City Council Meeting   3/18/2013

I call the city council meeting of March 18th to order.

Pray for God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Morris, Ms. Smith, Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Here.

Ms. Smith is not well today, so she can't come.

So there will be only three of us for the three council meetings.

I'll start with Ms. Galvin.

of the Blue Ridge Poison Center and whereas it is fitting to recognize the 52nd annual observance of National Poison Prevention Week in order to highlight this preventable health hazard and help educate all Virginians to better understand how to avoid the dangers of accidental poisoning, now therefore

Do you hear the proclamation?

Do you hear the proclamation?

If you'd like to speak, please, second.

Oh, sorry.

We really appreciate the attention.

Thank you very much.

organic fruits and vegetables to people who would otherwise not be able to afford them, a conservative approach to water use, and an impressive educational program for the City of Charlottesville residents, now therefore be it resolved by the City of Charlottesville counselors that Friendship Court and the Urban Agriculture Collective of Charlottesville is hereby commended for their commitment to protecting and enhancing waters that flow beyond farm boundaries and for their conservation ethic demonstrated through their farm management practices.

And yours?

Aliyah Henry.

I'm Todd Nimari.

So let me give you this proclamation on behalf of the city council and if you would like to make a few comments, you are welcome to do so.

We're going to keep on going and growing vegetables for folks and we're looking forward to this year.

So we're very proud of them.

Thank you.

Now, therefore,

Mr. Huja?

He encourages all the girls and boys to participate fully in the celebration of literacy and the special birthday signed and sealed this 18th day of March 2013.

I have signed it.

It's right there.

All right.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

You go ahead.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, you have to say a word to the microphone.

Thank you.

Ms. Szakos, do you have a few more announcements?

That's all I've got.

So would you please proceed.

though the city, the parks and recs has a whole lot of things on their hands, they find time also to support our small association, the Ghana Association of Charlottesville.

Thank you so much.

I'm sorry.

Thank you so much.

If you're interested in that, do call us.

And just in case anyone is listening to that and wondering where the money comes from, we pay our own way and raise money for that trip, so it's not taxpayer dollars.

I know there's somebody here to receive it.

Thank you so much for your continuing support of our festival.

The first person is Paul Long.

Thank you very much for your time.

Mike Basile, I'll let you do the third one.

Thank you.

William Page.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Daniel Brewster.

Thank you.

Kenneth Jackson.

And to this day she's never been found.

John Hayden?

He was over here before.

Nancy Carpenter?

Thank you.

Meantime, I want to acknowledge some young people in the audience from Boy Scouts and I see that we all stand up, Boy Scouts.

Are there any other ex-Boy Scouts who want to stand up just in solidarity?

There you go.

She doesn't have a car.

All right, thanks.

Anybody else would like to speak?

And thank you, Council, for supporting the event.

If not, we close the session.

Before Council makes comments, I'd like to ask Mr. Jones to inform the public of efforts of meeting with family

And we've had numerous meetings with Mrs. Grooms, who is Dashad's mother.

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

So I think those are the only two comments that I feel need to respond to.

And that's all I've got.

Next we have two public hearings.

Do we want the announcements for the boards and commissions?

Very good.

First I would like to make a motion that we appoint to the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority, Ethan Dunstan and Adrian Seltz.

The second is a motion.

Should we do them all together?

You can do them all together.

Also to the Parks and Recreation Board, Lizelle Duggar, and to the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Maurice Jones and Judy Mueller.

I second that.

Please read them.

Item E, an ordinance quitclaim gas easement to VDOT, Town Brook Crossing Court in Dunlura Gates subdivision, first of one reading.

If not, is there a motion?

I would so move.

First public hearing is on 2014 tax-based, tax rate, Mr. Jones.

This is the first public hearing for both.

Maybe we won't.

We are holding the tax rate at 95 cents per $100 of assessed value and as I mentioned it's no change from 13

And then we're funding several new outside agency programs as well that went through the AVRT process.

our capital improvement program

So I'll stop it there and we'll begin the two public hearings.

Do we need to announce what that is?

It's 95 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Will you say it one more time?

And that was what was publicly advertised.

Do you have that on the top of your head or should we wait for the April 1st, 2nd public hearing?

during the next meeting on April 1st.

and there is a list of people who have signed up to speak.

and I looked at the evaluation rubrics and I think that we could have a much higher score than what we got and so I've made some amendments to our application, I suppose you could call them, and I'd like to give you those and I hope that, and I guess I can give you some for Councilor Norris and Smith.

email the law

Excellent, excellent.

Thank you.

Craig Chapman.

Scott Brown

And I will stamp my parking pass.

Leanne Rubist.

Thank you for the past support.

Thank you.

Wayne Hall,

Thank you very much.

And as you sit down, just to clarify, the thing that I was saying about the meeting was something we have to decide tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Marta Kane Good evening.

So I would just ask you to continue to help us be viable for all of the people that we are helping and Dick already spoke to the mountainside issue so I won't repeat that and thank you for giving us the time tonight.

Thank you.

Susie Hoffman

Thank you very much.

with a story named Ian.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

Tom E.

Thank you.

Ron Buchanan.

The first tee of Charlottesville has prepared him well for serving as an ambassador of the city of Charlottesville.

Katherine Davis Good evening.

Thank you very much for your support of our programs and for listening to our request this evening.

Thank you.

John Foulds

They're good.

Thank you.

It's very, very important.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Liz James.

Thank you.

Pete Costigan.

Thanks very much.

Clea Logan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

When I was first exposed to the business model of CIC, I thought it was fantastic and look back on my years when I was a young, passionate, full of energy, young business guy.

You don't look too old right now.

It's a good investment.

Douglas Muir

I was very impressed with that alone.

Thank you.

So thank you.

Please come forward.

and I ask you to just think long and hard about what is a relatively small commitment to what I think is a great program and builds a lot of character and builds a lot of value in our kids and ultimately in ourselves.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

So you'll be the two last speakers.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Oh yeah.

Thank you for coming.

And there is a work session, would you repeat again the work session?

And feel free to come to the work sessions.

We have a work session coming up on March 28th that will deal with most of the issues that were raised this evening.

March 28th.

Next item on our agenda is the lease for historical society, Lance Stewart.

Mr. Harris.

Good evening everybody.

Can I ask everybody to just keep going if you're having conversations.

Please close the doors.

Please start.

Maynard Seid, who is an attorney that represents the Historical Society, and he might want to say a few words if you'd like to hear from him.

Thank you.

Are there any questions for staff or for Mr. Mayor?

These five points to make sure that these terms of this letter are met.

Well, one of the points is that the Historical Society will report on a regular basis to City Council about their progress.

Or is this something that we can handle?

And when we do have reports come in, what I would expect is that facilities maintenance, in conjunction with the society, would set up regular meetings, annual meetings, and even presentations before council, if that's what you would like.

My only comment is I'm happy to make a motion to include language to that effect of the facilities management working with the staff of the Historical Society will monitor the progress on these

And there's one change suggested by Mr. Norris and Mr. Jones will read that.

Mr. Norris suggested combining D and E of the points that are in the letter to read, produce and submit to the city council an annual progress report on the various programs conducted by the ACHS, accompanied by an annual audited financial statement.

That's fine.

I would like to speak to that last point.

It's a significant expense in terms of the size of the organization's operating budget.

So that audit is after four years.

We would certainly not have maybe had four years.

So maybe it's definitely better to do that after four years.

We expect them to be filled, and I would hope that that's the feeling that the historical society is going into this with.

I just want to say I do appreciate and I think we all do the renovations that you did several years ago.

You turned it into a beautiful building, so thank you.

My understanding is those were the first renovations.

Yes, it was quite a scene.

Is there a motion?

I make a motion that we, I make a motion for the enclosed resolution along with the letter, including changing language to include monitoring of that, of progress on this by the facilities maintenance and the historical society.

Kathy McHugh.

Good evening.

And we have both Chris Murray and Gordon Walker on hand from Java to answer any specific questions.