City Council Meeting (Part 1)   11/21/2011

I'm

Fifeville,

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you

There's this thing called SIDS that's hard to understand or explain, but it can cause some babies that seem perfectly healthy to suddenly die in their sleep.

But safe sleeping practices can help prevent this tragedy.

When you lay your baby down, put them to sleep on his or her back, safe in their own bed, free of pillows, loose blankets, and stuffed toys.

For more information, call your local health department.

and Virginia Gingerbread Christmas at the Omni Hotel.

Gingerbread house competition will be there as well.

Mrs. Claus invites you.

Party with the elves, fun things to do and Mr. Magic.

Winter wonderland, a magical village, electric trains and Santa visits.

St. Nicholas reception awards help Santa celebrate.

Create houses from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, your imagination.

Keeping Charlottesville Connected.

and Michael

Thanks for watching

I'm

Mm

Holly Edwards?

Here.

Mr. Norris?

Here.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

I want to start by thanking Barbara Ronan for sitting in tonight for Page Barfield.

Page, we're very delighted to announce.

Welcome to Six and a Half Pound Baby Girl, Olivia Page, on November the 8th.

Yes, that's right.

She gave birth that night.

That night.

That's right.

Okay, a couple of other announcements before we open up to matters by the public.

City Hall will be closed Thursday and Friday of this week due to Thanksgiving holiday.

No trash or recycling on Thursday.

Thursday's pickup is Friday and Friday will be done on Saturday.

Also, there will be no Charlottesville area transit service on Thursday.

Yes, I have the holiday announcements.

It's coming.

I usually refuse to talk about Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but this is our meeting here.

On Friday, this coming Friday, we're going to have the grand illumination on the downtown mall, and that will be after Thanksgiving.

We'll be

At 4.45, there'll be music at Central Place.

At 5 o'clock, there will be a Winter Wonderland.

I don't yet know what that looks like, but it includes pictures, face painting, ornament making, hot apple cider, games, giveaways, and much more holiday cheer.

At 6 o'clock is the Grand Illumination.

The tree that was donated to the city will be all lit up and beautiful.

And at 7 o'clock at the Paramount will be a free movie, Home Alone, for families and children.

and then on the 3rd of December on Saturday is the holiday parade on the downtown mall from 10 o'clock to 1130 and all of this is free.

Oh no, that's all.

In the series of town meetings we have been holding, there is another one on Thursday, December 8th at Meadows Church on 200 Angus Road from 6 to 8 p.m., generally provided.

It opens discussion with neighborhoods and we welcome everybody to come to those meetings.

They are very interesting and we learn a great deal about change.

Okay, we are now going to open the meeting to matters by the public and as is our custom, when I call your name please, when you come forward please state your name and address and we ask you to keep your comments to three minutes.

And we ask you to address your comments to items that are not on our agenda later on.

So for instance, we do have a dedicated public hearing on the issue of Lee Park.

Thank you.

My name is Barbara Cripshank.

I live at 324 Parkway in Charlottesville.

I'm here to ask the city council to reevaluate the practice of adding fluoride to our drinking water.

The chemical fluoride is added as a medication for the purpose of decreasing cavities.

At the present time, it's the only medication added to our water with one dose for everyone.

So a five pound newborn baby and a 250 pound man

could potentially be having the same dose of fluoride.

Fluoride has been added to public water for over 40 years.

We now have evidence that the chemical is linked to fluorosis, modeling of the teeth, increases in bone fractures as people get older, the fluoride settles in the bone, osteosarcoma, a particularly virulent form of bone cancer that usually is found in younger males, disruption of the thyroid function,

it is a hormone disruptor, increased body burdens in persons with kidney disease.

The medical journal The Lancet describes fluoride as an emerging neurotoxin.

The CDC and the American Dental Association cautioned mothers to minimize the use of fluoride in water used in infant feedings.

That's impossible to do if you're a bottle fed infant and you're using tap water in the city.

The Environmental Working Group and many others recommend that pregnant women and infants under the age of one to avoid fluoride completely.

Most water filters do not remove fluoride.

A reverse osmosis water system is needed to remove this substance.

Many families in Charlottesville purchase reverse osmosis water.

My daughter has done so throughout her pregnancy.

and now she has a small infinite home and she still needs to purchase reverse osmosis water.

More than 140 cities in the United States, 14 countries in Europe and in Asia have stopped using fluoride in their water supplies.

Families who wish to use fluoride simply can ask their doctor for a prescription.

to get tablets or to have topical applications of fluoride for their family members.

Studies have shown that improving nutrition and having a therapeutic level of vitamin D actually prevents cavities better than fluoride.

We cannot continue to do something that we've done for years just simply because we've done it.

We must look at the science and reevaluate what we're doing.

If we're looking to improve pregnancy outcomes in Charlottesville,

and improve the health of all of our citizens, this is a step we can take.

Thank you very much.

of the county, Charlottesville.

And I'm here to ask the city to review the process of water fluoridation because of the health risks that have come to light over the years.

And actually, this information has not widely been distributed to the public.

So because the information is based on peer-reviewed scientific studies,

has not been widely available to the public.

The public is denied informed consent because, as Barbara mentioned, it's the only chemical that's added to water that is used to treat the person and not the water.

So in 2006, the Centers for Disease Control did

put the same advisory warning as the American Dental Association did regarding excess fluoride.

However, this information was not communicated to the public, so the public has no idea that there are health risks associated with ingesting fluoride.

The type of fluoride that is placed in 90% of municipal water supplies is hydrofluoric silic acid,

It's not the pharmaceutical grade of sodium fluoride that you find in your toothpaste and even that has a caution against ingesting it.

So even though people can avoid ingesting it, you can't, no, eating or drinking it, you can't avoid bathing in it because you can absorb a damaging amount of toxins by through your skin.

It's also a class and race issue because how many people can afford to avoid tap water?

How many people can afford bathing in non-fluoridated water?

So you have to have means in order to avoid this poison.

What hydrofluoricilic acid is, it's an industrial waste product that's produced

when phosphate rock is processed for fertilizer.

In 2010, the Water and Sewer Authority paid almost $51,000 to purchase 178,000 pounds of this waste.

What has been presented as a health measure is actually an industrial waste disposal strategy.

If Charlottesville wants to be a world-class city, you've got to have world-class water.

In other words, water that doesn't poison its constituents and visitors.

It's very difficult to remove fluoride from water.

And once it's in your body, if you have healthy kidneys, you can excrete 50% of the fluoride.

That means you're retaining 50%.

Over time, it accumulates in your bones and your tissues.

and causes all kinds of skeletal problems, fractures.

So I have left with Ms. Rowan a DVD.

It has many facts on it.

I hope that you will look at it, be willing to look at it.

If you're not willing to look at it, would you please not take it from Ms. Rowan?

And I would like to get it back in a week if that's possible.

Thank you very much, Ms. Young.

Hi.

Bailey Hampton.

I'm homeless.

I'm here as a community organizer and a citizen of Charlottesville.

And the first thing I want to do is I want to ask everybody in the crowd whose first city council meeting this is to please raise their hand.

Okay, the reason that I'm here is there are a couple of things that I've recognized from my participation at Lee Park that I wanted to talk to you guys about.

The first thing is homelessness in this city.

It is my opinion that we do not have adequate resources to help people that are in need in this town.

We do not have an all night shelter that people can go to after 9 p.m. We do not have services available for people that can't sign up on a sheet right now.

We have, I believe that the number is over 300 people in this city are homeless and we do not have a number, we do not have enough beds in what we have now currently in this city to help those people.

This is a problem and it needs to be addressed immediately.

The other thing I wanted to talk to you about were how you guys invest your money.

I talked to the deputy treasurer the other day and they told me that the banks that y'all use for investing on behalf of us as citizens are SunTrust, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Union Bank, BB&T and Stellar One.

I want to know why the credit union is not on that list and I want you guys to do your research and know how many of these banks are actually against citizens what their foreclosure rates are and I plan on doing more research before the next city council meeting to bring that to y'all and the other thing I wanted to comment on and I guess I could hold that until later in the meeting but I wanted to let you know that I also did a little bit of research into crime rates

since the occupation has started and since it ended.

And I'm not really good with percentages, so I'm just going to give you the numbers.

In the span from September 10th to October 15th when we started, there were 69 incidents of crime reported.

In the span from the 15th of October to the 18th of November, which was the same period of time, there were 60 incidents of crime.

So that's nine crimes less in that span of time.

I'm not sure what the percentage is on that.

but I wanted to point that out to you guys and I wanted to thank you from the depths of my heart that you have decided to have a public forum on this issue tonight.

I've lived in Charlottesville my entire life.

I have a teenage daughter who's also lived here her entire life.

It's going to be a great night.

Hope you're in for a long night.

I don't think you brought enough cookies.

So maybe next time.

I did want, I know this isn't on your agenda for tonight, but I know it's on your radar, the Human Rights Commission that's been proposed by some of the groups from the Dialogue on Race.

I hope you will all give that serious attention and serious consideration.

The commission really will give teeth to some of the issues that have been brought out by the dialogue on race and many issues that have been ongoing for decades and generations.

You know, discrimination is really tough for people to prove when they go through federal channels and the channels that are already in place.

So when we have something on a local level that's able to enforce this stuff and be proactive about it, it's really going to make a difference.

And, you know, through that,

Employers and landlords will know that somebody's watching and things I hope will see an improvement.

So, you know, if you're taking the dialogue on race seriously, then you're taking the actions that are coming out of the dialogue seriously.

And this is one of those actions.

I hope you think about it.

The other thing is I was looking at your legislative agenda for the General Assembly and I kind of glanced over it and it looks great.

You know, I'm really excited about the stuff in there about ex-offenders and opposing drug testing for social services and for receiving food stamps.

Virginia United Against Suppression, which is a lobbying group that I'm involved with that does sort of non-traditional lobbying, is going to take this food stamps issue up and looking forward to working with you on that.

One thing I noticed that wasn't on there was the immigrants' rights stuff that's likely to come up once again, which happened last year.

You guys passed a resolution to fight these terrible racist anti-immigrant bills.

And I would love to see something like that in your legislative agenda.

And then finally, I would love to hear an update on the cost-share closed sessions that are going on.

Maybe you don't feel comfortable talking about it, but we'd all love to know.

Brian Moss.

Good evening.

My name is Brian Moss.

I reside in Scottsville at Maple Hill Farm.

So a couple weeks ago, I was ticketed twice for being parked

Half in the street, half on the sidewalk up at Lee Park with helping them remove recycling.

These tickets were both $70 each.

Being that they weren't taken care of within four days, they were doubled.

My car was towed today because of this.

I'm kind of coming to you hopefully that you'll be compassionate enough to appeal these tickets and have my fines be refunded.

I mean I was just trying to be a good citizen and keep Charlottesville clean even though I don't live here.

But I do spend a lot of my time here providing fresh organics to the farmers market and I

I pump a lot of my finances into Charlottesville, so I do consider myself a citizen of Charlottesville even though I don't live here.

But please take these matters into consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Moss.

Overton McGee.

I saw Overton out in the hallway earlier.

I'm Overton McGee with Habitat for Humanity.

I want to discuss the Charlottesville Housing Fund.

Will there be any discussion of that later?

Okay.

Thank you.

I want to thank you for all that you do for and with Habitat for Humanity.

Obviously, what has been accomplished in this community has been a partnership between the city and Habitat for Humanity.

We're very grateful for that.

As you know, we're developing mixed income neighborhoods, and we very much value your partnership in that in so many ways.

The first one, of course, is Nunley Street, also known as Patton Street or Peyton Street, and the city's been extremely helpful with that, and of course, that is largely complete.

And of course, Sunrise is under construction, our second mixed income neighborhood, and we appreciate your help on that as well.

I wanted to mention the next mixed income neighborhood, which is Belmont Cottages, which is on the entrance corridor on Avon.

And so I wanted to ask if there is any additional funds, if there are any additional funds in the Charlottesville Housing Fund, if you could consider putting some toward that project.

We think it's very important to make sure that this is an attractive mixed income neighborhood there on the Avon entrance corridor.

I work with Overton at Habitat and I wanted to talk more about the volunteer work.

Can you just give us your name and address?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Maureen Burkhill, 1630 Oxford Road.

I do a lot of volunteer work with Habitat and last time they put out applications there were over a hundred people applying for six slots.

I was one of the people that went to different people's homes to assess their situation.

I told them up front that you know I don't pick who gets chosen and quite frankly I couldn't pick because they're chosen on the neediest but they're also needy and you know how do you pick between the family that lived in a refugee camp for

14 years, how do you pick the person that was a teen mother in public housing and she got herself out of public housing despite her circumstances she came from a very dysfunctional family but she had something inside her

that made her want to go on.

But unfortunately she doesn't qualify for conventional mortgages.

So she depends on people like Habitat, you know, to fil for her to have one of those slots.

The other person I work with is a woman that has retinitis pigmentosa and she's going blind and she lives in a very isolated area where she's not on the public bus line and if she could get a place like Sunrise

she'd be close to WorkSource, she'd be close to the Industries for the Blind where she could be a productive, not saying that she's not a productive person, but she could be a productive person giving something back to the community.

So when you talk about the Charlottesville Housing Fund and

Hi, I'm Gloria Rockhold, 1417 Leicester in the city, and me llamo Gloria Rockhold, vivo en la ciudad.

So my comments are going to be both English and Spanish because I have a group of Spanish-speaking groups.

But I'm here basically in the name of citizens of Charlottesville.

I'm part of the steering committee of the Dialogue on Race, and the policy action team has put together a proposal that I'd like to formally present to city council.

and so in this proposal one of the things that we were doing was answering to the voice of the public when we started the dialogue what is it that the public is wanting and what is it that we're needing and one of the things that

that we did was basically create a structure to institutionalize the intention and the voice to give power back to the people so that they would have an option as to how they would have recourse from any type of discrimination.

La propuesta de esta comisión fue como una repuesta a la voz del pueblo.

Ento se lo que estamos tratando de hacer es volveradar al pueblo el poder de poder tenor recursos en caso de discrimination.

We propose that the Charlottesville Commission on Race and Diversity and Race Relations be established and structured to enforce human rights protections, to educate the community about their rights, and to take actions to prevent discrimination.

Graziales, que se ha tablesía estructurada para en forzar los derecho humanos.

I'd like to ask everyone who's in favor of this to show their hands in support of the creation of the...

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms. Raquel.

Mark Cabot, 400 Altamont Street, Hello City Council, and Major Norris.

Did you catch that on the email?

I did.

I did.

I sent you all my draft and not my proof copy.

Anyway, I guess everyone's seen the cover of the, I believe it was The Hook this week with the JPA bridge on it.

and I had a little incidence with that this past weekend actually myself.

I was out in that way trying to go make a delivery to somebody that couldn't come to my office and it was at nighttime, couldn't find my way around because I knew I had to do it when the bridge was there but couldn't find my way otherwise.

Eventually I had to give up and turn around and came back the next morning.

The next morning went and saw the people I needed to see then had to get back across the other side of the railroad tracks.

and went around and around going down the streets trying to figure out how to get back without going all the way back to Cherry Avenue and all the way back down that way.

So I was going down the streets and turning around and going back down another street and back another street.

I noticed there didn't seem to be any detour signs up that I noticed anyway.

And I'm pretty familiar with the city and even I had trouble trying to figure out how to finally get back over.

So I wanted to bring that to you all's attention.

The other thing was that I hope that maybe we can do something for these merchants that are being hurt by the bridge, maybe at least a freeze on their real estate taxes for a while or some other things that could possibly be done to help them.

Hi, Ivana Cadia and I live at 704 Belmont Avenue.

I've come to add my voice to Emerald and Barbara who spoke earlier on the issue of fluoride in our water.

As you guys know, I'm very concerned about the health of the children in the community, and I think this is another opportunity that seems potentially relatively simple to help address the issue of neurotoxicity in particular.

Barbara and Emerald mentioned a couple of things, but I want to draw your attention to the fact that

since 1963 when we instituted this practice in Charlottesville.

Twenty-four studies have reported an association between fluoride exposure and reduced IQ in children.

Three studies have reported an association between fluoride exposure and impaired neurobehavioral development.

Three studies have reported damage to the brain of aborted fetuses in high fluoride areas and over a hundred laboratory studies have reported damage to the brain and or cognitive function among fluoride exposed animals.

I would really like to ask you to consider this.

Topical treatments for preventing decay of teeth are one thing.

It's an entirely different thing to systemically take in this toxin over a lifetime, and especially for our youngest citizens.

I also would like to add my voice to the City of Charlottesville Commission on Human Rights.

that we just heard mentioned.

I participated as a facilitator during the beginning of the Raison Dialogue.

I feel that the city brought this up because it was important to all of us here in the community and now is the time to kind of

step up to the plate because one of our action teams has done their homework and really developed a platform that can keep us moving in the right direction and in terms of human rights in the city of Charlottesville.

So I would ask you to really consider that and to consider funding for next year a director position for this commission.

That's the last person who signed up to speak.

We are going to move ahead so that we can get to the main event in a few minutes.

But I do want to open up the meeting to council member responses to matters by the public.

Who would like to get us started?

I'm happy to.

I'd first like to just kind of address the fluoride thing.

I have been doing a lot of reading and for one thing I think that you need to know that the city and the county have a water supply in common.

It's not just our decision.

But I also, for the moment, the National Associations of Doctors and Dentists, the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, all strongly support fluoride in the water.

And so, while I can't claim to be a scientist and know that that's a great thing, I wouldn't want to

to make the assumption that this material is more important than that.

So I think it's something that we should probably have an ongoing consideration of.

I think we should talk about it.

I'm glad you brought it up.

But I'm certainly not willing to at this point say, well, in that case, let's not do it.

But thank you for bringing it up.

As to the banks that the city, Bailey where are you?

There.

The banks that the city does business, I know, I too am, you know, I just divested my funds from the Bank of America this last week, so a mortgage.

But I know that one of the reasons that we are involved with certain banks as a city is that some of our employees have direct deposit and they can't do that if we don't have some association with the bank.

And so I think that there is that piece of it that we need to be

be aware of as we're making these decisions, but I do support the city making a statement with its money.

Let's see, there was, I guess the parking tickets on the sidewalk, I'm really sorry, where are you?

I'm sorry this happened, you were obviously trying to do a good thing, although I wonder after the first one why you parked on the sidewalk again, but I think that, you know, we are really committed in this city to having accessible sidewalks, to being a pedestrian-friendly city, and

It's a really serious thing to us when somebody blocks a sidewalk.

Well, that's what it is for everyone.

So anyway, although I am sympathetic, I'm not inclined to want to overturn it, but I am sorry it happened because you were trying to do a good thing.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to follow up on the fluoride issue.

What I have heard gives me a great deal of concern.

To think about it, I would request that maybe if we want to order a civil authority, we should research a little bit more to see what the facts might be.

I'm going to speak before Holly this time so I learned it's a good idea.

I'm also sympathetic to the issues raised about fluoride in the water.

I mean, I think the fact that it's sort of not given as a health choice, yet it has

you know some people raised some serious concerns and just looking briefly on the internet while we were doing public comment there was an article I mean there's an article in the major medical journal talking about how you know this is a big concern so I think

Just because we've been doing something for a long time obviously doesn't make it a good thing to be doing, but it gives it inertia.

And so I'd like to see us talk with our colleagues in Albemarle County and perhaps in the Health Department and really see if we can have a careful look at this and would we be better served

by supporting and educating people on the importance of topical fluoride as opposed to ingesting fluoride for everyone without any choice.

And I kind of agree about the car being towed.

I'd even be very inclined to consider some write-off of the first time, but if the person does the same thing again, it's like, well, I don't know, pardon me, but that's just what I'm thinking there.

And I'd like to make a couple of comments.

Number one, if Mark gets lost, we're in trouble.

So there may be some credence to having some signs with just some reminders, again, to people about the bridge being closed and what routes to take in that neighborhood.

Several times about what can be done to

continue to support them in the same way that we supported the downtown businesses during the re-bricking of the downtown mall.

And for all of us to keep in mind the businesses that are there, to be intentional about going across town and having lunch at Wayside or at Dirty Nellie's or at the Fry's Spring Station or at Time 99 or

at Whose Brews, and so let's all participate in doing that.

And I've been a vegetarian for, as long as I can remember it, the smell of the wayside chicken.

So I think we just need to be supportive, you know, just keep that in mind.

In the Florida issue, I thank Ms. Young for trusting me with the DVD.

I did take a chance to take the opportunity to take a look at it, and I just found the information intriguing, but I'd like to do more homework.

such that I do plan to get the book that was suggested at the DVD was The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson.

Not like anyone that is concerned about the subject and interested to also read the book because I think it has some value into looking into that.

I didn't think about it until I started thinking about fluoride in terms of being a medication and what the fluoride levels are in our body.

So it is worth, I think, the conversation.

Human Rights Commission, thank you for those that spoke up about that and are supportive of that.

That's another conversation that we need to have on council about what the future of the dialogue on race will be and the Commission as the next level of the dialogue.

That has to be an ongoing discussion.

And the more we bring it up, the more we're reminded as to how important that is.

It's a complex issue.

It's not just about Charlottesville, but it's about our entire region, our community.

We have the resources, I think we have the services, whether or not they match the needs of something we need to explore.

And also, the greatest, one of the greatest mitigations against homelessness is Habitat.

And if Habitat is coming back and for money, you know that the housing issues is a serious issue for our entire region.

And as far as the

Your ticket is concerned.

I'm not sure whether or not this is the appropriate venue or whether or not the next step would be to actually go there and talk to the judge about the ticket.

You know, you have an opportunity to say why you want to pay it or why you don't want to pay it, but instead of coming here, actually go to the judge.

That would be my recommendation, to actually follow the appeals process.

OK. Never underestimate the power of an appeal or just being consistent.

Persistent.

Not giving up.

Let's see, a lot of what I was going to say has already been said, but I do agree that it's good to take a look at where the city holds its money, our money, and I'm a long time member of the credit union and so I was disappointed to hear that we don't have money in the credit unions.

I'd love to know why that is and so I hope we can follow up on that.

I too think there is a real, or I don't think, I know there's a real issue with the merchants around the JPA Bridge project and there's more that we can be doing to support them and I'd like to see what more we can do.

In that regard, I too support the Human Rights Commission and now we'll be talking about it at our next meeting, I believe.

And we'll just move on from there.

Thank you all who spoke tonight.

Now we're going to move on to our consent agenda.

And on the consent agenda tonight we have a number of items.

Item A is an appropriation runway emergency shelter program grant, $222,222, second of two readings.

Item B, an appropriation statewide information sharing strategic plan and pilot geospatial visualization project, $1 million, second of two readings.

Item C, appropriation, State Criminal Alien Assistance Program grant, $16,738, first of two readings.

Item D, appropriation, Charlottesville Police Foundation contribution, $2,376.14, first of two readings.

Item E, appropriation, Bulletproof Partnership DOJ grant, $4,392.92, first of two readings.

Item F, resolution, allocation of funds for Vinegar Hill Monument, first to one reading.

Item G, an ordinance, reauthorization of the technology zone tax incentive, second to two readings.

Item H, an ordinance, planned unit development application requirement revision, second to two readings.

Item I, an ordinance, update civil penalties for zoning violations and correction to code section regarding the zoning matrix, second to two readings.

And item J, an ordinance, extension of home improvement tax exemption program,

First the two readings.

Okay, item F and item J will be added to Other Business at the end of the meeting.

I just wanted to bring up just a couple other things for discussion in the Other Business.

Whether or not we should have a work session or just under council discussion, solid waste, and also when Virginia organizing was here,

discussing African American employees.

Okay.

Is there a motion to approve the remaining items on the consent agenda?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Any discussion?

Hearing none, please indicate your vote.

And the motion carries unanimously.

So we'll now move forward.

We have a couple of public hearings before we get to the public hearing that some of you are interested in.

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, whenever the City Utilities Division installs new gas lines, it gets an easement from the property owner if those gas lines are going to be placed on private property.

That was done in the pavilion subdivision, which is up on Pantops.

Subsequent to getting one of these easements, the developer revised their plans, which resulted in a need to relocate the gas line easement.

We have received an easement for the new location but now we need to abandon the easement which was initially given to the city.

Alright, any questions for Mr. Brown before we open the public hearing?

Hearing none, we will open the public hearing on this matter.

Is there anybody from the public who would like to speak?

Seeing none, we will close the public hearing.

I'll move approval.

All right, it's been moved and seconded.

We'll carry forward to our next meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

Next item is a public hearing in appropriation, fiscal year 2011, year-end appropriation before scenario in the first two readings.

Mr. Mayor, members of city council, I am, is this on?

I am pleased to report that we ended another year with a positive financial position.

I guess due to the vibrant city council leadership and the city administration.

Thank you.

You've got papers in front of you that actually shows the revenue and expenses, how we compared the budget,

Overall this year, our revenues came in at about 1.2 million dollars over budget.

The main sources was bank stock, which was $695,000, which is basically the capital stock of banks.

State highway assistance, $327,000.

This is one you really don't know until after you adopt the budget, so that was good news for us.

Meals tax was up $333,000 over budget.

and the parking garage revenue produced $426,000 over budget.

Personal property taxes very weak primarily due to new cars and other cars not being purchased was under budget by $405,000 and real estate was over budget by $71,000.

That made most of the $1.2 million overage, which when you look at the overage compared to the total budget, it was eight-tenths of one percent, which is pretty close.

Last year when we were reporting this to you, it was actually $1.2 million under budget, so we reversed that.

The expenses came in under budget by $4 million.

The main categories there was employee compensation, basically turnover was $580,000.

Recreation and parks was under budget by $338,000 primarily because of turnover again.

Social Services, $452,000, Comprehensive Services Act, $560,000.

That was primarily because the people in the program actually decreased by about 50 people.

Energy Savings, $107,000, and Public Works Refuge because of the reduction in the tipping fee, $165,000.

So the net year end actually was $5.2 million under budget.

If you look at your Exhibit 1, that will show you the details of what the administration is recommending to appropriate from the $5.2 million.

And that includes $3.5 million, and the major items there are the golf fund, we're recommending a transfer of $400,000.

The debt service fund, we're recommending a transfer of $2 million.

And gasoline, $600,000, simply because prices have gone up so much since we did the budget last year.

After that, that leaves a balance of $1.7 million, which we have referred to as a surplus in the past.

We are recommending that be placed in the CIP contingency, and before that money is spent, we would have to come back to council to allocate those funds.

That's pretty much it.

Questions for Mr. Ray before we open the public hearing?

All right, thank you Mr. Ray.

We have one person to sign up to speak.

I will open the public hearing.

We have one person to sign up to speak, Mr. Brandon Collins.

Thanks, Brandon Collins, 536 Meade Avenue.

I won't take up a lot of time.

It's kind of interesting you've got $1.2 or $1.7 million extra in the surplus that that would effectively double the housing fund.

I know that's not exactly the decision that you're making right now, but it is something to consider.

If we wanted to really put some more money into housing, that would be it right there.

Now I know some of the things that you want to allocate to

need those funds that you'll be looking at here.

And one of those things I just wanted to point out, you know, good job putting aside some money for holiday bus service.

This really shows that you're putting your money where your mouth is, and I'm really excited to see this happen, and I hope you make it happen.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thomas.

Good evening Mr. Mayor and Councillors, Colette Hall, 101 Robertson Lane.

On page 51 of the agenda, and Mr. Ray mentioned it, attached is Exhibit 1, which provides a summary of appropriations.

I'm not going to read all the whole paragraph, just the end of it.

This is important since the bond rating agencies closely track what the city contributes as pay-as-you-go cash

versus bonds issued in the CIP.

A recent rating agency review noted less cash was being contributed to our CIP.

First, I need to state the obvious for the record.

Why is it the city does not return our over budget revenues to the taxpayers?

Second, that being said, since it will not happen, I then agree we need to add monies to our CIP fund.

However, rather than 1 million, approximately 700,000, why not add another 800,000 more and make it an even 2.5 million?

This could be accomplished if about 22% were taken from the other appropriations listed in this document.

Just for grins, without the pros and cons of revenue sharing, has the council even thought how the city budget would remain balanced, solvent, and fund its needs if it did not receive an estimated annual $15 million from the county?

I believe if Mrs. Beauregard ran the numbers, the city would find it gets down to the bones of what it needs versus what is padded wants.

Please increase the CIP cash appropriations.

Thank you, Ms. Hall.

Anybody else like to speak?

Good evening.

I'm Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

I know it's been a tradition of taking surplus funds and putting them into the capital improvement program but lately we've had a crisis in maintenance and I think that adding to the capital program which will increase our needs for maintenance without matching some of those funds at least or perhaps all of those funds going into underdone maintenance over the past several years.

We have

many maintenance needs.

We keep on hearing about the fact that maintenance has been deferred.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kleeman.

Anybody else in the public like to speak?

All right, hearing none, we will close the public hearing.

And I'd be happy to entertain comments or questions from our counselors.

I actually have a couple of questions.

And I'd like to ask a couple of questions about golf.

And I see Mr. Daley's here in the audience.

Maybe he would be the right person to answer these.

I also will ask Bernard for some help on this.

It's a number that is, and Bernard please correct me if I'm wrong, an aggregate amount of

negative fund balances over a period of fiscal years, not necessarily the fund balance in any one fiscal year.

This year, the past fiscal year just ended.

The fund itself ended the year, I think $111,000 or $110,000, $115,000 short, somewhere in that range.

And we are also asking Rivanna, one or two authority, for

If we recoup the $102,000 we're trying to recover from Rivanna, the golf fund by itself would actually have made a $100,000 profit.

On the books it actually shows they lost $2,000 this year.

The actual negative fund balance in the golf fund is $592,000.

and that's the only negative fund we have in the city.

We're asking $400,000 be transferred from this year-end balance to bring that down to $192,000.

If we collect $102,000 from Rivanna, then it'll be $90,000.

Exactly, exactly.

The last, I guess the last three years they've been break even or actually made a profit.

And is this just funding the McIntyre course or is this funding both McIntyre and Penn Park?

Both.

Okay.

And do you separate them out?

I mean does McIntyre lose money or make money or vice versa?

Expenses in the golf fund are not

separated between McIntire and Meadow Creek.

Same staff does all the work.

And then there's some transfer of funds in here for the first T program.

There's not a transfer to the first T.

In the session I think we had recently, of the $592,000 deficit that's in the golf fund, because the first tee was part of that up until the fiscal 12 budget, the first tee actually had losses of $272,000 since they started the program in 2006.

I think we should think long and hard about whether we want to continue participating in First Tee if those are the kind of numbers that are generated.

I think it's, you know, I got some information from the city.

I think it's mostly a program for county participants.

May I just add to the comments of Dr. Brown?

When I was talking to staff about this deficit in first tea and golf in general, my first reaction was why somebody didn't say something about it five years ago, or something about an ongoing basis.

and so it kept on going for so many years.

It seems to me that there is maybe a question of financial management as to what relates to this program.

And if you are losing money, you ought to think you ought to cut something out or just don't let it go out year after year.

And I understand that first tea is doing better in this year, last year or so.

About a year and a half ago, we took a very, very long and hard look at our operating expenditures and revenues within the golf fund and took a long, hard look at actual usage data, primarily at Meadow Creek.

That's where the bulk of the rounds are played.

Our rounds have stayed static, and that's a good thing in this economy, at about 30 to 31,000 rounds a year over the past several years, five, six years.

Most of the golf industry has seen significant declines in rounds played.

When we looked at where our rounds were being played and what time of day, who was playing the bulk of the rounds, the bulk of the rounds were actually being played by those individuals who held an annual membership.

They pay a one-time fee and effectively had unlimited golf over the course of the year.

Many of those members were playing a lot and getting great value out of their membership to the point where revenue per round was less than $10 in many cases and that equation effectively puts us upside down.

We changed our rate structure going into the 2010 season to make the annual pass still available but at a significantly higher fee and began to offer a multi-round pass.

We could buy a single pass that was good for 10 rounds of golf.

that would get our per round revenue higher for the same level of play and totally revamped our rate structure based upon that.

We finished our second season with that in place and the most number of rounds played this calendar year to date has been on the multi-round pass.

So it has totally shifted and turned that equation back in the direction where it needs to be going and that is assisted with our profitability.

We've also taken great steps to enhance and establish and enhance a volunteer program where our volunteers in exchange for limited golf privileges provide services as starters, marshals, rangers, and so forth.

That has reduced our operating expenditures on the seasonal salary side significantly, probably $75,000 to $80,000.

I guess I have some philosophical concerns about the city using its resources for golf.

I think that golf in itself uses an awful lot.

No, that's not helpful.

uses a lot of lands.

I think our golf courses probably use less chemicals than most but there's a certain, you know, artificiality towards just keeping it in the sort of shape it needs to be for golf and then it's restricted from use by all but a few people.

And I say this after hearing impassioned pleas by golfers who I love.

But are you saying that if we

To give you an example, the last three years, in 2009, the golf course, okay, not first tee, lost $50,000.

And what Brian was saying, in 2010, they made a profit of $63,000.

This year, if we recover the $100,000 from Rivanna, they've made a profit of $100,000.

So they've certainly turned it around.

If you go back to 2008, they lost $122,000.

So now they're making a profit every year consistently.

Well, under this scenario, the first T would remain in the general fund.

But it doesn't pay for itself.

Correct.

And that's not unusual for some of our programs.

I mean, most of our programs are not fully recovered in terms of revenue.

What this does lead to is kind of a longer discussion that I think we'll have during the budget about the role of First T and its impact in our community and whether it's had its intended impact when it was first proposed and council decided to support it.

I mean this is essentially an accounting issue.

I mean we're talking about we've got a hole in the button that we've got to fill.

We can either fill it with some of this carryover money or we can pay it off over the next 10 or 20 years.

And so I'm guessing that from an accounting perspective it makes more sense to go ahead and fill that hole now rather than carrying a liability or a debt.

Right, sure.

So we may all regret the fact that we're in this hole and how we got into this hole, but we've got to fill the hole somehow.

I would agree with you.

Yes, sir.

And I think we're trying to be very proactive in doing that.

The other area where I wanted to ask a couple of questions was about the money for dialogue on race.

You know, I think the Dialogue on Race has done a great job and it may well deserve all the funding that's being asked here.

But what I'm concerned about is the fact that there are a lot of worthy organizations, some of which we turn down when they come to us in the spring during the budget session, and I'm kind of wondering why this should be funded, you know, the recommendations of the committees on the Dialogue on Race should be funded outside of the budget process rather than being considered

Partially it's unspent and part of it is new money.

$18,000 is carryover and how much is $25,000 is new money.

that would go to help provide some cost recovery for a position that we have to help pay for some of that.

So are you saying that we're allocating money for dialogue on race right now?

That decision has been

Will the council have a chance to talk about it?

Yes.

I mean I think there's an issue to discuss I think is the dialogue on race emerging from a process which the city funded to becoming a standing part of this of the city bureaucracy and whether we're intending it to or whether we think no it's going to wrap up its dialogue and race is going to wrap up its business in the next

six months or during the course of this fiscal year or is there going to be a request for additional funding?

Is the staff person, you know, I mean I don't have a real clue and I think that's the kind of thing that needs to come from a bigger discussion of city council and not from

Well I think you're right Dr. Brown and we do anticipate coming back to council in December to talk about the Human Rights Commission and part of that is what is the future of the dialogue on race steering committee and the steering committee's kind of having that discussion as well.

Will the steering committee be absorbed into the commission?

What will the structure look like for that commission, for their board?

How will it interact with the city?

Will it be a standing commission on its own?

Will it be part of the city?

Those are things that we're working through right now, doing our due diligence on the proposal.

I have one more comment to make about the reallocations.

I would like to see some additional funds in CIP because there are a lot of needs and this is a one-time opportunity to spend money on CIP because it is a one-time fund and one-time expenditure, so it is an ongoing issue.

I would like to see at least half a million to one million dollars additional in CIP funds.

And while you look, I just have an information question.

We had a comment from the public about maintenance as opposed to CIP.

A lot of the major maintenance is in the CIP.

Exactly.

I'll also note that in response to Mr. Collins, there actually is a proposal coming from certain members of the planning commission and the housing advisory group to significantly increase our housing fund this coming fiscal year.

I don't know if that's going to make it into the city manager's budget or not, but certainly that's something the city council will have an opportunity to weigh in on.

Well, while you're doing that, I'll also respond to Ms. Hall.

Ms. Hall made a good point about rebating some of the surplus back to the taxpayers.

As you may remember, this is a proposal that I floated several years ago, and when staff looked into it,

It turns out it's not as easy as it sounds.

Mr. Talaferro and I suggested just cutting a check to every taxpayer out of the surplus from that year.

And it turns out that would be considered, A, would be considered taxable income to the taxpayer, ironically enough.

And they would actually all have to file, was it a 1099 form?

It was just ridiculous how much red tape that would cause.

And so we didn't end up moving forward with that.

The other issue too, if I could address her concern, was that the rating agency did make note that we were putting less cash into the CIP, but when we were putting all this cash into the CIP, we were having much larger surpluses.

And I would add that the money that was put into the CIP has been put to good use over the last couple of years, building like the Smith Aquatic Center, the Honesty Pool, other

the fire station, putting towards a lot of really important projects, the old Lynchburg Road project, those types of things.

That's a pretty hard number.

There's $600,000.

Let me just make a procedural note because I know we have a lot of people waiting for the next item.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to recommend that we delay that vote.

It's a joke.

I'm sorry.

I know.

I noticed that.

Mr. Mayor, let's start from the beginning on this issue.

Leading up to the October 17th City Council meeting, it had become abundantly clear to us that a group of folks in our community were interested in starting an Occupy Charlottesville movement with the intention of settling in Lee Park.

So we reached out to some of the identified organizers of the group to begin a conversation with them.

We felt this was needed so that they would understand that the city supports their First Amendment rights to assemble and to express their opinions.

That there were however restrictions that were in place for use of the park that had to be addressed.

and that we wanted to help ensure that everyone in and around that park would remain safe during the demonstration regardless of the anticipated duration.

The discussions with the occupied group, city staff and the police proved to be very fruitful.

The group was offered the opportunity to bring their case directly to the city council for consideration.

and once council expressed an interest in hearing from the group and considering their requests, I decided in consultation with our police department to use common sense and to not arrest anyone in the park on trespassing charges until at the very least council had a chance to weigh in on the permitting process.

At your October 17th meeting, the council did exactly that.

After consulting with my office, the city attorney's office in Parks and Recreation, Occupy Charlottesville was given a three-day demonstration permit to stay in the park.

In essence, we lifted the closing hours of the park.

The permit was to be extended for an additional three days at the discretion of the Parks and Recreation Director, Mr. Daley, and myself if the group was generally abiding by the rules that we had set forth.

We found that the Occupy group was responsive to our concerns and committed to partnering with the city to ensure the safety and well-being of folks in and around the park and of course to help protect the property itself.

The city has had ongoing discussions with the group over the last month about issues that have popped up and we have had some issues that have popped up and they have been largely responsive to our concerns.

It was anticipated that the movement's use of Lee Park would last until around Thanksgiving.

Those are the discussions that we had initially.

So now we find ourselves facing that deadline for withdrawal from the park.

On one side you have Occupy Charlottesville and they are asking to extend the suspension of the closing hours at Lee Park and there have been some other ideas that have been tossed out there as well and they want to be able to continue to protest and also camp in the park.

On the other hand, you have a growing number of folks in our community who see this as a land use and fairness issue.

They believe the park is designated for recreational purposes for the public at large and is not currently being used that way.

and many feel intimidated by the campground and think that things need to change and we need to be able to move on.

And they argue that it should be restored to its previous use.

So those are really kind of the two sides that you're hearing.

I know the council's heard a lot over the last few days, especially a lot of email traffic from folks in the community who care deeply about this.

And I know that all of you have probably had some conversations with folks in our community as well.

And so tonight we're asking

for council's input on the next steps.

And really at issue here is whether or not we continue to allow Occupy Charlottesville to be in the park and to be in the park after hours because that's the main issue that's at play here.

Questions for Mr. Jones before we open the public hearing?

Okay, thank you Mr. Jones for that good introduction.

We are going to open the public hearing.

We have quite a number of people who signed up to speak tonight and so we ask you when you come forward please state your name and address and we do ask you to keep your comments to no more than three minutes just so we can get through this long list.

Good evening, Mr. Norris of the city council.

My name is Joel Barnes.

My address is 1113 Little High Street, Apartment 20.

It starts with the movement.

I have, a number of people have come to me because I'm a spokesperson.

And disabled, even little kids had come to me and I remember one issue

A group of kids, along with the teacher, came to the park, started coming to the park.

First, they started with three, one week.

Then, they got up to 30 then, that's the end of the park, the 10th.

I had some kids were telling me they're scared to go over to the next park over there to play on the playground.

You know what I'm talking about, over behind here.

And now, I've been watching and studying.

Now many times, Mr. Longo's men was going over to the park because it's drinking and who all else was going on.

To me, I feel, I used to get up early in the morning, I know a number of y'all seen me walk in the street early in the morning, take my walk, I'm a diabetic.

I got to take one in the morning, and I take one in the evening.

These two or three times out of the week.

I get tough, I'm seeing like early in the morning, homeless sitting there, like following me, and um, bugging for cigarettes.

Bunch of anything that I need.

And it scared me.

Scared was telling me, some kid telling me that these kids go back to the park because all these tents up here and they tugged by.

And some of them have nightmares.

They tell me about nightmares and what.

And I said, what's going on?

They said, it looks like somebody's just watching them, trying to stalk them and do everything.

and one little boy would tell me one of them was starting to follow them around in the community and to me I feel they permit should not be extended where it should be rejected and we're not putting rejected is because

First the homeless started to be little.

Then we got a whole bunch of people in there.

That's why y'all went on the Fourth Street, the big building, nice building for them.

I don't know what's up with that.

I see it's still working.

I feel that y'all should take and not get in that police park.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Barnes.

My name is Fred Quarles.

I live on Fontaine Avenue.

I wanted to give my three minutes to Mr. Hall, but you've told me I couldn't do that.

So I would like to ask you to listen very carefully to what he says.

Mr. Hall is an inventor.

He has good insight into a number of problems.

He has six patents.

One of those potentially can save 1,400,000 lives a year.

He has made and discussed proposals regarding the homeless situation, and I would hope that you would listen to him.

And as far as my two cents for Lee Park, I think they have a right to speak.

Thank you, Mr. Quarles.

My name is John Edward Hall of 829 Mallside Force Court.

I'd like to say a short prayer before my time begins, if I may.

Dear Lord, help me to transform the Occupy movement in Charlottesville and other cities where such movements still endure into a lasting heritage to benefit the homeless, the poor and needy who seek the welfare and discipline to improve afforded by my PACE petitions.

It is fairly easy to understand my PACE petitions for our city leaders such as Mayor David Norris, who is the founder of our PACHAM, meaning peace, program for homeless and mentally ill people staying overnight in the fall and winter in our churches.

In the PACE petitions, I call for night camping only in designated parks year round.

It will be economical for city government to supply tents, a shower house segregating male from female, a medic tent with volunteer doctors, and a food pavilion with cooked food supplied by the Salvation Army.

I call my PACE petitions year-round pacham in designated parks.

for simple understanding.

Most important would be new signs posted in all parks, especially lead park occupiers, for the lead park occupiers, to establish park rules to be observed by all park users day and night to promote discipline and law and order among park users.

Such rules have been included in my PACE petitions and when I told Captain Wendy Lewis about them, she said she didn't know why they, the police, hadn't thought of them.

I asked her to convey my thoughts to Tim Longo, Chief of Police, who was standing nearby on Veterans Day in Lee Park.

Rules to follow and work to do provide needed discipline and peace of mind for night campers, i.e.

occupiers.

Tents would be pitched, air mattresses inflated, sleeping bags unrolled for the night slumber.

In the morning, tents are taken down and packed, air bags deflated and packed.

Sleeping bags rolled up for truck pickup by park workers.

Campfires are extinguished.

There is no alcohol consumption or substance abuse by park users.

The city also provides portable sanitation.

Police will monitor the parks to see that final rules established by our city council are obeyed.

We must move the city council to change the city code to abolish curfews in the designated parks to allow the PACE petitions to take effect.

This will take some doing and persuasiveness on my part as some current occupiers do not wish to leave peacefully when Thanksgiving arrives.

The City Council wished to give them First Amendment rights when the permit was granted for three days around October 19th.

When the permit was renewed over the objections of the Tea Party and now continued to Thanksgiving,

I hope that Tim Longo will continue in forbearance until Thanksgiving given all the negative things that have been reported in Lee Park to now.

Bailey Elizabeth Hampton, the homeless, Lee Park.

I want to present you guys with a couple things.

First, the Bill of Rights.

Secondly, 27 letters written by population citizens of Charlottesville on behalf of occupied Charlottesville.

our core values and how we work our general assemblies and the list of our working groups.

Fourth, 434 signatures that support Occupy Charlottesville.

Okay.

I'm here on behalf.

We want to issue a group statement to you guys.

It is the only time during this meeting that we will be somewhat disruptive.

We're going to use the people's mic.

Since October 15th, we have occupied Lee Park in solidarity with other Occupy movements all around the globe to stand for social and economic justice.

In this span of time we have accomplished many things.

We've created a community within a community that is vastly different for many of us.

For many of us, this is the first time in our lives that we've felt a sense of functioning, safe community, love and mutual respect.

We've discovered things

We're better citizens because of it Our First Amendment rights

our First Amendment rights that protect our human rights to peaceably assemble to petition our government for a redress of grievances and to have freedom of speech must trump our local ordinance

We must continue to do so.

Only when you stay put can you grow roots.

Many of us do not.

This is not easy for any of us.

This is not a camping trip.

We are here to express ourselves politically and to try to build a better life for us all.

What we all just said, I'm right there with you.

My name is Brandon Collins, I live at 536 Meade Avenue.

I have participated in the Occupy site at Lee Park and I ask that the curfew be lifted for the duration of this day of Occupy Charlottesville.

You know, you have the legal right to remove us.

You have the legal right also to allow us to stay.

And that's the decision that you're about to make.

And I know it's uncomfortable.

And that's okay.

It's supposed to be uncomfortable.

It's uncomfortable for people camping out.

It's uncomfortable for the great many of us in this world who realize that having a sustainable economy and a sustainable environment requires us to get outside of our comfort level.

And you know, this is going to have to extend to all of you.

You've said publicly that you don't want Charlottesville to make mass arrests or to show up in the middle of the night in riot gear and there's a real simple way to avoid that which is don't do it.

So to ask it bluntly, we're asking which side you're on.

Are you on the side of the handful of localities nationwide that have expressed support for the Occupy movement and allowed various Occupy sites to remain?

Or are you going to be on the same side as places like Oakland, where you've seen violent arrests of hundreds of people?

Or New York City, where you've seen hundreds arrested and removed?

Or Philadelphia, where a retired police chief was arrested while wearing his uniform?

or in Seattle where attempts were made by the local government to support the ideals of the Occupy movement while simultaneously raiding and evicting occupiers and tear gassing an 80 year old woman.

And recently UC Davis where you've seen young people, very infamous pictures now of young people, non-violent demonstrators being pepper sprayed.

So I don't think that's the side you want to be on.

And again, there's an easy way to avoid that, which is to allow the demonstrators to be in the park.

We stand in solidarity with the other Occupy sites around the country and around the world, and we want you to also.

Now I know you have concerns for the homeless.

There is no separation.

of exercising the human right to speak or the right to assemble, there's no separation between homeless folks and protesters.

We're all demonstrators.

It's been said by many of the homeless folks staying in the park that they have no choice, that they are making a political statement because it's the only thing they have left to do.

And telling them that they are better off going into a shelter is basically taking away any authority they have over themselves.

and that's the same thing as telling the other demonstrators that they have to leave.

My name is Mike Sloan.

I reside in Lee Park.

I came to Charlottesville about a year and a half ago, about a month before I came to Charlottesville from Virginia Beach.

A friend of mine was crushed to death by a city truck because he was sleeping on the beach.

He was a homeless man.

I came to Charlottesville and met a man named Pete.

He'd lost one leg, his toes on another foot, all his fingers from frostbite because he fell asleep when the mall drunk.

As I said, the occupation in the homes, we're here together as one.

We have a common cause.

And if you close us down, a lot of people are going to be stuck.

Some of us can't go to Patrick.

I can't.

I cannot do it.

I spent 30 years of my life in prison.

When you put me in a room full of people, I start having pain attacks.

And moreover, I have a dog.

I can't go because of my dog, even though she's a service dog.

They say I cannot go to Patrick.

I can't go to SRO because of my dog.

So where do I go?

What kind of provisions are going to be made for people like me who are disabled?

I'm blind.

I have nowhere else to go.

That park is my home.

That's my community.

That's my neighborhood.

Brian Moss.

Brian Moss, Maple Hill Farms, Scottsville.

I just wanted to read an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's essay, Civil Disobedience.

that I find very appropriate for the times and expresses my view very clearly.

Unjust laws exist.

Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them and obey them until we have succeeded?

Or shall we transgress them at once?

Men generally, under such government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.

They think that if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil.

But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil.

It makes it worse.

Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform?

Why does it not cherish its wise minority?

In this case, the majority.

Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt?

Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults and do better than it would have them?

Jordan McNish, Lee Park, I have a prepared statement I'd like to read.

I do not want to make my argument to remain in the park a semantic one based on legal jargon or court rulings.

Rather, I want to make my argument based on the spirit of the First Amendment, which says, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Petitioning the government for a redress of grievances is exactly what the Occupy movement has been doing.

Restricting the time, place, and manner in which citizens can participate in a community forum literally abridges freedom of speech.

So much so that we have come to a time where there is no public space to legally gather after curfew.

Recently, the city has given us a permit so its citizens can exercise their 24-7 free speech rights regardless of city ordinances.

If the curfew on Lee Park is not lifted when the permit expires, local ordinances will once again be in conflict with our right to free speech.

And Occupy Long Beach prepared a statement for their city council, and this has been modified to be relevant for our situation.

It says, I am asking the city to distinguish between camping and an encampment meant for political free speech, where people can seek shelter in the rain and cold, to rest and continue to provide discourse throughout the day and night.

There is much to catch up on over the last 30 plus years of vile economic policy, so we truly need this to be a 24 hour occupation.

One argument against the continued occupation of Lee Park is the concern that having the park open late encourages crime.

This is why the curfew was initially put into effect.

I want to suggest that what Kurfis do is replace public crimes with private ones.

One of the crimes that has become apparent throughout the occupation is the way society deals with mental illness and addiction.

People with these issues, most of them non-violent, are routinely thrown into jails and hospitals, only to be put back on the street, no better off than before they were placed in an institution.

Over the past few weeks, the community that has sprang up at Lee Park has been a microcosm of the Charlottesville community as a whole.

Issues in the park reflect problems in our larger community.

Because of our policy of openness, people who have been neglected by a broader society have found a place in our community.

Thank you.

I just want to say I'm very proud of all these children, our children, who are here tonight to express their First Amendment rights.

I'm very proud of the ones that have spoken before me.

I'm very proud of the ones that will speak after me.

This evening I want to say that

The Occupy Charlottesville occupation has consents to attain an event permit, a process that did not address what we were, but was done to follow the spirit of the law.

There are those who feel that in these types of situations to follow the letter of the law would prohibit the expression of one's first amendment rights, which is a hallmark indicator of an oppressive government.

I believe that the city did not want to be viewed as oppressive.

From that perspective, the collaborative effort to step back and watch the demonstration of participatory democracy grow

and seeing the evolving community grow was an effective adaptation of acting in the spirit of the law.

The letter of the law is the physical action in the literal interpretation of the law but not its intent.

The spirit of the law actually requires more than an outward action.

It also involves an attitude of the mind in doing what the authors intended though not necessarily adhering to the literal wording.

Occupy Charlottesville has operated under the spirit of the law as the way to exercise the First Amendment rights guaranteed in both the US Constitution and the Virginia Constitution.

Even the Christian Bible weighs in on this debate.

In looking at the New Testament, the Pharisees are seen as adhering to the letter of the law interpretations.

Jesus has been depicted as someone who values the spirit of the law.

I believe that in his life, he encouraged people to look beyond the letter of the law and to the spirit of the law.

The core message of the Occupy movement is that the increasing concentration of income and wealth does pose a grave danger to our democracy.

When we as citizens as a collective group try to make our voices heard, we are told that our First Amendment rights are limited when it comes to time, manner and space.

If we as a country, as espoused by our President, uplift the Arab Spring, which includes Tahrir Square, it is hypocritical to limit the same expressions here.

Dawn Story, 3571 Deer Ridge Farm.

So members of the Charlottesville City Council and the greater Charlottesville community, I speak in support of the occupation of Lee Park and in the Occupy movement in general.

I'm in support of this occupation because in my opinion this movement represents a pivotal moment in history.

This revolution, this global uprising was born for more and more people awakening to the fact that our systems of governance and doing business and conducting our lives in general are not serving the majority of the people nor the planet upon which we all live and depend.

We have now found ourselves, that is all of us, facing urgent and confluent crises with the economy, with energy, with the environment, with our food, our soil, our water, and our air.

And there are no signs pointing toward the ruling class or the corporate elite solving these problems, let alone giving them serious consideration.

Our leaders are hanging on with the desperation of an addict to a toxic and broken system, which benefits the few at the expense of many.

And by the way, it is killing the planet.

Thankfully, the Occupy movement offers another paradigm and it is here to save the day.

In Lee Park and all over the world, people are coming together from all places in society, spirituality, color and geography to take matters into their own hands.

Despite mainstream media's obvious refusal to declare occupation as newsworthy and despite attempts to destroy occupation in communities and gatherings,

Lives are changing each and every day as more and more brave and selfless souls find empowerment through participation in the democratic process and through exercising their right to peacefully assemble and yes, protest.

Thus the Occupy movement is only growing stronger and it continues to raise awareness of the issues that are plaguing our planet and society and continues to provide a safe haven for folks inspired to have these much needed and long overdue discussions.

We are at a turning point in history wherein we can no longer afford to allow corporate control over the political process and we can no longer expect infinite growth on a finite planet.

Many of us accept that this means change in how we live and how we meet our needs and recognize that solving our world's problems isn't going to happen overnight.

This movement, including the occupation of Lee Park, must have the space and resources to continue doing this good work.

We are faced with the huge task of changing our culture and there is still much important work to be done.

It would be much more effective and efficient if the world's human inhabitants could spend more time actually caring for each other and the planet and less time facing obstruction to this crucial healing process.

This revolution is the solution.

It is the change we have been seeking.

We hope you are paying attention.

We invite you to have this conversation with us.

We ask you to join with us in this historical moment in designing a viable and vibrant future that benefits the highest good of all concerned.

I live at 981 Old Lynchburg Road.

I'm on the board of Pacham and I'm the president of Mental Health America.

I think it's interesting this evening that we're being asked to equate free speech with a campground in Lee Park.

I don't get the connection.

No matter the high ideals and resolution of Occupy, we still deal as a community with the unintended consequences of a homeless shelter in Lee Park.

Eight years ago,

I was one of the people in the many congregations I believe were up to 36 congregations in Charlottesville who said that no one should be allowed to freeze on the streets of Charlottesville and we have learned a lot in those eight years.

It has been a set of congregations which have offered safe and secure housing for those who need it and we have never turned anyone away from

from getting that housing.

We've had to make a lot of adjustments to figuring out how to assure that that is safe.

It's taken us eight years of learning to provide that shelter.

It's true, we don't let dogs in.

It's true, we don't let you drink there.

It's also true that we make sure that you pursue every other avenue of shelter before you use the Pacham Shelter.

So we have strong cooperation with Salvation Army, with Shelter for Health and Emergency, with the Moore Center, with every other agency in town to make sure that no one freezes on the streets of Charlottesville.

But that was not the consequence or the intention of Occupy.

and so they're left with unintended consequences of running something that they're not prepared to do.

I also have a statement from our executive director.

After reviewing Pacham's shelter logs over our first month of this year's shelter season, it is evident that some of our most vulnerable guests continue to camp rather than seeking shelter.

A fundamental tenant of Pacham's approach to shelter is engagement.

We know that having a safe place to come and share an evening meal and to visit with neighbors are important elements to re-engaging our homeless neighbors.

The ability to continue to camp out in the downtown area has inspired individuals to delay engaging in safe, structured shelter even as temperatures drop below freezing.

It of great concern to Pacham that men and women who are severe alcoholics or have significant mental health vulnerability are among those camping.

at the Occupy location.

PACEM has worked for eight winters to learn how best to provide safe, welcome shelter.

Continued ability to camp outside in a convenient location is delaying the effort required to re-engage in our community.

At the same time, it is placing some of our most vulnerable at great risk.

For the homeless, it is an easier decision to stay disengaged, but we know this is not the best path to helping them overcome homelessness.

Finally, we have experienced a notable increase in those seeking shelter, many who are travelers.

As local individuals delay seeking a bed, our capacity is being filled by many traveling to this area for a variety of reasons.

Evan Viglietta, 1300 A. Poplar Street,

I've been occupying Lee Park since October 15th and thus have had a profound impact on my life.

I have witnessed a sense of community and the true sense of the word that did not exist prior to our encampment.

I have developed relationships from this occupation that was previously unimaginable.

People here have come together from different social, economic, ethnic, cultural beliefs and life experiences.

We have

We of the occupation have cared for each other by providing safety, comfort, clothes, food, shelter, warmth and love based on mutual aid and mutual respect with a commitment to nonviolence.

This is a work in progress and by no means perfect, but the importance of this process lays in the fact that we as a group are deciding this on our own terms, engaging in direct participatory democracy where all voices are heard.

There is a level of engagement that is present which speaks to the dire socioeconomic policies affecting our lives.

We seek development of individuality combined with the highest development of voluntary association in all of its possibilities with all imaginable aims and ever-changing associations which will help create their ability to take on new forms based on the multiple aspirations of all people involved towards creating a better society.

This community

that we create and recreate through struggle is potentially the embryo of a new society.

The fact that we have to ask permission to exercise our own freedoms is a violation of our fundamental human rights and is an indication of how deeply rooted in our social behavior of the urge to control, direct and limit the flow of life.

In response to the Occupy movements around the country,

Our governments have deployed military force with tactics usually reserved for war, such as tear gas, concussion grenades, audio pained weapons, batons and brute force.

Victims have included an 86 year old woman, a young child,

and veterans of the war, war veterans.

This is absolutely shameful, unjust and unnecessary behavior towards our fellow citizens who are exercising their basic rights to voice their concerns and outrage to the current state of corruption and violence perpetrated against us as well as the environment.

I would like to think that the city of Charlottesville would not allow the police to arrest us for exercising our basic rights to free speech and our rights to peacefully assemble in a traditional public forum such as Lee Park so we can air our grievances in a time when it is most needed.

In closing, I would hope that we can continue to have an open public dialogue about this issue.

Mary Bishop.

My name is Larry Bishop.

I reside at 2673 Castle Rock Road, which for all intents and purposes is Faysville.

And let me put my glasses on so I can actually read this.

It is without a doubt that many wonder at the purpose and agenda of Occupy Charlottesville and the Occupy movement at large.

The media is filled with images, reportage, commentary, and opinions that run the gamut in its attempts to define and quantify.

Yet the scope and breadth of concern to which the movement has given voice has made this no easy task.

Here in Charlottesville, those of us who have joined this movement and created our own local expression of it in Lee Park share many of the same concerns of those who have joined across our nation and around the world.

As a result, there now exists a growing community of people who through the strength of their concern and personal conviction have come to stand together and give voice, reviving the concept of the public forum in exercise of their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech,

Freedom of Assembly.

In doing so we have established new friendships and girded the strength of our convictions and commitment to creating the kind of society that is equitable for all.

The utilization of Lee Park for this purpose speaks to the tradition of public discourse, little seen in our time,

where people gathered together for the communication and discussion of public questions.

In doing so, they developed a greater sense of personal connection and community, thus strengthening the foundation of their society.

The value inherent in this public kind of exchange goes without saying.

Occupy Charlottesville with the indulgence of the city council has pushed the envelope of the public forum creating a public presence that around the clock stands as witness against the growing disparities under which so many suffer and in doing so seeking to engage the public in a dialogue aimed at addressing these concerns.

There is an opportunity here to set a precedent

with regard to the nature of public discourse by simply allowing what Occupy Charlottesville has set in motion to continue.

That there will be difficulties in doing so is without question, but certainly those challenges are not insurmountable.

Donna Carty.

I live at 802 6th Street, Southeast.

A long time ago, 40 years now, I read a sentence that has influenced my life ever since.

That sentence was, reveal options by living them.

That is what the occupiers movement is doing, each member to the very best of his or her ability, demonstrating a different way of life than the kind which has developed in the US over the last 30 years.

This is a way of life that welcomes and values all people, even those the world as it exists calls losers.

A way of life that gives every single person a voice, even a veto in decision making.

That's not just a vote every year or so.

It's full active role with decision making and leading and judging and executing every single day, 24 hours a day.

We are demonstrating that the idea that such a way of life just isn't possible is a lie.

Over the last 30 years, there has been a vast redistribution of wealth upwards in the U.S.

and it is quite literally killing us.

Research has shown that the kind of extreme economic inequality presently existing in the US causes a decrease in life expectancy for all income groups, an increase in the crime rate, an increase in the addiction rate, an increase in obesity rates, an increase in infant mortality, an increase in the occurrence of strokes, a decrease in academic achievement,

and decreases in both happiness and overall prosperity.

You've seen this happening in the US and now you know why.

This is why I'm involved in Occupy Charlottesville.

There is a better way and the best way of conveying that to all people is to literally demonstrate how you go about living that better way.

Hi, I'm Flora Lark Bailey.

I've been here since the beginning.

I was here the first time.

I have a lot to say.

I'll be quick.

I live on 7 and a half streets southwest.

I would like to tell you why I'm a part of Occupy Charlottesville.

I would look at all of you because I really value eye contact.

I'd like to tell you why I'm part of Occupy Charlottesville.

I have experiential knowledge of what economic and social injustice looks and feels like.

I have lived under the poverty line my whole life.

I have been working and paying bills since I was 13 years old.

I have moved 24 times in my life and I'm 25 years old.

I have almost been homeless many times.

I know how it feels to not have enough to eat at the end of the month.

She lived off of granola bars because that was what was on sale that month.

I know how it feels to barely make the electric bill and feel bad about buying a cookie for lunch because I could use it for gas money.

I know if I had been any other color my life would be much harder.

I went to a mostly white and very affluent high school because it gave my sister and I the best public education.

My family moved ten times during my middle and high school years so we could stay in that school district.

I was blessed to have a loving mother and sister who are my only family.

And I was encouraged to go to school.

In doing so, found my passion

for education, received scholarships, went to PVCC, transferred to UVA.

But for most of my 15 years I've lived here, I have felt invisible.

Most people assume my cheery disposition means I have not had a difficult life.

On the contrary, from experience I can say trying to survive each month on a very basic level creates a learned helplessness

and reinforces the idea that no one cares.

I have a hard time asking and receiving help because for most of my life I've had no one outside my three person family to ask anything from.

I was taught by experience to be poor means you don't matter, you don't have a voice, you are invisible, you are not intelligent, and it is your fault that you are there.

But I know in my heart that that is not true.

The problem is we are working within a broken system even if we do not agree with it, right?

One that does not value difference but stigmatizes it.

One that sees color and economic status as a dividing factor.

One that supports stereotypes instead of people.

One that values money and corporations over the well-being of others.

One that chooses fear over love.

one that perpetuates isolation and discrimination instead of creating connection and community and one that measures success by money and not the integrity of your character one way to mend the hearts of those who have been hurt by this broken system is to address the problems publicly with love and compassion to create a forum of discussion and a place to educate

people on these issues to learn by doing.

As an active and consistent participant in this movement, I believe Occupy Charlottesville is laying down a new foundation, one of love instead of fear of difference.

After all, we are the 99%.

And with percentages like that,

It's an amazing amount of beautiful, diverse people.

Occupy Charlottesville has allowed me to claim my voice back, to be seen, feel validated and heard, which has healed me in ways I never thought possible.

Which will you choose?

Will you support a system that has failed us or will you

Support a system built on love.

If people don't think anyone cares, they're less likely to go for help because experience has taught them it does not exist.

Hi, I'm Joan Cichon.

I live at 311 6 and a half Street Southwest.

I'm very fortunate.

I am not homeless.

I have a job and I'm well educated.

Because of that, I always took my children with me when I voted because I wanted them to know what their rights and responsibilities were as American citizens.

We discussed politics at home, and I taught my children to always question authority, which I wasn't always happy about when they did it.

It's a very uncomfortable circumstance, but it's much better than having an apathetic response to life.

And I think that's the one thing that Occupy Charlottesville and Occupy Wall Street and Occupy USA provide is a non-apathetic public, which I think we desperately need right now.

Americans have and are in love with the fantasy of the self-created individual, yet we are all products of our genetics and of our environments.

I have been a teacher in Albemarle County and I have seen firsthand the inequality that children grow up under, some summering in Europe while others hang out on streets while their parents work two or three jobs or struggle to survive in an abusive home.

Although we certainly have some say in how we turn out, we are not self-created.

We don't all come to the game with the same tools, abilities or opportunities.

As George Orwell said, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

We live in a time of world crisis.

After 9-11, our government chose to respond and squander the goodwill of the world by bombing citizens, innocent civilians under false pretenses.

We continue in that same line today, although hopefully less so.

Wars are rampant.

We seem to have a finger in the pie of everything going on in the Middle East, in South and Central America, Africa, and Asia.

and many young people turn to the military as their only option to find a job that will permit them to pursue the dream of a home and a family.

Our soldiers return from service with physical and mental health issues, minimal support and no jobs available.

America has a higher percentage in our population in prison than any other nation tracked by the UN.

The United States has less than 5% of the world's population, but it has almost 25% of the world's prisoners.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics,

blacks accounted for almost 40% of the total prison population while they comprise only 12% if that of the US population.

Clearly something is wrong with this picture.

Yet while we seem to be quite happy to put the poor and black in jail, we live in an America that has been plundered and destroyed by the powerful and wealthy.

We have criminal politicians who knowingly attack without provocation sovereign nations to achieve political goals.

We have bankers and stockbrokers who have bet the bank and lost America's future.

And yet they not only remain unpunished, they continue to receive large bonuses for their efforts.

There is no question that Americans have a great deal to be angry about.

Despite the efforts of my generation, much is still wrong with this country.

We live in a land that has more than enough wealth to provide equal education, health care, and job opportunities for its citizens.

Yet those in power pretend that it is morally wrong to provide your neighbors with what you expect for yourself and your own children.

The Occupy movement seeks to raise the questions that we should all still be asking about how our country is run, for whom it works, and how it chooses to respond to crises.

This dialogue must be supported by any government that calls itself a democracy.

A public park is a perfect place to hold this discussion.

I hope you'll make the wise choice to support democracy in Charlottesville.

Hi, I'm Joan Noel Bailey.

Yes, so currently I work nearly full time providing companionship care to an 85 year old who lives here in Charlottesville.

It is no secret

We do not live in a very loving world.

In my experience, this fact is directly connected to the lack of a clear definition of what it means to love.

Interestingly enough, most of us use this four-letter word in our everyday vocabulary, but we have no public or common discourse that states the elements of such a powerful word.

History and recent events clearly show us that discrimination perpetuates injustice which leads to economic correction and systematic inequality.

The current systems in place reek of hypocrisy and undermine the very principles of democracy.

But there is hope.

There will always be hope and it lies in the eyes and the hearts of those who sit and stand before you.

I believe with my whole heart that at its core, this movement is all about love.

And let me honestly say that I love every single person who's been participating in Occupy Charlottesville.

Them, and the ones you don't see.

Contrary to popular belief, love is an action.

I did not accidentally fall in love with these dear, beautiful occupiers.

I chose to love them with all my heart.

When I tell you that I love these beautiful people, it means that I care very deeply about their well-being and what they believe.

It means that I respect who they are and where they've come from.

It means that I listen to their stories and appreciate our diversity while celebrating our humanity.

It means that I trust them and have given them reason to trust me in return.

It means that I'm committed to our relationship and will be there no matter what happens.

In short, using Bell Hooks' definition of love, when we are loving, we openly and honestly express care, affection, responsibility, respect, commitment and trust.

I graduated from UVA two years ago with a major in studies in women and gender, and although I did not need to go to school to learn about injustice, for my life is all the proof I need.

If I truly learned anything about patriarchy, white male privilege, discrimination, racism, sexism, and all the other isms, then it means that I take personal responsibility for what I know, what I have learned, and stand here before you and explain my involvement in Occupy Charlottesville.

I'm a part of Occupy Charlottesville because most of the time doing the right thing out of love means that you choose to be uncomfortable.

that you do something that makes you step outside of your comfort zone in the name of justice.

This ranges from apologizing to sanctioning our presence at Lee Park.

We have a right to be there with or without your permission or permit.

We are choosing to do the right thing out of love.

What do you choose?

I come to you and ask that you look deep inside and find the place that you love from.

If anything I've said about love resonates with you, then I ask you to listen to your heart and do the right thing.

This movement is all about caring more about people than money.

It's about valuing personal relationships over material gain and exploitation.

Stuart Squire City Council Members, Stuart Squire, 3571 Deer Ridge Farm, Albemarle County,

Public safety, sanitation, or tying up public space, is that the best you can come up with for ending this occupation?

Or is it that we as a society just can't stomach the spectacle of shining light on the painful reality of empire in decline?

Mainly due, I may add, to four decades of inactive civil engagement.

Let's face it, we, the 99%, have been sitting on our hands for the most part in letting others have their way with our system.

and I'll cite the less than 50% turnout vote norm as evidence to that notion.

We all know the TARP treasury robbery under the guise of too big to fail or Moody's AAA rating of junk mortgages and the SEC allowing the market to bundle them and sell them off as having real value on a huge scale or even the SEC's miserable failure at enforcing

anti-monopoly and other antitrust laws.

Or the brazen way Wall Street has outright bought Congress.

It seems we are all in this mass neurosis around our financial and political system and nobody has the guts to cry out that something is terribly wrong.

It's like that Leonard Cohen line, everybody knows the dice are loaded, everybody's rolling with their fingers crossed.

Until now there's been a failure on the part of the citizenry

to hold our financial and political leaders accountable for their malfeasance.

Until now, and way overdue I admit, but there is now an awakening.

This is the Occupy movement in America is experiencing and embracing.

I mean if you acknowledge that things have gotten out of hand and that drastic measures are in order, how do you expect it to happen?

Obama promised change and we bought it until we realized he's part of the problem.

No.

Well, he's taken more Wall Street money than all the Republican candidates combined.

He's promised change and nothing has changed.

Nobody's gone to jail.

CEOs are still getting grossly disproportionate bonuses in pays while we get poorer.

And he's hired the architects of the fall to rearrange the seats on the Titanic.

So, no change there.

Therefore, I ask you, what is it going to take and what is it going to look like?

I'll tell you what it's going to look like.

It's going to look like Lee Park and hopefully thousands of other parks and millions of more people standing and sleeping in the cold to end this madness.

You should be out there with us.

I mean, this is your country, too.

In fact, you carry the obligation of public service.

Well, the ship is in peril, and where are you?

Oh, what a pity.

They cave to the corporate media and shut us down.

Why?

Public safety or some other lame excuse.

Please don't let this be said.

At least not here in Charlottesville.

We like to think that we're stewards of the Jeffersonian ideals here.

We throw millions at erecting his icon, build free speech walls, build a free speech wall, and this, we believe, makes us virtuous.

But when real free speech opportunity presents itself over the biggest issue of our time, maybe of all time, we balk.

It looks like you have another few minutes left.

I'm just going to, you're over time.

I want to give you a chance to wrap up your comments so that we can, I hate to infringe on your free speech.

Well, to wrap it up, I lost a lot of money in this financial debacle in my 401k.

I've worked in the city for years.

I'm just real pissed off at what's happened.

I don't see any change on the horizon.

I don't see any opportunity being afforded us.

I think my ability to redress my grievances should be afforded as well as everybody else.

Thank you, Mr. Squire.

Hi, Chelsea Weber-Smith, 107 Azalea Drive, Charlottesville.

I have about four drafted speeches.

I'm going to throw them all out because I know that it's going to have to come from somewhere else in me.

First thing I'd like to say is that since the moment that I heard about the Occupy movement, something in me changed.

and that change has been expressed in a lot of ways that I feel is valuable for society.

I've never before been so dedicated to dedicating myself to other people and to other things and I am a blessed human being.

I don't have to be here, but I am here because these people are my brothers and sisters, my fathers, my mothers, my children, who knows, anything.

I went to Zuccotti Park for a week.

I was there during the first attempted eviction, which is on October 14th when

it was said that we were unclean so we cleaned all night and then they couldn't evict us because there were so so many people there and the moment that we were able to do that was probably the most profound moment of my life because i've never felt so connected to a group of people so much i felt a love that was unprecedented in my life and i'm i love like that's what i'm about and i'd never felt that before

It changed me and it made me change the entire course of my life.

I'm a poetry student at UVA.

I value poetry very highly, but I value helping others more so than that.

And so that's what I've decided to dedicate my life to as

prompted by this movement.

And I wanted to talk about something I've been thinking about really quick.

I study spirituality, all different kinds, and I've chosen to speak through Christianity because that's what I'm studying at the moment, and that's also what our country considers themselves to be in general.

But I think that the same truth would resonate throughout all of them.

Jesus said, in response to what is the most important commandment, he said, love God and love your neighbors as you love yourself.

Another part that Jesus says is that God is love.

So when you love God, you love love.

And I think that we forget that because we think God is something else.

We think, but God is what love is.

God is love.

And he says to fear God.

And what he's saying there is to fear love, which is really confusing.

But someone who was a student of theology at UVA, a PhD student told me that the meaning of fear in the Bible has been changed or has been mistranslated, has been a little bit confused.

And it also means to give respect to and to be reverent toward.

And so what the Bible is telling us there is to be reverent toward love.

and to respect the power that is love because anyone who has felt love knows that there is no power greater than love.

And if you haven't felt that, I would recommend it because it is elating.

And I love everyone here.

And I think that this is your chance to stand up for that idea and to love God, love your neighbor, love love, because that's what Occupy Charlottesville is.

That's what the Occupy movement is.

It's a movement in the name of love.

My name is Ashley Weich.

I live in Lee Park.

I am a 26 year old woman.

I am a person of color.

I am a part of the 99%.

This occupation represents my personal journey as well as many others.

We are building a community in Lee Park, a community where everyone is welcome, where everyone can express themselves, their experiences, and participate in making a better world for us all.

We are exercising our human and first amendment rights to free speech, expression of that speech through our encampment, and sharing our ideas in a traditional public forum.

We strive to manifest positive solutions that are accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, race, or sexual identity.

We are helping the city of Charlottesville by enriching people's lives who have been continuously marginalized by society.

We provide a home for the homeless and an ear for those who have not been heard.

I see so much oppression outside of this space.

I see a whole demographic of people disenfranchised and suffering.

People who are segregated even today.

People who have been brutalized by the system and law enforcement on a regular basis.

People who are profiled in their own communities, placed in cages, leaving behind broken homes.

People who are not paid an acceptable living wage, left uneducated and trapped in a system with no rehabilitation or a way out.

Why does Sacajawea kneel beneath Lewis and Clark, looking fearful when she was leading that expedition?

Why does the city of Charlottesville continue to perpetuate inequalities under the guise of being liberal?

Why were more than 500 people displaced from their homes and 40 businesses in the neighborhood demolished for the sake of redevelopment?

Why did it take 30 years to receive a hollow apology that does not address the problem?

Why would the city even consider building a monument for that atrocity instead of putting that money back into the community it affected?

I want to know why the city and the government can commit these crimes with no real accountability.

This movement is thriving because people are tired of being misrepresented and oppressed.

People are tired of being hungry and helpless.

People are tired of being sick with no viable way for a better well-being.

If you, the citizens of Charlottesville, are tired of all these things too, then you will support and allow us to continue our work in the park.

Amy Fouser, 122 Ivey Drive in Albemarle County.

I'm here tonight to share my experiences with the Occupy Charlottesville group and to address some of the concerns I've heard as to whether the protesters are just camping or if they're doing something more and exercising their First Amendment rights.

I've been spending as much time at Occupy Seaville as I can lately, and it's not just people camping.

While some of the people in this group are homeless, all of them care deeply about the movement and Occupy's message, it's little wonder that those fighting for social justice for the 99% also include members that are most disadvantaged by the 1%.

I can tell you that what has made Occupy special is the sustained protest over the weeks.

It is not just a couple hours on a weekend.

It is a cause that people are willing to show their devotion to by staying much longer to protest.

They're camping to protest economic inequality and this camping is critical to their message.

I encourage all of you to spend time at Occupy Charlottesville in Lee Park before deciding on whether to extend this permit.

or whether to deny the permit, I suppose.

People there are informed and care deeply about the issues that they're there to protest.

They're interested in a dialogue.

They're interested in being involved in the community and represent the ideals of First Amendment protest.

These aren't just individuals camping in a park.

They're the most important thing that's happened to politics and discourse in generations.

And they give a voice to people who have felt voiceless up to this point.

I live at 122 Ivy Drive also.

Last fall there were 800,000 people that marched on Washington DC with almost the exact same message of the Occupy movement and

it was not discussed here, you probably didn't see it on TV I'm guessing most of the people in this room didn't even know it happened because it was just another march and you know it's easy it's easy for people to ignore a march you know there's this feeling that if there's just a large enough march on DC that it will be just like Martin Luther King Jr. and it will change the country

and that's just not possible anymore.

You know, when all three of the only three networks will air the entire speech in its entirety on the news that 99% of the people watch, then you can have that sort of impact.

But you can't have that impact now if you just show up and then go home at the end of the day at the end of the March.

Martin Luther King Jr. also said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice and I think we all pray that that's true but the other thing about that arc is that it's also the dividing line of history between the people who were on the right side of history and those who were pushing against justice and were pushing against that arc

and you know unfortunately Charlottesville doesn't have the best track record kind of from the time Jefferson died until maybe in the 70s if you ask people but still to this day if you ask other people.

You know if you go down to Lee Park and you think the problem with Lee Park are all of these wonderful people talking about justice

Instead of this statue, you know, I mean, I don't get that.

I think you're saying the wrong thing should be vacated.

And, you know, I mean, Charlottesville doesn't want the images that we've all seen in every other city of the police cracking down and pulling people out, especially with that as the backdrop.

because that's a powerful message and that will go across the country with every retweet and every Facebook share, you know, those images.

And no, I mean, let's be on the right side of history.

Let's say that yes, we believe in the First Amendment for speech, but also for the right of assembly.

and that we realize that this is a hope to break through the media and all of the corporate culture that's pretty much been, you know, has had America on the wrong track for my lifetime and put things back on track.

And we can do this together

and let's prioritize the rights first and then we can all work together as I think everybody has been trying in good faith to do on all of the lesser problems but let's just make sure we prioritize our values and start at the very top with rights.

I live on 1800 Jeffrey Park Avenue.

and I'm a recent graduate of UVA and I support Occupy Charlottesville.

In my perspective, Occupy Charlottesville is really about the community.

I'm out there every day and not scared, I add, in hopes that through our efforts we can reestablish connection with all those who have lost their voice and those who are isolated amid the bustle.

I stand with Occupy Charlottesville to bolster the community bonds that comprise the very fabric of our society.

The community is the most sacred and fundamental aspect of living peaceably among one another.

When communities deteriorate, tensions escalate, inequality deepens, and even violence ensues.

To me, Occupy Charlottesville is community building, one step at a time.

We are working to bring each person and group back from their lonely, desolate island to join the strength of the community through unity, compassion, and mutual respect.

It is a unique and precarious time in our history.

There's very little precedent set on how to move forward, but I'm hopeful.

I'm also cautious of a government that would position itself against the plight of the people, particularly those who are most vulnerable, and as you can see, today, who are making an effort to engage in civic government, even though that's not the cool thing to do.

I hope the city decides not to usurp people's civil liberties through eviction, those liberties that the founding fathers intentionally crafted for times like these, that were intentionally included into the Virginia State Constitution Bill of Rights,

And if you do make a decision by doing this, it would be a very clear message of aggression towards us and those people that care about it better tomorrow, but also on the community itself.

For me, I'd rather see a partnership to deal with these problems we all face directly and to do it in a way that does not alienate or disenfranchise people.

Megan Renfrow.

Megan Renfrow.

Okay.

Hi, I am Luis Ayola.

I live on 505 Elliott Street, Elliott Avenue.

I was raking the leaves at Lee Park this morning and got caught up thinking about what in the world I could say here at City Council that would matter.

And I decided that even though I stand here facing you, the City Council, this goes out to all y'all who came out here for the occupation.

We have met, we have argued, we have sung songs, we have built fires, we have cooked meals, we have marched, we have checked mics, and we have done so out in the public.

Through all the comforts and all the frustrations, we've done something that couldn't happen through any public policy or any product on the market.

We have connected without a wage, a title, or an application in the way.

Look around the room at all the people you've met in the 40 days we've occupied Lee Park.

How many of these people did you only meet during the occupation?

These relationships were born out of struggle.

If it hadn't, we wouldn't have bothered to go to the park and endure all of our rants and messy habits and confront them to make lasting change.

Whether we leave this room knowing that we will stay or we will leave, we all know that we will still have debts, rent, high food prices, racist parity, gender violence, imprisonment, war, and a constant fight for our dignity.

As you think about the relationships that have already been built, think about what is possible, especially considering that we've occupied this park for 40 days and built a kitchen, an information tent, a library, a cold supply, among other things.

We have little choice outside of continuing the occupation and also with little choice but to expand these conversations to every neighborhood in Charlottesville if we are to reclaim the myriad reasons that we brought us together in the first place.

I love you all.

I have fought all my life to see any moment like this, and I know that all of you have too.

Wherever we end up here in Charlottesville or abroad,

Keep these connections alive and keep fighting.

The whole world is not only watching but also fighting along with us.

My name's Tony Russell.

My address is 1404 Gray Street, right behind Burnley Moran School.

I want to thank you all for giving us so much of your time this evening.

I never expected to be moved almost to tears by a civics lesson, which is what this evening has been.

Eric Hoffer talked about the real genius of America being its ability to get the most out of the common man.

Where other countries failed to develop people's talents and skills and intellect, America had recognized them and utilized them and gone on to greatness.

and when I listen to all these speakers this evening, their passion, their insight, their intelligence, their idealism, it just shakes me to the core.

It bothers me as somebody who's passionate about democracy to see in cities around the country

In fact, conference calls linking cities where mayors and city officials devise ways to control, to contain, to squelch the Occupy movement and keep wondering, is there a city that's going to enable democracy

One that's going to see in this movement something that has the capacity that everybody here is hoping for to start the transformation, return this country to a very rapidly fading American dream.

I'm Nina Burt.

I'm a visual artist and a renting member at McGuffey Art Center.

I have a job in retail.

I've lived here for two years in Charlottesville and have struggled as an artist in our difficult economy.

I have chronic health problems, no insurance, and do not qualify for federal aid.

Occupy Charlottesville and the broader Occupy movement have changed me forever.

I no longer feel voiceless in my country.

I no longer feel powerless to affect change in my own life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters in the 99%.

I found my tribe and my tribe is everybody.

Our faces are your faces.

Our skins are your skins.

We are your mothers and your daughters and your lovers.

We're your best friends and your favorite waitress.

We're your pizza delivery guy and the farmer who grows the food that you will be thankful for on Thursday.

We're your nurses.

We're also the panhandlers that make you squirm when you're trying to enjoy your latte.

We are not victims.

We are citizens.

In Lee Park, we have created a safe space to speak the truth about the reality of America.

We have provided a place to sleep, hot food to feed our bodies, and ideas to feed our heads.

It's a place to sing, a place where basic human dignity is honored no matter what life may be throwing at us at any given day.

It's a place where the suffering of individuals is lessened by the compassion of a community.

It's a place where you don't need a credit card or a permanent address to feel at home.

I'm proud of Charlottesville.

I'm proud to proclaim this as my adopted hometown.

As one of only seven or so legal occupations in the world, we stand before the world

as a beacon of freedom in a dark stormy sky of oppression.

Thank you, Mayor Norris and the council members for maintaining a presence in this historic civic event and supporting the freedoms guaranteed to us by the Constitution that too often ignored when they become inconvenient or unpleasant.

We know that our occupation of Leopold has brought to light

spotlighted issues that normally stay hidden in our comfortable world.

That can be a difficult thing to witness.

It is not pretty, but it is workable.

It requires that we look inward and see ourselves and our responsibility to others clearly and fearlessly.

We are not done yet.

This is only the beginning.

There is so much more to be done.

and I will ask you now to expand your courageous support of your own constitutional rights and ours by allowing us to remain in Lee Park with your official permission.

This is more important than the park and this is more important than me or you.

We are American citizens standing up and proclaiming our independence from those who seek to profit from our slavery.

Don't just do what they tell you.

Don't just do what will make you feel safe, because none of us are safe.

Thank you.

Let me just ask, has Megan Renfro entered the room yet?

Okay.

My name is Callie Cichon.

I live at 704 Grave Street and Lee Park.

I have a prepared statement because I'm usually really bad at improvisation, but before that I just want to say that

One thing that I've learned personally during this experience is that your ego has no place in solving group problems.

And all the people who are currently telling us that there are shelters out there and places for people to go, if people would rather sleep in the park than in your shelter, maybe you need to ask why that's the case.

And you should ask them, because they'll give you the answer.

On October 15th, a group of people met in Lee Park with the intention of occupying a public area in protest of corporate greed and corrupt government.

We quickly realized that many who had also been failed by our current social and political systems had beat us there, and it was decided by consensus that as part of the 99%, the homeless should be welcomed in solidarity.

A little over a month later, the occupation is no longer just strangers and protesters sharing public space.

We've become neighbors.

I'm here today to defend not only my rights to free speech but also my neighborhood.

Many people have advised me that I should not be so attached to having a physical location for the movement and warned me that I'm losing sight of the important issues by focusing on the people who now call Lee Park home.

Instead, they want us to pursue loftier political goals.

I would like to know what political issue they think is more important than caring for the people we love and live with.

Imagine a world where everyone made choices with the good of their greater community in mind.

How many of the harmful political policies that currently threaten an American citizen's chances for a better life would exist?

How many criminals, white color otherwise, would walk our streets?

It is the sense of belonging, mutual respect, and accountability to a group that has caused many in our camp to find reasons to start regulating their substance abuse, moderate violent or disruptive behavior, or even just consider acting more altruistically and diplomatically than they have in the past.

I've been inspired to be a better human and a better citizen just by existing as part of this community, and I know many others who feel they have also grown and learned from their experiences.

In addition, many of the people now living in Lee Park have no other place to call home.

And shelters in the area, while offered with kind intentions, are too few and too restrictive for everyone to make use of them.

Their inherently temporary and strictly regulated nature also actively discourages any permanent support of the communities from forming.

In fact, every social service currently available seems to exist with the goal of reintegrating people into the very system that failed them to begin with.

or covering up the failure to do so with short-term solutions.

There must be other options besides conformity or failure and I feel that the open autonomous community that has begun to form in Lee Park may offer hope for finding alternatives to a broken system.

Members of City Council, if you want us out of Lee Park, I must insist that an alternative safe space be provided, both for the purposes of peaceful protest and shelter for those who need it.

The humanitarian issues made more visible by this occupation will not disappear if they're ignored.

We must either address them now or admit that we are too cowardly to face the ills our own society has created.

Sarah Tanzy My name is Sarah Tanzy.

I live at 912 Woodfolk Drive.

The first thing I want to do is ask everybody who supports Occupy Charlottesville being allowed to stay at Lee Park to stand up.

and if you can't stand up to raise a hand, sorry.

Just look around at yourselves.

Look at this room full of people here to support a new world that we're creating together.

Okay, you can stay standing or sit down, whatever you like.

The concerns I've heard,

coming out of tonight's meeting and in the media and other venues, sort of circle around the ideas of crime and homelessness and the negative impacts that Occupy Charlottesville could be having on the community.

I want to share that what we're doing in the park, as you've heard, the act of democracy, the finding a space for every voice and every person and every reality,

is so compelling that those issues that exist in our society as it exists now are slowly metering out.

One of my first nights in the park I had an experience with a homeless person who was drunk and I felt unsafe and I called it out then and I said this does not work for me.

And since then, that same man that I had this altercation with, he and I are good friends.

We've talked about it.

He realizes that he doesn't want to come to the camp in that state of drunkenness.

He realizes that he has something to gain by engaging in what we're doing together.

The other day we were moving wood together, he and I, and I said to him, you know, I'm so glad that we've created this space together.

where we can have this experience that's very challenging, very triggering for me.

We can talk.

We can maybe not agree on every point.

We can come back and talk again.

And then we can be friends.

That's happening every day.

I don't think that crime is increasing as a result of the occupation in Lea Park.

I think we're addressing so many of the root causes of those crimes.

that our society, that our government, that our police force, that our legislation does not support to happen.

And I do, I know Collie just said this, but I take offense at the people who stand up and say, I'm creating this great space for the homeless people and they're not coming.

There's a reason they're not coming.

There's a reason they're staying.

We are creating a community that cares about them, that supports them, that sees them as human beings.

I would encourage anybody who represents Pacham or the other homeless shelters and homeless services in the community to come down and sit with us in the evening.

Sit around the fire with us.

Talk with us.

Hear us.

Hear us.

There are a lot of people who couldn't be here tonight.

I would encourage all of council to come down and sit with us around the fire in the evening.

It's a beautiful time of the night.

You've heard it.

We feel heard.

We feel seen.

We feel taken care of.

We're creating systems to support each other.

It's not something I think you want to stop happening.

I think it will look better the rest of the community and reach out into Charlottesville.

Thank you.

Rose Purdy.

Rose Purdy.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Hello, my name is Bruce Lavin and I reside on Dudley Mountain Road in North Garden,

and first I've been listening to folks and I'm going to try to think, you know, pass along a few brief observations because this has gone on and I want to thank all the elected representatives of our community for being patient.

I want to thank the police for their protection when we've called them in when we need them on situations like I've got at hand.

I want to invite, continue to invite everyone to come down there.

and police to join in the dialogue as well.

And I want to thank Ms. Breeden and Mr. Quarles for offering their though dissenting opinions because I think that's a very important part of this process and that's why we, that's the kind of messiness that goes on in Lee Park.

And while I'm thanking you for your patience, if you really want to test your patience, come down for a General Assembly meeting.

I've lived in the city for about 15, 18 years.

I'm slightly different than the typical demographic of an occupier.

I was there on day one, and I will continue to occupy.

So I paid taxes for 18 years in the city.

I've now been in the county for five years or so.

I've owned and operated a business during that whole time as well.

And I occupy when I'm able to running a business and raising a family.

But it's that important to me.

The other day, I was down at the free speech wall.

But this is a rubbing of the First Amendment that's from the wall down there.

I never knew it was carved in there, but it's there in the upper left-hand corner.

You are paper for us.

And over to my right is Monticello.

And here we are in the shadow of Jefferson's house.

And if you pretty much, I think it's worth noting,

from a metaphorical point of view that if you draw a line from Monticello through the free speech wall, it continues through this council and ends up pretty much in Lee Park.

And so the only thing that stands between the ideas of Mr. Jefferson

The embodiment of his ideas in the free speech wall and the nexus of it happening in Lee Park is his council chamber.

And I ask for your serious consideration in listening to all of you, both sides of the view.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Kirk Bowers, 106 George Rogers Road in the county, and I live in a very conservative and not very nice county at times, and we're still reeling from the elections.

But I wanted to say a few words in support of the Seville Occupy Movement.

Also, I'm here to speak on behalf of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice.

and for the Sierra Club who both support this movement.

I'll start with the history lesson.

In 1619, my first ancestors first came to this state for two reasons.

One, to escape religious persecution in Europe and two, to obtain economic freedom from the caste system that was going on in Europe at that time.

We've always had that dream.

ever since that time, economic freedom and justice.

In 1970, the top 1% of the people in this country own 7% of all the wealth in this country.

Today, they own 19%.

That's almost triple the amount of money that they have gained over the last 40 years.

35 months ago,

I lost my job as a professional engineer, a career that I've been in for over 30 years.

Along with me, 2 million people lost their jobs in my industry.

My profession, which is one of the oldest in the history of mankind, imploded.

A lot of people are still out of work.

This is not a game for me.

So I would like you all to continue to support the Seville Occupy Me movement.

To me, it's about economic justice.

There are too many, there are too few people who own too much in this country and we need to change that.

It hurts everybody.

It hurts our standard of living, our longevity of life, our quality of life.

The inequities have become extremely severe and we cannot continue like this.

In the 1890s we had the robber barons and they were the 1% at that time.

The government came back and passed the antitrust laws which took that power away from them.

Well since that time they become, they learn from that experience.

They have gained and learned how to manipulate the system.

In my profession, having worked in many high-level positions, I have seen corruption.

I have shaken the hand of greed, and I know it.

I know it's here, and I can tell you about it if you want to talk to me sometime.

So I'd like you all to please support their movement.

It may be symbolic,

but we need to continue doing this.

and David Repas, 227 East Jefferson Street in Charlottesville.

Before commenting on the Lee Park situation, let me tell you a bit about my background.

I was active in the civil rights movement in the early 60s, in the anti-Vietnam War protests in the late 60s, and in the demonstrations against invading Iraq in the early 2000s.

In short, I'm very favorable to protest when it can stop injustice and needless suffering.

Naturally, I welcomed the recent protests against financiers on Wall Street, whose irresponsible and highly risky behavior brought the economy crashing down, causing untold suffering.

I live right across the street from Lee Park, and so the occupied movement

is happening practically on my doorstep.

I continue to walk through Lee Park as usual, occasionally stopping to chat with the protesters and also with the police nearby who are keeping an eye on things.

I am also a strong supporter of the Haven.

I believe that when someone in the Charlottesville community is down, that they should be given a helping hand up.

not kicked out of town or at least out of sight.

I have lived downtown for over 10 years and have often encountered the homeless and they've always been polite and courteous to me.

Having said all that, I believe that Lee Park should be returned to its normal hours after Thanksgiving Day, that it be closed at night.

The homeless do not need to be there.

Pacham is now in operation.

and has space for all comers.

Parenthetically, when summer arrives, a safe place should be found for the homeless to pitch tents but not in a small park in the middle of historic downtown.

And I want the Occupy movement to succeed.

In fact, the movement has succeeded.

It has succeeded in focusing national attention on the malpractices of Wall Street,

and enforcing us to have a national conversation about the injustice of rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.

But continuing the use of the Occupy tactic will have diminishing returns and could even turn the public against the movement.

You have to consider all the people in the 99%.

At this point, the movement needs to seek more focused tactics

and targets like the one led by Virginia Organizing which got people to withdraw their money from big banks.

It takes realistic tactics to bring about change.

Finally, I would like to say that I am proud to be a citizen of Charlottesville and I am glad that I am not a citizen of Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon or New York City.

Our city government allowed the protests to continue for a substantial yet sufficient length of time.

And our police have been exemplary, keeping an eye on things and always being respectful, polite and patient in dealing with occupiers.

Mark Cavett, 400 Altamont Street.

One of the lessons that I learned when I studied American history and later when I studied economics is that it's not good for society when the wealth is in the hands of a few.

I can personally support what Occupy Charles was trying to do, but I have to wonder if it's time for them to reorganize their message both locally and nationally.

I plan to give the local groups some of my thoughts on that soon.

I cannot officially speak on behalf of the North Downtown Resident Association as its president.

We will not be having a meeting on this matter until December 1st.

What I can tell you is the feeling that I have from emails, talking with board members and neighbors.

The biggest concern is the ailment that seems to be hanging out with the occupiers and using it as an excuse to stay in the park at night.

I learned something actually tonight by the man that I'm sitting next to here that a lot of the people that I've been seeing that I've been noticing on the fringes of the park drinking and so on have actually been people that have been banned from the park and I have to also wonder if they are not sneaking back into the park very late at night.

I cannot express enough the fact that people are not feeling secure on the mall in north downtown.

Over the weekend we added three new members to our association.

They indicated that the number one concern was security.

There's one letter from our board member that I will read and I do hope that you all will look through these emails.

I know some of these emails have actually been sent to you because I think there's some very interesting points to be made in those.

Going on to the, there's one letter that I am going to read, so I'm going to read that one now from one of our board members.

I have for years have often accounted homeless people as I walk to the mall.

Up until recently, they've always been polite and respectful.

I believe most of the homeless in the past have been from the local area.

With the haven and the gentle image of Charlottesville as being a generous place, an influx of out of area homeless has shown up.

I am well aware that this overflow has brought in a number of undesirable people who sleep in butches, urinate on lawns, and are sometimes aggressive and cause other problems.

In recent days a new problem has arisen.

Some of the homeless have taken advantage of the city's waiver and closing Lee Park at night.

It's been easy for me to go over there and try to learn what's going on.

The real protesters who are exercising their constitutional right to assemble are having a lot of trouble with the homeless who get drunk, noisy, and sometimes belligerent at night.

Most of the occupiers can no longer stay overnight.

The occupiers cannot occupy.

All this puts the planned handling of Albemarle as serious problems

that need immediate attention, but solutions will be difficult to come by.

We should always keep in mind that the homeless are not all of a kind.

Some are mentally ill, most state mental hospitals have been closed, and many of the mentally ill end up on the street.

Some are veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some are women with children whose husbands have left them, some have lost their homes through foreclosure, some are jobless in an economy that is not producing jobs, and some are simply drunken bums.

Any policy to deal with the bad apples should not cut down the whole apple tree to get rid of the bad ones.

We should not try to get rid of the haven and deny giving a helping hand to those who are in trouble due to no fault of their own in order to deal with the undesirable elements among the homeless.

We should keep in mind that the North Town Town area is very diverse and we represent many people from a wide variety of points of view.

We can all agree that there are serious problems regarding the influx of the homeless, but a consensus on this solution will be difficult to find.

Thank you.

Mayor Norris, members of the council, I wanted to speak briefly about this notion that what Lee Park is about is recreation, that we just need to tidy it up.

Since 1924, every hour of the day, every day of the week, every week of the year for the last 87 years, Lee Park has been political space.

When President Alderman of UVA, without curfew I might say, political space without curfew, when President Alderman dedicated an adjacent equestrian statue on behalf of Paul Goodlow McIntyre, he said the following,

Two generations ago, a great war fell out in this land.

No war in human history has been a sincerer conflict than this war.

It was a war between brothers, fate-driven, to the defense of two majestic ideas, the idea of local self-government and the idea of federal union.

To call it rebellion is to speak ignorantly.

To call it treason is to add viciousness to stupidity.

It was a war of ideas, principles, political contentions in loyalty to ancient ideals of English freedom.

Apparently, those ancient ideals of English freedom included chattel slavery.

This park, this space, has been political space ever since that equestrian statue was put in Lee Park.

I think that as you look today at the people who have talked here, the bodies gathered in the public realm are what have forged the power of this movement, the power of public space.

The most common things we're hearing are engaged, connection, love.

There's a level of discourse in these presentations today that I must say I've never seen in front of this city council.

That council, that discourse is because these people are gathered together 24-7.

It is because of their community that they're able to come here and maybe address a public body for the first time.

I've never suggested that we should remove Lee's equestrian statue from Lee Park or Stonewall Jackson's statue from Jackson Park.

I think the thing to do is to provide a counterpoint.

and indeed, that is what has been happening in this movement.

If you remove the right, the intensity of this community to exercise their political speech, their political rights, then I have a suggestion.

Let's remove Lee from his administration.

Or I have another idea.

Let's do this.

Did you work on that Harvey?

My name is Nathaniel Galea and I live on 74 Canterbury Road, which is actually in the county.

I didn't prepare anything to say but I'm just here to show my support for

this public space that we all need.

I think like everything that I want to say you guys have said.

So, thank you.

You know, I did make some points.

I don't know.

I think it's really like, like I said, like everything's been said.

If we, okay, I've gone a little bit.

Like, okay, I'm 34 years old.

About 10 years ago, I participated in one of the one of the largest

unified global protests that I think the world's ever seen.

And it didn't do anything because everybody had to go home.

And you see over the past decade or so, protest movements where protesters are put into cages and beaten.

And it's true that if there's no forum or no space,

for people to get together and have that extended time to be able to develop the ideas and develop what somebody earlier said is like the embryo of this next step of the evolution of humanity and self-governance of society.

Then, you know, what's the US for?

How are we, you know, what is this all about?

I just, I feel so much, I've felt so much tension in my chest this whole time listening to you guys.

I feel like my heart's so big.

I care a little bit.

We love you.

Yeah.