City Council Meeting   10/22/2024

I was rooting for you.

All right.

You need to be.

I'm doing good.

Hey, they were going to mill the stuff.

They, they, but I like you asking, like offering, but they are willing to pay for all the posters to go.

Oh, okay.

I joked with them and said they may be driving since she could drive them, but I forgot how big they were.

Wait, this area is clean tomorrow.

I wonder what they did.

First of all, don't worry about what I put in your car.

2020 for City Council meeting to order.

Mayor Reed.

President.

City Manager Banks.

Here.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Here.

Council Member Robinson.

Here.

Here.

Father Above.

We come before you this evening, Lord, thanking you once again for this opportunity to serve not only you, but to serve this city.

Lord, I ask tonight that you give us favor, you give us grace, Lord.

Help us to make the decisions that make this city a better place for all.

Lord, as we continue on through this week, Father God, I pray that we all reach out to our neighbors, check on our neighbors, and let our neighbors know that they're welcome here, Father God.

Lord, we thank you.

We bless you today, Lord.

And thank you for your guidance through this meeting.

In your precious son's name, Jesus' name I pray.

Okay, we do have two special recognitions proclamations this evening.

The first proclamation is recognizing November 1st, 2024 as extra mile day.

Whereas Harrisonburg, Virginia is a community which acknowledges that a special vibrancy exists with an entire community when its individual citizens collectively go the extra mile in personal effort, volunteerism and service.

And whereas Harrisonburg, Virginia is a community which encourages its citizens to maximize their personal contribution to the community by giving of themselves wholeheartedly and with total effort, commitment and conviction to their individual ambitions, family, friends and community.

And whereas Harrisonburg, Virginia acknowledges the mission of extra mile America to create

550 extra mile cities in America and is proud to support extra mile day on November 1, 2024.

Therefore, I, Mayor of Harrisonburg, Virginia, do hereby proclaim November 1, 2024 to be extra mile day.

I urge each individual in the community to take time on this day to not only go the extra mile in his or her own life, but to also acknowledge all those who are inspirational,

Our next proclamation is for recognizing October 24, 2024 as National Lights on After School Day.

So I'm going to pass this over to Vice Mayor because I'm going to come down with Amber.

Whereas the citizens of Harrisonburg, Virginia stand firmly committed to quality after school programs and opportunities because they provide safe, challenging, and engaging learning experiences that help children develop social, emotional, physical, and academic skills.

Support working families by ensuring their children are safe and productive after the regular school day ends.

Build stronger communities by involving students, parents, business leaders, and adult volunteers

and the lives of young people, thereby promoting positive relationships among youth, families, and adults, and engage families, schools, and community partners in advancing the welfare of our children.

And whereas Lights On After School, the national celebration of after-school programs held this year on October 26, 2024,

promotes the importance of quality after-school programs in the lives of children, families, and communities, and whereas more than 28 million children in the U.S.

have parents who work outside the home, and 15.1 million children have no place to go after school, and whereas many after-school programs across the country are facing funding shortfalls so severe that they are being forced to close their doors and turn off their lights.

and whereas the City of Harrisonburg, Virginia is committed to investing in the health and safety of all young people by providing expanded learning opportunities that will help close the achievement gap and prepare young people to compete in the global economy.

Now therefore be it resolved I, or she, Deanna R. Reed, Mayor of the City of Harrisonburg, call upon all citizens of Harrisonburg to observe

October 24, 2024 as Lights On After School Day and be it further resolved that I enthusiastically endorse Lights On After School and commit our city to engage in innovative after-school programs and activities that ensure the lights stay on and the doors stay open for all children after school.

Given under my hand, this 22nd day of October 2024.

in honor of the Boys and Girls Club.

We're going to light up Parks and Rec Center in order of Parks and Rec.

The downtown library will be lit up in blue as well.

And so if you got a blue light, put it on on Thursday.

Will they do Wilson again?

They might do the Gus Bus.

We did the Gus Bus one time.

So thank you Laura.

Okay, we do not have, we will go into our consent agenda.

Any items placed on the consent agenda shall be removed and taken up as a separate matter, so requested by any member of council.

Second that.

Any discussion?

Council Member Fleming.

Hi.

Council Member Jones.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Hi.

Council Member Robinson.

Hi.

Hi.

We have no public hearings this evening.

Good evening Madam Mayor City Council.

Tom Hartman Public Works Director here tonight with a request for

U2 Authorized City Manager Banks to execute a deed of easement for some open space easements associated with our Northing Greenway project.

The reason for the open space easement request is due to a Virginia Outdoor Foundation grant that Public Works has received to fund a study that we're nearly complete on on how we can extend the Northing Greenway from its current Southern Terminiot at Monroe Street to downtown to connect with our cycle track or the RAISE grant

that will be starting design on pretty soon.

So as a component of the Virginia Outdoor Foundation grant, in order to receive the funds, we had to promise or we had to dedicate open space easements along portions of our current North End Greenway.

And those are identified in the four red boxes on your screen.

The property that currently the Greenway sets on is already city owned property.

This is an easement that would just sit on top of that property and encapsulate those segments of the Greenway easement or the Greenway to in perpetuity make it open space and make it open for shared use paths and that that's about it.

The first segment is of the Northing Greenway is off Liberty Street.

It's a section between Liberty and Sutter.

The second section is just north of Jefferson Street.

The blue dot, the blue dotted line means that's a section of the Greenway that's not yet constructed.

that project is currently in the right-of-way phase and we hope to go to construction next summer to build that segment through the Brookside neighborhood but we're already going to go ahead and we already own the parcel that the red box is on we're going to go ahead and dedicate that in open space and the southern two boxes are located on what we call the community build portion of the Greenway that's directly adjacent to the Salvation Army and those are again two city-owned parcels where we're just going to lay this easement on top of this.

The grant was for $114,000 that we've used with our consultant VHB to conduct a study.

That study is nearing completion.

We had a public hearing two months ago that was pretty well attended.

We'll bring a summary of that report back to council sometime in early 2025 so you can see the vision of how we can potentially extend the greenway into downtown and connect to our RAISE grant and cycle track project.

But again, this request is even just authorized to the manager banks

Okay.

Any questions?

I believe there's some signage at the very end where it ties into the greenway.

That will be a component of when we complete the Brookside.

We'll put some additional wayfinding.

So as you come into the back of the cul-de-sac, I think that's Drake.

You'll know to go up and make a left.

Thank you.

All right, council.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the what the application for the north end.

Oh, wait, it's for open space easements to I move that we authorize city manager Andy Banks to execute a deed of open space easement for the north end greenway.

Any discussion?

Roll call please, Pam.

Council Member Jones.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Aye.

Our 7B is a presentation on the operation of the Navigation Center.

I believe that's going to be virtual, correct?

Correct.

We'll have Nate from Open Doors.

Thank you, Tom.

Hey, good evening, Mayor and Council.

So I'm excited today, though, to present on the Navigation Center and what services will be offered there at the opening of the facility.

I believe Pam is sharing the slides with you.

I can.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

You can just go ahead and advance.

So before we dive in, I just want to say we provided this presentation first in late August.

I think it was very well received at the Lucy Sims Center.

I think we had about a hundred or more community members come out and it was really encouraging to see the community's interest in positive reception of this facility.

For those who do not know OpenDoors, it's great to meet you and we hope that you continue to come along with us in this journey and to learn about our organization.

We have been around since 2007 and since 2007 we have provided

Low barrier shelter to the Harrisonburg and Rockingham community.

As you are likely aware that has been done so primarily on the thermal basis outside of a short period during the pandemic where we operated continuously and we saw what a great service this could be outside of the pandemic year round and I think really helped fuel of course the navigation center.

Our mission over the years has taken a few different iterations, but today it is to provide safe shelter for the unhoused as well as compassionate support and access to services for all.

We really live that out by of course a shelter program, but also our

Long-term focused resource coordination and case management program where we're working with individuals to find housing and to find employment solutions, coordinating other resources to address needs that are more specialized.

And of course, we have always been and will continue to become a community-driven and community-funded organization.

You can advance.

Here are just a few internal renderings.

I know Ms.

Snyder has shared some of these with you in the past, but this shows you the beautiful design that the architects have come up with with trauma-informed care in mind.

You can see what our new sleeping units will look like, our reception area for both the shelter and drop-in center, the dining area where we'll be able to provide nourishing meals.

Thank you all for your continued support of the kitchen program and also then the exterior.

and you may advance.

I like to show a little bit of the blue prints in relation to how the building will be administered and split in kind of two units.

Dr.

Construction.

And there is where the majority of programming will be done for the drop-in center, the public services, and also the shelter.

You may advance again.

This is just the second floor here, so the majority of the shelter beds are upstairs.

And those are where the men units will be, so men will be on the second floor and women will be on the first in the shelter.

Okay, and you can advance.

Alright, well the program that excites me the most is the new one.

I think it speaks not only to the city and open doors commitment to the unhoused but to the community at large.

And that is the daytime drop in center.

We often get questions about why the shelter is remaining only overnight even with this new state-of-the-art facility and that's because we are committed to ensuring that this turns into a public facility Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

will match the city holidays and this community center this drop-in center rather will be open to all in the public so I'd like to give the example of the anecdote Suzy and her two children

Today, Susie is in need of utilities assistance and she may be calling 20 or 30 different organizations or faith communities to try to find that utilities assistance.

If she has a car, she may be spending her valuable gas money to locate those services and go there in person.

But we want to ensure that this navigation center, this drop-in center, is the first point of entry now for Susie or others in a similar situation that's in need of a health

or Human Services provider.

They can come or call the Navigation Center and we can, one, either take them to the service that's there on site.

Some will be there every day.

Some will be there on a rotational basis.

Some will be there as needed.

We can have her come back the day that it is there if it's not there the day she presents.

Or what we can do through our open doors resource navigation program

is making a direct connection to the provider so we can refer Susie with a warm handoff to the provider within the city.

There are over, I think, a thousand nonprofits registered in our community and we recognize that we can't house or provide space for all of them, but what we can commit to doing is ensuring that the navigation center is a space where you can learn and access them through a navigational lens, these vital services.

Not only will we be able to connect folks, and please feel free to stop me.

Nate, I do.

Yes, Mayor.

I just have a quick question.

So will open doors be managing this piece, or would this be?

and other organizations and if it's open doors, I think it's a great idea that it's open to everyone in the community.

Dany Fleming.

The navigation program for the drop-in center and access to those public facilities will be overseen by us.

We have shifted our case management and resource coordinator to the daytime and so those shall be providing case management to the unhoused during the day there by appointment.

and then with our operations staff and volunteers will be ensuring the delivery of the navigation program in the public facilities.

Daytime staffing is something that will be monitoring closely and I think we are prepared to pivot and to build on collaborations or to look at where we can internally to adjust if the demand rises above what we're prepared for.

But the drop-in center

Okay, thank you.

Nate, I have a question as well.

Excuse me.

My question is, have you guys done any

any work with OCP to kind of collaborate on, thank you, on providing a place during the day for those who utilize the services at the Navigation Center at night.

So there's not this overwhelming folks who are just kind of hanging around because they have no other place to go because I know OCP as the daytime

Yes, thank you.

So we consider that the Daytime Community Center, it is within their programming to provide that safe space during the day.

What we've done historically and what we'll continue to do is when we understand that our community place will not be open due to inclement weather.

We will ensure that this facility, the daytime drop-in center, won't open, but will maintain shelter operations to ensure that folks are not in danger due to inclement weather because our community place isn't able to open.

That's an inclement weather, but to the core of your question,

with the design of the facility and the two competing programs.

It's not tenable for us to operate a community center like program at this facility for 80 individuals, plus serve the general public during the day.

Some of that is due to our low barrier mission, which we'll kind of touch on here in a moment, but also just the size of the facility.

It's a large facility, it's a lovely facility, but it's not designed to house 80 individuals while also welcoming public members in there during the day, because we could reach over

Under it or more, if we're acting as a community center for the unhoused that we're housing overnight and welcoming for the public use.

So we work and coordinate with our community place from an operations standpoint.

That was one thing that I have asked OCP.

When I was on the board at OCP, one of the issues was staffing and being able to pay staff until five o'clock.

So the other public facilities that will be on site here and open to the general public during the day, and let me be clear too, Ms.

Robinson, so if folks that are in the shelter program have a daytime need, so they're there for an appointment, maybe the mobile clinic that's going to be there on Mondays, they're welcome to be on site, but it's a place for intentional use.

So again, it's not the community center, but they are welcome there during the day to receive services if they

But the public facilities, we'll have charging stations, we'll have public laundry.

We understand that there's people in our community that are low to no income.

They may be housed, but they don't have access to laundry facilities or showers.

Sometimes they don't have utilities access.

We'll also have the computers there that are pictured.

They'll be stationed there for people to utilize for employment applications and so forth.

So this really, again, will not only serve the unhoused but the general population in need of these vital services.

It will be interesting to see how quickly this picks up.

Once we're a little bit more stable, probably in the early new year, we'll begin promoting this as well through some different means so we can make sure that the community knows about it, but we'll kind of take a slow roll once the facility is operational just to ensure that we have our workflow down.

You may advance.

All right.

And the Low Barrier Shelter Program, of course, will continue.

For those who may not be aware, we have always been low barrier during our 17 years of existence, but it's also something that was important to the city.

And so it's also contractual and we embrace that.

It's really rooted in what we like to say is our belief that everyone deserves shelter.

So our two primary and only eligibility requirements are that the individuals be over 18 years old, 18 years or older rather, and be experiencing the crisis of homelessness.

Now this facility does require that we screen individuals for eligibility in other shelter programs, Salvation Army, Mercy House, First Step.

to ensure that we are of last resort because we know this will be a critical use in demand.

And we're prepared to do that.

We've built on those partnerships to where we can screen during the intake process as much as possible without provider to provider communication just to streamline the process.

But we also have those open line of communications with our partners.

Mercy House is actually on site.

You know, first step has a 24-hour line and then we have an administrative contact.

during check-in hours with the Salvation Army.

So if we do have questions regarding someone's eligibility at another program, we can fulfill that and determine the case right then and there.

Yes, I was just wondering about the eligibility or your screening as I

Seemed to remember hearing you would ask people coming to stay there where they slept last night and what their last known zip code was.

So correct.

And then what do you do with that?

If they're coming from way elsewhere, what are the screening rules or how do you handle that?

So we do track all that data.

We also publish that.

Typically we've published our data, you know, with the thermal seasons in.

We'll do that annually now, probably at the end of the year, the beginning of the new year, once per year around.

Those are questions that are required to be inputted into the federal database.

So that's tracked there with the client's permission.

We don't consider that in the eligibility requirements.

So the point of origination or the

last area someone has resided does not preclude or prioritize them for services, but it is something that we keep track of in what report to the city manager's office with our contractual reports.

Traditionally we've always seen that the overwhelming majority originate from the city of Harrisonburg followed the

Rockingham County, and then Valley communities.

Ms.

Snyder and I have been diligent in building relationships up and down 81, even over the mountain.

Again, I think I shared this before.

We framed it as this is a local solution, not a regional solution.

Okay, thank you.

So it's available on our website at ValleyOpenDoors.org I think it's forward slash impact We release the last two thermal season reports are there and then once we're operational We'll do that continue updating the data there with this new facility So that would that would speak to the clients that we served

So we will be open again every day of the week year around from 6 p.m.

to 7 a.m.

with that caveat that when there's inclement weather we may expand services to be throughout the day.

We don't want to have individuals put out in inclement weather where it's extremely cold or dangerous because of

System as a barometer.

If the buses aren't running, we need to keep people in.

So we'll ensure that we keep safety at top priority.

We're going to take this holistic approach where, because we're low barrier, case management and the other wraparound services are voluntary, but they'll be available.

We have partners for specialized services that will provide case management, but that is on a volunteer, a voluntary basis.

In our proposal, we have began with a three-month length of stay period, meaning that each individual will have a bid for three months.

They may elect to participate in support services to transition out of the situation, or they may choose just to utilize the bid and other meals and so forth.

Hiedis

and Dr.

have them backslide into our situation.

But we do need to encourage transition and we do need to incentivize working towards a long-term solution because this is an emergency shelter or flash resort.

Yes ma'am.

So our resource coordination program, really just what we call case management, will be there for shelter guests.

We also allow individuals to select another primary case manager through one of our partners.

So they may choose to work with the CSB, they may choose to work with

with strength and peers, that all would count right as taking action.

But if they just choose to work with open doors, case management is available through us as well, and that would be on site during the day.

So that's where I'm saying that individuals may be there during the day that are also staying in the shelter, but it's with intention.

It's probably for a case management appointment or for an appointment with another provider.

So the services will be there.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

All righty.

You may advance the slide.

Just very quickly, I'm going to kind of go over who's on site or who's in the collaboration and kind of what they're going to provide.

Of course, Mercy House, I think it's the only, and I hope I'm not misspeaking, the only other provider other than OpenDoors that's expanding its staffing for the navigation system.

So Mercy House is going to have a full-time position on site with us to extend housing counseling, some of the centralized housing intake procedures that are the practices that they already fulfill at the main site they have.

But they'll be there at least 30 hours a week with us to work with individuals in the shelter program.

And then also they'd be welcome, of course, to meet with folks that aren't in the shelter program at the office, but they're focusing on the shelter participants.

First Step is going to be on call as needed.

We recognize that sometimes First Step doesn't have a bid for someone that's fleeing domestic violence.

We don't want them to lose out on the specialized services that First Step brings.

So First Step has committed to coming to the site to provide on-campus services or teleservices to individuals that are fleeing domestic violence, but they can't house.

So individuals that are fleeing, which unfortunately continues to rise, we have seen that increase as well.

I believe the last thermal season we had about 38 or so individuals identified domestic violence in their past.

They would still have access to that specialized service courses.

These are housing focused providers.

And then the permanent supportive housing team at the community services board will be there once a week to provide direct access to the PSH

and there's a lot of potential there if they can find the housing stock to house individuals that qualify.

They're kind of in the reverse program.

They had the resources but they just don't have the places to spend those resources to house individuals.

But the PSH team will be there and then they'll also be able to work clients to connect them into the CSB system if they qualify for that.

Yes, please advance.

Health, we have a lot of partners in health so the community paramedics program, while it's at the bottom, I'll just start and say this will primarily serve as a administrative hub as the name implies.

The program is in the community but the community paramedic and social worker will have an office space at the facility.

They will be able to use the clinic if they want to perform an evaluation on someone in the clinic space.

They'll be able to use their office to meet with folks so we'll be sharing a space with them.

There is some overlap between who they're serving and who will be utilizing this facility.

for a phlebotomy chair for blood draws.

And so the suitcase clinic will have their community health worker on site every day.

They'll provide two nightly clinics for shelter guests, and they will use the navigation center now as a referral point.

Dany.

Peers is under health, but they are a peer recovery agency.

They'll provide substance use, peer support, individual and group.

They'll bring some of their harm reduction programming through the site, and they are another organization that will have a fixed office on site.

They'll provide training to the shelter participants, and again, one-on-one, if necessary, and request it.

Centera Health, as you all know, thank you for proceeding with the space use agreement for them to utilize the parking lot.

They'll be bringing their mobile health clinic every Monday, I believe from 10 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

We're also working with the community cares team to look at potentially using the inside as well during that same time frame for community health work.

insurance navigation and so forth as well.

So Centera Health continues to be a big partner and I think this will be the health care access that is expanded to the general community on this campus.

The suitcase clinic is only for the unhoused, not those only in our shelter program but you have to be unhoused whereas Centera Health will see everyone.

So we're really excited about that partnership there.

You may advance.

Not to mitigate or to minimize rather the part that they play in this project, but everyone has their own little niche here.

And there have been a few developments here that we look at expanding in the near future.

These are the collaborations that we're pretty solidified going into this chapter, but we also are in conversation with other providers throughout these categories on how to expand services.

here as needed.

So there's a lot more potential and we're continuing to evaluate partnerships.

SHINE is the Regional Adult Education Agency.

They'll look at helping us extend access to GED, classes, financial literacy, computer literacy and so forth.

The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank will help supply our food program.

We will have a kitchen program now where we're providing a daily meal for 80 individuals, 100 when we can expand and inclement weather conditions.

So the Food Bank will

will help support that.

And then the United Way of Harrisonburg-Ronkingham, the Rockford CARES program will assist as needed with the Alice population.

Our staff are trained on what is the eligibility requirements there so we can make direct referrals, but we can also call on the United Way if and when that's needed to onsite.

And then some of the questions have been around data and coordination at a greater level.

In the continuum of care, we're active members.

We set set on committees and so forth.

The COC will continue to engage with coordination at the system level with data quality and so forth.

I have to brag on my team.

We in the last two years have drastically

I have achieved typically a 99.4% and that is a high quality rate compared in relative to other partners in our entire COC.

For you all that don't know, the COC is two cities, Harrisonburg and Winchester in the counties in between, so up to Warren, Frederick, and down here to Rockingham.

You may advance.

So our commitment is to remain community driven.

We've done a lot of proactive listening.

We'll continue to do so.

We hope to welcome the community in for tours, coffee and chats.

We want to have at least one quarterly social event for community members, for neighbors to connect with not only me, but my staff, our partners.

We want to ensure that our ear remains close to the ground.

We want to hear what the community needs to this building, what services may benefit them, and if any concerns should arise, we want them to come to us proactively, and we want to continue doing that.

We will remain a service for all.

We'll continue to be low barrier.

We're going to operate safely and inclusively, and importantly, we are committed to improving our community with our community.

and Dr.

We recognize that Navigation Center is one part of the continuum.

We are appreciative of the council and the city staff's focus on affordable housing and the long-term solutions, but we need to continue seeing that from our other municipal partners, from the county, from other organizations to where we can one day hopefully not meet the Navigation Center at this grade of a level.

and where we can have an easier time housing people because we've looked down the road and have seen where we need to improve.

So we thank you all for that commitment and we trust that that will continue.

You may advance.

We need the community on the flip side.

Our success is a community success.

Well managed homelessness is really a valuable thing for us all.

There's a big misconception about where funding comes from homeless services, not just for open doors, but for all of us.

We are primarily funded by individuals, followed by the faith community and private funders.

We rely on the generosity of the community.

That's how we buy birth certificates and how we help people get their ID, how we are supporting our guests with meal service, and a lot of our staffing is programming.

So that's how we support our staff and ensure that they're making living wages so they can provide for the people we serve.

We encourage folks to contact us, to look at supporting us through donations, in kind and monetary, through volunteering at the facility.

There's a variety of ways to be involved actively and to advocate for long-term solutions.

No, seriously, I think that's fantastic and I will definitely be using that when we get to the National League of Cities because I think that's important because we have these conversations but we don't.

We're not always publicly honest about where they go next, which leads me to my question.

Recruiting for open jobs that people could be qualified for.

I didn't quite see something.

Now that's a very specific question.

You may have that wrapped in education.

I'm assuming you do, but if you don't, could we break something out so people will know where to send open job announcements, who they can talk to, if they want to recruit, because they want to give folks another opportunity, assuming some of these folks will not have a work path or a career, or if they're not choosing an education path and they want to go to work.

How can we, one, because from an economic development standpoint,

Yes, sir.

So we're working with Shine, of course, which focuses on workforce development.

They have a few programs in the work that may not only benefit us, but others.

Network to Work, which is that service that connects people with the employment that they qualify for.

They walk them through the employment process.

So we're working with them to come on site as needed.

A lot of this will be Biden man.

They may need to be, you know, weekly at first and then may go to monthly.

We do want people to have access to those services so they can find employment at a quicker pace.

We work with local recruiters and have done that in the past, and we've explored the opportunity of job fairs on site.

That may not just be for the unhoused, but anyone in the community, but putting it at the navigation center where the unhoused can stay.

Maybe it's in the morning, so they can just stay out from, you know, when the shelter program ends, they can stay on site.

in between four and five where they can come to the shelter a little earlier, but we can also welcome the community before the shelter program starts.

So we are focused on that as well because we recognize that employment is essential to someone's long-term success if they can sustain that.

So we are working on partnerships formalized there.

We've worked with folks like poultry providers that provide transportation directly to the job site because we know that that solves the biggest problem when it comes to employment attainment, right?

When we're finding jobs for folks, they have to be able to get to it on the bus line.

And it has to be in the city unless the provider, the employer is going to provide the transportation.

So, Nate, let's keep working together, even as I cycle off, because quite honestly, that's why I moved back here, because I was recruiting and doing and running the recruitment part of WHSVA for a couple years.

So, this is like perfect that I'm leaving because we can go back to those contacts and maybe you and I can work together with the new council and we can kind of work on that with Shine and then something for from an economic development standpoint, maybe partner up with the chamber and a few other sources.

Nate, that is a great idea about the job fair.

And a vice mayor did not, I can't even remember how long ago it was.

We went, before this evening got started, we went to Fredericksburg to take a look at their facilities.

And the one thing that really impressed me about, I think it was the facility, Laura, we went, it was like downtown.

And they had all these services, all these programs, right?

Nobody had time to just hang around.

It was so much to do.

And it was almost overload of just stuff, programs, services.

And so that's what I'm most impressed about what we're doing here at the Navigation Center is that we want to overload with services so that people can just be there and can get food, housing,

clothing, education.

I'm very excited about Sean, but the job fair is exactly a piece that that needs to be added.

I mean, they need to work, right?

They need to make money.

And so if we can work with our local businesses to see if they are in our corporations to see if they're willing to come and do that type of fair, I think that would be incredible for

are people that need that type of service.

Anybody else?

Great presentation.

Thank you, Nate.

I know Amy's coming up to kill the joy.

First, I want to acknowledge Nate and his team and everything that OpenDoors has been doing since they were awarded the contract.

And even before they are awarded the contract for operations, they were building collaborations and building on the dreams that we had as a community about this facility, but really breathing life into it.

And there's been a lot of hard work on Nate's part and his team's part to pull this off.

So thank you to Nate.

I wish he was to be able to hear tonight.

So Nate was able to deliver the good news of what we have to hope for when this facility opens and I'm unfortunately here with bad news.

The Navigation Center is facing a new challenging construction problem.

It was unexpected and only recently discovered.

We learned about it last week.

Our contractors, Nielsen Builders, will miss the October 30th deadline that was set forth in our contract for the facility to be

in our hands, the keys, and that will delay our opening.

The issue relates to fireproofing in the building, so because it's a fireproofing issue, there's no way for us to be approved for occupancy since it's a life safety issue.

And Nielsen Builders understands the criticality of getting this facility open.

They're going to be working as expeditiously as they can to resolve it, but it is something that's going to take a significant amount of time.

and standing here, I can't definitively say how much time that is.

We're still working with Nielsen to quantify on how much additional time they're going to need to fix the problem.

So I'll anticipate having an update for you all at the November 26th meeting if there's any good news before then, I'll of course share it with you all and share it with the community.

We're working with Nielsen to try to get a solution to the problem.

We have already begun exploring with open doors possible temporary shelter alternatives because we're going to need them.

We know that cold weather is already here and it's only going to get colder.

So finding a temporary shelter site is an urgent need and this is my appeal to the community that if you have a space that's empty or underutilized if you could please reach out to me so we can have a conversation about whether what you have is something that we could possibly utilize and would fit our needs.

We're looking for a space that could be at temporary shelter sites for 20 to 40 beds starting in November.

Unfortunately, some of the options we already have been exploring have not been feasible, but we're going to keep turning over the stones until we find something because this is a life safety issue and we need to have a place for people who are unhoused to shelter from the cold weather that's coming to our community.

Sure, who created the cost overrun?

Wasn't it a design to build?

Yeah, we don't expect to incur any more costs.

Absolutely not.

Doesn't the refund clock start kicking in once we... You mean, because they're now... Look at the way it damages.

Yeah, exactly.

Because at some point, I'm pretty sure we agree to those types of

R. Reed

The goal isn't just to open the door, open the door and be whole from the month.

Amy, other than the temporary shelter, is there anything else?

Excuse me, every time I start to talk, I get choked up here.

I think so, who do they reach out to?

Sure, I think please feel free to reach out to open doors.

They're also going to be putting out communications through their networks about the challenge that we're now facing and need to overcome as a community.

Because if it's a potential space, we have to vet it first.

Correct.

City has to be involved.

I was looking around at the chief back there, fire chief, curious about what the fire regulations are.

Yeah, is it related to this specific issue with fireproofing?

Is that what you're asking?

Yeah, yeah.

It relates to

This is getting into the weeds of the issue, but there are beams in the building and the beams need to be coated with fireproofing material.

We learned last week that the thickness of that fireproofing material that was sprayed on the beams was not, it was not thick enough.

And thickness has to be met in order for it to pass from a perspective of adequate fireproofing.

And that fireproofing protects the building from

We're confident that Nielsen is taking this very seriously since it came to light.

Again, it was something that was only recently discovered.

So although we're disappointed, we have been here before with needing support with the homeless shelter.

We've been here before trying to find a place.

So I know this community and we always come together when we need support.

and so we don't know how long it's going to be but we know we're not going to open in November and that's usually when the thermal shelter starts and so if anyone could help open doors and could help us, churches, know of any buildings that we can look at

Um, give Amy a call for open doors.

That's the plea.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Hello, Madam Mayor, City Council, Good evening, Todd Miller, Interim Chief, Harrisonburg Police Department.

Joining me here tonight, I have doctors Paisley and Tay from JMU.

They are a very integral part of the grant that we'll be talking about here in just a few moments.

So if they have some input here, gladly accept that here as we go along.

Captain Kidd would be up here with me in front of you this morning or this evening, but he's at a training conference this week.

who will be back very soon so we miss him but he's unfortunately not able to be here tonight and he's the champion of this project of this grant here with our department and he's been working very closely with the doctors here from JMU in order to push this grant through and the grant that we're talking about here is the community excuse me the connect and protect grant that was obtained in late 2023 through the Bureau of Justice Assistance and why we chose mental health specifically

Actually, there's a couple different reasons.

So mental health related calls for service for our police department is actually one of our highest frequency calls for service.

And that's pretty critical for us because it's very time consuming.

I'll get to that here in just a moment.

But with it being one of the most frequent in calls for service, we actually have some training that we provide to our officers.

We send our officers through crisis intervention training, CIT training.

and that's to get the officers acclimated to be able to identify persons that are in crisis and to be able to help deescalate and to work with them to get them to the facilities and resources that they need.

And furthermore, with the frequency, we actually have a dedicated officer on each of our patrol squads that is primarily, they're primarily responsible for dealing with mental health related calls for service.

That's how prevalent this problem is for us to be able to properly deal with these issues with our community members.

I mentioned Miller to go about this, about dealing with mental health related calls is very time consuming for our officers.

So if they come across somebody that's in our community and they're experiencing crisis and where they're a threat to themselves, maybe they're a threat to somebody else, they can be taken into custody under emergency custody order, which is we typically call ECO in police lingo.

We always have acronyms for everything.

So they'll be taken under custody for an ECO and they're taken to be evaluated and that can

last up to a couple of hours.

And if that person is in need of further treatment, the provider will actually issue what's called a temporary detention order.

And that's an involuntary commitment if the person doesn't want to seek services or take those services.

That's an involuntary commitment which places that person into a treatment facility to receive those services the way they can remedy whatever crisis they're going through.

Best case scenario that takes a couple of hours, we might just have to deliver the person to locally, maybe RMH.

Worst case scenario, it could take several days for them to find the appropriate bed, find the appropriate resources for that person.

We're actually sitting with one now at RMH that we have come into contact with since late Sunday afternoon and we're still with that person at RMH while they seek beds for that proper treatment.

And so we do travel when we take people in custody for this and they're being delivered to a facility.

It's not uncommon that we deliver people to Petersburg, Kataba,

Lebanon, Gaelax.

I mean we're traveling across the state and that's ours that we have officers off the streets to be able to take care of other emergencies for our citizens.

So it's a very important issue for us because again those those reasons I just mentioned.

We also chose this because we want to improve our ability to help de-escalate situations when these persons are in crisis in our community and we want to make sure we give them the best services possible and deliver them to

whatever resources we can best address those concerns.

So the reason that we chose a co-responder model from this grant is basically best practice throughout the country.

So basically this will have a police officer paired with a mental health professional.

They'll be able to respond to calls for service, identify which type of crisis that person may be in and get them to the more appropriate resources in a more timely manner and

best appropriate resources for them.

This grant was achieved, or excuse me, granted through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, like I mentioned, and the total amount is $550,000 over a period of three years, and that will include some maturing requirements, income maturing requirements, and we can take care of those through internal mechanisms that we already have.

We already have some resources and things in place.

We're talking about office-based equipment,

some salaries, vehicles and those things.

We've already taken care of those and we can fulfill that.

But with this project one of our main goals is to improve the diversion of individuals from arrest and unnecessary hospitalization and we want to get those individuals to that appropriate resource and this program will help us accomplish that.

And we can do that by several objectives that we have listed here.

The first objective we obviously are going to establish this co-responder program which will help

which will be comprised of two mental health professionals.

One will be a clinician and the other will be a qualified mental health professional which will be overseen by the clinician.

Those positions should be advertised here very, very soon with the work of our HR department.

They have those positions almost ready to go.

Objective number two, we are going to make sure the citizens are better connected to services such as mental health and substance abuse services.

Objective number three, which we don't have the ability to do right now, we absolutely need the follow-up.

Right now, we just don't have the time and ability once we deliver somebody to appropriate resource.

We don't have the follow-up to make sure they're continuing their treatment plans and whatnot.

And this mental health providers that we'll be receiving

with our program here.

They'll be able to conduct that proper follow-up because we want to reduce recidivism, right?

We want to make sure that they get to the resources that they need and we don't want to have those negative interactions with them again where they risk going back to jail or going back to the hospital.

We also want to, for objective four, we also want to increase the amount of training that we have for officers.

I mentioned earlier we have everybody go through our CIT program but we need, honestly that's been a couple years ago for most officers.

We want to make sure we give them some updated and refresher training

that way they are as up to date as possible on the latest trends.

And then the last one is more academic, but that's where the doctors will come in and play here.

They'll be evaluating the data, looking at our calls for service times, who amongst the target population might be, excuse me, likely to re-offend.

What are the types of resources or treatments that are most successful in the program?

So there will be instrumental in helping evaluate the data there for us.

So what's this going to look like?

For us, we have developed this program to look like our mental health professionals will be deployed in the field.

We obviously are going to give them tools and resources necessary, including in police radio, because we really want them to be able to have real time information to the calls for service that are going on.

to hear those and be able to self dispatch to those mental health related calls for service.

Conversely, there may be a time when an officer might get dispatched to, or maybe say a disorderly conduct, and they get there and they might see that somebody is experiencing a mental health crisis.

They can then call the mental health professional on the radio and say, hey, I need your services down here.

They can then come to the scene.

They can provide that initial assessment there to figure out, does this person need to be ECO'd or

are there more appropriate resources available to get them to, and they can help us navigate there and get them to there more appropriately and more quickly.

Also, this program will help us improve training for not only our officers, but for those mental health professionals.

And our expectations for the mental health professionals is that they will work very closely with our partner members, including Community Services Board, the Co-respondent Program for the county,

J.M.U.

has a co-responder program as well and then also was mentioned earlier our community paramedic program is hosted by the fire department that will work closely with them.

The program has also identified several opportunities for program growth to be able to work with the navigation center once that opens up and even with our officers.

They do experience a lot of trauma and different calls of service and things they see this would be a good resource for them.

And the last slide here will really highlight some roles that Dr. Stadium-Peasley will have as our program moves forward.

It includes critical evaluation and data analysis of those.

Also, with their assistance, we expect to achieve outcomes which include decreasing recidivism among the target population of which we intend to serve, which are again our mental health consumers.

We also want to make sure that we impact the amount of time that officers are on mental health related calls for service We demonstrated that earlier, how significant that is for us And we also want to make better use of and increase the referrals for community-based services As I mentioned, instead of having to make an arrest or unnecessary hospitalization for those persons

So I hope I gave you a very, very overview of this program, what we intend to do.

Thank you.

I do.

That might actually be more a question for City Manager.

Back a couple of slides where it starts with the Bureau of Justice Grant Award, 550,000 over three years.

That's where the evaluation really comes into play.

How impactful is this program for our community?

We obviously have some great ideas about how this program is going to be effective for us and I think through the data and things we'll be able to show that and demonstrate how effective this program is going to be for our community members.

And then that's when, again, we can either have that conversation about, hey, we would like to continue this program or if there are other grant opportunities that are out there.

I know this is awarded back in 2023.

There have been subsequent grants for the same type of program.

So a fingers process could be available for years down the road.

Do you all have a better explanation for that?

It just means that the matching requirement percentage increases to 40% in the last year, right?

Yeah, so I think this is a program that's been successful elsewhere.

I know our local mental health professionals most are pretty filled up.

So I'm kind of curious about the ability to staff and to get this ramped up properly.

For many folks, we'll have to agree to work on this program and then that might change their other practice.

And I could probably speak to that chief.

Captain Kidd and I, as well as Ms.

Snyder and Ms.

Klim, our HR director, have acknowledged that that's going to be probably the big climb right now is the recruitment of the mental health professional as well as

probably even more challenging the clinician to get them on staff.

And that's why what we would have ideally done is brought this update to city council and then recruit.

But I went ahead and authorized our ability to go ahead and try and begin the recruitment for those positions.

Because as we know with our colleagues at the community services board, they've had open positions for similar positions for some time.

So we're going to try and do everything we can to get folks into these roles.

But I think you made a good point.

I mean, do we know if there are particular incentives or particular ways that other cities, I mean, this is probably not a unique problem that we have, obviously.

Mental health needs in cities all over the country are pretty significant in folks.

They don't have enough folks to step in.

And so I talked to them about that, just separate on a broad from this particular issue.

And what we'll do is we'll begin that recruitment process and evaluate if it sits like we do with other important recruitments.

If it sits for a period of time, then we may have to look at it, reevaluate its classification, our compensation system, perhaps look at signing bonuses.

There's a problem to resolve.

Mayor Mayer.

One of the questions I have is

put a lot of effort in the city into building relationships in different communities, almost like a community policing in districts.

And so with the mental health issues I see in my neighborhood, I think it would be very important that, or what I'm trying to ask is, will you have mental health clinicians who are in certain areas so that they can build relationships

because I know a lot of the folks who have mental health issues, it'll be very hard to approach them if some sort of relationship isn't built or if we're seeing different clinicians each time or different someone each time.

Like, I'm very familiar with the officers who work in our neighborhoods.

So when I see someone different, I'm like, wait a minute, who's that?

And I know that when I see them coming toward me just to have a regular, regular chat, I'm very comfortable because we have formed a relationship.

So I'd like to see that with this program.

I mean, that's a great idea, right?

And hopefully with the, just saying the officers, for example, you know, you recognize the officers there, and hopefully those officers have built a rapport.

Once we have these clinicians and qualified mental health professionals on board, hopefully we can begin to establish those relationships.

With only two, it might be difficult because they're going to be

Again, stretched a little bit thinner than what our officers are because we do, like you said, we do have our officers strategically placed in certain parts of the city to try to build those relationships.

I was coming out of roses today.

I was going to add something.

One of the conversations that we've had is with the community paramedics as well.

Great.

I was coming out of roses today and one of the individuals in our community who has significant mental health issues

was standing in the middle of Gay Street.

I mean, just in the middle of Gay Street, like, where can you move?

And so, because I formed a relationship with him, I felt very comfortable rolling my window down and saying, right, walking across the streets of 7-Eleven, but I've seen before when other people have tried to move him, he's become very combative.

And so that, yeah, that was just one of my concerns.

Well, I appreciate, you know, moving forward with this program, so significant both for your operations, but also for the residents who need this support.

I was just going to suggest to Councilman Robinson because I agree with that.

And this goes back a long way.

But one of the things that we discuss with Kurt Hodges a long time ago with diversity recruitment is for us to do it too.

So we've got to recruit in our own neighborhoods and in our own social circles because that's the best way to get people that reflect our values and our community values.

So that goes back a long time ago.

This building wasn't even here.

But that's when we were having those conversations.

And I think it's kind of full circle.

We got to go back to that a little bit.

Checking our NAACP circles, just various circles in our HBCUs.

And Virginia has such good colleges.

You know, no disrespect to JMU and EMU.

But, you know, we've got 10 in the valley.

So I got eight more to go that are still local in addition to everything in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and D.C.

alone.

So I feel confident.

We could find someone if we, you know, the five of us dig in along with other community members as well, because this is something that I feel like this is one issue I've never heard anyone negatively speak against.

And so I'm hoping that the whole community kind of recruits for this because all of us can use it because it's going to keep us all safe.

And it saves us money because it keeps people out of jail unnecessarily.

It keeps our police officers safe.

Unbeknownst to you all, I was trying to make this point last week at VML about your time.

Your time is very critical and we need you doing this instead of some of the other menial tasks that we and or the state sometimes require you to do.

So we need your patience to be reserved for these moments that are critical.

We don't need you getting frustrated over

You know, licensed plate stickers and stuff like that.

I need your being extra patient when we have these moments.

So thank you.

I have another question just to verify what you said.

When you take somebody for one of these, whatever, ECOs, whatever.

Does that mean the police officer has to sit with them until they're determined?

There's some jurisdictions, there's some hospitals that have the resources available.

I think they're calling special conservators a piece where we could take them to, I'm just using RMH for example, but if RMH had that staff, we'd be able to deliver them there.

They would then be able to sit with that person while that evaluation is being conducted and our personnel will be able to get back on the street.

There are some facilities throughout the state that have that, ours does not.

Unless we have that concern.

Someone adding?

See this is why I brought them.

So, thank you.

My name is Amanda Tay and I do a lot of the data analysis and also integrated the data management system for this project.

One of the precipitating factors that I think interested Harrisonburg here is when we did a data analysis looking at a lot of the mental health calls for service dispositions, wait times and calls, we found that there's a really high rate of waves that happen

at the door, which essentially it's like the CSB just essentially releases the consumer and asks them to follow up, which means that we're getting it wrong sometimes in terms of the rate of an officer sitting on the scene that this needs to be an involuntary commitment.

And we know that rate, at least when we looked at it, was at least 30%, at least one third of the times we think that it might be a voluntary commitment.

Maybe it doesn't need to be.

Maybe if there was a mental health professional on the scene that could essentially

Point 2 says, assess in the field.

We might be able to advise the officer that, hey, this doesn't need to be an ECO, so the person doesn't have to be taken involuntarily out of there.

Will to the hospital potentially, we can connect them to another series of resources or return them back to the case manager or return them back to their other supports.

And so just looking at those figures there, we found that that's more likely to happen when there's somebody who's a qualified professional to provide that advice.

And I think that's the first goal here is to actually get officers the right amount of relief in the field before that decision is made to activate the ECO.

Yeah, and in addition to connections down here.

How does this relate to, so I know we're talking about our police officers, but how does this relate to JMU and EMU?

Yeah, because, I mean, we have two universities here.

Jamie, you do have the Rogan Co-responder model as well.

And then the county has their program too.

So, obviously our focus will be our citizens who are here, and whoever is traversing through Harrisonburg.

Do you know how long they have had their model?

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your interest.

Thank you.

If Council recalls back on August 13th, Mr. Collins from our Public Utilities Department appeared and informed council that under the Cities Virginia Water Protection Permit with the conditions that and with the drought conditions, DEQ had declared our region in a drought warning and legally council was obligated to follow suit and declare a drought warning for the city of Harrisonburg.

I know Mr. Collins will want me to mention that the city's water supply was okay.

But again, since we were in that region, we had to follow DEQ.

With all the rainfall that's been received, DEQ has lowered us to a drought watch from a drought warning.

And let me also say again,

Mr. Collins we want me to say this our system is normal right now I think we're operating at a 14 million gallon per day surplus so we're doing well and in fact the whole region is doing well the only reason they didn't post back to normal was apparently there is a well in Clark County that's having some issues and because of that they're keeping the whole area in a drought watch but Harrisonburg is pretty much normal and as soon as DEQ

reduces us back to normal, we'll come back to you, but right now what we have is a resolution rescinding the drought warning that counsel enacted back on August 13th and in accordance with our requirements declaring us in a drought watch and if anyone's interested they can go to the public utilities website and there's information about the voluntary efforts that the city is asking

Well, I recall Mike Collins, water director, saying that the county around us was still in a drought warning, I guess at that point.

There was one red square in the four squares, meaning groundwater was still at a low.

Well, I think the county is probably okay.

Again, the whole region

I was looking at the map today and the whole region is in normal except for the one little spot in Clark County and that was enough to take us into the drought watch.

We made up for so much that we actually were out of it literally while it was raining like three or four weeks ago.

So we pull from surface water, which is a surface water rise from the ground.

So it's kind of a, you know, this region has one measure for it, but Harrisonburg's measure is a little atypical for the rest of the region.

So there could be a warning for the region that encompasses us, but we may not be in that exact circumstance, but we have to follow the regional

Declaration and that kind of four square box they have right now they're three greens and there was one red but that red was up in Clark County and so that packs the whole region right and how we respond.

We're last day and first out because of how we're set up, topography was.

Good evening, Mayor Reed, City Council, Larry Prott, Finance Director.

Got to have a couple of supplemental appropriation requests this evening.

The first is approximately $1.3 million, and this is related to our shared services that we have with Rockingham County.

$262,000 approximately is for, if you recall, they had some plumbing repair work up at the jail over the summer, so this is our

and a little over a million dollars for the Children's Services Act.

And I might jump in Madam Mayor if you don't mind.

Mr. Props and I chatted and because of the magnitude, especially of the nearly million dollar supplemental for Children's Services Act, I reached out to Celeste Williams, our executive director for the Harrisonburg Rocking Department of Social Services that manages the Children's Services Act.

And some of the data she provide, traditionally this is something that's very difficult to budget for.

It's case specific.

It's service needed.

And it's something that fluctuates tremendously from year to year.

This increase represents about a 20% increase in the city, children and families that are receiving services now versus over last year.

So it's a pretty dramatic increase.

That is something that at least anecdotally we have talked about in those circles for some time since COVID.

There was the anticipation among the mental health professional industry out there that

We're going to probably see an increasing trend as children and families continue to deal with the challenges that COVID brought us.

The other piece of that was there was a state suspended qualified residential treatment program.

So we were receiving significant state funding for a specific program that then

Dany.

our CSA coordinator come and give you all an update because it's been some time.

These are vital services for children and families in mental health crisis, substance abuse issues, foster care, child abuse.

I mean, these are the people that are truly in critical situations in our community.

And both Harrisburg and Rockingham commit resources to this program.

And then we draw down significant state and federal resources to meet those needs.

I think it'll be important that we get some feedback on this is a trend, what we might be looking for next year, next year's budget.

These are folks that are under resourced and underserved as it is.

And so if we're anticipating that we're going

This is a trend we're going to see.

We need to certainly be on top of that.

And Mr. Props and I have had those discussions, in fact, because it's so difficult to project

We have in the past talked about with Ms.

Williams about the potential of budgeting additional dollars.

For instance, this year there was not an increase in the budget for CSA, but now we've had this increase in number of cases.

We have looked at just automatically including an additional hundred or two hundred thousand dollars in that budget to provide almost kind of like a fund balance, a protection in case there is an increase that

We wouldn't necessarily, those resources would already be in place and wouldn't necessarily need to trigger a supplemental appropriation in this case.

I think the other part of that is, are we seeing this statewide?

Sorry, are we seeing other localities who are experiencing this because that'll be the opportunity when the General Assembly meets to be able to collect that information from other localities and say,

we need help in stepping up in this and so this is a yeah yeah I see the juggle about getting that but you know about getting the legislative assembly to recognize this additional burden to step into you know there is money I think we're anticipating revenue additional revenue at the state level so where that goes

is critical and we as cities can help direct that very specifically.

So I think if we can find out from other cities, you know, is this what you're experiencing?

OK, motion.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the supplemental appropriation in the amount of one million three hundred and two dollars.

One million three hundred two two hundred and sixty.

Any more discussion?

Council Member Jams.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Aye.

Second supplemental.

$85,000 for the Smart Growth American Community Connectors Grant.

We have received those funds.

and so we just need to appropriate that.

And $1.1 million.

Thank you.

Motion.

Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the supplemental appropriation in the amount of $1,186,000.

239 dollars as presented by staff.

Any more discussion?

Council Member Fleming.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Aye.

Luke.

Nani.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of City Council.

Luke Morgan, the City's Grants and Programs Analyst.

I'm here to talk with you about the upcoming American Rescue Plan Act Obligation deadline.

As I'm sure you already know, the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, was signed until March 2021 and created the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Program, which provided pandemic relief and recovery funds to state and local governments throughout the nation to help them recover from negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harrisonburg received $23.8 million in ARPA funding,

and in December 2022, City Council adopted a spending plan for these funds following a months-long public engagement process.

As with any federal funding source, the use of ARPA funds is governed by different rules and regulations.

The use of ARPA funds is governed by the U.S.

Treasury's final rule, which establishes eligible uses and deadlines for obligations and expenditures.

The final rule requires that all ARPA funds be obligated by December 31, 2024.

This is just now a couple months away from us.

As a reminder for you, in order to count as officially obligated, we must either have a signed contract or a grant agreement in place, just because you adopted a spending plan doesn't mean the funds are officially obligated.

The final rule also requires that all funds be spent by December 31, 2026, and failure to adhere to either of these obligations, deadlines or expenditure deadlines, could result in unobligated funds and unspent funds being returned to the U.S.

Treasury.

Currently, the City has three ARPA projects with excess funds that will need to be obligated totaling about $13,144.

These projects are the Employee Retention Payments, the Child Care Program, and these aren't the grants from the Child Care Fund.

This is the services that help support the applicants through the Child Care Fund application process, and then the Small Business Assistance Fund.

And all three projects are complete.

Obligated funds are excess funding that was budgeted for the projects and won't be used.

And city staff recommend reallocating these funds.

The Navigation Center's ARPA project, which is also partially funded with city funds.

And that is all I have for you.

Any questions?

OK.

I got it.

So, meaning that they finished under budget, so to speak?

They're not technically even under budget.

For the childcare specifically, that childcare program was the contract with SBDC.

And so, that just wasn't including the contract.

They didn't ask for the full amount that we had budgeted for that.

That's real money.

There you go.

Well, we did a first round of grant funding through that child care fund.

We had five applicants all who are going to get an award and I'm finalizing some of that this week and next week.

We actually went back out to those same applicants for a second round of funding and see if they need additional funding based on their needs and they

I'm an additional request for funding.

I'm going through those and that will take care of all the funding in the fund.

Any more questions?

That was one of the first ARPA projects that was here even before I was with the city.

So it was before we finished the comp and classification study.

Before it was presented.

I think very honestly, openly on the microphones from the dyes, we talked about increasing wages for the police department, specifically public works and then everyone else.

In addition concurrently,

Andi and Angela were working on a plan for our class and compensation study.

So this is just money that was ahead of that program.

At least that's the way I explained it.

It was a bonus.

What was the amount?

Something like two million?

Larry, do you recall the total amount that was used for the bonus?

Not attention.

Mike Drop.

That's how our finance director calculates.

He just earned 641 dollars and 56 people.

That's awesome.

So on the navigation center funds are there specific area where that's going to be obligated?

Madam Mayor, I move to approve the American Rescue Plan Act.

Second.

I just wanted to thank Mr. Morgan.

I offered him more to stay with us.

He's had a wonderful opportunity for his career development and I wish him the very best of luck and I told him that he is now challenging me to recruit him back.

So, Luke, you've done an amazing job for us starting as an intern in the city manager's office and then our ARPA coordinator and now most recently handling a lot of grants across our organization.

Comments from the public, limited to five minutes.

Are we card?

Javier Cacheja, 243 Country Club Road, Harrisonburg, Virginia, Chichuerochu.

What I would like to bring is a thing.

I would like to have seen this full room full of people thanking you Vice Mayor Dent and Mayor Reed because you guys have done work for the city and everybody else sitting here today but we know that November 5th we have the election and one of the candidates for sure some here to thank you for what you have done for the city

Recognize your work, although some of us do not agree with all of the decisions, but we do recognize the value of those decisions that have moved our city forward.

Councilmember Jones, we know that you're not going to be around this election.

Hope to see you around next election cycle.

Thank you so much.

I know we haven't had the opportunity to meet outside of here, but you do have people that admire the work that you have done for the city, and I want you to hear that.

Thank you, brother.

And by some major dent, major Reed, I'm not sure if I'm going to have the chance to see you again because I'm going to be very busy.

But the next time I see you, hopefully it's going to be serving with you and for you and for our people.

And I would just like to thank all of you for everything you do for our city.

For some of us, seeing it from the outside, we don't know what it's like to be on that side.

And as I say before, to all of you, I'm going to be running, saying always good thing about all of you, and thank you for what you have done for us.

So I'm not going to take all the five minutes, but I would like to thank everybody else in this building who serves our city, our beautiful residents, and how engaged you are to make their life better, especially at this time of the night, that most of us would like to be at home sleeping, right, with our kids.

Thank you.

We can move on to our close public comment.

Oh, okay.

Well, I had back-to-back conferences last week.

We were all at the Virginia Municipal League Conference in Virginia Beach.

A lot of really great connections and networking and learning hot topics, a couple of

I went to several workshops about data centers and the massive electricity demand that they're causing and the challenges to the electric system and water as well.

And I also went for an update on the Dominion Offshore Wind Project, really monumental and impressive.

And I on sort of the spur of the moment went from there to Richmond for the Virginia Clean Energy Summit,

is one of the most impactful conferences I go to because it's not like VML or NLC where everybody is on city council somewhere.

I'm one of the very rare city officials in what's mostly a government and industry conference about how do we make renewable energy happen.

So again, made really good connections and a lot of good learnings there.

Let me think what in particular.

Well, the discussion about the whole upgrading the grid for climate resiliency and mitigating the impacts, defining that as a wicked problem, meaning it doesn't have any easy solutions and a lot of interconnected problems.

Some really exciting new technologies such as a multi-day battery storage, usually when they talk about battery storages for

I'll give a kind of a synopsis real quick because I feel like I haven't always, I don't always report everything because everybody sometimes has a lot more to say than me but I've been able to be with I think our favorite congresswoman Jennifer McClellan a few times in the last 30 days or so.

I'm going back a little bit to the Congressional Black Caucus but also at the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples State Conference.

So that was a great moment to be there and see her and Bobby Scott, several others that are supportive of the work that we do here on the western part of the state.

So it's always good to see those individuals.

I mentioned that we were at VML and it was fun engaging in the voting process with my colleagues.

So that was neat.

And what was really neat is

because I was able to walk around the room as that was happening and to see how engaged the four I didn't think Monica was in a different seat but I know we were all mostly all together there and when I looked at some of the other municipalities they weren't working together in that moment the way we were.

I enjoyed that and so I appreciate my colleagues for that like

to me that's the most important reason why we go and I feel like we were all there working together and that was fun and you know being able to comment and lead and so on and so forth I thought that was great so I just want to commend my colleagues as well for you know everybody did the homework and participated so really appreciate that and what we connected with others at Virginia Municipal League and I feel like that's about it I just wanted to make sure that we definitely love on and appreciate our staff

I hate to see a person like Alut go, but the good thing is I hope we've treated him so well that he'll have good stories to tell about being with Harrisonburg.

And as he's telling those good stories, not only does he remind himself to come back, but he can help us recruit others.

And I think that's part of the key with the mental health piece that we were talking about earlier.

Because ironically, I think that's one of the, that's one of the number one reasons why I started to run for city council because I wanted to see a diversity in staff.

and just in how we hired.

Let the best person win, but let's make sure we asked everybody.

Let's make sure we hit all the pools.

And I think that I see Andy Nodden in my peripheral and I think we've been doing a really good job of that over the last decade and we've just worked at it more and more and more.

And so I really hope we do that so we can continue to fill in those needs and just wanted to let our police department know yet once again while I'm standing in Captain Miller.

We were supporting you in a very unique way and so I'm very proud of that quite honestly based off of the presentation that we had here.

So I'm excited to talk to some of the other elected officials around the state to let them know what our men and women are doing with their time versus what we were debating what others should be doing with their time.

So thank you for your service.

It feels good to come back home and see

the things we say down there are actually happening at home they're not just thoughts and so I appreciate our city manager and and all the staff for taking these great ideas that we hear and I can say that the five of us and including Sal and some of the others since we've been really aggressively leading we've been implementing these things and so Madam Mayor with the tail end of what you heard was I'll be presenting at NLC

about real, as I always would, but it'll actually be the RAISE grant, believe it or not.

So we'll be presenting on that at some point.

So we're trying to coordinate that conversation as well.

You're presenting at NLC.

And I'll be presenting at NLC, since y'all say I don't do nothing.

They'll probably schedule them where we can't all go to support each other.

It always happens that way.

But let's at least try to coordinate that since we're all there.

But I want the public to know that some of the times you hear us with these grandiose ideas, or we sound so confident in something.

And that's because we've seen it rise and fail, or we've seen the challenges and outcomes in other places.

And so now we know a good way to attack.

And some of our ideas that we generate here are just award-winning.

They're cutting edge.

People like what we're doing and they want to see us in leadership roles so that we can explain those from a greater standpoint and I think that all of us have been doing that.

I think for me, I heard a lot how other mayors were saying, oh, your whole council is here.

And I was like, yeah, we're all here.

A lot of mayors didn't have their whole council be there.

So I think we were probably one of the few at VML.

VML seemed like to me.

Yes, me too.

In attendance.

And so where I would normally see like Manassas, I don't remember seeing Manassas.

Certain people I was looking for, usually their entire council comes somebody who is close to us, I'm gonna say,

where but up the highway was telling me that you know they are the only ones on their council to participate in VMM and so I think that's for us that's that's good and I want people to know that because sometimes we cancel meetings because we're all going to a conference but it's really important we all go we come back with

Can I add a PS?

The other thing I meant to mention about going to that Virginia Clean Energy Summit is as I sometimes do I ask what can we do to make clean energy easier and these industry professionals love hearing that because they mostly complain about how hard the counties make it with their caps and so on.

and one of the answers was a couple of things that we're already doing.

So smart and zoning reform.

And yeah, we're already on top of that.

I went to VML.

Of course, you've already heard about that, but attended some great sessions.

One of them was on AI and was able to explore many, many apps that will do everything for you under the sun.

It was very interesting to work through some of that stuff.

By the way, they do speeches if anybody needs a speech.

And also, I didn't get the memo tonight about all the blue.

Yeah, all the blue.

Everyone's wearing blue.

The other session that was very interesting was the opioid abatement settlement money.

And I was amazed at the number of

Places in Virginia who have funding sitting there, but they are not doing anything with it because they don't have the manpower to take care of the forms that are required into this and that to kind of do the whole grant and then interesting enough listening to different ways that people are utilizing the money to

but also we went over a lot of data.

You would have loved it, Dany.

It was a lot of charts that had to do with like where the money's coming from, who's paying the money, the settlement amounts.

And then, wow, it was just a lot.

But I really enjoyed it though.

Then came home and went to another conference, Community Connectors Conference.

That's the one with Smart Growth America.

And so,

They had two sections.

One was on displacement and one was on engagement.

And I'm not even going to start talking about how great they both were.

But it was an excellent conference.

It was action-packed, you know, going the whole time.

But I feel like I have a lot of good information I can bring back to our team that hopefully we'll see out in what we're doing in the Northeast neighborhood.

Then last night, because I can only remember these, they were three things because they just happened,

I went to the Harrisonburg City Public School Safety Town Hall that they held at Rocktown High School.

They went over ways that community members can be proactive and help out in emergency situations, but they also went over what we're supposed to do when an emergency occurs.

And for parents, the first thing to do is not go to the schools and get in the way.

I said, I know that's what you want to do, because that's what I want to do too.

I want to get my babies.

But really, just look on the website, see what color they're in, follow the instructions that are listed there.

But I feel like the plan that they have in place is really, really good.

I mean, of course, it's not perfect, but you could see, and I said there, I was so proud, I don't even up there, but I was so proud to see how well

Fire Department was collaborating with the police department and then the police department was talking with someone, a member of the city school.

You could tell that there has been work done.

It wasn't just, oh my God, we gotta present, let's get it together.

No, they knew.

They knew.

They have been working together for a while to put together a safety plan for our children and I was so very appreciative of that because I got two babies out there and lots of family members.

And I hate to have to come after one of y'all if y'all mess up that safety plan.

So I was very happy that you know that I learned a lot last night about the codes and the colors and what you're supposed to do.

And then I was able to take that home and then refresh with my boys some of the things.

So if they tell you so go somewhere and do something

Don't argue the point, just do it.

Because then that makes it, you know, you're jeopardizing the safety of someone else by being belligerent.

When you know all this is an emergency, I don't really want to go listen.

Because we don't know what's true and we don't know what's fake.

But in all of those instances, the top thing to remember is someone could die today.

So if there's someone there to help you with the safety plan, you need to just follow along and you ask questions later.

So I was very proud of our city staff, our 9-1-1 center, everything.

I mean, just every question someone knew to answer immediately.

So it felt good to be on this side of the dice for a change.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like, oh yeah, I know.

Yeah, so after the VML conference, actually I left early and came back.

We had the JMU's Economic Summit was on the 15th.

And so that is a regional summit, a regional gathering of folks, probably close to 200 people who were there from Winchester down to Rockbridge County.

It was very well attended.

Issues were housing, transportation, child care, and workforce.

So there's the four issues that have carried over from the last couple of years.

I headed up the housing planning part of that.

We had a number of presentations from city staff.

Liz Webb, Adam Fletcher was there.

Amy made a presentation.

We actually, in planning the conference, as we were fielding requests,

for presenters had to figure out how not to make it so Harrisonburg-centric because we have so much stuff going on here, right?

But there were really some excellent presentations.

There was really fantastic networking among folks up and down the valley, so I think there's a lot of follow through on this conference.

I think a significant difference from the last couple of conferences, I think that this really was

one that has some follow-through with it, folks got real value from it, so that was helpful.

I actually did a number of Urban Institute workshops over the last couple of weeks, one I went up to DC for, I was picking up

My daughter and this one went in there for one of the workshops on one was making investments in digital infrastructure toward more equitable outcomes.

And it was a fascinating, in essence, the broadband dollars is what this is talking about.

So there's 63 billion dollars that are going to be coming out for broadband development, similar to the Rural Electrification Act.

Back in the 30s, this is about how to get the internet down to the end user.

How do we get those folks who aren't in the digital economy?

Because if you're not online, you're outside the digital economy there.

And so is folks from Treasury, from Rural Electrification there, from HUD, Commerce, who are presenting and some pretty senior folks there.

And it'll be something we will have to look into.

is a city coming up over the next year as these dollars become available.

And many of them are in urban areas for folks who don't have digital access or can't afford the digital access they need.

So recognition that there's a fee to be part of the economy.

And folks who are locked out of that can't afford that, then are locked out of opportunities.

So this is about funds.

working with your local ISPs, working with training operations in your area to train users on how to make use of getting online.

So a lot of money at some point we'll be stepping into that.

The other one I was part of was a sustainable home ownership and wealth

preservation for communities of color.

So this was, again, national housing leaders who were giving some really fantastic examples of housing, wealth building, and how to hit the target.

So money that comes available for home ownership often runs in the obstacle when people of color

get that and have to go to the financial institutions.

All those barriers still exist.

So the money that comes down still isn't getting deployed in the ways that we like to see it deployed.

So that conference really laid out some great programs around the country and also connected the health issues that are connected with housing.

And so some of the indicators of health

which go back to people's housings and deficiency in housing.

And we currently have a grant through NLC to step into that healthy housing arena.

So when we do these conferences, we're not only coming back for the information, sometimes we come back for the money.

And so we have a number of grant opportunities.

Sometimes it might be a little too much for the city, like here's money, here's a program, here's a program, here's a program, right?

So sometimes the challenge for Harrisonburg

What can we feasibly step into and what hits the need?

So I know we often say, hey, can you do this?

We had, so for Virginia First Cities, we put together a legislative agenda last week that we'll be taking to the General Assembly.

So the 17, now 18 cities, Emporia joins, so we now have 18 of the first cities that are there.

One of the main pieces of legislation that we're looking to push are the public private funds for housing development.

Legislation is already enabled in the state to be able to use funds for housing, for example, as I've mentioned before, site readiness.

So they've enabled that, they just haven't funded it.

So now we're looking to, I think, maybe get around $2 million into that fund, which isn't a lot.

But for the first city members, their small amounts that can help with site readiness can be a margin, especially for some of our non-profit builders.

And that's money that's up front in the process that can be really helpful.

So I think we're hopeful that that might

Move through NLC, I said today, with NLC on the FAIR Committee, the Finance Administration and the Governmental Relations.

Two pieces that will be part of the NLC policy and legislative agenda that we did today.

One was actually on diversity and hiring.

So a statement coming out of that on diversity and hiring, we fine-tuned that.

really in recognition of, you know, kind of the attacks on anything that mentions DEI, right?

And so this is kind of a proactive statement saying diversity and hiring is important and valuable and needed.

And then the other thing that we've worked on in this committee, which, you know, Harrisonburg gets a lot of grants.

We move forward and that's really the result of staff that we have here that are really pretty phenomenal.

And we're at the size of the city that can do that.

There are a lot of cities that can't step into these grants.

So a lot of this money that comes down, there are a lot of cities that can't step into it.

So we've been pushing the streamlining federal grants bill that's currently in Congress to streamline the grant making process for folks, which is

There's like 1,800 portals you can go into.

So most most of these can't step into that.

Sea Manager, Banks and I did the SVA radio show this morning.

Talked housing and community needs there a little bit.

And also I went to the Harrisonburg Rockingham Community Daycare Center opening yesterday.

Folks at the opening there were just so appreciative of the work that Ms.

Snyder led for our daycares there.

So I know they thanked you hundreds of times.

They would like to thank you several hundred more times for the help that made that center possible there.

Councilman, I gotta tell you the reason we're so good with the Grants also is that our city manager is really good at that.

He doesn't talk about it often, but there was a time when he was the Luke.

Or the Brian.

He's gonna be the Luke again.

There was a time when he was the Brian and the Amy and quite honestly,

That was how he was described to me.

He's really good at writing and getting your grant.

And that's why I try to stay nice to him all the time.

Yes, indeed.

I don't have much.

I know we have the opportunity to walk out of here in two hours.

I'm Javier.

This is a short meeting.

Normally, it's way longer than this.

So just want to let you know that.

First, I want to

Thank Amy.

Amy, I know that the navigation center delay is, I feel you, I'm with you, and I know that you have been leading that charge and you have been doing it well.

So some things happen, right?

And we just have to roll with it.

But by no means does this have anything to do with your leadership because you have been outstanding.

So I just want to personally thank you because I know it's hurting.

It's hurting me.

I know it's hurting you.

And you're in it day by day.

But we'll get through it.

We've been through stuff like this before.

had a great homecoming with EMU, get ready for JMU.

They can ready to have their homecoming this weekend starting Friday.

So we'll have added folks in town.

Also on Thursday, we're going to be, I'm going to be attending and proceeding a proclamation to Valerie Gantt from JMU.

She is retiring.

So yeah, she's retiring, so her farewell party will be Thursday, so Valerie has been a staple over there at CMS for 18 years.

So we're going to wish her a good retirement.

And even though this is political closure ears attorney, I just wanted to mention we had Saturday, we had a

posted a brunch for women and we had Senator Hoshme, State Senator Hoshme here.

And so I want to thank Vice Mayor for attending.

It was a great event and it was a great time with women gathered.

This is where we are as Harrisonburg leadership.

I can get on the phone and I can ask the senator, would you attend

something that I'm giving in Harrisonburg.

And there's no question is a yes.

And so that's because we have worked hard to put ourselves on the map, not only through the Shenandoah Valley, but throughout the state.

And so November 7th will be another senator rolling through.

We'll have Aaron Rouse coming through.

I have invited him here.

So I will let y'all know as I hash out that agenda.

I invited him here.

He said yes.

And so we're working on that as well.

But the stuff that the community, you know, they see us here, but we're doing a lot of work outside of Harrisonburg with all these different

committees, state committees, and national committees.

And I feel good about that.

VML, I went to VML, everybody went to VML.

And then I came back and I was invited to the Black Maternal Summit Enrichment by Senator Carol Keane.

That was extraordinary.

Happy birthday Seth, Seth turns nine tomorrow and the staff, if no one remembers the staff remembers because I was trapped in the middle of Arkansas when my wife went into labor and everybody in Harrisonburg tried everything they could to get me back and we got back in time for the birth so at 1.50 tomorrow Seth turns nine

It's a happy birthday.

Harrison.

Good night.

Good night.

All right.

This time, Brian.

Okay.

Thank you.

Amy.

Because I had to stand in for Mayor Reed last week, it was the week of conferences.

Last week we had the opportunity to host the MOLLE Conference, so that's the Mid-Atlantic Association of Women in Law Enforcement Conference at Hotel Madison.

It was a wonderful event.

I want to thank our planning committee at HPD for hosting and putting on such a wonderful event, but I just wanted to share a quick story with you all because it represents how proud I am to serve Harrisonburg, which is in preparation for the

Providing a welcome, I contemplated when did I first meet a woman in law enforcement, and I realized it was when I was 21, and I was a victim of a crime in Houston, Texas, and a female officer was assigned to interview me.

I asked my 13-year-old daughter that same question, and she said it was when we moved here to Harrisonburg.

So it was when she was 7, and we moved here from Atlanta.

We, our department was so well represented at that conference and it's because of the incredible efforts of our department to recruit women in law enforcement and retain women in law enforcement and the fact that we most recently had appointed a female police chief who unfortunately left us and went back to Pennsylvania but I just want to say it was a really proud moment to be in that room and a great event so thank you Maryd for letting me speak

I hear November 11th through 17th open.

You speak.

All right, is there anything else?

We have boards and commissions.

Oh, we got boards and commissions now.

Oh, we got them packed up.

Harrisonburg Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

We have two positions.

and two reappointments.

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right.

Marianne Lipsards, reappointment.

So moved.

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.