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nothing particularly exciting on tonight’s charlottesville city council agenda
charlottesville.org/home/showdocum…
charlottesville.org/home/showdocum…
the meeting (the very first with new city manager dr tarron richardson) is being livestreamed here
facebook.com/cvilletv10/vid…
facebook.com/cvilletv10/vid…
councilors are presenting outgoing interim city manager mike murphy with cards and hugs. he looks grateful that he doesn’t have to stay for the meeting.
check the livestream for this surprise performance by a visiting senegalese drummer
looking forward to this public comment from independent candidate for city council paul long. i assume his stance is that it was too long - 6 hours and 45 minutes is too much meeting.
virginia residents: if you are not registered to vote you must do so BY MIDNIGHT TONIGHT to vote in the june 11 primaries!
elections.virginia.gov/citizen-portal…
elections.virginia.gov/citizen-portal…
heather hill makes a motion to defer items C & D from the consent agenda to the next meeting, due to the (unexplained??) absence of mike signer, which is agreed to unanimously.
no takers on public comment on any of the consent agenda items. with the exception of C & D, which are deferred, the consent agenda passes unanimously.
vice mayor heather hill is reading the names of new appointees to several boards and commissions (this was one of the state subjects of the closed session prior to this meeting)
galvin will abstain from the vote for the appointee to the community development grant task force, as the appointee is her husband.
quite a few boards and commissions have vacancies. if you live in the city, check them out and consider serving
charlottesville.org/departments-an…
charlottesville.org/departments-an…
jesus fucking christ is now the best time for some kind of construction in a room adjacent to council chambers? that drill noise is driving me absolutely insane
all appointments passed unanimously, with galvin abstaining from the vote on her husband. now on to the city manager’s response to matters by the public. this is dr richardson’s first council meeting.
extreme deja vu - galvin just said the exact same thing she said 6 weeks ago
sounds like council is going to move forward with piloting the new trolley route. unclear when exactly. heather was concerned there wasn’t a robust enough public input period, but nikuyah & kathy both feel that’s the whole point of piloting the change.
in responding to this comment from the last meeting, dr richardson got the resident’s name wrong. i know it’s his first day, but the way he responded to being gently corrected by harold folley from LAJC is disappointing to me.
now on to public comment. walt’s up first talking about the ABRT priorities setting process. he frames this as an opportunity for the city to take a major step forward on issues of equity.
walt says something he’s said before & that bears repeating: national media will come back this summer. on the two year anniversary of august 12th, what can we show the world we’ve done to address the underlying causes of the deadly rally?
this is an issue i’ve actually been poking around lately... this commenter says he rented his house out on air BnB and can’t figure out HOW to pay the tax he’s supposed to pay the city, which leads him to believe a lot of people AREN’T (this is my suspicion, too)
the speaker says air BnB did $1.1mil on business in charlottesville during UVA football season. we’re missing a sizable chunk of revenue by not properly collecting taxes from those rentals.
other cities have air BnB collect the taxes themselves & remit it directly to the city, rather than have individuals make that payment themselves. he suggests the city figure out how to avail themselves of that arrangement.
galvin says the idea of a differential rate for these temporary homestays vs the regular lodging tax is an interesting one. she also asks dr richardson to explore the idea of having the company collect & remit that tax money.
i emailed the city’s zoning administrator about this last week, actually. haven’t heard back yet.
mary carey up now talking about the around-the-clock construction going on at the site of the old ice rink. apparently he has a special permit to do construction work at any time. the noise is very disruptive to residents at midway manor.
mayor walker says she has heard other complaints about the construction noise from residents of midway manor. no discussion at this time about what, if anything, can be done.
harold folley, on behalf of the people’s coalition, says they’re not here to destroy anybody or anything except unjust systems, then cedes his time to a woman who recounts a conversation she had with a police officer about his interactions with young black men.
two other young women are now confirming the first woman’s account of the conversation with the officer at the fifeville neighborhood association. none of them have named the officer in question, but his mere presence had a chilling effect on the meeting.
apparently he got very defensive, clenching his fists, banging on the table, and yelling at people, specially yelling that he is not a racist.
it’s heartbreaking to me that a black woman needed to bring two young white women who also witnessed the incident to make anyone take the whole ordeal seriously.
paul’s turn
“i think an effort should be made to conduct the meetings within a 2.5-3 hour time frame”
lolololol not ever.
lolololol not ever.
shantell, the chair of the human rights commission but not speaking in that capacity tonight, is addressing council with an update about the food equity initiative.
galvin says maybe this food equity initiative should’ve been an agenda item & thanks shantell for taking the initiative for bringing them this update without being asked.
it’ll be on a future agenda, eventually.
it’ll be on a future agenda, eventually.
is it too late to get shantell to run for city council?
ms rosia, a member of the police civilian review board but not speaking in that capacity tonight, is concerned about some of the police officers who have been promoted.
god, i had forgotten about this incident. remember a few months ago when a man held another man at knifepoint on the downtown mall? he’s still looking for answers about how the situation was handled, according to ms rosia.
john hall has stopped ASKING to change the city’s name and just started CALLING it “charlotte’s city”
it sounds like he has his own plan for what should be done about the too-low railroad bridge at 14th street and has taken it upon himself to contact the railroad and make some drawings.
galvin is generous enough to pick out some of the actual salient points from hall’s comments but it’s worth noting he’s received a cease and desist in the past about attempts to conduct city business despite not being in any way authorized to do so.
c-ville.com/unauthorized-c…
c-ville.com/unauthorized-c…
another community member is concerned about sergeant woodzell’s promotion despite the photograph of him with his arm around two white supremacists. she says there needs to be an investigation into that officer specifically.
mayor walker says this issue was raised by a public comment from @Jalane_Schmidt at the end of the last meeting (but that was at 1am and i think jalane, @MPayneCville, and i were the only people still here)
mayor walker says “we will get some feedback” on the issue, but no comment from dr richardson and no timeline was offered.
ms katrina up now saying there should have been a moment of silence for ms cookie at the may 6 council meeting. she passed away on may 3.
lolita “cookie” smith was the grandmother of sage smith, who has been missing since november 2012.
lolita “cookie” smith was the grandmother of sage smith, who has been missing since november 2012.
a young woman now saying officer pedro manhandled her. when an officer followed up on her complaint, they treated her like a criminal & told her there was nothing anyone could do for her.
she says her complaint was filed A YEAR AGO and she has received 7 letters about 30 day extensions to the internal affairs investigation
after a three minute homage to chris long (i’m told this is a football man), a hometown hero of the commenter, we’re back to talking about police misconduct.
the commenter says there is no official definition of misconduct and being fired for misconduct doesn’t prevent an officer from being hired as a police officer in another locality. they suggest this should be changed - the current situation seriously erodes public trust.
next commenter came to voice displeasure about the possibility of a trolley stop on his street (that pilot sounds like it will move forward). not sure what his problem with it is... everybody likes the trolley!
he is complaining that he had no idea this was happening & he had no opportunity to comment on it. “it’s been going on for months, where you been?” says mary carey from the back of the room, to a smattering of snaps in agreement.
he won’t admit it’s his own fault he wasn’t paying attention. joan fenton of the downtown business association approached the mic to weigh in on his behalf, but there were several shouts of “it’s not your turn joan,” and she wasn’t allowed to speak.
my dude is sad because two parking spots on his streets will be (temporarily!) eliminated. you live DOWNTOWN, bud. parking isn’t a guarantee. the public right of way is not your private property. you are not entitled to it.
ugh there are two free slots so we’re gonna end up hearing from ms business association anyway
mr gaines is back with more petition signatures
joan fenton is giving us a history lesson on downtown traffic patterns. she says she doesn’t believe there has been an adequate traffic study to change the trolley route.
she serves on the parking committee and says the committee was not made aware of the potential (temporary!) loss of two parking spots during this piloted trolley route change.
she says residents can’t be expected to read the posted signs in the affected areas because there are just so many signs how can they keep up. i guess every downtown resident should’ve gotten a home visit from a city staffer to discuss their feelings about the trolley.
city attorney john blair now addressing the issue of “decertification” of police officers. the state code outlines six specific offenses/scenarios in which an officer is decertified (and then can’t serve as an officer again)
back to the trolley problem, “the only way you can understand a traffic pattern change is to test it,” says galvin. she does agree with fenton that the parking committee should be involved.
speaking of the parking advisory panel, does anyone have any idea WHEN they meet? the city’s site just says “quarterly” and i can’t think of any notice of any meeting i’ve ever seen. they’ve never been included in any email the city has sent in the last year and a half.
one of several concerns raised by this commenter is the location of the magistrate’s office. it’s at the jail, far away from the center of town, inaccessible on foot or public transit. it used to be downtown & the city website actually still says it is (it moved MANY years ago)
another issue raised by the commenter was UVA employees taking all the parking in his neighborhood. wes proposes looking at switching to permitted parking, but either waiving or using money from the equity fund, to make permits available to low income residents at no cost.
during the recess, i checked the bulletin board where public meetings are noticed. no notice about tomorrow’s parking advisory panel meeting, which i just found out about. (the notices are for tonight’s council meeting x2, an HRC meeting, & the sister cities commission)
powerpoint time, featuring an unrelated tray of tomato plants
oh it’s the same powerpoint they presented to the charlottesville city school board a couple weeks ago. glad these kids are getting a chance to present to council, too. they did some great work.
so glad to see the youth council including the demands of the black student union in their recommendations
there wasn’t much discussion on this, but i’m kind of stuck on the idea that it’s possible to pay money for “enhanced police coverage.”
whatever this means passed 4-0
(4-0 because mike signer isn’t here. i don’t think i’ve ever been at a council meeting where a councilor was missing and NOT A WORD was offered about why the missing councilor couldn’t attend. not so much as a “family issue” or “not feeling well.” just nothing 🤷♀️)
now we turn to discussion continuing from the may 8 ABRT priority setting work session
(ABRT = agency budget review team, the process through which the city gives funds to local nonprofits doing work in the community. mayor walker has advocated reform to ensure money is going to organizations actually serving the underserved)
glad to hear they are thinking about adding conflict of interest & bias training to the people deciding who gets city funding but uhhh... troubled this is a new feature.
galvin says she isn’t comfortable voting in the ABRT priority setting commission tonight because it hasn’t been publicly discussed enough? how does kicking this to the next meeting for a vote increase public engagement in any way?
council will provide feedback to staff by the end of the week and assuming the feedback isn’t drastic or really contradictory, this will come back on the june 3 agenda.
time to legalize teen trick or treating
oh wow the bike/ped plan is a written report. this is the last agenda item!
chief brackney says this ordinance prohibiting teens from trick or treating & enacting a halloween curfew was passed in 1962.... this law was clearly designed to criminalize young black boys.
brackney says they were unable to find any case of the law being used to cite anyone for this offense within the last five years. we don’t need it & the department is asking council to repeal it.
to make her point, her slideshow shows lots and lots and lots of white families dressed up for halloween, all of whom would’ve been in violation of the code if it were enforced. (some cute family costumes!)
the repeal of the trick or treating ordinance will go on the next meeting’s consent agenda.
sorry, the mayor tried to adjourn the meeting but i had to make a public comment about this
meeting adjourned shockingly early!
it’s not even 11pm and i’m taking my meeting blanket & my new tomato plants home.
