Central Virginia
City of Charlottesville
City Council Meeting 11/1/2021
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City Council Meeting
11/1/2021
Attachments
AGENDA_20211101Nov01_rev.pdf
PACKET_20211101Nov01_rev.pdf
MINS_20211101Nov01-APPROVED.pdf
CALL TO ORDER
▶︎
3:12
MOMENT OF SILENCE
▶︎
3:19
ROLL CALL
▶︎
3:49
AGENDA APPROVAL
▶︎
4:18
ANNOUNCEMENTS (and Update from Blue Ridge Health Department)
▶︎
4:58
RECOGNITIONS/PROCLAMATIONS
▶︎
29:23
CONSENT AGENDA*
▶︎
40:59
CITY MANAGER RESPONSE TO COMMUNITY MATTERS and to COUNCILORS
▶︎
50:31
COMMUNITY MATTERS
▶︎
52:58
Closing, vacating and discontinuing a portion (0.038 acre) of the public street right-of-way for Seminole Court (1st of 2 readings)
▶︎
2:06:48
ORD_Seminole Court ROW Vacation Agenda Memo FINAL.pdf
Food Equity Initiative annual report and resolution of support (1 reading)
▶︎
2:17:32
RES_Food Equity Initiative Memo Packet combined 11.1.2021 (1).pdf
FEI FY23 Goals_for inclusion in the memo.pdf
GENERAL BUSINESS
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3:34:19
OTHER BUSINESS
▶︎
3:34:29
MATTERS BY THE PUBLIC
▶︎
3:35:07
CALL TO ORDER
SPEAKER_25
00:03:12
Good evening, everyone.
00:03:13
Thank you all for joining us.
00:03:15
I'll call this meeting to order.
MOMENT OF SILENCE
SPEAKER_25
00:03:19
We'll have a brief moment of silence.
00:03:48
Okay, thank you.
00:03:49
Ms.
ROLL CALL
SPEAKER_25
00:03:49
Thomas, would you do roll call, please?
SPEAKER_19
00:03:53
Mayor Walker?
00:03:54
Present.
00:03:55
Vice Mayor McGill?
00:03:58
Here.
00:03:59
Councillor Hill?
00:04:00
Here.
00:04:01
Councillor Payne?
00:04:02
Here.
00:04:04
Councillor Snook?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:04:05
Here.
SPEAKER_25
00:04:05
All right.
00:04:09
Ms.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:04:09
Thomas, would you do roll call, please?
00:04:14
Oh, you just, I'm so sorry.
00:04:17
I am present.
AGENDA APPROVAL
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:04:18
Is there approve the agenda?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:04:21
I move approval of the agenda.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:04:24
Second.
00:04:26
Ms.
00:04:26
Thomas.
SPEAKER_19
00:04:29
Mayor Walker.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:04:30
Yes.
SPEAKER_19
00:04:31
Vice Mayor McGill.
00:04:33
Yes.
00:04:35
Councillor Hill.
00:04:37
Yes.
00:04:38
Councillor Payne.
Bill Emory
00:04:39
Yes.
SPEAKER_19
00:04:41
Councillor Snook.
Bill Emory
00:04:42
Yes.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:04:44
Okay.
00:04:44
Thank you.
00:04:45
And just to make sure that the public is aware, today we are joined by our two deputy city managers, Ms.
00:04:53
Marshall and Mr. Sanders.
00:04:55
Just wanted to highlight that.
ANNOUNCEMENTS (and Update from Blue Ridge Health Department)
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:04:58
Next up, we have any announcements from counselors?
00:05:02
Any announcements?
SPEAKER_25
00:05:06
All right.
00:05:07
Dr. Bonds.
SPEAKER_09
00:05:11
Good evening.
SPEAKER_20
00:05:12
Good evening.
SPEAKER_09
00:05:14
So let me share my screen if that's possible.
SPEAKER_08
00:05:31
And hopefully you are seeing the presentation view rather than the other view.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:05:37
We're not seeing anything yet.
SPEAKER_08
00:05:44
So sorry, Cher.
00:05:46
Now we are off.
00:05:51
Now you should be seeing the slideshow.
00:05:56
Yes, we can.
00:05:57
All right.
00:05:58
Thank you.
00:05:59
So I have some good news tonight with regards to case numbers.
00:06:04
As you can see, the number of new cases reported today was just 12.
00:06:07
That's actually the lowest it's been in quite some time.
00:06:10
And if you look at the trend over the past
00:06:15
I don't know a couple of weeks here a month or so it's really been in the downward trajectory indicating that we may be past the worst with regards to the Delta virus so good news overall and thanks to everybody who both got vaccinated and did all of the other mitigation measures that we recommend
00:06:38
We are still seeing a predominance of the Delta variants.
00:06:41
That's that dark blue line that you see for the last month, almost two months now.
00:06:47
A smattering of other cases occasionally, but really in our region, this is for the Northwest region, it's Delta variant.
00:06:57
And that's the same across the state for Virginia.
00:07:02
With regards to vaccination in Charlottesville, these are the numbers.
00:07:06
There are at least 30,000 people that have at least one dose.
00:07:13
That's about 500 more than the last time I reported.
00:07:17
If you look at percentages, that's about 65% of the population in the city of Charlottesville.
00:07:23
For adults, that's 72%.
00:07:26
And up until the end of this week, children, which comprised a big portion of that,
00:07:32
that were unable to be vaccinated.
00:07:35
With regards to individuals who are fully vaccinated, that's just under 28,000.
00:07:40
Again, an increase of about 800 or so since the last time I spoke.
00:07:48
That equals 59% of the Charlottesville population that's fully vaccinated.
00:07:53
And if you just look at adults, 66%.
00:07:58
I'm going to talk in just a minute about a few new things since the last time I was there.
00:08:02
Boosters now are available for anyone who has completed their first round with appropriate timeframes and some limitations on the mRNA.
00:08:14
Talks about mix and matching and then vaccines for 5 to 11 year olds.
00:08:20
First, I want to talk about vaccination by race and ethnicity.
00:08:23
So, Mayor Walker, the last time I spoke, you asked if there were differences by race with regard to vaccination rates in the various census tracts.
00:08:35
So, this is actually data from mid-October.
00:08:38
We had to run it separately.
00:08:39
There's not really a good place to find this.
00:08:42
It breaks out census track data for the city of Charlottesville by black and white.
00:08:49
And so the first percentage that you see in each of those census tracks is the percentage of individuals who self-declared black compared to the second number, which is the percentage of individuals vaccinated who self-declared white.
00:09:07
and you can see that there are some census tracts in which we are lagging up here at the top you'll see that it's 63 percent in blacks and 79 percent in whites but there are others such as the ones that cluster around the UVA area where at least according to our records there does appear to be more of a higher percentage of blacks
00:09:35
than whites who are vaccinated.
00:09:38
I do want to call out right in the center is the 147%.
00:09:44
If you look at the total percentage of the population that reports being Black,
00:09:50
in that census track, it's only about 2%.
00:09:54
And so if we have a lot of movement in and out of a particular census area, that can skew the data with regard to that.
00:10:05
So really small numbers, which I suspect is why we're seeing over 100%.
00:10:11
Probably more people reported that as their address who were Black and got vaccinated than was in the last census.
00:10:21
Overall, if you look for the Charlottesville area, you can see that 57% of blacks have been vaccinated, whites 68%.
00:10:35
And again, you see that over 100% in Native American.
00:10:38
And that's simply more individuals self-reporting their race or ethnicity as Native American as compared to what's in the census for Charlottesville.
00:10:54
So I said there would be some new things tonight.
00:10:56
So boosters.
00:10:57
We're now doing boosters and third doses for anybody who meets particular criteria who have completed their vaccine series.
00:11:09
So let's talk about the mRNAs first.
00:11:12
So if you got Pfizer or Moderna and it has been at least six months,
00:11:17
and you meet or are in one of the four groups that you see on the screen, that is you're over the age of 65, that you're over the age of 18 and you live in some sort of long-term congregate care setting.
00:11:32
If you're over the age of 18 and have an underlying medical condition, and those might be things like diabetes, high blood pressure, other types of heart disease, chronic lung disease, something that would put you at high risk of becoming hospitalized if you develop COVID
00:11:49
or if you're over the age of 18 and you work or live in a high risk setting.
00:11:54
So for example, if you're a healthcare worker who is often exposed to individuals who might have COVID-19, you probably want to consider getting a booster dose.
00:12:07
If you got J&J as your first one, it's a little different.
00:12:12
Anybody who got J&J as their vaccine for COVID is eligible as long as you're over the age of 18.
00:12:18
And the time is different.
00:12:21
It's two months for J&J as opposed to six months.
00:12:25
So six months and some limitations if you got the MRNA, Pfizer or Moderna.
00:12:31
If you got J&J, two months and everybody who got J&J is eligible.
00:12:39
The other thing that has changed since the last time that I came to spoke is that you do not have to stick with your primary vaccine series.
00:12:47
So you can do what is called mix and matching.
00:12:50
So if you got J&J, for example, as your vaccine initially, you can opt to get an mRNA as your booster dose.
00:13:01
Similarly, if you got Pfizer or Moderna as your first vaccine series, you could opt to get J&J as your booster dose as long as you meet the other qualifications.
00:13:12
So really the best person to talk to about this would be your physician to determine if you meet one of those requirements for the mRNA booster.
00:13:23
And there are some reasons to think that mixing and matching may be beneficial.
00:13:30
You get higher antibody levels with the mRNA boosters, but there's some evidence that if you get J&J, it activates more of a different part of your immune system called T cells.
00:13:42
so certainly something to think about as you're scheduling you can get those booster doses at our community vaccination center that's in Seminole Square where big where UVA was vaccinating out of or the old big lot store J. Crew is actually just closed this last weekend Moby on the mall is every Monday on the downtown mall from 12 to 3
00:14:10
We're also at Carter Bank at Fifth Street Extended, Wednesdays from 5 to 7.
00:14:14
And many pharmacies are providing booster doses.
00:14:19
And just a reminder that if you're immunocompromised, you should consider getting a third dose, which is not a booster dose, but a third dose after your series.
00:14:33
So let's talk a minute about 5 to 11 year olds.
00:14:37
We will have a somewhat limited supply initially for vaccines for 5 to 11 year olds.
00:14:42
It is a different dose.
00:14:43
This is going to be Pfizer.
00:14:46
It's going to be one third the amount that anyone 12 and over gets.
00:14:51
And as I said, there's a limited amount that's coming into our community.
00:14:55
So we have tried to come up with an equitable way to prioritize children who are vulnerable.
00:15:03
I do want to let people know that schools, in fact, minimize risk.
00:15:08
We know that really only 3% of our school contacts eventually convert to positive.
00:15:15
So most of the children that we see that are positive actually have been exposed either at home, they have a parent or a relative who works in a high-risk situation,
00:15:25
or they're doing some after school activity and got exposed through that mechanism.
00:15:32
We do know that certainly all children are vulnerable to get COVID.
00:15:36
We've seen that this fall, but we know that those who have underlying medical conditions or other developmental conditions, kids who live in homes with elders or in multifamily households or live with an adult who's in a public-facing job are potentially at higher risk of either contracting COVID or becoming quite ill and perhaps requiring hospitalization.
00:16:01
So with our initial limited supply, we're trying to reach as many of the most vulnerable children as we can, partnering with our pediatricians and with our school districts to hold both school-based clinics and
00:16:17
appointments with pediatricians.
00:16:19
There will be a small amount of vaccine that is available at our community vaccination center.
00:16:25
It is by appointment only and those appointments should be out and available on vaccines.gov by Friday of this week.
00:16:33
We
00:16:37
So October 26, the FDA, a few days before that, the advisory committee, the VRBAC recommended approval for EUA and the FDA has approved that.
00:16:52
So we know that the FDA is ready to go.
00:16:54
The CDC advisory committee will meet tomorrow and they will make a decision about whether to
00:17:04
also recommend it to go forward.
00:17:07
Once that happens, the CDC will approve it just like they
00:17:13
We do know what our first allotment will be and I'll just share that in just a minute and we do know that it is limited not just for us but across the state.
00:17:22
We expect to have vaccination starting on November 9th and then moving forward.
00:17:29
We will have vaccination sites as I said, primarily at schools and pediatric offices but there will be some at our community vaccination site.
00:17:40
So here is our allocation for the first three weeks.
00:17:45
We will receive as the health district 6,300 doses, and that's for our entire health district.
00:17:53
With that, we have to allocate some to our community vaccination center, some to our pediatric and family practice, and then the rest will be in our neighborhood clinics and school drive-thru clinics.
00:18:08
Additionally, UVA is receiving about the same amount, 6,600 doses, independent of our allocation and they will continue to do the homebound vaccination that has been done in partnership with Charlottesville Fire Department.
00:18:25
They will distribute to their pediatric offices and offer other vaccination.
00:18:33
We do know there's a separate allocation through a federal allocation to pharmacies in the area, but not all of our pharmacies will have doses.
00:18:43
When I last looked, it was a couple of CVSs and a couple of Kroker's and one of the Walmarts in our area.
00:18:51
So really the best way to figure out where there are doses for your children is first talk to your pediatrician.
00:19:00
I know many of the pediatricians have already been taking lists and beginning to schedule appointments based on what they expect to receive from us next week.
00:19:09
and then go to vaccines.gov the community vaccination center will have some and they will have appointments and you can make appointments out for several weeks you can also look at the pharmacies in the area to try and find a pharmacy the school-based clinics and the neighborhood clinics will all be closed clinics that is we are trying to serve the residents in those communities or the kids that attend those schools
00:19:39
Not every school will have a school-based clinic.
00:19:42
We've worked with the superintendents of the school districts to help identify schools where they thought the most vulnerable children would be at.
00:19:54
And they're responsible for helping to identify and to get those kids registered.
00:19:59
And those will start week after next.
00:20:07
There's a QR code here on the screen.
00:20:10
I'll send these slides out.
00:20:12
If you haven't completed the survey and you're a parent of a 5 to 11-year-old, we would ask that you do that by November 4th.
00:20:18
That does not guarantee you a vaccine, but it does help us plan and figure out where to distribute the vaccine to.
00:20:27
It's just asking where you'd like to get your kid vaccinated.
00:20:30
If you want to do it at the pediatrician office, if you'd rather do a clinic through the school,
00:20:36
if you want to go to the community vaccination site.
00:20:39
So November 4th, QR code, please fill it out if you're a parent.
00:20:45
Pediatric will be by appointment only, and the appointments should be open on Vase Plus, which you can access through vaccines.gov, opening on November 8th.
00:20:56
We do require, if you're planning to go to one of the community vaccination sites, that a consenting adult come so that we can do consent there as well.
00:21:08
And as I said, the community vaccination site in Seminole Square, next to Marshalls, the old big lots, will be offering a small number of school drive through pediatric offices, and then we will have some neighborhood clinics.
00:21:20
The schools will all be drive through.
00:21:23
We're really excited to use this for vaccination.
00:21:28
We think this will be best for the kids and easiest for the parents.
00:21:35
I've been talking about the community vaccination site.
00:21:37
It has taken over all of the vaccinations now that the J.Crew standing site has been dismantled.
00:21:44
And I do just want to give a shout out to the County of Albemarle that helped us fund the J.Crew site.
00:21:51
It's in the Old Big Lots.
00:21:53
If you go to vaccines.gov, look for Charlottesville Old Big Lots CVHC.
00:21:59
That's how it's listed there.
00:22:01
They do have all three vaccines available, and they will do first, second, third doses, and booster shots.
00:22:08
They will do all ages, including the 5 to 11 when it's approved.
00:22:11
They do have translation services, so if you need a translator,
00:22:17
they can help you out there and they're open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m.
00:22:21
to 8 p.m.
00:22:22
so they do have evening hours if you need those evening hours so it's been really well received I had a community member tell me that it went really smoothly he was in and out really in a very short period of time so a really great addition to our community
00:22:43
Finally, I just want to remind everybody that the holidays are coming up and people will be traveling.
00:22:49
If you need testing, we continue to offer testing every night during the week here in the Charlottesville Albemarle area.
00:22:57
Additionally, we are at each of our health departments at least one night
00:23:02
during the week.
00:23:04
So here for Charlottesville is a reminder with the Church of Incarnation.
00:23:08
That's done by UVA on Monday nights.
00:23:11
Tuesday night, it's the Mount Zion First African Baptist Church again by UVA.
00:23:16
Wednesday and Thursday is a commercial testing unit that's next molecular.
00:23:21
They are here from 5 to 7 p.m.
00:23:24
and Friday
00:23:33
We are testing again at Fashion Square Mall in front of the old JCPenney from 5 to 7.
00:23:38
So testing happening every night if you need it.
00:23:44
And finally our hotline is still up and going and I've put vaccines.gov where you can find all your vaccines appointments and I will stop sharing and be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
SPEAKER_25
00:23:58
Thank you.
00:24:00
for that presentation.
00:24:01
Counselors, any questions?
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
00:24:05
I guess it's similar to what we went through when the adults were getting vaccinated.
00:24:08
So it seems like parents should fill out both the form on your site so that you can get a gauge for where a future vaccine may best be distributed, but they also should let their own pediatricians know
00:24:19
through those specific forms.
00:24:21
I just want to make sure people are clear on like there are multiple forms and it's important there's not redundancy in those forms are both necessary.
SPEAKER_08
00:24:27
Right, no, that's really, it's helpful.
00:24:29
The survey with the QR code is really a voluntary one, but it's been really helpful to have parents voice their opinion about where they'd like kids to get vaccinated at.
00:24:40
We know that 5 to 11 is a much different group.
00:24:43
and the vaccinating the 12 to 17 year olds and so we want to honor parents wishes and if it turns out that they everyone wants to be vaccinated at their pediatricians and the pediatricians are willing to vaccinate we're happy to redistribute vaccine to them to facilitate that but we also know that not all parents are able to get to the pediatrician during the day and some parents just don't have a pediatrician that they go to
00:25:12
Although everyone should have a doctor.
00:25:14
And so we want to make sure there's vaccine available.
00:25:16
So yes, if your pediatrician has asked you to fill out a form indicating interest, please do and let them know if that's where you want to get vaccinated at.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
00:25:26
And then related for every child you have, you should fill out another form so that there's a proper count.
00:25:33
Is that right?
00:25:34
Yes.
00:25:35
Yes.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:25:39
And Dr. Bonds, your comment about the schools and maybe people, you know, kids who are positive that it not maybe transmitting through schools.
00:25:49
Can you tell me a little bit about the contact tracing that's going on in schools?
00:25:53
Because the feedback that I've been receiving and not just from CCS, but from the area has just, it's just been different based on how the schools are handling it, it seems.
SPEAKER_08
00:26:04
Yeah, a lot of the contact tracing, particularly during the Heights, we did cede to the schools to help us try and get all of those kids notified.
00:26:13
And we know that there were some positive cases that came out, you know, kids exposed in the classroom.
00:26:21
but a lot of times those contacts had multiple contacts right so if you have high school students that maybe go to class together but also playing sports teams together or have commute to an event in a small car it's hard in those situations to tease out is it the sports team versus the other but we did look we looked at all of the contacts that we had and
00:26:52
what we could link to it really was a very small percentage in the classroom that's causing and if you think about it if the teachers are doing all of the mitigations correctly that is children are wearing a mask and they're really trying to keep that distance apart not having lunch together in an indoor area
00:27:17
It's been a fairly safe, and I say that to reassure parents, we want kids to do best in school, and it's really proven to be, I think, a fairly safe environment with the mitigation measures in place.
00:27:31
But there are lots of other places where kids congregate together, and we know that there's been lots of spread through those after-school activities as well.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:27:42
And the information that you shared with the breakdown with race, did you also do that by income levels or you just did it?
SPEAKER_08
00:27:50
We just did it by race.
00:27:51
We don't actually have people's self-declared income levels.
00:27:55
We don't collect that information at the time that they're vaccinated.
00:27:58
We do collect their race and ethnicity, but that's it.
00:28:08
I'm not even sure we could impute that given the information that we have so it's just we just don't collect that information this was taking people's self-reported race and ethnicity when they got vaccinated and then using that over the census data of the total number of people that reported that particular race ethnicity in that census track okay I think I and I was thinking from the information that we could glean from the census data
00:28:37
I can look at by census tract comparing the immunizations to the mean income in that area, and I can certainly bring that data back if you'd like, but it won't be by individual, and I can't break it out by race.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:28:55
Yeah, no, I just, I wonder if you all had it already.
00:29:00
It's not necessary.
SPEAKER_25
00:29:04
Any other questions, counselors?
00:29:08
Okay.
00:29:09
Well, thank you for joining us this evening, and we will see you in December.
SPEAKER_08
00:29:15
All right.
00:29:15
Thanks, everybody.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:29:16
Thanks.
00:29:17
Have a good evening.
RECOGNITIONS/PROCLAMATIONS
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:29:23
All right.
00:29:23
Next up, we have recognitions and proclamations.
00:29:26
Any recognitions?
00:29:30
No?
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:29:30
All right.
00:29:31
So we have two proclamations.
00:29:34
The first one is for the nurse practitioner week, which is November 7th through 13th, 2021.
00:29:44
Whereas nurse practitioners serve as trusted healthcare providers for patients in our city, whereas nurse practitioners are the forefront of efforts to combat COVID-19, educating patients about prevention and ensuring equitable distribution of vaccinations.
00:30:00
whereas nurse practitioners work to expand access to care in underserved communities and health disparities and combat systemic racism in healthcare.
00:30:11
Whereas patients depend on more than 325,000 licensed nurse practitioners in the United States and in the city of Charlottesville to diagnose, manage and treat their chronic and acute healthcare conditions.
00:30:27
whereas nurse practitioners provide high quality primary acute and specialty health care services while emphasizing health promotion, disease prevention, health education, counseling, guiding patients to make smarter health and lifestyle choices every day.
00:30:46
Whereas the confidence that patients have in nurse practitioner delivered healthcare is evidenced by the more than 1 billion visits made annually to nurse practitioners across the country.
00:30:59
And whereas more than five decades of research confirms the high quality of care provided by nurse practitioners, whereas better utilization of nurse practitioners through modernized state laws, improved policies, create better health,
00:31:14
more through a more accessible, efficient, cost-effective, and higher quality healthcare system.
00:31:21
Whereas 23 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands have implemented full practice authority for nurse practitioners, granting patients full and direct access to outstanding healthcare offered in these healthcare professionals.
00:31:41
And whereas leading governmental and policy entities, including the National Academy of Medicines, National Council of State Board of Nursing, National Governors Association, and Federal Trade Commissions have taken notice of the benefits of providing patients full and direct access to nurse practitioners care.
00:32:03
and whereas Charlottesville is proud to recognize and honor the service of nurse practitioners to our city.
00:32:10
Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Nikuyah Walker, Mayor of the City of Charlottesville, on behalf of City Council, do hereby declare November 7th through 13th, 2021 as Nurse Practitioner Week in Charlottesville, Virginia.
00:32:24
in recognition of the countless contributions nurse practitioners have made over the past half century and will continue to make on behalf of the health and well-being of our citizens in our city and across our nation.
00:32:40
Thank you.
00:32:41
And Ms.
00:32:41
Topley, how are you?
SPEAKER_39
00:32:43
I'm fine.
00:32:44
Thank you, Mayor Walker.
00:32:46
and City Council, thank you so much for recognizing Nurse Practitioner Week.
00:32:51
I am a nurse practitioner here in Charlottesville and a member of the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners.
00:32:58
We've got about 15,000 nurse practitioners in Virginia.
00:33:02
And all I ask is during Nurse Practitioner Week, if you know a nurse practitioner,
00:33:07
If a nurse practitioner takes care of you, just say thank you.
00:33:11
We've had a hard year last year and the year before, just like everyone else, and we've been working very hard.
00:33:18
You'll see nurse practitioners in, you know, the MedExpresses, you'll see us in the intensive care units, all through the hospital and clinics.
00:33:27
We're nurse anesthetists, we're midwives, so we're everywhere, and, you know,
00:33:33
Our main mission is to take care of patients and we're a patient advocate.
00:33:38
So if you know one, if you see one, if someone's taking care of you as a nurse practitioner, just say thank you.
00:33:44
Appreciate that.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:33:45
Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_39
00:33:49
Thank you so much.
00:33:50
Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_25
00:33:54
Counselors, are there any comments?
00:33:59
Thank you.
00:34:03
All right.
00:34:04
Have a good evening.
SPEAKER_39
00:34:05
Okay.
00:34:06
Thank you very much.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:34:07
All right.
00:34:09
The next proclamation we have is the Rotary Club of Charlottesville 100th anniversary.
00:34:16
Whereas Rotary International is a global network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem solvers who see the world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe in our communities and in ourselves.
00:34:31
And Rotary is a welcoming place for anyone interested in serving communities and working to improve our world together.
00:34:38
And whereas in April
00:34:41
In April 1921, the Rotary Club of Richmond, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Charlottesville, making it the 864th club in the then International Association of Rotary Clubs, and whereas the motto of Rotatarians is service beyond above self, service above self, and whereas Rotary Club members comprise a cross-section of Charlottesville service-oriented
00:35:08
persons in business, professions, and community leadership.
00:35:12
And whereas youth are the future of our community and the club sponsors a Rotary Interact Club at the Charlottesville High School and a Rotaract Club at the University of Virginia,
00:35:24
and whereas recent local charitable activities of the Rotary Club of Charlottesville have included support of the Blue Ridge Health District, Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless, Charlottesville Area Transit and the City of Promise, Ivory Creek Natural Area and whereas one of the club's major charitable partnerships is with the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
00:35:49
which supports early childhood literacy in Charlottesville, Albemarle through sponsoring deserving children in the area who receive a free book each month until the child is five years old.
00:36:01
And whereas the Rotary Club of Charlottesville also regularly coordinates and sponsors international projects focused on education, literacy, clean water and sanitation, disease prevention and treatment,
00:36:14
maternal and child health, peace education and conflict resolution and community development.
00:36:21
Now, therefore, in recognition of its 100th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Charlottesville, be it proclaimed that I, Mayor of Charlottesville and the Charlottesville City Council wish to wish the Rotary Club of Charlottesville and the Rotary International many more years of service above self.
00:36:41
We honor and congratulate the Rotary Club of Charlottesville on its 100th anniversary and commend Rotary for providing service to others, promoting integrity, and advancing the world's understanding, goodwill, and peace through fellowship in business, professional, and community leaders.
00:36:58
And we have Mr. Stan Gilbert.
SPEAKER_22
00:37:02
Good evening.
SPEAKER_01
00:37:03
Good evening.
00:37:05
Thank you for those kind words and that proclamation.
00:37:09
I have a few prepared remarks, but I would like to go off script first.
00:37:15
One of our recognition projects is we annually recognize what we call the Citizen of the Year for the individual who made the most impact on our community in that year.
00:37:28
Last year, Dr. Denise Bonds was recognized as our Rotary Citizen of the Year.
00:37:35
At our award ceremony last January, she gave the most cogent, precise summary of COVID and where we were at that point.
00:37:45
Tonight, I have been privileged to listen to another extremely well thought out concise summary.
00:37:54
And so it gives me great pleasure to congratulate Dr. Bonds on her continued leadership.
00:38:01
And she certainly has validated what we did a year ago when we recognized her.
00:38:09
On behalf of the Rotary Club of Charlottesville, I do want to thank you for honoring us with this proclamation.
00:38:16
Rotary began in Chicago in 1905 as an organization where professionals of diverse backgrounds could meet to exchange ideas and form meaningful lifelong friendships.
00:38:29
By 1921, the year our Rotary Club of Charlottesville was founded, it was evolving into a humanitarian service organization with clubs forming in Europe, South America and Asia.
00:38:42
Today, Rotary International is a truly global network of 1.2 million members and 35,000 clubs.
00:38:51
Last year, our Rotary International Foundation dispersed $135 million for global programs.
00:38:59
As Rotarians, we focus on promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene, promoting maternal and child health, supporting education, growing local economies and protecting the environment.
00:39:17
and our work in Charlottesville and around the world, we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our work to address community challenges.
00:39:25
And we invite our neighbors to join our club or visit us to engage these issues.
00:39:32
Here in Charlottesville, during this past year, our club has provided over 8,000 books to 700 young children through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Program.
00:39:42
We have partnered with the City of Promise to provide resources for adult computer literacy education.
00:39:50
And we have worked with the Ivy Creek Natural Area to maintain their trail system.
00:39:55
And we have also provided volunteers, beverages and snacks for the various clinics of the Blue Ridge Health District involved in the COVID vaccination program.
00:40:06
Internationally, we funded a water well for a village in Ghana, an operating room for cataract surgery in South Sudan, and are partnering with a Rotary Club in Pokhara, Nepal to provide masks and hand sanitation stations, as well as a computer lab in local schools.
00:40:25
And that's just a little, that just barely scratches the surface of what we do.
00:40:33
Again, I thank you for honoring our centennial year and our club.
00:40:38
At this point, after 100 years, we're looking forward to our next 100 years.
00:40:42
Thank you.
SPEAKER_25
00:40:44
Thank you.
00:40:46
Counselors, any comments?
00:40:51
Thank you.
00:40:51
You have a good evening.
00:40:52
Thanks for joining us.
CONSENT AGENDA*
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:40:59
Okay, next up we have the Consent Agenda.
00:41:01
Ms.
00:41:01
Thomas, would you read the Consent Agenda, please?
SPEAKER_19
00:41:08
Consent Agenda, one, minutes, September 20th, Work Session, two, Resolution Appropriating General Assembly One-Time Bonus Funding for the City's Sheriff's Office, $35,525.
00:41:20
Second reading,
00:41:26
Three resolution appropriating fiscal year 2022 fire programs aid to locality funding fire fund $175,965 second reading for resolution amending the FY 2021 2022 substantial action plan and appropriating home ARP American rescue plan funding second reading
00:41:55
Five, resolution appropriating American Rescue Plan funds, $1,192,836.
00:42:05
Second reading.
00:42:06
Six, resolution appropriating funds for the Virginia Department of Education Special Nutrition Program Child and Adult Care Food Program, $50,000.
00:42:17
First of two readings.
00:42:21
Seven, Resolution, Appropriating Funds for Safe Routes to School Program, Non-Infrastructure Grants, $39,000, first of two readings.
00:42:32
Eight, Resolution, Establishing Interim Hearing Procedures for the Police Civilian Review Board, one reading.
SPEAKER_25
00:42:39
Thank you.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:42:43
Counselors, are there any comments, discussion?
00:42:47
All right, Mr. Willow, we are opening it up for public comment on items on the consent agenda.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:42:54
Thank you, Mayor Walker.
00:42:55
If you're in the audience and you'd like to address counsel on one of those eight items, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.
00:43:02
If you're on via telephone, you can press star nine.
00:43:07
Each person will get up to three minutes.
00:43:10
First person up is Larissa Hawkins.
00:43:14
Good evening.
00:43:14
You're on with counsel and you've got three minutes.
00:43:21
and you'll have to unmute.
SPEAKER_02
00:43:22
Sorry, I was I was muted.
00:43:26
It's been a while.
00:43:28
I was on the police review board call earlier this week for quite some time and my phone died.
00:43:42
So I didn't get to make a comment on what is to be discussed this evening.
00:43:48
And
00:43:51
I was concerned about if I was following correctly, a board that or hearing kind of stopped along the way.
00:44:04
that seemed to me, if I'm understanding correctly, to be a kind of perfunctory process whereby citizens can intone about complaints before a board of people who are not elected, even though I understand there's an executive director, in front of people who hold in general positions of power both in the community
00:44:33
and in the city.
00:44:35
Charlottesville is a city, if I recall correctly, of less than 46,000 people.
00:44:41
The potential for retaliation, whether the hearings are closed or not, seemed to me to be quite significant.
00:44:51
And it raised a huge flag of concern for me in terms of
00:44:58
procedural bodies that have the weight of the city behind them, but perhaps can only make recommendations like a pardon or parole board.
00:45:11
And again, the fact of living in a very small place where
00:45:18
you know significantly I have I have conversed with the folks who work in the parking garage downtown and they know what's happening in and out of city hall in and out of the police department and out of city attorney's office and so my concern is for the people like me coming up against the monopoly the legitimate monopoly of force
00:45:48
the Charlottesville City Police Department.
00:45:52
So I'm hoping that this will, and I didn't, like I said, my phone cut off before I could hear any public comment or question, but I hope to complicate the narrative around kind of what seems to me to be a rubber stamping of what sounds like
00:46:10
something that could be potentially harmful, contrary to what it sounds like, another form of procedural justice to the citizens of Charlottesville, especially poor, low-income, black, brown, immigrants, people without status or without IDs.
00:46:25
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
00:46:28
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:46:32
Next up is Tanisha Hudson.
00:46:34
Tanisha, you're on with counsel.
00:46:35
You've got three minutes.
Tanesha Hudson
00:46:38
Is this the consent agenda, Brian?
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:46:40
It is.
Tanesha Hudson
00:46:41
Okay, I'm away for the next round.
00:46:43
Sorry.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:46:43
Okay.
Tanesha Hudson
00:46:45
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:46:47
Any others for the consent agenda?
00:46:48
Please click the raise hand icon.
00:46:55
I don't see anyone else.
00:46:56
Mayor Walker.
SPEAKER_22
00:46:57
All right.
00:46:58
Thank you.
00:46:59
All right.
00:47:00
Counselors, any comments?
00:47:04
All right.
00:47:05
If we could do a vote on items one through seven and then...
00:47:11
separately.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
00:47:15
Lloyd, would you mind just very briefly just kind of giving an overview of just what the just a summary of the conversation we had last week.
00:47:23
Obviously, you've been involved in this pretty great detail and just what it is we're doing tonight with the PCRB decision here.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:47:28
Sure.
00:47:29
This this document that we're approving hopefully in the consent agenda is it is the procedures to be used
00:47:40
in only one hearing.
00:47:43
It is the hearing that has
00:47:46
for the issue that has been filed under the present version of the PCRB ordinance.
00:47:52
We are still working on redrafting that ordinance in light of the statute that was adopted in Richmond last year.
00:48:03
That statute empowers a lot more from the PCRB.
00:48:09
We'll probably end up calling it the PCOB for Oversight Board, which is what the statute calls for.
00:48:17
and so we will be considering in the next month two months some short period of time hopefully a different statute a different ordinance and a different set of procedures that will be used going forward tonight the only thing that is on the agenda is a set of procedures for this one hearing that has to be held it's the only one that that has been filed under under the present statute present ordinance
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:48:49
And I look forward to reviewing and the future ordinance, the future hearing procedures with the changes that we make, but at this time it's a bit, I mean, I don't understand.
00:49:07
And it's still, I think it's going to be a bit messy and I'll be watching the process and I hope that it isn't.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:49:17
Mayor Walker, do you need a motion to
00:49:19
have a vote on numbers 1 through 7 first?
00:49:23
Yes.
00:49:24
I would so move.
SPEAKER_25
00:49:26
Second.
00:49:29
Ms.
00:49:29
Thomas?
SPEAKER_19
00:49:33
Mayor Walker?
00:49:35
Yes.
00:49:37
Vice Mayor McGill?
00:49:39
Yes.
00:49:41
Councillor Hill?
00:49:42
Yes.
00:49:43
Councillor Payne?
00:49:44
Yes.
00:49:46
Councillor Snook?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:49:47
Yes.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:49:52
Thank you, that carries 5-0.
00:49:53
Is there a motion for item 8?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:49:57
I would move the approval of item number 8, establishing the interim hearing procedures.
SPEAKER_19
00:50:04
Second.
00:50:10
Mayor Walker?
00:50:12
No.
00:50:14
Vice Mayor McGill?
00:50:16
Yes.
00:50:17
Councillor Hill?
00:50:19
Yes.
SPEAKER_19
00:50:20
Councillor Payne?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:50:22
Yes.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:50:23
Councillor Snook?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
00:50:24
Yes.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:50:26
Okay.
00:50:27
Thank you.
00:50:27
That carries four to one.
CITY MANAGER RESPONSE TO COMMUNITY MATTERS and to COUNCILORS
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:50:31
Next up, we have the deputy city manager's response to community matters.
00:50:37
Do you all have any items today?
SPEAKER_06
00:50:41
Yes, ma'am.
00:50:41
Mayor Walker and Council, there were two items from the last meeting that I was pulled that I'll give you a response to.
00:50:50
The first item was in regards to side street maintenance near the downtown mall.
00:50:56
I did check in with staff in regards to who's responsible for maintaining those side streets.
00:51:00
That is a function of Parks and Rec.
00:51:03
They have
00:51:04
been short-staffed and struggling to be able to keep up with everything that needs to be done, especially along the downtown mall is what I'm hearing at this moment.
00:51:12
They have requested additional equipment to help perform the job better and assure me that they're going to take a look a little more closely at what is happening on the side streets and then we'll begin to take a look at what that additional equipment may be that could benefit them and being able to do a better job of the mall.
00:51:29
The second item was in regards to a request for a look at Rose Hill Drive, adding a four-way stop at Rose Hill Drive near Burley
00:51:43
Burley Middle School and looking at reduced speed limit.
00:51:46
I did check with the traffic engineer.
00:51:49
There is a speed study underway and it's in relation to the configuration that's being proposed for Walker Elementary.
00:51:55
Even though it's not the same impact area, they will be able to take a look at what is happening on Rose Hill in that space and depending on how that triggers a change.
00:52:05
you might be able to look at near Burleigh as well.
00:52:08
They did provide that we looked at that area near Burleigh Middle in 2004, 2005, made some improvements in 06 to 09 and again in 13 to 16, all of those improvements being traffic calming measures.
00:52:23
There may be a need to do more.
00:52:26
But I was reminded that we should also make the public aware that there is a traffic calming petition process.
00:52:32
So if there is significant interest in having us take a look more closely at what is going on in the Rose Hill area, then even the school PTO and neighborhood associations could all take a look at maybe initiating that process and cause us to take an even closer look.
00:52:50
Those are the only two items that I have.
SPEAKER_20
00:52:53
Thank you.
COMMUNITY MATTERS
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
00:52:58
All right.
00:52:59
Next up, we have Community Matters.
00:53:01
We have eight, the pre-registered speakers, we have eight slots, and so, and we all have eight additional slots after those individuals speak.
00:53:14
I'll turn it over to Mr. Rola.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:53:17
Thank you, Mayor Walker.
00:53:18
First up will be Myra Anderson.
00:53:20
Myra, you're on with counsel, and you've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_18
00:53:24
Good evening, Mayor Walker and members of council.
00:53:29
I just wanted to speak for a minute or three minutes on mental health and reiterate the need for us to have an official
00:53:42
Commission or committee to look at how we can address the needs of individuals in mental health crisis in a way that does not necessarily have police at the front and in a way that upholds dignity and all of those things as a person is experiencing a crisis.
00:54:05
This is mandated under the Marcus Alert and as you know for the last nine months this is something
00:54:11
that I and a group of other volunteers, including Counselor Snook and Counselor McGill have been looking at.
00:54:19
And I think that time is of the essence because there are time limits under the Marcus Alert and getting things
00:54:27
set up in localities.
00:54:29
You have a unique opportunity here because we have the ability to shape how this looks for our community.
00:54:37
And I think the only way to do that is to move forward with the recommendation that was given to you several weeks ago about forming an official committee that can not only look at this but make sure it's an inclusive process and make sure that the right voices are at the table, particularly those of peers
00:54:56
and lived experience as well as all the professionals who will be necessary in implementing this.
00:55:02
I think this is imperative as we look at mental health and how we can better meet the needs of individuals in our community who are experiencing
00:55:12
you know a mental health crisis and I think this is something that does not need to be kind of put on the back burner but it is something that needs to be looked at voted on and really to help move this along we spent a long time looking at having people talk to us and looking at you know different ways to approach this and we came to the conclusion that the best thing to do
00:55:38
is to form an official group with the mandate to look at this and also to engage the community because as you know when you think about mental health it not only affects the individuals it affects families and I think if we want to have a more vibrant community that is a place for everyone to experience wellness
00:56:01
We need to meet people where they are when they are experiencing crisis and put those services in place that they need at that time.
00:56:09
So I hope that you would strongly, strongly, strongly consider moving forward with the recommendation and not take too much time.
00:56:19
And I'm happy to answer any questions anyone would have about that.
00:56:24
So thank you.
SPEAKER_20
00:56:29
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:56:34
And our next speaker will be John Hasek, who will be followed by Bill Emery.
00:56:39
If you'd like to get in line, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.
00:56:43
John, you're on with counsel.
00:56:44
You've got three minutes.
John Hossack
00:56:47
John Hossack, Davis Avenue.
00:56:49
I agree with the need to address affordable housing challenges in the city.
00:56:53
However, the future land map and associated plan are flawed.
00:56:58
Medium intensity residential needs to be eliminated.
00:57:01
How can people in R1 neighborhoods, especially those who recently seemed hard to buy into a specific street,
00:57:07
We asked to accept 12 plus unit buildings in four storeys.
00:57:11
Each monthly iteration of the map involved changes driven by volume of complaints.
00:57:15
There was no other explanation.
00:57:17
With the result that the wealthiest and most organised neighbourhoods improved their position relative to those left behind.
00:57:22
It is troubling from an appearance perspective that among council members, candidates and planning commission members, none and personally impacted by medium residential.
00:57:32
The Consultants and Planning Commission have still failed to adequately defend medium residential, i.e.
00:57:37
12 plus no absolute limit aspect against the charge of the most radical reclassification or established R1 streets in the country.
00:57:45
General residential would be a more effective and more widely accepted zoning model.
00:57:51
I am troubled by the by-right language with respect to higher density zoning.
00:57:55
Currently, each up-zoned instance is approved as a result of community council and city staff engagement.
00:58:00
To minimize developer hassle, this process will be replaced with buy-write entitlements.
00:58:05
This is a very adversarial action, and it takes community engagement out of the process.
00:58:10
It effectively means that the fight is right now, so that's what you have, angry residents.
00:58:14
The plan includes elastic upper limits, three to four storeys, 12 plus units when undefined criteria are met.
00:58:21
Why are developers' interests put ahead of taxpaying voting residents?
00:58:25
Developers in this town have a very poor track record.
00:58:28
Submit drawings of one design and build something else.
00:58:30
See, for example, the flats in West Main.
00:58:33
You've left undefined, reduced off-street parking, reduced building setbacks.
00:58:37
Are we so stupid to not understand the meaning of these underappreciated phrases in the plan documents?
00:58:43
Please shield neighbourhoods from speculators, student housing and Airbnb.
00:58:47
We need commitments in the map and plan against short-term rental.
00:58:51
by room, limits the number and related residence rules against affordable units going to students.
00:58:56
Recent analysis has shown that approximately 30% of 10th and Page is owned by LLCs and as many as 60% of condos in the town are owned by people or entities not resident.
00:59:06
This is where your problem lies, not with zoning.
00:59:09
Please spend more time investigating the facts about home ownership and not the anecdotes.
00:59:14
If you adopt this divisive, flawed and radical plan, I fear that you'll put Charlottesville in the national news again, serving the role of national city planning wind dummy, an expendable dummy thrown out of an aircraft to see which way the wind is blowing so that the decisions of others are informed by our sacrifice.
00:59:29
Charlottesville can do better.
00:59:31
Thank you for your attention and for time spent in our city's service.
SPEAKER_20
00:59:34
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
00:59:44
Next up is Bill Emery, who will be followed by Tyler McGill.
00:59:48
Bill, you're on with counsel.
00:59:49
You've got three minutes.
Bill Emory
00:59:51
Thank you.
00:59:52
I'm speaking this evening about 22 houses on the south side of Chesapeake Street between Mead Avenue and Fairway.
01:00:00
The houses' average age is 75 years old.
01:00:04
Half of them were built by the end of World War II.
01:00:07
The other half were finished at the end of the Korean War.
01:00:11
The homes were built by blue-collar people.
01:00:14
To this day, not one of them features a garage or a swimming pool.
01:00:18
Nine of the houses were rented, 13 are owner-occupied.
01:00:22
The houses don't tend to flip.
01:00:24
The average last date of sale was 22 years ago.
01:00:29
Over the years, I've made the acquaintance of a handful of residents while walking by.
01:00:33
I've met a librarian, a plumber, a teacher, a postal worker, a United States Marine, boat captain, students, an x-ray tech, a museum worker, and an IT person.
01:00:46
These houses average 1,100 square feet finished living area.
01:00:50
The average lot the houses sit on is 0.18 acres.
01:00:54
that is five dwelling units per acre.
01:00:57
Their average assessment is $290,000.
01:01:00
The 22 homes are stable.
01:01:02
They are occupied.
01:01:04
They are a refuge of families who move to the neighborhood and plan to stay.
01:01:10
I believe that painting this house with a medium intensity residential land use designation is not acceptable planning.
01:01:17
The designation is unfair to the residents.
01:01:20
It's targeting their houses for demolition
01:01:22
It is an economic bulldozer.
01:01:25
The Willamills neighborhood requested a small area plan from the city in 1988.
01:01:29
If the city had provided a framework for public and private investment decisions to the Willamills by means of a small area planning process decades ago, the current action would make sense.
01:01:43
But there has been no small area plan.
01:01:46
I encourage the Council to get scientific, to use the tools of Archimedes and Galileo.
01:01:51
Math and maps pick some baselines to trigger small area plans in neighborhoods with significant proposed upzoning.
01:01:59
For example, for rezoning will potentially displace 50 percent of the area's existing residents perform a small area plan.
01:02:08
If the rezoning will increase DUA by more than 10 times, perform a small area plan.
01:02:14
Effective city planning is done by having comprehensive neighborhood plans that share the benefits and burdens required to keep the city humming along in an equitable, healthy fashion.
01:02:25
The 2021 comprehensive plan is intended to guide the coordinated harmonious development of the territory within the city to promote the health, safety, order, convenience, prosperity, and general welfare of the city inhabitants.
01:02:39
Please make it so.
01:02:41
Thank you for your service.
SPEAKER_20
01:02:42
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:02:49
Next up is Tyler McGill, who will be followed by Kimber Hawkey.
01:02:54
Tyler, you're on with Council.
01:02:55
You've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_34
01:02:58
Thank you, and thank you, Council, for hearing us.
01:03:03
Last Friday, we had a kind of a nasty prank played on us as the Lincoln Project decided to say bad things about
01:03:19
about Glenn Youngkin by dressing up like people from the Unite the Right rally.
01:03:27
This was happening during, right as some of the young people who were so viciously beaten were testifying in Signs v. Kessler.
01:03:44
This is important.
01:03:45
This is important.
01:03:48
We're tired of our pain, the pain of our community being used as a prop.
01:03:55
We're tired of our community being used for everything but the uplift of our community.
01:04:06
It hurt when President Biden, for example, who hadn't come here, used Charlottesville, and it hurts when Lincoln Project did as well.
01:04:18
And, you know, it hurts when locals, people from here who were affected by Unite the Right are compared to the bad actors of Unite the Right.
01:04:33
I propose that council demand money to be provided by Lincoln Project to be given to local equity groups and any groups that are still helping the people who are affected by Unite the Right.
01:04:46
I think that
01:04:49
There's still a lot of pain in this town, and it still needs to be addressed largely by EVA and also by city council, but most of all, by people who come into our town, use us, and leave.
01:05:09
Thank you very much for your time.
SPEAKER_20
01:05:13
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:05:17
Next up is Kimber Hawkey, who will be followed by Michael Grinnell.
01:05:21
Kimber, you're on with council.
01:05:22
You've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_03
01:05:24
Hello.
01:05:25
Thank you.
01:05:26
Good evening, Mayor Walker and councilors.
01:05:29
Thank you for listening.
01:05:32
As council and commission members have publicly admitted on a few occasions, there's dysfunction and intermittent chaos in the city government that means that important administrators' decisions should not be made.
01:05:45
The FLUM and the Comp Plan are all important administrative decisions that lay the groundwork for significant change for years to come.
01:05:53
For this reason, as many have asked, this FLUM map, which is faulty, must certainly be shelved as part of the Comp Plan process.
01:06:01
The Commission, the Council, and RHI consultants have repeated publicly the need to protect citizens from the injurious effects of this new map.
01:06:10
Thus, they are clearly admitting that this FLUM is injurious to the citizens as it stands.
01:06:16
Even the contradictory amendments hurriedly slapped on at the end of the last Planning Commission meeting do not rectify these issues.
01:06:24
Nowhere else, as far as has been shown to us, has a FLUM map as radical as this one been successfully implemented.
01:06:32
It certainly has not proven to provide affordable housing, which is what we all want.
01:06:38
As we all know by law, the city is not required to change the map, only to review it.
01:06:43
As proven by the city's own 2011 build-out analysis under our current zoning map and regulations, we can obtain far and above all of the stated needs for affordable housing through 2040.
01:06:56
Quote, the analysis shows a large capacity for additional units in the city under the current zoning regulations, unquote.
01:07:05
It seems strange the city did not make this 2011 city build-out analysis wildly public, either previous to or as part of the FLUM discussions.
01:07:15
So not only do citizens not realize what's going on regarding the comp plan, as many are still ignorant of the same, but they do not even have all the facts needed to make an informed decisions.
01:07:26
The same conclusions for growth are proven by the digitized maps made available to you by the citizens for responsible planning, as they clearly show a large number of available, buildable lots that exist in the city.
01:07:39
Heck, just driving around town, we can all see the lots that are vacant, low value commercial, or ones that could easily take residential info.
01:07:48
But let us be clear, we are not talking about giving more lots to LLCs as they do exist in 10th and Page.
01:07:55
or building more luxury apartments for more investors and UVA students.
01:08:00
What we want is real affordable housing for our current citizens in needs and our workforce.
01:08:06
If you were to pass this faulty FLUM map, one that contains admitted errors and undefined parameters, you would be acting against your own hard facts study conducted by your professional planning staff
01:08:20
Acting against the analysis of your own professional staff is odd, and if you were to do so, it would only further prove how dysfunctional the city government really is.
01:08:30
Please pause the flum or shelve it.
01:08:35
Kicking it down the road is not the answer.
01:08:38
Thank you for listening.
01:08:39
Have a nice night.
SPEAKER_20
01:08:41
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:08:44
Next up is Michael Grinnell, who will be followed by Ben Heller.
01:08:49
Michael, you're on with council.
01:08:50
You've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_33
01:08:52
Thank you.
01:08:53
My name is Michael Grinnell.
01:08:54
I'm a resident of Charlottesville.
01:08:56
I'm coming to you as a commission member of the Charlottesville Sister City Commission.
01:09:02
We would like to request the council approve the requested appropriation for the Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission.
01:09:09
Last year was the first year in five years where the CSCC did not receive an allocation from the city.
01:09:15
This is understandable as the city was forced to reduce expenditures last year due to the pandemic.
01:09:20
CSCC is a city-sponsored program and we need the support from the city to fulfill its mission.
01:09:25
We were able to weather the funding gap last year due to the gap in travel, but we need funding from the city to continue to operate in future years.
01:09:34
These funds allow the CSCC to fund community-led projects through annual grants, proposal, and awards process, facilitate communication and travel of Charlottesville residents to sister cities, engage with sister cities to build cooperation, understanding, and relationships.
01:09:50
As you know, the Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission exists to promote understanding of and foster relationships among individuals, communities, and cities of the world through cultural, economic, educational, and humanitarian activities.
01:10:03
Through our programs, events, and project grants, residents of Charlottesville connect with residents of sister cities, collaborate, coordinate, and build lifelong friendships that help make the world a smaller place.
01:10:15
We would appreciate the funding in FY23.
01:10:19
I yield the balance of my time.
01:10:21
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
01:10:25
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:10:30
Next up is Ben Heller, who will be followed by Adrian Ward.
01:10:34
Ben, you're on with Council.
01:10:35
You've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_29
01:10:37
Good evening, Council.
01:10:38
My name is Ben Heller.
01:10:39
I live on Blue Ridge Road.
01:10:41
From what you guys have said at other
01:10:46
that needs to include a land use map.
01:10:48
With that in mind, I want to offer three suggestions to mitigate what, based on talking to many people worried about the plan, I see as the worst pain points in the flung.
01:10:55
The suggestions, I think, don't interfere with the plan goal of allowing more use intensity within roughly existing form.
01:11:01
First, the as of right entitlements in each zone need to have a hard cap.
01:11:04
For use intensity, there's a big difference between a general residential
01:11:12
Williamson, Ph.D.
01:11:13
: Similarly, for form, a hard cap on height in each zone and clear definition of what the footprint of house size means when aligned with existing structures would assuage fears.
01:11:22
If the developer wants to go beyond these hard caps, there's always the option of a special use permit, but if you leave the map wide open, people will fear the worst, and obviously developers will sometimes do the worst.
01:11:41
Ten Seed Residential to accept 12 unit and possibly larger buildings and four plus stories.
01:11:49
The areas designated changing up to the last minute do not make sense.
01:11:54
MIR areas actually have a lower average walk score than general residential, they lack critical infrastructure, and some are so far below required density to support commercial amenities that their ultimate arrival is highly uncertain.
01:12:05
We can end up with a worst of all world situation of having a scattering of multifamily buildings isolated from amenities.
01:12:11
If you need the MIR category to exist, scale it back to a few areas already adjacent to amenities, existing density, and infrastructure.
01:12:19
And finally, three, protect residential neighborhoods from new entitlements turning into student housing and Airbnbs.
01:12:24
Residents can accept change if they know it will help house fellow residents in workforce or affordable housing.
01:12:30
It's not fair to ask them to bear the burden of UVA's and Airbnbs' customer acquisition strategy.
01:12:35
This cannot wait for the zoning ordinance.
01:12:37
We need firm written commitments in the map to protect neighborhoods with rules that apply to projects using the new density entitlements.
01:12:43
And John Hosek went through a number of those
01:12:47
Thank you.
01:12:47
And our last speaker who signed up in advance, number eight, is Adrienne Ward.
01:12:49
Adrienne, you're on with Council.
01:12:51
You've got three minutes.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:13:21
and you'll have to unmute.
SPEAKER_23
01:13:25
Thank you.
01:13:26
Thank you.
01:13:28
I'm Adrian and I am a member of the Sister City Commission in the role of citizen at large and I wanted to add to Michael Grinnell's comments and underscore the need for funding of the Sister City Commission.
01:13:46
I wanted to say something about where the funding goes to make it as detailed as possible in my three minute span.
01:13:54
We had, even with COVID limitations, we had a very active grant cycle this year.
01:14:00
We currently have seven sister city grants in play for this current year and three from the year before.
01:14:07
Those projects were given more time because of COVID slowdowns.
01:14:11
The funded projects involve all four cities.
01:14:14
They engage our citizens of all different ages, different spheres and professions.
01:14:21
In addition to the grants, we have an important development in our developing relationship with Hue Hue Tenango, Guatemala, which currently has friendship city status.
01:14:30
Most of you will know that on its way, we hope to sister city standing.
01:14:35
Two of this year's grants focus on cultivating the connection with Hue Hue.
01:14:40
And to my knowledge, it's the first sister city community that resonates
01:14:45
directly with our Spanish speaking citizens.
01:14:48
So it really serves our mission in a unique way and the partnership will need further backing to flourish.
01:14:55
We're also excited about instituting a more formalized travel scholarship program, which we envision is one of the most substantial and profound ways our citizens can benefit from Charlottesville's sister city enterprise.
01:15:10
It will allow those who otherwise might not have the means to visit our sister cities in the interest not only of our mission, but also the city's commitments to equity and diversity.
01:15:21
Michael didn't get into details on the numbers and that was a good move.
01:15:26
But I do wanna underscore the idea that if we do not receive any appropriation, we stand to be pretty close to a zero balance at the end of this fiscal year.
01:15:38
We had a healthy balance a couple of years ago, but two years have passed.
01:15:43
And as he mentioned last year, we received no funding.
01:15:47
and with our ongoing work, which is about a budget, a yearly budget of 20 to 25,000.
01:15:54
So it's certainly not astronomical.
01:16:01
We hope to keep up our good work.
01:16:03
We are a small, but a very dedicated group on the Sister City Commission.
01:16:08
And we ask you to please consider the significance and urgency of keeping the Sister Cities program alive and running.
01:16:16
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
01:16:20
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:16:20
Okay, council will now hear from up to another eight speakers.
01:16:26
We have 11 hands raised.
01:16:27
So if you raised your hand recently, we're probably not going to get to you tonight.
01:16:32
But the first of the next eight is Tanisha Hudson.
01:16:35
Tanisha, you're on with council and you've got three minutes.
Tanesha Hudson
01:16:39
Good evening.
01:16:40
I want to just cover a few things today.
01:16:43
One, the city needs to implement a prohibited personnel policy.
01:16:48
Most government entities do operate off a prohibited personnel policy.
01:16:55
One thing that's covered in that PPP policy is engaging in nepotism.
01:17:02
In case you all don't know, the definition of nepotism is the practice among those with power and influence favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.
01:17:14
We know that Charlottesville has long operated off nepotism because we have police officers whose wives work in the Commonwealth office.
01:17:23
We have Chip who came in as a city manager because of his working relationship with members of council and previous members of council.
01:17:32
You know, in order for us to change the system that's been destroying the city and definitely the black leaders,
01:17:38
We're going to have to make some major changes.
01:17:41
Also, Sena, your husband touched on Charlottesville Payne.
01:17:45
I want to talk on Black Payne.
01:17:47
Don't roll your ass, lift your head up and look at the camera.
01:17:50
I want to talk on Black Payne and Black leadership Payne.
01:17:53
The fact that Sena, Lloyd and Heather contributed
01:17:57
to terminating the contract of the police chief in more ways than one.
01:18:02
Lloyd, I just posted one of your emails today on Facebook.
01:18:05
You got to make your mind up, sir, where you want to stand at, because at this point, I don't know if you're just getting forgetful of what you say, if something's going on upstairs, but you, sir, have had four or five different stories.
01:18:18
Heather, I need a whole nother three minutes for you.
01:18:22
We're going to touch on you later.
01:18:23
Sena, you just ride with the wave.
01:18:26
The news article that came out, Michael, Heather, also Lloyd, you going on the news saying what such a great job Chip did.
01:18:33
Shame on all of you.
01:18:35
Shame on all of you.
01:18:36
But I'm not surprised because white people always land on their feet.
01:18:41
Ashley, I'm going to touch on you one more time.
01:18:44
The fact that you are supposed to represent equity, and I know you came from the YMCA, honey, and you probably didn't have to deal with a lot of issues, but the fact that you're supposed to cover equity here in this here city, and that you didn't step up to your boss and say what he was doing was wrong, but you and him were engaging in conversations, and he's saying he need to grab his popcorn, shame on you.
01:19:06
You as well, Mr. Sam Sanders.
01:19:09
The fact that you also was working closely with Chip.
01:19:12
There's no way a city manager is going to terminate somebody and y'all don't know.
01:19:16
That's why y'all there.
01:19:18
That's why you're there.
01:19:19
It's ridiculous and it's sickening.
01:19:22
So when will we touch on how this lady was wrongfully terminated for punishing bad cops?
01:19:29
because Lloyd in that email you was giving a heads up about a meeting but those people were terminated for doing bad things so either you stand for bad things or you stand against bad things but y'all got to decide where y'all want to stand because y'all standing in the middle straddling thank you our next speaker is Andrew Shelton Andrew you're on with counsel and you've got three minutes
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
01:20:00
Mr. Willow, the timer froze on my end.
01:20:02
Was it just me or?
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:20:04
No, it ran fine.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
01:20:07
Okay.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:20:08
She ran a little over three minutes.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
01:20:11
Okay.
01:20:11
Well, just a little.
01:20:12
It wasn't there long.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:20:13
Just a few seconds.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
01:20:15
Yeah.
01:20:16
Okay.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:20:17
Andrew, go ahead.
SPEAKER_04
01:20:20
Thank you.
01:20:21
I just wanted to speak briefly on the event that occurred on Friday.
01:20:29
I don't know whether they were calling it a protest or a prank or what, but where some group of political operatives, I guess the Lincoln Project is claiming credit, came and dressed up as the tiki torch Nazis and got themselves on the news.
01:20:46
And I know y'all have so much else on your plate right now, but I would like to respectfully ask that you consider some sort of official statement just to express that this is completely inappropriate.
01:21:01
This is not fodder for political campaigns on either side.
01:21:05
And they both attempted to exploit it throughout the day and the day that followed.
01:21:10
We're almost just numb to seeing the events and footage from that day get played out in political ads, but it is crossing a whole new line to have people come and cosplay as Nazis in this town to make some kind of point.
01:21:31
And I really feel that it's important that we
01:21:36
as a municipality just say something about that and express our great displeasure with this and the exploitation of our collective trauma.
01:21:45
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
01:21:49
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:21:52
Our next speaker is Martha Smith.
01:21:53
Martha, you're on with council and you've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_10
01:21:59
Good evening.
01:21:59
Thank you for calling on me.
01:22:01
My name is Martha Smyth and I live on Rutledge Avenue here in town.
01:22:07
I want to ask you to say no to upzoning.
01:22:11
I've sent you a letter which largely says this, providing more affordable housing seems to be the primary goal
01:22:18
of the comprehensive plan, if not its top goal.
01:22:21
Further, the council planners and RHI consultants have suggested that increasing density throughout the entire city will result in increased affordability.
01:22:33
From the reading I have done in about a dozen newspapers, research papers, and think tank reports, this is not the case.
01:22:41
They say that density does not increase affordability, period.
01:22:46
the form of increasing density to which the city is subscribing called up zoning.
01:22:52
There is there are more housing units are permitted to build on a lot specifically, single family homes or single family R1 lots because R1 lots are prevalent throughout Charlottesville.
01:23:08
Duplexes, Quadplexes, even 12 unit apartment buildings could pop up anywhere randomly.
01:23:15
Perhaps the hope is that these units will be so scattered about the city that enlarging and enhancing infrastructure components could be
01:23:25
avoided.
01:23:26
If the infrastructure cannot sustain the added units, I guess we'll worry about that later, and that would be a very risky and irresponsible choice.
01:23:35
Wouldn't it be smart to determine the areas where upzoning and density would be best accommodated and convenient for residents of affordable housing?
01:23:45
For example, in vacant and underutilized lots, in areas where excess parking could be reemployed,
01:23:53
in empty stores at shopping centers along established corridors and near major public transportation stops.
01:24:02
In fact, much larger apartment buildings could be built in some of those areas.
01:24:07
So what does all this do for affordable housing?
01:24:14
Not much.
01:24:15
That's the consensus.
01:24:16
In fact, there's no evidence so far that our affordable housing needs would be met because neighborhood lot prices go up.
01:24:25
once they can hold more units.
01:24:27
It's more costly to build a single ADU than a similar apartment in a larger building.
01:24:33
So the units, even though smaller than the original house, will not fill the price gap for affordable units.
01:24:41
Upzoning is an interesting concept that may work in some larger cities, but it hasn't seemed to yet.
01:24:48
Let's not be guinea pigs on an unproven theory
01:24:52
or dancing on the edge of the bleeding edge of the new concept.
01:24:57
Thank you for your time and consideration.
SPEAKER_20
01:25:03
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:25:06
Our next speaker is James Groves.
01:25:08
James, you're on with council and you've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_32
01:25:12
Good evening.
01:25:13
My name is James Groves and I'm a city resident.
01:25:17
Recently, I've asked the city begin to take steps to phase out its natural gas service.
01:25:23
As city council knows, the city staff's response to my request has been to recommend no changes to the availability of gas service.
01:25:32
Instead, they recommend a focus upon energy efficiency improvements and study of ways to reduce natural gas consumption in the city.
01:25:41
From my perspective, that response is insufficient.
01:25:44
Let me provide two examples why.
01:25:47
First, there was an article in the Washington Post last week that highlighted the greenhouse gas emissions leaking from the natural gas supply of Boston, Massachusetts.
01:25:58
The article was based upon a peer reviewed article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
01:26:04
The study found that 2.5 percent of the gas delivered to Boston never makes it to end use customers.
01:26:12
Instead, it leaks into the air.
01:26:15
This is problematic because natural gas is 80, that's eight zero, 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.
01:26:25
At present, the city of Charlottesville has no understanding of leaks in its natural gas supply.
01:26:32
The leak rate is certainly greater than zero.
01:26:34
And as a result, our city's climate change impact is larger than we currently acknowledge.
01:26:41
Second, our city's website highlights that our gas utility invests in carbon offsets through its gas supplier BP, formerly known as British Petroleum.
01:26:52
The suggestion is that while burning natural gas, we compensate for the associated emissions by taking carbon out of the air somewhere else in the world.
01:27:03
The Charlottesville city's website touts the carbon offsets as, quote, permanent.
01:27:09
a term lifted directly from BP's website.
01:27:12
Unfortunately, some of BP's permanent offsets are not actually very permanent.
01:27:18
For instance, some of BP's carbon offsets are forests on the west coast of the United States.
01:27:25
Forests that have recently burned in pervasive climate drought driven fires, releasing their stored carbon back to the atmosphere.
01:27:35
In short, we should not assume that continued operation of our natural gas supply is responsible.
01:27:41
We tell ourselves we have a modest measured climate impact.
01:27:46
The reality is certainly something more significant and irresponsible.
01:27:51
I urge the city to initiate planning for the phase out of gas service.
01:27:55
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
01:28:00
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:28:02
Our next speaker is Sally Duncan, who will be followed by John Earl.
01:28:06
Sally, you're on with counsel, and you've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_07
01:28:10
Good evening.
01:28:10
I'm Sally Duncan, and I'm a community resident.
01:28:13
I'm also commenting on the Lincoln Project Tiki Torch Stunt from Friday.
01:28:16
I'm asking for you all to consider writing a letter to the Lincoln Project demanding an apology for their actions, as well as for them to donate money to the Integrity First for America Fund, which is the group suing the organizers of the Unite the Right rally or other equity funds, as was previously mentioned.
01:28:33
I saw the Lincoln Project picture of the people dressed in the khaki uniform holding the tiki torches in front of the Yunkin bus while I was listening to the victims of the torch rally courageously give their testimony in court.
01:28:45
That picture was one of the most appalling things I've seen and I was a witness to the Unite the Right rally so I have seen a lot of appalling things.
01:28:52
It's just incredibly inappropriate for an organization to come and use this community's pain to score cheap political points and to do it during the trial is even more tasteless.
01:29:02
Defending a community and holding people accountable for causing pain doesn't just have to happen in the court of law.
01:29:08
It can also be done in the court of public opinion.
01:29:10
The Lincoln Project should be held accountable for what they did and for their threat to return and do it again.
01:29:15
A letter from the city of Charlottesville demanding an apology and monetary restitution would make it clear that the pain that people experienced in standing up to hate is important and should be tended to and cared for and not exploited.
01:29:28
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
01:29:31
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:29:35
and our 14th speaker is John Ertl, who will be followed by Roy Van Doren.
01:29:40
John, you're on with council and you've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_31
01:29:43
Greetings and thank you.
01:29:44
My name is John Ertl.
01:29:45
I live in Charlottesville and I'm a representative of the Amalgamated Transit Union or ATU.
01:29:50
I would like to speak to council again regarding a public sector collective bargaining ordinance.
01:29:55
I want to first thank city council on its recent and unanimous vote to direct the city manager to establish a collective bargaining ordinance for our city.
01:30:03
This sent a strong message that council is deeply invested in doing right by its employees by granting them the fundamental right to bargain collectively.
01:30:12
Since that vote, however, we all know the city manager of course is left.
01:30:15
And as we understand it, it may take some time to find a permanent replacement.
01:30:19
As such, the progress has stopped on this important initiative.
01:30:23
I've been working closely with city employees at CAT and they are deeply concerned that this may result in a long delay for them to be able to get to the bargaining table to negotiate their first union contract.
01:30:34
Brian Stallings, one of our organizing committee members was going to testify tonight, but he had a family emergency and cannot participate.
01:30:41
But Brian has roughly 19 years of service at CAT.
01:30:44
Like many of his colleagues, he has to work three jobs to pay the bills.
01:30:47
Brian wanted me to stress to you that justice delayed is justice denied, and that workers cannot wait until the following fiscal year to get started on collective bargaining.
01:30:57
So I'm here tonight in the hopes of once again, jumpstarting this process.
01:31:01
I am proud to report that a majority of employees out of the Charlottesville Area Transit Bargaining Unit have signed union authorization cards to signify their desire to join ATU.
01:31:11
The CAT bargaining unit includes employees in the following job classifications, transit operators, relief operators, transit operator leads, transportation operator supervisors, school bus aides, transit maintenance workers, transit bus technicians,
01:31:26
Admin Assistants 1 and 2, Customer Service Representatives, Customer Service Supervisors, Transit Safety, Security and Training Personnel, Accountant and Senior Accountant and Marketing Coordinators.
01:31:38
So pursuant to Virginia Code Section 40.1-57.2, the ATU is hereby requesting recognition as the representative of the before mentioned employees.
01:31:50
And we ask that City Council promptly
01:31:53
adopt an ordinance to enact a strong collective bargaining law for city employees.
01:31:58
I have prepared such an ordinance and have submitted it to the council's clerk for your consideration.
01:32:02
This ordinance took what was best from all the other ordinances out there and it creates a straightforward and practical approach for how our city could administer this new system and I believe it directly addresses the concerns raised by city officials previously.
01:32:16
Many of our members at CAT have to work upwards of 60 hours a week to survive, and even then many of them still can't afford to live in the city that they serve.
01:32:24
These workers have been told ad nauseum that they are essential workers, heroes even, which of course they are, and the recognition of which has been long overdue.
01:32:32
But at this point, we should do what so many other localities have done and enable collective bargaining.
01:32:37
It's the right thing for our city.
01:32:39
It's the right thing for our community.
01:32:40
So I again ask for city council to take the next step, do right by its employees and promptly pass a strong collective bargaining ordinance.
01:32:47
We stand ready to help in this process.
01:32:49
And I can explain any part of the bill that I wrote, if anybody would like to take me up on that.
01:32:55
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:32:59
And our 15th speaker is Roy Van Dorn, who will be followed by Amalia Garcia Pretelt.
01:33:05
Roy, you're on with counsel.
01:33:06
You've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_35
01:33:09
Good evening.
01:33:10
At the last board meeting of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitor Bureau, their board voted unanimously on a proposal to realign the board membership, kind of in concert with other convention and visit bureaus.
01:33:24
Counselor Hill and Paramount's Chris Ewer
01:33:28
were instrumental in the thorough examination of this issue and the creation of an outstanding proposal.
01:33:36
There should be a council resolution soon that proposes a change in this board makeup.
01:33:43
I just want to report that the industry is unified in their support of this resolution.
01:33:48
I want to publicly thank Councillor Hill for her hard work and her statesmanship.
01:33:55
A job well done.
01:33:56
Thank you.
01:33:58
Speaking of the hospitality industry, I wanted to report to you that our independent restaurant industry remains in dire straits.
01:34:07
We all know about the COVID debt load they are carrying as well as skyrocketing menu ingredient cost increases.
01:34:15
But the reality is that almost every independent table service restaurant can only operate today at a 50 to 70 percent of normal volumes due to staffing shortage.
01:34:26
which makes the ability to pull themselves out of past debt almost impossible.
01:34:32
Now winter is coming.
01:34:35
Some of our restaurants received federal ARPA funds.
01:34:38
Most did not.
01:34:40
Two of those who did not just closed.
01:34:44
More is coming.
01:34:46
If independent restaurants are an important part of this community, I urge the city to examine using undesignated ARPA funds
01:34:56
to help those who did not receive federal ARPA funds.
01:35:01
No fault of their own, federal funds were 65% short funding vetted applicants.
01:35:10
Lastly, I would like to recommend that the City Council examine and rename the Council Leader from Mayor to Chair and that Vice Mayor to Vice Chair, both similar to what Albemarle County does.
01:35:27
The vast majority outside of this community do not understand that the Charlottesville term mayor means the chairperson of the city council and it is not the community elected person that represents the community and manages the city.
01:35:45
Over the past years, many persons elected as the mayor of the council have used this as their bully pulpit outside the community.
01:35:55
Free speech, of course, is our constitutional right.
01:35:59
Yet using the term mayor to communicate to others outside our community is perceived to represent the sentiment of the city.
01:36:08
Public policy should be communicated based on council consensus and not the views of one individual.
01:36:17
Thank you for your consideration.
SPEAKER_20
01:36:21
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:36:23
and our last speaker at this portion of the meeting is Amalia Garcia Pretelt.
01:36:28
Amalia, you're on with counsel and you've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_40
01:36:32
Hi, thank you.
01:36:33
My name is Amalia Garcia and I live on Arlington Boulevard.
01:36:36
I am currently a law student at the University of Virginia and I graduated undergrad from UVA in 2019.
01:36:45
I'm here to talk to you guys about the University Police Department's decision to increase patrolling around the corner area
01:36:53
and surrounding areas including where community members live.
01:36:57
I was one of the authors of a letter signed on by over 120 students and several student organizations including the executive board of student council calling for the university police department to rescind its decision to increase patrolling.
01:37:12
The university in its response completely dismissed our concerns
01:37:18
especially about our lack of trust in Chief Tim Longo.
01:37:22
It's clear to us that the community does not trust Chief Longo and does not trust the University Police Department.
01:37:29
We do not need more policing to solve the issues of violent crime in the city.
01:37:35
Violent crime can be addressed by increasing affordable housing, increasing access to mental health care, and other forms of social entitlement
01:37:47
programs rather than subjecting black and brown residents of these communities to racist policing.
01:37:57
Students of color have in the past raised issues with the university police department.
01:38:03
I think that what needs to happen is that the city has to review its relationship and its mutual agreement with the university police department and consider reducing the jurisdiction of the university police department.
01:38:15
Right now there are several neighborhoods that are double police because the University Police Department has jurisdiction over them as well as the Charlottesville Police Department.
01:38:24
I think we all know that policing in this community is in crisis and if students can't get a response from University Police Department who are allegedly supposed to serve them and not parents who don't live here who call concerned about isolated incidences of violence
01:38:42
I think that the city has to step up and review its agreement with the University Police Department and consider rescinding its jurisdiction.
01:38:51
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
01:38:52
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
01:38:58
Thank you, Mayor Walker.
SPEAKER_25
01:38:59
All right.
01:39:04
Counselors, any comments?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
01:39:14
Mayor Walker, I just want to touch on a couple of things.
01:39:17
One, Ms.
01:39:17
Anderson started us off by talking and referencing the mental health crisis task force that
01:39:26
that she was helping to chair along with Vice Mayor McGill that I was also on.
01:39:33
I noted that just in the last couple days there was a story in the Charlottesville Daily Progress about how Lynchburg is asking to make it part of the legislative agenda for their legislators to address this kind of issue
01:39:50
and we had talked a little bit about that and we'll be talking I hope more I think the legislative agenda is going to come up at our first meeting in December and I think we may try to add something about that to our to our legislative agenda for our legislators as well so I just wanted to to let Ms.
01:40:10
Anderson know that I think we will be doing something about that with the focus primarily for now because that's the limiting factor
01:40:18
on state law, and state law has got to change.
01:40:23
The second thing that I wanted to comment on was the number of people who talked about the Lincoln Project.
01:40:33
And I find people who are not from Charlottesville don't realize the extent to which I think Charlottesville is still suffering from PTSD.
01:40:48
from that experience four years ago and how even the TV ads that we're seeing are triggering for a lot of people in Charlottesville.
01:41:00
And the so-called prank that the Lincoln Project thought they were pulling for publicity was just incomprehensible to me.
01:41:13
And I agree with people who
01:41:17
are outraged by it.
01:41:19
I don't know.
01:41:19
I think particularly if the Lincoln Project is thinking they're going to do it again, I absolutely want to let them know that that is not welcome.
01:41:32
The Lincoln Project, as you may know, is a group of former Republicans who are sort of driven out of the party by Trumpian things.
01:41:44
And they're a political action committee that
01:41:47
that works against Trump and so on.
01:41:51
And while I agree with much of what they're trying to do, this particular example was just was just awful.
01:41:58
And I think we need to make sure that we we do have that we do have a response.
01:42:03
So those are my comments for now.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
01:42:04
I was just going to comment on the second piece as well.
01:42:09
And just I would I would support I'm happy to work with my colleagues on whatever
01:42:14
kind of response we want to provide, because I agree.
01:42:16
I don't think this is something that's implied in some of the things that I've read that they aren't done.
01:42:20
And so I think it's important that we are really clear that this is not something that's welcome and truly distasteful.
SPEAKER_22
01:42:34
Any other comments?
01:42:40
Let's see.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
01:42:47
During the comments about the future land use map, I know that we've attempted to make sure people understand the changes that would need to take place in the zoning ordinance, but it doesn't seem like that people are really understanding that.
01:43:08
And then it may also be helpful for
01:43:16
the conversation around what developers have been able to do and in which neighborhoods to also be a part of this conversation.
01:43:24
I didn't have the numbers from like the 10th and Page area for the LLCs, which is separate from me for the future land use map.
01:43:34
But it's just interesting
01:43:37
what can happen in a predominantly black neighborhood.
01:43:41
And even the people that we hear the most from, I mean, just count how often you've heard from black citizens in Charlottesville regarding this future land use map.
01:43:51
And that's because we often think whatever's going to happen is just going to happen.
01:43:57
And no one listens anyway, but it's interesting the way citizens are using that.
01:44:02
But if those numbers are true, which I don't know those numbers, that's concerning for another
01:44:07
another reason I think we all know we're going to have to be or you all are going to have to be really intentional to make sure that the adopted comprehensive plan the results of past comprehensive plans are different and that the affordable housing piece is you know becomes a
01:44:34
component of everything you all vote on.
01:44:36
And there's been a major struggle with that to date, thinking that any housing is the best housing and some of or is better housing than none.
01:44:45
And I have said the entire time that I don't think that's the case.
01:44:49
And I still don't.
01:44:50
And we're seeing the results of that.
01:44:51
And some of the people that are speaking on that, that's what they are talking about, things that you all have even voted on
01:44:59
the current council members.
01:45:01
And so just be more mindful of that.
01:45:04
That was one thought.
01:45:20
The point about the CACBB, there wasn't a unanimous vote because we didn't have the ability to vote on it.
01:45:29
The Board of Supervisors and the City of Charlottesville City Council will have to vote on it.
01:45:34
So it was a policy that has been worked on to come before both boards.
01:45:43
And even though I don't agree with Mr. Van Doren's assessment of the structure of government, I will support again that it does need to change and that the power that resides in the city manager does need to be elected position versus what he's proposing, it become
01:46:03
a title change and that title change is going to be unhelpful.
01:46:08
It would be unhelpful for a person like me in a position no matter what since his comments were generally geared towards me because my power again did not come from a title and that is what people have
01:46:24
had confused this entire time that I've been with.
01:46:27
It's because I'm a brilliant black woman and I will fight in a way most people don't.
01:46:33
And so that is one, but the structure of government does need to change and you all should look at that.
01:46:38
It was looked at before, I think 2004 was the last time.
01:46:42
And I'll say it again, an individual with that much power needs to be in elected position.
01:46:47
I don't think it's gonna change much.
01:46:49
We see this election that's going on now with individuals
01:46:54
raising more than $100,000 apiece from the Democratic Party to primarily get me out of office when I raised, I think, $26,000, $27,000 and Heather and Amy raised around like, you know, $47,000, $48,000.
01:47:05
So it's telling there.
01:47:14
what this election cycle meant to people, and that needs to be addressed also.
01:47:18
So there are some things to address, but where my perceived power comes from isn't one of them.
01:47:27
I agree that the UPD, the policies in place
01:47:34
need to be looked at, those MOUs.
01:47:37
And the feedback that I've got primarily from people just posting and tagging me on Facebook has been that 10th and Page, not 10th and Page, sorry, the 12th Street, Grady Avenue area.
01:47:51
That's where they've been seeing the increase in
01:47:56
the UVA presence and the whole double policing is problematic.
01:48:07
And so that does need to be looked at.
01:48:14
As far as the Lincoln Project,
01:48:17
And I don't have many comments there, but I do want to look at your comments and understand that there are people in this community who have pain and trauma and suffering long before 2017.
01:48:30
And I think because of it's a hard topic.
01:48:39
whether there's authentic concern, whatever between those two variations, it may be fully understanding that the trauma that some people have had for centuries that have been passed down.
01:48:52
And if you understand that whole process of the stories being passed down through generations,
01:48:58
and the hurt and heartache and pain being passed down even at a cellular level, that is the main problem that we need to focus on in this community.
01:49:10
Not saying that whatever you all think the response needs to be to what happened last week, but also understanding that there are people who, again, who did you hear from about the Lincoln Project?
01:49:22
and why did August 2017 Summer of Hate happen?
01:49:27
Who did like the Klan and affect then?
01:49:33
And who is narrating the storyline now?
01:49:36
That's concerning, no matter how good your intentions are.
01:49:40
And it needs to be looked at.
01:49:42
And even the time I've been here, screaming it very loudly, haven't heard it clearly.
01:49:49
All right.
01:49:52
Those are my comments.
01:49:54
Any other comments?
01:49:56
Oh, Ms.
01:49:58
Hudson's, I think it was her.
01:50:02
I'm sure it was her.
01:50:03
It was nobody else.
01:50:04
But, you know, I thought, you know what, I don't want to inflame anything.
01:50:10
So I'm actually going to save these until the end.
01:50:13
My last comment at the end of the night.
01:50:17
I'll hold on that.
SPEAKER_25
01:50:19
Any other comments?
SPEAKER_20
01:50:24
No?
SPEAKER_25
01:50:25
All right.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
01:50:26
So we'll break until 829.
01:50:32
Is that?
01:50:32
No.
01:50:32
30.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
01:50:32
30.
01:50:34
Listen, that's a challenge.
01:50:41
You all know.
01:50:41
15 minutes.
SPEAKER_25
02:06:36
Councilor Payne, are you back?
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:06:44
Call this meeting back to order.
Closing, vacating and discontinuing a portion (0.038 acre) of the public street right-of-way for Seminole Court (1st of 2 readings)
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:06:48
Next up, we have a public hearing and ordinance.
02:06:51
It's in closing, vacating and discontinuing a portion, 0.038 acre of the public street right away of Seminole Court.
02:07:02
It's the first of two readings.
Lisa Robertson
City Attorney
02:07:12
The memo in your agenda packet advises that Seminole Square is being redeveloped and a site plan for that redevelopment project is under review within the Department of Neighborhood Development Services.
02:07:35
And as part of that review,
02:07:39
One thing that was noted is that there is a small portion of about .03 acre, which is about a little bit over 1500 square feet of Seminole Court that is in the shape of sort of a bump out.
02:08:03
And if you're familiar with the shopping center in question, it's a
02:08:08
It's a portion of the dedicated public right-of-way that's kind of just in front of the tire store that's in the shopping center there.
02:08:17
It's across the street from that.
02:08:20
And one of the objectives of the site plan process is to even out the right-of-way line along Seminole Courts that it coincides with the right-of-way line work on Hillsdale Drive.
02:08:38
So the process that is required for council to review this is to have a public hearing and then to take a vote on the ordinance that is presented within the packet which sets out that the right-of-way is being closed and vacated and discontinued
02:09:05
and once council finishes its review and takes a final vote on the ordinance then our office will work with the developers to prepare a deed of vacation so that if you approve it it'll be reflected in the city's land records.
SPEAKER_25
02:09:31
Okay.
02:09:34
Counselors, are there any questions at this point?
02:09:37
All right.
02:09:42
Mr. Willow, we'll open the public hearing.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
02:09:46
Thank you, Mayor Walker.
02:09:46
If you're in the audience and you'd like to address counsel during this public hearing, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.
02:09:55
Each speaker would get up to three minutes.
02:10:01
And I do not see any hands raised.
SPEAKER_25
02:10:06
I'll close the public hearing.
02:10:09
Councilors, are there any comments at this point?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:10:16
Mayor Walker, one question I had.
02:10:19
Is there anything of value to the city that we are giving up in doing this?
Lisa Robertson
City Attorney
02:10:32
Nothing of value has been identified by any of the various departments who review these types of requests.
02:10:41
And the area itself, it's in the shape, what it looks like really is just an area that may at some time in the distant past have been an area that was suitable for something like a commercial entrance to, so it's
02:11:02
It's really not even it's not very much property.
02:11:05
And honestly, it just it looks like the beginning of a driveway that has been cut off.
02:11:12
And so the right of way line for the court follows a fairly straight line and then it sort of bumps out in the shape of like a quadrangle and then comes back.
02:11:23
So it's it's a very small area of land.
02:11:26
It's not particularly
02:11:31
babbled in the context of the redevelopment of the shopping center.
02:11:35
And it's just an odd shape of things for the Department of Public Works to keep track of for purposes of maintenance.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:11:48
I assume that we didn't actually buy it from anybody.
02:11:52
It was given over as part of the subdivision process when they developed the entire shopping center.
SPEAKER_38
02:11:59
Yes.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:12:02
If we had paid for it at some point, the notion of just giving it away would be different, but we haven't really done that.
SPEAKER_38
02:12:09
Yes.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
02:12:11
Mayor Walker, if we could ask one more time to see if there are any hands to speak during the public hearing.
02:12:17
I think I had that feature off at the time when I asked, and then we'll know if we need to reopen the public hearing.
02:12:25
If there's anyone in the audience who would like to speak and you weren't able to earlier, please click the raise hand icon now.
02:12:34
Okay, just wanted to double check.
02:12:36
Thank you.
02:12:37
Sorry about that.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:12:39
Thank you.
02:12:41
And, you know, this is one of those times where I think whether we have paid for it or not, if it can, you know, depending on the developer's project, I know from meetings that we had a couple years ago, their intention around affordable housing, but it also wasn't clear at that time.
02:13:01
I still think that things like this
02:13:04
can be used as leverage to make sure that our goals are met.
02:13:10
And I don't know what stage that happens in, but, you know, that's the type of thing that I've been seeing for, you know, past 1400 some days.
02:13:21
And so I hope that we are using that in any way that we can.
Lisa Robertson
City Attorney
02:13:25
I do think that on occasion, particularly,
02:13:32
I think the last occasion in which you all had a frank discussion about payment was when the Brandon Avenue closing came forward.
02:13:45
And that was an example of a public right-of-way that had not only been platted but also had been improved and had been maintained by the city for some period of years.
02:13:56
It was actually an improved public street.
02:14:01
What I see in this particular plat is that this what I'm calling a bump out really hasn't ever been improved or improved by the city or really contributed in any way to the actual travel within the right of way for Seminole Court and so I'm not even sure if the city
02:14:24
has been maintaining it but arguably if it were improved since it's today it is public right-of-way the city would technically have that obligation but you do from time to time particularly when someone's asking the city to give up a public street that's not only been platted but it's actually been accepted for maintenance into the city street system there are statutes that
02:14:54
specifically provide that you may request compensation for those types of street vacations.
02:15:16
So I think this is a first reading tonight and the agenda memo indicates that it would move to the November 15th agenda for your actual vote.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:15:29
And this is another until the developers is presented in later phase, we don't actually know what this portion will be used, how they will use it.
Lisa Robertson
City Attorney
02:15:47
No, and it's in relation to the size of the parcels that adjoin each side of Seminole Court, it's a very, very small area.
02:16:06
As I said, it's about 1,500 square feet, a little bit more than that.
02:16:12
So it's not an area that you could actually
02:16:15
build something on and that square footage isn't really going to result in additional development density or rights in relation to the size of the parcels themselves.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:16:39
Councilors, any other comments?
02:16:42
And this is to be moved to the consent for second reading.
02:16:52
Works for me.
02:16:57
All right.
02:17:00
My only comment, so I won't lose it, was that the Brandon Avenue project and since the whole West Main Street project and UVA did give money for that, I just want to make sure that's on someone's radar to, you know, and that was part of the negotiations with Atlanta, what happens to that money now that the West Main Street streetscape
02:17:22
maybe doesn't go, you know, isn't going through.
02:17:25
That should still be a discussion with UVA.
02:17:28
I brought it up before a couple months ago, but I want to make sure that people just don't forget about that.
Food Equity Initiative annual report and resolution of support (1 reading)
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:17:32
Next up, we have a resolution for the equity initiative annual report and resolution of support.
02:17:42
It's one reading.
Misty Graves
Interim Director of Human Services
02:17:47
Good evening, Mayor Walker and members of council.
02:17:50
My name is Misty.
02:17:51
I'm the interim director of the Department of Human Services, and I am here to introduce the Cultivate Charlottesville staff who are going to provide you with their year-end report on their second year of the food equity initiative, and I've been the staff contact for this body of work for the last two years, and I think that through their report, you'll see that they've been
02:18:15
excellent stewards of the city's investment in the food equity initiative and they're going to recap their movement on objectives that were set out when the food equity initiative was first initiated and then they're also going to preview the FY23 food equity goals and they'll close with the recommendations for moving forward.
SPEAKER_36
02:18:55
As others have noted, I'd like to take a moment to recognize our friends, our neighbors participating in the ongoing trial, which we hope will hold the organizers of the Unite the Right rally accountable for the violence they inflicted on our community.
02:19:10
Our hearts go out to the plaintiffs that are bravely telling and reliving their experiences.
02:19:15
The legacy of racism in our community is a thread that ties us together, whether it happened four years ago on August 11th and 12th or 400 years ago.
02:19:26
These practices directly and indirectly connect to inequity across systems, including our food system.
02:19:33
We stand in solidarity and aim to grow in our ability to practice racial equity.
02:19:39
Thank you, Misty, for introducing us and for being an engaged and effective city partner.
02:19:45
Hello, Mayor Walker, city councilors.
02:19:47
We're grateful for this opportunity to meet with you today and present these results from our second full year of partnering on the Charlottesville food equity initiatives.
02:19:58
Today's presentation will briefly go over the highlights from our report against objectives, which begins on page 30 of your agenda packet.
02:20:07
We'll have specific focus on as we have in the past on community engagement, share an overview of our budget to actual and look at plans for next year.
02:20:16
There will be two action items for our meeting today.
02:20:18
A resolution request to continue the food equity initiative partnership and funding beyond our current three year agreement for another three year term and a discussion for proposed food equity fund outlined in the final appendix starting on page 74 of your agenda package.
02:20:41
We believe that food is a human right and we operate from that perspective that everyone, all Charlottesville residents deserve access to fresh produce and high quality food.
02:21:00
I'd like to introduce you briefly to the Food Justice Network team.
02:21:04
We have Bria Williams.
02:21:06
She's the new FJN program director.
02:21:09
She wasn't able to join us today, but we're excited to have her stepping into leadership to do this work.
02:21:16
She grew up in Charlottesville, attended Howard University, and served as a teacher in CCS system over the past few years.
02:21:25
We also have Tamara Wright, Community Advocate Lead, Gabby Levitt, Food Equity Policy Advocate and Organizer, Jeanette Abbinator, our Co-Executive Director.
02:21:39
This is our core FJN team.
02:21:44
but we also have staff who primarily work on other programs who are engaged with FDN over this past year.
02:21:51
They include Alfred Shirley.
02:21:53
He's a youth in leadership and food justice coordinator.
02:21:57
Brianna Patton, the urban agriculture associate.
02:22:00
She focuses on our lands liberation campaign.
02:22:03
Aline Carriage, outreach and resource program director and myself, Richard Morris, co-executive director.
02:22:11
So what is food equity?
02:22:14
It's an outcome in which all residents have equal opportunity to acquire, own, profit, and share good food that meets our nutritional and cultural needs.
Jeanette Abi-Nader
02:22:30
The Food Equity Initiative is a partnership that cultivates Food Justice Network has with the city.
02:22:36
We bring together private, public, and nonprofit partners to work in these unique and complementary ways, focusing on five core city
02:22:44
areas functions that intersect transportation, affordable housing, urban agriculture, neighborhood food access, and healthy school foods.
02:22:55
Earlier this year, we presented council with the food equity initiative policy platform, which born out of those five core areas.
02:23:02
And then after two years of getting community feedback, we pulled together the recommendations between community members, meetings with city departments in these six areas, these six planks.
02:23:13
and you'll see these logos, these images come up throughout as we talk about our work over this past year.
02:23:24
Today's report as are ones in the past start with report against objectives so these are the initial objectives that we agreed to when we established this partnership and the report walks through each of these and shows different numbers.
02:23:38
We'll highlight some of those today but I just wanted to share the categories.
02:23:43
as well as the section on the COVID that was added last year, the report against objectives on our COVID goals.
02:23:54
So the report highlights we were bringing to the surface seven key accomplishments over the past year that we wanted to recognize.
02:24:04
As mentioned, we launched the food equity initiative policy platform.
02:24:08
There
02:24:09
The number has already changed since we put these slides together.
02:24:12
I think we're up to about 290 signatures on the platform expressing support for that.
02:24:17
So that has been a big process over this past year, not only of launching the platform, but doing many different community circles to talk about it, to refine it, to make sure that there's alignment with it.
02:24:28
Secondly, our team was very active with the city comprehensive planning process.
02:24:32
Prior to this, the planning process only the city comprehensive plan only mentioned food once and in terms of hunger.
02:24:39
and so now we've incorporated in partnership with the Seville Plans Together team 65 changes to the plan that speak to food equity at various levels in one of the chapters and principles in actions as well as in measurables.
02:24:54
Third, we hosted last November a network-wide upgrading racism capacity building for 143 participants and this was across I think 30 organizations that participated so working together to have common language around what
02:25:08
Racial Equity in the Food System looks like, as well as hosting a six-month accountability circles for 12 organizations.
02:25:17
Number four is city staff engagement.
02:25:18
This year we engaged with 10 departments and we'll show you those profiles briefly and talked with 22 staff members about their food equity plans.
02:25:26
And to be honest, there was not a ton of progress towards those goals with the exception of the Office of Economic Development and some of the other ones because of COVID, but there's just a lot of them.
02:25:37
commitment to that, and so that was really good.
02:25:40
Number five, contributed subject expertise is one of the goals in terms of participating in nine partner coalitions and giving 13 presentations representing the city of Charlottesville and our food equity work.
02:25:51
And then six is our ongoing grassroots program, not only that Cultivate does through our three programs, through City Square Garden, the Urban Agriculture Collective, and the Food Justice Network, but through many of our partners and the work that they do.
02:26:04
And then we were also involved in a six-month
02:26:06
National Cohort of Heal Foods Alliance School of Political Leadership.
02:26:11
So those are the accomplishments that we brought up, and this just, Richard, I'll pass it to you.
SPEAKER_36
02:26:18
As mentioned, the food justice movement is strategic power building.
02:26:22
This slide shows community engagement since our last report.
02:26:26
Our role is to act as a bridge with community by taking time to listen to what the community wants, amplifying that at city level and then engaging in partnership to keep all of the city and school departments accountable.
02:26:42
This slide shows some of the numbers of what that community engagement looks like.
02:26:48
It's not as robust as previous years because of COVID, but even in spite of COVID, we still were able to make some progress with community engagement.
02:27:05
In addition to community engagement around our core food equity work, we have continued to play a centralizing stakeholder role in coordinating communication and outreach around COVID food resources.
02:27:17
These numbers indicate the many ways community has been engaged in this process reporting and this reporting is from October through September.
02:27:28
The launch of the Food Equity Initiative Policy Platform this spring has been a significant way for us to engage community in our work by pulling together and articulating key priorities.
02:27:39
This shows some numbers of how the people have been engaged in the October update of the platform that is in the agenda packet.
Jeanette Abi-Nader
02:27:49
We wanted to break down a little bit of the changes that have been incorporated into the comprehensive plan process.
02:27:56
And this here highlights two of our staff that were on the steering committee.
02:28:00
We had community members engaged at every meeting.
02:28:02
And then I mentioned already the recommendations.
02:28:05
And this next page breaks down what category those recommendations are in.
02:28:09
So most of them are in the environment, climate, and food equity chapter.
02:28:13
But as the blue circles indicated, the work intersects many different ways.
02:28:18
There's also recommendations in housing, land use, transportation, all of those areas.
02:28:24
Your packet goes through and highlights what each of the changes were, and these are some of the top priorities that are mentioned here.
02:28:33
Adding the environment, climate, food equity chapter, being present in some of the top priority areas, the strategies, having 20 progress measures for accountability.
02:28:43
This was really important, and I really appreciate this
02:28:46
portion of the comprehensive plan, including ways to measure against our goals and vision.
02:28:52
And then the seven chapters that include food equity strategies.
02:28:59
As I mentioned, we met with 10 different city departments to look at what their food equity plans look like.
02:29:07
We didn't have these finalized before we turned in our packet.
02:29:10
So we just wanted to take a minute to show these to you.
02:29:13
So each of the departments have
02:29:17
an action plan that looks like this.
02:29:18
It outlines the food equity goals.
02:29:20
It has a vision statement.
02:29:22
And then that's the top two squares.
02:29:25
The bottom square is a combination of recommendations from community members as well as from the department themselves.
02:29:30
And then over on the right, the white box indicates progress towards their goals for this particular year.
02:29:38
So all 10 of these are updated and we'll send this to you tomorrow morning so that you can look at these closer.
02:29:50
I want to make a special notice here.
02:29:54
This is neighborhood development services, public works, parks and rec for after school meals and then the office of human rights is a new one.
02:30:05
We had an opportunity to meet with Todd and establish this goal as well as meeting with the Charlottesville fire department and looking at those goals.
02:30:15
The next section that we wanted to just highlight in our slides but not go into too much detail
02:30:20
are our food equity and inclusion indicators.
02:30:23
As you know, Chantel set up this really complex matrix at the beginning of the project to highlight what goals were really helped to move the needle around equity.
02:30:32
And so we've been working to track those.
02:30:35
And they're in the five categories that we presented in the beginning.
02:30:38
So healthy school foods.
02:30:40
And you'll see each of the metrics that are here in the middle.
02:30:43
have which partner they align with.
02:30:45
And then if it's green, it means there's been progress towards that metric.
02:30:49
And if it's red, that means that there has been a backslide.
02:30:52
So you'll see with urban agriculture, one of the main challenges of this past year has been that we've lost all three sites where the Urban Agriculture Collective was doing urban farming in public or subsidized housing.
02:31:03
And that's what that red is indicating there.
02:31:11
affordable housing, neighborhood food access, and transportation.
02:31:17
And then we added one for the food security response with COVID.
02:31:21
I want to just take a minute just to show the budget.
02:31:26
So the overall budget for the Food Justice Network for this past year, for fiscal year 21, and we kind of finangled this to try to match our fiscal year goes from July, but this program
02:31:38
started in October.
02:31:40
So the reporting period for this has been October to September.
02:31:43
So the overall budget for the Food Justice Network has been about $400,000.
02:31:47
$155,000 of that was what the Food Equity Initiative contributed, and this is how it broke down.
02:31:53
And you'll note that the majority of the budget goes towards staffing.
02:31:58
It's about 77% when you add those top two lines, which is our regular full-time staff and program support includes the food justice interns.
02:32:06
community advocates and other positions like that.
02:32:08
And this is reflective of what Richard was mentioning earlier, that our work is about power building, about relationships.
02:32:17
It's a movement on which relationship building and community engagement is critical.
02:32:20
And so most of our efforts go toward that staff.
02:32:24
Our overall budget for the organization for this upcoming year is $1,322,000.
02:32:29
And so that kind of puts into perspective this particular program is about one third of that.
02:32:36
a little less than one third.
02:32:42
As we are currently in the fiscal year 22 ongoing actions for this particular year include continuing with the community leadership aspects.
02:32:51
Our community advocates program was quite small last year due to COVID and so we're hoping this year to have a more robust program.
02:32:59
Continuing with the food equity initiative policy platform and hosting more community feedback circles
02:33:05
Looking at the two core issues that we'll be discussing with you later, the Food Equity Fund and dedicated urban agriculture land.
02:33:12
We want to continue to engage in the city planning processes, if that means the strategic plan.
02:33:17
If Parks and Rec ends up launching their strategic plan, we will be sure to engage in those and work with the departments.
02:33:24
As you have heard before, we're working on a five-year healthy schools plan with the Charlottesville City Schools, and so we'll continue to dig into that work.
02:33:32
and then the COVID work continuing with our calendars and text service.
02:33:42
You're on mute, Richard.
SPEAKER_36
02:33:46
The two items for discussion today include a resolution to continue the Food Equity Initiative Partnership and funding for fiscal years 23, 24, 25.
02:33:55
The fiscal year 23 proposed memo that goes with the resolution are included in the virtual handout we sent earlier today.
02:34:03
You can find that on page 33 of the agenda packet.
02:34:06
And item number two, discussion of establishment of Charlottesville Food Equity Fund, which is on the final page of your packet.
02:34:13
I believe that's page 74.
02:34:22
This is some of our funders for the work that we do.
02:34:30
And I would just like to extend a thank you to Council for your support and to the City of Charlottesville and its residents.
SPEAKER_25
02:34:43
Thank you all for that report.
02:34:47
Councilors, are there any questions?
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:34:56
No, I mean, I know for one, I've had the opportunity to meet with the team in a longer form basis to kind of go through some of these things.
02:35:02
And in the meantime, did confirm because there was some questions around the budget and the source of budget that this is now in our general fund budget as a line item.
02:35:12
And so what I thought was at first a matter of us having to find the funding, if council chooses to support this, it's actually something that's already in the base plan for our budget.
02:35:30
which is the first part, the second part is a whole different, the second ask is a much more longer term thing, but I'm talking about the one that we've been doing.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:35:45
So I just, I have to think about it a bit more, but I'm thinking about the vibrant communities, everything that competes in that, of course, maybe these comments
02:36:00
at the initial funding request and didn't report just out of some concerns then.
02:36:10
But I don't think we look at things holistically
02:36:14
when we're talking about budget and whether it's in there as a line item now or not, you do still have to look at all the other things, which I think we should be looking at.
02:36:25
Also, I've had those questions every budget cycle about what ends up as a general fund versus what comes in as a vibrant community request.
02:36:36
And I just have some concerns
02:36:42
some concerns there about just process, nothing at all to do with the work that you all are doing.
02:36:51
I think, and I've said before, when I voted on it the second year, you all are, again, in terms of reporting, have one of the most thorough reports that we get.
02:37:00
And if everyone did that, we would have so much more information to make informed decisions from.
02:37:06
But I also think we have to look at
02:37:09
if we are adding this as a three-year item that the way other nonprofits have to compete for funding, I don't, I have some reservations there.
02:37:24
And so I'll reserve, I have comments for the second piece too, but I'll wait and see if there are any other comments.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:37:33
And I'm not sure, like, because that definitely came up during my conversations with Jeanette and Bria, just a question around
02:37:40
this initiative versus other initiatives because it's my understanding that the other initiatives that do actually go through the Vibrant Community Fund process.
02:37:48
But Jeanette Richter, do you want to just speak to just how this partnership is seen as differently just because of the role that the city does play actively in it?
02:37:55
I'm just kind of curious for you to share that publicly.
Jeanette Abi-Nader
02:37:58
Yeah, thank you for having me, Mayor Walker.
02:38:00
I forgot to mention it in our presentation and I meant to add a slide on it to break it down.
02:38:06
So we have applied for Vibrant grants
02:38:09
Vibrant communities funds before, but we have not this year or the last two years because of the food equity initiative.
02:38:15
But the way that we see the Vibrant communities funds is really about like programs that impact the community, like direct support programs and engagement.
02:38:24
And this program is seen as like a function of city support of a function of city government.
02:38:30
So in the initial envisioning of this program during the local food, local places,
02:38:35
Project, the idea was maybe we'll do this for three years and then the position can be folded into the city department, you know, as like we have parks and we have someone focusing on trails and someone focuses on climate, that there could be someone that focuses on urban agriculture.
02:38:49
So in reviewing it after these first three years, you know, the city's in no position to do that right now, but this is not meant to be
02:38:57
So yes, this funding, a couple things.
02:38:59
One, it's not meant to be long-term engagement as a community support like the schoolyard gardens are or the urban farm.
02:39:06
It's meant to be a support of city council connecting to community and nonprofits.
02:39:12
So helping the city do your work better and more engaged.
02:39:16
And if we go for another three years, perhaps we could discuss what that might look like if we were to fold some of these services into the community and have them be part of who we are as a city.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:39:30
I understand that and I respect it, but I don't think that would be any differently than the conversations that FAR, CRHA, the Conscious Capitalist, the conversation around the Buck Squad.
02:39:44
I just don't see funding, which I didn't support, but I'm just adding it all in.
02:39:49
I just don't see how those conversations would be different.
02:39:54
and if there's a different list than vibrant communities and there are some organizations that are contractual that I would give money to the food equity initiative before I gave money to them.
02:40:08
So I'm not at all saying that the way things are set up, it should not be set up.
02:40:12
I think that whole process needs to be reviewed.
02:40:15
And if there's a list of community partnerships that are doing the work that the city thinks is essential
02:40:21
that can't be done without that partnership, then that needs to be a separate list from the vibrant communities.
02:40:28
But the way things are set up now, I don't think that it's a fair process.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:40:48
Right now, there are no budget decisions that are made
02:40:51
tonight.
02:40:52
Anyway, I think it's just more just being aware of like where this falls in the budget right now and what decisions might need to be made or what signal that the council either now or the future council wants to give to staff to that end.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:41:04
Well, there's a call on the agenda.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:41:10
I'm just saying like at the end of the day, there's still going to be a review process through the budget cycle to confirm anything.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:41:19
Yes, Heather, but those items, you know, since we've been here, that are contractual, they have a different process than the other.
02:41:30
And so if this is in there as a line item, which you said when you started talking, then it's going to be viewed differently by staff and by counselors.
02:41:40
And some of the items we never even discuss.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:41:43
All I was doing was conveying to council what I learned since having my meeting with the group is that this is not something that was a request for something additional.
02:41:52
It is in the general fund.
02:41:53
It doesn't have to be in the general fund, but to take it out, we have to make a decision that that is not something that we are going to prioritize in the general fund.
02:42:00
I was just kind of trying to outline the information that has been gained since some of these one-on-one meetings happened around where the money is right now in our budget.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:42:16
The question that I've got, I guess, I looked at this, I tried to figure out what the resolution's role is.
02:42:29
Frankly, it appears to me to be an attempt to circumvent the budget process.
02:42:35
And I haven't seen one like this in the last year and a half, two years.
02:42:42
And it concerns me that
02:42:45
for many of the same reasons that Mayor Walker just mentioned.
02:42:50
I'm not fussing at the food equity initiative in particular, but it just seems like a very unusual way to do business.
02:42:58
And I haven't seen it before.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:43:02
So when this was initially when brought before us, it was for a three year commitment, and they were working very closely with Councilor Galvin at the time.
02:43:14
And so I don't think anybody's been trying to circumvent the process.
02:43:18
But as we move on to what the next three years or any time period in the future looks like, I think this is an important discussion to have.
02:43:27
And those were my concerns.
02:43:29
today and I just want to highlight again since I you know started this conversation that there are items line items that are contractual that we probably need to really look at whether those programs are serving the community well and I think that based on the work and quality of work
02:43:53
that this group does.
02:43:55
They should be prioritized, but if we are getting into a space where we're not looking at those contractual agencies holistically and vibrant communities holistically, which we haven't, even though there have been attempts to do it, we haven't done it yet, that is my concern.
02:44:14
And it has nothing to do with, I don't have any thoughts about
02:44:19
that this group is trying to do something other than the great work that they do.
02:44:25
But I do think this is something that council needs to think about a little bit more.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:44:32
And I agree with that.
02:44:33
And in the part of the Vibrant Community Fund discussions that we did have both the last two years, I've expressed the thought that things like legal aid and the drug court and so on ought not to be a part of the Vibrant Community Fund for essentially the same reasons.
02:44:51
But I share your concern that we ought to have a
02:44:58
a clear process and it ought to be clear why somebody fits under one category and not on another.
02:45:04
And I would go a little further to say we ought to have some process or some understanding of how we decide that some organization fits into one category versus another.
02:45:19
And it ought to be a part of the budget process, I would think.
02:45:22
I'm a little bit puzzled as to why we're getting it November 1st.
02:45:28
I don't know.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:45:29
So I think the performance management person that I've been asking for us to hire for the past few years, that would have helped with what you're asking for.
02:45:40
And I think in terms of just reporting, they are just reporting.
02:45:46
on their annual report.
02:45:47
The way this initially came to us was an out-of-cycle request, so they're not doing anything that we haven't accepted in the past, so it's not them.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:45:58
I'm just wondering about the resolution.
02:46:00
I've not seen a resolution like this.
02:46:03
Admittedly, I've only been on council for a little less than two years, but I just haven't seen it before.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:46:10
Yeah, no, the resolution, the two parts of it, and we haven't talked about the second part yet, but what they are asking for is this is the way that they were introduced to us in the past, so I don't think that them introducing, requesting three additional, you know, support for three additional years is
02:46:32
the issue because they've been able to do it before.
02:46:36
And since they are here and doing their annual report, it makes sense that some of the other requests that they have been talking about, the 2% meals tax, things like that, that it would come up now.
02:46:57
And there are a lot of areas that I have brought similar
02:47:01
the way that the sea scrap is administered and who gets the benefit and how long, which has been unpopular.
02:47:12
Like all of those things we haven't reviewed that need to be reviewed to make sure that they are fair and equitable, which is
02:47:19
again, a completely separate funding source than we're even talking about.
02:47:25
Well, it's still a general fund, so I guess it's not completely separate.
02:47:28
But those are the type of things I think we just need to look at more deeply.
02:47:34
And I'm just bringing that up because it's been one of those other things that I have kind of harped on that's been unpopular.
02:47:45
But I don't want this to be
02:47:48
seen as a criticism of the work that you all are doing at all.
Misty Graves
Interim Director of Human Services
02:47:53
I think I'll just add to that the the sort of birthplace of the initiative came from City Council to look into this and to do this work and to put this work forward.
02:48:07
And so I think that's why it's coming back to City Council for whether or not it's a renewed commitment.
02:48:14
and if this is still a priority of city council.
02:48:17
And so it's basically just going back to revisit the original initiative and the city council investment and if that should continue for the next three years.
02:48:27
And then just to follow up on the resolution is if the request is for the funding to continue to be as a line item in the budget for the next three years, but that it will
02:48:42
still go through the budget process that gets approved by council.
02:48:46
So what we're saying is that it's what the resolution is essentially saying is that the line item will continue to be in the base budget that will go through the original process that is ultimately reviewed and confirmed by city council.
02:49:04
I don't know if that information is helpful, but just thought I'd add.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:49:07
And part of
02:49:09
you know just I haven't thought this out much so work with me here but part of the vibrant community change has been the capacity building grants and whether that's a hundred thousand for two years up to a hundred thousand for two years or not was the limits that staff wanted to place on those and so if we're looking at
02:49:32
just what we're being presented here is that maybe capacity building of two years is not sufficient.
02:49:41
What does the review process look like when an organization comes back?
02:49:46
And what additional amount of time would we consider funding for?
02:49:52
And I didn't think that two years was sufficient, you know, for the proposals for the vibrant communities.
02:50:01
And so
02:50:03
I think what my recommendation would be, I know we're in the process of that, but probably if there is support to move it forward is to move it from the general fund just for the fair and just practices and add a third component to that capacity building grant and they would be guaranteed
02:50:26
in that slot where the other two areas would be discussed during the process, if that's the will.
02:50:34
And then there needs to be some parameters in place about how long you extend it.
02:50:40
And the current proposal, which I already recommend, so I still support, of moving from the two-year, you know, just one or two years for the capacity building grant would automatically go to a three-year period.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:50:56
I didn't think that capacity building was that high in terms of what was able to be allocated.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:51:04
What we've called capacity building has been $10,000.
02:51:06
Yeah, that's what I remember.
02:51:08
At least the last two times we've done it.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:51:11
Yeah, there are some recommendations.
02:51:15
Is it in another area?
02:51:18
I don't have my notes up in front of me, but what was supposed to be capacity building, we had recommendation.
02:51:23
Remember Kaki's last presentation, points of tension, that whole slide area.
02:51:32
Was it not the capacity building area?
02:51:34
Was it another?
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:51:35
I just don't ever recall capacity building having that level of limit.
02:51:40
I remember more in the $10,000 range.
02:51:42
No, but that...
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
02:51:47
I do remember Kaki saying raising the issue of the tension of, you know, long-term successful programs versus getting things started and so on.
02:51:57
But, you know, I also recognize that we didn't resolve the issue then and we're not going to resolve it today either.
SPEAKER_21
02:52:07
KAKI KAKI.
02:52:07
So-
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:52:12
So in this slide from June 22nd, it's the startup funding pool is what they are, what the recommendation is now.
02:52:25
And that is basically, Heather, if you remember the discussions around how to help nonprofit startup that we started when we started looking from ADR
02:52:34
ABRT to BCF.
02:52:38
And so this is saying that now.
02:52:44
So it's saying 100.
02:52:50
One of the proposed solutions because it's is the set aside 200,000 for vibrant community funding for startup nonprofits.
02:53:01
and that they can be funded up to $100,000 each.
02:53:06
And it's anticipated a possible second year of support of $50,000 each.
02:53:11
And again, this is probably another discussion, but I just want to make sure that everybody knows what my train of thought is.
02:53:21
So this is similar to what our discussions have been centered around that.
02:53:32
and I'm just saying it's a way to move it over to under to streamline it better.
02:53:37
And so we can understand what we're doing and what we're prioritizing in that section.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:53:43
And I guess just trying to remember back to the conversation that went along with that presentation.
02:53:48
Have we adopted those recommendations for this current year's vibrant community funds process?
02:53:57
Misty, can you answer that?
SPEAKER_20
02:53:58
I think we should have.
Misty Graves
Interim Director of Human Services
02:54:03
There I can clarify to get you guys the answer, but I'm the vibrant community fund does have a capacity building this year of those amounts of the 100,000.
02:54:16
Yeah.
02:54:20
I'm not sure I can find out.
Jeanette Abi-Nader
02:54:23
Yeah, I mean, in our meeting with Gretchen, we found out that there was that option.
02:54:31
It was called for the new project, the way that Mayor Walker talked about it.
02:54:35
I don't know that they used the term capacity building, but it was for new projects.
SPEAKER_38
02:54:39
Yeah.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:54:44
And it's just being called as funding for startup nonprofits.
02:54:48
That's how it's presented on the slide here.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:54:54
This is a specific program within a nonprofit.
02:54:58
So I'm not sure like...
02:55:00
how granular we get with some of that.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:55:07
So, okay, I'll just, I'm just going to listen to the rest of the discussion.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:55:30
I'm not sure other counselors think considering this is going to be a decision of this upcoming budget cycle.
02:55:46
But this is the third year funding, right?
02:55:50
The one that we're in right now is the last one.
02:55:51
So this expires next June 30th is the end of this funding.
Misty Graves
Interim Director of Human Services
02:55:57
Well, it technically expires September of 2022.
02:56:02
And so what's on the table now is to put it in the FY23 budget as a line item as part of the city council's initiative.
02:56:15
And that would be year four.
02:56:17
That would be year four, correct.
02:56:19
Yeah.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:56:20
So year three, we're in and you are going to get that funding.
02:56:24
And this is now talking about process for moving forward.
Misty Graves
Interim Director of Human Services
02:56:28
Correct.
02:56:29
And so this would be a part of the base budget for FY23 that you all receive and review and approve.
02:56:41
The Vibrant Community Fund application process is already closed.
02:56:47
And so this wouldn't
02:56:49
necessarily fit that time frame.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:56:52
Yeah, but this wouldn't have been this year because they are going to get the third year of funding because that support has already been established.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
02:57:00
Correct.
02:57:01
Yeah.
02:57:02
But the VCF process right now that's just concluding with the applications due is for next fiscal year also, starting in June 1st, excuse me.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
02:57:16
Right.
02:57:17
But for my comments is if if you're going to fund it in general fund and you align it with the conversation with the criteria for vibrant community.
02:57:31
And sorry, I didn't do more of this beforehand.
02:57:33
It's been a lot of stuff going on.
02:57:36
But if you
02:57:40
do those two things, then you would be expanding that just category from the two to three.
02:57:48
So like if there was consensus to move this forward and vote for another three years, then you could still move it to that vibe and community category.
02:57:58
It does change the parameters of that entire thing, which we probably need to have a conversation about.
02:58:04
But and I do hear that we vote on the budget, but that whole process and it's an area that I still I spent a lot of time on and I asked a lot of questions about and I don't know that I fully understand it and I'm on my way out.
02:58:26
And I put a lot of investment to make sure that I understand it.
02:58:30
I also have asked a lot of questions and all of those questions have not always been answered, even though it'll be a line item in the budget.
02:58:37
And I know that there's the will to change that and we have some exciting things happening.
02:58:44
like the online presence for the budget and things like that.
02:58:48
So I'm hopeful that that will change for future for staff, citizens, counselors, everyone.
02:58:54
But I just do want to say that and again, even back to some of our contractual obligations that we haven't looked at why they are contractual and why they're not in the vibrant community process or a different process even.
02:59:30
Is there any other anybody else have any other questions?
Michael Payne
Member, City Council
02:59:42
Maybe it's a conversation for the budget cycle mainly to get into it, but just curious more
02:59:52
information about creating a permanent fund for it that's funded by some portion of the meals tax as well as the proposal to have the Washington Park urban garden as a formal city program as part of the CIP budget.
03:00:12
I guess, you know, those are probably conversations for later on this budget cycle.
03:00:16
But again, just curious to have a lot more information about that in terms of the implications, what it would allow to be possible is creating that fund.
03:00:26
Yeah, just what exactly it accomplishes and what the budget impacts of that are.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:00:43
One of the things that concerns me is that the budget is all about trade-offs.
03:00:48
And if we take something out of the trade-off position, I completely understand why people want to be taken out of the trade-off position, but
03:00:58
I also know how we have struggled with some of the decisions that we have had to make and I'm also aware of the fact that for the most part once something gets into the budget we will never actually see that line item that will not be in the document that we actually receive and it will be almost impossible to try to
03:01:24
to track down something like that unless you happen to know that it's going to be there.
03:01:28
And if you wanted to go figure out a way to shoot the food equity initiative down, you would have to go looking for it.
03:01:36
And I'm not saying that I'm looking for it.
03:01:38
And I'm not saying that I just the process is really
03:01:42
is screwed up, and frankly, I think that this is a way, a completely understandable way, a reason why it would want to be done, but I don't think it's a good thing to be doing.
03:01:59
I don't know.
03:01:59
I haven't thought it through.
03:02:02
It strikes me as being a very odd process.
03:02:06
And if something is odd, it's probably not a good idea.
03:02:10
That's just an inherent bias that I have towards sort of regular programming.
Michael Payne
Member, City Council
03:02:17
Bill, and as we've already sort of discussed, I mean, it seemed to me that's probably due to the fact that this was an off-budget investment that was made that
03:02:29
initially was temporary, but in reality was going to be more probably permanent, certainly more long term and perhaps permanent.
03:02:38
But because it was made off budget, now it's sort of coming to us through this process as just a practical reality of how the initial investment was made.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:02:48
Year one actually came from Council Strategic Initiatives Fund.
03:02:57
So it was definitely coming from council dollars and then there was able to be funded through other sources those two years after.
03:03:04
And remember, it was a very conscious decision around like this is a commitment with these council dollars for one year and then they were able to be able to extend to the three years with the intention, I guess, as has been stated, that there be something more fundamental within like the city's
03:03:22
structure that would allow this to kind of live on, whether it's in a position or otherwise, is kind of how I always remember it being described.
03:03:38
Jeanette, did you have something else you started to type in there?
Jeanette Abi-Nader
03:03:40
Not in response to what we said.
03:03:46
I don't know if you, I mean, I
03:03:48
Michael, I'm happy to address some of the questions that you had.
03:03:50
I don't know if we want to keep the two issues separate and first talk about the resolution for the Food Equity Initiative itself and then speak to the Food Equity Fund or you all just let me know.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:04:11
Feel free to address whatever you would like for us to consider.
Jeanette Abi-Nader
03:04:16
So I don't know if you had a chance to look at the Food Equity Fund overview, but Michael, you were asking about like what it would, one of our hopes for today is that you all raise the questions and the things that you want us to research and come back to you for.
03:04:29
So the general idea that's proposed here in this three-page document include, and it's based on some research that Brianna patented based on food equity funds across the country.
03:04:41
and it came out of the suggestions from the local food local places event that we hosted that there are infrastructure needs and by infrastructure I mean that informally not like literally always physical things but infrastructure supports for a city to have to move from like a foodie city to a food equity city is our overall goal and there are things that go beyond what an individual nonprofit can do and so while each of the many organizations in the Food Justice Network are working in our own areas
03:05:11
This would be a fund that could fund some larger projects, for example, like a cooperative grocery store that many residents have said they want in that's located either in or near public or subsidized housing.
03:05:25
So in order to do that, it would take a lot of it's not it wouldn't necessarily be economically advantageous to the city to do that.
03:05:32
It would need significant investments.
03:05:35
And so by diverting 2% of the meals tax, we would begin to be building a fund similar to the way that we do for affordable housing, but at a much smaller scale.
03:05:44
We would begin to build a fund that could invest in some of these larger projects.
03:05:48
Cultivate and other nonprofit partners would work to match some of those dollars through foundations, through individual donors that could then be invested through a community controlled decision making body into larger projects.
03:06:04
So that's the overarching proposal, and our hope today is to get from you what kind of research you want from us, you know, like what questions you have.
03:06:11
We'll come back in May at our mid-year report with a more formalized presentation for that.
03:06:18
And the third issue you raised, Michael, was about the Washington Park.
03:06:21
So we, over the past two years, two and a half years, have done a lot of, actually, Richard, do you want to speak to this one?
SPEAKER_36
03:06:30
Sure.
03:06:32
When I came on board with Cultivate in 2018, UAC, the Urban Agriculture Collective, which had been in operation in Charlottesville for probably 12, 13 years at the time, was losing land to redevelopment.
03:06:48
At the time, 2020 was going to be when all of the garden spaces were gone and redevelopment would start.
03:06:56
My work was
03:06:58
keeping UAC operational for the year and a half between my coming on and to redevelopment starting.
03:07:07
And about halfway through that process, I remember when I was a kid growing up, my mom always had a garden in the backyard.
03:07:14
Every other neighbor in our neighborhood did.
03:07:17
And we shared food with each other.
03:07:20
I grew up in that culture, that sort of village model where people cared about their neighbors and people helped each other out.
03:07:28
and children, we learned where food came from and we learned what our responsibility was to our neighbors and we learned how to be leaders in the garden.
03:07:39
If your crop goes bad, that's just a life lesson that you can carry with you for the rest of your career.
03:07:45
And so the idea that these gardens would go away
03:07:50
that had been in operation and had been such important value-added parts of the lives of residents in Charlottesville
03:07:59
We believe that, along with residents telling us how much they value at the gardens, that we needed to find a way to keep them going.
03:08:07
And, you know, the reality of land in Charlottesville is that it's hard to have large tracts of open space.
03:08:16
And we fully support redevelopment.
03:08:18
Everybody deserves a decent place to live.
03:08:22
But we also saw that there was an opportunity to
03:08:26
have urban gardens and also have housing.
03:08:30
And one of those solutions was, wouldn't it be...
03:08:34
Wouldn't it be a good idea, possibly a good idea, if we were to take a city park and a garden and put those two things together?
03:08:44
And as we looked at sites in Charlottesville, Washington Park popped up because it has a history that is very relevant, very important to African-American residents in Charlottesville,
03:08:58
There's space there to cite a quarter acre park, you're talking 10,000 square feet, which from a growing perspective, that's a space to produce a lot of food, but from the perspective of the park in total,
03:09:15
It's not a big area.
03:09:17
And so that's where we started talking about the possibility of siting a garden in Washington Park.
03:09:25
We've been talking about Parks and Recreation, and we intend to continue having conversations with residents about it.
03:09:33
But I feel like that is a way forward because the idea that we're going to have these huge tracts of open space, that's
03:09:43
That's not going to happen, but we can still have gardens, we can still have housing, we can still have parks, and people can still have access to food.
Michael Payne
Member, City Council
03:09:59
No, definitely.
03:10:01
Thank you.
03:10:01
And I know
03:10:04
There's so many details to work out.
03:10:08
But, you know, those are both things I would definitely be interested in exploring as part of the upcoming budget process, just to start to get both from city and your end, you know, a clear sense of like what dollar amounts are involved, what exactly it looks like.
03:10:23
And it's
03:10:25
Not enough information that, you know, I can commit to anything or know anything, you know, concretely at this point.
03:10:30
But we definitely want to explore those as part of the upcoming budget process because, you know, like you said, I think both the disappearances, the existing land for urban agriculture is definitely something that needs a long term solution.
03:10:51
We've known that.
03:10:53
And likewise, just diving into what kind of impact could be made if there's some kind of more permanent fund, which I think ties into the discussion we seem to be having now, which is we know this is a permanent long term institutional need in the community that, you know, we can't just do with one time expenditures or one time, you know, off year requests.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:11:14
And this was the idea behind the equity fund.
03:11:20
also.
03:11:21
And so, you know, that was at a million dollars a year.
03:11:27
And so that's just something to think about also, which is guaranteed funding for programs determined that we need it.
03:11:42
And not saying that this is what
03:11:45
former counselor Bellamy had in mind.
03:11:46
But I think that if he were on here today, it would be something that he would, you know, most likely support for that fund.
03:11:55
But yeah, so that's it.
03:11:59
That was my comment.
Michael Payne
Member, City Council
03:12:01
Yeah, and to that point, you know, in the upcoming budget process, I'd be curious what kind of overlap there is in that kind of fund with both what the intent and goal of the equity fund is as well as what overlap is there with our climate action planning process and just sort of breaking out of silos and how we're thinking about it and planning for it on the city's end.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:12:37
So is the Food Equity Fund Sorry, I keep turning myself off.
03:12:49
Looking at what I guess is page 79 of the packet, it indicates that the Food Equity Fund would be 2 percent of 10.7 million, which would be in the neighborhood of $200,000, not $1 million.
03:13:09
I'm just curious, Mayor Walker, where the $1 million came from.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:13:13
I was talking about the overall thought process behind the creation of an equity fund.
03:13:20
And again, back to like pools of money.
03:13:23
And even again, you know, we have the vibrant community fund and attempts to get that as imperfectly perfect as possible.
03:13:35
And I think there's some room for it even there.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:13:39
Okay, so when you were talking about a million dollars for an equity fund, you were not talking about a million dollars for the food equity fund?
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:13:45
No.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:13:46
Okay.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:13:47
Overall, where this could live.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:13:50
Yeah.
03:13:51
That's where I was confused.
03:13:52
Thank you.
SPEAKER_21
03:14:03
So is there a
03:14:10
A motion?
Sena Magill
Member, City Council
03:14:13
Out of curiosity, if let's say we vote on the next three years and we pass it, I mean, we can't hold the next council to that.
03:14:31
So is it just saying that we're supporting doing that and that they can yank it next year if they want to?
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:14:38
Well, three of y'all are the next council.
03:14:40
So that's a majority.
03:14:42
So that's part of what should be considered in this.
03:14:47
And it's very challenging to undo what has been worked on with a previous council.
03:14:54
So just keep that in mind.
03:14:55
And recently, you all haven't been for the whole process, but the parking garage, that whole thing started
03:15:07
with the council before us and the West Main Street and all of those debates about pulling it out.
03:15:16
And I don't think it's fair.
03:15:19
We during the West Main Street, it was discussion about staff time and investment.
03:15:25
In this case, you have a nonprofit, which they said 77%.
03:15:29
And based on even the diversity amongst who they hire to run this program is something that, you know, should be taken very seriously.
03:15:40
But with 77% of the funding going towards staff salaries, you don't want to approve something and then not follow through.
03:15:50
And you have community members whose livelihood is
Sena Magill
Member, City Council
03:15:55
you know dependent on it so I just think it's something that we should be thoughtful about I definitely agree that we need to be thoughtful about this I guess I swing a little bit more on the I really wish we would start having a portion of our budget that puts together
03:16:21
the line items where we're hiring other people to do the job that we say that we as city council want to be done, but we don't want to provide the staff to do it.
03:16:35
Whether it's the public defender's office, whether it's saying we want to be hiring a group to be looking at the food equity and how to make our city more equitable for food.
03:16:49
that we are not putting that in our neighborhood development services department or human services department.
03:16:56
Instead, we're hiring this agency to do that for us.
03:17:02
I mean, I'm just talking more about this process here and I struggled last budget season because there's a number of nonprofits that are doing
03:17:20
doing what the city government originally asked them to do and that created the program that we are funding.
03:17:31
And I just, I think I'd rather some of these things not be in competition.
03:17:39
If we're saying that this is a high priority and they need this full funding, I think I'd rather more programs be these line items
03:17:49
that we vote on every couple of years.
03:17:53
And then have a smaller pool for the Vibrant Community Fund that's actually about initiating new projects or almost kind of doing opposite of what we do now.
03:18:11
Those are just my comments on this.
03:18:15
And just for the record,
03:18:17
really support this group.
03:18:19
What they are doing is amazing work and it's greatly needed work.
03:18:26
I know I've been learning from them for the last three years now and recognizing our food deserts and recognizing how we can start bringing healthy, good food to everyone's table is I think a moral imperative that we need to be doing.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:18:59
So is someone ready to make a motion or is this something that we want to discuss further?
Sena Magill
Member, City Council
03:19:10
I hope that we accept the resolution as presented.
SPEAKER_25
03:19:26
Is there a second?
Michael Payne
Member, City Council
03:19:31
I'll second it.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:19:35
Yeah, I'm in support.
03:19:36
I recognize this is going to be in a budget cycle that I'm not going to be weighing in on.
03:19:40
I want to make sure that the counselors who are going to be carrying this forward are comfortable with whatever approach we talk about here.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:19:52
And frankly, the reassurance that it is essentially meaningless
03:19:58
is a reason to vote for it, I suppose.
03:20:04
If the answer is that, well, it's important to do this because it puts our foot in the ground and says, yes, by God, we're going to do this.
03:20:13
We're going to find a way to move everything else out of the way to make this happen.
03:20:20
I really wonder why this isn't part of the budget process.
03:20:23
I really wonder why it's coming up in November and why it's not being presented with the trade-offs that were going to be presented in a budget process.
03:20:39
I do think that it's a worthwhile effort, and I agree wholeheartedly that the reporting is really stellar.
03:20:47
It's wonderful.
03:20:47
I actually know what you all are doing.
03:20:51
I just don't understand why we're dealing with this at a time when it seems like the purpose of it is to take it out of the tradeoffs that we're going to be having to make over the next six months.
SPEAKER_25
03:21:13
Okay.
03:21:15
Any other comments?
03:21:16
Ms.
03:21:16
Thomas?
SPEAKER_19
03:21:19
Mayor Walker?
03:21:21
No.
03:21:23
Vice Mayor McGill?
03:21:25
Yes.
03:21:27
Councilor Hill?
03:21:28
Yes.
03:21:30
Councilor Payne?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:21:32
Yes.
SPEAKER_19
03:21:33
Councilor Snook?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:21:34
No.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:21:34
All right.
03:21:41
Was that a resolution for both or just part one?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:21:43
It's just part one.
03:21:46
I only saw one resolution.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:21:49
The other thing I think was not for a decision tonight is an introductory thought.
03:21:52
That's what I read.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:21:54
All right.
03:21:56
Well, thank you all.
03:21:57
You all have a good evening.
03:21:59
Thank you so much.
03:21:59
Thank you.
03:22:05
To close my comments about that, if you look in the budget, and I just went and grabbed mine, the amount of money that we debate about other organizations receiving, you have from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
03:22:32
One thing that I've been great at and that I just recommend somebody picking up and bringing into the conversation is no matter what your emotional attachment to whatever is being presented is that you are able to look at it through a neutral lens.
03:22:48
And so unless I'm missing something,
03:22:53
You have an organization that would now be guaranteed an additional three years of funding, no matter how you look at it.
03:23:01
It's hard to pull things out of this.
03:23:04
And maybe the staff that's in place now will change that.
03:23:08
But that's not a fair process.
03:23:11
and the discussions that we've had around Buck Squad, Conscious Capitalist, FAR for years, you know, Joy has talked about for years how FAR has been just kind of grabbing for crumbs for years and have never been able to receive a substantial donation as a
03:23:32
over $100,000.
03:23:33
Those are all things that have to be considered when these decisions are made.
03:23:40
And Sena, I hear you nodding with me, but I don't think you understand because your votes keep coming from this very emotional place.
03:23:48
And without thinking through, what I had hoped that we would do tonight is look at this a little bit more with staff before we made the vote about how to make this a fair process.
03:23:59
and you're going to have two new counselors coming in and you all that will be staying.
03:24:05
I don't and I'm not saying this is like a criticism.
03:24:09
The budget is one thing that I invest a lot of time in that I'm still struggling with.
03:24:13
I hope that is changing.
03:24:16
But this is not something that you all have mastered at this point and you have new staff coming on who are learning.
03:24:26
You also, there's a general fund and you have someone who talked tonight about the discussions around the
03:24:43
unions and the possibility of it, that cost.
03:24:45
We have several things already, major things in the budget.
03:24:50
We haven't had an HR director yet.
03:24:52
Compensation is coming up.
03:24:54
We will have to figure out how to get that $4.5 million that we voted on.
03:25:01
Well, you all voted on because I didn't vote for the budget for the schools this year.
03:25:08
And you have said to
03:25:11
that there's a commitment to other organizations for things that the city cannot do on its own that it requires those partnerships.
03:25:23
There's a affordable housing commitment that we're already not meeting and that was reduced by, you know, $5 million from what that initial starting point was between the 20 to 15 till we got to $10 million.
03:25:36
And so part of
03:25:41
Every decision needs to be keeping all of those things at the forefront of your decision-making process when you make it.
03:25:48
And at least if you diverge from whatever you diverge from, at least being able to articulate the why.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:26:03
And I've certainly been here the first time this was considered.
03:26:05
I mean, I remember even having some pause around the commitment at that time.
03:26:10
I just cannot say how impressed I have been with the work that's been done.
03:26:13
I think it's important work for the city as an organization and for this community.
03:26:19
And when I read what the resolution said related to just
03:26:24
I believe that this has served our community well and remains an important initiative.
03:26:28
That's true.
03:26:29
Right now we're making a commitment that it's just to be included within that budget.
03:26:32
And during the budget cycle, those trade-offs can continue to be made.
03:26:36
I don't know what decision we would have made tonight that would have been different where we would have said we're going to make a conscious decision to take it out of the budget.
03:26:43
So at some point, staff just needs to know, do we want to have this in the budget or not?
03:26:47
And so that's what I understood to us be deciding on.
03:26:50
And then obviously the budget process will then ultimately decide, is that going to be something that's going to be up for renegotiating?
03:26:57
I agree.
03:26:57
There's a lot of priorities right now, and there's
03:27:00
We cannot do it all.
03:27:03
But that's what I was reading in this resolution and certainly having seen the work of this organization over the last three years and what council's commitment was to this before and had great pause and just saying to have it removed.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:27:15
So it wasn't about having it removed.
03:27:17
It was about being more thoughtful about why it stays.
03:27:20
And if people don't have anywhere to live,
03:27:24
in the community, then the food justice work won't matter unless you're going to pay for it for the people who are displaced from the community to come into the community to pick up some collard rings.
03:27:35
I mean, it's just or to come to a corner store on the 6th Street, which is all things that even housing is talking about.
03:27:44
You know, people have thought about, yes, there needs to be stores in the neighborhood.
03:27:49
So
03:27:50
The points they are bringing up are valid.
03:27:52
But again, I think someone has to look at all of that in a holistic way.
03:27:59
Yes, they are doing really great work.
03:28:00
And even though that's what's being presented in front of us, so I either make the comments or I don't.
03:28:07
Again, not a criticism of them, but there needs to be a more holistic viewpoint of how decisions are made.
03:28:16
And if we will
03:28:18
I mean, there are organizations that we just say it again.
03:28:20
If you're in prison for
03:28:27
shootings, because you're either locked up from being double policed by UVA or the community, you can't benefit from a food justice initiative because they're not concerned about food justice in jail or any state prison or federal prison anybody ever been in that I've known.
03:28:46
So it's just, again, about being thoughtful about what are our long-term goals?
03:28:51
How do we get there?
03:28:54
and whether these things are getting us there.
03:28:58
And we can sit here and pretend that we pull stuff out, but tell me since we've been here, what is one thing that we've pulled out and analyzed from the contractual obligations, which is basically what the equivalent to what we just did.
03:29:15
And there are all of these things, most of them come from the same fund we're talking about.
03:29:23
So you can't look at these things in isolation.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:29:26
I don't disagree.
03:29:30
We can't look at them in isolation.
03:29:32
I've said that, I mean, prior budget cycles, I think that the CAF, we need to have all these things that we're giving money to outside agencies somehow consolidated in a way that we can look at it and have consistency about how we evaluate it.
03:29:42
And I don't disagree with that longer term.
03:29:45
I just don't know when we're going to get to that point right now.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:29:49
But we could have simply asked staff
03:29:53
and counselors over the next, even if we postponed a vote until the next meeting, we could have said, what is a way to do this in a fair and just way, even if there was commitment for another year or three of funding?
03:30:13
And so when you have groups that are in here asking for $17,000, $19,000, computer for kids in here at $13,000.
03:30:24
I was reading the first few things I said was from fiscal year 18, I moved down.
03:30:32
But you can see what we're currently funding organizations at and what you all just did.
03:30:40
And again, it
03:30:42
It wasn't a very thoughtful process.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:30:45
I mean, you're thoughtful towards Now that a final decision has been made, except for to say that this is something we support and that my knowledge coming into tonight's meeting is in our general budget and that is where it should stay until there's a decision made otherwise.
03:31:01
I don't, it's okay.
03:31:04
I hear where you're coming from.
03:31:06
I don't know that debating it.
03:31:09
I wish we'd had more of this conversation before you asked for us to make a motion.
03:31:13
I would have understood more where you're coming from about what our options were.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:31:18
What do you mean before tonight?
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:31:20
Because I brought all of this up when I started.
03:31:22
I'm talking about just tonight about what our options were tonight in terms of how we would have gone forward tonight to get through with the conversation tonight.
03:31:29
Because it just seemed like it's either we did nothing or we voted on this resolution.
03:31:34
And I certainly wasn't comfortable doing nothing.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:31:38
That's not what I said.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:31:40
I understand now more in the last five minutes about what other options we were considering because I didn't hear any other options being raised.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:31:50
Heather, I gave examples of what could happen.
03:31:54
I used Vibrant Communities.
03:31:55
I understand.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:31:58
When it came down to just what we were going to do tonight in terms of actions taken tonight, I was not clear on what options were being presented for council to take.
03:32:07
and I got the impression that I was hearing that people wanted it to go to the general budget cycle because Lloyd was mentioning the timing of this seemed out of sync and I totally agree with that.
03:32:18
And so this keeps it in the budget as it is and it has to be discussed during the regular budget cycle is where I see this is right now.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:32:28
Lloyd also made comments about not knowing everything that's in the budget and pulling stuff out.
03:32:37
So I think he was clear, more clear than usual with his comments.
03:32:42
Okay.
03:32:43
Unnecessary.
03:32:44
It's not unnecessary because you're hearing what you want to hear, but we can move on.
Heather Hill
Member, City Council
03:32:49
I'm saying it's not necessary that it's just you to say that he's more clear than usual.
03:32:52
I just don't think that kind of commentary is necessary.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:32:57
Okay.
03:32:58
Well, he was very clear.
03:32:59
Is that helpful?
03:33:02
You're welcome.
03:33:03
Okay.
03:33:04
So, um,
03:33:06
My final recommendation is I hope does staff have any questions about what they were?
03:33:13
I think that this needs to be considered and presented to council in a different way.
03:33:20
I won't be a part of the budget cycles to bring that up.
03:33:26
And it's one of the organizations I think should rise to the top, not the only ones and some who
03:33:33
don't have the capacity to even who are doing great work to do stellar reports like this that I think that staff needs to, you know, support more.
03:33:44
And it's sort of like the conversations that we have with NDS about who does NDS provide more support to, like a project like CERHA, PHA, Friendship Court, be specific, but
03:34:00
versus so where does staff support, you know, lies here.
03:34:04
And I just think that we that that needs to be revisited during this time and there needs to be some proposals made with that so that it's a fair process.
GENERAL BUSINESS
SPEAKER_25
03:34:19
All right.
03:34:19
Any other items?
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:34:23
General business.
03:34:28
All right.
OTHER BUSINESS
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:34:29
Any questions for the city management staff to follow up with next meeting?
03:34:37
All right.
03:34:38
Mr. Willer, we're at the second will, the matters by the public.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
03:34:43
Thank you, Mayor Walker.
03:34:44
If you're in the audience, you'd like to address council, please click the raise hand icon.
03:34:50
Each person will get up to three minutes to talk about any subject with council.
03:34:58
I'm going to make sure I've got the right button selected because I'm not seeing any hands go up.
MATTERS BY THE PUBLIC
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
03:35:07
All right, now we've got some hands.
03:35:09
Rosia Parker, you're on with counsel.
03:35:10
You've got three minutes.
Rosia Parker
03:35:14
Good evening.
03:35:20
I'm a little kind of disappointed on the decision.
03:35:24
I don't know if y'all going to keep it now or for the next budget season, but I really do feel that y'all should support Cultivate Seville because not only does it help housing, but it also helped the school system because they're helping the kids have fresh food now in the school.
03:35:49
Cultivate Seville, I became an intern for them this year and this was just a few months ago and we even implemented our own program called It's Time for the Harvest and a lot of people we went to different neighborhoods that are underserved to see what is it that they need and it's not just about
03:36:12
us being displaced and they're paying for it.
03:36:15
It's about making a land for liberation for people to have somewhere that they can go, that they can get their own food because it's very hard out here.
03:36:24
Not everybody receives SNAP benefits.
03:36:27
So these fresh foods really do help families and Cultivate Seville really do need support.
03:36:34
And I think that you also support them.
03:36:37
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
03:36:42
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
03:36:44
Next up is Joy Johnson will be followed by Tanisha Hudson.
03:36:48
Joy, you're on with counsel.
03:36:49
You've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_28
03:36:51
Hi, can you hear me?
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
03:36:52
We can.
SPEAKER_28
03:36:54
Hi, good evening.
03:36:55
My name is Joy Johnson.
03:36:58
I live in Harder Drive.
03:37:00
I think
03:37:04
The discussions that I'm hearing tonight about thank you Mayor Walker for keep pushing and putting it up and in front about the fairness of how
03:37:19
Some organization, you know, just kind of remind me when Wes was on council and he gave a half a million dollars to New Hill without crossing any T's and dotting any I's.
03:37:33
You all did change the process to make sure the T's are crossed and the I's are dot.
03:37:39
However,
03:37:43
and I support Cultivated Charlottesville.
03:37:46
I think it's the process and the fairness that I think that the new council needs to be looking at.
03:37:54
It's not about the work that the work
03:37:58
that they're doing.
03:38:00
The work they're doing is very, very important.
03:38:02
As Ms.
03:38:03
Parker said earlier, it is bringing fresh fruits, it's doing that.
03:38:07
But how do you make sure it's an even field when other organizations who are doing important work and are struggling because they can't write a good report, they can't write a good grant,
03:38:23
How is it fair?
03:38:25
How do you make it fair?
03:38:27
And I do appreciate the dialogue, Mayor Walker, of keep pushing to say this needs to be fair.
03:38:36
Equity is about fairness.
03:38:39
Equity is about fairness and you know I'm just a little disappointed that especially with housing and let me just say CRHA has been trying to redevelop their properties for years now over 20 plus years and each time that they come to the city about asking for help you know it's like
03:39:09
pulling teeth.
03:39:12
and they're serving, you know, low income people.
03:39:17
And so when I look at CRHA and when I look at FAR and when I look at how other organizations can just, you know, get it in a budget for three years or get in a line item budget, well, we are doing the work.
03:39:31
We might not be doing the work the way that you all may want to do it, but we are doing the work.
03:39:36
We are at the ground, you know, we're doing the work.
03:39:40
and I just think that this process needs to be fair.
03:39:44
Thank you again, Mayor Walker for keeping it in front.
03:39:49
Ashley, I'm depending on you.
03:39:52
Sam, I'm depending on you.
03:39:54
All right.
03:39:56
That's all I have to say.
SPEAKER_20
03:39:58
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
03:40:02
Next up is Tanisha Hudson.
03:40:04
Tanisha, you're on with counsel.
03:40:05
You've got three minutes.
Tanesha Hudson
03:40:08
Maurice Jones, Al Thomas, Dr. Teron Richardson and Dr. Rochelle Brackney were all done wrong by the city.
03:40:16
Brackney was clearly setting a standard in her department that wrong, bad, inappropriate behavior would not be tolerated.
03:40:23
Richardson was also trying to set a standard and just doing the job that you all paid him to do.
03:40:29
To see that three members of this council supported her contract termination and she was actually doing the job that we wanted her to do here,
03:40:39
is ridiculous.
03:40:41
Y'all should be ashamed of yourself, and I'm not gonna let it go.
03:40:44
Sena, your husband just talked about city pain.
03:40:47
Let's discuss the black pain.
03:40:49
Shall we start with the citizens, or should we start with the black leaders?
03:40:53
No matter where we start or what level we're on in life, we're all done wrong by this city, if you're black.
03:41:00
Sam and Ashley, y'all time coming too, so don't get too comfortable.
03:41:04
Heather, girl, what exactly have you accomplished in the four years that you've been here besides being messy and leading the ship, steering the ship for removing Black leaders?
03:41:16
Because, I mean, you headlining that story, and they will not write a story about your messiness to save their life.
03:41:26
Lloyd, you got to pick a side and stay there.
03:41:30
You're not in court.
03:41:32
Pick a side and figure out where you want to stay.
03:41:35
Michael, stop going off theory.
03:41:37
Tell it like it is.
03:41:38
And say our names.
03:41:40
Say Brackney name.
03:41:41
Say Richardson name.
03:41:43
Say Thomas name.
03:41:44
Say Maurice Jones name.
03:41:45
Say Nakaya Walker's name.
03:41:47
Say my name, Tanisha Hudson.
03:41:49
Say my name.
03:41:50
Say our names when you're talking about something specifically.
03:41:54
Say the names.
03:41:55
Lisa Robinson, girl, if you don't call me back, I've been waiting since January for a call back.
03:42:02
Ashley and Sam, y'all the CMs now, make her call me back because she's yet to call me back.
03:42:09
Do y'all realize that Black people are freaking tired?
03:42:12
We're tired.
03:42:14
The Black citizens of this community, we are exhausted.
03:42:19
I shouldn't have to pay to expose this system that's beating us up.
03:42:24
and persecuting us one by one, on every level, rich, in the middle and poor, doesn't matter.
03:42:32
Some organizations give money and some don't and y'all all know that.
03:42:36
And I know that Cultivate Seville deserves the money, but the process should be fair for all.
03:42:41
As far as affordable housing, stop saying affordable housing and say you need more low-income housing.
03:42:47
Stop building piss-poor housing like Carlton Views where people are complaining that their ceilings are falling in.
03:42:54
If you're not going to do your job and you don't want to do your job, you keep being fidgety, Sena, which tells me you act like you don't really want to be there.
03:43:01
Don't be there.
03:43:02
Don't do it.
03:43:04
Y'all get mad when we tell the truth, but you got to own what you messed up.
03:43:10
You have to own it.
03:43:12
Thank you.
SPEAKER_20
03:43:15
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
03:43:17
Our next speaker is Larissa Hawkins.
03:43:20
If you'd like to get in line, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom webinar.
03:43:25
Larissa, you're back on with council.
03:43:26
You've got three minutes.
SPEAKER_02
03:43:27
Hi, council members and mayor.
03:43:32
I am speaking now on behalf of the proposal by the Jefferson School surrounding the statute disposal, if you will.
03:43:48
In particular, I would like to just elaborate on the ways that given that the monuments themselves were what I've called before on council edifices of erasure intended to intimidate e.g.
03:44:08
in my profession this is how we define terrorism as political scientists
03:44:13
Terrorism has an intent to intimidate and really inculcate fear within a community.
03:44:24
The violence of the statues preceded the violence that came to Charlottesville in the summer of 2017, the violence wrought by the institution of slavery, child slavery,
03:44:40
the violence that is perpetuated by Monticello looking down on the bodies of residents of Charlottesville of whatever oppressed ilk.
03:44:52
And I believe the Jefferson Heritage Center proposal in and of itself is an important opportunity for us as a community to move forward
03:45:03
in creating something not just public art.
03:45:08
Public art can be classist.
03:45:11
Public art can be racist.
03:45:12
Public art can be so exclusive.
03:45:15
And I've lived in a community outside of Chicago, Oak Park, where public art
03:45:22
still feels like it's geared towards a particular group of people.
03:45:27
What we have an opportunity to do is, as the title indicates, take what was violent and transform it into something peaceful and reconciliatory.
03:45:42
Public art that serves as a salve to a community that is broken, to a community that has been broken,
03:45:50
but the opportunity to not only heal but to re-narrate history and create new and different kinds of memories in place of the lasting memory of oppression of the previous statues.
03:46:05
We have many reminders still all around us but may those serve as reinterpretations of
03:46:13
a history that has for too long been dominated by white memories of history.
03:46:20
And so I hope that as a council, you can find within your purview to support wholeheartedly that initiative of the Jeff School.
03:46:31
Thank you.
Brian Wheeler
Director of Communications
03:46:35
And last call for hands tonight.
03:46:37
Please click the raise hand icon if you'd like to speak.
03:46:46
I don't see any additional hands, Mayor Walker.
SPEAKER_25
03:46:52
Thank you.
03:46:52
Any comments?
03:46:55
Councilors?
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:47:01
Mayor Walker, I do have one question that builds on the last speaker's comment.
03:47:06
What is our plan at this point about making decisions about statues?
03:47:12
Do we have a timeline?
03:47:13
Do we have a schedule at this point?
SPEAKER_25
03:47:21
Staff, is there any update there?
SPEAKER_16
03:47:22
Thank you, Mayor.
03:47:28
The applications are in and they are also posted publicly on the website.
03:47:33
If I recall correctly, for the Sacagawea statue,
03:47:37
Council sent the city manager back to rally staff to have a conversation about that.
03:47:44
So we are open to providing assistance in whatever way that we can.
03:47:48
But we do, of course, have access to the applications, but the movement on that
03:47:54
will need to be done by the Council making a decision.
03:47:58
You all do have, not that this is helpful for everyone, but you do have until into January before the 120 days elapses, but there is a time clock that is attached to these submissions.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:48:16
Okay.
03:48:17
So, no plan at this point, but we could move if we wanted to.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:48:23
Yes, sir.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:48:24
Okay.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:48:27
So we can talk about having that on one of the future agendas before this year's up.
Lloyd Snook
Councillor, City Council
03:48:33
I would like to.
Nikuyah Walker
Mayor, City Council
03:48:39
Okay.
03:48:39
Any other?
03:48:42
And I just wanted to address, Ms.
03:48:44
Parker, the support is there for Cultivate Seville.
03:48:49
There were three votes in favor.
03:48:53
And again, my non-support of it has nothing to do with that organization and everything to do with process and that there are other organizations that I think are equally as deserving.
03:49:07
and we should not be pitting those organizations against each other.
03:49:10
So I just want to make sure that that is clear.
03:49:15
And of course, I know that the staff turnover is a lot of what's impeding like the progress for the statues and stuff, but definitely want to be able to support
03:49:36
the Jefferson School's request.
03:49:41
And I'm concerned about the energy in the object, but I'm struggling with that.
03:49:46
But I would like to support request if they think they can turn it into something that's healing.
03:49:55
And so that's all my questions about from the speakers at this time.
03:50:03
Any other comments?
03:50:07
And my final question that I delayed until the end of the meeting is I read the primarily this is for Heather and Michael.
03:50:17
You all were the ones that commented.
03:50:18
I read the comments in the Daily Progress and had a few days that I struggled with it.
03:50:27
I was thinking that after the meeting where you all didn't bring up the topic that has started being discussed in terms of
03:50:39
Surrounding Chip, you all know the conversation that changed that you didn't bring it up because maybe you had realized something was done wrong and that that topic didn't
03:50:52
Merit Future, you know, more consideration.
03:50:55
I'll say it if you look confused, but I'm trying to keep that under wraps.
03:51:00
But it occurred to me that you all didn't bring that conversation back into the second closed session because you all must have been aware that he was already on his way somewhere else.
03:51:13
And the fact that all the conversations that we've had, everything that has been brought up around this topic, that
03:51:23
Heather, that you are still in support of the work is very disappointing.
SPEAKER_25
03:51:44
Any other comments?
03:51:49
All right.
03:51:50
Have a good evening.
03:51:51
Meeting adjourned.