City Council Meeting   4/6/2015

A call to order City Council meeting of April 6th.

Sure.

Ms. Smith?

Here.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Here.

Please come forward.

She's our new liaison with University of Virginia student at UVA.

Hello, Mayor Huja and members of City Council.

It is my pleasure to be here with you guys tonight.

I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet many of you already and look forward to continue to working with you in the next few months.

I'm a first-year student at UVA hoping to study government and public policy and I'm so excited to engage with the City Council.

I am here, I'm ready to listen to concerns from both the UVA community and Charlottesville citizens, and I'm really excited about continuing to strengthen the bond we have between the university and the city.

I know we're in the midst of budget right now, but in the future I'm looking forward to working on lots of policy issues, particularly around human rights and sustainability, and I'm looking forward to this meeting tonight, so thank you all very much.

Can you remind everybody what your name is?

Maeve, I understand that you have some governing experience yourself.

Sure.

So my hometown is Falls Church, Virginia.

I came to UVA in the fall having just recently worked on creating a number of student liaison positions back home.

And I'm really excited to have the opportunity to continue to do that work here.

I'm so grateful to the students who serve on the Community Affairs Committee of SEDCO at University of Virginia because they've worked to create this position that I'm so honored to have the opportunity to fill.

Great.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

We look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

We have a few announcements.

Let me start today first.

Last year we had a Wayland Mayor's Challenge on water conservation.

We came in third in our category.

This year we are aiming for first.

So I want to encourage all the citizens of Charlottesville to go to www.mywaterpledge.com, www.mywaterpledge.com for the month of April.

You can pledge how much conservation you're going to go through.

and a few other questions, you can also go to www.charlottesville.org slash water conservation.

So I would encourage every one of you to take part in this.

We can really fuss this year.

I think this is a leader from last year.

Thank you.

When I have the floor, I can also announce two more meetings we are going to be holding.

One is the city council budget work session on April 9th at 4.30 in city space.

The second day,

to announce the adoption of budget on April the 14th at 5.30 p.m. in City Hall, second floor conference room.

While we're doing meetings, I'll do another meeting here in our town, Charlottesville, when City Council goes out into the neighborhoods.

A series of town hall-style meetings in all of Charlottesville's neighborhoods will continue on Thursday, April 9th.

Oh, I see.

Okay, and this is at seven, so okay, that's fine.

We can handle it.

And we don't have to move.

So it'll be a meeting for the residents of the Rose Hill and Kelly Town neighborhoods, and we'll be holding it at city space, presumably because we'll already be there and have back-to-back meetings.

These meetings are part of a series of community conversations that began in 2010 by a council initiative.

City residents are encouraged to attend these informal meetings to discuss emerging issues, ask questions,

I also have an announcement that I'm very excited to make.

Some of you may know that I have been working

over the years to try to institute composting in various ways in the city and we're a step further with this announcement.

So this year the City Market will include a pilot composting program provided by a partnership between the City of Charlottesville, Green Blue and Black Bear Composting.

The program will offer a composting station that will serve as a collection point for organic waste from market vendors and customers as well as a drop-off location for residents.

The program is available to all interested residents and runs through

during the Saturday City Market April 4th to September 26th.

The service is being provided for free to market visitors and is funded as a pilot program through a one-time grant secured from the Environmental Protection Agency.

How the composting drop-off works, and I tried this this Saturday so I can vouch for it.

Residents can bring their household food scraps for drop-off.

The city provides free green compostable bags to take home.

Accepted compostable materials include all food and plant items, uncoated paper not otherwise recyclable,

like napkins and pizza boxes and paper towels, and certified compostable products such as corn-based plastic cups.

You can also bring meats and fats, which are something that are very hard to compost in the small scale at home, but in the large scale that they have at Black Bear, you can compost them.

So even if you have a compost pile at home, you can bring your meat and scraps to the city market and compost them, and your forks and corn-based products.

More information is available at www.Charlottesville.com.

dot org slash composting and on Twitter at Seaville PW.

That's for public works.

Questions can be directed to composting at Charlottesville dot org or four three four nine seven zero three three seven one.

And I did take my compost on Saturday.

It was easy.

They were very nice.

I actually bought a container to put my bag in.

So now I'm all set.

It's on the kitchen counter.

I'm very excited.

I only have one announcement, and that's with regards to the Downtown Job Center hosts a job fair for Graduate Charlottesville.

On Wednesday, April 8, 2015, from 9 to 11, the City of Charlottesville's Downtown Job Center will partner with Graduate Charlottesville to host a job fair for new hotel employees.

The job fair will be held at City Space in downtown Charlottesville.

That's 105th Street Northeast.

The newly renovated and soon to be opened Graduate Charlottesville is looking to fill a number of positions including executive chef, sous chef, restaurant server, night auditor, front desk agent, housekeeping supervisor, maintenance technician, laundry attendant, room attendant, and a house person.

Graduate

It's the graduate.

Oh, the graduate.

Okay.

It's where the red roof in was.

Because it didn't sound right.

The graduate, Jawsville, is hiring people with all levels of experience ranging from entry level job seekers to candidates with considerable experience in the fields of hospitality and food service.

Job seekers will have the opportunity to learn more about these exciting opportunities and submit their resume and employment application for consideration.

On-site screening interviews will be conducted so job seekers should be dressed for success.

Pre-registration is not required, but it is highly recommended that job seekers complete a hard copy employment application prior to arrival and bring it with them to the job fair.

The application is available for download at www.Charlottesville.org slash job center or by visiting the downtown job center located in the lower level of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library 201 East Market Street.

Parking validation will be made available for the Market Street and Water Street parking garage.

And for specific job fair questions or information, please contact Corey Demchick at the Downtown Job Center at demchick.shonsville.org or call 434-970-3933.

This is very good use of our workforce downtown center.

City Market has returned in a new location downtown.

The popular City Market kicked off its season this past Saturday.

The market has temporarily moved to the parking lot at 100 Water Street, which is right across from where it was.

This is adjacent to the parking lot where it has operated for many years.

City Market is held Saturday mornings from 7 to noon between April and October.

The market features over 100 local vendors.

that sell a variety of fresh produce, herbs, plants, meats, crafts, baked goods, and much, much more.

City Market is managed by the City of Charlottesville Department of Parks and Rec.

It provides a fun, safe, family-friendly environment for local vendors to display and sell their homegrown or handmade products.

And if I could add, it's more easily acceptable for the disabled as well.

It's a flatter parking lot.

Continuing for 2015, market customers who receive SNAP, 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.

For more information about the City Market, please contact Stephanie at 970-3371 or citymarketatcharlottesville.org.

This past Saturday was the first of this season and it was mobbed.

Yes, this is a night of long announcements.

This is actually very exciting.

I know some of you might not understand how exciting this is, but we've been waiting for this for a long time.

CAT, that's our Charlottesville Area Transit, readies itself for a new fare collection system.

Charlottesville Area Transit is upgrading its fare boxes in mid-May.

The transit system plans to replace its aging fareboxes with the new, easy fareboxes.

The step will bring CAT into the 21st century by allowing the agency to move to smart card technology.

Smart cards, which have been gaining traction across the country,

will allow CAT to offer its passengers additional fare options.

With the upgrade, we will be able to offer passengers 24-hour, 3-day, 7-day, 30-day, 90-day, and annual passes.

That's actually a big deal.

Day passes, which grant customers unlimited rides, have historically expired at $11.59 on the day they were purchased, but the new passes will be valid for a full 24 hours after their original purchase.

The smart card technology will allow CAT to program a fare on a card well before its intended use, and only when the card is used on board a bus for the first time will it begin to depreciate.

Keeping in line with CAT's current fare structure, passengers will continue to be able to purchase single rides and day passes, now 24-hour passes, on board all CAT buses.

All other fare options will be available for purchase at the CAT's downtown transit station located at 615 East Water Street.

As a promotion for the new fare boxes, CAT will provide physical smart cards free of charge for all customers who purchase a 30-day, 90-day or annual pass during the first month.

After the first month, passengers will incur a $1 to $2 fee for new smart cards.

This fee can be avoided if a customer opts to reload their smart card.

To reload, a customer simply brings their expired card back to the DTS to have more time added.

It's going to go live on May 18th.

And to help with the transition, CAT will be hosting two public outreach meetings at City Space.

The first meeting will be on Saturday, April 18th at 1.45 p.m. And the second meeting will be on Monday, May 4th at 9.45 a.m. Attendees will learn how the fare box works and what new fare options will be available.

And both meetings will have a live demo.

For more information, you can go to Charlottesville Area Transit on our homepage.

Are there any other announcements by Council or staff?

Now we move to the next item on our agenda, matters by the public.

We welcome public comments at our meetings, the very important part of our meeting.

Please follow the guidelines for comments which are listed on the podium and limit yourself to three minutes.

Yes, thank you.

My name is Barbara Cruickshank.

I'm at 324 Parkway Street in Charlottesville.

Glyphosate is one of the more common chemical pesticides used in the city, in our parks and on school grounds.

This chemical doesn't have a good reputation and I know I've talked about it before in front of you.

Something has recently happened very important.

The World Health Organization in the last two weeks has the arm of the World Health Organization, the International Agency of Research on Cancer, has just listed this chemical as a class 2A carcinogenic chemical.

And that means that it's probably carcinogenic to humans.

I did send this to you electronically.

Our families and children are being exposed to dangerous chemicals unnecessarily.

I'm going to mention another chemical that we're actually poised to use very soon in McGuffey Park on the slope areas and at Clark School.

This is Surflan, the chemical name Orizalin.

The EPA calls this a moderately toxic chemical.

and the EPA classifies this chemical as possibly human carcinogenic.

When applied, the EPA goes on on their website to say that the applicators must use protective equipment, coveralls and chemical resistant footwear and it biodegrades slowly.

It takes about two months.

Of course the children in the parks would not be wearing any protective clothing when they're playing in the parks.

I ask again for a moratorium on the use of chemical pesticides in our city until we have the policy in place that will protect pregnant women and families and children.

We cannot let money dictate policy here in the city.

Something this important.

Chemical pesticides are cheaper.

and that's why we use them.

But what price would we put on the health of the children and the families in our city?

Good evening, Lena Seville, 808 Alta Vista Avenue, Charlottesville.

So I'm here to talk about the Charlottesville Sparkles.

They had a kickoff campaign this past week over in Belmont, and as president of the Belmont-Carlton Neighborhood Association, I attended and so did some of our other former board members.

And what a difference it made to see all the

stuff in the gutters gone and as you walk up that hill and you see this nice clean area it was just really made a difference and it made us think do we have street sweepers and do they go through our little downtown Belmont is a small commercial area

that could really benefit from that.

And it just, it looked wonderful after, you know, Councilor Fenwick got out there with his broom and got us all working with our gloves and our bags and it was a lot of fun and we felt like we accomplished something.

It looked great and it would be nice if the city could keep that going.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Aurora Nichols and I live at 630 Park Street, apartment T. It's a 24 unit apartment building and only nine of our units pay for recycling with curbside pickup.

I was surprised to learn that if you live in a unit with more than four units, you have to pay directly with county waste, $10 a month for a bin.

I think this is unfair and kind of counterintuitive.

because if we were single family residents, that would be 24 different stops the trucks would have to take versus just one for the same volume.

Thank you, ma'am.

Hi, Rebecca Quinn, 104 4th Street here in the city.

I want to enthusiastically join Council Szakos and the rest of the council, I think, in encouraging everyone to compost.

I grew up on a farm.

I thought it was normal.

When I moved to Charlottesville about eight years ago, my sister lived in the county and had a huge compost box.

So I used to freeze all of my vegetable scraps and haul them to her place every couple of weeks.

I found I could use one trash sticker every other week when I was able to compost and along with all the other recyclables.

But then my sister moved to the city, which is a wonderful thing, but initially she didn't have a compost pile.

So of course every time I tossed my kale stems and my apple cores and my wilted tulips in the trash, I regretted

the literal waste of a viable product, that organic material.

I want to say, you mentioned I think at least one corner.

There are compost drop-offs at all four corners.

One of them is staffed.

A delightful young woman who is willing to answer every question and yes, your little cardboard containers that your dumplings come in, they can go in the compost as well.

But it's a one-time grant for this market season.

So what I want to know is what will it take to continue beyond this market season?

What are the measures of success you'll be looking for to decide whether to continue next year even if we don't have outside funding?

And then of course the next question becomes whether city staff, since I know composting has been brought up a number of times even on a municipal level,

Where are we in terms of looking at those options?

Because we know those municipal composting programs are springing up all over the country.

And I sure would like Charlottesville to be among them.

Al Page.

Al Page, 806 Page Street.

Since the school board is asking for a ton of money, I was down there last Thursday asking for an apology from the Director of Human Resources for City of Charlottesville for addressing me in writing as Ms. instead of Mr. Now do I look like a Mr.?

I'm Mr. And they refused to address that problem.

So I'm asking before they get a red cent,

that they address this board.

That's why they address me as, in writing, as Ms. instead of Mr. Also, for substitute teachers of Charlottesville, I'm asking for a raise.

The average teacher gets about $350 a day.

The substitute gets $75, and that's been since 02, since I was appointed by Scottie Griffin.

I'm asking for $100 a day.

and that's to be asked for from the school board by the city council.

Thank you, sir.

My name is Lewis Schultz.

I live at 1809 East Market Street.

This is the 37th time since October 3rd, 2013,

that I've come to council to say that I have evidence that City Manager Maurice Jones, Director of Public Works Judith Mueller, and Utilities Director Lauren Hildebrand, by unlawfully taking my private property for a public use and by denying me my lawful rights to it, have violated Charlottesville Code, the city's charter, and the Code of Virginia, and in doing so, have violated federal civil rights statutes.

That property is on Steep Hill Street, a private street in the Wollan Mills neighborhood.

For 18 months now, I have repeatedly told council that my rights as a U.S. citizen were illegally taken from me by force, with no due process and no compensation, by people acting in their official capacities as employees of the city of Charlottesville and under the direct supervision of the city manager.

I have provided council documentary evidence to prove my assertions, and I have asked numerous times that council hold a hearing into the misconduct of city officials they have direct responsibility over.

A report which was prepared for council in July of last year by the city attorney proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the accusations I have made are true.

Still, despite having access to facts which prove serious wrongdoing and having all solemnly sworn oaths to support both the constitutions of the U.S. and the Commonwealth of Virginia and to faithfully and impartially discharge all duties incumbent upon them, council refuses to make any investigation of any sort or to hold any city employees accountable.

The investigation I have called for would place the city manager and other high-ranking officials under intense scrutiny.

It would call into question the judgment of counsel in hiring Maurice Jones instead of someone with the proper education and the necessary experience.

It would highlight a cover-up decades ago in the city, a decade ago, in the city attorney's office that allowed this problem to go uncorrected and to develop into a significant embarrassment to all the people I have just mentioned.

It would show the public just how widespread and far-reaching these problems are.

In addition to having reasons to want to avoid any inquiry into the workings of his own office, the city attorney has legal obligations to the city as a corporate entity, city council, the city manager, and the city departments.

There is no way conflicts of interest, whether actual or apparent, can be avoided, and by the rules of conduct of the Virginia Bar, Mr. Brown should long ago have acted in the best interest of his clients and advised them to seek other legal representation.

Despite that, he has continued to advise counsel.

City Attorney Brown met in a closed session with council on October 6, 2014 to discuss acquiring part of Steep Hill Street.

Council did not vote in public to authorize any action based on that discussion, but the city attorney has now begun the process of taking part of Steep Hill Street through the city's power of eminent domain.

One of two things has happened and either is cause for concern.

Council authorized the city attorney by voting in a closed session in violation of Virginia's open meeting laws

or the city attorney is acting on his own with no legal authority in the name of the city to use its power of eminent domain.

That power is vested by law and council alone.

Eminent domain has been described by one federal judge as one of the most harsh proceedings known the law.

It is supposed to be done only as a last resort and expected to be done only in strict adherence to the law.

Nothing has been done by the city to try to solve the problems I've spoken of, and the city is only using its power of eminent domain in a transparent attempt to silence me.

It is otherwise completely unnecessary.

If they're going to try that, the least they could do is obey the law this time.

Dede Smith and Kathy Galvin, you are both running for re-election on your records.

Thank you.

I'll start just since my name got called out.

As far to Ms. Quinn, where did you, there you go.

You're always in the same place.

You should know.

I should know to look there, but the measures for success to continue this program.

Personally, I mean, we haven't discussed it as a council.

This was a grant that was received not too long ago.

But for me, what I would like to look at is the tonnage of garbage that goes out.

And I don't expect it to be huge because not, you know, a huge percentage of the population uses it.

but if we count the tonnage that gets taken in the compost, we'll know that whether those people who dropped it off were county residents or city residents that at least that was not put in a landfill and that to me is a success.

We've looked at curbside composting.

It is at this point expensive but it is still something that I'm very interested in and I know that Judy Mueller in Public Works has been continuously looking for ways to kind of get us closer to that so this is one of those steps.

Mr.

Page, I am happy to join you in asking for a written apology.

I think if you feel strongly about it, it's my grandmother who said an apology doesn't cost a thing, and it's the gracious thing to do.

And I also, of course, the school board makes the decisions about salaries.

I personally would support any effort to raise

Salaries for Substitute Teachers, because I think they're grossly underpaid just in the world, not just in Charlottesville.

I think that you couldn't pay some people enough to do substitute teaching, and I'm grateful to the people who do it and do it well.

Let's see what else I had.

In case anyone is wondering, Mr. Schultz has been given an answer from counsel.

The answer was no, and so it's not that I'm ignoring the points of it.

We just disagree on the facts.

I would like Mr. Jones to follow up on something that Ms. Aurora Nichols raised.

Oh, yeah.

That would be good if you could follow up on that, Mr. Jones.

That doesn't sound right.

That's certainly a possibility.

Right, that would be good to know how often they are and is there a unit cost for increasing the amount of street sweeping because that does have budget implications and we're

And again, related to Mr.

Page, sorry about the insult that you've received.

I concur with my colleague Ms. Szakos.

And again, it's a school board policy issue about raising salaries, and it also then has an implication on our budgets, as again, the big issue for us is always trying to meet the budget gaps that we are

were faced with from not just the city schools, but from multiple departments.

Yeah, I'll just chime in on Ms. Nichols' issue and just ask for sort of a comprehensive look to at who does and who does not get service through our public services.

and how it does work.

I remember an issue with public housing for a while, too, with whether they got recycling, so both recycling and trash.

And if there's any services that mimic compost, I mean, Ms. Quinn was talking before the meeting about a service that picks up oils.

And I'd just be curious as to what does exist and kind of how it works.

because it is going to be just a fascinating pilot experiment.

And Ms. Cruikshank, next meeting, next meeting, we are told, right?

Isn't that right?

First to Mr.

Page, I agree with the comments that were made and an apology doesn't cost a thing.

and Maurice, is that something that you would call the school board about or would we contact them?

We could send the message to the school board.

And it's great to see all the younger people in the audience as well.

Not only do we have the liaison from the University of Virginia Student Council, but we have another young fellow in the back row back there who's auditing this class.

Are there any other young people from school who are here because they're in a government class or something?

Welcome.

That's terrific.

I wanted to make a comment on composting.

I totally support the experiment, and if you had to pay out for our own funds, you should do that.

Every time I visit my son in Portland, Oregon, he lives to be the daddy of the mayor, and you can't arrange for this.

And Portland has a curbside pickup.

So I think we should look into that quickly.

Next on our agenda is consent agenda.

I know that one item number E has been pulled out for discussion.

Oh, yes, give me just one second.

You pulled E?

Yes.

Which one was that?

Was that the CBBG?

I'd also like to pull the critical slopes piece, if we may.

I think that's the next one.

I don't have it right in front of me.

I second.

I'm just going to do a brief introduction and Ms. Beauregard will take over.

We do have a PowerPoint presentation for Council that covers both the Public Hearing, the Amendment to the City Code on the Meals Tax Ordinance change, and the City Council's proposed

fiscal year 2016 budget and the tax levy as well.

That's correct.

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, right now the proposed tax rates are, as you see on the screen there, the real estate tax rate at 95 cents per $100 of assessed value.

And there's a proposal, which is item number two, to increase the meals tax rate from four percentage points to five percentage points.

So those are two of the issues that we'll be considering tonight and leading up to April 14th and the council's final vote on the budget.

With that I will turn it over to Leslie Beauregard who will walk us through the amendments that have been made.

This is the proposed city council budget whereas I presented the city manager's budget to the council and

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

So I'm just going to walk quickly through these amendments.

As Mr. Jones said, these are amendments that were made during our budget work sessions, and council saw these at the last budget work session with one exception, and I'll talk about that in just a minute.

These are the revenue changes.

When the state finally approved their budget, there was one item that was removed from that, which actually was a benefit to the city.

It was state flex cuts, which we call aid to the commonwealth.

and that gave us another $292,000.

We also revised our payment in lieu of taxes that our utilities pay by $47,000 and at the last council budget work session, city council decided to use a portion of their strategic initiative funds to help fund some of the outside agency requests and that came in at $75,000 and that will appear as a carryover revenue item.

Overall, the total amendments made were $414,166 to the positive, so that brings the final, or the budget as it stands right now, at $156.3 million in fiscal year 2016.

On to the expenditures.

I'm going to start with the increases, I'm sorry, the decreases, because this is the one item, the first one on here is the one thing that did change since we last met with council.

We received word last week that the school board

had some savings due to their renewal of health insurance.

And from that, we're gonna benefit by $100,000.

So that reduces the city contribution by that amount.

So that's good.

The benefits adjustments, there were several benefits adjustments made which saved $12,000.

And the final budget for the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Jail came through, and that saved us about $152,000.

These were other changes made.

You'll see the $166,798.

That's $100,000 more than when you left with the budget work session the last time we spoke.

That's the school money.

I had to put it somewhere to balance the budget, so it's sitting there right now, unallocated.

We already talked about the performance agreement payments of $267,000.

And this is where city council made several changes to outside agencies.

These were programs that had not been recommended for funding that city council at the work session decided.

to go ahead and fund for fiscal year 16.

And the next series, this is a bunch, but these were agencies that received, the way we budgeted these, if you received a solid or exemplary score, you either received level or reduced funding.

What we decided instead, what council wanted to do in the end was make it level funding or a 2% increase, and this is the result of that, and these are the agencies that were impacted by that change.

And then the last budget work session, City Council supported a long-term temporary position for the Commissioner of Revenue, a business tax auditor at $53,673.

And that would be a two-year position that we would then evaluate to see how much revenue that position has actually brought into the city.

And that balances the budget.

That's an addition of $414,166 for a budget of $156.3 million.

So I just wanted to quickly go over your Council's strategic initiative funds.

So you've seen the top number before, the current funding of $225,809.

We're reducing that by $75,000, but then I pointed out the 166,798 that's been added to that.

So total available is $316,607.

And finally, there was one amendment made to the Human Services Fund that we spoke about at the last budget work session.

This does not affect the general fund at all.

The Director of Human Services would adjust his fees accordingly to fund these two positions.

But it did increase that budget by $110,000.

There were two outstanding issues that staff took away from the budget work session, although there may be others tonight that come up.

The CORE program at the regional jail which is $112,000 and the historic planner position which is $70,000 including benefits that has been discussed before.

I have a couple clarifying questions.

The school $100,000 figure, the initial figure we heard was $185,000.

They received back $185,000, right?

So what they are asking is that the city would

allow them to keep $85,000 as part of their budget to address reading issues that they have to try to help kids get up to current grade level reading.

And then they voted to send $100,000 to send that back to the city.

Okay well that I that would have been nice to hear now because I do think we might want to discuss given the really seriously serious literacy issues whether or not the which have often been attributed to community issues whether the city might want to allocate some of that money for a literacy position as actually had been suggested by the associate superintendent of the schools.

I mean it's just an interesting issue in and so

That would be good.

So we could invite the schools there.

It's $185,000 is what they received back.

I mean, I think that that's a discussion you have to have with the school board to see where the council is on that.

Okay, yeah, I agree.

And then, Ms. Beauregard, can

When we left the budget work session a week and a half ago, there was still money left out there.

Not all that funding was spent that we received in that revenue, those revenue amendments that you'd seen before.

And that was about $67,000.

So I just added that to that number because I had to balance the budget.

So the 100 is within the 166.

Correct.

So you can't add those two together.

No, you can't add them together.

No, it's in there.

Okay.

Yeah, just in terms of what we're dealing with.

And just two other questions.

Oh, we do.

So it is in our code.

It is in our code to vote by April 15th.

We're not penalizing ourselves.

I see.

I see.

But there's a practical reason to do it also, which I would argue for, in that we need to have

Tax bills need to be sent out so we need to have the tax rates set for real estate and personal property taxes and we need to know what the budgets will be in order to do that.

For instance, the capital budget.

as we're going to the bond market as well.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Are we going to do clarification only on the meals tax or are we doing clarification on the whole budget?

there has been some work by members of council to try to figure out a fair way to spread this burden out across the businesses.

Any clarification questions from Leslie?

We'll open a public hearing.

A number of people have signed up.

I'll call you by the names.

Ben Clore,

You're using Ben Clore?

He's running.

Sorry, it's beautiful outside, I'm sorry.

My name is Ben Clore.

I live on Cherry Avenue and have for almost 14 years now.

I also own Oak Heart Social, which is a restaurant on West Main Street.

Last year, 316 businesses in the city of Charlottesville collected $10 million in meals taxes, two million of which was actually returned to the city by the state.

Subsequent, the city saw an increase in meals tax revenue of 9% over projections.

If this 9% was collected but not budgeted, where did it go?

As a side note, the city of Charlottesville spent over $1.2 million on consultants last year.

That's more than any Charlottesville City Council has ever spent.

How can we again be standing here facing another increase to the meals tax, a tax that has time and again been disproportionately shown to impact the economically challenged segments of our population?

You guys levy this tax.

You're not going to be reaping the benefits from a tourist population, a transient population.

You're going to be taxing the elderly,

people who have more than one job, people who are forced to disproportionately buy prepared meals at a higher rate.

And I don't think those are the people that we want to be hurting.

Hi, my name is Laura Galgano and I'm the owner of Blue Moon Diner on West Main Street in Charlottesville.

I'm here to talk a little bit more about the regressive nature of the meals tax and why I don't think that it's a good source for funding.

The NRA, National Restaurant Association, study has shown that approximately 70% of customers are local, locally based.

There's a notion out there that the meals tax is something that

Tourists pay, that people outside the community pay to help us with the services we'd like to fund.

That's simply not true.

As a point of fact, I know that my business relies on our regulars and our locals far more than any tourist could ever pay our bills.

We have customers who come three and four times a week.

to eat meals with us, to come and hang out and see the local live music scene, to support the local farm culture that we have, a farm to table that's really starting to thrive in Charlottesville.

Asking those local customers to continue to pay for these funds and to pay 25% more to come out and support our local businesses when it's already such a competitive market really does put an unsustainable burden on our local businesses.

The second nature of the regressive part of the tax is that a very large portion of the meals tax that are collected are collected from fast food chains and very low income citizens.

The notion that people go out to eat as a luxury, while may be true for some, is a fact of life for a large portion of the low income citizens of Charlottesville.

They go out to eat as they have to because they do not have time to cook at home.

They do not have time to grocery shop.

It is much easier for them to stop by a McDonald's, to go to Bodo's, to go to a quick place where they can spend a smaller portion of their income and get food.

These people are paying a very large percentage of their income to eat and it's simply not fair to put the burden on them even more

to pay for these programs.

the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, the National Restaurant Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the NAACP have all come out in support of the Charlottesville Restaurants Association plea to find another way to fund other than raising the meals tax.

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Dunkel.

I have Fellini's number 9 and the Tin Whistle Irish Pub.

One's at 200 West Market, the other's on East Market.

So there's two issues I'd like to address tonight with you.

First of all, it has to do with the sustainability of this proposed tax.

My sales, I've talked to you before about my loss of sales.

So March this year, compared to last year, I lost $4,200.

So that is money that I paid no meals tax on and I lost 4 to 200 dollars.

So I assume it has a lot to do with the Second Street mess over there.

And so it just goes to show you how unpredictable restaurants, the restaurant industry is.

Those of us who work in restaurants know that.

You think you know what's going to happen and then a movie theater goes up and your street gets blocked off.

The gentleman that owns the parking lot across the street from Fellini's, I asked him if I could pay my parking

a year in advance.

He's like, no, we're not doing that because we're going to develop that property.

So what's going to happen to Fellini's when he comes to the city and wants to put in whatever?

Then my street's going to get blocked again.

When the second street opens up, then we've got the Water Street fiasco with where the city market, where that place is going to be.

Escafay is going to be hit, the flat, bang.

All of those restaurants, as well as mine, you're going to lose money.

There is no predictability to this

Tax that you're proposing.

So will people weather the traffic or will they go somewhere up 29 where they have parking accessibility and don't pay meals tax to the city but only to the county?

So I just don't understand the logic of

raising the meals tax.

When you think about at Tin Whistle, that restaurant was closed for three months before I opened it.

Before that, it was closed for six months while someone renovated.

Before that, it was closed for five months.

You're not collecting any meals tax when a restaurant stops and another one opens.

So in 2011, there were 316 units that were paying meals tax.

That went up to 327.

2014, it's dropped back to 316.

More restaurants are closed, then open.

The market is saturated.

You just don't understand or you just don't realize how you're going to sustain this meals tax.

The second thing is something that Ms. Szakos was quoted as saying in the Seville Weekly about it.

uh not

A tax on necessities, but a luxury tax.

And, you know, I've got to tell you about a couple of seniors that come, who live at McGuffey, who have severe arthritis.

They come, they buy a couple of meals a week.

They take it to go.

They've got food for the rest of the week.

They can't cook at home.

And you're, I mean, these are the people that are being hit by this meals tax.

And I, you know, you have these public hearings.

You have heard us.

You hear what we're saying.

and why do you have a public hearing if you're not going to do something about it?

I'm begging you to not put this meal sack through.

Good evening.

I'm Roy Van Doren.

I own City Select.

City Select is a

company that facilitates information to visitors.

So when you walk into a hotel or bed and breakfast, how did that map get there?

How did that guide get there?

How did that brochure get there?

That's what we do as an organization.

So I'm going to speak a little bit about the people who can't be here.

And that's the one million people who stay in lodging every year.

We work with every lodging organization in Albemarle County and the surrounding counties.

And I do that personally, so when I'm saying this, I'm kind of speaking first person.

We've been doing this since 2000, and our office is on East Market Street.

Based on current occupancy, we have about a million visitors that spend the night in the area.

We don't break it out between city and county, so it's a little bit of a blended thing, and you guys know that.

Adding to those people that are staying in traditional lodging, you have untraditional lodging like friends, Airbnb, and people that are just doing day trips.

So the visitor pool is about three million dining events a year.

So that's a lot, even though

Probably the greater proportion of dining is consumed by locals, it's still a significant impact on our economy.

Now it's easy to say, let our visitors pay our bills, because they don't vote.

But the reality is that visitors already pay a significant tax bill.

They pay general sales tax when they buy a t-shirt at

at the UVA bookstore.

When they buy a meal at Bodo's or they buy a meal at Zocalo, they're paying sales tax and meals tax.

When they rent a rental car, they're paying extra tax on sales tax and rental tax and airport tax.

And then, of course, when they stay at a hotel, it's 10% lodging.

Now,

Why do we care?

Because the visitors can really pay the bill and we shouldn't worry about it.

But the hospitality industry has an impact of about 5,000 people that work in the area.

And it generates $16 million in tax revenue.

So it's important.

The good news is that it's growing and it's doing well.

The challenge is that when we look at visitors and we look at Charlottesville, our cost of lodging is high, and if we add taxes, then will Charlottesville remain an attractive visitor-oriented community for the middle class?

Mr. Huja, I'm just going to note some people may not have testified here before, but this little light here when it goes yellow means you have, what, 15 seconds left, 30?

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for giving me a few minutes.

My name is Mark Hahn.

I own a company called Harvest Moon Catering here in Charlottesville, Virginia.

I came here today to speak a little bit outside of the pure restaurant side of things and give you a little background of where catering stands in this conversation.

I am in agreement with most of my predecessors that I believe that the raise on the meals tax is unnecessary with the idea that we could hopefully look for another solution before we push through this idea.

Harvest Moon Catering commits itself to the community of Charlottesville in a tremendous number of ways.

And we feel that it's one of our civic duties as a business, as a social conscious, that it is my

Part of my responsibility as a business owner to give back to a number of non-profit organizations.

That list is pretty long.

Building Goodness, Habitat for Humanity, The Paramount, The Fralin.

Lighthouse Studios, Food Bank of the Blue Ridge, and there's probably about 15 or 20 more that call on a regular basis.

Some are just doing fundraisers to, you know, like CBI and Free Union Day School and Montessori's multiples.

and we feel a certain civic responsibility to sort of give back and assist these community organizations, Boys and Girls Clubs, CACF, I'll keep going as they come to my head.

But they are organizations that breathe life into our community and to take an additional percentage off of our bottom line for which we worked so hard to achieve

will eventually sort of erode our capacity to give back to the community.

We get something for it, but at a point we have to run our businesses as well.

And it becomes very difficult to continue that philanthropic nature.

And again, we do feel it's a responsibility of ours to do that.

One of the things that's tough about catering is we are commodity driven, all of us in the restaurant business, but catering especially because not only it is a competitive market, but I'm forced to bid my pricing as far as 16, 18 months out.

And I have no idea what will happen the week that your wedding, your party, your event comes up.

And so I'm sort of combined with a need to bid for something as well as be market competitive.

And so I really take a hit quite often when prices go up and down.

The last point I'll make in terms of where we are, we struggle price wise.

You're cutting me.

I'm done, huh?

I already paid commissions and taxes, $1,000 to Alumni Hall.

The University of Virginia has levied 6.5% food and beverage on all of us who provide any services to the university.

And they double it up again.

It's 13% through certain organizations that have a commission and an ATG America to go commission.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Huja, members of the council.

I am Eric Terry.

I'm the president of Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, which also encompasses the Virginia Restaurant Association.

And I'm here to speak on behalf of the Virginia restaurants as well as the restaurants here in Charlottesville.

and urge you to really take a hard look at this tax and increasing this tax 25%.

As you may be aware, the restaurant industry is a very difficult industry.

It has very, very low profit margins, has one of the highest failure rates of any industry in the United States.

As such, you've heard from a number of independent restaurants here tonight who are the owners and operators of those restaurants.

So on a daily basis, they feel the impact of this

and the impact of a person who might choose to go to a lower tax jurisdiction like the county.

In addition to which, one of the things that didn't come up today is they'll be absorbing the credit card fees that are going to this.

So as someone pays by credit card, they're going to be absorbing that into their bottom line.

So they pay credit card fees over and above so that when the tax that you collect today, they're paying credit card fees, they'll be paying even more when the next cycle comes up.

But really, I think more than anything else, you're singling out an industry and singling out an individual business that is really a fabric of the city of Charlottesville and something that your local residents, I mean those students who were here before, trust me, when you look at how taxes are paid and how people that are using food and beverage facilities, those students are the ones that are going to be paying that tax.

Don't be confused that this is a white tablecloth tax.

It really is about the person at the lowest economic impact, because those are the people that do utilize that most frequently, whether they're students here at UVA, high school students from the students that are here.

And that's really the thing that I think you have to be careful of when you look at this, is don't paint this as a luxury tax.

It is not a luxury tax.

This is a tax on the citizens.

Over 70% of the people that are going to be paying this tax are Charlottesville residents.

It's not a visitor tax.

Hello, Council.

Peter Castiglione, Maya Restaurant, 633 West Main.

How did we get here?

Once the council delayed and slow-played your way out of readjusting the real estate tax, back to where it were in 2008 as we entered the Great Recession, by somehow missing the 30-day window to post and publish a rate increase, this Council and Budget Committee tried to tell us that the only way to balance this budget would be to raise the Mills Tax 25% in hopes of generating another $2.4 million.

On February 25th, Maurice stated, there are no other alternatives.

People would probably have to be laid off if we do not have support.

Schools will get less money, have to reduce their budget.

Because this council has pushed our AAA bond rating to the brink, we cannot even find funds to defer from non-bonded capital projects.

Because this council somehow missed the mark, engaging the monies they chose to spend to support their political agendas,

The city employees are going to see a reduction in their take-home paychecks because the city does not have the funds to cover the increase for the group insurance policy with Southern Health.

Thus, a 2% raise for the city of $824,000 for the employees, which is being proposed, is going to be funded by the restaurant industry.

In actuality, it's the city passing the responsibility onto the small businesses

and the taxpayer to cover the match.

So far as the $740,000 being requested by the school board above and beyond the one million that's allocated, you simply cannot give them money you don't have.

Again, this council spent more money than the tax base brought to the table.

It is not the restaurant industry's responsibility to single handedly fund that money.

To quote Dede Smith, February 25th, to say they need more positions when they already have more than most other school systems is concerning.

I don't think we have the information we need at this point to make such a drastic decision.

Ultimately, it should not matter because, once again, this council somehow put us here right now with a lack of funds to honor the school budget request.

On February 25th, Maurice stated, we found no example in which the municipality raised the meals tax by 1% and it caused any sort of negative impact on the number of restaurants they had or the number of people coming to the restaurants.

Well, as it turns out, this is not an increase of 1%.

This is an increase of 25%.

We have proven to you in many various ways that increasing a regressive excise tax, such as meals tax, will in fact result in a plethora of negative impacts on both the restaurant industry, your cash cow, and your tax base, especially those in the lowest socioeconomic bracket.

Szakos once again has quoted an article in the Seaville, this meals tax quote is not a necessity.

It is not a tax on necessities, it's a luxury tax."

It actually is a meals tax, it's a specific kind of excise tax, and the poorest people in our tax base spend 8% of their annual income dining out as an absolute matter of necessity and financial need.

Over 35% of the $8 million we collected last year came from fast food chains.

Mayor Huja, you told me you didn't think anyone would notice the increase.

I think you can see, if you look around chambers,

take a gander at the 3,429 petitions we've pulled in five weeks from your tax base that that is not true.

I ask you now, Mayor Huja, if you want to be the mayor who presided over the largest tax increases in decades in Charlottesville, or if you choose instead to be true to the tradition of wise fiscal management that has governed the city since before your arrival, with this council,

Will this Council, I'm asking you all now, will this Council hold itself accountable for where we are in this moment, put your respective political agendas aside, abide by the will of your tax base who are standing here and telling you to vote no on the Mills tax increase and get back to doing what we elected you to do, prepare our city for the future in a smart, fiscally sound, business-like way.

I had to say a lot of stuff fast, I'm sorry I didn't get to look at you guys.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak about Mease, Tax, Ordinance?

Yes, sir.

My name's Robert Smith, and I live at 100 Ridge Street.

And I've been coming up here on and off for years.

And sometimes I come in here in a reflective mood, and I hope I can capture some of that tonight.

One of the problems, as I say it, if you see by my badge, the position I support, okay, is that since I've been living in Charlottesville, coming from Richmond, I've found a city that's dominated by political types, people with agenda on city council.

I identify the majority of people here in front of me on council as have agendas that they bring.

And that's understandable.

but I actually would like to suggest that people consider it doesn't work on the city level.

It should work on another level in society.

And I'm very serious about this.

It's a bitter thing to come down here and find myself insulted by city council members or people in the audience, find my community insulted and everything like that.

And I'm trying to speak from the heart here a little bit.

And one of the things I was reflecting on earlier

is how do the founders of this country, bless their hearts, how do they manage without consultants?

That should be a red flag that somebody cited today, that we've spent more money than ever on consultants.

And that's part of the political class.

And I know some people are essential.

I tell you, I certainly want a structural engineer signing off on plans for a building, for example, if it's gonna fall down.

But I think we've got some problems that I hope

get addressed in this upcoming election.

And this is raising a tax.

I want to also point out that I myself have been a homeless person the last 10 years or so on occasion, not so much compared to a lot of people.

And I know a lot of people, if they get any money, will go homeless people who live in the woods, okay?

will go right to a fast food place and get something to eat.

And that's all they can afford.

But somebody has given them that.

I think people who are doing well, and that includes anybody who is a member of the Democratic Party, which has run a monopoly on the control of this city for 30-some years, can reconsider what

some of the real fundamental stuff going on here.

In other words, what is this country about?

Is it about spending money, taking more money out of people's pockets?

I'm really dead serious about this.

Where do we get this idea that it's an unlimited fund?

I'm baffled myself.

Or is it really what really matters is supporting the people that put people to work.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak about meals, snacks, or exchange?

Anybody else?

Then I'll close this for the hearing.

Council will have discussion on the meals, snacks.

Mayor Hujo, I would like to offer a motion that I'll hand out to everybody that deals with

retiring the meals tax upon some conditions being met in the future.

And I understand this is just a first reading of the meals tax and that we're going to have another discussion at the April 14th budget.

We're not voting on anything tonight, correct?

So this is a first reading.

So just to explain, the ordinance that is in our council packet is written as raising the meals tax 1% and that what I have proposed here is that if meals tax revenue declines 10% or more from levels recorded prior to July 1, 2015,

subsequent to the passage of the 1% meals tax, council shall retire the 1% meals tax increase effective midnight on June 30, 2017.

And so what that does is requires that staff monitor this as well as the industry monitor this very carefully so that if we see a decline in the revenue, it's not working for us.

And it also is an indication that it is really impacting negatively upon the industry.

I offer this as a second best solution.

As you well know, on the 26th I lobbied very hard to have a half percent meals tax as well as a two percent lodging tax to cover the debt that we had incurred in order to pay for our schools, in order to pay for our police, in order to pay for our debt service for all our infrastructure projects.

I was not able to convince the two counselors that were consistently opposed to any tax, and I wasn't able to convince the two counselors who were in favor of the 1% meals tax.

And so, given that I felt that it was extremely important that we fund essential services like our schools and our police, I did agree to the 1% meals tax on March 26th.

However, for all the reasons that have been already discussed, and later on this evening under other business, I will be putting forth a resolution to secure cost savings and increase efficiencies in local government that we can discuss at another time.

That in the coming year that we hopefully will wring out more efficiencies as we take a better look at how we do our assessments, how we do manage ourselves, how we collect our parking fines and enforce our parking ordinances.

I would consider seconding that motion if we could add one phrase to the end of your addition.

The addition says if meals tax revenue declines 10% or more from levels reported prior to July 1st, 2015, subsequent to the passage of the 1% meals tax, council should retire the 1% meals tax increase effective midnight June 30th, 2017.

And what I'd like to add would be a phrase that says a drop or declines 10% more or more from levels in a way that cannot be attributed to other causes.

because if something happens to the economy and this happens, then we would be without something at the very moment that we need it.

Well, I'm sorry.

It's our time to talk now.

Thanks.

It's not the most scientific proposal in the world.

I don't know how you would possibly know.

Why don't we just put a sunset on it?

Point blank.

I mean, I guess my position is that we've got

all sorts of potential tax revenues including what we will be doing about short-term rentals which we have in our budget right now is bringing in $40,000 when we're not even collecting it.

I'm saying that I think that if we put a concerted effort into finding this money

We've talked quite a lot though and I think you've talked as much as anyone about the need to have a sustainable funding source for schools and for our budget.

And I think that to do something with a sunset clause is the opposite of having sustainable funding.

It makes it one time funding, which is how we've been kind of meeting these gaps for years.

I actually did support a property tax

And it did not just magically disappear because we forgot.

It was something that came to Council in plenty of time for publication and we had three Councillors vote against it.

And so we did not have that option this year.

But it wasn't a mistake.

It wasn't a forgetting.

It was something that didn't happen because of Council will.

and so what we were left with then was a budget and I think that it's important to know that the items on the budget that this is going for are schools and if we have we have already asked we had hoped to have actually more funding for the schools they had to cut quite a few things if we have to ask the schools to cut more at this point

the people that it affects the most are the students most at risk.

And I'm not willing to do that.

So I think that we need to do the full tax.

And I also think that we need to

to fund public safety, which is something that many restaurant owners have been coming to us for over a year downtown, talking about the need for more public safety, the need for more police.

This covers that.

That's what we're talking about, the need for relational policing.

When we talk about the need to have police on the street developing relationships with people so that they're not just

attacking people who are breaking the law but are trying to prevent crime and trying to work with people who are at risk of committing crime and reduce crime in the city.

That takes manpower, woman power.

That takes more police.

And that's something that we have been asked to do and we're responding to that.

We also have been asked to do things along West Main Street for some of the very restaurants who are in this room to increase

the ability of people to be on that street, to enjoy that space, to come through there, to feel welcome there, and the infrastructure spending that we're looking at is for that area and for downtown.

And so these are things that will benefit the restaurants, the National Restaurant Association, the very restaurant association that was quoted several times today, has, when they said that a one cent meals tax does not impact

the number of people who eat out and the amount that they spend out nationally.

It doesn't.

What does affect the amount of people who eat out is the economy, the local economy.

If an economy and a community is thriving, people eat out more, people are out more.

If the community is not thriving, they don't.

If we don't have adequate education, infrastructure, and public safety, our economy will not thrive, and the restaurants will suffer as much as anyone else.

Mr. Mayor, we're working on two, on a couple things here.

First of all, we're trying to craft legislation on the fly, basically.

I know we have a work session coming up Thursday.

I like the idea of a sunset, but I think the wording would be very important.

And the other thing is,

at least the majority of the council did not have an idea that they were up against a time limit for noticing a lodging tax increase.

So I don't know where this would fit in the motions and the seconds and the passing on or whatever, but I think we have time to consider sharing the burden

that the restaurants are now being called on to bear by themselves, basically.

If it came down to it, we could advertise for a lodging tax increase.

We would not have to put it into effect, but at least the notice would be out there and the public could comment on it.

and that really should be, I mean if we do, if we discuss this Thursday it would give us another three days to think about this and to get legal advice on the wording for this business.

I have a question, a clarification though, Mayor Huja, Mr. Robertson.

Because we can't vote on these, what we're trying to move forward for a final vote is going to be, that date will be April 14th.

That's correct.

If you'll accept my second on this then we have a motion.

I accept your second.

Again, I've been opposed to this.

I believe that as soon as there were three indications that there were three votes, there was no longer any attempt to find

to bridge the gap as we have done in past years.

It is not sustainable funding.

It is a stop gap for one year in a deficit of a continuing deficit that we have seen for years and we're just gonna have to deal with it again next year.

There is no indication that we won't be back at the table for another tax increase next year if we follow this kind of philosophy.

I'm looking at just gleaned from the budget as well as our financial statements that there are myriad places where we could find the money.

including the fact that we are budgeting $500,000 for police that we have very little chance of actually seeing on July 1st as we are already in a deficit of bodies of actually policemen.

At a meeting today, Mr. Huja and I were attending.

It was noted that it takes 11 months even from the time of

application, getting a police officer to actually have them on the street.

I just don't believe that $500,000 is appropriate to fund through a meals tax because I don't think we'll need it, quite frankly.

I don't mind approving those positions, but I would like to see us do as we did last year, which is approve them with the expectation that we would fund them if we get them.

And we have so many pots of reserves in this city.

According to our financial statement, on page 15, it appears that we have even as much as 18, 19% of our operating budget, which is way over what we need.

It's $27.3 million unassigned, it says, but

I don't need to pop that on you.

But anyway, let me finish.

There are all sorts of expenses that, like that, that if we just shifted how we funded them with our large reserves of money and not calling them one-time funds, but funding them as we needed them, I do believe that we could find the funds that we need.

and we actually, right today, heard that there's $250,000 that isn't even assigned at this point.

And we keep hearing that and we do keep allocating.

We get a little bit of money and we assign it just such that we don't have too much savings here.

But anyway, my belief is that this is an inappropriate use of a meals tax because it is not actually buying us anything other than one year's reprieve from this continuing problem we have with not being able to meet the school's demands.

And I also mistake, as you brought up, West Main Street.

We are going to need a big chunk of money.

We've got huge capital projects out there that actually if you were going to increase the meals tax and get 2.4 million dollars in death service, you could do a lot of capital projects and that's very tangible.

and in fact could go a long way to actually helping the restaurant industry.

I do disagree with Peter on that we should have done a real estate tax.

I think that also is going to hurt the same community that you all are certainly convinced me that the meals tax will hurt.

I don't think a real estate tax is any more progressive than a meals tax.

Well, as a practical matter, since we're coming up against deadlines and we have a state deadline, correct?

Virginia deadline?

We have our own deadline.

Well, we have to have a balanced budget by the end of this fiscal year.

Well, I'll go ahead and say what I was going to say.

If we have a deadline and we don't feel like we should change the city policy, we could pass a budget with the provision that we will have extra time to consider a lodging tax increase or as Ms. Smith just said, find other revenues.

So this is not something we have to decide tonight.

We have time to work on it and I would just hate to see us

Yes, I just want to reiterate that what I have proposed is a measure that will retire this tax when we discover, if we discover, that the revenues are decreasing and the qualifications Ms. Szakos has added

that it is related to the tax itself, not any other externality.

That is what needs to be determined.

These are things that we can charge our city manager to monitor along with economic development staff looking at revenues and trends in our restaurant industry as well as in our lodging industry because that does look like there might be additional revenues as new hotels come online.

And as we get our transient lodging tax,

finalized our transit lodging ordinance finalized and implemented.

So I think what I do want the public to not misunderstand, however, is that somehow this this the needs of our city schools is a fiction.

That is a real danger if we don't think about our public educational system as being the backbone of our local economy.

and as the future of our city, i.e.

its children.

So let me, if you may, I'd like to just reiterate a few kind of statistics that we are a growing school division.

There's 325 more students from 2010 to 2011 to 2014 and 15.

That was 3,776 students to 4,101.

So that's an increase that parallels our 10% increase in our population.

So when a school system is growing, it's often related to its enrollment numbers.

It's a very positive thing that we've got a growing school division.

Many cities have been losing their children, but this is a growing one.

Between 2008-09 and 2014-15, state and federal funding dropped $2.8 million.

So think about it.

At that time period, the state and federal funding was going down as our numbers of children were going up.

That left only the locality to provide the resources needed to fill the gap.

Kindergarten enrollment in 2014 is 54% higher than grade four was in 2013.

54% more.

That's more children coming into the system.

and contrary to some of the depictions of our school division as not being successful in meeting its mission to educate all children, I would like to point out that there is an avid program that is all geared towards getting first-year, first-generation children going to college.

There's a hundred percent of those students that go to college.

Our on-time graduation rates in 2014 was 88.8%.

Of that, 85% was for the black students.

Four to six years ago, when I was on school board, that was around 60%.

The dropout rate has declined from 10.2% to 5.6% in 2014.

And the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission identified our city school division as having an exemplary third grade reading achievement program.

and the demographic challenges cannot be understated.

It ranked 14 out of 132 school divisions just as recently as 2011.

The reading achievement tests have changed and there's always gonna be a change in results.

So it's really important to know what the facts are as well and not just listen to conflicting information.

There's a real need here and that is to fund our public schools.

Again, I do believe with many of my colleagues that we can find other resources.

We did lose that opportunity to consider the real estate tax.

We have lost the opportunity to look at the lodging tax because of notification and budget deadlines.

I think at the end of the evening, if we can all agree to pass this resolution to secure cost savings and

increased efficiencies in local government and have timed certain deadlines for our city staff to finish their reviews, I think we will have a much firmer understanding of what's possible.

Right now, however, there is a budget gap and we have got to move or else we're gonna be like Washington, D.C. and General Assembly in Richmond where we don't have a past budget.

Is that the kind of infection you want to hit Charlottesville?

That we too don't pass our budgets because it goes on and on and on with circular logic?

So I think it's really important that we understand

that this is the time has come to make a decision.

I am very saddened by the fact that on March 26th, I made an impassioned plea to have a diversified tax regiment.

We could have had the proper notification then.

And the two counselors at the other end of the dais did not say anything.

So I'm puzzled by this, talking now, tonight, about all the monies and the pots of monies that we could be gleaning savings from.

We've been talking about this since the first week in February.

So I think it's quite important for the public to understand, this is not something that any of us have been taking lightly.

It is something that has been done diligently and prudently and methodically.

And we've had arguments and disputes

Let me now make a few comments.

I know you all had chances to talk.

When we started the budget process, there was a shortfall of more than $3 million.

The money doesn't grow on trees.

And we had to deal with something, and partly it was because of the education, public safety needs.

The most basic needs of the community.

Education and Public Safety.

So we need to raise some more funds, and I think the means tax is a logical and a good source of revenue.

We are now 4 percent, statewide average is 6 percent.

So we will still be under the statewide average.

I think my mind and I still say to Peter, it is not going to have that much effect on your business, but again, I could be wrong.

So I would like to support this motion on the floor.

We're not going to vote today.

We're only voting it on the 14th.

I'd just like to reiterate that I think with relative ease we could at least get down to a half cent.

And let's all keep in mind that we have the second highest cost of living in

the state of Virginia, second to Northern Virginia.

We also have the best quality of community in our country.

We don't have a lot of us do.

Second public hearing.

You're going to come back to the items later.

Next on the hearing is on proposed budget 2016.

You had a brief presentation at the start of the meeting.

Can I ask now my other clarifying question that I wasn't allowed to ask for, which was not have to do with the mail's tax?

So I have another clarifying question that stemmed from our presentation.

It's 17.

Oh, it's gone up to 17?

Well, a few years ago, we changed the policy.

So there's two policies.

Let me just clarify.

We went from 12 to 14 for the General Fund Reserve.

And then there's a 3 percent fund that we set up, an economic downturn fund, and we have rules for tapping into that as well if we need to in the case of emergency.

So that goes to the second part.

Thank you.

That totally clarified my question.

That's correct.

So there's been no formal policy of the change and the current CIP does not hit the 8% mark.

So if that is an interest of council, we would prepare a policy to bring back to city council to look at that specifically.

So that's where we stand right now.

So do you know what the reserve requirement per our debt at this point is?

14, is it 12, is it?

We don't know.

So we've increased our reserves, but we haven't increased our debt.

That's correct.

Our debt limit.

Okay, debt limit.

And then can I get clarification for the next meeting on

Page 15 of the four-year 14 financial statement that's on, it's on our website.

It's just for page 15.

It's got a lot of great numbers in it, and I'd just like some clarification on what it means.

If you read it, you'll see what I mean.

Our budget for 2016, we have a public hearing.

A few people signed up.

I'm Marta Kane.

I'm the CEO of Java and thank you for giving me a few minutes to address you all tonight.

I wanted to thank you for your past support and encourage you to support this year's budget as presented by the city administrator and his staff.

I did want to make sure you recognize that the monies for mountainside for the last 10 years have gone away.

You gave us the time to create sustainability.

and we appreciate that and we also wanted to stick with our commitment to all of you to reduce that and thank you for allowing us to do that.

I did want to make sure that you appreciate that there's a growing need for the needs of seniors.

Those demographics over the next nine or ten years, one out of four of us will be 65 or older.

and yes so a few more of us will be joining those ranks over the next nine or ten years and I think as we try to look for efficiencies we also recognize that some things will dramatically change as you think about the demographics of what that brings to the city.

I did want to also remind you that the money you provide is approximately 25% of the support and we leverage all of that with the other revenue that we get

from our other business ventures, our fees, our state and federal monies and our grants so that we can provide robust services.

So that makes it a pretty good deal for all of you to have a much broader program in seniors by us being able to bring more to the dollars that you give us.

We do have a continuum of services, information and resources, our community center,

Mary Williams Community Center with the meals, health services so that we're able to monitor people's health needs, help them with medication management.

We're going to be building some chronic disease self-management programs so that we can have a longer term impact on people's health than just the day-to-day that we're doing right now.

Home delivered meals, of course volunteers and we've got friends in the schools helping.

which Charlottesville is the first place and all of the schools have volunteers in it.

And so we like to think that that benefits both sides, both the youngsters and the schools as well as the seniors that have purpose and feel good about it.

And of course our adult care center.

And so I just want to thank you for that, remind you that the clients have shown anywhere from 94 to 99% satisfaction.

and together I think we're all making a difference in seniors' lives.

Thank you.

Let me just start off by saying I have a great deal of respect for all of you and what you're doing.

Being a city council member, city manager, is not an easy thing.

Just because we don't agree politically doesn't mean that I bear any ill will towards any of you.

A couple of questions on Galvin, Ms. Galvin, 10% increase

in population, that would be 4,700 people.

10% increase from 2010 to 2014.

Is that correct?

Anything recently came out from welding.

But a 10% increase over four or five years, okay.

Thank you.

Going back to Ms. Szakos, I want you to know that we employ an awful lot of the parents that send their kids to school.

A lot of those people that are sending their children to public schools to get this education we all want them to have working for us.

We don't have the jobs for them.

It doesn't matter how good the schools are because they can't afford to get a good living.

We want good schools.

We want public safety.

We want all the things you want.

We want parks and urban planning and West Main Street.

We want it all too.

Our whole point was the way the budget came around.

I didn't want you to raise real estate tax either.

The assessments took the money up.

But the way it was spun to the public, the way it was spun to the public was that we missed it.

It was in paper.

Like nobody had to take accountability for the vote.

Thank you for letting us know tonight that there actually was a vote.

The public didn't find out about that.

Same thing with the lodging increase.

I've talked to several of you.

We've been talking for weeks.

I have sent emails and have a string of emails begging you guys to find out whether or not

there's a seven day or two week told no, no, no miraculously down the stretch like one day away.

It's just hard to take that in that we were responsible up here and making the lodging tax go in.

We've done everything we can.

We put the studies in front of you.

Some of you are listening and paying attention.

Some people don't want to hear what we have to say and take everything and spin it in another direction.

I wish you all the best in getting this budget together.

I did not enjoy the last seven weeks.

It's taken a lot of energy out of me to try to explain to you what's going to happen to our industry.

And I don't know how you guys do it, because politics is a brutal place.

I urge you all to make the right decision.

Find a way to fund this budget without putting the restaurant industry at risk.

We want the same things you do, but we should not be responsible to make them happen.

Anyone else would like to speak on budget?

Good evening, Councillors.

Colette Hall, 101 Robertson Lane in the city.

A headline from the March 26, 2015 Daily Progress, quote, legal aid far likely to see big funding cuts.

HANL recommend decreased funding after judging fiscal policies.

Gretchen Ellis, a member of the agency budget review team and human resource planner of the city,

said all the applications are reviewed based on respective strategy goals outlined by the City and the County.

The criteria were approved by the City Council and the County Board of Supervisors in 2012.

The rating for Farr's internship program received a quote, fair rating for a second consecutive year.

Legal Aid Justice Center received a quote, fair rating for two of its programs in this year's report, culminating in the review team recommending the city decrease funding for both programs.

Programs that receive a fair grade for a second year in a row do not get recommended for funding, she said, end quote.

In the very next day, the headline, a headline in the daily progress of March 27, 2015, quote, city council reverses agency cuts.

Quote, the council restored some funding for several agencies that have been facing cuts to their programs, including FAR and Legal Aid Justice Center, end quote.

The article also goes on to say from Budget Director Leslie Beauregard that these budget amendments will increase the budget by over $400,000.

So why have a rating system at all?

to be as polite as possible.

This rating system is not only a farce, but also hypercritical, hypothetical.

I believe it is motivated for political expediency.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else who would like to speak on budget, 2016 budget?

As we start the discussion, just to put it on the table, I'd like to go ahead and make a motion for the tax levy ordinance, which is the property tax ordinance that we have to have in place.

And should we do the budget one as well, since they're both just first readings?

Okay, so now other comments.

Well, Mayor Huja, I just have a question then because I do have a resolution here about that.

Should I bring that up under other business or is this the appropriate time also to bring it up?

Under other business, okay.

And I do have some other

questions or raise an issue that I know some of you have probably been getting questions raised from individuals in the community about the African American Teaching Fellows and I've been having communication with people on the school board and I haven't quite got a firm answer yet but it seems like there might have been a misunderstanding of what was reported and is this something that we can still discuss on Thursday in the event

that we need to reconsider.

Can we get actual information?

Ms. Geller, I suggest that if you can wait until Thursday and discuss these things that we have.

Yeah.

On Thursday, will we actually see a plan for the increased police?

Because we haven't yet.

What kind of issue is that?

And I would like to note, and we'll talk about this next, last year when the Charlottesville area transit received a federal grant of half a million dollars, we actually cut our local funding for transit, not by that much, but by a big chunk.

This year, interestingly, and we're going to talk about this next, we just got a windfall for basically affordable housing.

And it would be another interesting conversation to have as to whether it would offset some of the funds that we have allocated for affordable housing.

But that will be in our next conversation.

I just want to throw that out.

And let's do remember that we also have $250,000 unallocated on the table.

So this is not a vote.

No.

The motions have been made.

We've basically done what we needed to do.

And we have other business.

Are we moving on?

Oh, OK.

I thought you were saying that was other business.

We have the two consent items that we still need to talk about.

Unless you think, I don't know what you're talking about.

It's related to budget.

It's fine.

And as we pass this down, I just wanted, Mr. Huja actually passed me a note a little while ago.

What time does the basketball game start?

It starts at 9.18.

Oh.

And no need to rush on behalf of basketball.

But we want to maintain goodwill.

Yes.

So this is a resolution, I've called it, to secure cost savings and increase efficiencies in local government.

Whereas local government must be ever vigilant in its search for management efficiencies and best practices so as to continue to provide excellent services without overly burdening Charlottesville taxpayers, and whereas recent tax increases to balance the fiscal year 2016 city budget were necessitated by the growing needs of our city schools,

the need to increase our law enforcement presence in our business corridors and neighborhoods, and the need to invest in our infrastructure and contribute to our debt service payments, thereby keeping our AAA bond rating.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that coincident with the passage of new taxes to balance the FY 2016 city budget, Charlottesville City Council hereby authorizes the city manager to undertake a review of the city's overall management efficiency, real estate assessments and procedures,

transient lodging and parking plan implementation, overall tax revenue trends, and fines and business license collections.

Be it further resolved that the city manager will complete the review of government-wide management efficiency, real estate assessments and procedures, transient and parking ordinance implementation, fine and business line

Counselor, can I ask a clarifying question?

If you're asking for those to be completed by June of 2016, that would affect the budget negotiations.

If we're moving forward, that would affect the budget negotiations for fiscal year 18.

That sounds like a good one.

And can I request one other piece for Thursday, and that is

Okay.

Let's go back to Constaniganda.

I did

And those are CDBG mostly?

CDBG funds, yes.

As opposed to home funds.

Is there,

Are there restrictions on how those can be used in terms of affordable housing?

They cannot be used for the social funds and they had to be focused on housing and infrastructure.

Because of timeliness requirements, we have to spend these funds within a certain time frame.

an extra RFP went out to provide for shovel ready projects that would meet the criteria that could be funded so that as soon as these funds are available they could break ground and those funds could be spent otherwise we

We lose those funds basically if they're not spent within a time frame.

What is the time frame?

Each May you have to be at one and a half times your entitlement allocation.

So we're allowed to, in our general realm of where we are now, we can still have $600,000 in process, but we have to be down to that level.

So even though if a project is out- This is significantly complete by the end of May.

Spent, yes.

Spent.

Bonus repayment surplus.

Correct.

No, by May of next year.

All of the funds are allocated as part of the RFP process.

So we had the RFP process that occurs regularly in the fall prior to when the budget comes to you and then we had a special RFP process

Yeah, I do.

I was concerned about the land trust and actually had a question because it says for an existing home

I know.

I looked actually in the materials to see if there was any explanation for it.

My concern about it was that we have bought land for the Thomas Jefferson Land Trust before, and that was the Nunley House.

and we couldn't sell it and one of the reasons given was because it was on a land trust, a piece of land that didn't go with the house and my husband and I spent a sabbatical in Vancouver a while back and there were very similar, it was actually because of indigenous populations, there was land that the houses didn't own the land and they too were really hard to sell.

There's a, it's,

It is very easy to sell or it is possible to sell.

Now, it could be that nobody else wanted them.

Each of the RFP, the prior one and the special one, were very competitive.

There typically are.

And the other thing, it would have been, I think, really, I'm not objecting to any of these, they're a little off the typical project, it seems, for us really looking for increasing affordable housing, but

whatever.

It's a federal program, right?

Except for the city business.

It's really you can go through them and you can, each one of them could be in fact applied to

our city funds will go to benefit existing city residents.

And all of these programs except for the down payment assistance are required specifically to go to city residents.

Now the model for down payment assistance has gone forward as such that if someone who lives and works

and or works within the city of Charlottesville is eligible to get those funds.

They have to live or work for a period of time.

Correct.

And the time frame.

It's a six month time frame that PHA is

who does most of the down payment that they've lived or worked within the city for six months at least prior to being eligible for those funds.

It does.

I continue to be concerned.

I'm also concerned when we give down payment assistance to projects and to specifically to units where we've also invested in the construction of the unit.

Just my concern being that some units are getting a very heavy subsidy, whereas other units are not getting enough subsidy, whether it's rehab versus a

a new unit that we've put $50,000 into the construction of it, then another $25,000 into the down payment.

Well the down payment would be specific to the client and so we would have the costs that were in the specific units whereas the down payment assistance would assist that client and if that client were to leave then another client could potentially be placed in that situation so

That would go with the person, the rehab, or the construction would go with the actual structure itself.

Yeah, it does.

It still is, you know, it appears that this actually has happened, and I don't know if we do keep track of the investment, the city investment per unit.

Yes, in fact, most of the time that they can't overlap and if we've got a rehab situation, someone can't receive rehab funds again within a certain time frame.

It's the same with our paint program.

You can't receive paint again within a certain time frame to try and spread the funds as much as possible.

And so the down payment in sort of a specific place where existing city residents could be applied for down payment

is that Habitat, which I believe is getting some of the down payment funds, are required to work with public housing residents as part of the Elliott Avenue.

Well, and I'm generally supportive of trying to target these things at city residents.

I would want to make sure that in cases where it's somebody who works for the city or who has kids in the city schools that it not be too rigid because then we may end up hurting the very people we're trying to help.

Because we want people to live

who work in the city to live in the city, just kind of ecologically as well.

But my concern in the short term about that is that, especially in the bonus entitlement ones that we have here, a couple of those, and I just happen to be looking at those because I didn't know we'd be discussing this, but I know that both Arc and the Piedmont, well, Arc and the Piedmont Ready Kids and on our own, it's not so much specific units, it's a building that serves the whole region, and so

I don't think you could just do like a third of the roof of ready kids because a third of their clientele are city residents.

So I just want to make sure that we don't that that doesn't fall into those.

Right, no, no, and I understand that.

They're in the city though, all of those buildings.

And I don't actually have an issue with that.

But Hope House, we've had an issue that if we're funding it that our residents would not get,

the folks getting them were not necessarily city residents.

And my focus on this is really that I really worry that we invest, we're very proud of how much, how many resources we put into affordable housing, but if we're not making any, if we're not helping our own, if we're not making a dent, basically, in the overall issue we have with our own families that we're, you know,

And I know it's a hard thing to keep track of, but... Well, in order for us to cut the CDBG checks and home checks, the individuals or the organizations have to turn in all of their required paperwork, which denotes who they serve, when they serve them, how they serve them.

And we verify that their

our funds are assisting city residents and that their programs meet the criteria because the HUD representatives come in here and audit us as well.

I move to approve the CDBG home recommendations.

The discussion?

Don't vote.

Council, I just wanted to clarify.

Oh, the first reading.

So the first reading.

Dede?

Yes.

Meadow Creek Stream Valley Park, or whatever the name of our newest park there over there.

And plants.

I'm gonna get it up here.

But that didn't even upset me as much as there was a rather impressive discussion about invasive vines in the park.

and then they said they were going to grow vines along there.

On the retaining wall.

We were guessing that you all were denoting this here, which it noted proposed concrete retaining wall with green screen grid to accommodate fines on wall.

And we do have the applicant here and they may be able to speak to this a little bit more detailed as well.

But in talking with Ms. Poole, it was noted that the representatives from Kroger have been working with Hearthwood and they've been talking back and forth about what

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

concern that becomes a condition on this, that the site plan is still under review and that that is something that does get looked at as part of the site planning process.

But I don't want to speak too out of turn.

Yeah.

And I do have a follow up question, too, because I would like to know

Chrissy, what was the ultimate follow-up with the Naivet Association, because I do see there was good engagement with Mr. Barnes and the Greenbrier Naivet Association, but the only thing I read at the end was that he was given additional drawings.

I don't know if they've met in addition to what has occurred before.

Hello, my name is Fenton Childers.

I work for the Kroger Company's real estate manager in Roanoke, Virginia.

I'm pleased to be here tonight to talk about our new store.

I may defer some of your questions to our civil engineer here, but we're proud to have been servicing the city of Charlottesville for probably 40 years.

We're proposing to make a significant investment

in trying to revitalize a very established Seminole Square shopping center with a larger store.

That larger store has required us to push the development back toward the rear property line, which has required the retaining wall.

We've talked a lot about screening this wall to soften the impact.

We've worked very closely with Alex Cannon,

Cannon Properties, owners of the Hearthwood Apartments.

We're working out an easement agreement with Hearthwood to plant additional trees and vegetation on their property to help with the screening.

They had requested for us to install a grid system to allow an ivy to grow up that wall to soften that effect.

certainly nothing evasive like Kudzu or anything like that but we are open to which plants are installed as long as the city has any preferences we're glad to do that.

I listen to a lot of discussion about tax revenue.

Kroger has two stores in the city and provides a lot of tax revenue.

We may probably be one of the highest taxed

There are new competitors that are building in Albemarle County that will take sales tax away from the city.

So we're glad to stabilize that tax base, provide new jobs, and invest over 20 million dollars in this new store.

I think my issue would be addressed if y'all would just pass your plant choices through the Tree Commission, John Mann, John Mann with Parks and Rec and the Tree Commission.

passed by, just in case there's any red flags.

I think Kroger's great.

They'll be required to be plantings that are on the city of Duluth plant list, and if there's something that's alternative to that, then Tim Hughes

And the tree commission, too, because what's on the city list, quite frankly, is not ideal.

It's a little outdated.

So, you know, again, it's because of the conservation easement.

I have two questions that don't have any impact on my voting yes for this because I plan to vote yes, but just because we've got you here and since we didn't have the big presentation and everything and I actually missed the Planning Commission meeting that you presented at.

Two quick questions.

Will it be possible to get to the store from behind?

I do not think that there is a way for people that are on the other side of the creek

My other question is how many more jobs?

Do you know?

I would estimate, you know, we're doubling the size of the store that's currently there at Hydraulic.

So I would say that probably incrementally, probably another 75 jobs.

Second.

Second.

And that's not to take away from what you said, but since they already said they were going to do it, I figured it didn't need to be.

Missy, I'll open up the meeting for public comments.

Someone wants to watch basketball.

I was looking at the budget proposed budget for the county and I see the same comment in the city budget when it comes to the money that was earmarked for the CARES program last fiscal year.

Apparently there was not enough time for another agency to

asked for an appropriation of the CARES money which is the ongoing crisis assistance program that both the city and county do.

And I'm hoping that the $84,000 or almost $84,000 that's not being asked for is going to be parked with a similar agency with the city as the county is doing because homelessness starts with a crisis.

It can be a crisis that you may not have enough, you may be ill and don't have

PTO or paid time off and you find yourself not able to pay an electric bill, be short on your rent.

If you have a car, we all have to maintain a car.

If you're a homeowner, you may have a maintenance issue.

So I'm hoping that you will go with what the ABRT team staff recommended and that that money find a nice home with another agency within the city that does crisis management.

And also I wanted to say again, thank you for the funding for Spring for Housing.

I've shed a lot of happy tears in the last week.

Thank you very much.