City Council Meeting   6/20/2016

Good evening, everyone.

Call this meeting of the Charlottesville City Council to order.

Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

We're going to begin with awards and recognitions.

We have medical directive, Mr. Fenwick.

OK.

This is a proclamation.

dated 20th June 2016.

Health care decisions, whereas health care decisions recognition events are designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for health care decisions related to end of life care and medical decision making whenever people are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advanced directives to communicate these important decisions.

and whereas it is important for all individuals 18 and older to exercise their right to have their voices heard during the point in their life when they may not be able to express those wishes for their families and caregivers.

and whereas healthcare decisions events encourage healthcare providers and community leaders to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives.

and whereas Java, Jefferson Area Board for Aging, University of Virginia Health System, Centora Martha Jefferson Hospital, Hospice of the Piedmont and other organizations throughout this community have endorsed this effort and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing health care choices and executing advance directives.

Now, therefore, the Charlottesville City Council does hereby recognize June 2016 as Healthcare Decisions Month in the City of Charlottesville and calls this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

And I believe Marta Kean.

I just wanted to thank the City Council for helping to educate the citizens of Charlottesville about this important area.

I have a proclamation for the League of Women Voters.

whereas women of our community in March of 1946 in order to meet a need for informed public participation in government formed a League of Women Voters now expanded to include men and to cover the Thomas Jefferson Planning District region and whereas for 70 years the League has provided invaluable non-partisan voter services such as voter guides, registration drives and candidate forums and whereas after thorough study the League takes action and over the years has worked to protect our rivers, our public and private

Drinking Water Supplies, Residence Health, our land use through long-range planning, our handling of solid waste and quality education, and whereas the League has educated the public through frequent community dialogues about issues that affect us locally, statewide, and nationally, and whereas the League, through its emphasis on knowledgeable public service, has been a training ground for members who have become elected city, county, and state officials, now therefore be it resolved that the members of the Charlottesville City Council recognize the League of Women Voters of the Charlottesville area

for its outstanding contributions and join in celebrating its 70th anniversary.

I'm Sue Lewis, the Vice President of this Charlottesville area.

Leave away my voters, which now, by the way, includes

Fluvanna, Green, Nelson, and Louisa, the Fleming District.

And we really appreciate this.

I want you to know that this league is the first locally recognized league of the state league.

And we are a part of three levels of leagues.

But some of us have just returned from the national convention, where that celebrated 96 years.

And in four years, that'll be 100 years old.

and I think you all need to know that that's the history of the league and we're very happy to be here and like I say we do represent more than just the city of Charlottesville.

The first is about a citizen informational meeting regarding Hillsdale Drive Extension Project.

The City of Charlottesville will host an open forum citizen informational meeting for the Hillsdale Drive Extension Project on Wednesday, June 29th.

The public is invited to attend this meeting to view the schedule and plans for the upcoming construction project as well as to provide an opportunity to sign up for traffic updates.

City and contractor staff will be present to talk with attendees about upcoming projects.

project activities and construction sequencing.

In early June, the City of Charlottesville reviewed bids for the Hillsdale Drive meeting, oh, this doesn't have any punctuation in it.

In early June, the City of Charlottesville reviewed all bids for the Hillsdale, for Hillsdale Drive project period.

Meeting materials will be available at www.hillsdaledrive.org along with the option to sign up for traffic updates and alerts.

For information about the Hillsdale Drive Extension Project, visit that same website or call 434-970-3182.

For more information on the other Route 29 Solutions projects, please contact the Virginia Department of Transportation or visit www.route29solutions.org.

and also I would like to announce the next Our Town meeting for Greenbrier, Barracks, Rugby and Meadowbrook, Thursday, June 30th at 6 p.m. at Walker Upper Elementary School.

Thank you.

Mr. Bellamy?

Free dinner, count me in.

I have one about the Pollocks Branch Walkable Watershed Project Community Festival.

As part of the Pollocks Branch Walkable Watershed Project, the City is partnering with several other local organizations to hold a community festival

on June 25th from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Ball Field at CRHA's South First Street property.

The event aims to celebrate the work that has been done as part of the walkable watershed process, most notably the opening of the Pollocks Branch Greenway Trail behind South First Street while connecting the neighborhood residents to each other and the natural world around them.

The free, again, family-friendly event will include guided trail adventures, field games and activities, art creation, interactive stations from community groups, a bounce house, music, food and more.

The more being, Mayor Signer said he's going to do a push-up contest.

Correct?

Correct.

Come out and join the fun at the community festival on June 25th.

Again, this is at the ball field at South First Street.

Come on out 2 to 5 p.m.

You coming?

It's an amendment.

June 20th, 2016, Yogo Rally to reduce area violence.

Charlottesville area residents are encouraged to attend a YOGO SafeLink rally, a preventive safety meeting designed to reduce the culture of violence throughout the Charlottesville area.

The term YOGO, Y-O-G-O, is an abbreviation for Yo, Let It Go, designed by Charlottesville native author, Mr. Alex Zahn.

The rally will be on Thursday, June 30th, 2016 at 7 p.m. at the First Baptist Church

on West Main Street, Charlottesville.

For more info, contact Mr. Alexander, 804-321-3636, or email alexan at i-c dot net.

and two other real quick coming events.

The next commission on the Blue Ribbon, I'm sorry, the next commission meeting on the Blue Ribbon Monuments and Public Places Task Force will be this coming Thursday at 6 p.m. in city space open to the public.

If the remaining meetings, and I think there's 12 more, are anything like the first meeting, it is going to be one of the most

rewarding historic reviews of slavery and Virginia history and Charlottesville history that you could ever get.

It's a remarkable group of people that are on this committee.

And the second thing is the court hearing on the appointment of an interim manager for the Water Street Parking Garage will be next Monday, a week from today.

June 27th at 3 p.m. in the Charlottesville Circuit Court.

That's the one on the corner.

It's important for the community to show its support for retaining all the parking we have and you can see both sides go at it.

Thank you, Mr. Fenwick.

Mr. Jones, city manager's response to matters by the public.

I skipped ahead.

I move the following appointments for the following commissions, panels, whatever.

For the citizens policy advisory panels, Pascal Bussière, Peter Jenkins,

David Simmons, and Lawton Tufts.

For the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Julie Jones.

For the Piedmont Virginia Community College, Pam de Guzman and Janet Morrow.

For the Retirement Commission, Ben Kulop.

For the Sister Cities Commission, Leah Hicks, Amy Lemley, and John Lohman.

And for the Youth Council, Lucas Higgins, Chloe Landry,

James Lynch and Elizabeth Baltietta.

All in favor?

That carries four to zero.

And I should say we're missing one of our colleagues.

Kathy Galvin is abroad in Italy delivering a paper, actually, about the strategic investment area.

Oh, and Lisa Robertson is here subbing in for Deputy City Attorney for Craig Brown or City Attorney.

Okay, Mr. Jones, City Manager, response to matters of the public.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

There are a couple of issues to respond to from the last City Council meeting on June 6th.

Ms. Lena Seville raised concerns about a traffic light.

at Water Street and 3rd.

She'd mentioned that the CAT Advisory Board had voted to remove that traffic light and also mentioned that a city councilor had intervened in that situation keeping the light there.

It is true, obviously, that the CAT Advisory Board had voted for removal of that light, but it was not the case that a city councilor had intervened in that.

We had several business owners expressing concern about the removal of the light and staff is reviewing that situation right now and vetting options for that intersection.

So just wanted to provide some clarification on that.

Mr. Edward Brooks expressed

his concerns about the discussions over memorials in our community.

Just wanted to remind folks, as Mr. Fenwick just did, that we are convening have convened the Commission on Race Memorials and Public Spaces that met for the first time last Thursday.

And the commission meeting went well.

We do have another commission meeting, as Mr. Fenwick mentioned this Thursday.

and the commission right now is looking at a couple of different dates for public engagement opportunities and forums in the future.

One date that they are pretty confident about right now is July 27th for a forum to allow for public input on this issue and we are working on a place and a time for that meeting but we'll get back to everybody once we do.

There's one other issue raised by Ms. Rebecca Quinn.

Her concerns about language used to explain the pilot

Our staff is working right now on a description, intent, and how the pilot is calculated for a presentation on our bills that will go out to all of our utility users for the City of Charlottesville.

So that's occurring right now and we'll be working on that and getting that out soon.

Now we go to matters by the public.

These are the guidelines for public comment that we read at the beginning of each public comment period.

We welcome public comment.

It's an important part of our meeting.

Time is reserved near the beginning and at the end of each regular City Council meeting for matters by the public.

Please follow these guidelines for public comment.

If you're here to speak for a public hearing,

Please wait to speak on the matter until the report for that item has been presented and the public hearing has been opened.

Each speaker has three minutes to speak.

Please give your name and address before beginning your remarks.

Please do not interrupt speakers whether or not you agree with them.

Please refrain from using obscenities if you cannot follow these guidelines.

You'll be escorted from City Council Chambers and not permitted to re-enter.

And then there's also the other guidelines that are in our procedures that we have.

And this, just pay attention to the timing here.

Yellow when you're closing, getting close to the end of the three minutes and red when the three minutes are up.

So we have 12 folks signed up.

So yes, I am Joe Drago.

You just called my name out.

And I still live in Carsborough.

I've come here again today to speak to you all about my deep concerns about the unrestricted, unrestrained immigration of people from the Middle East, many of whom are real good people.

But unfortunately, some of them are not.

And we need to devise some sort of a system to make sure that those people that are doing bad things in Europe

Do not come here to Pleasantville, Charlottesville.

Case in point, I specifically mentioned last time I was here, Amarillo, Texas.

Remember?

Remember?

Amarillo, Texas.

The Somali Muslim took the manager of a Walmart and several of his associates hostage.

The SWAT team had to come and kill him.

That's on the news.

Secondly, it turns out that Amarillo, the Yellow Rose of Texas, has the highest reported incident of rape in the state of Texas.

Want to know why?

It's very simple.

Just like it is everywhere else, because they have the largest ratio of Muslim migrants to indigenous peoples living there.

That's why.

Just like it is in Dresden, Germany, just like it is in Oslo, Copenhagen, just like it is in Utica, New York,

Just like it is in Birmingham, Britain, it's always the same thing.

When we reach a critical mass of Muslims, then things start to change.

Right now, Pleasantville here hasn't hit that mass.

But we're having more and more of these folks coming in here.

I'm not saying they shouldn't come here.

I'm saying that there needs to be some methodology for making sure that bad people don't come here.

And by the way, Wes, you and I just talked about this.

Why does the IRC not bring any Arab Christians into this community?

It's only Arab Muslims.

Why is that?

I wish someone could tell me.

Secondly, and a far more horrendous story, this just came out, Twin Falls, Idaho.

It's on their local news.

Five-year-old girl kidnapped and raped by three Syrian Muslim boys ages 13, 9, and 8.

The 13-year-old raped her.

He was old enough to do that.

I'm asking a question.

Well, I'm keeping in mind that there are children here in this community that need to be protected from your reckless policies.

So please do not lecture me.

You've just taken some of my valuable time and I want it back.

In fact, you're not even supposed to be talking to me.

Thank you.

Neither of you are supposed to be talking to me.

Your rules are that you don't speak to us.

That's your rules and you both just broke your rules again.

Don't break your rules.

If I have to follow your rules, you damn well will follow them also.

Later, two young Muslim men, you can imagine how traumatized her parents are and her grandmother.

Later, two young Muslim men came and threatened the child's mother, warning her not to call the police, which they did do.

This is a quote from a retired Department of Homeland Security Officer, Philip Haney.

No, that was three minutes, including the time that you were given back.

Thank you.

Okay, Louis Schultz.

Good evening, George Benford, 608 Rainier Drive here in Charlottesville.

I wanted to pass to you what I've sent you earlier today, a resolution passed by the DABC in reference to the parking situation in Charlottesville.

Be it resolved, in response to two public meetings hosted by the DBAC and at the overwhelming request of over 45 attendees at the first meeting and over 60 at the second meeting, of which approximately one half were members of the DBAC, the DBAC board votes to support those stakeholders in downtown Charlottesville and make the following request to the city of Charlottesville.

1.

That the city not sell at stake in the Water Street Garage.

2.

That the city treat parking as a public utility and that they have a role to play in ensuring affordable parking.

3.

that the city immediately began exploring all options to ensure there is safe and affordable parking for employees, customers in both the short and the long term.

Respectfully submitted Monday, June 20, 2016 by the DBC board of directors.

John Hayden If you're considering the ban on guns, I'm with you.

But let's start with illegal guns and target those who commit crimes

shootings and armed robberies.

There should be automatic stiff sentences for those who use a firearm in the commission of a felony with no chance to plead down to a lower charge.

In order to do that, we need to identify criminals and look at crime statistics in order to know

where to concentrate our efforts.

So far, you've been unwilling to do that.

So until you are, don't expect us law-abiding owners of registered firearms to give up anything.

So far, efforts to curb gun violence have been met with charges of racism because most have been committed in the minority neighborhoods.

Don't those citizens deserve protection too?

By protecting the thugs, the law-abiding citizens

of these neighborhoods are the ones who suffer the most.

I've come to understand that you are intent on relocating several hundred refugees to this area, and based on recent shootings, the odds of something happening here are more likely than not.

Given that we have a large gay population here, why would you be intent on bringing in people who hate gay people?

That is something the gay population should question you on.

You better hope and pray that if anything were to happen here, that people like me who have concealed carry permits and exercise our Second Amendment rights are in the right place at the right time to prevent another tragedy like what happened in Florida.

I may not agree with you, I may not even like you, but you better believe that if your life or the lives of any of your family was in danger,

and I was close by, I would do what I could to protect you or your children.

Radical Islamic terrorists don't care about your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.

They're equal opportunity killers.

You can frame this as a gun control argument, but you need to acknowledge that it is a clash of radical Islamic zealots who only want to kill us.

It's no different than putting a pit bull in a room with a pussycat.

It's a vicious animal intent on killing.

And your social agenda, intent on diversity, is going to get somebody killed.

Susan Payne.

Mayor Signer, members of the City Council, City Manager Jones,

On behalf of the downtown businesses and the downtown business association, I am here tonight to thank you for the vote you cast to purchase additional parking spaces in the Water Street parking garage.

We look forward to working with the city as we seek an appropriate parking solution for the success and value of our businesses and the economic vitality of Charlottesville.

And as chairman of the Virginia Tourism Corporation,

I can also speak to the importance of tourism to the Charlottesville economy.

Travelers spent more than $554 million in Charlottesville last year, amounting to over $18 million in local taxes.

Affordable and adequate parking is important to tourists that visit our restaurants, our shops, our entertainment venues, and cultural destinations.

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, I'm with the firm of Lenhart Pettit, 30 East Main, and I'm here tonight representing Violet Crowne.

At the meeting of concerned downtown citizens on June 2nd that Mr. Benford referred to, there was a petition circulated.

At that meeting, there were some 50 to 60 people attending.

There was a show of hands.

in favor of a resolution that the city retain its faces in the Water Street parking garage.

All but two people present were in favor of that.

That wasn't an official vote of the organization, but it certainly was a statement by the people there.

And this petition, which I would like to present to you, states the desires of that group and is signed by just about 40 people.

So I'll present these to the clerk.

On behalf of Violet Crown, we would like to thank city council for its determined support

Thanks you both.

Hi, Mark Briggs, 1310 Carton Avenue.

I'm here to hopefully bring awareness to water-damaged toxic black mold.

I lived in it for 15 years.

I'm a survivor of it, a walking testimony, maybe to help other people

that's still in it and may not know that they're sick.

There's no code for water damage or mold, from what I was told.

So my blessing is to maybe be able to save some lives.

You've got babies and kids and teens and elderly that's still living in this environment.

The mold is very deadly.

It affects your kidneys, your internal organs, as well as out

I've been thankful that I'm still alive today to be here to talk about this.

My goal is to maybe get an inspector to come out and check these places out, get these kids out of it.

If it's going to affect me the way it affected me, just imagine what it's going to do to babies and kids and elderly that may be shut in in this environment.

So my goal today is to hopefully I can bring awareness to this matter.

They don't know that they're sick.

You gotta be specially tested.

So I'm hoping that tonight I can get other people involved, not just myself.

I know that I may not make change, but at least I'm here today to say that I can try.

If I can try, then I'm a step ahead of trying to overcome the condition that I've been dealing with.

Over 15 years, I haven't gotten the proper health care.

That's why it's a blessing that I'm still alive right today.

But it ain't so much about me.

It's about the babies, the kids that's still living in this environment.

God gave me the ability and the strength to push my way out of it.

And I'm thankful to be out of it.

But if we can save the other lives of people that's in it, I think that's the goal.

That's the key to maybe coming up with some sort of resolution that'll help

with a code for mold or getting an inspector to come out and inspect these places, move into hotel rooms, get them out of it, get the places renovated, move them back in so that they can actually be more productive in society because it's all about quality of life.

If your quality of life is taken from you, then you know how you're going to actually be more successful knowing that you're sick.

Thanks.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak.

Thank you.

Joanne Robertson, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Since the shooting occurred in Orlando, there's been a lot of talk about guns and people carrying concealed guns and there's been like a Mimi on Facebook that's been going around, oh don't worry if you're in a shopping line and somebody comes along, I'll protect you.

and that really, really bothers me because I want a safe space for me and my children.

I don't want people that think because they have a concealed weapon that they're Superman or something standing behind me.

If I drop a bottle of soda or something, I don't want someone to just all of a sudden be trigger happy.

So I was thinking about this and actually Mr. Fenwick helped me

kind of sort this out this weekend online and I was thinking about what if we, because we are a very different city, we are kind of separate

What if we were the ones that kind of changed the game?

What if we gave certificates out to businesses in Charlottesville called Safe Spaces?

And it wasn't anything that had to happen.

I mean, it wasn't like we're going to go to Bodo's and say, you have to take this, no guns.

but I'll give you an example.

I started googling and one of Charlottesville's owned from Slate, Delia Lithwick, a group of her friends went into Whole Foods and they were actually, since Virginia is a, you're allowed to carry around guns, they didn't know how they were gonna do it.

But Whole Foods stepped up and from what I have been investigating, Whole Foods and ACAC actually have signs that state

you know we do not allow concealed weapons.

As a mom of two kids and of the insane talk about Muslims and people that may not be white or whatever and I don't even know what's going on here but I would much rather go into a store that has a sign like that because I would feel safe and I would feel as a world-class city we are accepting everyone.

and I'm just going to say some stores right now through what I investigated Whole Foods is one, Ikea, Peet's Coffee and Tea, Starbucks is one, however they say if you do come in they will still serve you.

So AMC Theaters, California Pizza Kitchen, Toys R Us, Buffalo Wild Wings,

and Disney World.

So those are just a few.

But I would be I'm stand for the silent Albemarle.

I would be happy to lead up an initiative like this so that I know someone that thinks they have a concealed permit is not going to go

shooting.

Peter Kleeman.

Please, please, please, please, please keep this.

Please be respectful of all speakers.

Good evening.

I'm Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

This is

Follow up to comments I've made in the past and it has to do with pedestrian safety in the city.

On my way walking here today, I stopped at space that's at the intersection of Park and High, which is sort of the pedestrian center, one of the pedestrian centers of Charlottesville.

And there is an ever expanding set of holes in the crosswalk.

I brought this to the attention of council several months ago.

It's been going on for many months before that.

City Manager Jones responded saying there is a process, there is a priority list that the city follows and they move down this list and they correct these spaces.

I notice also there's a sidewalk improvement fund contribution.

I'm hoping there would be some, perhaps, crosswalk improvement funds made available as well, that they may not be sidewalks, but they certainly do function as pedestrian ways.

Now I put my foot up against the largest of those holes.

My foot does not quite fit in the hole.

It's about 12 inches long, three and a half, four inches wide, and over an inch deep.

And there's another hole in the crosswalk, the edge of the crosswalk, that's smaller but deeper.

And I know that there are many people's feet who would fit right into those holes.

and they are extremely dangerous.

That's a situation where children, people running across the street to beat the light or whatever it might be, can have serious incidents.

So I don't know what the turnaround time on fixing the pedestrian hazards, all of which I would assume would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act standards,

But I would expect that the city could maybe make a little bit greater effort to catch up.

If things are going to be hazardous for six months, eight months, a year, I think that is something that really needs to be addressed and more funds and effort

or some creative solutions need to be developed that would allow the city to fix these problems.

And when we talk about safety in the city, this is a walkable city, I think pedestrian safety should be one of the highest priorities.

Thank you.

22 seconds left.

What was the address of that?

Thank you all for having public comment.

I'm in your world for a change, as you've all been in mine.

And you're all welcome back.

No lotteries.

You can come on any time.

I realized something watching a lot of these meetings.

Nobody ever actually tells you what they want you to do.

So I'm going to open with that.

I won't bury the lead.

I would like you to vote down the resolution calling on the Commonwealth of Virginia to enact other gun legislation and or giving the city of Charlottesville

and its other independent cities additional extra constitutional powers over the Second Amendment.

Many years ago, a fellow named Moses came down with some laws and the sixth of those laws was thou shall not murder.

The difference of that law versus any that we're talking about tonight was this law was directed towards his people saying you need to stop murdering each other.

Not once we've invented firearms, not once we've made better tools.

Murder was in their hearts and we needed to find a way to stop them.

A couple of points of order regarding the law and gun restrictions.

Two of the most

Pockmarch cities for gun violence are Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

They have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country, so laws don't stop this.

As you are representatives of the city of Charlottesville, we are certainly not unfamiliar with horrible cases of murder in our city.

The three most notable, none of them were done with a firearm.

Much discussion has been made regarding the no-fly, no-buy list.

There is no constitutional backing for this because there is no due process to this.

I don't think anyone would want their Fourth Amendment constitutional protections taken away because you're on a list just because somebody added you on it.

Now, if you want to add the right of petition, the right to face your accusers to the no-fly list, maybe we can change.

In none of the recent shootings here in the Commonwealth of Virginia did the assailants slip through the mythical gun show loophole.

What we need to do is do what some organizations like ACAC have done, which is develop plans to fight and combat active shooter or even active violence situations within their midst.

Two last points.

Good evening, Jim Moore, 1213 Hazel Street.

Should we still give her our address when we come up?

Okay, well, I don't mind saying it.

I just didn't know the details of the new protocols.

Okay, according to Dutch vote, the mayor of the time, in 1965, Charlottesville's population was 40,000.

pretty much the same that's been since recent times.

It was at that time run by 242 employees and one computer.

Today at 45,000 we have over 1,200 staff if you include outsourcing.

So I think we're heavily managed.

So after 40 years of warning not to continually restrict convenient parking, you've apparently gotten stuck with, quote, the cam.

It's been bouncing down the road a lot faster since we hired full-time dedicated staff to promote multimodal travel.

Now you're suggesting, and I think a knee-jerk reaction to a short-term legal crisis, the solution is to hire a trove of permanent full-time people to solve the problem created by your predecessors.

and you want to do this off budget and off comp plan.

At the very least, outsource this on a temporary basis so that you can consider with proper perspective what for many cities is the most hated and corrupt prone city function.

Now concerning the monument commission, there appear to be substantive accusations that the commission is not representative of the community, the monument stakeholders, or even our racial diversity.

Although the commission is built with highly respected individuals, I don't understand how you expect respectful acceptance of their recommendations.

Having served four years on the dialogue and race steering committee, I'm disappointed and sometimes offended by the priorities you have set for us.

I believe our attention to racial narratives that seven years of investment and effort have failed to collaborate should be augmented to at least include American natives.

Or maybe the commission could answer what I think are some very important questions, one of which I'll share.

Of the roughly 7,000 immigrants released in Virginia that have been identified as serious criminal offenders by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, how many in our area have been convicted of homicide, how many of sexual assault convictions, which apparently they're not registering as sexual offenders, how many kidnappers, and how many have been convicted of aggravated assault?

Thank you.

I came in this building for the first time this evening and I passed Monroe and Jefferson and Madison.

And I think for the city of Charlottesville to even contemplate trying to aggregate the Second Amendment to our Constitution is an abomination.

And you ought to all be ashamed of yourselves.

What part of shall not be infringed don't you get?

You don't get to decide that Charlottesville will take itself outside of the Constitution of the United States.

that's already been attempted in 1861 and it was an epic fail.

Okay, thank you.

On behalf of my colleagues, I want to thank everybody who took the time to show up and share your thoughts.

We just have, I don't know, nobody else has said.

Oh I'm sorry, Al, oh it looked like it was a scribble, Al Schenk?

I'm sorry, forgive me, it was... Mayor Signer, Vice Mayor Bellamy and Council, I'm a retired soldier.

I've done plenty for my country, 37 years worth.

I live in Charlottesville.

I've lived here for 40 years.

I was your first jail superintendent out on Avon Street.

I'd like to say to you right now, without any hesitation, I disapprove highly of any kind of effort to curtail our Second Amendment rights under the Constitution.

This is the only way

that we can defend ourselves against miscreants, criminals, terrorists, and whatever else we have in our society.

I carry.

I carry all the time.

And in doing so, I protect my family and myself.

I'd like to say to the rest of the folks here, think about it.

What if you were accosted?

Right outside here on the mall tonight, what would you do?

Would you run?

Would you call the police?

Would you fight?

Of course.

Hopefully you would.

Me, I know I would fight.

I've fought a lot.

Plenty of times.

So what we've got to do is we've got to realize that there are certain things in our Constitution that are unalterable.

What in the Second Amendment shall not be infringed?

It's simple.

Thank you very much.

Go back to what I was saying.

We thank everybody.

There's a lot of time and effort that goes into these remarks to us.

We take them very seriously, the ones that go directly to city or staff.

Concerns, Mr. Jones will respond to in our next city council meeting as you heard tonight.

And we've also, we got many hundreds of emails as well.

So we thank you for taking the time.

I'd just like to ask a clarifying question of staff.

Can we get an answer to what it would take for us to be able to regulate mold as a, if we're building inspection?

Sure, I'd like to ask the other side.

Okay, thank you all.

We are going to move on to the consent agenda.

Item A minutes for June 6th.

Item C in appropriation, Virginia Homelessness Solutions Grant, $5,887, second of two readings.

Item D in appropriation, local agency contributions for crisis intervention training, $15,000, second of two readings.

Item E in appropriation, Albemarle County reimbursement for the Gordon Avenue ceiling and lighting replacement project, $25,000, second of two readings.

Item F in appropriation, housing opportunities for persons with AIDS, $11,485, second of two readings.

Item G in appropriation, sidewalk improvement fund contribution, $15,344.60, first of two readings.

Item H, an appropriation, approval and appropriation of revised home budget allocation for FY 2016-2017, first of two readings.

Item I, a resolution, corrective action to support funding for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority modernization coordinator, maintenance supervisor, first of one reading.

Item J, a resolution 1000 West Main Street, the uncommon comprehensive signage plan, first of one reading.

Item L, a resolution, programmatic project administration agreement extension revenue sharing, first of one reading.

Item M, a resolution, transfer funds from capital improvement program contingency account to start parking department account, $500,000, first of one reading.

Item N, an ordinance, closing unaccepted street off Douglas Avenue, second of two readings.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any further questions, discussion?

All in favor?

Carries four to zero.

Before we get on to the other items, I have one announcement that I just forgot to make at the very beginning, which is I'm doing an open office hour.

I do them the first Thursday of every month.

So there's mayor's open office hour this Thursday from 12 to 1 p.m. at the mayor's office in City Hall on the second floor.

Parking validation is available at the Marcus Street Garage.

If anybody wants to sign up for a slot, please contact Page Rice, the Clerk of Council, at RiceP at charlottesville.org.

And you can call 434-970-3113.

10 minute slots, but you can also just show up.

It's just a little easier if you make an appointment ahead of time.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry.

It's July 7th.

Well, my apologies.

That's July 7th.

Okay.

First Thursday for everyone.

All right.

And I need to make a statement that I am

I will be not participating in this conversation because it involves Virginia organizing.

And my husband is the director and is paid, I think the cap is $5,000 a year, so he's paid more than that.

And I'm also submitting this form to our clerk in accordance with the law.

Thank you.

Well, good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you.

The request before you tonight is a request for Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund assistance for Virginia organizing for $264,484 to purchase a multifamily property known are located at 300 and

I believe the resolution says Carlton Avenue.

It's actually Carlton Road when I re-verified that earlier.

It's known commonly as the Carlton House.

The facility will provide 10 affordable efficiency style rental units targeted for leasing to individuals and or couples at 50%

or less of area median income.

For leverage, Virginia Organizing will serve as a grant recipient and owner of the property and as lender into the development entity known as Carlton LLC, providing a loan of $270,251 to leverage

our grant funds.

This will complete funding for the purchase price and the proposed renovations.

This means that the city will actually be providing 49.5% of the project costs and the applicant will be providing the remaining 50.5%.

The membership of Carleton LLC will include three entities, Virginia Organizing, Murray and Company LLC, and Building Management Company known as BMC.

This entity will develop and operate Carlton House in compliance with the city Charlottesville affordable housing fund guidelines for tracking and providing data on tenant income, rental rates, et cetera, over the 15 year compliance period.

As far as compliance goes, there will be a 15 year deed of trust recorded against this property should the property cease to be used to support an affordable rental housing during that 15 year period.

A pro rata

Repayment of city funds would be required and that's based on the allowance of an annual reduction of 1.15 per year of the total grants.

For each year they keep it in compliance, you know, there would be no repayment required.

As for rents, so how they're going to set these, they'll be based on 95% of the home low or high rent depending on the income level of the

of the tenant.

They anticipate that the majority of the tenants will be in the low income range, which just means they're 50% and below.

However, should they have an applicant, excuse me, a tenant who wants to rent from them and they're between 50 and 80%, there's nothing in our guidelines that prohibits that, but they would then charge what's known as the home high rents.

So what that actually means is they're taking this

the home annually established rates that are published by HUD and they're reducing them by 5% and we thought that that was appropriate given the fact that they were getting the subsidy from the city.

So it would lower current rates from 662 which is what the home figure is down to 628.90 per month based on rentals again to persons at 50% of AMI.

and here in Charlottesville that means that renter income would need to be $28,000 for a single or $32,000 or less for a double occupancy.

Recommendation, we are recommending in favor of this motion or this resolution and we're placing three specific qualifications on that and those include development of a written grant agreement which would spell out, specify the uses of the grant funds and incorporate the reporting and accountability

Measures that are set forth in Housing Policy 1 as well as any consequences for non-compliance.

Secondly, the recommendation is conditioned upon receipt of a satisfactory agreement for Carlton LLC.

We do have a draft agreement from them that's already been prepared, but this would assure that funding would be used for the purposes of the housing fund.

So this would be actually a separate operating agreement for Carlton LLC.

And then lastly, um,

for purchase of the property and modifications of the property within 90 to 120 days to secure a new certificate of occupancy.

So currently the property has a certificate of occupancy that's based on a different building type.

And we had our building inspector and our zoning folks go in and look at everything.

And their recommendation was to make some changes.

Those are outlined in the memo specifically to the structure in order to allow them to comply

making the improvements and housing the people that they're proposing to house.

So those are the only formal comments I have.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Yes sir, that's correct.

These informally are probably used by lower income tenants already.

Right now there's only nine units within that building.

No, sir, they are not.

Our goal is 15% of our total housing stock, which is a moving number, as you know.

And what is it after this addition?

With the addition of the 10, I think we're still going to be hovering.

I mean, that's not a huge addition to the total number.

And so I would imagine we're still fairly close to 10.

Okay.

I think it needs to be, well, first of all, thank you for the report.

Very detailed.

Really appreciate it.

I think it definitely needs to be added.

for public information and to let our constituents know that as so many individuals throughout the city would like to see more affordable housing, we are desperately looking for different ways to be able to have different individuals from across the community be able to live here in the city for an affordable rate.

This is actually something that is going to help us move in that direction.

Some will say that this is only 10 units and that is the case.

However, 10 units is potentially 10 more families, 10 more families who will now be able to live in a city at an affordable rate than those who did not before.

So thank you for your hard work.

Kudos, major kudos to you.

and I'm hoping that this will be a trend that continues.

I know you all are working very hard as well as others throughout the city to bring about more affordable housing.

Your work does not go unnoticed nor is it not appreciated.

I do think that the progress in a small city of 45, 50,000 people does work by increments of 10 or 15 or 20 a lot of the time.

And the programs that we're doing, we're a city of neighbors and these amounts do matter in the total sum of housing or new jobs.

So thank you for your work.

I think we're, any other questions?

Is there a motion to approve this resolution as drafted?

So moved.

This is not an ordinance.

There's no public hearing on this.

You are out of order, sir.

Can we have him removed?

Thanks.

All right.

That was a second.

And a second, yes.

Any further discussion?

OK. All in favor?

OK.

Thank you.

All right, next item on the agenda, Blue Moon Redevelopment Special Use Permit.

Mr. Ikeifuna.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mayor.

OK. Good evening.

My name is Alexander Ikeifuna.

I'm the NDS director and the staff planner.

Brian Haloska, who's supposed to be presenting this, is on vacation, so I'm filling in for him.

This proposal, the Blue Moon Diner development, is basically SUP.

It's an SUP permit application.

It's a project located at 600 West Main Street, and the original request by the applicant was

approval of density up to 200 dwelling units per acre and also modification of the parking standards by city code to reduce the number of parking spaces required by residential units from one space per unit to 0.5 spaces per unit and to require no on-site parking spaces for residential units of less than 550 square feet in size.

At the Planning Commission hearing held on May 10th, 2016, the Planning Commission recommended approval of the application with the following conditions.

Approval of 180 dwelling units per acre as opposed to the 200 units requested by the applicant.

Parking at the rate of 0.5 parking spaces per dwelling unit.

a mixture of units each to have a size of at least 450 square foot.

And studio units may comprise up to 440 percent of total dwelling units produced with remaining units of one and two bedroom units.

However, since there

the Planning Commission's decision, NDS, the Deputy City Attorney and Councillor Galvin.

We've been working with the representatives for the developers to come up with some kind of acceptable alternative conditions in the form of resolutions.

And that alternative, I believe all the councilors have a copy of that, which was provided by the Deputy City Attorney in consultation, of course, with representatives of the applicant.

The major highlights of the alternative resolution includes residential density of up to 180, as recommended by the Planning Commission.

A studio unit shall have a size of no less than 350 square feet and one of the issues was the size of the unit were not properly defined so we flushed out some kind of threshold so that we provide some kind of a platform for the city council to make an informed decision.

The other provision was

The studio units from 350 to up to 550 square feet, they may comprise of up to 40% of the total dwelling units developed.

The units having less than 550 square feet will have 0.5 parking space per unit.

Units 550 and above will have 1.0 parking space per unit.

At least 40% of the total number of required parking spaces will be provided on-site.

On the other hand, the rest of the spaces, required parking spaces, will be provided off-site in accordance with the city code.

One of the issues of contention was one of the provisions in the parking requirement for the city, the duration is 25 years.

So we're able to work within that limitations so that there will be agreement between the developer or the applicant and the receiving off-site parking area on an increment of five years.

And at the expiration of each five-year increment, 90 days to the expiration,

the applicant will notify the zoning administrator and the zoning administrator will review the renewal agreement subsequent after that and finally I think in a nutshell that's the major issues as far as the application is concerned and I've been working with

the Deputy City Attorney in terms of finalizing this particular alternative resolution and the representatives for the applicant are also here.

We may just go directly.

Is there any introduction again?

One quick question.

The last thing I said was

the offsite lease agreement between the developer and the receiving area where they will pack the offsite cars.

It will be based on an increment of five years.

Now at the end of each five years, at the expiration of each lease period, 90 days before that,

The developer or the applicant is required based on the agreement between the city and the developer to provide a notice to the zoning administrator that this lease arrangement is up for renewal or is going to expire.

So what happens if they are using up too many parking spots in the neighborhood?

Well, we don't have any power to do anything in terms of that because we're having this arrangement so that we'll be able to approve that so that we have adequate parking based on on-site and the off-site lease arrangement so they'll be able to meet their

So if you could try and keep, we spoke for about five minutes and we have 20 minutes on the agenda for this item total so if you could just keep it focused.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening.

We're here on behalf of Heirloom West Main Development LLC representing the developer of this project.

My name is L.J.

Lopez with Milestone Partners.

We're a local Charlottesville based development and owner's representative company.

The Director of NDS did a nice job overviewing the application and the request.

I think based on the Planning Commission's recommendation and subsequent conversations, the ordinance that's here before you has benefited from the conversations and the tweaks.

We're happy and comfortable with that.

We feel it addresses the concerns.

of the neighborhood, the city, and of the proposed development project.

Well, I don't have questions.

I have a motion and then I have also Councilor Galvin who is not here but has been very involved in this asked if someone could read a statement that she wrote and I'm happy to read that as well.

I think we can.

Well, Mr. Fenwick, if anybody's amenable, I'd be fine with doing Councillor Galvin's statement.

So.

So she writes, Lisa Robertson is preparing a revised resolution to approve the SUP for 180 dwelling units per acre for this property that you should receive on Monday.

I support this revised resolution and would vote yes for it if I were here.

Councillor Szakos, as you have been a longstanding supporter of more infill housing on West Main Street, I request you make the motion and put forth this revised resolution.

I actually will make the motion, but I'm making it because I want to make it.

But so unlike the Planning Commission's earlier resolution, this revised resolution ties unit size to parking ratio, which is a common practice nationwide.

Consequently, the revised resolution first defines micro studio units as being not less than 450 square feet.

and no more than 550 square feet, and then allows these smaller units to have diminished parking ratio of half a space per dwelling unit.

One parking space per dwelling unit would be required for all of the units greater than 550 square feet.

In contrast, the Planning Commission's resolutions diminished all parking ratios to a half a space per dwelling unit, regardless of unit size, and it established the size of the micro unit.

I think that did not.

There are valid reasons for reducing parking ratios along West Main Street that relate to unit size and affordability and to a lesser extent access to multiple transit options.

I found little evidence, however, to justify going below one space per dwelling unit for more standard size market rate units at this time because it is essential that residents of the Blue Room project not park on public neighborhood streets or West Main Street and we do not yet have a municipal parking garage in place to serve commercial users along West Main or have an affordable permit parking program in place

To protect on street parking for existing residents of Fifeville, Starr Hill, 10th and Page, we must ensure that there is adequate on and off street parking.

I believe that can be achieved with this revised resolution given the following circumstances.

Nelson Nygaard's study states by allowing for and encouraging shared parking, the city could implement minimum parking requirements and reduce the required number of parking spaces for mixed use developments or single use developments in mixed use areas.

and a study also projects that the West Main Street parking supply will increase by a net of 2,266 spaces if all six developments are built as proposed.

Five of those six, Battle Marriott Flats 1000 West Main, have been built and the sixth, the standard, is proceeding.

Despite this documented ample supply, however, the city, via its Office of Economic Development, Parking Division and NDS, will have to work with the development community to facilitate these off-site parking agreements.

For example, the standard structured parking is slated to provide 260 spaces more than required.

The standard, however, would have to request an SUP first in order to be allowed to lease any of its excess spaces to the Blue Moon Project.

Our zoning citywide should be revised to allow this by right.

In addition, this case illustrates the need for a suite of new actions and policies to ensure that we develop in a way that increases housing supply in the city without ignoring impacts on established neighborhoods.

The suite would include but not be limited to a municipal structured parking facility in West Main, a citywide zoning ordinance that defines micro studio units and establishes parking ratios based on unit size, affordability, location relative to public transit and sound research, zoning revisions that reduce the 25 year lease term and facilitate shared parking agreements and lower cost neighborhood permit parking and the active promotion of permit parking on neighborhood streets adjacent to redeveloping areas of the city.

and that is the last of the substantive part of that statement.

So with that said, I would like to make a motion that is largely what came to us from the Planning Commission with a few substantive changes.

One is in the final paragraph of the resolution itself, the be it resolved,

The wording changes, and some of this I'm not absolutely sure which is where, and I don't want six pieces in front of me, so some of this is what the Planning Commission did, but just to make sure that we're clear.

We'll now read

be it resolved by the council of the city of Charlottesville, Virginia that pursue its city code section 34641 and 34162A.

A special use permit is hereby approved and granted to authorize the proposed development to be established on the subject property with residential density up to 180 dwelling units per acre subject to the following conditions.

There shall be a balanced mixture of dwelling units within the proposed development.

Studio units shall be provided, each to have a size of not more than

450 square feet.

The studio units may comprise up to 40% of the total dwelling units within the proposed development.

The remaining units shall be one and two bedroom units.

Two, the parking requirements for the residential component of the proposed development project shall be, proposed development shall be as followed.

One, for each unit having an area of 450 square feet or less, half a space per unit.

And two, for each, whoop.

Help me.

Oh, this is what you sent us today.

Am I right so far or do I need to go back?

OK, first condition.

OK, so one.

Going back to one.

There shall be a mixture of dwelling units.

You know, I wondered about that, because that wasn't what I remembered.

OK.

There shall be a mixture of dwelling units permitted within the proposed development, including without limitation one or more studio units.

Any studio unit shall have a size not less than 350 square feet.

The studio units with a size from 350 up to 550 square feet may comprise up to 40% of the total dwelling units within the proposal

Proposed Development.

The parking requirements for the residential component of the proposed development shall be as follows.

One, for each unit having an area of 550 square feet or less, one half space per unit.

And two, for each unit having an area of more than 550 square feet, one space per unit.

Parking reductions allowed pursuant to the city zoning ordinance may be applied to further reduce the total number of required parking spaces.

at least 40% of the total number of required parking spaces for the proposed development shall be provided on site.

And I'd like to change one word here, any remaining required, because it may be all, so any remaining required parking spaces, if any, may be provided at an off-site location, off-site spaces, in accordance with requirements of city code

34971E4B provided that any offsite parking lease for the offsite spaces may contain renewable terms if collectively the terms of lease comply with the durational requirements of 34971E4B.

And by the terms of such lease, the applicant has the right to renew the terms.

The applicant shall give the city zoning administrator 90 days advanced written notice of any expiration or earlier termination of such lease on or before July 1st of each calendar year.

following issuance of any certificate of occupancy for the proposed development, the property owner shall submit to the city zoning administrator a parking demand management plan designed by the property owner, reasonably documenting parking demand and the means by which the parking requirements of this condition three will be satisfied during the upcoming year and describing any other means or measures that may be taken by the owner during the ensuing 12 months to reduce or eliminate parking demand within or associated with the use

and occupancy of the proposed development.

After the initial plan is submitted, the owner may satisfy subsequent annual submission requirements by submitting modifications of the plan to the city.

If no modifications are timely received, received in a timely way by the city, then the prior year's plan, as in effect on June 30th, shall remain in effect.

And then the only other changes are in item number five,

In the last line, it would read, prior to the issuance of any land disturbing permit for the proposed development, so not building ore. And in number six, in the last line, along with any application for a building or other development permit for construction of improvements that are subject to the site plan, subject of the site plan.

Is there a second?

Any discussion or questions?

A quick question on the amendment there.

Did I hear it correctly that the applicant has the right to renew?

Well that was a question I think I heard

applicant has right to renew.

So right now in our ordinance, if you use an off-site location, you have to have a lease that lasts for a duration of 25 years.

What that language says, what we've said is that

They can work out a lease with their offsite provider so long as it effectively provides for a 25 year term total.

They can do it in five year increments and the way that it would be the equivalent of a 25 year total is if the Blue Moon owner has the decision as to whether or not to renew.

So we don't want the offsite provider to have the ability to discontinue it.

So do you have a presentation?

No, I'll just state my name.

I'm Maynard Sipe.

Okay.

So for the benefit of people looking in who don't have this huge briefing book in front of them, I have a couple questions.

How many stories?

This is currently approved as a six-story building.

Is that six from the platform or is that six from the... Total from the ground.

Okay.

There was language in the book about the foundation.

Well, I can't speak to the definitive construction type at this point.

You've seen on Main Street some buildings using the platform plus wood framing, which is allowed by code.

I understand that the question just was, will it be wood-framed from the platform up?

At this time, yeah, we're expecting to do that.

Okay.

That's part of the parking demand management plan that we'll have to work out how we handle the parking on site and how we take steps to lessen the need for parking.

Some tenants may, you know, we may provide a Uber space or something or, you know,

Well, I think one of the big issues is that, just on the cost, I've seen figures that say just the maintenance of parking, structure parking, can cost $10,000 to $50,000 a space over time.

When you take in the financing costs for the building and everything else, and that cost gets spread out on all the apartment units.

Okay, and I ask that because in the flats we heard the same kind of thing and they're now charging $85 a spot, which they have empty spots now because people are going out to the free parking in the community.

That's the issue.

Yes, your ordinance allows and has for quite some time I believe allowed for modification of parking requirements as part of the special use permit and the modification we were particularly focused on was the smaller units which we believe are pretty confidently will attract people who do not necessarily have to have a car and

So the modification is modest normally.

Okay, any other questions for any parties or for Ms. Szakos on the motion?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Did we have a, we had a second.

All right, all in favor of this motion.

Okay, and for anybody here for the gun resolution issue, that's the last item on our agenda.

We may get to that before we typically take a break at 9 o'clock.

We only have 15 minutes allocated for the next item.

It may go a little longer, but we're probably going to get to it before our 9 o'clock break, just so that everybody knows.

Okay, Social Services Advisory Board annual update.

Rachel Thielman?

Thank you.

Good evening everyone.

My name is Rachel Thielman and I'm a Charlottesville resident, a community member.

I also work at Foothills Child Advocacy Center, but I'm here this evening in my capacity as the chair of the Social Services Advisory Board for the city.

So this is our annual report.

The mission of the Department of Social Services is to join with the community and provide social services that meet essential needs, promote self-sufficiency, and enhance the quality of life for all residents of the city.

We envision a community where basic needs of individuals and families are met.

All vulnerable people are safe and everyone has the support needed to achieve their potential.

In the extended version of our report that we submitted to council, we have information about all of our programs, but we decided for the purpose of this evening's presentation to focus on two main highlights, which is our adult services program and VUE, which is the Virginia Initiative for Employment, Not Welfare.

So here are some statistics about the Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare for fiscal year 2015.

We had 268 participants.

The average hourly wage was $8.96 and 72% was the number of participants that were able to retain employment for more than three months.

Needless to say there are some challenges in a program like this and chief among them would be low wages as you can imagine at $8.96 per hour.

Each one of these participants is someone that has at least one dependent.

So we're looking at a salary of about $18,000 for a person with a child living in the city of Charlottesville, which isn't really a ton of money.

Childcare and family obligations.

In a community like this, obviously, UVA is a huge employer, and we partner with them.

The certified nurse assistant or CNA program there

something that we track people in the VIEW program towards but one of the challenges with that is that that entry-level position is going to be mostly evenings, mostly weekends and again looking at people that have families and children that's the time that you really might not have childcare available and so it can become really difficult and the same is true for transportation when you're working those less traditional hours it can be really difficult if you rely on public transportation

to have a reliable way to get back and forth to work.

Education and training needs just to make sure that folks have the training they need to succeed in their positions.

Health and medical limitations, often entry level work doesn't provide any kind of benefits.

And also folks that may have something that pops up in their criminal background that might make it challenging for them to find employment.

So our fiscal year 2015 adult services statistics, we had 328 adults that had protective services referrals, 144 adult services referrals, and 53 adult guardian cases per month on average.

Some of the successes that we've had though is having our adult guardianship reports made in a timely way and our amazing staff has been able to put together all the information necessary to really

track those cases and do a great job making sure that folks are getting the services that they need and rely on.

We've also done a really wonderful job.

City staff has been excellent in collaborating with the Department of Health for the uniformed assessment instrument, which is basically how they work with a nurse from the Department of Health to see whether or not someone is in need of and eligible for nursing home placement or some other type of health assistance, that sort of thing.

So we've done really, really well in those areas and it's great.

Adult Protective Services is the segment of the agency that would be contacted if there was an adult in the community that needed some sort of intervention or protection.

And this would include self-neglect, which is the highest numbers of referrals in this category, neglect by caregivers, financial exploitation, which is something that is happening more and more, and we're really working towards some broader solutions to that, as well as mental, physical, and sexual abuse.

Some of the opportunities and challenges that the department is working around.

We are part of a great pilot project that is a training and education program for folks in the VIEW program and it is partnering, doing some case management with folks that are going to be doing job training at PVCC to see if having someone that is staying with them as a case manager and helping them as they move forward can assist them in finding employment and keeping employment for a longer amount of time.

We're also working on our Fostering Futures program which is a really wonderful opportunity in the city for children that would otherwise age out of foster care so that there's a window of time between the ages of 18 and 21 that they can still remain in the foster care system because even though they may legally be an adult they probably could still use

some of the support that comes from having those caring and involved adults in their lives and so we're really pleased to be able to move forward with that initiative.

We are working on our eligibility systems modernization and this is some kind of technical things about how we are

getting information and there are some challenges with that kind of informational piece.

Charlottesville is part of a pilot project using some new software and so there's always a little bit of a learning curve involved in something like that.

So that's something that we're working on and folks are doing a really great job.

But obviously all these things require some additional administrative funding and that can also be a bit of a challenge.

The percentage of the city's population who received assistance by program, so this includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which some people refer to as food stamps, Medicaid, and TANF, which is Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

So that's 22% of the city's population received benefits through these three programs combined in fiscal year 2015.

A little information about our family services information.

We had 877 referrals to CPS, which is Child Protective Services.

106 children that are receiving foster care prevention services, so that's basically intervention and family support to try to avoid removing a child from a home and placing them in a foster care situation.

86 children are served in foster care and 107 children are receiving ongoing adoption services.

Here is a breakdown of funding sources.

And we're open to any questions and comments.

I'm Diane.

I'm Diane Kupniew.

I'm the director of social services.

And Rachel has asked that myself.

And we have our VIEW supervisor here.

And we also have our adult services supervisor here.

Quick question on the slideshow.

Yes.

About the third slide back, maybe, well, about the third, you said, I was trying to figure, trying to add the figures, and you said 22 percent received services.

I thought it was more like 42 or 32.

Yeah.

Those were for just the three main benefit programs, and some people received more than one of those services.

Adult Protective Services are for anybody over the 18 who has a disability or any adult over the age of 60.

And that varies by program what the average caseload is.

I could have Kelly speak but that's going to again

It depends upon what they're doing.

We have one adult service worker who is doing all of our guardianship cases, plus she's doing our intake for Adult Protective Services referrals.

But we have specializations within each team, so that will vary, Bob, what the average caseload is.

Well, one of our challenges has been, again in our benefit program, one of the challenges has been the software system that they're still a number of years out working the kinks out of at the state level.

So it is, that can be a challenge and we prioritize.

We prioritize.

We will do any new applications first to get that work done before we work on renewals.

and that leads to once in a while there'll be a case where we haven't done a renewal timely and somebody may be still receiving Medicaid that they are not entitled to but we first want to make sure everybody that is entitled with their applications is getting processed and then we work on those renewals and that is a problem across the state at this point in time.

At this point in time we have also one of ten agencies, local agencies in the state that is piloting

Snap benefits also on the new system.

So it won't roll out to the other 110 localities until this pilot, so we're doing Snap, and then come the fall we'll be rolling TANF also into the new system.

So that is something where we have been doing a lot of overtime with our benefit workers, and that becomes very difficult for many of them who have families of their own.

Because that was my question.

If your case workers had to drive to Fluvanna and down to Green and up to... Well, and that's one of the things that with Fostering Futures, we will be, it's a new program that's been approved by the feds.

It will be replacing, over a three year period, it will be replacing independent living for children that are coming out of foster care.

and it has many more benefits than independent living had.

People will be able to opt in and opt out and until they're 21, we know people make lots of different decisions between 18 and 21, but they will also be able to be in the program.

They don't have to be in education and training.

They have to at least be working 80 hours a month if they're not in an education and training program.

They will get a monthly stipend until they're 21 if they stay in the program.

We will be doing full case management on those young adults, because I don't want to call them children at that stage, those young adults, which includes at least once a month monthly visits into where they live.

Well, and you know, that can, so that's going to add significantly to our case time.

We're expecting that a lot of our children, and many of the children that age out of foster care come in at very, you know, 15, 16, 17 years old, and it's hard to move towards adoption at that point or permanency.

Well I just wanted you to know that I'm a big fan of the work that you and your staff do.

I think it's tremendous and I'm always telling you whatever I can do to help.

Come budget time I'll fight for

making sure that your people are not burdened.

Thank you.

We did also receive a small increase from the state in our budget that we didn't know about, of course, when we did the city budget.

I have just a couple of questions.

Thank you for this report.

I really like the breadth of it and going kind of, especially re-explaining what a lot of these programs are, I think, because this is televised and run again and again.

It's really helpful for people in the public to hear kind of what you guys do, so I appreciate that.

One thing that I find helpful in a report like that that I would like maybe in the future to get maybe just written as a report to council is those figures over time.

Well and we did that during the recession because we had a very steep climb in our SNAP benefits during the recession and then it

It has slowly come down and some of that is because the economy is doing better.

Some of it is also because able-bodied adults, single adults, can no longer remain on SNAP.

One particular one that I'm interested in is foster care.

This community had a very high foster rate, and I know that you all have been working to reduce that.

Right and we had a point in time in the report and I can give you an updated point in time because we did a report for the Commission on Human Rights in May and so I did an update point of time on May 11th specifically of 2016 we had 95 children in foster care and those are children under the age of 18 but of that 95

It's important to realize that 15 of those 95 were on trial home visits.

So we were hopeful that if the trial home visits, you know, we would increase the length of time of those visits and over time that the judge would then give custody back to the custodian parent or parents or grandparents or whoever.

So 15 of the 95 were on trial home visits at that point in time and 21 of the 95

were in kinship foster care placements.

So they were in relative placements but relatives were trained foster parents and were allowed to get also subsidies for those children that they were taking care of.

That was point in time in

that June 30th of last year, 2015, because we were looking at fiscal year 15.

So if we could get a report of just maybe June 30th of each of the last 10 years or something.

And I can definitely give you that for the last six years.

It's hard from state systems changed and how it's reported in the state system has changed.

One other question, you mentioned 107 children in ongoing adoption services, is that post adoption or also pre adoption?

So those are all children that were adopted through our department and their families continue to receive subsidies and

And when you're doing that six year kind of overview, it would be really helpful too to know how many new cases there are each year.

Yeah, and I will try to get that information.

Anything else?

I just want to commend you all for the excellent work that you've been doing.

Please continue to keep your hand up.

And I will add my, I'm a member of the board, so if there were anything to vote on, I would, but I want to, I've been doing it since I've been on council this term and I just am deeply impressed by what you all do and it's, you're serving in a very compassionate, proactive government like Charlottesville.

This is

our most vulnerable citizens.

So it's wonderful that you all work so hard and you have so many results, but also areas for work to describe to us.

So thank you.

And I know a lot of work went into this because I was in the meetings when we were doing it.

Well, and we want to thank you for your support because we do have a very supportive city government, but also elected officials.

And we very much appreciate that.

And as you know, the board appreciates it also, Mike.

All right.

So we're going to take our break early now.

So everybody could be back in the, I have 8 47.

Let's start at 8 55, if that's OK.

Eight minutes.

Fifeville

Music playing

you

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All right, we are back in session.

Thank you.

Yes, I do.

I brought a resolution and it's on the agenda, so the public has had access to it since Friday.

But I would also like to read it out loud just so people know what it is that we're discussing up here.

and then I'll make a short presentation about why I'm submitting it.

The resolution calling for statewide and national gun control legislation and for local control over gun regulations.

Whereas the Charlottesville community, along with communities around the world, share the sorrow and dismay over the killing of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida by a lone gunman armed with a pistol and a semi-automatic assault rifle.

And whereas we grieve with the families and with the wider LGBTQ community

that these victims were killed in what they felt to be a place safe from discrimination and recrimination to which they are subject in the wider community.

And whereas the shooter in Orlando, despite having a history of committing domestic violence, posting radical terrorist views online, and showing signs of serious mental illness, was able to buy the weapons legally in the weeks before the attack.

And whereas we recognize that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of law-abiding Americans to bear arms, but believe that there can be reasonable and constitutional limits to that right.

And whereas this is but the latest and deadliest in a sad and horrific series of attacks in the United States on previously safe places by lone gunmen armed with assault weapons in schools, churches, mosques, shopping centers, and now an LGBTQ nightclub.

and whereas each attack sees renewed calls from the public for meaningful and constitutional measures to reduce gun violence each time to be beaten back by special interests.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Charlottesville does hereby demand that our legislators at the state and federal level immediately enact legislation to require comprehensive background checks for all gun purchases and move toward legislation to further prevent gun violence, including by regulating and or banning

The civilian purchase and sale of assault weapons.

and be it further resolved that the City Council of the City of Charlottesville challenges our sister localities in Virginia and across the country to adopt similar resolutions in order that our representatives at the state and federal levels understand the urgency of this cause and be it further resolved that the City Council of the City of Charlottesville renews its calls on the Virginia legislature to enact legislation enabling localities to enact their own weapons controls as we have previously requested in our legislative agendas of November 8, 2013

and November 16, 2015.

So that is the text of the resolution.

And I bring it for various reasons.

I think largely it's because across the country people are bringing these resolutions and I think that the strength in these things lies in their numbers.

If it were just Charlottesville alone crying out into the dark, I probably would not have brought it.

I think that sometimes

People just want to do a resolution to do a resolution.

I tend to want to do a resolution only if I think it can have an impact, and in this case I do.

President Obama is one of those who has joined the call.

He said this week, speaking specifically of assault weapons, these are weapons of war and have no places in our communities.

We need our kids to hear us speak up about the risks guns pose to their communities and against a status quo that doesn't make sense.

They need to hear us say these things even when those who disagree are loud and are powerful.

A recent Pew Research Center study showed that 56% of Americans would favor an assault weapons ban, 70% of Democrats would favor a ban,

but the intensity of the opposition is stronger, not the numbers and that is why their voices have always seemed louder and I think that's why Congress has hesitated to act.

Calls like ours are needed to increase the intensity of the calls for meaningful and robust controls on guns in our country.

Those on the side of unfettered access to unlimited weapons aren't troubled by the nuances of policy, they're firm in their stance and we must be firm in ours as well.

There are a few things that folks have talked about about why

They oppose this, and I'd like to address those a little bit.

One is that guns everywhere protect us.

Someone here actually talked about feeling safer with guns.

For one, people with guns in America are 22 times more likely to die of gunfire than those who do not have guns.

They're also more likely to have their children die by gunfire.

Some people envision a scenario in which dozens of the people inside the Pulse nightclub

were similarly armed.

Of course, to realize that scenario, those people would have had to be armed each of the other 364 days a year that the shooter did not come into the club to kill them.

So imagine 364 nights this year that a bunch of people brought their guns into a nightclub and started drinking and dancing.

That's 365 nights when people who had been drinking and maybe had a conflict, maybe voices were raised, maybe someone got thrown out of the club for behaving badly and they were armed.

What could go wrong?

It's likely that far more than 49 people would have been killed over the course of that year.

Some people say that we should just enforce existing laws, only go after illegal weapons.

Existing laws have been consistently gutted over time.

The shooter in the Orlando killing bought his guns legally.

Despite the fact that he had come to the attention of police for domestic violence had publicly voiced support for terrorist organizations and showed signs of mental illness.

Our current laws do not protect us.

If they did, we wouldn't be experiencing incident after incident of lone gunmen killing innocents in this country.

Incidents that don't occur in countries with stronger regulations on guns.

Someone mentioned that Chicago and Washington both have strong regulations but still have high gun rate, gun death rates.

Most of the guns involved in those deaths were bought outside of those cities, which is why we need a federal law and not just local laws.

Local laws are not effective because people can just cross the boundary.

Gun law, the final one is that gun control laws violate my rights.

And we've heard that this evening.

The three fundamental rights named in our Constitution as unalienable, right there in the body of the document itself, not in the amendments, are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Those rights have been denied to every American mowed down by a gun and senseless acts of violence in Charleston, Blacksburg, Sandy Hook, Newtown,

San Bernardino, Aurora, Littleton, the list goes on.

And I'm appalled at the nerve of people, gun rights activists, in the wake of these horrific events to claim that they are the ones who are feeling victimized.

There are thousands of people in our country who want to stock their houses with weapons because they believe they will become some sort of a hero or because of some post-apocalyptic fantasy about marauding government forces or starving neighbors.

And to this point, they have been given their full rights to do so.

All I am asking is that we balance those rights with the rights of the people here and now to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

And that said, this resolution won't violate anyone's rights.

So let's be respectful of everybody.

There will be time to speak afterward and a couple spoke about this during the public comment period at the beginning.

So anybody who disrupts the proceedings will be removed and won't be able to speak in the last period.

I have a statement here by our absent colleague, Councillor Galvin.

Are there any objections to me reading that before we go through?

Because we can be later on.

Okay.

This should be, hopefully this is only three minutes or so.

Okay.

Statement by Councillor Kathy Galvin.

In my view, this important issue needs more careful consideration and informed debate by the full council at a later date for the following reasons.

First, our police chief and experienced professional hired by city council should be consulted first about any council resolution and policy that affects the public safety.

Otherwise, passing an unexamined resolution may lead to unintended consequences such as a possible surge in people purchasing assault weapons.

This point is of grave concern to me as a city councilor because our first and foremost duty is to protect the public.

As you know, I've been reviewing local police data about gun use in our city and will be meeting with Chief Thomas when I return.

We need a full discussion about actual local policy that can be put in place to curb demand for not only assault rifles, but any semi-automatic weapon or handgun typically used in criminal activity.

Reducing demand is just as important as trying to legally lessen their availability in the city.

I've also talked with Reverend Alvin Edwards,

in the past about ways to, former mayor, about ways to do just that.

In short, we should be working hard as a council and a community to develop a comprehensive, practical approach to this problem.

Second, because the proposed resolution is currently worded as more symbolic than practical, in large part because local governments in Virginia are restricted in what they can do to control gun supply, it is incumbent upon counsel to be precise.

That way, a case can be made for good gun control policy at multiple levels of government moving forward.

For instance, our Commonwealth's Attorney, an official elected by the public, expressed concern that the resolution is currently worded did not advocate against clips and magazines that allow any semi-automatic weapon, rifle or not, to kill a lot of people, as in Virginia Tech.

Third, as City Council has no jurisdiction over gun regulation, this resolution could be interpreted by some members of the public as a presumption of such blanket authority.

Members of the public who do realize the Council lacks authority on these matters, however, may view the resolution as frivolous.

Misleading or ineffectual statements proclaimed by Council on such issues of dire consequence

may not only damage the credibility of other legitimate laws passed by counsel but also the public trust.

Fourth, the matter in which this item has been put on the agenda does not follow the protocols established by counsel to promote transparency, informed deliberation, and counsel collegiality.

It's my understanding that councilors need to give the mayor their proposed agenda items well before the meeting, at least a week, so that they can be posted and viewed by the public before council deliberation.

This was not done in this case.

In fact, it was only late last Wednesday that I discovered this was on the agenda.

As I can communicate only via email at this point in time, I feel I've been excluded from an important debate.

I therefore request that this resolution be deferred and still touch time

as all counselors can be present to deliberate and when it can be properly posted.

I also request that Chief Al Thomas and the Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman and others in the community be present to give counsel their expert and informed advice on this matter.

By doing so, we may not only craft a more effectual resolution, but also lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive, effectual approach to solving this problem in and for Charlottesville.

I also have a statement.

Would this be the time to enter into the record?

A known radical terrorist over a week ago gunned down more than a hundred citizens within minutes, aided by the speed with which he was able to spray high-powered rounds in a densely packed club.

49 of his victims died.

Some say this resolution is not the appropriate response, that we have rights, the right to bear arms.

Well, the men and women who were killed and wounded also had rights, flowing from the preamble to the Constitution, that all men and women are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Most of the terrorist victims will not be enjoying their rights ever again.

And the sad and certain part of this event is that it will happen again and again and again.

This time in a bar, in the recent past a school and a church.

It can happen in Charlottesville as easily as it happened in Orlando or Sandy Hook

or a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

So once again amidst tragedy, we try and figure out what to do.

Now there is no doubt this is an issue that we are all struggling with.

The question is, what balance can we strike between constitutional rights and community safety?

And if this is not the proper response, what is?

Finally, two thoughts.

My colleague on this council, Kristin Szakos, as do all of us, has the right of free speech.

This is her proposal.

These are her words.

I will not try to change them or modify them or negotiate for different ones.

My duty as an elected representative is to represent.

I have heard and seen the fear and the uncertainty among my friends and neighbors

in the LGBTQ community, and they are calling for this.

I will support this resolution.

And I want the community to know that I have read almost all of the well over 100 plus emails I have received just today opposing this resolution.

But not one of them offered an alternative or a step forward to solving this problem.

Okay I do have a statement.

I first of all want to thank my colleagues

Ms. Szakos and Vice Mayor Bellamy for as always you bring a great moral passion almost every issue to get involved with and while we certainly on many issues in this in the past months and in the months to come I'm sure we will disagree and have I appreciate greatly the

the moral focus and principle you bring to discussions in this community about every issue that comes before us and I really am grateful to be a part of those debates.

My statement is I was horrified and infuriated by the convergence of an assault rifle, a semi-automatic handgun, terrorism and bigotry in Orlando which ended up in America's largest mass shooting on record.

I am also a supporter of the Second Amendment and the author of a book on James Madison, who was the author of the Bill of Rights.

But every amendment to the Constitution requires sensible and constitutional limits.

You can't yell fire in a crowded theater despite the First Amendment.

And the ownership of fully automatic machine guns and grenade launchers has been regulated without controversy since the 1934 Firearms Act.

Gun crime is an issue not only in the country, but in our city.

Current Charlottesville Police Statistics show that firearm possession arrests increased in 2015 to 45 in the city.

The five-year mean average is 35, meaning, and that includes 24 arrests for felons in possession of a firearm and 15 for carry of concealed weapon without a permit.

There were two arrests just in the last two weeks, I believe the last week, or

This is one reason that I joined last week Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national organization of over a thousand current and former mayors.

And that was after conversations with both our Chief of Police Al Thomas and our Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman, who are the lead, the point of the spear of our law enforcement community, to learn about measures we can take to increase public safety and reduce gun violence inside the city of Charlottesville.

That includes strength in their cooperation and data sharing with the ATF, particularly agents in Richmond who work in the Charlottesville Albemarle area with our police force, ensuring the prosecution and enforcement of gun crimes, such as those that I just noted, and putting more resources in the investigation and tracking of illegal guns in the chain of custody that attaches to any particular firearm that is the subject of a crime.

In my conversations with our Commonwealth's Attorney, his opinion was that, which he gave me permission to share, was that high capacity magazines and clips, which can be used in any semi-automatic weapon, not just rifles or long guns, are the major public safety issue that underlies what we're here talking about, which is mass killings with weapons, especially by terrorists.

But this resolution is silent on that issue, as well as issues surrounding the mentally ill and potential terrorists in the national security arena.

If we do move forward with this resolution, which it sounds like we will, I would suggest my colleagues consider the following changes, which is to add, and we can wordsmith this, but to add some language about high capacity clips and magazines, add some language about preventing the mentally ill from acquiring firearms, and add some language about preventing potential terrorists from acquiring firearms.

This issue is one that increasingly divides many people in America and many Virginians from one another.

My campaign theme was One Charlottesville.

With this issue I'm interested, if it's at all possible, in finding common ground and building bridges so we don't just rehearse the same arguments and grow farther apart while not accomplishing anything other than people buying more assault weapons after resolutions or actions like this take place.

This is why I appreciate so much the current effort in Congress where Senate Democrats have filibustered precisely about two such common ground items.

The terror gap, which is people being barred from no-fly lists, not being allowed to purchase firearms, and comprehensive background checks.

Those are very specifically chosen as items that many people of good faith could, who ordinarily differ, could agree upon.

In fact, in a conversation this weekend with one of our U.S.

Senators, it was suggested to me that this resolution could be helpful in focusing on such legislation that is presently before Congress.

What is our opinion about legislation before Congress?

Along those lines, I want the public to know that the language in Ms. Szakos's resolution, which talks about regulate and or ban, which came out of some of the conversations that she and I had about assault weapons, is meant to allude to the suggestion of regulating assault weaponry in high capacity clips and magazines, specifically under the 1934 Firearms Act, which is a new vein of public policy thinking.

where just as fully automatic weapons after a surge of violence that was related to machine guns which could fire 50 rounds in three seconds

The public generally supported that kind of regulation, which meant that these were licensed and regulated, but the possession was still allowed.

That is a vein of thinking out there in terms of trying to find common ground.

So Ms. Szakos did graciously include that language, regulate and or ban, so that is part of the thinking that would be contemplated by this resolution.

It is an option that is out there.

Finally, I would note my concern on a matters grave is this one about making a resolution that speaks for council as a whole while one member of our five is not here.

So for these reasons, I would submit to my colleagues that having had this discussion tonight before the public, we would postpone this matter until Councilor Galvin is returned and until we can be fully advised by our Chief of Police, our Commonwealth's Attorney, and our representatives both in Richmond, because this talks about state legislation, and in Washington, because it talks about federal legislation,

So I hear four requests in there and having made the motion I'll address each one.

One is for waiting until the next meeting to address this and I think if counselor Galvin had been sick or for some reason unexpectedly not here I would feel differently about it but she chose to

go to a conference in Italy and miss this meeting.

And so I think we can't really just stop the business of the city because of that.

So I'm sorry she's not here for that, but I don't think that that's a reason that I find compelling to delay.

As far as adding language about clips and magazines, I'm comfortable with putting that in the first now therefore at the end of the sentence and or banning the civilian purchase and sale of assault weapons comma including

Well, including.

I would, I think by regulating limits it for that.

Well, but it has by regulating and or banning.

Right.

Right.

Regulating and or banning.

High Capacity magazines and clips.

So the other two were about limiting of people with mental illness and terrorists.

And I think one of the things that I don't want to do with this resolution, because I'm not a Congress person, I wasn't elected to Congress, is to write legislation for Congress.

I think that there are some concerns, especially about the way that terrorists get labeled that way to be put on lists like this, sometimes without due process.

I just want to say I think it's important to note Ms. Galvin and Mayor Signer's comments in regards to this resolution not of which in which they are vehemently opposed to the resolution and or moving forward in some capacity.

I think it's important for what I heard from Mayor Signer in his comments that he is indeed willing to stand strong with our brothers and sisters from the LGBTQ community in no way, shape, form or fashion were his comments stating that he is not willing to stand up for them.

nor is this issue one in which he has little interest in or that he doesn't care about.

I think it's actually quite the opposite.

From his perspective, he wants us to ensure that we do certain things to make sure that, to use a phrase that he often uses, crosses the T's, dots the I's and it's airtight, as he usually says.

While I am in favor of the resolution, I think again it's clear

to clearly state Mayor Signer and Ms. Galvin's respect is that they are not against the resolution.

There's just some other things that they'd like to see included in it.

I'm actually very pleased with the addition, if we could agree to such in the last sentence, including limitations, high capacity magazines and clips.

Very much pleased with that.

And I think it's important for the community.

I think it's important for the community

to know a couple of things.

One, that when tragedies like this take place and while we are just a locality, as we talked about at the speech last Monday at the Pride rally, we must have the courage to do what is right.

Now, having courage in what is right is interpretive.

Several different people believe it to be different things.

But for me, and what I believe for many of my colleagues, symbolically,

standing with those individuals who have been gravely affected is important.

I also feel it to be very important for us to be able as the elected officials of the city of Charlottesville to state very clearly in whatever fashion that we choose that as a council as a collective body or if nothing less is three individuals who will vote for such resolution that we

will respond when issues such as the grave terrorist attack that we saw in Orlando, whether some individual says a domestic terrorist attack or however you choose to put it, that hateful crime, we will stand with the people.

The question may then rise, well how do you choose which ones to speak up for because there are always

It seems like in the world that we live in today, unfortunately, there are always things that come up in which some individuals will say, hey, why didn't you speak up about this?

And why didn't you speak up about that?

And my only answer to that would be is that we can only do the best job that we can.

But when you see something like over 50 individuals murdered and another 53 individuals shot

and a club simply because they wanted to go out and have fun, the youngest of which being 19 years old, we have a responsibility, which I believe all five of us understand, we may see it in different ways, but we all have a moral responsibility to stand up and say that we will stand with them.

We have a responsibility not to do this in a way in which we point fingers at others and say that you or your religion or anything else is the problem,

That is not how we operate, but we do have the responsibility to do something.

And I believe that this resolution calls not only for this locality to do something, but we are pleading with our statewide and our national legislators to take a stand.

And the city of Charlottesville is more than willing to be a trailblazer in such effort.

Long second.

Okay, is there any further discussion?

I just want to, I have one other short thing to say which is that I heard in the, I have a lot of friends who are gun owners and former military and I think that there is a lot of room for people of good faith to differ on this issue and I also think that it's a very emotional issue for people who, as we heard in the public comments,

and I hope that the quality of this deliberation and the nuances in this measure reassure those who fear and feel very emotionally that they're being marginalized in some way in this debate that there's language about the Second Amendment in the debate, there's language about, as we talked about some of the other things, that this is actually an attempt to move forward with a statement of real

import, but that does not, as Mr. Bellamy said, marginalize or dismiss the feelings, and I think that there are feelings about firearms and the history of them in this country that are very deeply felt.

So I just wanted to say that, is that is not the intent.

The intent here is very clearly to make a statement about public safety concern in a way that is constitutional and that is measured.

I'm ready for a vote.

I just want to say this one last thing to be clear.

If an individual is a law-abiding citizen who follows all of the rules and the laws of the government,

At which point have we ever stated that we want you to be punished?

We are fully in favor of individuals being able to protect themselves, their families, their loved ones, so on and so forth.

But at some point we have to begin to move towards common sense regulations to ensure that everyone is safe.

Common sense things.

And for me, I believe that this resolution represents just that.

And I'm sure that there will be much more debate moving forward.

And we open that debate.

And whatever we have to fix in terms of getting it right, I'm looking forward to having those conversations with my colleagues and the rest of our citizens.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor.

That will be it.

Okay, we're ready for a vote.

All in favor?

The resolution carries four to zero.

That concludes our regular business.

Do any counselors have any other business to raise?

And we will do a hearing period after the other business is raised.

Okay, public comment period is open now.

Please state your name and address.

You have three minutes.

We don't do a sign up on this.

Anybody can speak.

Name, address, and same rules as were read out at the beginning.

Yeah, there's no sign up.

305 Second Street.

I have two things.

One, I agree with everything you had to say about number five on the agenda about gun control.

And the second thing, I have been squirming around in my seat.

I am so bad at history.

But is the all men are created equal, endowed with life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, the Declaration of Independence?

Preamble to the Constitution.

It is a preamble.

OK. That's all I have to say.

Because I don't have my remarks written down, I may not be as clear.

But I would like to first point out the hypocrisy of your position on guns and not wanting people to have guns when you have two fine young men in the back who own guns, police officers protecting you.

but you don't want us to be able to protect ourselves.

Now I understand, you know, automatic weapons and things like that, there probably should be some way to regulate something.

I don't know, I don't have the answers to all of that but an outright just telling us we can't do something is not the answer.

Good evening.

My name is Daniel Moore, 3831 Belzora Lane, Columbia, Virginia.

So I traveled 36 miles to make my comments here.

Don't agree with the resolution at all.

If you're able to do anything in town, you won't be seeing me spending my money here.

One thing that I'll say that may make me look like a loon, but that's OK.

I'm willing to look like a loon.

There's this thing called false flag, and DC has an agenda.

The agenda is to cause mass shootings, each one with higher casualties, until finally the state achieves confiscation.

That is the goal.

You may not be willing to look at it and admit it, but that is the end goal.

And this is how they're achieving it.

I say show me the bodies.

Oh, I see them carrying mannequins down the road back towards the pulse.

Show me some bodies.

Show me some bodies from Sandy Hook.

The parents couldn't even see their kids.

Show me the bodies.

It's called false flags.

Our government's been doing it for years.

The Bay of Tonk and all sorts of things.

Look at history.

Secondly, when you can make resolutions about things that you don't understand.

High capacity magazines and clips.

Okay, a high capacity magazine.

I understand.

Get hold from 7 to 30 rounds.

Actually, you can get them for 50 rounds for a little 22.

225s hooked together.

But a high capacity clip, somebody tell me what that is.

A clip is a little strip of metal that holds 10 bullets of whatever caliber.

Then that clip is inserted into the magazine to load the magazine with those 10 bullets.

There is no such thing as a high capacity clip.

Do your homework before you make a resolution.

And I could go on and on, but I'll give the rest of the people here some time.

Satisfied?

I know, because that's important to you.

Why in the world would we trust any of you?

You hypocrites.

You talk about safety, you want public safety, but none of you, none of you had the courage to mention that the shooter happened to be a Muslim.

And in fact, in the Quran, Muhammad, the deviant monster that he was, said, this is a direct quote from Muhammad, the prophet of God.

He is a prophet of God, the question is which God is what I'm wondering about.

He himself said, kill the sodomites and those who allow themselves to be sodomized.

That's a quote almost verbatim from the Quran.

And so the Muslims, monstrous maniacs that they are, read their holy book.

I'm going to interrupt you because we actually prohibit defamatory attacks on individuals or groups in our rules.

The Constitution guarantees, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

The Constitution guarantees me the right to free speech and I am allowed to speak my mind and I will do so.

No, no, no, no.

Gentlemen, thank you.

Go ahead.

I'm dragging you out of here.

I refuse to be quiet.

He's a Muslim who shot those people, and he did it because he hates them.

He hates gay people.

He'd be shame on you all for violating my constitutional rights.

I'm dragging you out of here.

We'll just take a couple of minutes as a break.

There's another party, I think, anyway.

There's cookies.

Hi, good evening, my name is Chris McLean.

I'm a resident of Charlottesville and I'm a Navy veteran and while I may not be a conspiracy theorist or whatever, I am an engineer

and I do base my, I do base decisions off data and facts as much as possible.

So that being said, along those lines we need to understand the fact of some of these resolutions of what they might actually come to pass.

For example, what might be some of the laws that this resolution

regulations that it would specify.

So, for example, we've called out several times assault weapons.

Okay.

So I'll just, I'll yield that moment to you.

If any of the council has the difference between an assault rifle

or assault weapon generally and a regular gun.

Okay, so really the point is that there is no difference between an assault weapon and a regular gun, quote unquote.

A semi-automatic handgun is the standard of really all handguns.

You can shoot it as fast as you can squeeze the trigger, just as fast as a revolver, an old western revolver.

An assault weapon differs in no way from

A regular hunting rifle, let's say a World War II rifle.

M1 Garand has a magazine, not a clip, of normally five, and that's what they took into World War II.

Now that's not one of the scary rifles, that's a big wooden one, but it's actually one of the best rifles out there still.

So that being said, an AR-15 is quite different from a military weapon or a weapon of war, quote unquote.

Again, having seen those weapons of war, I can differentiate them.

Really, the main difference is the selective fire switch does not go to a three-round burst or fully automatic.

As the mayor pointed out, fully automatics have been regulated since the 1934 law.

So, assault weapon is kind of a misnomer.

These are assault weapons if I assault you with my hands, my feet if I kick you.

So we need to really understand what we're talking about.

Myself, I have two young boys and a third on the way.

I concealed carry the majority of the time.

My wife is taking pistol safety classes.

I come in peace.

My name is Frances Rissette.

I live at 182 Bookwood Drive and just first with the question about

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

It is the Declaration of Independence.

The Constitution, though the First Amendment, addresses the right to express religion, whatever religion you are.

And having family members that are Muslim, myself being of the Christian faith, is one of the things my heart is pounding because to me it is like so much of what it means to be an American.

that you are free to worship as you believe and we can't touch that and to hear anyone speak in a public place

such hateful words just really frightens me.

So I'm trying to go with the courage thing here.

The second thing I'd like to say is about the Second Amendment, which actually starts as a well-regulated militia.

Those are the first words of the Second Amendment, and later it talks about then, because we need a well-regulated militia, the people have the right to keep and bear arms.

and that has been interpreted in many ways through various cases throughout U.S. case law and brings us to today to look at how do we regulate

the firearms that we've developed that our minds have created with the science and technology and the great abilities that we have.

And so let's use the same bright, intelligent minds that have developed these incredible weapons, including ones that we can drop on whole cities to kill hundreds of thousands of people and, you know, consider what we got to do about it.

And I commend you for doing something about it.

I understand the Dylan Rule and such like, but do appreciate that at least

I think we all are a little more courageous, perhaps can address the fears coming to a public place and facing the things we're facing this evening and try to do something about it.

I'm Peter Kleeman.

I live 407 Head Street.

I know the city deals with many things other than guns and I'd like to deal with one of those.

At tonight's agenda you discussed the affordable housing issue of adding 10 new units to the affordable housing stock, but we also added a huge number or discussed the inclusion of a huge number of other market rate housing units at a rate of up to 180 units per acre.

There was no discussion of what the expected number of units were, but I would expect it more than balances what the

10 units would be at 15% that would for every 57 market rate units you'd need 10 affordable units to meet the city's goal of 15%.

So as a result of the discussion today your reaching your goal has slipped probably further than you expect backwards that I think

Perhaps when we have discussions at council, or you have discussions at council, that there's a recognition of the fact that all of these market rate units put you further from your target of being a city with affordable housing, and that you enumerate what those numbers are every time you discuss the addition of new market rate units.

So if this is even 180 units,

My name is John Pulliam.

I'm a retired Army Sergeant Weapons Specialist.

at Seven Vine Ridge.

You use that pretty readily, and it sounds good, but really what an assault weapon is the ability to provide suppressive fire to keep your enemy down while you move into position to take over position.

That's a suppressive fire.

That's an assault weapon.

Okay, a semi-automatic weapon does not provide that kind of firepower.

Okay, you cannot squeeze that trigger fast enough to provide that head, keep the head down of your enemy or whoever you're assaulting.

So that's the misnomer that, first of all, you got.

I can't believe that you all would use that.

I'm going to put this out there that I believe you all have a pretty good education.

Before you guys do anything on affordable housing or any other thing, what's the one thing you want to do?

You want to know the ins and outs.

You don't want any stuff that's not correct, any lies or misnomers or any misinformation.

That's what you base your decisions on on that.

How come you can't do that here with the Second Amendment?

Because the Second Amendment is my security that I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Okay?

And my children.

And anybody else here that isn't innocent.

Just like the police officers do.

You all should take a moment and look at what you're doing.

Not just a knee-jerk reaction.

You know?

I was riding up from Florida.

Sunday morning at 8.30 going through on I-4 through Orlando.

Okay, I was there.

Went up to the nightclub, but I was there.

You know, I saw the response.

You know, something doesn't smell cookies good with what happened there.

First of all, it's the AR-15 and it's not, the news isn't even reporting it right.

Do your homework.

Do your due diligence.

in the positions that you are in and not just a quick knee-jerk reaction of, oh, we must do something, because that's not what you're here for.

You're here to make a well-informed decision to help us by way of the Constitution.

Oh, my name?

Yes.

Oh, Joanne Robertson.

Sorry.

I grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, which has high military rate, also has a high rate of PTSD.

In fact, when fireworks go off, they have to warn certain people because of their PTSD.

They don't want guns.

They've seen what guns can do.

They want to get far away.

Furthermore, I feel comfortable with the two police officers back here because they know what they're doing.

They've been through classes.

You know, their guns, I feel safe with that.

Third of all, I have an anti-bullying group.

Do you want to know how many kids we lose?

We lost a kid in Henley that's in Crozet.

That's how close it is to home.

and that was due to a gun.

There was also someone who went through the gun training class.

He was a minister in Crozet who lost his daughter.

Another thing that really I need to mention is Muslims

deserve to come to the United States of America just like white people did.

And while I'm listening to Kristin talk, all I can hear is snide marks.

You know what?

That is what needs to stop.

I want people to come and feel welcome.

And there are Christian Muslims that come.

I know because I've helped some in different churches.

The Shooter of Columbine wasn't Muslim.

Virginia Tech wasn't Muslim.

Sandy Hook wasn't Muslim.

You know, this Muslim stuff has got to stop.

It's not us and them.

It's all of us together.

One more thing.

To Mr. Dragas, or whoever was drug out, I don't, maybe it was Mr. Dragas, that's what I'm assuming, his words in the beginning

were appalling to me.

One out of every four women have been raped.

And for him to sit here and go to describe that type of rape, I can tell you probably a lot of people in here felt something going on.

I just got up and left.

It was so appalling.

But that needs to stop too.

I don't know what you all can do.

Free speech is free speech.

But when it starts to infringe on other people's freedom, that's it.

And you all that don't like Muslims, just please sit in the back so that I don't have to hear the negativity about it.

Because I happen to love them.

I think that's something Jesus said we should do.

Thank you.

My name is Mary Nyman and I live at 411 North Main Street in Rockingham County.

I am a concealed carry holder.

I have four children that I care for.

I just wanted to urge you all to consider as you're regulating guns.

It scares me the fact that I could be driving to someone's house in Richmond and have to stop off here and all of a sudden like if you guys need alternate or additional rules to conceal carry that I could be carrying illegally and be facing, you know, police action or criminal charges against me.

So I would just like you to consider that as you

consider additional regulations.

I know Virginia has a lot of rules when it comes to conceal carry that I try very diligently to follow.

And additional rules to that on a state by state or county by county, I'm sorry, county by county or city by city measure would be very hard to comply with.

My name is Mary Hedges, I'm a new resident of the city of Charlottesville.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for your patience.

My first council meeting is kind of long.

But anyway, I'll cut to the chase.

I just want to say I thought the resolution was imprudent.

I liked the gesture that Councilwoman Galvin made.

I think it was a more measured and prudent take on the issue, especially some of the comments from the ex-servicemen about the definitions that maybe weren't gone into as precise as they should have been and as prudently as they should have been.

Overall, I oppose the resolution.

I don't think that this knee-jerk reaction is constructive to solving the problems that we actually face.

We need to deal, I think, with the murderers and the types of people who are murdering.

And if we need to help maybe mental health programs or more watch

We kind of watched our organization to keep an eye and make sure people are doing well and not feel like they just go out and kill people.

There are a couple of things I'd like to mention.

Ms. Robertson says something about people not being trained.

I think Virginia right now is a shell issue state, so if you complete a training program, you have to complete a training program.

So people are out there who care about this and want people to be responsible and educated about safety.

First and foremost, a lot of these people are family people.

They would hate their kids to get tangled up and be hurt.

and also so you're not a felon and you complete a training course and so that's I think a very reasonable and very responsible requirement that the state has provided and if the city is pushing for this and it's just no disrespect at all but like it's for council people and it's supposed to represent the whole city and I think a lot of people here tonight for many different reasons maybe some of them not good maybe some of them good have shown that the majority who showed up

to speak about this very much disagree.

The last thing I'd like to say is Councilman Bellamy said something about we don't want to like impinge on the Second Amendment.

We're not attacking the Second Amendment.

And I would just like to rhetorical question of where do you say that starts?

Like at what point does it become impinged on the Second Amendment?

So thank you for your time and your patience, especially Mayor Singer.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Philip Tan.

I'm at 111 Piedmont Avenue South.

I'm a graduate student at the University of Virginia for going into my fourth year.

I'd like to respectfully voice my opposition to the resolution.

I'm not angry or aggrieved.

I love working with people of many diverse backgrounds at the university.

I've learned a lot from them, from Muslims, from many people.

I'm also not a vigilante or a would-be superhero who thinks I can come in and do some amazing exploit to save everyone.

But I am

I'm concerned about this type of resolution mostly because of the unintended consequences that can happen.

I agree that the tragedy that occurred was horrific and all of us wonder what can be done.

They're not easy answers to the questions.

I heard your disappointment that people weren't offering solutions.

I don't know what the solution is.

but there are many responsible and law abiding gun owners such as myself who have seen patterns in history in which well intended legislation went too far and had unintended consequences that were

even worse than what they were aimed to prevent.

And so I would agree with the preceding two speakers in urging more caution and deliberation and desiring to represent all the citizens of Charlottesville in these resolutions.

Anyone else?

Before you adjourn the meeting, but after you close the public comment, I would like to change a word because I accept what Mr. Moore said about the clips.

Let's do a vote on that.

Everyone okay with that?

And the other is, it's obviously been over 45 years since I've taken civics because it is indeed the Declaration of Independence, so thank you.