Special Board Meeting   4/7/2021

Thank you and good afternoon everybody.

Good to see you all virtually again.

Thank you for your attendance here today at our special session of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

Just a reminder, as usual, mute your devices when you're not speaking to reduce any interference.

This meeting is being recorded for the public and it will be available on the DRPT YouTube channel

and the link will be posted to the DRPT website after that.

So I have a statement to read as per usual.

On November 19th, Governor Ralph Northam signed House Bill 5005, Virginia's revised biennial budget, which includes new language for meeting electronically.

In light of the continuing state of emergency declared by Governor Northam, we are conducting this meeting in a remote setting, keeping safety top of mind and mitigate the

mitigating the impacts and spread of COVID-19.

Will the board members present please respond aye when your name is called?

Ms. Bilova?

Present.

Hello, Mr. Cardwell?

Hello.

Mr. Facet?

Aye.

Hello.

Aye.

Here.

Hello.

Aye.

Madam Chair, that concludes the roll.

It's not too late, Jennifer.

Sorry to bother you, but Victor Cardwell is here.

I'm going to mention that to Joy just so we get it right.

Well, give WIC credit for my hello again.

Okay.

Sounds good.

All right.

I move that the board convene in a closed session pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia for the purpose of discussions related to the employment of a prospective candidate and salary.

pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A6 and 29 for the purpose of discussing award of a public contract and investment of public funds for banking services where discussion and open session would adversely affect the financial interest and bargaining position and negotiation strategy if discussions were public.

at this time and pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A8 for the purpose of consulting with legal counsel regarding provisions in the agreement requiring legal advice.

Additionally, I move that staff and attorneys attend the closed session because their presence is deemed necessary.

and will aid the board in its consideration of this matter.

Great.

Second?

Second.

Okay.

Mr. Caldwell?

Aye.

Mr. Fisette?

Aye.

Mr. Moorman?

Aye.

Mr. Nichols?

Aye.

Ms. Zimmerman?

I see Maria.

Is that an aye?

Okay, great.

The ayes have it.

Great.

We're going to go into closed session now, and you should have just received a Zoom link separately.

And as Haley said before, when you close out of this call, make sure you don't hit end meeting for all, just for yourself.

If you look at your screen at the top right, you should have that instrument panel with everything.

You can X out of it.

And once you X out of it, it will just say like, end the webinar, end webinar for everybody or one other option.

So just end it for yourself or exit.

Just for myself.

Jay are you trying to speak?

You're still muted.

Yeah, I think I can actually dismiss you.

So it's just like, it looks just like an X that you would click out of at the top.

No, I see red, yellow, green.

I see 10 these.

Actually, now that you are in, okay, yep, I can dismiss you.

So Haley, are we good?

You've switched to, you have control of the screen.

Yep.

So it's paused right now.

It should probably be shorter than that, hopefully.

I think I need to do like a tutorial on closing out.

I didn't.

Yeah, I mean, you were clear.

Thank you.

Welcome back to the open.

Resumption of our open session.

We're now going to take a roll call vote, and I ask that each member indicate their agreement with the following statement.

To the best of my knowledge, during the closed meeting, the only matters heard, discussed, or continues considered were those matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, and only those public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened.

As I call the roll, those in favor say aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Sharon, I think you're still on mute.

She said aye.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr. Caldwell?

Aye.

Mr. Hall?

Mr. Moorman?

Ms. Moses-Ned?

Aye.

Ms. Zimmerman?

Aye.

The ayes have it.

Great.

Thank you.

So now I would like to entertain a motion.

Oh, she's on.

Let's see.

Haley, can you please unmute her?

All right, let's see if she, it's so odd.

I have a motion to read that states, whereas section 33.2-2980 of the Code of Virginia says the authority shall employ an executive director

who shall direct the day-to-day operations of the authority.

Whereas the Executive Director Search Committee interviewed and recommends DJ Stadler for employment and in conjunction with the Office of Attorney General drafted a proposed employment agreement and now therefore be it resolved that the Executive Director Search Committee hereby recommends that the Board hire DJ Stadler

under the terms of the proposed employment agreement.

So moved.

So that is our recommendation for employment.

Thank you.

As I call the roll, those in favor say aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Ms. Bilova?

Aye.

Mr. Caldwell.

Aye.

Mr. Fisette.

Aye.

Ms. Moses-Ned.

Aye.

Mr. Nichols.

Mr. Saadid.

Aye.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Well, everybody, thank you very much.

This is a very exciting day.

I know I'm personally very excited to get our executive director hired and get moving with the mobilization of the organization.

So again, I appreciate your help.

I will stay in touch regarding any formal announcements that will be made in the near future and I'll make sure that

You'll have information as well in case you get any questions about that.

All right.

Well, with that, thank you very much.

I hope you all have a good afternoon and we'll see you on April 26.

Okay.