City Council Meeting   12/5/2016

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Music Playing

Okay.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Okay, calling this meeting of Charlottesville City Council to order.

Before we get started, one note just on the crowding, it looks like we've

I know that the Assistant City Manager came up and spoke before.

It looks like everyone, we're okay.

We have an overflow room at the Neighborhood Development Services Room back there with Simulcast.

I understand there's 40 or 50 folks back there.

We're going to make sure that we are, right now I think a little bit, we're right at the capacity for the Fire Marshall, which is important.

So we're going to make sure that we're okay with our Fire Marshall rules.

If other folks come, we're going to

ask them to go back to the room right in the back and you'll still be able to be in touch with everything live.

We have a number of folks who have signed up for the public comment and all those folks I assume are here.

We also do have a public comment period after the end of this meeting.

We have a lot of activity tonight that is

I'll talk later about when we get into the agenda but we have a number of slots for speaking about the Ragon Mountain Reservoir issue and those right here.

But we also do have the matters by the public after this meeting is concluded which anybody can speak at as well.

So Ms. Rice, would you call the roll?

Ms. Szakos.

Here.

Okay, we are going to begin with awards and recognitions and then some announcements.

So if we could begin just with any awards and recognitions.

I have one and then we'll go down a couple of announcements.

We have the

VSA Poetry Book Presentation.

I think there might be some folks here.

So under the umbrella of the city's Therapeutic Recreation Program, VSA, Charlottesville and Albemarle, promotes and develops opportunities for art and creative expression for people of all ages and abilities with a focus on serving individuals with disabilities.

Region 10's Dual Recovery Center will present the recently published poetry book and read a short sample from their original submissions.

Are there readers here too?

Are you going to come forward?

The participants in the Dual Recovery Center's educational program have greatly enjoyed doing creative writing for VSA.

with Rose Williams.

Ms. Williams comes to the DRC on a regular basis and leads creative writing sessions.

It has been amazing to see individuals who do not consider themselves to be writers producing pieces that affect the group when recited.

Some are lighthearted and humorous, many are reflective, and most are very illuminating to the individual's life experiences.

The writing program has helped individuals get to know each other on a more meaningful level, and I'd venture to say it has helped individuals in the program get to know themselves better as well.

In addition, the VSA Poetry Book Celebration has been a profound experience, giving everyone who has published a chance to challenge themselves by reading their writing in public.

My name is Jeffrey Bogart and the title of my poem is called The Cat.

There was a cat who looked like a rat.

It was ice cold.

It makes me feel old.

Thank you so much.

OK, thank you very much.

Other announcements by my colleagues.

Yes, and I just have one, Mr. Mayor.

The announcement is about Imagine a Day Without Water poster contest winners.

The City of Charlottesville and the Albemarle County Service Authority and Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority are participating in Imagine a Day Without Water.

A national campaign to educate and inspire people about the essential value and importance of water in our everyday lives.

As part of the campaign, we hosted our second annual art contest where students from the city and the county were asked to creatively convey a day without water in a poster.

The contest was a great success with over 445 poster entries and with a representation from all Charlottesville City Schools, grade one through eight.

There are four winners from each grade category and a fan favorite, which was voted on by the community with over 530 votes casted.

The winners for the 2016 Imagine a Day Without Water Art Contest are first and second grade, Sarah Nee from the Baker Butler Elementary School, grade two,

Third to fourth grade category, Jingyi Li from Hollymeade Elementary, grade four.

Fifth to sixth grade, Olivia Kim, Hollymeade Elementary, grade five.

Seventh and eighth grade, Marco Lopez, Buford Middle School, grade eight.

And the fan favorite was Shilu

Derberry, Brownsville Elementary, grade four.

Student artwork will be displayed around Charlottesville, including the Charlottesville Public Works Administration building, the ACSA building, and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority building.

You can go to www.Shawshville.org slash water conservation, all one word, to view the winners and find out more information on the campaign.

upcoming council meetings Council will hold a pre-budget work session on Thursday December 8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at city space this is very important because we're going to build the budget and that's your tax money so please we're going to have a number of these please show up at these meetings.

City

office holiday closings.

And you're not going to remember anything of what I say now, but it's going to be on the city website.

Charlottesville city offices will close Monday, December 26 for the holidays and Monday, January 2 for New Year's Day.

Trash and recycling services will resume normally on the Monday after each of the holidays.

Charlottesville transportation

CAT service, Saturday, December 24th, 2016, Christmas Eve.

Full service ends early, 6 p.m. Sunday, December 25th.

Christmas, no service.

Sunday, January 1st, 2017, New Year's Day.

I have one quick announcement.

Just want to let everybody know that on Saturday, December 17th, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at First Baptist Church on 632 West Main Street,

Hype and First Baptist Church will collaborate once again for the fifth annual coat drive, the big giveaway.

So we will have coats of all sizes for adults and children, shoes and scarves for all of those who are in need.

Please note this is on a first come, first serve basis.

And if anyone has a coat that they would like to donate for those who are in need, again, if you have a coat, if you have shoes, you have scarves, any article of clothing that can keep someone warm, please drop off your items at Virginia Organizing at 703 Concord Avenue.

Crow Rec Center, which is at 1700 Rose Hill Drive, JJ's Barbershop, which is at 1924 Arlington Boulevard, or His Image Barbershop, which is at 2116 Berkmar Drive.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact myself or Pastor Haddari Hamilton.

Okay, there's a couple statements that I'm going to read and then Mr. Bellamy has asked for some time for a statement as well and then we'll proceed with the rest of the meeting.

Okay, there's one announcement and three other short statements.

First is that I'll be holding my monthly office hours, open office hours this Thursday from 12 to 1 o'clock.

I'm here at City Hall.

Anybody who's interested in

coming can either just show up or contact Page Rice ahead of time for a slot at 970-3113 or at RiceP at charlottesville.org.

Second thing is this is about mutual respect.

I want to start off tonight's meeting with a request for civility tonight.

Our consent agenda tonight includes a statement of principles, which Ms. Szakos will read in more depth, that explains our commitment as a body to pluralism, inclusion, equity, and justice.

These are not just words to us.

They are values.

Our discussions should be civil and respectful, not destructive and intolerant.

In a time when political rhetoric has become so heated and divisive it's more important than ever that we're able to engage with opposing views without spiraling into ad hominem attacks.

Please take a moment to look around you.

Everyone you see is a human being with his or her private struggles, opinions, and aspirations.

We are all, or at least most of us, members of the same Charlottesville area community.

We all have a stake in the city and a right to feel safe and to feel heard.

Even about the most difficult matters, we should be able, at the very least, to disagree without being disagreeable.

And so I'm asking everyone tonight to proceed in the spirit of civic and civil dialogue.

Two other items.

I don't want to preempt Mr. Bellamy, but because they are in the nature of overarching comments.

Number two is, and then I'll say one other thing on governing procedures, this is fairly unusual.

We don't, but this is a little bit of an unusual meeting.

So I'll ask my colleagues indulgence in saying a couple of overall comments.

Let me begin by saying that I consider Mr. Bellamy both a friend and a colleague.

Like many in our community, I was shaken by the revelations of his past internet speech.

Mr. Bellamy has repeatedly stated that he regrets his words and rejects such language and thinking.

I believe in second chances and our capacity to change and to improve, and I am willing personally to take him at his word and put this in our past.

While I reject the content of these communications, I also reject the hatred and outright racism of many of the attacks that we have received against Mr. Bellamy.

Such sentiments, while protected by the First Amendment, are injurious to our community, and I'm using my own First Amendment rights now to confront and condemn them.

Finally, we have received requests for City Council to remove Mr. Bellamy from office.

Before this evening gets going, I must clarify for the entire community that we have no such legal authority.

City Code expressly limits the application of such actions to Councillors found to conduct, quote, malfeasance or misfeasance in office.

Put simply, this is not a power of council.

Any decisions, anything going forward is really between Mr. Bellamy and his constituents.

We have done a lot of good work on this council.

We've got a busy year ahead and we need to keep working hard to serve the people of Charlottesville.

Number three,

Number three, this is an unrelated matter to this, but I want to address it because it will be coming up on governing procedures.

Tonight, we're going to hear from several speakers during our Matters by the Public session regarding the new Matters by the Public procedures, which were adopted earlier in the year and then were reaffirmed after six months and with a change, which I'll speak about.

I know that we are all in this body passionately committed both to public engagement and to the freedom of speech.

We also want to get the business of the public done.

The goal of the new procedures was to make our meetings as effective, engaging, and as efficient as possible.

For instance, we moved work sessions previously held off camera on Thursday nights into the second meeting of each month on camera so people could watch.

us deliberate.

We introduced time limits on agenda items so things didn't run on forever.

We put meetings under Robert's Rules of Order, which you will see tonight, so that we debate on motions rather than just talk kind of on and on.

We also changed our first matters by the public.

For over a decade, City Council has had 12 spots for public comment before the meeting and unlimited public comment after the meeting.

We wanted to make sure that the slots weren't monopolized by just a few folks who could

routinely attend meetings and come early to sign up in the first come first serve system.

Instead, we wanted folks to be able to reserve slots early by stopping by, making a phone call, or sending an email.

A couple months ago, we added back three in-person sign-ups to further change the system.

While I often hear from folks who believe the system works well, others do not, and we'll hear from them tonight about this, and I expect other provisions as well.

I want to emphasize, however, one thing.

We will be hearing tonight from our critics, and that is how it should be, and how we want it.

Tonight will also show, for better or for worse, how the new system is designed to work.

19 people wanted to sign up in advance.

We have had 12 spots for a long, long, long time.

Under our new system, we randomly selected tonight nine of those 19, three signed up later, which I have right here, first come first served.

Is this better or worse than if all 19 had showed up first come first served and seven of them couldn't have spoken?

I don't know.

This is the conversation we're having right now.

The underlying issue of this whole issue really depends on whether we have limited or unlimited slots.

I expect we are here folks saying we should go back to the old system, but the old system limited public comment to 12 people.

It did so by cutting off anyone who wasn't in line in time.

And why is that fair?

As I've said, I can see good arguments for doing away with the slots entirely.

One option would be to mirror Albemarle County and have unlimited spots for both pre-registration

and those who show up at the meeting.

The major question then is how to manage the meeting itself.

Tonight, for instance, if 20, say, you know, we had 19, but say around that number had signed up, and if they spoke for three minutes each, we wouldn't begin, we usually have about half an hour of business before we get started.

You all will, a lot of folks here are here who don't come to a meeting ordinarily.

Hopefully you'll be interested in everything we talk about.

We wouldn't begin working on our agenda items until 8.30.

That impacts community members, staff who plan on being present in the meeting, presenting to us, but will be inconvenienced by staying until late hours, especially folks with families, especially anyone who depends on public transportation.

One option might be to have completely unlimited sign up.

Anybody who signs up ahead of time, anybody who comes can speak, not have 12 spots.

But in that case, we really do run into a challenge of starting public business by a late hour.

So this is why every public body grapples with the question about how do you make the right choice and there really is no perfect answer.

We're trying to get it right.

One option might be to go from three minutes to two minutes if there's more than a given number of signups, say 15.

Say 15, we know that some folks wouldn't like it, but it might be a better way of managing the amount of time before the meeting really gets going into the agenda items.

So we'll be talking about this.

Again, no perfect system.

We're trying to get it right.

We care a great deal about hearing from the public.

I'm eager to work with my colleagues on these and other issues in the new year around the six month anniversary of the last time we decided on this.

So I wanted to say that before we got started.

Good evening everyone.

Good evening.

There we go.

There we go.

So I want to be very clear.

I owe this city and this area everything.

including an apology.

Let's not have any, I'm going to interrupt here.

Anybody who interrupts from the floor and does not allow others to proceed will, this is against our rules, you need to speak with the recognition of the chair of the meeting.

So that's it.

We'll start from the top.

So I want to be very clear.

I owe this city and this area everything, including an apology.

I'm sorry for the tweets that I sent in my early to mid-20s that were made public last week.

I'm not looking to defend or justify my words, as they are indefensible.

And at 30, they do not reflect the man that I am or the things that I believe today.

I hope that you will judge me for my actions today and not the words I wrote while still growing as a man.

For the past week, my past mistakes have generated negative news stories and press outlets across the state, and I'm sorry that my words caused such pain to so many.

They are no longer what I believe, and I would give anything to take them back, but I can't.

I can only continue to demonstrate through my actions and my words today that I am a changed man.

I've grown and learned a lot since I've been moving and living here in Charlottesville.

The elders in this community, the people in this city, you've basically helped raise me.

Charlottesville helped me grow from an arrogant young man who had too little respect for women to the married man and father of three daughters who has the utmost respect for all women.

This city helped me grow from an angry young man with limited experiences with others outside of my comfort zone to the leader who's willing to stand up and fight for the rights and civil liberties of my brothers and sisters from the LGBTQ community and anyone whose rights are in jeopardy.

And it is this city, the city of Charlottesville, who supported the coat drives

the turkey giveaways, the community cookouts, the vigils, the rallies, the seminars, the town halls, and every other effort I've made over the past four years to bring this community together.

The proudest moment of my life, marrying my wife Ashley, took place here in this city, not elsewhere, and it is this city that I hold so dear that I also realize that unfortunately I may have let down.

My evolution as a man didn't start or stop in my 20s, and I promise that the strength, the courage, the determination to be a better leader that you have taught me will also continue.

I vow, I promise, to continue to grow every day and continue to be the man that you want me to be.

I vow, I promise to continue to be the leader and grow into the man that you need me to be.

I will work with you all to make this city a better place.

I've truly learned the importance of humility and grace, and I'm thanking God for growth.

I appreciate you all.

I love you all, supporters and detractors alike, and I thank you for your support.

OK. All right.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

We're going to proceed now.

We'll be hearing from some folks.

We're going to proceed now to.

Mike, I have a few.

Oh, Mr. Fenwick, I'm sorry.

Excuse me.

First, a personal note.

I'm a Christian, and yesterday in these days before Christmas,

I and thousands of citizens heard messages of forgiveness and rebirth, a message that all religions share.

I'm confident that my community will take this message to heart as we work our way through this.

So what started this is a young black man who had the nerve to stand up in public and advocate for redress of a grievance.

If some of those words sound familiar,

It is because it is a constitutional right.

A group with an opposing opinion also aired their grievance as they have every right to do.

But they also have a dark and twisted political agenda and would run west out of town if they could.

I will not let that happen.

I object to that kind of advocacy, and I want to make it very clear that I will not support any punitive action against Wes.

It seems that some people who Wes considered a friend and ally now can't be found.

For whatever reason, they don't have the stomach to stand with him when the going gets rough and a virtual mob comes for him.

but I will stand with him.

I've seen his work with children and I've seen his work with adults.

I've seen his energy and determination in confronting endemic racism.

And if anybody thinks this is not about racism, I would remind them of a few years ago

when a DNA test proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Thomas Jefferson had a relationship with Sally Hemings.

Then, as now, the town exploded.

I actually did not come with a statement to make.

Mayor Signer, I would like for those that haven't read the newspaper or whatever outlet you have for news,

And I made this statement.

Yes, those past tweets were troubling, but that was in the past.

What has happened in my experience does not match those tweets.

The experience I have with the man that I've worked with on this council dais as an elected official simply does not match those tweets.

And as a human being, I take people as I see them

I take people as they treat me, and I have had nothing but a feeling of mutual respect as a colleague working with Mr. Bellamy, Vice Mayor Bellamy.

So on that score, when you've got a colleague that has only treated you with respect and has, I've seen, worked very hard on counsel,

There's only one thing to do, is to continue working together.

And that's what matters now.

Thank you.

Okay.

That's a lot to follow up, Mr. Mayor.

Just a couple of responses from the last city council meeting.

Mr. Philip Jones mentioned that the city should consider honoring two people who broke important color barriers in the city government's employment history.

Carol Carter, who was the first African American to serve in the city's fire department.

and James Jones, the first African American to serve in the city's police department.

Thanks to the quick and impressive research skills of Ms. Jane Smith, we have been able to confirm that Mr. Jones was the first African American to serve in the fire department.

We are still working to independently verify that Carol Carter was the city's first African American to be hired as a police officer with the Charlottesville Police Department.

We hope to be able to verify that soon and to recognize both of them and their families at a city council meeting early in the new year.

Ms. Nancy Carpenter raised concerns over homeless children in the city schools.

She mentioned that a higher than usual number of children were homeless.

That number seemed to be very high to us as well.

As we were following up on her concerns, Ms. Carpenter emailed the city to retract the claims she had presented.

There was simply a misunderstanding about that number and it turned out not to be nearly as high as she had thought.

We're all relieved to know that, but we are still committed to working to reduce the number of children without consistent, reliable shelter in our community down to zero.

And we thank Ms. Carpenter for following up with us on that.

OK, thanks.

Let's move on now to appointments to boards and commissions.

Okay, here we go.

Citizens Police Advisory Panel, I move these following recommendations.

Citizens Police Advisory Panel, Mary Thiemster, Housing Advisory Committee, Philip D'Anzio and Ridge Schuyler.

Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, Ruth Barnett and Anne Hemingway.

Personnel Appeals Board, Joseph Sable,

Second.

Any discussion, questions?

All in favor?

Carries 5-0.

Okay, moving on to matters by the public.

I'm going to read our standard guideline.

I'm also going to read a couple of the guidelines from our council meeting procedures.

We welcome public comments, 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.

If you're here to speak for a public hearing, and we do have one tonight on the Ragged Mountain Natural Area Rules of Use, we already have a number of folks signed up there.

Please sign up there.

Each speaker has three minutes to speak.

Please give your name and address before beginning your remarks.

I'm going to read right now the other guidelines that are, again, this is on our website under City Council meeting procedures.

Improper comments and disorderly conduct are not permitted.

Persons appearing before the council will not be allowed to A, campaign for public office, B, promote private business ventures, C, use profanity or vulgar language or gestures, D, threaten violence for council city staff or members of the public, E, engage in behavior that intimidates others,

and F, interrupt other speakers or engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting.

Because we're in active litigation about item 9G, we will not be enforcing that item tonight.

And then the last thing is item 10.

Any speaker violates these rules will be called to order by the mayor.

If their remarks or conduct persists, the mayor shall order the speaker.

to cease speaking and be seated.

If the order is not heeded, the mayor shall direct the sergeant-at-arms to escort the individual from the meeting room.

I would just like to offer a strategy.

It's certainly not an order by any means.

I know that a lot of people are here with very strong opinions in very different

Good evening members of council, city manager.

My name is Walt Heinecke.

I live at 1521 Amherst Street in the city and I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you tonight about the council's procedures.

A couple of things.

This is what I love about Charlottesville right here.

This level of democracy and public input.

This is the thing that we want to preserve and we want to encourage in our communities.

It's a really good sign of health in our community.

Secondly, I also want to preface my comments just by saying that we live in a crowded theater in these days.

We all live in a crowded theater and that means that free speech doesn't mean that you can say whatever you want whenever you want without it being seemingly screaming fire in a crowded theater.

So comments that elicit sort of racist intolerance and those kinds of things that incite violence and incite civil disobedience, these kinds of things we really have to be careful about when we think about free speech and public comment.

That being said, I wanted to speak to you about the council resolutions that were passed in February.

In February of 2016,

The newly elected council passed, without real public input and transparency, two resolutions significantly changing council procedure regarding public inputs, councilor input, and I think free speech.

Specifically, some of those issues were allotting maximum of 20 minutes to presentation and discussion of most agenda items, limiting most councilor comments to three minutes, the same limit as comments made by the public, establishing new guidelines for councilor inquiries to city staff in order to improve operational efficiencies, changing public comment by randomizing the sign-up process, giving the mayor control of the council chamber and allowing the mayor to turn off

public access audio and visual equipment and requiring public comments to be addressed to the council.

Other issues that came up in that resolution that were problematic for a lot of citizens were requiring two councillors to remove something from the consent agenda rather than one and not allowing councillors to directly address the citizens of Charlottesville.

Many citizens of Charlottesville agree with the Rutherford Institute that has stated, we are particularly troubled to see the Charlottesville City Council marching lockstep with those who would stifle the ardor of citizens, arbitrarily silence critics, and impede efforts to assure transparency in government.

In this respect, meeting procedures recently adopted by the Charlottesville City Council violate the letter in spirit of these constitutional rights by imposing obstacles

to transparency and citizen engagement.

If the city is serious about being a leader in the fight for open government, it must rescind these new rules and replace them with ones that demonstrate a commitment to public participation in a democratic process.

I was happy to see the mayor discuss some of those issues at the beginning of the meeting.

I only wish we would have had a more publicly transparent public process when we started this whole issue.

In that spirit, I've handed the city clerk a petition by signed over 1,000 citizens of Charlottesville asking that you rescind those rules immediately.

Good evening.

My name is William Jones.

I am not from the city of Charlottesville like Wes Bellamy is not, but I've been planning here since 2006 and have been, I consider myself to be an active member in the city concerning the black community and mainly the black community.

and those who aren't heard.

But what I have to say today is, and it may not even need to be said because y'all can't remove Wes from this, but I think that it's still good to speak on his behalf.

When I met Wes Bellamy, as with some unsure, I was unsure of if I would be able to rock with him.

I thought he was a down south, privileged college boy attempting to infiltrate the hood

as a way to get some political footing as he charted his way toward higher goals.

I was told that he was always in stuff, trying to be seen, trying to attach his name to things, etc., etc.

That impression I found out later was wrong.

It started going out to Mel's Cafe after a Trayvon Martin rally.

He didn't say much, he was surrounded by a bunch of people that knew him and didn't really know each other but he kind of stayed back, didn't really say a whole lot to keep the conversation going, just allowed people to meet each other and he kind of played the background.

But then something came up about a website called WorldStarHipHop that is really influential in the black community and he spoke with this sort of disdain, really passionate about not rocking with this dude

because he kind of strategically puts out things at a certain time that

and Wes's opinion was devastating to the black community.

And so to hear him speak to someone like that and speak concerning someone like that the way that he did kind of made me take a step back because usually people would want to rally behind someone like that who is influential instead of charging them and saying that you're wrong.

So that kind of caused me to take a second look at Wes.

So that impression

The impression that that left on me was to give Wes a chance, rather give myself a chance to actually see what all there is to this young man who his desire is to help bring change to this community.

You don't readily hear young people upset with something like WorldStar, especially when they know the people or know someone that knows them.

But he was and wanted to challenge them in a real way.

I'm a 34-year-old man who has lost a lot of friends, relatives, and associates over the course of my life to the streets.

I believe the historical establishment of white supremacy in housing, education, and generational wealth building has helped to create a tangled web

atmosphere that has hugely helped to make this sort of thing possible.

I've had friends who have literally had their faces.

Okay, I skipped past that.

Okay.

I think Wes is an asset to everyone, but our desire is to have him be seen as a fair asset to the black community.

And so with that being said, for him to be attacked in a way is disheartening to many of the black community.

And it would be nice for him to have a second chance and mercy granted to him by those who are opposing him.

Good evening, Nikiah Walker, 503 Druid Avenue.

I want to share two readings.

The first is from Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me.

Black beauty was never celebrated in movies, in television, or in the textbooks I had seen as a child.

Every one of any import from Jesus to George Washington was white.

This is why your grandparents banned Tarzan and the Lone Ranger

and Toys with White Faces from the House.

They were rebelling against the history books they spoke of black people only as sentimental firsts.

First black five-star general, first black congressman, first black mayor, always presented in the bemused manner of a category of trivial pursuit.

Serious history was West and the West was white.

This was distilled in me in a quote I once read from novelist Paul Bellow.

I can't remember where I read it or when, only that I know.

Who is the toy story of the Zulus?

The second piece is by Nikki Giovanni.

She says, every time I see the statue of Lincoln sitting below the Emancipation Proclamation, I want to have a statue of Frederick Douglass standing behind him guiding his hand.

I could see that Lincoln was an interesting man, an interesting white man who did the right thing finally by freeing the slaves in states where he had no power.

to enforce his decree.

But hey, why be so picky?

He did it true, but not for me.

But I know that I do not owe people any great affection or loyalty.

They do not love me.

That, by way, means I live in a narrow world, but maybe not so narrow.

Maybe a more accurate way of looking at us is that I will not have my world nor my worth determined by people who mean me ill.

Unlike the boys and his latter day children, I do not measure my soul by the tape of the white world.

When you're talking about Wes' comments, the comments he made, he is a man who grew up in the South.

who has suffered from the legacy of slavery and for people including you, Mike Signer, to call his comments troubling like you were never a man and never 23 and never insulted anybody is very concerning.

We live in a community where we hide behind the pretense.

You all want Wes to come out here and apologize.

Wes doesn't owe any of us an apology for tweets that a young man wrote when he was 23.

You all want him to come forward and keep begging for forgiveness.

He does not have to beg for forgiveness.

I have repeatedly said to Wes, you owe nobody an apology.

I hope he apologized to Miss Wine Fine or Fine Wine in 2009.

Okay?

But that was her.

And that was whatever was going on with them.

We do not know the context of any of those tweets in 140 characters.

We don't.

And to allow somebody like Jason Kasler to influence how you all responded to Wes, you all should be ashamed.

Good evening.

Given the context of tonight's situation, I want to make it clear, lest anybody think otherwise, that I accept what Wes has said, and I respect him and hope to work with him in the future.

But what I really wanted to talk to was the council in general and to suggest... Who are you?

I don't want this to take out of its time.

My name is Jeffrey Fodor.

And I just violated the rules of the city council by speaking to you at the request of one of the city councilors.

And I hope that time will not be taken from my remarks.

What I wanted to say to the council was a suggestion that you all learn three simple words.

And those words are, I was wrong.

Or if you prefer, we were wrong.

Take, for example, the introductory comments of the mayor when he said, Section 9G of the rules will not be enforced tonight due to pending litigation.

Well, the fact is, Section 9G was ruled unconstitutional as a violation of free speech.

We never heard that from the council.

Nobody on the council has acknowledged that they had violated free speech.

In fact, what we heard from the mayor was, in defense of the procedures

He is a constitutional scholar who believes in free speech, and yet we have a federal court ruling suggesting neither of those things are true.

Let's start admitting the truth.

We had the same problem when I represented panhandlers, and a federal court found that a counsel, and most of you weren't on that counsel, had violated the First Amendment and had lied about it.

Nobody on the counsel was or is willing to admit that.

We hear that it's not proper for counselors to respond to the comments of speakers.

I have spoken, I think, at the last four meetings.

Mr. Jones has never responded to any of my comments.

Why is that, Mr. Jones?

That's a rhetorical question.

Because this council likes to act in lockstep with one another.

You don't understand how foolish you look by acting and walking and speaking and doing everything else that you can in lockstep and never speaking back to the public about policy.

You want Mr. Jones to speak about matters of the public, but you don't want to speak.

You are afraid that one of you might spontaneously utter the truth.

That's what you're afraid of.

And it's about time that that stopped.

And we're talking now about procedures.

When you talk, Ms. Galvin, about respect, when you talk Ms. Szakos about respect, when you talk about respect, Mr. Fenwick, when you talk about respect, Mr. Signer, you don't understand how disrespectful you are.

How disrespectful you are to the speakers who you don't listen to, who you don't respond to.

how disrespectful you are to the community and you talk about the meager efforts you're making to solve the problems of poverty, of low income housing, of housing for the working class, and you will not even consider a reasonable proposal that's been put forth.

In fact, Ms. Galvin, you wouldn't even respond to my email.

Thank you.

Bear Signer, you wouldn't respond to my discussion with you.

Thank you.

None of you will do that.

Hi, my name is David Karen.

I wanted to bring up a matter here.

Winter is coming up and last year the plan regarding inclement weather fell short on many levels in my opinion and in talking with other business owners in my area they agree.

I think we need to start examining some different options on efficiency regarding clearing the roads.

One thing I think would be effective is to enforce a ban on all on-street parking prior to, you know, winter events.

In conjunction, there needs to be free parking available downtown, which I believe there already is, but also free transportation back to your house, potentially through the buses, something to that effect.

This has been the standard in many northern cities of similar size, and we need to have that happen here now that we're getting snowfalls that are

similar to the amounts that they typically get.

I wanted to stick to some other issues like this one and wish that there were these types of things that were the primary topic tonight among speakers but unfortunately there is the matter of the tweets by Wes Bellamy.

I encouraged folks to go vote for Wes initially and was happy to see an African-American on the council for the first time.

I even attended his first meeting in office as I wanted to be a part of the history.

But with the power comes the responsibility.

As time has gone on, I have lost faith in his ability to represent all of the citizens of Charlottesville.

When Douglas Muir responded to a post on Facebook that Mr. Bellamy disagreed with, he organized a boycott in conjunction with the NAACP of Mr. Muir's business.

Representing the city council, I do not believe it is appropriate for a councilor to take part in the protest of a tax paying citizen and their business.

Mr. Bellamy,

John Hayden, Westwood Road.

Wes, I implored you to be a counselor for all the citizens, and you ignored me.

I think so far my criticism of all of you has been tepid, going only so far as to call you liberal socialists.

However, that's about to change.

For those of you who support Wes, you are publicly giving tacit agreement to the vile, racist, homophobic,

sexist comments that he posted for all the world to see.

In supporting him, you condone him disparaging gay people.

In supporting him, you condone the pro-rape messages he put out about white women and the vile messages about various sex acts.

In supporting him, you condone his anti-white racist remarks.

How can anyone who states publicly

that he hates white people be allowed to remain in a position of authority.

Quote, I don't like white people, so I hate snow.

Quote, I hate black people who act white.

Quote, white women equal the devil.

And my favorite, quote, I really tune out when white people talk in community meetings.

I really need to work on that.

Obama Shrugged.

Are you paying attention now, Wes?

This anti-white rhetoric is at the center of this call for the removal of the statues and this bigoted effort calling for a boycott of a taxpayer's business and you people condone it by not answering my questions about its legality.

Others have talked about redemption when it comes to Wes.

but he had no thoughts of redemption when it came to calling for Doug Meares firing at UVA or the organized picket and called for a boycott of the man's business just because he was offended.

He has told us, in his own words, his disdain of women, gays, and white people.

By keeping him on council, you are publicly agreeing with his comments.

On a number of occasions he has shown disrespect to me here, but up to now I thought it was just because we disagreed on issues.

I realize now it's because of the color of my skin.

This story has gone viral to national media casting a dark shadow on the city.

It's only going to get worse.

All right, no interruptions.

I've given a warning, sir.

That's what I'm entitled to under the rules.

So that's a warning.

No interruptions from anybody of any speaker.

We'll stop the meeting if we can't proceed civilly.

No, you're not.

He wrote and set out to destroy this man's business and life.

Someone here has tried to ruin my life because of my opinions.

I think I know who it is.

He is unfit to maintain, to remain on city council and needs to be removed immediately.

Thank you.

All right.

Richard Aguilar.

Richard Aguilar.

Going once, going twice.

Richard Aguilar.

Back in the back room.

What?

Oh, OK.

They're going to check back.

In the meantime, we'll

and Jason Kessler.

You're going on your time.

My name is Jason Kussler and I am here on behalf of over 900 petitioners to demand that Wes Bellamy be removed from his office as a counselor for the City of Charlottesville.

The homophobic, anti-woman, anti-white and pro-rape statements which he assigned to the official Twitter account of the Vice Mayor have disqualified him from position on council.

When you Google the name Wes Bellamy, it is now synonymous with vile and derogatory hate, unacceptable for an emissary of our city.

Frankly, the lies and misinformation coming from both Bellamy and Szakos are unbecoming of the office.

It has been well documented.

how Szakos at first issued a statement about Bellamy being hacked, then deleted and issued a second statement claiming that the information I had provided was false.

When the veracity of my article was proven by Cav Daily, Daily Progress, and the Washington Post, among other news outlets, Ms. Szakos finally fell silent.

Silent on it ain't rape if she moans.

Silent on a gay slur, silent on white women smell like assault charges and deli meat, and many other outrageously racist and offensive statements.

In fact, Ms. Szakos and the other counselors have betrayed their every liberal progressive value to secure the incestuous relationship between Ms. Szakos and her disgraced protege.

Mr. Bellamy and his allies continue to assert the easily falsifiable lie that the statements were made in his early 20s.

I know the Vice Mayor is not a math teacher, but he used to be on the Board of Education.

So let's see if you can follow some simple arithmetic.

He is now 30 years old.

All of the tweets were made in the last six years, the most recent coming in 2014.

That means all of the tweets were made between the ages of 24 and 28, not early 20s by even the most charitable standards, despite what you tell the Washington Post.

Even one of Bellamy's tweets would have forced his resignation a week ago if he were a white man.

Consider this tweet which Bellamy wrote just a few years ago while employed as a teacher in Albemarle County School System.

LOL.

The funniest thing about being down south is seeing the look on the faces of little white men when they have to look up to a black man.

Imagine if the reverse had been true.

A white man moves to a majority black city like Detroit, is employed by the school system and writes, my favorite thing about being in the ghetto is seeing the look on the faces of little black men when they have to look up to a white man.

You're finished.

You're finished.

Okay.

All right, everyone.

Okay, now we're on to John.

John, sir, sir, your time is over.

Your time is over.

All right, did we find Richard Aguilar?

I just wanted to alert our police officers that the previous speaker just looked at Mr. Bellamy and said, your days are numbered.

All right.

OK, I would like for everyone, all right,

Everyone, quiet.

Okay, I'm restoring order.

We'll put a halt to the meeting if we need to so we can have order and proceed with our business.

We have some business to go on tonight.

Mr. Faltz.

Okay, we're actually proceeding on.

We have a speaker who's ready to go now.

We have another three speakers, I think, after this.

I'm John False.

I live in 1501 Rugby Road.

The issue of matters from the public is a very important one for me, and it's been in the paper with a recommendation that it be changed.

As you know, I appear before you from time to time trying to impart a bit of wisdom into your decision making, usually with no success.

But you know,

The rules that you've got now are pretty damn good.

Anybody who can't make their point in three minutes

Well, maybe with the exception of me, should be cut off.

You've seen this here.

People wanting to talk more, wanting to talk more.

Cutting them off is important.

The randomizing is also a good thing.

Usually there's plenty of slots.

Usually nobody signs up.

But I have been here in the old system when people would pack.

the audience and you didn't get to talk unless you were one of the pack.

I think the randomizing works well.

This whole issue of matters from the public is a tempest in a teapot and you should just ignore it.

You've got far more important things to do.

You've got issues of race which are being brought up.

You've got the Belmont Bridge.

You've got West Main Street.

You've got the parking garage.

Hi, good evening and I just want to say thank you very much for the job you guys do for our city.

My name is Suzanne Smith and I'm at 171 Whitewood Road, Apartment 1, Charlottesville, Virginia.

And I'm also a member of Congregation Beth Israel right here in Charlottesville.

I'm with Impact and I've seen a couple of you guys at the events here and there.

It is an organization made up of 27 different faith congregations that unite in the cause of justice to address serious problems in our community.

I'm also part of the recovery community.

Been sober 11 years and I just want to say thank you so much for your support.

I landed here in Charlottesville and thank you so much.

I have an opportunity to guide people in recovery and for two years I helped a young lady in the recovery process.

Really extraordinary woman, a mother, but she lived with an abusive husband who was also addicted to alcohol and drugs.

And she also had a very young son.

and was pretty much torn between her and the husband.

She ended up having to seek help from the she-shelter here in Charlottesville to fled Flay for safety and then out of that they moved back to a one bedroom apartment where she returned back to alcohol and drugs.

Her sister and I managed to get her into a program that serves people with addiction, Region 10.

However, it was not enough.

It was outpatient.

Then we tried to get her help at UVA.

We literally had to argue with a UVA psychiatrist in the emergency room to get her admitted to UVA Medical Center's psychiatric floor.

The best program after that was a short-term program in Richmond, which is about 70 miles away, where she was far away from her family and friends in support.

Upon discharge, however, from the Richmond program, we did arrange

traveled back to Charlottesville.

However, the staff allowed her to leave with another patient, promising to drive her directly home.

However, that did not happen.

She hooked up with other friends of the patient.

That night consumed narcotics plus alcohol.

The next morning, after police noted patient at her home, I was awoken by her screaming sister's telephone call that she had overdosed and died.

I will never forget.

But this is what can happen when we don't have the treatment here, especially for women, especially for women and kids, a long-term comprehensive treatment.

Two years ago, IMPACT took on the problem of crime and drugs and found out that 3,000 people who go through a regional jail are addicted to substances and that there is really no local residential treatment options for women.

So, we pushed Region 10 to make a plan for a women's treatment facility since that operating men's center, the Moore Center here in town.

Now, Region 10 plans to open a women's facility by next fall.

It will have eight beds with hopes to serve 50 women per year.

Good evening, my name is Joe Starsia and I live at 118 Blanco Lane.

I'm here tonight to both stand in solidarity with Councilor Bellamy and also to stand in opposition to the forces of white nationalism in our community.

I've gotten to know Wes and my work advocating for racial justice in our community.

He's not perfect, but as my wise friend and movement mentor, Lindsay, tells me, everyone comes to the movement broken, the system breaks us all, and the work is the elixir.

Wes has been an active, enthusiastic part of that work, and it is for that reason that he has been targeted by recent attacks.

I want to commend all the counselors for their strong statements in support of Mr. Bellamy.

For some others, there seems to be some confusion with regard to what this supposed controversy is really about.

Since it is said that sunshine is the best disinfectant, let me shine some light on the situation.

Jason Kessler,

The man who posted the original hit piece on Mr. Bellamy is a blogger who associates himself with the so-called alt-right.

Mr. Kessler claims that he is in favor of equality, yet has tweeted in the past that the Broadway hit Hamilton is, quote, a whiteface minstrel show, has tweeted that if people keep calling the alt-right Nazis, they will use it as a term of endearment, and has retweeted such equality-promoting thoughts as that, quote,

White privilege is a hoax used to garner support to institutionalize discrimination against white people, and quote, and quote, mothers should raise their children, not create PowerPoint presentations for globalist corporation, end quote.

This is the man who's attacking Mr. Bellamy.

So what's really going on here?

What are we really talking about?

The reality is that the alt-right are targeting Wes and other leaders of color because of their efforts to promote racial justice in the community.

They hope that by digging up some old tweets, pushing them out under the guise of concern about racism and misogyny, that they can weaken Wes and they can use that weakness to push their white supremacist agenda.

Well, I say this to the progressive citizens of Charlottesville.

We will not drink the poison.

We will not be manipulated.

And we will not be cowed.

We stand in solidarity with Mr. Bellamy.

We will never allow the alt-right to target people of color in Charlottesville.

We stand in solidarity against white nationalism.

And we will continue to fight for inclusiveness, equality, and justice in our community.

Tanisha Hudson

We're just letting you proceed.

Good evening everyone, I'm Tanisha Hudson.

I want to start off by saying we just said the Pledge of Allegiance which ends with one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

As a 35 year old resident of Charlottesville, I don't understand how so many people can stand for the divide and hate being represented in this room.

As a supporter of Wes Bellamy and as one of the campaign representatives that helped him get in the seat that he is actually in now, I know that he has done so much to bridge the gap to make this city comfortable and acceptable to us all regardless of skin color and economic status.

The fact that this city recognizes Robert E. Lee is beyond me.

Robert E. Lee deserves no recognition.

He stood for the divide,

and the oppression of blacks just like the author Jason Kessler.

Before you make an assumption and call someone a racist, make sure you have the definition of racist and what it means.

Racist means a person who believes that a particular race is superior or have power over another.

We as blacks could never be superior or have power over anyone in this country.

Period.

Because everything we touch is built on processes from our founding fathers and lawmakers, which we all know are very few that are black.

We lack equal housing, education, equal pay.

We lack so much here in America.

And here we are in a room that's full of hate.

I also want to say that I appreciate everyone saying that they stand beside Wes and want Wes to continue to do what he do on the city council.

However, I also have to agree with Nakaya that I'm one that told him he owed no one an apology.

Until you can take someone's rights away, I stand here like Patrick Henry.

Give me liberty or give me death.

If he doesn't have his freedom of speech, if you don't have these unalienated rights that was given to us not by any man in this room, not by anyone or any of our ancestors, if you don't have that and we all stand here as citizens and you guys as people that are representing, pushing laws and being lawmakers or being a part of being lawmakers, how can you take away amendments?

How can you do that?

And for Mr. Kessler, who's sitting in this room, before you put out a story on a tweet that says a man represents rape, there was a national syndicated radio host, Tax Stone, that wrote that tweet.

So before you write something on someone, make sure you have all the legitimate facts that go along with it.

That's how the justice system should work, just like Mr. Fogel said.

If we gonna be about liberty and justice for all, then we have to start by doing it all the time.

The law is concrete and cement.

Thank you.

All right, everyone.

We're going to move on to the next item.

Thank you all.

It takes a lot of courage for folks to come up and speak in matters of the public.

Does anybody have, you know, we do in these procedures, we generally

Thank you.

Any others?

I'd like to just thank everybody who came out.

This was a great demonstration of our city and the patience we have.

okay thank you everyone for taking the time to speak your minds thank you and we have another matters by the public session after the conclusion of this meeting where anybody else can speak and there's no limit at that one and we will be here to hear you all right moving on to the consent agenda Ms. Rice would you mind reading the consent agenda for us

If you could wait to speak until you're out in the halls we would appreciate it so that we move on to a couple things.

Item A minutes for November 21st.

Item B an appropriation $715,436.19 from my Vanna Water and Sewer Authority for reimbursement of utility betterment for Route 250 bypass, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation, $1,614,157.22 to Virginia Department of Transportation for overpayment of funds received for Route 20 bypass, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation for new sidewalk ADA improvements and bicycle improvements, $295,000, second of two readings.

Item E, an appropriation, the US Department of Justice Bulletproof Partnership Grant, $6,737.50, second of two readings.

Item F, an appropriation $664,776.63 to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund, first of two readings.

Item G, a resolution, Cedars Court Apartments special use permit, first of one reading.

Item H, a resolution, 1713 Jefferson Park Avenue, Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity special use permit, first of one reading.

Item I, a resolution, expand career pipelines and paid apprenticeships for infrastructure building and repair, first of one reading.

Item J, an ordinance, West Main Street density amendment, first of two readings.

Okay, any questions?

I think we're gonna have one item that we're gonna talk about.

I actually would not like to move this item off unless somebody else wants to, but I would like to read the text of item K. It was a

item that I had brought up last meeting under new business and I think everyone agreed to put it on the agenda which is why it's here but I'd just like the public to hear it.

And this came out of both the talks that we had on city council as well as discussions we had at the National League of Cities meeting last month that a lot of cities were really looking at the rise in very hateful language and rhetoric and bullying and violence in this country

and feeling a need to issue statements of principle of what we stand for.

So this is a statement of principle, a commitment to pluralism, inclusion, equity and justice.

Advancing equity and inclusion is critical to the success of our community and our nation.

Our diversity is the source of our pride and our prosperity.

As political rhetoric on the national level has become heated and divisive, and with an increase in hateful and dangerous speech and acts locally and nationwide, many of our neighbors have experienced fear and anxiety.

At this time, we must strongly reaffirm our commitment to diversity and to fostering an atmosphere of inclusion.

We reject hate speech, hate crimes, harassment, racial bias, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism,

anti-immigrant discrimination and harmful bias and discrimination in all its forms.

We welcome all people and recognize the rights of individuals to live their lives with dignity, free of fear and discrimination because of their faith, race, sexual orientation or identity, national origin or immigration status.

We believe the public sector has a critical role in ensuring the public good

and pledge to continue our work in making our services and programs accessible and open to all.

Is there a second?

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr. Bellamy seconded.

Any further discussion or questions on the consent agenda?

All in favor?

The consent agenda carries five to zero.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Sivner.

I'm going to be speaking briefly on a resolution that's item I on the consent agenda, and that is a resolution to expand career pipelines and paid apprenticeships for infrastructure building and repair.

It's something that could get lost, but it's a very significant step that this council has taken because it pertains to the hiring and apprenticeships for our own local residents when building infrastructure projects.

In this case, it was Belmont Bridge, and it's built upon an earlier resolution that called for the same sort of approach to the building of West Main Street.

So state procurement law doesn't allow us to require outside contractors to hire local, but the local government can hire local.

and the Growing Opportunity Apprenticeship Program gave us the vehicle to do that.

Thank you.

Mayor Signer, may I have one small comment to Ms. Galvin's

I think it's important, although there's a lot of other things going on tonight, we need to make sure that the statements made by Ms. Szakos as well as Ms. Galvin do not go unintended or that we do not fully understand the words that just came out of their mouths.

We are looking to become, and we hope that we already are, continuing on becoming a city that is all inclusive to everyone.

and furthermore as individuals, many of whom are just in the room, oftentimes discuss about how we want to see more jobs come to the area, how we would like to see more apprenticeship and training programs.

Ms. Galvin has eloquently just laid out how we are moving forward with doing so.

So when we look at the future projects that are coming up, it is not that we are outsourcing those jobs, we are looking now to train the individuals so that they are prepared

to take those jobs and work to make our city a better place.

Jobs that actually pay rather well.

So please make sure that we understand and take heed to those comments.

Thank you.

I want to second those comments.

Okay.

Any further?

We voted, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Moving ahead onto the budget.

This is fiscal year.

This is a public hearing and an appropriation.

We have

We have a hearing.

We have two folks who have signed up on this.

This is for our fiscal year 2016 year-end appropriation.

If anybody else would like to sign up, please come up and you'll be able to speak.

So this is the first of two readings, which means we'll just do a motion and a second tonight.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council.

For the record, my name is Chris Cullinan.

I'm the director of finance for the city.

This agenda item is a public hearing for the year end appropriation for fiscal year 2016, which ended June 30th of this year.

The finance department is in conjunction with the city's external auditors is finishing up the audit for FY16.

The city's general fund ended the year with a positive surplus of approximately $6 million, or about 3.8% of the original budget.

FY16's revenues, the trends for FY16 are similar to previous fiscal years with revenues performing better than expected and departments spending less than budgeted.

More specifically, revenues were approximately $3 million better than expected led by real estate taxes, personal property taxes, lodging taxes, and meals taxes.

One specific revenue I wanted to discuss with you this evening is the meals tax.

As you'll recall,

Back in the Spring of 2015, as part of the adoption of the FY16 budget, Council raised the meals tax from 4% to 5%.

A part of that motion also, Council also directed the City Manager to report to City Council the total amount of meals tax revenue received by the City for the period from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 and the average annual amount of meals tax revenue received by the City for the three fiscal years immediately prior to July 1, 2015.

If the amount of the fiscal year 2016 meal tax revenue is less than 10% than prior three-year average on a rate-adjusted basis, the City Manager's report shall also include an analysis of the factors that may be responsible for a decline in the meals tax.

The City Council finds that the decline in revenue is attributable to 1% increase in the meals tax, which became effective July 1, 2015.

City Council shall take necessary actions to repeal the 1% increase effective midnight, June 30, 2017.

So with that reporting requirement in place and the fiscal year completed, in the staff memo you will see a comparison of the three previous fiscal years for meals, tax, revenue received on a rate-adjusted basis, taking out the 1% increase.

and the meals tax revenue has increased each of those years.

Just a little under 1% for FY14, 6.7% in FY15 and a little over 4% for the most recently completed fiscal year.

On the expenditure side of the equation, expenditures for FY16 were down approximately $3 million under budget.

Some of the more significant savings included the Children's Services Act local match, the Charlottesville Albemarle Joint Security Complex, the Commonwealth Attorney's Office, Parks and Recreation, social service matching funds, the local funds the city matches state and federal funds with, and then finally just department-wide savings throughout the city.

So the item before you this evening of the approximately $6 million surplus, staff is recommending the following two items.

First, that approximately $2 million be approved for one-time uses and carried over to the current fiscal year.

And two, that staff requests that the balance of approximately $4 million be placed in the Capital Improvements Plan contingency account for the city's financial policies for future programming.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, just because of the getting a report out about the impact of the 1% meals tax on our local restaurant industry.

And my question is, given the upward trajectory of the revenues,

Certainly as indicated by the performance of the meals tax revenue.

Any other questions?

Okay, we will move on to our public hearing then on this.

We have

Two folks signed up again if anybody else would like to come up.

I'll put the suite down there.

Good evening.

Dee Dee Smith, 2652 Jefferson Park Circle.

And I've just come over from a meeting at the African American Heritage Center on whose board I serve and who would likely benefit from my remarks, but I'd like to make it clear that I'm speaking entirely for myself.

When I heard what this year's surplus would be, I thought, well, how fortuitous is that?

Because $6 million is almost exactly what it would take to save the Jefferson School City Center.

And I don't use that word save lightly.

And this is what kind of flips me out, is I don't really hear anybody talking about what's going to happen just less than one year from right now to the tenants in the Jefferson School City Center.

And without getting too in the weeds, because it's a very complicated situation, just let me explain what I'm talking about.

Back in 2007, the city, who owned the Jefferson School at the time, gave Jefferson to a private LLC in order to take advantage of historic tax credits.

All good.

for the renovation.

And in turn, the LLC took out a $6 million five-year balloon loan to cover the rest of the renovation costs.

In a rather elaborate scheme, the plan was to, in this five-year period, pay off the loan through fundraising, and a foundation was formed, and the Blue Moon Fund was

contributed a lot of funds to subsidize the cost for the rents, for the tenants, just in order to bridge this gap.

And so therefore, at the end of the five years, if the loan is paid off, the tenants would need to cover only maintenance and utilities.

And just in case you think that's kind of a wacky idea, that's what happens at McGuffey Art Center, because the city owns the building.

But here's the problem.

The foundation did not, that was formed to fundraise, did not raise the money.

In fact, they didn't really raise much of any of it.

So instead, what's happening is the LLC is refinancing, this time without the help of the Blue Moon Fund, which means many, if not most of the tenants, will not be able to afford the rental terms.

And recently, I was in a meeting with the tenants, because I'm on the board of the Heritage Center, and

Even the big players were kind of shaking their heads because let's face it, it's not what they signed up for five years ago.

The loan was supposed to be paid off.

And it's later in the conversation in this meeting, they got to talking about renting to for-profit businesses.

And it's really not that big a leap to imagine that a private entity will come in and not too long in the future and buy Jefferson, build condos, whatever, and we'll be right back to where our conversation started.

and in my humble opinion, the city needs to own Jefferson School just like the city owns McGuffey School, the former, is that my time?

Okay, the former school.

Thank you.

Rebecca Quinn, 1044th Street here in the city.

I just have a short item.

Seeing the surplus in the budget reinforces my resolve to demonstrate that the payment in lieu of taxes charged on gas utility clients should be repealed or at least scaled back over time.

I believe it is patently unfair to take about $3 million from only a portion of city residents, those who happen to use gas for cooking and heating, and use it to pay for general government support that benefits all citizens and all property owners.

I believe this burden falls disproportionately

on low income owners and renters in older homes that are often not very energy efficient such that their gas usage is probably very high during the winter if they are using gas for heat.

I am going to submit a Freedom of Information Act request for data that I believe will demonstrate my position.

City staff have from time to time said they have no way to tell

which accounts use gas for heating and which use it for cooling.

I believe there's a fairly simplified way to do so and that the end results can be mapped to communities that will show us where those heating accounts are located and which neighborhoods are most adversely impacted.

And I would like to see if not this budget and subsequent budget when the data are available to

Take another look at that unfair tax and find a way to better serve our low-income, struggling people who are still dealing with low-energy homes.

We've got great programs, or some, I hope those who have not yet sought a LEAP energy evaluation will do so.

Even if you can't change all of the insulation in your house, you can still find out some interesting and low-cost and beneficial ways to save energy.

But in the meantime, I still believe the payment in lieu of taxes has a significant unfair component to it.

All right.

Basically, I'd like to make one comment in regards to Ms. Smith's points about the surplus possibly being used for the Jefferson School.

I think she has a very valid point.

And one of the things that I would love to hear us either explore or discuss for the public is in regards to how those funds could be allocated in order to help the Jefferson School in some capacity.

I think her point in regards to is no mistake that the six million dollars essentially that's needed for the Jefferson School and the potential monies that we've seen could indeed line up and I know that the Jefferson School is indeed going through some tough financial time so I think for the public's sake it is important that not only we either discuss it or provide that information for them

Pilot?

Not the pilot.

I'm sorry if I missed.

Cost benefit analysis.

And I think that what we have before us tonight is not necessarily, you know, antithetical to that discussion.

I think that the large portion of this fund actually goes back into the capital fund, which is where that sort of thing would come from.

I'd like to make a motion that we do this is just a first reading of this so that this go forward and in making that motion I will say that just to be clear to the public that a lot of the items that we're spending this money on are things that are carryover from the previous year things that didn't get spent they're not just like oh look we have extra money let's spend it on something these are things that were either unfunded in the past year but needed or they were things that were approved for the last year but hadn't yet been done and so I think

These are the staff recommendations and I think all of the counselors have looked at them and some of our major concerns have been dealt with in these.

Ms. Szakos?

Yes.

Well, we already seconded.

I just will say that we have a very,

The four million dollars are going back into, this goes forward in the second reading, back into the capital budget.

The capital budget has a tremendous amount of action in it.

A lot of hard decisions that are very important, hugely impactful about race and equity and infrastructure.

I think that's a really good question, and I think that's a really good question.

You know, intake from the public and trying to get it right.

And we have some big decisions next year also about capital and our tax base and our debt ceiling and things like this that will affect the amount of money that we're also looking at, which will also impact this.

So I think this is a little bit cart for the horse in terms of that discussion we're going to have about the amount of money we're looking at for these.

No, I think you're absolutely right.

I just think for the public's information we're having

So we want to make sure that the public is just well aware because those meetings are open to everyone and will we have public comment at those meetings?

We usually at the end of the meetings.

Right, so just for information, it is important for everyone to show up again on the 8th, December 8th, that's this Thursday and then January 24th to let us know about your budgetary concerns.

that we can move forward in the best way.

And before we move on, there was one other thing I wanted to mention that's in this proposal.

The city did a, I guess it's called a compensation analysis, looking at how the city's salaries for various positions compare to the market.

Who else might be hiring the people we're trying to hire?

Who might lure them away where they might go instead of coming here?

And so there is a, how much was it, $200,000?

$289,000.

$289,000 of this appropriation

is actually to bring up to scale to the proper level, especially our firefighters and our police, which we found were below.

And it should help us attract and retain the top folks for those positions.

And it's also just the right thing to do, I think.

And then some are from other departments as well, but that was the bulk of them.

A lot of staff work has gone into this.

It's important figuring out these decisions.

So credit to all the, to Mr. Cullinan, his staff, Mr. Jones.

All right.

That's a first and a second.

We'll move forward to the next reading on it.

We are moving on now to public item number three, public hearing and ordinance.

This is Ragged Mountain Natural Area Rules of Use.

Now let me say, we're going to have a presentation from staff here.

Well, that's not a bad idea.

We typically take a break at nine o'clock.

It's been an energetic evening so far, so maybe we take a break right now.

I wanted to tell everybody before we move on to this, we've had a conferral among almost all of us and some advice, but we have 30 people, 27 folks signed up.

If we, Council can make a decision about the amount of time that each speaker gets.

We feel that it would be fair to go to two minutes rather than three, that we'll hear the sentiments that most people have.

Otherwise this will take an hour and a half to hear from everybody and that means we'll all be here until 1030 before we start deliberating.

So if everybody is

I feel like I've conferred with all my colleagues except for Ms. Galvin.

Okay, so we're gonna do two minutes rather than three.

Please take the five minutes that we'll take right now as a break to revise your comments accordingly.

I hope that'll be okay.

If everybody could be back in here by ten until nine, we will get started.

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All right, we're going to try to get going.

First, Director of Parks and Recreation will present.

This is the first of two readings.

We'll do a motion and a second.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of City Council.

The item under consideration this evening is the potential of expanding the allowable uses at the Ragged Mountain natural area.

Over the past year, staff has used the city's adopted park master planning process to engage community input and opinion regarding the permitted uses at Ragged Mountain.

The final step in that process is this evening,

and that is the presentation of the recommendations of the Parks and Rec Advisory Board to City Council.

Additionally, I've been asked to pass along a brief summary of the comments on the issue from the Planning Commission at their November meeting.

The Planning Commission had a substantial discussion about the future uses of Ragged Mountain.

All six commissioners who were present agreed that Ragged Mountain is an important resource for the city, but the commissioners were evenly split between those who favored Ragged Mountain as a natural area

without expanded recreational uses and those who favored more intensive use, for example, biking.

Those who supported mountain biking expressed the opinion that bike accessibility from city streets makes Ragged Mountain a unique biking experience.

It does not involve driving a car to a mountain biking location and that outdoor recreational opportunities would be increased

by adding biking.

Those favoring Ragged Mountain remaining as a natural area on the Planning Commission for hiking and walking and other less intensive uses spoke to the biodiversity of the area and the need for quiet, restorative spaces.

Regardless of their opinions on more active versus more passive uses, all Planning Commissioners support emphasizing the natural qualities of the site for all users, monitoring and addressing the potential for overuse

and including professional landscape architects in designing any new, very intensive use trails.

I would like to just make a personal comment.

In my 11 years as tenure here on the staff, this issue has engaged in more public input, more comment for any parks and recreation project that we've done.

Regardless of one, the community's opinion on the issues here, everyone has been very, very respectful throughout the process.

of staff and each other, and it really demonstrates the deep commitment of the community to its park system.

I'd like to now introduce Dave Hirschman.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council.

I'm the current chair of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and I'll present briefly the deliberations of the board

And we did deliberate.

We had a lot to deliberate on.

We spent time out there hiking, boating, doing the various things.

Not biking and not taking any dogs, of course.

But we did read all the comments.

We had a good bit of consultation with Natural Heritage Program from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

and of course we went through the planning process.

So the Parks and Rec Advisory Board did deliberate on this according to the council's mandate for our group and also the master planning process.

One of the things that some of the board members pointed out was that even though there's various opinions, it's obvious in this, there's a great deal of common ground and I think Brian alluded to that, a great deal of

admiration, love of this park system, the natural areas and the outdoor experiences that people have in our area and that spans all the people that commented through the many months and I think it's important to keep in mind that there was a lot of common ground even though you do hear a lot of division.

The Parks and Rec Advisory Board in our deliberations

We were often not unanimous with each other, and of course this reflects the broader community.

When it did come time to take votes, there was one unanimous vote, and that was to allow hiking, trail running, fishing, boats with electric motors, or no motors as is the case with kayaks or canoes, and it was also unanimous to not allow

Dogs.

After that there was various opinions about mountain bikes.

Some on the advisory board felt that allowing bikes would increase the overall level of use and that would be damaging to the area and some also felt that the chief purpose of this natural area is not for recreation but as an ecosystem and natural area.

However, when the board did vote, there was a majority that voted to allow mountain bikes, but with several very important caveats about where and how mountain bikes would use Ragged Mountain.

The board, in general, supported separate trails for hiking and mountain biking to the extent possible.

Maybe not 100%, but wherever the terrain

allowed opportunities for separating the trails.

The board was in favor of that.

The board was also in favor of not having shared use on what we call single track trails, which is very narrow or steep trails.

The board was also in favor, or majority was in favor, of not allowing mountain biking from the dam to the pontoon bridge and up around the southwest corner of the property.

This was because of the nature of the terrain being very steep and being very narrow and our concern for the experience.

of shared use in that particular area.

So in the end, what the board was in favor of, those who were in favor of allowing mountain biking would be more of an out-and-back experience from the parking lot, but still quite a bit of trail use, as you can see from the map, for mountain biking and quite a bit for just hiking.

And all the mountain biking allowed trails would also be open to hiking as well, shared use.

That's pretty much a summary of what the board deliberated on and voted on and it's not all one thing or another so it was qualified in terms of the majority that were in favor of the allowing some limited mountain biking on the property.

Sir Daly, is that the extent of the presentations that we're going to hear?

Okay.

Are there any questions or comments at this point from staff?

Yes, ma'am.

It could go to either of you or both of you.

And it's related to the discussion about the way mountain biking trails are typically

designed and the phrase I've heard is a dispersion model so that those users that actually go faster need to get away from the parking lot the quickest and they also need to have kind of a continuous loop.

in large part because it avoids backtracking and then doubling the amount of conflicts.

Thank you for the question.

To be specific, no, that discussion did not take place and probably wouldn't take place until such time as whether bicycles were actually permitted.

on the property.

In other locations in the park system, most of the trails are constructed in the same manner.

There isn't necessarily a specific method of construction to support hiking or walking or a bicycle.

They're generally the same.

And I want to follow up.

None.

And I heard... Ivy Creek Natural Area, which is owned by the city and the county, and Braggad Mountain are the two locations.

that do not permit bicycles and rocks.

Okay.

You might be able to answer this.

I know Dave, I don't know.

Did your recommendation language track, there apparently is a county ordinance or county thing.

Did your recommendation track what the county's language was?

The county does have an ordinance, but the recommendation does not, the language in that is not necessarily, maybe I should defer to Craig.

Then I'll ask the question, which is, we've been, and I'm sure it'll come up today too,

Let me start just a small bit of background.

Normally, the jurisdiction of this governing body stops at the city limits and your ordinances apply to property within the city and the parks within the city.

There are, however, two separate state statutes that give you jurisdiction over property beyond the city limits that's used for recreational uses or, as in this case, as a water supply impound.

And for Ragged Mountain, the applicable state statute is within five miles.

So we do have jurisdiction here.

The county does have a separate ordinance in their parks chapter that is applicable just to Ragged Mountain Reservoir.

We have had a discussion about who has jurisdiction in this case.

I'm not sure we see quite eye to eye, as attorneys frequently don't agree.

And I think it's a good faith disagreement between who has jurisdiction here.

The city jurisdiction does say that you can impose rules and regulations by ordinance and that is why we've gotten to this point.

Having said that, the city's proposal and the county's existing ordinance, as I read it, are very close.

They list several activities that are authorized and then their ordinance says everything that's not specifically authorized is prohibited.

They don't specifically authorize jogging or running.

They don't specifically authorize biking.

And I say that with one caveat.

I mean, they have an ordinance for Sugar Hollow as well, which does not authorize biking yet.

It's my understanding that biking does take place there, just from what I read.

It's not personal experience.

So that's kind of a little bit of a difference of opinion.

It may not mean anything if both parties end up in the same place.

My communication with the county has been to invite their input on our proposed ordinance.

You know, and again, as Mr. Daley alluded to, I think dogs was another issue that was subject of debate.

Their ordinance right now doesn't allow dog walking, and the city's proposal doesn't allow dog walking.

I am, my advice would be to proceed with first reading assuming you're ready, assuming there's a motion and a second.

that two of you are comfortable with it going forward to second reading.

Like all ordinances, it requires two readings before council.

And let's see what the county says if they want to provide you with input or comment before the second reading.

But at that point, I assume they'll be ready for adoption if majority of council supports it on the second reading.

I do have another question for Mr. Brown.

and it has to do with procedure because we have before us an ordinance to pass but there's also in the staff memo there is a Ragged Mountain draft trail plan that also is a subject of debate and discussion.

Would it be appropriate to kind of combine those two to discuss and make a motion to

In my opinion, the second approach would be more efficient.

Just because the trail plan, which is primarily a map, and you can see there's his draft trail plan,

Trail Use Plan hasn't been finalized yet.

And I think if you keep it separate, if you're so inclined, you certainly could retain the authority to see any changes or to review any changes.

We could make a directive to staff about how council

I just want a more note on this.

I have conferred with my colleagues in the county about this, and this process is a good one.

We just want to emphasize they are our colleagues and partners.

We do have disagreements on many issues.

We try to work through them.

On this, there is this matter of conflicting ordinances.

We do have a process where we'll

kind of take a first cut at this now.

They have a meeting this Wednesday.

They can discuss this.

We can hear back from them.

But they know that we're doing this.

And this has been a fairly full exchange so far.

OK. Well, let me, if I could jump in on that.

It caught at least one supervisor by surprise.

And I'll be meeting with two others in this coming week.

So it appears to me that the hang-up is going to be mountain bikes.

You know, we try to promote city-county collaboration.

And it appears to me, I would suggest that we let these informal negotiations between the two legal minds proceed before we go ahead and pass something.

I don't know what the percentage of how it would

stack up for passing or not in the county, I don't know that at this point, but at least we should have these preliminary talks, I think, before we go ahead and do this.

I have just one final thing.

I'd just like, partly because he's my neighbor, but also I went to one of the hearings, the one at the Jefferson School that the Parks Committee, Commission had,

and I just wanted to give a big shout out to David Hirschman for his leadership of that body, keeping it together, keeping everybody working forward and also to the entire committee.

I was so impressed with their attention and their diligence.

We just today in our boards and commissions, two members whose terms had expired actually volunteered to do it again.

So it's clear that you've created a work environment that they feel supported.

Okay, so at this point I'm going to try to gather this.

We've got a lot of folks here who have showed up to talk.

Mr. Fenwick, at this point we're no longer asking questions of a presenter, so if there's a motion on the floor about delaying this, then that would be properly framed.

That sounded like what you were saying and then we can debate that but if you don't have a motion ready then... Yeah, well I would make that motion that we let the legal staff of both city and county work this.

I'm actually inclined to second that.

It's not a disrespect at all to anyone else who feels otherwise.

I just do think there's validity in trying to find out

Okay, so are you inclined or is that a second?

I'm sorry, second.

I'm inclined to second.

Then we have a motion and a second.

Take 30 seconds just to say that

I actually thought a lot about this as we were coming up to this agenda.

If it were a one reading agenda or item, I would definitely support that.

I think because this is a first reading and we know we have two weeks, if it's not resolved by then, I would support something like that.

And Mayor Signer, I think we need to provide clarity to the process.

It's about time for the council to weigh in on its opinion and its direction it wants to give to this process.

Any further delay has a chance of just making it much more murky and complicated.

I think it's time to make a decision tonight to give that clear direction.

and I, that's my opinion as well.

No, I mean, again, I understand Ms. Galvin's point, I fully understand your point in regards to let's move forward, but one of the things that I am concerned about, and it seems like we already have the votes, so I won't belabor this point, but one of the things I am concerned about is kind of how Mr. Fenwick alluded to,

I am concerned about that.

I will just say that my, you know, I generally, I trust our counsel on this.

I feel like I've gotten advice that has reassured me about the

all of the issues that I would want for our public and our responsibility of the body to move forward.

I feel very comfortable with that.

Mr. Fenwick's question wasn't answered.

His point that he just made or his question that he raised rather in regards to he has spoken to one Board of Supervisors member and they were caught off guard and he's meeting with a couple others.

Okay.

I didn't mean to say that I had, or they had not known 14 months ago.

It just wasn't recently.

It was, I think the wording that I heard was it just fell out, it fell off the table or something.

I think that was what she said.

It fell off the table and I didn't know where it was.

And I was concerned because county-city collaboration is such an issue now to do that before we had this legal matter taken care of, which is fairly easy to do, I would think, yes or no.

seems precipitous to me out of respect for the county.

We haven't withdrawn the motion, so let's call a vote on that motion.

All in favor of Mr. Fenwick's motion.

All in favor and all against.

Okay, so we're voting so I guess we do them all the same.

The motion fails three to two.

Okay, so let's move on.

We now are going to move to public hearing.

Presently, 35 people signed up.

We've got two minutes for each person.

That means all of us.

Everybody here is hungry and eager to get to some kind of movement on this, interested, excited.

9.15.

So that means we are finishing this.

If everybody goes to the full brink of your two minutes, we'll be out of here and we'll start deliberating in 70 minutes.

So I would encourage you, if you feel like you can express it more efficiently,

Consider that.

But you have up to two minutes and so we're going to move ahead.

Please keep Ragged Mountain area free of bikes and dogs.

Sorry for my voice.

For walkers, including seniors like me, who enjoy quiet but challenging hikes,

without driving to Shenandoah National Park.

Alternatives such as county's hedgerow property adjacent to Ragged Mountain are intended for multiple use as is nearby Foxhaven Farm owned by UVA.

I understand that the PAC will be discussing hedgerow and hopefully Foxhaven soon.

Ragged Mountain is only one of two natural areas.

For those who want more activity, over 70 miles of bicycle trails currently exist in other county and city parks.

Weldon Cooper studies show that seniors over 65 live in one of every four houses, and this number is increasing.

Ragged Mountain offers active seniors a quiet environment for short walks or longer hikes.

Of course, younger people

also benefit from stepping away from electronics and athletics to quiet contemplation in a natural setting.

The youth group of mostly teenage boys who bird with Monticello Bird Club is a good example of this.

The city's ecological study authenticates Bragged Mountains' unique biological diversity.

Like a wilderness area on federal lands, it should be open for minimal human activity.

However,

If you vote for shared use, the council should retain a landscape architect to ensure that biological diversity is protected and to the extent possible, retention of the human experience of quiet nature.

Ragged Mountain is a treasure.

To quote the report, only a few miles of the city residents find vast and wondrous forests that have long inspired naturalists

Poets, educators, and artists, such as Edgar Allen Poe, who wandered among its hills and wrote A Tale of the Ragged Mountains.

Thank you.

So because Ms.

Slaughter is a former mayor, she got to go a few seconds over her two minutes.

Brian Musinski from 1505 Greenleaf Lane.

Thank you for not letting Bob Fenwick delay this process anymore.

He did it last year about this time when the city council was geared up to approve bicycling at Ragged Mountain, I believe.

He delayed it for the studies, the environmental studies.

He tried to delay it again this evening.

Many, many people have spoken on the benefits of cycling more eloquently than I.

I would just like to say that bicycling is wholesome, healthful, and benevolent and any restrictions or repression of the proliferation of bicyclists is a step in the wrong direction.

Thank you.

I'm Manuel Laredao of 329 Parkway Street in Charlottesville.

I'm also a bike commuter and avid mountain biker and former volunteer trail builder and trail maintainer of mountain bike trails in a previous life in the Coast Range of California.

I am by trade a professional ecologist and have been doing that for about the last 25 years, working mostly in forest ecosystems related to conservation.

And I want to raise a couple of points about the ordinance itself, the process that went through, and I think a couple of important points that haven't yet been addressed and that should be.

One, Ragon Mountain at its inception was conceived not as a park, but as a natural area.

And I think the use of that as a natural area needs to be considered.

And certain aspects of the principles of natural areas are different from those

of areas that are designed for recreational use by people as their primary function.

For example, in the report that was submitted, there were the detailing of the biological communities, but very explicitly no recommendations were made about the vulnerability or rarity of any of the species or communities there.

There's in fact not been due diligence done on the environmental side, and I think the city should do that.

Secondly,

I'm disappointed at the lack of communication that appears to have occurred over this process with the county, not just because of the points regarding the ordinance, I'm not a lawyer, I don't understand those, but the fact that Ragon Mountain abuts county controlled land and it makes sense to develop coherent mechanisms there.

Thirdly, the ordinance as written only speaks to recreational uses and does not speak to the management uses of Ragon Mountain.

There's no discussion of management strategy

or activities at all.

It seems that it's incomplete as written.

This is a major hole for anyone who's designing land use.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Two minutes.

Marilyn Philippi, 4721 Helios Path, Barbersville.

The Parks and Recreation Department's mission statement is

to enhance the quality of life for all through the stewardship of public land and parks and provide quality recreational experiences.

I would like to address the aspect of providing quality recreational experiences for all.

Many of the people fighting to keep Ragged Mountain for quiet enjoyment are older adults who value pursuits such as walking, appreciating nature, and enjoying some hard-to-find peace and quiet.

According to a study done at UVA, which I think is the same one Kay referenced, despite being a college town, about 24% of Charlottesville's population is aged 50 or older.

However, I would estimate that activities appropriate for older residents would only total less than 10% of Parks and Rec's offerings.

I was very surprised, therefore, that the board recommended adding another activity for families and younger adults

even though this will ruin one of the limited recreational activities available for older adults.

I am using the word ruin intentionally.

The trails that would be designated for foot traffic only are extremely challenging to walk on and more appropriate for an adventurous hike than a quiet stroll.

The trails that are comfortable to walk on are the ones that would also allow biking.

A peaceful walk would be

possible interrupted by the warning sounds of approaching bikers and the need to step off the trail to let them pass.

As city councilors representing all the residents, please take into account the current imbalance in recreational opportunities and consider the needs of older adults when you evaluate the proposal to change Ragged Mountain to a park with biking trails.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Tom Olivier at 4632 Green Creek Road in Schuyler area of Albemarle County, and I'm speaking for the Piedmont group of the Sierra Club.

In 2004, the Albemarle County Biodiversity Work Group identified the Ragged Mountain area as one of Albemarle County's biologically most precious areas.

Although a large dam has since been built on the site, the Center for Urban Habitats Ecosystem Survey makes clear that the Ragged Mountain area remains home to a great variety of species and ecosystems.

Some have sought expanded recreational opportunities at Ragged Mountain, leading to the ordinance before you tonight.

However, we cannot assume that Ragged Mountain's rich biodiversity can persist in the face of increased contact with humans.

For example, page 108 of the Ecosystem Survey lists seven species of already declining ground-nesting birds that would be particularly vulnerable to disturbance at Braggot Mountain.

In August, the Albemarle County Natural Heritage Committee wrote to the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, a copy is attached to the handout I gave you if you haven't seen it yet, the letter detailed

extensive concerns about potential negative effects of expanded recreation on Ragged Mountain biodiversity.

The Natural Heritage Committee of the county also offered to provide immediate assistance to the city in assessing vulnerabilities to biological resources at Ragged Mountain and in the development of recommendation of conservation measures.

The Piedmont group urges the city to explicitly acknowledge and accept

its obligation to protect biological resources at Ragged Mountain.

Tonight, following from your obligation and in keeping with the precautionary principle, we urge you not pass an ordinance that allows expanded recreational uses.

I'm going to ask everybody, too, to usually say this.

It's such a busy evening.

Just please pay an eye on the device here.

When you're at yellow, so I don't have to be the jerk, you're down to 15 seconds.

And then when you're red, you hear the chum.

But you've been forewarned.

This device does that.

My name's Annette Dusenberry.

I'm 816 Rougemont Avenue in the city.

I just come to you in support of shared use.

I'm an active member.

of the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club.

And on a personal note, due to more numerous ankle injuries than I could count, cycling is how I now enjoy the outdoors and nature.

And you can ask anyone who I ride with.

That's how I find solitude.

I'm the one stopping to take pictures, stopping to enjoy the quiet, and would greatly enjoy an area like Ragon Mountain to do that with a

busy work and stressful life.

I think that's just an area that is precious and should be enjoyed by everyone who can.

And it's a unique place that the city has.

I also feel like uniting with shared use, you would unite many groups who all care about the area.

And I feel like we all respect that there's precious, fragile areas that need to be protected.

But by inviting more groups, such as the Mountain Bike Club,

and trail runners, you have more people to help maintain the trails and more people to teach others in the area to respect the trails.

I've learned more from the club that I ride with on how to build trails than I ever have in all my years of hiking and backpacking and being outdoors.

I just feel it would be an invaluable resource to have in this area.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Jean-Philippe Helios Path in Barbersville.

I'm going to wing it.

It's to be kind of clipped with half of it.

So bear with me on the clipped nature of this.

My points have to do with diversity.

Barbersville loves diversity.

Barbersville loves variety.

In our recreational endeavors, we have a tremendous amount of that diversity.

And I know we're going to want to keep that.

Unfortunately, the proposal on the table reduces that diversity.

because you're going to confine the natural area type of recreation, which is peace and quiet, which issue to a very small area would be only at Ivy Creek.

So right now, today, we've got 600 acres of natural areas.

Take out Ragged Mountain, in my view, so you've got 200.

That's a pretty big drop.

That's like a 60% drop.

We're getting additional mileage on the biking trails of about 10%, so that seems like an imbalance to me.

There's another way to handle this.

There are going to be lots of other places to improve biking trails over the next several years.

And I think the way to do this is to keep Ragged Mountain as it is and expand the biking trails elsewhere.

That can be really good, really, really terrific biking trails.

And I think that's a way to not shrink natural areas.

It's a way to keep diversity.

That's my major issue.

Let's keep diversity and

Not having this situation where many years from now we have an absolutely huge amount of biking trails, which would be great.

In and of itself, a huge amount of biking trails would be great, but not at the expense of taking most of our natural area environment and removing it.

So I'll just read the last part of this.

And it says, I ask you to consider as the main issue here that Charlottesville continues to foster its diverse set of recreational opportunities.

Edward Montes Bradley, 1165 Owensville Road.

I'd just like to say that my argument has been very well expressed by my predecessors.

My position?

The former mayor just said exactly how I felt about it.

and the only thing I could add is that just don't take Ragged Mountain.

It's one of the only spaces where we can go and I'm not good as a public speaker.

I'm a filmmaker so I speak through my films.

By the way, I made a biography on Julian Bond and if he would be here, he would be very proud of you.

and is the only one that does not accept bikes.

I love bikes.

I'm a biker myself.

I bike with my children.

But there is one place where we can't bike and that is Ragged Mountain, just the way that Adam Poe saw it on the short story written before he died.

It's one of the last things in his mind before he passed.

Let's keep it that way.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Sam Freilich at 505 Rupin Place County, Charlottesville.

I'm deeply concerned about the possibility of mountain biking in the Ragon Mountain natural area.

The city paid for an extensive biological study of the natural area.

The lead biologist said that our natural area has the most unique flora and fauna in the chain of adjoining mountains.

He further stated that the movement of mountain bikes

with their deep, tired treads would be extremely detrimental to the flora and fauna.

A meeting will be held in January, a governmental meeting, next month to discuss the work needed to be done to expedite the development of bike-friendly hedgerow directly across from this property.

Also, at the existing sign which states no bicycling is replaced with one that allows cycling, anyone that has a bike can ride anywhere they wish, off or on the trails, and no one can be all over the property to police it.

For the sake of many, including middle age and older people that quietly walk these trails and can fully enjoy nature, please keep the natural area free of bicycles as it has been for the past 100 years.

As the Parks and Recreation sign reads, no bicycling, take only pictures, leave only footprints.

Thank you.

My name is Chris Gist, 307 5th Street Southwest in the city.

I will spare you the Parks Department mission statement again, but the key word in that mission statement is all.

All the citizens of Charlottesville.

We deserve to have equal access as people choosing the activities we would like to do at Ragon Mountain.

I'm not a full-time cyclist.

I strive to be.

I'm a bicycle life stylist.

But one of the things I can't do, I can't jump on my mountain bike from my house and ride to a quality cycling experience in the city.

Yeah, I can go to Belmont Park and ride around there or something, but that's not a quality mountain bike experience.

Ragged Mountain is a great, beautiful place, but it is not pristine by any sense.

I've been out there multiple times.

Never have I been in a place where I can't hear the roar, the dull roar of the interstate.

The interstate runs right through this property.

We've heard a lot of talk about hedgerow.

Nobody's going to be able to get it from the city to hedgerow without going down to 29.

There's nobody's going to mountain bike down Route 29 to get to hedgerow.

The last thing I'd like to say is that I would wish the city council would pass the rules to allow cycling there and then leave the trail design up to the experts.

The city employs a trail expert, a trail planner.

That's his job.

Let him do his job.

Thank you.

David Hogg, 270 Ipswich Place in the county.

I've been in the county since 1965.

Amateur naturalist and an associate at the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

And I came tonight to speak about the Dragon Mountain Natural Area.

It's a resource that the city has to treasure.

It's a resource for ecology.

As we've heard, it's got

Unique plant life, wildlife.

It's a resource for natural history.

It's a place where teachers have brought children, brought adults to learn about nature and first-hand interactive experience, perhaps the best way to learn about nature.

It's a resource for quiet.

You've heard about repairing the soul.

walking in a quiet place where you can just think about your life and think about things.

And it's a fragile resource.

If it's gone, I don't think it can be rebuilt.

So I think that you have to weigh all of these things.

I myself would recommend that you think of it as an IRA.

Thank you.

Good evening, and thank you for your service and putting up with late evenings and so forth.

My name is David White.

I live at 505 Park Plaza, downtown Charlottesville.

And I have circulated a prior email to the body here outlining my thoughts about preserving, keeping, Ragged Mountain as one of the only two natural areas in our parks.

There's a thousand reasons.

You've heard them, you will hear them.

It will go on into the evening, but we talk about an older population.

We talk about the value of wildlife unimpeded, relatively unimpeded.

We talk about the fact that there are only two natural areas.

There's already 70 miles of biking trails.

Richmond, almost a million people, has 90 miles of mountain biking trails.

Charlesville community, 140,000, give or take, has 70 plus miles of mountain biking trails.

I think we're doing pretty well on that avenue.

One thing I'd like to point out, back in 2013, the comprehensive plan for the city called for the development of a wildlife management plan.

If this had been in place prior to this decision having to come to bear, I think there might have been perhaps a different outlook both from the department and perhaps from you folks who do have the charge of making the final decision.

It might be worthwhile, to my findings, I haven't been able to find where the development of this wildlife management plan has been initiated yet by Parks and Rec.

The world is full of the roads of good intentions, but it might do well to look forward to implementing or looking at doing something along those lines for this and for future decisions that you all will be making.

Tom, I have Bin or Shenky, but it's hard for me to read the first name.

I'm also the president of the Edmond Forest Homeowners Association.

and the Board of Directors.

We voted in July of 2016 to support maintaining current usage, hiking and fishing, and I'm a cyclist that did 60 miles last weekend.

There are many cyclists on the board, including me and in our community, and we live right next to this property.

And it would be very easy just to go out my front door and turn left and go up that service road.

But I think the decision you're faced with is do you change 130 years of history?

This has been bestowed to us.

Decision makers in the past have taken a long view and I'm asking you to take a long view.

We've heard that what's attractive about this is that you can go from your home to Ragged Mountain.

You can do that.

Once you turn off a Fontaine, you've got two miles of a very narrow winding road.

It's barely possible to have two cars passing that road, much less having cyclists on each side going up and down.

I would advise each of you to go up that road.

You've got a safety issue.

It's a risky bike ride.

And as a bike cyclist, you're always ready to ignore some risk or manage your risk.

You can't also, there's been suggested, well, people will enter from 250 and they'll go through Ednam Forest and then go up the service road.

Your park staff has made it very clear that those roads are private roads and you can't do that.

Also, the Boar's Head Trail no longer allows bikes on that trail.

Mary Ames, David Stackhouse.

Hi, I'm Mary Ames, 4176 Laird Lane in North Garden.

As a recent newcomer to the area, I found Ragged Mountain to be just a very

Jim of an area for peace and quiet reflection and I urge you to consider keeping it that way.

David Stackhouse.

That was 19 seconds.

David Stackhouse.

I live at 1404 Westwood Road in the city.

I'm going to be 68 in January.

I'm part of the older crowd and an avid mountain biker, a trail builder, and a community builder.

I think trails build community.

The Mountain Bike Club does a lot to build trails because we know we build community.

If a mountain bike rode through this room right now, it would pass in about two seconds, quietly.

If hikers walk through this room right now, they would pass in about 15 or 20 seconds, and they'd probably be conversing.

They might be louder than the bike.

So where do we get this idea that bikes ruin the natural area?

I ride out in the Shenandoah National Forest on the Shenandoah Mountain Trail.

It was put in by the Conservation Corps in the 30s.

It's about 12 inches wide.

It hasn't changed in the 10 years I've been riding it, and it's in a wild area that's natural.

This area, if you allow mountain biking, will still be natural.

It will still be a natural area.

I urge you to look at option E. It had one trail going through the area.

All other trails were hiker only trails.

All trails except one.

That's what the mountain biking community wants.

That trail did go a continuous loop.

The loop will get traffic away from the parking area, away from the hikers, will allow the hikers to have a quiet, contemplative experience.

I know that everyone who's 68 is inactive like me.

There's nothing wrong with sweat.

There's nothing wrong with fun in nature.

I don't know why people are bike haters, because we don't destroy the nature.

So I urge you to pass this ordinance.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Dan Beaker, 4174 Laird Lane in North Garden.

I understand that you are under a lot of pressure to expand active use at Ragged Mountain.

But I'm here to speak as a professor of natural sciences at Piedmont College.

For over 20 years, I have taken field classes out to Raggen Mountain precisely because of the rich and delicate biodiversity out there.

It's an excellent outdoor classroom for classes in ornithology, herpetology, geology, mammology.

I've had them all out there.

I've also been for 15, 16 years a 4-H youth leader

and I take groups of little kids 10 or 15 at a time out to Ragon Mountain.

We do nature study.

I take them out there because I don't have to worry about a dog running up behind us or a bicycle coming past us as we're on the trail studying something.

Now I'm all for mountain biking.

I'm an avid biker myself.

I think we should be expanding our mountain biking trails, but I also think that it's of extreme value to have certain areas set aside

as nature preserves for the quiet enjoyment of nature for passive recreation.

If we are a community that values diversity, why do we want to homogenize all the activities on our parks?

It is diverse to offer these different experiences over the wide range of our public lands.

So let's expand our trails.

We have hedgerow property with the possibility of 300 acres of Ragon Mountain next to it becoming a joint city county park, an excellent opportunity for joint city county cooperation.

We have Greenway expansion.

We have Pretty Creek expansion.

Let's keep expanding the trails, but let's not take away one of our natural areas.

Thank you.

I'm Elaine Townsend, 1404 Westwood.

I live here in the city and I am 61.

I am an avid mountain biker and I would like to be able to use these trails.

They would be close to me so I could easily ride on them.

We do stay on the trail.

We don't go off the trails.

I've understood that going off the trail is where you

damage your environment.

So, just wanted to say I vote for option E. I know it's getting late and I'm going to keep it at that.

Thank you.

Dan Testa.

Hey, Dan Testa.

I live at 101 Chisholm Place.

Along with what everyone else said, you know, I support shared use and

Option E has an amendment that might create a loop around the reservoir.

I think we all agree that everyone wants to preserve Ragged Mountain as a quiet and beautiful place, but I don't think that the question before you is one of destroying this area or altering it irrevocably.

We're talking about a land use change that is very narrow in scope.

You could have user groups in here who are calling for dirt bikes or hunting or organized paintball matches, but it's just some folks who want to ride bikes.

And as has also been noted, Reagan Mountain has been significantly altered with earth moving equipment, reshaping the landscape for years now.

I support designated wilderness areas to preserve fragile ecosystems where it's appropriate, but I do not think a municipally owned park with a man-made reservoir at the edge of a city and an interstate fit that criterion.

I think the opponents of shared use at Reagan Mountain are basically asking you and the city to manage this property as a wilderness.

The only other point I'd like to make is please also consider that most of the trails to ride within and adjacent to Charlottesville, like Carter Mountain or UVA's Observatory Hill or the Rivanna Trail, can have their access revoked at any time if the landowner wants.

The trail riding options in this town are actually resting on a fairly shaky foundation.

As Councilman Fenwick noted, you can bike at all these different parks, but I live near Meade Park.

I'm not going to ride my bike on the water slides or the jungle gym because that's a park

that's designed for a different type of user and a different type of visitor.

So again, I support shared use and please do consider what Councilor Galvin noted was possibly a loop that would sort of disperse the users and give everybody space.

Thank you.

Hi, Lee Politis.

I live in the county and

Thank you all very much for taking time to listen to our comments.

Dan Beaker just made some really wonderful points, other people as well, so I will edit my comments and I will say that I want to be clear that I'm not advocating that cyclists and dog lovers not enjoy Ragged Mountain.

I'm just asking them to leave their bikes and dogs at home when they visit, the same way that I would

I'm also a cyclist and also a dog lover.

In doing so, they may experience this very unique sight without significantly disturbing and altering one of our only two natural areas.

And here is where I won't remind you

about the natural areas and about the available space for biking.

But I will go on to say that when we consider all of our parks and natural areas as a whole, I believe it is optimal and important to offer residents a diversity of outdoor experiences, more active experiences in some places and more tranquil ones in others.

So let's tailor our activities so they match the land

rather than forcing a one size fits all model on what ideally would remain a natural area.

Thank you very much.

Len Wallowick, 504 Rookwood Place in Charlottesville.

This is over six miles.

I'm 77 years old and I'm a biker, but this is over six more miles of trails.

There already exists 70 miles of biking trails.

Why are we splitting hairs over six more miles when for 130 years this has been a natural area?

Not a park, not a recreation park, but a natural area.

So why don't we keep it a natural area when, in fact, just over the horizon next month there is a PAC meeting?

where some of you will attend along with UVA and the county officials.

And on the agenda is hedge row on how to develop it and how to possibly fund it.

And there are other projects that you're considering with the county to develop more trails and more parks.

So why are we gonna let the genie out of the bottle right now?

when if we delayed this action until there is more of a macro feel for how to develop all the trails and all the parks and retain this natural area, one of two natural areas in this county.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good evening, Greg Kastner, 1603 Bruce Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia.

I urge you all to support the shared use proposal put forth by the Parks and Recreation Board, as well as the amendment for the full loop around.

It is my belief that under the shared use proposal, hikers will have hiker-only trails to enjoy in peace and quiet in the most environmentally sensitive areas will be restricted to hikers only.

My feeling is that this current proposal is a win-win.

All parties will get their space within Ragon Mountain to enjoy.