City Council Special Meeting   9/11/2020

We are ready when you are.

Ms.

Mr. Payne.

Present.

Mr. Snook.

Present.

Here.

I move to approve the resolution amending Dr. Richardson's contract.

Second?

Mr. Payne?

Yes.

Mr. Snook?

Yes.

Yes.

Robertson as acting city attorney and Mr. John Blair as acting city manager.

Is there a second?

Mr. Payne?

Yes.

Mr. Snook?

Yes.

Yes.

Dr. Richardson, would you like to address the public?

So thank you.

And I just would like to give Mr. Blair an opportunity to say a few words.

The one thing I would like to say personally is I deeply believe that this city and its residents, its council, and its workforce can work together

And I will do anything I can to help the council as it moves forward in hiring a new city manager.

Are there members of the press or public present who would like to engage with council?

Go ahead.

Do you plan to contract with a firm like The Last Search or go a different route?

Yes, our plan at this time is to discuss it a little bit more because we haven't really had a lengthy discussion about it, but we plan to use a search firm to help us with the search, which is standard practices.

No one, anything else right now?

Was that just to add the effective resignation date or what was the contract amendment?

Yes, that was the only amendment that changed from the 75 days to 19 days.

CJ, you're on with council, go ahead.

Anything specifically that you can point to or anything that you'd like to say about that?

So I just thought it was a good time to step away to take care of myself.

No.

Jesse, go ahead.

Any next steps?

You know, as I told everyone, I just want to get some sleep.

That's my only question.

Thanks.

Go ahead.

Obviously, Mr. Blair was with Albemarle County for a while, so I'm just wondering how this might play out regionally.

Mr. Blair, acting capacity begins tomorrow and officially, and for a couple of weeks, he will be able to work with Dr. Richardson on the transition plan.

Thank you.

And next we have Katherine Young with CBS.

Katherine, go ahead.

So my first question is how much severance, if any, will Dr. Richardson be getting as part of his resignation?

So the other parts of the contract, which included a year salary, they are still intact.

Have there been, are you concerned about the high turnover rate in those leadership positions, Mayor Walker?

And so you all are aware of why we've had some of those challenges.

Go ahead, Nolan.

I was wondering, do you think that this quick turnover rate that you've had is going to affect you hiring someone else to fill this position in the future?

someone will find Charlottesville an attractive place to be employed and help us grow and work through some of our challenges.

Do you still want to have as public a process as you did last time with like public interviews with finalists and things like that?

Again, that's not something that we've discussed as a council, but I believe that it would be in everyone's best interest for us to follow that same process and allow the public and staff to be able to weigh in on our final decision.

Go ahead, CJ.

Or is this process that will stretch into next year?

and duration, but we don't, we can't say for certain, again, this is all relatively new and we have to process and discuss a lot of those, you know, a lot of those matters.

And Jesse from Seville Tomorrow, go ahead.

For those of us and for people who are going to be reading our stories and watching our stories that aren't intimately involved with city government, I wonder if you could take a moment to kind of explain what your role as a city manager is and was and how the extreme climate changed that role.

I'm sorry.

I just want to get a sense of what your job is, what you do, how you function in the role.

So that's my other part of my responsibilities.

Excellent, thank you.

And we're back to Sean Tubbs.

The city did just recently hire a new public works director, but for those two vacancies, how does this affect the timing for those positions?

Council, you want me to answer that?

That's fine.

and, you know, I'm sure with John Blair in charge, we'll keep moving forward in terms of finding the right person for those positions.

Go ahead.

And I was wondering if any of the concerns he raised played a role in coming to this point.

Those matters have already been addressed.

And Jesse Higgins, last question.

At what point was the council made aware of Dr. Richardson's decision to resign?

We've probably been having discussions for about a week and a half, two weeks.

Sandy, if you unmute, go ahead.

Can you hear me now?

We can.

And I'd like to hear from both the manager and the mayor on that.

So that all is dependent upon the culture of this profession in terms of moving from place to place.

And hopefully at some point there'll be more trust within the community relationships and there'll be more, you know, a healthier spirit within our internal workings and that it'll come together and that we'll have a healthier environment.

Thank you.

You've got three minutes.

Where does this leave the city attorney's office as far as staffing?

And we are in the process of also hiring a new assistant city attorney to fill out a vacancy.

And it doesn't appear there are any further questions, Mayor Walker.

We just want to check again just to make sure, and then we can adjourn.

No additional hands.

And we know that there'll be a lot that we will have to discuss in the next two weeks.

I greatly appreciate everything.

Thank you.