Council Work Session   12/10/2020

Good evening, team.

Good evening.

Just give him another minute or so.

And he's joining now, Mayor Walker.

Councilor Payne?

Here.

Councilor Snook?

Here.

Here.

And Mr. Blair, would you like to start?

But with that, I wanna thank everybody and I will turn this over to Mr. Davidson.

Our next meeting related to the 22 process begins on January, is the January 12th Planning Commission meeting on the CIP.

Next slide.

Demick to walk us through the information on the next couple of slides.

I don't think we saw a spike that has stopped since that beginning of the pandemic in March.

Brian, how would you like to?

Or if not, we can continue on with our discussion on the budget guidelines.

Is it safe to say that in the delineation that you showed on the slide that's recognizing that they consider their first priority area or their most prominent?

And so it's just something to note as we think about the impact of identifying the priority areas.

Are you comfortable just sharing just in a high level like what the asks are versus what we know our budget to be?

I can tell you in the group that I'm in, I've seen that the requests are higher than last year, but not universally.

Okay, thank you.

As we've discussed the larger schools reconfiguration project and potential funding needs on that project, as well as some of the uncertainty in FY22 revenue sources did not know.

And so I guess is that why it's being highlighted?

Yes, that is part of the discussion.

When you look at just pure budgetary things you can do in terms of building up the capital for that school reconfiguration project.

I think that would be a stretch.

I think that would be a stretch.

I think that would be a stretch.

I think that would be a stretch.

I think that would be a stretch.

I think that would be a stretch.

I think that would

That's also something to think about as well.

I just think it would be helpful to have some flexibility there as we kind of see how things play out.

But whenever it's time for us to discuss that, we certainly should.

our previous policy of transferring that 3% of the general fund expenditures as our pay go for the CIP and to meet with our kind of our long-term financial plan policies and the previous policies we had set out and show that that was kind of the one-time response to the COVID and not something that where we were gonna continue to reduce the cash influx into the CIP.

And I just have a question.

I just want to, I just saw that and wanted to make note of that.

So I guess that would be then our decision, what expenditures we're going to reduce.

So just as long as we're having those conversations and it just didn't, I read the whole sentence but I just was stuck on those first two points.

or Mr. Blair, excuse me.

Again, they're not set in stone, they're not law, they're guidelines, but this is what we are proposing right now in order to construct that first draft of the budget that will be presented on March the 1st.

But overall, I think this is a good place to be.

I agree.

I don't know if it will make sense or if we'll need to change that, but I think it's worth having a little bit of flexibility to be open for us having that conversation.

OK.

OK, thank you very much.

So we can, Brian, if you can move to the next slide.

if there was any additional questions or discussion that they wanted to have, but otherwise we can move along again.

Next slide, please, Brian.

items that are contained within departmental budgets.

I'm just wondering if, because the UVA repayments are now at 100% correct.

Yes, as of July 1st, the university is paying 100% of the city water and wastewater rates.

the head of conversation in the money being used for utility services.

So that's reflected in the utility rates

I just thought about that reading that I'll think about it a little bit more and I had some questions when we first had so I have to just go back and review my notes.

the budget staff to take into consideration again when the documents being developed for presentation on March 1st again we wanted to have some time in this meeting to hear from each of you as to your budget priorities and if you can have consensus as a council on the priorities that you'd like for us to consider in determining this budget beyond which those which we've already discussed.

The dollars that we allocated for the comp plan, where are we at in that process?

Not that one.

That's their comp plan.

Shelton, is that correct, that an RFP is out?

They're going to start the process in January.

if we're on the same page and then just have a discussion about how to get there if we're not.

So I just those are kind of the three areas I was again, economic development, community stability and organizational stability.

Thank you.

So economic development kinds of things, maintaining reserves, and then figuring out what kind of funding we're going to need for police and justice issues.

And I think that's just going to, we're going to need to come to some kind of consensus about what those priorities are.

So I just wanted to echo Michael's sentiments there.

So.

So that would be four, or we can have a discussion about cutting it down to three.

It holds we could have three to five, so.

I get it.

Like four is a good compromise.

Does that help you all in here, or do we need to have a deeper discussion?

I'd ask other staff members, but I think that does give us a good sense of where the council wants to go.

Well, that was easier than I thought it was going to be.

I think with everyone in this, every, every staffer in the city and counselors all, we just want to make, yeah, do as best we can on this.

Your mic was off, Mayor Walker.

OK, so then is there anything else that we need to discuss tonight?

And did you need to make a formal motion to discuss this because it wasn't on our agenda?

That's technically Robert's Rules border requirement, so.

So I would just make a motion to add the discussion around the emergency COVID ordinance to the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thomas.

Councillor Payne.

Yes.

Councilor Snook?

Yes.

Yes.

Robertson starts, is there a lease agreement to continue where we were Monday night with just amending, or are we going to have a discussion about repealing?

And I don't, frankly, feel I haven't even read them all to know what I'd be voting on at this point.

And I just wanted to check in with Lisa and John and see what their recommendations on this are at this point.

And I think it's your call sort of how you want to do that.

Are we more restrictive in anything right now?

So I think previously I believe we were more restrictive on the mask wearing, but I don't think that's the case when his new restrictions go into effect on the 14th.

and if his restrictions started lifting at this point, the restrictions that would stay in place for us would be?

and you could come back later and go back to having a more restrictive number than what the state is prescribing.

Sure.

Are we trying to be with the governor on that, or are we setting out our own rule for three days?

that would go into effect immediately as well.

I assume you want to be striking out years of age and as well as 10.

That's a typo.

That it's just purely, come on people, try to stay at home?

It is strong language, but I think it's tempered by the fact that everybody acknowledges that it is difficult to enforce.

I guess as a practical matter, if somebody is driving on the streets of Charlottesville at 1 a.m., is that person likely to get stopped by a police officer saying, hey, why are you out after midnight?

So I don't see how an officer could have probable cause or cause to stop that vehicle because they're not gonna be able to tell per se whether one of those exceptions applies.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

and Councilor Snook, the other thing I'd point out about just if you were walking down the street, when you look at that exception in the order E, it doesn't apply to, it says individuals may leave their residence for the purposes of exercise, engaging in exercise, which I mean, arguably walking down the street is exercise.

Hey, for those of us who aren't.

But we're not there.

Nobody has contemplated this type of situation before in terms of structuring a public health system that can enforce a really hard line on a curfew.

All right, so Councilors, what are we voting on these amendments?

So I would, I mean, if you want to make a motion for purposes of discussion, I would move that we repeal the ordinance and rely on the governor.

I'm comfortable to second it for discussion.

All right, discussion?

I'll incorporate my argument from a couple nights ago.

And if we're answering those kinds of questions or people are just doing trial and error, figuring that out, we don't want that.

So I'm just trying to keep it as simple, honestly, as possible, not only for us and for staff, but also for the community to understand what rules there are.

Robertson, do you feel that the changes that have been made in the ordinance currently will give you the flexibility and give us the flexibility that Counselor Hill is talking about?

But it does have to come with a really robust press release and attention over the next couple of days to explaining why you're doing this instead of just sort of, you know, putting it out there without much in the way of an explanation.

They didn't have the governor's regulation in front of them.

who are going out or getting their information either because they listened to the governor or because they go to an establishment and there's a sign that says, here's what you have to do if you come in here.

Is there anything that a Charlottesville resident or a Charlottesville restaurant goer or somebody else would miss by going only to the governor's website that would matter to them?

No, I don't think so right now.

All right, so are we ready to vote on the motion, which is to repeal the ordinance?

Albemarle County and UVA as a partner as well, and that we're repealing it without coordinating between this three regional bodies.

We haven't had it for months.

And what people will take away from the media headlines that the city repealed their ordinances is what is the major concern for me.

I agree with the mayor on that.

But, you know, in the social media age, it's just hard to predict how people will interpret things.

but as it seems like going to one doesn't solve all issues so why are we gonna make people go both places is kind of where I'm at.

before somebody can be charged with a violation of section five, which is the gathering portion of the ordinance.

That,

And I don't think the governor's executive order requires a warning.

Are we able to conflict with that?

Have we issued any citations for a violation of the gathering?

I do not believe so.

a law enforcement officer at the local level who would be issuing the summons for the violation.

Thomas, would you take the vote, please?

Counselor Payne?

No.

Counselor Snook?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Magill?

Not at this time, no.

Yes.

All right, so that does not pass two to three.

Do I make a motion now to amend the current

And if you could also add that.

I move to adopt the following ordinance to repeal the city's local COVID regulation?

No, go down to the next page.

No.

I can read it.

Okay, if you've got it up, Michael.

I move that we adopt the following ordinance to conform the city's local COVID-19 restrictions on the size of public gatherings to those set forth within the governor of Virginia's executive order 72 in order of public health emergency nine, as well as to clarify the relationship between the city's local ordinance and statewide restrictions.

8B to be revised to refer to state law?

8B to be revised.

Second.

And we also noted at least one change in section 6B to delete the words years of age and.

Yes, I will type out Claire Glare.

Should that also be five or four?

Four and 17?

Parents don't have to tell them to put their masks on.

They don't have to listen to mom and dad.

That's right.

I'll change 10 years old to 5 years old everywhere it appears in the ordinance.

Thomas.

Councillor Payne.

Yes.

Councillor Snook.

Yes.

Councillor Hill.

Yes.

Mr. Blair, is there any other topics that we need to cover tonight?

No, Mayor, we're welcome.

Demick, was there anything, because you came on when I called you, was there something that you wanted to share, or were you just, in case there were questions?

OK.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

Thank you everybody very much.