City Council Meeting   10/15/2012

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

Here.

Signed and sealed 15th day of what to do.

So I better sign it right now.

So I understand that somebody is here to receive that.

So again, thank you very much for your recognition and we look forward to seeing you at one of the Kiwanis events or Kay family events in the future.

We greatly appreciate your service.

Thank you very much.

It is on November the 11th at John Paul Jones.

Mayor Huja?

Jim?

Thank you.

Mr. Norris?

and or you can go to our Charlottesville area transit website which is www.catchthecat.org to look at the proposals, maps and more and you can email your thoughts and ideas to transitstudyatcharlottesville.org

On Tuesday, October 30th, I am honored to be a judge for the doggy Halloween costume contest on the downtown mall.

We're doing things, we're not just talking about it.

And as you step down, I'd like to say that lest we rest on our laurels, although we were one of only two cities to receive a platinum certificate, it was 180 points out of 200, so we have 20 to go.

And I apologize for jumping ahead.

I asked Ms. Szakos to read that also.

And it's in small plate.

You can read it very well.

And be it further resolved that the Charlottesville City Council hereby urges the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia to ratify the ERA during the 2013 session.

Next item on the agenda is matters by the public.

And then voting day, of course, is November 6th, the day after our next meeting.

Robbie Morrison.

So, does 4-H make a difference?

Would you like to recognize the phone number or website where people can call you and contact you if you're on 4-H?

Thank you.

Are there items on the consent agenda which any members of the council would like to take out or a clarifying question?

Hearing no comments, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent agenda.

And so I'm a little leery about it, but I'll just let it go right now.

I move that we accept the consent agenda.

Second.

Second.

Mr. Brown.

I'll be glad to answer any questions that council may have.

It's just kind of a sliver along the edge?

It makes the determination of any type of fair market value a challenge because nobody else could buy it.

Thank you.

That's all.

Is there discussion, comment?

Mr. Mayor, in light of the fact that it is a tiny sliver of land whose only real utility is for the use of Region 10 and out of respect for the good work that they do, I'd like to move the ordinance.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Any discussion on the motion?

I'd also like to thank them for maintaining it all these years.

This is just the first reading, I think.

I'm pretty sure it is frustrating.

Yes, it will carry over to your next meeting.

Mr. Craig Brown, you have a staff report?

I will be happy to answer any questions the council may have and you can hear from the public.

Mr. Brown, just to clarify for the public, we'd be going through all this effort and expense for a special election and then have to turn around seven months later and have another election for the full term, is that correct?

So yes, it will be two almost back-to-back elections for the same office.

Question, do we have any kind of history of this sort of special election and how many people tend to vote

I can certainly find out but I don't know in terms of the numbers of voters that we have.

If not, I'll open the public hearing and we have three or four people who have signed up.

I just saw the, our registrar is here, I bet she can answer that but we can get that later.

John False.

Thank you.

Terry Perkins.

Thank you.

So thank you very much.

Marsha Walter Walker.

Monica Walker to support penmanship.

And so again I am speaking in support of the proposed resolution to request the order to the circuit court to allow the deputy city treasurer

So I urge you to request Judge Hogshier to endorse the right of order appointing the deputy until the end of next year.

Thank you.

That's your reward for speaking in public.

I hope it's okay if we approach and speak together representing the Democratic Party.

Thank you.

So I urge you to pass the resolution recommending to the judge that you appoint.

Anybody else would like to speak for the audience?

Thank you very much.

Discussion by the council members?

Other comments?

So I would also urge that we ask Judge Hogshire to hold this term until the 31st of December 2013.

Other comments?

So, thank you, but I just don't see it's necessary and I appreciate my other council's comments.

My understanding is that's not the case.

I haven't heard that mentioned as an option or a desire here.

Well, it was really a question about whether or not it could be a non-elected position as it is in Albemarle County, for instance.

not under existing law.

I would be happy to move the resolution.

Discussion is the motion.

It's been...

Be it resolved by the... Dave, do you want to... No, go ahead.

Be it resolved by the council for the city of Charlottesville, Virginia that the city attorney is directed to file a petition in the Charlottesville Circuit Court requesting an order allowing the deputy city treasurer to perform the duties of the city treasurer for the period beginning October 1, 2012 and ending December 31, 2013 and finding that a special election to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of the former city treasurer is not required.

and that's what I said.

Kristin?

Yeah.

Other questions or comments with the council members?

I understand that the people who did the construction stuff kind of came with their crews and did all that as a piece, but is there any opportunity in the planting stage for local folks to work or to have like apprenticeships or anything with youth in the community?

Like every park project or landscape project, I think there would be ongoing maintenance possibilities.

Come all the way up before you start so people at home can hear you.

type group because the upper portion of the project is new city parkland and we don't currently have a group dedicated to help sort of with trash and that kind of thing which will unfortunately continue to come into the project so there are definitely other opportunities that we're pursuing to get folks involved.

Definitely, yeah.

Any other comments or questions?

It's all kind of denuded right now.

But it's all where all the boundaries are and everybody's kind of staying within their planting.

Because once everything's up, there's going to be a lot of cross communication between them.

I mean, native.

There are considerations about how to best use that as trail areas so that we can use an already open area as your active area and keep the stuff that's planted to be the intact forest area.

Does Rivanna own the right of way along its sewer that is not parked?

It has an easement, but individual properties own their property with an adhered easement through them.

Or is it a matter of just construction?

I think it's even.

It depends on where you're walking, probably.

But it's a possibility we're trespassing on private property, yes.

Do you have yet identified access points to this new linear park?

We've already solicited input from folks, but yes, we're going to be looking for and we've actually got some active land acquisition underway to get some additional access points.

I actually was around when Azalea Park, Morris Creek construction was going on and I don't remember seeing boulders.

It's one approach on a stream that you have in a very urban environment that can have a lot of energy associated with it.

But, because Shadwell is green stone, isn't it?

That's the aesthetic appeal to doing the natural stream design versus, you know, I think many of us can remember avian baskets where you stacked chicken wire, pull out cobbles, and that was called stream restoration and stream stabilization, and even some of those disappeared over time, but this is a long-term, a lot better of an approach.

I'm hoping that will be the case in due course.

or the birds that introduce different things, you know, this is a very lush part of Virginia and projects like that are forgiving from a sort of harshness perspective.

By this time next year, you'll go out there and wonder where a lot of this activity actually took place.

Am I right, there'll still be a trail?

And we've been talking about some of the best places where we can get people to the stream because a lot of this is about connecting to a clean, safe waterway that beforehand was very intimidating because it was a 12-foot bank that you might fall in and there are places where the trail will lend itself to having people go stick their feet in it and experience what the stream looks like and see the giant tadpoles.

We're just sorting through the process now to figure out where all that goes.

anywhere near?

So, I mean that's a few years down the road, but that's our intent as we move forward at this time.

Thank you, it's a really cool project.

I just want to say I remember back in 2006 when you started thinking about this thing and it's really thrilling to see how far it's come and you're doing a great job, so thank you.

And do you feel like this has built capacity within our own staff to do this again?

a fun trail to walk on.

Jim Tolbert, Kathy McCathy, go forward.

While we have programs already for individuals, this is the only thing in town for families.

The Salvation Army does have some transitional units for families.

As a result, we're going to make a recommendation tonight to award the $40,000 requested, but to do it as a one-time contribution.

Is this house, is there any mortgage on this house?

We have representative from MACA here tonight, both Ms. Karen Sheppard and the new director of Hope House, Nancy Kidd, and I'm going to have to defer that to one of them, Nancy Kidd, KIDD.

Is there anyone of you who can answer that question?

Sorry, I just don't know those details.

and welcome, Ms. Kidd.

I'm Nancy Kidd, the new director of HUB House.

How much is it?

It's under $200,000, maybe $180,000, I'm not sure.

So the mortgage is paid through rent or through house mortgage paid?

I'd like to grant another income.

Other questions?

I've asked my questions at PAX.

How do you envision this being supported over time?

So we do believe that within the next probably five or six months we will know that that plan is going to go forward or it isn't but we really think that it will.

Is there a real permanent commitment or an annual commitment by the churches?

Yes, ma'am.

For example, fundraising effort.

Okay, for the fundraising efforts, okay.

Can you give us some sense for whether this model has been working well?

I think that it really is beneficial and we will have to screen our candidates appropriately.

So you will be using this $40,000 basically for case management?

And those are just, that's just one example, sir.

So you're like a family support worker?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, measurable outcomes.

Those kind of things that you do in the moment are things that are building blocks for change in people's lives.

I mean, is this person doing anything else other than case management for the four families at Hope House?

that they can support themselves and go forward with their families.

I can address that a little bit.

Great, well that's at least in the direction of what I wanted to know.

Have you approached any other counties for help with the families at Hope House?

Because it's in Charlottesville and I think Charlottesville and Albemarle, I don't believe we get money from the other counties other than Charlottesville and Albemarle.

But these folks aren't necessarily coming from Charlottesville when they come to you?

that have moved from other areas of the state.

you know in the rural areas rather than moving into the city.

So it's just a little bit of a, you know, we have plenty of needs in Charlottesville so it's just nice when it's a regional issue that there's regional support.

I'm thinking of one that's in the county but I think most of them wind up staying in the city.

it would be really helpful to find out kind of maybe over the you know in applications or who's received housing how many have been not so so much where they go after but where they've come from and I think it might be worth asking at least for Albemarle County support as well because I think that this is a house that serves the wider community so not that that you know I'm not supportive of helping out but I think that just like we're asking churches we're at UVA I think that the county is another logical ally.

We've had a lot of community support for Hope House.

What is your overall budget for an annual just for Hope House?

It's about $100,000, $110,000.

You have the building right next door, which is really ideally situated for an expanded Hope House, and then you can spread those costs.

We'd love to do that.

there has to be some preference for city residents who are applying because otherwise how do we justify to our taxpayers we're going to take $50,000, $40,000 to help people from Flovana County when we have needs here in our own communities.

That's the point well taken, though.

There's an ESG, I know that, and then there must be a source.

No, that's federal pass-through from the state.

If I should ever come back I'll know how to better prepare for the information.

Given that we are contributing a lion's share of this home, I hope that you will definitely

I would challenge our colleagues in the county and perhaps even in the surrounding counties that do feed people into this program to apply to their funding sources as well and to go like you are today before those bodies and say, look, we're providing a service for our region and we'd really like you to participate financially.

We actually got 41,881, so that's why we asked for 41 rather than the 48.

May I ask you, does staff have a plan in place to monitor the use of these funds?

Can we please look at that?

And monitor might not be the right word is to watch and see how it's working because if we are going to move towards expansion and that this is something that we I almost look at this as a pilot that the city is investing in and the idea, the goal is to get people more independent and I appreciate everything you've done

Because I don't know that we're looking to really add to your administrative burden, but just to know what's happening with it.

Did anybody consider other sources?

Unless, again, is HAC thinking about a different use?

And in light of that, although we can continue discussion afterwards, I'd like to make the motion that we provide the sum of $40,000 to be paid to MACA for a one-time allocation to fund Hope House staff and case management expenses from funds that will come out of the fiscal year 2013 Charlottesville Housing Fund.

Do you want to add to the idea of monitoring?

Do we need to put that into the motion?

You know what we want.

Okay, is there a second to the motion?

I'll second.

Anybody in the audience would like to speak?

Jim, there's another chance for you.

Welcome.

Zents.

I would encourage you to take part in the comprehensive plan process because this will...

Thank you.

to make people part of it instead of just saying show up at city space to go into neighborhoods and ask people to participate in that.

We need affordable, not affordable, but just rented units that can have a value.

Are there other people in the audience who would like to speak?

She has facilitated registration by everyone with enormous patience and I just wanted to commend her for her efforts.

in the past on election days.

I'll check with her.

We'll call it Democracy Day.

Democracy Day.

Especially if it is related to voting.

I don't know how you would monitor that, but in the past we've made it free for everybody.

And I think especially since a lot of people have new polling places in the last couple of years, it's nice to be able to facilitate that free transition.

If you could maybe update council.

So I stand by our position about wanting to... And I agree with you totally.

We are adjourned.