City Council Budget Work Session   3/17/2022

What's going on, Juan?

Hey, Brian, how you doing, sir?

Back from Georgia.

How are you?

Good, good.

Hi, Chrissy.

Good evening, how are you?

Good, good, how are you?

Good, thank you.

All right.

She's the most important person in all of this.

Graves.

Okay.

Thomas are you yeah I'm going to do a roll call

Councillor Pinkston?

Here.

Mayor Snook?

Here.

Vice Mayor Wade?

Here.

Thank you.

Okay, I didn't, I confess I had blanked on the fact that Michael wasn't there yet, wasn't here yet.

I'll count his presence once he does arrive.

I'll kick us off.

I'm going to share the PowerPoint.

Maybe.

And I'm going to kick us off our agenda.

My screen is frozen.

Me either.

Can you all hear me?

Yeah, we're hearing you.

But nothing else.

We can't see your face either.

Try it again, Chrissy.

Yeah.

That's what I would suggest.

Okay.

Sorry.

Let's just stand in recess for about three minutes and we'll come back.

All right, let's try this again.

There we go.

Hamill.

Okay, I'm still having issues with the view.

Chrissy, you're welcome to share it with me and I'm happy to forward the slides for you.

Sorry about this.

I can do it, Chrissy.

Okay.

You sent it to me.

So I can open it up.

In the meantime, I note that Mr. Payne has joined us, so we're at full strength.

So, Mr. Mayor, while they're getting that straight, I wanted to share a statement about transparency, or I can do it now or now that we have this up.

Let's go ahead and do it now.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wade.

Okay, are we ready with the presentation now?

I'm a little new to that, but I'll do my best.

Thanks for giving it the shot.

We're all learning new things.

Oh, gosh.

I 100% did think I'd done that.

I saw you clapping.

Yeah.

Crazy.

All right.

there are two groups or two different sort of review processes and as we've gone through this process this is something that we will look to make a little bit more clear and maybe do a little bit differently next year to make it a little bit more cohesive but there are some agencies that are reviewed strictly through the budget office and it's done in conjunction with

But with that, we'll walk...

What is the Charlottesville Center for Contemporary Arts?

That is Live Arts.

Okay, thank you.

Next slide, please.

Hamill, you mentioned something at the very beginning and I didn't pick up on it exactly, the Public Defender's Office, can you restate what you, so that's not part of this?

They are state funded positions and the city and the county both provide a supplement to the salaries from the state.

I think you'd said something about one request was not funded that they made.

And that was not funded.

Great, okay, sorry.

and also adds one additional counselor for this area.

And if these are too many specific questions about things that are outside of your remit, I can wait.

I can get you some more information about those.

I just recall from when I was on the board, there was a composition, you know, with all the various counties around us in Charlottesville piece, Charlottesville's piece of this, you know, and I would much prefer to put money towards Region 10 than, you know, police, well, I shouldn't say, I don't want to put a contrast there, but putting money towards Region 10 is always a good idea, I'll just leave it at that, so.

Yeah, this is definitely reflective of their request, but we'll get you some more information on that.

Okay, thank you.

Graves.

Would that be on here?

Those are actually constitutional officers, and they are funded with funds through the state, but they're not, they're considered city departments as opposed to contractual agencies.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

who is the Human Services Planner for the Department of Human Services, and he is the lead staff for the Vibrant Community Fund.

and Albemarle County continues to operate an independent process that mirrors this for funding local nonprofits as well.

coordinate it all, have conversations about what we're doing versus what they're doing, or are people kind of in silos?

There's not like an official partnership between the ABRT process and private communities.

So that was something that the reviewers had.

All right, thank you.

And we plan to continue to focus on equity at all levels of the vibrant community process, including exploring opportunities to score equity-driven programs in a more robust manner in future fiscal years.

There was ongoing impact from the pandemic.

At the bottom, you can see the total requests that were put forth into the process and then how much of that was left.

And then the last slide that I have for you.

We mentioned the capacity building already, and we need to revisit the measurement and solutions workgroup.

Thank you for your time.

In terms of startup funds, what was your sort of thought process for that amount of money?

And so that's just kind of how the application process ended with the startup money.

You had like a sort of idea of what you thought might be possible future projects and you kind of backed into this amount of money for startup funds.

Because we all need to do better.

and that funding, and maybe this is a question for Chrissy, Miss Hamill, that funding line item $90,000, is that basically part of a department then?

Okay.

Oh, those are the number of requests.

We funded just under $2.5 million, leaving the $1.8 essentially unfunded.

Do you want to answer that question?

And so that pot of money is how we make sure that continues to be funded during COVID and beyond.

Thank you so much.

I'm not sure.

Any questions?

somewhere I'll find Vibrant Community Fund listed or just the actual items that ended up being funded?

It's the last table entry, unallocated agency funding.

So the VCF process basically is what informs these pages in the book.

We emailed it to you earlier this week, and it's also on the city's budget webpage.

Oh, pardon me.

I have not made physical hard copies, but I can do that for you if you need me to.

Yeah, I don't need one.

I'm good.

Does anybody need a physical copy now?

Why are we giving them $22,000 more than they asked for?

Because I don't know that I can answer that right in the moment, but I can try to figure that out.

I know that some of this is not going to be easy just to pull up right away.

all of which suggests that at the very least there's a typo someplace unless there's a reason why we're now giving more than they asked for.

What are you looking at?

And the therapeutic docket got $93,500.

That's not correct.

So both, they both got.

So that, so that, that would be the

Because the version that I'm looking at says the therapeutic docket requested $60,500.

I was worried for a second.

I'm just wondering how did somebody figure out what the appropriate amount per participant was going to be?

and it didn't really seem like that's the way we should be funding those requests based on the cost per participant when you compare them to maybe what they're doing in the county.

of the per participant or the cost per participant, was that based on their application to the county or based on the county's award or recommended award?

So we can make a pretty good estimation about what the different rates of per participant costs would be.

I don't know that we went back and looked at the actual award from the county, right?

When we do that and match that up with the number of city residents that they are directly impacting, that's how we decide to make accommodations based on other funding revenue requests.

Is that why MACA was also dropped so much?

Correct.

I don't remember having seen that in years past.

I'm not sure if it's been done like that before.

you know the amount based on the number of beneficiaries that was something that we took into consideration at least I did and it was one of the questions that that we asked so I would say that as far as I recall it has always been and it will continue to be something that I that I would you know always couldn't consider so I hope that I don't think it's anything new.

It's typically a comparison to Albemarle County, but thanks, counselor.

Yeah, I would also add, too, that, you know, as we were looking to level fund the pot of money for vibrant communities, these applications in particular were more than double the application amount from last year as well.

The Ready Kids applications, what do you mean?

Correct.

Because that was another one that was a figuring out That one as well was almost double.

Okay.

And so we looked at other ones as well just to make sure across the board how it was looking.

or were they fairly... I'm not quite sure to understand your question.

Could you repeat it, please?

was rated significantly differently in 2022 from the way in which it had been rated in 2021.

I'm not sure that we're able to answer that question right now without being able to compare ratings from our report last year to this year, but we can get back to you on that.

If somebody else has a question.

So at some point before we make the final decision in probably two or three weeks, I'd just like a little bit more information.

and this is more on councils about not directing that area highly enough.

So thank you.

for their grants and even a small amount will give them leverage

I believe that is correct.

I want to say it respectfully, but that's the best I can come up with, I think.

I can anticipate that we will get questions from people for, you know, why last year, why this year, et cetera, and just

So let's see, Mr. Dillahunter, are you in charge of the public comment tonight?

And you are on with council.

Edwards.

Have a good evening, y'all.

Edwards.

Of course.

That was really upbeat there.

Nancy, you're on with council.

And on that, I thank you for your time and you have a good evening.

Carpenter.

You're on with council.

Thank you so much.

Andrew, you're on with council.

Thank you.

Lisa, you're on with council.

Have a great night.

The application came in the arts section.

But it was not specific to rent relief.

You said Jefferson School?

No.

Is that perhaps what's going on here?

How much do we pay for the Carver Rec Center?

Okay.

detail these things, perhaps get a copy of the equity agreement from 2017, put it all together so that we can make sense of it, because clearly people want us, some people want us to be doing something that's worth $200,000, and we don't have, I for one, don't have the information on which to base that request.

So we'll come back to you with clarity on Jefferson School and other places where we're either paying rent or paying for somebody's lease so that we understand the basis of why we're doing it and the relationship with the city.

Okay.

So I think the money that they maybe got was part of that because those equity funds were in the Council Strategic Initiatives Fund.

I think all of us would agree we want to be supportive of the Jefferson School, but I think we need to know what the entire picture looks like.

Thank you.

That's the question, right.

Which really kind of disturbs me.

And then the current balance of our strategic initiatives fund, is that like around $120,000 now?

Okay.

So I don't want to cycle anybody's creativity in speaking with us, but it will be discussed more fully later on.

You're on with counsel.

Thank you, Dr. Douglas.

So we're hoping to be able to have a conversation with you all about that.

Thank you.

You are now on with council.

We're not hearing anybody.

It appears that their phone is muted.

Is there somebody else?

You are on with counsel.

Thank you so much.

Lewis.

227, you are back on with us.

Okay, showing is muted.

Our next participant, if we do come back to them, is also a phone participant, so we can try that.

Why don't we try the other person and see whether we can master the phone issue?

You are on with counsel.

Thank you for listening.

Carr.

Alexis, you are on with council.

Thank you.

Cooper.

Tim, you are on with council.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Wallace.

Elizabeth, you are on with Council.

Ms.

What have you asked for that was not given to you?

The county has not funded that position to make it full-time, but I hope to talk to them and try to encourage them to participate as well.

So the total of amounts that you had requested that were not put into the budget is about $117,759?

I'd have to use my calculator to figure that out.

So I have no idea what you had asked for that was not given.

where I had a calculator could add numbers.

Right, that was for the supplements.

Yeah, the new position, which I recognize that's a really big ask because that would be kind of a commitment bringing someone on like that, but that was $37,502.

Okay.

Our contractual applications, we do look at them and they make sure that they're still doing what they're supposed to be doing, but council doesn't evaluate and look at usually individually on those.

Thank you.

You will need to unmute.

So let's is that the last public participant, Mr. Dillhunt?

Andrew Pennick, you are on with council.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yeah, and so I was just calling to voice my needs of my part of our little community and thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Penick.

All right.

Is that the trail that would need the tunnel under the railroad bridge?

I think it would connect to, I mean, if you were to extend it all the way out, yes, but the portion that they're looking for construction funds for does not include trying to go underneath the railroad bridge.

Okay.

There's something else that's on their plate to do.

So anyway.

The Federal Parks Department got a lot of money recently with the bill, the BIL and to actually have some new contacts to reach out to that hopefully we can get some money here.

Does anybody know?

And I'm sure we could also talk to them about something like this as well.

That's one reason why it was thought that at least that part of the trail might be able to be used with federal money.

Hopefully that we can save some of the ARPA money too for some other things and address because a lot of money came to the Parks Department.

Do other other counselors have have comments that we want to make at this point or Mr. City Manager or the questions that you have for us about what what we want or what you want to be doing or what the next steps are forward?

and Sam, Ashley, any other points that you want to make at this point on the budget, Chrissy?

Sam and Ashley have anything and then I'll just wrap up with the items I think we have to follow up on.

Yeah, there's just a few things we'll have to follow up on overall, but we'll get working on that tomorrow.

Yeah, okay.

Did I miss anything?

Those are the ones that come to mind for me.

And I guess there was the piece too about the public defender, right?

Okay.

That's not as a vibrant communities fund issue, but perhaps another budget issue.

in terms of the schedule going forward or Mr. Rogers in terms of the budget development as we go forward looking at the schedule I see the the next items that are up the actual I guess vote on a tax increase for real estate looks like that happens the first hearing is on April 4th is that right

So Monday, I'm sorry.

Thank you.

March 31st will be the CIP work session and then next week will be the community budget forum.

Is that right?

Great.

Robertson can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think technically speaking, the amendments from Council come after the public hearing on April 4th.

Hamill?

Robertson, you want to?

But you don't do that until after you've been through the public hearing process.

Correct, yes.

Or is the public hearing on March 21st, what's the difference between those two public hearings?

And I think that is the one that Chrissy is identifying as being scheduled for April 4th.

Okay.

So that's the schedule.

Thank you.

Thank you.