City Council Meeting   7/15/2013

Music Playing

We have a pleasure to lead you.

Mr. Norris?

Here.

Ms. Smith?

Here.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Here.

There are a number of announcements and awards and recognitions.

I'd like to start today with the Charlottesville Fire Department Youth Program participants.

Yes, we have them.

They're right in the front, right over here.

I am very pleased to be able to welcome

The Charlottesville Fire Department Youth Mentoring Program attendees.

The Charlottesville Fire Department has partnered with the city's Buford Middle School to offer a six-week summer mentoring program to a select number of rising eighth grade Buford students.

A small team of city firefighters have

have scheduled a series of community-based enrichment activities for the students designed for the firefighters and students to explore and experience together, including local educational opportunities, community arts and culture, Charlottesville City and community history, Charlottesville City government,

and Pathways to Success and Self Improvement.

The program seeks to develop youth to have a greater community focus and a greater sense of connection to the community, a greater understanding of city government and history, a focus on education and career pathways, and an awareness of the people and organizations that are integral to the city's emergency response system.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and other city council members.

My name is Cameron Douglas.

I will be an eighth grader next year at Beaufort Middle School.

On my behalf of the students participating in the summer youth mentor program, I would like to thank Charlottesville, the Charlottesville variety department, along with the principal Mr. Johnson at Beaufort Middle School for giving us the opportunities

opportunity to visit places like the UVA Business School and the Ashland Opera Show.

Also, we got to meet people like Dean Gregory at UVA and members of the Charlottesville City Council.

Thank you for inviting us here tonight and a special thanks to the mentors from the Charlottesville City Fire Department.

Thank you.

Would anybody else from the program?

We had a, at least the three of us, the class members met with these young men about last week, had a good presentation with them.

For those of you who weren't here when we did this thing, we had

There was one who was not here tonight, right?

He was also here.

And they were down here and we talked for a while and then they came up and they kind of acted out doing an issue and figuring out how they would vote on something and actually took a vote.

And I could just have this glimpse of the future.

So now we're going to go from people in government to people who own businesses.

I'm very happy to recognize the Computers for Kids program.

I'll read a little blurb and then I'll ask everybody to stand up that's here tonight.

The Office of Economic Development partnered with Computer for Kids to host a youth entrepreneurship class this summer, June 24th of the 28th.

During the summer camp, students explored business basics and the steps involved in starting a business.

This class served as a platform for students to understand the basics of entrepreneurship as they worked to launch their own business.

During the week, the ideas and principles of business ownership were directly incorporated into students' personal business plans and ideas.

Community business professionals volunteered each afternoon to help the students brainstorm ideas and practice their business pitch.

On July 2nd at City Space, the students pitched their business ideas to a panel of judges.

consisting of city councilor Kathy Galvin, Computer for Kids board member Colin Learmonth, and Tuan Wen, owner of Seville Coffee.

All participating students exceeded the presentation requirements and were awarded startup funding to launch their business.

The top four finishers received additional funding.

A reception was held at the wireless pavilion afterwards to celebrate the class accomplishments.

The Youth Entrepreneurship Camp aligns with OED's, the Office of Economic Development's efforts to increase entrepreneurial opportunities for our community.

And I'm going to name several people, so excuse me if I mispronounce your name.

Whoopsie.

I've got a slippery nose, sorry.

It's Wakas Al-Mulhim.

And could you stand up?

Thank you.

Dimitri's Christmas.

Kirby Crenshaw, Jaden Friday, Ujela Johnson, Lidor Kali, Alonzo Page, Veriti Mallory, Dylan Mowry, Kimony Taliaferro,

Great.

And the program director, Dolly Joseph, is here, and I don't know if the executive director is here, Kala Somerville?

Oh, great.

And then Jason Ness, who's from our very own Office of Economic Development.

So the business plans and the presentation that these young folks put together was just totally impressive.

from car wash businesses to pet care to daycare to pastries to providing English language and Arabic language services.

The array was spellbinding and exciting so thank you very much for all the work you put into this and thank you for coming tonight.

Does anybody have anything to say or contribute?

There are some more announcements.

I would like to start with a simple announcement.

The City Council will not be meeting in the first meeting in August.

The next meeting will be August 19th.

So the next meeting of the City Council will be in August 19th.

The first meeting in August will not be held.

That's for information.

There are a number of announcements.

Kathy, do you have announcements?

Can I actually do one more, just because another participatory?

I'd like to recognize Alexander, who is in the audience, who is then doing this wonderful campaign on the bugs.

She said, he said, they said, yo, let it go and move on.

And Alexander, if you would come and just tell us where you are in this great campaign.

Good evening, city manager, city councilors,

How are you this evening?

My name is Mr. Alexander.

I'm an educator motivator, formerly of Charlottesville, but really I've never left.

I'd like to thank you, Ms. Smith, for continuing to inform everyone about the campaign.

You Let It Go.

It's a campaign to reduce cultural violence in the city of Charlottesville.

The campaign kicked off on June 13th at Charlottesville Transit and with the kickoff around the city of Charlottesville we have posters and the posters are buses, churches,

Bellways, Sideways, beauty salons, barbie shops, and it's really to inform and have the community be aware to avoid confrontations.

Also we would like to, and I have a kit for you council members, I would like to thank our sponsors Charlottesville Area Transit, Mr. Joe Jones, Charlottesville Parks and Recreation, Mr. Brian Daley, Charlottesville Department of Human Services,

Mr. Mike Murphy, Sheriff James Brown, Reverend Alvin Edwards of Mount Zion First African Baptist, and Mrs. Ann Carter of Our Legacy.

Also, Richmond, Virginia, and Baltimore are interested in the Yo Let It Go campaign.

You may be hearing social media and otherwise, Yogo.

Yogo is just short for Yo Let It Go.

Also,

I would ask all citizens to join us in the campaign.

And just a little sidebar, I was telling someone earlier that if George Zimmerman would have you let it go, perhaps Trayvon Martin will be here today, you know?

Second point, outside of the campaign, I would like to congratulate Szakos and the City of Charlottesville for receiving an award.

The Wellness Award, Health Wellness Award, and I heard you visit the White House.

I'm sure you said hello to the First Lady from all of us.

And also I wanted to mention about the Charlottesville Task Force on juvenile incarceration.

This coming Thursday, and I have this in your packet, this coming Thursday there will be a All People Matter Think Shop.

We're going to have 400 young people

from around the area come together.

And we're going to have a forum, Why All People Matter.

And we also want to be addressing Move to Health campaign.

So you certainly all are welcome to come out and join us on Thursday.

And again, I would like to thank you for this opportunity.

And I do have a packet.

for council.

I think some of you council members may already have one.

And also for the public, any citizen that would like to have a copy of the poster in their business, they can contact me at 804-321-3636.

Thank you.

May I announce actually the forms on racial disparities because Mr. Alexander referred to them.

There will be, there is ongoing a study and forms on the racial disparities in the juvenile justice system

and there will be three forums coming up.

The City of Charlottesville Task Force on Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System is holding a series of forums on how the Charlottesville community can come together to reduce the number of youth of color.

who are coming into contact with the juvenile justice system.

The meetings are all open to the public and they are tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16th, starting at 6 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club.

That will be the first one, 6 to 730.

On Thursday, if it doesn't conflict with Mr. Alexander's event, Thursday, July 18th is coming Thursday at 530 at West Haven Community Center.

These are all an hour and a half.

Then the week from then, Thursday, July 25th, again starting at 530 at South First Street.

Pizza refreshments and door prizes will be provided and there will be childcare for children ages 3 to 12.

I have actually one other announcement, you want me to do it now?

Okay, we've got lots of stuff because we're not going to be here for another month, so we need you all to know about everything going on.

But again, this Thursday, lots going on this Thursday, for 12 hours from 10am to 10pm, we'll be in celebration of International Nelson Mandela Day.

a Freedom Readathon.

And this will be held in the auditorium of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, our new beautiful Jefferson School City Center where the Jefferson School was originally housed.

Twelve hours of Words of Freedom, 67 of those minutes, at least 67 minutes, will be devoted to words by Nelson Mandela.

in honor of the 67 years that he has worked for respect, freedom, and peace.

What else do I have to say?

Anyway, you can just come.

You drop in, you can sign up, but you can just drop in.

It will be live streamed from the African American Heritage Center.

Okay, I'll announce that too.

African American Heritage Center, and just anything you want to read on freedom.

It can be your own words, it can be somebody else's words,

they will have things to read.

So just come on out between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. this Thursday.

Alexander's event that day is at 1030 a.m. till noon at the Burley Middle School on Rose Hill Drive.

All right, first of all I'd like to wish our Muslim neighbors happy Ramadan.

It began this last week and will be going on for a month.

The Let's Move thing that Mr. Alexander referred to, I was invited to the White House by the Lady of the House on Wednesday to recognize the work that Charlottesville and 39 other cities around the country have been doing on Let's Move cities and towns, working to make sure that children have access to healthy foods, activities, safe ways to get to school, to walk, parks that are healthy and safe.

And those are things that we are kind of on the very beginning of working on.

It was nice to be recognized but also she told us that we need to double down, we need to get it done and it's a long, long process so stay tuned.

The city council work session, this, let's see there's not a date on here but I assume it's on Thursday, the market study is Thursday?

Sorry, I don't have my calendar in front of me.

July 18th, Thursday, 6 o'clock to 8 p.m. We'll be talking about the proposals of what to do with the market, the city market, long term.

So I urge you to come if you have opinions about that or want to let us know what you think.

On, here we go, I've got this in too many different places.

On July 24th,

is the taste of Ghana at Burleigh Middle School.

It's a part of the African American Cultural Arts Festival.

We have a lot of people in our city who are from Ghana.

It's one reason that our sister city is in Ghana, one of our sister cities in Winneba, Ghana.

And the folks from Ghana who live in Charlottesville and some of the people that they've taught to cook make amazing foods.

and you'll get a report of our most recent delegation to Winneba from a student who helped produce a film about it and get to eat some wonderful foods.

That's at Burley Middle School, I believe it's at 6 o'clock.

And then on the following, let's see, we have Ladies Night, an African attire fashion show and health updates on Friday, July 26th, also part of the African American Festival.

and then on Saturday, all day long, will be the African American Cultural Arts Festival at Washington Park.

So I urge you to come.

Let's see, what is the next thing here?

Oh, also on the 18th of

July, as Ms. Smith mentioned, is Nelson Mandela's birthday.

In addition to the Readathon, Mr. Mandela has asked that people celebrate his birthday in addition to community events like that by consciously doing one thing that makes the community better, one thing that makes the world better, one kind deed, one act of

of producing something new for humanity, something that will make the world a better place.

So I urge you to do that every day, but especially on the 18th.

And on August 17th, we have somebody here to announce.

We have a back-to-school festival downtown.

The city is a partner in that, along with the African American Pastors Council and the City of Charlottesville Public Schools, City of Promise, and Helping Young People Evolve.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Let me do this for expediency.

Again, on August 17, 2013, we are announcing that there's going to be an event at the Charlottesville Antilles Pavilion in partnership with Charlottesville City Schools, Charlottesville City Government, Hype, and also City of Promise.

Our primary goal is to distribute upwards of 1,500 quick bags fully stocked with school supplies to students in need in the Charlottesville-Albemarle region.

Music and entertainment will be provided from local groups and a growing list of activities ranging from free haircuts, sports physicals, all will be provided.

Additionally, area organizations will be invited to set up informational tables to provide available aid and resources to event attendees.

Furthermore, there will be numerous prizes and giveaway drawings that will be held.

At the time of this presentation, we have already received confirmed sponsorship commitments from Virginia National Bank, the University of Virginia, Farmington Country Club, and verbal commitments from numerous other area organizations.

In addition, key partnerships are currently being forged with the Salvation Army, Love in the Name of Christ to extend our outreach into the county and other neighboring jurisdictions.

In the next several weeks there will be radio and television spots provided to further announce this event.

We are seeking monetary and supply donations from area businesses, organizations, and all interested citizens.

A special account has already been established with Virginia National Bank for the proper administration of all monetary donations.

We do wish to personally thank everyone because the list is growing of individuals and organizations who have lent their support to this event.

Any list of patrons and participating entities will be provided at the appropriate time.

Please review the accompanying flyer and support letter for particulars of the event and for additional information you can contact either David Ellis,

Michelle Christian, who is the event coordinator, or Dr. Alvin Edwards.

Thank you.

There are a few more announcements.

We can start with appointments.

And the other announcements?

A couple more events.

Saturday, August 3rd is West Haven Community Day.

It's always a wonderful celebration.

The fair goes from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. and I know there's other activities afterwards and I believe we'll be hearing a little bit more about West Haven Community Day in a moment from Miss Johnson.

But it's always a great time so if you get a chance please come down to Hardy Drive.

Saturday, August 3rd.

It'll be going on pretty much all day.

Also, Belmont in the Park.

Join the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department on Saturday, July 20th from 4 to 8 p.m. for Belmont in the Park, which is an evening of family fun featuring live music, free food, face painting, moon bounce and poetry.

A variety of music genres will be offered including hip hop, folk, country, gospel and more.

Grab your blankets, lawn chairs and friends and sit back and relax in beautiful

Belmont Park.

This event is sponsored by Red Light Management and the Helping Hand Club and there is no charge for the event.

There will be a community meeting and dinner regarding the strategic investment area this Wednesday night.

The City of Charlottesville will host a community dinner regarding this area on Wednesday, July 17 at the Jefferson School City Center.

That's 233 4th Street Northwest.

Dinner and discussion begins at 6.

The presentation and discussion starts at 7 p.m.

The Child Cure will also be provided.

The Strategic Investment Area is an area of the city designated for focused investment and improvement.

This meeting is intended to gather input from residents, property owners, businesses and officials on how best to invest our resources and improve the quality of life in this very important neighborhood just south of the downtown law.

So if anyone needs transportation to the meeting, please call 434-249-8294.

Then the last announcement that I have is the City of Charlottesville will have two cooling centers open this week.

I would like to make an announcement that item number 3 dealing with school title 1 funding request for $139,000 has been withdrawn for this meeting so if you are here to talk about that issue you may want to stay but if you would like to stay you are welcome to do so anyway that item will not be on agenda today

Mayor Huja and members of City Council, my name is Paul Longer and I live at 1410 Grady Avenue here in the city and I've come here tonight because of recent coverage in the Daily Progress and other media outlets about Yellow Cab Company.

It has been reported that the owner of the parking lot in front of the Amtrak station on Main Street has given exclusive rights to park in front of the Amtrak station to pick up passengers to Yellow Cab Company.

And while I do not dispute the right of the private property owner to allow any use whatsoever, I have a problem because Amtrak is a crazy public business that's open to the public.

And I think it's rather discriminatory just to give Yellow Cab that right as opposed to the other cab company owners throughout the city.

and it has also been reported that the Yellow Cab Company has entered into a similar agreement with the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport and that is, you know, in other words the Yellow Cab Company can park in front of the airport to pick up passengers.

Now if that is true, I even have more of an objection to that because the airport is a, from my understanding, is a joint operation of the city and Albemarle County and I think that's very unfair

And I also want to make mention that during the winter months, when it snows, Yellow Cap Company doubles its fares.

And I think that's a very discriminatory choice of people basically who don't have cars and who need Yellow Cap to get to work to make an unjust profit out of the bad weather.

Over a hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt broke up the national monopolies in the oil industry, the steel industry, and the railroad companies because most Americans believe that it's intrinsically unfair to have business monopolized in certain key areas.

And I believe that's true with the cab companies here in Charlottesville as well.

Most major cities

have a regulatory commission that regulates taxi service.

And I know that cities where I've lived at have that.

And I don't know whether the city of Richmond or Norfolk have that as well here in Virginia, but I think it's needed.

You know, I think all people who are starting taxi, and there's a lot of good taxi companies

I don't begrudge and work around

Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Joshua Hunt.

I'm a small business owner here in Charlottesville, beer run in the Woolen Mills Shopping Center.

I'm here tonight discussing the proposed Meade Avenue Trail.

First of all, I'd like to thank you all.

for all the members of council as well as Mr. Tolbert and Mr. Jones for your receptiveness to our concerns regarding this proposed trail and the effect it would have on the businesses in our shopping center as well as your willingness to seek out alternative solutions.

And I also realize you all have received a fair amount of emails and I thank you all for responding to those emails.

I got a lot of feedback.

from people who were pleased to receive email back from you all on this.

So thank you again for all that.

The businesses in our shopping center all depend on this parking for our livelihood.

and the businesses of the Willow Mill Shopping Center and the surrounding businesses do contribute a large amount of tax revenue to the city every year.

I'm truly grateful that VDOT is willing to recommend delaying the construction of this trail.

until the spring.

This will make a huge difference to all our businesses there.

So I thank you all for helping to facilitate that.

There has been talk of a zero net loss of parking under the proposed alternative plan.

From our account, it looks like we'll lose about 14 spaces.

So 10 of which I guess are on Carlton Avenue, which I understand is

have been deemed illegal parking.

The people have been parking there for five years.

Despite the loss of these spaces, we do understand that this is a situation that requires compromise.

And again, we appreciate the consideration for all the local businesses in the area and your support of those local businesses, which are so important to Charlottesville.

Good evening.

My name is John Woodruff and I'm also a co-owner of Beer Run.

We've been speaking with a very patient city staff recently in regards to Wilma Mills Point parking situation and the Meade Avenue multi-use trail.

We sincerely appreciate the time and the effort put into researching the different possibilities.

The businesses of the center are delighted to see the proposal includes moving the construction of the trail to spring of 2014 and we certainly appreciate the proposal to create extra parking spaces on the city walk property.

We are disappointed to see the trail could not be constructed on the west side of Meade Avenue as it would have allowed for a traffic signal crossing at the intersection of Meade and Market.

It would have also allowed a greater number of parking spaces to remain on the east side of Meade Avenue.

The businesses of Meade Avenue are growing and more are coming to the area.

The organization Building for Goodness is planning to build a 4,500 square foot building across from Gropen and City Walk.

Where will they park?

The Meade Avenue corridor is booming with business and more will come with the development of CityWalk.

Maybe the city would consider running a trolley or part of the bus services through this corridor.

Again, the businesses of Willow Mills Point sincerely appreciate the council and city staff listening to our concerns.

Thank you.

Good evening, I'm Nancy Carpenter, Albemarle County resident.

I'm here this evening to make sure that you either individually or collectively as a governing body or through your professional organizations, make sure that Senator Kaine and Senator Warner know how important the low-income housing tax credit is.

Currently in the Senate finance community, both Senator Baucus and Senator Hatch are looking at a clean slate

perspective to reform our tax code, meaning what if we don't have a tax code, what do we want to put in it?

And with affordable housing being so important in both the city and the county, we want to make sure that the low-income housing tax credit, which is a pivotal resource for supportive housing,

is continued to be a part of our tax code.

And today I saw some information from the Economic Policy Institute which tells me how important that is because they released something they call their family budget calculator to determine what different family sizes need

to live in certain geographic areas and in Virginia they have the Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area which is a little bit larger than the city and incorporates I'm sure some of the surrounding counties.

But in their look at housing costs,

They look at average food costs, child care costs, transportation if you own a car, they're assuming everybody has a car, health care, what your average employer premiums cost the employee, your other necessities such as clothing or maybe over-the-counter medication, those kinds of things, as well as taxes.

That total comes monthly to the Charlottesville area as $4,800, which means a gross annual salary of about $58,000.

So with a high percentage of this area not meeting that annual income, it's very important that we remain vigilant with that low-income housing tax credit and make sure that it still remains an important part of our tax code.

And I would ask that, as well as the county when I talk to them, that they make sure that their organizations or their departments that deal with housing are on top of this and make sure that their voices are heard.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Hi, my name is Tamaris Washington.

I'm 11 years old.

I'm a rising 6th grader.

The reason I rallied yesterday is because I felt that I could be the next Trayvon Martin.

Just think if this was one of your family members, you would want justice.

He killed an innocent person just because he looked suspicious.

That's telling people in our generation you can go and kill somebody and be not guilty.

I think that

Personally, I think that he should have been guilty because of what he did.

He called the police and the police told him not to follow him.

After that, he did.

And it's just that he took a life and he's not guilty.

Yesterday, I decided to organize a rally in honor of Trayvon Martin.

I personally believe that justice was not served.

And for that reason, we felt our opinions needed to be heard and our voices needed to be heard.

We had a turnout of about 35 people, which was amazing because we only planned this four hours prior to the event.

We rallied in front of the federal courthouse building downtown.

It was an amazing experience in all.

Colette Hall I tell you, Mr. Mayor, I always have to follow the hard acts for some reason.

Colette Hall, 101 Robertson Lane City.

I am going to talk about Title I because I may not get another opportunity to be here when it is discussed.

City School Faces New Short Fall reads the headline in the daily progress of July 12, 2013.

This headline is now too familiar and seen repeatedly in the past few years, each time the city school board and administration claim another excuse.

In this article, Counselor Dede Smith, a former school board chair, is quoted.

We knew the sequestration was hanging out there and we knew that Title I was at risk of losing funds.

I think we have the obligation to ask questions because we have asked the taxpayers to put out a lot of extra funds in recent years."

Indeed, the school board and administration have continued to plead funding needs, but as heard from this quote, this federal source shortage was not a surprise.

It was known and should have been planned for.

How are the taxpayers supposed to react when in the June 25, 2013 daily progress, it was reported that Mrs. Rosa Atkins was going to be given a pay increase.

Her present base salary was $188,000.

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch Monday, July 8th, 2013, quote, Virginia's governor collects $175,000 a year for his work.

This is his base salary and he is the fifth highest paid governor, while his counterpart, the governor in Maine, makes less than half of that and Florida's top executive doesn't even collect his pay, end quote.

According to the U.S. 2010 census, the population of Virginia was 8,001,024.

At $175,000, the governor is paid approximately 2 cents per resident of Virginia.

According to the city school website in September 2012, the student population of Charlottesville City Schools was 3,945 students, that's grades K through 12.

At 188,000, the superintendent is paid approximately $47.66 per student.

What is wrong with this picture?

Am I suggesting Mrs. Atkins receive no payer benefits?

Of course not.

Good evening, Brandon Collins, 418 Fairway Avenue.

I've lived in Charlottesville my entire life.

I have a daughter who's lived here her entire life and now two little ones who have joined our community and are actively organizing for change in their community at 418 Fairway Avenue.

I'm actually here on behalf of FAR.

and wanted to let you all know about this really awesome opportunity we had this past weekend.

We received an award from the Wayside Center for Popular Education in Nelson County.

The Wayside Center is a retreat place for organizers and organizations.

They bring together different types of social justice movements all together to work for the same struggles and they honored us this year with their annual People's History Award and wanted to let you know about that.

At the Wayside Center they consider history very important and we look back in history and we see people like Nelson Mandela who's contributed greatly to the cause of liberation in this world but we have to remember at one time he was on the terrorist watch list of the United States of America and we look back and we see he was on the right side of history

The Wayside Center seeks to look at regional organizations statewide and find those that are on the right side of history, making change, making meaningful change, and fighting the good fight here in Virginia.

And they chose FAR, Public Housing Association of Residents, for all our strong work.

Some of that work in the past year has been fighting evictions.

We've been in the streets multiple times.

We've been clamoring.

We've been trying to get your attention with some success.

We've had great successes changing and no trespassing policy with the Housing Authority.

We fought barbaric fee increases that were proposed by the Housing Authority and we won and we couldn't have done it unless we had organized collectively and that's what we do at FAR.

And we are very honored to receive this award because nobody else really ever recognizes FAR.

For the most part, we feel like we are marginalized, that our voices of public housing residents are not valid, our concerns aren't valid, that our arguments are unreasonable, and that we're blockers, and we're not blockers.

If you look at our history of the past year, you'll see we've made a lot of great change, huge impact on this community.

Our intern program is starting up.

We'll be announcing our new interns for the year very, very soon, and we're excited to bring those folks out.

On another note, I want to express to everybody here how important it is to show up for these forums on disparity in the justice system.

I call it racism in the juvenile justice system.

When we look at what happened to Trayvon Martin, it's the same so-called justice system that allowed him to be targeted and be considered a threat and allowed his murderer to be set free.

It's the same system that here in Charlottesville allows young black youth

to face higher consequences and higher penalties in the juvenile justice system than their white counterparts by three times as much.

And it's very important that folks turn out for those meetings tomorrow at six o'clock at the Boys and Girls Club and Thursday at 5.30.

And finally, I want you all to have this.

This is a reminder so that I would love for this to be displayed somewhere in City Hall so that any time you're thinking about making a decision that impacts low income people,

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak who's not saying that?

I apologize.

I work until 630 and I rush over to get here.

I want to talk to you tonight about something that's near and dear to my heart.

I live here in the city.

The city seems very concerned with planting new trees, which I love that.

I love that we care about the city and how pretty it is.

But my neighborhood is being engulfed with kudzu.

It has killed more trees and more plants in my neighborhood

and it's just not on anybody's watch list, it just seems to go on, pardon?

I live over in Fifeville area.

But when I go down the John Warner Parkway, I see the kudzu coming up and I'm like, what's the good of planting trees?

They're in three years, they're going to be covered.

It's very invasive.

The railroads brought it in years ago as a means to keep the land from sliding, but they are protected.

They are not liable for any damage that it does.

The roots grow underground, can come up on your property even though it may be a block away from your house.

I'd love to see the city try to do something to curb the growth of the kudzu because it really is destructive.

I can't tell you how many beautiful oak trees in my neighborhood that I've seen just killed.

And then the first storm there is, they fall, and everybody's like, oh, the tree was weak.

And I'm like, no, the tree wasn't weak.

It was covered in kudzu and it's been covered in kudzu for three years.

I've called Parks and Recreation on this.

Hey, my name is Tracy Saxine.

I'm a hip hop artist around here, local hip hop artist, and also I work here.

I'm a resident of Charlottesville.

I'm also part of an open mic called Verbs and Vibes.

First, let me start off by saying

that those kids that held the rally yesterday, they are some of the most courageous people over here in Charlottesville because I tried to do something earlier that morning and nobody came out and so me and my partner just stood there and just did something ourself.

Let me first start off by saying the Trayvon Martin case touched me and the racial profiling and everything that goes on nationwide around here, I'm here to say that it has to stop.

We also have a problem with it here in Charlottesville.

You know, if not by police, by some residents that think that if, you know, just by being an African American or wearing certain clothes, and sometimes it's not even African Americans, it's just people who look different.

They pass judgment on you.

It's a preconceived judgment.

And they see you as the bad guy, you know, and it just must stop.

It just must stop.

You know, I don't want a Trayvon Martin to happen here.

You know, I've been a victim of that racial profiling.

I've had one incident that involved the police and one incident that involved somebody almost running me over and me going to tell them, hey, be careful.

You know, you almost hit me.

I don't want another Trayvon Martin to happen here.

If police are going to look at us as the enemy, and residents are going to look at us as the enemy,

We have to do something about that to protect our kids and ourselves.

Even if it means teaching people the law of self-defense and arming ourselves, we have to do something.

We have to do something because those preconceived notions can lead to what you had happen in Florida.

A young kid hunted down

dead, he's gone, and his murderer just walked free.

We can't let that happen here in Charlottesville.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Councillors.

My name is Joy John, City Manager, Dallas Hall.

My name is Joy Johnson and I reside at 802 Hardy Drive.

Trevon Martin, I was in New Jersey this weekend spending time with my Jamaican families.

When the verdict came out, one of my cousins just really took it hard because he has a child and a son and that could be his son.

and so it rests on my heart but it is a clear reminder that race does matter.

It's a clear reminder that discrimination is ratchet.

That's what my grandkids would say.

It is just ugly and it's just nasty.

That's number one.

Number two, as you know I sit on some boards and

I learned some things from some boards, but one of the things that I just wanted to share with you all about how racism is still deep and how it is right here is that we had an African American person who was applying for a job that was done totally different.

The conversations were totally different.

The critiquing of that African American was totally different.

but because there were community people in there saying, that doesn't matter, he got a job.

On the other hand, I sat down on another board, person was white, totally different, even in hiring practices, their discrimination.

Number next, West Haven Community Day.

This is something for y'all to think about.

Well, Staving Community Day is August the 3rd.

I hope to see all of you all there.

It starts from 10 to 1, which is the vendors part of it.

Sports free, sports physical, and that's from 10 until the last child leaves.

We will have horseback riding, dunking boot, free food.

You don't have to pay for any of it.

And we just ask that you behave when you come and perform this or anybody.

Who would like to perform?

It's a family day.

We would like for you to come and perform, and please keep it clean.

Thank you.

Yes.

My name is Melvin Brady.

I'm a 238, Thomas Mill Road.

And this is impromptu, but the Trayvon Martin verdict, this is how scary this is.

I don't get fear too often, but when I heard the verdict,

that he's not guilty, that almost was a statement to say that you could almost take someone's life without provocation and let it go.

And Virginia has the same laws, by the way, the standing ground law, I believe.

That's what I heard.

But you can correct me if I'm wrong.

But that's scary.

I was almost ready to take out a weapon at home, it's registered.

locked up very deep, this is my brick of my house, I couldn't even get to it.

That's how deep I keep my, but I almost was thinking about having a weapon on me in the open because I'm thinking like it could happen to me just like that to a grown person.

I have a 25 year old son.

That's a scary verdict to say, to forget their race, but to target somebody, to probably, you know,

provoke them and then if they strike you, whatever, I can shoot you and be innocent.

That's a very dangerous message.

Thank you.

I was at the vigil that these kids organized yesterday.

and when I heard about the verdict of Mr. George Zimmerman the night before last, I was frankly maybe naively surprised and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the verdict, I think that the jurors were very limited in what they could do and all they could do was say, is this legal?

And I think that it is legal in Florida.

for a man in that circumstance to kill a young boy who really was just walking by.

And I have been losing sleep about it.

I think it's a crisis in this country for anyone who is or loves a black man or a boy.

And I'm in that latter category.

I think that we need to look at the laws of our country.

We need to look at the assumptions of our community.

I hope you don't mind my sharing this, it was a public website, but one of the news stations did a really lovely story about the vigil over at the federal courthouse and interviewed the young lady who was here today and she did a great job articulating why she wanted to do this and why she thought it was important and why young people need to speak out about things that they see.

and the comments section of that TV story was horrifying.

People who said, those people who organized that thing ought to have jobs.

If they had jobs, they wouldn't be out here.

There are just drains on the system.

All this racist assumptions that people were making, having not listened to the story that said that the main leader of this event was 12 years old,

and she bravely posted back and said, hey, I'm 12 years old and I'm an American and I have a right to free speech and I think it's important that I speak out.

And I will say that that toned down the comments a little bit, but she should have to be even exposed to that, to people talking about her that way, about the people who came out to express themselves in a free country where we do have the right of free assembly, we have the right of free speech.

broke my heart and the message that it has sent to people, especially in the African American community in this country, is a damaging one and it's a hurtful one and it's a dangerous one and I certainly don't have the solution.

I think we should work to take whatever measures we can to try to reform laws so that

the sort of thing doesn't happen or if it does happen at least there are consequences that have to be paid.

Just to thank you very well said and I agree and I want to commend FAR for its award and again very well deserved.

They do outstanding work and I'm proud to have been affiliated with them from the beginning and it's good to see them getting some recognition for the excellent work they do on behalf of all residents and on behalf of all of us.

And then I want to specifically take Ms. Carpenter up on her suggestion about having the city communicate our support for the low-income housing tax credit program to our senators.

I was just wondering, I was hoping to write a letter to the mayor

Yeah, so I'll add a couple comments.

Thank you all for your comments.

And thank you all for coming.

I would like, actually, first and foremost, thank you, Mr. Long, for coming and speaking on this issue.

And I agree with you.

And I wonder what the legality and possibility of forming a commission for regulation of our independent and not so independent

CAB.

Maybe it's broader than that, I don't know.

But, you know, whatever other communities use because this is a, it seems to me, a fairly risky situation if we're moving toward just one company having what is basically a monopoly on a public service.

We have an ordinance that provides some oversight and permitting of taxi cab companies.

We don't regulate rates, we don't regulate routes.

That would be great.

And what other communities do, you know, in terms of regulation, because it sounds, I mean now, this really exposed a whole world of scary stories and problems, so that would be great.

And I'd like to join Josh and John in thanking the staff for their hard work on the Meade Avenue Trail, and I see Chris Gensick here from Parks, and Mr. Jones, you've just really, you know,

It's been amazing to bring forth some solutions.

We'll be talking about that.

Nancy, you always amaze me what you know.

The only other thing I'd like to say is I am concerned about this kudzu, too.

We're hearing about this.

We got an email about kudzu in Azalea Park.

I know how important this is to Parks and Rec.

It really is.

this has been a really really tough summer because of the rain for these vines and I know it in my own yard and it is a problem and it's actually something that I hope to address at least somewhat in the comprehensive plan is particularly when it attacks our trees and thank you I so resonated to the kudzu taking our big mature trees down it's they you know these trees have been around for fifty hundred

Sometimes more years and they can be destroyed by these vines.

So I share with you that concern and I know

That would be great.

I put sympathies for the Parks and Rec in this challenging summer.

The other interesting thing I've heard, and I really don't know if this is true, the scientists have enough to, would rather see it in a public, in a scientific journal,

But they say increased levels of CO2 actually is advantageous for vines.

They have a slightly different photosynthetic pathway than other plants.

Yes, we'll talk about some of the other issues on the agenda tonight and then later on with regards to the school, so I'll leave that for another moment.

But I did want to speak to the Trayvon Martin situation.

It's a tragic situation.

My heart goes out to everyone, the parents, and I spent a lot of time yesterday thinking, reading, and I did come across some quotes by some people that have been through these sorts of things before.

and I'd like to share them in the event that it might help us to come to some terms with this.

Yesterday in the Foundry United Methodist Church in DuPont, D.C., Nelson Mandela's prison chaplain, Bishop Reverend Peter Storey said the following, quote, we come into this world addicted to divisions.

All our lives we seem to be obsessed with one question, who's in and who's out?

The outcome of the trial in Sanford is a troubling thing because it's exposed our addiction to racial division.

We will see what the Holy Spirit does with this painful thing if it can be turned to God's providence for healing.

He went on to say that, quote, we don't hear people when we've been taught they don't matter, and we won't hear people who tell us uncomfortable things.

So then President Obama also said yesterday, quote, I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son.

And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we're doing all that we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities.

That's the way to honor Trayvon Martin.

And I would like to offer that for ourselves.

We think we're a tolerant cosmopolitan city that celebrates diversity, but are we?

Or maybe we're really socially and racially and economically segregated neighborhoods or fragments of neighborhoods where we can't believe in any kind of benefit of change and all we can think of is can we trust the intentions of someone who's the other?

and I can't help but wonder if more of us lived on the same block, would there be more empathy?

I can't help but wonder if more of us got ahead and worked together, would there be more mutual understanding?

So I pray that what Charlottesville can and should do is to make sure its systems are fair, that all of its citizens can compete for good jobs and wages, that every neighborhood is healthy, beautiful, and open to all.

The more we break bread together as neighbors and colleagues, the more we will learn to recognize each other's children and look after them like our own.

Thank you.

Next item is the consent agenda.

Item A, minutes for July 1st.

Item B, an appropriation, sidewalk construction funds appropriate $50,000 from state revenue sharing transfer $50,000 within capital improvement programs, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation revenue sharing program for bridge rehabilitation.

$155,000, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation landscaping public lecture series and final intersection configuration for McIntyre Road extended, Virginia Department of Transportation funds $100,030, second of two readings.

Item E, an appropriation Tonsler Park basketball lighting replacement grant, $100,000, second of two readings.

Item F, an appropriation Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for the City of Promise, $97,500, first of two readings.

Item G, a resolution, allocation of $309,221.41 in Charlottesville housing fund dollars for home matching funds, AHIP initiatives, and PAINT program, first of one reading.

Item H, a resolution, Jefferson School amendment to comprehensive signage plan at 233 4th Street, Northwest, first of one reading.

Item I, an ordinance, West Main Street density zoning ordinance, second of two readings.

Item J, an ordinance, franchise agreement with Brent, first of two readings.

Second.

Next item is the public hearing.

This cul-de-sac was originally platted back in 1944 but as early as 1950 the

The design of that right of way had changed to extend to Mason Lane, eliminating the need for the cul-de-sac.

The other half was closed by city council in 1969 and the abutting property owner has now petitioned to have the remaining half closed.

It has been reviewed by city staff and staff's recommendation is for council to approve the closing.

As I mentioned, it is scheduled for public hearing and I'll be glad to try to answer any questions that council may have.

I have one question.

Generally for rights of way such as this, which have been dedicated to the city but not accepted,

The underlying fee is owned by the original developer and his assigns which are the abutting property owners and so the abutting property owners actually own the land but it is impressed with a right of way for the use by the public.

No.

Because they want to build a fence and so that's... We... council adopted a street and alley closing policy back in 2005 and there are actually two types of rights of way that we close.

One, such as this, which has been platted and offered to the city but never accepted.

The other part is for

Rights of Way that have been accepted and are part of the city street system.

Okay, my concern was that we talked before about being consistent.

I just wanted to clarify.

I have another clarification question, although you may tell me that it's a question for after, but I think it's just a clarification question.

The property is kind of a half moon and the Bialy, is that how you pronounce it?

Bialy?

They're on part of the half moon, but then the next door neighbors who are the Gilberts, I guess, are on another part of the half moon.

And yet this is all going toward the, I'm sorry, Bialy.

How does that?

Would you like to speak on this topic?

Would you like to speak on this topic?

Thank you Mr. Mayor and Council.

Two weeks ago the owners of Beer Run appeared before you and expressed concern that they had about the trail that's on Meade Avenue and the fact that it would take some 25 parking places in its construction and you asked that staff study this and come back with some kind of recommendations.

While these are public parking places, it's pretty clear that most of those spaces are used by the businesses or people going to the businesses in the shopping center, particularly those that are going to Beer Run.

And they stay pretty full in the evening especially.

The trail project is one that was funded by VDOT through an enhancement grant several years ago and has been in the works for a number of years.

It was actually a trail that was in our 2003 bike pedestrian plan and then the park staff has been working to get it funded for some time.

It is funded.

There's been a bid received.

The contract is not awarded but there's been an intent to award that's been given to the contractor and it is substantially below the estimate so it's actually a really good bid so we were anxious to take care of that and try to move forward.

We had two or three issues.

One of them was primarily timing.

How do you construct the trail knowing that

CityWalk is going to be occupied and you get three or four hundred new people living there, which should replace any impacts, but it's down the road.

The other is you build a trail, you lose that parking during that time.

So we met with VDOT and we had to go up the chain some, but were able to meet with the acting district.

Administrator, and he authorized a delay in the trail construction from the piece from Market to the railroad track by approximately a year to next spring to give us a chance to get some other things done.

We then looked at several alternatives.

One of them was to try to widen Meade Avenue.

You heard that question asked.

The right-of-way is barely substantial to do that there.

It's wide enough that if we wanted to widen it, we probably could.

However, if you've walked along the edges of that right-of-way or on the sidewalk, you know that on both sides it falls off.

And so our engineering staff, without doing the plans, just did a very quick estimate of what it might cost to try to widen the roads so you could keep parking on both sides and have the trail.

And their best guess was somewhere between five and six hundred thousand dollars to do that.

So we felt like that was not a prudent use of tax dollars to save 25 parking places.

We've looked at being able to add additional spaces along the west side of Meade and we believe that, are pretty sure that we can get seven to eight spaces along there by striping the spaces.

They're not striped now.

and while there's room for some 20 plus cars on that side, as you know, the way people park determines a lot of times how many can park in a place that's not striped.

So by striping it and then by going across the tracks,

and providing more striping on Mead on the other side of the tracks, we can gain seven to eight spaces.

And then we've looked at on the new Water Street extension on the south side, our engineers have determined that by widening that Water Street section out for about

There's a long enough length that we could widen it about seven to seven and a half feet and pick up 17 spaces there.

That would be on the public street.

Now that's got to be coordinated with the owner, the developer of CityWalk and working with them and we've got a meeting with him in the next couple of weeks to work through the logistics.

He's getting us a price on that now.

we think we know what it will cost based on our estimates but we want to get a price from him and don't want to share our thoughts with him right now until we get that but the other piece of it is we'd have to coordinate with him because he is partially HUD funded and to be able to we would have to figure out the timing of our construction but given their construction schedule for CityWalk we feel like that we could get those 17 spaces in

and as they're going in, be able to start, as they're completed, start the trail section from Market to the Railroad.

So, bottom line is, we feel like we can get, by the time we are building the trail on Meade, that we can have 25 or so replacement spaces for the 25 or so that are being lost in that area.

We did look at trying to move the trail.

That might have been a

a great idea a year ago but we're in a position now if we try to go back to VDOT they would just take the grant funds.

We were very fortunate to have them given the pressure they're under from Federal Highways to spend these dollars to

to be able to get it delayed.

We also have, Ms. Ponce and Mr. Jizic have been out and looked and we feel like we can place a couple of bicycle racks near this property right on the corner.

They've located a place where we can place it and we're wanting to work with the folks at Beer Run and Mr. Lewis that owns the shopping center.

to locate a couple of bike racks like we're doing in other places around town.

So that would just facilitate people that are riding to be a little easier and encourage them maybe to ride their bikes to come to Beer Run.

We would like to proceed in the way I've outlined delay the trail from the market to railroad section until next spring to begin the Chesapeake to market section after Labor Day.

We could start immediately but Parks doesn't want to start it until

after the closure of the pool because they don't want to interfere with the honesty pool.

And then we would strike the parking spaces on the west side and then work with the owner of City Walk to get a price and we would come back to you at that point to authorize the dollars for construction but to move forward with adding those 17 spaces.

I'm just curious, you said that the bids came under what you expected.

About $90,000 I believe.

About $190,000.

Okay so we're getting something from it.

I was hoping of course it could go to the parking but it can't.

I think, the reality is I think that until you get right down to the end that last 350 feet, there's not enough width in the roadway coming through there.

This is just where, it's where the road separates from the railroad tracks.

There's a place where it comes into the old Carlton that the road separates from the railroad tracks and you've got the opportunity.

That's convenient.

So it's for construction of the road as opposed to by right of way?

To construct the street first.

And how does that new Water Street Extension

So we'll tee into Carleton.

There's some parking right now on Carleton but that's not legal parking, that just happens, that parks parallel in there.

Right.

and we looked at the possibility to add spaces there but the traffic volumes are such there has to be a right and a left turn when it hits Meade.

And I'm going to take advantage of the fact that we're talking about the Meade Avenue Trail and I think Chris might need to answer this.

is in these pictures the new trail ends at the far side of Meade Park.

We'll go from Chesapeake to the entrance of Meade Park, so across the frontage of Meade.

She wants to know if it goes from the entrance to Meade Park up to Chesapeake.

Right.

I'm not aware that any were lost for that.

Right.

And so when we're talking about adding 17 spaces on the new city wall,

It's really not 17 additional spaces.

It's replacing spaces that were already replaced.

So my concern is that at the end of the day, you're still seeing a significant loss of parking for this shopping center.

Including the illegal spaces.

I'm not sure how many there are because they're so half-agently parked, 10 or 12 maybe.

Right.

We're replacing the 25.

There's been sort of a philosophical discussion as to whether illegal spots are, but I mean you know clearly we want as much as you know you still need more you know but I love the idea of also exploring particularly with this connection from downtown bus service you know that's I think that it's a it's a logical link

There will be, there's a travel lane that again, there's a, old Carlton will have a right and a left as you come to Meade because of the volumes and so that gets into that bank where the cars pull over and park.

I imagine until they get full there may be, but I mean they are, it depends, they are parked

It's an interesting area too and as Josh was saying it's developing more and it's going to become

certainly appears to be becoming more of a prominent space and so we should be on the lookout.

This is a result, somebody asked me the question, well how did it happen with the zoning and the parking there?

But it's a result of a clause in our zoning ordinance that's been there for many years that says if you change an occupancy and you don't expand the building, then you don't have to add additional parking.

And that's to encourage reuse of properties without handicapping them.

And if you remember when Beer Run started,

It was a retail space primarily.

When that shopping center was built, it was built as a retail space.

It wasn't built as a restaurant where you would come and sit and stay.

So it's grown and it's not added any square footage.

And so that's really kind of been the – their success has been the genesis of this problem.

I just want to real quick but I mean you've led a really good groundwork here for an over kind of comprehensive parking strategy by looking at shared parking.

When you look at the aerial there's a lot of spaces everywhere, everywhere in the private lots.

But maybe over time they will as we get to know what the parking needs are.

Right.

Right.

Are there other questions?

and today I'm seeking approval of modifications that were made to the Section 3 policy and just to give you some background, on December the 17th, 2012, City Council adopted a modified version of the Section 3 policy which was a major improvement from what we had previously

At the January 7, 2013 Council meeting, Council expressed an interest in expanding the Section 3 program from just HUD-covered projects to broadening the framework of Section 3.

And with that, in line with Council's request, staff has modified the Section 3 policy to apply Section 3 requirements.

to projects and activities partially or wholly funded by the Charlottesville Housing Fund.

Just to give you some background about the housing fund, it was originally envisioned as a funding source for community development and housing related projects without the cumbersome federal restrictions.

So adding a section three requirement or requirements will introduce some compliance

requirements to recipients, sub-recipients, contractors, and subcontractors who are performing work in connection with CHF-funded projects for which the amount of the contract or subcontract exceeds $100,000.

More policy change?

Thank you first of all for coming back with this suggestion and I wholeheartedly agree with it and I was one of those, I know there were others who were urging you to expand the program and figure out ways.

I still want to see if there are ways to do more, not just with government funds, but how do we bring the private sector to the table where

I just have one question because I also wholeheartedly agree with this and I plan to vote for it but one question I do have is you mentioned that this does put a potential burden on the developer and what I'm hoping it won't do is limit the number of developers who are willing to add

significant affordable housing to their projects to utilize this fund.

I guess you're right.

But they don't necessarily go to only non-profits.

And so if we were to have a situation where that would happen, I would want to be able to kind of be planning now to articulate what the benefits not only to residents are, but benefits to the community, benefits to the company.

And we might look into how to incentivize and expedite the review process for projects like this.

So that's something to talk about with zoning.

Well, administratively, the staff can decide what type of compliance they want to do since it's not a HUD cover project.

So not to, you know, put too much burden on the contract.

I just want to make sure that there's also a compensation or a reason for them to participate.

Because it's an important, I mean, we call it a burden, but it's an important obligation.

I have two questions.

Basically we're talking about two or three major non-profits.

I mean we talked about Habitat and AHIP and maybe PHA.

Can we give a scenario for how this would work with

So for instance if the city provides a contract to AHIP for which the amount exceeds $100,000 then they will be required to any event that there are

do use subcontractors.

So when we give Habitat $300,000 for like we did with Belmont Cottages for infrastructure, is that a contract in and of itself?

Because they're recipients, so the way that it's written into the policy is that recipients, subcontractors, contractors

Yes.

So it's not that when Habitat subcontracts up to 100,000.

They got 300,000 so all of their subcontractors need to be

I just want to make sure, we're not just, this isn't just all about non-profits.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Section 3 is not a mandate, it's not a requirement.

I do second.

Any more discussion on the motion?

Good evening.

I'm here tonight because we currently don't have a policy for any underwriting criteria really related to our housing rehab program.

And it came to our attention recently with a particular case that we really need to look at this more in-depth.

First I'm going to explain to you how we currently work the rehab program.

We use what's called a deferred loan, which is reduced or forgiven over a period of time based on the amount of funding provided.

The memo that you've gotten at the very first page has those limits and the amounts of times outlined there.

But it varies from 5 to 30 years and we secure our interest through a deed of trust and promissory note.

To give an example, like for an owner who receives 20 to 500 in rehab assistance, the amount of time that would be triggered is the 10 year

loan period, it would be forgiven then at a rate of the $22,500 divided by 10, which is $22,000 or $2,250 a year if the borrower remains in compliance.

Compliance is triggered specifically by just occupying the property by the owners.

If the owners continue to do that and they don't lease or sell the unit during that 10-year

Long term, then basically the loan amount goes away.

And they have to request through the city attorney's office that this amount be basically forgiven and the documentation provided, but that's the only further responsibility on their part.

If there's a death in the family and an inheritance comes into play, the full amount of the loan has to be repaid within six months

unless the heirs actually are income eligible and in that case we would re-qualify them and they would assume the conditions of the original loan.

Many examples of what would come into play but you leave this for your children and the children could assume the loan

as long as they're income eligible.

Otherwise it would have to be repaid based on the amount that remained based on how much had been forgiven up until then.

Under our current policies, though, we don't consider whether an applicant can actually repay any of the money.

Many owners have existing mortgages or other liens that

that are basically banked on the value of their home because they use that as collateral.

So if there's a default, which usually happens in the case of if you decide to sell the unit or there's a death in the family, our ability to be repaid would be limited because we're rarely in a first position.

I'll give another example.

The city provides this $22,500 we talked about a minute ago in rehab assistance for a home valued at $150,000 where the owner has an existing debt of $137,500.

This would mean in the case of a default, if the house could sell for $150,000, that the maximum the city would receive would be $12,500.

In that particular case, roughly 60% of what we had provided.

The use of the deferred loan to me implies that we anticipate that we'll recover at least some funds if there's a default.

I mean the deferred loan has been the process that's been in place which predated me, goes all the way back for I'm not sure when the original

The policies were adopted.

The earliest date I see is June of 1980 on there, so it's been in place for a while.

So the use of the deed of trust and the promissory note to me places the responsibility on the homeowner, which I think is important because the homeowner needs to have a vested interest in, you know, they got money to fix up their house, we need to hold them accountable in some way.

If we recapture money through the fall,

We typically come back to council and we ask for those to be reappropriated back into the original fund that they came from, whether it be CDBG, home dollars, or CHF dollars.

And then we can use that money to provide additional assistance.

At present we have 3.7 million in outstanding deferred loans and that's roughly because these numbers were obtained from the attorney's office a couple of months ago.

A million and five has been repaid or released because the term has been expired, but then there's about another 339,000, we'll call it 340, or roughly 7% of that amount.

It's in default and it's been classified as uncollectible.

This represents the money that's in place now, the 3.7 million represents an asset to the city, but it's only as good as the ability of the applicants or homeowners to repay in the case of a default.

The policy limits for substantial housing rehab is $25,000 per house and with our current funding we're adding about 8 to 10 extra cases a year.

Of course it's going to be exponentially greater as we're doing the block by block program.

And one may think, well, you know, you're increasing the value of the home because you're putting in all these extra dollars.

Not really the case necessarily with rehab because we rarely do things that enhance the value.

We're repairing things that should have been fixed perhaps in earlier time, deferred maintenance issues, oftentimes leaking roofs.

things that aren't really adding value because when an assessment or an appraisal is done the assumption is made that a homeowner acting in their best interest would in fact have those safety issues and basic issues addressed so it's really not incorporated into the value.

To bring some closure to this, in order to protect the city's interests, staff would really like to establish a policy that sets a loan to value ratio with future rehab projects as well as an exception for

the higher dollar rehab cases that we're doing through LEAP with the Home Energy Conservation Fund.

We're doing those, I checked with Melissa, I think about two to three a year.

And the idea is, you know, there's certain cases where they have money and the needs are greater than the $5,000 limit.

So we'd also like to see this applied to those as well because the money can be substantially more.

but we're recommending a loan to value at 110% which would be calculated as the total amount of all outstanding of proposed new debt divided by the fair market value of the home based, we're going to take 110% of whatever the assessed value is.

so we're providing really a cushion 10% on the ratio side because we're going not 100% but 110% of the value and then we're also allowing an extra 10% added to the value on the assessed value and this has been vetted and discussed greatly with AHIP we talked about the use of appraisals and so forth but there's a cost associated with that we felt like the appraisal value or the assessed value rather was

a very conservative and by adding 10% we're avoiding the extra cost of doing the appraisal and yet providing a fairly conservative figure.

We also, lastly, just want to recommend that a waiver be provided.

In the particular case that preempted the examination and the reason I'm here tonight, we had a man with a

with a single boy there, living a father and son and there were some severe health and safety issues there with a gas furnace and some other things.

So in his case, honestly we couldn't do the work based on this new policy unless there was a waiver provision.

So we'd like the flexibility when we run into cases like this to be able to address immediate health and safety issues

to address the furnace and the roof that were in dire need and then limit any other work that we might do to the proposed policy.

And what we would do is we'd still include all the funding that's provided in the promissory note and the deed of trust.

However, we'd just be understanding that likelihood of getting that money that was used for emergency type repair would be pretty limited.

The memo said that there were going to be written comments from AHIP submitted to council.

I don't believe we ever got those.

So I'm hearing you say that AHIP's okay with them.

It would have been a little bit more reassuring to hear that from the horse's mouth, but I'll take your word for it.

I guess I'm just curious to know, this only applies to projects going forward?

Right, new funding.

Part of what you funded tonight would be the substantial rehab would trigger that.

Emergency rehab, because those are usually 5,000 or less, wouldn't even tap this.

But on the block by block program, I did talk with AHIP and there's a recommendation in here and I'm very, very sorry about the comments.

I had had them initially, so I'm not sure what happened.

In, I'm drawing a blank here, in talking with them about the block by block, basically they did not want to have it apply because there was already this anticipation.

I mean we already had two applicants almost.

Right.

It's an action.

That we're bumping up against that.

We couldn't do what we initially set out to do with the program.

So they specifically asked that we not apply it to that.

and I have to agree that's supported in recommendations here.

Just the expectations of both AUIP, the people who were applying and so forth did not take this into consideration.

And again, it's been kind of a long-standing policy.

We didn't have a loan to value.

You know, I think we need to in the interest of business life principles, but to apply that retroactively to something that's ongoing, I really can't support that.

Well, I'd just like to comment that

Isn't it true that ideally, given the whole purpose of the deferred loan,

is to keep people in their homes.

Ideally, we hope we never see that money again, because that means that they've stayed in their homes, we've maintained this history and this preservation in our low-income housing stock.

So I'm sort of grappling with this saying, well, we need to protect getting our money back.

When I was reading it and talking about it, it seemed like

it's as much to keep from burdening people with debt that if they do sell their house they won't be able to pay which could lead to bankruptcy and all that kind of stuff that it's in a way protecting them as well from being saddled with more debt than the house would be able to cover.

Forgive debts but if we're going to have this you try to pay it back if you sell the house it seems to make sense to try to

We discussed with AHIP possibly just doing away with it because I've done rehab programs where you had both rules applying where we recognized it was just a public contribution to the housing stock and just let it go

I think this is a great compromise and I do think that we have to recognize that the money that we invest

I mean, is there a sliding scale?

Is there anything that differentiates income levels?

Typically, things like we try to get away from doing like indoor painting and that sort of thing.

And the reason being is that

It makes it pretty, but I'd rather put our money into it.

So we provide paint through the free paint program to allow them to do some of those things.

Well, I ask because years ago I was the rehab specialist for the Charlottesville Housing Improvement Program, so I would go in and redesign kitchens and bathrooms and porches and there's a value to that.

It was both design as new construction

and there was always some understanding that the household would pay something because that's a sign that there's a value to what's been done.

And I just wonder to know if there was anything like that at all and it sounds like they're done.

If they sell it then they owe the whole sum that's left.

Because if they stay in the house for 10 years, they don't have to pay it.

Are you done?

Yeah.

So I'm just curious, sort of the net impact, particularly I'm thinking of, you know, very low-income elderly homeowner who may not be in a position to do what we've just been talking about here, you know, chipping in on the repairs and may not even be in the house for 10 years or more, but

Their house still has value so they can still get it.

What percentage of houses are in this situation?

This one triggered the question.

Melissa and I had gone over to do a monitoring of AHIP where we looked through files.

They're ongoing in that year.

Second.

Any discussion?

Before I go to public comments again, I would like to inform public something.

Over the last few months City Council has discussed the need to work with the Housing Authority and we are going to be asking our city manager to do the analysis of Housing Authority to see how we can help and improve Housing Authority for the better housing for city of poor families who are living there and we will be presenting this to our consent agenda at the next meeting in August

I'm just informing this, just if people have interest, they can come and raise its question.

Can I just request, and I actually have this note to myself, and I would love to see a report on the promised neighborhood progress.

I did want to thank City Manager Jones for attending the last FAR board meeting.

I think it was pretty productive.

I think he heard a lot of our concerns and has a pretty good understanding of where FAR is coming from and obviously where the city is coming from and I think it was pretty good all around.

As you're pondering some of these things as far as the city review, the housing authority, I think looking back at the history of how things have been in other ways that the housing authority was set up under city control.

Those are definitely important things to consider and how people responded and how things worked at that time and we'll obviously be chiming in more on that.

I did want to update you some on what FAR is currently doing, which I didn't do earlier.

One is a use of community centers and community spaces.

The community centers are consistently locked and unused.

The computer rooms are unused.

There's no one to watch the computer rooms.

You have this great community resource that's not being used by residents of public housing.

Community centers are too often being used by everyone but residents, so all kinds of other organizations are using the spaces and residents themselves are shut out.

My last name goes for playgrounds where there's consistently glass on the playgrounds.

There are playgrounds that are still locked.

There are playgrounds that need their mulch taken care of and their play structures taken care of.

These are very important community resources that are not being used and should be.

particularly if you want a healthy city and you want healthy playgrounds for people to be able to get exercise especially during the summer where things get a little intense out there in the community sometimes there needs to be things to do.

Other things are eviction prevention.

There's been a lot said about the small number of evictions that have happened recently and we at FAR feel like that has a lot to do with our hard work and our consistent monitoring of the courts and working with residents to make sure things get taken care of

before there's a problem and the evictions we have seen have been problematic and could have been avoided and we maintain that.

We work for an eviction prevention policy.

We like to see comprehensive air quality assessment in public housing as well as a comprehensive maintenance repair assessment and a plan for dealing with the great deal of maintenance problems in public housing.

Good evening again.

My name is Store Johnson, 802A Hardy Drive, and this is an election year.

Come November, council is going to change.

It's a big concern for me about who.

Everybody says that they represent low-wealth community, but again, who's going to be a little bit more sensitive to be able to be in the community working with folks.

The other concern, the other thing I want to do, Mr. Jones, is you're always quiet and it just seems like nobody knows that you're up there some of the time, but I just want to thank you for coming out.

and talking to us about how we are feeling and giving a commitment to making sure that you come to the next six months meeting of residents concerned to listen to you.

That means a whole lot and I just want to say just thank you for doing that.

And the other thing is that Brandon is absolutely right.

You're going to see me now more of an organizer.

I will be

Networking with some national folks to do some things, but one of the things that I want to caution you on is that if the attitude of the housing authority doesn't change about working with FAR, who is the Duly Elect Resident Association, based on 964, I'm pretty sure Mr. Craig Brown will help you to research it,

that you have to work with the dually elect and if they're not going to work with the dually elect then we can hold them accountable and it's not going to look good for the city for not following federal guidelines.

Federal guidelines do matter just as much as state guidelines do matter.

Rental demonstration assistance is something that the housing authority is getting ready to look at.

I know Kathy McHugh is aware of it and what it does.

I'm not sure if this council does.

And we need some training on that.

We need to make absolutely sure that it's number one and that the residents do understand it before we can make a choice.

Customer service is poor.

Customer service needs to be improved.

I know you get tired of hearing it, but I'm going to come here every night