City Council Meeting   6/18/2012

for City Council June 18 meeting to order.

Here Ms. Smith Here Mr. Huja Yes Ms. Szakos Yes Ms. Galvin Here We have a few awards and recognitions Let me start with the one which is It deals with bicycle committee

members of city bicycle safety committee chose Jeff Shirley as this year's recipient for of our second annual community partner award and Jeff has done a bike

for smartphones, which has been used by TJPDC, has used since April to track the bicyclists, how bicyclists are using the different routes.

It is a great idea and great, excellent technical skill as shown by Jeff, and we're very pleased to have somebody like that willing to volunteer his services for this bike program.

Is Jeff in the audience?

Please come on in.

Thank you firstly, and if you would like to make some comments, you're happy to do so.

Thank you.

And I'm glad that it helped.

We appreciate your help.

That was a very cool program.

Well, having said that much, I'll continue and then we'll just keep going.

On Thursday, June 21st,

from 5 o'clock till 730.

There will be Better Business Challenge Awards Night at the Paramount Theatre.

For quite a while, the businesses from throughout the community have been competing to see who can be the greenest.

And the awards will be announced on the

Thursday night and I believe that our own counselor Dede Smith was one of the judges in that.

Business leaders and guests are invited to mingle and enjoy live music from local band Downbeat Project as well as food and beverages from 10 local restaurants and wineries

in the balcony lounge of the Paramount Theater.

The grand unveilings of the winners will take place in the main auditorium in a ceremony hosted by M.C.

Coy Barefoot with the help of Terry Kent, who you may know as Better World Betty.

This evening is sponsored by the UVA Community Credit Union and CBRE.

Where?

Terry?

There you are.

I'm sorry.

I'm geared this way.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

Thanks for inviting me up.

We're very excited.

This is the culmination of a year-long effort.

It's a city-county business, a multi-collaborative process, and so we're very excited at the positive impact we've seen.

who had businesses reduce their energy, reduce their water, upwards of 40% in some cases.

So we're really excited to finally award the businesses and the whole community is invited.

Like we all shop businesses, we all believe in the resiliency and the environmental stewardship.

So come on out and enjoy yourself.

And it's free?

A donation, okay.

June 30th is the Charlottesville Community Band Festival.

If you like the Charlottesville Community Band, you can come get it times

Oh, at least 10.

We have community bands from all over the area coming for a day-long festival starting, if you could imagine, band music coming from the Pavilion at 9.15 a.m. all the way until 10 p.m.

It should be really fun.

Our own municipal band will be performing as well as the other bands, and it is free.

It will be at the Intellis Wireless Pavilion at 603 East Main Street on June 30th, which I believe is a Saturday.

Yes, I have a couple.

I just want to remind the public that there will be the chloramines public forum this week Thursday June 21st from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Albemarle County Office Building and Lane Auditorium.

That will be followed in about two weeks later by the four boards meeting on Wednesday July 5th at 7 p.m. again at the Albemarle County Office Building and that's going to be at the Fifth Street Conference Room.

The other announcement is the RAD Self-Defense Training for Women.

The Charlottesville Sheriff's Office and University of Virginia Police Department will be offering a two-day women's self-defense training program, RAD Rape Aggression Defense, on June 23rd through the 24th from 9 to 4 p.m. at Slaughter Recreation Center at 505 Edgemont Road off of McCormick near the observatory.

This training is open to women of all ages and participants must pre-register by Wednesday, June 20th to ensure there are enough materials for everyone.

Dress for the class should be clothing that is comfortable for light exercise.

A $25 donation is requested which can be given upon arrival for training.

For more information and to pre-register, email sheriff at Charlottesville.org or

tabler at Virginia.edu or call 434-970-3777.

Yes.

Actually, may I have a clarification?

July 5th is a Thursday, I believe.

Well, the two was missing.

I thought that was early, sorry, July 25th.

25th, okay, great.

I have an announcement.

First I'd like to say how much I enjoyed being a judge for the Better Business Challenge, the Better World, Better Business has got some B's in it.

and I'm very disappointed I won't be able to come to the ceremony because of the chloramine panel so that those two actually unfortunately do conflict with each other.

But thank you.

It was an incredible experience to read these nominations.

It's amazing what's happening.

So I encourage everybody who's not going to the chloramine panel forum to go to that.

It's going to be great.

I've got an announcement about summer cooling assistance.

The city and county social services are accepting applications for summer cooling assistance.

They are beginning June 15th and running through August 15th.

Assistance will be provided to eligible households that meet income guidelines and have a vulnerable person in the home.

A vulnerable person would be someone who is over the age of 60, permanently disabled, or has a child under the age of 6 living in the home.

As many of you know, the city and the county in VDOT have been making some improvements at the intersection of U.S. Route 29 and 250 in the vicinity of Best Buy.

There's going to be a citizen information meeting for that project this Wednesday, June 20th, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, Charlottesville, which is at 1901 Emmett Street.

The purpose of the meeting is to allow interested citizens the opportunity to review preliminary plans

for the proposed improvements to that interchange.

Thank you.

Next annual agenda is matters by the public.

You have three minutes to speak.

Please follow the directions.

We have four people signed up.

Hello.

Members of the Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you.

My name is Andrew Silver and I am the owner of Zocalo Restaurant.

First, I would like you to picture yourself having a nice meal on the downtown mall, spending your hard-earned dollars on the patio of your favorite downtown restaurant.

And suddenly, you hear screaming.

F you, C word.

I'll F you up, B-I-T-C-H. Is this something you would want to hear, for your parents to hear, or for your children to hear?

Or so you're having lunch at Sal's on the patio, and a vagrant runs to your table while being chased by a fellow vagrant.

He uses you as a human shield while his assailant screams, I'm going to kill you, Mother Effer, across your table.

Or perhaps you're having brunch at Petit Poit this last Father's Day, and you have three patrons who had to call the police.

because he witnessed blatant drug dealing and prostitution.

This is happening on the downtown mall.

These incidents all happened.

They're not isolated.

They're just the events that happened a few days in the life of downtown businesses trying to make a living, paying their taxes, and abiding by laws.

There are ordinances in place.

against abusive language and disorderly conduct in public places.

In order for these laws to be enforced, we need increased security on the downtown mall, be it cameras, which I strongly suggest, or more policing.

In order for businesses to thrive, they must feel secure.

And in order for patrons to continue coming to the downtown mall, they must feel safe and not be concerned.

about the language that they or their children will endure while shopping on the downtown mall.

The police I have talked to, and I've talked to many, say that their hands are tied.

They say they've approached you, that they've asked for kiosks, that they've asked for legislation.

They suggested that we approach you and appeal to you as tax-paying business owners to help them do their jobs where resources must be dedicated to this problem.

And it is a problem.

There are simple solutions that will not infringe on the rights of people who do nothing but offend, harass, and scare our law abiding customers.

Removing the benches around the fountain, which I know your intentions were for people who were having commerce on the downtown mall to use, but that is not happening.

Putting up cameras, providing police kiosks, which you have been lobbied for by the police department, by Chief Longo.

On the Downtown Mall website, City of Charlottesville Downtown Mall, it says, a dynamic place, the Downtown Mall, is a dynamic place intertwined with a thriving city center.

This vibrant historic district is replete with live theaters, music, and cinema.

Nowhere does this spiel mention vagrancy, panhandling, spitting, littering, profanity, drug dealing, prostitution, destroying public property, which is exactly what is happening on the Downtown Mall right now.

I want to mention that my restaurant, Zocalo, has been open for eight and a half years.

In 2011, we collected $57,000 in meals tax.

Over the life of our restaurant, we've collected over a half a million in tax revenue.

It's a lot of scratch.

Our lease is up for renewal in a couple years.

And if this trend continues, we'll have to consider moving somewhere where my employees and my patrons will feel safe, because they don't.

They're not coming back.

This is a problem that needs attention.

It needs your attention.

We do our parts.

We pay our taxes.

We come to work every day.

I provide a safe, wonderful work environment.

I employ 30 people.

And I'm doing my part.

And my employees are doing their part.

And we need your help.

Hello council people, thank you for your time today.

I have a couple handouts to pass to you, including some images of what's going on in the downtown wall.

Over the past two years, vagrancy, loitering and civil disobedience has skyrocketed on the downtown mall.

It has culminated in Central Place as a hub of activity for groups of people who consistently curse, fight, scream, drink in public, sleep or camp out in public, urinate or defecate in public.

We the business owners and managers of the downtown mall are losing customers over this behavior.

I have had customers say they would never bring their families down here because of the swearing and fighting.

Customers from out of town have openly complained about the activity at Central Place and said they would not visit again.

Customers have been afraid to leave my store when commotion or a fight breaks out.

It only stands to reason that some customers have ceased to patron our businesses because they do not want to be near this hostile environment.

In fact, a survey was recently taken giving utility bills and the results found for those that responded said the 14% of those responded said they would not frequent the downtown mall again due to this problem.

Without customers, we cannot make the necessary sales to keep our doors open.

No customers, no sales, no business equals a dying downtown mall and less city revenues.

We would like to keep the downtown mall thriving and continue to make it an interesting and fun place to visit, the jewel of Charlottesville, but we do need your help.

Below is a list of remembered incidences followed by proposed solutions.

Consistent camping on the steps of our building which blocks passage to businesses upstairs obstructs the view of our display windows and discourages customers from entering our stores.

There have been many many problems with this and the police have been given permission to move people off the steps but we don't have enough police presence to consistently enforce this.

In February I opened Pearl to find between six to eight people camped out on our steps complete with sleeping bags, dogs, food spread out like a campsite Marco used to beg in front of our store and by himself there is no issue but other groups of people are drawn to hang out there November last year large groups of people camping on the steps cursing and fighting

The police were called and arrived after they had moved out the steps.

The police officer that I spoke with proceeded to tell me that I should handle the situation myself and just tell them to leave.

And I told him I neither wanted to make myself or my store a target by engaging a group while in a fight.

and he received a state that they were mostly hardened criminals but they would respect a woman business person and they may disrespect their woman but they wouldn't disrespect me and I had a customer at the time who had to be a lawyer who told him that his advice was both dangerous and irresponsible and if the certain police do not feel the need to make this their responsibility then whose is it?

Last July a gentleman who had a table set out in Central Place selling t-shirts I believe

Engaged in a screaming argument with another man.

Extreme cursing, words like pedophile, the F word.

An officer walked by, asked, are you OK?

The guy grumbled yes, and he kept talking loudly.

I called out three times to the officer before he acknowledged me.

I asked him to come over and handle the situation, and he just tipped his hat and kept on walking.

Last month they regulated downtown vagrant, had an argument with a woman, she slapped him so hard you could hear it, you know, all over.

A fight of them broke out, the police were called and asked to attend to the situation, no presence arrived.

These past two weeks I have witnessed these incidences in central place, consistent large groups cursing,

Leaning, et cetera.

A fight two weeks ago between the same gentleman and one of his girlfriends slapping and then screaming each other.

Sunday, the same gentleman on the steps of my store to where I had to open the door and say, hey, you need to leave.

And he said, OK. Tuesday, two ladies sitting down at Zocalo.

right next to, there's a picture there that you have of that, right next to their screen and cursing and loudly, he lost at least one table, two or three others would not stay for dessert and Paul Patrons said they would not come back.

Thursday, the same gentleman again, on my steps again in an argument with a different person who I had to tell to leave.

A living statue performance, ours had our money bucket kicked over by a group of random beggars and Zocalo patrons came and protected her, called the police.

I don't want to think what would have happened had they not been there.

Countless other fights in front of CBS Central Place, Lee Park near the Haven, Stacy Young's feedback from Casafari, someone vomiting in front of her store, a gentleman blocking the pathway to her door,

to a customer and told her she'd have to get through him to get inside and he knocked her over.

Fellini's has had problems, ambulance has been called multiple times to deal with drunken public, people on drugs and other things and so we really need your help here.

It's getting to be dangerous down there.

Some of our proposed solutions are

Removal of the benches in front of Central Place Fountain and stone pillars next to Pettit Paw.

The visitors at Downtown Mall don't even have a chance to sit in them.

It's always filled.

Greater police presence.

There should be more cops patrolling the area and stationed to specific areas and consistent enforcement among the staff.

Video cameras installed along the Downtown Mall for surveillance purposes.

That way the police do not arrive in time

to witness the fights.

They can survey the scene and make appropriate arrests and or citations.

Hi, I just wanted to further support what Andrew and Kim just said.

I've been a waitress at Sal's for the past few years and I've seen it become an increasing problem with just the dangerous activity that's been going on with homeless people.

I have many customers who complain to us

They asked me why there's so many homeless people out there and why isn't someone doing something about it and they're visibly uncomfortable by it and I am as well.

I often feel very uncomfortable walking home at night to my car and it's just a very big problem and growing problem that I think needs to have a solution and I think many of the things that Andrew and Kim suggested are important to take into consideration.

Good evening.

My name is Karen Walker and I'm a business owner at 112 2nd Street which is just off the downtown mall and I'm right around the corner from the central place and just wanted to reiterate what Andrew had said about this evening about just the complete and utter mess that we have going on with the vagrancy downtown.

It is not uncommon, actually most days we do hear cursing from most of the people hanging out there.

It's really uncomfortable, it's incredibly inappropriate, and something really needs to be done about it.

Me personally, I have said things to people and I have called the police.

There's only so much that one person can do.

So I am just asking you all this evening to take into account what we've all said and see if there's anything you can do to help us.

It is a problem.

Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak?

My name's Marnie Allen.

I'm representing the Monticello Area Community Action Agency tonight.

Further on down the agenda, you'll see that there's a vote for you all to decide on funding for the HOPE House.

And I just wanted to express publicly MACA's appreciation for the Housing Advisory Committee's support for this funding.

The HOPE House is a very incredible program that supports families in rebuilding their lives in this community.

So I hope that you'll consider that and I want you to know that myself and our Chief Operating Officer are here to answer any questions that you may have when that comes on the agenda.

Thank you very much.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

If not, we'll close the public comments.

Comments from the Council.

Let me say this before I ask the Council to talk about the issue which has come up tonight.

I would just like to take five seconds to talk about that.

First of all, we hear your concerns and they are legitimate concerns.

And I had a lengthy discussion myself today with the city manager to see what we can do in terms of legally as well as in terms of enforcing the laws.

And so we are quite aware of it now and we will try to do the best we can.

Yeah, I'd like to thank you all for coming.

That actually is very, it's very helpful.

It's very, it feels very real.

It feels more real when you come and talk to us.

We've of course all experienced it and I know I'm not going to speak for anybody else, but I know that we are concerned about it and we need to work within what's both legal and respecting civil rights.

and I know there was a survey just done and Kristin and I met with some downtown folks.

I think it's also really important to get information about who

I agree.

I think we need a two-stage process.

One is on the short term, stepped up enforcement of existing laws and existing ordinances, and I myself witnessed the tail end of a verbal altercation just the weekend before last.

at Central Place where some of the regular lawyers there were shouting profanities at each other and there were families with young children walking by.

It was completely inappropriate and it really does detract from the experience of the mall and it really does affect nearby businesses.

I'm absolutely supportive of steps both on the short term like right now to crack down on some of the behaviors but also looking at how do we strengthen our ability in terms of do we need more, do we need stronger ordinances?

I happen to think we do.

and I hope we can have a work session soon to discuss some policy changes or programmatic changes so that we can get a better handle on that problem.

But in the meantime, I think step up enforcement is absolutely essential.

I would just like to echo what my fellow counselors have said.

Thank you very much for coming tonight.

We have all experienced this to some degree.

And Mr. Norris and I did meet with members of the community and talked about the survey.

I am very much in support of a work session so that we get this

this problem fully investigated and get a comprehensive solution both near and long term.

So thank you everybody for your comments.

I think I realize that I did have one more because I thought it might come around.

Two things that I think are also at play because I too have been cursed at and kind of freaked out when it was happening and so it is a problem.

But I think that one structural thing I think has now been finally the log jam has been moved a little bit in the hotel, the vacant shell of a building that's there.

That empty space

is kind of creates a structural invitation for people to hang out because there are no businesses across you know no business owners to tell them to leave and so

People tend to hang out there and that spills over into Central Place and so that whole area all the way to CVS is kind of, I think, that that project being left that way for that long has been a real detriment to our downtown, not just visually, but it's also spawned some of these issues.

And the other thing is that I think that recognizing that this is a problem, I think we also all recognize that part of the reason that there is, or at least I believe,

that probably part of the reason that some of this is happening is that our economy has for a lot of people at the bottom end really tanked and so not only

Do we have people who are aimless and wandering around the country, but we also have a lack of adequate mental health services.

We have a lack of available detox services and services for folks to get out of the situations that they're in or have alternatives.

So I think as we look at enforcement, which is absolutely necessary, I think we also need to pay attention to kind of

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move the following individuals for appointment to the City Boards and Commissions, to the Region 10 Community Services Board, Aaron Loshway, to the City Retirement Commission, Dave Shifflett, Pete Wingfield, Mary Kay Kotilek, to the Citizens Advisory Panel, Arthur Sikora, to the Community Development Block Grant Task Force, Chris Burton, to the Dialogue on Race Steering Committee, Gail Floyd and Carmelita Wood,

Is there a second to the motion?

Second.

Thank you.

Next item is Consent Agenda.

Yes.

item A minutes for June 4th item B an appropriation amendments to FY 2013 adopted city schools general fund and other governmental funds budget $615,174 first of two readings item C an appropriation housing rehabilitation loan repayment $18,884.36 first of two readings item D an appropriation housing rehabilitation small repair loan repayment $743.60 first of one reading

Item E, a resolution, school resolutions regarding Virginia retirement system rates and employee contributions for FY 2013, first of one reading.

Item F, a resolution, city contribution to Charlottesville area cultural plan, $25,000, first of one reading.

Item G, a resolution, MACA matching funds for DHCD housing solution grant, $48,000, first of one reading.

Item H, a resolution far matching funds for BamaWorks grant, $25,000, first of one reading.

Item I, resolution FY13 supplemental contribution to Virginia cooperative extension, $7,355, first of one reading.

Item J, an ordinance, council access to employee medical and dental plans, second of two readings.

Item K, an ordinance, homeowner tax relief grant, 2012, second of two readings.

Item L, an ordinance, personal property tax assessment of vehicles used by students, second of two readings.

Item M, an ordinance grant of utilities under 11th Street to UVA Foundation, second of two readings.

Item N, an ordinance conveyance of easement to Virginia Dominion Power, McIntyre Road Exchange, second of two readings.

Item O, an ordinance conveyance of easement to CenturyLink, McIntyre Road Exchange, second of two readings.

Item P, an ordinance Eaton Road planned unit development, second of two readings.

The minutes that are in here are not on the consent agenda.

Did I just miss them?

Okay, well I have one correction to the minutes.

Can I just make the correction orally?

Because I don't want to hold it up for that.

Sure.

It was in council responses to matters by the public.

It's the first one.

Ms. Szakos told Mr. Long and Mr. Jones that she attended the Virginia First Cities meeting where she discussed how to counteract

disincentivizing transit adoption by localities, not by riders.

Because no ongoing funding is available for operations, it's more attractive for communities to build a road than to add transit lines.

So, that was it.

Is there any member of the Council who would like to remove any item from the consent agenda?

In the minutes as amended.

I found them too.

Second item on the agenda is a public hearing.

Route 250 Bypass Interchange at McIntyre Road.

Acquisition of MACA property for the first reading.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

This is a resolution before you tonight to authorize the acquisition of a sliver portion of the MACA property that's located along the 250 bypass.

This is a property that we have had appraised.

It appraised at $80,791 and we've been in conversation with MACA and they believe that the property has more value than that and they want to see the negotiations continue

but they have agreed to this coming on your agenda tonight for a quote friendly condemnation so that we can go ahead with the project and they can access some of the funds.

The funds will be put in escrow and then they can immediately access them and use them to obtain an appraisal to do anything they want to do.

They can do work on design.

We've also agreed to work with them as they look towards the future redevelopment of that site, that they may want to sell it.

We've agreed that we'll be supportive and work with them in that.

We've given them information regarding densities and that sort of thing.

The issue before you tonight is to go ahead and move forward with this.

Again, we have been in conversation.

We do have written agreement from them that they are supportive of the process, understanding that this is in no way an adversarial sort of relationship between the city and MACA, but it's a way to move the project forward to allow them to get funds and begin to access them and move towards a future settlement.

And I think that

I can speak to them and I've told them that and I think that as council moves forward I've told them I would ask that you all make that clear that you want to continue to negotiate and work with them so that they'll feel comfortable with it but we're recommending that the resolution before you

be adopted which would allow us to acquire approximately 18,734 feet as right-of-way, 1,700 square feet as permanent easement, and 17,496 square feet of temporary construction easement.

There's a lot of overlap in those.

Are there any questions from the staff before we have public hearing?

If not, I'll open the public hearing.

Anybody signed to speak?

No, sir.

Anybody would like to speak who's here in the audience on this issue?

If not, I'll close the public hearing.

Is it from front of the city council members to discuss any questions?

So this is friendly, right?

Yes.

I'll say that having participated in some of these discussions, I was really pleased at the way that both the city staff and the folks at MACA were able to sort of figure out what everybody needed and make sure that everybody is able to move forward.

But it really does seem like a very good outcome to this.

Is there a second to the motion?

Second.

Discussion on the motions?

That vote.

I don't see an agenda as community investment collaborative update and we are fortunate to have drawn the board chair for the group here to speak.

Would you please come forward?

Mr. Mayor and Member of Council, we are very pleased to be here to present to you the update on what we've been doing, the microlending.

Each of you have given us lots of support and

The city of Charlottesville has given us $2,000 to sponsor for individuals, city residents to...

The use of city space for a lot to me, so thank you for that.

Without further ado, we'd like to formally present to you what we're doing because I know that we talk on and off, but this is the first time that we do a formal presentation to you.

So the whole idea of what we're trying to do is the old proverb that

you know we try to teach a person how to fish instead of giving them the fish and so but we go one step further you know we try to fund that pole also so that's where the micro lending part comes in the mission is very simple the mission is to provide capital both human and monetary capital to the individual

to people who can't access the present system.

And our clients, we just have two criteria.

One is that they can't access the bank and they don't have any credits.

And our approach is a three-step process.

One is we provide training.

Two, we provide financing.

And three, we provide mentoring.

So our clients are low to moderate income individuals, minorities, formerly incarcerated individuals, and students.

and our whole approach has been we recognize that Charlottesville is a wonderful city because it has an incredible university and all the resource that the university has like the Dorian Business School and the McIntyre School.

We have our wonderful government like our own city government like you guys who truly believe in the mission of this organization.

what's the count latest like 400 nonprofits in the city that is dedicated to helping the same clients that we have.

And then also we have businesses that really want to help.

I'm just gonna go through all the people that we have reached out and who have contributed to the program.

We have Catherine Sharp from the Durham Business School, Alec Horniman, George Montori and Frank Dukes.

The Bannon School of Leadership and Public Policy have given us a $5,000 grant to help us.

Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development has given us funding, also Virginia Enterprise Initiative.

They totally give us up $14,500.

Wait, $27,500 to date.

You guys, like I said, you help us.

Fluvanna County has a grant of $1,000 for two of the Fluvanna residents.

Piedmont Housing Alliances, Virginia Community Capital Bank of Virginia, FOCUS, MACA, OAR,

Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, and their non-profit arm has helped us.

And businesses like Open Space donate their space to have all these month.

So as Tuan mentioned, we have a three-pronged approach.

So the first is training, the second is financing, and the third is mentoring.

And the first step is the training.

And we offer a 14-week training course that covers all the aspects of entrepreneurship.

And right now, we're 12 weeks into that course.

We've licensed the curriculum from a program in New York called Workshop and Business Opportunities, or WEBO, and they've been around for 46 years teaching entrepreneurship.

They started in Harlem, and they have a fantastic track record.

Over 15,000 entrepreneurs have been trained through the program, and their success rate

is very impressive that five years out of the program, 54% of the businesses that were created through that training are still in operation, which when you compare that to the national average, that's a good 30% above average.

So we're thrilled to be able to be working with WEBO and to be able to bring that training here to Charlottesville.

and the reason that we were able to do that is a man named Charlie Thatcher who used to chair Weibo in New York for 30 years and he conveniently retired in Charlottesville about three years ago.

He's a SCORE counselor and he first introduced us to the program and Charlie has been an integral part of the training.

He served as one of the work group leaders which is one of the in-class mentors for the entrepreneurs and he's been, he's a serial entrepreneur himself and has brought a lot of experience to the training.

This is an overview of what the 14 weeks look like and as you can see it walks participants through every aspect of their business.

Everything from the first class where you assess what the necessary risk tolerance is as an entrepreneur through how do you market your business, how do you prospect, how do you go through your financials, how do you get customers, what are the legal requirements for starting a business in Charlottesville.

That's an adaptation that we've brought.

So it's a very comprehensive curriculum and

And as we'll show you in a moment, we've invited some of the entrepreneurs to come and speak about what they've learned throughout this whole process.

So each class is three hours in the evening.

We meet once a week every Tuesday night from 6 to 9 p.m. at Citi Space.

The space was also kindly donated by the Office of Economic Development of Charlottesville.

And each class is led by a different discussion leader, they're called.

And the discussion leaders are experienced business people in the community who come and lead the class.

And the class is centered around a case.

So it's very hands-on and experiential learning.

And these are some of the examples of some of the trainers and the businesses that they represent.

So we have Tobias Dangle, who's the CEO of Willow Tree Apps, who led a class on marketing for us.

Olga Morse, who's the publisher and editor of Forward Adelante, the Latino business magazine in Charlottesville.

Ty Cooper, who's the CEO and owner of Life You Entertain Them, which is a comedy marketing business for a lot of comedy shows in town

And the second stage in the CIC process is the financing.

And we offer loans of up to $35,000 for businesses who can't access capital from traditional sources.

And we stage it.

So the first round of financing begins with a loan of up to $5,000.

And the second stage is a loan of up to $10,000.

And the final stage is the full $35,000.

And the last step in the CSE process is the mentoring.

So once you become, when you graduate from our entrepreneurship training program, we pair you with a mentor who will continue to walk with you along the entrepreneurial process.

And one of the conditions for applying for a loan, the entrepreneur has to outline

The goal of the mentor is to keep the entrepreneur on track.

Each client is required to meet with the mentor at least twice a month in the beginning and they talk about what's going on in the business and they make sure that the entrepreneur is on track.

These mentors will be pulled from the local business community.

We've collaborated with SCORE, the Small Business Development Center, and local businesses like the Albemarle Baking Company, Rebecca's Natural Foods.

So I'd like to introduce to you our first class of entrepreneurs.

We launched the class on April 3rd of this year, and the last class is in three weeks on July 3rd.

And we have 18 entrepreneurs in the program.

Actually, before we get to this, I'd like to introduce Sandra Carter and ask if she can come up.

She's one of the entrepreneurs in the class and she can share some of her experiences.

As you say, my name is Sandra Kochis.

My mother and my sister opened up a convenience store in 2005.

A couple of years later, my sister passed away with ovarian cancer.

My daughter, she was going to Piedmont and

She ran into a guy named Reverend Shep Brown that she told about our convenience store.

When my sister passed away, the catering started fading away.

So Ralph, he came in the next day, and he started telling me about CIC.

So we met with Schwam, and I had to write a letter to see if I could get accepted into class.

So I was one of them that got chosen.

Since then, I have learned the business side.

I never was a business type person.

My sister was the business side.

Since I've been in this class, I've been learning profit, costing,

I notice every time I leave from the class, the next day I find myself doing something that the class had taught me that day.

I even know the cost of a wing now, a piece of candy.

I know how to market now this store along with my catering.

And they just give me wonderful ideas as I'm coming out with a new idea.

I'm fortunate enough to be in the class and I'm one of the ones that shows to be in there.

I'm the one that won the pitch night also that night.

The class, I enjoy being in the class.

I look forward to coming to the class.

My teacher is Charlie and I have a wonderful teacher.

I tell a lot of people about CIC and the things that they have taught me and the things that they have helped me learn along the way.

I still have grown since then.

The catering that I picked up, I've had several phone calls.

Actually my first catering was going to be August the 14th, 200 students and family members.

I hope, is it possible that when it's too often that it's gone that you can stand up and speak for a couple of minutes?

So are you all familiar with the TomTom festival that went on?

So one of the events as part of the TomTom innovation segment was something called the Crowdfunded Pitch Night, where they made a call for proposals and 40 people submitted ideas for projects and businesses for the chance to win $1,000.

And of the 40, they selected 10 businesses and projects to present on the night of.

And three of our entrepreneurs submitted applications for this, and two were selected.

and so, Ernestine gave her pitch for her emergency daycare business that she's had since 2004 and she did a really cool thing where she invited one of her customers to come up and give a testimonial of how fantastic her business was and she definitely stole the hearts of people in the audience and Sandra gave a pitch for her 6th Street Mini Mart catering and Sandra

won the thousand dollars which was really incredible because there were 150 people crowded into that small building and both Ernestine and Sandra were competing with ideas that were very technical technically savvy like a mobile app for reserving taxi cabs and you know pretty sophisticated level businesses and their businesses were compelling enough to the audience to vote as the winner.

So we're very proud of Osandon and his team for that success.

Just to give you some updates to date, so our class is ending, we have a few more classes and the final class is July 3rd.

We'll have a graduation on August 4th and in terms of fundraising efforts we've been able to raise about $150,000 thus far from

from foundations, from businesses, from individuals.

The board has been amazing going out in the community and all of your support has really pushed us to where we are and with these funds we'll be able to do what we hoped we could do here, which is to make between four to six loans.

and the last thing is, as I mentioned, we have graduation on August 4th and you're all welcome to attend.

So in closing, I just want to introduce the board to you guys.

We have Philip Sommer there.

He's the director of the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

We have Gordon Bennett, who is CEO of wet data.

Not present is Wendy Brown.

You guys know she's the founder of CME.

We have Matt Thompson, who is a lawyer with Woods Roger.

I'll say just the short thing is that I was aware that you all were doing this but I first got really kind of involved in it when I was asked to fill out a survey and then another survey and then another survey I think I did five surveys and it was really cool because the questions really did get at what you need to know to do a business and so obviously you know it was obviously somebody was kind of teaching folks the same thing and yet they were making it their own and it was really neat to see that midway

through just from the vantage point of being asked to do those.

We very personally went over this point, but actually that came from a partnership with Darden.

So Catherine Sharp, who's a marketing professor at Darden, paired 55 of our MBA students, first year MBA students, with our entrepreneurs.

I think we had about nine of our businesses working with teams of MBA students and they helped design those market research studies and get it out.

One of the most extraordinary things from that was now each of the entrepreneurs in our training had a larger manpower than they had before.

This is fantastic.

I too sort of knew about it perfectly and to find out the details is amazing.

I do have a couple questions.

One is clearly at least some of your students already have businesses and you're helping them to succeed.

Is anybody coming in who just has an idea?

And welcome.

Sorry to put you on the spotlight.

Okay.

Tell us your name.

Alfred Allen Ayl.

Thank you.

How you doing?

Good.

So you all want to know about the organic garden?

Yeah.

Aydah Organic.

During the garden, I always wanted to do something with my land.

I have four acres of land in Nelson County.

I've been talking about doing vegetables, because I'm kind of like a health freak.

So I work out, train for a marathon, all that.

But then I was like, well, instead of me going to the store and buying it, I grow my own.

But then it's like, I'm going to grow too much.

So that's when I got into starting me an organic garden farming business.

And then I wanted to help.

communities, especially the kids, to see that you can do something other than dealing with the streets and negativities.

So that's one of my main goals, to help to reach out to the kids and show them that they can do it other than doing something negative.

But the class CIC, it's a good class because it helped me look at business more better than just starting a business and it's gone.

So it's been a blessing to see that you can get some class that helped you better than just going to college.

You know what I'm saying?

So it's been real good.

I do actually, I just have another question.

Well the, we've been working, it's no, we chose our name very carefully, Community Investment Collaborative and the collaborative part is we want to make sure we work with all the agency out there rather than going alone so we work with MACA.

over there, Piedmont Housing Alliance, OAR.

So they've been feeding us with people they've been working with.

So actually we didn't recruit anybody.

We got it through all our partners.

And for the first year we were hoping for 10 and we received 25.

And so that speaks really strongly to the demand out there.

and like MACCA support it with two entrepreneurs, one entrepreneur, $5,000 and OAR support it too.

That's great.

And are you planning on one class a year?

We're not going to do another one this year just so that we can, because we're working on the next step, which is the funding, looking at the loan review process.

and then the mentoring.

So we really want to follow this class through the whole cycle completely.

And then starting next year, we hope to do twice a year.

I particularly love the partnerships.

I mean that's really what it's all about and that's great.

I have a couple of questions.

Again, fantastic.

How many, oh, after graduation, what happens to your graduates?

Unfortunately we're not at that stage yet although that is something, one of the ideas that we messed around with when we were designing CIC and hopefully at that level several years down the road we can partner with the city to create a warehouse where they can kind of incubate all these businesses but at the moment at graduation you receive a certificate

Actually, that is one of the challenges for the next phase, to find some sort of community kitchen or space, because they spend so much time and effort into that.

and then receive the funds and then what.

So we hope that moving forward the council can assist us and the community in forming some, you know, in creating some sort of space to help out.

We were in discussion with Fabian Kuttner

who has the X Building and he wants to help out.

And we're in discussion on how to do that.

So if he ever comes up here and asks for our assistance, you know, a tax break.

I'm meeting with him tomorrow.

Oh, you're meeting with him tomorrow.

Very good.

Okay, so let me make a few comments.

First of all, we appreciate you coming and sharing your program with us.

And I have a, I talked to Tuan, I think a great deal of credit goes to Tuan for his leadership in getting this all together and sticking with it.

I talked to him, I think, maybe two years back when he first started, and because I have been through macro-lending process myself a few times, and that was a great deal of success.

If I can speak to that point as well and something I should have mentioned earlier, but when we were in the research phase of CIC, we did a scan of all of the previous micro-lending efforts in the city and one of the first conversations we had was with Mr. Huja and he talked about the micro-lending effort under the city and he talked about some of the difficulties and challenges there and so

When we put together the program at CIC, we were very cognizant of all of the issues with the previous efforts and to make sure that there was a strong training component.

There was a lot of follow-up.

I also want to say that we receive a lot of wisdom from Mr. Norris because he was the manager of that program, right?

Thank you very much.

Next item on the agenda is Promise neighborhood event update.

Mr. Mayor, this is also a PowerPoint.

Good evening everybody.

I'm going to be talking about the progress update for the City of Promise, which the City of Charlottesville has contributed in a great way.

And we just want to show our appreciation and let you know how our progress is going thus far.

A little bit before I start, a little bit of context about the Promise Neighborhood.

Some of you may already know that it is originally based on a model in Harlem called the Harlem Children's Zone, which is a place-based initiative, whereas an educational initiative that seeks to lift up a whole community at the same time.

During candidate Obama's campaign, he saw this place-based initiative and the success that they were having in Harlem, and he sought to replicate this throughout the country.

And Charlottesville was one of the cities that was chosen to be one of the replicas.

The City of Promise neighborhood, many of you already know, extends up 10th Street around Grady to Preston, 4th, and back across Main.

Those neighborhoods inside what we call the Footprint include 10th and Page, Starr Hill, and the West Haven community.

This year our primary expected output is generally a feasible plan and a continuum of cradle through college to career solutions.

What you'll see below is a model of what it could possibly look like in the end, but definitely these categories are kind of what it will look like.

Early childhood through college programs with community building and social emotional and health programs supporting young people and families as they go through our continuum of solutions.

This year what we're doing is we're engaging the community and we're also planning and doing a needs assessment.

And in that needs assessment we're going to be, we're talking to residents and we're talking.

talking to people in the community about what they would like to see, what type of supports they think would be necessary to make sure that kids have what they need to be successful from birth through college.

So a few of our planning year goals, to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and segmentation analysis for children and youth in the community, to develop a plan to deliver the continuum of solutions, to establish effective partnerships to provide the solutions along the continuum, develop a comprehensive longitudinal data system to provide information for evaluation and continuous improvement and accountability,

to participate in a community of practice, to build community participation and governance, and to connect families in the neighborhood with basic internet access, all of which I'll talk about more as we go through the presentation.

So first, the needs assessment.

In coordination with YouthNEXT, our needs assessment survey is underway to determine academic and community support needs as defined by neighbors, people who live inside the community.

Nearly 80 needs assessment surveys have been completed.

I just found out today that there's over 90 already done for all three communities, and we're looking to get roughly at least 112 will be a representative sample, actually would be

more than 85% or 80% of what we're looking for.

Community organizers have already had more than 140 formal conversations with members of the community and that means sitting down for hours and listening to people and seeing what they really feel and think about their community and people are talking to our community organizers for a long time and really expressing what they feel would make a difference.

So developing the plan.

So most recently on June 5th we had a brainstorming plan with service providers in the community about what the pathway could look like along the different sections of the continuum and what infrastructure would need to be in place to support such a continuum.

What you'll see over here on the board is

and some of the thoughts and ideas from all of those people that were in the room.

I won't list them all.

It was at least 30 people in the room from different organizations throughout the city.

Three community meetings have been scheduled to reflect on data from the needs assessment and all this pathway data or the pathway conversation and brainstorming

will kind of inform the needs assessment, but the needs assessment is the nuts and bolts and what we will get, the information we will use to build a continuum of solutions.

established effective partnerships.

When we went to the planning phase, we had established memorandums of understanding with key organizations and service providers in the community.

And when our continuum of solutions are defined or identified, we will have more formal relations with service providers and partners in the community to see who will help us build the continuum of solutions and what supports will be available.

What you'll see here, this picture here is a picture of us at our retreat on May 24th, where we had over 35 people there, including service providers, government officials, neighbors that live in the community.

Our liaison to the Department of Education from the Center for the Study of Social Policy was there to help facilitate, help us discuss governance issues and how we're going to operate moving forward.

The longitudinal data system.

So the longitudinal data system that we'll be using is called Efforts to Outcomes.

And it is recommended and used by all the promised neighborhoods, recommended by the Department of Education.

And the parent company is called Social Solutions.

and what it will do is give us an opportunity to track what efforts we put in, what efforts along the continuum of solutions are put in for each individual student and then what outcomes these efforts are producing.

And it's going to be a really neat system.

We're already using it to a certain extent now.

It's going to be a really neat system to find out exactly

what's making a difference in the lives of young people.

We will always be data driven and this will just help us with that effort.

Two representatives of the City of Promise, actually one from our evaluator, Youth Next, and also from Charlottesville City Schools went to Baltimore to the ETL conference to get more information on it.

Just recently, last week,

We just got back from the Harlem Children's Zone and we met some people there that told us more about efforts to outcomes and how we can use it here and how it would be used most effectively.

participate in a community of practice.

I just arrived in February and we've been doing a lot of participation in community of practice.

As soon as I got here in February, like a couple weeks later, we went to the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative, which is Parkside and Kenilworth in, I believe it's northeast

D.C. And at the Cesar Chavez Public Policy School, we went there to visit their Promise Neighborhood Initiative, and you'll see members of their initiative up front with some of our members.

In March, we attended the Promise Neighborhoods National Conference in Washington, D.C.

where we got to meet with all the promised neighborhoods throughout the country planning promised neighborhoods and also implementation.

And we were able to exchange information and meet people and learn new things about promised neighborhoods.

On May 24th, we had our retreat, as I mentioned before, facilitated by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, who are our liaison to the Department of Education.

Last week, of course, you'll see in the picture there, we visited the Harlem Children's Zone, which is the prototype and the replica that then candidate Obama wanted to replicate throughout the country.

And this is one of their early childhood centers that we visited.

We saw classrooms there where kids spoke three languages.

We saw kids facilitating the teaching in at least two.

They do three, but we saw them do it in two.

and in Spanish.

So we look forward to helping Charlottesville kind of develop that culture of excellence and expansion also.

build a community of participation.

These numbers over here are last quarter calendar year and first quarter this year up to March.

And it just shows participation by partners, neighbors, officials, and guests.

And I can tell you that in the second quarter of this calendar year,

Our numbers are going to be astronomical as far as neighbor participation.

We've had lots of people coming along.

We've also had four neighbors actually be nominated and voted on to the Steering Committee at the June meeting.

So our leadership is expanding also with neighborhood input.

Yeah, I actually have a couple questions.

Thank you for that good presentation.

I'm wondering how, as you develop your plan and the implementation programs,

How much this will mesh with the programs we already have?

Is part of your planning, these are the programs that are in place in the community, in the schools.

My concern would be that we already know what's happening and maybe replace some of those.

So what we all know is that Charlottesville is a very high resource community.

And the issue in a lot of ways is not that these services are not available, but the issue is that we need to make sure that we're connecting people to the resources.

And not only that, that the resources that they're connected to are the efforts are producing outcomes that result in

academic excellence in social and character development.

So those are the things that we're looking for.

I think the concern sometimes is that, you know, is this essentially going to replace some things?

Not necessarily so.

I think that those things that are producing outcomes don't need to be replaced whatsoever.

Are you at all involved in making sure that programs that are already in place are producing outcomes?

And I think that's great.

And Harlem's Children's Zone is known and is a great model for actually setting up programs such that they can be assessed as to whether they're effective.

I guess my concern is that we have so many programs all over the place, and you're right, they're not necessarily connected to each other.

I think it'll be imperative that as this is developed,

that we take a comprehensive look at everything we have and I applaud you for the data based, but really in using programs that have been tested elsewhere.

We're not just making it up basically.

And I guess that's where Harlem's Children's Zone is really valuable.

So I'm just saying that as overall, you're right, we are so rich in resources and

and I fear that what we tend to do is we just keep adding and we never take anything away.

Can you tell us, did you go to Harlem yourself?

Yes.

I think the Harlem Children's Zone is its own organization and they provide their own services.

The way Promise Neighborhoods in general work and us being rich in resources, we might not necessarily create our own programs.

They have some charter schools, but they also do partner with public schools also.

I think that is one thing that would be very similar because we have a public school system that we will be partnering with to make sure that kids are getting the resources they need.

I think that Harlem is different than Charlottesville.

I think, you know, in scale and then some of the issues that they have, you know, with academics are different than Charlottesville and different from, you know, as you move south in general.

So the successful outcomes we would like to see is our young people reading on level at some of those critical grades like third grade.

You know, we got to put some emphasis in early childhood so that, you know, kids are reading on level once they get to third grade.

And not only that, they're kindergarten ready.

So when they get to kindergarten, they're ready to move forward and go forth in school.

So we got to make sure of that.

I think some of the outcomes is we'll have college graduates

How do you deal with mobility of children?

Oh, I'm sorry.

You're right.

I apologize.

I used the wrong word.

Actually, children moving out.

I got you.

Got you.

And how do you handle that?

I'll tell you what they do in Harlem.

Once you're in the Harlem Children's Zone, you're in the Harlem Children's Zone.

and I think logistically those are some things that we're going to have to tackle and decide on as an organization and as a collaborative.

I know I shouldn't use that word, but as a group we're going to have to think about what are we going to do when kids move out of the community?

Are we still going to attract them?

Are they still going to be available to the resources?

And one of the other, sorry, this is something that I actually really am very interested in seeing be successful.

In terms of your ETO, your data system, I may have gotten that wrong, how well is that going to mesh, okay, let me back up a little bit, the schools have a really comprehensive data system, I'm sure you know that.

Okay, so ETO can accommodate school data.

I'll say that up front.

But there's different methods of input.

So, you know, the different methods of input for ETO are, you know, you can have that school data

Okay, so then that's good.

That's great if you can import school data.

Well, like I said, much of that will be manual and some of that is being discussed

And I do think this is a bigger problem in our community is that there's, again, it goes back to the

Many, many resources we have and they're coming from such divergent places.

Sometimes they're in the schools, sometimes in the city, but sometimes they're from non-profits.

And a lot of that information isn't shared.

and I hope that's what your program will deal with but I hope it's not just another isolated program that then has its own data and that isn't helpful to the other efforts that are out there.

At some point I think we really have to get a common data pool so that we can follow a child throughout their life because I think we lose them sometimes when

because they're using different resources and then they leave.

Can I interject something?

I think one of the things that is sort of, one of the things City of Promise talks a lot about is changing the game, but I think not only in the neighborhood, but one of the things that I think changes the game in terms of what you're talking about, because we've talked about this on Council, is that for one, one of the

ultimate goals of the city promise is to grow and to scale up to serve the whole community.

And so this data model where it is sharing with schools and with all the participating organizations is getting at just that.

And that's a huge piece of why that's the program that they're using.

I just want to give you a chance to say publicly to answer a question publicly I asked you privately a few weeks ago which has to do with the importance of community engagement and neighborhood engagement and you know the idea that a program like this really needs to be owned by the neighborhood for it to succeed

and you talked a little bit about your own personal view on community engagement and the importance of it.

General, I don't remember exactly what I said.

It was very good.

Okay.

I'll try to replicate that.

But what I think, I think you, for me, community engagement and engaging the community, you have to be, you have to be okay with being uncomfortable, firstly, and you have to be, you have to be honest, you have to demonstrate a level of integrity, you have to, you have to

You have to build trust and you have to be consistent.

You have to be consistent.

You have to be

You have to do the work that nobody else will do and I think that's the approach that we have and that's the culture we have and there has to be a sense of love.

I know that's kind of cliche but I think it's real and it's authentic that when you approach people that way then they know that you care.

and I think that a lot of times we don't necessarily go with that approach and we don't necessarily go seeking to understand first and I think that's what has made us successful thus far is that we seek to understand first and we don't come from the place that people are fundamentally deficient no matter where they are and we seek to understand and I think that has helped us to be

have a certain level of success.

And I identify people.

Some people know my story.

I'm a Charlottesville native.

Spent some time growing up in West Haven in communities where crime was kind of not in control.

And I want to see better, and I want to see different from our community.

The composition of the staff, so we have three organizers, we have a development officer, we have an after school coordinator, we have a volunteer coordinator, and we also have a data specialist.

I have one question.

Yes, there is a parent council.

And even with our youth council, parents are always present.

In our trip to Harlem, we took four parents and two youth.

So parents are always engaged and always the first step.

Exactly.

I mean, even when we go to Harlem, and I've said in meetings where Jeffrey Canada was speaking, or their staff, and their intent was not to start charter schools.

They weren't in the business of starting charter schools.

But I think that we have a great relationship with our city schools.

And I think that it's going to be helpful for the whole community and what we're trying to do.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate it.

Thanks, Ray.

We have another opportunity for public comments.

If anybody would like to come and speak, we have three minutes to speak.

Good evening.

My name is Peter Kleeman.

I live 407 Head Street in the city.

And over the last couple of weeks, there's been discussions about use of some of our currently natural spaces that are being converted for other uses.

And you had an item about taking some natural space that will be used for the interchange at McIntire Road.

And what concerns me is that some of these

properties will be converted for non-green spaces.

And we do have some discussion about what's going to happen with the currently green spaces in the east side of McIntire Park.

And one of them is to put in a synthetic sport field.

It just appears to me that the notion of the mitigations of impacts of the roadway that's been proposed through the park is to try to maintain to the extent possible

the trees, the natural environment and the city is considering taking probably an excess of an acre to just build a rubber field and I would like to suggest that the council work with planning commissioners and consider the idea of maintaining as much natural plant material as possible in those areas so that we do have a semblance of a natural space there that it doesn't all become a catam

Good evening Brandon Collins, 536 Meade Avenue.

I'm actually speaking on behalf of FAR this evening and wanted to thank you for the matching funds.

$25,000 from MATCH, $25,000 coming from the Bama Works Foundation.

This is money that we very much rely on and that we will put to very good use.

FAR is faced with a whole lot of different things going on right now a lot of those are policy related and you know and a lot of it is also just related to the daily day-to-day struggle that residents of public housing face and we take this meaningfully and we have an all-star crew

Working right now for FAR, we've got an amazing group of interns.

All of whom so far have stayed in our program and are learning tons about policy and are going to be hitting the streets starting next week in a really big way, much more than they've already done.

And we do appreciate the funding and we're going to ramp it up here.

One other thing I was asked to comment on because there was some Mr. Huja had mentioned on the radio on WINA earlier at some point about FAR's withdrawal from the City of Promise and I hope that all of you got the email from Holly Edwards, former Vice Mayor, articulating those reasons and I think you'll find in those articulations that

There are some great positive things that we can see in the City of Promise that we're not quite ready to re-engage.

There are two things that we do consider important.

One is that Mr. Davenport will be at the next FAR board meeting and we look forward to engaging on that.

and the other is the appointment of residents to the steering committee and we very sincerely hope that those residents will get training and education to be effective members of that steering committee and will have more than adequate input into the process.

So thanks again for the funding and see you all later.

Good evening, folks.

Alex Hancock, 2712 Eaton Road, Charlottesville, Virginia.

I wanted to address one or two different issues.

You guys talk about addressing community issues and then the fact of having worldly issues affect us locally.

And what upsets me, I think, the most is that we don't address our community first.

Why don't we have our community members be able to sign up and be the first ones to speak?

Why don't we address our community issues first instead of dragging them out till the end of the meeting after whatever else the commission, the council chooses to address, which I understand you guys have to address many things that

the average citizen doesn't think about but it does take our time to come down here and it does take our effort to be a part of this community and what I would like to see is more of a communal effect instead of just everyone who comes up and speaks here or eats a cookie today gets their opinion heard

It would be nice if the community listened to what was going on with everyone in the community, minority opinions included.

Hi, my name is Yolanda Armstrong and I'm speaking on behalf of the Community Investment Collaborative.

a student, a participant in that program.

And I wanted just to say what a wonderful program it is.

I think it's very beneficial to individuals that are looking like myself to start a new business in this community.

I think it's a much needed program especially for individuals that may not necessarily have the opportunity to go to business schools or to get the necessary training through corporations that they may need to start their own business.

even though I work for corporations and I've gone through school, it's still a great program to have the opportunity to talk with individuals that are trying to do the same thing that you're doing.

So it builds a sense of camaraderie.

Also, one of the things I want to say that the community or that the class is really

inspirational in that you get an opportunity to talk with people who are already in business.

You're meeting a lot of different individuals from the community that have either started their own business or are currently in a business and they're talking about various aspects of the business that you're going to need to address when putting your business plan together or the things that you're going to face and you get a chance to

You know, hear their real life stories of what has happened, what's worked well and what hasn't worked well.

So I think that this has been a really good program, a really good initiative that's been started and I hope to see that it continues to grow and receives the funding that's necessary to help bring more business into the community, especially minority business, so that it will

I think be inspirational for initiatives like the City of Promise where we're wanting to help show our youngsters that are coming up and our youth that this is a city that they can continue to live in because there is economic opportunity for them here and this is a place where they can start a business and that business can prosper.

Thank you.

My business is a taste of home.

It's Southern Cuisine and we're looking to start with food trucks here in Charlottesville.

Thank you.

Good evening everyone.

I love that free advertisement is supported by your council.

My name is Quentin Harrell, 4737 Blue Jay Way.

I want to speak on behalf of the Sea of Promise but I'd also like to commend CIC because as a businessman I see and understand the importance of its existence.

So economically speaking, City of Promise plays a very important part in that as well.

I want to commend the existing support, the existing interest, and the City of Promise has a boundless

levels of potential on what it can do for this community.

There's many things that the Director of the City of Promise has eloquently explained to you all.

I stand behind and I see and understand from that vantage point, but also as a businessman

and with the Councilwoman Szakos explaining the goal to grow and scale the model so that it can support the whole community.

I think another important facet and a piece that we learned from Harlem is where children that came through the pipeline

comes back to the community and works in the community.

So it's very important to have opportunities in the community for all the bright, bright young children that leave this area that typically may graduate and not come back because opportunities call them elsewhere.

But with this opportunity and for such an able-minded director to come back,

leave from DC and come to this area.

It was an opportunity.

We need to scale those opportunities as well.

So it's very important that we support this initiative because the economic implications that it could add to this community is wonderful to consider.

Does anyone else would like to speak?

If not, we close this part of our meeting.

I just wanted to make one note that what Mr. Harrell was just saying reminded me that, I don't know if it was the last NAACP annual banquet, but recently the keynote speaker talked about the need to educate our children not so much to get jobs but to create jobs.

Oh, okay.

That must have been where it came from.

Any other questions from that?