City Council Meeting   5/6/2019

Thank you.

I'm there to help.

Good evening.

Good evening, I call this meeting to order.

Ms. Hill?

Here.

Ms. Walker?

Present.

I have an announcement.

I'm distracted by Mr. Foley and Ms. Carpenter.

I have a couple of announcements, Mayor Walker, if that's okay with you.

One from Mrs. Maxine Holland.

Proud to announce on the 19th annual June, I'm sorry, good evening everybody, hope everybody's having a great evening.

19th annual June team celebration is gonna be called The Reverence.

It is a three day, excuse me, a two day celebration kicking off on Friday, June 14th.

to honor the local ancestors.

And then on Saturday, June 15th, there's a party on the lawn.

Now for those who are not aware, Juneteenth, dating back to 1865, it's a blend of June and 19th, is how you get Juneteenth, is the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

It grew out of a desire to remember the struggle that black people waged to free themselves and save the union.

Now all of this will be taking place at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

That's at 233.

Fourth Street Northwest, again on the weekend of June 14th and 15th.

And then, if you need more information, there's flyers over there, Ms. Cherry, and a couple others have some over there.

And then also, we really want to get everybody involved.

Saturday, June 29th, we're going to have a four-miler, which is going to be called Run These Streets.

It'll be kicking off at 8 a.m. at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

Now this four-miler is a little different from others.

We're going to be running through traditional African American staples in the community as well as neighborhoods.

So we'll be running past the Daughters of Zion Cemetery.

You'll be going through four of the six public housing sites.

You'll be going through the first African American school, the Jefferson School, and a litany of other different neighborhoods.

So please feel free to register.

You can look online.

at WeCo2Cville.com backslash Run These Streets.

You'll see the registration there.

There's flyers up here for everybody.

All proceeds will go to the digital skills training class for fellows that WeCo2 puts on.

And again, we hope you all can come out.

It's a run slash walk.

So if you can't run, we are encouraging folks to walk, as Mayor Walker has made sure that I say.

We have a running group that goes out every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6.30 a.m. at the Jefferson School.

So feel free to join us.

My man Peter, I thought I saw Peter Krebs in here earlier.

Peter ran with us this morning.

He smoked us, but it's all good.

So there's a run and walk, okay?

So if you can't run the four miles, you can walk through the neighborhoods with us, but it's just something good for us to all get fit.

Mayor Walker has her four-miler coming up, so we need the ladies to get out there soon.

She's going to be coming and walking, running with us soon, right?

Yes.

All my colleagues on council are down.

I got confirmation earlier, Heather can't wait.

Mike said he's going to put the knee pads on.

Signer, he's with it.

Kathy, she's going to walk, bike, triathlon, all of that.

Mr. Blair's coming.

Ms. Thomas is coming.

Maybe.

All right, well.

So we hope to see you there.

For real, let's have some fun.

June 29th at 8 o'clock at the Jefferson School.

All right, we have an announcement from the voter registrar's office.

Voters who still need to register to vote or update their information before the June 11th primary have until Monday, May 20th to do so.

A voter registered at his or her current address does not need to re-register.

17 year olds who will turn 18 by number 5th may vote in the primary if they meet the May 20th registration deadline.

Applications must be received in the voters registration registration office or at DMV by 5 p.m. on May 20th or postmarked by May 20th if you have a Virginia driver's license or DMV issued ID.

Applications can be completed and submitted online at VoteVirginia.gov before midnight on May 20th.

Paper voter registration applications are available in the voter registration office, city hall lobby, DMV, and all local libraries, or can be printed from vote.virginia.gov.

Oh, and there's one more.

Virginia does not have a party registration and a qualified voter may vote in a primary.

So I'll, while Wes has, Councilor Bellamy has his run these streets, the second annual Get Your Healthy On with Mayor Walker information will be coming out in the next two weeks.

Last year we had over 50 women sign up.

I partner with the Women's Formaller and we do the training with the training program and this year we will have

at least one trainer I have confirmed, but two trainers who will do additional trainings during the week, so once I finish working those details out.

So it will begin the end of May, and the official Women's Formaler Training Program starts on June 15th, and Race Day will be August 31st this year for the Women's Formaler Race, and so look out for that information, and please join us.

So the 2019 My Helpless Award winners, the 5th annual Alexan My Helpless contest winners have been chosen.

The contest is a thinking, writing, reading activity for students in K-12 in Charlottesville and surrounding counties.

Students share their thoughts on the importance of helping others and five things they can, they have or can do to help someone.

This year winners are Denise Lopez Saucedo, first grader at Greenbrier Elementary School,

Delilah Becker, 5th grader at the Village School, Isaac Giraud, a 6th grader at Burley Middle School, and Hime Isabel Guierro, a 9th grader at Albemarle High School.

The winners will be awarded a cash prize at a reception on Thursday, May 9th at 6.30 p.m. at Carver Recreation Center.

The winners, guests, media, or sponsors are invited, not general public,

Sponsors, the Shalsa Area Transit, Johnny Bates, Dave Chapman, Sheriff James Brown, JFL Funeral Service, Pace Real Estates Associates, LLC, Lynn Fox, and our partners with NBC 29.

Proclamations.

Are we ready for the proclamations?

OK, sure.

Okay, so we're now into the proclamations.

So May is Bike Month, and whereas bicycling is a healthy, clean, efficient, and affordable mode of transportation and recreation used by thousands of citizens and residents of all ages throughout our great commonwealth and city,

whereas commuting by bicycle helps alleviate traffic congestion and reduce pollution associated with vehicular travel and offers significant mental and physical health benefits to cyclists themselves and whereas our Commonwealth is the host to many cycling events including competitive races, sightseeing tours, charitable fundraisers and recreational rides which in total create a very real economic impact

and whereas Shonsel has been named a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Cyclists and in the effort to improve upon this designation will continue to recognize the importance of cycling in urban and community planning and development and whereas Bike Month allows bicyclists to increase awareness of their mode emphasizing proper safety precautions for bicyclists and motorists while sharing our roadways

and to promote the benefits of bicycling through organized activities such as Bike to School Day and Bike to Work Day.

Now therefore be it resolved that the members of City Council hereby recognize the month of May 2019 as National Bike Month, encourage all who support bicycling to participate in the events plan and urge all road users to share the road safely.

Signed and sealed this sixth day of May 2019.

This is the mayor.

All right.

Good evening, everyone.

Another proclamation.

This is for Mental Health Awareness Month.

Whereas mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being and whereas mental illnesses are real and prevalent in our nation and half of us will have a mental health diagnosis at some point in our lives,

and whereas everyone experiences times of difficulty and stress in their lives and should feel comfortable in seeking help and support to manage these times and whereas engaging in preventive early identification and early intervention are as effective at reducing the burden of mental illnesses as they are at reducing the burden

of other chronic health conditions and whereas there is a strong body of research that identifies behavioral health risks and supports specific tools that people can use to protect their health and well-being and whereas with effective treatment all individuals with mental illnesses even serious mental illnesses can make progress toward recovery and lead full productive lives and whereas jails and prisons have often become the default places of custodial

care for even non-violent people with serious mental illnesses and whereas each business school, government agency, health care provider, organization, and citizen has a responsibility to promote mental health and well-being for all.

Now therefore, Nikuyah Walker, mayor of the city of Charlottesville, does hereby proclaim May 2019 as Mental Health Month in the city of Charlottesville.

and as mayor, she calls upon the citizens, government agencies, private and public institutions, businesses and schools in Charlottesville to recommit our community to increasing awareness and understanding of mental health and the steps our citizens can take to protect their mental health.

And I thought I would, quick privilege, a personal point, my sister Mira is the deputy commissioner at the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and Works.

very hard on this set of issues in Virginia on a daily basis.

I'm really proud of the work that she's done.

And some people in the city know her.

All right, we also have a proclamation for Kids to Parks Day.

whereas a May 18th, 2019 is the ninth Kids to Parks Day organized and launched by the National Park Trust held annually on the third Saturday in May and whereas Kids to Park Day empowers kids and encourages families to get outdoors and visit America's parks, public lands, and waters and whereas we should encourage children to lead a more active lifestyle to combat issues of childhood obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia.

That's a long one for me.

and whereas Kids to Parks Day will broaden children's appreciation for nature and outdoors and now therefore Mayor Nikuyah Walker does hereby proclaim on May 18, 2019 as Kids to Park Day, signed and sealed on the sixth day of May.

All right, and last but not least, the final proclamation of the night.

We do have someone to get this one, Dr. Andrea Douglas from the Jefferson School.

If she could come up, please.

Thank you, Dr. Douglas.

Y'all, hey, y'all clapping.

Y'all don't even know what the proclamation is yet.

Yeah, she's clapping.

Y'all clapping for Andrea, okay.

Hey, it's a good crowd, happy crowd tonight.

So this proclamation is for Queen Charlotte Day.

Whereas Queen Charlotte was born Sophia Charlotte on May 19th, 1744 in Mecklenburg, Struts, Germany to Duke Charles Louis, Frederick, and Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hollisburg.

I think she died on November 17, 1818, whereas Queen Charlotte married King George III of the United Kingdom on September 8, 1761, making her Queen of the United Kingdom as well as the Electress of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire, whereas Queen Charlotte was the mother of 15 children and is the ancestor

of all the current royal houses of Europe, whereas Queen Charlotte was a patroness of the arts and amateur botanist.

Botanists and dedicated philanthropists for orphanages and hospitals for expectant mothers.

Whereas the city of Charlottesville, Virginia was founded in 1762 and named in honor of Queen Charlotte, consort of Great Britain's King George III, now therefore our wonderful mayor,

Nikuyah Walker and the City Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia will recognize May 19th as Queen Charlotte Day, acknowledging her historical connection to the founding of the City of Charlottesville and for her service to humanity.

This day is a very special one as Queen Charlotte, let me tell you about her pigmentation, is widely known as a black woman.

And our city named after her means a great deal.

Mrs. Peck, who isn't here, Mrs. Peck isn't here, she puts on a wonderful rendition every year celebrating Queen Charlotte's Day.

But we're going to have our local historian, one of them, in which Dr. Douglas accept this proclamation on her behalf.

So now you all can clap for Dr. Douglas.

Alright, next we have the consent agenda.

Is there anyone here that would like to speak on an item that's on the consent agenda?

Good evening.

I'm Peter Krebs, 1022 Tufton Avenue, the Belmont neighborhood.

I have the honor to be on the CDBG priority neighborhood task force, and I know that CDBG shows up a couple of times on the agenda, sometimes on the main agenda, sometimes the consent agenda.

But I think my matter is on the consent agenda where you guys are moving around funds just a little bit between

Belmont-Carlton and Ridge Street and that's the result of some very creative thinking by Tierra and the NDS staff.

I want to thank her and the rest of the staff for their creativity and their flexibility.

That needs to happen because the funds are slated to be used for a sidewalk on Franklin Street which is a big, pretty dangerous street and this is a neighborhood with tons of kids and tons of change happening so I think it's good that you guys are paying attention to this important neighborhood and really prioritizing it and I just want to say thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the consent agenda?

Consent Agenda A, Minutes, March 18, 2019, Regular Meeting, April 15, 2019, Regular Meeting.

B, Appropriation, FM Global, Fire Prevention Grant, $3,268.

Second of two readings.

C, appropriation 2019 to 2020 community development block grant funding $395,052.82.

First of two readings.

D, Appropriation, 2019 to 2020, Home Investment Partnership Funding, $120,382.75, first of two readings.

E, Appropriation, Amendment to Community Development Block Grant Account, Reprogramming of Funds for FY 2019 to 2020, $1,900.82, first of two readings.

F, Appropriation,

Local Emergency Management Performance Grant, LEMPG, $7,500, first of two readings, G, appropriation, funding requirements for SAP integration for the faster fleet management software, $48,000, first of two readings, H, ordinance,

amend Charlottesville City Code section 15-131 for motor vehicle and traffic, second of two readings.

I would like to pull C and D and vote on them.

Right after you vote on the consent agenda right now.

So I make a motion that we adopt the consent agenda without items C and D. Second that.

Are there any further questions or comments?

All right.

All right.

And I move that we, sorry, go ahead.

And then yes, if you want to just take them C now,

Second.

I've had this conversation with some of you, but I'm pulling the items.

It's the same thinking process that I'm having about the efforts with the ABRT and the revamp, who's sitting on committees deciding where money is going, how do we support nonprofits who may not be able to do paperwork well, but they're actually doing the work.

Well and why I don't disagree with all the allocations for the funding.

I do disagree with some of it and particularly looking at the task force and the makeup of the task force.

The members who were present or not present the day that the allocations were voted on and if you look at

For me, it's on page 26.

If you look at the sheet that tallied the votes, along with some of the narratives in

from the individuals on the committee.

It's just back for me to the comments that I've been making about the need for us to make sure that accountability measures are in place and that organizations that are doing this work best are being funded and how to make sure we support that.

So one of the comments here says, one member felt as though OED needed to provide evidence that entrepreneurship is a way out of poverty.

I don't know why they would have been on the committee if they don't understand.

They don't understand that.

Michael St. Nix, and to share your concerns, you're welcome.

Do we have a second?

There's a second.

All right, please vote.

So it carries three to two.

And I was making my comments as one so the same comments apply there.

These items have certainly been discussed among many council meetings before we got to this point.

I just want to acknowledge that to the public.

And there was a, I think, March 12 planning commission meeting, joint meetings, and I've been clear about my position through all of them.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

Two things for follow up in your consideration this evening.

One, as you said earlier, Ms. Myra Anderson is not here, but you asked for follow up from my office and we did so on three fronts.

And without going deeply into Ms. Anderson's complaints, I will say that

She did come forward to the folks at the Office of Human Rights and they'll give that appropriate follow-up.

I asked Ms. Dimock to meet with the Executive Director at Region 10 and she did so and I met with the Board Chair.

We have given the appropriate follow-up on all the fronts and you're probably aware from some media that Ms. Anderson is also pursuing a civil rights complaint federally.

Secondly, we discussed the matter of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and appropriate access.

I met with Mr. Vandiver and others at the Independence Resource Center during the intervening period and I'm bringing before you a proposal for a group that we mutually agreed upon to address this issue.

and those members are 13 in number and they are the following, myself, a member of NDS, a member of Parks and Rec, the ADA coordinator, a representative of VDOT, two representatives of the Dogwood Vietnam Veterans Foundation, Bruce Eads and Rich Severin, two members of the Independence Resource Center, Tom Vandiver and Jim Herndon, one member of the Disabled American Veterans, George Shadman,

one member of the Veteran of Foreign Wars, Julian Taliaferro, and two citizens at large, Jay Levine and Dave Norris.

So, with council's permission, it's my intent to, with Mr. Vandiver, convene that group and hopefully bring to you at either the second October or first November meeting our joint recommendations.

Oh, yes, sounds good.

I had a quick question.

Mr. Murphy, I know there's not a great deal in which you can share with us in regards to Mr. Anderson, Ms. Myra Anderson's complaint, but is there

anything in which you can share other than letting the public know that you met and followed up.

I think in some regards people are looking for what action steps and if there's any that you can share.

I would prefer to share as little as possible except to say that my role in speaking to the board chair is to convey the seriousness of the discussion that the city council had and that it is in keeping in my mind with discussions that you have been having on an ongoing basis about the evaluation

of nonprofits and community partners and that there was a discussion during the meeting about the funding for the organization and how it might be in relationship to how they address this important issue.

Thank you.

So now we're going to start the community matters.

The first thing we have is Brad Slocum.

Good evening, mayor and councilors.

My name is Brad Slocum and I live on Harmon Street in the city.

First off, I'd like to say thank you for bringing climate change more to the forefront in city decisions and planning.

It's imperative that discussions around topics like zoning and affordable housing factor in issues like more frequent and more intense flooding and heat waves, sustainable construction practices, and energy efficiency.

Underprivileged and underrepresented members of our community, such as racial minorities, low-income households, and the elderly will bear the brunt of climate change if we don't take action now and soon.

So precisely for that reason, I encourage you to vote yes on agenda item number seven, a resolution in support of federal legislation for a carbon fee and dividend policy to address climate change.

Passing this resolution would make Charlottesville the first municipality in Virginia to officially support such a progressive federal climate plan and signal to our representatives

and Senators in Congress that we expect concrete action from them to address carbon emissions and economic inequality.

This resolution is modeled on HR 763, also known as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which was developed over the last 10 years by the Citizens' Climate Lobby.

CCL is a volunteer organization working on bipartisan solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without further harming the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society.

CCL believes local action is critical for doing our part to reduce emissions, but we also need many deep and systemic changes to our economy and society at large.

The mechanism we support is known as carbon fee and dividend, which I'll just say up front is not the same thing as cap and trade.

Put simply, carbon fee and dividend means putting a price on carbon at the source like coal mines and natural gas drilling sites and taking that price to give it back to the people.

More than half of all households and upwards of 60% of individuals in our country stand to come out ahead monetarily from this dividend and that's on top of health and environmental benefits that will come from reducing greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

There are plenty of other details in CCL's proposed legislation, which I don't have time to cover here, but I'm excited to say that the resolution before you tonight captures the important points effectively.

CCL as an organization is founded on the idea that dealing with climate change means bridging gaps between those who've suffered from or been left out of the fossil fuel economy and those who have the power to change it.

That process has to be community led.

And so although our chapter is only seven months old, we're the 200 members strong and working out to reach more parts of the community all the time.

We thank you for considering this important part of the fight to enact solutions to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

And we hope you vote affirmatively in support of this resolution.

Thank you.

Can you say their names?

Dear City Council, my name is Sebby Cruz.

I think we should use less plastic.

I forgot to say more.

Dear City Council, my name is City Goose.

I am worried about my family.

I think we should use less plastic, use less electricity.

Dear City Council, my name is Evan Cruz.

I am third grade at Greenbrier Elementary School.

I care about climate change.

Do we want a sad and miserable life or a happy life?

Come on, people.

I want to see the solar panel source sold at with at least one solar panel on every house.

I think we should check every two years to see how we've done and learn from our mistakes.

Dear City Council members, I'm Nora McElwain.

I'm in third grade at Greenbrier.

I'm worried about our future.

When we're off to college in nine years, is it going to be filled with gas and trash or a nice clean place?

If you care about your children, you should help them have a nice clean place too.

And fossil fuels, yes, we can use them.

but I think not we should totally use solar panels and it will mess up the food chain too.

We eat some of these animals but if they're all gone we won't live either and I think you would like to live.

You should really listen to me even though we're just kids we have a lot of ideas like more bike trails and don't take your car we could have buses daily.

You should check your work because if you're not checking it in two years

It will be the same as right now.

Hope you like my notes.

I am in third grade.

I care about climate change because it is bad for the earth.

We should stop climate change because we would get harsh storms and it could wreck people's homes.

so they would not have homes.

I live in Charlottesville.

It is a beautiful city.

So please help me protect it.

I hope you set a good goal.

Ravi Esso.

That's a hard act to follow.

That was fantastic.

Advocacy starts young.

So thank council for having me here tonight, Mayor Walker for letting me speak.

On behalf of C3, a climate advocacy group here in town, I got involved with C3 probably about a year or two ago and they've worked diligently to bring the business community together.

With the broader community and myself, I work as the president at United Way.

So bring to nonprofit community together to look at how we thoughtfully bring climate change down at the community level and what are the things we can implement in our own businesses to improve our carbon footprint.

So I'll speak briefly about what United Way has done.

We've actually replaced our HVAC systems, our LED light systems, we've done putting in new windows, so enacting different

putting in new structures in our buildings so we can actually see a better carbon footprint for ourselves and then also working with other nonprofits in the community to also bring this kind of leadership into their businesses and then also looking out to the broader community of businesses to help them prioritize climate change in their business practices and work on what those strategies might look like.

So I'm here tonight to support the staff recommendation of a 45% greenhouse emission reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

I would say that the current goal is a 10% reduction by 2035 which is probably the lowest goal in the state of Virginia.

I feel that Charlottesville is a community that wants to be the best version of itself and to do that climate change needs to be a priority for all of us and we all need to be thinking about how we approach that thoughtfully in our businesses.

and then I'll also speak in terms of low-income members of our community that I've had the honor of serving over the past 10 years of my nonprofit work.

They often, as been mentioned tonight, struggle with the cost of not having homes that are energy efficient and so I've had clients that pay as much as four or five hundred dollars a month in the winter for their

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

I'm here representing the People's Coalition.

As you see the flyers, I put some up there.

I am here tonight to express the needs of a strong civilian review board with original jurisdiction to review complaints, support staff and funding, especially push for an auditor and an executive director, and this is an entity issue that the council needs to pay attention to.

We'll hear from the people and give you a sense of how acute and urgent this is.

Police these police, because we need help.

All right.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Susan Cruz and I am the Executive Director of the Charlottesville Climate Collaborative.

Thank you for prioritizing climate action as a council.

I'm grateful to your excellent staff who are working hard to develop recommendations and solicit community feedback as part of the climate action planning process.

I urge you to adopt staff's recommended target of 45% emissions reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

With minimal movement at the federal and state levels, the importance of developing successful models for local governmental action is more urgent than ever.

International scientists and policy makers are increasing their calls for drastic steps to decrease emissions.

The next 10 years will determine whether or not we are able to avoid the most serious impacts of climate change.

This community must do all it can to lead the way and build a small city model that can be replicated across the Commonwealth and beyond.

By adopting staff's recommendation, the city of Charlottesville could become the first locality in the state to adopt a goal of carbon neutrality.

The immensity of the problem will require cross sector solutions.

The city staff has offered some initial policy focus areas in their presentation to you this evening.

The Charlottesville Climate Collaborative works with many leaders in these sectors and has witnessed a widespread desire for technical support and community-wide action.

On the commercial side, business leaders are already taking steps to reduce their impacts.

Tonight you heard from Ravi Raspetto from the United Way.

While the city did not specifically ask the United Way to reduce their emissions, they have demonstrated leadership by implementing more than a dozen measures which will ultimately benefit our entire community.

I encourage council to meet with leaders like Ravi to learn from their success and implement tools that will incentivize others to follow her lead.

CPACE, recommended tonight, is one policy tool that should be embraced.

However, we should also explore other administrative or procedural incentives in the commercial sector.

On the residential side,

The Charlottesville Climate Collaborative is working with city staff and community partners to research and develop recommendations for financing energy efficiency and clean energy upgrades to homes at all income levels in the city.

As part of that research, the Charlottesville Climate Collaborative is examining the intersection of energy efficiency and affordable housing.

Rising energy costs due to climate change will place an even greater strain on low-income families whose energy burden

the percentage of their income they pay for energy costs is already a significant factor in housing affordability.

We would love to see the city's climate action plan address these concerns and take action to alleviate that burden.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not insist that an ambitious target can only be met if we regularly check our progress to ensure that our policies are having the desired impact.

The grannies are back.

It's lit.

It's officially lit.

The grannies are back because we're wanting to add some spirit, some excitement, both on everybody's part in our community to be part not only of the local benefits, but the global benefits for the future of a planet.

So here we go.

We want to do it now.

And we need to start right now.

We've got a planet that has a problem.

We've got to solve it, get involved, and bring it down, down, down.

We need to build a better future.

And we need to start right now.

Make it cleaner.

Take it fast, take it fast and do it now, now, now I'm here to build a better future and we need to start right now.

Don't be evaded, don't be desecrating.

So David Redding Background singers, ad libs, this is dope.

Need to record a record man.

That's a hard act to follow.

I want to state that the United Nations came out today and said that in effect we may lose a million species if we don't do something about a number of things, a number of problems we have, climate change being one of the major ones.

I want to also talk to you about things that we're doing in town here.

If you look at community bikes, we're giving away 20-25 bikes a week and we're taking donations for, we take donations, put a donation amount on the bikes and people donate

and we give away bikes to kids if they're under 16 years old.

We give them a bike, we give them a helmet, we give them the lights and a lock for on the bike.

So we want to get more and more people on bikes.

It's an important thing.

We need better public transportation.

And I know you guys have a problem because we're not riding these buses and things.

And we have to find ways of getting more and more people on public transportation.

Ecovillage, Charlottesville, which is just a mile and a half from downtown here.

We've just gotten approval for

to build out 37 homes, energy efficient homes on the property and we'll be doing that in the next couple of years.

We're doing co-housing so we have a situation where we're trying to help people get away from living on social media and actually talking to people, talking to other people in the community.

It's going to be a big thing with us to have a real community.

So we're close to a bus stop.

We're about 100 meters from a bus stop that would bring you into town in 20 minutes or take you to the mall in eight minutes.

So it's a great place to stay.

Also, there's bike and ped trails right into town along the John Warner Parkway.

So we need more bike trails.

We need ways of getting other inputs into the Rivanna Trail.

I appreciate all that you've done.

Thank you.

And I'll, there's a great, well I thought it was pretty great, but I started trying to check out a little bit, a couple weeks ago I watched Our Planet series on Netflix.

And, well five of the episodes.

But.

but it's really informative and they do it in a very creative way.

My 16 year old was interested you know also so it's a great way to get maybe you know your youth kids some of the information too so I will recommend that Netflix series.

Rich Alibay

Good evening.

My name is Richard Levy.

I'm a resident of Charlottesville, a business owner and an environmental advocate.

First, I'd like to say that the fact that we're here today discussing greenhouse gas emissions reductions is a testament to the great strides made by Mayor Walker, Councilmember Signer, the city council and the city staff.

You've all demonstrated professionalism, diligence and political leadership in making climate change a priority for Charlottesville.

I'm here today to represent the Charlottesville Renewable Energy Alliance, a group of local businesses who collectively represent over 400 employees, and we have developed more than $6 billion of renewable energy assets.

All of our companies chose to make Charlottesville our home, and we made that choice in part because of this city's commitment to building a brighter future for all of its residents.

My company, Sun Tribe Solar, shares this value as well.

what started as three employees in an old warehouse on Gleason Street today is the largest distributed solar energy company in Virginia because when it comes to building that brighter energy future we believe that a rising tide lifts all boats for us that means focusing on creating good family supporting jobs and those jobs are in the renewable energy field like the ones we've created through the GoSolar program developed in close partnership with the city where we've been able to hire some great employees from underrepresented communities throughout the city

With that said, the real question is why are we here today?

At CIVEL REA, we want to establish Charlottesville as the renewable energy hub of the Southeast.

Voting to establish a strong emissions reduction target next month would be an important signal to other renewable energy employers that they should want to call Charlottesville home as well.

Second, we support our community's transition to sustainable energy practices.

We want to make sure that as we transition to a clean energy future, nobody gets left behind.

It's clear that this council shares those values and we hope that with a supportive vote in June, it continues to display that commitment.

As many in this room know, this past October some of the world's leading scientists from every corner of the globe provided us with a roadmap forward that, if we choose to implement it, will help ensure the health and well-being of not just our earth but the communities throughout it.

A big component of that roadmap is ensuring that our globe doesn't warm more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that a 45% reduction in emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 would curb otherwise imminent catastrophic effects of climate change.

We're here today along with a number of advocates and citizens to lend our voice in support of Charlottesville's move towards setting a modern, comprehensive, science-based emissions reduction target that is consistent with the IPCC's recommendation.

We're asking you to vote yes to staff's recommendations at June's City Council meeting.

Thank you.

David Swanson, Gillespie Avenue.

I have a petition with hundreds of names on it I'd like to present to you asking for divestment from weapons and fossil fuels and I have five copies of a draft resolution that would permit the city as is found in the recommendations section of the city treasurer's report to act immediately on its general fund and to commit to acting in the near future on

The Retirement Fund.

So if appropriate, I'd like to present all of these to you.

U.S. weapons companies arm three-quarters of the world's dictatorships and both sides of numerous wars.

Without the U.S. government's support for fighters in Afghanistan, Syria, and elsewhere, there would be no Al Qaeda or ISIS.

Previous weapons customers turned enemies have included Hussein, Gaddafi, and Assad.

The United States creates its enemies.

But now, over less than my lifetime, the United States has led the world in creating the worst enemy ever seen.

An environment that will attack life on Earth with massive fires and droughts and floods for many centuries to come, even if we cease all planetary destruction this minute.

A principal cause of the weaponized environment is the wars fought primarily for oil with which to further destroy our environment.

Dick Cheney met with ExxonMobil to plan the war on Iraq.

Our city invests our hard-earned money in ExxonMobil.

One of the craziest things is how the environmental collapse is being used as an excuse for yet more wars.

But do you know what anyone who survives, what in best case scenarios is going to be several climate-caused holocausts will find hardest to understand about us, the people who built their hell?

It's our casualness.

It's our calm complacency.

It's our desire to carefully consider whether or not to do our bit to mitigate the destruction.

Even the US Congress is ready to halt the genocide it has been committing against the people of Yemen, but Charlottesville is pleased to go on funding Boeing.

The world's nations are banning nuclear weapons, but Charlottesville is delighted to dump our money into Honeywell, and Boeing for that matter.

Did the city of Charlottesville ask anyone in this room if that's where we wanted our money?

They didn't ask me.

The cost of the extreme weather that's coming including those storm wrecked houses that little girl just told us about will dwarf any possible difference in the income from investing in guns and oil versus investing in something less destructive.

I'd like to ask everyone here to please stand up with me if you want this city to stop using our own money against us and to act now without delay.

Now, now, now.

Thank you.

Virginia.

Good evening.

I live in Albemarle County.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I also support

this petition to have the city divest from weapons manufacturers and fossil fuel producers.

I want to point out that even though I live in the county, I have standing on this issue because my taxes go to the county and $15 million of county money goes to the city through revenue sharing.

So I have standing on what the city does with its money.

I don't know if you know, but gun manufacturers give millions of dollars to the National Rifle Association, the NRA.

It's good for business.

The NRA then gives money to legislators and uses all its power to influence legislators on gun safety issues.

I have seen this action in person.

A year ago, January, I attended a meeting of the Virginia Senate Courts of Justice Committee, which heard 10 to 15 gun safety bills.

And the way it went, the bill would be read and an attractive young woman would come to the microphone and say, the NRA opposes this, and then she would sit down.

There would be very brief discussion and then they voted down, all of them,

Now, some of these were wide-ranging bills, like universal background checks.

One was very small and narrow, and it would have allowed the city of Charlottesville to ban weapons at permitted events, if it chose.

And, Councillor Galvin, you were there, you spoke for the bill.

but despite the fact, I mean it boggles the mind, this was five months after August 2017 that they would not allow Charlottesville permission to protect against an armed invasion such as we had on August 12th.

So I would like the city to take one small step by divesting from gun manufacturers and diminish very slightly what I call this unholy flow of influence and money that keeps us all from getting any reasonable, any tiny

Gun Safety Laws.

Thank you.

Well, Mike Murphy had me put something in my calendar.

It's not on the agenda tonight.

Remember, he told me he was going to talk about parks today.

But I'll wait.

I'm going to cede my time to Mr.

I was looking for you in the crowd, but give him some time because he just had surgery so he got a walk down here.

He got some things he wanted to talk to y'all about.

Snow.

I can talk if you want me to.

My name is John Gaines.

I live at 214 9th Street, Northwest in the city.

It was interesting comment the last later made where I won't bother.

Let me move on with this.

I have a petition for traffic lights.

and the residents of the 10th and Page neighborhood, we're asking the city to install traffic lights at the following intersections, 10th and Page Streets, 8th and Main Streets.

Now the 10th and Page one is one that there's a flashing light there presently, but it's my understanding that

Many of the youngsters that live in West Haven in the coming year or the coming years will be going to Venable School rather than being bused to Burnham and Moran.

Main Street is the street that I think is on the agenda tonight to be discussed.

And there are many residents that live in neighborhoods adjacent to Main Street.

And presently, it's hard to get onto Main Street from 8th Street

because traffic travels like they own 64 on Main Street.

And it's really a problem for residents to get on Main Street.

Another street that I didn't ask to be placed on our petition is up at 8th and Preston Avenue.

Now there are a lot of violations that go on in that area.

There are trucks unloading right in the no parking zone and they pull up on the sidewalk and the next thing the city is going to be paying for is repair for sidewalks.

But it appears that truckers can do whatever they want to do in Charlottesville and that's unfortunate.

Just for clarification, 8th and Main is the same spot that we had the discussion about the last meeting.

But nonetheless, there's still traffic.

Now, as we talked about in the last meeting with our traffic engineer, and there's a great deal of discussion in regards to how council has the ability to

to proceed forth, whether that is a light, whether that is the lights for the crosswalk.

And it was stated during the last meeting that we haven't heard a great deal of other community support in regards to it.

We've heard clearly from Mr. Gaines as well as he has a petition.

I understood that the action by the council or the will of the council last time is that we revisit this down the road three to six months after we work on enforcement activity in the area from the Charlottesville Police Department.

and getting additional information from the traffic engineer.

Right.

That's what happened at the 415 meeting.

You know, with regard to Mr. Gaines's comments, you know, certainly the traffic engineer can provide guidance to counsel about whether the intersection of 8th and Main meets the warrants for another signal.

I would guess based on the number of signals on that street that that is probably not the case, but we'll provide you the information.

Certainly.

I would just say with regard to Dr. Bellamy's statement, it is true that council has acted in the past to direct staff to put in rapid flash beacons when they were not warranted.

So I appreciate that.

I don't want to belabor the point because I think I made my points very clear last meeting how I feel about it, but I will reiterate this one point.

If council in the past has used our authority to be able to place similar kind of lights on streets and paths in other neighborhoods, I think we definitely need to look at doing so here.

I understand that there are legal ramifications and different things that we need to look at, but we've heard, one second please.

Thank you.

We've heard on several different occasions and I think now hearing it from Mr. Gaines as well as from other community members including Ms. Parker who's been talking about this for years now that this should constitute us taking action and not waiting an additional six months for another study to come back about it.

So could you let us know what have enforcement activity increased on the area since April 15th?

Chief Brackney and I have talked about referring that to the Traffic Division.

So there's a couple approaches that you take when you find out there is a problem or there is a problem that's brought to the community.

Either it's an actual or perceived issue around traffic flow, pedestrian

Flows and things like that at mid-block cross blocks or if they don't meet standards that the state would regulate understanding that when we have traffic devices that are put in place like stop signs like lights they are to regulate traffic they're not to be used as speed calming devices if you use them as a speed calming devices when you find yourself in legislative issues or even legal issues and Mr. Blair will be able to speak to that

I just text the sergeant of our traffic saying let's put out the traffic timing or speed timing device that you'll see in other places that will count the number of cars that go through that community the speeds they go through it the dates times locations and then when you couple that with sighting persons who may be

violating the pedestrian crosswalks.

We also probably need to do some educating on both the vehicular and pedestrian traffic about what is appropriate and legal conduct.

There's the assumption that the pedestrian has the right of way.

That is not the case.

The rules say that the pedestrian has the right of way and you must yield once they are in the crosswalk, not because they step out into it automatically.

So there has to be some education component as well as

Literally, I wouldn't disagree with anything that you just said, but in my personal opinion, I don't think it has to be an either or.

I can do what is within my realm, and I know the engineer was here last time to speak to their assessment.

That's already been done.

I'm speaking more so to counsel.

I am rather frustrated with the fact that we are again thinking that we have to

Take six months or so to be able to further discuss and then have another analysis about the subject when we clearly hear from people that it's needed.

I don't want to compare this to other neighborhoods or the process before.

It's needed now.

It's a minimal amount of money.

but that's just my thought.

Well, I just think we're talking about we would still need the engineers to come back and talk about what measure needs to be put in place.

They've asked for two different things.

Yes.

He just asked for a stoplight and then Ms. Parker has been asking for the flashing lights.

But I also think that the plan that we discussed before in terms of if there have been violations,

Well, we are in 8th and Main right now.

That the enforcement piece, which might, that conversation that we're having might change the numbers that we end up with during the monthly report.

from the chief of police about stops, how they're initiated.

So Mayor Walker, can I piggyback on that because that was also what I was going to emphasize too is that there's two different solutions now being brought forth, the flashing light and then the stop signal, the signal at 8th and Main.

But there's also then the brought to our attention tonight 10th and Page,

and then 8th and Preston.

So those, if we can roll those into the discussion that we had from the last meeting to get an analysis on those conditions as well.

No, not within the same, I'm asking for within the same time frame.

No, I understand that.

I'm just saying we've heard, when we convoluted the two and we say, well, Mr. Gaines asked for a stop light and Ms. Parker was asking for flashing lights.

She's been asking for this literally for multiple years.

We can do that in the immediate.

Even if we were gonna do a stop light, that would take,

So long for us to study, and then we're now talking about adding in Ethan Preston and these others.

The initial one that's been asked about and that we just had a long conversation about was Ethan Maine.

All they're literally asking for are more flashing lights right there so people can cross the street.

We've done it, councils have done it before.

We need to do it now.

Again, and that convalesces the discussion and that makes it...

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Hudson.

I think when we say things like, let's ignore what Mr. Gaines is saying, I'm not saying let's ignore what he's saying, I'm just saying that the immediate need and the request has been made

for a very long time should have some precedent.

And that's something that we can do sooner rather than later.

And we have the authority to be able to do so.

So if you, the request that came before us just now with the signatures asks for a stoplight.

No, if there was a signalized intersection, then you would presumably have a pedestrian crosswalk there

You know, there'd either be a little red or white sign when it was time to cross at the appropriate time.

I'd just like to stick to the plan that we agreed to last last meeting which was to have the review done within the next was it the next six months but I want to add into that discussion so so I want it but I want to understand where this but I want to understand as well what we need to do at 10th and Page and 8th and Preston

I just think it's important for us to acknowledge and like to weigh with the public there's a lot of pedestrian intersections that are not safe pedestrians I think we heard throughout our budget cycle and we weren't able to allocate any money towards the Elliott Avenue any kind of crossings that are there and that's come from a number of neighborhoods and so I just think it's important that we kind of we have there's a lot of intersections that have been raised obviously some in more public forms than others but I just hope that we're able to take a systemic approach and really look at

I don't know that's something that we could give more immediate feedback on at the May 20th meeting for sure what that street state calls for and I can tell you that while I believe one of the spots Mr. Gaines is talking about with the trucks is on Preston that there is also a great problem with that on Main Street

Excuse me.

Is this one of the main problems, or?

I'm very disappointed still in 8th Street because the cars still have to go over top of the pedestrian drive, the walkway.

Either you're going to get hit or either you're going to get ran over or you've got to stand still.

Thank you for the little signs that you gave us, but you got it from another neighborhood because it was bent up with stickers on it.

I mean, could we have got a brand new sign?

And you're always looking stupid every time I say something to you.

I don't understand.

I've been coming to you for years, Mike.

You take things personal like the rest of them.

We used to have a good conversation.

But when wrong is wrong is wrong is wrong.

But I shouldn't have to have a sign that I have to look up with stickers on the back with it bent up.

You know, we could have at least got brand new pedestrian signs and a little sign at least with the plastic that you've been saying that we had at the last few meetings ago that we still don't have, that's still dented up.

And also I want to talk to you too about, thank y'all for finally giving a say today after your police chief got caught in her stories.

Thank you.

Mr. Nolan for that report we want transparency and obviously we're not getting transparency we met our quota what we was asked to do so we appreciate if y'all do y'all's part because we do need a CRB because we're tired of going back and forth with the police department we're tired of being as a CRB members we're tired of being

degraded and dehumanized for things that we aren't doing and then when the city are wrong for what they're doing, y'all are not quick to throw out the press release but you're not quick to rescind the press release after Mr. Josh Bowers was degraded, which he should have not been because as the calendar shows, she was available for every meeting that was asked for.

and also I want to go back to another officer of yours that is in I believe your case and another case of another person.

As your police officers know, if we were supposedly the problem for the CRB and for the police, mighty funny, your police officer didn't see me sitting right behind him as he's harassing patrons for sitting in the Waffle House for minding their own business and because they do not want to engage in his conversations

He continued to harass that man, knowing that man had to come back into that Waffle House.

Mr.

Page wrote, yes, I sat right there and I watched him Saturday night, my first time in the Waffle House.

So no, I did not know him, but he also didn't know that I was sitting behind him as well.

So I do have a question on why you were thinking Nolan, because Nolan would be, and his reporting would be the issue here.

What?

No, the press release was last week that y'all didn't-

The recipe was lying on the police chief and then the response that you gave to him was not very council-like because it wasn't his fault that whatever went in that paper became a he-she say and then it became against the CRB which was did wrong which it should have been apology.

So if I may, I just have a personal opinion.

So I'm responding to the comments, specifically in regards to Chief Brackney's calendar.

I read the article.

There's personal issues that I have with it.

It's neither here nor there.

But I do think that it's really difficult and challenging for us to expect Chief Brackney.

For one, you all don't see everything that's on the calendar.

And if there's an hour block, is she not allowed time to eat?

Like is she not allowed time to have phone conversations?

So even on my calendar, so I'm talking, that's fine, so like I said, when I'm talking, like you all, I just think that we take these positions, we take these positions with Chief Bragney in which we're like, she can do absolutely no right.

First of all, I'll never punk out.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

Can you hear me?

Harold Foley, People's Coalition.

My name is Richard Coons.

As I sit here and listen, and thank you Mr. Gaines, I shared a y'all with Mr. Gaines growing up.

He's like a treasure in Charlottesville, so I'll give him his due.

But the problem, and I want to speak on my criminal history first.

I have an extensive criminal history.

Three convictions over the course of 21 years and I've managed to serve over 17 years in prison for less than a couple hundred dollars worth of cocaine.

I had a substance abuse problem since the age of 19.

I've never been offered a treatment center.

I've never been offered a probation break.

I've been shot in the city of Charlottesville on two separate occasions.

Once in 1996, the result of me being shot, I served 21 months on a probation violation.

I was shot in 2004.

I grew up in an era where they called it a war on drugs.

Today, white kids use drugs and they call it an epidemic.

I grew up in an era when they had things called soda zones, stay out of designated drug areas.

But if you look at that soda zone map in the city of Charlottesville, there's no soda zones that ever crossed Avon Street, Avon Act, not a single one.

While this city criminalized entire neighborhoods, people who looked like me, we had to

have records, decisions that I made at 15 and I'm no angel.

I made a lot of wrong decisions as I began to transform my life and look at things different and hold myself accountable for the decisions which I made.

The importance of having a strong civilian review board is that when someone is sentenced to nine years

For $39 worth of crack cocaine, something is wrong with that situation.

To compound that situation, 46 years of unsupervised good behavior.

That's my story.

I know by coming here today that I kind of probably put a bullseye on my back.

I know that one false move, I could be sentenced to 46 years for jaywalking.

Right?

Then I look around in the audience, I look around at everybody here, I very rarely see people from my neighborhood.

I don't see nobody who look like me or who come from the background that I come from.

And that's because where I grew up at, we grew up in an era where city council don't care.

City council don't change anything.

I would hope today, especially Mayor Walker, with you that you continue to help facilitate change for people like me.

To be able to want to do something different.

I'm putting forth the effort to change my life today.

I wrote a letter to the judge.

You know, I'm paying all kinds of fines.

You know, it's part of my responsibility.

And I asked them, I said, can I serve community service in lieu of paying my court fines?

I never got a response from the judge, but I called the clerk's office.

And they told me, they said, well, we do have a thing where you could do community service in lieu of paying your court fines.

However, you have to be served in the active sentence at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.

So as money gets tight for me and I continue to try to do the right thing, I try to be a positive role model for my daughter and the rest of my kids, it's incredibly difficult to do these things and then

As coming up, the police would do anything to us, to me.

Come over here, right, and I'm removed from the streets.

But I know it's still going on, they would.

Right, so I had a run in with the police in Garrett Square, and they told me that you either let me take your picture, it's a Friday night, or you can spend it way till Monday to get out.

That's a fact.

Then I was later given a probation violation for being in the solar zone with no crime committed, sentenced to 10 months.

So the stories, I have about 50, but I know we don't have a lot of time.

And I will hope that we could get this civilian review board so that the next people who make bad decisions at 15 will not have to spend over 17 years in their life inside and outside of prisons before they decide to do the right thing.

Because if I have to hold myself accountable,

Along the lines, the police should be held accountable as well.

I just believe that.

I just believe.

I'm no angel.

I'm no saint.

I did a lot of things that I had no business doing.

I take responsibility for that.

However, for police to make me take my clothes off out in the streets is wrong.

It was wrong then.

It should be wrong now.

But this city,

This city has a reputation of doing that in the communities that I grew up in.

I grew up in the 10th and Page neighborhood, and they could do anything they want.

So this is what I'm hearing that's still going on, and if that's the case, when do we stop?

Just a couple of things that I'm thinking and acknowledging that I gave one extra time, because it's good when we hear from people who are not normally in the room.

And I think it's important for us to get as many people in the room as possible.

In terms of the CRB and the comments that I've been making,

In the past few months, I think it's very important for us to realize that when we are doing this work that we are doing, that we are remembering the individuals who have been and are

and all of those things that are truly affected.

And every conversation that I have with the councilors, city staff, it's about remembering the environment that we've created in Charlottesville and to make sure that we are undoing that.

which I'm sure someone will, I think someone has FOIA'd, to CRB members about the responsibility too for us to make sure that we are removing our egos from the equation at all times and looking at the bigger picture for this.

So what Mr. Koontz was just talking about, my family members were in those same

areas suffering from the same conditions, going to the same prisons as he was.

So I don't take any of this work lightly, but in the same breath, when I am challenging people to remove

their temporary feelings from the equation.

I am faced with the same backlash as if it hasn't been my friends, my family members, my loved ones who have been incarcerated, arrested.

Lives have changed for generations.

So I think we all need to take a look.

I spoke with Mr. Gathers.

We see you, but I'm pointing.

And we talked about just how important that is.

I'll be the first one to tell you the response that I got initially from CRB members.

I didn't meet with them regarding CRB issues after that.

I felt the comments, the conversations that I was hearing, it's for me, let my actions speak for

It was nothing that I felt that I would say that would change at that point the opinion that had been formed about me and my particular interest in this.

So this has been a really rocky process.

There were comments made about the last joint meeting we had, and I sat down there because everything I seem to say, there's some backlash for, so I sat down there at that time and didn't say much.

and I still got backlash and criticism for not saying much that time.

So I think it's just important for us all to realize why we're here, why we are doing this work and how to do it right.

We know that the advisory board that was in place before now, it was not effective and so there wasn't any oversight of the police department.

I talk since mid-2000s about some of the encounters my clients have had, my family members have had publicly with the police department, with Jade Task Force.

I openly call for the task force to be dismantled.

It is important for us.

I have never not had that conversation.

There is no one in the city who can say that I have came

to the conversation with a different perspective.

And I think it's just important for us to understand where we are in this process and what we're bringing to the table.

and to get this done is going to take true collaboration and we are not there.

And I will say it and this might get me in a little bit of trouble, the next council, who could fill these three seats looks very scary for even me and a lot of the work that I'm very passionate about.

And so I haven't had one conversation with one councilor

because this is a topic that if I had a conversation with Counselor Galvin Signer and especially Counselor Hill who wouldn't be affected by choices if the CRB didn't work, their family wouldn't be affected by it.

If I had a conversation where I thought they were not supportive of it, I would have that conversation with them and here with you all.

We haven't had those conversations.

We've all been trying to figure out

you know how to keep things going you know how to also support for me the conversations I've been having the past few weeks a police chief who was the only person who sat in the room and talked about reform at all and what that looks like trying to couple public safety in a community where

the perceived risk of safety versus the morality of it is often the perceived risk is often what's brought to the top of the equation by the wealthier members of the community and yet bring reform measures into it and when we do pass things like we funded

an intern for the prosecutor office.

That means that we're having conversations, Dr. Bellamy too, with Joe Platania about what maybe diversionary versus incarceration looks like.

How to take an office that's very white and diversify it to have a different perspective in there.

We funded and supported collaboration with the university to offer free housing for this person for the summer to get people who wouldn't maybe normally look at Charlottesville into the area for the summer to see if they could then go back and talk to their friends or someone in the

So we have an intern from Howard University who will be spending the summer here.

And I think we need to pay attention to

You know, just to the holistic efforts.

If we don't get the nonprofit community and that community accountable for the work they say they're doing with people who have had generational trauma, because I'm not hearing a lot of voices on understanding the magnitude of that.

then people lives are not going to change.

If you all are not starting the nonprofits, if you are not running them, then how are people going to get the assistance that they need?

I referred two individuals in the past week to Mr. Fogel who needed some assistance.

And did they not call you?

Okay, just got the look.

And I, you know, Jeff and I don't, we haven't been talking regularly, but I think that what their needs are that he could, you know, that he could be helpful, so I think.

But we also have to build the team so that people have somewhere to go when they can get, you know, adequate services and adequate, you know, support.

So, again, we

need to just make sure that we are, you know, that the right energy is, and I'm not saying that my energy hasn't always been right, I'm just going to claim that in terms of relationships with

because I didn't expect to have to fight you all and you all know who I'm talking to, the way that I'm having to fight you.

And to be told that I'm a part of a system, you can ask anybody up here if they feel like I'm part of the system or any staff member and they're going to tell you no based on the conversations that we're having.

And I think it's just very important.

I'm here to support CRB as well and I'm going to read some stories of people who

wanted me to tell just a couple stories of things that have happened with police in this area.

A lot of people didn't want to come forward because repercussions of being harassed, because they know that they will be harassed.

But this is just a couple quick stories.

And this one starts out with, there was an incident in my neighborhood, and the police was called.

The call was made, and the operator

asked, was the person white?

And they are asking the question, what does the color have to do with the police responding to calls?

Then when they came, one of the officers made the comment about the cars parked in front of the homes, said he'll be glad when the city takes the street over so he'll give all the cars parked their tickets, knowing that all that was parked there was owned by blacks.

All right, this is a young man to whom it may concern, he writes, I was walking home in Belmont behind Brown's store when a police cruiser pulled up on me.

The officer jumped out and asked for identification at the time.

I gave him that and I gave him my ID.

He called me to see if I was, he called in to see if I was who I said I was.

After my identification came back, then he called backup.

They continued to question me for over 47 minutes to be exact.

They couldn't find anything on me.

I finally asked them, do you have any warrant for my arrest?

They finally got around to saying no.

Then my response was, what are you still holding me for?

Bear in mind, I'm a black man and I just came home from prison after doing a lengthy sentence of 27 years.

Thank you for the time, he said.

And I want to share a little bit because I know his story also.

So this is a good reason for a CRB to get on police officers because if he had been violated,

You see what I'm saying?

If he had have been violated right at that moment, he'd have been doomed.

That would have been it.

And along with that, there's a lot of harassment going on here with probation officers.

So I support the CRB.

And we all know that we have to have checks and balances on everyone.

Someone said the word accountability.

Everybody has to be accountable for their actions.

And if you're wrong, you've got to be accountable for that.

That's your problem.

You have no respect.

at all, period.

And yes, I'm telling you that you have no respect.

You don't call a black woman a black bitch.

You don't do that.

You don't do that.

Don't disrespect her like that.

All them jackasses signs you made, you need to hold it for yourself.

Calling her our day.

He's disrespectful.

Dis-fucking-respectful.

Absolutely.

Calling her a black bitch.

the Vietnam War was

So, Tanisha?

Talk fast now.

I just would rather.

Tanisha.

What hate is.

Y'all always trying to apologize.

To throw down hate.

No.

Let them learn what hate is.

That's hate.

You don't call her that.

Period.

Thank you, Mayor.

The Vietnam War was a very divisive war, but no matter how you felt, the facts are that many Americans were killed or wounded.

I was glad to see that Ann Mallick was at the 53rd rededication of the Vietnam Memorial.

I was very disappointed that there was no one from this group there.

I know that you don't have to answer my questions.

but I know that you can if you want to.

So I ask you, why weren't you there?

Would anybody like to answer that?

Folks at home, take note.

Silence speaks volumes.

Folks at home,

You've had a good dose of what Charlottesville is like.

They laugh about it in here, but people outside of the area are taking note.

There's another good example.

I say the more that they act up, the more that they

Lower themselves.

So I encourage them to do more.

Nice day everybody.

Hello.

It's a hard act to follow there.

Okay, my name is Anthony Guy Lopez.

I'm a University of Virginia graduate.

I'm a father.

I'm also an enrolled Crow Creek Sioux tribal member.

And I'm here to ask the city council to consider moving the Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea statue.

I came here to Charlottesville back in the early 2000s and I represented my tribe, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, in the Lewis and Clark commemorations.

and I have to say that most of the American Indians who came here to see the statue, well to commemorate Lewis and Clark's journey and his encounter with my people, we were shocked to see the statues in Charlottesville that so disrespectfully portray American Indians

as well as the statues that honored Confederate generals.

So there is a statue that I think you're familiar with, the George Rogers Clark statue.

I don't know if everyone here is familiar with it.

It shows general, or I don't know if he was a general, but George Rogers Clark, the eldest brother of William Clark attacking a family of American Indians.

And if you look at it closely, there's a woman there.

She's holding a baby in a cradleboard.

And she is being protected by her husband and maybe her father.

They're pleading with George Rogers Clark to stop.

And then meanwhile, he's reaching back for a rifle or a musket that he's being handed by one of his soldiers.

And on the other side of the horse, there's a guy running up with a pistol about to surprise attack them.

And the statue is called

George Rogers Clark, Conqueror of the Northwest.

And it celebrates, when it was made, it celebrated that image and that history in Charlottesville.

Now, the Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea statue, I was part of the effort 10 years ago that was led by Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell, where she led an effort to

wake the city of Charlottesville up and to consider having that statue removed.

And that was the last time I spoke before this body.

And the council wouldn't consider actually removing the statue.

They gave us the option of reinterpreting it or some kind of mitigation.

So reluctantly, a few of us agreed and we got funding from the city for a plaque.

and I actually found the descendants of Sacajawea and they wrote the plaque language and we had a big ceremony when we dedicated it and our esteemed mayor at the time, Dave Norris, was there and he said he hoped the city would wake up and start to see the role of women in our society in a different way, that there would be a major shift

and I think now 10 years later it's one of my regrets that we didn't, that I didn't fight harder to have the statue removed at the time but it just seemed like it was ahead of its time and now I think and I applaud everyone who's taken action to make this an issue again and I'm appealing to the council to consider moving it and I understand the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center is willing to take it

where it can be better interpreted and placed in context because this statue, even though we put a plaque up, it's still offensive.

It's demeaning.

And it's not the way I want my relatives, the women in my family, portrayed.

It's just something that I'm,

I think we can agree that it's not a good portrayal of women or of Native Americans.

And I also want to acknowledge some other people in the room.

Dr. Andrea Douglas, one of the chairs of the UVA Commission on Segregation, and Vice Provost Nelson is here.

He's on that commission.

I think Mayor Walker, you may be on that commission too.

I'm on it, but I haven't been.

And I wanted to applaud because there's an effort right now to bring Charlottesville's portrayal and history to be more accurate in regards to Native Americans.

So we're trying to build a center, we're trying to raise consciousness,

but I wanted to applaud the actions recently of the commission where they've commissioned some kind of statement about the George Rogers Clark statue.

Thank you, Dr. Douglas and all the other commissioners.

But I think in our campaign to bring American Indians and women and people and African Americans into the interpretation of history in this town,

I think the commissions, they also need to bring in more American Indians into the commission itself because I think we're not going to be happy with just another statement about a statute.

We want action.

We want the city to grow and reflect and reinterpret but also teach and demonstrate for the future

What is the proper way to enshrine our legacies for the future?

So I'll say since the first meeting that I had as a council member last year that I asked, you know, that the statute be removed.

That is the conversation that I've had with staff at, Councilor Galvin and I were in that initial meeting together.

Where they did the ceremony and put the plaque on.

And earlier today, we received an email that said, the statue is important historically, artistically, and culturally.

While some see Sacagawea's position as demeaning, I, for one, always saw it as connected to her incomparable role.

She knew where they were going and had the skills to follow the tracking.

and this was a white middle-aged woman in town.

And it's often, so we have to make sure that, and this is the work we are doing in terms of

race since 2017 too, oftentimes we don't want to listen to the individuals who were affected and we want to listen to the individuals who again we're back to that you know perceived power.

And I think it's very important that we understand that this is on the agenda tonight, right?

I can't even remember now.

But it's important that I know we have heard back that it'll change the plan, but that's the intent for it to change the plan for West Main Street.

I support the statue being removed, but I support every statue we've been discussing to be removed.

Any other comments?

Alright, so we, 845.

All right, call this meeting back to order.

Call this meeting to order.

All right, next on the agenda we have the Community Development Block Grant and Home Funding First Year Action Plan, Fiscal Year 19-20, first of one reading.

The consolidated plan sets forth the goals that support community development over a five-year period and the consolidated plan for CDBG and HOME was approved by City Council last year.

Each year of the consolidated plan there's an action plan and so we are bringing forth

the action plan for the 2019-2020 plan year and this encompasses the funding that we received as entitlement from HUD for both CDBG which all remains within the city of Charlottesville and for the home budget that is part of the TJPDC consortium of which ourselves and the five surrounding

Counties received those funds.

The action plan is currently gone through a 30 day comment period.

And so we've had we've had one set of comments which we're integrating into the document at this point in time.

And we are here for a public hearing this evening from City Council.

This went for hearing at the Thomas Jefferson Planning District last Thursday and received support to move forward at that point in time.

OK.

Mayor Walker, I just have a point of clarification that I'd like to ask, and I don't know if this could be Mr. Blair, but I see that there are two resolutions here.

One is for the approval of the annual action plan, and Ms. Creasy, I don't know if you're the one to answer this too, and there's a resolution for priority neighborhood funds for Belmont.

Any other questions from council?

All right, I would like to open the public hearing.

Is there anyone who would like to speak?

All right, we'll close the public hearing.

I move we adapt resolution approving the fiscal year 2019-2020 annual action plan.

Are there any further discussion?

Nope.

All right.

Call for a vote.

Carries four to one.

I move we adapt a resolution of the priority neighborhood funds for Belmont in fiscal year 1920.

Is there any further discussion?

And this is the, um, the street, the sidewalk.

Is that, yeah.

Okay.

Just want to, I'm trying to keep it together in my head.

Um, so any further discussion?

All right.

Call the vote.

All right.

And that carries, um, five to zero.

All right.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you Mayor Walker.

Before you tonight is

An ordinance that has been updated since August the 6th, 2018.

For your background, the council on August 6th, 2018 did approve closing a portion of Coleman Street.

But in that ordinance, it stated that a storm sewer as well as a sanitary sewer that were mines that

into the project that Habitat for Humanity was going to use.

Since that time Habitat for Humanity has obtained a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals.

That variance may allow them to build more units on the parcels in question.

and if they do build six units instead of two units it is possible they may not use the existing sanitary and storm sewer lines and therefore this proposed ordinance before you would allow them the flexibility if they don't want to use the sanitary sewer and storm sewer lines to either tie into those or they may use different sanitary or storm sewer lines

I do have a point of clarification, if I may.

So, and because this is, it's fresh in my mind because of some of the issues coming up in the Fry's Spring neighborhood where there is a proposal to have their own sewer treatment plant, basically.

Correct.

It just gives them different directions they can go in.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

No.

Okay.

Um, so we'll open it up for public hearing.

Hi, I'm Mandy Burbage, I'm the Land Development Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity and I wanted to just let you guys know that I was here in case you did have any questions specific to what we were planning to do and just remind you guys since it's been a few months that we came in July requesting vacation of the right-of-way

lamenting the fact that we wouldn't be able to build six units of affordable housing because of the by-right setbacks for that zoning district and we were able to get the front and side yard setbacks reduced by the Board of Zoning Appeals so that we can still be off of critical slopes and build six dwelling units instead of two.

So that's what we were able to achieve but the right-of-way vacation ordinance you all acted on referred to a plat that

showed those easements where the utilities currently are.

So we just wanted to create more flexibility in the ordinance language.

All right.

Any other questions?

No, this is about Coleman Street and Habitat Project.

Okay.

So is there anyone else here who would like to speak?

All right, so closing the public hearing.

And so this is a no vote, so they'll just go on a consent agenda for next.

Everyone supportive?

Thank you.

You ended so quickly.

Mayor Walker, I'm going to make a few introductory comments and then I'm going to ask Ms. Demick to make a presentation to you all.

The council is aware that at the very beginning of my time as the interim city manager, I expressed that we would focus on customer service and on equity issues.

and I started that with a discussion at the council meeting about the many kind of metrics by which we can know that in Charlottesville we have some significant equity issues and some racial disparities and while

For me, having spent most of my career in human services and then coming to the city manager's office four years ago, most of our energy has been focused on those metrics and on the work that different groups could do or the city could do to change those metrics.

I was interested in a little bit different approach where we say,

What about our house?

And that is, you know, we have found it more comfortable often to evaluate programs and non-profits and evaluate them rather than ourselves.

And so that's the basis for this work.

And I'm extraordinarily grateful to Ms. Demick and Ms. Green

Matthew Murphy, for leading some community volunteers, many of which who are here, Geordie Yeager, Andrea Douglas, Kelly Palmer, Dave Sonnier, I miss anybody who's waited all this time, Lance, and they've done great work in really

over the last many months capturing three things for us.

One is to do a brief scan of our internal departments and ask them some key questions so that we can know where we're starting from.

Two is to look out in the world and see, you know, we keep hearing about equity tools and I know we've talked about this sometime over the past year or two, Dr. Bellamy has brought that to you, I've talked about it, and to really look at what's happening in other communities.

And then third, a lot of the meat of the agenda memo is about looking at what are we doing as an employer.

So as Mike suggested, we started with doing some review and analysis of what other communities are doing around equity, particularly in local governments.

And there are two approaches.

One is to think about your equity profile, so your impact in your community.

And the other was to have this really internal view.

There are fewer of those municipal governments looking internally.

Hard to do that and so we looked at some internal organizational assessment tools and started to borrow some questions and tools that other communities were using.

We took a lot from Austin, Texas who had recently done a voluntary organizational assessment and so we asked all of our department leads to

complete one for their department and it had the list of questions is in the memo it was a fairly wide-ranging group of kinds of questions with two important questions very important questions being there one is to ask whether the demographics of the employees in that department matched the community and then the second would be do the demographics of that department match their

actual consumers because that can be different from department to department.

And we also asked a number of questions around culture.

And then we moved on to looking at demographics for employees and then matching salary to that group of demographics.

This is a first look.

There's a lot more sort of analysis to be done, but there's a number of charts in your memo that demonstrate that we have

Pretty consistently, people of color make less than the average salary across bands, while white employees make more than the average across most of those bands.

There are some notable exceptions, but it's significant, and it reflects a concern.

What it shows us is that something is happening, but it doesn't show us why.

And so that is another set of questions for us to ask and get curious about as we move forward.

This group also then studied other kinds of tools for how municipalities improve their internal processes for getting to equity.

So decision making processes, how do you make sure that you're considering who is impacted, what kinds of things, who's paying for the process, both in terms of cost to communities but also in terms of practical costs.

These are often called equity impact tools.

This group has met and had pretty wide-ranging conversations using all of these data points and had come up with sort of four broad areas for recommendations.

The first would be to implement best practices around diversity, equity, inclusion in all areas of the organization.

HR has a particular sort of

There's a lot of ownership around some of these things because of recruitment, training, and support.

Also staff promotion, leadership opportunities for staff.

But there are lots of ways in which diversity, equity, and inclusion can improve all of the departments and particularly in customer service areas.

The second would be to have an office of equity and inclusion that would include staff so that one of the big concerns is these kinds of offices often are standalone so someone carries the flag for sort of diversity equity and inclusion but it doesn't necessarily it get embedded in all aspects and all sort of processes or practices or decision-making across the organization and so this

group has initially felt like that would need to be a pretty well staffed and well authorized and empowered group of folks to make some changes across the organization.

And then to use an equity impact assessment tool, there was a lot of looking at kinds of tools, whether that would be embedded in like a council memo that sort of think about like an environmental impact study if you were going to build something.

So thinking about an equity impact study, having a really robust understanding

of the kind of impact in our community any one of our decisions would make, our practice decisions, our program decisions, our investments.

And then finally to do some pretty significant improvement around the way we do community engagement across the board.

That's been one of the most consistent sort of implementation strategies across local governments.

But it is clear that this group also thinks we need to prepare our context for any one of those changes, that those changes could be pretty significant, and that we need to make sure that we're preparing staff for the change in expectations around behavior and for performance outcomes.

And so there's a recommendation around training and support for that before we get going on any one of these concrete kinds of steps.

Outstanding.

I'm really glad that we were able to use a lot of the models from Austin.

I know when I went out there, I was absolutely blown away by their tools that they're using, as well as the staff that they have.

And they started small.

I had just one director, Brian, and then I think he has three staff members, four staff members, and they do a lot of work and all since like twice the size of us.

One question I had though in regards to the great work, sorry let me back up, thank you Mr. Murphy, Mr. Mc, Ms. Green, everyone else has been involved because this is really important.

I know you all have been convening community members and whatnot and I'm just wondering what is the next step in terms of diving down into the folks who may be affected by this by these policies but may not have been as open to joining the groups and coming in participating in the roundtable discussions that's one question and secondly some time back I sent to my colleagues on council

I'm a proposal for LGBTQ equity advisory panel and I was wondering if there was any way for that to be rolled into this.

I think that's a population in which we often leave out when we're talking about equity and while there's discussion about how we can support them I think it would behoove us to have a specific advisory group similar to how we have with the minority

Well, this group's next steps really have to do with defining that preparation, sort of what is it that we would like to provide to the organization and to staff to help prepare them for some of these eventual changes and recommendations, implementation of these recommendations.

So beyond that this group is looking for guidance about how to move forward with that so that's well taken.

I do think that it is for a lot of communities very similar to Charlottesville that the approach to equity has been to address racial equity first.

as a way of priming the pump for being able to look at equity for all.

So there's most of the communities who are doing this sort of maybe started a little bit before us.

I think about Seattle and Portland are a little bit further ahead.

But this is relatively new work for everybody.

And so whether that's a promise that actually pays out in the end and whether if you approach racial equity first, you get to equity for all, I think is still a reasonably open question because this is relatively new work.

I do think it would be

that there's nothing that says that we can't sort of be more inclusive in our approach, but our approach has been because the issues around racial equity are so present, current, and engaged in all of the aspects of the work that the community, that the city is delivering, we started there.

I have a question.

So, Mr. McPhee, thank you, and Mr. Murphy, this is great work, really amazing.

A collection of data and the recommendations are very clear.

Now what do you need from us?

Do you need us to basically in a way move to accept your recommendations as you've outlined them on page 92 of our document?

Or is there any action right now?

Because I do believe that this is

I don't think the group feels like we're quite there yet.

I think that there needs to be some more sort of going back and gaining some clarity about what the recommendations are, but also our recommendations for sequencing and preparation.

Do we have to do all of this work around sort of preparing staff to have a conversation around these issues in a really robust and meaningful way before we implement any one of these other tools, or can there be sequencing that's a little staged?

This group would like some more time before it makes formal recommendations.

So I have some from looking.

So in the first part of the memo, right under as an organization, we must create effective internal operations.

One thing that I just think we need to express, even though we are acknowledging that there are some internal issues, is that the city has perpetuated these behaviors.

So I think that we just need to, I would have liked to have seen that.

to have seen that here along with our role as public service.

You don't have to say it all, but you know.

The other thing is

just looking at the data, just kind of trying to figure out in terms of the, I think it was six, right?

Hold on, let me find it.

Yeah, the first chart, racial distribution of city employees, the 935, and was the under the city salary analysis, was that supposed to be 953 or 935?

It's 935.

Sorry, I just had that.

But my question is just how much those six individuals at the top

No.

I think the mayor is saying because there are six African-Americans in the management band,

We do on table 8.

So yeah, table 8 gets to that by pay band, so it takes out that group at the top, that management group, and I will say that of all of the groups to use to draw conclusions, the management band is the one that's hardest to draw, some sort of conclusion based on those numbers.

and so they do skew which is why we looked at all of all four of the bands and so on table eight you can see the if you take them out you can see the difference in the deviation from the average salary by pay band by race.

Okay and

And so that's why I was wondering how those numbers were affecting.

and the temporary employee, do I need to read my disclaimer here?

Everybody knows.

I think that's an area that we really need to pay attention to is how the city has been using individuals for and what that looks like.

And my next question is the internal assessments and how much time I hope the group is, and especially internal management, how much time we're going to give individuals to

I will say that one of the reasons for being here tonight is that the department heads, in all fairness, haven't had this as a lens by which they might expect to be evaluated.

And while this was extraordinarily important to me,

During my time as the interim city manager, that time is soon coming to a close and while I'll still be with the city, I want the council to understand the importance of the work and in part know that I hope that Dr. Richardson and I will agree that this work continues, right?

And that it will be an important way that we evaluate the performance of the department heads going forward.

and so there has to be expectation before there can be evaluation and I think that we've created some amount of expectation now.

We did take a snapshot at the beginning and part of the reason that the group is saying we need to build more foundation is because quite frankly the snapshot could be better.

And so my challenge there, because I have one, is just the expectation to be evaluated.

For us to really get this work done, you're going to have to have people in positions who get this at a certain level.

If you're training people,

If you are letting them know what they're going to be evaluated on and then evaluating them on that, there's going to be someone who has to carry it.

And so, I mean, what I'm thinking about right now, newborn, you have to do everything for.

Where we are in the world today, hopefully, you hear that people are looking at equity and inclusion.

This isn't the first time.

So we often talk about this as if this is something new.

I know we are doing maybe things for the first time, but if you look at historically, there have been moments throughout history, almost every decade, where people have attempted to do this work.

I know that I'm not a very patient person, so I'm putting that in perspective, but I also know that you have to have the right people at the table to really shift an organization.

And I just would like for the group to explore what does, at what point is it clear that maybe the leaders that are in place maybe can't do this work, and how are you all going to evaluate that?

Our last two meetings have been a robust conversation about exactly that.

How can you have performance expectations?

At what point will we have provided enough information, guidance, training around our expectations where we could say, we expect you to get it now and we're doing this because it's the right thing to do for sure, but in the end we're doing this because we anticipate it affecting all of those things on the first page.

We are doing this because we anticipate that improving our internal equity structures and understanding will improve the way we deliver services to our community and outcomes for our community.

And so we can't afford to have it just be a couple of people to get it.

We really have to figure out a way to create a plan where this is embedded in the way we do business.

This really is

a lens with which we see stuff all the time not just on one day or around one particular issue or one particular neighborhood and so finding the way to get there managing our collective impatience because we share that but also providing as much bedrock as we can so that we can have that expectation in a really realistic way

It's going to take several years of work.

And so I'm not saying we don't implement the tools in several years, but this year we mapped out, I mean today at our equity meeting we mapped out like a four year process where we were thinking year one, every single employee gets blank.

and we support with the following ways.

Year two, every single employee gets this and we support in the following ways.

We really talk about ways that this becomes an implementation strategy and not just a thinking strategy.

So you bring up a great point.

See, I think to that point, it's commendable, but I do think that there is value in us getting outside consultation or having discussions with other groups and entities who are indeed doing this work.

For example, there's a group, BGR, out of North Carolina, they basically train governments on how to look at equity tools.

There's groups out of DC.

I mean, I've been to a ton of these trainings.

There's so many people doing it.

But in any event, I think it's one thing for us to have access or, excuse me, get information just from analyzing other cities and municipalities.

But there's another for the city staff or even the lead team going and undergoing certain training.

Or even the counselors, for that matter.

GARE is known as the gold standard in equity training.

And so just my kind of challenge to what you're seeing now, Councillor Bellamy, is I look at the citizens who are spending their time on this committee and I think it's whether outside groups could give better information than they would.

We'll probably say no.

Well it's challenging.

It's difficult.

I mean the city

Change in all municipalities are often met with resistance when you're talking specifically about race.

We've dealt with it firsthand.

Talking about race oftentimes brings about a reaction in which makes individuals say, no, no, no, not me, not us, not here.

And then there's patterns and steps in which you have to go through to get to different points.

I do think, though, our community is more open to having these discussions.

and even looking at different ways in which we must operate from a not only political but philosophical perspective than many other localities.

And other localities are doing even more than us.

So if we're in a better place to be able to be open and deal with this stuff, which I think we are, then I think that we need to go forth with doing it.

And I think it's a boat that doesn't have to be an either or.

Like we all need to go through the equity training, but there also needs to be community equity.

No, because this is part of the problem.

It's when you, and I really do feel this way, I don't need an equity trainer.

Why not?

So we're not going to say we to make everybody else feel comfortable.

You can say you and them, but I'm not an individual who feels that this is where I need to spend my time.

So why are you saying we?

Why do you feel like you need it?

We have a discussion.

And the training is really how do we help other people learn it, right?

So whatever our perspectives might be, how do we help coach staff in all categories, particularly in managers and supervisors, to be able to support this as a mechanism for improving and changing the way that we implement our work.

I just want to emphasize, right, this is about, at the end of the day, how are we best going to serve the citizens, right?

And that's by a huge kind of change in our practice by making this a primary lens, right?

Because I could tell you that that beginning of the document, all those markers, those are things I said in August, right?

And that's because I know

that I've been involved with countless initiatives over the past 24 years that said we're going to do this about prenatal, we're going to do this about getting kids ready for kindergarten, we're going to do this about health.

We have to look at our part in all of that and so you know it's not my intent to pick on any department because I really believe that there's an application for every city department in thinking differently about this but so much time has been spent over the years talking about like police tonight or social services or something like that

but until you think differently and approach it differently then we won't make any difference and progress so that's the whole purpose of this and it's easy to give money to programs and you know this is not a knock on the work.

Council's done great work on equity over the last year but we've also put a lot of money into more programming instead of changing how we think.

Which again is why we all need it.

So what's the next steps in that regard?

I want to point out, Ms. Dimmick, that both the doctors back there, Drs.

Palmer and Douglas made faces when you turned away the money.

Give us whatever money you want to give us now but be prepared for another ask.

Absolutely.

We're waiting to hear from them.

So we applied.

You have to have made a reasonable effort in order to have them even give you some sort of thoughts on it.

So we started anyway.

We said this is what we're doing.

And is it enough for you guys to bring us into the party?

Because I do think there's going to be extraordinary learning to be done from other communities, particularly around this idea about how to influence impact and performance expectations and not just do a lot of training.

This is not about self-reflection.

We have equity packages, equity funds, like equity this and that, but there's still a lot for us to do.

If I may add something too, I just want to say that what is so obvious to me and what you're trying to do

It is trying to change the culture of the organization.

And we can have as many programs as we want about sustainability, equity, all the five points of our strategic plan.

But the rubber hits the road when it's implemented and the people implementing our staff.

And if our staff aren't mission driven, it's not going to happen.

It doesn't matter how much we do as a council.

So I really appreciate the fact that this is an understanding

that the culture of the people that do the implementation has to be on board with the very principles of the organization.

And I'm seeing it, it's the equity lens, but it's having an application to justice and environment and health, everything.

And I would just say, just to comment on that, it's not just staff.

I think council, the years that I've been coming before being here and after being here this year, I mean, how long have I been here?

A year and a few months.

The body as a whole will have to look at itself too and the direction that we give the staff members and the tone that we set in the community too.

And we'll just have to be mindful about this work as we are approaching three seats.

and how we feel about this work getting done.

So it's not just staff, because I've been in a lot of rooms where staff have had ideas or things that may get us to a more holistic place and we are giving them different directions.

Yeah, that's great.

But then when will we hear back in regards to the next steps?

So like what are our timeline for what happens next?

I know we're from gear, but then like that's just one component.

When you want us to come back?

Well, I think one, I'm not just trying to answer, but I think part of this is that since, you know, Mr. Murphy made this

you know probably the most important part of his work during this interim time is that this is probably why we're being presented with this overview today and that as a council when we are discussing work plan with our new city manager then this is a time for us to have the conversation about this work continuing and

I was flippant about when you want us to come back.

But this group is very specifically working towards identifying concrete goals and some expectations around process for you all to consider.

Yeah, that's fine.

That was a joke.

We may need some money.

But I think we have to look at formalizing that group into like so does that group become an official advisory task force?

Do they become a commission?

Because that's how it's done in other cities so that they can remain maintained on the books.

Because if this council changes and they say, well, we don't have a priority in terms of equity.

This group was asked to commit to six months of meetings and so I can't commit to them.

that will continue to formalize that.

But this group has also identified the need for some continued, both staff and community member combo advisory board, however formal that gets defined.

And so that will be part of the recommendations for what the structure is for continuing to support this.

And the six months for this group is up when?

in like a month.

How about, you know, they're going to work together for another three months.

That will coincide with when you're talking with Dr. Richardson about his plan and hopefully those things will align.

You know, I think why this has been an advisory

Coming out of the city manager's office is because it's very intentional to focus first on our internal business before we turn our views out to what we're going to do impacting out in the world.

And at that point, you want an advisory group and you want that to be council appointed?

I understand that part of Audley.

I'd just like for us to communicate these things so that everyone is very clear in regards to our expectations so that no one's in the dark and we know what's what.

So I know clearly when I can hear back from you all or expect to hear back and then what the next steps may be so that we can play accordingly.

I hear that we'll be back here with our formal recommendations within three months.

Just a quick question.

Do we have employee resource groups here?

Anything like that?

Because that's another way that in the private sector sometimes that you're institutionalizing diversity.

as a value is creating these employee groups that create more and they create a chain up to management about issues of concern and you can create more of them and it's a way to empower employees and create a much more dynamic organization around a lot of the topics that you're talking about.

But with the new city manager coming on, it's obviously key to know what he's going to

So far our conversations have always been yes and, and so we haven't chosen one or the other.

We believe that we're going to need multiple methods, formal and informal, to sort of get to the outcome we're describing, and that includes interdisciplinary employee-driven groups where there's a sense of safety to be able to explore and take risks around this kinds of issue.

Thank you.

Everyone's covered.

I'm not going to.

All right.

Thanks very much.

I do want to thank Mr. Murphy as well for making this such a priority.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor Walker, City Council, members of the public.

My name is Jason Vandiver.

I serve as city treasurer managing the city's investment portfolio.

And I also sit as a member on the city's retirement commission, which is a 10-member body charged with oversight of the city's retirement plan.

I appreciate the opportunity to address you tonight.

Before I start, I'd also like to recognize Chris Cullinan, director of finance, and John Blair, city attorney, who helped prepare the memo that you can find in your council packet.

My role here tonight is to provide you with a fascinating overview of the city's investment portfolio and both within the city's core operating funds and within those set aside specifically for the city's pension plan.

This report was requested by council as there's a growing interest in the individual holdings within the city's portfolio.

There's some public support and council interest in potential divestment from certain asset classes and that's what we're discussing tonight.

So it's important to note again that there are two separate pots of money that we're talking about here.

The first is the city's core investment portfolio, and that's comprised of our operating funds.

And that's just used to conduct normal city business, and depending on what time of year it is, that portfolio ranges from 50 to $100 million.

and that portfolio is managed by our office with the primary objectives of safety, liquidity and yield in that order.

Permitted investments are governed by the Code of Virginia and the city's own internal investment policy developed by the city treasurer.

Within this portfolio, the city holds investments such as money markets, CDs, negotiable CDs.

There's an investment in a state government investment pool run by the state treasurer.

And there's also short and intermediate debt obligations from both federal government and corporate agencies or public corporations.

The second portfolio of note is the city's retirement plan.

And that is comprised of approximately $154 million in assets.

And these are funds that have been set aside for both city and employee contributions for the future payment of retirement and medical benefits for city employees.

The plan's assets are diversified across the market with holdings in domestic and international stocks, real estate, agriculture, and fixed income investments such as government and corporate bonds.

City Code stipulates that the funds shall be maintained for the exclusive benefit of employees or their beneficiaries and they're held in trust by the city.

So these are not general operating funds.

They are fiduciary funds held in trust for plan participants.

So included in your agenda memo is further detail on the plan's investment policy and more details on specific fund managers and what their specific mandates are.

So the primary questions before you today are what is divestment?

Why would the city want to divest from certain asset classes?

Can the city divest from certain asset classes?

And what would the process look like to divest?

This is primarily precipitated by an interest in our investments in fossil fuels and weapons manufacturers.

Specifically, the retirement fund currently holds about $1.6 million in direct energy investments and approximately $2.2 million indirectly through index funds and other commingled investments.

Just some examples of holdings that would apply there would be Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell,

your drill manufacturers and things like that.

So regardless of what sector you might be interested in, it's important to kind of first take a step back and understand some of the concepts in the social investing space.

There are a lot of different terms that are sort of used interchangeably.

They've changed over the years.

and the sector has definitely grown a lot and there's a lot more interest in it now.

And so the first area that is sort of the umbrella that all of this falls under is sustainable, responsible and impact investing, also known as SRI.

And this is sort of an investment strategy designed to generate both long-term financial returns that are competitive and at the same time generate positive social impact.

SRI strategies include the consideration of what are known as ESG factors, which I'll talk about in a moment, positive or negative screening, so either including investments that align with sort of your moral or ethical guidelines or screening out ones that don't, community investing, shareholder resolutions, and shareholder engagement.

So ESG factors, which I mentioned a moment ago, that stands for environmental, social, and governance factors.

And these are additional factors beyond financial performance that might be considered when you're constructing a portfolio.

And these strategies are sort of layered on top of a fundamental financial analysis.

And they may or may not be financially driven, but they're sort of additional qualitative or quantitative factors that someone might use when they're building a portfolio.

and then of course divestment, which is one type of SRI investing where certain sectors or companies are excluded from a portfolio based on specific criteria.

So it's important to note that any investment decision taken by the Commission or any guidance provided by Council must be done solely in the interest of the plan's beneficiaries.

So we all collectively have a fiduciary responsibility to plan participants, so I'm a fiduciary, everyone in the Retirement Commission is a fiduciary, you all are fiduciaries, and so that's just something that we need to keep in mind.

And I don't say that to imply that we can't pursue a socially responsible investment strategy, but that investment decisions can't be made solely on the basis of collateral social objectives.

They have to be rooted in a financial interest that aligns with the plan's members and beneficiaries.

So you have to kind of put the work in to get to that point to make those sorts of decisions.

Certainly the interest in responsible investing has exploded over the past few years.

Individual investors have a lot of options when it comes to this area.

In the institutional investor space, which we're a part of, private pension plans would be a part of that.

Most of the activity that we've seen has been within endowments or foundations.

They have a little more flexibility than public plans do.

Currently there are not any public pension plans in Virginia who have implemented a widespread divestment strategy.

Nationally there are several plans that have been in the press recently such as New York City who have indicated a desire to divest from certain asset classes and they've just started that process.

So that's something that we will be watching for sure.

So what does all of this mean?

For the city's operating funds, which does not have the same standard of fiduciary care, we have a little more flexibility than we do on the retirement plan.

So as treasurer, I'd certainly be open to a resolution supporting the divestment of operating funds from the sectors that we're discussing tonight.

There would still be a process involved in taking that step.

I just want to reach out to our investment manager, make sure they understand what we're asking them to do, and then if it's Council's desire, come back in June with potential language for resolution regarding the city's operating funds.

The retirement fund is a little bit more complex.

We have to be able to defend both the investment decision that is made as well as the process by which that investment decision was made.

And so the commission is currently engaged in an RFP for an investment advisor.

And there are several criteria in that RFP where we've asked them to detail the experience they have working in sustainable investment practices as well as any divestment strategies that they've undertaken for other public pension plans.

We're expecting to get those results back towards the end of this month and make a selection next month and hopefully have a contract executed later this summer.

So our recommendation in regard to the retirement fund is to allow the commission this summer to make a selection from that RFP process and then immediately engage the advisor on this issue.

So I hope you can see that there are a lot of moving parts and complexities involved in any investment decision that a prudent process takes time to develop and implement.

I've met with many of the representatives from Divest Seville.

Some of them have spoken at the Retirement Commission.

They've spoken before you as a body.

And I think we understand the importance and urgency of this issue.

And we look forward if it's Council's desire to dive into this topic over the next few months and come back with some actionable steps and a path forward.

I do have a couple questions if I may, Mayor Walker.

So with regards to the retirement fund, because it's in the city charter, to change the criteria from say loyalty and care to

the more flexible criteria of the operating fund.

That would require an amendment to the charter which would then require general assembly permission and all that, right?

Yeah, I'm not sure we could do that.

And then the other thing is that there is there ever a situation where a municipality would provide the pensioners a choice so that there was an option to have a much more socially responsible pension fund.

But that I can imagine that has very difficulty, a lot of difficulty in managing that.

I don't know of any examples of that being done.

I do know that not all of our employees are in the pension plan.

Some of them are in a defined contribution plan where they are able to select their own investment options.

That would be great.

So people who have that particular contribution plan, they can be very explicit in the choices they're making and the selections of what they're investing that money in, or they can put that money into

A fund that is targeted for their year of retirement.

So I mean it runs the whole gamut and some people feel great comfort in really doing the research and picking and changing over time and some people I'm aware of chose the day they became an employee and have never moved the money.

So I mean it really depends on the individual.

And how stable is our retirement plan?

Are you asking about the pensions?

Yeah, I think it probably depends on how you're looking at stable.

I guess I'll answer it in two parts.

One is that the asset allocation that we have is fairly conservative when it comes to pension plans.

It's broadly diversified.

So in that sense, I would say that it's stable.

Which year was that?

So at 56% funded, and I guess based on your presentation, we wouldn't be able to do, make a decision that decreased that in any way, right?

I think a couple different pieces of that, you know.

It is at 56 now.

We've been making some progress.

Within 10 years when it started.

So, you know, hopefully that will

And is 80% the standard?

I think that's a goal.

I think that there's another side of this, what's the acronym, OPEB, stand for Jason?

Yeah, other post-employment benefits.

Right, which the city and I guess all localities are going to have to report on this.

We've been putting money aside into that for much longer than other localities, so we're in good funded status on that.

It's the combination of all these factors that we want to be looking at.

This other post-employment benefit?

Correct.

I think to your point, Mayor Walker, about what impact would divestment have on the funded status, that's one of the things that we need to look at.

There certainly is competing research on whether you can attain the same rate of return if you divest from a significant asset class, such as fossil fuels and energy.

There are several very public studies that have said that you can absolutely achieve the same rate of return.

Mayor Walker, I wanted to thank also you for your work.

I think that I really appreciate the topic being raised because it could go in different directions like your memo lays out.

And to me, I'm really eager to get

advice and to look through the RFP the socially responsible track because it's just philosophically it's really different to say we're going to use this the funds that we have to fund new benefit-driven sectors so like solar companies that if you're saying we're going to take out we're going to divest that's super compelling because it does raise the parallel with