City Council Meeting   4/7/2014

Music playing

and John F. Kennedy.

... ...

I don't know.

🎵

Music playing...

Dr. Michael Kochis

Thank you and welcome.

We have some announcements and awards and recognition.

Would you like to start with?

Yes, I think it's a good idea.

Brilliant idea.

Ms. Smith?

Here.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Now, award recognitions and announcements.

Me?

All the way down.

All the way down.

City market begins.

City market kicked off its season on Saturday, April 5th, 2014, from 7 to noon.

The market is held Saturday morning, 7 to noon from April through October and is located in downtown Charlottesville.

between Water Street and South Street.

City Market features over 100 local vendors that sell a variety of fresh produce, herbs, plants, meats, handmade crafts, a large variety of delectable edibles, fresh coffee, and much, much more.

City Market, which is managed by the City of Charlottesville Department of Parks and Recreation, provides a fun, safe, family-friendly environment for local vendors to display and sell

their homegrown or handmade products.

Launched in 2010 and continuing for 2014, market customers who receive SNAP, which is the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, will be able to use their benefit cards at the market to buy fresh produce and meats.

Debit cards will also be accepted.

This program is managed by Market Central.

a nonprofit organization that supports City Market.

For more information about City Market, please contact Stephanie at 970-3371 or CityMarket at Charlottesville.org or just Google Charlottesville City Market.

There were probably 7,000 people at City Market this past Saturday morning.

It was incredible.

It's a community party.

Okay.

Charlottesville's, excuse me, Charlottesville sparkles.

Whereas Charlottesville has been cited as America's number one city, a recognition resulting from energetic focused efforts

on the part of our citizens, businesses and public institutions to build, maintain and enjoy our economic opportunity, neighborhood protection and quality of life.

And whereas this is a time of year when we think of spring cleaning and renewed growth.

Now, therefore, members of the City Council, the Business Community and Neighborhood Association and the Visitors Bureau,

hereby join in proclaiming the inaugural week of Charlottesville Sparkles, a citywide cleanup to welcome visitors, parents, and tourists and encourage them to stay another day in our community, signed and sealed this seventh day of April, 2014.

And I think Peter or Laura or either of you here, would you please come up and accept this?

My name is Laurie Galgano.

I'm one of the owners of Blue Moon Diner in Midtown Main Street, Charlottesville.

We're very excited about this new initiative for the Charlottesville Sparkles.

It's something that I think really will help us all to work together with our communities in neighborhoods, be able to work closer with our neighbors and neighborhood associations, small businesses, and just be able to really come together and maintain

our public spaces a little bit better together and really be able to take pride in what our streets look like and what sort of foot we're putting forward to people who visit our city and really be able to hopefully have this to be a continuing and ongoing collaboration between citizens of the city and city government and resources.

We're very excited to have a part of this and especially for me we're

doing a great thing of remembering a wonderful city resident, Sidney Tapscott, who passed away a couple of years ago, but spent quite literally decades cleaning up the streets of Charlottesville on his own.

Thank you.

I want to also acknowledge Councilman

who has been taking leadership from the city council as part of it.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

There is indeed a website for this.

It's called charlottesvillesparkles.com.

Thank you, Mr. Fenwick, for getting that for us.

And we're going to be continually updating it with more information.

I know the Midtown group is planning on making our cleanup a monthly event.

Do you want to add?

Okay, you're going to wait.

Okay, okay.

Okay, I have a proclamation as well for Local Government Education Week.

whereas since the colonial period the Commonwealth of Virginia has closely held the institution of local government and whereas the local governments throughout the Commonwealth provide valuable services to the citizens of the communities they serve and whereas citizen services such as law enforcement, public health and safety

recreational opportunities and educating local children are most often delivered at the local level and whereas in recognition of the work performed by local governments the Virginia General Assembly on February 29, 2012 designated the first week in April as local government education week in Virginia and whereas April 2, 1908 was the creation of the council manager form of government in the nearby city of Stanton

thereby making the first week in April appropriate for this designation.

Now therefore be it proclaimed by the Charlottesville City Council that April 1st through 7th, 2014 is hereby designated as Local Government Education Week and be it further proclaimed

that the City Council will work with the city schools to promote civic education and engagement in an effort to educate citizens about their local government, strengthen the sense of community, and engage the next generation of local government managers.

Amy Loughlin is here, I think, for school work.

Can you see that?

I'm Amy Laufer, the vice chair of the school board.

Thank you for this proclamation and your continued support of our school division.

I'd like to invite all of you to come and visit our schools whenever you have the opportunity, especially our advanced manufacturing that you guys helped sponsor last year.

and our middle school and our high school.

And actually I just had an opportunity to visit an advanced manufacturing company in Despunta, Virginia about two weeks ago.

And we spoke with the Rolls Royce executive who told us that Virginia was a great opportunity for them to move their

Executive Branch to move to Virginia because the school systems are so great.

And they knew they'd have great candidates for their engineering programs.

So thank you again.

Yes.

I have two announcements.

One is the citywide bagged leaf collection.

There will be a one time citywide collection of bagged leaves only on the week of April 14, 2014.

Bagged leaves must be at the curb by 7 a.m. on Monday, April 14, to qualify for free collection sometime that week.

Other than this scheduled special collection of bagged leaves, city code dictates leaves are to be treated as dry trash until next fall and must be placed in bags with the appropriate trash sticker to be collected by the city.

Residents must provide bags for the free collection.

Only leaves will be collected.

Please, no trash sticks or other yard waste.

Please direct questions to the Public Service Division at 970-3830.

That's 970-3830.

The second announcement concerns the McIntire Skate Park Design Visioning Workshop.

Shostles Parks and Recreation, in partnership with Alma County, will hold a design visioning workshop to gather information from the community in planning the future design of the McIntire Skate Park.

The workshop will be held Tuesday, April 8, that's tomorrow, 6.30 p.m. at Carver Recreation Center, 233 4th Street Northwest.

It will be facilitated by Mike McIntyre and Canton Russell of ASD, now STANTEC, who have been selected to help design the skate park.

So those are the designers.

For more information, please contact Vic Garber, Recreation Division Manager at 434-970-4.

3354, that's 970-3354, or his email at garberv, G-A-R-B-E-R-V, all one word, lowercase, lowercase, at Charlottesville.org.

And that's it.

I have no announcements, but a proclamation.

And I just wanted to say, with the Local Government Education Week,

I actually spoke today at the literacy volunteers for people who are studying English about local government and they were fascinated in some of the differences between how local government works here as opposed to other countries.

They were startled to hear that we all do something else for a living and that this is something we do as service rather than as our main job and so it's interesting to have that experience during local government education weeks.

My proclamation is

Announcing Fair Housing Month 2014, whereas April is Fair Housing Month and marks the 46th anniversary of the passage of the Federal Fair Housing Act.

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, and whereas the Fair Housing Act provides that no person shall be subjected to discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or family status in the rental, stale financing or advertising of housing.

and the Virginia Fair Housing Law also prohibits housing discrimination based on elderliness.

And whereas the Fair Housing Act supports equal housing opportunity throughout the United States, and whereas fair housing creates healthy communities and housing discrimination harms us all.

Now therefore, the City of Charlottesville supports equal housing opportunity and seeks to affirmatively further fair housing, not only during Fair Housing Month in April, but throughout the year, signed and sealed the seventh day of April 2014.

Is there someone here to receive this?

Good evening.

Thank you for your support of fair housing throughout the year.

April is the time of month where we are grateful for the opportunity to come and let you know about fair housing events that we're sponsoring at Piedmont Housing Alliance.

and to also remind the community about the fair housing services that we provide.

So we want to let you know about two special events for Fair Housing Month.

The first is April 23rd from 1 to 3 in the afternoon and it's a special fair and accessible housing workshop that is geared towards people with disabilities and their advocates with information about non-discrimination,

Reasonable accommodations, reasonable modifications, and the rights to accessible housing.

The second event is an evening forum on April 29th that we're co-sponsoring with the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights.

And we're very excited about this community forum.

It features the screening of two documentary films.

One is called Seven Days and it chronicles the seven days in April 1968 prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

and the second is A Matter of Place, a documentary that was produced in New York and it connects the past struggles for fair housing with current incidents of housing bias.

And we'll also have a panel of state and local fair housing experts and a community discussion about how to continue to build on the advocacy and build community and support for equal housing opportunity.

Yes.

The message that we are wanting to communicate to the public is that there is a law that prohibits housing discrimination and there's a place to call.

So please contact Piedmont Housing Alliance.

I leave you with a thank you and with our latest public service announcement.

How about the phone number?

Yes, it's 817-2436.

Thank you, Mr. Huja.

Housing discrimination is illegal if you've been denied or treated differently because of your race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, children in your household, or elderliness.

I have one more announcement and also I'd just like to express something that I think is shared on this council that we've talked about before but hoping that we will see soon the day when sexual orientation is added to that list of reasons that people can't be kept from housing because at this point that kind of discrimination is still legal but still not right.

But thank you for enforcing what we have now.

It's important.

The Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission announces call for grant applicants.

The Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission is now accepting grant applications for projects between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, so all next year.

The Commission invites Charlottesville non-profits, arts organizations, schools, businesses and individuals to apply for projects funding up to $2,000.

Grants are available to projects that benefit the Charlottesville community as well as our sister city communities in Bezanson, France, Pleven, Bulgaria, Winneba, Ghana, and Poggio al Cayano, Italy.

The mission of the Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission is to promote understanding and foster relationships between citizens and organizations in the Charlottesville area and our sister cities through cultural, economic, education, and humanitarian activities.

Grants will be awarded for a wide variety of activities that promote this mission.

The grant application deadline is May 1st, applicants

Applications must be received by the state to receive consideration and incomplete applications will not be considered.

Recipients will be notified within 60 days of the deadline.

Applications may be submitted by individuals or groups and previous award recipients are eligible to apply after one year.

Funds must be used within a year of receipt and expenditures must be detailed in the year-end report made to CSCC.

Completed applications should be sent to, by email, to cvillesistercities at gmail.com

or mailed to the Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission, care of Page Rice, P.O.

Box 911, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902.

I have one more announcement, Mr. Mayor.

And I'd like to announce a really interesting event that's coming up this Saturday.

It's the Charlottesville Albemarle African American History Charette.

on April 12th this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Jefferson School City Center in the African American Heritage Center in the auditorium.

The history of African American communities in Albemarle County, though often unknown, dates back to the colonial period.

In an effort to make these histories common knowledge, we are holding a day-long charrette to gather information on communities and sites related to African American history in the Charlottesville-Albemarle region.

Our goal is to create the area's most comprehensive African American heritage trail from the colonial period through the civil rights era.

At the end of the day, we hope to have amassed a body of information that will enlighten local students and tourists about our rich history.

This event is free and open to the public, and it's organized by the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in partnership with the Burke Brown Step Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, the Central Virginia History Researchers, Preservation Piedmont, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Thank you.

I have a proclamation and an announcement.

I used this proclamation on April the 1st to share, announce April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

So I'm not going to read this whole thing, but I wanted to point out that I learned when I went to this meeting, when I decided to do the proclamation, there were many other speakers.

One of them is in the audience sitting here.

And got a very good information.

It is an important concern and I hope that all the community residents and agencies will work together to prevent child prevention.

One in five children get child abused, but it is a preventable kind of situation and we need to all be aware of that and work at it.

And once the child abuse happens, the people who they know are family members, about 90% of them.

and so it's very important that you be concerned.

So this month of April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and I hope you'll all be aware of that.

I have an announcement also.

The city has removed felony inquiry from general job applications.

Basically, it's a bear in the box.

As you know, the city is very interested and we call ourselves City of

Second Chances, where convicts who come and have fulfilled their obligations to society, they should be able to work and live a decent life.

And one of the things that we are doing is to, on our application for the city, we removed whether you are felon or not felon.

Because if you have the box of the application, most people are very discouraged.

They don't want to apply because they think they'll be rejected outright.

This way, we will still check the background where appropriate and necessary before the job is awarded.

And certain departments, such as the police department, there are special state regulations for check-up.

We will still enforce those regulations.

But we are saying that we have to get a chance to all the people in our community and fellows included.

Any other announcements for the class, for the staff?

Yes, sir.

Next item on the awards is the Planning Awards.

There are a number of Planning Awards.

It's the city awards to our citizens.

Our citizens are very generous to our community.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council, and actually the awards were presented at the Planning Commission meeting last month, but

As we always do, we want to get those folks recognized in front of you and tell them thank you again for the work they have done.

The Planning Commission started the Planning Commission Awards Program about eight years ago with the idea to recognize excellence in planning work or development and to encourage higher quality development and higher quality work.

This year was a really interesting year.

We've had the same categories, but some years we have to beg for nominations almost.

This year, for eight categories, we had close to 50 nominations.

So, Planning Commission had a really, really difficult choice in most every category to give awards.

So, I want to run down these and ask if there's anybody here representing any of these to stand up and be recognized.

I think there may be one or two that came back tonight.

Every year the Planning Commission recognizes an NDS staff member of the year involved in the process and this year Kathy McHugh was recognized for her efforts in making some changes and bringing you changes in the way we deal with our affordable housing ordinance and just the overall job she does in trying to work with the development community to get affordable housing.

I think she's probably back in her office watching to see what the consent item is.

Each year we give the Herman Key Jr. access to the disabled award and I assume most of you probably knew Herman but when I came here in 1999 Herman was on the Planning Commission and was a fearless advocate for the rights of the disabled as well as for the community and Herman was

One of the best planning commissioners that I ever had the opportunity to work with.

We actually took him to New Orleans with us to the National Planning Conference in 2004 or 5 to present on the conference of plan and zoning ordinance that we'd been done.

He did a phenomenal job down there.

But every year we recognize a development or something or somebody for that award.

This year that award went to Jim Herndon, who is also a staff member of ours.

But Jim has worked tirelessly to

do a couple of things.

One was to rewrite the ADA plan for the city and the other was to really try to enforce this year the construction standards and help to work with our developers and our city staff to make sure that when they do projects that we're doing them the right way to keep those areas accessible for the disabled and that's a tough job and the Planning Commissioner really wanted to recognize his efforts there.

Also, Eldon Fields Wood was a member of the Planning Commission and so the Planning Commission created the Eldon Fields Wood Design Professional of the Year.

This year that award was presented to Cunningham Quill Architects for the work that they did on the SIA study.

They're the first out of town firm or group that we've had recognized but the Planning Commission felt they were very deserving of that effort.

The neighborhood of the year also was one that was sort of unusual this year.

The West Main neighborhood, where there's really not a neighborhood, but the Planning Commission wanted to recognize all the efforts going on in West Main, the commitment

as we've gone through the West Main planning process that a lot of those people have made.

We've got a couple of business people in that area that's serving on the steering committee.

They also stepped up to the table and provided assistance when we had our first meeting about the West Main Street project by providing food and helping us and entertainment

and the Planning Commission felt like they deserved that recognition.

So while it's not really a West Main neighborhood, they wanted to kind of set the stage and really encourage our Midtown Association, if they're still back there, to reform and get involved and stay engaged like they've been working on.

Outstanding neighborhood effort was awarded to the Strategic Investment Area Plan.

Planning Commission recognized the work that went on in creating the SIA and encouraged all involved to keep the effort going and keep moving forward with it.

The outstanding plan and development went to the Jefferson School City Center in recognition of the great job that was done in renovating the school, not only for the work, the architecture, and the physical work, but the programming

that's going on and continues to go on there.

So that was recognized.

The Citizen Planner of the Year Award was given to Bill Emery for all of Bill's efforts with the Tree Commission, with the Willard Mills, and just everything that Bill does.

I don't think there's any one thing you can single Bill out for, but just recognize what he means to citizen engagement and keeping us on our toes in the community and staying informed.

And then the Outstanding Sustainable Development this year went to the City Schoolyard Garden Program.

and I know Jeanette's here back here with the schoolyard garden program but again recognition of that work and what that program's doing to provide the gardens on the school sites and manage those and

and the efforts of that program.

So I think we had a banner year for the Planning Commission in making their awards a great year of work in the community and would just encourage people to strive to be one of these recipients.

You don't get a lot other than recognition, but you get the recognition that you've done something good and it's worthy of being talked about.

Next item on the agenda is matters by the public.

Good evening, Mayor Huja and Council and City Manager Jones.

I'm Kathy Johnson Harris and I reside at 902 Raymond Road in the City of Charlottesville.

I came to commend you for making Charlottesville a second chance city.

I am a retired educator and I have worked with many parents who have come for my assistance in filling out applications for jobs.

And one of the saddest things is when a parent has to say, I can't find a job because I am a convicted felon.

In making this change to the application, I feel that it's pertinent that you also train those individuals who sit on the interviewing boards.

Because I have a very sad story without bringing tears to my eyes in front of you.

But I had a parent to go for an interview at one of the departments here in the city.

And because a couple of people on the board knew this person, some things were sad.

And so I think that it's really pertinent that

Supervisors of the various boards and situations look at those people who take part in the interview process with the candidate.

We do not want to bias any opinions before the job is filled.

We want the person to feel

Yes, I'm a convicted felon, yes I've served my time, yes I have an opportunity, but there is still another roadblock with the biases and the prejudices of people who may not still feel as passionate as you all seem to feel about this particular situation.

So again I would like to commend you but I would like you to also reach out to your interview boards and those people who sit on it to give people who are interested in coming forward because a lot of these people are residents of our city and we want to keep them here.

and we want them to be viable.

We want them to be able to pay and take care of their families.

We talk about a second city.

We talk about affordable living.

We want our children educated.

We want our parents working and we want them to live in homes that we are proud of.

So again, thank you.

I know you don't get a lot of thank yous, but I'm here to thank you.

Let me say this is a priority.

Let me say this is the priority of the whole council.

It reflects the views and values of our council.

Good evening.

My name is John Cruikshank, 324 Parkway Street.

First, I would like to take a few moments to comment as a private citizen regarding the use of city resources.

I feel it is important to invest in the neighborhoods of Charlottesville.

In particular, there is a need to improve sidewalks, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, to plant trees and maintain parks, and of course to educate our children.

Many of the residents in my neighborhood were pleased to have Mayor Huja and Councillors Galvin and Fenwick meet with us at the intersection of Nelson Drive, Second Street and Northwood to discuss safety concerns.

We were even more pleased to see the improvements put into place the next week.

So here's another thank you.

Now I would like to put on my Sierra Club hat for a moment.

Just so you know, I'm not just speaking for myself.

Last Friday I sent you all an email inviting you to sign on to a letter the Sierra Club and some of our allies are taking to the State Corporation Commission.

This letter asks the commissioners to require Dominion Virginia Power to put a more substantial and immediate commitment to developing renewable energy and energy efficiency in their 15-year integrated resource plan.

By investing in solar, wind, and energy efficiency, Dominion can significantly reduce carbon dioxide pollution that contributes to climate change.

They'll also make this a cleaner environment for all of us.

Counselors can sign on to this letter as individual members or as the whole group.

Two of you have already agreed to sign this letter.

I would also like to invite you to a free showing of a chemical reaction.

On April 24th at 7pm at the Central Library, this film tells the story of a small town that recognized the dangers of toxic lawn and garden pesticides.

The citizens took action to protect the health of their children.

This event is being sponsored by the UVA Food Collaborative and the Sierra Club, and we will have some healthy refreshments, so I hope you can all come.

Thank you.

Good evening Mayor Huja, city councilors, Mr. Jones.

Three weeks ago I stood here and expressed my strong support for the cost share agreement you've reached with the county for the current and future storm water programs projects.

I'm back here tonight to make some additional comments in support of that agreement.

Now at first glance the agreement looks complicated, but the principles upon which it is based are clear and simple.

Cost allocations will be based on measurements of the wastewater flows generated in the two jurisdictions.

Now these will be updated at regular intervals to account for population growth in the county and for additional upgrades to the system in the city that reduce inflow.

So periodic measurements of the actual flows throughout the system will make it easy to fairly assign costs based on use.

Now let me make it clear, I'm talking about measuring wastewater flows, not water consumption.

The old agreement you are replacing split sewer costs

based on sewer project costs, based on water consumption, which has almost no relationship to the needed capacity of sewer systems.

I mean, basing sewer system capacity on water consumption, you might as well base it on bottled water consumption.

It has about as much relevance.

Stormwater infiltration is the primary driver of wastewater system capacity.

And another point, at your last meeting, there were objections raised to the agreement because

It was designed to deal with peak flows rather than average daily flows.

Well, average flows don't count for sewer systems.

It's peak flows, and peak flows by industry standard are defined as the two-year rain event.

You can make a strong case for making a bigger rain event because

You know, anything that exceeds the two year reign event will dump raw sewage into the Rivanna, which is not right.

The agreement is a very good one for the city.

We get the unpopular pump station removed from the Willam Mills neighborhood, and the county shares the cost of the move.

I know some feel that the county is going to have to do that anyway, but I'm not sure that's actually true.

That is simply something the city wants done.

The county doesn't want it, and they feel the city should pay for it.

In the future, as the county population served by the system grows,

and the city continues to make repairs to reduce infiltration, our share of the cost of the future project should fall.

And this will happen automatically.

No need for more time consuming negotiations and especially no legal disputes that have the potential for poisoning relations between the city and the county.

The time for debate is over.

We've started a major program and we haven't figured out how we're going to pay for it.

This agreement solves that problem and it provides a path for the future to solve such problems indefinitely.

So I urge you to approve this agreement this evening.

and since I have a few seconds left, I'd like to add my comments to those of Miss Harris.

I think the Second Chance City is a wonderful idea and I'm really pleased that you've taken that step and I only wish you had the power to restore voting rights to former felons as well.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Peter Castiglione.

I'm here on several fronts tonight.

I'm a business owner and a property owner at West Main Street at Myer Restaurant.

I'm a founding and active member of the Midtown Association, a homeowner in Woolen Mills, a member of the Place Steering Committee that's been appointed to work with Roadside and Harwell for the urban design plan, and a part of the committee that Bob put together to push to actualize the Charlottesville Sparkles.

As the voice of the Midtown Association, if you would just maybe consider the following points.

We ask that the city allot or try to find at least $340,000 in the upcoming budget to apply to realizing the final design proposal which should be completed in August.

The majority of people I speak with and ask me to share their opinions are negative Nancy's to say the least.

This is the fourth design project in 20 years and nothing's really come of it so

We think a simple match of design funds for what we spent for the design for an actual realization to kind of get the ball rolling might be something that's a considerable number to think about, maybe some sidewalks, some simple infrastructure.

After speaking at length and walking the breadth of West Main Street with Parks and Rec and Public Services representatives,

I've realized that further budget cuts to said programs are going to kill any opportunity to bring Midtown up to speed relative to the corner in the downtown mall.

We'd like to see an increase in the budget to said services so that we can realize landscaping, trash pickup, and just basic maintenance.

We have been neglected for the last decade and would like to reinforce that our burgeoning marketplace, which is filling up with restaurants, retail providers, business services, would like to see some of that tax money we're collecting redistributed to support the infrastructure and landscape of the Midtown area.

Speaking of Midtown, Jim thank you for recognizing Midtown.

He called Midtown West Main three times in a row before he got to Midtown.

So the next point would be helping us brand the area.

We brought it up years ago and it's kind of been tossed around and with the urban design team it seems like Midtown is starting to stick.

So city signage, city marketing, visitors bureau, those kind of things.

If we could make Midtown work for the area we're talking about instead of calling it West Main, I think it would be very beneficial as we as an association start to go out and market on our own, put signs on the back of city buses and things like that.

A collective effort would be very helpful.

I would like to invite all of you to come join us.

this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. from 10 to 1 and help us join the many Sydney sweepers and volunteers from both Midtown, Fifeville and Starr Hill neighborhood associations.

As we walk the streets, we're going to remulch the 48 trees between 8th Street and the statue at Rich McIntyre.

We're going to collect debris.

You'll be surprised at the stuff we collect and the committed group of people that are coming out to make it happen.

Since I didn't take my earlier time, just five seconds to thank a few people.

One, Bob, thanks for getting the ball rolling.

John Mann from Parks and Rec, Steve Lawson from Public Services, thank you for the mulch, the wheelbarrows, the orange trash bags and the free curbside pickup.

I would like to thank Emily Blout and Mike Sigler from the Fifeville Neighborhood Association and Laura Galgano from the Blue Moon Diner.

We basically, grassroots, put it together and we're looking forward to seeing some of you Saturday morning to come help us clean up the streets.

Laura, do you want to speak again?

Okay.

Hi, my name is Paul Grady and I live just outside of Crozet.

I have followed the new home for the city market saga as closely as I could over the last several years.

I was somewhat dismayed when I learned that the last consultant's charge included a no purchase of land limitation, which meant that they could not consider the idea that I gave them at the last idea gathering meeting.

Therefore, I decided to give it to you.

in case you don't get any better offers from your RFP.

I would use the right-of-way for First Street from Water Street to South Street for the construction of a two-story city market with a roof.

The lower floor accessed from Water Street would be level with the finished grade of whatever building is constructed on the parking lot to the east.

and the second floor, accessed from South Street by a slight ramp, would be level with the finished floor level of whatever building is built on the city-owned parking lot to the west.

This would allow both parking lots to be developed independent from the city market, but would still allow for a market district to be created in the future on the first floors of either or both buildings.

Of course, the two-story city market would have stairs, bathrooms, an elevator, electricity and running water.

It could also have roll-up canvas walls that could be lowered in inclement or cold weather and possibly even heat to allow the market to operate year-round.

In addition, I would recommend

that there be constructed a ramp from the second floor north across Water Street extending up First Street all the way to the downtown mall with the ramp being wide enough to allow for small vendors to set up on the ramp thereby drawing customers in from the mall.

This would allow for a permanent connection from the mall across the ramp through the city market to South Street and any future development south of the railroad tracks.

The only problem with this idea is that the right of way for First Street is not quite wide enough and it would require the purchase of 30 to 40 feet on either side of the street.

Now the city already owns about a quarter of the land required, which would mean the city would have to purchase about 3,000 square feet of land, 2,000 on the east and 1,000 on the west to make this idea work.

not a huge investment but one that I think would be well worth making.

Thank you.

I'm Karen Yates and I represent the League of Women Voters of the Charlottesville area and I appreciate the time given to me to speak this evening.

We're back to sewage.

The League has always had a great interest in protecting the streams and waterways and we have national and local recognition of championing healthy water.

We're proud that our community usually takes seriously this need to protect it.

Today you will be talking about a project which will keep raw sewage out of the river and we commend the city and county and Rivanna Authority for their efforts.

The League has often urged Charlottesville and Albemarle to work together as a single community.

that most residents actually think we are.

But we also recognize that local government budgets are not fungible and the most difficult city county decisions involve how to fairly divide the expenses of governmental services.

In the resolution this evening, the LIG board has authorized me

to urge you to adopt the proposal before you based on the principle of having the capital cost apportioned to each participating governmental entity based on how much capacity it uses.

In simple terms, users pay in proportion to how much they use.

The principle of user pay seems fair

The proposed payment division can be recalibrated periodically to remain fair far into the future.

It creates incentives for each entity to reduce infiltration of stormwater into our sewers and will reward the city's efforts at reducing infiltration and inflow.

It can reflect

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Chris Hayes.

I live at 1900 Chesapeake Street and immediately adjacent to the current treatment facility, sewer treatment facility, the pumping station down off of Chesapeake and Riverside.

First of all, I would like to join others in thanking you for

continued vigilance the City Council has shown over the years to make sure the Rivanna pump station was not rebuilt again in a larger form at existing location at the entry to Riverview Park.

We really appreciate that to a huge degree.

Also want to reiterate how important it is

for the city and county to reach a resolution on the wastewater cost share agreement as work is about to begin on the cost share on its construction.

I am in favor of this resolution.

Many of us from the Woolen Mills have attended the numerous Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority board meetings as well as public hearings

regarding the pump station over the years with very little sense that the city and county could close the gap between entrenched positions.

This agreement, as mediated by an expert in the field, also lays the groundwork for future projects and establishes a protocol for cost-sharing that's much more current and equitable than the old system that has been the source of friction between the city and the county.

I also appreciate the idea that there will be updated sewer flow readings every five years for more accurate analysis of city and county quantities.

I understand the concern for future cost increases, but the best estimate from our city manager right now is 46 cents a month or a little over $5.50 a year.

Seems like a small price to pay to get the Rivanna pump station moved from its current location.

The wilderness will become more of an elegant residential neighborhood that we all would like it to become without the noxious sewage treatment facility in its very core.

Obviously, many

Visitors benefit including those to the Riverview Park.

While there may be some upcharge at the outset to the city with its consistent metering, as the county continues to grow, it will bear the cost burden for greater demand of water and sewage without the Charlottesville having to pay for the county's growth.

Finally, I do think the city and county should begin to work together on future projects and this would allow a greater cooperation.

Payment for the pump station has been discussed for years now and there's been a lot of hostility between the county and city as how the relocated pump station would be paid for.

There's opposition.

I understand with the members of the City Council the feeling that we should strike a harder bargain and the feeling that the county would have to pay based on the old system if this agreement is rejected.

Until this agreement was proposed, the county's position clearly stated that they expect the city to pay for the difference in cost currently estimated at five and a half million dollars for the relocated pump station versus the cost of the new pump station and its existing location.

I think it's optimistic to think that the cost share would revert to the old arrangement.

I think there's much better chance that the county will go back to their demand that the city pay for the difference, or perhaps worse, and expect a greater amount of the $33 million for the total cost.

This approach seems extremely risky to me, particularly when there's a mediated solution that's equitable for both the county and the city.

And in closing, I think it's important that the city make a commitment toward this agreement and show that we're going towards a greener city as opposed to a browner city.

Jim, I can't pronounce your last name, so you know your name.

My name is Jim Routsavel and I live at 1113 Monticello Road.

In advance of upcoming public presentations for replacement of the Belmont Bridge, I'm here to strongly encourage all members of the public to engage and participate.

I'm also pleased to report that three quarters of the way through the Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a depiction of a no bridge option is 72% funded.

The question of this infrastructure is a complex one.

It's adjacency to the core economic engine that is the downtown mall is not to be taken lightly.

Literally, what road to take here merits full disclosure, unbiased assessment, and study of all the facts.

I'm hard-pressed to think of any other crossroads in our urban fabric that is as loaded with history, yet offering so much opportunity.

Sure, we can take the easy path, perpetuate the status quo, build an even bigger barrier, and nothing much will change.

But we can choose to transcend this moment in our history

and proved to future generations that we had the foresight to construct a much longer lasting, more sustainable, elegant and emblematic solution.

Cities like Greenville, South Carolina, Fort Worth, Texas, San Diego, California get this.

Forward thinking sustainable modern infrastructure is now an economic necessity.

Likewise, there are fine examples of economically devastating mid-century highway infrastructure now replaced by creative open public space revitalizing downtown economies around the world.

Madrid, San Francisco, Seoul, and Portland to name a few.

So why should Charlottesville be any different?

In this context, it simply makes no sense to me that having removed the automobile from downtown 25 years ago, that one would even consider erecting another automotive barrier, a roadway hemmed in by a developer-built canyon 34 feet in the air.

Over the last two and a half years, the public has reiterated over and over that pedestrians come first, cars third.

They have asked that we preserve views of both the city and mountains.

They want a civic gateway, and they want to be inspired.

So I have to ask, given council's vision statement for the future of the city, the need to sustain economic growth and the public's desire to put people first, why has the objectivity and due diligence that citizens expect from their government gone missing?

In contrast, we have looked at the warped economics of bridge replacement and how federal funds flow.

We have looked at maintenance funding, the return on investment, looked at studies comparing the lifespans of infrastructure in the air versus in the ground,

We have sought to understand the methods and choreography of construction and the most cost-effective means of delivery.

We are now even looking into federal initiatives to assess sustainable infrastructure.

We've consulted experts, engaged shareholders, and included features the public asked for, synthesizing all of this into what we think is the best possible and elegant solution.

In closing, I would like to be clear about one thing.

This entire effort arose out of respect for the broad public support of a no-bridge solution two years ago.

I do not have some sort of vested interest in this.

I don't own a construction company, I don't expect to land some lucrative $400,000 city contract, and I'm not here at the bidding of some third party.

I'm here for two reasons.

One, because I owe it to my children to leave this place better than I found it, and two,

because I firmly believe that a concept that comes from the community builds community and strengthens community.

You have before you a transformative moment.

Do not let the short-term circumstance cloud your vision.

Good evening, Mayor Huja, City Councilors, Mr. Jones.

My name is Carol Thorpe.

I'm the chairwoman of the Jefferson Area Tea Party.

I'm here because this is the last City Council meeting before next Tuesday, April 15th, which will mark the fifth anniversary of the Jefferson Area Tea Party.

What started as an impromptu gathering five years ago on the downtown mall has flourished into a full-blown organization with a number of notable accomplishments.

The Jeffersonary Tea Party, T standing for taxed enough already, tries to be a vigilant watchdog for the taxpayers' dollars.

We also concern ourselves with the proper role of government, the size of government, the scope of government, as well as championing things like free market, free enterprise, and free speech.

The Jeffersonary Tea Party welcomes everyone.

We are not Republican or Democrat.

We are not independent.

As long as you are conservative, in the sense of not social conservatism, but in terms of government conservatism, that generally would have the scope of the work that we do.

The reason I'm here during the matters of public to express the anniversary of the Jeffersonary Tea Party is that

Last year we were concerned about the amount of time being taken up at each city council meeting in advance for proclamations, awards, recognitions.

We feel that this sort of thing belongs in the matters of the public and so as we often do, we walk our talk and that's why I'm here this evening.

As much as we appreciate being in the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, we don't need a gold star from government to tell us we're doing a good job.

Our five-year existence alone tells us that we are doing well enough.

and I would certainly invite members of the public.

You can visit our website www.JeffersonTeaParty.org if you'd like to attend a monthly meeting.

Everything's free of charge.

Again, we're nonpartisan, but if you're concerned about holding your local, state and federal government accountable for their actions, you're more than welcome to join us.

Thank you.

Good evening, Councilors.

My name is Nancy Carpenter.

I'm an Albemarle County resident in Scottsville District.

One quick housekeeping request I'd like to ask is if you could look at item seven on your agenda and perhaps move it ahead of item two so that those of us who are here in the audience that might want to hear the

CAT update report and especially some of the figures and percentages that might be in that report if Mr. Jones is here.

We'd like to have you consider that.

Second thing, I had a really interesting experience today.

I got a chance to go to Charlottesville High School and do some tabling as an affiliate member for Vets for Peace with the alternative to military service education outreach program that we do.

And in engaging

with some really interesting students.

When you take away the veneer of expectations and financial resources and you ask these young adults what gets them motivated, what are they excited about, there are a lot of entrepreneurs, budding entrepreneurs in that high school.

I talked to kids that were interested in working on some type of community science projects

people who were interested in being soccer coaches, people that were interested in being community nurses, people that were excited about being community activists.

But when the reality comes, after you get that diploma, sometimes you lose, you know, those ideals.

So what I'd like to, it's kind of apropos that TomFest is starting this week, and one of the things that they'll be doing is having a, I guess you call it a mini Kickstarter crowd funder,

pitch on Wednesday night for some of the smaller businesses that want to get a kick start into building their businesses.

Why couldn't we look at, Paul Beyer if you're listening to this, a junior level entrepreneurial

Kickstarter.

Let them pitch ideas about what makes them interested in being a business person.

These are organic, homegrown economic development in this city because you're talking about things in the next 20 years that the young adults that are 16, 17 and 18, they're going to be the movers and shakers.

So why not look at

I'm Kathy Welch, I live in the Rio district in Albemarle County and I'd like to just say a few words about the Charlottesville area transit advisory board that you approved back in August.

I've come before city council a few times talking about CAT and it does feel a little more comfortable to be here now with a little bit of legitimacy in that.

in that role.

My main focus throughout the whole time has really been to encourage cooperation between the city and the county in transit and to increase the county's involvement in the process.

And I think being the county's representative on that board has really helped me in that effort.

I've communicated with most of the supervisors and had extensive conversations with my own supervisor, Brad Sheffield, and with Diana McKeel, who is the county's

Board of Supervisors represented on that advisory board.

And both of them are really enthusiastic about CAT.

They're very supportive and they have lots of ideas that they'd like to put forward to, you know, increase the cooperation between the two jurisdictions.

And when the western bypass was suddenly killed last in February and VDOT set up their Route 29

Council to, or I guess it's the Route 29 Solutions Panel is their official name, was convened to look at ways to ease congestion

up in the 29 corridor.

It was really helpful for me to be able to participate in that process in this sort of quasi-official capacity as CAT's representative.

Just for one example, I knew I'd be out of town for the first meeting and I really did not want to miss it.

So I got in touch with the moderator and asked him if he would consider doing some sort of archive or podcasting so that people who couldn't attend the meeting or couldn't even

I don't know whether he would have done that if just some random citizen had asked him to do it.

I actually think that I probably would not have had the motivation to ask him myself

without feeling that sort of extra responsibility as county representative for CAT to keep on top of what was going on.

But anyway, he was very responsive and I think that was gratifying to me.

I also think that when I provided feedback to the panel after their first meeting that that feedback was probably given a little bit more weight in that instance also because it came from

the CAT representative.

Even though I've lived there for decades, you know, I think just that little extra recognition probably helped a little bit.

But I will say on the other hand that I'm sure there have been days when the people at CAT have said,

Oh, God.

Why did we ever let her on this advisory board?

She seems to think we need to hear her advice every day and listen to her incessant questions.

And I have probably been over.

Let me get my thanks out, OK?

They've been great.

I've gone overboard.

That's fine.

They've been really good, really supportive, really helpful to me, learning what their process is and

Oh wait, one more thing.

We have finished with the first opportunity for participation.

We had another opportunity at the end of the meeting, and now it's time for council members to respond.

In this case, I'll start first today, if you don't mind.

First is just information.

People have asked about policy market.

As you know, that we have brought City Council RFP, and the Council did ask the staff to do RFP, and we have four proposals.

for city market development.

So it is a healthy and there will be open process for people who have a chance to look at those proposals and I hope you will take the opportunity.

And the council will have a chance to look at those proposals also in due course.

So city market is on its way, at least as I think.

Second,

Would it be possible to have it after the public hearings, but before the other discussions?

So that would be possible.

And John Jones was here earlier.

He's here.

That would be possible.

We had to wait for public hearings.

And it won't be a very long report, so that won't push things back very far.

It was nice to hear a few thank yous this time, and I am particularly pleased with the Ban the Box resolution that we did.

It's something that I've been concerned about and trying to kind of push forward gradually for the past four years, and it's really a good thing to see that actually happen.

We are not the only city in America doing it.

It's something happening throughout the country.

And just so that people understand, and as you mentioned, it doesn't mean that people, and actually, yeah, it doesn't mean that people won't,

It won't be screened for certain jobs.

People who are working with children still have to be screened for child abuse background and things like that.

But it gets people through the door.

If they're qualified, it gets them an interview.

It gets them to that point before that happens.

several of these things are on our agenda so I won't reply to them specifically.

I was really intrigued with the idea of a junior level entrepreneurial Kickstarter campaign and we had a school board member here earlier, maybe she's still watching it on TV but I think that's something that I'd really like to discuss with the school board and see if it's something we could do together at some point.

I think that we do, I've also seen it among some teenagers that I've met, a real kind of entrepreneurial spirit and it would be great to see us be able to encourage that.

Let's see there was something else and I may have to wait until someone else goes before I find it here Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, and again, I think we all support this and are just thrilled with the band The Box.

I'd also like to thank Dave Norris, who was very much instrumental in getting that to come forward, so I'd just like to give him a shout out with that.

And to thank Ms. Harris for coming and bringing this up and making it more public, because you're right, it's not just about the individuals themselves, it's about their families.

and it's about supporting our children and our whole community.

So thank you for raising those important points.

And to John Kukchink, there's at least three of us now.

And I had actually emailed with John as to whether it would be helpful for council to approve this.

I don't know if we could put it at the end of our agenda, this letter, and see if there's support for the whole council.

I don't know if that's double dipping if we do it.

And just a couple other things.

I'd like to thank Kathy Welch for her service on the advisory board.

It's really new, but I think you brought up some very good points about it brings together some really great partners.

when it comes to public transportation and really valuable voices.

And I look forward to having John Jones bring everybody up to date as to the interesting things going on and the important role that transit will play in the alternative proposals to the bypass.

So that will be really important.

And we do have other, thanks to the folks from Midtown, Midtown.

You have to start saying Midtown, which is cool anyway.

But anyway, the only other thing I'd like to say is that there was a really interesting article in the Sunday's Progress by Megan Rhine from the Coalition for Open Government about the need for transparency and some of the dangers of not doing things in public and not public disclosure and I'm

You know, that is one of my concerns about the whole cost share agreement.

And I'm going to say I'm disappointed with the League of Women Voters that there wasn't some disclosure about the involvement of one of the negotiators from the service authorities.

Very heavily involved with the Natural Resources Committee there.

I would like to respond to some things that were said.

And yes, Miss Harris, thank you for your, thank you.

But I also would like to follow up on your other concern that was about the sensitivity of the people that are interviewing candidates.

I would like to definitely follow up on that because that really needs to be done well.

But I appreciate what you've said, which is, as Ms. Szakos says, we don't always get thank yous.

And yeah, Mr. Cruikshank, I'm interested in this as well.

I'm not sure how much of a public discussion, though, in light of Ms. Dede's comment, that we probably should even discuss the whole plan that you're talking about instead of just voting on it.

It might be good to have an in-depth discussion about what's in that integrated plan before we agree to write a letter about it, for it, in support of it.

With regards to Mr. Nix and Ms. Yates and Mr. Hayes, I appreciate your comments and coming out to speak about the cost allocation agreement

as well as the six or so people that sent emails supporting the cost allocation agreement.

I think there is a growing sense that we are moving towards a greater cooperation between city and county, as also mentioned by Ms. Welch with regards to transportation.

And we all want to strive for fairness and also with good practice under our belts.

So I appreciate the comments that were made.

And we will talk about that more later.

No.

Anyway, I thought that getting the detail on the West Main Street project was very helpful.

I think when the place design task force was first given the charge of looking at our corridors, no one knew.

No one knew two years ago that this was going to become go West Main Street and then midtown.

I think this is very exciting.

I think the public needs to know that currently we do have money in the capital budget.

to implement.

This is not going to be something that's a plan that stays on the shelf.

It's substantial $700,000 or so dollars for the first year and it's multiple years out.

So there is money to implement.

We've got to get a good plan.

Let's see.

And Mr. Rounspell, I think

And that's to present both the enhanced bridge as well as an underpass option because again that was the goal was to get apples to apples and not to show bias.

And I think I just want to say, Ms. Carpenter, I think that's also a very good idea.

I would also like to say that that sounds like the bailiwick of CIC, the Darden iLab, as well as TomTom.

And I think it might be another great venture to participate with the city schools.

And again, Ms. Welch, thank you.

I'm going to be meeting with Mr. Sheffield next Wednesday for lunch to talk about his ideas.

And he is a colleague of mine, and he's going to be teaching my class that day.

Right after we have our meeting.

So I'm very excited about this possibility.

It's interesting.

The first two speakers tonight were Kathy Johnson Harris and John Crookshank.

One for paying attention to citizens and the other for paying attention to neighborhoods and I really appreciate both efforts coming up here and talking about that because that's what makes our city great.

The people and the neighborhoods.

So I'm a big fan of what you all were proposing.

Jim Nix, it's good to see you again.

Thanks for the comment on the pump station.

Peter Castiglione and Laura Galgano, thanks for coming down here and talking about Midtown.

There's two people that are really interested in sparkling up the West Main corridor, and we're going to have a Midtown.

Okay, there you go.

and we'll have a probably a press conference Saturday morning about that.

But it's it's spring cleaning time, like I said.

And this is I'm hoping to add a lot of energy to businesses and neighborhoods around our community.

Paul Grady, City Market, I don't know if Paul's still here, but I agree with the mayor.

I think it's on its way.

We're going to make sure and make sure that the advisory council

has citizen representation, people who know the market and want to see it move forward.

Karen Yates, thanks for coming down.

League of Women Voters, you all do a terrific job.

It's good to hear you.

Chris Hayes, Pump Station.

Chris, you're still here?

Thanks for coming down.

And Jim Ronceville, you know, you're going to get, I think, you're going to get to where you want to go.

And Carol Storp, thanks for coming down too.

It's good to hear different opinions down here.

This is a democracy and it's good for somebody to come down here and talk about things other than what we normally hear about.

I think I had one more here.

Kathy Welch.

Keep keep speaking.

It's very, very important, especially for transit.

So many people are starting to depend on that.

I talked to a lady who did not have a car.

She was a single mother.

She had to take the bus to the grocery store.

She could not afford thirty dollars for a taxicab.

So it's little things like that in our community that really make a difference.

The schedules, the availability,

the whole business.

She could only carry two bags of groceries, so she really depended on that mode of transportation.

Nancy Carpenter, I love that idea about the young people.

The first city council meeting I was in, I asked people to come down and bring ideas down here, not just complaints.

I know there's going to be complaints.

Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda.

Item A, minutes from March 17th.

Item B, an appropriation, special event sponsorships, $10,869, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation, Department of Social Services appropriation for salary alignment and office space furnishings, $211,490, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation of escrowed bond funds from the Landmark Hotel,

111,006.39 and transfer of 102,506.39, second of two readings.

Item B in appropriation for CDBG and home funds for FY 2014-15 appropriations and reprogramming, first of two readings.

Item F in appropriation, Greenstone on Fifth Corporation sponsorship agreement, $84,194, first of two readings.

Item G in appropriation for Domestic Violence Services Coordinator Grant, $44,836, first of two readings.

Item H, a resolution, loan extension request for the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center of Virginia, $130,000, first of one reading.

Item I, a resolution, city manager's contract, first of one reading.

Item J, a resolution, cap proposal to submit grant application for FY 2015 funding, first of one reading.

Item K, a resolution, fund transfer from capital improvement program contingency improvements to Nelson Northwood, Second Street intersection and McIntyre Road, $90,000, first of one reading.

I would like to request item E dealing with CDBG and home be taken out of the agenda for the afternoon afterwards.

I will pull that out to ask comments and questions.

We are looking at all of the boards, staff is doing that.

Any other item?

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Now we're going to our first public hearing.

Mr. Mayor, thank you.

We are just a few days away from passing our budget for fiscal year 2015.

Over the course of last month, we've had several work sessions, a public hearing, a budget forum to discuss my original proposed budget.

Tonight, we'll hold our second public hearing.

Leslie Beauregard, our Director of Budget and Performance Management.

is going to first walk us through the proposed amendments from the city council to the manager's proposed budget.

Okay.

Yes.

Sorry, we're coming.

Okay, thank you Maurice.

As is customary, usually between the city manager's proposed budget and when council finally adopts their budget, there's a series of amendments that occur.

And so tonight what you'll be approving on first reading are the amendments that you have seen to date that we discussed at your last budget work session.

And then we have another work session on Thursday which will probably result in more amendments and then you'll do a final approval on Friday.

So first we have a series of revenue amendments.

This is on the general fund side.

We've got several increased revenue projections that we have included, including tax on bank stock of $25,000, utility taxes of $23,514, charges for services.

City Council wanted to put back in the Friday Night Live event, so there was a revenue component to that, which is $1,250.

and then under intergovernmental revenue, state aid for police protection, the projection is increasing by $81,103, hopefully if the state gets their budget together, for total revenue amendments of $130,867 for a general fund of $150.7 million in fiscal year 2015.

and on the expenditure side, you have an equal number of expenditure amendments, increasing city council priority initiatives by 2,500.

This is the budget correction that we had discussed at the last city council meeting, which will show up a little bit further down here.

City departments, parks and recreation, the expense lines for Friday Night Live, $5,153.

City schools, the local contribution to that, $131,232.

Two contributions to outside agencies, Jefferson School Heritage Center $30,000 and TomTom Founders Festival $5,000.

Two decreases, I decreased the 2% salary pool by $55,000.

$100 basically as a balancing mechanism.

And Jefferson School Foundation, this is the error I was mentioning before.

You took $30,000 of that, put it into Jefferson School Heritage Center and the $5,000 and provided TomTom Founders Festival with those dollars.

So you had $2,500 left.

That's the $2,500 that you see at the top.

for total expenditure amendments of $130,867 for a general fund of 150.7 million in expenditures.

On the transit side, we had a few amendments here, or one amendment rather.

After the budget was proposed, we found out that Albemarle County was going to fund our full request.

That means an additional $53,420 for transit operations

This is going to fund Route 1, which is the route that goes out to PVCC, so that leg of the route will receive an extra hour.

And of course there's additional revenue and additional expenditures, which increased the transit budget from $8 million to basically $8.1 million.

And on the capital budget side, we had

Two revenue amendments, one increasing the bond issuance by $510,000 and a decrease in revenue of $60,000 for a project that was going to be cost shared but was not included in the county's budget.

For a total revenue amendments of $450,000 for a CIP of $16.9 million in fiscal year 15.

On the expenditure side, City Council decided they did want to add the mobile video recorders of $450,000

for a CIP expenditure budget of $16.9 million.

And I think you got the email I sent earlier today about the stormwater budget.

That was a mistake.

That's not an amendment, so that's not being included.

So we are fine on that end.

And I will answer any questions.

Oh, I have one more slide.

Sorry.

Just about the work session.

On Thursday, our final work session from five to seven and budget approval is on Friday, the next day at 1 p.m. in the second floor conference room.

Can I explain to CATEC?

Boy, I might have to get back to you on that one.

Yeah, let me get back to you on that one.

You just want to understand what the project was?

Yeah, let me get back.

I have two quick questions, which may be the same question.

On the first slide you had

increases in taxes on bank stock and utilities.

Are those increases in taxes or are they just increases in estimates of what we think we'll get?

Just the estimates.

We rework the estimates.

Okay.

I just wanted to clarify that.

It's not increasing any rates.

It's just we have a revenue team and they look at monthly revenue projections.

So that was good news.

So I went ahead and put it in.

Any other questions before we go to public hearing?

Okay.

I'll open the public hearing.

Anybody in the audience would like to speak on the city budget?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of council.

My name is Michael Barnes.

I live at 1411 Lester Drive.

Many of you know me as a urban planner in the region.

I'm also a member of the Greenbrier Neighborhood Association, and tonight I'm here to speak to you on behalf of the RTF.

Just for people who don't know what that stands for, say it.

RTF is the Rivanna Trail Foundation.

and we have a trail that circles the city and extends out legs into the county.

Your support in the past several years has really been beneficial and I think the system as a whole has really greatly and vastly improved over the past several years.

But we wanted to draw your attention to the lack of CIP funding for the recently adopted Meadow Creek Valley Master Plan.

A past protocol for park master plans was that money would be set aside to fund the plan once the plan was completed.

Examples of that are the Azalea park master plan, which was completed in 2010, and over $700,000 was allocated for that plan.

In the budget that you all are considering presently, the CIP allocates $750,000 this year to implement the Thompson Park plan

over the next five years for almost a total of $3 million.

The Tosser Plan was adopted in 2012, which is the same year as the Meadow Creek Valley Master Plan was adopted.

Unfortunately, the modest $300,000 that was proposed by the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee for the Meadow Creek Valley Master Plan has been deleted from the budget.

and instead we note that there's $400,000 being allocated for the McIntire East plan which was adopted after the Meadow Creek plan and at this time it sounds like you were all working with consultants to develop the plan for that but the Meadow Creek plan is being, it sounds like being allocated to

What the council has created is a $200,000 capital fund for various smaller projects and that the bridges and foot trails in this park are probably to be funded out of that fund.

Our concern is that the Meadow Creek projects will have to compete with other items in this fund and as a result, the trails and bridges that are proposed in that plan will be built in a piecemeal and ad hoc fashion and we are not sure if this is a workable strategy.

We'd like to provide you with three reasons why we think that the plan in the Winter Creek Park Valley should be a higher priority.

First, the trails there are in poor condition with some of the work that's happened over the past several years.

There are large muddy areas where citizens are now throwing pallets and other pieces of wood to try and get around muddy spots on those trails.

Second, you have a series of willing partners to help you implement this plan.

The RTF participated with the city by two of six 70-foot I-beams from Waynesboro to build three of the pedestrian bridges in the park.

We are also working with parks to find private funding sources to construct the bridge.

The second, you have the Greenbrier Neighborhood Association, which contributed $5,000 towards the bridge.

And third partner is Virginia National Bank, who's undertaken a marketing campaign to raise funds for the first footbridge based on the belief that the master plan was going to be implemented.

All three parties stand ready to provide additional volunteer labor to ensure these bridges get constructed.

I think I'd like to conclude with the final reason why you should support this park.

I think, taken in a larger context, it provides for multimodal connections between not only the northern part of the city, but you can go from downtown through this park system, get to 29 North, and maybe as few as three or four stoplights, and as well as connect from the northern part of the city down to UVA.

I think this is an important part of building up a city that we all want to envision in our community.

The RTF feels that council should reconsider and dedicate specific funds towards construction of the trails in the Meadow Creek Valley in this year's capital improvement plan.

I am a retired educator and I live in the city of Charlottesville at 902 Raymond Road.

My name is Kathy Johnson-Harris and I'm here to put in a plug for the teachers for Charlottesville City Schools as you all review the budget.

For five years they've not had a raise.

I think it's very important

and I know that we live in a world class city and I've been employed by that division for many years and was really excited because the council always supported us but there

There is a voice that's kind of jabbing at us now and I think that if we look at the plan that was developed five years ago about some things that needed to be cut to make it easier for the school to be funded, I think that if we go back and review that, we need to stop jabbing and support the teachers because morale is low.

People need to feed families.

Please support our teachers.

It's very important because with good teachers, we have children who learn.

With happy teachers, we have families and children that love our schools.

So again, as a citizen and a retired educator, I am begging you to support the budget and make sure that the teachers are compensated.

Rebecca Quinn, 104 Fourth Street here in the city.

I understand the value of planning.

I'm a consultant and through the years I've done my share of planning consulting.

I've worked with about 10 local governments from counties that have over a million people to towns about the size of Charlottesville.

I know different plans, different kinds of plans have different requirements that may affect costs.

But the only time I ever charged more than about 50,000 was for a plan I prepared for Monroe County

Florida, which is where Key West was and the five trips that the plan took was, you know, expensive.

But after completing every plan that I've worked on, I came away convinced that local planning staff could do the work.

I'm a dyed in the wool government person.

I didn't leave state government necessarily on my own accord

and I enjoy what I do, but I also believe that people who go into local government have great talent and that talent should be used and recognized.

Especially after local staff have gone through a planning process once, they're fully capable of facilitating either additional plans or revisions to plans.

But more than that, in follow-up conversations with many of these clients,

I've learned that plans that I did were not owned by the community.

In fact, I've even had former clients refer to those plans as my plans.

Say, oh, Rebecca, we have a question about your plan.

Well, it's not my plan.

It's their plan.

But I'm convinced that because, sure, they had someone sitting in the room with me at all times, they weren't always fully engaged in the process.

I see reference to small area plans throughout the budget.

and I understand the comprehensive plan identified perhaps 12 such plans to be prepared.

The transportation and access budget, I believe it's page 146 or 145, includes $300,000 for small area plans and another $300,000 for SIA implementation.

By the way, for people who aren't paying attention, the budget does not explain what SIA is.

So my point, I urge you to scale back the budget for these plans.

Not only does the city have capable staff, but this budget also includes 85,000 for a new urban planning position.

And that position has specific responsibilities that include or anticipated to include small area plans.

So sure, maybe hire a consultant to help do the first one or two, but charge that new planner not just with sitting in the room.

but being engaged and learning the process.

Then instead of spending more of our taxpayer money on consultants, they'll kick me out of the club for saying that, but instead of spending more money on consultants, spend it on our staff.

Let's use our staff to do this work.

If the plans are worth doing, they're worth owning.

And lastly on the budget, some time ago I asked that if city council, that city council ensure

that any funds of our taxpayer funds that are used to support groups that do affordable housing work, ensure that they're helping people who are city residents, who are already city residents.

Good evening, Brandon Collins.

I live at 418 Fairway Avenue.

I've lived in Charlottesville my entire life.

I have three children who also live here.

And I also work for FAR, Public Housing Association of Residents.

It's an entirely resident-led and democratically elected organization that represents people who live in public housing in Charlottesville.

We are one of the few, if maybe one of the only,

groups in Charlottesville that specifically represents and serves low income people in our community.

I am here to yet again ask that you all consider making room in your budget for our internship program.

Our program has been running since 1999.

I think basically everything you need to know about the internship program, hopefully you've heard from me over the last few weeks and from other folks and I think the last work session you had, I think you heard in very eloquent terms why the program is so important.

and so I do think there's probably room in the budget for our intern program at this very important time when the city will be considering ways to improve the housing authority's performance and some very big ideas are going to come out of that and those big ideas need to be informed by residents and the decision-making about those ideas that's going to be done mainly by you all needs to be informed by residents and the FAR internship program is one of the best

for being able to be educated by residents and to educate residents about what that's all about.

There are also some very big things about redevelopment coming up.

Residents have disengaged from redevelopment.

There's been a master plan that's been sitting on a shelf for a very long time after a great big hoopla was made about redevelopment and people got kind of energized.

and we're engaged and then it sat on a shelf and it all dissipated and people are hesitant to get back involved and you're going to very much need an engaged and energetic base of residents to help move forward on these very critical important issues at a very important time in our community.

I would like to thank you all for considering what we've asked of you.

I welcome further questions from you.

We've had the opportunity to

engage with all of you and I hope you'll be able to work something out.

You've all been very helpful.

Hopefully we've been very helpful.

We have agreed to set a deadline for when an audit would be performed.

We've discussed some of the ways in which our application may have fell short of your expectations and we have a meeting this week with ABRT staff to further work that out.

Now I know funding is unlikely to come from ABRT itself, but I very much appreciate dialogue and consideration of our internship program in this budget that you will pass on this Friday.

Hello.

My name is Andan Zabal and about 2010 I started a social enterprise called New Forest Earth.

What we do is we sell crafts that are made by people in Mexico and Ecuador for the most part and they're all recycled and handmade and basically the goal of the organization is to solve deforestation by

providing these products and by giving people an opportunity to make up a little bit of money off of their forests without having to destroy them.

I just brought a couple journals and my bracelet that I'm wearing.

And the website is newforesterth.org.

But the reason I'm talking to you tonight is that I wanted to talk a little bit about my experience with the Community Investment Collaborative, which is one of the best things since I moved to Charlottesville that has happened to me.

I started out my organization at William & Mary in Williamsburg while I was just graduated out of college and I knew nothing about business and I actually didn't even realize I was starting a business.

I thought I was starting a nonprofit.

And then a few years later the word social enterprise became a thing and then I realized that I was a social enterprise.

And when I came to Charlottesville, one of the big reasons for that was that the downtown mall seemed like a big opportunity for me to go and bend and reach the people that I was interested in reaching.

And so I moved to Charlottesville in 2012.

And I've been using the downtown mall, the city market, the free trolley, which is amazing and should be expanded.

and I was able to take the CIC course which was basically teaching me all the things that I did not learn because I was a biology major in college and so I learned a lot about the stuff that are the issues that I'm working on but not a whole lot about the practical skills that I needed to accomplish my goals.

CIC has started to give me those skills and those abilities and I'm one of 51

Graduates of that program.

There's another class happening right now.

It's just a wonderful program and I was able to learn a lot of things that were sort of a wake-up call where I realized, oh, the way that I thought my business was going to work

is not actually how it's going to work.

I'm going to have to go online more.

I'm going to have to really get out there and not only sell my products, but also promote my website, which is newforester.org, by the way.

And so I just wanted to thank you guys for your support of CIC.

Hope that you continue to support programs like that in the future and to expand programs like that.

We had a great idea earlier about doing more of these pitch nights.

I think if there's a bar owner out there, I think they should have a pitch night every Wednesday or every Friday because you would make a lot of money, maybe $10, $5 for the bar, $5 for the entrepreneurs.

So if you own a bar, do it.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Peter Klayman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

One of the issues about the budget that I find most disturbing as an overall process is the resolution of funds left over at the end of the budget and that the formula that goes toward how those funds move

is somehow unrelated in my mind to the needs that are expressed at the beginning of the budget year.

We hear of groups, FAR for example, coming up looking for some small amount of money, much smaller than the typical end of the year allocation.

and those funds are never, to my knowledge, put toward the next year to fund organizations like that that may well be considered for funding if funds were made available and the numbers worked out.

So I don't know whether it's an appropriate discussion during this budget

But it seems like there's a long time between now and the end of this budget being considered to review some of the issues about resolution of funds at the end of the budget and how they can be allocated.

I think it would be really worthwhile to have some input from the community about that.

especially since we have many ongoing activities that are being more oriented toward the communities that may not be capital, large-scale capital expenditures.

The reason I'm concerned particularly is I remember, recall last year there was an item that was not expended during the year.

It had to do with preservation of resources related to

wastewater damage, I can't remember exactly what the item was, I didn't review it before tonight but that those funds went to another purpose and all we've heard about or much of what we've heard about in this year since the end of that budget had to do with infrastructure and wastewater impacts on the rivers and I guess with protection of streams from wastewater damage and so it seems like that was an issue that was funded

not expended in that year and then spent on something else and now we have to go generate new funds for those.

So it seems to me that there needs to be a more flexible way of allocating funds that we can recall what the issues were that are happening today and at these other budget sessions, items that we think might be in or not in, they're marginal items.

If we had the funds we would fund them and at the end of the year we have the funds.

but we don't get around to funding the ones that were important now.

Thank you.

Hello, Lena Seville.

I'm going to talk about something that's probably not directly related to the budget, but it was mentioned that the RWSA support agreement would affect the budget, so I'm going to take this opportunity to make a short comment.

And that is that if we think that the citizens of this city can afford to pay an extra five or six dollars a year,

for this program, then I think maybe we should find another fifty cents to work on an assistance program.

I've heard from Counselor Smith recently and I think she's mentioned it before that a number of people get their water cut off without much notice and for many of us this increase may not seem like much but for other people it's just an addition and water is a necessity of life so

If we're going to keep doing things that are going to raise the price, I think we should look at setting up a program similar to what we have for the gas or something else where people can donate to make sure that this isn't a problem.

And then second I would like to reiterate what Ms. Quinn said about the urban designer and the small area plans both being funded.

And that's in addition to Neighborhood Development Services is going to have an open position that has been reworded to include design planning.

So obviously, staff seems to think that they already have a way to address this.

But to then include in an urban designer and money for a small area plan seems like a bit much to me.

Hi.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

My name is Jeanette Abenator.

I'm a resident of Charlottesville.

1648 Brandywine Drive, and I'm also Executive Director for City School Yard Garden.

Thank you today for the notice of the award that we received from the Planning Commission for the outstanding development.

We host gardens at the city schools, at seven schools, at the six elementary schools, and Buford Middle School.

And it's great to be recognized for the way that we contribute to the environmental sustainability of the community through the gardens, through the diverse plantings, and through bringing youth out.

I'm here today to encourage you to support the schools and the school board budget to the full amount of their request.

One of the reasons why we came to Charlottesville and why we believe that Charlottesville is such an exceptional city personally as a family is because of the school system, because of the public schools and their way that they really invest in the community and build citizens for the future.

And we really believe that the comments made earlier about investing in the teachers, investing in the special programs that the schools offer, providing a competitive

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the budget?

We are not supposed to act on this tonight.

This public hearing is cigarette tax ordinance change.

We'll open.

Is there anybody?

Two people signed up.

Good evening once again.

My name is Carol Thorpe.

I'm the chairwoman of the Jefferson Area Tea Party.

I think it's safe to say that most if not all adults are concerned about

smoking for minors.

We do have laws on the books which should prohibit the sale or distribution of tobacco items to minors.

We have education programs in the school system, very good ones.

Despite all those efforts, of course, we do still have teen smoking and we're not here in any way to advocate that condition.

and we encourage all teens not to smoke.

But this raises for me a larger question for the Jefferson area taxed enough already party.

What is the purpose of taxation?

Our understanding is the purpose is to generate and collect revenue from our citizens to fund the core functions of government.

It is not our understanding that taxation should be used as a tool for conducting behavior modification, which apparently in this instance is council's primary intention.

Last night I was watching the NBC 29 news broadcast and during an interview both Counselors Fenwick and Szakos had spoken and a quote from Counselor Szakos goes as follows, quote, we are not doing it so much as a revenue generator as an attempt to make it less attractive to smoke especially for young people.

This is where we're getting the idea that the proposed cigarette tax is not so much to raise needed funds but it's being used more as a tool

to modify behavior.

Income that is earned by the working class here in the city and elsewhere is their compensation for their sacrifice of their health, their time, and their labor.

And as such, it's used to provide for their families.

It should be treated with great respect and taken in taxation only when necessary and no more than needed to fund the proper functions of government.

How you vote on this matter will largely inform your constituents of your understanding of your duty as their representatives as regards taxation.

Once again, we understand that there is a, at least we're taking it this way, a good intention here.

But again, the larger picture is that taxation should be to fund the core functions of government, and if it's not, we ask you please to question any other use of taxation.

My name is Scott Bandy.

I live at 1639 Cherry Avenue.

And I see, according to the agenda, this is a first of two readings.

I would hope and encourage

our city's chamber of commerce to weigh in with their comments on this if they haven't already to you confidentially.

I think that any sort of attacks, whether it's covered by the Vision 2025 as attacking

activities that's considered unhealthy.

We're concerned about health in this city, otherwise it wouldn't be part of the Vision 2025 that this council has put forward.

I would hope, though, that on the other hand, overtaxation is not healthy either.

Please consider this very carefully.

Oh, and point of clarification, is this strictly a cigarette tax or does this cover other forms of tobacco as well?

I wasn't planning on speaking, but my name is Andan and I live at 2300 A. Fontaine Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia.

I just want to speak in favor of

taxation as behavior modification.

I think it has a long and proud history, and I think that we need to actually do more of it, especially with regards to climate change.

But cigarette taxes are a good idea.

Alcohol taxes are a good idea.

Whenever we start legalizing marijuana, taxes on that is going to be a good idea.

I'm not a smoker, despite appearances.

I get asked on the street a lot if I have weed on me.

I don't, ever.

But, yeah, I just wanted to speak in favor of, you know, cigarette taxes.

Thank you.

Does anybody else would like to speak on this topic?

Then I'll close for a minute.

We have a rule that we want to take a break after two hours and then we want to set it up for the transit operating report.

We do have discussions and we do have to move it.

It's the first reading.

Okay, sorry.

My mistake.

I do make a mistake once a year.

I have to really behave very well now.

You are here to see it.

Yes, you will have a five minute break.

Well, I would actually like to respond to the public as well.

I wanted just to, since I was quoted in the comments, just kind of explain what I meant.

And I think that, of course, it is a revenue source as well, but that's not why I support it.

I think we have other options of ways to raise revenue in the city and this is a specific one and the reason I support this specific one is its effect on especially youth smoking and smoking in general.

And we've seen studies that show that a dollar rise or I guess a 10% rise in price reduces smoking by 5 to 10% and in youth smoking it's the highest.

So the behavior modification, whether or not you think it is a good motivation, actually does work in this case.

But I think that what we also need to look at, the fact that the US Centers for Disease Control have estimated that smoking costs, health costs, and lost productivity cost the public $10.47 a pack.

So we're talking about raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes by 20 cents, which is not a 20% tax, just a 20 cent tax on a $5 pack of cigarettes.

but that pack of cigarettes is costing our society and our taxpayers and you and everybody in this room who pays taxes $10.47 for every pack that's sold in health problems and lost work.

So I think it is a public expense when people smoke.

We are expected to pick that up.

That doesn't count the part that people have insurance for.

So I think that for us to assess 20 cents to

kind of recoup some of the public expenses on cigarettes is perfectly within the realm of reason.

Any other questions or comments?

Let me say that I support it for both reasons, because of the social reasons of children protecting young people.

There's less around here, isn't there?

And I'd just like to say those seems like contradictory reasons to me that if we really think this is going to modify people's behavior, we shouldn't expect it or even look forward to it added revenue.

I think that may be something that ties future councils.

I'm not sure how we can do that, at least not in one for this year.

But I would like to make sure that we do fund health-related initiatives, perhaps to the amount of this, or in some way to discuss that later about how we do that.

We can't dedicate aid.

Counselor Szakos is correct.

Well, Kristin, just real quick.

We have to renew the tax every year, correct?

So that's a one year at a time.

You adopt a real property tax rate and a personal property tax rate for the calendar year.

These other types of taxes are ongoing.

Was the first reading somebody used to make a motion?

I did.

Is it a second to that motion?

Second.

Discussion on the motion?

We're going to vote today.

This is the first meeting.

Am I right?

That's correct.

While you're at it, before we leave on the topic, we do need budget appropriation or an appropriation resolution, number four.

Why don't we just take the motions because then we'll finish them.

Okay, so let's wait.

.

.

?

?

?

?

Dede Smith.

will be on transit issues.

Mr. Mayor, are we not going to talk about that?

I'm sorry?

Well, yeah.

No, that's right.

Oh, really?

I just told Leslie otherwise.

Good evening Mayor Huja, members of council, City Manager Jones, John Jones your transit manager.

I have a report for you on the first three months of operation of CAT under the new routing system.

Do you have a base map?

Do you have a base map?

I don't believe so.

A map of the roots?

I would like that in the future you have a map.

Okay.

Okay.

Through the first quarter for the first three months of 2014, we've transported 516,748 passengers.

And I'm going to ask one other quick question.

I know you don't have a visual presentation, but are we going to receive all these numbers in written form so we don't have to write them all down?

Yes.

I'll send them out in the morning.

That's great.

I will do that.

Just a normal state of what seems to be going on around the state of Virginia.

There's downturns in systems statewide.

I can tell you that the entire Culpeper district is down 5%.

In the Culpeper district, along with the Charlottesville area transit, we have jaunt down 8% and Green County Transit down six.

Statewide, Fredericksburg is down 8%.

Hampton Roads Transit is down 19%, Virginia Regional Transit is down 21%, and Petersburg is down 21%.

First three months of 2014.

I would say a good deal is weather related.

People tend to not take discretionary trips.

We had, in fact, one whole day, if you recall, you couldn't even

eating a restaurant in Charlottesville that day.

And of course we tried to run the system.

We pulled it out, we started to put it back and then realized it didn't do much good to put it back because there wasn't any place for anybody to go.

If you didn't want a McDonald's hamburger or a Domino's pizza that day, you weren't going to do anything.

Even the post office closed and the mall at 2 p.m.

So there was some downturn due to the weather.

I don't want to say that it was all due to the weather.

We also were

Sort of warned by Nelson Nygaard at the time when we made these changes, we could experience a downturn as high as 20%.

I'm glad to report it wasn't anywhere near that.

Um, so they're, you know, whether, um, the economy, the route changes,

and to a certain extent our own efficiencies.

We may have created part of this downturn by changing the routes in such a way that we offered some shopping opportunities without transfer opportunities to some individuals.

Route 3

now goes to Willoughby Square from Belmont.

Route 4 now goes to Willoughby Square from Fry's Spring and Fifeville.

Route 6, Orange Dale and around the Crescent Halls and Midtown here goes to Willoughby Square.

A lot of people avail themselves of that opportunity where before they were going downtown to transfer to other routes to go to Pan Tops or up north to go shopping.

They don't have to do that any longer.

we created some of our own efficiencies and those transfers when they were made at the station were counted again.

They had gotten on say the one or the three and transferred to the seven or the trolley or one of the other routes and got counted a second time and now they don't do that anymore.

So we created part of that through efficiencies.

The routes that were down.

Route seven, our main route, which goes from downtown

through the corner of the University grounds and north on 29th to Fashion Square is down almost 17%.

The Free Trolley is down almost 13%.

Our local routes, Route 4 is down almost 10%.

If you recall Route 4, that's the Fry's Spring, Fifeville route that goes to UVA Hospital was restructured quite a bit.

Part of that downturn is one entire neighborhood was taken off that route and I'll get to that in just a second.

Route 5 was down about 2%.

That I'm sure was probably weather related.

that's our county route that runs on the west side of 29 services, Burke Marr and Commonwealth Drive and some of those areas there.

Route 9 was changed a lot and that route needs to be examined because it's down almost 45%.

It is not the same Route 9 that it was.

It serves an entirely different area.

It does not come downtown.

It does go through Greenbrier neighborhood, and something isn't working with that one, and we're going to have to look at what's going on there.

Route 10 is down about 27%.

Again, that may be partially due to it's not accepting as many transfers because people don't need to go to the Pan Top Shopping Center to shop at Food Line.

They can

from Belmont and some of the other neighborhoods that they can shop down in Willoughby Square.

So that may be a part of that.

We also don't run the route on South Pantops anymore.

And we were led to believe through our survey data during the study that there was no ridership there.

But we've received a significant number of comments that where's our bus at now?

So that's another route that needs to be re examined.

Route 11.

There's nothing to compare it to because it did not run in January, but I am proud to report that it's holding its own.

Maybe some.

I'm not sure how much.

But there are routes that were up.

That was an early report.

and I did not have March numbers.

I apologize for that.

You got the memo before I had March numbers.

I did not have March numbers until this morning.

Very early and I was in Fredericksburg all day.

So I'm giving you what I was able to put together at the end of the day.

So Route 1 was up almost 3%.

Route 3 was up almost 41%.

That service is Belmont and Southwood.

Route 6.

is up almost 40%.

That route was one that Nelson Nygaard suggested that we stop.

But we saw a way to take care of the Orange Dale area that number four couldn't accommodate the way they had designed it.

So we shifted Orange Dale onto Route 6 and we've created a very good route there.

and Route 8 is up almost 3%.

And that's a route we reduced service hours on and still yet realized an increase in ridership.

So there are some bright spots.

Overall, the plan is working fairly well.

We did add back a couple of stops.

Third and Water Street came back just this morning.

And just as people do watch at home, that's the route that's halfway up the mall on Water Street, where there's a bus stop.

I got lots of requests for that.

and so that's really pretty much it.

Again, the downturns I think are, you know, we've well documented them.

It's kind of a statewide

epidemic if you will.

A lot of systems are having issues with downturns.

I don't expect that it will continue.

We will have to make a few yet modifications to some of these routes and we're working on some of that right now and we'll start to have some public sessions probably in late this month or in early May to explain a few of the things that we need to do to tweak some things.

And we need to reexamine a couple of these routes and figure out if what we did was right or if

They really need a lot of further modification.

Other than that, things are going well.

Our costs are only up a quarter of 1% first quarter 13 to first quarter 14, which is very good.

Our expenses in 13

with fares backed out were $1,523,796 and for the same period of 14 they were $1,527,706 and our cost per passenger is relatively flat then based on those expenses so we're doing well and with cost and ridership again really we're not hurting as bad as some places like Petersburg and

We have historically gone up in our ridership for the last five years in the city.

I think they will as they begin to catch and hold, they will.

One other area of downturn that I forgot to mention earlier was we had a misunderstanding about night routes.

As you recall, the 24 was

discontinued in January, but somehow or another the message seemed to get out to our riders that we'd stop night service altogether.

And so we lost night service on Route 3, Route 4, Route 6, Route 1.

That all dropped away precipitously.

It's starting to come back now that they now understand that when you used to ride Route 22, you now ride either 4 or 6.

and Route 23 is 1 and Route 21 is 3 and of course 24 is now gone.

We hope with the county's passage of the budget that we'll be able to add back the night service at Pan Tops.

We're waiting

to hear from them but indications are that we'll probably be able to do that and I think that will help.

That already happened.

That was one of our band-aids.

We send a bus down there every evening, Monday through Thursday.

There's no classes on Friday night.

I'm glad you do.

I have a question, John.

You say our ridership is down but otherwise we're doing well.

I was able to speak with a lot of my colleagues today at another function.

I'm a member of the Virginia Transit Liability Pool Board and I spoke with colleagues from many of these systems and most of them are stating clearly that they feel it's due to the weather.

The general manager, Alexandria, told me she said in 29 years prior to this winter she had closed the system only twice in 29 years.

This winter she closed down completely.

And this is Alexandria, you know, somewhere around D.C. And she closed down three times this winter.

So a lot of it is weather related.

We've had some days where we either could not get around or in the case of that one really bad day, whichever day in February or March that was,

The date slips my mind right now.

Basically the town shut down.

Nobody was doing anything that day.

And we did run seven and trolley all day long.

We had to pull everything else out early on to get the streets in good condition.

Mr. Huja and I are both on the, I think, the 29, Route 29 Solutions panel, the regional panel, looking for ways to deal with both through traffic and internal traffic on 29 as the bypass is not being built.

One of the things that we presented was a proposal that you actually put together

for not exactly bus rapid transit but bus express service of 29.

What I put together was I looked at what places 29 had proposed and there are a few things in there that

at least in my mind didn't make sense.

And what I proposed was high frequency express service.

This would be something that would probably run buses north and south about every 10 minutes with a couple of park and rides established.

Hollymede Albemarle Square and then come into downtown in my mind via Riot Road, John Warner Parkway, et cetera, and then increasing the frequency on the 7th to take care of the swing around the university grounds.

I feel it's a viable proposal that we could start in a short time given the funding.

It would require too much in the way of sophisticated equipment.

There are some technologies we could use with the signalization.

If we could acquire at least lease rights on some parking rights and

get a hold of the capital equipment to run it with and I proposed a larger bus with some amenities to draw the choice riders on board.

I think it's something that given the right amount of support from the committee and then the ability to get the dollars to do the capital, we could operate for about $3 million a year and provide a lot of service up and down the corridor to try to help with congestion.

Thank you.

I have a question.

Are there any rules of thumb that you use when you decide, oh it's been three months and the ridership is still down, four months, that you then use to decide when it's time to really change the route or is it

Every system's a little bit different.

I would like to give this a couple of more months before we really say we need to do something radical with this and then we'll make a decision then, but every system's a little different.

Just to relate some of my experience, when I was in Cleveland, Ohio,

We didn't make a change until one had run 24 months, but that's a lot bigger system in a lot different area.

Well, there's a lot of really interesting, innovative things coming on board, too, so to speak.

Yes.

If somebody hasn't gotten that, I wish I had a way to put it up there, but if you haven't gotten the app, it's really cool.

When the internet goes down like it did on Saturday morning, in amongst all the marathon mayhem, we lost the internet for a period of time due to the winds up on the mountain.

And when the internet goes away, we lose everything.

But we do have the app.

It's available for your smartphone.

It's free.

You can download it at the App Store for your iPhone.

It's a free download.

Just type in when you go to search for type in the entire Charlottesville area transit, not CAT, because you'll get a lot of things.

Yeah, you can.

You can get that.

It's free.

It comes with a little tutorial if you want to activate that that shows you how to use it.

It gives you schedule predictions in real time on your smartphone.

And then a little bit later this year, we're getting just about ready to make an award

for our new fare collection system and that's going to be a big deal for us moving forward.

We'll have the ability to take, right now we can take cash and if you need to use your credit or debit card you have to go to the station to buy a pass.

We will have the ability to generate and use smart cards,

barcode cards, the transfers will be generated on the bus, tickets will be read electronically.

We'll have a lot of different innovations available with the new farebox system that we're proposing as well as on street kiosk where you'll be able to use a credit card to buy there.

Live credit cards on the buses, you get into some cyber security issues that we really don't feel we're equipped to deal with so we won't be able to take any credit cards right on the bus but you will be able to still use a credit card at the station and you'll have the ability to pay your fare on the bus with various forms of payment

a smart card, a QR code on your smart phone, you'll be able to buy a fare on the net that way and there'll be a hotspot, you can wave your phone at the hotspot on the box.

I do have one question and given that the McIntyre Extended is going to be opening in about a year or so and so there's a whole new route

Going from the heart of Charlottesville, really right at the edge of downtown, all the way now being able to take you right up to north of CATEC and beyond.

Well the express bus that was proposed for 29 is possibly coming up.

There will be other routes that we'll have to look at modifying when that's open.

We've also heard that the Avon to Fifth Street extended link is probably going to be coming online sooner than we thought and that's going to change the

the shape of everything in that area as well.

Also with the West Main student housing coming on, I think we're going to have to be really aware of the seven in the trolley and our two most popular have been routes.

That was generated by the surplus generated when they changed the gas tax and the new monies were generated and given to the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit

and we were given a mid-year sort of surprise for this fiscal year.

We were given money in January, $565,000.

At the time that they put that package all together, we were left with the assumption that it was one-time money.

Then we found out just shortly after the first of the year that it's going to go on through 2019, possibly in that amount.

The intention of VDRP at that time was, we're going to give you this extra money, but what we don't want is for your grantee entities to reduce their level of effort.

Please leave your contributions the same, we're going to give you this extra money, we want you to enhance services with it.

the $565,000 which we decided to use to purchase the fare boxes because again at the time we were given that we were given no indication and this actually came about before election day we were given no indication that that would be a continuing fund in fact we're told if the election went different than it did we probably would have lost that funding because candidate Cuccinelli didn't support it

neither here nor there but then later we found out it was going to be continuing so in next year's budget we budgeted for $450,000 to be given to us as extra funding and with the hope that the city would continue the level of support that we had in 2014 on into 2015 and we've been told to expect probably at least $400,000 extra dollars from now through 2019 when that legislation sunsets

Can you talk though about the state's reaction because communities such as ours did in fact reduce their local funding.

So can you just...

I know, I know, but this is important because this actually goes into the budget, into our budget discussion.

There was a reaction by the state.

We weren't the only, Charlottesville was not the only city that did it.

A couple others did do it as well and VDRPT's reaction to that was, well maybe then in 2016,

We're going to require the cities to match that funding to get it instead of just giving it to them and saying, hey, enhance some services because there was no match required for what we got in 14.

There was no match for what's coming in 15, but we've been told to possibly expect a match in 16.

They haven't made up their mind on that yet.

No, I'm good mayor.

Any other comments?

Thanks.

Thank you all for your support.

The two items we need to resolve this afternoon, this evening.

We had our first meeting of tax levy ordinance.

I'm not going to make the motion because I really feel like this budget doesn't entirely support the things that we want and we've kind of raided various one-time funds rather than looking at it as a whole doing revenue in addition to expenditures and that is not a staff problem and it's a city council problem

Okay, I'll make the motion for tax levy ordinances first reading.

Second.

I know, but what are we voting?

It's just to be moved one time.

It is done.

So, is there a discussion on that motion?

if not vote, no, no need to vote, sorry.

I would like to

Is there a second to that?

If not motion does we'll second.

It won't be voted on tonight anyway.

I think in our last work session we had pretty universal support for looking for taking that to the city manager's office and finding funding for it.

We talked about last year they got $25,000.

I had a discussion with some representatives from FAR last week.

There were several issues that we discussed.

Mr. Collins mentioned some of those this evening.

One was to have an audit done by the end of the summer.

Two was to have a guarantee on the number of interns that they would be working through the program.

Next year, I think we talked about eight to ten, to have a guarantee on that.

And FAR is also getting $60,000 from

No, we would have that in the next day or so, the official recommendation.

And then to give staff some direction, I

I am appreciative of the balanced budget that you've provided to us and I'm comfortable with the way it is at this point.

Having said that, I am very well aware of the report that was produced by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainable School Funding.

And we've had this discussion before that there are many, many recommendations in that document that absolutely must be researched and given back to council as policy prescriptions that we need to vote on that generate sustainable ongoing funds.

So even though I am comfortable with the way the budget has been prepared at this point, I do think that next year we need to be prepared to have some serious, serious revenue changes.

And that discussion needs to also be had with the community at large and the business community.

So if we could have, not necessarily this Thursday, but within the next couple weeks or within the next month,

some schedule from staff as to how you intend to begin to investigate those recommendations further and then the community engagement plan that you would like to employ to get the word out, get the discussions out.

I would I would personally appreciate that.

We've already looked at a number of those recommendations and we'll continue to do that.

I think we, as we've mentioned before,

262 is what they had officially brought to us in terms of new money beyond what we had already offered at 1.5 million, so 1.762.

131 on the school side, yes ma'am.

But we offered two offerings.

We offered one that was very low and they came back and had lowered theirs.

We offered 1.5 in new money.

And then the schools had asked for 1.762.

Yes.

So we're now at 1.31.

How many million?

1.63.

They don't get to.

They said that they felt that they needed more than that.

They have to figure it out, but they don't have to tell us.

They just wouldn't tell us where.

Well, the school board is a publicly elected body.

No, they were there.