City Council Meeting   1/3/2012

All right.

Good evening, everyone.

I'd like to adjourn this meeting of the Charlottesville City Council.

It is now my pleasure to open up the nominations for mayor for the city of Charlottesville.

Do we have a second?

I'll second it.

Do we have a nomination and a second?

Do we have anyone else to be nominated for this position?

OK. With that, we will take a vote for the mayor of Charlottesville.

I'm sorry, let's take a roll call vote on that.

Mr. Norris?

Aye.

Ms. Smith?

Aye.

Ms. Galvin?

Aye.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Aye.

So we have a new mayor of the City of Charlottesville, Mr. Satyendra Huja.

We have a nomination and a second.

Any other nominations?

Mr. Norris?

Aye.

Ms. Smith?

Aye.

Ms. Galvin?

Aye.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Aye.

Thank you

First of all, I would like to thank Dave Norris for his service to City of Charlottesville as Mayor for four years.

Please join me in thanking Dave Norris.

I would also like to welcome our two new Councillors, Kathy Galvin and Dede Smith.

Before we go to regular agenda, I'd like to make a few comments.

I want to start by thanking my colleagues on city council for supporting me for the position of mayor.

I also owe a great deal of debt to citizens of Charlottesville for electing me to this city council.

It says a great deal about our community that someone like me can become a mayor.

Our community appreciates and embraces diversity and it reflects in our efforts.

As a mayor, I'll work with city council for future agenda for the community.

I'll listen to desires and concerns of the citizens, residents and businesses.

I'm accessible 24-7 to hear your concerns and ideas.

I will work my very best to protect the interests of our community.

I will work to enhance the quality of life and the environment so that Charlottesville can be a great city, a great community for all of its residents.

Let me emphasize, for all of its residents.

I also want to thank, if my wife is here somewhere,

He has been a great support to me all through the effort.

I am honored to have the privilege to serve as the mayor of City of Charlottesville and thank you all of you for this honor.

Next to the agenda is awards, reconditions and proclamations.

We have at least one proclamation.

As you may all be aware that we are celebrating the 250th year of Charlottesville in 2012.

So we have a proclamation for that.

Now I'm going to change the procedures a little bit.

Proclamation celebrating 250 Charlottesville, January 2012.

Whereas on November 12, 1762, situated along a trade route called Three Notched Road, which led from Richmond to the Shenandoah Valley, the citizens and public servants announced its intent to become the town of Charlottesville,

named after Queen Charlotte Mecklenburg-Strijlitz, and whereas Charlottesville was situated in the center of a newly reduced geographical county of Albemarle, whose previous courthouse had been situated in Scotts Ferry on the James River for 20 years, and whereas on December 23rd of that year, declared by King George III of England and signed by the royal governor, Francis Fauquier, the town of Charlottesville was founded, creating a community with vast culture and with a rich and diverse history.

and, whereas we recognize Dr. Thomas Walker, the leading figure in the effort at that time to establish Charlottesville, an Englishman who would later explore the Kentucky Territory to the west at the time, was building his own home called Castle Hill in eastern Albemarle County.

and whereas after Charlottesville's founding and through much of the rest of the 1700s and 1800s the area grew and prospered producing one of the finest educational institutes in the world and housing three United States presidents and numerous individuals who contributed to the founding of our country and the freedoms and prosperity that we enjoy today.

and whereas Charlottesville was incorporated as a city in 1888 and further contributed to the history and culture of our country by inspiring educators and policy makers to teach and govern countless generations and by emboldening writers, actors, musicians and artists to excel and share their talents and whereas our community continues to serve as a home to a wonderfully diverse and inspired citizenry

and as a destination for millions to come to learn, play and enjoy their freedoms.

therefore be it resolved that Charlottesville City Council hereby proclaims 2012 as the year of true celebration and encourage all citizens and businesses to participate in any way they feel would demonstrate that Charlottesville means to them and their families.

And I have just signed the proclamation as my first official duty and I want to present that to the city manager.

That's one of the fun jobs from Dave Norris.

I have a few announcements that I would like to share with the community.

City Hall will be closed on January 13th.

which is Friday, and January 16th which is Monday.

There will be normal trash pickup and recycling and transit as usual.

There will also be a budget session, maybe I should say, where they will be closed for.

Those are two important holidays in our community, on Friday and Monday.

Also, I want to announce that there is a budget work session for city council on Thursday at 5 p.m. at City Space.

You may get more information on our website or call in by our staff.

So Thursday, 5 p.m. at City Space.

If you're interested in budget, there will be a time to come and share.

and I think you should be interested in budget.

It means a great deal in terms of our community.

I have a couple.

Do you have anything?

The first is in line with the Martin Luther King holiday on the 16th, on January 15th at the

Performing Arts Center, I hope.

I don't have this written down.

It's just I've been in rehearsals for the choir of it.

The Martin Luther King Community Celebration will be taking place at 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

Also, I just wanted to, well, first of all, I'd like to apologize for there being no cookies for the people who come up for public comment.

I usually make cookies because I know that it's difficult to come up and I want it to be something that people feel honored for.

The day got away from me and I wasn't able to bake so next time.

Thank you.

Anybody else has announcements?

If not, we're going to go to public comment section of our meeting.

This is my most favorite part of the meeting.

You may not believe it, but I have told the Mayor and David Norris often that this is my best, most interesting part of the meeting.

There are citizens in this community who have great ideas and information to share with us, and so I look forward to that.

But there are a few rules in the process.

We have three minutes to speak, and we will give a chance to the first 12 speakers.

If you haven't signed up, please sign up.

I have signed up a list, and I'll give it to Page, and I'll give you a chance.

You have three minutes, and it will be appreciated if you try to wrap up within those three minutes.

The first speaker is Lauren Schaper.

Thank you.

Good evening, city councilors.

My name is Lauren Chapin.

I'm a member of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church and served as co-facilitator of IMPACT's Mental Health Research Committee last year.

We are looking forward to Robert Johnson's report later this evening and would like to express our support of Region 10's Healthy Transitions Program in conjunction with the Probation and Parole Office.

This program is designed to serve ex-offenders with mental illness prior to the reinstatement of their Medicaid benefits.

a process which can take up to a staggering 90 days.

IMPACTS members are thrilled with the success of this program so far with reports from December 22nd indicating that 76% of the program's participants are stable.

Without the Healthy Transitions program it would be incredibly difficult for these individuals to access treatment and medication.

These services are absolutely essential to these persons and our community as a whole.

Without this care, many of these individuals would decompensate, unable to stabilize their illness, resulting in a return to jail or prison for some at the community's expense.

The state recognizes the need for programs of this type as well, as is exemplified by Governor McDonald's Executive Order Number 11, establishing the Virginia Prisoner and Juvenile Offender Reentry Council,

The need for mental health services for ex-offenders was cited as part of the rationale for establishing this council.

I'd like to remind you that the Healthy Transitions program is currently funded by a private donation which will run out this year.

causing the program to be discontinued without public support.

On March 28, 2011, over 1,500 community members gathered because they understand the challenges facing mentally ill offenders and are passionate about eliminating this problem in our community.

At that same event, Counselors Szakos, Huja and Norris made commitments to fund half the cost of this program, up to $50,000, beginning this fiscal year on an annual basis.

who would like to remind you of that commitment and would also like to inquire as to the status of this program and the budget proceedings.

Is there currently a proposed budget that includes the Healthy Transitions program?

Also, when do you anticipate you may be making a decision on this matter?

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Brandon Collins, 536 Meade Avenue.

I've lived in Charlottesville my entire life.

I have a daughter who's also lived here her entire life.

I'm here to ask you to please consider drafting and passing an updated resolution calling for peace, a resolution that calls for an end to wars and calls for bringing our war dollars back home where we can use them on really awesome programs that

The council may feel they can be more able to address poverty in Charlottesville.

I've sent you a copy.

Some of you couldn't open the attachments.

There's a much broader agenda for peace, one of those items, well the whole thing is actually part of a larger agenda that I have for you that I will bring into your attention in the weeks ahead.

But the first item on the peace agenda is information about a resolution calling for peace and an end to war.

and bringing our war dollars home.

As you head into the budget, I know you're going to be frustrated with the lack of federal funds and state funds for a lot of things and I know that's a huge frustration and I hope as you're thinking about that budget, you think about the $108 million that taxpayers in Charlottesville have shelled out since 2001 for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

that 108 million does not include our nuclear arsenal, our 140 military bases worldwide, SDI, or subsidies to oil and energy companies.

It doesn't include the 4,484 U.S. dead in Iraq, the 1,864 dead in Afghanistan, the one and a half million Iraqi civilians, and the hundreds of thousands of Afghan dead and wounded, which

are mainly children and non-combatants.

So 108 million dollars is a lot of money that could be used locally for great things.

like addressing our affordable housing crisis or school reconfiguration or working towards having a green economy.

So you can see that all that war money really does make this a local issue and I hope you will consider joining cities nationwide in an effort calling on Congress and the President to end the wars and bring our war dollars home.

Just like in 1988, this council passed a resolution opposing nuclear weapons.

In 2003, called for non-participation in the Iraq War.

In 2011, Dave Norris signed the Mayors for Peace Agreement, and I hope you will follow suit with the 2012 call for an end to war and bringing our war dollars home.

Critics are going to say, you know, this is not Charlottesville's place, but I say, here are our representatives and our national and state representatives have not

done what the majority of people in Charlottesville want, which is an end of these wars.

And you have a duty to represent us just as you go to the state legislature and offer an agenda for them for things that will be good for the city of Charlottesville.

This is the exact same thing.

What is really going to help Charlottesville is an end of these wars so we can have a lot more money for a lot of great things.

So I hope you will pass a resolution

Consider, as you're going over the budget, there are other ways you can fight for peace here in Charlottesville and make a meaningful stand for it.

And I hope you will get to work addressing affordable housing jobs and all kinds of things.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is David Swanson, speaking on the same topic

The Thomas Jefferson manual and the standard House rules in the U.S. House of Representatives provide for petitioning Congress by cities and towns.

A state Supreme Court decision in 1967 ruled that it is

one of the purposes of local government to represent its citizens before the Congress and the legislature even in matters of foreign policy.

Charlottesville does speak to the state legislature and as Brandon noted has spoken to the Congress before.

Recently many cities and towns and the US Conference of Mayors with the support of our now former mayor Dave Norris have urged the Congress to cut military spending which has roughly doubled in the past decade

and is now well over half of federal discretionary spending.

Charlottesville's $108 million over 10 years for two wars that a majority of Americans say never should have been begun is just scratching the surface.

Charlottesville taxpayers pay about that amount every year for the standard total military budget, over $100 million.

Some of that comes back to Charlottesville in contracts, but in the least efficient manner possible.

Every other form of federal spending, including tax cuts, produces more jobs than military spending.

Imagine what Charlottesville could do with $100 million a year.

The New York Times this morning claims that the Pentagon and Congress are prepared to make small but significant cuts to the military, taking us back to 2007 levels

still leaving the US military budget over twice the size of any other on earth, but the Times reports concern that this could leave us unprepared for quote, a grinding lengthy ground war in Asia.

Now, if the United States populace thinks that we need a long grinding lengthy ground war in Asia to defend ourselves, we will volunteer and go.

Or if you don't like democracy that much, they can draft us to go.

But to pay for it now and to plan for it when we need the money for other things is absolutely unconscionable.

I would like to ask everyone behind me in this room to stand up please.

If rather than funding and planning for a lengthy, grinding ground war in Asia, you would rather have top quality education in this country, schools for our children, affordable housing,

quality health coverage that would take us up to the health standards of other wealthy nations in the world, jobs for the unemployed, transportation, green energy,

These are what we need.

We don't need to waste our money on crimes any longer.

We had a conference on this subject in September in Charlottesville.

Three of our city council members honored us by attending.

There will be a book published this Martin Luther King Day with the proceedings from that conference.

There is one copy already in existence and I would like, if it's appropriate, to give it to the Charlottesville city council members.

Joanna Salidas I'm Joanna Salidas.

I live at 129 Goodman Street.

I'm glad you're discussing the cost share agreement this evening because I have serious concerns and questions.

It seems to me that fundamental to any agreement that involves sharing or selling resources is an initial appreciation of what each party brings to the table.

Yet it appears that such an initial tally was not conducted in this case.

In the Sunday Daily Progress article, Mr. O'Connell and Ms. Mueller seemed to say that the city's supply of water will not shrink from this deal.

Mr. O'Connell said that water is used on a first-come, first-served basis and that there is no allocation as to who uses what.

Is this true?

because this makes it sound like no one owns any of the water, which seems very odd to me.

I would like to hear discussion of this question this evening.

How much of the current water supply does Charlottesville own?

Ms. Mueller, who I believe has been a member of the negotiating team for the city, said that there are no definitive answers to the question of whether the city will end up with a smaller allocation of water because the deal adds new supply while offsetting the anticipated loss of supply at the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir due to sedimentation.

This statement at face value suggests that there is no accounting of exactly how much water we are losing due to allowing our reservoir to fill in, nor any accounting of how much water we expect to gain from new supply.

How is it possible that a completed agreement

leaves such fundamental and essential questions unanswered.

If in fact there are answers to these questions, then surely you can tell us whether the city's allocation of water is in fact shrinking.

If it is actually shrinking, I must ask why are city residents and rate payers paying anything to expand the water supply?

Unfortunately, more than just water is at stake, another resource that appears to have

I've heard from several of you for months that the reservoir would be dredged.

I hope that in the future, I'm not expected to add in my head

the words to the least extent possible when one of you says that something will be done.

This agreement ensures that South Fork will never be dredged beyond the bare minimum and even that seems to be a waste since the poultry additional supply cannot be counted.

towards either party's water allocation or to avoid raising the reservoir at Ragged Mountain higher.

What is the purpose of explicitly excluding possible future water capacity from the water supply as this agreement does?

Furthermore, may I ask, why did you choose to use the sedimentation rate calculated by Gannett Fleming to determine the remaining volume of water in South Fork in 2055 instead of HDR's sedimentation rate?

HDR used superior instruments and methodology, including many more measurements, 600 versus 50, to calculate a sedimentation rate that was half that found by Gannett Fleming.

A slower sedimentation rate means that much more water will be available in that reservoir in 2055 without dredging than you have listed in this agreement.

I would really like to know the basis of your choice to use Gannett Fleming's numbers.

Peter MacIntosh Good evening and a warm welcome to Ms. Galvin and Ms. Smith.

Congratulations Mr. Mayor and a warm personal thanks to Mr. Norris for all the work he's done over the years.

A tribute.

and a thank you to all of you for the time and energy you've put in and you will be putting in over the next several years.

I am here to speak about two subjects, very briefly, McIntyre East Planning and Steep Slopes.

I add my support to Mr. Huja's suggestion at your December 19th meeting that professional expertise be brought into the master planning process of all of our parks, but especially McIntyre Park earlier in the process than it has at this point.

I agree with Ms. Zakos that public input is imperative and we've had a significant amount of public input as to McIntyre East.

There were over 100 people at the October meeting, more than 350 comments on the website or by phone.

I would also ask that the process and city council remember that in 2005 the city commissioned

a statistically significant poll of 2,000 households about the parks needs in our community.

They received 562 responses, 311 from the city, 251 from the county.

They ranked 26 uses.

Three of the top four were walking and bike trails, nature trails, nature areas, and the fourth were small neighborhood parks.

Nine of the 26 at the bottom were active recreation uses.

Soccer, softball, golf, and skateboarding.

That is data that is as valuable as 100 stakeholders who come out on one evening in October.

Citizens can provide valuable input but professional expertise to design the uses for this unique topography in McIntire Park

If we don't use it, we're just not making the best decision.

You'll also be considering a steep slopes ordinance.

I commend to you the work of the Planning Commission.

It's just been an arduous task, but they did wonderful work balancing the need to encourage urban infill in our community, but also to protect our natural resources.

But please note when you look at this,

that there are two triggers that get you to the threshold of determining whether something is a steep slope.

One is proximity to the stream, and I think the Planning Commission has done a wonderful job on that.

The other is the size, and that's a matter of concern for me, and I would like you to look at that closely.

The size trigger is something that is 6,000 square feet with a 20-foot run.

That seems like too large of an area for me.

That is one quarter of a football field, 20 feet run, 300 feet long.

And I think that's a huge area so that you could be a thousand feet short of 6,000 square feet and not be a steep slope.

So I hope you will look at that.

Naomi Roberts Congratulations to the two new members Miss Gavin and Miss Smith and I hope things work out better for you.

Not sitting up here and listening to me rambling.

and congratulations Mr. Mayor.

I'm glad to see you.

You've been elected.

I'm here for two things.

The budget's coming up and I'm against creating another city department.

This reminds me of the federal government, the federal government's outrageous spending which has put this country in debt to China.

Who will this city get money from to pay for a bigger government in Charlottesville?

None other than taxpayers.

Businesses and taxpayers are held as hostages to the city.

Since I was employed in 1972, city government has expanded and taxes increased, which of course goes along with growth in the country in good times.

In the early 1990s, however, around 1993 and 94, the city was cutting back expenditures and offering early retirement, cutting employment through attrition because of the country's and our city's money problems then.

Now we have higher money problems in our country than ever since the 1930s.

Nine percent nationwide unemployment.

Jobs have gone.

Plants have closed.

Small businesses have gone out of business.

Bankruptcies increased.

not only by businesses but by citizens who have lost their jobs and we don't need to expand city government.

We need to see where we can cut expenses in city government without creating new departments, causing increased tax burdens and looking at areas where spending can be

can be cut in city government.

We don't need another department for taxpayers to support.

We are already hostages to the federal government.

How many people know that the payroll deduction is the Social Security deduction, not the federal tax deduction, bankrupting the Social Security fund?

If the city keeps adding positions, we will be bankrupted.

Now, this is something that I have been harping on last year several times.

I'm back again in 2012.

because of Hydraulic Road and Mickey Drive.

I hope that the City Council will look at this again.

People don't pay any attention to the don't block intersection and will just honk their horn, pull around me and other drivers and give me the middle finger and drive right past me and continue west.

It is impossible to get out of Mickey Drive between 3.30 pm and 6 pm plus.

It is life threatening to even attempt to get out

and I have put you on record in my past statements to council that if I or any member of my family has an incident where they are trying to get out of Micah Drive and I'm trying to stop to let them out, I will hold the city responsible for our car repairs and injuries because you won't do anything about it except stick up a do not block intersection that is completely ignored by 99% of drivers traveling on Hydraulic Road.

I implore you to present you present members and new council members to look

to look at the situation before someone gets killed or injured trying to exit and they could drive both ways.

You absolutely cannot make a left turn out onto hydraulic and you are completely ignored if you try to drive both, if you try to get out both ways.

And you know the giant low income people live there and the bus and the school buses, if you all don't do something about it, someone is going to get hurt.

Good evening.

I'm Kirk Bowers.

I know most of you.

I'd like to congratulate Ms. Galvin and Dede for their election to office.

I'm here as a member of the board of directors of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice.

this evening.

I'd like to ask the audience to stand in support of peace as I give my speech this evening.

But first, I'm going to say we have over 200 signed petitions, some online and some by hand.

And I also have eight copies of our resolution.

I don't know.

Brandon may have given you this earlier.

Do you all have that or need another copy?

Let me distribute that.

I'd just like to say that we are serious about peace.

Peace is serious business.

War costs us a lot of money and it's cost us more than we can afford.

Over the last 10 years, we've doubled our military budgets and it has just about put us out of commission.

In my opinion, our deficits have risen horrendously.

In addition, the moral and spiritual cost are burdensome to this country.

The number of veterans who have lasting disabilities.

I am a veteran.

I was released from the U.S. Army about 40 years ago as a consciousness objector.

After serving for several years, I decided one evening after a particularly bad firefight that I would not kill any more people.

And since that time, I have hoped, it has been my hope for this country to become more peaceful.

And I've spent a lot of time over the last several years sponsoring and promoting peace.

that not only for the moral and spiritual aspects of war and peace, but also the monetary aspects.

We just can't afford it any longer.

Thank you very much.

How's everyone doing tonight?

I'm here to talk about the walk signals.

It takes a long time to cross the street where McDonald's and Wendy's is and the one up the street where Brown's Cleaners is.

Sometimes it will say walk when the lights are green and the light shouldn't be green when it says walk.

and it shouldn't take a long time to cross the street you know when you push the button it should take maybe a little bit of minutes for it to say walk and for you to cross the street without it saying don't walk again.

I'm Nancy Carpenter.

I live at 727 Denali Way.

First, let me always acknowledge that I stand on occupied Native American Saponi lands.

I also support Occupy Charlottesville, but my comments tonight are centered on my request that you adopt the resolution that has been presented tonight.

Our country needs innovative job creation.

We need those dollars spent on ground and drone wars brought home to use for training programs and educational assistance as our unemployed citizens look for ways to retool their job skills for the mid-21st century.

How can we afford another war when we are told that there have to be draconian cuts that serve our citizens who need food, health care, nursing homes, or assistance with higher learning?

How can we afford more war when we have one in five children living at or below the poverty level in the richest country ever on this earth?

How can we afford war when these children suffer from food insecurity, housing insecurity, job insecurity of their parents, and the desecration of the public education school system?

For years I have heard how much our society values children.

However, I just don't see that commitment when our government wants to condemn them by cutting programs that offer security for food, for housing, and for education, while at the same time increasing military budgets into the stratosphere.

The money that we, the taxpayers, pay the war profiteers could better be used in nurturing and uplifting our next generation of citizens.

Why is that so hard to understand?

I urge the City Council to join with the U.S. Council of Mayors and adopt an updated resolution and demand money for jobs, not wars.

Finally, I would like to leave you with this quote from the April 1953 speech that President Eisenhower gave titled, The Chance for Peace, weighing the tensions of the time.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone.

It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

What was true almost 59 years ago is still true today.

Good evening.

My name is Linda Seaman.

I live at 2010 Greenbrier Drive in the city, and I'm a member of the board of the McIntyre Botanical Garden.

First of all, I wish to congratulate you as new mayor, Mr. Huja, and wish you well in the year ahead, and welcome Ms. Galvin and Ms. Smith to the city council.

The Botanical Garden Board wishes to thank Mr. Huja for asking for the inclusion of professional landscape architect help on the redesign team for Tonsler Park.

When public input is, while it is very important in planning for the uses of a park, the knowledge and skills that a professional brings to the process cannot be underestimated.

As the planning process for McIntyre East goes forward, we're hopeful that landscape architects will be given the opportunity to advise.

In planning this large, geographically complex property, professional knowledge is critically important.

There are many conflicting ideas for the use of McIntire East that require professional land use planning knowledge to assess the compatibility of these potential uses, particularly in the uses in regard to steep slopes, the wetlands pleasant, and to the traffic corridors that surround that property.

Landscape architects can see McIntyre East in the context of the whole park system and of urban design.

We thank you for your consideration of getting professional advice from McIntyre East, which is the crown jewel of our park system.

Rebecca Quinn, 1044th Street here in the city.

Congratulations to everyone and I hope we all have a good New Year.

One of the beauties of computers is how easy it is to keep stuff, but one of the distressing things about how easy it is to keep stuff is how easy

It is to see how little some things change, even after a whole year.

When council met on January 3rd, 2011, exactly one year ago, I expressed my dismay that Rivanna, the county, and even some councilors were assiduously avoiding updating what was then a 10-year-old Gannett Fleming demand analysis.

I was dismayed at the willingness to spend millions of dollars based on old,

and obviously out of date numbers.

Luckily logic prevailed and we got a new demand analysis.

Well here we are one year later and I'm again dismayed that council may be willing to not only spend millions but see the city's rights to its water supply based on what is a nearly 10 year old study.

It's not only an old study, it obviously does not incorporate the best available information.

Of course I'm talking about the safe yield analysis.

Now

Now that it seems inevitable that a large new dam will be built, isn't it time to stop being afraid of updating the safe yield analysis?

It is fundamentally unsound to base any sort of negotiation or agreement on the assumption that the urban water system has a safe yield of 12.8 million gallons a day.

That number is at least 10 years old, and we know it is flawed.

You know it is flawed, given the HDR information.

Doesn't the agreement call

for a new bathymetric survey every 10 years?

Well, magically, we have one.

A new one was done, so we can now replace the 10-year-old survey.

If the allocation of water is going to be somehow based on safe yield, isn't it time to demand that we revise the safe yield, that Rivanna revised the safe yield using HDR study?

That study, remember, it was paid for by the city clearly

demonstrates that the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir has more water than previously estimated and it is silting in at a much slower rate than previously estimated.

Plus, there are additional volumes of water in the system, and it isn't at all clear how they're accounted for.

I'm talking specifically about Beaver Creek, but I think there are other sources.

But let's remember that Rivanna and its consultants use a proprietary black box model to produce safe yield numbers.

That means we have no clue what goes into it, much less what's going on inside the model.

I urge council to ask Rivanna to revise the safe yield

using all of the new information from this HDR study.

I urge you to ask that the work be done in a transparent manner, most transparent manner as possible, allowing everyone to see what goes into it so we know for sure that all new information and all sources of water are included.

Please stand up for the city on this.

That's what we elected you to do and it is your most fundamental responsibility.

And if this agreement stays as drafted or substantially as drafted,

Please explain to your constituents why the county gets much more water and the city will end up with much less water than the AECOM demand analysis projects will use in 2055 and why you are asking rate payers to pay for that privilege.

Thank you.

All the people who have signed up have spoken.

Is there anybody else who wishes to speak?

I'll allow at least two more people.

Okay, please come in and speak then.

I don't see your name on the list.

I did see it, sorry, I skipped you.

Sorry, apologies.

Well, welcome.

Congratulations, Stratton 704B graves.

So it seems tonight is a good night to talk about some of the links between our national military industrial complex and our local sprawl growth industrial complex.

and I think that dovetails nicely into some of the issues we're talking about tonight as well.

I think in both cases we have a system of legalized corruption by which big money interests are trying to get public money

for things that are good for them and bad for everybody else.

And they do this by way of giving away money in terms of jobs, campaign donations for political campaigns.

I just want to point out that Mr. Huja and Ms. Galvin received money and support from the Monticello Business Alliance PAC

which is fervently pushing the dam and the Meadow Creek Parkway and the bypass which I would consider to be the three major unnecessary, even harmful sprawl infrastructure projects.

And when I say sprawl, I want to make sure that we're talking about places that you have to drive to.

It's not so much about the rural area or the growth area because what happens is

if they want they just get the roads in and then they just expand the growth area.

We see now many places in which the county is currently deciding whether to expand it.

Another link between these two things is that sprawl is the number one waster of oil and other kinds of energy and personally I've come to the conclusion that we would not be

wasting all the money and lives in the Middle East were it not for our country's insatiable need for oil, which is a direct result of sprawl development, which is a direct result of building these kinds of projects instead of putting the money into walking, biking, and transit.

or things that we need.

And that's another, I'd say, link between these two things is as the speaker said earlier about each dollar you spend on a missile is a theft from people.

Each dollar we spend on an unnecessary dam or road or even harmful, worse than unnecessary, is a theft that we could be spending for healthcare

Housing or Education.

And maybe that's not true at the city level in all cases, but we are also state and federal taxpayers.

In the city code, there is a provision for the citizens not to have their most vital infrastructure taken away without their utmost consent.

In the city code it mandates a referendum where the citizens get to decide before we sell our water, our rights to our water works.

So I hope at the very least you will allow that to happen before you would vote for this because the studies that we have been going along with are almost entirely rigged in terms of the costs, yield, practicality, environmental impacts, and the demand

Analysis is really just a demand in the sense of the sprawl developers demanding a certain amount of water and us just saying well okay that looks like a good number to us.

Time set aside for comments is complete now, so if you still wish to speak, we'll give you another chance at the end of the meeting, and it's a short meeting.

So, I want to make sure that you can get to a short meeting today.

So, we'll have time to talk again, and we'll be happy to have you listen to you.

But we need to do a few more items on the agenda.

City Council makes a lot of appointments, including for themselves.

Oh yeah, a good idea.

I would just like to say thank you to the public comment and that on the issue of incorporating professional design in a public process, it is not something that's mutually exclusive.

It is something that is dependent upon having public input.

That's where the material comes from along with the natural resources, along with the design problem itself that the professionals are trying to work with.

but it is a little bit of a misnomer to think that when you are only doing a public process where the public is given some tools without sufficient background information that they can resolve all these incredible difficult problems on their own.

I think it's almost like saying that we can solve

All of our toothaches and all of our aches and pains without going to a doctor or a dentist, there really is something about professionalism that really can accentuate the positive of the whole process.

So I do appreciate the comments that were made on that score.

And with regards to the discussion about sprawl relative to our investments, I think it's really important to understand that there has been about at least 30 years of growth management going on between city and county to do the very thing that has just been discussed and that is to contain sprawl so that we will not sprawl out

I would like to thank everybody for coming, too.

I've been out there for so many years.

It's wonderful to see folks come up.

It's what's so strong about our community.

And I particularly appreciate the input on things that are on our agenda and we will be discussing, both Region 10 and the water.

And I would like to, I actually am also very concerned about that signal by McDonald's.

I'm sort of terrified every time I drive past there that I'm going to hit somebody.

And I would like that certainly to be on our radar.

And I support actually drafting a resolution for peace.

I think all your comments are so compelling and your link to our local economy and our lives was very well stated.

Thank you.

I would just like to, I guess you're right, we are going to be discussing the Region 10 things later, so I'll hold my fire on that one.

I too support the resolution for peace.

I don't know if we want to add it to today's agenda.

It might be appropriate to do it at the next meeting, just because I think that as we celebrate the national holiday for Martin Luther King, this is certainly something that he spoke about a lot, especially toward the end of his life.

I want to thank the members of the public who came and spoke in favor of city council adopting a resolution on peace.

I'm actually going to one-up Mr. Collins because I don't think your resolution goes far enough.

If you listen to the drum beats, they're getting louder and louder.

There is a concentrated effort now being made for the case for the United States to go to war with Iran.

We can't deny it.

It is happening.

This resolution is talking about ending current wars.

It doesn't talk about preventing future wars.

So I'd actually like to see it strengthened a little bit.

And I actually brought up that issue with the sidewalk or the crosswalk.

at that very intersection with staff back in August.

And so I would like to get – and the feedback we got then – I just checked my email – was that improving the timing on that crosswalk was dependent on the synchronization of the lights along Preston.

And they weren't sure how easy that was going to be, but it seems to me we should have an answer by now.

It's been since August, so hopefully we can get some response on that.

Hydraulic and Mickey Drive.

This is a really vexing one.

I fully agree with you, Ms. Roberts, that it's a dangerous, dangerous intersection.

And we have looked, I know Mr. Jones, our traffic engineer, Director of Neighborhood Development Services, myself, other counselors have all been trying to figure out the best way to

We've looked at the possibility of extending Mickey Drive to have it connect over to the new Hillsdale Drive or some other configuration and that didn't seem to be viable.

We've looked at a number of possibilities.

I don't know if you have anything you want to add Mr. Jones.

Yeah, one of the first things that we looked at was that connector road between Mickey and Hillsdale.

And ultimately, we determined, one, there was a significant cost that was associated, but more importantly, it was going to be running right in the backyards of the folks who live there right now.

And we felt it would impact their quality of life.

We've looked at several other ideas.

We continue to look at other ideas for trying to address that situation there, which would include the possibility of adding

a stop from 250 on to hydraulic which would give us the opportunity to see kind of a break in the traffic which we don't see now because of the yield there there's constantly traffic coming through there especially during busy times of the days we're still looking at the possibility of a stoplight there when we've went and we did a study on the possibility of a stoplight

and unfortunately it didn't warrant a stoplight there which raises all kinds of potential legal issues.

If we don't have warrants that would justify putting a light there.

We have accidents that are associated with it.

There's some liability concerns there.

I have one or two comments to make.

First I would like to see that

Walk signs and crosswalks, I think that's something which staff should be able to look into and see what we can do to make the collections instead of just study it.

And I hope that the staff can find some solutions.

I would also be very supportive of

Landscape architect being involved in the McIntyre East project.

I don't know if there is a support in the council for any support in the council to suggest that, but I would like to suggest that if there is a, I don't know how other members of the council feel.

Thank you.

Thanks for reminding me.

This is one of the nice things to have a vice mayor who can help you out.

And I can see that she's going to be a lot of help to me.

As the mayor may not know, the city council not only serves on city council meetings, but also serves on 25 different boards and commissions or committees.

Every two years we decide where we are going to serve, represent the city on different boards and commissions.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move the nomination of the following city councilors to boards and commissions.

To the Albemarle, Charlottesville Regional Jail Authority Board, Ms. Szakos.

To the Audit Committee, Mr. Huja and Ms. Szakos.

To the Charlottesville Community Scholarship Program Committee, Ms. Smith.

To the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Mr. Norris.

To the Piedmont Area Workforce Council, Chief Local Elected Officials Committee, Ms. Galvin.

to the Citizens Advisory Panel for the Charlottesville Police Department, Ms. Smith, to the Darden Towe Park Board, Ms. Smith and Ms. Szakos, to the Dialogue on Race Steering Committee, Mr. Norris, to the Housing Advisory Committee, Ms. Szakos, to the Jeffersonary Board for Aging Board of Directors, Mr. Huja, to the Jeffersonary Community Criminal Justice Board, Mr. Norris, to the LEAP Advisory Board, Mr. Huja,

Local Climate Action Planning Process Group, Ms. Galvin, Metropolitan Planning Organization, Mr. Huja and Ms. Szakos, to the Planning and Coordinating Council, Mr. Huja and Ms. Szakos, Charlottesville Development Corporation, Ms. Galvin, that's a prospective appointment, to the Retirement Commission, Ms. Smith, to the Rivanna River Basin Commission, Ms. Smith and Mr. Norris, to the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Ms. Galvin,

and second.

I'd just like the record to note that while I intend to vote for the entire slate, my preference for appointment to the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority would be for Dede Smith.

I realize that's a minority opinion, but I do think Dede has the knowledge to hit the ground running there and I do think it's vitally important that there's at least one individual on that seven-member board who can

Any other comments?

Mr. Norris?

Aye.

Ms. Smith?

Aye.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Ms. Szakos?

Yes.

Ms. Galvin?

December 16th and December 19th, item B, appropriation reimbursement for CATEC bus loop expenses, $69,798.37, second of two readings.

Item C, Appropriation, Reimbursement for Central Library Renovations, $41,645.41, second of two readings.

Item D, Appropriation, Reimbursement for Facilities Assessments, $11,335.62, second of two readings.

Item E, Appropriation, Amend FY 2012 Schools Budget, $575,534, second of two readings.

Item F, Appropriation for Azalea Park Improvements Grant, $100,000, first of two readings.

Item G, Appropriation Community Attention Youth Intern Program, $10,000, first of two readings.

Item H, Appropriation Virginia Fire Department Programs Grant, $99,796, first of two readings.

Item I, Appropriation West Haven Clinic Funding, $7,000, first of two readings.

Item J, appropriation reimbursement for traffic signal improvements, $19,454, first of two readings.

Item K, resolution special use permit for 98 Binmont Lane, first of one reading.

Item L, ordinance conservation easement across city-owned lands along Meadow Creek, second of two readings.

Thank you.

I have a clarification on item F. It's the Azalea Park Land and Water Conservation Fund grant.

Are there any other?

Anybody else?

Any discussion?

If not, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Mary Frances Porter.

I come today from the Board of the Region 10 Community Service Board.

And we came last year about this time when we sent out our legislative agenda to let you all know where Region 10 is and what we're doing and how you might be able to support us in the coming year.

First, I wanted to thank the counselors and supervisors in the region and advocates in the General Assembly for the successes in expanding crisis capacity for psychiatric emergencies.

and for individuals with developmental disabilities, as well as preserving vital services for children, drug courts and jail diversion.

We also want to deeply thank the city for supporting Region 10 in resolving some housing issues for our consumers recently, which has led to a couple of Habitat houses being built for consumer group housing.

We have been able to do this.

We've been serving about 2,700 people in FY11 for approximately $16,000.

Is that right?

$16 million?

in Charlottesville.

And we also are, for every dollar that Charlottesville is able to spend, contributes to Region 10, we leverage an additional $22 from other sources to be able to serve residents.

We had a perfect fiscal audit in 2010, reflecting sound fiscal stewardship and balanced liabilities and assets.

We have been able to rapidly respond to the state request to provide assessments for all children requesting Medicaid funded mental health services in order to determine the appropriate level of services.

And as described earlier in public comment, Regent Henn has worked through the Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition to spearhead the Healthy Transitions Project.

So we come today, I have legislative brochures I can hand out to you so you can see what it is that we're going to be passing out at the state.

And we ask for your support of the VACSB's effort to keep administrative costs down as they work with the state to transition to the new Medicaid managed care system of care.

We also, despite our fiscal stability, have 40 of our 68 programs that are

struggling to sustain themselves and require additional support to remain solvent.

One of those is the psychiatric services which operates at a deficit of close to one million dollars.

So those are the highlights of our talking points and the things that we could use support for and I want to turn it over to Robert Johnson.

Good evening, council members.

I'm Robert Johnson, the executive director of Region 10, and I don't know if you have any questions from Mary Frances, her presentation.

Hearing none, I'll try to be brief.

I do want to thank you, Councillors and the new members.

Region 10 had a very good year as far as services to approximately 6,000 consumers over many of our services in the past year and our theme continues to be recovery and quality of life.

We keep our themes simple,

We work with individuals who have behavioral health disorders, complicated diseases which require a lot of professional care and a lot of recovery work.

Our new services which Barry Francis touched on include the Healthy Transitions program which was grant funded this past fiscal year.

We started in May 2011 and we had a lot of support from the Mental Health Coalition.

also from IMPACT, the Interdenominational Group.

I think one or two of the representatives are here and if you would stand please, we'd appreciate that.

Thank you, more showed up than I thought.

At the Nehemiah Conference meeting last year, we had representatives from the City Council and Albemarle Board of Supervisors who pledged to attempt

to continue funding of the Healthy Transitions program once the funding runs out.

And it is scheduled to run out later this year.

So I do ask the City Council to consider that as you try to find dollars to fund what you consider to be the most important projects.

Yeah, it was actually a one-time grant from Martha Jefferson Hospital to Region 10.

And we chose to use the money to start this program, which provides psychiatric care, case management, and medications to individuals coming out of jail, jail services.

And how much was that?

And it was a $40,000 grant.

It allows us to run for about a half year and because we're using one of the probation officers as a case manager, we're actually able to stretch the length of time that we're going to be able to run this program.

The intent was to serve approximately 40 individuals over the course of the year.

We're at 20 individuals at this point and we expect to continue to rise to meet that number.

The program has been doing pretty well.

We did not set it up to do what you would call outcome studies.

We did hear one outcome, didn't we, in public comment?

About 76% stable.

Oh, OK.

The other program is our ViCAP program, which started this year as well.

We do assessments for children who are requesting and are eligible for rehab services.

It was a requirement that was given to us by the General Assembly, all four CSBs across the state.

That's a program that is designed to save Medicaid approximately $18.5 million.

We began this with very short notice, July 1, and thus far, anecdotally, we don't have the actual figures that it appears as though we're going to get the savings for Medicaid.

Additionally, we have at Region 10 served approximately, I don't want to get my numbers wrong,

I know that we've had about 234 requests for services through this program alone through November and I believe we've, well I'll get you those figures on that if you need those.

168 assessments have been provided.

And so the intent of that program was to provide services in the least restrictive environment.

There had been a history of individuals being, kids being put into residential programs which are high cost and most intensive programs and not necessarily the programs that they needed.

and the assessments being given to CSVs allow Medicaid to be assured that the assessments and the treatment services that the children and their families receive were in the least restrictive settings which allowed them to be in their communities more than out of their communities and also ensure that the individuals were appropriately matched to the treatments that they needed.

So we're very proud of those two programs.

We also received a state grant to start a respite program for individuals who have intellectual disabilities and also mental health disorders who, for whatever reason, need respite care.

Region 10 was fortunate to be selected as a lead agency for this program.

It's called the START program.

We've had to renovate one of our group homes

We had to make a lot of changes there.

With the grant, we also are soliciting a vendor who will be providing the services, although we ourselves will have a stock coordinator.

It is a regional program for eight community services boards in region one, and I'm just proud to say that this is a feather in our cap because we were selected.

by the state to be that agency that would make this effort move forward.

And it's the first time we've had a program like this for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Traditionally, whenever they have behavioral problems that warrant this type of intervention, they've been forced to go to private hospitals and quite often the hospitals do not want to deal with them.

Well, we're going to keep them in the community in this type of a setting.

And it's a six-beard facility.

We plan to open in the middle of May.

That's a lot of stuff I could talk about, but I know that

You probably have a dinner date at some point.

So our focus this year is on employment, housing, crisis intervention as I talked about.

We continue to have some concerns.

We were very fortunate that the governor in his budget did not cut, did not propose any cuts to CSVs.

However, there are no new dollars going in.

We have had a verbal pledge for more dollars for substance abuse services.

So I'm a little bit disappointed that there are no new dollars for substance abuse services.

I maintain that if you fund these types of services better, reducing demand is a lot more effective than interdiction and going after these so-called drug dealers and using the big airplanes and all of that.

I truly believe that treatment works.

and every dollar spent on treatment for folks with mental health disorders returns $8 to the community.

That's in the legislative brochure.

With substance abuse service, every dollar spent on treatment returns $7 to the community.

So these are dollars well spent.

We've taken a lot of time to do what we call return on investment cost assessments and every dollar appropriated to Region 10

gives a return of $22 to the community.

So I believe we're doing a good job.

I believe we can continue to do a better job.

And we believe good, better, best.

I'm going to let the rest tell you good is better and your better is best.

So we'll continue to work on those things.

But I did want to say those things at this time, and I think I'll stop at that point.

And if you're willing to hear from a few of our consumers, I would like for them to talk.

Okay, so hey guys, come on up.

This is the part where it's a lot more fun.

So these are a few of our consumers.

They're going to speak for about a minute each, talk a little bit about their recovery, and I'm just so proud of them.

Hi, I'm Barbara Crowther, and I've been in poverty since for a long time, and I live on hydraulic road.

Can you hear me now?

Better?

Okay.

And Reach to Ten's really helped me along the way.

My mom used to be on the board of Reach to Ten for two years, and I'm kind of following in her footsteps.

It looks like I'm a ways away.

Hi, my name is Eric Cabell, and I go to Regent's Inn.

I don't know how long I've been in Regent's Inn.

Yeah, I'm going to read my thing.

Okay.

My name is Eric Cabell.

I live at 16 Amherst Street in Charlottesville.

Regent's Inn gave me a hall

and a job to go to every day.

My name is Robert Moyer.

I live at 1920 Swanson Drive.

I'd also like to thank Region 10 for letting me do the things that I used to do for them.

I used to work for Region 10.

I go to Blue Ridge Clubhouse here in Charlottesville.

I'm also involved with the CAC meeting, which is the Consumer Advisory Council.

Hello, can you hear me?

Okay.

I want to thank you, Mr. Mayor Puja.

You were there on Sunday.

I was there.

I was happy to do that.

I've been in Charlottesville for 40 years.

My mother and father were both professors here at the University of Virginia.

I felt a need to go beyond all that and discover spiritual enlightenment with the Maharaji.

So I'm very proud of him.

He's done me many, many good things and tried hard to understand me, which is not an easy thing to do.

But, you know, I've been here for over 40 years.

You were still in high school or something.

I probably was.

Yeah, you know.

I swear to God.

Anyway, but, you know, all that time I spent there, I studied with Dr. King,

Ralph Abernathy with Dr. King, he was here to talk to him.

And that was a very obvious question of what had happened there and she led the people,

The Faithful Believers to Prayer.

And I think that's about anything anyone can really do.

I do, I do, yeah, Clovis is a very needy thing.

Need for me, I spend a lot of time there.

Mr. Johnson is very helpful and we like him as a region 10.

Yeah, we do.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Just a short couple of points.

First, we have had a very successful year and a couple of very good years in general.

And I think a lot of the credit for that goes to our fantastic executive director, Robert Johnson.

We also have a mental health coalition that consists of Region 10, the Free Clinic, a number of other agencies in the area that are providing mental health services that has been very successful.

In fact, that's really the organization where Healthy Transitions

started.

There are other things that the coalition is going to be working on with funds that they've received over the next year.

We would encourage all of you to keep up with what's going on there and be involved in any way that you want.

Finally, I think it's worthwhile for you to have some understanding of

of where the uncertainty for our resources are going to be over the next few years.

In the very short term, as you're aware, there have been some developments associated with the Virginia retirement system, and it's not clear how that's going to affect you or how it's going to affect us, but it might have a significant hit in the short run.

and the big random variable is going to be managed care.

It looks a lot less scary this year than it did last year but it still has a lot of uncertainty associated with it and it's hard to imagine how it's not going to result in some loss of resources over the next few years.

And then finally the federal health legislation

Well, there are a lot of things about that that we don't really know how they're going to affect mental and physical health care providers over the next few years.

Thank you very much.

First of all, I would like to just testify before I start with my comments that our family has benefited from the programming of Region 10 and I appreciate the professionalism and just the care that comes from that organization.

So thank you on behalf of my own family, but also the community.

And also just kind of philosophically, when I look at the services that something like Region 10 provides, it's about prevention often and helping people sort of get a hold of their own lives so that they can become contributing citizens and not need

as much care going forward.

So just economically, from a fiscally responsible position, I think that it's a good investment for the public, whether it's in federal or state or local funding.

And one thing that I was wondering, and I think you may have given this to me before.

I looked for it today and couldn't find it, and it's probably changed since then anyway.

But what I would really like to see is some sort of a chart of client loads by locality and how much localities are paying to their CSBs in Virginia.

Because I think that it would help us to know sort of where we stand and also just maybe some estimate of kind of generally by state how Virginia localities support their CSBs.

because I think, you know, I suspect when I hear that, how many dollars do we get for every dollar we spend?

I suspect that we may not be pulling our weight and so I'd like to know that going in.

And just as far as my position on this, the Healthy Transitions program, I think that that, as you know, I've been the jail board chair for the last year and

It costs a lot more if they come back to jail.

It costs our locality a lot more if they come back to jail than if we make sure that they stay healthy coming out.

So I fully support that program and think that, was it $20,000?

I think we can get that information you need, but I think you'd want it statewide.

Well, I have a question.

Healthy Transitions does, I mean, it just sounds like it's a much needed program and serves, as Ms. Zakes was saying, actually has multiple benefits.

I'm curious, the clients that you serve through Healthy Transitions, are they coming back to Charlottesville?

Are they from Charlottesville?

Generally speaking, Charlottesville, Albemarle County is home, but it's not necessarily home.

Re-entry allows folks to go wherever, you know, when they are discharged from jails and prisons, you know, they're allowed to return generally wherever they can find housing.

So there is a potential.

I don't think I can get you the numbers and I'll work on that.

I don't believe that's a very

There's a very high number of folks from outside of our area, but there's a potential.

I just think there's issues of family and when somebody is coming back actually to where the rest of their family is.

And Charlottesville is a pretty desirable location for many folks because of the work that the community does and the council does for adequate housing.

And you say you're serving 20 now.

Well, I don't know how many have sought services.

I'll find out as well.

One of the difficulties you run into when you're providing treatment services, behavioral health services, is the individual may or may not believe he or she needs the service.

So part of the work that we do is engagement.

It's called engagement.

They're what we would call pre-contemplative.

They're not at the point where they're ready to seek the services.

One more point on that.

There are other people who are receiving those services, but they're not

I do have a question, and again, I probably

I know very well how much the community benefits from Region 10, and I really appreciate that.

And as well as coming from the city schools, we've really benefited from the school specialists that you provided.

I would say that there's a lot of coordination between the agencies.

I'm a part of that.

My senior director, Linda Hamilton, is a part of both of those groups.

And we've had a lot of conversations about how best to make this work.

A lot of what we do amounts to the equivalent of mandates with very little, if any, funds.

and we end up trying to find ways to provide housing of what we call ancillary services in addition to the treatment.

because it's clear that if you just bring a person out and provide treatment but they have no place to live, you've got a homeless person who's not going to be able to focus on the benefits of the therapy.

We all know that we're working with reentry on that.

You take another example, the Wounded Warriors program.

We're doing a lot of work there.

There's a very little bit of money actually dribbling into it.

and yet we're working the equivalent of miracles with folks.

You know, we're keeping them out of harm's way.

We're helping them reintegrate into the community.

And I think I would say the same for programs you just, you mentioned OER and the Reentry Council.

Are there other members of the council who would like to make any comments or questions?

Let me make one comment.

I support Healthy Transition Program, but I would also think that you should see

because there's no point in funding half of it from sitting and not getting any funding from the county.

So I would think that it will be based upon county participating in it also.

Mr. Mayor, can I ask a couple of clarifying questions to Mr. Johnson?

So you're asking, you'd be asking the city for $42,500, is that correct?

Yeah.

We're looking at the end of this fiscal year, June 30th.

We started in the middle of May.

And the reason I ask this question is because this council could take up this issue in a couple of different ways.

You have a council priorities initiative fund that currently still has some funding in it for this fiscal year you could utilize for knowing that it's going to be

as part of the budget for next year.

We could have that discussion as part of the longer budget discussion that we'll engage in over the next several months or so.

It might also help if we talk about it in context of re-entry generally.

Okay, any other questions?

If not, we greatly appreciate your presentation.

We look forward to working with you.

Next item, item number three is titled Clarification of Issues, Water Supply Cost-Sharing Allocation Agreement.

This is not a public hearing.

It is an opportunity for council people to have questions which can be clarified by the staff in the future.

Would you like me to start?

Actually, there are several questions and several questions came up tonight.

But I wondered if we could just for a minute start and make sure that we're all on the same page.

Because as I'm talking to people, I feel like different people have different sort of basic facts

or don't.

I mean, there's some confusion about where we started.

And that partly comes, I think, from the fact that we're only now just hearing about it, but you all have been talking about it for a long time, not in public.

So I think that's where some of the confusion is coming in.

So if I could just sort of run through a few things.

And Mr. Brown, I think a lot of these come from the legal documents, so you could tell me if I'm wrong.

But first of all, the cost share allocation agreement is what I'm talking about.

I'm just saying.

The cost share agreement... Not the land transfer, but...

Rivanna is listed as a party.

My position is they probably technically don't need to be.

The cost allocation portion, they were not involved in the negotiations.

So that, you're correct, that is strictly between the city and the county service authority and

But basically we're negotiating with the Omaha County Service Authority, Dr. Paisley, and how much allocation in that chart that we have.

And the city, currently the city owns all of the reservoirs in the urban system.

South Fork, Reagan Mountain, and Sugar Hollow.

And we own the dams, and we own the water rights.

Is that right?

That's all correct.

Okay, good.

In 1973, through the four-party agreement, was when the City and Albemarle County Service Authority came together to create, I mean, Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority.

And that's why we're working with Albemarle County Service Authority in our urban system.

That's true, and the 1973 agreement included

Okay, so at that point, so the city owns all the, owned all the resources and Albemarle County Service Authority came in as a partner.

In the reservoirs themselves, not to my knowledge, but I wasn't here then.

From the agreement, right.

And we didn't have a true up payment arrangement with Albemarle County to offset our investment.

So our investment wasn't.

In terms of the cost of building that infrastructure, and you mentioned the reservoirs and the dams, I'm not aware of any contribution from the county service authority for the cost of constructing those.

Right, now maintenance would be on the dams themselves because there hasn't been any maintenance on the reservoirs, right?

And we heard public comment tonight about the safe yield and in this agreement it is assumed that the current safe yield, which is our ability to withstand a drought, is 12.8

in the city-owned infrastructure.

And so I'm sort of curious as to when we began these negotiations.

The city came to the table owning all the reservoirs, owning the lands that the new infrastructure will be built on, owning the water rights.

What did Albemarle County Service Authority come to the table?

What was their negotiating power?

Money.

Money, okay.

That's what I thought.

So if the city owns the water rights to all of the existing system, which is 12.8 million gallons per day on paper, this agreement takes that down to 4.7, is that right?

No.

but not without penalty.

Well, I think you need to draw a distinction between ownership and cost.

The city owns the water rights.

In 1973 the city agreed to lease those water rights to Rivanna.

That was consummated by Dede and Bill of Sale in 1983.

And this agreement follows the same basic structure where the city retains ownership but leases those water rights to Rivanna.

That hasn't changed.

Prior to this agreement, the city, and for that matter the service authority, either could use as much water as they needed.

As we always have.

So I'm just sort of curious, if we own all the water rights to the current existing system, how is it that we don't have the full allocation?

of it.

How is it that Albemarle County got an allocation for the water that the city owns the rights to?

Right.

You could certainly take that position.

I mean, the other side could claim some small portion due to the maintenance contribution.

And wouldn't that be in the better interest of the city to do it that way?

Just to do the exact same way that we are proportioning new water that we would proportion existing water.

So I'm just sort of curious in the negotiations if we had really just, you know, had fairly proportioned the existing water as we did the new water, how is it that we

lost the allocation of so much of that.

So I'm curious from the negotiating point of view.

I would actually, and I don't want to put anybody on the spot, but I would like it looked at just to have a different way of looking at this to say if we were to look at the allocation for the existing water the same way that we're looking at the allocation of the new water, what would that look like?

Right, I think it's called new water.

It's what's created by the new dam.

It's the volume of water, which happens to be just about the same as the volume of the existing water.

And just for purposes of clarification, these agreements, as you know, call for the city to pay 15% of the cost from the union.

I won't get into the details, but there's a 15%, 20% share for the city, for the dam and the pipeline, and the agreements use a figure of 9.9 MGD as the quote-unquote new water.

Two completely different ways.

So I'm just saying I would really like to see a

Do you have any questions?

There were other questions from the audience about Can I ask one other clarifying question is I'm a little concerned about what happens to the allocation of water in the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir because according to the agreement

As soon as the agreement really kind of goes into effect, we lose about 80% of the volume in the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, either both the city and the county do.

It's kind of in this no man's land.

That's actually a good point and what would be very helpful as was done in the 1973 agreement is to have definitions.

What is a water right?

What is a water allocation?

And there's other words such as sale and transfer and easement.

These are all, apparently, from some of the questions I've asked, are legal terms.

Lease.

They have different meanings when it comes to the...

the laws, the codes.

We heard about the codes tonight.

And so actually just having definitions.

Water rights is one that is particularly difficult, I think, to understand.

But as I say, one of the big concerns, and I know it's going to be a concern for a lot of people, is the idea that there will be no benefit for either the city or the county to the water in the South Fork, basically discounts the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, kind of takes it out of

out of the system from any impact and that will discourage dredging.

There will be no financial benefit to dredging because there will be no financial benefit to the customers.

Mr. Mayor I just wanted to reiterate a couple of points I hope that we can get feedback from a couple of points that I made the last meeting questions regarding you know

How is it that the formula that we're about to approve for the dam and the pipeline going forward, what's the rationale for not applying that to those projects in full?

That's correct.

And they are substantial.

I just want to understand what the logic is, but why would we not apply that 15% or the 20% to those projects in full?

Why should the city pay a higher proportion of costs that we've already incurred on those projects?

Also, I do think we really need to get clarity because the issue keeps coming up over and over and over again about whether the action that we're presumably about to take contravenes either state law and or the city charter.

And just to be upfront, I mean we've received private reassurances from our attorney, he's a very good attorney, that what we're doing is in compliance with state code and with the city charter.

But I do think we need to explain that to the public because we hear it over and over and over again and they see the city charter, they see the state law and interpret it one way.

Can you explain that?

I have a question of Mr. Norris.

Well, I think the 1973 agreement is, I think some people have questioned whether or not that was done legally.

I'm actually not interested in revisiting the 1973 agreement.

I have a question.

On page two of the draft allocation agreement, in item C, the last, I guess it's one long sentence before D,

about kind of the middle of the page.

While CWS plan includes other projects forecasted to be constructed in the future, this agreement only addresses the sharing and allocation of costs for the project with capital P. As such term is defined in paragraph one of the agreement dated of even date herewith between the city SCA and RWSA and recorded in the clerk's office of the county of Albemarle, Virginia, the project agreement a copy of which is attached here to and it wasn't.

And I'm just wondering and so

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I'll follow.

Let me respond to your initial point first and that is the reference to the other agreement.

That's the other agreement that was sent to you that Council will be asked to approve.

The heading on it is exempt from recordation taxes and then it has agreement.

You have a cost share agreement which is basically an agreement between, as Ms. Smith alluded to, the city and the service authority on who pays for what.

The question is, does that mean that if we produce water from something other than this plan, does that not count, does that not

This cost share agreement is based on a projected safe yield of 18.7 million gallons a day, which I think is the number that is used in the permit documents

In terms of the 6.71 that is the city's number and the 11.99, you should look on that 18.7 as carved and stone, frankly.

After we reach, I'm getting to questions here.

Yeah, a project other than what is contemplated under the current water supply plan, yes, I think that's...

I'm not planning to run this, theoretically.

Right, so we could not choose to maintain our South Fork Rivanna Reservoir as a way of increasing our safe field.

We have to buy the new water.

Which is what I was talking about, is that takes any incentive out of dredging the South Fork Rivanna.

Even the dredging that's in this agreement will not count toward the allocation, is that right?

I don't know if this will answer your question.

Let me just state it this way.

If dredging increases the projected 18.7 million gallons a day, that does not change the 6.71 million gallons a day.

It does not help us, in other words.

But it doesn't help us.

I would like to address the fact that the safe yield that they use

is 10 years out

have a current, to calculate a current safe field using the new bathymetric information.

It's not, it goes through a computer.

It's basically what we're asking of us to put it through their computer.

And so I would propose to council that we use the most current information that we have, because we have it.

and then the other calculation in here that is using the same out-of-date information actually.

It's the same out-of-date information is used in both the current safe field but also in that estimation of where we'll be in 50 years in relation to the South Fork.

I think Ms. Smith, your concerns are understood.

It seems like logical to me, but... And only questions or concerns?

If not, we'll stop on this item, which the public hearing will be on 17th of January,

We'll have a chance to discuss again.

Thank you.

Item 4.

Good evening.

I'm Judy Smith.

I'm the Executive Director of Jefferson Area CHIP, which is an intensive home visiting program

for low-income Medicaid-eligible children and families in Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Fluban and Louisa.

And I hope that person is back there getting us ready to show this now.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so tonight we're going to show you a couple of video clips, very quick clips, of two families from Charlottesville that have received CHIP services.

While they're getting this ready, and right before we start, for those of you who don't know, CHIP stands for Children's Health Improvement Program.

Some people think it still stands for Charlottesville Housing Improvement Program.

When I was young, I wanted to be in the Navy.

I wanted to be somebody in life.

At one point when my parents got split up, my whole world was just, it ended there.

I didn't want to do anything else.

I guess when Selena came to the world, I had somebody to fight for.

Like somebody was waiting for me at home to come home from school.

I had a reason to go on with life.

I had a reason to go to high school and finish it.

Big you, little you, what begins with you?

Uncle of Zumbrella and his underwear, too.

Ew!

Ew!

Big V, little V. Rosario has made a huge amount of progress over the years while she's worked with CHIP.

She started out being a single first-time pregnant teenager from a Spanish-speaking family in the city of Charlottesville, so she has all of these barriers coming up against her just from the get-go.

and she became this well-spoken young woman who graduated high school with honors, received a private scholarship for four years at the local community college, participated in the marching band while she was in high school.

Jessica was a nurse, Carol was a worker.

They were there through

Like, even my personal life.

I think CHIP makes a difference for our families because we're in the home over a long period of time and we're able to build a bonded, trusting relationship with a lot of our families, which enables us to provide education, support, resources, and just a general shoulder to lean on

I cannot see my life a day without my daughter.

Whenever it's seven o'clock at night and I feel like I went to bed and I'm in class, I think about her and I think to myself, you have somebody that you've got to give a better future to, and that's Selena.

I think Rosario and Selena's future is very, very bright and absolutely full of potential.

I think whatever Rosario sets her mind to do, she will do.

She's just very driven.

She's very much an advocate for herself and her child.

So I think whatever life throws at her, she's going to be able to deal with it just fine.

More?

You want more?

Yeah!

Oh my gosh.

Ready?

Watch your feet.

This is Stefan.

He's five.

He's my son.

This is Gavin, one of my daycare kids.

He's two.

Kayana, she's my niece, seven.

Gianna, she's my daughter.

She's ten and a half months.

And Austin, he's nine.

He's my son also.

You see how the two starts right there?

It goes all, we need to bring the two down to this line so when you go around.

I was inspired to start doing daycare because me and my husband had both got laid off in February.

and I found out I was pregnant.

One day, we got laid off, the next day I got, I found out I was pregnant.

And so, I tried for about two months to find a job and I couldn't.

So, during the midst of me looking for jobs, I had started doing daycare that February and it just kind of stuck with me.

You got juice all up your arm, huh?

Thank you for using your manners.

Well, my chip worker, Betty, helped me

with parents with skills because I wasn't the most patient person in the world when I first started parenting, being that I was a teenage mother.

She just taught me how reading was important and just doing different things.

Sharika was already enrolled in CHIP when I came on staff.

She was 19 years old at the time.

She had a two-year-old, Austin.

She had had him when she was 17, still in school, but she did graduate from Charlottesville High School.

She had support from her grandparents, who had been the main stability in her life growing up.

So I just needed more stability.

once I got out on my own.

And that's one thing that I wanted for my son.

Sharika was a featured speaker at an Impact meeting.

And she spoke about this, about how difficult it is to get out of public housing and that whole subculture.

and how the system is almost set up against you to get out and to succeed.

You have to be extremely committed, determined, undiscouraged, if that's even a word.

and Sharika's all those things.

I just was able to start believing in myself because I've seen other people believe in me and if they could see something in me there had to be something in me.

So how are you doing with

Three kids and extra ones on top of that.

I think it's just to have her play with the block.

She should stack them.

Good job.

We want to see her putting things together like that.

Sherika has grown from being a guardian teenager, mother of a two year old, to being a

I'm giving my children a different future by making sure that I do my best to protect them from

The scene and the unseen dangers of this world and society.

I'm letting my children know at this young age that not everyone is going to be nice to you, not everyone is going to like you, but you have to do what's best for you.

You have to go after your dream.

Sharika will be involved in the community somehow, I know, because she has a heart.

for the community and she is a prime example of someone who beat the system and someone who has made a good, stable, productive, happy life for herself and her family.

I hope those two stories give you some idea of the work we've been doing with families for the past 20 years in Charlottesville and we have appreciated so much the support that the city and the county has given us in working with families.

We are very much a very intensive home visiting program as you can tell from I think those two video clips.

We do three things with families.

We provide health assessments, health education throughout nurses who make visits to every family we serve.

We provide parenting education that helps famous get their children ready for school,

and we provide better connection to community resources so that families can make the best use of all the wonderful services that we do have in Charlottesville.

That's a good segue to my question, which is what kind of coordination services is there for the families that are in a program like yours, because I'm guessing a lot of them, as indicated, are also receiving housing assistance, they're receiving maybe food stamps, social services, maybe

I can't say we're always perfect at it, but I think that we do an amazing job.

There's probably not an agency in this town or this county

that we haven't partnered with at some point to get better services and to help families understand how to access those services.

I think that's a big issue.

You may have a really wonderful service five minutes from your door, but if you don't know how to make it work for you, it's not accessible to you.

So part of our strength is really helping families understand how to do that.

CHIP is really very good at calling other community agencies together for meetings around a specific issue, whether it is housing, whether it's a concern about neglect, whether it's a concern about

Mr. Mayor and Council, this is an item that the city was actually approached by Mr. Steve Trumbull who wanted to make a donation to the city, a gift of a city of town marker around the 250th celebration and

In your packet is a copy of the marker that

He's proposed.

This is one of those where somebody's actually bringing something to us as a gift and saying I'd like to make a presentation to you.

Our staff has actually taken a look at this.

The granite is the same that's currently in the intersection at 1st and Main and we feel like it's compatible with what's already there.

It doesn't pose any slipping or safety problems.

We can see again it's the same granite.

We'd like to ask council to pass a resolution accepting this gift.

We would take it to the BAR.

It has not been to the BAR.

for directional purposes.

And Mr.

Is there a motion for resolution?

That is.

Is there a second for the motion?

Second.

I concur with all your comments.

Would you make a motion?

Motion is already made.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Thank you for your gift.

Jim and I are gonna play musical chairs.

New counselors, old counselors.

I'm here tonight to talk to you about allocating funds for the Fifeville priority neighborhood, setting specific projects.

In April 2011, council approved $200,000 community development block grant funds, or CDBG funds, to go to Fifeville as the priority neighborhood.

And since that time, a council appointed Fifeville CDBG task force has been meeting to discuss neighborhood priorities and recommendations, and tonight they're bringing forth the recommendations

through me.

Specific projects that they're looking at include pedestrian safety and streetscape improvements on Cherry Avenue, specifically a pedestrian island on Cherry Avenue at 5th Street SW to make crossing into and out of Tonsler Park safer, as well as adding some streetscaping and a bus stop at 5th Street SW if that road becomes a permanent one-way.

that will allow essentially a bump out there so that there's really not a lot of right away on Cherry Avenue to do any sort of streetscaping as it currently is and that's a great opportunity to actually be able to go and add some trees specifically so that as you're driving down Cherry Avenue coming from Bridge Street you kind of have a break up in that sea of asphalt to make it a little bit more welcoming to that community center.

Staff's been working with the traffic engineer regarding these projects.

Once approved, if approved, the next steps would be getting approval from HUD and then beginning the actual construction.

Probably in the summer of 2012, there's a few administrative and procedural things we would need to work out with HUD once we have that specific project, essentially going back through a process for them to approve it, go through an environmental review, make sure there's not going to be any harm to the environment in doing so, and that'll probably take a few months so that by summer we'd be able to break ground.

It's estimated that these projects would take the full 200,000 allocation for fiscal year 2011-12 but any remaining funds it's been suggested go towards housing rehabilitation and I believe a member of the task force has suggested that they go towards accessibility improvements that have been brought up by the IRC and so that's something that council could decide to do as well.

Are there any questions?

I see your question.

It seems like you have three or four projects sold as, but they are not discreet, like project one, two, three, four, and so much, it will cost you so much for each project.

So project one would essentially be the island on Cherry Avenue and project two would be the streetscaping and the estimates that have gone for those two combined because they're sort of would be wrapped up together would be 200,000.

If approved then we would go forth with design work and get more concrete estimates but at this point we haven't gotten firm estimates without getting the approval first.

So this is kind of a conceptual approval?

Yes.

So you'll come back to city council with a firm budget?

Yes.

Okay.

There's one thing in here that I'd like to see for everything like this, and it may be that that is the plan, but I'm delighted to see the sentence, also the Section 3 coordinator will be brought in from the beginning to ensure every Section 3 opportunity is realized.

I think that that's a really good policy move, and I think I'd like to see that here, and I hope we see that sentence a lot.

Yes.

I would agree that we should do for any care of accessibility money instead of housing, which is needed in this neighborhood.

Other questions?

Second?

Second that.

Any discussion?

Aye.

All those in favor say no.

The reason I'm saying is because the light is not working today.

Thank you.

Last item is critical slopes regulations and the presentation on that.

Mr. Mayor and Council, this is a happy moment, I think, for me and the staff in the Planning Commission.

This is a project that was started about two years ago.

The critical slopes ordinance was adopted

in 2005-2006 and at the time it was, we took what we call our best practices and started working with them and we realized after three or four years of working with that ordinance that it was somewhat cumbersome, it was very difficult for our staff to use, our planning commission to use and very difficult for the development community to use and so we started looking at ways that we could

make it better.

And a lot of research is done into this.

Three of the counselors will recall that in May we sort of threw our hands up and said we were not sure we were going to get anywhere, but you urged us to go back to the table and work some more and

and we did and I think we've come up with what I am very pleased with is a really good ordinance.

We thought when we started the review that it could probably be something as simple as separating man-made from natural slopes and then we would be okay.

And we realized that it's very difficult to define man-made slopes.

Given the history of this community

It's hard, you just can't tell.

So we abandoned that idea and we started trying to look for how we define a critical slope in a way that made sense to everybody.

To be a slope that truly was a critical slope as opposed to just a piece of ground that was at an angle.

We looked at all of about 25 applications that we had had

Since the ordinance was adopted about 22 or 23 of those had been approved and we said you know that doesn't make a lot of sense if it's a you know something's wrong there if you're getting that many waiver requests and you're approving almost every one of them

then maybe what you're defining doesn't make sense and so we started looking at those that had not been approved when we looked at the ones that that predated the ordinance that everybody you know we all felt like those were ones that we would have wanted to protect but they were developed prior to the ordinance and said what characteristic can we get so that's where we came up with we looked at again we looked at all of them and said the ones that started to reach that critical definition were those that were 6,000 square feet

are greater.

They had a run of 20 feet or more, and those numbers are somewhat arbitrary.

We could have said five, we could have said eight, but we said, why don't we tie it to the erosion sediment control standard, which is 6,000.

And although the two are not related, it made sense to have the same standard for what triggered erosion sediment control, what triggered critical slopes review.

And in doing that, we crafted an ordinance at the commission

has recommended to you that we believe encourages development that works with the topography through using development standards that if the bigger and the steeper the slope then the less likely that a waiver will be granted and that if it's the reverse of that is true also that if it's an insignificant slope then there's more chance that a waiver will be granted.

We also felt it was very important, and this was based on good legal advice we got, that the ordinance ought to presuppose that a slope was going to be protected.

And a waiver would only be granted through a review and meeting certain conditions.

That the ordinance is a critical slopes ordinance.

It's not a critical slopes waiver ordinance.

And so it was adopted to protect critical slopes.

And so we ought to go into it

saying that we've got to make certain findings before we just grant a waiver.

That an applicant ought to be able to read the code and know with relative certainty whether a waiver application would be necessary.

And sort of at the last minute we came up with the idea of adopting, putting together a map where we've mapped all these critical slopes and we know which ones

and we put it out on the web so that if this is adopted an applicant will be able to see if their property is impacted if it's not impacted by one of those slopes they don't have to worry about it if it is and they do the survey a survey on their property and they determine that there's really nothing that's over 6,000 square feet or or has the run of 20 feet or greater

then we can also opt them out.

So we think that's a great improvement.

And then that the protection of significantly unique typographical features should not be a threshold issue necessitating a waiver but should be a factor considered.

So the ordinance that you've got in front of you tonight has a restated purpose and intent to clearly state why we have this ordinance.

It's got the definition that I just mentioned to you of what is a critical slope, which I think is much clearer.

In the past, it was just anything over 25%.

It didn't matter the size, it didn't matter the run, if it was over 25% it was a critical slope.

It very clearly states how a waiver can be granted, how a modification waiver can be granted and what the public benefits are for allowing that disturbance.

And then also it states that there are certain things, certain features that are more critical than others.

And if you're applying, the steeper the slope, we're going to be looking at that much greater.

If it's got significant rock outcroppings, if it's got large stands of trees, those are things that are going to be more important than

than if it's just a general slope that just happens to meet the basic criteria.

But then also that we're going to, we outline specific conditions that may be imposed so that an applicant, if they are coming in asking for a waiver, they can review these conditions and see the sorts of things that the Planning Commission will be asking for and they can go ahead and instead of trying to guess, they know already up front what the Commission's going to be asking for.

Those are the things that are in the ordinance.

There were a couple of clarifications that after it left Planning Commission, the Chair of the Planning Commission has seen those and agrees with the Deputy City Attorney and I that they are basically an explanation rather than change in what was recommended and those deal with making it clear that reuse or redevelopment of property

or improvements to an already impervious surface are those are the kind of things that we're not necessarily looking for.

We're looking, the ordinance is, while any slope is to be considered, we're primarily looking at those undeveloped areas, those natural areas that particularly impact streams.

I think those were good changes and they're incorporated here.

And this ordinance was recommended by the Planning Commission and

I want to thank the Planning Commission and all the stakeholders that the Planning Commission worked with for putting together what I think is a very solid compromise and that addresses a lot of the concerns that have been raised.

I'm fully prepared to support it.

The one issue which I raised with both Mr. Tolbert and Ms. Keller, which still vexes me a little bit, but I'm willing to live with it, is the fact that this doesn't differentiate between man-made slopes and naturally occurring slopes.

But as you say, it's hard, particularly if you're looking back, you know, who knows what happened in a particular forest 200 years ago.

I was going to say, this is a first reading?

Yes.

So will this go just back to the Planning Commission just so they can check the amended?

I don't fear that it will.

The usual process is it goes to Planning Commission and then they make recommendations to City Council.

Let me make one or two comments also.

I want to commend both staff and the Planning Commission for working on this idea and this concept of preserving the environment as well as providing opportunities for development.

Even though developers and environmentalists can agree on something, it means you've done something right.

Mr. Mayor, if I may say something.

I want to thank staff for assisting me in boiling down my seven sentences to seven words.

So that was really helpful and I'm sure it was helpful to ever be here.

But the spirit was dead on that I think they are reciprocal.

The preservation of green fields is contingent in many ways upon the way we rebuild our gray fields and I think you've gotten that

I also want to say that having that

Matt is really valuable and I would hope that we could use that proactively as a way to assist us in determining where we do need our future parks, urban parks within walking distance, five minute walks of residences.

because I think it is not a good time at the end of a site plan submittal for a developer to, an applicant to find out that they weren't going to get their project approved and then the land is approved as a park.

I'd just like to commend Ms. Galvin for contributing like that.

So all those in favor say aye.

Mr. President.

Again, thanks again for the great work for the Planning Commission as well as all the citizens who participated in this process.

Next, this is the last formal agenda item.

We're going back to the citizens, my favorite part.

So we have opportunity again for people to speak for three minutes.

My name is John False.

I live at 1503 Rugby Road.

And I had to sit through the whole council meeting, which I seldom do, to welcome everybody and say how pleased I am with you being Mayor Huja.

I'm afraid I'm not going to talk about anything momentous like war, Department of Defense, critical slopes, or the reservoir.

A neighbor told me the city will begin charging for leaf collection.

I could not believe him, but it's true.

I quote from the website, per city code beginning February 1, 2012, leaves are treated as dry trash and must be bagged with an appropriate trash sticker and placed out for collection with regular trash.

For some homeowners, this could run over $100 of season.

When did city council decide on this new tax on our residents?

Nowhere could I find it in any council agenda.

Was it ever discussed in open session?

I realize that the city ascribes to the democratic mantra that we should sock it to the rich in order to pay for our social programs.

And presumably, anybody who can own a home in Charlottesville must be rich.

But are we so strapped for cash by attracting the homeless and paying for electric bills for the Lee Park residents that we must resort to this?

Our trees represent one of the most beautiful aspects of our city.

They grace our downtown mall.

Our city should encourage and assist the stewardship of our trees by homeowners, not penalize them.

Is our ever-expanding government that hungry for more money?

Are we going to next have to buy stickers for our recyclable bins?

Of course, Al Page, 806 Page Street.

Okay, I'm standing here now and I'm seeing it for me for the first time in 30 years.

a truly white citizens council, which is frightening to me as a black person.

Three white women and two white men.

Does this mean that integration has stopped in Charlottesville?

Does this mean that we are now under siege of the black community by the Democratic Party, Charlottesville City and the University of Virginia, which controls everything?

and I'm just wondering whether or not over these next two years we can resolute something that will guarantee a black chair for a North American black male or black female with slave blood in them.

I'd like for you to consider this really important because the black community is now scared to death.

and we need something to happen here.

And these people that are here before me, I know they have it in their hearts for the black community, but we need a resolute something to say that we're going to have a permanent black seat.

We've earned that through slavery in these 320 years or whatever it is.

We deserve a black seat on this city council forever.

I mean a black person, black and dog skin with slave blood in him.

I hope you will consider that.

Thank you.

Pat Lloyd, Raymond Road in the city.

I'd like to welcome the new counselors and also I hope you enjoy and learn as much from these meetings as I do.

I'd also like to thank Mr. Brown and Ms. Edwards for their intelligent and compassionate service.

Never in my long liberal life did I think I would quote Ronald Reagan, but I'm about to.

He said, a people free to choose will always choose peace.

It is my hope that Charlottesville will choose peace, and I would like to thank those counselors who spoke positively to the resolution for peace.

I'm sorry that Brandon Collins has left.

I have learned an amazing amount from that young man, and I would encourage counsel to very seriously consider any recommendations made by him and brought to this board.

He speaks for over 1,400 citizens who voted for him.

and now in the spirit of Holly Edwards and for the many hundreds of acres of living trees that we will lose to dams and roads.

It is the destruction of the world in our own lives that drives us half insane and more than half to destroy that which we were given in trust.

How will we bear it?

It is our own bodies that we give to be broken, our bodies existing before and after us in clod and cloud, worm and tree, that we, driving or driven, despise in our greed to live, our haste to die, to have lost wantonly the ancient forests, the vast grasslands, that is our madness, the presence in our very bodies of our grief,

Good evening, Mr. Mayor.

Ridge Schuyler, 112 Robinson Woods in the city.

And sorry I wasn't here earlier.

I was home waiting for my wife to get home from Richmond, which meant that I was the one responsible for helping my son with his math homework.

So I wish he'd come home sooner so I could have come here and she could have done the math homework, dividing fractions, not my strong suit.

But I will not be here for the public hearing on the water supply plan, the cost allocation agreement, and so I just wanted to say a couple of things about that before I leave.

First of all, it has been a long and tough slog and I appreciate all of the input from all of the people who have

worked very hard for various interests to make sure the plan was as good as it could be.

I think the water supply plan that we ended up with is one that is great both for people and for the environment and as we learn from the critical slopes effort that that is possible but it's not a default.

You have to really work at it and the water supply plan

allows us to meet human needs long into the future while also restoring flows to our rivers which is essential and we through our withdrawals through the slaking of our thirst have harmed rivers for decades and it is time to reverse that and this water supply plan will do that and I'm very proud of that.

I would all, and with regard to cost allocation agreement which would be the subject of the hearing in two weeks, from my point of view I think that the negotiators on the part of the city drove a very hard bargain and the evidence of that I think is quite clear when looking at the 2003 agreement which people picked bits and pieces out of, but the bottom line, the only item of consequence

in the 2003 agreement was the final cost allocation, 27% to the city, 73% to the county.

You all have done, by my calculations, even if I'm not good at fractions, much better than that, paying only 15% for the dam and 20% for the pipeline.

And what that gets city residents is enough water storage to get us through droughts while restoring water to our rivers for the next 30 years.

And that is a pretty phenomenal outcome, and I applaud you all for doing that.

Now I was able to turn it, after I helped my son with the fractions, I did turn on the council agenda to make sure you all were still here and caught the very tail end of the discussion that you all had earlier and I'm sorry that I didn't get to hear the whole thing and you may have gone over this already, but I did hear Mr. Norris say that he did not want to go back and revisit the 1973 agreement.

which I think we're all glad about that but I think the question about who owns the water and this idea that the city owns the water is an attempt to revisit the 1973 agreement.

The 1973 agreement which was an agreement between the city and the county in order to induce the county

to help the city pay for an upgrade to our wastewater treatment plants in order to comply with the 1972 Clean Water Act.

And in order to get the county to come in, the city provided some inducements and one of that was to create the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and the city leased to the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority for the term of the agreement

All water rights, all water rights in and to the Sugar Hollow Reservoir, the Two Ragged Mountain Reservoirs and the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir and the right to withdraw all water that may be available.

We leased that to Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority.

We cannot now then have it back.

It would be like leasing, being the owner of a building, leasing it to a business tenant

and then saying, well, wait a minute, I want more than my lease payment.

I want to get all the cash receipts you get from the business because I don't like the deal that I struck in 1973.

We can't do that.

And that's not what this cost allocation agreement is designed to do.

We have not expanded our supply since 1966 other than the small bladder on Sugar Hollow Reservoir.

So really what we're talking about is, and all the water that's in our current reservoirs was provided for in the 1973 agreement and the lease that followed from that.

What we're talking about is how do we allocate costs for expanding the storage in the future and what we do is we allocate those costs based on use and that makes a perfect amount of sense and it is interesting to note that we have a 15% and 20% share for the city even though the city is going to use 36% of the water according to AECOM.

So I think what you come up with is a very good agreement about how we're going to deal with the supply that we add to the future

and I am sorry that I'm not going to be here for the public hearing two weeks from now, but I applaud all the work of all of you that you've put into this effort.

Thank you.

Reverend Cannon, 710 Ridge Street.

Congratulations to the new members of council and to the new mayor.

I also wanted to discuss the water supply negotiations and I have a little different take on things.

There's a whole lot of complicated moving parts to this so I have come up with what I think is a metaphor that's helpful to understand everything that's going on.

We can think of it like a family that owns a farm with many fields in it.

The family, let's call them Charlottesville, own these fields for a century.

Then about 50 years ago, one branch of the family named Albemarle split off and was given their own subset of the fields.

They got four smaller fields out of the total of eight fields.

But the two branches did agree to work together to operate the farm.

Periodically, the branches negotiate how they're going to work together.

In an early round of negotiations, Albemarle said they would remove their fields from the joint farming operations so that they could save them for their children, named Crozet, Forest Lakes, Scottsville, and an infant who doesn't yet have a name, but will need his own fields.

The fields had nicknames like Beaver Creek, Chris Green, Mint Springs, Lake Albemarle.

Charlottesville said, okay, we're family, we want to work together, so we can do all our joint farming on the Charlottesville-owned fields.

We will allow you to farm on our fields for a dollar a year, even though they're worth at least $150 million.

Albemarle said, that sounds really good.

It's good to know we have such a strong family bond.

In a gesture of our appreciation, we will pay for some improvements to the fields.

We'll put up some fences and plant some hedgerows.

And we'll contribute our farm machinery into a common pool.

So the families farmed together and the years went by and they shared the profits and the costs of operating the fields roughly according to how much each side of each family harvested from the fields.

Eventually the fields needed some significant maintenance and improvements.

Albemarle didn't like one of the fields, nicknamed South Fork of the Rivanna, and suggested it needed repairs that were too expensive so it should just be abandoned.

That field was the most productive of all the families' fields.

And many members of the Charlottesville family thought abandoning the field would be disrespectful to the family forebears who had put in their money and hard work to clear and cultivate that field for more than 40 years.

It had been neglected, there were some rocky patches and some weeds growing in it, but it could be returned to full health with some investment.

The Charlottesville family was very divided on this issue, but eventually a majority agreed that they would just, they spend just a little bit to improve the field for the next 10 or 20 years, and then eventually they would just abandon it.

Albemarle's favorite field was nicknamed Ragged Mountain and they wanted to erect a bigger grain silo on the field.

This improvement to the field was expensive and Charlottesville agreed to pay about 20% of the cost, though many members of the Charlottesville family argued that it was unnecessary.

The new expenses prompted a new round of negotiation between the two branches of the family.

In the negotiation, Albemarle pointed out that in recent years they had been harvesting about 50% of the crops on the jointly operated fields.

Albemarle proposed, they pointed out that they had long planned to have more kids and grandkids than Charlottesville, so they proposed that for the next 40 years they would set aside 65% of the crops for Albemarle and leave 35% for Charlottesville.

I did sign up earlier and waited two hours, so please bear with me.

Albemarle pointed out that several of the Charlottesville children were obese, and the family had been saying they wanted them to go on a diet and eat less.

By reducing the grain available to the fat kids, that would force them to lose weight.

And if the Charlottesville family grew or couldn't get the fat kids to eat less, they could buy back some of Albemarle's share of the crops, but for a premium price that would make Albemarle very wealthy.

and the Charlottesville children and grandchildren would not be allowed to eat from the South Fork field even if it was full of fresh grain.

Members of the Charlottesville family were very upset.

They said, they turned to the elders who represented them in the negotiations and they said, these are our fields.

Albemarle would not contribute any of its fields to our joint farming, saving those fields for their children.

They paid for fences and hedgerows and now they act like they own part of our fields.

Albemarle has pushed us to give up our South Fork field and then to build a new silo on the Ragged Mountain field.

We grudgingly agree to these changes and are paying some of the costs.

But how did we go from owning all the fields to paying a penalty to harvest the crops from our own fields?

And paying more of a penalty if our children don't start losing weight and eating less.

What if we have more children or grandchildren in the future?

They will have to pay far more to eat from our own fields while the Albemarle children are all taken care of because the majority of their fields as well as the majority of our fields were set aside for them.

The elders responded, but we still own your inheritance of fields which are worth $150 million.

The children then said,

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'd just like to point out about the lease for the water.

Actually, according to the lease expires in June of this year.

Any responses?

Well, it's good news.

We're not charging within our leaf collection season.

We're not charging as we've never charged for leaf collection.

That's from November to the end of January.

And so we are not charging for leaf collection during that period of time.

Could you clarify that a little bit?

but we haven't

talk about peace resolution and I would like to support also the resolution in some form.

Any other questions or comments?

Any more business?