City Council Meeting   10/3/2016

Music

Dr. Michael Kochis

Dr. Michael Kochis

I'm

Opening this meeting with Charlottesville City Council.

Let's do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Fenwick?

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Ms. Galvin?

Oh, yeah, okay, we have two.

All right, well, I'll start then.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

and we have a proclamation to note it.

Whereas the problems of domestic violence are not confined to any group of people but cross all economic, racial, and societal barriers and are supported by societal indifference.

And whereas the crime of domestic violence violates an individual's privacy, dignity, security, and humanity due to systematic use of physical, emotional, sexual, psychological, and economic control or abuse with the impact of this crime being wide-ranging.

and whereas no one person, organization, agency or community can eliminate domestic violence on their own, and we must work together to educate our entire population about what can be done to prevent such violence, supporting victims, survivors and their families.

and increased support for agencies providing services to those community members and whereas the shelter for health and emergency has led the way in the city of Charlottesville in addressing domestic violence by providing 24-hour hotline services to victims, survivors and their families, offering support and information and empowering survivors to chart their own course for healing.

and whereas the Shelter for Help and Emergency commemorates its 37th year of providing unparalleled services to women, children and men who have been victimized by domestic violence.

Now, therefore, be it resolved in recognition of the important work being done by the Shelter for Help and Emergency that we, the City Council, Mike Signer, Mayor of the City of Charlottesville, to hereby proclaim the month of October 2016 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month and urge all citizens to actively participate in the scheduled activities and programs

sponsored by the Shelter for Help and Emergency, and to work toward the elimination of personal and institutional violence against women, children, and men.

Thank you.

I have a proclamation here for the

Focused Ultrasound Foundation, Dr. Neil Casales here with us and will receive this.

and I'll read the proclamation in a second, but I should say it's been my pleasure to have been at two briefings now where I've personally gotten to hear about the utterly remarkable, moving, profound work that this organization is doing on research that will save many, many people's lives and make their lives better, quicker than they would if they did not exist.

and they're also within the city of Charlottesville's limits, so they're adding to us in all kinds of ways.

Proclamation honoring Focused Ultrasound Foundation, whereas the Focused Ultrasound Foundation is dedicated to advancing focused ultrasound, a revolutionary non-invasive therapeutic technology that may improve millions of patients' lives, and whereas the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, founded and chaired by neurosurgeon Neil Cassell, MD,

has partnered with the Commonwealth and industry to create the University of Virginia Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence, which is a leading site for patient care and research in movement disorders, epilepsy, prostate cancer, uterine fibroids, bone metastases, breast tumors, and other serious diseases.

And whereas the foundation has raised an excess of $75 million to fund groundbreaking research at UVA and around the world.

Now therefore be it resolved that the Focused Ultrasound Foundation is hereby recognized as a beacon of medical advancement and economic development committed to improving treatment options for patients in Charlottesville, the Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond.

I think the proclamation said it all, but I would like to accept this recognition on behalf of all the people who are working so hard to transform the vision of improving the lives of millions of patients around the world with serious medical disorders.

using this groundbreaking technology, and that includes our donors, the council, the board of directors, but most importantly, the 22 super athletes who work in our facility here in Charlottesville.

Thank you.

Okay, now on to announcements.

We have a number tonight.

Ms. Galvin, if you would lead off.

Sure.

City seeks input on efficiency study.

On October 18 and 19, the City will engage the community in two community roundtables regarding its efficiency study.

The purpose of these meetings will be to solicit community input for the city's efficiency study to learn what city operations the community appreciates and to identify opportunities for improved efficiency in city services.

Here are the details.

October 18th, from 730 to 9pm at the Carver Recreation Center, light refreshments will be served.

October 19, 1130 to 1pm Carver Recreation Center lunch will be served.

We hope that anyone who is able to participate will come in one of these focus groups on this very, very important subject that has direct bearing on your well-being and quality of life.

So the only other thing I'd like to point out is that the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has put out a nice publication

called the Reservoir Water Quality and Management Study, a first look.

I am the council's representative on the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Board.

And you can probably find this publication on the website www.rivanna.org.

I also have a report.

This is the street pavement management program.

We got this this last week from our public works department.

It has the results of the annual street inspection program,

Also, if you wonder if your street is going to be paved, you can look in here and find it.

You can find out kind of what's been done in the past year.

This will be on the website if it's not already.

So you can access that at the Public Works Department.

Or you can check with our clerk, Page Rice, who will be able to find it for you if you can't find it.

It's called the Street Pavement Management Program.

Also an announcement that October 5th, which is Wednesday, is International Walk to School Day.

So we hope that as many children as possible will walk to school that day.

Children who live too far to be able to walk, if they get on their school bus, often the buses will stop within a couple blocks of school and they walk the last bit.

But if you can walk with your children to school or if they can walk themselves to school, that's the day to do it.

For more information about the National

Walk to School Day.

You can go to www.walkbiketoschool.org and they have information there.

You can also find out more about Charlottesville Safe Routes to School at www.Charlottesville.org slash bikeped.

And we also have this wonderful bicycle and pedestrian map available in the Department of Neighborhood Services, so if you want one of those you can

Pick one up to find the best way.

And speaking of finding the best ways, we have a new bus route, Route 2, which will be going out from downtown to the new Wegmans at 5th Street Station, all the other stores out there as well.

And you can check out at the Charlottesville Area Transit, CAT, on the website and find out the routes.

Generally, it leaves downtown at the 15 and the 45 of every hour, runs from 6.45 a.m. until 11.15 p.m.

Oh, I'm sorry.

There's more.

One more.

The Drury Brown Memorial Community Bridge Builders Award reception and unveiling of the four new names installed on the bridge will take place on Tuesday, October 11th at 1130 a.m.

Whether permitting, the unveiling of the names will take place on the bridge itself, followed by a reception in the Fellowship Hall of First Baptist Church on West Main Street.

If it's raining at ceremony time, everything will be inside the First Baptist Church on West Main Street.

and the 2016 Bridge Builder honorees are Luther D. Cooley, Holly Edwards, Teressa Walker Price, and Mitch Vanierys.

Thank you.

I've got a couple announcements before I get to them.

We have a sign up sheet here for the public comment session at the beginning and it looks like there's about, there's some spots that are still open.

So if anybody would like to speak in it, please come down.

They're open to sign up and it will stay open until I pick it up before we

Okay, a couple announcements.

Mayor's office hours, monthly office hours will be held this Thursday, Thursday, October 6th from 12 to 1 p.m. With me, I've been doing this since the beginning of my term in February.

In an effort to support local businesses, office hours will be hosted at Grit Cafe located in York Place in the downtown mall.

There are a few spots remaining.

Please contact Page Rice at clerk at Charlottesville dot org or 970-3113 or just stop by City Hall to reserve a spot.

Or you may just stop by Grit on Thursday at noon on a first come first serve basis.

This Wednesday I'm very excited to announce an event that will be here that I'll be hosting along with the Vice Mayor with the Secretary of our Commonwealth, Kelly, Thomas and Mercer, which is a voting education and restoration assembly.

There has been a lot of change this year to try and expand voting rights to people who may have a conviction who lost them due to onerous and unfair and outdated policies in the state of Virginia.

Governor McAuliffe with great courage and principle restored rights to hundreds of thousands of people all at once.

There was a lawsuit to revert that decision which won on a very narrow basis in the Supreme Court on a five to four decision.

Basis, then he went back, got on the horse, started restoring rights to tens of thousands of people.

A lot of people are confused and intimidated, understandably, by these events, but the point is you can get your rights restored readily through the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

She will be here on Wednesday to explain the process.

She will have staff with her.

who can handle applications right there on site with their laptops.

And we want to get information out and have as many people as possible know about the new process and that they can get their rights back.

So this is not just for people who may be affected, but it's people who are going to be into the community, letting everybody know about the new process.

And voter registration ends on October 17th, so there's still a couple weeks for people to get registered and participate in our democracy.

And there's other rules that are also confusing to people like the voter ID laws.

So we need to have everybody knowing the full information.

So this is an opportunity for everybody to come here.

415 City Space and the Downtown Mall, 415 to 530 this Wednesday.

Okay, a couple of announcements about voting also.

This is from the voter registration office.

Extra extra voters are turning out in large numbers to register to vote for the November presidential election.

The number of active registered voters in the city of Charlottesville has grown by 1,800 voters net during September alone and is now more than the number of active registered voters as of election day in November 2012 and within a hundred of the number in November 2008.

For anyone who still needs to register to vote or update their address, there are only two weeks left.

The deadline is Monday, October 17th.

Applications must either be received in the voter registration office by 5 o'clock p.m. on the 17th

Be postmarked by the 17th or if you have a Virginia driver's license or DMV ID or if you're only updating your information the application can be completed online before midnight on the 17th at vote.virginia.gov.

That's vote.virginia.gov.

The Charlottesville Voter Registration Office will be holding special Saturday office hours, which is terrific, before the voter registration deadline on Saturday, October 15th, from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

The office is in the City Hall Annex next to the Pavilion.

Parking validation is available.

Their regular office hours are 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The second announcement from them is that absentee voting for the November election is underway currently.

Avoid the lines on Election Day.

Tell the pollsters and your pushy friends you've already voted.

I'm just reading this, but it's good writing.

Over a thousand of your city of Charlottesville neighbors have already applied for their absentee ballots or voted absentee in person.

And Virginia absentee voters must have a reason for voting absentee.

Many of us disagree with that policy.

Some of the reasons are that the voter expects to be away on election day for business, personal business, vacation or college, or the voter has a disability or illness, or is pregnant, or is the principal caregiver for a disabled or ill family member confined at home, or they are on active duty or a first responder, or the voter expects to be working and commuting a total of 11 or more hours between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. on election day.

In person, absentee voting is available for Charlottesville's registered voters during the city voter registration office's regular hours, 830 a.m. to 430 p.m., Monday through Friday, and on three Saturdays, October 15th, 29th, and November 5th.

Voter registration office is in the city hall annex right nearby here.

Parking validation is available.

The last day to vote absentee in person is November 5th.

Voters must show a photo ID when voting in person.

the same requirement as on election day.

Voters who do not have an acceptable ID may apply for a free photo ID good for voting purposes only during office hours in the voter registration office.

The deadline to apply for a mailed absentee ballot is November 1st.

You can apply online again at vote.virginia.gov and you can call the voter registration office at 970-3250 if you have any questions.

Thank you.

I don't know how I can follow that.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Before I read my announcements, I saw a couple of people in the crowd I don't often see.

One being the new principal of Charlottesville High School.

Man, thanks a lot for coming out.

Really appreciate you.

Yeah, that's him, the brother in the back.

Really, really nice guy.

I'm hearing phenomenal things from the young people over there.

A lot of them I work with, they really like you.

They think you're really cool, which is a tough thing to do with young people.

So again, thanks a lot for all the work you do.

and then I see Chief Baxter back there as well as Mr. Jones, two guys who I know really do a lot to make our community a better place so thank you guys for coming.

I don't know what the auspicious occasion is to make you all want to sit through a city council meeting but thank you all for coming.

Protection, Mr. Fenwick says.

Let's hope we don't need it.

All right, so moving forward, a couple of announcements.

Our City Services Fair, the City of Charlottesville City Services Fair is held every year in the fall on the historic downtown mall at City Hall Plaza.

This event gives the community a chance to meet and talk with staff from dozens of city departments and partner agencies about a wide scope of services and programs.

This year's event will take place this Friday, seven o'clock,

from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the City Hall Plaza.

So again, come out this Friday from 10 to 1.

Meet a lot of city staff and other representatives.

They'll be available to answer any questions and distribute useful material to help citizens become more informed about their city.

People of all ages are invited, except for the students because they'll be in school and I want to make sure you're at school, to participate in everything Charlottesville City Services Fair has to offer including interactive displays, exciting demonstrations, educational tours, special guests and more.

So again, that is Friday from 10 to 1.

We also have a very important announcement for

The 2016 Yale Educator Award Dr. Matt Shields of Charlottesville High School has been recognized by the Yale Office of Undergraduate Admissions as a recipient of the 2016 Yale Educator Award

The Yale Educator Recognition Program recognizes outstanding educators from around the world who support and inspire their students to perform at high levels and to achieve excellence.

This year, 55 teachers from around the world were honored.

Dr. Shields, our very own, teaches engineering at CHS and is advisor to the school's internationally decorated science club, The Best All Around Club of Nerds, or BACON,

as they like to be called.

In 2014, Shields also won the MIT Inspirational Teacher Award.

And for the Yale Award, Shields was nominated by 2016 graduate Chris Hayes, who now attends Yale.

Dr. Shields is here tonight.

Let's give him a round of applause and ask the good brother to come on up.

I don't have anything to say about myself for the award I will say that I was nominated by Chris Hayes who was an honor to teach so thank you for the invitation to be here and it's an honor to stand before you guys and it has less to do with me and it has a lot to do with Chris and also has a lot to do with

City Council and the school board and the administration at Charlottesville High School giving me opportunities just to give students opportunities.

And as I think about Chris right now at his first year at Yale, if I think about, I don't know what he wrote about me, that he's a good writer, so I'm sure that I'd love to know that.

So modest.

But if I think about what he might be

I was encouraged to say that resulted in me being presented this award.

It would be his experience at Charlottesville High School and I was a part of that but I was only able to give him that experience because I had the freedom to get to know him.

I coached him on cross country.

He was the president of Bacon.

and I taught him in a couple different classes, but I also had the freedom and the resources and the support to give him the things that he needed to excel.

And so as I was able to get to know him, I got to know the things that made him tick and the things that would get him excited.

And then my school and my city, they definitely gave me the resources to give him things to get him going.

So if you haven't

I'm sure all of you guys have been in our Sigma lab, so this 8,000 square foot technological wonder.

Chris thrived in there.

In fact, Chris was the first student I gave a 3D printer to.

I said, go do something cool.

And he looked up a UVA professor and got that UVA professor to come over to CHS and help him design a 3D printed jet engine.

And then that professor eventually

took it on as part of his job.

He actually acts the department chair at his school, I mean, in his department, to let that be part of his job to come to CHS.

So it's just about building the community relationships, and it's been amazing.

And Professor Scheffler of EVA is now a part of Bacon.

He comes almost every Friday.

That's great.

That was really good for someone who didn't have something prepared.

I was going to say, not only does Matt teach the subject, but he teaches the process.

And it's just a joy to see the kids flourish, as you say, with what you do.

So thank you.

And talking about Charlottesville High School, I'd like to welcome four young students of advanced government.

Welcome.

You'll see a lot of government, I'm sure, tonight.

And Blue Ribbon Commission is holding their next meeting this Thursday, 6 to 8.

And the list I had said to be determined location.

Did they determine the location?

OK. And while they're looking that up, I'm going to put a plug in for a super exhibit over at UVA.

Clark Elementary School.

Clark.

Clark Elementary School.

There's three more, including this one.

So really, if you can come out, please do.

It's a tremendous community event, if nothing else.

And I'd like to put in a plug for First Folio, which is an exhibit of Shakespeare, some of the original works.

It's an incredible exhibit.

I think it's in Newcomb Hall, but it would be on the UVA website.

Not only do they have the writings and the history of First Folio, which really gave us some of the great works of Shakespeare, and without it we would never have preserved them.

But also the implements that they use to print books, bind books, make corrections.

So that's First Folio, UVA, I think the exhibit runs this week.

If you can make it, please do.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Just a few items that were raised last time.

Ms. Jelena Schmitt had concerns about the calls for service concerning the BOA that was placed on the Lee statue during the Pride Festival.

The police did have conversations with the festival organizers after receiving numerous calls about the BOA.

The event organizers voluntarily removed the BOA from the statue.

They also mentioned that they were satisfied with the interactions they had with the police.

on that date, but it was something that we also mentioned to the police that this issue had been raised with us.

Mr. Downing-Smith raised concerns about a study that was briefly posted on the city's website concerning the possible increase of the speed limit on locusts.

I responded that night, but I thought it would be good to re-emphasize that there were studies that were posted on our website about Locust Avenue and a couple of other locations, but there were not recommendations that went

to the city manager's office or went to the city council for consideration.

So the speed limit will remain at 25 miles an hour on Lucas Avenue.

And Miss Rebecca Quinn asked that every board or commission member reminded us to have them speak into the microphones during the city council meetings or during any meetings that we have here in the city council chambers.

We will certainly do that, communicate that to them once again and to also ask our staff to make sure that they state their name and what position they have with the city when they present to the City Council.

We will also do that as well.

Thanks.

Ms. Rice, would you hand me the...

Okay, matters by the public.

We welcome public comment.

It's an important part of our meeting.

Time is reserved near the beginning and at the end of each regular city council meeting for matters by the public.

Please follow these guidelines for public comment and there are more specifics on this on our website under the link Council Meeting Procedures.

If you're here to speak for a public hearing, please wait to speak on the matter until the report for that item has been presented and the public hearing has been opened.

We have none of those tonight.

Each speaker has three minutes to speak.

Please give your name and address before beginning your remarks.

Please do not interrupt speakers whether or not you agree with them.

Please refrain from using obscenities.

If you can't follow these guidelines, you'll be escorted from city council chambers and not permitted to re-enter.

And then the timing device here goes three minutes and then yellow means you're down to 15 seconds and then red means that you have finished up.

Mr. Reynolds, it's nice to see you out and about again.

I saw you in your yard yesterday and I was glad for that.

Counselors, you have a wonderful opportunity to add to the safety and well-being of residents of all of the neighborhoods of Charlottesville.

As I wrote you last Thursday, Delegate Toscano has stated publicly at a meeting last Tuesday that he would sponsor a bill for Charlottesville to have speed cameras in the legislature if due process was followed and no funds were requested from the state.

With the simple act of adding a request for permission to use automated speed cameras to this year's list of Charlottesville's legislative priorities, you could very well accomplish the following.

Slowing vehicular traffic in residential neighborhoods and school zones.

Sending a message that you mean to enforce the intentions of streets that work.

Freeing critical police resources to focus on more serious issues, such as domestics,

and violent crimes.

Better protecting our police officers from the risks associated with ever increasing dangers in routine traffic stops across the country.

Putting an end to 70 mile an hour police pursuits in residential neighborhoods, lowering the city's liability risks and of course risks to residents and the officers.

Last Thursday I sent you an email with a link to a report from Rockville, Maryland.

on their use of automated speed cameras for the last nine years.

While I disagree with the exceptionally high thresholds they set on their cameras, 12 miles an hour over the speed limit I think is absurd, their experience is nonetheless instructive for us.

Their camera systems are self-funding, as most of these camera systems are across the country, in hundreds if not thousands of cities across the country.

Rockville invests its excess funds in safety and education programs.

Rockville reports significant drops in instances of speeding.

Their speed camera program has a human in the loop so that no ticket goes out without being approved by a human first.

I have addressed objections to speed cameras that I have heard from two of you.

One was the, I'm gonna call it Mr. Mayor, the ticket spitting machine that I saw about a month ago, a comment from you.

Washington DC uses humans in the loop.

Rockville uses humans in the loop.

The machines don't have to just automatically issue the tickets.

Unfair to the poor, cameras are no different than an officer on a motorcycle at the side of the street.

Presumably each flags vehicles for being over speed without consideration of driver wealth and also policies and fines associated with speed cameras could be adjusted.

All the cameras do is identify infractions.

Please take this opportunity to return some semblance of well-being to the residents of Charlottesville residential neighborhoods

Good evening, councilors.

My name is Jean Chase and my husband, Phil, and I have lived at 223 Old Lynchburg Road since the days when Charlottesville was Charlottesville, when the residents of streets could use their streets with confidence outside of their vehicles.

In more recent times, Old Lynchburg Road has become more like an arterial for county residents traveling in and out of the city.

We see upwards of 4,000 vehicles per day on our once sleepy residential street.

The houses haven't changed just the volume and the speed of the traffic.

Now we have private buses that travel upwards of 40 miles per hour at times.

Over the last nine months, with the help of Paul Reynolds, video speed tracker, we have observed vehicles traveling over 50 miles per hour on Old Lynchburg Road.

Paul tells me these days we have it worse than Locust Avenue.

Members of the Charlottesville Police Department will tell you I'm a regular caller and writer and indeed I am.

I'm very upset about what the city has allowed to happen to our one sleepy residential street and those of us who live on the street want it back.

Please don't continue to ask us to put up with drivers mainly from outside the city who have no investments in the sanctity of our neighborhood and who speed by as though we don't matter and we don't exist.

Tonight, Paul Reynolds is proposing the use of automated speed cameras to you and I strongly support his argument for them.

Automated speed cameras can pay for themselves.

They work 24-7.

They can make our neighborhoods safer.

They allow us to direct our precious police staff to other serious issues.

They can help protect our officers from increasingly dangerous traffic stops.

And with the right policies in place, they can ensure due process and fairness.

I understand that Delegate Toscano is ready to pick up the ball from you and sponsor legislation in this year's legislative session in support of speed cameras for Charlottesville.

Please grab this opportunity.

Help the residents in neighborhoods away from the downtown mall regain a sense of safety as they go about their business on the streets in front of their own homes.

Let's put automated speed cameras on this year's legislative priorities list.

Thank you.

Rebecca Quinn, 1044 Street here in the city.

I want to start by acknowledging Frank in public works.

Sorry, I don't remember his last name.

He has the unenviable job of following behind the trash pickup, and he does it with humor and grace.

I've been here nearly 10 years, and the last year of the garbage trash has been the worst yet.

There's a great lack of attention and responsibility, especially on behalf of restaurants, but also other businesses and some residents.

As you know, I'm a resident on the downtown mall.

Businesses fail to train staff.

They fail to use stickers, fail to follow the guidelines, fail to separate recyclables.

They fail to use their bins.

I know because they often use the one marked for my building.

Trash haulers do the right thing at first.

They don't pick up trash if there's no sticker.

But a day or two later,

Thankfully, they give in because it's reeking, especially in our hot summers, and they do pick up anyway.

What this means is businesses think it's a city problem because the city isn't picking up their trash.

Well, it isn't.

They don't realize it's their problem because they're not following the rules.

Also, marking the bins with a black magic marker or some marker doesn't seem to work.

They walk away, sometimes blocks away.

People use the wrong ones anyway.

Sometimes the bins are so dirty you can't even read the owner name.

Between recycling and compost, I use one purple sticker a month.

I don't even know how much it costs because I buy them so infrequently.

It's like $1.25.

Too many people in businesses don't recycle.

They use lots of stickers.

Or they don't use stickers because they learn that eventually the bags are taken away anyway.

I think the city, the visitor's bureau,

because I've seen visitors turn up their nose when they pass my alley.

And the Downtown Business Association need to periodically remind restaurants and businesses of the rules, quarterly at least, because some places have a lot of turnover.

I've heard other people question the use of stickers.

You know, maybe stickers foster more recycling in the neighborhoods, but I don't think that objective is accomplished downtown.

I recommend you change how trash is done on the mall and one block above and below.

charge property owners directly and forget stickers.

At a minimum, though I want to repeat, something should be done quarterly, at least with the restaurants.

I think it's their trash that causes the most odor problems.

And here's an idea.

It's a rule to follow our guide.

We have rules about trash.

Why don't, instead of the ineffectual little stickers that are left behind by county waste,

or even the city trash pickup.

Why don't we look into civil citations for businesses that repeatedly fail to follow the rules?

Thank you.

I'm John Faltz, now of 1501 Rugby Road.

Traffic is a huge problem for our city, as you know, and it's going to get worse.

The free bridge study was 21% of the traffic crossing free bridge is all that is city related.

All the rest is county and cross county.

We've got to do something and you're going to be forced to do it.

I'm going to

strongly seconded Paul Reynolds' idea.

We lost the sale of our house at 1503 because, oh, there's too much traffic on Rugby Road.

At least it could go slower.

We should maintain a 25 mile per hour limit in all residential streets.

No changes.

Is it enforceable?

Yes.

Traffic cameras work.

I can quote that from New South Wales, which billed me for speeding in Australia.

They sent me a picture of my car and the speed.

All throughout Australia there are signs, speed camera head, speed camera head.

Some stupid people don't pay attention.

It can be done.

Duck, North Carolina has a 25 mile an hour speed limit and nobody goes over 25 miles an hour.

Well, they may get up to 30, but it's very slow.

You can do it.

It will take an effort.

Speed cameras will relieve the police, but it is essential for our city that we really control the traffic.

Thank you.

Oh, one quickie.

Three minutes is more than enough for most people to speak.

Don't make it longer.

Thank you.

Hi.

Tell me when to start.

Hi, I'm Laurie Talbot.

I'm here tonight to talk about 503 West Main Street.

It is a preserved federal style house built in 1824 and significant to historic Virginia.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

I rent the ground level unit for my business, a hair salon called Lori Nicole.

I've had eight disastrous pipe bursts and water leaks in less than two years.

I renovated with my own money and some investments from my parents.

The owner, Bud Treacle, did not pay for any of the restorations.

He is also a real estate attorney here in town and works in the court, so it's been difficult to find a good lawyer that he's not acquainted with.

But in the meantime, I wanted the city of Charlottesville to know of his negligence and improper maintenance of this registered Virginia landmark.

So these are some pictures of the before space and then with my renovations almost ready to open in February 2015.

Two weeks later, the first pipe burst.

At this time, my plumber was drawn to attention.

There was Quest Pipes, and it's not a matter of if they need to be replaced, but when.

And the owner refused to replace them, so they just

patched it up and carried on.

So about two more months of renovation.

My salon was ready to open.

Here it's ready.

And opening May 1st.

So delayed two months.

Three months later, I had leak number two here in the archway.

And then about two months later, leak number three.

which is pretty major, you can see here the quest pipe.

Five months later, leak number four in the back in my mixing room and then in another five months, the same room, another leak with a quest pipe burst.

And all these were causing significant flooding and caught in my own timely manner.

A few weeks later,

One month later, and this was just in August, over the side of the stations again and the fireplace, a major, this was actually a three-day leak of just water.

As you can see, all the destructive, I'm just so upset about.

And then two weeks later, this happened, and this is currently just my bathroom is out of service.

I had a bride and her party of eight last,

Thank you.

We want to bring those by to the staff so they can see them.

Thank you.

All right, I gotta bring that up.

Hello, all you beautiful people.

Brian Wymer, 712 Grave Street.

And I happen to have a strange title of Executive Director of the Exart Park.

I ran into Bob today and was telling him about what's going on.

He said, you gotta come to city council and tell us what's going on.

I think last time I came in front of you guys was about two, three years ago.

In the spring of 2014, we started the Exart Park.

and I just left there today and there are families playing in a place that nobody wanted to go.

We have a motto there, dream big, and somehow it worked out.

It doesn't always work out, I'm kind of astonished.

This year, we've had talks on democracy and gender, we screened a movie seeking asylum about racism, we've had autism workshops, we've done Tai Chi on the grass, we've had game nights, drawing classes, and a retreat week of seven days of meditation.

We have had 61 bands play this year.

Five plays, a blues competition, Opera in the Park with Ashlawn Opera.

The Virginia Film Festival showed three films there.

Look Three was shucking oysters there.

We had built a three-story cardboard rocket and we were voted best place to get creative.

All this in a place.

And you guys have been supportive of it and thank you so much because what it has manifested

is a new space that people that we're working with, TANW, Waldorf, Montessori, CHS, Monticello High, UVA and JMU, the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Tree Stewards, Master Gardeners, Center for Urban Habitats, we've had composting workshops and plant sales.

a veggie festival, a fundraiser for Robert Davis, a fundraiser for Ike's and the other businesses that lost their time on the fire on the downtown mall.

We had a fundraiser for a dying clown.

We've done work with the Music Resource Center, Legal Aid, Foothills Child Advocacy Center, Cystic Fibrosis Benefit, Arc of the Piedmont, the Adult Learning Center, Computers for Kids, Jefferson Center for Freedom of Expression, Habitat for Humanity, Pacham Chip,

and Virginia Organizing.

And this is this year.

We still have three months to go.

In the future, we're going to be having food truck Thursdays.

Just this week, we've got a first trip Friday opening.

We've got a festival of lights on Saturday.

We have a circus on Sunday.

We have coming up a repair cafe with Time Bank.

We have a fashion show.

But a lot of these things I want to reiterate, we're not for profit.

These are free things, most of them.

We have open access.

We have our Levitt Concert Series.

10 free concerts.

We have Civo Sabrosa, a full day of Latin American festival.

We have bike workshops promoting bike accessibility and pedestrianism.

We have drumming on Saturdays, yoga on Saturdays and Tuesdays.

And we just started Capoeira on Monday and Thursdays.

Our focus is local.

We have Fleeville happening there, 40 local artisans.

Again, 61 bands, mostly local, got a venue to play at.

We've exhibited 15 local artists in our gallery.

We're having four locally made feature films shown.

What I want to just say is thank you for your participation.

We're starting on second.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

I am continuously disappointed, continue to be more disappointed about the reduction in communication between council and members of the public.

and although there is this announcements day and has been going on the meet the mayor on the first Thursday, whatever day of the month it is, but there are five counselors, all of whom have equal authority except for some very special authorities that are designated for the mayor and interacting with the public is not one of them.

So I would encourage that all of the counselors, if they wish,

participate and perhaps take turns and meet with the public on those designated days so that people don't have to make special arrangements, try to fit within your schedules, that there could be an easier opportunity for members of the public to communicate with a specific counselor that they may have a specific issue they'd like to discuss.

This is not a new venture.

Previous councils have had open sessions starting in about 2000 is the one I know about.

And it has been going, had been going on for several years and stopped.

And then it started again and then it stopped.

And in all of those previous times, all of the counselors participated.

So I think it would be a great opportunity for members of the council to encourage people who wanted to speak to them, particularly about some issue.

And we know councils have different strengths.

and different issues that they are championing.

And I think it would be a great opportunity to allow other interested members of the community to work collaboratively with all of the council members and not just through the mayor.

I have one response since it seems to appear that sometimes counselors don't respond in regards to responding.

That's a play on words.

I guess that was a bad joke.

Alright, so sometimes it's very difficult, like I'm a school teacher.

It's very difficult for me to meet during the middle of the day.

I don't know if my students will want me or the community as a whole will want me to take away time from teaching in school to have meeting office hours in the middle of the day.

I think that goes for many of us

We work, we're trying to take care of our families and do this job.

So we try to talk to you all whenever we can, the best way in which we can, and we're really trying our hardest.

So I just hope that that side of the argument is appreciated.

I actually think the mayor is trying to do a really good job of making himself available, not necessarily speak for all of council, but do the best job that he can to engage with individuals on concerns that he has.

The rest of us, we also are trying to do the best job that we can.

I have no issues with meeting with anyone whenever, however, in the best way that fits both of our schedules.

In regards to the speeding, I think it is indeed a serious issue, and we're looking forward to figuring out how we can best address those issues the best way in which we can.

And that's not just me saying something to make you all feel good, but we are really trying to look into it.

I do have one thing.

that I would like to say in regards to the, another thing to say in regards to the speed traps.

So in other communities within the city, they also have been advocating for cameras for safety reasons.

I would actually just like to add that one of the things that in 2000 we didn't have widely used was email.

And I think that one way that people can easily access all of city councilors is by email.

And I think especially when it's addressed to one of us rather than to just counsel generally.

We we always try to respond and usually are available to meet with somebody but the point taken but I did I just want to add a piece kind of as my own public comment Miss Quinn was talking about the alleys I think especially where the garbage cans are downtown and not too long ago one of the businesses along well actually just in the next block on the mall was complaining because the alley smelled so bad and it turned out that there was a glitch and that Parks and Recreation had been it wasn't on their schedule and so they came and

It was so clean.

It was beautiful.

And I think that sometimes a good thorough cleaning really kind of makes it stay clean longer.

But I think that the training and the being able to kind of enforce some of that is a really good idea.

And I will say that the one reason we don't usually comment is because most of the things that are said are specifically directed at staff.

And so it's really not incumbent on us as counselors to respond to those.

I would like to make a comment.

Again, people always send me emails.

I usually respond 25 to 50 a day.

I really put everyone in a queue to meet with them.

I do have to work

on other projects to actually support my own household needs as well.

But I am available.

It does take time at times because there's simply not enough time in the day to address all the important issues that the public has.

Yeah, well, we've had several conversations with Chief Thomas about increasing enforcement in different neighborhoods around the city.

So that's one step that we've taken.

As for speed cameras, we've added it to our list of issues to discuss with Delegate Toscano.

and Senator Creede who we're meeting with in just a few weeks to further discuss that as a possibility that we'll be coming back in one way, shape or form to the council for consideration before the legislative packet goes to the General Assembly.

So those are a couple of steps that we're taking to try to address those needs.

And of course we did the Streets at Work

initiative as well.

Thank you very much.

This is a point of clarification.

I was saying speed traps, forgive me, meant speed cameras.

No one wants to have speed traps, but mechanisms in which we can decrease the speed or make our streets safer as a whole.

I'm also hoping to make sure that we hear an update in regards to your situation.

and figuring out how we can help the best way possible.

I'd like to clarify about the speed cameras.

I mean, the discussions that we would have with our representatives in the General Assembly would be about giving us the authority to possibly do that.

There would still be public discussion that would take place as well.

So it would just be a request to get that.

If that's where council wants us to go, to get that authority,

Any other?

So I will just say one note.

There's a lot of discretion, according to the mayor and the governance of meetings under the procedures that we have, even

that have been for a long time, not just the ones that were adopted this year.

And even under the code of Virginia, we have a very light meeting tonight.

We have one regular agenda item, and that's in part because a couple of easement issues, which could have been very complex and legalistic, dropped off because they just are moving to a later meeting.

So you kind of make decisions with the discretion of the office based on the meeting at hand.

So this is a pretty loose meeting with not that many concerns about getting through a lot of agenda items by a reasonable hour, which is usually one of the concerns.

That was one of the things we thought about a lot at the beginning of this year.

I remember there was one agenda item

A couple of meetings in where we spent over I think an hour, hour and a quarter on two trees that were an issue in the corner.

Maybe an hour and a half is quite a long time.

We sort of tried to focus some of these things.

In our procedures, we actually do have a piece that says if a counselor can respond to one agenda, one item, so we

But this seems, there's no issue here because we're not under a lot of time pressure and we're going to get through everything.

We're actually going to go back into closed session after this because we have some business to conclude that we weren't able to complete in the first hour.

But I just wanted to give a sense of

of why this might seem more easygoing in the comment period.

And the other, one of the reasons that we chose not to comment in response, which I know can be frustrating to some people, but it was because in the research and governing procedures around Virginia, the vast majority that I talked to, they didn't have responses by the, I remember I talked to a statewide office holder and he had been the head of a town council and he said, oh, it wouldn't make any sense to respond because it creates this

confusing cycle for the public where it really is professional staff who respond to a lot of issues.

We talked about this in great detail and then it can kind of lead to a thing where we're all sort of out competing with each other with response to the 8, 10, 12 issues that were brought up.

And that's why the rules are written as they are.

Again, sometimes it can be more easy going because it's a fairly light meeting, but we still have the rules in place that we have.

And I would say just in my one response, Mr. Kleeman, I do not ever purport to speak for council as a whole in my office hours, never.

It is just me as an individual city councilor, something I wanted to do, again, looking at other mayors.

It's a choice of my time.

It is a difficult thing to do because this is definitively a part-time job.

We get paid $16,000 and $14,000 to do this, so it is very difficult for people during the work day sometimes to do this.

It's been a commitment of mine once a month, but I wouldn't

People, my colleagues engage with the public in many, many very robust ways at all hours of the day and the night and the weekends and sometimes in the middle of the morning, I know.

So I just wanted to clarify that.

Item A, minutes for September 19th.

Item B, in appropriation, $10,000 returned from Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund Award to Albemarle Housing Improvement Program and Habitat for Humanity, second of two readings.

Item C, in appropriation, FY 2017 Fire Programs Aid to Locality Funding.

$141,082, second of two readings.

Item D in appropriation, additional funding for social services programs, $94,133.85, second of two readings.

Item E in appropriation, insurance settlement for damaged vehicle, $2,729.53, first of two readings.

Item F, a resolution, facilities, capital projects, lump sum account transfer for the key recreation center improvements project, $140,000, first of one readings.

I move that we adopt the consent agenda as read.

Any further questions, comments?

All in favor?

Carries five to zero.

Okay, we move on to the one item on our agenda, a resolution regarding the Albemarle Housing Improvement Project, AHIP, annual allocation request.

Stacey Pathia, I am the housing program coordinator for the city.

I am here tonight with Jennifer Jacobs, the Executive Director of AHIP, for a request of Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund dollars for the fiscal year of

2017.

As many of you know, AHIP has been a longtime partner of the city of Charlottesville, providing housing rehabilitation and emergency repair services to the city's low income families.

They have been doing this since 1995.

And between that time and now, they have served more than 400 families through their programs, including 19 families that are residing within the strategic investment area.

Through their work, AHIP ensures low-income families have a safe, warm, and dry home to call their own, while also helping to stabilize low-income communities through the retention of longtime home neighborhood residents.

This current funding request will allow AHIP to continue the important work they do by directly supporting emergency home repairs and rehabilitation services for an additional 65 low-income families in the city.

The majority of these projects will cover emergency repair services, that would be about 45 out of those 65 projects, such as repairing broken water heaters or furnaces or installing handicapped ramps.

However, AHIP is also proposing to assist two families in need of significant home rehabilitation services.

The average cost of these projects will significantly exceed the average per project cost associated with their scattered site rehab program by several thousand dollars.

As such, AHIP is also requesting the city waive its current 110% loan to value ratio requirement for those two projects if necessary.

I just want to say thank you for answering my questions earlier today, and it

It does sound like, though, that there's still a great need.

When you answered my first question about the results of the study that was done in 2015, that 78 families were in need of rehab services in the 10th and Page, and 24 of them were in the 10th and Page and 54 were in Orange Dale.

The current waiting list.

Right.

So there are 78 families in those two neighborhoods on their current waiting list.

And again, I really am excited about the fact that you're going to be working on a newsletter that's quarterly with the updates in a regularized format so that we can all keep track of our goals.

So I really appreciate that.

You're welcome.

Mr. Mayor, I went to the AHIP

dinner the other night and heard from families who've been helped and heard stories about the people who have had this work done and I've been a fan of AHIP for many years but I just want to say that we talk a lot about the need for affordable housing and the need for supported affordable housing in the city and it's a known fact that the most affordable housing is housing that's already built and so if we can maintain housing that's already in the hands of people

who need it, we are getting a lot more bang from the buck than we are by building new housing, which we also need to do.

And a quick question.

When you have your list of projects, do you bid them out?

And I'm going to follow up real quick.

Do you bid them single or as a group or

For AHIP's projects?

Right.

Good evening.

So AHIP has our own crews on.

Can you say who we are?

I'm Jennifer Jacobs.

I'm the executive director of AHIP.

We have our own crews on staff.

So we have our crew carpenters, electricians, plumbers on staff, and we also use local subcontractors.

So when the construction supervisor is planning out these projects, we either decide that we're going to do it on our own, whether we're going to use a mix of subcontractors and crew staff, or we're going to bid the whole thing out.

And when we bid the whole thing out, we have to get three bids

and we have a bidding process that we use.

And we also use volunteers.

So sometimes projects will have a whole shebang.

They can visit us online at ahipva.org or they can call us at 817-AHIP.

Well, I just wanted to say, I've been on your tours and I live in Fifeville, so have seen, you know, live in one of the neighborhoods that you all help and very close to the others.

And, you know, there is a lot of questioning and sometimes criticism about

Government in general and Charlottesville's government in particular about how progressive we are and we have a lot of talk ourselves about letting people know more kind of the works that we do and the budget is there, it's transparent, we have very extensive conversation but a lot gets lost

a lot of the time.

And usually when I'm in a pinch for an example of what this progressive government does to help people who need help, and it's a very specific model because we do a lot else in all kinds of areas of health and education.

But this particular situation, if you're in low standard housing and you don't have a lot of money and your HVAC goes out or you need a new roof, that is terrifying.

That is an existential event in your life and you are faced with

horrible choices and it feels bad.

So they are, folks who experience this are our neighbors and they, you know, they're literally for us.

So this is an example, I just want everybody to notice.

It's a significant chunk of money, $850,000 going from our affordable housing fund directly to an organization that specifically provides the service to people who need it.

I have one question related to that messaging, if you will, and it's come up before, and I don't know whether it ever translated into a reality, but the idea of putting the city logo on a sign next to AHIP wherever you are doing a rehab with contact information, but that the presence and concern of the city is ever there.

It is.

I am working to make sure and working with Alex, the director of NDS, to ensure that there is a requirement in all of the grant agreements that the city is recognized either in signage or through public relations whether it would be a note in

Great.

Any further discussion, questions?

All in favor?

The resolution carries five to zero.

Thank you all.

Any other business by my colleagues?

Anything new?

Okay, we're going to open our second public comment period, matters by the public.

I do have another announcement.

If I can find it, maybe I'm going to have to let it go.

The Preservation Piedmont is having its annual dinner on Thursday night in the Rotunda.

and it's an opportunity to hear about kind of issues and concerns of preservation, historic preservation.

And I'm actually going to be making a brief presentation Thursday night to talk about how the city's efforts in focusing on its rezoning and focusing on kind of walkable neighborhoods

is actually in keeping with the spirit of historic preservation.

So thank you, my colleague has found it.

It's called the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance.

PAPA, the annual fall event at the Rotunda in the Dome Room.

University of Virginia is hosting a reception with tours of the new renovation.

If you haven't been there yet, it's a gorgeous renovation of a living, it's not a museum, it's a living place, well-functioning, but it's exquisitely renovated.

So, and various other preservation organizations will present updates.

Sorry Mr. Mayor, I have one last announcement for anyone who's watching.

Tomorrow will be the second meeting for the Black Male Achievement Initiative.

We'll be meeting at 6.30 at the Carver Rec Center.

Tomorrow we'll be officially kicking off the two-track system, one track for skilled trades, another track for computer technology.

We also have the Circle of Brotherhood, so this is from 6.30 to 8.30.

Anyone from ages 17 through 29 can come tomorrow and participate.

Thank you.

Any further?

Alright, we're adjourned.