City Council Meeting   5/21/2012

I pledge allegiance to the

Page, roll call please.

and there are a few recognitions which I would ask Dede Smith to start as a result.

The city, the Charlottesville Community Scholarship Program celebrated its 10th anniversary last year with a gala and there will be another wonderful gala this year and we'll hear all about that and I'm going to ask Linda Seaman who is the chair of the Community Scholarship Program to come and tell us about it.

But I would like each of our students to come up and they're going to tell you their name and where they're going to go to school and what they plan to study.

Please come forward.

I'll be attending George Mason University in the fall and I'll be planning on majoring in athletic training.

Thank you.

I will be going to Blue Field College in the fall to be studying ministry.

Thank you.

I'm attending Virginia Commonwealth University, and I plan to study dentistry.

Thank you.

I plan to attend the University of Mary Washington to play softball and I plan to study mathematics.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll be going to PVCC and I'll be studying information technology.

And thanks to all the

This truly is an example of a whole community helping to raise its children, so thank you very much.

So remember us when you all are great and wonderful.

Could you stand up if you're with the board?

We appreciate your service to the board.

And as a former board member, I can attest they work hard.

Are you going to speak?

Go ahead.

My name is Mudgee.

What grade are you in?

First.

Thank you.

Do you have any questions or comments?

What's my name?

I'm in 11th.

What school do you go to?

Thank you.

Is anybody else from this program here?

We got another coach back there, but we just wanted to let you guys know we really appreciate you guys inviting us here and we really could use your support in helping develop these kids we got here.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, have a seat.

So thank you for doing that.

Okay, thank you.

And what you just did.

Just so you all know, these are all letters from people who participate in the program.

Everyone is welcome and they are also accepting canned or boxed food items for the Jefferson Area Food Bank, if you wish to bring some of those.

Ms. Smith, do you have some more announcements?

No.

Ms. Szakos?

We'll be having lectures and talks and resource fair for people about mental health, so come on down.

Now I'm done.

Thank you.

First speaker is Scott Bandy.

Thank you.

Do you want to be sharing?

Thank you, Mrs. Galvin.

Jeff Snyder.

I think that's very important.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So thank you very much.

Nancy Carpenter

Rest in peace, Dan Miller.

And the lead levels that Laurie touched on is another reason as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Join us, leaders.

It also shows in the fact that we have a safe alternative, carbon filtration, but the water authority argues that we cannot afford it while they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to accommodate developers with massive new infrastructure.

Evan Appenberger Hi, I'm Evan Appenberger.

Thanks for hearing us.

and my mom.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The Councillor has not made a decision and we will be looking at all the information before an ELC has made.

Is that not about chloramines?

That is.

So how does that relate to June 21st?

So there was a separate four boards meeting that would occur after the June 21st meeting to give us time to ask questions and get some follow-up responses to any questions that were raised.

If we're going to find a date for the four boards, why are we not doing it all at once?

We can speak for ourselves.

Okay, I mean I originally was one of the ones who showed the greatest concern for the chloramine issue and to have it on a date that I can't make I would request that we try to find one that I could make.

Do you have any comments on this?

And I apologize if that was, I may have not made it clear.

Are there comments on public comments?

I thought, you know, this is a moving target and is certainly something we need to take into account as we address climate change.

Thank you.

Good luck.

I'm not opposed to this amendment, but I do want to make sure that we keep our priorities straight and what really can, what really the impact we can have as a city council on the local affairs of our community.

So, with those comments, we will move to the next item.

I would like to ask that we take an item off the consent agenda.

Do you read the consent agenda page?

C.E., a revolution in settlement and litigation, 2019 West Phoenix Street, 1st Street.

I have made a revolution in capital programs on how to connect

NMG a resolution amendment of city manager employment agreement first of one reading item H an ordinance council access to employee medical and dental plans first of two readings

So is there a member who would like to see some item removed?

Yes, I'd like to have H removed for discussion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

So, I'm formally requesting that we reconsider that date.

Next item is another public hearing on the utility rates and before that Mr. Albemarle, would you like to introduce the topic?

Ms. O'Hare will be introducing the topic for us on utility rates.

Please come forward.

The debt service component of the wastewater was up over 17% to give us slightly over a 12% increase for wastewater from Rivanna.

Can you talk a little louder?

Yes, sir.

Could you tell us what percentage decline there would be for a typical customer who has all three utilities?

Yes, sir.

Any questions this time before we have public hearing?

Could you clarify for water the seasonal rates?

and $49.93 higher for the summer months.

Exactly.

I think that the county actually does that.

to encourage conservation.

So it's important to know.

What have we been doing to encourage people to use natural gas because it's so much more reasonable?

Is that too good of a question?

Yeah, but I mean is it anything because it's so clearly a cost-saving

They like to market gas and they're our best customers.

How about individual residential users switching over to natural gas?

Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

I assume connection means there's already a line there and you just move in and ask you to turn it on.

Yes.

There's a connection fee of revenue of $125,000 and the rate stabilization, which I assume is a facility fee.

I figured.

We're using those facility fees to offset our rates, but do they also cover our costs to do whatever it takes to get water to those new developments or waste water?

but we do have an increased demand for larger customers particularly if we demolish existing properties and build more intensive use properties on them and require larger water consumption within those properties.

But do we incur costs when a new development comes in?

Primarily we require the developer to pay those costs.

So it's really kind of all, we get to keep all the facility fee and that's where it goes into this fund.

Yes.

It goes into the fund to cover expanded capacity.

Anybody would like to speak, even if you do not sign?

Thank you.

Comments and questions by the city council members.

Well I have quite a few.

Please start.

We talked about facility fees, but it appears as if there's other sources of money that go into that.

That money would be set aside and put in a stabilization fund.

If there's a profit, is it immediately put into the rates table?

Only through action of council could any money go from one utility and be transferred out to another utility.

Is there movement among, I mean, I'm talking about significant movement.

Any change in the budgeted amount would have to be approved by Council.

I have Tess's questions.

Do you have questions?

I'd like to talk about, if you can just address the two questions about cut-offs and rate forgiveness and rate subsidies for low-income families.

Generally, if someone would require same day or after-hour service, it would be a $48 fee.

and I'm sorry, the second part of your question?

If folks don't meet the income requirements but do have substantiated medical concerns or medical issues that they have to deal with, then they will be able to qualify for that.

How do people know where to go?

Do the different assistances talk to each other such that you know who's... We have a very close relationship with the Department of Social Services who has a very close relationship with the non-profits out in the community and we deal with the non-profits on a daily basis.

Do we know how many households do lose their utilities due to non-payment?

We also can't tell you if someone was re-established on the same day that they were cut off because a payment arrangement was made.

So we had almost 1900 last year?

In 2011.

Yes.

That's more than 10% of the number of water customers if they were all individuals, separate people.

We know that they weren't all, but I can't tell you exactly what the percentage is.

I mean, not public information, but from a concerned council perspective, on a GIS map or something, say, if we have a particular problem somewhere, I mean, I suppose you could say it would be predictable, but it would be interesting to see where people are being cut off and what's happening.

And what the process is, I'd like to know because I know there is some process of when you say that people get cut off and they make an arrangement to pay their bill and they get cut back on, what is being done to help them make those arrangements before they get cut off?

We have more difficulty with people being willing to provide telephone numbers or update telephone numbers as they change.

So again, I know it's not your responsibility, but coordination in a city this size shouldn't be that daunting.

or if you mean that you can make arrangements that you don't have to pay the whole thing to avoid that.

Other questions?

the payment in lieu of taxes on our water, our waste water and our gas because I know it varies and then the utility tax on all three of those which again varies just so we can understand it because it's a big impact.

So because we aren't a private entity that has to pay those taxes and build that into our rate and charge our customers, we do not make a profit like the private business do, but we do allow those taxes to be paid and go to the general fund to offset any other taxes that need to pay for general operations.

I know you all don't frame it that way, but it is what we pay when we pay our water bill.

which is a lot of money for some people.

How much more would they have to pay in taxes then?

If we offset it, has this

Do we have to do a payment in lieu of taxes or is this a revenue source for the general fund?

I'm not certain if it's a charter requirement, but city council can amend a charter.

Now there's a utility tax on top of that as well.

for the utility customer, but it would cost about $75.91 if we offset it with the real estate tax rate costing the average property owner $15.55 additional a year by eliminating the consumer utility tax.

I guess I find it sort of frustrating that we have such large problems and such large utility bills that we are losing to the general public.

It goes to general, it's just a revenue service for the general funds.

Some of it does.

Are you asking that we have kind of a cost benefit analysis of some kind that we compare and contrast different ways of bringing revenues?

As she said, there is an offset in each case, each case the taxpayer end up paying more.

Yeah, it sounds like it, but I'm not sure, it's not clear to me what the benefits are.

I don't understand the logic, why would we, why would it, in order to offset that reduction, why would our citizens have to pay more?

It would come out of property tax, right?

I don't understand the logic.

So we were just comparing the average single-family home in terms of consumption for the utilities for water, wastewater and gas and we were looking at the average home value within the city and how much more they would have to pay.

One of the other concerns I have is, I don't mean to, if you want to keep going.

What do we stand to gain from this conversation?

And so we have a municipally owned utility, but we're not realizing one of the main benefits of having a municipally owned utility.

That's what we realize in the benefit.

But we're not from a utility point of view.

And also a privately owned utility typically builds in a profit of anywhere from seven to eleven percent.

There are non-profit utilities that wouldn't have the same taxation.

Possibly with cooperatives and those sorts of things.

sort of immediate your water use goes down your rates go up and I don't really know how to get around that but it's again it's it's just one of those those things nobody really wants to talk about.

When your rates go when your use goes down the amount you pay goes down.

I certainly heat with gas and it's going to help me.

The reason for that was that we feel we have more of a day-to-day contact with our customers and we have a better

But I think we shouldn't, in an effort to do that, I don't think we should try to lower all of our rates to a point where they become irrelevant.

And it wouldn't have enough of an impact to be worth it.

We can discuss online if you like, but maybe we can make some further discussion if you have.

I wondered on all three, water, waste water and gas, there's an assessment and collection and sometimes it's really a lot of money and I just wondered what that entails.

One-sixth of that goes in water, one-sixth goes in waste water and two-thirds goes in the gas utility.

Why so much in gas?

It's just based on the amount of time and administration it takes for gas meters and providing the service to them.

Do we still go out and read gas, any meter?

It's also creating the bills and producing the bills and dealing with the customers.

Out of gas, the gas fund.

You can ask John Fouts about that.

Okay.

I don't have a question.

Not necessarily.

This is the first reading.

Depends on if there are other questions that need to be answered between now and then, and if not.

That's one thing, I mean, I can go on, but I'll just note that for the record.

And just for clarity, I'd like to say that those things are in the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority budget and they have not raised our rates, partly because we negotiated a very good rate for ourselves out of that agreement.

My contention was that the rates would be even lower had we chosen a more cost effective path.

I'd like to move that we pass the first reading of this.

Second of the motion.

Second.

I'd like to thank you all for the time.

I'd also like to tell you that I am honored to be an employee of the City of Charlottesville.

Yeah, thanks.

Who's presenting there?

Mr. Daly and Mr. Jensen.

Okay.

and Chris Gansekar Park and Trail Planner has been instrumental in working through the details of that easement and I'll ask him to speak to that.

the money and do the footwork on getting the easement we said we'll buy the land from you and we will do the footwork to get the easement so the end result is the land is city park land and is under conservation easement so we're here tonight to present the conservation easement part we did purchase the property I believe a couple weeks ago so we're here to follow up on our promise to the landowners that we pursue this easement that would protect the land forever as open space we can't put buildings on it we can't if we sell it the owner would have to abide by the same rules as this permanent conservation easement

Please come forward.

I, in all honesty, don't see any downside to it.

Please come forward.

Oh, Lina, Lina Marie, Charlottesville.

There are restrictions on easement, which are legally binding.

How come there isn't one in McIntyre Park, then?

The public hearing is closed.

Mr. Mayor, first of all I'd like to say touche and then secondly I'd like to move the ordinance.

I second.

Please stand and speak.

that you were aware that that's what that means for Azalea Park.

Anybody in the audience who would like to speak on this topic, please go forward.

Thank you.

Any questions or comments or is there a motion?

I'd like to make a motion, but I'd also like to know before, this is the first or second, two readings, right?

This is the first reading.

How the city can do that.

We'll start before that, please.

The $50,000, is that over and above the $350,000 allocated for Azalea Park?

So we're leveraging our money.

So we get 400 totals basically for, I mean, that we've now budgeted for Azalea Park.

Oh, I see.

Like on the third date?

And your question was how to?

How to make it perpetual.

Thank you.

There's land, you know, adjacent to Azalea Park, sort of on both sides to expand it.

We're talking to both of them.

Oh, thank you.

Is there a motion now?

Second?

Next is a report from the Social Services Advisory Board.

Where's the portable mic?

Sorry.

I can't talk with my back.

Okay.

She's going to talk a little bit about family partnership.

Thank you.

I had a lot more to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions by city council members or comments?

Do we then locally match dollar for dollar on that?

Thank you very much.

Now if we added extra staff, we could put them into pass-through and get about 12% to 15% of federal dollars to match any staffing additions.

Can you explain that faster?

There is no additional federal or state funding for purchase service costs in the VIEW program.

Now, are those acceptable standards for caseloads?

or seven employees.

And so there's only 200 individuals or 200 families?

200 families approximately at this point in time.

And is there any particular demographic with that?

But the majority are single mothers.

is like 1.3 million?

Now they'll have a co-payment based on their income for their child care, but it subsidizes their child care cost.

So have you been able to see in your tenure here that we actually do move people out of dependency through this program?

So a lot, there are a lot of barriers to our single mothers to receive higher paying jobs without education.

Right.

It's a requirement of the program.

If you had more staff that, I'm not saying this, but that's going to happen by any means, but if there was more of an ability to actually look at this almost like guidance counseling where you could actually get somebody to go through one job and onto something that... Yeah, if they had smaller caseloads that would be helpful.

So you know that's something that I would like us as a city to really work on and consider but you know I think there are some creative things out there that will take money I think would have a payoff in the long run.

Do you know what percentage of your clients have a part-time or full-time job?

but they also, you know, many of the part-time do not have any benefits, so that's another problem with the part-time and the low-wage work.

our community comes through social services for one reason or another in the course of the year.

That's a big part of our community.

Do you find at all that there's a need for better coordination with other, either within the government or non-profits who are maybe serving the same community?

that would help with those, it would be very beneficial.

Do you see a lot of mobility with, you mentioned now Mark County, with your clients going back and forth at all?

But we do work very jointly with their staff and our staff work together to make sure there's as smooth a transition as there can be for people.

How do you see that phenomenon, whether it's housing or utilities?

But it's an issue.

Any other questions?

Mr. Tolbert?

Give us a call, we'll go out and for $50 do an inspection and if you meet the standards we'll certify it at one level or the other so that if you are wanting to market it to somebody you can say here the city has marketed, has reviewed this and inspected and certifies that we meet those standards so the proposal before you tonight would adopt the program and the ordinance would allow the reduction or refund of permit fees again and that would not occur until after they pay them all up front and then we'd refund them after they were certified

Architecture discriminates against people who are disabled, and we can really work on that discrimination by giving incentives to make architecture, to make our houses more accessible.