City Council Meeting   8/15/2016

Ms. Rice, if you could please call the roll.

Mr. Fenwick?

Here.

Mr. Signer?

Here.

Here.

You could also say it after I've read it.

So thank you so much.

And it is, yeah, we're all very moved.

And you've done that for us, so thank you.

So thank you.

Would you like to... Just go right here on the microphone.

That way people at home can hear you as well.

God bless.

A group of citizens has gotten together and written cards to the cons and they're now giving them to them.

and we love you.

Mr. Mayor, we'll go outside and let you conduct your business.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you very much.

And then we'll go on to the announcements that everyone has.

Signed and sealed this 15th day of August 2016.

Is there a recipient here for this?

Ms. Hoffman, any of your colleagues?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So people from the Fry's Spring neighborhood, we encourage you to come to Johnson Elementary School at 1645 Cherry Avenue.

Mr. Bellamy?

Can we give them a round of applause, please?

This is our 10th summer and we appreciate your support and Ben will share a little bit about how that contribution has helped him.

I have a really big interest or you know I'm really interested in police work and my boss Joe Rice helped me set that up and I had just an incredible time and I just wanted to thank Misty for everything that the program has helped me achieve over this past six weeks.

Thanks.

my years and I'm just happy to meet Misty and the whole CAT program and thank you.

So appreciate you guys.

Misty, you helped a little bit because it's Devony and the last name is?

Watson.

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Bellamy, was that the last of your announcements?

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, 24 August, City Space, 6 to 8 p.m., please come.

Mr. Jones.

Just a couple of responses to the July 19th council meeting.

So we have followed up on that with the police department.

Please give your name and address before beginning your remarks.

Joanne Robertson is first.

Thank you.

Michael Del Rosso, thank you all.

I have packages for you all too.

Jeff Vogel.

It's funny because I thought I won the lottery tonight.

For those people who didn't, pardon me?

Address please.

When I signed up?

You don't want to respond.

If you ask me to write it down when I sign up, why are you asking me again?

It's just customary.

Customary, and that's a good reason?

I know.

Will Leister

and Nancy Carpenter.

That's all I'm simply asking.

Stephanie Marshall.

Thank you.

Shymora Cooper.

And I also want to thank the previous council members for all of their support in helping make this happen.

Mary Carey.

So right now I would like for everybody in support of Crescent Halls right now to stand up.

OK, those are not standing.

But anyway, thank you.

Thank you.

City Council, you better wake up and smell the coffee because breakfast is over.

Deborah Booker.

Thank you.

Good.

That ain't cool.

Another one.

Oh, yeah, have a great day.

Take as many as you like.

And I don't see why y'all can't get it done now.

Thanks, ma'am.

I just wanted to thank Mary Carey for going online and Coco, you mean Coco?

I'll be Coco.

Can I have a cookie?

Mr. Jones would you mind doing that?

If everybody could just, providing you with the responses.

Okay, so we really, the problem is we don't run the Housing Authority.

So we, maybe so.

Okay, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to

So the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we need to do for, the first thing in which we

I'm sorry.

of my response.

When we look at, when we look at, so once again, if we cannot keep this respectful and allow us to finish speaking, we're going to have to terminate this part of the meeting and I think it's actually a really good opportunity for the elected officials to speak.

So while we continue to respond, okay, Miss Gary, thank you, Miss Gary, thank you, thank you, thank you, you're fine.

So when we look at moving forward,

Thank you, Mayor Signer.

Okay, we're moving on to the next item on the agenda.

I'm talking about it.

We're going to take a break for five minutes, thanks.

and Michael

Okay.

How do we get this?

Not sure.

So Mr. Fenwick, if you could do that item.

We just have one.

All in favor?

Just to clarify, that was the position that the Human Rights Commission appointed and they appointed her, or they recommended her, so that's it.

Congratulations, Ms. Lewis.

Ms. Rice, would you mind reading?

And item P, an Ordinance, Zoning Text Amendment, Telecommunications Facilities, first of two readings.

Okay, is there a motion to approve?

So moved.

Okay, moving on to the public hearing ordinance, Dominion utility right-of-way agreements to serve the YMCA.

Mr. Brown.

Okay, any questions?

Why does it have to go all the way around?

I think because of the design of the building call for all those connections to be on the north side.

Is that a visual thing?

And if I didn't mention it, this particular right-of-way, the one you've identified, Counselor Szakos, is underground.

Alright, thank you.

It originates with a pole next to the bypass.

I guess I was wondering why you had to dig all the way around the building to the other side rather than just going inside the walls of the building itself.

Is there a motion?

Mayor Signer, I move that we pass an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of three easements to Dominion Virginia Power to permit electric utility poles and lines on and across city property to serve the YMCA facility in McIntyre Park.

First of first readings, Katherine McHugh presenting.

Good evening, counselors.

and she's going to be observing tonight in anticipation of coming back to y'all in September.

Nice first meeting.

Thank you and welcome.

Not to put you on the spot, but it would be nice to meet you though here.

I have 15 to 20 years of affordable housing experience, mostly on the policy side until I got to the Housing Authority, so that's why I'm here.

Nice to meet you.

City staff supports this proposal and recommends approval of the resolution before you tonight and again I'd be glad to respond to any questions and I have Mr. Rosenzweig here with me to help out.

There's no prohibition, in other words.

If the lot allows for that, absolutely.

And can we continue building accessory units into these houses so that we are actually expanding opportunities?

I don't know that Habitat has done accessory units before, and depending on the zoning within a lot, not all zoning classifications allow for ADUs.

I thought what was really restricting us is underlying covenants.

and Dan would like to step up and speak.

Or Mr. Rosenzweig.

Dan, Mr. Rosenzweig.

a single structure perhaps with several accessory structures but that's not allowable by city zoning at this point but it's a model that's actually worked for Habitat for Humanity of Puerto Rico where there's so much poverty that so few people could be homeowners they've actually built a structure with several subordinate units and they've counted the income from the rentals into the mortgage structure it's something that we'd like to look at but not something that necessarily we have plans to do now

Is this something that the Housing Advisory Committee could look at?

I have a question.

I'm not asking for a long speech, but a couple minutes, I'd be really interested given that we've gone through this pretty quickly.

Tell us everything you know about housing and how it goes.

So I think these are good conversations to have, but I would be cautious about going like the federal model because I think you'll end up

We should say for the public's knowledge, the allocation remaining in the consent agenda for AHIP came from the Affordable Housing Fund as well, so you see the versatility of how this fund can be used.

It would be to our city manager, right, to work with you all to put that together, right?

We do hang a sign on every single home that we build, and we're happy to put the city's logo on every one of those signs.

Okay.

and in doing that in an appropriate fashion is something that's kind of yet to be determined and maybe working with our communications office, we could figure that out.

because you need that market rate energy, you need the pioneers to come in and you don't want to kind of spook the market.

But I understand that you're trying to be kind of almost under the radar.

Are there further questions or comments?

I'd like to make a motion that we grant Habitat for Humanity $480,000 to use for scattered site affordable housing land purchases.

Second.

Any discussion?

It's very, very heartwarming to see the work that you all do and support it.

That was extremely helpful, so thanks very much for that kind of detailed package.

That was the first.

Mr. Mayor, before she walks out of the room, I just wanted to thank Kathy McHugh once again for her service to the city.

Thank you.

We will miss you.

Okay, last item on the regular agenda is an update from the Office of Human Rights, Ms. Charlene Green presenting.

I'll take any questions.

Any questions?

And so there's no, the EEOC won't come here even if it has a case?

So I would imagine they don't come up here unless in doing the investigation they have to interview people who are in this area obviously.

So I just wondered, that's a long question, but what metrics, what resources are you using for doing that?

So no, there's not a metric that we are using specifically, but so far we seem to have been successful with getting information from the department folks and then them talking amongst themselves and figuring out what direction they think they need to go in next.

I hope it's just not the end.

And so I'm hoping at that particular opportunity we'll find a little bit better metric to assess better where we're going with the Human Rights Commission.

Thank you.

So do you have an estimated time of arrival?

Most likely by November.

But do you have a breakdown of what's happened to them?

And they agreed with the founding, finding

And are the others either just resolved themselves or still pending?

Yes.

So I know that that is back on the burner.

Right.

That's all.

When you mentioned a finding, is that a finding on your end or the EEOC's end?

after the fact and that's usually the following year and you don't even know if it's very specific to the individual situation that may have been referred that you know what the disposition of that case ends up being.

So if you were going to send somebody to Richmond, do you lose any clients at that point, just they don't want to make the trip?

legally have access to.

That was a lead in question because the last question I have would be would there be any value for Skype to be involved in this just to save the trip to Richmond?

and express their concern or whether they're going to Fair Housing Office or the EEOC, it all has to be confidential.

Oh certainly, yeah.

I know it's something that we kind of think about and sometimes discuss, but I don't think we have a policy that says this is... No, they're coming to the same conclusion.

some sort of a joint work session or just to be able to do some information exchange because this is a group that deals with physical planning and physical space but there's understanding that there's that impact that you're talking about which is cultural and social and economic.

That sounds like a great idea.

Okay, I'll make that happen.

So I think I.

And so thank you for your leadership and the opportunity to have this office in place and to try to address the community's needs in that manner.

Likewise.

Any other business from colleagues?

And I sent out some information to everybody earlier today.

They need to have it by then so that they know how to begin to plan the invitations, get the announcements out with the proper information.

So is the gist of that that you're asking, not that we decide tonight but at the next meeting, $2,000 to help sponsor it from the Council Priorities Fund?

Yes, that will be the request.

setting expectations for many other wonderful events that would could be described in equally going terms and then how would we disappoint and I just actually got a request today for a similar for an event about cultural preservation that was asking for council to support it with an event that they're doing very ironically and there was one last week so I'm left torn so I would really like to know what the if anybody else has any other

I think that this is the sort of thing that we've talked about these issues a lot in this body that this is a potential resource to us and to me that sort of brings it to that level and I'm sure there are other things like it but I don't think that's unreasonable.

Any other?

So that's just my comment to start.

I feel like we hear these kind of talks all the time.

The idea that sometimes it takes a profit from outside your town to be able to talk about things and people start to hear it a little differently.

We've had several profits from outside.

And we don't seem to get enough of that conversation.

We have to have the fortitude to go forward and we're lacking that.

I was just...

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Okay, any other business?

There will also be teenagers driving to school.

The biggest thing this body does in this city is fund our schools.

We want to keep all those children alive and healthy and learning at school and walking to school hopefully.

If anybody would like to speak, please just come up and state your name and address and you have three minutes.

But thank you for mentioning that, and we'll follow up.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Going, going on?

Okay, well thank you very much, we're adjourned.