City Council Meeting   7/21/2008

I call this meeting to order.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you Ms. Edwards.

Any other announcements?

Okay, we'll now move on to awards and recognitions.

It's my distinct pleasure tonight to honor a group of folks who work for the city and work for the community, the SWAT team for our Charlottesville Police Department.

And we have with us here Sergeant Tia Durette, who I'd like to invite forward.

The SWAT team recently was honored and received the regional SWAT team award.

It was a very, I understand, a very challenging competition over 20 teams from throughout the state and even beyond.

who came together and our team did a great job came in first place which showed the professionalism and the training and the dedication of our SWAT team members to their jobs and to this community and I know the SWAT team has also been instrumental in a couple of recent high profile cases with

a woman who had barricaded herself in our home and most recently over this past weekend with regard to an investigation of a very unfortunate homicide here in Charlottesville.

From their positions.

Joe Phillips, SWAT head.

Joseph Young, operator.

They're very modest people.

Each one of these SWAT team members wear multiple hats in our police department.

This is not their only duty and responsibility yet.

Sixteen hours a month they train.

They train very hard.

It's the kind of resource when you need them and by the grace of God we don't need them often.

But when we do, it's a resource that is just remarkable and adds so much value to our police department and our community.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you again to each of you for your service.

We're now going to move on to Matters by the Public.

We will accept comment at three minutes each.

And please, when you come forward, state your name and give your address.

I don't know if this is on.

I don't think it's on.

Sorry.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Councillors.

Collette Hall, 101 Robertson Lane.

Mr. Mayor, on the consent agenda, item R, Ordinance Zoning Amendment Regarding Compliance Enforcement, which is Section 34 to 81 of Article 1 of Chapter 34 of the Charlottesville City Code.

I'm requesting that a counselor or the city attorney explain the change in this ordinance and how this will affect individual property rights.

The second item, Jim Tolbert, Director of NDS, at one time spoke about an ordinance where large trucks and super buses will not be allowed to continually run, generating exhaust and noise while parked on Market Street behind the Paramount.

This morning, when an 18-wheeler unloading into the Paramount and one Superbus parked both had their engines on.

Why does a truck need to be on during unloading?

About an hour later, two super buses, so therefore a total of three buses, all running their engines, replaced the truck.

The city developed a green vision statement.

They put a green roof on City Hall, they built the LEED-certified transit center building, plus several other measures.

Yet these vehicles negatively affect Market Street, Central Library Entrance and Lee Park with exhaust fumes and noise.

My last point.

I just paid our homeowners insurance annual premium.

The insurance company appraised our house and land one-third less, which is approximately $150,000 less than the city assesses its worth.

Our reputable insurance company tells us that the house is not worth what the city assesses.

So we will expect a significant drop in our 2009 assessment due to the fall in housing market values.

And I think many other homeowners will as well.

Thank you, Ms. Hall.

Good evening, Council.

I am here to speak as a cheerleader, to tell you that the Ordinance T is well worth your time and effort tonight to limit truck traffic on Old Lynchburg Road, the residential part that goes from Azalea Park to Jefferson Park Avenue.

When you identify Old Lynchburg Road, it needs to be identified in three segments.

You have Old Lynchburg Road that runs in front of Mosby Mountain and Biscuit Run.

That's a two-lane country road.

Then you have Old Lynchburg Road, four lanes that's connected to Fifth Street Extended.

That's the wide portion.

and then you have two cut throughs over to the residential portion from that wide portion to the very narrow Old Lynchburg Road residential portion that from Azalea Park to JPA is still a city street of a minimum of 25 miles per hour which is well earned and anybody that speeds on that street earns their speeding ticket

and then we have these huge trucks that have found that if they come off of 64, they go to Old Lynchburg Road.

Which part?

Well, somehow they're finding the residential end and we are still narrow.

We still have no sidewalks.

We have an open drainage ditch.

We still have a family park and a family swimming pool at the other end.

and we now have increased pedestrians trying to get to the bus stop and into town and we have increased bicyclists who are trying to get up Old Lynchburg Road safely.

Now if you've never seen a huge 18-wheeler coming up Old Lynchburg Road, narrow as it is, with all the challenges that we currently have along our residential street,

I welcome all of you to connect with my kitchen calendar.

I will walk it with you.

We will walk from Azalea Park up to JPA and then we will envision that 18-wheeler trying to make a turn at the corner of JPA and OLR.

It's not done easily and it jams that intersection and when they cross over that double yellow line, it throws everybody who has this rude awakening of someone coming around those five blind curves, where do you go to move your vehicle, your bicycle, or your pedestrian feet off safely to avoid being hit?

So I applaud you.

Thank you Ms. Chase.

Good evening, Council.

I'm Pastor William Coles, pastor of the Loving Church of God in Christ, and I'm founder and president of the African American Male Forum, located 1717 A. Allied Lane in the city of Charlottesville.

The purpose of this report to council is to bring awareness of the forum and its activities, to bring awareness of the issues of African American males in the city as it relates to crime and crime prevention, to gain support of the council for the forum, the Loving Church, and its efforts.

I founded the African American Male Forum in 2007 to address the issues that affect African American males.

In 2007, the forum assisted in stopping violent youth attacks that were occurring in the downtown area.

This incident had galvanized our first priority, reducing the incarceration rate of African American males.

And we believe that crime is down currently partly due to our efforts of encouraging African Americans to stay out of criminal activity.

We could also seek a resource if there was a correlation between being idle, the level of education, or lack thereof, and involvement in criminal activity.

Therefore, we formally plan to address two main determinants, education and organized summer activities.

The lack or insufficiency of which influences incidences of environmental and criminal activity by African American youth in the city of Charlottesville.

The plan involves a two-phased approach.

Phase one focused on the performance of African American youth in the South Shore school system.

Phase two, which is focused on involving African American youth in organized summer activities.

In the summer of 2007, we had a founding Sunday at building middle school to inform and educate the African American community as to the issues that we face in regards to the plight of African American males in our community and how this narrative affects our community and the overall quality of life in Charlottesville for all.

The attendance was good so we followed up with a family date on July 13th this year.

and the focus was on getting the world out and organizing families for the upcoming school year.

It also produced positive results.

Additionally, we're going door to door, planning rallies in targeted neighborhoods, trying to reach as many families as we can to implement our plan and recruit males and support for those males.

The data pertains to African American male academic performance in our school system is nebulous.

It's hidden in the overall school performance of the African American student body.

The majority of the students on the other side of the achievement gap are African American.

The majority of those are African American males.

The majority of the dropouts of the African American student body are African American males.

This is manifested in the underemployment, unemployment, and the crime statistics.

People who commit crimes should be subject to the system.

However, commitment of a crime means that harm to someone or damage to a loss of property has occurred.

Therefore, the effort of the farm is to get in front of the problem of crime committed by African American males and keep them from committing crimes in the first place.

Thank you for your time.

Good evening, Council.

I'm Hallo Bowen.

I'm a Director in the Office of the Locust Hill Graveyard Foundation.

and I'm speaking also on behalf of the Homefront chapter of the Lewis and Clark Heritage and Trail Heritage Foundation, all of which are 501C3 charitable organizations.

In 1932, it was authorized for a bus to Meriwether Lewis to be placed in the old hall in the Capitol in Richmond and now 76 years later, these two organizations have taken it upon themselves to bring us to Bath

We are 97% complete on our fundraising.

The best is going to conclusion right now.

It will be given to the state of Virginia and the dedication will be on the 18th of August of this year, which is May 11th of this birthday.

would like for the city council to express an interest on our interest in the concept of having a commemorative memorial on the downtown mall.

This memorial would be a piece of dreaded granite, grey granite with a slanted front.

It would have two plaques on it, one on the front, one on the back.

The front plaque would contain a bas-relief of the best placed in the old hall.

a commemorative inscription and a portion of a tribute to Marilena Lewis written by Thomas Jefferson in 1813.

The back plaque would recognize the project sculptor as well as the major patrons who made the project possible.

In the handout that I gave you there's a digital illustration of the two plaques and then the last page shows you the dimensions which shows that it would be about 40 inches high

22 inches wide, 19 or 3 inches deep at the bottom and 6 inches deep at the top.

This would be a gift to the city from the Locust Hill Bayyard Foundation and from the Homefront Chapter if you all have an interest in entertaining Hamony Memorial of this type on the Mall.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Joshua Baer.

I work for the Hope Community Center at 341 11th Street, Northwest.

And I would first like to say, Councilman Brown, I commend you on your dedication of riding your bike.

When I passed you on the way here, it was 98 degrees, and you were in a shirt and tie, riding your bike, keeping our city green, so I appreciate that, sir.

To update you on our work with the homeless here in Charlottesville, it's been six weeks.

In that six-week time,

are working cohesively with TJAC, Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless, picking people up three mornings a week, Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, allowing them to take showers for the homeless here in Charlottesville and the working poor.

This is the only place that they have for a public facility to take showers, so we're offering that to them.

There is not another agency in Charlottesville who is offering that service.

I also have been out setting up

some tent villages in our green spaces so that our homeless have a place to stay.

Thirty-five days ago we did not have the funds.

Since then someone has come and given me the funds to do that.

So I wanted to update you in our process of taking care of the poor citizens of your community.

Thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to do that.

We are also actively seeking a piece of property here for a shelter.

The possibility of that in the future, the population's growing.

Is it possible here in Charlottesville to find that piece of property?

We're working with Mr. Tolbert and zoning to see if it's possible.

So just to let you know, to update you, this is what we're doing.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

The next speaker, I cannot read the name, but resides at Woods Edge in Albemarle County.

I wanted to speak on... Well, are you with this person?

Oh, okay, that's fine.

Annie Corland, okay, thank you.

Come on forward.

Okay, come on, Mr. Hall.

That's fine.

When the chicks are down, they come forward, they're shaken down.

And why did they do that?

You can't imagine how nervous they are when they approach the bench.

What I would like to do is stand over here.

I understand that I'll still be seen.

and I can look at the audience as well as the council.

I think that's appropriate because I think it's offensive to have my back to the audience.

First of all, I'd like to say that I am one of them.

I'm recovering and actually being cured of bipolar disorder and at one point in my life I was frozen, psychotic.

People have said that

I am totally in the range and cannot believe that I'll be fully recovered in a couple of months or so, maybe a few months.

It's on my schedule and it's on God's schedule.

Right here, I'm taking dental code.

500 milligrams each evening.

I'm still doing that.

When these run out, I'm on a switch.

250 milligrams, this is all I have left.

My hand is being forged because Region 10 will not do business according to my plans.

In 2007, I went to try to patch things up with my hand.

They conspired on my back because they thought eating was healthy.

So therefore, they got ghetto with some crack doctors.

There are some black professionals that reach 10th on the way.

They have taken me and TDOB, ECOB, a total of 8 times.

This is taking a lot of time out of my life.

They force you to take very close medication even by injection or by mouth.

These are very powerful drugs.

They do permanent damage to your body.

I have two cataracts in my eyes.

I have some heart damage that's been done to me.

I think that I'm overcoming the damage that's thought to be permanent to my heart.

However, I have not overcome the damage that has been done to my eyes.

This is malpractice.

Now in Kansas, they have a place called Osohone State Hospital, where I was taken after 43 days on super masks

Super maximum security for all the rapists and murderers and killers.

Tell you about rescue halls.

Rescue halls are very important.

First one being in Booker T. Washington Park.

Here's UVA property.

It's all in a red V. It's based on education.

We can get tax exempt status for our rescue hall underneath the park, maintain a green top roof.

We can put shower fonts, talk about taking care of homeless people.

We can shower five people at a time on the male side, five people at a time on the female side.

I'm going to have to cut you off there.

See, he helped me determine the location of this first part.

Most of all, I welcome you if you'd like to stay for the end of the meeting and you can speak again at the end of the meeting.

I understand.

Ms. Cortland, would you like to speak?

No, okay.

Good evening.

My name is Raymond Mason.

I live at 717 Cynthia Avenue.

I'm here by the police advisory committee.

I think it's a good idea, something that the city needs, but I have a few reservations.

The fact that they won't really have any authority or any strength, that concerns me.

Back sometime ago, the same department violated over 150 rights of black males in this town with the DNA situation.

Seems like there needs to be a check and balance system or somebody needs to be held accountable, someone that can hold the department accountable.

I know this is a good step in the right direction, but like I said, I still feel that

It would be a lot better if the panel could, you know, make decisions and, you know, actually, if disciplinary action was needed, they could take action or they could, you know, talk to the chief and they could come to some terms.

I mean, it'd be good and bad.

The chief might want to suspend you and take a day's pay.

The board might just want to suspend you for a day for some mishap or something.

But I just feel like without any strength, I mean, basically, they'd just be talking to themselves.

and I would hope that you would consider that what I've said and maybe reconsider and let it, you know, look into it a little more and see what, you know, what benefits or what thoughts it would have, but I just feel like I think the chief could still function as a chief with that board.

It's like the department shouldn't or doesn't have anything to hide, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Like I said, it'd be good for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing and vice versa, but I mean, I just don't see, you know, a board not having any authority.

It just, to me, it's a waste and I hope maybe I can do something about it.

That's the last person to sign up to speak.

Is there anybody else?

Ms.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Councilors.

I'm Karen Waters, the Executive Director of the Quality Community Council, here on a couple of items of business today.

First of all, I wanted to say a quick thank you so much for your support of our urban farm out at 6th and Monticello.

We are this season

up to nearly 100 volunteers.

We had 110 at the close of last season and we are at I think it's something like 85 this season.

And so we just want to say thank you very much for your support of that project.

We've got our rainwater system up and going.

Mr. O'Connell, I have an award for you on my desk from last week.

So we will be back with a fuller report on that, but I wanted to just put that on the radar screen.

Also wanted to say a quick thank you for your continued support of the African American Cultural Arts Festival, realizing that we're asking council to go a little bit above and beyond there.

and we just want to say again thank you so much for supporting it which is now in its 18th year.

The main reason I'm here tonight though is to speak about the senseless killings that we're seeing of young men in our community.

We were very hurt and disappointed to see such a violent act happen so close to such a happy place as our farm and I am here on behalf of the Magruder family and they've asked me to read a statement.

To whom it may concern, we've written these few words with the express reason to appeal to the children of Charlottesville to stop committing these awful crimes of hate and violence against each other.

They need to understand that not only are they destroying families that have to live on with the loss of their loved ones, they also destroy their own families who live with the guilt of knowing that their child committed such an act.

It goes without saying that the persons who are responsible for a family member has created a huge emptiness in our family.

No matter what happened between Joshua and the suspects, Joshua did not deserve to be gunned down.

While Joshua is no longer here, we just hope that this is the last of a senseless killing.

We do not want revenge.

We only want to see that someone is held responsible and accountable for their behavior, the Magruder family.

I just want to add to this that I'm pleased to be wrapping up a term on the board of the housing authority and one of the first acts that we did as a commissioner was to pass a trespassing policy which we were requested to do by the police department.

We were told that this was the tool that they needed to help make public housing safer.

Sadly,

There was nothing done about the trespassing that was happening at Sixth Street.

I would much prefer to see this young man in trouble for trespassing than dead.

So I ask that council would give the police department the resources that they need to be able to do the work that needs to be done as well as to support the community organizations that are doing the work that's necessary to help end this assault on our African American men.

Thank you, Ms.

Waters.

Is there anybody else that would like to speak?

Mr. Shamm, thank you all for coming here tonight.

Zachary Sheahan, 701 East High Street, also Executive Director of the Alliance for Community Choice and Transportation.

I just wanted to, I'm just coming out here tonight to, in support and gratefulness for your work with the Safe Ruses School projects that you've been awarded and that you're helping with matching funds to make happen.

I think it's great that you put in the staff time and putting in the matching funds that are necessary.

Thank you, Mr. Shane.

Anybody else like to speak?

We'll now close matters by the public.

Dr. Barron?

I'll speak first.

It's hard not to be affected by the death of someone in our community.

I was a soccer coach.

for the young man who was killed and his brother and good kid.

We do whatever we can to try to make sure the police do have the tools necessary.

I think some things are really hard to prevent, but it's also not just a police issue and I think our work session on poverty will go some way to helping address some of the factors that underlie that.

I just want to make a few other comments.

To Ms. Hall, I want to make sure she realized, she's probably aware that the city has a policy about not idling our own vehicles, and I think the General Assembly just gave us the authority to regulate commercial vehicles.

I'm not positive about that.

If that's the case, I hope they'll pursue it.

If it's not exactly the case, I hope they'll

You know, I put that on a legislative packet, but it seems to me that there's something to pass this year that will allow the city to regulate that.

I agree completely with that.

I'm going to thank Pastor Coles for the work he's doing with the African American Male Forum.

I mean, I think nothing speaks to how important it is in the events of this weekend.

And finally I wanted to, I encouraged Mr. Bowen to come forward to city council so he could get a sense of where council is on his generous offer of a monument.

My personal opinion however is that we've been talking a lot about the importance of not trying to change the mall too quickly.

I wanted to make a comment on Mr. Burns' proposal

for a monument.

I think the idea of having a monument is a good idea.

I am not sure it is in the world of the right place for it.

There is a market street where the U.S. had a historic connection to that site.

And I think if we were going to have it, it would be good to have some place, some connection to the actual events.

And when he came back, I think it was in Market Street, where the location is.

I don't know the exact location,

I would agree with Mr. Huja on Mr. Bowen's proposal and I would like to go ahead and pursue that.

Of course, I think we need to talk with Mr. Bowen, too, as to how he feels about the brother-in-law and them all to be interested in doing it on the market stream.

I'm sorry, I was just saying that we need to talk to you too.

I don't know whether your group would be interested in doing it on Market Street.

I don't know, I didn't think so.

Okay.

I don't know who that is.

Okay.

To Mr. Bellman, thank you for the generous offer of the gift.

And I also have concerns about the location being the mall.

And I also would like to get more feedback from other people that live in and around the mall to see what their thoughts and ideas might be about such a great contribution.

Pastor Coles and Joshua Baird, thanks again for coming forward to reminding us of the work that's done in the community and the work that continues to need to be done.

And my condolences to the Magruder family.

It frames things differently because

There's so much work that we need to do as an entire community that it makes some of the discussions that we have and some of the decisions that we make seem so out of place.

We have to get back in touch with what's important and what we value.

But we seem to miss that until there's a loss in the community.

I want us all to take advantage of this moment, to decide what we all can do, what we all can do to create a sense of community in every neighborhood.

I think it's kind of timely that we're talking about our police force, the renovation of

The needs of the homeless, the programs that are needed for African American males.

It's all connected in our community, but we have to make it.

Thank you, Ms. Edwards.

I couldn't say it better myself.

I do also extend sympathies to the Magruder family.

Sadney episode in the life of our community.

We will be talking later in the meeting about the police department.

I know that's one piece of the puzzle that we need to look at and many other pieces to this puzzle.

I share the sentiments expressed by Mr. Huja and Dr. Brown and Mr. Taliaferro about the location of the monument.

I do appreciate the gesture and I think there's probably

a good place for it to be found, but I'm not sure when we're talking about simplifying the mall and decluttering the mall if we want to also be talking about adding another monument to the mall, but I think we can work together to find a good home for it.

I do want to also extend appreciation to Josh Baer for the work that you continue to do on behalf of the homeless.

and I'm glad to hear that you've had some funding to be able to continue to reach out and serve their needs.

Mr. Mayor, members of council,

The proposed amendment is to city code section 34-81C and that code provision currently provides that in terms of zoning, property does not become a nonconforming use if a portion of the property is either purchased or condemned by either the federal, state, or local government.

In other words, if the condemnation of property brings the property below the size allowed by the zoning ordinance, what our ordinance says is that property doesn't become nonconforming.

the property owner is not punished by that.

The proposed amendment merely adds one word, which is the word acquisition.

And the effect of that is that if a portion of a site is acquired by the government by any means and not just by purchase or condemnation, then the property does not become nonconforming.

It is still conforming under our zoning ordinance.

So to respond to this specific question,

We're now going to move on to appointments to city boards and commissions.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move the following appointments to the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transportation Plan Advisory Committee, John Schroeder, to the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority, Sherry Clark, Jason Halbert and Hosea Mitchell, to the Monticello Area Community Action Agency Board, Joy Johnson,

Any discussion?

Please indicate your vote.

and I would note for the record as Ms. Barter said when she came forward she is rocking up her term and has decided not to reapply for the Housing Authority Board and we want to publicly thank her for her service to that board.

We are also going to be doing interviews

For the Planning Commission the week of August 4th, the applications for that are open until August 4th and we have a couple of other boards that are extending deadlines for the Charles Albemarle Commission on Children and Families.

We still have a couple of vacancies there to fill and also the Social Services Advisory Board.

Thank you again.

Ms. Wallace, we just publicly thank you when you're out in the hallway for your service to the Housing Authority Board.

We'll now move on to our consent agenda.

We have a lengthy consent agenda tonight.

Item A is the minutes of July 7th.

Item B is an appropriation of $16,230, State Criminal Alien Assistance Program grant, second of two readings.

Item C is an appropriation of $244,789, a transit grant, second of two readings.

Item D is an appropriation of $30,000, Homeland Security grant, second of two readings.

Item E is an appropriation of $5,750, Boys and Girls Club reimbursement, first of two readings.

Item F is an appropriation of $11,000 Police Department Foundation grant, first of two readings.

Item G is an appropriation of $1,500 Fire Programs Grant, first of two meetings.

Item H is an appropriation of $5,000 Arts Challenge Grant, first of two meetings.

Item I is an appropriation of $88,522, a donation for enhanced police coverage, first of two meetings.

Item J is an appropriation of $182,500 Adult Drug Treatment Court Grant, first of two meetings.

Item K is an appropriation of $328,280 Safe Routes to School grant, first of two readings.

Item L is a resolution authorizing Safe Routes to School grant, first of one reading.

Item M, a resolution authorizing transfer of funds from Council Reserve for African American Festival, first of one meeting.

Item N is a resolution and license agreement for encroachment of Eves and Belden onto East Main Street and 3rd Street, Southeast, Downtown Mall, first of one meeting.

Item O is an ordinance renewing the Sprint franchise agreement, second of two meetings.

Item P, ordinance renewing Intellis franchise agreement, second of two readings.

Item Q, an ordinance renewing Martha Jefferson Hospital franchise agreement, second of two readings.

Item R, his own amendment regarding compliance and enforcement, second of two readings.

Item S, an ordinance establishing criteria for affordability with respect to imposition of water and sewer connection fees, second of two readings.

And finally, item T, an ordinance prohibiting truck travel on Old Minchburg Road, first of two readings.

Second.

Any further discussion?

Please indicate your vote.

Motion carries.

Thank you very much.

On the published agenda for our meeting tonight, we had an ordinance and a public hearing regarding the lease of 202nd Street, Northeast of the Historical Society as the first two meetings.

We have removed that from the agenda tonight to allow for some further discussions with the tenant.

So we will now move forward to item three in our agenda, public hearing and resolution, Downtown Mall Restoration.

I'm going to try to go through this fairly quickly, Castle, because a lot of it is stuff you've already seen, but it's confirming a lot of the things that you asked us to do and decisions that have been made since the last meeting.

Why do we need to do this?

Albemarle is over 30 years old and we've determined that many of the physical improvements are failing.

According to the law engineering report in the late 90s, the motor is deteriorated underneath the brakes and between the brakes and many of the brakes are cracked and broken and unusable.

Electrical systems serving the lights is in very poor condition and the lights are worn and do not meet dark sky or energy efficiency standards.

We've had several claims that people have filed and we've had to pay that have resulted in a lot of money for injuries sustained from trips and falls.

The fountains are essentially inoperable.

The water that is in them is water we have to bring in by truck and put in them and then run them through the motors and so there's issues there.

These are some examples of the bricks and I think if you walk 10 feet down the mall you can see this at any point.

any place.

They're missing bricks, bricks that are heaving and cracked bricks.

The lights, as I said, the lights are, they look fine if you walk and look at them in these pictures, but if you go down there any given night there may be an entire block that's out and they do not meet all the dark skies or any energy efficiency standards.

The fountains, this was a good day, the fountains were working.

And we've got some issues with trees but very limited and this is one in particular that

needs to be replaced.

The tree grates, we have tree grates that have become black plywood and others where the trees are being girdled by the bricks and the grates exist.

Additionally, why would we want to do this?

The mall is a very important part of the tax base.

There's over 2 million square feet of residential retail entertainment and office space, over 223 million in assessed value in the downtown area, hundreds of businesses, 50 plus restaurants, and it's a key generator of meals and sales tax and a destination for many folks.

According to the law report, the slab underneath the bricks is in good condition.

The problem is the mortar, and when that was done in the late 90s, 10 to 15% of the bricks were cracked and unusual at that time, and we know it's gotten worse.

We've been through a lengthy process to get here.

Actually, these slides started in 2007, but I go back to even 2002, 2003, when Wallace, Roberts and Todd did the master plan.

There was a lot of public process and a plan that they did.

But since October, when we engaged MMM, shortly after we engaged them, we've had a number of public meetings, presentations to the BAR, a business impact study, key stakeholder meetings, and then community meetings or alternatives.

All that culminating in a meeting on June 30th, a meeting that was attended by well over 100 people.

I had a sign-in sheet with 128 names on it and I know there were a lot of people that never did sign in, so it was very well attended.

Also, we're in the process of launching the Block Captain internal communication system now and our marketing planning with the downtown merchants.

Out of that came, out of this process came several things that were, statements that were made.

One is to preserve the historic halperin design to the maximum extent possible.

There was concern expressed at that last meeting about the cost and that those speaking urged the council to either reuse existing brick and simply repair and repoint.

Our new brick was necessary to use the 4x12 brick and put it in a mortar setting.

There was a lot of feeling, a lot of issues that came out of that meeting that were based on that.

The design, we haven't changed since the last meeting except in our recommendations that we'll get to in a minute.

We're recommending that the section you see here, essentially from Old Preston to Water Street, not be done at this time because it is the newest, it was not part of the original Halperin design.

and we can save substantial dollars and get within our budget.

It will help us greatly get within the budget by not doing this at this time.

Old Preston to Water, again, no changes here.

We've taken out everything that was added, replacing the lights, the bricks, leaving the trees with no changes.

Second West to First Street, again, the same approach.

with no new improvements.

Typical mall section is what it looks like now.

This is what it would continue to look like.

First to Second East, again, the same approach, no changes.

Central Place, the one thing I would point out is that four trees shown here, of course

Two of those are currently down.

The other two are very diseased.

It would come out there.

Those are the only two trees that we propose to take out at this time.

Again, Central Place will look like Central Place does.

Third east to 4th Street, no changes here.

There were some additional bands proposed in some places.

Those have all come out.

Same thing in 4th Street East to 5th Street East Again repairing the fountains, no new fountains though 5th to 6th, again the same thing, the play area that we talked about in this area is not in the plan at this time but would be preserved and discussed further for possible later implementation Design elements, again renovate the central place fountain

renovate the current fountains, the other smaller fountains the lights, retain the existing light fixtures, retain the existing steel planters and actually add more use the same bench we have there the bench is not of course the original bench, those were replaced back five or six years ago, but we would add more of those

We've gone to a trash can and recycling can that are much better on our folks that are emptying them's backs and those we would keep and add more.

The direction we heard from the council at the June 16th meeting included several things.

One is do not widen the west end at Water Street.

Do not add new fountains.

Use the existing lights but comply with dark skies and use LED lights.

No permanent cafe enclosures, no newspaper box corrals, no sister city plaza, no additional public art.

Do not alter the tree pattern, yes to Wi-Fi, yes to the use of granite, add drinking fountains, no playground for now but study for future possibility, and to conditionally use the 4x12 bricks, but at that point do additional study on the 4x12 bricks.

Other cost savings since that time that we recommended the one first one I mentioned to you, which is the removal of all the work between the Omni and the Ice Park from Old Preston to Water Street, would save us roughly a half million dollars.

Removal of the new areas of granite banding, and then we're saying replace 20% fewer new flower pots, bike racks and benches.

That doesn't mean don't replace them or remove them.

We had numbers in there

for new items, those additional items, and what we're recommending is that we take 20% of those off.

Again, this is to help us get within the budget.

I recall seven changes.

Only three trees would be removed.

One of those is the Willow Oak Stump in front of the Virginia National Bank.

The other two are the Red Maples that I showed you in front of the hotel.

We are proposing to keep the plan that we put in place to do plantings on park property so that when we have to replace trees, we have some trees that are of a suitable size and not two-inch caliper to use when the time comes.

Second Street had been added in the budget that we had and that's being worked out with the developer of the Charlottesville Hotel to coordinate with them and they don't actually do that work so it's taken out of this project.

Brick issues, the ever-moving target.

And I would like to recognize Brandy Schaeffer from the Brick Association who has come just to visit and watch us here but she's been a great help on the phone with her engineers.

They taught me a lot about bricks in the last couple of weeks and some things that our engineers already were talking about but essentially they recommended that when our original brick model was constructed the bricks were dry packed and they said don't do that again.

That is not the way to do it in dry packed mortar.

Essentially they said 4x12 or 4x8 is not as stable in sand as laid in mortar but that either application will work.

They said that the 4x12 in sand, they can't find anybody either that's tried it, and so it's an engineering theory that it might not be as stable, but again, there's no practical application that says it won't.

For long term maintenance and ease of access to underlying utilities that regulate in sand, it's much easier to use and has advantages.

This is a

computer drawing of what the difference would be on them all.

The motor on the left, the sand set on the right to show you the difference and we are proposing the sand set 4 by 12s at this point.

The mall crossings, these are some of Halprin's notes and we thought that that piece right there was really interesting given the debate that we've been through in the past.

But he recognized that there was a potential for vehicular crossings on the mall.

As you know we've got two, second and fourth.

and what we're suggesting here is that the existing slab we've removed, lowered and strengthened that we use the 4x8 pavers and again we've talked to the BAR informally about this, they don't go doing it but the BAR feels strongly that the mall crossings are not part of the original part of the mall and that we ought to distinguish them as well as the side streets in some way and so we're recommending here that we use the 4x8 pavers and of course we would use the ADA

The warning surfaces that would allow pedestrians as they come up to know that there's a crossing there.

Remaining VAR issues, the brick, we've got to get formula approval once you decide what you want to do.

Again, we're recommending 4 by 12 laid in sand.

That's the direction they would like us to go.

The runners, the drainage runners on the mall, we're recommending keep those as they are.

The reason for that is that we've learned that you need a hard edge for sand set bricks to butt up against.

The runners will provide that.

They will be repaired and remottered.

and used essentially exactly as they are.

The final water fountain design needs to go to the BAR.

A tree-rate design that allows us to replace those lovely black plywood pieces with something that's more appropriate and can grow and be easily opened up as the trees grow.

and would meet ADA standards.

Cost phasing and schedule.

Again, we hired Barton Mallo as our construction manager.

This schedule, to do it all in the first of the year, anticipates that we will complete construction documents in October of 2008 and that we will start really after a few votes were approved tonight that we would start acquiring things and moving forward with the project because there's a lot of things that need to happen

before we start actual real hard construction in January of 2009.

This is the original cost estimate that we were working off of three weeks ago and I don't know if you can see that number, Council's had it in their packet of 9.1 million and we've been talking 7.5 million all along using the WRT numbers from back in 2002.

This is a very detailed cost estimate.

Bart Mellow has gone through it with our engineers and has really looked at how we can cut it.

It was a million six over budget.

These are some of the changes.

This is a detailed report, a log that they go through, and they've looked at ways that they can reduce the budget.

They also looked at, because we've been asked, what happens if you lay the brick in mortar instead of sand set?

they estimate it's a million plus dollars added to the budget and it stretches the project out to an additional 18 to 24 months more than likely to do that and the other question was what if we reuse the existing brick and checkpoint it and that's another half a million dollars and the same length of time on top of the schedule that we have

So they've gone through and revised the budget.

As you can see, we're down to $7,471,000 at this point.

This does allow some contingency, all of our management costs, all those things to get in.

So we are below the seven and a half.

We're still massaging that, but we did get it below the seven and a half that we have discussed consistently.

We have a phasing plan that's not completely finalized until we meet with the downtown businesses.

But essentially, what Barton Albemarle is talking about doing is working in four places at any given time, doing demolition in four places and then moving in immediately with the reconstruction crews.

and keeping them moving from time to time.

One question that's come up is what if you hit something unknown, what does that do to the schedule?

They feel like by having four crews here that they can pull a crew in the area where there is a problem, get in and work on it, have them working on one of the other areas and not miss a beat and keep going.

Where if they were just working one crew in one area, you run into a problem, you might have to pull them off while you brought subs in.

So this schedule anticipates that we would be finished, a very detailed schedule.

It anticipates, like I say, starting next week with some items, but it has us completing by the first week of May.

So we're essentially on the schedule that we've talked about consistently, and they feel confident, again, if we get started, that we can meet that schedule.

We've also been looking at maintenance.

We brought our Parks and Recreation Department in to talk with us about

How do we build these things so that they can be easily and efficiently maintained?

They've developed a very detailed maintenance schedule and are still working through that, but I just want you to know that that's not something we've forgotten about and they're part of the team as we attempt to get through the maintenance.

We also have a communications and marketing plan.

We've identified working with the DBAC block captains, and they actually had their first meeting, I believe.

I get them confused about the block captains versus the marketing, but the block captains had their first meeting last week and have started working through.

They're going to be the primary point of communication that we use as we go through the process.

So as we have issues, as they have concerns, those people will be the ones working with us.

We're having a construction marketing plan that's in development and again, here we're trying to develop a plan of how we can get the word out that the mall is still open for business and do as everything we can to promote the mall and work with the businesses to do that.

Again, on the recommendation of Beth Meyers, we will be assembling a design assistance committee that's going to help with all those remaining design issues and any change orders that come up if we have design issues to advise us, advise the BAR as we move forward.

The recommendation tonight is essentially to recommend that we formalize those things that you said before, including do not complete the West End to Water Street, which is one of the ones we've added, no new fountains, use existing lights, no permanent cafe enclosures, no newspaper box corrals, no Sister City Plaza, no additional public art, do not offer the tree pattern, only removing the two red maples and one stump,

including Wi-Fi, using Granite, and I would say that we're back in 30 years ago reviewing that and trying to see how we can do that cost-effectively.

That may be something we have to sacrifice, but we're trying not to at this point.

Not do the play area and use bricks that are 4 by 12 set in sand.

Any questions for Mr. Talbot before we open the public hearing?

Mr. Huja.

I noticed that you had Plaza and Westerland not being repaired.

We would do everything that was part of the original.

Right, right.

The drawing, we haven't done that.

Any questions?

Mr. Tolbert, I know

former counselor Lynch suggested we explore more cost-effective ways of installing Wi-Fi downtown.

We're doing that.

We wanted to keep the figure that we had for now because we haven't resolved that issue, but we're looking at that.

Other questions before we open the public hearing?

Thank you, Mr. Tolbert.

We've had a number of people sign up to speak at the public hearing, and again, please keep your comments to three minutes.

and our city council, city staff.

I came here to deliver a petition on behalf of the downtown businesses and the business association in support of this project.

I'd like to read it into the record and hand it to you.

As you know, we've been supporting this project from the very beginning and this is, we hope, our last opportunity to do that.

Dear city council, we, the undersigned, are in support of the city's downtown pedestrian mall project.

We are aware that the voices of support often go unheard

We would like to remind council those voices and more are still in support of this project.

We understand that this is an expensive project and there are many competing budget requests for funding worthwhile projects.

We believe that this project should have priority of serving the entire community by revitalizing the downtown mall, which has served as a major economic engine for the city.

We strongly believe that this considerable investment will provide an excellent return to the city and our community over many years.

As members of the downtown business community and downtown businesses, we compliment the city on their efforts to address our concerns about the disruption of business activity and the negative impact it may cause.

We urge you to pursue this project as expeditiously as possible during the most advantageous season to minimize this disruption and to follow all best construction management practices as you proceed.

and this is signed by numerous downtown businesses.

In addition, I'd like to just make one quick comment which is that I have been involved with this project since the very beginning of the WRT effort and truly I have never seen a project have this much review and this much support and this much involvement in the community.

I believe what you have ended up with is a really remarkable effort on behalf of city staff and the construction teams and the design teams.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members.

I would just like to read my statement into the record for you, please.

We are appealing to the good business sense of our council to approve the monies needed for this small project.

It is our plea that the council will determine it is best to get the work done in a reasonable length of time and as soon as possible.

Providing the necessary attention to the mall and supporting the restoration of the major economic engine of our community

is imperative to be able to maintain the tax base of merchants who will in turn support the social programs without any tax base.

The future economic health of this pedestrian mall depends upon the merchants staying here and doing well.

We as business owners see every day the empty stores with more to come possibly.

some being empty far too long.

The seedy condition of the mall is noticed more by our visitors than it is by those of us who love it and are willing to overlook a few blemishes.

The cost of this venture will be considerably less now than it will be in the future.

The possibility of accident increases as we refuse to take care of the problems and address the needs.

Lawsuits are expensive, as you all know, as well as

the negative public relations they bring.

We seem to have a good plan, responsible people in position to make it happen and to manage the construction progress.

A plan to work together, business owners, property owners, the city, residents, all to ensure an effective and efficient information sharing.

The monies are there to do this and we implore you to see the need to do it now.

Thank you, Ms. Perkins.

Jim Perkins for 20 East Main Street.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council members.

You'll be relieved to know that I did not bring my laptop tonight.

I wanted to make some comments not as a business owner downtown, but as a citizen of this community.

For 33 years I've been involved with Charlottesville.

For 28 of those years I have worked in jobs that are in Charlottesville, not in the county, but in the city itself.

And I come to you with some comments and thanks for your attention to this matter and your help.

The comments that I bring are ones that I've acquired over those decades, really decades of exposure to this downtown mall in particular.

I'm proud to be here, I'm proud to be a business owner, but I'm also proud to serve in other capacities.

I'm a retired member of the faculty of the University of Virginia, I'm a member of the Charlottesville Rotary Club, and on its board of directors, I'm the chairman of the service project committee, and we intend to support

and keep service going for this beautiful committee which we all serve.

I'm going to use some comments that I received over the decades about the deterioration and the continued deterioration of the mall itself.

I've had, as I said, many people coming that I worked with professionally and personally bringing them down to the mall.

You can see the deterioration of the bricks.

It is in bad need of repair and all the things that Mr. Tolbert has outlined and that you have approved really, really needs to be done and approved.

I was embarrassed just about six weeks ago when a visitor from out of town, an artist, a friend of ours came and we were taking the couple down to lunch at Hamilton's and as we walked down the mall, this person reached down.

You saw that brick that was out of the one?

There was a brick exactly like that that she reached down, put back in place.

It is truly something that needs to be done now.

I applaud your efforts.

I really appreciate your planning and the efforts that's gone into this.

My name is Beth Lyon of 2000 Thompson Road.

The first thing I want to do is express my thanks to council and to staff for their careful listening and meeting over the last two months.

I do think there's a big difference between stakeholder meetings and surveys and thoughtful discussion among people with differences so that compromises can be reached.

and compromises that have to do with understanding the malls, many attributes and roles in this city.

It is an economic center of our city, but one of the reasons it is, is that its individual businesses gather around a public space.

It's a social space, a place where people can sit and walk whether they can afford to buy something or not.

And in addition to that, it's a cultural and historic treasure designed by a significant American landscape architect.

So it's an economic center, but it's a social space and a historic treasure.

Second point I want to mention is I want to thank the city for considering the scope change and reducing the extent of the renovations so that what is done is done better and done well.

and I think that eliminating the Omni End and the side streets will allow there to be a focus on the 1970s section that needs repair and will allow for other important new uses to potentially happen on the side streets and the western end later with future renovations like children's play areas, art, memorials, etc.

Third quick point, I want to agree with the general decision to move up the 4x12 brick and I know there's been an incredible amount of discussion about something so minute, but I want to underscore the fact that every other brick walk in the city and the campus is a small brick and it's that larger brick that differentiates this project from

Now don't only the adjacent buildings but other projects.

I had an email today from Larry Halpern's assistant, Dean Mullins, asking me to convey his preference for this alternative to the group and also his thanks for the consideration of his project over the last month.

Final quick point.

Thanks to the city for creating this design assistance committee to assist the staff and the consultants over the next couple of months.

When I came in here tonight, my evening was run down.

My charge was run down on the floor.

No longer.

Only Dean Cox did.

It was a sign of arrogance.

I'm going to tell you something about judgment tonight.

This is the kind of thing that brought about the destruction of Skylin Gamora.

If you really want to do the right thing, let's have a serpentine walk with old bricks from the downtown hall.

Let's honor Thomas Jefferson with a serpentine walk.

Here's what we do with bricks.

We throw away the ones that are damaged and destroyed.

And we look to the future.

We get out of this worship of Thomas Jefferson.

It's the same thing on the lawn.

Everybody's wondering, how do we refurbish this thing and do it in a Thomas Jefferson way?

We have much better material sciences.

We have people there at the university in engineering and material sciences.

They can give you the answers.

Just ask.

Make it cost effective.

Build a life on a jet port.

Build a wall like a jet port.

Make it thick concrete.

Make it last for a very long time.

Look to the future.

Look to the long haul.

And then, what do you do for beauty?

I've seen Broadway's in concrete out of Kansas City.

They have a travel effect.

Beautiful pebbles.

Pebbles that look like sand, except they're a little larger.

A little smaller than Peabody.

You could use white rock, you could use pallet.

I would suggest one color.

So like looking at a beach.

Maybe in a light, something like that.

Or some other beautiful beach.

You'd stand and travel along.

Make it beautiful.

If you'd like to really make it beautiful, you could have plaques, bronze plaques.

Those things are being seen out of Monticello in the cemetery out there.

That's what Dan Jordan okayed.

Now, a lookee, a lady by the name of Lookee is in charge of the cemetery out there, wondering if you contacted her.

And they have done that.

There are tons of these guys.

Thank you.

Mr. Bluestone Mr. Hall?

I'd like to get my clear watch and monument back that said I was 2005 Businessman of the Year It's right there Thank you, Ms. Ergens Ms. Hall, please have a seat

I want to just remind quickly the council of a few really exciting stories we've had in Charlottesville in the last year.

One is the Nimmo House on Hartmansmore Road.

where contractor after contractor told the Carey family, the only thing we can do for you is to tear down this house and build a new house.

And the council, as you recall, refused the demolition permit.

They got connected with

they got connected with a contractor who's more sympathetic and said we can save this house, we can work with it and now they've ended up with an award winning project where they were going to build that new house for their daughter and instead their daughter moved into their house and they moved into this handsome newly renovated house.

Less expensive.

Better Done, Jefferson Spallers.

Our argument was, and you went along with it, you thought it was good, it sounded reasonable, why tear down a building that can be refurbished for $200 a square foot and build a building that's going to cost $500 a square foot?

Why not go with the rehabilitation?

And I think that when I hear Jim Tolbert tell you that 10 to 15% of the bricks on the marl are in bad shape, I look at that and I say 85% of those bricks are in pretty good shape.

and that how is it that we've gotten to the place where long deferred and overdue maintenance gets replaced with a hugely expensive other way of treating the problem, which is to tear everything out and start over again new.

And I think what you could do

is to decide that this is going to be a labor intensive project instead of a capital intensive project.

Hire masons from our community, train masons to work slowly from one end of the mall, repointing those bricks where they need to be repaired, flipping them over and reusing them.

I just don't understand how it is that we've again found ourselves in the position where we're just going to say to hell with it, we'll do the most expensive thing

and forget the incredible qualities of that mall that can easily be recycled and reused.

And I think that that's what you ought to be thinking about.

Why not hang on to the 85% of the bricks, just as an economic way, and I don't trust the one number, the one consultant that you've had that says, well that'll cost $500,000.

Go to a bunch of masons, go to people in your community and say,

What can you do to help us keep the land this mile, to make it safer, and to take care of the long deferred maintenance problem?

Thank you for indulging me again, Karen Waters, 1014 St. Charles Avenue.

Whichever way council goes with this brickin' project on the mall, I would just encourage you, what I saw this week and what I've heard from the people in the community who were really distraught over the shooting, it's easier to get a gun than it is to get a job in this community.

and so I would encourage you to do whatever you can to build on perhaps what Mr. Bluestone is saying and find a way that we can have local people do the work, local masons and if we can even find a way to build on some sort of apprenticeship so that some of these young people who are resorting to violence in the neighborhoods because they have no hope

Some of the homeless and some of these felons are able to do some of this work.

Good evening, I'm Peter Klenan.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

Before I make comments on this, I want to thank you for having confidence in me and appointing me to the PVCC advisory board.

I thank you very much for that.

But on the issue of the mall, I've been a downtown, north downtown resident.

I live just a few blocks north of the mall since 1984.

And I am on the mall almost every day now, and I've spent a great deal of time on the mall.

It's not a new thing that there have been maintenance needs on the mall over the last 10, 15, 20 years.

There's been concern about issues on the mall and I'm not sure that they have been well considered and responded to.

But there's been very little talk about maintenance of the future mall.

If this mall is going to be totally replaced, it's all been about capital costs and I think it would be very interesting to look at what the life cycle cost estimates are for the new project and compare those among the mortared joint solution and the sand placed solution.

Because there may be differences in capital costs that could be overwhelmed by differences in

anticipated maintenance.

Certainly in the areas of where there's vehicular traffic or as there's other maintenance traffic on the mall, we've seen, and I've shared with you, some photographs of damage in some of the other sand placed brick in the community, in crosswalks, etc.

So I think that the maintenance issue is clearly one.

Also, I, as a, you know, I've gotten a certain imprinting of the mall in my memory over the 24 years I've been near the mall.

And in many cases in historic preservation that I've witnessed, I'm not a landscape architect or a historic preservationist, but including some of the original fabric in the solution for any kind of changes that are taking place is often a very appealing aesthetic, at least to me.

and if we do have 85% of those bricks available, I think that we could certainly have some major sections of the mall redone as the original.

Certainly my preference would be that that might be 100% of the re-bricking, but if it's not going to be 100%, I don't think it should be 0% either.

I think there are some sections of the mall that could really do well by having the original fabric reintroduced and maintained, and it gives you the opportunity to have that historical connection to the original mall.

If it's going to be broken up into sections, you could identify one or more sections that could have that original mortared joint look.

And it would be someplace, I think, that people might find appealing.

It would be interesting to see how other people would respond to that kind of aesthetic.

Thank you, Mr. Kleeman.

Anybody else?

Yes, sir.

Nice to see you.

I'm George Benford, owner of Sipsware and Champagne Bar.

I recently moved to Charlottesville to take on being a businessman on the downtown wall.

But my history goes back to 1986 coming here when my daughter first attended the University of Virginia and we bought a townhouse in the city of Charlottesville at that time.

Over the years there have been many great memories on the downtown wall.

I unfortunately lost a wife to cancer and then I met another lovely woman.

She first met my daughter at the Omni Hotel for brunch on the downtown mall.

A wonderful memory.

Had 10 years I've had season tickets for UVA football games, beating the FSU and celebrating in the mall.

Great memory.

And I've really enjoyed this as a tourist, and now as a resident, and now as a business person.

This mall has lots to offer for the future.

Thank you, Mr. Benford.

Anyone else?

Okay, we'll close the public hearing and we have before us a resolution before our, before council for consideration tonight.

and basically the resolution reads, whereas the City Council has determined it necessary to rehabilitate the infrastructure of the downtown mall, and whereas City Council has reviewed the plans prepared by MMM Engineering, and whereas City Council has made several key decisions in authorizing this project to move forward, it will therefore be resolved by the City Council and the City of Charlottesville that the following design decisions are made.

Do not complete the West End to Water Street.

No new fountains.

Use existing lights.

Comply with dark skies and use LED lights.

No permanent cafe enclosures.

No newspaper box corrals.

No Sister City Plaza.

No additional public art.

Do not alter tree patterns.

Nothing but two red maples and one stump to be removed.

Yes to Wi-Fi.

Yes to use of granite, but no new banding.

Yes, add drinking fountains.

No play area for children.

Study for future possibility.

Be it further resolved that the City Council and the City of Charlottesville instructs the design team to use 4x12 brick pavers that are set in sand.

Council has determined that this is the optimum method for brick installation in light of the maintenance plan proposed by City Parks and Recreation and in an effort to honor the Lawrence Halperin design.

I would like to talk about resolution also, but before I would like to make general comments.

Resolution itself is fine, except for the self.

What we are not going to do is what we are going to do.

It is all negative.

And it seems very depressing to me to have, after spending seven and a half million dollars to ask the depressing resolution.

As many people have pointed out already, that

downtown Melbourne is a treasure in many ways.

It is a heart of our community and I think the renovation of this mall is really well overdue and I think it is another approach we have come to, I think, which is trying to preserve the character and design as it was originally done.

I think it is one of the key things that needs to be done and I support those kind of things.

I have a number of questions which I would like to raise.

and maybe Mr. Tolbert can respond to them.

For the idea of using 4x12 bricks and crossings, I'm not quite clear with where to start the 4x12 bricks and crossings, or not?

I'm sorry?

The intent is to use 4x8 based on some informal discussions with the BAR.

I think that we will use more of the nuclear crossings.

No sir, it will be a sand set.

It is still part of the mall, it was part of the mall, the part at least which was on Main Street.

I would really like to see it for what kind of big breaks you can always replace it with sand.

If you are going to replace it with sand it might be very difficult to replace it.

So there is one comment I have I guess.

One comment is which relates to the oil break.

We're still trying to make a determination off that.

We will not be destroyed or thrown away.

There has been some interest from folks in purchasing the brick.

There's a lot of interest people might want it in their yards.

We can use it, we can ground it and use it for trails in the city and other parks.

What we'd like to do is

is talk to our procurement folks and have a little bit more discussion about the best way to dispose of it and we can come back to you with a plan for that in the future.

We haven't made a decision at this point.

The dollars we recoup wouldn't be significant, but it would be worthy of, I think, consideration.

before the law was built, when we dug up, so that brick still is for previous derivations, so I hope the renovation of the fountain will not get rid of those bricks, because they are the original bricks which came when we were digging up the street, those bricks were used for brick street, so that I hope will not

A lot of it is going to depend on, quite frankly, to do this in four months, how we get it up.

If we pick up brick by brick, we won't be finished taking them up in four months.

The other is the condition and the number 10 to 15 percent,

I almost hate to use that because that's a 10 plus year old number and a lot more of it is cracked and damaged than that now.

Do you want to keep some stock for the future using run-ins?

Sure.

And I wanted to ask the question again to you.

Last, the plans that the rest of you in front of, or know you have heard of it,

Well, just to separate, that plaza is a root plaza and I would hope that you would be able to renovate that also.

Absolutely.

That's part of it.

Also, there is also that plaza and there are concrete beds and there is a little floral pattern of metal.

So, there's a joke on this one I would make.

and I would like to see the newspaper grouped together because I think they look quite hideous to the least

and I think it really distracts downtown more.

I understand the need for freedom of press and I think we should still have that, I am not opposed to that.

I was to greet Mr. Huja, I don't know if they're hideous, I think they're tacky, for lack of a better term, but I don't know what we can do with them.

I don't like the idea of corral in particular, but I do think they're a little bit of an eyesore, I think, to some extent.

I don't think they add much to the character of them all.

That's what we've been told by all the designers.

I just think it's kind of interesting.

Well, I got a call early this morning.

suggesting that I not vote for this because it has not created a true sense of economic justice for all parts of the city.

And I read again through the entire packet and one of the comments that was most interesting from the survey

who says, the good, the bad, the ugly is what makes the mall successful.

You can't separate them.

The bad is the mall is a result of the economic decisions that were made after the Venable Hill raising.

It was all part of the

Economic plan of the city to provide more transportation and commerce and all the other good things that can come from an economic district.

So I like to believe that the renovation and rehab of the mall will also create an opportunity to renovate and rehab the economic opportunities within the city.

If you've seen four work crews and Cane Waters made it clear that it's easier to get guns than jobs in this city, that maybe we need to change that balance of power and provide true employment opportunities with this to include the homeless and our felons.

and the opportunity to partner with PVCC to make sure that people are getting trained for sustainable careers.

I also think that in terms of viewing the bad, Divinity Hill, and the entire culture

that created the decision at that time that it's important for me to acknowledge now that the downtown mall needs to be renovated because I want the same acknowledgement of the public housing renovations that need to be rehabbed as well.

The same intent and the same level of intention that has gone to the bricks that provide the commerce

should be the same level of intention that provide the bricks for the housing in the places that people call homes.

And if the mall needs to be redeveloped, then it's time for the public housing sites to be redeveloped.

They all came around the same era.

That was the bad.

The ugly is the money.

We're not ever going to get over how much money we're spending on this.

The other ugly is just the idea of the mall being renovated.

Four different crews all over the winter.

And you know what happens when we get one snowflake here?

If we get two at a time, it's going to shut down everything.

So there has to be a real clear plan as to what's going to happen with inclement weather.

The good is that it really, truly provides an opportunity to enhance our economic district and create revenue for social programs that we do value

I've heard more people talking about the homeless than I ever have within the city.

And it's come from different parts of the community now.

And even at the last public meeting we had, I think Raymond Mason said it eloquently.

He said, people might be homeless, but they're not cityless.

And we need to honor our public space and honor it in a way that

Everyone, truly everyone benefits.

As far as the newspaper corrals,

You know, I won't go along with that.

I'll explore if that needs to be revisited.

But as we do that, I'd like to make sure that our friends that put the Daily Progress in and Seaville and The Hook and The Real Estate and the other newspapers are part of that conversation too, to make sure that we're not making a decision that's not going to continue to make those papers accessible.

As far as the

The brick design, there's someone in Crescent Hall that I serve and she's blind.

In the mall such as it is now, I could never meet her for lunch in a Rapture because of the way the bricks are, she would really be at risk for hurting herself.

So what's going to be important for me is that it's designed well so that everyone can really appreciate the mall even if they can't see it.

So I'm not going to try hard to be eloquent.

I'm just going to randomly offer a few comments.

One comment I have is I attended a

Sustainability meeting, the Akeley meeting, and the impression I got, but it's not tremendously informed, is that LED street lights are not that great at the moment, and that they illuminate the color of the light and how much they cost, that it's a technology that will probably be there in a few years, but it might not be there yet, and I just think we, so I'll just encourage us to make sure that

whatever we do biting wise is what we want to do even though I'd love to see them be LED lights.

That was based on a conversation with a guy from Ann Arbor who's actually I think they've done a lot with that and I think he's like the national expert on it.

It does seem to me sort of that we kind of made a decision

to replace the brick some years ago.

As a result of that, it's been a while since we've done any repointing of the existing bricks.

Is that somewhat accurate that we started planning that this was the direction we would go?

A massive amount.

A number of years.

We do emergency work all the time.

I don't think we've done any of them last year.

Any major work is carried out.

In terms of the big section, right down the line.

There's a work three foot by three foot section or something like that.

I mean, there's a part of me, just because, you know, certainly in my personal life I'm cheap, is thinking that, well, how come we can't just fix this rather than a wholesale replacement?

But I balance that against, you know, just the number of merchants.

I was in a young men's shop recently and Mr. Marshall commented on

on how often he sees people stumble in front of his shop on this one particular section.

And he kind of walked to it and he goes, wait, wait, wait, not on.

If she'd been over two feet, she would have stumbled when she went there.

And so I think there's a real concern about how the unevenness and I don't know if it's something that can be simply addressed by re-pointing, but I still have some concern that if we're going to do this, I guess,

I'd like to be reassured that doing this with big brick is going to be stable and not be something that creates a permanent wobble.

I'd rather see us do it with small brick and be stable than do it with big brick and have problems.

Every indication we have from every source we've checked is that it won't be a wobble problem for pedestrians.

that if you put a heavy load of vehicles on it, you could have a problem.

One of the things we're doing with the maintenance plan is I think you're going to see, once this goes in, a greatly reduced number of vehicles on the brick.

Now, the maintenance vehicles that are out there, the meter readers, we're going to find alternatives and Parks and Rec is already working on that so that you get an occasional fire truck in an emergency, but you don't have daily traffic on them.

That's one of the things that we're going to do to make sure it stays much more stable.

The newspaper bins don't bother me.

I find them handy as a matter of fact.

I mean there's an issue of the vehicular crossings and Mr. Heria has suggested using the same brick in the vehicular crossing 4x12.

The only, well again there's two reasons.

One, again we haven't had a vote of the BAR.

We've had some discussion that they have some interest in the 4x8 as a differentiation.

The other is you do get a great more vehicular traffic on the mall crossings than you do

Like that is all 4x12 break basically.

Do you feel best if you don't know all of that?

It'll be different, I mean there's no doubt it would be different, but I've, yeah.

We can try, you know, Joe's probably going to shoot me for saying this, we could try 4x12 and if the 4x12 doesn't work,

That's only a very small section to come back in a few years and it's in sand.

It's not like you got to redo everything.

I'll remind you, I'm not sure what the right answer is because I don't think we've gotten a real clear answer.

But we started with the knowledge that 4x8 in sand is the norm around the country.

and it holds up both in a pedestrian location and with vehicles.

And we now have moved to the 4x12 to try to recreate the helping design.

We're trying to think about the maintenance and the life of the model and not get ourselves in the same situation that we're in now.

That's why we're looking at trying to do something different.

The other issue with that too is the larger brick will rock more, right?

With vehicles continually going over it possibly?

Well the concern that the engineer expressed to me is that when it's laid, and again the herringbone pattern is the strongest way to lay it,

But because of the longer aspect ratio, 3 to 1 instead of 2 to 1, that the tire pressure, especially when they move, they turn, puts a pressure on the brakes that hit the pressure, hit the brakes beside them and causes the cracks and problems you get.

So it's not the third movement that gets you, it's the turning movements and it's the side to side stability that's the problem.

You know, again, they characterize, you know, the information that's in your packet as a light vehicular crossing.

And in most, you know, a lot of days, what's going across the mile, even on the crossings, would be light.

But there are days when there are 18-wheelers, four or five of them that go across.

And if they go straight across, they're probably okay.

But if they have any turning, then we could have, there could be some issues.

What about the turning?

Well, just pulling over to the side is enough movement.

My other comment, I just wanted to make a general comment.

It's important that we keep the quality of the work at the top worst possible, because if you want to get to work

Absolutely.

Whereas I agree that we need to, as a council, you know, address issues of workforce development and training and jobs programs and build on the summer jobs program we have.

I don't think this project is a place to try to implement those types of strategies for the reason that not only we're trying to do something that's going to be of the highest quality, but we're trying to do it with a time deadline.

I think, you know,

I would add that one advantage that will help us with that though is that laying in sand as opposed to mortar you don't have to have a brick mason to do the work so there's an opportunity for some less skilled laborers to get some good jobs during construction and then for city crews long term for maintenance.

And that goes to Mr. Kleeman's question about the life cycle cost of sand versus mortar.

Yes, again, in the technical memos that we gave you, I was pointing out that the laid in sand is the most efficient economical long term.

Again, because if you have a problem, you move it out,

Dr. Byrne, do you have any other questions or comments?

I just had a couple other questions.

We received an email from one of the merchants on the mall, which I think raised an interesting question, which is, what happens?

We know there's not going to be any delays, but let's say there is a delay.

And this merchant was suggesting that instead of extending the construction schedule into the summer, that we put a stop on it and then restart next winter.

I think what we would like to do, that's why we've got the block captains that we'll be meeting with on a regular basis.

If we see something like that happen, I think what we'd like to do is go to the merchants and say, here are the alternatives.

Again, you never know what's going to happen unforeseen.

We could have, you know, six feet of snow.

The beauty is that we, you know, if we get to go ahead at night, we're going to immediately start re-fixing the Reynolds because that's some work that will involve

stuff that we need to do before we get into a freeze thaw time.

So we're going to get ahead of that game.

We won't be pouring much concrete so we don't have to worry about the winter there.

We don't anticipate that.

We think the four crews will allow us to be flexible and keep moving.

If we have to quit working in one place to fix something, we can keep the job going.

I don't want to say it's not going to happen because you never know, but I think we've anticipated some options to deal with that.

and then we'd want to work very closely with the downtown businesses to find out what their consensus is.

Do they want us to pull off and come back or do we find a way to work through it?

Again, I would also emphasize, I didn't go through it in a lot of detail in the scheduling, but we were working thirds in any one area.

So if we're working between fifth and fourth, we won't have all of that shut down.

We'll be working in the center and then on one side and then on the other.

So you'll be able to access every business

and we hope that the business might have to close while we're working right in front of their door for a day but otherwise you know and if we can avoid that we're going to do it but through working after their when they're closed but

Roughly $50,000 to $60,000 in the budget estimate we have to go back and add that back in.

And we could actually do that as an ad alternate and see what it's going to cost and if it's outrageous we could come back.

Well, I think the newspaper boxes add to the urban feel of them all and I don't have any problem with the way they are now and I think the newspapers have been very responsible in tidying them up and moving them off to where they're a little bit more tucked away and keeping them

I guess there's a majority on council for revisiting that, but I agree with Ms. Edwards that if we are going to revisit that, we absolutely need to talk to the newspaper folks.

Just put it as part of an ad alternate and then find out what it costs.

Okay.

So, based on the feedback that I've heard tonight, we've got one amendment to the resolution where it says, yes, use existing lights, comply with dark skies, and then potentially use LED lights.

Okay.

I would like to see you start something positive.

So like what we are doing, especially when we have moon levels, we are doing something positive.

So a paragraph in there is sort of affirming the goals of the project.

I think we can do that.

And let's see here.

I guess the only outstanding question has to do with the size of the bricks and the vehicular crossings.

I don't know that we necessarily need to decide that tonight.

I'd like to see if we can go 4 by 12.

I'm just, I guess my concern is will they hold up, I guess that's what I'm asking.

Okay, so one with the recommendation.

I'm also supporting the recommendation.

What happens when you do the

Can I ask one point there?

Sure.

I see the numbers, but if we go to the BAR and the BAR says that they really would like to see 4 by 12 in the crossings, without coming back to you, as I have knowledge from those other three, that we might get on board with these things.

I have another question to not relate to the breakdown.

I wanted to have more discussion about the perceived workforce development opportunities.

I think we're spending a lot of money on the project and I'd like to believe that there will be some employment opportunities for

a variety of people, not only those that are experienced but those that are trying to gain the experience as well.

I think just naturally with four crews you're going to have a lot of people employed and a lot of people working.

There will be a lot of people who have the opportunity for jobs and there will be a lot of these subcontractors gearing up.

I think I would share the concern that Dr. Brown had

You know, given our push for four months and the ability to go through training programs, I think would be very difficult.

But again, I think the fact that it's a $5 million worth of brickwork with a demolition, with a reconstruction, there'll be job opportunities by putting four crews.

If we just hired one general contractor and put them out there with their crews, you wouldn't get much.

But with all the people that will be out there, there'll be some opportunities, I think, for employment that come along.

We're also competing with the UVA stuff that's happening in all of it.

I would also say that this is a major high cost project, yet in the grand scheme of things we look at the hundreds of millions of dollars that we're about to invest over the next 5, 10, 15 years in infrastructure project.

I think it goes to a broader issue about workforce development and how do we make sure that

I would like to propose a resolution which is in front of you.

If you want to read it, I would like to make some changes.

From an added paragraph saying what positive goals we have on this project so that we can say.

I would like to give a third word to what Dr. Brown said to explore the LED issue before jumping into it.

Any questions?

Yeah, I have to.

There's a positive aspect.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Motion has been made and seconded.

Any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

The motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Could I ask Julian to take two or three minutes and just talk about what's going to happen from here

Because we're going to start moving quickly.

I think what's out in the public is nothing is going to happen until January.

And the reality is tomorrow we'll start looking at ordering product.

We'll start doing some work downtown.

I will actually, Barn Mallow's meeting with our procurement folks to get everything set up

to do these.

As I said, we won't hire a general contractor.

Bart Mallow is going to manage that part of it.

So they'll be going out and finding contractors to do the Reynolds.

We'll start that work probably in October.

We will start gearing up for it right now.

That will be the first real construction work anybody sees when we're out.

And the impact of that will be sort of like when we do repairs now on the mall.

We'll be out fixing the Reynolds, getting them ready.

Immediately we'll start ordering the parts for the fountains, the plumbing supplies, the electrical supplies.

As soon as MMM turns out a sheet with the details and we have the quantities, we'll be ordering those things.

The lights will start reworking.

One of the things we're investigating is sometime early files start taking lights down, putting up some kind of temporary so the lights can be re-gutted and re-fixed and repaired and so that'll start happening.

but we'll start implementing the project in the next few weeks.

We go to the BAR in August at the BAR meeting, we get the final approvals we hope on most everything.

I want to get the design committee going to talk about a few board of design issues before we go.

We may even be going to a September BAR meeting for some of the final details but we'll be doing things like that.

We'll order the pops, the bike racks,

the benches, all those sorts of things will be put on order so a lot will be happening we'll hit the ground running in January 2nd hopefully with the crews one of the discussions we've had is how to minimize dust and noise and we think we'll have each crew as they do demolition working inside a box we're probably only going to have a four foot high construction fence just enough to keep people out but a lot of people will look in and it'll be safe

and not only allow people to work in, but so they can see the businesses across the mall.

We don't want to put six or eight foot obstruction up to keep anybody from seeing the businesses on the other side.

So, again, you know, those things will start happening.

And as we can do anything out of the way, they may come in and start doing that that's out of the way.

We'll probably go ahead and take trees out pretty fairly soon, the three that we've got to deal with.

Now we need to figure out how to pay for it.

That is the next item on your agenda.

I will.

This is an item that is asking to move $4.5 million from future CIP into the current year CIP.

We currently have on hand $3 million.

This will move four and a half.

It's not new money.

It's just money that was anticipated to be in FY 10, 11 and 12.

Yes sir, you started accumulating a million and a half dollars a year about three years ago and

We've paid for engineering, we've got three million on hand and we need four and a half more, but it was all anticipated and set up in a million and a half a year.

We had the public hearing.

Thank you.

So it's been a moving site.

It's the first of two readings, so we'll carry forward.

I would make one comment that I talked to a little bit earlier.

When we started this project, it was 7.5 million other goodies that we took out.

I'm still in the same situation in the rest of the world.

I hope that this will be enough to deal with it instead of going back again.

Thank you.

We'll now move on to a report from the Charleston Police Department.

So just to set this up, those of you who are religious observers of our council meetings know in the last four to six months we've been doing a series of presentations about various city departments and agencies in pursuit of a little more open and accessible city government this month.

I was going to have you there.

I'm looking out to see whether we have everyone here, and I believe we do.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, good evening.

As the mayor indicated, the city manager has asked department heads to come before you and to talk a little bit about our organizations.

I brought with me tonight Captain Alan Kirby of our Field Operations Division, Captain Brian Bibb of our Support Services Division, and our crime analyst, and I might add the architect of this PowerPoint presentation, Kristen O'Connell, no relationship to our fearless leader.

I want you to note before I move through the PowerPoint presentation real quickly the photograph that's there.

Notice the color of my hair then.

That was taken about seven years ago versus now.

And it'll certainly explain kind of what I've been up to for the past seven years.

The Department has a sworn authorization of 117 officers.

Now, when we use the term sworn authorization, we're talking about people who have police powers and the powers of arrest.

The greatest majority of those sworn police officers are part of our Field Operations Division, which Captain Kirby will speak of in just a moment.

Civilian positions that are authorized

in our budget, 29.43 positions.

Let me explain the .43 positions.

Some of the departments within our, positions within our civilian ranks are school crossing guards.

Those are permanent part-time positions.

They work, of course, through the school year, two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon.

Those positions also consist of people like Kristin O'Connell, who works as our crime analyst, the folks that work in our

Management Services Division, our School Resource Officers that are Community Service Officers, and those folks that you see out there doing parking enforcement on a daily basis.

The Department operates on $12,701,846 is our budget, the majority of which, almost $11 million of that is salary and benefits for our employees.

The largest resource within the organization is the Field Operations Division.

I want Captain Kirby to step forward, take the clicker from this point and talk a little bit about his operation, because it is the greatest component part of the department.

I didn't know I had a small man.

It's just a man.

As Chief Longo says, uniform operations is one of the largest, is the largest department in the police, division in the police department.

It's composed of 60 patrol officers as well as, it's kind of hard to hold on to everything here.

It's composed of 60 police patrol officers.

Is this the one?

Okay.

It's composed of 60 patrol officers as well as 9 sergeants who are first line supervisors.

We also have 3 lieutenants who are shift commanders and one division head which is myself.

We just recently went to a 10 hour shift.

These guys and ladies are all divided into three units and we work three shifts, more commonly known as a midnight shift, a daylight shift, and an evening shift.

Each shift has a lieutenant, a commander on it.

and we just went through our 10 hour shifts which was something that we had never done here in Charlottesville before but something we found to be very advantageous especially over the last couple weeks because what it allowed us to do is actually have overlaps of the shifts.

Our evening and midnight shift on Friday and Saturday nights actually overlapped from 10pm to 3am in the morning.

And this gave us a little bit larger amount of manpower here on these very busy nights on Friday and Saturday nights.

And again, like I say, over the past couple of weekends, with the critical incidents that we've had, that extra manpower there really proved to be helpful.

We do have a K-9 unit.

We have two, as a matter of fact.

Both of the K9 units are assigned to our EV shift.

Our dogs are actually specially trained in narcotics and finding narcotics.

So we use them to actually search buildings, to search vehicles, to help in some crowd control situations.

But they're mostly used for searching situations.

We also use them to help secure buildings when officers are there to make sure nobody gets away, gets free, and gets over our perimeter.

They can run a lot faster than most of us officers, so they're very good for those situations.

Our SWAT team, you heard a lot about the SWAT team this evening.

It's a group of highly skilled and highly trained officers.

We deploy these highly skilled, trained officers in critical incidents where we need the extra tactical knowledge that they have, the extra weaponry that they have that is not

It's beyond the capabilities of what our Weather Patrol Officers have.

These guys train twice a month.

They're very good at what they do.

And we use them in building when we do high risk search warrants and arrest warrants.

We use them in hostage and barricaded situations.

and also mainly they help with our dignitary protection.

When President Bush was here in town, of course all the SWAT teams were activated.

Whenever they have a dignitary to visit the city, which happens quite often, they are deployed to that.

Our crisis negotiation team is a team of officers that are trained to be negotiators.

We use them in a lot of the same incidents that we might use our SWAT team.

If we have a barricaded or hostage situation, these specialized negotiators will come in.

We'll actually be deployed to help

talk with the people inside the building or to help negotiate trying to get them to surrender or do whatever we want them to do.

They work hand in hand with the SWAT team.

They train with the SWAT team.

Another thing, they also train to deal with suicidal people.

We have

with Regent Tien and other agencies here in town.

Very often we have the opportunity to have to deal with suicidal people, so these people are specially trained in that.

We have a bike patrol.

We have several officers who are trained to ride bikes.

Our two main areas, of course, is the downtown mall and the Barracksville Shopping Center.

Sergeant Officer Finkle, back in the back, he is the Barracksville Shopping Center officer.

He spends his, pretty much whole day, duty, on a bike every by x-road and also a mall officer as you can see on the evening, day shift and the evening shift spend their time actually on the bikes.

We used to do it on foot but we found that the bikes were able to allow the officers to run up and down, to get up and down the mall a lot quicker and a lot easier than on foot and the merchants have seemed to really appreciate, especially on the downtown mall area.

Our telephone writing unit is a community service officer that we have employed in the police department during the day.

This officer is responsible for

taking all the reports that they can take over the telephone, and this allows us the freedom to use the patrol officers in a different and more efficient manner.

They will also track our online reporting.

We, of course, have the online reporting on our website, and she will come in in the mornings, check those reports.

If there's any follow-up that needs to be done or anything like that, then she will track it and handle it for us.

Again, it reduces the amount of calls that our officers have to go in during the daytime.

It's so efficient that we're also looking at trying to come up with extra ways to be able to put them on other shifts so that they can be utilized on the other shifts.

Our evidence technicians

All patrol officers receive basic training on how to process crime scenes, how to handle packaged evidence, how to transport evidence.

Our evidence technicians, they actually receive what we call a little bit more technical training.

We have different levels of evidence technicians.

Those levels depend on how much extra training that they have.

Currently we have 12 evidence technicians in the Patrol Division, and one of them which is a forensic tech.

So these guys, when we have these critical incidents and those that seem to be processed,

They're the ones that we call and they use their expertise to make sure the evidence is collected, processed, and handled and stored correctly.

Just keep that slide up there for one minute.

Kristin, one thing I wanted to point out that the captain did mention was you notice that Officer Thornton there in the patrol vehicle operating a mobile data computer, the council was gracious enough to afford us funding over the past several years.

Those computers are now fully deployed, the software has been implemented, and officers are

using a very efficient tool inside their patrol vehicle now, where before they would have to come into the station to access vital information.

They're able to do it from their car.

It's a far more efficient way in which to not only access information, but use that data in the field.

Next slide, please.

I'd like to ask Captain Brian Bibb, who's in charge of our Support Services Division, to talk a little bit about his operation as well.

Good evening, and thank you for having us here tonight.

I'm Captain Brian Bibb.

I command the Support Services Division of the Department.

I spent the last six years commanding the Field Operations Division, recently transferred to Support Services.

There are three main components to the Support Services Division, and they are the Investigations Bureau, the Neighborhood Services Bureau, and the Joint Scenario Drug Enforcement Task Force.

I'll speak briefly about each of those bureaus.

The Investigations Bureau is comprised of 10 investigators, 3 investigative supervisors, and this bureau investigates all serious crimes committed within the city.

In 2007, this bureau investigated 1,421 serious crimes in the city.

Within the Investigations Bureau, we have a forensic unit that is comprised of a forensic technician, forensic unit supervisor, and two civilian forensic support specialists.

Additionally, this unit oversees training and support for 12 evidence technicians who are responsible for all evidence collection at crime scenes.

This unit collects and preserves thousands of pieces of evidence each year.

Since the year 2005, the forensic unit has been responsible for 447 DNA matches and 207 DNA eliminations in criminal cases in the city.

The Neighborhood Services Bureau is comprised of six community policing officers and one supervisor.

They are assigned permanently to selected neighborhoods within the city and their mission is to build relationships and problem-solve within those communities, working closely with the neighborhoods.

Also within this bureau we have four school resource officers and one supervisor to work daily in the schools to build relationships with the children and make sure they have a safe and secure learning environment within the city school system.

Last but not least, within this building we have three traffic officers, seven community service officers, and one supervisor who focuses strictly on traffic related issues within the city.

In 2007, the Traffic Unit issued over 1,400 traffic summonses for various traffic violations in the city and issued over 22,000 parking tickets or CSO parking enforcement officers.

Lastly, the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force is a highly recognized and respected regional drug task force.

This task force is comprised in part of four investigators and two supervisors from our department and we also oversee and command the task force.

Thank you.

Our Administrative Services Bureau is commanded by Lieutenant Dave Shiflet.

It is that aspect of the department where the majority of our civilian personnel are employed.

The first of which is our Information and Management Services section.

They control all the reports that come into the department, all our warrants.

They govern our Virginia Crime Information Network, International Crime Information Network systems.

They work on a daily basis with the police officers who are on the street to run wanton checks, to pull warrants, to pull warrants.

A very valuable aspect of our department.

Their focus presently was on

Looking for better ways to engage the public in customer services practices.

As a matter of fact, today half of the information and management services employees spent today with the Peabody Virginia Community College instructor talking about customer service practices, best practices if you will.

They'll do so again tomorrow in this particular class as the first of a series of four.

They take the aspect of customer service very seriously and are oftentimes the first point of contact between citizens and our police department.

The staff development and accreditation section is responsible, if you will, for our human resources.

They're kind of our employment arm within the organization.

They do all the hiring.

and training sessions that we do throughout the organization as well as accreditation.

The department is presently preparing for its second re-accreditation which is a state accreditation that will take place in September.

They've been working probably for the last year or so to get us prepared for that very rigorous process which will take place the first week in September.

Our internal affairs unit which we will likely touch on

and my second presentation tonight when we talk about the Citizens Advisory Panel is a very critical part of our organization.

It's staffed by Sergeant Paul Davis.

He manages the complaint investigation aspect of the department, the external grievances, if you will.

He also is responsible for the department's early intervention system, which helps identify trends within the organizations that might be associated with particular employees.

things such as complaints, use of force, lawsuits that might have been filed to ensure that we get in on the front end of a trend that might be developing with respect to a specific officer and engage in the right intervention practice to ensure that that behavior is changed.

Our technical investigative support

Armand, the Administrative Services Bureau, something you will not see very much within the organization but is there every day.

Detective Blaine Cosgrove manages almost every aspect of technology in the department and helps and assists investigators from a technical surveillance perspective as they undertake criminal investigations.

A crime analyst, Kristin O'Connell, has been with us almost a year now.

Kristin's responsible for

helping us prepare for

help us identify trends that might be emerging across the city.

And she's also in the process of helping us implement some new software technology for crime analysis that will even further allow citizens the opportunity to go online and learn about specific criminal activity in their neighborhoods.

Payroll accounts payable receivable.

We're a business like any other.

We pay bills.

We generate debt.

We have to issue paychecks every other week and lease a statement.

It's the person responsible within the organization that helps us accomplish that task.

And lastly, our quartermaster, which keeps us outfitted.

Amy Gardner's our full-time quartermaster.

She's responsible for purchasing uniforms, for making sure that officers are properly equipped and that the equipment that we issue them is properly maintained throughout the year.

I want to talk a bit about Comstat.

You've read a lot and heard about undoubtedly the city's undertaking of performance measurement across city government.

The police department has been using data, analyzing data, and taking that data into consideration when we deploy resources and develop strategies for many years.

About four years ago,

We implemented COMSTAT within the Charlottesville Police Department.

COMSTAT was engineered by Dr. Phyllis McDonald who was employed at the time with the New York Transit Police under the direction of Chief Will Bratton.

They developed this strategy not only to develop strategies to fight crime but also ensure accountability throughout the ranks.

Commissioner Bratton took that process to NYPD when

They developed their crime control model that has made the streets of New York much safer.

He's taken it along with them to the Los Angeles Police Department where he currently serves.

And we've had it here in Charlottesville for the last several years and basically what it does is the four things that you see on the slide before you.

Review accurate and timely intelligence data that comes from our records management system and our computer-aided dispatch system.

Develop effective tactics to address crime strategies that we see developing over a period of time.

Rapidly deploy personnel and resources to deal with those issues as they arrive.

And the accountability piece is the relentless follow-up and assessment.

We meet the third Thursday of every month as an organization.

You see us around the table in the basement of this building, looking at crime maps, talking about the crime that has occurred over the last 28 days and developing strategies that are specific to addressing those crimes.

One of the things that has come out of the CompStat process

is this notion of problem solving projects.

I've been in this chambers many times and responded to questions about community policing.

This is the greatest aspect of community policing from my perspective.

Community policing is not about positions.

It's not about specific police officers.

It's about the philosophy of the organization and a big part of that philosophy is problem solving.

looking not only at the symptoms of crime and problems in the community but focusing more on the causation.

And that's where problem solving projects come about.

Officer Jody Weber in the lower corner there is presently undertaking a problem solving project in Maplewood Cemetery, which you may have read something about issues of vandalism and vagrancy.

She has taken this project on herself.

A number of arrests have been made.

Every aspect of what she does in this problem-solving project is entered into our records management system so any member of the organization or supervisors and other police officer can go into that particular entry and see what work's been done in Maplewood Cemetery.

We continue to track PSPs much like we do crime as part of our of our CompStat process and our daily operation as well.

Now we've put this information in here to show you how I think some of these things have been successful in helping us deal with crime issues in this city.

But I'll tell you today and the loss of the 19 year old youth in our community makes this data meaningless.

It's sobering when a 19-year-old child loses their life.

And while I can look at these statistics and say, well, crime's down 11% in Charlottesville as of the end of June, it really doesn't matter.

When one person loses their life, it's a significant issue for a city and a community, and certainly it's for this police department.

So when we put these slides together you can see we were showing two homicides in 2008.

This weekend that number changed and now it's three.

And I want to stop for a moment and just publicly thank Karen Waters for speaking on behalf of the Magruder family.

And I hope every member of this community and particularly our young people heard that message.

tonight that the violence, it needs to stop.

And we're going to be part of that solution, I hope, and continue to be part of that solution.

But we're just a part of it.

And if these numbers are going to stay what they are today and continue to drop, it's going to require the assistance of every person in this community.

I'll tell you where we're having the most problems with respect to crime.

And we begin, again, looking at these trends as part of CompStat.

This is property crime over the last seven years.

Very little drops.

Probably the most significant drop was in 2004.

2006 was probably our worst year in the last seven years.

That was driven by residential burglaries.

This year residential burglaries are down some 52%.

The problem this year happens to be largely from automobiles.

There is no part of our community that is immune from this.

I've received an email from a neighbor of mine six doors up and there's a marked police car parked in front of my house whose GPS was stolen out of the car.

I'm troubled by that.

It's a significant problem for our city and one of the ways that we can address it is to be very strong in educating folks in our community to secure their valuables and not let valuables stay within eyesight when they're in their vehicle no matter what time of day or night.

and we're going to be very aggressive with an educational campaign when our students come back to school because they add significantly to our victim pool as it relates to Larshni from all those with the various electronic equipments that they carry with them throughout the day and oftentimes leave inside their vehicles.

Celebrating successes.

We are fortunate to have a police foundation, the Charlottesville Police Foundation, where a cross-section of our community is represented on that foundation board.

One of the things that they do for us is sponsor a yearly awards and recognition ceremony.

If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of these, and many of you in this room have, you really get a chance to hear about all the great things that the men and women of this police department are doing in our community every day that you may not read about in the newspaper.

They go unnoticed.

We gave over 60 awards for some pretty significant events last year at our awards ceremony.

We also honor retirees.

Phil Waffle in the lower picture there.

Thirty some odd years of service to the city of Charlottesville, retired this year and was a tremendous contributor to this police department and its success over the years.

We struggle with whether or not to put this in our presentation or not, but frankly it is what it is.

It's at the end of a long road.

For the last decade, this region's law enforcement resources have been focused on apprehending a serial sexual predator.

And last August, through the remarkable science of DNA, which this region's police agencies have become so

We were able to affect the arrest of Nathan Antonio Washington and at least bring some closure to this community and to the many victims that he touched through his behavior and through his actions.

We do consider it an accomplishment but the reality of it is it really was an end of a long road for not only this police agency but for the many other police agencies that helped bring this to a successful conclusion.

Some new initiatives and we're drawing towards the end of our presentation that you can look forward to the days, months and years to come.

The Central Virginia ICAC, Internet Crimes Against Children.

The mayor and I had met probably 18 months ago with a local resident who had a passion for this and she said, Chief, is there any way that we can bear some resources on a pretty serious crime?

You would be absolutely amazed

on a number of cases that we could generate from this very community based on some of the intelligence that we already have.

So we have signed a memorandum of agreement with the Bedford County Sheriff's Department, which is the catalyst for the SOVA ICAC work group.

There are many organizations across Virginia that are part of that memorandum of agreement, and Captain Bibb has dedicated two or three investigative resources, I think two detectives and a supervisor, to helping to work some of these cases.

The county police has been working internet crimes for the past several years.

Frankly, we're behind the curve.

I think we're getting up to speed.

Every law enforcement agency in this region recognizes the significance of this problem and we're going to be working very aggressively to

to kind of get a handle on it.

The Charlottesville area gang enforcement team arose out of a partnership between the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County Police Departments.

It is a regional effort to not only identify gangs and gang trends but to collect information

and to help work strategies not only through gang enforcement but also education and awareness to help deal with what I think is going to be one of the greatest challenges we see in this community and the surrounding communities in the next decade.

The Jefferson Area burglary unit

came about again as a partnership through the Charlottesville Police and Albemarle Police Property Crime Detectives.

I think this unit and the efforts of those detectives are largely responsible for the significant increase that we see in burglaries this year because of the apprehension of some serial burglars.

Their clearance rate in residential burglaries

decrease in burglaries.

Thank you.

Captain.

Moving forward, one of the things I think we're most proud of as we move forward along with every other city department is to become more energy conscious, particularly when it comes to our use of fuel.

Next to transit and pupil transportation, we are the largest consumer of fuel across the city's fleet because we have so many vehicles.

So we're looking for ways to reduce that significantly, some of which we've already talked about.

Increasing the use of the telephone reporting unit, increasing the use of the internet crime reporting component of our website by increasing the use of foot patrol and other types of

More fuel-efficient motorized devices such as the dirt bike you see down at the lower corner.

There was a great article in a local government magazine about a police department in California that went to hybrids.

They had two of them.

That's my car though.

I've been driving a hybrid for a year.

I should have gotten the magazine somehow.

It's one of about three hybrid vehicles we have assigned to the patrol fleet presently.

We are about to present the city manager with a recommendation that we purchase some additional hybrid vehicles this year and implement them into our patrol fleet as well.

And of course, foot and bicycle patrol I think is a step in the right direction with respect to becoming more conservation friendly, particularly as it relates to fuel consumption.

No, that's quite all right.

A lot of good information.

Any questions?

First of all, I noticed a slide was not your hair, it was your smile.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

I just want to comment, thank you all for the report and thank you for the good job you continue to do.

Thank you, sir.

I've known you down for a long time.

I appreciate that.

I just had a couple of questions.

Yes, ma'am.

It kind of predates me.

I think some of it may have had to do with the fiscal impact that maintaining that aspect of the department might have had.

There are a variety of other reasons.

I'm sure I just don't have the opportunity to really sit down with anyone and explore what they may have meant.

I was just wondering because now it kind of makes you wonder if it's cheaper to feed a horse than it is to fill up one of the vehicles.

But the other question I had was during public comment it came up about the relationship that police now have with the housing authority and I just wanted

Well, I think one of the big reasons that it's so different is Sergeant Steve Upman, who is the sergeant that is in charge of the Crime Prevention Unit, has been working very closely with the Public Housing Authority Board.

and is present at their meetings.

And as a resource now for them when issues come up within public housing that are public safety related, he was the liaison if you will in the department that helped champion the

the current barment or no trespassing authorization that the department has now to help again as an added tool to remove people from public housing that really don't have any business being there.

Because of the ownership of that property before, much like if it were private property, the department was somewhat hindered in what it could do with respect to no trespassing enforcement.

Now that agreement or that cooperative is about four or five months old.

Still a long way to go.

internally with respect to training and making sure that officers know what it is and what a valuable tool it is as well.

One of the other reasons I think is Sergeant Uptman has focused on a private housing model called, it's a safe housing, crime free housing model that's been implemented around the country that hasn't been implemented in public housing

but has been implemented in private housing such as Blue Ridge Commons and Friendship Court where it's a multi-layered program that helps train property management on how to implement through crime prevention through environmental design principles to ensure that the environment within housing itself is safe.

And then also some other basic crime prevention principles that we apply to both private and publicly owned buildings here in Charlottesville.

and what Steve is trying to do is he's already conducted the first phase of training for our private housing property owners is to eventually work towards applying that model to public housing as well and if we were able to do that we would be one of the first in the country to be able to accomplish that in a public housing setting.

You described three initiatives that were regional in nature.

I don't think that a week goes by that there is not some discussion that we have with the county.

Last night's very expedient apprehension of some violent criminals in our community

only happened because we were able to quickly collaborate with the county police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that was working with us throughout the weekend to secure a building in Albemarle County where we then went and were able to arrest these individuals.

The collaboration we have with the county and the university is unlike any that I've seen in any other place that I work or have had an opportunity to be in.

We share a records management system, we share a communications system,

We share strategies.

We share personnel.

The nature of what we do has no jurisdictional boundaries.

So we do that on a fairly regular basis through daily operations.

And it's very effective.

I'll offer, I guess not questions, but a couple of comments.

One is that I think when I joined city council four years ago, the thing I probably learned the most was about the police department.

It was extremely positive about how professional it is and how well trained

the people are your forces.

Okay.

And I think that

It's a very positive way for people to really understand how this police department works and the role citizens have in helping.

I just want to give a plug for that.

The second thing I wanted to comment was, I want to give you a thanks, Chief.

And one of the things I noticed, not just tonight, but other occasions, is you're really quick to point out, you know, give credit to the people who work under you, and deservedly so.

But I think you need to be recognized for the leadership you've shown to the department.

I feel like we have a place to follow where the bar is set very high.

You're the one who set it so high.

Well, as a graduate of Citizen's Police Academy, prior graduate, I echo the comments of Dr. Brown and a tremendous respect for the work that you and your officers do for our community and would also second the commendations to you personally for your leadership.

Thank you, sir.

And I also want to specifically thank you for working on the issue of the Internet Crimes Against Children.

As you said, we started meeting on this a year and a half ago, and it's great to see it now really taking form and getting officers trained and working collaboratively throughout the region.

It is a serious and troubling sort of crime sector that I'm glad to see us really appreciate you taking the lead on that as well.

I wanted to follow up.

The last couple of times you've been before council,

when people say, why aren't there more foot patrols?

Why aren't there more people out in the neighborhoods?

And I think you've raised the point repeatedly that this isn't just about certain positions.

This is a department-wide philosophy, community policing.

But you also have repeatedly raised the issue of vacancies.

And because you've been understaffed, that you haven't been able to fully devote the resources that you wanted to devote to things like

Foot Patrol is our neighborhood outreach or whatever it might be.

The staffing and the professions are a work in progress, but I think we currently have seven actual vacancies.

We're in the process of an employment process now that looks very promising.

A lot of really great applicants.

We're looking to make some conditional job offers within the next several days.

I have five officers getting ready to graduate from a regional academy in Weir's Cave on August the 14th.

I have another handful, four or five officers getting ready to be released from field training.

So I think we'll be very close to filling those vacancies for this next hiring class, which will start in September.

And if all goes well, they will hit the streets to work on their own, probably this time next year.

And if we don't lose any additional staff, we'll be

probably more adequately staffed than we ever have in the seven years I've been here.

Right.

And then another issue I brought up before, which has to do with

hiring from within the community.

And I don't know to what extent the police department has any kind of apprenticeship programs or other programs to help encourage neighborhood residents to think about a career in the police department.

I think it's not only good for filling vacancies, but also good for neighborhood outreach and community outreach is trying to develop some professionals from within the community.

I think one of the ways we're able to accomplish that is through our intern program.

Mostly our students will come here during the course of their school year and seek internships with the department.

Many of those students do come back from time to time and become members of the organization.

We work very hard to work with the schools.

Our EXPLORE program at Charlottesville High School is

We're trying to grow that to the point where we're reaching out beyond the high school, maybe to some of the other area schools.

And one of the things we're hopeful that that will accomplish is to get young people who live right here in this community interested in law enforcement by exposing them to the department and its membership in the many things that we do.

We also participate with PVCC and their criminal justice program.

Lieutenant Ronnie Roberts helps sit on that advisory board.

We are there several times a year giving lectures on various aspects of the department.

We use that as a recruitment tool in a very subtle way.

that this is a competitive marketplace.

We have other departments in the region that are looking at the very same qualified pool of applicants that we are.

I certainly will, Mr. Mayor.

Any other questions or comments?

Well, thank you again.

I know we have another item on the agenda relating to police, but appreciate all your service.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, we prepared, I say we, the Deputy City Attorney Rich Harris who's on vacation this week with his family and Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones and I have prepared a memo regarding our recommendation of the Citizens Advisory Panel.

I trust you've had the opportunity to

to take a look at it, but before I field any questions or concerns you may have about the memo and what we're recommending, let me take a moment to revisit the history that's caused us to come to this point.

You may recall in early November, I asked our city attorney's office to look at various models of citizen review that have been implemented across the country.

as well as the status of such efforts here in the Commonwealth of Virginia and also a Virginia Crime Commission report that I was aware of that had been completed several years ago regarding the topic.

After conducting his research, Rich Harris

and also I should say not only after conducting his research but also considering the many processes that the department already has in place to address external grievances.

He concluded that a citizens advisory panel model could provide the best possible opportunity to do a couple of things, one of which I think is

is really critical to our community policing efforts and that's to enhance community relations by providing my office with the opportunity to consult and provide guidance on a regular basis with a diverse group of residents and business owners on important policing and community issues.

The report that we prepared formally recommends such a body and further recommends the creation of a nine-person panel that would serve to assist the chief and the city manager in building positive citizen relationships, encouraging widespread police and citizen engagement,

and ensuring that issues that arise in the immediate aftermath of a critical event are assessed in a manner that properly balances legitimate policing practices, which I believe we practice, and community expectations and values which are equally as important.

Our recommendation would be that the panel meet at least quarterly, and I say at least quarterly because the reality of it is that

In between those meetings, circumstances and situations may arise that would cause the panel to certainly meet more than that.

We would embrace that opportunity.

This panel would appoint a chair who would have the responsibility of setting the agenda and regularly communicating with me and my office on matters that are deemed appropriate by the panel.

and while the panel would have the ability to inquire about policies, procedures and practices within the department, they would not have authority over personnel matters, investigations of police misconduct or the discipline of police employees.

Their recommendations to the City Manager and the Chief regarding policy, procedures and practices would be advisory in nature and would come in the form of recommendations to the Office of the Chief of Police.

Mr. Harris, again our Deputy City Attorney provided you in the document that you received with some examples of citizen review.

I have no intention to review them.

I think you've had an opportunity to look at them, but they really do just serve to illustrate the various models that have been implemented in other communities to address issues of community concerns with respect to policing.

Again, Mr. Jones and I worked very hard in developing the recommendation

We've had many meetings and discussions over the past several weeks.

Thank you.

I have one question I'd like to ask the city attorney.

The requirement to meet in open session where members of the public can be present, where notice has to be given, would depend on whether this committee is considered a public body or not.

A public body is defined under state law not only as city councils and boards of supervisors, but also subcommittees that council or task force that council appoints.

that are created either to advise the public body, which I don't think is the proposal here.

It functions more as advisory to the chief of police or performs a delegated function of the governing body.

And again, I think the police department under our city charter and code is under the general supervision of the city manager.

So I don't think

I think, at least in my opinion, that it would be subject to the open meetings requirements as it's proposed.

If they are considered a public body and they're taking up issues such as policies or procedures or practices of the police department, then I do not think those are appropriate for a closed session.

If the discussion centers around the performance of a specific individual, then yes, it could.

I was reading your examples.

I think this is a thoughtful model.

I think it does the things that the chief has pointed out, but I will point out that when there is a specific incident, it allows the committee chair

for the city manager to bring that up as something for consideration to offer advice on.

So I think it addresses the issue driven

things that do arise from time to time even though in my experience when you look back at those issues we find that we've had a thorough internal process and generally, well not generally, but specifically a very professional police force so there's no driving issue that makes me think we have to have something that's

that's got more authority than this says.

I think it's a very appropriate model given the type of department we have and the type of community we have.

So I think it's a thoughtful proposal.

Well, just comparing this to the Social Services Advisory Board that I serve on now, which provides information about policies and procedures, for example, instrumental in the preparing of the presentation that social services would provide for council last month.

Given that as the closest analogy I have of what an advisory board does, that board is appointed by council and I think that since we're in the beginning of resurrecting this board, because you said in the report that there was one back in 97, but through attrition or lack of interest,

has continued that having a council appointed board, having opportunities for that board to report back to council will also create an opportunity to have some accountability.

So I'd like to see it happen because I think it's such an important bridge for the community.

And given the recent incidents that we've had,

Creating opportunities to develop relationships is even more important than it ever has been.

I agree wholeheartedly.

I think it's a very thoughtful proposal, and I commend you and Mr. Jones for your work in developing it.

I think it goes a little further than the Baltimore County Advisory Committee, but it doesn't go as far as what they have, for instance, in New York City.

But I think it's appropriate for our community.

I happen to agree that having it appointed by city council makes a lot of sense in terms of more public accountability.

I concur with your observations of good proposal.

So, what will councilists think about the idea, as Mr. Huja alluded to, about having a member of council as an ex officio?

I know the county has an ex officio supervisor in their committee.

I mean, I'm open for that.

I think it's probably a good idea.

I don't know if we need to do anything differently.

Well, the way that the Social Service Advisory Board is set up is that I'm going to point it to that board and if we keep it consistent with the way that board is designed as we, because I'm thinking too that we can, if we develop it in that same format, just as a model, because we know that it's a model that works, maybe over the next year, maybe next year this time we can come back.

and see whether or not the model is working, the format is working.

So the proposal before us is creation of a non-person citizenship volume panel to be appointed and I'm hearing support to have it appointed by the city council and I'm hearing at least enough support for the idea of having one ex officio city council representative on the panel.

and if there's no other changes, I'll entertain a motion to approve that recommendation.

So moved.

Any further discussion?

Okay, we now have other business.

Ms.

Waters, who was here earlier, asked me to announce that there will be a neighborhood wrap session at QCC Quality Community Council, which is behind

who used to be also authorizes now the Virginian on West Main.

It's now West Main at 6 p.m. this coming Monday, next Monday, 6 p.m. a neighborhood rap session on gun violence and I encourage anybody who's concerned about that issue to please participate in any other business.

If not, we'll open up to matters by the public.

Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak?

We will close matters by the public and the meeting is adjourned.

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