City Council Meeting   12/6/2010

Rudy the red-bricked reindeer, you'll go down in history.

Next year I could be just as good if you check off my Christmas list Santa baby

We are going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Miss Baum.

Thank you.

Now therefore be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Charlottesville fully supports the National Park Service proposal to add the Eastern Legacy sites to the existing Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and calls upon the people of Charlottesville to join their fellow citizens in offering their support at the National Park Service public meeting starting, this says 4pm, I'm not sure if it's 4 or 5, 5pm on Thursday, December 9th at Darden Tow Park and here to receive this proclamation is Miss Kay Slaughter.

Thank you very much.

Please join me in giving Miss Lee a round of applause for her actions.

So thank you very much.

So please give a round of applause.

Thank you so much.

Any other announcements from other counselors?

I think it also will help a lot of people to get a better understanding of some of the issues and concerns that some of our constituents are facing.

The first person who signed up to speak is Paul Long.

Thank you.

James Nix.

Thank you for your chance to speak with you once again on this subject.

Harold Foley.

So, once again, thank you and also congratulations.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Jim Shea.

Thank you.

Jason Ness.

Thank you for your time.

Betty Mooney.

Mayor Norris, Members of Council, our new acting city manager, congratulations.

And not acting, I mean new city manager, formally acting.

Thank you.

Kevin Millett.

Thank you.

Charles C. Banks.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Banks.

Thank you.

Rebecca Quinn.

Thank you.

Downing Smith.

We'll pull them for you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Huja.

And I want to thank those people who are here to speak today on that issue.

Dr. Brown?

I'm proud to have had the mayor sign the proclamation and I think I'm really pleased that we've been selected to be a second chance community.

I also hope that, I think that is the case, we have our own city employees, the employer practices we do hire ex-offenders.

It's not the kind of issue that gets discussed often enough, frequently enough, and so I commend the dialogue and race and specifically that action team, that committee, for bringing this forward, so thank you.

And I'd like to invite him back to speak on other issues as well.

We want to certainly support an effort to encourage the education or to improve the educational experience for our school children but particularly in these physically stressed times that's a pretty big pill to swallow and so we are certainly asking those questions but thank you.

We've looked into it.

So we're trying to develop that criteria right now, working with transit and then also with social services.

I will not be that upset if few people misuse the pass.

Well, let's not publicize that.

I'm saying because it's worth the risk, never mind.

Dr. Brown.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

You're already on.

We've got some exciting plans in store and they're developing some exciting plans to help us celebrate our 250th anniversary in the year 2012.

We're moving forward with big parties.

Are there any items to be removed for further discussion or any comments or questions?

And I just wanted to hear more about what the plan is for that position and how it will move reentry efforts to the next level.

How are you looking for that information tonight, or do you want to put this off until our next meeting?

I guess, Mr. Jones, what do you think would be most appropriate?

We do have staff who's available to answer any questions that you may have this evening.

If staff is available to answer questions this evening, I'd like to talk to them this evening if that's possible.

Any other items to be removed or questions, comments, or a motion to approve the remaining items?

I will move the action agenda.

Next we have before us a public hearing and an ordinance regarding the vacation of subdivision plat for 2210 Berkshire Road, first of two readings, Mr. Jim Tolbert.

So this has been requested by Habitat on behalf of the two buyers of those two properties.

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

I don't have any questions.

And tonight, we're very pleased to announce that Maurice Jones is our new city manager.

So thank you very much and let's get to work.

I'd like to give other councils a chance if you have anything you'd like to add to what I said or what Mr. Jones has said.

I just wanted to second your comments and you're open to all possibilities but we hired the best candidate for all the 80 people we have received and we not only hired the best candidate but I think he's enthusiastic, he's going to work hard and we're looking forward to working with him.

So I really feel very good about this decision and I'm really pleased to have been part of it.

It was a lot of hard work.

For me too.

This is a new beginning in very many ways.

We do have a resolution before us that I do need to take a vote on to officially confirm Maurice Jones as our city manager.

It's been moved.

So I'm very pleased to have you in this role.

Thank you, sir.

Next we have a report from our partners at Region 10 Community Services Board presentation on Medicaid program and I believe, oh please, wasn't sure who was, okay.

This has been done in some other states and has led to a fragmentation of services and also to a direct reduction in the amount of dollars that are able to be used to provide services through additional for-profit administrative costs.

Is that something they can just do unilaterally?

The General Assembly votes on it and they vote in January, is that true?

and that will be one of the decisions we expect to be made in May, February.

This is what we expect to happen.

I mean, what are we looking at?

It would definitely, it could reduce the services down to just the mandated services in an extreme case.

And that's the challenge we have and that's why we want to talk to East Locality about this issue.

So we're going to have a lot more consumers who want services from us and we're going to have to figure out how to do that and probably in many cases with Medicaid rates that don't really cover the cost of those services and we're going to have to figure out where subsidization is going to come from to make up the difference between the rates and what it actually costs to provide those.

Questions, comments from Councillors?

This is a general statement and that will be helpful to us.

We can do that.

We have numbers of talking points in white papers and stuff that we won't overwhelm you with but I think we could give you enough to certainly make it so that you can speak.

And within the Use Local Solutions brochure you'll see some of the basic talking points.

But we can also pick one or two specific points that are the things to lobby for and we'll get back to you quickly on that.

Any other comments or questions?

Unless the other counselors have a desire, I'd like to serve as a council representative on the coalition.

That'd be great.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your time.

Welcome.

And congratulations, Mr. Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Richards.

It is going to be up now.

I'll give one to Holly.

Let's see if I can get it back.

Virginia was the 15th to partner with Amtrak and, did I not change that?

Let's see.

I have done something I shouldn't do, so let's see.

There we go.

So Amtrak is pretty much filling the Crescent as they had before, but Virginia ridership on the Crescent is down.

Back, back, back, back.

I'm sorry about that, but it's very awkward.

Any questions or comments regarding the new train service?

I have no questions, but just continue to keep us updated and on task so we'll know what we need to do and when we need to do it.

It's a very short legislative session this year, you probably know, so we won't have a long time to get rolling on this.

I've taken it numerous times and I'm sure a lot of people in the room have.

I hear a lot from people who are riding the train and really enjoying it.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Mr. Ferguson.

I'd be happy to take any questions if you have them.

Do you want to introduce folks in the room who are with the Paramount?

She's here as well.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Sure.

Other comments or questions from counselors?

I think Paramount provides that for children very useful.

1145 in between our showings because you're going to have a thousand kids coming out and you're going to have a thousand kids going in and if you see two thousand excited kids not in school there's a lot of energy there and it's a lot of fun to witness.

I'd like to thank everyone because I think it's a real asset to the downtown mall and to our city.

And two, what work goes into planning an event of that magnitude and to have someone like her to come to our community?

So it took a lot.

All right, the last item on our regular business agenda tonight is a report on the Belmont Bridge sidewalk repair and I believe this is Mr. Jim Tolbert.

So again, I'm here for guidance, direction or your passage on first reading of an ordinance.

We just didn't want to expend any funds on that until council had a chance to weigh in on this.

Just a way we could use an interim until we can make a decision, some landscaping or some art, something which can attract a way to hide the area.

They seem to be attracted to it, so unless we physically barricade the entire length basically from one end to the other, I think we're going to continue to have a... Well, you can barricade it, but still you can hide the barricade by art or...

Right.

you know, there's really, there's nothing to attach it to good without the weights.

I think something like that would be useful.

Mr. Huja, do I take it from your comments that you don't believe this is a good investment of funds at this time to actually repair the bridge or the sidewalk?

But it needs to be fixed.

We had the first meeting on the bridge replacement last week and we didn't get any negatives on

Anecdotally, it seems like now that we've got it closed, people wanted to use it.

It seems like from your report that most of the people who use the bridge, they don't both start and end on the east side, so they have to cross sooner or later to get to their destination in either direction.

They seem to be doing that, but not everybody.

So most people have seen what Mr. Tolbert is saying, the cross of Belmont and follow the western sidewalk.

I mean it sounds like the issue is can we get a solution that kind of encourages people to safely cross and use the sidewalk on the west side.

And even if the structural integrity will allow us to put anything of any weight on there, we've still got to explore that.

I don't think you need to put a six feet fence to block it.

I mean, I don't like the idea of spending $300,000, but maybe Mr. Huja's right is that there is a, you know, particularly in this bidding environment, you know, maybe we'll find a contractor that can do it for significantly cheaper than that.

I mean, if the cost is a problem or concern?

Maybe the Belmont Bridge meeting brought up some other issues, but that entire intersection, this may be a good time to look at that as well.

I mean, the issue of trying to get pedestrians to cross to the west side, has it been discussed by our pedestrian safety committee?

you know as we rebuild a bridge but not about an interim solution.

I think if we could do both at the same time, have some other solutions offered us, I'd rather see that.

I would be with you, in my mind, if you want to explore the possibility at least, what you say.

Well, would either of you object to Mr. Jones' suggestion that we, without committing to doing a repair project, but at least to solicit some bids and see if we can bring it, at least hypothetically, bring it down below $300,000?

So there are alternative designs also to see if you can do it for a little simpler.

bring all those things back to you for consideration.

And I have a request if we decide not to repair it, I'd love to see one of those lighted crosswalks there at the south end of the bridge because that's a very, or it can be a perilous crossing for pedestrians and if we're going to be adding to the number of pedestrians using it, I think you should, you know, something to look at.

If you end up spending $50,000 covering the sidewalk, you better put another $100,000 to replace it.

Sure.

And I believe Mr. Murphy is here.

I don't know if Mike Zumoffit is here.

I don't know if you have specific questions.

And I just wanted to hear more about why the option of creating a new position at CDESS wasn't further explored.

So we don't have any flexibility in the services, and it would be most efficient and effective for us to just build on the existing model that we have.

Does that mean the way the grant was written was predicated on using OAR?

So when we were considered as being one of the six localities to receive a portion of this money, the model that we presented to them was led by OIR.

Other comments or questions?

I think OER has done a good job in this area and I think they can do well.

Will we get an opportunity to hear some of the results of the position and I guess will there be an opportunity for council to get subsequent reports?

Absolutely, absolutely.

That answers my question.

I'll move the appropriation.

Second.

Any other business before council tonight?

I would like to see the report on a regular basis so that we can see progress happening in this area.

Mr. Peter Kleeman.

No cookies.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

and David Brown