City Council Meeting   7/20/2009

That would make sense Huh?

I'd like to call this meeting to order and start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

We will fight for the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Here.

Here.

Any other announcements or items to be added to the agenda?

That will be this Friday from 7 to 9 on the downtown mall.

The first person to sign up to speak is Paul Long.

And if the university is reluctant to enter such negotiations with the city, then I think that Governor Keynes should direct the Board of Visitors to direct the university administration to do so, and that the two candidates for governor, Senator Deese and Mr. McDonald, should probably commit themselves to being in favor of this endeavor, and I want to thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Warren.

Gene Chase.

The second page you will see a schematic that has been offered by Adrienne Dent in the concern that we post in the letter presented.

Thank you, Ms. Chase.

Thank you.

Next is Joe Mooney.

Thank you for taking us this far, and one more step is all we're asking.

As you may know, or for others that do not know, Literacy Volunteers is the only agency offering free one-on-one confidential tutoring to adults 18 years and older in basic literacy and English as a second language.

We thank you.

Thank you.

And Michelle Devine Rosser.

And so that's what I'm asking is just to inform the public of what's going on.

Mr. Fenneman.

Thank you.

Mr. Klayman?

Thank you.

Mr. Huja.

I'm not sure if we should investigate why do we need three more parking spaces so close to the bridge and I would like to see it checked.

Ms. Edwards?

in the process so that the neighbors are involved in doing what's going on because there was mixed opinions about what the trail would look like, what it should look like, but I think mostly there was concern about not just not being with them.

They're still going now?

Thank you, Mr. Alompton.

Can you comment on sort of where we are in the process or if we need to bring staff forward to talk about the process from here on?

to this area that would like to see some on-street parking that don't have access to it.

The parking spaces are stripping, which can move us from park, so again, most of them are occupied by students.

Let us get you some facts, because all I have is just a general statement.

I think an important factor would be whether that's a narrower strip that would create a safety problem or whether it's as wide, the road is as wide as other parts of JPA.

So if we can get some more information on that, I would appreciate it.

I'm not sure what their recommendations are yet, but we'll get you some information.

Item C is an appropriation of $59,723.32, schools to the IP contribution, second of two meetings.

Is there any item to be removed from the consent agenda or any questions or comments or a motion to approve?

I'll move for approval of the consent agenda.

Any discussion if not please indicate your vote.

Mr. Mayor, I would like the record to reflect that I vote yes on all items except item P. I vote no on item P, the Longwood rezoning RT to PD because I still have concerns about the city contribution and how that's different from city revenue and also the opportunity to create community and outreach in that neighborhood.

Thank you, Ms. Edwards.

Mr. Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

Next we have a report from our Charlottesville City Schools on an issue that is of tremendous importance to all of us on city council, to the community as a whole and I note to the school board and administration for Charlottesville City Schools which is

Thank you very much for being here tonight.

and Sally Rupp with one of our students.

She told me last week that she never thought she would ever walk across the stage at the JPJ, but she did, and now she's gonna come tell you about it.

Hi.

The WOC program moved at my own pace and in my own way and for that I sincerely thank the WOC program and the opportunities that it's given me.

Any questions that you have for us?

Any questions?

Do teachers and faculty, staff, mentors and students outside the classrooms?

That's just one aspect of mentoring that we are implementing.

And when we have that relationship and we understand that each of them are unique, have unique needs, they're unique individuals, and we respond to that uniqueness, we see an enormous amount of success.

Because this is what the first year, second year, what do you think this will look like five years from now?

In the first year, full year of the program, if we had graduated 36 students that would not have walked across that stage had this program not been in place, I would certainly say as we continue to develop the program and have the strategies from this program reach down into our middle and elementary schools, we can certainly look forward to an enormous amount of success.

I know it's probably hard sometimes trying to physically track them down, but what kind of efforts are made to try to reach out and bring somebody back into the floor?

We go get them.

But we have three students right now that are back in our program that dropped out over a year ago.

So we go get them.

What do you believe, what are some of the barriers or some of the things that the students are saying for the reason why they decide not to return to school?

Those are some of the strategies that have caused our students to tune back in to the learning environment.

I look forward to some very impressive results in the years to come.

Thank you.

The first one being here to present is Mr. Jim Tolbert.

I'd be glad to answer any questions on those.

Questions for Mr. Connolly.

First of all, what are you doing with 14th Street?

14th Street is being, the concrete sidewalks are being replaced with brick to make it part of, appear to be part of the corner itself and bring those merchants into the field that's part of the corner, into the...

We're just repairing them.

They're similar worth keeping.

So there was two comments on it.

We did it that way, but then we did not go that way because we, again, really, all the other cost issues that we had.

It's all that can be reduced.

And we've got 37,000 worth of bricks, which is really not a lot for the bricks we are reusing or using some for the marl, but I think it's the nature of the utility work and the size of the storm drainage in particular.

because those three areas I think are the cheaper projects and where it is very, very heavy and could gain much more time than doing six feet, even though six feet of the ice should be done.

I just have a couple questions and one observation, I guess, but on Ellawood Avenue, I mean, have you given any thought to trying to protect that curving in any way, or is there any way you can do that?

But we recognize that it's going to be a continued problem with the curbs unfortunately.

And you assure us on 2nd Street, we aren't going to have to go back in and tear it up again?

They fix it, I mean.

Didn't have a chance to have much input into this process with the remaining money.

We didn't have a lot of process, but we've also got a lot of need there.

You could do 5th, 5th and 2nd Street and get more knowledge for that.

we wouldn't have a problem at all in just holding any use of that $309 leaving it where it is if council desires that.

Other comments or questions?

Now this is not a part of the construction conversation, but that was only comment that I got regarding being able to have some public input.

Some of the new ones don't realize that, but the old ones did get a waiver.

for, you know, the thing for planning on, you know, that are priorities for the city in anticipation if we may have some shortfalls, it'd be nice to have a little extra already in the CIP.

enhancing the businesses, it was more or less a safety issue from what I understand because the cars coming in and out of the garage and the large number of people that use that as a exit way into the downtown mall.

The intent was to make it much safer and to beautify it also, but it was also a good safety.

How much was that, Oscar?

300,000, that's an estimate.

That would be my lowest priority would be Sixth Street.

Can you comment on that?

but not right this moment.

So it's $600,000 plus the $200,000 from the developer.

to be used to go back into the city's budget and be appropriated as council software.

and then on the corner project, it's not, I guess I'm wondering why we would go in and repair those curbs if they're just going to, if the same trucks are going to come in and do the same damage to them.

We're trying to replace them as good as we can without busting the budget.

I'm real concerned that repairing the original construction might have lasted 25 years but is a repair going to have that kind of strength?

The other work is as to that because we're doing some electrical repair and drainage repair.

Talk about the foundation that's going to go back underneath that section.

and Sturdy, and able to withstand vehicular traffic than what's been there for the last 25 years, which it sounds reasonably well considering it's been there 25 years, but it's still got a lot of issues.

But I'm just worried if we need to make a commitment of that magnitude to, as you may remember, what I've heard is that, it was cost assured by all of us in the city.

Like I said, we thought we had enough money to do it and then we ran into some of the subsurface issues.

and 6th Street, where we will have some of the same for the other two projects, but then the same is how we want us to do the future for our possibilities.

If you don't give it to me, I've got to stop and figure out which contract I tell to go home and what we...

But we're supposed to go and sell the 14th Street and we're going to do something else.

I promise you that we won't spend a dime more than we have to, just like we didn't do in the morgue.

I'd still like to see 700% for building a total of three streets that you were talking about.

It's 300 we have no problem with saving that.

There are many parts we can, there are many, many, there are many parts we can build.

There will be some addition to that.

I'd like to see some design work done on the main three streets of the dimension, 2nd street, 1st street and 2nd street roads.

We did the work on the other way and we could do that and I'll go ahead and have that started this time.

We could do this for much cheaper because we have a lot of side work to do.

which means we would be deleting the $300,000 for Sixth Street.

Mr. Tolbert.

Before you is a resolution that has a recommendation for how to expend 489,000 of the remaining dollars, 489,143.

Age 4, 4 says 247.

This resolution recommends another 150,000 to go to Virginia Supportive Housing for the SRO which would give a total of 275,000 to Virginia Supportive Housing for

and there's currently a budget of 545 so that would leave some money left to handle anything that comes up and then be reallocated in the FY10 future allocation.

My understanding is that they're doing a foundation reform much more than $200,000.

So if you would like to add that to the resolution.

You know those mess ourselves.

As best we can tell, that's correct.

Can you talk about the housing position and why there's an additional 20,000 requested?

Between this and what we're suggesting in the next item is trying to get two years funding in place for it.

Originally it said $50,000, which I assume was anticipated to be one year's funding.

a little better with it to make it work.

Can you talk about what that position would do?

bringing those together, staffing the Housing Advisory Committee, looking at housing policy issues, compiling statistical data on how our market's doing and what impact we're having and really being a watchdog over how we're using our funds and what's happening in the community with those dollars.

I want to make this position a little bit about housing construction.

That's the chief function.

Either going out and bringing the private sector to do that where they can, working with them, or promoting and working with the non-profits to do so.

It depends on their ability to be successful and to get future funding, but they also recognize that it would be nice to have a couple of years to get established and operate that they didn't have to worry about.

Other questions?

I'm happy to jump into it.

You know, that's millions of dollars over the period of 15 years that will be covered through subsidies from the county and from Region 10.

And so I'd like to see us have, you know, to put a contingency in here somewhere that, you know, that the home funds, the housing vouchers, that there will be a firm commitment

So I don't have any problem putting that language into our commitment as well.

And I think the way that I've seen the draft agreements written that if we put the money up for the down payment and other things don't materialize in the project, they don't close so the project doesn't happen and that money is

Do you have to carry on with the property?

Of course at closing then it's theirs and you've got your contribution in.

Tomorrow he wants to say that I agree with Dave very much that it is a regional issue which is due to a death to his body and Dave has outlined a strategy for that and I think we ought to strive for that and I still think this is really the most important for the residents of our city I think they've gotten a consistent message in all our meetings, my meetings with them that it's a regional issue that they need to find regional solutions to

Although the county is stepping up with the vouchers correct, but they're really not putting anything towards the capital costs of the project.

I definitely would be the interloperator but we haven't gotten a concrete commitment right now as an oral agreement but I fully agree we need that to be...

So there could be part of how we would say that these people were subject to the orders to move up so...

That's correct.

There's been some talk by 8 to 15.

Just decrease the number of vouchers that they would have over all of them.

and we're not getting any dollars here in Albemarle County.

I want to say about 400, do you know?

That's the number and it sounds familiar to me, but I'm not sure.

The value of Section 8 vouchers versus a capital investment and what impact is taking those vouchers out of circulation.

They're being project-based, which housing agencies have the ability to project-base a certain percentage of their vouchers already.

There are many places we've done that before.

We can certainly get an estimate, an average cash value per voucher, but, yeah.

Are you making a contingent

on contributions from other localities other than Albemarle County's contribution of our funds.

The whole fund is a regional body of money inside our state.

And then they'll start going after all the other commitments, so...

But could we have some kind of a release for the property?

I'm not sure.

I mean, that's generally where you have a lead.

And I'd like to say, no, we agreed ahead, we clearly agreed ahead of time that wasn't what we were going to do.

Well, how about if we just make it the closing on this project contingent, which they're going to have to do anyway for their tax credits, make the closing on the project contingent upon the commitments that you've spelled out.

You won't ever see it coming back through those channels again more than likely.

If it doesn't come forward, the deal's going to fall through and we're going to run you back by selling the property.

So just, that is a, a big plus.

Okay.

To sell our property.

To sell our assignment, right.

Our ability, if I understand it correctly, to step in the shoes of the purchaser would mean coming up with another million dollars.

Which is assessed at 1.8 million, as I understand.

That $500,000 is pretty much gone once you write the check unless you get the property and sell it.

Don't have to add more money to the project.

We would have to buy the property.

You took a stab at amending it.

The Virginia Supportive Housing Project will include home funds from the region and Section 8 vouchers from Albemarle County.

And Region 2.

Is there any number associated with the region 10?

Those numbers are being discussed right now, so... Well, it says that the region 8 to 15 was just... Well, I'm hoping it might get more than 15 from region 10, so I don't want to put a...

Mr. Tolbert, FY10.

and then the rest of this money we proposed that we would, the rest of the million we would come back to you in the future with proposals for spending after we had a chance to solicit both.

Any questions?

The previous position, when we moved to the housing house,

Let's make it 170.

With salary and benefits we're going to be real close to that, dynamo computer to use and a few supplies I think will be there and anything that we would like to we would make up for and we'll see if you do dollars, admin dollars.

But the housing leader is the same thing as the housing leader.

and the Lega Housing Project.

The 70 was from FY09 and the 100 from FY10.

Okay.

Hello, I've been, you know, since I've heard from you guys before.

Yeah, 70 before.

Okay.

I'd like to spend my time in this room.

I just wanted to make that note.

I think this will give us an opportunity to really address that as well.

Mr. Long, would you like to speak?

So I just wanted to say that and thanks a lot.

Anybody else like to speak, Ms. Chase?

Perhaps you might say voice off in the young woman's name and then maybe walk and then with pride CHS graduate and that might then identify the voice for the listening audience.

Anybody else?

Before we move forward, I just want to say a few words about what brought us to the change and then have a discussion with kids in the neighborhood.

I just heard about this, I guess, when the email came this weekend.

Thank you very much.

Piazza