Planning District Commission Meeting   6/4/2020

Go ahead and mute your microphones.

I'm going to read this verbatim, so that's part of the public record.

You should have it in your packet as well.

The TJPDC Board of Commissioners are meeting this evening, June 4th, at 7 p.m., with a quorum of voting members through electronic virtual communication on Zoom software applications.

The meeting agenda and virtual meeting address has been posted for one week at 401 Water Street East on the TJPDC website and provided to local media outlets, provided to the general public and commission members.

This meeting is open to public viewing and public comment will be allowed for electronic communication at such time as provided on the meeting agenda.

As a public body, the TJPDC is allowed to meet utilizing virtual meeting procedures and policies as outlined in item 4.0-01 of Virginia State budget HB 29.

Item 4.0-01 allows public bodies to meet through electronic communication meetings through emergency declaration, such as the current COVID-19 emergency.

The governor has declared a state of emergency.

The nature of this declared emergency makes it impractical or unsafe for the public body to assemble in a single location.

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss or transact the business, sensitorially required, or necessary to continue operations of the public body.

The TJPDC should make available a recording of the meeting on its website in accordance with the time frames established

and 2.2-3707 and 2.2-3707.1 of the Code of Virginia.

The nature of the emergency, the fact that the meeting was held by electronic communication means and the type of electronic communication means by which the meeting was held shall be stated in minutes of the public body.

We begin by having each commission member identify themselves and the TJPDC staff members.

We ask that you keep your communication devices on mute until prepared to speak.

In addition, you can raise a hand or use the chat feature to initiate discussion.

For those that are dialing in, to raise your hand is simply a star nine.

The public will be muted except for public comment periods.

Those wishing to speak are asked to use the raise hand function or chat function on the Zoom program.

Again, the business call name is a star nine to utilize the raise hand function to speak during appropriate times.

Staff will assist the chair, myself, in recognizing those who wish to speak for the identifying motions, seconds, and votes.

And the notice of electronic meeting due to COVID-19 state of emergency states, this meeting of the Thomas, Jeffs, and Plancher Commission is being held pursuant to items 4.0-01 of the approved state budget, HB 29,

that allows public bodies to hold electronic meetings in the current COVID-19 emergency, and that is impregnable or unsafe to assemble in a single location, and that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss or transact the business that is generally required or necessary to continue operation of the public body.

This means we have electronic video and audio means to resume online meetings as accessible to the public with closed captioning, and there will be opportunity for public comment during the portion of the agenda.

Notice provided to the public through notice of TJPDC's office, the media, website, housing, and agenda.

The meeting minutes were reflected in the nature of the emergency.

The meeting was held by electronic communication means and the type of electronic communication means by which the meeting was held.

A recording of the meeting we posted at www.tjpdc.org within 10 days of the meeting.

Now, if you're dialing in or if you're connected, if a summary is you're disconnected,

Please just dial back in or reconnect.

And Christine will be looking for you in the waiting room.

She will then allow you back into the meeting.

There have been a series of thunderstorms going through the area, so it's quite possible that as we pursue or go through the meeting, we will be disconnected.

If I am disconnected, Chip will pick up where I left off.

I'll just simply dial back in and then pick up once I'm reconnected.

Yes, we are.

Haven't heard of anybody.

And just to remind you, if you wish to speak on the Master Public, if you're doing a video, you simply scroll down to the bottom of your screen, select participants, find your name and raise your hand.

If you're dialing in, it's a star nine feature.

And she is correct.

We need to do that as part of the process.

How about if we just each chime in?

It's still small enough, I think.

Sounds good.

And we do have several staff members here tonight.

I'm Chip Boyles, the executive director.

Christine.

Go ahead.

Is that everybody, Chip?

That's it, Mr.

Commissioner Price, thank you for the reminder.

I appreciate that.

Do we have any comments provided by email, online, or through website?

No, sir.

Do we have any presentations?

Not tonight.

All right.

Moving on to the consent agenda.

Do we have any discussion on the minutes or any corrections to the minutes from the May 7 meeting?

And Mr.

Do we have an agreement to take the consent agenda as one item?

So moved.

All right.

All those in favor?

We should probably do a roll call vote.

Let me correct that tonight.

Last time we went through the process,

And it was a little confusing.

I think Mr. O'Brien suggested that.

So let's do a roll call vote tonight, if that's OK.

If I miss your name the first time through, forgive me.

All right.

Keith Smith?

Aye.

Tony O'Brien?

Mr. O'Brien?

All right.

Donna Price?

Aye.

OK, there you go.

Bob Babyok?

Aye.

And the chair votes aye.

Did I miss anybody?

All right, thank you.

Appreciate that.

We're going to item number four, resolutions.

The first item is the election of fiscal year 21 officers.

We'll be more than happy to, Mr.

Chair.

The commission acting as the nominating committee during the May commission meeting recommended the following slate of officers for fiscal year 21.

Those officers being the same four officers that are currently in office with Dale Herring as chair, Jesse Rutherford as vice chair, Keith Smith as treasurer, and Chip Boyles as secretary.

That was the recommendation from the I would say ad hoc nominating committee, but we can't accept any other nominations from the floor at this time if you would like.

If not, we would need a motion to close the nominations.

So moved.

A second from Lisa Green.

Okay.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We should do a roll call vote.

I'm happy to read through names for any roll call votes that we do if that helps.

Great, thanks Christine.

Absolutely.

Dylan Bishop.

Aye.

Keith Smith.

That was an aye.

Tony O'Brien?

Aye.

Donna Price?

Aye.

Lisa Green?

Bob Babyok?

And a second from Miss Wilkinson.

Dylan Bishop.

Aye.

Andrea Wilkinson.

Aye.

Tony O'Brien.

Aye.

Donna Price.

Aye.

Lisa Green.

Aye.

Aye.

And the motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate that.

Moving on to item 4B, the fiscal year 21 Rural Transportation Smart Scale funding support.

OK, thank you again.

Before you, I'll actually just talk about probably the next two items on your agenda, because they're very similar.

As you all know, it's smart scale transportation funding season.

And each of the local governments, including the PDC and the MPO,

all have four projects that they can submit to be considered for funding from VDOT as far as transportation projects.

Tonight, we have broken out in two separate categories resolutions.

The first being projects that are submitted by the local governments in our region.

This includes all of the jurisdictions except for the city of Charlottesville.

which is, I'm sorry, no, except for the city of Charlottesville, which is exclusively in the MPO.

The MPO just has to sign off for support and consistency of the projects that are submitted by the local governments.

In your packet is a list of those projects along with a summary and I really have to give my applause to our planning staff, Lucinda and Jessica and Nick Morrison and Sandy Shackelford for working with VDOT to put these summaries together.

I think they're pretty self-explanatory.

You will notice not all of those have cost associated with the projects yet.

and that's just because they have not been able to develop a cost estimate for the projects yet.

They're continuing their work and the applications do not have to be submitted until August 3rd, but since our commission doesn't meet in July, this is our last opportunity to offer the resolution of support.

Similarly, the PDC has four applications that we can submit.

We received recommendations from the local governments and also reviewed with the regional transportation plan to come up with the four projects that you see before you there.

And we submit those in a separate resolution, not only for support and consistency, but also with approval for us to submit those four projects.

I would be glad to try to talk about any one of the projects.

I don't have a lot of history or experience with any of the projects individually because most are generated out of the local governments.

This is just a question regarding any priority consideration.

The second actual under Louisa

List, the ROV 15 and 215 intersection changed.

No, not as far as the location.

Now, the local governments, it's my understanding you are able to prioritize the projects that you submit.

So of the three that Louisa County is submitting, it's my understanding you can prioritize those three of the ones that you find the most important.

As far as scoring,

Got to try.

Now, let me say it does give points, not the fact that it's between two jurisdictions or benefits two, but the fact that it is on a regional corridor like 15 and 250,

I believe that you stated that each county submits theirs, but that the MPO does for Charlottesville.

The cover memo with this says that the MPO does for Charlottesville and Albemarle.

I think you're correct.

We just didn't have any for Charlottesville in this

this round.

Yes.

Any more discussion?

All right.

Chip, I guess what we'll do is we'll do a motion for the 4B first and then for 4C.

OK. All right.

Do I have a motion for fiscal year 21 in rural transportation smart scale funding support?

So moved.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Can we do a roll call vote?

Yes, sir.

Dylan Bishop.

Aye.

Andrea Wilkinson.

Aye.

Tony O'Brien.

Aye.

Is that an aye?

Tony O'Brien.

Aye.

Thank you.

Donna Price.

Aye.

Lisa Greene.

Aye.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 4C.

Do we have any more discussion on fiscal year 21 rural transportation smart scale TJPDC requests?

Dale, one quick question about that.

You said that there's nothing in there for Charlottesville.

It does.

Got it.

My apologies, Donna.

Do we have any more discussion, any more questions?

Hearing none, can we have a motion to approve the fiscal year 21 rural transportation smart scale TJPDC request?

So moved.

Happy to.

Dylan Bishop, Keith Smith, Andrea Wilkinson, Tony O'Brien, Donna Price, Lisa Greene, Bob Babyok.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

For commissioners that have been on the commission for a while, you're very, you know, probably discussed out on this topic.

We've been working on it for over two years.

But for the new commissioners, we leased the building that we're in here at 401 Water Street.

Our lease expires the end of this coming August.

We had begun looking at other sites for a couple of reasons.

One being we would prefer to own a building if we could.

Would just make, I believe, a lot better sense in the long term, considering the way I kind of put it, we've been around for over 45 years.

Had we started buying at some point in the past, we would be in a building that we own now.

But we never have, so we began looking.

The other thing that we knew is the property owners here had the intention of doing a major renovation and that we would have to move out during that renovation anyway.

And we, two years ago, appointed a building committee, Keith Smith and Tony O'Brien, and we've had a few conversations with that.

We really have not found a viable site to relocate that's in the center of all of our jurisdictions and also provides a place where we can hold the types of meetings that we hold here.

So we haven't had success there.

The other thing is that the landlords now are not intending to do any major renovations for several years, and they've offered us a lease extension pretty much at the same rate that we have had in the past.

We've had a 3% a year inflationary clause for the past 10 years.

They're offering the same thing again, except for one year that would be 4% so that they could make a few improvements to the building for us.

I would ask your permission to discuss with the building committee, get their sign off on it prior to the end of August and for those terms,

But I would also like in that lease agreement that we could get out of the lease with at least a six month notice should we are able to find some property that would be in our advantage to purchase or develop.

which we have talked about with the commission before.

One of the things that we're eligible for as a regional government is to take advantage of the United States Department of Agriculture public facility loans.

And we can get 40 year loans right now at about one and a half to 2% interest.

if we were able to find something that we would want to purchase.

So it would be very financially advantageous to us.

Just the cost of property in the general area here is so high.

So I would ask your permission to do that.

I would work with the building committee and if the property owners agree, then we would sign that lease extension.

I can say

We have a very, very good rate on this building right now.

We're currently paying about $12.35 a square foot that includes all utilities.

And so even during the life of a five-year extension, it would only go up to $15 a square foot.

The going rate on the downtown mall is between $20 and $22 a square foot.

and it doesn't include utilities.

I've got a question.

Was there any decision as to priority of location?

In other words, would it be specified that

Yeah.

Prior to the building committee being appointed during the strategic planning session with the full commission, it was the priority of the commission at that time to stay within the general Charlottesville area, not necessarily the city of Charlottesville,

but somewhere close by because it was very easy for all of our jurisdictions to come to the center of our region here.

The other thing was the amenities, we host quite a number of larger meetings, and so it's easier for staff members to come to a central location.

not necessarily though in the city of Charlottesville.

And that was another kind of limiting factor for us is the USDA loans are not eligible within the city.

Do we have any more questions for Chip?

I so move as presented by Chip with the proviso

that we have a right to give six months notice if we can find a thing to buy.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Roll call on Dale Herring.

Aye, Dylan Bishop, Keith Smith, Andrea Wilkinson, Andrea Wilkinson.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Did you hear me?

No, I didn't.

But I got you now.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

The last item in the resolutions is 14.

The appointment of David Blount as TJPDC Freedom of Information Officer.

I can do just very high level and I'll let David chime in if you'd like.

This past General Assembly session, prior to that, as you all know, being supervisors, that public bodies are required to have a Freedom of Information Officer, a person that all Freedom of Information requests go to.

That person is charged with resolving by providing the information or giving reasons why a local government can't or shouldn't provide that public information.

During the past General Assembly, it was passed that regional governments should also in regional public bodies should be treated the same way as other local governments.

And we're now required to designate a Freedom of Information Officer.

As Deputy Director, David Blount would be a very good place for that to reside and he has been handling it for us anyway with his experience in both the legislative matters and things going on in Richmond.

I think he did a really good job of explaining.

I have a quick question.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I would just add the code as it exists now does stipulate that it be someone with knowledge in this area.

And just to add to that, I've heard organizations have defined as director because of their experience in a four year area as their four year agent or information officer.

Any more questions or discussion?

OK, hearing none, do I have a motion?

I so move.

Thank you.

Dylan Bishop?

Aye.

Andrea Wilkinson?

Aye.

Donna Price.

Aye.

Lisa Green.

Aye.

All right, so the resolution passes.

All right, that's all the resolutions.

We're entering a new business.

And we now have the legislative report.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, this would be mine.

You do have in your packet a one and a half page memo, just really a legislative update.

Typically, I would have done something in person for you in the spring, post General Assembly and after the final legislative summary has been completed.

Wow, what a different year we're in.

You can see the major issues that I'm talking about in the memo really center around what's going on at the state level with revenues and the budget just as you've been going through that at the local level as well.

The state officials are still saying that we're on track at the state level for a $1 billion shortfall in revenues when the books close on June 30th and then at least another

Williams.

I think it's probably going to be higher than that.

Right now, the legislative and administrative branches are working together on some scenario planning in anticipation of an August special session, which they would get back together.

There would be a revised revenue estimate, and there will be amendments to the two-year state budget that was enacted by the General Assembly back in March.

And I'm sure that you all will want to know what's going on with that.

There was a lot of new monies that were put into the budget that was approved, and about $2 billion worth of new spending initiatives were put on hold by the state back in April because they could see that there was going to be some pretty severe revenue impacts.

So the memo also notes, and I know we're going to talk about it in the next item as well,

about the CARES Act money that's coming to the localities and the school divisions.

I would say here and we'll talk about it a little bit more later in the next item as well.

As of this week, I started working really in my capacity with the Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions, working with the task force that the Virginia Municipal League has set up

in which they're really trying to provide some guidance on the guidance and the frequently asked questions that have come out concerning the CARES Act funding.

Really trying to interpret that guidance based on some questions that they've been getting from the localities, but some of the initial conversations that they were having

revolved around what could we be doing regionally.

So they reached out to VAPDC and asked us to be a part of that discussion.

So glad to be able to have a voice in that as well.

David, I have one off the walk question.

Yeah, you know, when the revenues are reported on by the state, it's usually the middle of the month for the preceding month.

So we would have had our last report in May, which would have reflected April sales.

Be honest with you, Bob, I can't remember what the uptick in the revenues actually was.

I do recall hearing, I want to say maybe sometime within four to six weeks into our current situation that the revenues were tracking

50 to 60% above what they had been for that same period the previous year.

That's what I expected, yeah.

And you said in the fall, there would be some news on the state education dollars.

Do you have any feel?

What I have seen coming out of the State Department of Education, they already have their amount and know the allocations.

But I believe that there's an August 1st deadline for the school divisions to actually apply for the money.

It has to be applied for, you know, unlike, I think, a much quicker process that the localities had to certify with regard to the CARES Act money that was designated for localities.

So at some point after August 1st, I don't know how long it would take the state to process everything and then make those allocations to the school divisions.

Any more questions for David?

OK, moving on to item 5B.

Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I believe this really kind of grew out of some discussion that we had at the very beneficial and informative special meeting of the mayor and chairs and CAOs a couple of weeks ago, which we had participation from our representatives from the health department.

As well as I think we had four high level administration folks from UVA on that call as well.

And I believe there was some discussion back then with regard to the CARES Act funding.

Coming to localities and the idea that maybe we could have some discussion at the commission meeting about it.

What I've included in your agenda packet, which those of you that are elected officials, I'm sure you've seen this.

It was the memo that came out about a month or so ago, a little less maybe from Arby Lane, who's the Secretary of Finance concerning the amount of funding for each locality.

County and City, that is, and uses of the $644 million in CARES Act funding that was going to be flowing to the localities.

And then there's some related attachments that provide guidance and are those frequently asked question responses that were provided by the U.S. Treasury along with the

the money that was sent to the state.

In fact, I think the version that you have there is dated maybe the end of April, but there were actually just a few amendments that were made to the federal guidance in the past week or so.

I think they came out the end of last week that addressed hazard pay.

There was also some provisions in there

I think on a couple of other issues as well.

I think I hear something different almost every other day as far as what to expect out of Congress with regard to any next round of stimulus.

The House had passed the HEROES Act.

But it's been made clear that the Senate is not going to act on that.

I've been hearing that it's going to be next month before Congress may consider another stimulus package that laid out some of their business for the remainder of this month.

You know, one day I hear like there's some sentiment in the Senate to include more assistance for state and local governments in the mix.

I know they've got their priorities as well.

and they also really want to see what the effect of the already approved stimulus relief, the various packages is.

That's kind of the latest on that in terms of the money that's flowing to the localities and what may be forthcoming.

I would encourage you, and I know a number of you all have already communicated with your federal legislators and urging them to either provide more flexibility in the current money that's been allocated.

I don't think that is going to happen in any forthcoming guidance from Treasury that we may see.

but certainly advocating for the next round of funding if there is to be one and allowing for flexibility for that to be used for I think paramount what we're hearing from local governments is to replace the loss of local revenues.

So Mr. Chairman, that's my report on that.

David, I wouldn't want to miss another opportunity to ask another question.

In the divvying up

Charles, for example, Louisa County, out of that stipend, we are given the requirement of funding both the city of Louisa and the city of Mineral, and I believe it was 200,000, but the question was,

If they spend the money in a wrong manner or a legal manner, does that liability fall upon the county?

My understanding is you are correct that it does fall upon the county that made the appropriation.

If it comes back that there's a post-expenditure audit, which there will be, that's going to happen.

And that there was determined that there was an ineligible use of the money, that that would be the liability of the county.

Mr. Babyok, I hate to offer this, but it might help if you turned your video off.

You're breaking up with your audio, and that might give you some more bandwidth.

David, I have a quick question for you.

This CARES Act funding can be used to help expand broadband access.

Thank you.

His video has stopped, and I can hear his voice going through at one point.

Thank you, Bob, for your question.

With the broadband expansion, or the fact that broadband is needed, especially now, is it a possibility that localities could join together to use the CARES Act funding to expand broadband coverage, as long as that's not an ongoing cost?

For example, a lot of the advantage grants that we're going through, provider would pay a certain amount of money, and of course the grant would cover the other portion.

If the localities wanted to join together and cover the other portion with providers we're going to cover, would this money be eligible for that?

You know, the way that, and I'll save you this language from the additional guidance in the frequently asked questions section that was sent out specifically related to broadband, and it particularly addresses, and this may be go, you're not exactly in the direction your question did, specifically addresses distance learning and telework, but you know,

Many places when you look at this guidance, it uses terms like, you know, to the extent that and is substantially related to and it all is, you know, kind of comes back to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

So this guidance that was just sent out last week that says the cost of projects that would not be expected to increase capacity

to a significant extent until the need for distance learning and telework have passed due to the public health emergency would not be necessary, would not be eligible uses.

So I'm not sure if what you're talking about fits into that or not.

I don't think they necessarily want you to be using it unless it's related somehow to the public health emergency.

Maybe an example of that would be, I think, Chip may have even mentioned it when we had that mayor and chairs meeting, that there's been some publicity around the state of a number of localities where they have put hotspots on school buses and taken them to different neighborhoods.

In my mind, that would be an eligible expense.

We had a meeting with the Department of Education.

Eric Fonman was part of that meeting.

I asked a question and he pretty much said, he referred us to our local attorneys for verification.

Yeah, there was the broadband coalition meeting a couple of weeks ago, and we got some of those answers as well.

And I don't even know, you know, and going back to this work with VECA, with VML, they've gotten over 50 different questions so far from localities about different aspects of the CARES funding and the eligibility questions primarily.

They've been told flat out by both the administration and the auditor of public accounts, they're not going to not going to opine on whether or not a particular use meets the eligibility criteria.

They're just not going to get into that.

USDA, I just read something earlier this week where they have stated and they're putting some of their CARES Act funding towards this is that if

If you were creating, as David said, a hotspot, whether it be within a building, it could be to get broadband to a rural building that would be providing telehealth, telemedicine, teleeducation, as well as some telework opportunities that

Thank you.

The other question I had, it mentions about virtual learning, but it also states in there that it cannot be an ongoing cause.

So for example, for professional development,

For those individuals or the hiring of an individual to facilitate this program, if I read it correctly, would not be an eligible cause because that's an ongoing cause.

I would tend to agree with you, but I would also offer up

Again, depending on when the money comes to the school divisions from that different pot of funding, from what I'm hearing, there's going to be a lot of flexibility in the use of that funding, recognizing the situation that we're in.

Now, we'll say that those funds from schools

I think they're harder to get the money due to the application process, but you may be correct, it's easier to apply the money.

But just like Bob was saying, the money for the localities has to go to the towns or cities within the localities.

The private schools in the area can also get the money to the public schools.

So I'm not sure if I knew that or not, but if you have private schools, for example, for example, Albemarle County, Charlottesville,

and they can request to power that money.

Any more questions for David?

David, I appreciate the presentation.

I'll also reiterate, I think you may have stated this, the mayors and chairs meeting or a special meeting for the COVID-19

and I told Chip this and I'll tell everybody else this as well.

I thought it was an excellent meeting.

It was very well attended and a lot of good information was relayed by a lot of stakeholders during that meeting of what localities were doing, the issues they were having.

So I just want to thank the TJPDC for putting that together for us and it was really beneficial.

I am.

We'll go over some of our financials and some of our current activities here at

The PDC, we still remain, while perhaps not as strong as we have been in the recent past, but we still remain very strong in our financial positions.

Our net quick assets continue to increase currently at almost $753,000.

which is just over seven months of our available operating expenses.

This is one of our somewhat liberal benchmarks that includes some of our accounts receivables and other items.

As far as our assets, as many of you know as well, we do take the balance between our Net Quick assets and then five months of operating expenses.

And that's what we keep within our capital reserve account, which is just short of $240,000 now.

The one area that we have is a concern area for us.

is that by the end of April, we were down to just over $100,000 of real cash.

This is our most conservative benchmark area where this is money that is immediately and readily available to use towards our operating expenses.

We try to have four months of operating expenses in our unrestricted cash.

We consider it a concern level when it is less than two, and we were down to one month.

But that basically means is we're doing a lot of work, but we had some outstanding invoices that we hadn't been paid for at the time.

Our accounts receivable at the time was $448,000 versus $139,000 for that same point in time last year.

What I am very happy to say is we've been receiving a lot of those accounts receivables and payments since April 30th.

and our cash on hand is rising.

It may take us a few months to get back up to the four or five month level where we like to be, but we're still very, very secure.

So we're not sweating it.

We've got still some fairly large invoices that we know will be paid.

We've completed the work for.

But it's something that we monitor closely and currently meeting with the executive and finance committee every month.

We go into that in great detail.

Again, helping to build on our financial conditions.

We had another positive month in the month of April with a net gain of about $4,000.

That gives us a net gain for the fiscal year of $26,000.

And though we had originally budgeted $40,000 for a net gain with some of the additional expenses that we've incurred,

as well as finishing up some projects.

As well, the bigger thing is we're rolling over any projects that we can that has available reserves in the fiscal year 21 because we're expecting a much tighter budget year next year.

We anticipate that our net gain may be closer to 10,000.

Maybe into the 20s, but I don't want to say that yet until we get our May numbers in.

But it's still positive, and we anticipate a positive net gain for the year.

Our profit and loss statements that are in your packet, we are roughly 83% of our year, fiscal year has been completed.

And as far as our operating expenses go, we have spent about 80% of what we had budgeted.

And our revenues, operating revenues are coming in at 80%.

So we're right where we wanna be finishing out this fiscal year.

Our balance sheet continues to grow.

We have total current assets of $1,062,000.

And our total equity has increased by $55,000 since the same time last year.

So we're still, even though our cash flow got a little bit low, we're still very financially stable and moving in a positive direction.

And we feel very comfortable finishing up the last two months of the year with May and June.

We currently have about $279,000 in contracts and grants available to us.

We'll be billing as much of that as we can.

and with an average annual operating expense of roughly $112, 113,000 finishing up the year, we have more than enough cash to finish out the year without any problems.

So financially, that's where we are.

I'll stop there just to see if I can answer any questions that's specific to the finances.

If not, I'll keep going.

Some of the activities that we're undertaking, we continue to work on a regional comprehensive economic development strategy.

We've had a couple of very good conversations with the Economic Development Administration.

And they have suggested that we look at a joint application with the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Council to our north.

And this would be two regional plans creating a super regional plan.

And it would be working with each of our local governments to develop an economic development strategy for each local government.

For this, there will be a roughly $250,000 grant and we anticipate to apply this coming month.

It would also include a good bit of community engagement within all of our jurisdictions.

We did complete a $700,000 grant application from

Department of Transportation, actually, our federal highways, to look at a mixed-use multimodal site at the current Amtrak station site.

It's woefully overcapacity, and we hope to know something about that award by election time in November.

We've also been meeting with the Department of Environmental Quality.

I think during our last meeting, I told you we would be having a meeting with the secretary and we were afraid that he would be announcing discontinuing that program.

We get about $50,000 a year there.

It was just the opposite.

He said that they are very, very happy with that program and they're going to do everything they can to continue that.

and continue to work with all of the PDCs to even make that program more robust.

A couple of other transit projects.

I think I've already mentioned to you that we've applied for planning grants there.

One is an Albemarle County specific project and the other is a regional project looking at a regional visioning plan for the entire

Region of the PDC.

Both Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville committed the match funds towards that effort.

We've also been working, Lucinda and the transportation planners completed the unified work program for the MPO.

And some of the major projects that we'll be looking at there for next fiscal year is a study to look at improvements for Route 29 North

from Airport Road all the way up to Route 607 in Greene County.

We've also most recently been working with Nelson County for a Go Virginia regional grant that would provide both legal and marketing and business practice and policy assistance to the food and beverage industry, specifically the adult beverage industry,

in Nelson County.

It would be shared across the region, but Nelson is taking the lead on this, and the PDC would act as the grant manager and fiscal agents for this project.

It's only probably about 40 or $50,000, but something that's helping to restart the food and beverage industry along that corridor.

Finally, we're also working to review proposals for our IT communication services.

This is the company that does our website, newsletters.

It's a young man, Ryan Pace, who used to work for us.

He has the current contract.

and we received proposals in from four different companies including Ryan's and we're in the process of reviewing those for an award for a five-year contract.

We continue to look at cloud-based services.

We've mentioned it to the commission several times, but it's becoming more and more important these days.

And so we're looking for one just comprehensive service from a firm that could handle all of our IT work.

We're not sure where that's going to head, but we continue to look that direction.

June and July smart scale.

That will be the name of the game for most of us is working towards that August 3rd deadline.

I'm just checking up here.

I see a couple of comments made, but can never get my bar to stay down.

But that is pretty much

What we're up to in your packet is also a very detailed report.

I'm not going to go through that.

But if you have any questions from it as well, just please let us know.

And if I can't answer them, I'll get you to one of the staff members who can.

Thanks, Chip.

Thank you.

That's it, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, sir.

Any questions for Chip?

Everybody's quiet tonight.

All right, sir.

I believe the next time is yours as well.

Yes.

I'm a real, real high level.

This is the first draft, but wanted you to take a look at it since we won't be meeting in July.

And honestly, it's our hope as staff.

We're going to just keep pushing this forward.

I would love to hear your feedback.

But this is modeling a partnership on two very successful programs we have with the transit partnership and the housing partnership.

This is a little bit less formal.

We think it is a lot more convening and facilitating and gathering information.

Bringing people together without having to have a chair, a vice chair, formal meeting guidelines.

But working to build those bridges between all of the different players of getting broadband expanded within our region.

to include advocacy and legislative oversight or legislative review that David is currently doing already.

So I just ask that you take a look at this.

Please offer suggestions if there's one place in particular is making sure that while we're proposing that this partnership be open to the public,

We want to make sure we invite all the right people, the schools, the planning commissions, the business community, the food and beverage community.

We want to make sure we have all the right players at the table that are participating in this.

Do we have any questions or comments tonight from anybody on the regional broadband partnership update?

If not, if you see any questions going forward, please make sure you email myself or Chip, and we'll make sure to answer this back to you.

Yes, we're going to move forward, but we hope to at your August meeting have a framework that we would ask for your adoption on.

We may have already started pulling some small groups together.

Did you need any other input from the commissioners as of right now?

No, sir.

OK. All right.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

It's in your packet.

I've already hit the higher level projects that we're working on.

But as you look through there, if you see something that you have specific questions about, please get in touch with me.

Do we have any questions for Chip on a monthly staff activity report?

Any items therein?

OK, we're on to other business at a roundtable discussion.

All right, we will start with Nelson County.

I believe we have Dylan Bishop.

Dylan, are you still on?

There she is.

Dylan Bishop, can you hear us?

I can.

Sorry, I got booted off and now I think I'm back up.

Right on.

Thanks.

Sorry about that.

All right, Dylan, we were starting our round table and starting with you, but I'm going to give you a couple of minutes since you just rejoined the meeting and we'll move on to, and Keith Smith already left.

So I'll start with Andrea Wilkinson and Greene.

I passed it on to Dale.

All right.

Moving on down.

Not a lot to report.

Things are, we're still operating under, you know, under

meetings that are, I don't want to say closed, but not open to the public.

We're using Zoom.

Not getting a lot of feedback from the public on that.

We did get our allocation.

Recent discussion has been how we are going to use our allocation for COVID relief funds.

Like many counties, we're approaching a portion of those funds to be used for business grants.

We're also going to be pretty aggressive about promoting advertising and we're going to put placards and signs out on the roads promoting the use of masks which I think is a good thing.

We're cautiously optimistic that our budget's not totally screwed up but we're monitoring the changes that are happening from there and certainly we'd love to hear how other counties are considering using their allocations from the state as well too.

and I love the idea of you know that I think Mr.

Herring proposed earlier of how we can maybe combine efforts there because I suspect that a lot of counties are you know facing the same dilemma which is what what is it that we can use it for what is it that we can't use it for and what are some creative ways that we could use it and maybe haven't been thought of before so you know like that kind of that could you do a

a bus that has an access point on it as an example.

So some creative ideas I think could still happen.

We know that we're gonna approach this every week in terms of what we can do from that standpoint.

Other than that, I can't remember if I mentioned the last meeting, but the water tower is up, it is painted and it looks great.

And we're actually waiting for the process to finish.

Progress is being made on looking at some potential alternatives for the joint project between Louisa and the JRWA board.

So it's good to see that that's still moving in the direction, although it's going to take some time to resolve.

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you.

Tony, that is, if you can call a water tower beautiful, it's a beautiful water tower and the artwork on the side is very welcoming, I think.

I applaud what you all have done with something that normally does not gain a lot of positive impressions.

In Albemarle County, like everyone around us, I know we're moving back towards a gradual

Reopening yet anticipating it will not be before the 6th of July before our county office building will be back to a more open to the public.

And that is not to say it will be fully open to the public.

Our community development office is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 830 to 4 or 4.30.

And that is one of the few places that is actually open for the public to come in, but basically you can come in and drop papers off that have been held for 36 hours before anyone works on it so it's easier just to do things online.

To the best of our ability, we've been

and continuing relatively normal operations, which I think has been beneficial.

Last night at our board of supervisors meeting was the first time we reopened matters from the public on items not on the agenda, but it was limited to items that the board either has recently or I'm sorry, previously or currently has coming before it in order to have some degree of control from regarding individuals who are not only not in the county, but not even in the region.

because we've seen where some public meetings have been taken by trolls and we're trying to be careful not to expose residents.

I have a lot of interest last night but again it was the first time we had done that.

I apologize, I'm not prepared to discuss exactly how the CARES funding will be utilized in the county.

I can say that our Albemarle County broadband authority, ABBA, has been working very diligently and has been very successful in the past with the body grants.

Working on that, we're seeking to expand our coverage because as with many rural areas, there are many, many areas within Albemarle County where individuals and businesses do not have that accessibility.

We've used hotspots on school buses and things like that.

to try and close the gap but recognize that we really need something nationwide comparable to the 1936 Rural Electric Act to really ensure that we can get broadband throughout the country.

Sort of like, you know, the

electrical cooperative sort of situation to make sure we can get that coverage.

Other than that, we have been, again, like everyone else, cutting our budget, watching our pennies and nickels and dimes.

So far, things seem to be holding up pretty well for us.

But when I see the legislative report and the reduction in state funds, we all know that we are very much dependent on some additional federal funding coming through.

Good evening, thank you.

I have just some brief

updates since the Planning Commission hasn't met since all of this took place.

But we will have our first meeting coming this coming Tuesday, so June the 9th.

So we're going to test out the Zoom Planning Commission meeting and see how that works.

We've got one public hearing, so we won't be diving in too deep with more than one for this for this first one.

We are still working on our comprehensive plan.

We have a tagline called Seville Plans Together.

You can find out more information about that on the Charlottesville website under the Neighborhood Development Services page.

And there's been some surveys that people are being asked to take.

And some recent information was just

Williams.

And then we released over the housing issues and not surprisingly, the top five was in the survey results was racial equity, rental affordability, access to opportunity, housing supply and housing stability.

And

You can get more information on that website, the SeaWorld website, Seaville plans together.

There's also an ongoing survey right now that's open through June 10th.

One of the things they're doing right now to get people to take the surveys is to enter into a raffle for a gift card.

So we're hoping to get as much, as many people to answer the survey as possible.

So that's all I have for now.

I know that the council has been working on the budget like everyone else and maybe they will be back next month or in August and things will maybe calm down a little bit.

As usually we had some colorful things.

We've been able to conduct live meetings throughout maintaining the six feet away and limiting to less than 10 people in the room at each of our board of supervisor meetings.

Last Monday was our first meeting where we opened it up to the public.

again, limiting it to 10 using alternate row seating.

And we plan soon to open it up to 40 able to attend as long as they pre-register and identify themselves by any public hearing agenda item.

We can rotate groups out and maximize the availability for people on the respective issues.

All during these meetings, of course, to

help compensate for the lack, we do live stream it, but obviously that's only for people that have internet capability.

So we do have a live telephone bank as well that supports people calling in.

Again, they can pre-register the call or they can make the call anytime during the meeting and then we would answer their call at the appropriate time.

I'd like to leave the answers to this at the end because I don't want to interrupt anybody else's presentation, but we had kind of a bombshell presented at our last board meeting by one of our supervisors who wanted to have a resolution against racism.

And because he had already sent it out on Facebook, we had a number of residents coming to the meeting saying, well, yeah, that's all good, and we agree with it, but what are you going to do about it?

In other words, how are you going to put any teeth into it other than just these fine words?

So we're scrambling now as to what to do, whether it be a public meeting of selecting leaders of prominence within our community,

So that's to be discussed, but I didn't know if anybody else was subject to this kind of a deal.

My last comment is I'm a little bit disappointed in the census reporting.

This is to me really extremely important since we only do it once every 10 years and so much funding is riding on it.

O'Brien.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the reason why I think that's so despicable is because there's so many different ways of doing it than we didn't have 10 years ago.

And I just thought it would be much higher.

We ended 10 years ago with almost 80% total reporting.

And I just thought with the ease and the new methods, it would have been a lot higher.

Bob, if I could answer just one thing because we found out after that report we talked with some census official and she noted that she did some research

and Nelson and Louisa have some of the lowest response rates in our region.

And she attributed it to the high number of second homes that you have in those two counties.

And that the census doesn't take into account when it shows the percentage of responses

It includes the second homes as within that total.

So it drives your non-response rate up.

All right, next we'll go back up.

So we've just basically been trying to navigate through the ever-changing guidance to help assist the public with stuff like event permits, their business and property development.

We haven't had planning commission yet either.

We are likely going to have an in-person meeting in July.

That's the goal our Board of Supervisors has been meeting in person, has been able to adhere to all the guidelines and requirements.

So it looks like that

That's going to be our goal.

We've got some public hearings on hold that we need to get through.

And then, as far as I know, the Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel is still due to open, I believe, in July, possibly August.

But last I heard that was still on track to open up.

So that'll be good to have for people to enjoy outside.

Thank you.

And then last I have Mr.

Yes, thank you.

In Greene, our planning commission and schools and board of supervisors and all groups have been meeting electronically.

This Tuesday, the school board will be meeting in public or face to face due to the phase two openings.

They'll take place tomorrow.

So hopefully that will go well.

One of the concerns we have as far as the schools when they first opened up, we're not sure

Announcements to be made tomorrow.

I think the superintendents may have a heads up.

I'm sure most localities are concerned how the school is going to open up if there's going to be space requirements.

What that means as far as budgetary impacts to localities, you know, students go Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

We have to have half days for your students with double your bus routes.

We have to do safe distances on each bus.

What kind of calls would that be?

What do you need as far as the plexiglass in the buildings?

Do you need to do the temperature checks when they're walking in to the school environments, as well as the average daily membership where students not show up to school?

Will they decide to be homeschooled?

And how is that going to impact the schools, which will have a dramatic impact on the localities?

So that's a question we're looking at.

We did have a conversation, Mr. Fredl, our plan director, and myself with a moderate group from working with UVA on telemedicine.

We're hopeful we can get some fights set up in Greene to help with the COVID-19 response, especially for long-term care facilities that can do telemedicine and maybe using the CARES Act money for that.

That's a discussion we haven't had yet.

The CARES Act money is something we're looking at,

And it's kind of strange.

It seems like that most people I've talked to are unaware of how to spend that money.

Definitely grateful that we have the money.

But everybody is kind of at a loss exactly of how to apply it correctly because no one wants to be in a situation where they'll have to pay it back for a budget that's already suffering.

So like Mr. O'Brien said, we're very curious real localities of doing.

And I think we all work together

We might be able to do something that's beneficial to the region.

And that's pretty much what we have right now for Green.

Like I said, we are passing our budget, believe it or not, this coming Tuesday night.

We delayed that process trying to get a better feel for what the financials were.

Honestly, I don't think we have any better idea today than we did two or three months ago.

It's our last time to pass it, so we're passing it one way or the other, or it may not pass, but it's being voted on Tuesday.

All right, thank you.

And with that said, do we have any other, first of all, Christine, I appreciate you doing that.

Do we have any other comments or questions or suggestions from any commissioner before we move on?

If not, I'd like to remind everybody our next meeting is August the 6th.

We will not be meeting in July.

I'd like to thank everybody for your patience during the past two virtual meetings.

In August, we are not quite sure if it's going to be virtual or not.

I'm sure as the time gets closer, Chip will let everybody know.

I would suggest at that point, which is two months away, hopefully you will be driving back to Charlottesville.

Maybe not, but we'll see.

It could be a combination of both.

I think that's it for me.

Thank you, Mr.

All right, everybody.

I appreciate it.

Stay healthy.

Stay safe.

And I've got to say, this is probably the first TJPDC meet we've ended early.

I'm not sure if it was the caffeine I had or if I was just quiet tonight.

I'll take it.

Thank you, guys.

Can we have a motion?

Wait, who moved?

Sorry about that.

Aye.

Aye.

I think I got it.

Lisa made a motion.

I put Wilkinson for second.

I believe.

Yeah, that was her third, whatever it was.

And then all approved by Verbal Eye.

Stay healthy.

Take care.