.

And finally around this issue we talked about the need for selecting a human resources director that had some experience in this area around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

And then, as you all have heard, we are recommending the creation of an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

A couple important aspects of this.

We really would like this to be staffed to ensure capacity so that we're not talking about a symbolic figurehead.

We're really talking about an organization and a department that can get things done, that has the skills and capacity to move this conversation and champion this conversation internally.

We would like the director to report to the city manager's office to have a full-time data analyst.

We really talked about the value of collecting data, not just to understand where we were, but also to begin to map out our potential impact internally and also in terms of our service impact and then a community engagement coordinator.

We also felt like it was important to identify that we would like this office to be authorized to influence policy and practice and authorized to implement goals of equity advisory team, the human resources council and the city manager's office.

Often we have positions that are sort of special project positions in city government and they have influencing power but not direct authority and power.

We're really talking about this position being able to influence other directors to move the needle inside their own department.

Well, I was going to get to them.

No interrupting.

Rule number two.

Rule B, section 6-7.

and the committee to be clear thank you all for your hard work but in all seriousness I know Ms. Galvin and I would all of us really been talking about this and there was that one question Ms. Galvin I remember mentioning

We really feel like it's important to have this conversation be focused internally on the internal culture and the internal context first.

But then we do imagine that's part of the reason why we would be interested in having a work session on equity is to sort of try to combine all of the individual efforts around this issue and link them together.

And it makes good sense to have this office

Yeah, you got it.

That's going to get tweeted out.

All right.

So I have a question.

So thank you for this excellent work.

Both of you really.

We all appreciate this, but I just want to get it clear in my head.

So under creating the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, item

2D, you say facilitate selection and implementation of equity impact assessment tool for council and senior leadership decision making.

We've talked in many situations about an equity impact assessment for our development and planning decisions.

Would that apply as well?

Yes, so it would be an equity impact assessment tool much like an environmental impact assessment tool where any new idea, new investment, new project, a new sort of appropriation would require at least the director or the staff person preparing the memo to have done to answer some certain questions.

And there are some tools, impact assessment tools that are like

three months of process and 34 pages long and then there are others that have two or three questions like who's most impacted by this decision, both benefits and not in terms of what the decision is or the neighborhood that it will be based in and we looked at a bunch of those tools but we didn't really feel like we could say which tool was appropriate and we really wanted this office to do some assessment.

or some analysis around which tool would be most effective for us.

There's some early data.

A lot of this stuff is really untested, right?

And this is sort of a new world in terms of the way we act and talk and respond.

And so there's not a lot of sort of outcome data related to a lot of these things.

Good process data, but not outcome data.

And there's some early results from those communities that have adopted these impact tools that they really haven't had the kind of impact on decision making that they hoped they would.

So I think it's worthy of some

additional consideration that we didn't just pick a tool that we liked, but we actually authorized this office to do some more formal analysis.

And just a follow up to bore down a little bit more on this particular topic.

In light of the fact that we had a conversation last Thursday at a work session about development and growth and impacts, and I believe it was Mr. Payne that actually voiced something that a lot of us have been talking about, would there be, through this kind of an impact assessment tool, be an ability to get a better handle on the impact of

development in general on our land values that then ultimately turns into an equity issue because people can't afford to live on their properties anymore because they can't afford the property taxes or the rents.

So that's just kind of the level of detail I'm really interested in and see if we could get that level of assistance.

And I would think that there would be similar nuances around decision making and social services or human services or public works around those kinds of things that we would ask this office if they were unprepared to be able to respond to the needs for counsel for additional information around that, that they could go out and secure that for us.

But it would also require the directors and the, to start doing this kind of analysis with their work instead of just making the presentation.

And there'd be nothing stopping council from asking an additional question as an incremental process before we got to some established impact assessment tool to say, we'd like you to answer the following questions as part of the preparation.

Who's most impacted both positively and negatively by this question?

All right.

So I'm assuming that establishing this advisory team tonight is too soon.

But hey, when can we get this going?

It's okay.

So you all want to come back to us and give us some recommendations about cost.

Cost.

On another night.

We have some estimates.

I don't think that, I mean, we didn't advertise it this way.

It wasn't prepared that way.

We want to take some more time.

You know, obviously the human part of it and personnel costs money and actually that's the easier part to talk about.

I think

that making a change like this, a culture change, there's some significant investment in training and kind of that repetition that will cost money too.

So I want to give you a reasonable estimate about what that would be so that you could say how do you get started with that and whether that's affordable or not at this time.

I know that Dr. Bellamy just likes to say half a million all the time and I know that we have the capacity to spend about half a million dollars roughly 400 times in this city and this would be a good place to do that in my estimation.

I appreciate that.

By the 3rd of September or you need longer?

Because we need more time than that.

And we'll come back and we'll let you know exactly our timetable in terms of providing you with that information.

I have a serious question though.

For Gere, when will we be submitting our application?

Just for my colleagues who aren't familiar with GARE, it's a phenomenal resource and tool for us, there's cities across the country.

who are actually talking about Charlottesville in their GARE presentation.

So I think this is a huge step for us.

And I'm not touchy feely, but I'm sending you all hugs.

What a night.

Yes, it is happening.

Full moon outside.

So thank you.

Excuse me if I could just say something.

Just for the public's understanding, GARE is the Government Alliance for Racial Equity.

Yes, it is.

and the only other thing I'll say is that, and I know Dr. Richardson, you're thinking about very big other kind of issues with regards to professional development too.

Customer service is a strong suit.

This goes hand in glove with equity issues because it has to be sensitive to our community.

But I just would like to say that just think as broadly as you want about what are the

The staff development needs that you foresee

because I know in the public schools you could waste a lot of staff time if you're doing training hither and yon as opposed to thinking about how could you consolidate and really create robust training opportunities that kind of play off each other.

So I just wanted to just throw that out that I'm sympathetic to your position as well of needing to look bigger in terms of cultural change in the bureaucracy.

That makes me happy.

Yes.

Thank you.

Ms. Hoffman who spoke to you about public access TV producers.

Just wanted to let you know we do have some exciting news coming up soon about the Charlottesville Community Media Center and that's the new studio that we opened in York Place.

I hope you'll walk through and take a look at that through the windows.

but the public open house is going to be September 21st which is also Saturday.

The event this Saturday relates to our Sunday faith community producers so it's a lottery for them to get their slots for Sunday programming.

So that's a different event and sorry if those two things were conflated but the public open house will be September 21st at a time to be determined.

I have a short thing I'd like to say with regard to the young ladies comment to us about the public gathering procedures and the permits that we heard.

I have asked our account attorney, Mr. Blair and Mr. Wheeler, maybe Mr. Richardson, some combination.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about this.

The there are actually two different

The rules are in two different places.

There's one place called the standard operating procedure, which is where the definitions of the terms are.

And then there's another one, which is the ordinance that we've been discussing.

And I don't know how that happened, when this all happened, but the standard operating procedure, and we're going to make this clear, says that any gathering that's called in reaction to a newsworthy event like the rallies that have happened is absolutely permitted.

So the regulations are meant to have all these new requirements

For planned events, like for instance one of the big things that happened with them was you can no longer use tiki torches for a planned event to terrorize people and that was really tricky to figure out how do you do that and how do you craft a regulation so that people could do

Candles for a vigil, but they couldn't do tiki torches.

So there was a lot of law and help that we had in crafting these regulations, but there was a whole carve out of them so that people could do exactly what you're talking about.

And we need to get that truth out there.

We've talked about getting, because Indivisible has a whole protest right now, and it says these rallies would all be

not permitted, which is not the case.

It's just not the case because all of them have been called in response to newsworthy events that are fairly spontaneous that happen within 48 hours.

So as I understand it, we need to get that out there because it's very confusing to have the two different regulations alongside each other and referring to one another because people don't know how to get to the standard operating procedure which defines a spontaneous event which is unregulated.

So spontaneous events that are in response to newsworthy events are unregulated, basically.

Right.

And we are revisiting even the last version that we discussed because we did not take action on it in response to receiving the feedback that we've gotten and trying to ensure that we can find a more common ground place.

And as Mayor Walker said, it might be impossible to find that perfect place.

But I think that there's certainly an effort underway to find as close to common ground place as we can.

All right, so any other business?

All right, matters by the public.

We're opening the second session.

Is there anyone who would like to speak?

Mayor Walker.

I've been psychoanalyzing you.

And what I mean by that, I know why you're so upset.

I looked at the internet as to what got you to run for city council in 2017.

I saw how angry you were.

I kind of reviewed that.

And sometimes I feel

that you kind of discriminate against the white man.

Excuse me.

I think this is an example where someone is personally addressing one of our counselors.

But I think it's wrong to say that you can have unity and togetherness.

And.

The right kind of spirit of equity

If you only consider uplifting the black man or the black woman, I think what you need to do is uplift all people, black and white.

There's been too much discrimination, discrimination against me, discrimination against other white colored people, and

I think you need to consider that.

I know you've been hurt.

I think you have clearly reflected the hurt of the black person, especially in the past, and I think that was purposeful.

But if we're going to get on and include everyone, black and white, red, whatever color,

We need to include all and move forward in peace and happiness and include everyone.

Thank you.

Gathered a lot from the internet.

I'll have to Google myself and see where you got it from.

Good evening, Mayor Walker, councilors, staff, community.

My name is Sean and timing is everything, isn't it?

I am following someone.

I came this evening because I was watching at home, Mayor Walker, and I was here August 5th, I believe it was, for the last city council meeting, went home and watched from there.

And I was unsettled by what occurred in the chamber.

And I kept saying, this can't be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that our people have sacrificed for.

That the way this space is being inhabited surely can't be what so many sacrifice for.

So I'm giving the ultimate sacrifice.

My comments tonight are directed to the two black members of City Council because of the uniqueness of the space you have.

You are firsts for us.

And being first transcends Facebook posts, it transcends hashtags, it transcends bullet points on a web page.

It carries with it, and I know both of you know, responsibility, tremendous responsibility, because you're not just representing the current space and time, you're representing all those who couldn't do what you're doing, who couldn't even do what I'm doing, which is standing before elected officials to speak.

My grandfather wouldn't have been given this opportunity in the way I'm being given it.

You didn't inherit a clean slate.

Mayor Walker, certainly you didn't.

But I hope in your tool kit, along with your gavel, you did inherit an eraser, and if you didn't, you could do it old school like kids used to do and use your hand to wipe it clean.

I don't know, you've expressed some of what you're wrestling with, and I can feel you wrestling with it because you want to be equitable.

You want to give our people a voice because we haven't had it.

and you're caught between a rock and a hard place, right?

Having people escorted out, reaffirming so much

of the injustice that's been perpetrated against us by police.

And yet you want people to have a fair say.

What I don't understand about that, though, and about the people who come is when, and maybe the narrative has changed.

I hear a lot of people talking about the new narrative.

It confuses me.

I guess Simon and Schuster would struggle to keep up with the new narratives.

I know my time is drawing out.

When did the new narrative, when did being profane and undignified and uncouth become black?

When did that become our narrative?

I know it was said about us from 1619 on, I guess, but when did that become who we are?

When did we embrace that and become the embodiment of that?

That's not who we are.

I rebuke that.

And I implore you to be more just in this space.

I know.

But you're still doing the same thing.

And teachers will start school on Wednesday.

But the statement you just made, and we had this back and forth again the last time, so I'm not going to do it here.

There are white members of this community who come in with the same.

And they should be shut down if they are using obscenity.

But I understand, but with the same.

making the same type of comments or statements.

So again what I said and I still stick by that and we had a conversation a few months back was that if I call

The officers are up to escort someone from here.

You gotta try it though.

You gotta try it.

I sure have and I was screaming with Mr. Signer, put her out, put him out, absolutely.

But individuals were arrested and charged and for me trying to find your voice, figure out what your space in this world looks like and how you

And when you do that, you betray who we are.

But you're talking about, you're not, you are making a general statement.

I understand that.

which is far away from the 50% award that we used to have but to make a generalized statement like you did about a few people the people who are coming are allowed to speak for the whole and they should not well I disagree they are allowed to speak for the whole and that's been the narrative about black folk and that's continuing and that's the mockery and your statement just helped it along

I disagree.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

All right.

Well, we're closing matters by the public.