--------- Good afternoon. July 20 July 7th, 2025 Charlottesville City Council meeting will come to order. Miss Thomas, will you call the role? Councelor Ashin here. Councelor Payne here.
Vice Mayor Pinkston here. Councelor Snook here. And we received prior notice that Mayor Wade would not be here. Is there a motion to approve or amend the agenda? I move approval approval of the agenda.
Is there a second? Second. Please cast your vote. voice still logging in. Voice. Y I I I
uh Yes. Good evening. This meeting will be divided into three sections. First, a work session to hear and discuss presentations that do not require council vote. second, followed by a closed session and then finally the city council business
meeting at 6:30. We'll begin uh this afternoon with the FY25 climate program update with Crystal Riddle and Emily Irvine uh presenting. All right. Good afternoon, council. I'm
Crystal Ritterville, director of the office of sustainability, and I'm joined this afternoon by Emily Irvin, our climate program manager. Thank you for having us here today. And I'd like to start by appreciating everyone who's doing climate work with us and around us. Our climate program is part of the
city's sustainability commitments, commitments that are reflected in the work of many different city departments, several of whom have been here to present their progress with you over this past year. As a reminder, um we're working with the goals of achieving a 45% reduction in our community emissions
by 2030, just around the corner, and we're aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. These goals were understood to be ambitious at the time of ABD of adoption, but they may not be ambitious enough to prevent the worst effects of
climate change. To be honest, we're here today with some mixed feelings in a shifting landscape that I want to lay out before you before we launch into the the action update, the action report update. So, last last July, we celebrated city council's
investment in climate work, including substantial capital funding and expanded staffing to deliver a program. Through tonight's presentation, you will hear about a variety of projects and initiatives that would not have been possible without that investment. Projects are happening in municipal
operations as well as in the community. Projects that address various source sectors of our emissions, the built environment, transportation, and waste. An increasingly important and cross-disciplinary project focused on
climate adaptation and resilience planning. Having identified the climate driven risks and hazards for this region, we're determined to we are determining strategies and actions to minimize harm and to make our community strong, safe, and healthy in a changing
climate. Last year, we were encouraged and excited to find community and momentum in the climate action work with colleagues who sought to align their work with the city's climate goals, with peers from local governments committed
to tackling climate action at the local level, with partners, advocates, and experts who are in this with us supporting us, bringing informed insight to us, and holding us accountable. Last year, we were inspired by
unprecedented federal investments being made and anticipated in a clean energy economy. We were buoyed to see the recognition of climate justice and equity and inclusion as part of the expectations to do climate work in local communities. We were working with
federal funding directly tied to projects in our FY25 work plan. This year, we are reeling from threats and realities of our federal government stepping away from climate leadership, undermining commitments of a clean energy transformation and a decarbonized
economy. We see projections of energy demand outpacing energy production and our electricity utility has stated that it is challenged to meet the requirements of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which mandates a transition to 100% carbon-f free electricity by
2045. Virginia continues in a legal dispute concerning its withdrawal from the regional greenhouse gas initiative or reggie, the regional cap and trade program designed to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector. Charlottesville has reaped direct
benefits from that program and just last week we received notice of another funding award through the community flood preparedness fund. This year, we're being impacted and are trying to adjust to the loss of federal funds through termination of grants and
other funding that was to support community-based organizations involved in our resilient together project. Support the development of an updated and a comprehensive citywide urban forest management plan. support our participation in a national learning
group focused on climatedriven extreme urban heat in order to identify relevant coping strategies and supporting partners to de deliver climate informed programs and services. Furthermore, the recently passed federal
budget reconciliation bill curtails clean energy initiatives with significant modifications to the inflation inflation reduction act, including incentives that were going to be available for taxexempt entities like local government. That bill terminates
incentives for electric vehicles and efficient appliances. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar and other clean energy technology. It ends investment in vulnerable communities disproportionately burdened by pollution. And it establishes new and
expanded support for fossil fuels. This year, we have watched and heard from friends and colleagues experiencing climate driven crisis. Hurricane Helen, the Palisades fire, flood damage and loss of life in Alamoral County, this
week's historically disastrous Guadalupe River flooding, and tropical depression shantal that just hammered North North Carolina again last night. We cannot pause our commitment to climate work as politics play out. Climate change is a threat multiplier.
As stated by the author Ayana Johnson, we are in a in a stage of figuring out how to minimize the damage, how to mi mitigate the impacts, and how to adapt to this unknown world while ensuring that those who are already marginalized and struggling aren't placed in more
danger. We submit that we need to double down on reducing our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, actualizing resilience strategies, and operationalizing climate and sustainability in our government. While we're here to do an annual update, I
want to remind us that climate work doesn't fit neatly within discrete fiscal year boundaries. We're working on foundational and programmatic initiatives and success will develop will depend on the ability to deliver these some of these such as the energy
resource hub in an as an ongoing effort. So with that, I'm going to turn the presentation over to Emily who will share with you a summary of the climate work that's been done this year and what's on the horizon for this coming year. And we'll both be available for questions during and after.
Hey everyone, good afternoon. Uh, thank you for the introduction, Crystal, and thank you all so much for having me. I um am pleased to be back before you again this year for our second um annual climate action update. Um, so Crystal I think already set the context that we're
working in, but I do just want to underscore that um, even though I myself do feel so disheartened and disappointed by what's happening around us, I do think it really underscores the importance of this work at the local level and so I'm grateful for all the
support that you all provide for us. Um, so I want to figure out how to change slides. Um, so for today I'm going to be giving you all an update on our most recent greenhouse gas inventory. Um, and then
I'm going to spend a little bit time of time talking about our resilient together project. Um, I will update you on what we've accomplished in the past year since I was here before you last year. Um, and I will give a little look ahead at what's on the horizon.
Elsa, what was that? No idea. Okay. Um uh so there will be time for questions at the end, but if you all have any clarifying questions that you need answered, please just feel free to jump in.
Um okay, greenhouse gas inventory update. Okay. All right. So, um, under the commitment, under our city's commitment to the global covenant of mayors, which council signed on to in 2017, um, we do an annual accounting of our greenhouse
gas emissions. Um, we are one year behind our, um, reporting year because of the time that it takes for us to collect the data and everything when the data that we need for our inventory uh, becomes available. So, this we're talking about our 2023 calendar year
when we're talking about this most recent inventory. So, as promised last year, we are aligning it with the release of our annual report. And so, there's a lot more analysis and information about this in the report, but um you can see this is a chart of our most recent inventory
um which is inclusive of municipal activity. So, this is our communitywide emissions uh data. Um so in 2023 our community uh released about 276,000
um metric tons of CO2 equivalent. That includes carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Um that is about 2% more than in our 2022 inventory year. Um but still 40% less than our 2011 baseline
year. So these two pie charts uh present emissions by source um showing this year compared to last year. And what I want you all to take notice of here is uh
that sources of emissions are starting to shift a bit. So if you focus mostly on the dark blue and the green wedges, the dark blue is our buildings and the green is our transportation. So you can see that emissions are starting to
decline from our buildings and they are increasing in the transportation sector. Um and so we know that that 2023 pi is uh slightly bigger than than the 22 pi and that increase is uh very much driven
by the increase in emissions from the transportation space. So if we look uh this is our emissions uh by sector by year each each year from our baseline. It's a lot of data on this one slide but if you compare 2022 to
2023 you will see that in every sector except transportation emissions are either right right about the same or less. But then in that transportation sector we are seeing about a 20% increase. And so then if you compare our
2023 transportation emissions to 2019, you see that they're very comparable. So that's telling us that we are back up at a preandemic level of tr of transportation and travel in the community. While you're on this, could I just ask
you what is what are the component parts of the transportation and mobile sources number? What is there one that went up particularly in the last year or two? Yeah, I'm going to talk a little bit about that in a in a moment. So, we get that data from VOTE. Uh it's vehicle
miles traveled. And so, we saw an increase in the uh pretty big increase in the percentage of vehicle miles traveled. And we also saw a pretty big increase in the percentage of diesel vehicles that are being used in our community. And so, those two things together are really driving the
increase. And is that based on diesel sold at Charlottesville gas status, the service station? No. So, um it is like a snapshot of it's complicated. I'm not exactly sure. Um
it's not it's state level data that they extrapolate down to the local level. Um I could share our data sources with you. I I I'm just curious I'm mainly curious aside from the intellectual curiosity of it all is what lesson we might learn
from the fact that there was a 20% increase in a number that is itself aggregated right and if we disagregate it maybe we can learn something and the question is is can we learn something from doing so yeah we so we have on our uh to-do list for this upcoming year uh doing a deep
dive into our inventory process and I um we get the same data from the state every year. But I do think we need to dig in if the state is doing something different that would impact our data. But with the this is the best data we have and this is what the these are what the numbers are showing us. And I mean I
have to wonder is it because we're doing so much delivery there's I mean we have a lot of van you see a lot of diesel vehicles driving around anyway. Okay. Uh but let me get I will talk a little bit in detail about that get an answer in six months. I I wanted
to ask a question and and peique your curiosity. Yeah. Um so this uh chart shows uh municipal emissions. So from the activities of the city government um year-over-year um by
sector. So uh you can see that our municipal emissions have showed a slight decrease in all sectors uh from the 2022 inventory year and that we are now down to 41% of our 2011 baseline. Um we do
see the greatest reduction in our stationary um sources which includes buildings and lighting. Um so we're really pleased to be seeing this trend. Um especially because since the um adoption of the climate action plan, we've really been working across the
city to really ramp up emissions reductions in our operations and we have you all will hear about uh plans to deploy uh energy efficiency programs across our city's building portfolio and solar installations and things. So we're pleased with this trend at the municipal
level. Okay. So, this may um help address some of your questions, councelor Snook. So, um I want to talk about some takeaways from our inventory. So, uh many communities don't do an annual um inventory. It's kind of a big and
tedious undertaking. Um but one thing I do like about the commitment that has us do this annually is it really does give us some insight about what's happening and what we need to do and where we should put our resources and energy. Um, so here's some highle takeaways. So like
I mentioned, our overall emissions are up slightly from 2022. We saw about a 3% decline in emissions from buildings. Um, but that was totally offset by this 20% increase in emissions from transportation. Um, like I mentioned, we get our
transportation data from VOTE in the form of vehicle miles traveled. And between 2022 and 2023, we saw a 14% increase in those vehicle miles traveled. Um and so um and then also I mentioned that it was 20% increase in um
diesel fueled vehicles. So I think that this really underscores the importance of both working to reduce vehicle miles traveled by getting people out of their cars and onto the bus or bikes or the sidewalk. Um let me finish my thought and then I will um and also increasing
vehicle efficiency through electrification. Yes, council ocean. Um when you say 20% more diesel fueled vehicles, does that mean light duty trucks that are powered by diesel? Okay. So and and that means like if we had 100 vehicles to start with, there's
now 20 more diesel fuel trucks or of that original 100 20% more of them are diesel. What is that 20% 20% of? So, of the pie of vehicles, we saw a 20%
increase in the percentage of them that are light duty diesel trucks. Okay. So, not necessarily more vehicles overall, but of the vehicles out there, they're more likely to be light. That's a good question. Um, I have to I have to peek back at our
data to see if it's that granular. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Um so uh on the building side uh the cleanup of the grid which means the grid is becoming less carbon intensive through installation of clean energy. Um
that's really hope helping to drive emissions down in the building sector. Um so we saw a 7% decrease in the emissions intensity of electricity in our region just since 2022. Um and on a
per kilowatt basis, emissions from electricity are down 45% since 2011 in our region. Um so this really underscores the importance of building electrification and um energy efficiency for our homes, our businesses and the
city's building portfolio. Okay, before I move on from this like technical information, do you guys have any questions? Okay. So, um our global covenant of mayor's commitment also um it we are compelled
to report our emissions accounting annually also. Um and we use this platform called CDP which used to stand for carbon disclosure project. They are a global nonprofit that supports um many businesses and cities across the world
including about 160 cities in the US to um publicly report and track their emissions. So that's the platform we used. Um you'll notice that this the reporting year is 2024. So the same um as like this report to you all. And I
report on our 2020 our most recent inventory. So that's why the years don't match up. Um but so in this last reporting cycle to global covenant of mayors um we earned a score of a minus which is um the same score that we
earned previously. So um we're pleased with that and uh we have retained our badges that um help us know that we are in compliance with our commitment. All right. So for this next part I want to zoom out a little bit and talk about
the resilient together project um and of the importance of climate adaptation and resilience building work that we've been doing. So when we talk about climate action there are really two types of work or two pillars of work that we talk about. So one is mitigation or reducing
our greenhouse gases and so getting to the source of the problem and the other is adaptation which is preparing for the changes that climate change is bringing and will bring more of in the future. So this is reacting to the symptoms of the problem. So our climate action plan is
mitigation focused and the resilient together project uh which will result in a companion adaptation plan um is resilience and adaptation focused. So for the past 18 months or so I have spent a lot of time um talking with the
community about our regional climate hazards and risks um but I haven't really yet spoken with you all about them yet. And so since we are aiming to bring a climate adaptation and resilience plan uh forward for adoption in this fiscal year, this seemed like a
good opportunity to talk to you just a little bit about um this work and um I think understanding the risks um kind of underscores the timeliness and importance of doing doing this resilience building work. So in 2022, uh
we conducted a risk and vulnerability assessment to help us to understand the impacts that we expect to see in our region. Um and I think that it's when you all are looking at this slide, I feel like it's safe to say that all of you can probably understand um and think of the ways that we're already
experiencing these hazards um in our region. And we know that as the climate continues to warm um these impacts will become amplified um and continue to be more impactful on our community and the systems that support us um including our
ecosystems. So I um can and often uh give an entire presentation on the details of our regional risks and hazards, but in the interest of time I'm just going to breeze through this and um we will we I'd be happy to come back at the end or find another time to talk in
detail about what the hazards and risks are. Um but you saw in the slide deck I do have a slide for each of our hazards. So uh we expect to see more much more extreme heat in the future. I think of this as sort of our most chronic climate
impact um that is related to um the data shows us that we will see um increased number of consecutive dry days which causes drought. We also expect to see increased intensity of precipitation and more instances of flooding. I think
flooding is on everyone's mind these days. Altogether, our changes are our our seasons are changing which have these knock-on impacts of making us more vulnerable to the pests and diseases that are both endemic to our ecosystem here and also from um from other places.
And then of course um we experience more smoke from outside and are at higher risk of fire as well. So um so just as a reminder the resilient together project is our adaptation and
resilience planning project that we're doing collaboratively with Albamarl County and UVA. So when I was here last year um we had recently launched the project and we're in the process of sharing information with the community about the hazards and risks those I just
like breezed over with you all. um and also learning from community members about how they have been experiencing those hazards. And fast forward a year and we've done a lot of engagement both in the community and um with staff across all three organizations and we're
nearing the end of our design uh design phase is what we're calling it. So we've been refining our resilience strategies that are appropriate for our community and then getting ready to start drafting the plans. And so I do think it's really important to note here that this project
has been impacted by the cancellation of a federal grant. Um you all may remember when I was here last year that I was really excited to share about our climate resilience cohort. Um, we had secured funding for that piece of the
Resilient Together project um through a $460,000 um environmental justice government to government uh grant. And we the plan was to pass most of those funds through to
local community-based organizations to help us um to engage vulnerable and hard-to-reach community members and then also to provide seed funding for community-led resilience projects. Um so we went through an application process and we selected nine organizations that
are working to serve our community uh to be subawwardees and partners with us in this project as members of the cohort. and we were getting that work underway. And then in March, um, Albam Marl County was the, um, prime applicant on this grant with the city as a primary
partner. And so in March, the county, uh, received a notice of cancellation and a subsequent stop work order. And so, as you all can imagine, that's been very disruptive and been a big setback for this piece of the project. We have managed to continue to support cohort
members with local funds, some from Alamar County, some from our climate initiative fund, but to a much lesser degree and for the planning only um not for those implementation projects. So, I really want to give a shout out and credit to all of the cohort member
organizations. They've all been so patient with us and really supportive of continuing to participate um in the project even though it is a hardship on them. Um, and we're disappointed um because we were excited about working with organizations like sort of in this
new way. Um, and so it's it's been it's been challenging. Just one quick question. And I know separate from this process and the city's hazard mitigation plan, flooding and extreme rain events um were
highlighted as the biggest um kind of hazard risk for the city over the coming years. Um is that accurate? And is that what this process has kind of found as well in terms of has there been any kind of like triage of like what what which they're all bad, but which of these is kind of
the greatest risk for Charlottesville? Yeah, I mean that's a really difficult question to answer. Um, I mean, they're all bad and, uh, you know, some are acute and some are chronic. Um,
some will be more localized and some more widespread. Um, I feel like it's difficult to pick which one is worse. Um I will say um with our regional hazard mitigation plan that the TJPDC
leads the um leads the they're the convening organization for that plan. Um it the they are required in the next update which will happen a few years
from now to take climate risk and vulnerability into account when making that plan. And so my hope is that because we will have been through the resilient together process and we will have a plan as a city, we can really be a useful we can be really useful to that
process and to help other communities who haven't aren't quite as far along as we are and to really inform what that plan what's in that plan going forward. I have no idea what's going to happen with that process with what's happening with FEMA because that's a FEMA required plan and you have to have a plan to be
able to apply for grants through grant programs that are being cancelled. So, I don't know what the future of that looks like. I am really having trouble with this clicker. Okay. Oops. Okay. Um
so uh this is an image from a recent resilient together community design night. This was one that happened um at Greenwood Community Center in the out in the county. But these were facilitated workshops based on human- centered design principles and where we helped
community members to um think about what preparedness strategies would look like in their neighborhoods. Uh, we had a series of these. Um, and we also I'll just say that we have a kind of do-it-yourself um
conversation kit that we are asking folks to um if they are interested in facilitating resilience conversation among their friends or neighbors or colleagues. Uh we have extended our input deadline for people to do those kits on their own and they're available
on resilient together's website. Um so now I'm going to turn back to the climate action plan and the mitigation side of our work. And um of course there's a written report that you all all received um that accompanies this presentation that has way more
information in it that I than I have time to talk about uh this afternoon. Um so I hope everyone will skim that. Um and so for now I'm just going to give um an overview of some of the initiatives and projects uh we've been working on. So first
um, I'm going to talk about the work we've been doing to reduce energy use within the city's operations outside of the transportation space. So, the first five bullet points on that list are all related to reducing emissions uh, from
our city's building portfolio, which you all know includes our school buildings also. So last year when I was here, we talked about having gotten a master energy performance agreement in place. That was a kind of a long time coming. There were um energy audits that had to be done on all the buildings before that
could uh be be put in place. And so now we have that mechanism in place. And we have completed uh the first project under that agreement um which was the replacement of energy um we put in energy efficient HVAC units to some
critical IT uh facilities or equipment. Um the second project is currently underway and that is the installation of a 262 kilowatt solar installation on the roof of our kek building. So, the installation of the of that system
started in June and will be completed this summer. Um, and that will be the city's largest solar installation to date, which is pretty cool. Um, and then the third project under that agreement is under contract and will be lighting, plumbing, and HVAC um, updates here in
City Hall in City Hall annex and at Krek. So, that will get started later this year. Um and so like I said all of these are done with the guidance of those energy audits that were were um were done with the guidance of those technical energy audits that were done
as we got this mechanism into place. So these big projects are one thing, but um staff from the office of sustainability also partners with public works for our energy and water management program um which works to conserve energy and water within our city building portfolio
through regular operations and operations and maintenance best practices. So that's an ongoing program as well. Um so I mentioned the new solar in being installed at Ktech. Um this year a solar system was also installed on the new bypass fire station. Um that
is a smaller system at 31 kilowatts. Um but it's expected to cover about 40% of that building's annual power needs. And so these systems were both installed through our city and school solar fund um or solar program. And so the city
owns both of those systems outright. And so, um, this, uh, picture that's with the slide here is some staff from public works and the office of sustainability, um, visiting the system before it was put into service. So, um, the next item on this list, um,
power purchase agreements is also related to solar. So, large solar systems, even though they pay for themselves over time, um, with utility savings, have a very large upfront cost that's often difficult for the city to manage. And so a power purchase
agreement or a PPA um is a long-term contract where a third party installs, owns, and operates the system and then we commit to purchasing the power um at a pre-negotiated rate. So we're currently reviewing proposals for PPAs
for CHS and the new Charlottesville Middle School once it's completed. Um and both of those big roofs could accommodate systems in the um neighborhood of a whole megawatt. So that of one megawatt. So that's those are large systems. Um and so this is a
model that many localities and school districts use in including our friends at Alamar County. Um also related to buildings. Last year I talked about our high performance building standards project that got got underway this year and is currently in progress. Um this
project aims to consolidate and formalize um current best practices related to facility design, construction, um renovations and operations and maintenance. So many of these are practices we've been um operating under for many years, but we want to formalize them and standardize
them. And so when these standards are complete, we will also update the city's green building policy, which was originally adopted back in 2008. Um, moving away from buildings, we're working on the LED street light conversion project, um, which will
convert all of our Dominion-owned street lights, um, in the city, which is most of them, um, to LED. Uh, this project has a relatively quick payback period. Um and an interesting thing to share about this project is we've had a lot of community interest in it because
lighting can have a negative impact um on the ecosystems around if it's too bright. So Charlottesville along with some other localities who are also working on this project have been working with Dominion through our um
Virginia Energy Purchasing Governmental Association group that we're a part of the municipalities who purchase electricity. We have like a a group to work with Dominion. So, we've been working with Dominion to expand the range of options available to us so that they will offer through their program
lighting that um is more conducive to what we're looking for and has a lower light intensity. Um and so that's that's been an interesting thing about this project. So, um another kind of cool thing that we've done that people always enjoy hearing me talk about this year is
we worked with Parks and Wreck to pilot electric landscaping equipment in some of their operations. So, the downtown mall crews are now using electric leaf blowers, and we supported getting the first electric zeroturn mower into the city's into Parks' fleet. Um, the
results so far have been really positive. Um, crews, we've been trying to work with the parks and rec crews who have gotten the equipment and they report really liking the electric equipment. Um, and it meets almost all of their um, needs cases. And so we
actually have quite a lot more equipment sitting in our office for delivery next week. Um some electric string trimmers, electric um chainsaws, more leaf blowers. Um so that's been very successful so far. It's been a good partnership with parks. And what's nice about that too is
electric landscaping tools tend to be a lot quieter. A lot quieter. So it's good for the neighbors in terms of noise pollution, not just air pollution. Yes. Exactly. So, this last item on this list here is a little bit wonky, but I'm kind of glad to um share about it. So, this energy
demand response program um is offered by PGM, which is our regional grid operator. And so when uh energy demand is really high, for example, on a hot day like today where everyone is running their air conditioning at the same time, um large customers like the city who are
participating in the program may be called upon to reduce their energy use slightly. Um and so this takes some of the strain off the grid and can help prevent brownouts and blackouts. Um and so there is a financial benefit to um
the city for participating in this program. Um but it's kind of also just being a good grid citizen. So folks who are f are really following this space um en uh demand management is going to be an increasing part of meeting our power
needs um in the future and so the city's being really proactive by participating in this program and I am glad we were able to get enrolled in it this year. So just a few little highlights from this sector. Um, here's a shot of Chief Thomas cutting the ribbon um at our the
new solar array at the bypass fire station a few weeks ago. And here is Matt and Josh who are our skate park staff who um were welcoming our new electric zeroturn mower. Uh few that back that was back when it was
still chilly outside. Okay, so now I'm going to switch over um and talk about the sort of comparable work we've been doing within the community. So, I didn't show our community emissions profile at the beginning of this um like I sometimes do, but I'm sure all of you remember
that about 95% of our emissions come from the community and our homes and businesses and things um outside of city operations. And so doing this communityf facing work is a really big an important part of our program and reaching our
communitywide climate goals. So um after nearly a year of planning um in March we partnered with Alberal Countyy's climate program LEAP and C3 to launch the energy resource hub. You all know the energy hub is both an online and an in-person
service uh to help our community members navigate and access the many um energy programs offered by both utilities and state, local, and federal government. Um and the hub is available to homeowners, renters, uh and business owners at all
income levels in both the city and album county. Um so since its launch, the hub has connected over 120 community members with information and resources available to them based on their age, um income or their, you know, home. Um and of those
community members served, we have data that uh about 20% of them have reported taking action of some kind either by scheduling a home energy audit, um ac accessing a program or taking advantage of a tax break. Um so we it is hard to
get that follow-up data from folks. So since this is so new, we felt pretty happy with a 20% conversion rate. Um and so our the hub's energy navigator who is there in the middle with her thumbs up. Her name's Rosena. Um she regularly holds office hours and is out
in the community um trying to increase the visibility of the resource hub and help raise awareness about the hub services. We've also been working on complimentary programs to sort of shake hands with the resource hub. Um and we
have a few programs like that that are that are administered through LEAP. Uh the first is free home energy audits for low and middle inome community members through the um second round of energy and energy efficiency and conservation
block grant funding. Um so we received a $76,000 allocation through that program and um we are happy to report that thus far those funds have not been pulled back and we've been able to continue with this program um and many folks are
taking advantage of it. We're glad to say um so people come to the hub and then um people are able to get a free energy audit to inform them of the services that they need through this particular program. And then the other
new initiative that we have um we're uh is funded through our climate initiative fund and we're calling it our um residential retrofit program. Um, so community members who have received an audit um are eligible to receive up to
$2,000 per household for heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, weatherization, electrical improvements, or other a few other efficiency me uh measures. And so this program was originally designed to bridge the gap between the arrival
between now and the arrival of the home energy incentives that were part of the inflation reduction act. it's still TBD. Whether those will ever come um and so it may just be the program for Charlottesville residents, we're that's
we're waiting on that. So, of course, our utilities department um also works with LEAP to administer a suite of energy efficiency programs specific to gas customers. Um those programs were expanded this year based on some recommendations from uh the decarbonization study. Um, and so those
programs are accessible to community members directly through utilities marketing efforts, but also through the resource hub. Um, so we worked with our utilities colleagues to make sure those are all shaking hands together. Um, before I move on, I do want to take a a moment to sort of acknowledge um how
fortunate we are to have LEAP to support our community this way and C3 also because they're supporting the hub on the commercial side um helping our businesses. But the hub is only possible because we have these local nonprofit partners um to deliver these services.
Um we have received a lot of inquiries from our peer jurisdictions really wishing that they had a resource hub. And so um I just want to give a shout out for for our partners in delivering this service to our community. Um so lastly before I move on also um in
October we were able to um opt into Virginia's statewide commercial property assessed um clean energy or CPACE program. And so that is a clean energy financing tool for commercial building owners to access lowcost and long-term
financing for um energy efficiency, renewable energy, uh resilience, high performance building, uh things like that. Um and so we hope that um having access to this program will help support developers in choosing
to build high performance buildings in our community. Um on the left here, this is just another sort of action slide, but on the left here is an image from the homepage of the resource hub. And then on a right, on the right is um a screenshot
from our website dashboard. And that really helps us to like understand where the hub traffic is going um where people's interests lie. And you can see that we are getting really high engagement on a pretty wide range of topics that are on the hub.
So I'm going to pivot to transportation now and uh municipal and communityf facing actions are both listed here in the transportation slide just so that's clear. Um so CAT is moving forward with their transition to zero emissions
buses. Um the first two battery electric transit buses have been ordered and are anticipated for delivery next summer. So summer of 26 with another two battery electric transit buses um planned for delivery in 2027. Um the planning for
the first round of charging infrastructure um to serve those buses is complete and then the installation of that infrastructure will be completed before the arrival of the buses. Um and then of course you all are aware that we also have a hydrogen fuel cell pilot
planned for further out for 20 uh 2028. And so CAT and office of sustainability staff have been had multiple conversations with clean hydrogen producers and Virginia Energy just sort of exploring what that looks could look like.
Um so on the school bus side uh two electric school buses that were funded through EPA's clean school bus program um have been ordered and will be delivered later this year. Um we are participating in Dominion's uh school
bus charging in or school bus charging infrastructure program and the planning um and engineering for those are is complete and uh installation will be underway as soon as some of the parts arrive. Um there was concern that these
funds would be pulled back um because they are federal funds. Um but the city has received the promised rebate and so the money is in hand and we are guardedly optimistic that the next round of funding will be honored. We have
applied for two more buses under that next round and we'll see what happens. Um, so last year I shared that we were kicking off a communitywide EV um, charging infrastructure study that would um, examine our future charging needs
um, and help us identify priority locations for charging. Um, that study is now nearly complete. Um and it also includes an analysis of the city's light duty fleet um and may inform development of a clean fleet policy and will help us
um definitely assess our infrastructure needs so that as we get more electric vehicles in the city's fleet um that can be successful. So shifting to bikes, uh we partnered with NDS this year to launch the ebike miniigrant voucher pilot program. Um
we've so far had two rounds of that. Um, and the third quarter sign up period is currently open. It opened July 1st and will be open through the month of July. Um, and this has been a really popular program with over a thousand folks
signing up each time. Um, so this program provides 25 $1,000 mini grants each quarter and they're redeemable at any of our three locallyowned bike shops um for the purchase of an ebike. Ebikes are a great alternative um to cars in a
small hilly city like Charlottesville. Um and we also understand that even though $1,000 is a very generous uh contribution towards an ebike, it's still not enough to help some of our lowest income community members. So we are currently working with human and
social services um to design a more inclusive program that could help um a wider range of community members um be ebike commuters. Um so of course the city continues to invest in improvements to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure um as well as
working towards the implementation of our ADA transition plan. So everything that we do to improve pedestrian infrastructure and make it easier for people to choose to leave their cars behind is climate action. So that is all related um and we're grateful for that
work. Um and I and I like I mentioned with this recent um increase in emissions from the transportation sector, I think it really underscores the importance of that work. Um and before I leave the transportation space, these uh facts like surprise me every
single year. But so Veo continues to serve our community. Um, so in 2024 we saw over 250,000 rides um, covering more than 300,000 miles in our little 10 square mile city, which I think is really cool. And they
did a survey of local users and 78% of people reported that having access to the scooters helped them to use their car less. And in fact, 17% of folks who use the bikes and scooters in Charlottesville don't have a driver's
license. So it is helping to fill an important need. So some action shots from this sector. Um this is a photo of one of Alamaral County's electric school buses. It is a Thomas Julie. Um and that is the type of bus that will be joining our school bus
fleet later this year. Um this is a photo from um our electric vehicle showcase that we had a couple of weeks ago. The bus was at the showcase but is not in the picture. So, this was um an event we co-hosted with Alamaro County and UVA. It was kind of mostly aimed at
um organizational staff um to help folks understand the range of EVs available to them, but we had buses and cars and also some smaller utility vehicles. And we had a good turnout and it was really hot that day. And we cooked hot dogs on an electric grill that was plugged into an
electric vehicle, which is kind of a nifty thing, too. So this is a picture from the ebike demo day that we had back in the spring. Many of you all will remember how fun it was. Um so uh this was back in the spring and
again it was mostly aimed at city staff but we are having another one um I think next weekend uh at Tonsler Park. Yes. At the parks and recck Sunday and the rain dates the 20th. Okay, great. Thank you. Um so this event was so fun. Um, everybody who got on a
bike came back smiling. Even I did. Manager Sanders, I'm looking at you. Back smile. Yes, it was great. Um, so this is a picture of the new uh Ford all electric eit van that joined
public works fleet this year. Um, so this is a utility van that is currently assigned to one of the HVAC crews. So keep your eyes out. Keep your eyes out for it around town. The only thing that really makes it easy to tell is on the grill there's like some blue decorations
that indicate that it's electric. So now I'll talk through um what we've been working on in the naturebased solutions space. So, um, last year I reported to you all that the city had received $150,000 USDA grant to support an update of our
urban forest management plan. And um this year, although much of that work has been completed and the project was underway, that grant was also terminated. Um, of many parts of that project are complete. So, um the canopy
assessment and the on the ground um vegetation analysis and our um street tree inventory, but the team who's been working on this um is trying to figure out how to bring the project to completion and what parts of the scope we can continue under that loss of
funding. Um so parks and wreck uh has continued its ongoing program of tree planting and invasive species management on public publicly owned land and in rights of way. Um nearly 200 trees were planted in
fall of 2024 and spring of 2025. And then this fall there are plans to plant about 150 more trees. Um and in addition to planting those new trees, um our urban forester is also um very focused
on restoration of existing forest uh through invasive species management. Um that's a program he started just a year or two ago. And so this year um those active restoration efforts were expanded onto 22 and a half additional acres of
uh city property. And so we're now um working on invasives management on about 43 acres of parkland which is great. And so of course we know that invasive species are not just an issue on our publicly owned lands but also on private property. So, um, a really cool thing
that, um, was like a bonus item from this year was this year staff from, um, parks and wreck and our office of sustainability, um, worked with local conservation organizations who are already interested in invasive species management and working on invasive
species management to form a new umbrella organization called CHIP, the Charlottesville Invasive Plant Partnership. And so CHIP works at the neighborhood level to train citizen volunteers to fight invasive vines on um
private property. So between September and June, CHIP launched pilot programs in the Kelly Town and Little High neighborhoods and they would go into a neighborhood and make connections with the neighborhood leaders, do a neighborhood walk and do a tree survey.
Um they would do invasive identification trainings, teach folks how to use tools and safely remove vines, um and then go in and have work days with uh neighborhood partners. Um and so far they've removed vines from over 200
trees in these two neighborhoods and have plans to continue doing this work across the city. Um, and of course our utilities department um continued their very popular energy savings trees initiative this year um and expanded the program so they give trees away twice a year
instead of once a year. So this is a picture from one of the chip work days. Um you can see our urban forest manager or urban forester Steve Gaines there in the middle and he's um teaching folks how to safely use tools um and identify invasive vines.
All right, coming down the home stretch. Um, so I'm just going to talk about sort of a sampling of other work we've been doing this year um to further climate action and resilience building in our community. So we continue our composting dropoff program and are working to
expand um th that to more locations. Um, we do a fair bit of community education and outreach to help community members to understand their role in meeting our climate goals and just to raise their level of awareness about the work that
we're doing. So, here you can see Crystal at a community event. Um, I think maybe this was Kid Venshin back in April. Um, a few other highlights of the year include our climate cafe series that is a collaboration with C3 where we
have a bimonthly um, sort of meetup. It's on the second Friday um, at the Bradberry each month and we highlight a specific sustainability topic um, and invite a featured partner to join us. So, the next one of those will be on August 10th at 9:30 and the tr the topic
is going to be transit and mobility. Um those have been well attended and folks seem to have been enjoyed them. Um we also refreshed our climate action guide which I put one at each of your seats uh before you got here. Um that was a fun project. We updated that this year and
to we expanded it to include uh resilience instead of just adaptation. So uh another thing we did this year was we um launched our working in a sustainable environment or wise program. Um, and so that is an internally facing
employee engagement uh program to help city staff integrate sustainability into their um everyday work. And we've done a lot of relationship building and held a variety of events this year, including a plant swap. Um, we did an extreme heat
first aid training session a few weeks ago, the EV showcase. Um, so we're really working to engage staff from across the city organization. So also um as directed by our climate action plan um we participate in state level policy
and regulatory activity um that would have an impact on our local sustainability work and goals. Um so this year we offered comments um on the state corporation commission's proposed amendments to the rules around shared solar and we also offered comments um on
the large utilities um proposed integ integrated resources plans. Um and then currently we're working on um participating in a second amus brief for the ongoing lawsuit um related to reggie the regional greenhouse gas initiative.
Um we're working with a few other jurisdictions to write a collaborative to submit a collaborative um brief. Um and so also even though our adaptation and resilience plan is still being written um we can't ignore that work. And so we support a lot of resilience
building efforts. Um most recently been we've been really focused um on extreme heat safety and awareness and we've been working to get educational resources out into the media and into the community to help folks understand how to keep themselves safe in this extreme heat we've been having. So just a few action
shots. Um this is a picture from one of our climate cafes. Um like I mentioned they've been really popular and well attended. topics have been electric vehicles, invasive plants, extreme heat, solar. The next one is on transit and mobility.
Uh this is Alex from CAT. Uh we partnered with CAT to support the uh public the bus rap art contest. Um so we invited community members to submit their original sustainability themed art to decorate some of those naked buses
that you may have seen running around town. Um the submission window just closed on 4th of July and community voting is open. So we invite community members to vote on their favorite design and um we will have two winners and so
we will hope to decorate uh two of those buses um before too long. Uh this is Ben from NDS and Matt from economic development at our um wise Earth Day plant exchange. This was a fun um employee engagement event that we had
to help folks know what we're doing here in the city on sustainability. Uh this is uh Jill and Kirk and myself all from the office of sustainability. Um this was delivering climate action kits this year. Um, so this is a
partnership with C3 and the Discovery Museum, and we expanded that this year to bring these climate action kits uh to all fourth and fifth graders in the city schools. And so they're full of activities for the kids and also
information for parents about um the resource hub and energy savings. And so they're fun and also a useful way to connect with community members. Um, and we were really happy this year to be able to offer the kits in four languages. So, English, Spanish, Dari,
and Pashto. All right. So, um, looking ahead, this is the final section of the presentation, and so I just want to spend a few minutes, um, talking about what's what's on deck in the new fiscal year. Um, so the first thing I want to
say is that, um, I just want to be transparent about it. We have fewer new initiatives on our new updated work plan than we did last year. And I don't really think that that is a bad thing because this work is hard and deep and
it really is going to take these ongoing um programs and projects that do take kind of a long time. I think it's indicative that we are settling into the work of implementing our climate action plan. Um, and so we have quite a lot of these like ongoing initiatives that are
underway that we're continuing to work to support. So, of course, one of them is the resource hub. So, the infrastructure of the hub is built and we're working with our partners to really expand access and awareness and connect more community members with the
resources provided to them. Um, so I also mentioned the new K-tech solar system um that's being installed right now, will go into service later this year. And we're really working to land these power purchase agreements um to put solar on our two biggest roofs um
Charlottesville High School and Charlottesville Middle School. So um with the new bill that passed, I do think it's important for us to consider the potential implications um of the tax credits that are being phased out um and how that could affect this opportunity.
So that is yet to be seen. And sort of a fun and unique thing that we're working on related to solar. Um so CHS used to have solar panels and they were taken down um for a routine roof replacement. So we still have all of the solar panels
from CHS. Um we don't want to put them back up because the technology has changed a lot. That's a really big roof. I it needs like the most high efficiency new panels on that big roof. But we are exploring whether or not we can repurpose those old panels onto other
like parks, buildings and stuff. So that's an interesting thing that we're exploring. Um so we are on track to bring you all a climate adaptation and resilience plan um this fiscal year. I hope that that plan will be drafted and
ready ready for public comment around this winter. Um I've already mentioned we're bringing our first electric school buses into the fleet this year. We've done some transition planning around that effort also to um so that we have um
we've been thinking about um what a fuller bus transition will look like. So we've been doing that work also. Um we're getting ready to embark on these big energy efficiency projects here at city hall next door at the annex and on at key. Um, and we're also working to
expand our ebike program to help a greater number of community members access that. All right, I think that is all I have to say. Uh, thank you all so much. Crystal and I are happy to answer questions. Any questions?
On the last slide, what it says repurposing of CHS solar panels from original project. That's what I just What's going on? So that's where I just mentioned. So, um, CHS had a solar installation that was done in 2012, 2012. Okay.
And so, those panels needed to come off for a roof replacement. And, uh, we it's important to put new panels back up. That's a big roof. The technology has evolved a lot since then, but we're exploring how we can repurpose those old panels into other smaller uh,
installations. So, maybe like on parks facilities, for example. Are they as efficient as newer ones? They're not as efficient, but they also still have some life left in them. Okay. So, I must have missed it when you came through the first time. Yeah. Thank you.
Questions down here? Um, a a couple. So, with the federal legislation ending the investment tax credits for solar, um, what's kind of the practical impact for our rooftop solar projects? And you know, it sounds
like we'd still be able to move forward with power purchase agreements for those or is it kind of like what's the scale of disruption for kind of that work? It's a lot of disruption. Um I think for uh it's our hope that the bypass fire station and the KEK project will be
completed before the window closes to be able to pursue the direct pay, the 30% tax credit that would be available to the city. Um clearly the private sector that does power purchase agreements is looking at a window of time in which
projects have to be initiated in order for them to be able to access that same traditional ITC. And so we can't sit on this for, you know, 18 more months. It's probably something that has to happen significantly sooner. Um, I think we're also concerned that just standard
residential solar deployment is really going to take a hit because if individuals can't take that 30% tax credit, it really changes the numbers. Um, I've heard uh concerns there's a really big inflation reduction act uh
funded program called solar for all where all of the funds that um would be managed and deployed by the state are intended for lowincome solar. Well, there's two questions. One is whether some of that ITC, the credits that were baked into the model change what was
being done and whether the eligible recipients change because of some of the other modifications to programs. And for the city being able to deploy as many of those solar initiatives as possible on our end, is the is the
barrier for being able to do that within that time frame? Is it more money or is it more just like the number of staff people available to kind of just take on that practical workload? Well, I I think there's another third really big uh limitation which is eligible roofs that are really like we
don't want to put solar on roofs that need to be replaced in three, four, five years. And so we really don't have that many. And that's why um the two that we just mentioned that are in complete and in progress are perfect because they're brand new roofs. And then the conversation about power purchase agreements is about the next two biggest
newest roofs that we would want to target. And after that it really becomes significantly smaller projects that we can continue to approach as a cash funded uh owner owner financed approach
that may not be good PPA candidates. M um I guess somewhat relatedly because you know related to the recent federal legislation um obviously the city had put a lot of time and effort into the zero emission buses program um which I
think was important. I remember in C3's the research for each diesel bus to break even from a emissions perspective it needs 9.7 riders on average. We're at 2.5 or sorry 9.5 riders on average. We're at 2.7 riders right now. So, we're nowhere
close to even breaking even on emissions for each new diesel bus. Obviously, it was made financially feasible because of the significant amount of money available through the inflation reduction act, bipartisan infrastructure law. Um, my understanding is most hydrogen projects are essentially
killed. Um, we would be basically extremely unlikely to see a hydrogen hub actually built out within the time frame before it's phased out here on on the east coast. Um all of which to say is that obviously changes both on the hydrogen side and even the you know
battery electric side how we do this initiative kind of what make it what might it look like for us to strategically plan around that and say we're not abandoning this but we're kind of trying to think strategically how do we phase this in or deal with it in
bites without just abandoning the whole concept in case maybe you know five years from now maybe there's a different administration in some of these these investments do come back um there better be a different administration for term limit purposes. Yeah, I think your last comment might be
where I would have started is that planning for trans fleet transitions like this is a long game, right? And so if if some of the incentives or the tools are pushed out by a number of years, we
shouldn't give up on the planning work, right? because still the infrastructure work and the cost work and how to how to pay for it and how to operate it and all of that you know is still work that I think is a good investment in of time and effort. Um and we have said from the
beginning that a zero emissions transit system with no passengers is not a climate solution. Right? We still have to deal with reliability, with safety, with um ex expanded service, all those
things that get people on the bus. Even that initiative, focusing on that in the near term is going to make the final carbon footprint of a zero emissions bus fleet better. Definitely. And I definitely hope we don't um abandon that planning. And at
least if from what I've read is accurate, it almost may be more feasible to focus on the battery electric side um you know for the next several years just compared to I mean the money to build out something as ambitious as a a hydrogen facility is just not going to be there. Um in addition to there just
being a regional hydrogen hub. Um the natural gas utility. So I think also with the federal legislation ending a lot of programs what we do locally will matter even more. What would it look like for the city to transition the
natural gas utilities carbon offsets paid to British Petroleum to um local investments and some of this local work? Sure. I mean, I think it's a local decision. I think it's a decision of the
body of the utility to make directions and and and recommend alternative approaches. I think the um carbon offset program was a was a proactive approach when it was first embarked on and now we're learning more and we're seeing some of the
opportunities and I think it's a matter of being comfortable with what accounting looks like through a different type of platform or system or approach than what we have right now. I mean now's the time to figure out what we want to do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one thing that we talk about is should that be the directive,
we stand ready to help come up with a program to spend those dollars locally. And I mean, with the der of funding from the feds, I mean, that could be a way to direct additional resources to us locally. And I mean, yeah, I totally support that.
Yeah. What what are the numbers? Do you remember what how much we're paying? I don't remember exactly, but I think it's a couple hundred,000 a year. It's like 250,000. And so, you know, if you if you push all of that to help subsidize solar deployment, maybe that's a straightforward strategy where you can
do the accounting, the projecting, but but it's it's not just an easy overnight. Sure. But I I would love it if y'all came up with, you know, like a proposal for It is on the agenda. I figured it was. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I would definitely say I think the sooner we can just adjust
that money away from uh bridge petroleum offsets to local ones, the better because it is, you know, it'll add up to a pretty significant amount of money in the context of our budget. Um, one final question, um, and then a few quick
thoughts. Char the Charlottesville Regional Airport, um, do you have any engagement with them? Emily and I do not. Um I just bring it up. City has representation on the board. Yeah, I think I think there's interesting opportunities there both
because um obviously the the um plane traffic that come through there has a significant carbon impact. We also have a lot of extreme wealth in our community and there's actually a surprising amount of private jets that come in and out of uh the airport. And as you mentioned um
I don't know how many people in the community realize we appoint members to that body and it's a public body. So, I think there's a lot of interesting opportunities there both with the amount of land they have for a solar array as well as just what would it look like for them to also be part of the conversation on however it looks trying to offset
their carbon impact. Um um just two final thoughts. I think you know it's a interesting how much we've advanced our local climate work when you know the situation is what it is at a federal level. um and just kind of
trying to continue this work while letting go of being able to predict the ultimate outcome of what is going to happen at a federal and international level. Um because of that, I mean, I think our emissions reduction work locally is extremely important, but it's
almost like that resilience work is what's going to have the biggest immediate day-to-day impact on people's lives. Um, and you referenced the flooding, and I've said this a lot, but I'll say it again. I think the city really has to change how we think about planning for
flood risk and storm water management. Um I think FEMA flood plane maps already did not reflect climate change. Certainly now over the next several years they're not going to at all to the point where I wonder how much we can even rely on those maps as an actual useful tool of saying, "Oh, this is
where flood risk actually is." Um because I do think you look at communities like Asheville. I mean, Al Marl has had deaths recent in in recent years from flooding. Um, I think we're just going to take it for granted until we start to get some of these really extreme rain events and then we're
really going to regret having not systematically changed how we plan for it. Um, so I think that is a critical goal the city has to take action on that I know involves a lot of different departments and is not easy. Um, but
that just really jumps out to me. Um, and I forgot the last thought, but Natalie, yeah, if you remember it happened. Um, thank you. I might just I might just respond. Um, the grant notification that we received
last week from the community flood preparedness fund may help us tackle some of those like proactive intentional planning. And those are also topics that we're definitely talking about as part of the resilient together project.
Okay. Thank you. Um there even amongst the bad news from federal legislation and the pulling back of grants. There's a lot of good news in here and I appreciate you bringing all of that to us and to share with our community. Um
clearly you all are a great team doing a lot of good work. Um, so thank you for that. My question is, um, Michael covered a lot of things, but my question is a little more internally focused. Um, I know that, uh, the ebike subsidy program that we
currently have is ex excludes city staff and we don't have any kind of alternative transportation incentive um, for staff members um, on in the city. And I would love to see if we could explore, you know, get together
with HR or whatever departments we could we could bring into this. Um, this was something that I know I've mentioned um to to leadership before, but I was also reminded of that this past week when I was talking with the mayor um that he's
interested in that too. It got mentioned to him through someone else that someone was like, "Oh, I can't apply for that." And he was like, "What?" So, we were talking about that and would be supportive of some kind of program that we could incentivize um alternatives for city staff, whether
it's car pooling, walking, um the ebike subsidy, having a a different pool that city staff can apply to. I think that would be a great way to encourage some internal sustainability um efforts for for the team and hopefully other counselors would be supportive of that.
UVA offers that to their staff and uh we hear about it in um our regional transit partnership meeting often and it seems like a good and effective program especially when space is at a premium uh within city limits. So something like
that would be great. I know your work plan is already listed but maybe that's something that HR does the front lifting on and you all review or something um so that we can expand that to city staff. Um, and then, uh, going off of your comment
about CHO and the airport, um, I know that airports get a lot of revenue from parking and so they're not as inclined to put a airport on a bus route as other companies might be to bring people to
them. Um and right now MicroCat offers the public transportation option to um access the airport, but that's for county residents or you can get yourself to the county and then take Microat up to the airport. Um, and that's something
that obviously is more Carta and CAT project, not necessarily sustainability, the office of sustainability um, leading that, but that's something that I think if we're going to chat with Cho is
something we might want to bring up as well. I learned something, anything. Yeah. Um, thank you. Thank you. I'm I'm curious looking at the the chart that shows our
communitywide greenhouse gas emissions you going down down down and then a little bit of a of a blip recently. Any idea of where the planned projects being implemented this year would put us? Are they going to I assume somebody has
figured out that well if all this works out it ought to cause us to save x number of tons of carbon dioxide or something. Well, so you have to remember uh we only have direct control over our municipal emissions. We're which are about 5% of that big pie.
Um and so even if we are able to put all of our um projects that are planned for our municipal operations into service, it's a pretty small dent, okay,
in the big communitywide chart. um not that that makes those projects any less important but uh it just underscores I think the importance of the work we're doing in the community which is much harder to predict.
I was curious about one one fact it um mentioned that the the energy resource hub website has regular traffic and many pages have a very high engagement rate. Which one are the ones that have the highest engagement rates? So if you what are people most interested in?
So people let's see let me find my um people are interested in solar. Let's see in one of the slides I had the picture of our little dashboard.
Is this it? Okay. So let's see. uh homeowner services really uh popular um incentives services um our new uh residential retrofit program
commercial services are getting pretty good hits. So um we are working with a third party that's helping support some marketing for this and um they're tailoring some ads and things based on what is working with folks. Good. Okay.
Um, I was just thinking of other things that we might be trying to do. Uh, and I'm I'm concerned particularly about the the ways in which the ways that we
have to sort of penetrate the the residential market for folks who are not uh, you know, among the most computer savvy people. for example, I'm just thinking we we know that people who are
uh getting uh various tax relief from the city are likely to be among the people who are going to have the highest need for things like energy conservation measures and the greatest cost of of the portion of their budget is is likely to
be from folks like that as opposed to to folks who've already got all the insulation they need. Yeah. So, we do do a mailing occasionally. um with the in the CHAP um in the rental relief program mailers and it's probably time to do that again.
That's resource hub specific. But yeah, we have been I mean it's so hard to break through to people in this like information overload uh ecosystem that we live in and so we really are trying to try a lot of veins to get get the hub and the resources in front of
folks. Okay, those are just a couple questions I had. Thank you. We're open to suggestions. Yeah, I appreciated the report and I appreciate the presentation tonight. You'll obviously have been working very hard. I I know these are discouraging times, but um we really don't have a
choice but to keep moving forward. And so, thank you all for doing that. Uh I think think that's all for now. We'll move on to the closed sessions. Sure. Thank you for having us to our team for showing up too. It's not just us. It's not the Emily and Crystal show. There's
a lot of people behind. Okay. Good to see you all. Yeah. Lloyd, if you'd read us into close session, please. Sure. Uh, pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of Virginia Code, I move that that this city council close this open meeting and convene in a closed session as
authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as follows. One, under Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1 for discussion and consideration of prospective candidates to be appointed to the following boards and/or
committees the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority CRA and two pursuant to code section 2.2-3711A7 2-3711A7 for consultation with legal counsel pertaining to actual litigation where such consultation would adversely affect
the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body specifically White versus City of Charlottesville. And three, pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A88 for consultation with legal counsel for specific legal advice pertaining to
matters involving the city's zoning ordinances and the Virginia Freedom Information Act. I so move. Great. Is there a second? Second. Please cast your vote. There'll be a voice vote. Um Lord, we still need you to log in.
Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. Yes. Yes. All right. Yes. I couldn't. Okay. We'll be back uh at 6:30.
I'll come back and fix that one. Part: 2
Let's do that. Good evening. Could we please have the motion to come out of uh close session, please? Yes. Um, I move that this council certify by a recorded vote that to the best of each council member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully
exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion convening the closed session were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed session. Is there a second? Second.
Ready for us to cast our votes, Madam Clerk? Yes. Yeah. Great. We're out of close session. Welcome. Glad everyone was able to make it tonight. Uh I'm standing in for the mayor. We'll begin the business meeting
with a moment of silence. Are there any announcements? Um, councelor Payne, would you mind reading the announcement from Mr. Xan? Sure. Thank you. One second. I have an announcement I can make in the
meantime. Sure. Yeah, go for it. Um this uh this Saturday at Tonsler Park, so the Saturday the 12th, um from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., so when it's hopefully a little bit cooler, uh there's going to
be an ebike demonstration day. Uh so you can show up and there'll be a bunch of people with different ebikes you can test doing the loop around the field and see if it's something that you might be interested in. Uh if it rains, it will be rescheduled to the 20th. So, big
thanks to um all the folks contributing their ebikes, the local bike shops, the ebike lending library, the city and parks and wreck for um helping put that on. Uh two announcements. The first, the 17th annual summer think shop is coming
up. Uh Alexand presents his annual summer think shop with this year's theme, Yo, Let It Go. The purpose of this event is to provide a fun, educational, and positive summer experience for area children throughout the area on Thursday, July 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Johnson
Elementary School. The main highlights will be a Mena, 10-year-old creator of Fat's Penny Candy, the iconic drum call, young musician Gerard Smith Jr. and Friends, dynamic 10-year-old vocalist Nia. The InTouch segment features the Jefferson Madison Regional Library and
the Blue Ridge Mental Health District. Um, again, that'll be July 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Johnson Elementary School. And the second announcement is just that there are current openings for boards and commissions. The applications for this
round are due August 1st. Um, some of the boards and commissions with vacancies include the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund Committee, the Housing Advisory Committee, the uh Minority Business Commission, the Planning Commission, and the Police Civilian Oversight Board. There are
other additional vacancies as well, but again the deadline to apply is August 1st. Thank you very much. And I think we have a proclamation resolution. Yes. Um many of you may have seen the obituary
in the paper in the last couple days about the death of Joe Mooney. Uh and we've got this proclamation here recognizing the contributions of Joe Mooney. Whereas Joe Mooney, former chair of the Charlottesville School Board, died on June 25th, 2025. Joe had served
on the Charlottesville school board in the 1980s and was the chair in 1987 when the board presented a plan to reconfigure the elementary schools. The main goal of the plan was to make Buford the only middle middle school serving grades 7 through 8 to make Walker an
upper elementary school serving grades 5 through six and leaving all the other elementary schools to serve K through 4. The plan had several goals. First was to eliminate the north side versus southside tension inherent in the attendance zone zones for the two middle
schools. two, to begin the process of building one student body in fifth grade rather than waiting until 9th grade. And three, to free up space in the elementary schools to allow smaller class sizes in K through 4. Throughout a bruising public debate around the school
board's 1987 plan, Joe guided the school board to a good collective decision while giving all citizens an opportunity to be heard over that contentious issue. We were fortunate to have Joe as chair of the school board at that time. Now therefore, the Charlottesville City
Council extends to Joe's wife, Betty, and to the rest of the Mooney family our sorrow at Joe's death and our deep appreciation for his years of service to our city. And in commemoration of his significant contributions to the community, it's our privilege to recognize Joe Mooney, signed and sealed
the seventh day of July, 2025 by Brian Pinkson, vice mayor. And we'll present this to the family. Thank you for that, Lloyd. So, we're now at community matters and there are eight pre-registered speakers leading slots for eight additional
speakers on community matters. Each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak. I'll now open the floor to pre-registered speakers. Um, our first speaker is Scott Collins. Uh, good evening. My name is Scott Collins. It's 200 Garrett Street,
Charlottesville. Uh, thank you for having me tonight. I really appreciate it. Um, I'm here this evening to discuss uh the current issues with the uh zoning ordinance in light of the judge's ruling last week. Um, I understand the city uh staff and the city council is working on
getting this matter resolved by either trying to get the new zoning ordinance reactivated or appealing the uh decision of last week by the judge's ruling to get it uh reversed. so they can get reactivated that way. Um, while that definitely
helps solve the current issue of not having a zoning code right now, um, not sure it solves all the issues with the uncertainty of the uh, of the pending lawsuit for um, that's coming up in next year. It's really hard for any projects
to sort of move forward with a brand new project with that lawsuit hanging out there knowing that within 12 months this could happen again. and talking with my clients, um they've gotten they've gotten to witness what it could really be like if the city does lose this
lawsuit a year from now. Um so I basically have two potential solutions for this matter because it is pretty um pretty big pretty big um matter and really needs to be addressed. My first solution would be to reenact
the old zoning code. And also, if you are able to reenact the new zoning code together or get the judges ruling um reversed, then you would have the same period that you had when you first enacted that new zoning code. You had the the developer pro the property owner
had the right to pick which development code they could go forward with, whether it was the old one or the new code. um that was the case for at least about six month, eight months maybe or a year. Um really helped with that transition to the new code because they could still
continue to develop underneath the old code if they weren't quite sure or they had were already planning on something with that way. Um, this would help eliminate any projects moving forward now because it takes about 12 months to get a project approved at least and it
would be hard for a developer to go through and put up all the all the um cost in order to get something approved through the city just to see that zoning code um revoked and have the rights re removed right before uh site plan
approval. That would be one option. A second option would be to reenact the old code but allow all these projects that are currently um under review or want to proceed underneath the new code um allow them to
proceed with through an SUP or uh resoning that allow them to meet the current zone requirements uh through a zoning code amendment or SU and still meet the still conform with the old zoning code but meet the new requirements. ments. Great.
Hey, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Second speaker, Mr. Downing Smith. Good evening. I'm Downing Smith. I live at 810 Locust Avenue. Um, and I'm here to talk about um the plan on the water
supply. Um, this is from Sean Tub's um May 26 newsletter. The RWSA is very close to moving ahead with the next phase with community water supply plan. and ratified by the Alamo County Board of Supervisors in the city of Shawsville in early 2012. The second stage is a 9mm
pipeline and I will add uphill to connect the waterway of the South Fork Rana reservoir to and it doesn't say in there to the Reagan Mountain Loop. After years of planning, the new pipeline project would move forward in the next 5 years at a cost of $17 million.
Um, a whole lot has changed in the last 13 years. Um, and I think that is incumbent upon you all to review the decisions made 13 years ago to see if they were still good decisions. The population has increased
17,000 in Alam County's pretty much the same uh university I don't know. At least part of the planned path of this pipeline ran along the western bypass right of way. Um the western bypass is
dead and that land that was acquired for the right ofway has been sold off. The south fork of the uh reservoir was silting in um back in 2012 and it's been silting in for another 13 years.
Um the right of way for the pipeline is question is questionable that it'll ever be built because the people who killed the bypass also don't want a huge pipeline going right through their backyard. There's also been development along the pathway, at least the pathway
that I knew in 2012. But even if the pipeline could be built, essentially what you would be doing is you' pumping more water out of the South Fork, um which would be a smaller amount of water. Um we have outgrown our watershed
here in Charlottesville. Um Sugar Hollow reservoir is small. The pipeline to Reagan Mountain is yay big around. Um and um the Mormons River between the uh Sugar Hollow um and the confluence with the Doyle at Whiteall um is is dry. Um
there there just isn't much water going in. Um I have a lot of questions and I think you all should too about whether or not we should be building this nine mile uphill pipeline um on a plan that I considered bad uh 13 years ago. and this
community, all of this community, not just y'all, need to accept the fact that we have outgrown our watershed. And it probably not going to happen in my lifetime and maybe lots of your lifetimes either, but eventually we're going to have water rationing here in Shawsville just like they do in California.
Okay. Thank you so much, Michael Crrenshaw. Uh, good evening, counselors. Um, I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Littleville Seagull. My name is Michael Krenshaw. Uh, we are an allv volunteer organization that advocates for better housing, land use, and transportation
policies in the Charlottesville area. We want to express our support for the city's new zoning code and our desire for it to be reinstated as soon as possible. We were not surprised when comfortably housed people sued to prevent the city from addressing its
affordable housing goals. Now, after failing to succeed through democratic processes, the plaintiffs declined to argue their case on its merits. Uh, instead using a procedural misstep to avoid a substantive debate through the courts. Remember that the Seville plans
process was intended to overcome decades of housing injustice. Of course, those who benefit from the status quo will do whatever they can to preserve it, but their voices are not the ones who we should uh we should be centering. It should continue to be those most
negatively impacted by the area's high housing costs. Charlottesville is making progress towards addressing its housing affordability goals, but as you know, the work is far from done. Although Judge Whirl's decision is a setback, we are not deterred in our goal to make
Charlottesville a place where all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds can call home. We must continue to collectively step forward towards making the ladder of housing opportunity called for in the comprehensive plan a reality in Charlottesville. The new zoning code
has significant community support and proousing policies continue to be very popular in our area. Please reinstate the new zoning code as soon as possible. We look forward to supporting your efforts and we have your back. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you.
Great. And next up, Emily Little. Good evening, councilors, Charlesville citizens. Uh, I'm Emily Little and I live on Moore A. Um, this is a little bit less of a comment today and more of a love letter to the city council and to
the city staff who are doing the courageous work of listening to their citizens and protecting them from the dangerous cruelty that is coming from Washington DC. I'm a nurse here in Charlottesville and I see the new deep stress that my immigrant patients are
feeling. And it isn't just undocumented citizens that are feeling the stress. Patients with dark skin, with accents, with birthright citizenship who are in the middle of a legal process, they are scared too because there is no due
process. Thank you for working to protect our vulnerable citizens. My patients work so hard here in the city and in the county. And it is painful to watch their fear grow based on what's happening on the
national stage and the increased funding to ICE. As your constituents and citizens and friends, we stand with you in your care of the vulnerable. I would also like to commend you for continuing to do the climate action
work. I know it doesn't get easier when the national and state levels make it harder, but hopefully we will be in a better place next year with the state support. And in the meantime, it is with deep gratitude that I thank you for resolving to do more climate action in
2017 and then actually following through on that resolution more and more every year. It gives me hope. Our local work more than ever is needed. I have watched Seville become a leader
on climate and a model for other communities who are ready to act more. So kudos to you for being the leaders. And then a final quick shout out to Chris Jensen in Parks and Wreck. Uh he's the trail manager for the city. I am
blown away by how much work his crew is doing to make this city a walkable city. um with more paths, more bridges, volunteer workforces. Um it's hot out and the trees are the one thing that keep us cool in this city. So, I really appreciate that. Um and it means that
our kids can walk safely to school and our cit older citizens can get some shade while they're walking, including benches. So, in closing, I applaud you for working hard to create a truly great city to live in where we love our neighbors and the earth. Thank you.
Miss Little, feel free to come back two weeks from now and two weeks after that. Um, thank you, Alicia Lahan. Good evening. My name is Alicia Lanahan. I uh live in the county.
um am here to um raise concerns about uh the Supreme Court decision that came down on June 27th which gave the president the power to dismantle the Constitution through an executive order. You may think and many people in this room may think that the decision limiting nationwide injunctions was
simply administrative. It was not. The birthright citizenship protections afforded by the 14th amendment will only be available to the plaintiffs named in the existing class. Class action lawsuits will be brought. However, identifying a class and having it
certified is a complicated process. Other individual cases may be filed. Now, absent the ability to get into court, the executive order will become law on July 25th. Citizenship will be denied to babies born to undocumented
mothers and mothers with lawful but temporary immigration status unless the father is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident. To paraphrase Justice Sotomayor, these junctions injunctions protected newborns from the
exceptional irreparable harm associated with losing a foundational constitutional right and its immediate benefits. The lower federal courts honored the most basic value of our constitutional system. They kept the government within the bounds of the law.
Today, it's birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, an executive order may do away with our right to free speech, freedom of assembly. Perhaps the administration will target the 10th amendment in order to limit the powers vested in state, local, and local governments and the
people who live here. No right is safe in the new legal regime created by the Supreme Court. Again, Justice Odayor. Too few people in our community are aware of the danger we face. We are asking you to use your positions to
educate the people who rely on your leadership. We're demanding that local media, the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Tomorrow, Seville, radio, and television do their jobs. Accurately inform the public about these threats. Shape public opinion and hold
those in power accountable. Serve the public interest by providing information that empowers citizens to participate meaningfully in a democratic society. Remember Martin Luther King Jr's admonition that history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this
period of social transition was not the stridident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Thank you for listening. Susan McCully. My name is Susan McCully and I'm a county resident.
The big budget bill that was signed on into law on July 3rd pours $170.7 billion into immigration enforcement, more than the military budgets of all but 15 countries. It provides $45
billion for def detention facilities for immigration and customs enforcement that increase an increase of 265% in ISIS's annual detention budget. It provides $29.9 billion for ICE
enforcement, a threefold increase in ISIS's annual budget. According to the American Immigration Council, the law gives ICE more funding than the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and
Explosives, US Marshall Service, and the Bureau of Prisons combined. In fact, the law will make ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the nation. Scholars point out that immigration is
an area where the US president can exercise virtually unchecked legal coercive power. And now Congress has given ICE unprecedented resources to pay for private contractors and to hire street agents willing to
mask themselves and do whatever they are told and potentially whatever they want against immigrants, refugees, and residents. And the administration has signaled that it will not stop at undocumented
immigrants, but will use ICE and the DOJ to threaten whoever they wish. We ask that Charlottesville follow the example of Huntington Park, California, which passed a resolution which strongly condemns using unmarked vehicles, masked
agents, and unidentifiable personnel in immigration enforcement activities. The three aims of the resolution are first to focus on verification by directing the the police department to confirm the identity and legitimacy of individuals
claiming federal authority. Second, to address community fear and distrust as a result of the presence of mass individuals. And third, to clarify intent. officials are not impeding federal operations, but rather demanding
transparency and identification from those claiming to act with federal authority. We are in a dark chapter of American history. We ask you to pass a resolution to require federal agents to be unmasked and identifiable. We ask that the city
protect our community from abuse, from the extraordinary federal enforcement power that is about to be unleashed upon us. Thank you. Next, Ronald Ignots. Ron Knots. Um, county resident but work
in the city. As Susan just mentioned in talking about the budget deal, there's been a huge infusion of money into Homeland Security. Of equal importance are the programs that are being stripped bare and the people right here who will suffer as a result. Early earlier this
year, a move to health equity wrote to Congressman Maguire carefully explaining how constituents would be affected by proposed Medicaid changes. These are some facts that he ignored. Nearly two million Virginia
residents or one in five depend on Medicaid and CHIP for their health care. Of that 166,000 live in the fifth district. This includes newborns, young children, adults, pregnant women, and older adults. Widespread cuts to
Medicaid will leave many without access to comprehensive health coverage or critical services. Because Virginia is a trigger state, if federal funding for Medicaid expansion falls below the 90%
level, more than 630,000 Virginiaians, including 53,000 in the fifth district, will be automatically disenrolled from Medicaid. Access to health coverage, life-saving medications, and treatment for chronic
conditions will be interrupted or ended for thousands because Congress decided to cut federal funding for expansion. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP was also on the chopping block. It is the nation's most important
and effective anti-hunger program. It plays a critical role in reducing poverty, improving health and economic outcomes, supporting people who are paid low wages, and serving as the first line of defense against hunger during
economic downturns. In Virginia, 827,000 residents receive SNAP. 67% are in families with children. 33% are families with older or disabled members and 36% are working families.
The average monthly SNAP benefit in Virginia are um as follows. For all households, the average is $296. For households with children, $56.
Working households, $338. Households with older adults, $118. For households with non elderly disabled members $211. My question to the council is how is the
city working with providers such as the free clinic, region 10, centra, UVA health, uh the food bank, and loaves and fishes to help support individuals, children, and families who are about to lose health coverage and food
assistance. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Sage Bradburn. Good evening. Uh, my name is Sage Bradburn. I live in the county. Um, I want to talk about the Department of Justice's June 11th memo
entitled Civil Division Enforcement Priorities, which raises serious concerns, including the administration's capricious determination that uh DEI policies, programs, and activities even in the private sector and in educational institutions are
illegal. Instead of pursuing actual criminals defrauding the government, the DOJ will use the False Claims Act to prosecute entities receiving federal funds for knowingly violating civil right laws if
they have illegal DEI programs. Cities, schools, nonprofits, the list of potential targets is endless. They will seek treble damages, putting many out of business and forcing those opposing their hateful policies into compliance.
And this no doubt played a role in Jim Ryan's recent resignation. The administration also seeks to end sanctuary jurisdictions, jurisdictions exercising their legal right granted under the 10th Amendment and upheld by several court decisions to limit
cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The 10th amendment reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to states and localities. And this principle of federalism, dividing power between federal and state governments,
is central to this debate and to our democracy. Um, the Trump administration is now trying to circumvent the Constitution by using executive orders and the Supreme Court is allowing that. We know local government and law
enforcement have been under enormous pressure to comply and recent developments constitute significant threats to you and our community. We ask you to keep your courage up, to keep resisting and to assure you that we have
your back when you do. Uh we also we are also I know you are not the local media but we would like uh any pressure you can bring to bear on the local media to do their job. This
includes the daily progress Charlottesville tomorrow seville radio and television stations to do their job and serve the public interest by accurately informing the public about these threats to our democracy. Too often they report these as just
differences of opinion or just like, hey, this is happening without putting it in the context and relating it to our laws. And that's a real problem. And we want them also to hold those in power
accountable when they lie to us, when they mislead the public. probably several of you got the uh social security uh email like touting it's its great new powers and when they misuse their power. Thank you for the work you do.
Thank you. Okay, we have eight additional slots. If you'd like to speak, please raise your hand. S in the middle. Please tell us your name and your address or at least roughly I'm Mary Stewart. I'm Mary Stewart. I
live in the county. I'm a property owner in Charlottesville. I'm here to speak about the Department of Justice threat to naturalized citizens. On June 11th, the Department of Justice issued a memo entitled Civil
Division Enforcement Priorities. Among the concerns it raises is the threat to naturalized American citizens. Federal law has always provided for revocation when an individual becomes naturalized uh a naturalized citizen through fraud,
lying about or concealing facts related to their eligibility. Denaturalization has been used judiciously across Republican and Democratic administrations with the exception of its use against alleged communist during the McCarthy era in the late 1940s and
early 1950s. From 1990 to 2017, the DOJ filed only about 11 denaturalization cases per year. All American citizens naturalized or born here are subject to the penalties of criminal law if they commit crimes. Ripping someone away from
their family and their established life has been too harsh for anything other than the most heinous crimes. For instance, Nazis who lied about their role in the Holocaust were stripped of citizenship if discovered and deported. Far from prosecuting criminals, the DOJ
will now accept any other cases in quotes that it deems sufficiently important to pursue. The any other cases provision is so vague that it will permit the division to denaturalize for just about anything. It could be
something prior to or following naturalization or give any other priorities discussed in the memo. It could be exercising first amendment rights or encouraging diversity and hiring now recast as fraud against the United States or troublesome
journalists who are data or who are naturalized citizens or students or university professors or infectious disease doctors who try to reveal the truth about epidemics or lawyers. All are now vulnerable to the vagaries of an administration that has shown a
preference for deporting people without due process and dealing dismissively with questions that come up after the fact. In 2023, there were approximately 25 million immigrants in this country who have become naturalized American citizens. Today, their lives have become
a little less certain. A lot less certain. Too few people in our community are aware of the danger we face. We're asking you to use your positions to educate the people who rely on your leadership. And we're demanding that local media, again, all the outlets do
their jobs, accurately inform the public about these threats, shape public opinion, and hold those in power accountable, serve the public interest by providing information that empowers citizens to participate meaningfully in a democratic society. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Uh good evening councilors, city staff. Uh Chris Meyer, 124 Oakland Court. Uh hope everybody had a good weekend. Was very saddened to hear about the shootings that happened and but thankful that it looked like the CPD was there
promptly. Uh like to start with uh as as I mentioned in my comments before a couple weeks ago, a real concern with the inability of the city's third party lawyers to submit their homework on time, which resulted in looks like now,
right, we're having to go back to the drawing board with our zoning ordinance. Uh my assumption is and I asked a couple weeks ago, what is plan B? And unfortunately, uh I haven't seen the plan B yet. and I know their folks are working on it, but I was a little
surprised that I think the plan B hadn't been kind of worked out uh and that we were caught a little off guard from Judge Whirl's uh response. Um, so I'm hoping to see, and maybe I'm a little ignorant of of the response, but that we do have a plan here that can be put into
place promptly and that all the housing plans that are being seen or been in the sorry being seen, but have been submitted can be properly reviewed andor accelerated now that we've had this delay. Uh it is I think you know there's a lot of us who want to build housing in
this city and you know unfortunately you know I this misstep is not helpful and and I hope uh whoever's in charge of resolving it can uh do so in a prompt manner. Finally I haven't heard about the accountability for our gentry lock
lawyers. Are they going to be paying for this screw up uh paying for the additional legal work we're going to have to do now? uh all that I you know I think the public should know what's going to happen with uh who's being held accountable and how is our taxpayer
money uh can be refunded andor used better in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Uh my name is Tom Deo. I'm a resident of the county. Um, I just want to implore the council here to pay heed to the conversation that you heard here
about uh what's happening with ICE and with the budget. Uh, it's real, right? I mean, you read about it. They're doubling. They're they're adding 10,000 more agents. The pressure on the city and on the county is going to become enormous. You can see it already, right? Pressure to to get the University of
Virginia president to resign. pressure on cities to take to hold back funding in order to apply in order to meet the the agenda of the of the administration. This is real. This is important. It's hard to ignore it. And if you think it's not if you think that it's not real
here, the New York Times on July 5th wrote, "Virginia has become a hotbed for immigration arrests. The pace of immigration arrests has shot up across the country under the second Trump term, but few places have seen a spike quite as sharp as Virginia. Arrests in the
state by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are up more than 350% since 2024, one of the steepest increases in the country. Nearly 3,000 people were arrested by ICE in Virginia in the first five months of 2025, on par
with numbers in a much larger state like New York. The city's going to become under pressure. 10,000 new ICE agents. They're going to ask your police force to to align with them. This is going to be difficult. I think we want to be a sanctuary city. I think we want to show that we have compassion, that we want to
follow due process, which ICE clearly from what you can see in the paper does not want to follow due process. So, I'm just imploring you, pay attention. This is coming your way. It's going to be hard. this is going to be very difficult on you in order to sort of resist or you need to resist and abide by the rules
and the laws of this nation and this state and this city. So, thank you. Good evening. My name is Amanda Burns. I live on Rock Creek Road in Fville neighborhood. I come to you tonight as a Fville constituent, a city school
parent, and as the vice chair of the Charlottesville City School Board, speaking in my personal capacity. I want to speak tonight in regards to the shootings that took place on July 4th and Orangeedale Avenue. This is my neighborhood. Our neighborhood. I love
where I live. I love where my children have grown up, where Trisha and Derek are raising Lyric, where Barbara has nurtured her family and countless neighborhood children. Where Alonzo works the night shift and still takes
care of the yard. Where Miss Kia comes home after a long day of supporting students at CHS as a CSA. Where Miss Shelley, the clinical director of the Women's Initiative, walks her dog and laughs with neighbors.
where the men gather on the curve to play horseshoes. Where Shayla, the executive director of Brack and Kyrie are raising little Kyrie and Rose. Where Jonathan not only serves his family but the entire city as an
operation supervisor for Cat. I could go on, but let me just say again, I love where I live and I have been sounding the alarm along with so many others who are directly
engaged in the community for far too long about easy access to weapons, the blatant disregard for life, and the lack of accountability. The warnings have been clear and I'm asking you all to do better. We
don't need more talking points. We need real investment. Keep community centers open later and staffed with fulltime benefited employees who will grow with our city. Provide consistent accessible mental
health support. Not just hotlines and pamphlets, but for people embedded in our neighborhoods. Region 10 cannot do this alone. Invest in mentoring programs led by stable, committed adults, not those still caught up in the streets
themselves. Expand summer school, not just to catch kids up, but to lift them up. Prioritize STEM and the arts and hands-on programming that truly engages our youth and gives them something to dream about.
We cannot arrest or punish our way out of this. We need structure. We need hope. We need accountability at every level. And lastly, for those who witnessed the shootings, who called 911 on Orangeale Avenue, please speak up and
come forward. Take a stand. Say, "Not in our neighborhood, not during our celebrations, not in our city, and not to my family." We are not asking for miracles. We're asking for a partnership, for resources, for respect,
and for hope. Thank you for your time. Good evening, council, and all those in attendance. I applaud the uh the previous speakers. Um but I come with a question tonight. What what what are we doing
exactly? What in the hell are we doing? For weeks, we had a parade of of citizens, your con constituents, come down here asking, begging, pleading that you do not throw that $49 million down
that rabbit hole. but you chose to do so anyway. Why do we even have matters by the public if you're not going to listen to what the what the citizens have to say to you? This this is this has just gotten beyond pathetic or or any level of
understanding. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. City Manager Saunders, your hands aren't clean in this either. We need to be able to create some some some programs for our kids to get them off the streets. That $49 million would have gone a long
way towards helping to fund the school board budget. It certainly could have gone a long way towards helping, excuse me, helping with something that each and every one of you ran as ran on as part of your platform, homelessness and lowincome housing, but
you chose not to. We have got to come up with a way so to to to to actually get the citizens involved. And I applaud the the attendance that's here tonight. And hopefully you'll actually listen and pay attention to what they've been
telling you tonight. I so look forward now to a council being led by Mayor Payne and and Vice Mayor Ashin. Hopefully Jen will come in and be that third liberal democratic vote that you all need to actually get something
concrete and viable done here in this city. But it makes absolutely no sense for citizens to come down here, waste their time when one, you won't be engaged, you won't listen, and you certainly won't pay attention to the whims of the
public. And then you wonder why people don't don't they're not interested. They're not active with what's going on in city government or in the city and the community at all. This has got to stop. It's got to change.
And it's up to you all to do that. Uh, uh, Chief Kes, I'm not going to shoot any flaming arrows at you, but I will ask you to please start planning for and and actually having some community forums where you can sit down
and tell the tell the public what it is that you intend to do and how you intend to do it. But we've got to get the the the guns off the street. We've got to find something for these kids to do. so that they're not on
the streets themselves. Thank you. Who's next? Okay, thank you. That closes community matters. And vice mayor, if I could just quickly just because I think you know there's enough people to warrant some sort of response to some of the things we've
heard. I just want to say um you know when it comes to the immigration actions I mean that's something the city has heard. It's something that's been factored into decisions we've made about technology in the city. Um it's something that's been factored into how the city has operated and how our police
operate. I think um you are correct though with the tripling of ISIS budget the situation is going to change and it's going to be um a whole community effort required to respond to it. Second point is the city manager as part of anticipation of the federal legislation saved a significant amount of our year
in surplus. So there was money available to try to backend investments and things like uh social services employees as best we can try to fill in the gap with nonprofit providers who are going to see funding and grants cut. Um there is planning for that. There is a limit to
what we can do with a budget of $260 million. And the final point is just I think all of us hear you in terms of the recent shooting and there's investments we've made in the past but it's clearly not enough in terms of mentorship in terms of uh uh investment and partnership with first responders and police in terms of investment in
neighborhoods. There's a tremendous amount across the board we have to do. Um but we do hear you and look forward to you know trying to move forward to get getting there. But that's it. Cool. Thank you. All right. All right. There will be an opportunity for public another
opportunity for public comment at the end of the meeting. Miss Thomas, could you please read the consent agenda? Consent agenda number two, minutes June 2nd, 2025 regular meeting. Number three, resolution to allocate
housing operations and support or HOPS FY26 grant funding for affordable housing and homelessness support programs in the amount of $460,574. Second reading four, resolution to appropriate additional funds for the
Virginia Department of Transportation or VOTE, City of Charlottesville, Virginia Project Portfolio 23,317,263. Second reading five, resolution to amend the City of Charlottesville, Virginia um CDBG and
home funding awards for program year 2025 through 26. a minor amendment to the city's one-year annual action plan in the amounts of $6,835 for CDBG and $2,85947
for home. Second reading and A and B are the two separate resolutions for that. Six, a resolution to amend and reallocate tax and rent relief budgets. Second reading. Seven is a resolution or two resolutions
LLC or entity creation authorization resolutions for West Haven phase 1 and Sixth Street phase 2 redevelopment projects. Second reading eight is a resolution to appropriate Virginia Department of Criminal Justice
Services Victims of Crime Act grant in the amount of $123,600. One of two readings. Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda? So moved.
Is there a second? I'll second. Any further questions or comments from councel? Okay. Please cast your vote. I don't know how to do that.
It should have sent you a popup. Maybe refresh. Oh okay. Okay. It's a new system here, folks. Yes. Awesome. Okay. Mr. Sanders, is there a report
from the city manager's office? Yes, sir. First is a presentation uh being led by Misty Graves, our director of human services in regards to the anchor program. and then I will share uh work plan update as identified.
Good evening council. Um I'm here to present on behalf of the city manager and the anchor team which some members are behind me joined for this presentation. We just had our first birthday. We hit the ground running on July 1st of last year. So last week we
celebrated our our first birthday and that's given us a an opportunity to look back on how we've grown and developed and build this year. So we have um some of our co- uh our anchor team here today. I'm going to have them introduce themselves and then I'm going to play an
intro video for you. Good evening council. My name is Norman Darice and I serve as the mental health navigator for the anchor team. Good evening, council. My name is Tammy Shafoot and I'm one of the police officers on the team. Evening counselors. My name is Jason
Conry and I'm a firefighter. All right, we'll go ahead and play the anchor intro video for you so you can be introduced to all of our members. Ankor stands for assisting with navigation, crisis help, and outreach resources. So, my name is Norman. I'm the mental health navigator for the
Ankor team. Um, what that looks like on a call by call basis is that I go out, I assist people for suicidality, meaning are they at risk to harm themselves or are they at risk to harm others and I help make recommendations about what services in the community may help them out. My name is Pamela Coburn and I am
the certified peer recovery specialist and I assist and support people in mental health and substance use crisis. Tammy Shifflet with the Charlottesville Police Department. I'm a member of the anchor team and I provide safety for all parties. I am officer Lucas with the anchor
co-response team. My role is to ensure the overall safety of everyone involved in the situation. So my name is Jason. I'm a firefighter EMT with the Charlesville Fire Department. I'm currently assigned to the anchor team and my role is to assist with some of the uh medical evaluations
of folks and try to help determine what is medically related or versus uh mental health related. My name is Jackie. I'm a firefighter on the anchor team and I identify any medical needs while providing compassionate support to our neighbors
in crisis. Kudos to our communications department team for um putting in uh a video just how cool these individuals are. Um, I'm going to go over some just brief stats uh that we have captured over our first
year once I have the slides back up because I don't have them memorized. Stand by. Some of the early um outcomes that we started to measure were numbers of calls in general for service. We also
divided out what kind of calls there were. So, we deem one category called live calls, which means they're responding to live 911 calls, uh, calls for crisis, uh, call for crisis, or they're asked by a first responder if
anchor can join them on that call as they sort of assess the situation. Then we have what's called follow-ups. Follow-ups are folks that had a contact with Ankor and need some additional um time to follow up, touch base, make uh
resources available for long-term support since Ankor is really just a crisis response team. Um so we had a total of 395 encounters that was serving 250 unique individuals.
The other outcome that we measure uh is what are the calls for? So is it the primary need, a mental health issue? Is it a substance use issue? Is it a co-occurring meaning both at the same time or some other type of call? So as
you can see about 64% of our calls are related as a primary to mental health. Um then we have 13% as substance use is the primary concern. We have 14% that are both simultaneous and about nine um
are in the other category which may be that we assist with the police department delivering a death not notification, trespass calls uh and other general assistance. I'm going to ask Norman to share because we always talk about data uh and numbers
and wanting to really highlight that these are unique individuals, real human beings that are behind these numbers. So, I just wanted to have Norman share a little bit about uh just an example of what Ankor does out in the field. Thank you. Um so, one um story that I
would like to share from the anchor team is that we assisted a family that one of the individuals was experiencing a mental health crisis. Um the individual ended up needing to be placed under an emergency custody order that uh the spouse had gotten. And during that process, it was a very scary process for
both the individual who was experiencing that crisis as well as the spouse herself um having to deal with it. But through Anker's response, we were able to help get that individual to the hospital where he was evaluated um and um unfortunately had to be sent for further hospitalization. But through that process, we kept in contact with
the spouse, providing her information that helped to ease a lot of her anxieties. And as a result of that, um the individual that was um that had to be hospitalized end up um coming out of that hospitalization getting better support for his mental health than what
he had before Ankor had intervened. So um in short um with Ankor helping we can help people get better help than what they might um necessarily get otherwise by connecting them to resources that they might not know are available to them. Yes. U thank you for sharing that story.
Would the alternative been, you know, a year and a half ago before Anchor existed, just police intervention and not the rest of the support team? Yes. Okay. Thank you. So, some highlights and accomplishments. We could go real slide heavy on this. We
just picked a few of the highlights. So this first year uh we were able to sort of get folks on boarded and started to write up our standard operating procedures which are iterative. Um as this team continues to learn and grow
and get additional training. We were able to secure software specifically for uh co-response. It's called Gelata and our community is really excited about being able to do that. It'll help help us to create a live real time dashboard
on the ankor website so any community member can access access data on what they're doing and what they're able to achieve. So for example uh it's modeled after what Durham, North Carolina uses and they have a dashboard that's um community member facing so that people
can see how many calls they've gone on and what the types are and so forth. Um training was a big priority for this group. So uh several of the members of the team were able to go to the international co-responder conference in Atlanta, Georgia to network with other
co-response teams and learn um from those experts. We also traveled as a group to Durham, North Carolina to visit their heart team uh which is a 50 member team. We're a six member team. Um but it
gave us some really great goals and some guidance and they were very generous with the resources. Um our staff on the anchor team are crisis intervention trained CIT trained. We have access through that um through the police
department. Um anecdotally and we will continue to measure this in future iterations but diversions are more frequent. we're able to interact with community members in crisis and able to divert them so that they are not needing to go to the hospital or um jail for
whatever the inter whatever the crisis they're in. And then we've been relieving more officers on shift, thus adding capacity. So an officer can call to ask anchor for assistance and then we're able to have the team go out and relieve that officer so that they can
close the call and that officer can return to their regular beat. Just joking. Year two goals. So implementation with Gelato will uh take several weeks. We've already started. We're about four or
five weeks into our implementation. We are working closely with the immu uh emergency communication center, the ECC to build out direct dispatch for anchor. So, this means that they will have police radios uh where the 911 call center will will go ahead and have
anchor go out as a first responder. Um we're also going to support them um as they embed a mental health professional in the 911 call center and we are going to this year explore expansion options for care navigation team that would be
able to do follow-ups for more long-term um connection to resources and service provision. Just kidding. Anker has a landing page uh on the Department of Human Services website. They have their own link there and so you can learn more information
about Ankor and understand more uh fully the Marcus Alert and how it impacts our community and Anker's role. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? I have a quick question. Um, it seems that the work you're doing is very
important, but also your team is quite small. How do you manage the 24-hour access or do you not do 24-hour access or how? We are not at that point yet. Um, we currently operate from 8 to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. And as we start
to look for um ways in which we may want to expand um we will change hours and that is the ultimate goal. Okay, great. Yeah, admirable goal. Thank you so much. Yeah, I think um and that that was going
to be my question as well. Um I think you know clearly a need to for continued investment in order to scale up the service. Um because this is still at a very small scale and a very small team that I'm sure is working incredibly hard but significant more investment on the part of the city I think you know could
be warranted and necessary. Um, the only question I have, I don't even know if it's a question that has an answer, but obviously the majority of your calls are for mental health crisis. Are the things that you're seeing frequently pop up as some of the systemic issues in terms of
ability to access care that are leading to those moments or is that something you're not really, you know, collecting data on or being able to to look at? I wouldn't we don't collect data on that currently. I know that as they are sort of deescalating whatever the presenting
crisis is, sometimes during followup, we can ask questions like, "What's been getting in the way? Do you need us to help you call your psychiatrist or reconnect with your mental health counselor?" Um, but it I don't collect the data as to what may have exacerbated
that crisis at the time. Can I say a quick followup? Do you mind if I interrupt? um you had uh 395 calls for 250 unique individuals. So for those repeat callers, is there a trend
there? Are they calling for different things? That's or is that also data that that is inclusive um of the follow-up visits as well? So those individuals may have one touch after the interaction or two or three um so that we can kind of
get them to a place uh to get connected with their either regular service provider or other services that they may need. Okay, I got it. Not 30 395 initial encounters. Yes. Perfect. Okay, thank you. That helps clarify.
Did you have anything else? No, I I don't have anything else. Thank you. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Yeah. So I lose the crowd when I have the microphone. So I know so I know that um I could have had Chief
Kes and um uh Mr. Maddox speak uh in regards to items that came up previously, but I'm going to deal with those myself. Um just wanted to point out that we are absolutely working the Orangeale neighborhood situation for 4th of July. Uh and have already made
progress in working that situation that case. Uh I think it's important for us to demonstrate that we are taking uh that as a priority that is an unfortunate situation that caused um injury to innocent bystanders and that is always a cause for concern. Uh we
have a lot to look at. there's a lot more we'll have to talk about and bring some of those items back to council as well. In addition, um I will say that we are not going to discuss um matters of negotiation even including disciplinary action for those that we hire to work
for us and do different things. But do believe that this organization is working hard to make sure that we address the individuals uh that made mistakes in representing the city uh in its recent uh legal case. and we will make sure that we bring forward what is
a reasonable resolution as quickly as we possibly can. But that's not going to be something that we will we will discuss publicly until we are resolving that situation. I think and for the public who may not be familiar you're referring to the reasonzoning lawsuiting completely separate from anything about Orangeale.
Yes, that's true. Thank you for pointing that out. Um I think we need to just be reminded that uh this is an organization that can get work done. It has been getting work done and we continue to get that work done and we will continue to stay focused on that and I'll move right
on into what I'm doing here right now talking to you about a work plan. This is 12 months of activity uh meant to highlight actions by myself and members of this team across the entire city organization that are working hard to deliver on your priorities, your outcome areas as identified in your strategic
framework. There's always a lot more work that could be done. We will continue to do that. And I'm going to focus on the things that you see highlighted throughout this document. And for members of the public that have not seen this before, uh, upon taking the role of city manager, I decided that it was important for me to be able to
come before council and the public every quarter and report on our progress at getting the work done for the city. Um, my goal is to always present a work plan at the start of each fiscal year and then to give quarterly updates. So, you'll be getting an updated uh FY26 uh
work plan in the next couple weeks and then I will come back before you every quarter with updates. So, again, we're going to focus on the highlighted things. Anything in yellow is something that we're still working on. Anything in green is uh closer to reality and we feel good about it. Anything that is not
highlighted is done or is identified as something that we will continue to work on in the new fiscal year. The line item on this page is highlighted is operationalized Jedi. I think it's important for us to continue to appreciate that while we are concerned about the actions of the federal government. We are not stopping the work
that we need to do that has been identified and prioritized by this council until you tell me otherwise. That is what we will continue to do. But language is what is being used right now as a target. It is also being used to try to separate uh localities from their
values. And until again you give me direction for us to do something different. While we may change the words, we will not change the work. And I think that is what's most important for us to be able to point out to you. You have here on this page under housing implemented homeless intervention
strategy. We continue to work on that. One of the biggest items that has consumed a great bit bit of time is uh the concept of a low barrier shelter. Unfortunately, I do not have an update for you that tells you that we'll have a low barrier shelter anytime soon, but we are continuing to work with parties who
are interested in helping us deliver that. And one day soon, I hope I'll be able to come back to you and tell you how it's looking, when we think we may have something uh that we can go live with. But in the meantime, uh I am looking at alternatives because I
believe in a plan B, C, and D just because that's who I am. So, we'll come back to you and give you more updates on that as well as last month um you approved uh community investment um community intervention items that are brought forward that are aimed at
addressing uh aspects of this issue of homelessness. Uh and our goal will be to begin working on the implementation that's bringing on a street outreach team so that we can have direct engagement uh with individuals who find themselves unhoused and we can learn directly from them on ways that we can address more of their concerns and
issues and see if we can't fill in the gaps by understanding firsthand what they face. Uh strategic investment opportunities. Uh we've been working to define the city housing portfolio. Our partner CRA came before you recently to present an update on that. I think there
is real opportunity in that space for us to add additional housing units. So, we're going to continue to work uh with CRA and we plan for you to see that as a part of an additional conversation in the joint session that has been scheduled for next month uh with the CRA
board. Uh and then we are going to also of course continue to work to refine the efforts within our affordable housing plan and see about making sure that we can deliver more units, preserve more units, and then of course figure out how best to get the return on the investment that you all have chosen to make each
year. Next page, more highlighted things, the biggest being staff capacity. uh you know that we have our city attorney in place, we have our HR director in place, uh we have uh transit procurement specialists and others uh in regards to
transit planning and long-range planning in in place and I have extended an offer to an emergency management coordinator and feel very good about being able to announce very shortly that we have that critical position filled as well. Uh there will be additional work because you know as you gain you lose. Uh, I'll
be looking to fill the deputy city manager position as Eden Ratliff returned to Pennsylvania to serve as a township uh, administrator. So, he is now back home. Uh, and we wish him well and I look forward to filling that seat. Uh, and then we will look to see is there anything else that we need to
shore up for uh, additional opportunities to add staff. As it relates to staff, it is important for me to not lose sight of the idea that morale has been low for this organization. It continues to climb. uh it's not where I wanted to be having just recently reviewed the results of
the employee survey and while I'm proud to say that they acknowledge that the larger group of employees acknowledge that things were better there's still a lot of room for improvement so for that I take that as my mission that's my charge to do what I can to make things better so we have started a few things
including I shared with you previously uh bringing back our um service recognition uh activities so that we acknowledge those individuals as they achieve their milestone anniversaries thanking them for their contributions. We've initiated some all employee gatherings. Last month we observed
public service recognition week with an afternoon uh moment at the pavilion called thrive before five. uh Thrive being the new performance recognition program that we also have launched to give our uh staff the opportunity to recognize their peers for exceptional
performance and then we will provide them an opportunity to be celebrated and thanked for what they do for this organization and this community. We're working on uh benefits as you know collective bargaining u has been a big lift. Uh this budget that started on
July 1st uh recognizes our fourth bargaining unit, our fourth contract. Our labors and trades, so public works, utilities, and parks and recck staff primarily are now in an organized bargaining unit. So we were able to go live there. And I have also concluded
the comp um the meet and confer process, which is for those uh individual staff just outside of contracts who have a chance to negotiate with the city manager. uh they have been able to receive some attention to their desires as well. So we were able to conclude that process recently and we now will
move to the next bargaining unit as well as the opening of prior contracts because once you start you don't really end. Uh and we're doing some work to analyze some of the hard to fill positions. Uh we have found that there are some repeat uh inability for us to
fill certain positions. So, we're now going to ask our HR team to look at those and try to determine if there are some market conditions that we need to be responsive to to help us fill those jobs so that we can make sure that the work is getting done. These are my primarily specialty jobs and require
certain skill sets. So, we're looking to try to get those filled because they do lead to getting more work done. Uh capital improvement program, you have shared uh a desire for more information in regards to our process and where our status is. uh Deputy Freezes has
received that charge and that mission and that request and I'll say demand to be perfectly honest that we've got to do better at making sure that that information gets shared with you and the public. So, we're going to prioritize that in our new fiscal year which is why it's highlighted in yellow and labeled
in progress and ongoing. Uh and then also, as I mentioned, we've gotten results from the employee survey. We also have gotten results from a community survey. You council will receive that uh report directly from our consultant at your retreat in August. And the goal is for you as I am
interested in hearing what the employee opinions are of the organization. This is an opportunity for you to hear directly from the community at large in regards to the longitudinal study which is something that we have produced over the years. It gives us a chance to just
measure satisfaction, sentiment, tenor of what the public um positions are. So, it'll be important for you to get that information and then for us to operationalize that to the best of our ability. So, we'll get that uh presented to you as well. All right. We were able to uh negotiate
some critical operating agreements. Um not that I want to rehash some of those, but the Water Street parking garage lease was important for us to get an opportunity for council to have an out. So, that is now secured in a new agreement with that ability made available to you. uh a relationship with the SPCA giving them additional
resources to bring us to a more uh fair uh process for compensation. We were able to get that done. But just recently, we were also able to get a court operations agreement with the Alamo County Sheriff that provides our sheriff the opportunity for him to discharge his entire set of duties by
taking uh responsibility for one of the courouses and then the county sheriff will take the other. So those agreements are now done and we will be looking to implement those next year at the start of next fiscal year. Uh under gun violence prioritizing gun violence we have additional staff internal is
focused on this effort. We've identified a series of things you see there that are done things we'll continue to work on. Youth lead gun buyback program the anchor team that you just heard about. Uh there are additional items that the chief has shared with me that he would like to see us do and we're going to continue to work on that. Uh and we just
recently initiated a project with Alexand also work with young kids to help them uh steer away from uh from violence as a result of any uh issues that they find. The goal of course is just to do everything that we possibly can to interrupt this situation and I do
believe we heard some things tonight that we can actually follow up on and look into further. Um our fire department has implemented single role EMS. We consider this an equity initiative. It's an opportunity for an individual that may not necessarily want to run into a burning building anymore, but they can do some
of the medical and health related response things that need to be done. They can now be just that instead of the dual focus that we have required in the past. We have launched single roll EMS and we have gotten a good response and we are working to staff out that team as well. And then as you know, we've been
talking about flock all year. uh and we will be talking about it until October and we'll see what you say when the results are in and the decision is what it will be and we will move on from there. I will say downtown mall uh investments so
improvements in this area. We talked to you as well last month in in the community interventions items that I identified for you. A series of things that bless you that we will continue to work on. Uh dedicating a mall ambassador that is Brenda Kelly who you all know for the work that we do. That's kind of
what I call her, a mall ambassador. But the goal is to uh be able to have a resource available to our business community on the mall to be able to speak to someone directly and get um hopefully the kinds of attention that they're looking for, as well as an increased maintenance plan and a series
of improvements along the mall as our asset that turns 50 years old next year. We'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the downtown mall along with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. So our goal would be to quickly identify a set of projects. We are working on that uh that
we can have uh completed by the time that we are at this time uh in the calendar next year when there may be more people in town and we expect more people in town. Uh working on public art program. You'll get a presentation in November. Uh Mr. Freeze is working on that as well to make sure that we can bring that forward. And our goal would
be to implement um a set of policies in regards to how we receive art, place art, and then of course decommission and remove art. Um just because those are just basic management responsibilities. You have an item later today uh or you had an item on the consent agenda for
VOTE portfolio and that was really about um a part of the reboot effort that was making sure the funding is available to address project changes that we have brought to you in a series of updates over the past year and a half I would say. Um so we are looking good in the
fact that we are making improvements and the goal would be to get more projects done. I'm looking forward to more ribbon cutting events. Uh, and then expanding our bus shelter amenities. I'm happy to say that we are finally getting the Midway Manor bus shelter done. It is under construction as we speak and I
look forward to a date for coffee with Mary Kerry on this bus shelter when it is finally done. I promised her that and I plan to deliver. So, that is really the update at this time. Again, you'll get a new report from me uh that is identifying the FY26 work plan. It will
be some of these things and a number of additional things. And the goal for me in producing this particular document is while everything on this document is not about me, it's about the team. It gives me the opportunity to come before you and the public and give updates on progress that we're making across the
organization in these nine categories that you've identified as your strategic outcome areas. So, I'll stop there and give you a chance to ask questions. I think I agree with what you just said. It kind of lets people know what we're up to because a lot of the work that the
city does I mean some of it is easily visible like infrastructure projects and um you know bus frequency things that are felt and seen and visible but a lot of this is internal internal organization management and systems
development and um and getting all of that kind of aligned in a way that is harder for the public to see. So getting a presentation like this is not only helpful for us, but also for anyone out there watching and everyone here watching to know like what our scope is, what we're working on, how many plates
we're balancing, irons we have in the fire, whatever metaphor you would like, balls juggling, say that a lot. all of that. Um because there is a lot going on and um to tie it back into kind of the struggles we're that are looking ahead
with the federal government is when we have to use our local resources to fill the gaps that they've left us. Not only is it that initial cost, but it's the opportunity cost of what that money could have gone to otherwise. That's right. And so kind of managing that
expectation for people, it's going to be frustrating and difficult to has been. Yeah. Yeah. To um to get more of those visible things done. Um but having a a good system in place to respond to that is
going to be helpful as things get more challenging. Yeah, it's a balancing act and and the key is really about getting the details from the federal government so then we can anticipate what the local impacts will be. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Nope.
Okay. Thank you so much, Mr. Sigman. And your Okay. So, we're now up to the action items portion of the agenda. The item number nine is public hearing and ordinance um for partial vacation of storm water
easements at 501 Cherry Avenue. Miss Lauren Hilderbrand will introduce the item. Thank you. Good evening, vice mayor and counselors. Uh, I'm Lauren Hiltbran, the city's director of utilities. In
November 1984, the city acquired public utility easements for the construction and conveyance of storm water utilities across the property located at 501 Cherry Avenue. The city's department of utilities received a request to vacate these easements to allow for development
of the property. The attached ordinance proposes to vacate a portion of the existing 12- foot storm sewer and a 4-ft construction easements. The current owner, 501 Cherry LLC, requests to have
these easements vacated so they can move forward with construction of their approved final site plan for the property. Therefore, city staff recommends the approval of the attached ordinance and we request city council consider waving the second reading for
this vacation. Okay. And I'm here if you're have any questions regarding this. So the actual pipes that are there will remain there. Uh actually they're when they redo their site um they they they're going to rework all of that.
Yes, they rework it. That's correct. And it so this is just a partial vacation of this of the actual piping that's in conflict with their development. And you and your staff are comfortable with what they're doing in terms of utilities and confident.
Yes, that's correct. Yes. It's all factored into the the the final site work. If and when they do, you know, move these, is that something that they do and then you inspect or is it something that we do and they pay you for? Uh they do. Any questions? Does that
make sense? I know I get that question. They do the work for storm water utility piping and then we inspect it. Okay. And we also televise it and make sure everything, you know, we can see from within too to make sure it's put in
accordance with our uh specifications. Any clarifying questions? No. Okay. I will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this item? Okay, with no speakers, the public
hearing is now closed. Council, is there any discussion? I would move the resolution as uh presented our agenda packet to vacate portions of storm water easement uh at 501 Cherry Avenue. Second
um uh with um and waving the second reading. Double second. Okay. All right. We have a motion in a second. Um, please cast your votes. Yeah, I think that is probably the the most
quick the um let's do another one. Yeah, I have the next two. Next two. The most promptly done public hearing we've ever had. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Item 10, public hearing an ordinance for partial vacation of
natural gas easement Kentridge lot 60. Lauren Hildrren will introduce the item. Yes. So in December of 2007, the city acquired a natural gas easement for lots 59 and 60 in the Kenidge subdivision which is located in Almar County. The
city's department of utilities received a request to vacate a portion of this easement for future construction on the property and the attached ordinance proposes to vacate a portion of the existing natural gas easement in order to allow lot 60 to be developed. The
easement extends further into lot 60 than needed and encroaches on the footprint of the proposed residence. There's currently no natural gas facilities in this portion of the easement to be vacated and the current owner Craig Enterprises Incorporated is
requesting to is making this request. Uh therefore, staff recommends approving the attached ordinance and we request city council consider waving the second reading for this vacation. Excellent. Are there any clarifying questions? Um
yes. You said Ken Ridge, which is off Old Ivy, right? Uh, I actually don't. It's in Elmar County. Yeah. And you and Craig Builders owns it.
Craig Enterprise. Yes, they do. Enterprises. Okay. and we don't need this portion of the easement. Okay thanks. Okay, any other questions? I will now open the public hearing. Is
there anyone who would like to speak on this item? Okay, with no speakers, the public hearing is now closed. Council, is there any discussion? Do you know what the project is going to be? It's just a home that they're building. Okay.
Yeah. Okay. So, it see Okay. Thanks. I would move the ordinance as presented in the packet to vacate uh a portion of easement at Kendridge Lot 60 and to do so waving the second reading.
I'll second it. All right. We have a motion in a second. Please cast your votes. See if I can find how to get back to that. Let's try that. Yes, there we go.
Fantastic. Okay, pass four to zero. Item number 11, public hearing ordinance for vacation of stormwater easement 100 Stadium Road. Miss Helder Brown, will you introduce the item? Absolutely. In August 1937,
the city acquired a public utility easement for the construction and conveyance of stormwater utilities on the property located in the city at 100 Stadium Road. The city's depart department of utilities has received a request to vacate this easement to allow
for development of the property. The attached ordinance proposes to vacate the existing public utility easement. There are no stormwater structures remaining within the easement which are in conflict with the proposed building footprint and the current owner Woodrow
Apartments LLC requests to have this easement vacated to allow them to move forward with their approved final site plan for the property. Therefore, city council city staff recommends approval of the attached ordinance and we request city council consider waving the second
reading for this request. Thank you. Are there any clarifying questions? Yes, sorry, one quick one. Go ahead. Um, because there's no storm water infrastructure there, the reason why we have to do a a
a waiver for the easement is that it's if the easement exists, then we could say at some point down the road, we're going to dig this up and put something there, and then their whole building's in the way. So we have to they we have to vacate the
easement so they can put their building on top of where that easement is. And so we have no because of the design of their new site plan. They have new storm water infrastructure going in that will handle all of it and be in different
locations. and it's in con the existing easement that was um put in in 19 what we obtained in 1937 isn't relevant anymore. Okay. And this is a process we have to go through with um a property interest.
Okay. Thank you. I will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this item? Okay. With no speakers, the public hearing is now closed. Council, is there any discussion? Move the ordinance as presented in the
packet to vacate the storm easement located at 100 Stadium Road and to do so by waving the second reading. Second. Please cast your votes. Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much, Lauren. Item number 12, Mr. Jensen. Public
hearing an ordinance regarding an easement to Dominion Energy for undergrounding of electrical equipment at Pin Park and Quarry Road. Uh good evening council members, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Thomas, and everybody here. Uh Chris Gick. I'm the parks and trails planner for the city. We've done a
number of these with Dominion. They want to underground utilities, which is good pretty much all around. Is this two items tonight or or they're all in the same one? Um it's listed as one. It is one. Okay. So, at Corey Park, the existing overhead line goes through the woods behind the
baseball stadium, and they like to get those underground because trees fall and it knocks out the power. It's also over the top of our back stop for the kickball baseball field down there. So, in order to approve easements on city-owned property, council has to uh adopt new ones. And I think the old ones
did not say underground. So, this one's basically going to underground it right where it sits now. Other than they're going to go around the back stop for the baseball field. So it is both items are under the I think there's an A and B. Okay.
Do you want to do one at a time? Hold it. Give me one second, please. Okay. Adam Clark, can I just do it like it's in that? Um see whether there were two resolutions, but
there's one one ordinance for the easement, but then there's a right-of-way agreement, but I don't know if that requires a vote. Okay. Right. It should just be the the ordinance that you're voting on the agreement, which is at Pen Park or Cory Road.
There's two. So at Pen Park, they're actually laying a new line because the line currently comes in from Holmes Avenue and goes over the creek and it's in a really awful place for them to maintain. So they're running a new line completely in and in order to provide service down to the golf clubhouse particularly, they need to come through
part of Pin Park. We've run it by golf and park staff and everybody is approving of it. So yeah, I I'm sure it's all fine. I'm just struggling with what's in the actual packet. We should probably do it as two items and get a second resolution generated for the record because they're not in the same
location, right? And the rightway agreement is pretty standard for how we work with Dominion. So, it's just how you want to do your resolutions. That's so why don't we do one resolution for the pen park and one resolution for park, right? And then we can separate those
tomorrow as a part of the record. So, I'll make a motion to approve the attached ordinance grant and then we just stop there. Is that how it works? I need to do a public hearing I think for each. Is that you just saved that? Yes. Okay. Thanks. I'm just not sure I'm seeing what you're
seeing as the second item. Well, it's undergrounding. It's undergrounding equipment in one location and then you said it's a rightaway agreement in a second location. Is that right? Correct. Correct. Corey has an existing easement and Penn does not. So if if that helps
you determine how you move forward in terms of the legal city manager Sanders, it it appears that this has been presented as a single ordinance and the third whereas states that it is for a um relocate an overhead
power service and maintain replacement underground power service located city blah uh for property located at Penn parcel number insert the number there and Corey Park. So that is why it's been presented as one solid ordinance even
though it it is differentiated in that whereas clause of two specific parcel locations. If that's acceptable to the attorney's office then we can vote on what we have here. Just seems odd. It does. It is it is odd and I'll be taking it up
with some of the staff who looked at it. But um it is technically acceptable. It won't be. It'll just be two actions taken in the same ordinance at two different locations. It's not ideal, but it's not impermissible. So, we're taking one action that covers
two separate locations. Yes. Okay. Same. It's the same It's the same parties and interest um in both cases. I don't see it being a massive issue. Okay. There you go. Well, then let me open the public. Well,
any other clarifying questions? Okay, I'll now open the public hearing. Is there anyone who'd like to speak on this item? Okay, with no speakers, the public hearing is now closed. Council, is there any discussion?
I would move the ordinance as presented in the packet uh for an easement uh for undergrounding uh Dominion electric power equipment. And you are not requesting waving a second reading or were you?
That's up to you. I don't think they're doing this work immediately. Second. So the motion that you made is to wave the second reading. Includes waving the second reading. I'm fine with that.
I It doesn't matter. I didn't include it, but it doesn't matter. I was just asking if he had like earlier they requested waving it and so it would come back on the consent agenda right? That's the that's the motion I made. I'm happy for a friendly amendment if others. Okay. But that's the motion I made.
I know we have one friendly amen amener over here. Would you like to you said it's not okay imminent. So So you'll second it as it is and it'll go on the consent agenda. Okay. Please cast your votes.
So that was second. Thanks. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Does the rightway agreement require a vote? He said it was all part and parcel of the same thing.
One resolution. All right. Your resolution would allow staff to sign the rightway agreement as I understand it. one resolution to govern them all. Okay. So, now we're at item 12. Um, this is the public hearing resolution for
Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Foundation lease at McIntyre Park. I have uh Chris Jensen listened, but it looks like it's you, Mr. Anthony. That's right. Okay. Can you take it away, please? Thank you. uh vice mayor, uh council, city manager, uh Rian Anthony, uh parks
and recreation director. Um as I noted in the uh briefing, um that this item was brought um to city council on May 5th. Um and at the time, however, there was no public hearing listed. And this
is why uh staff is here before you again today is to request a public hearing. And then after the public hearing, staff recommend that city council approve the attached resolution. Okay. So, is this help me remember this
is to sort of fix something that wasn't teed up exactly right last time. The lease. We've already approved the lease to go forward, but a public hearing was required. So, we're just going backwards to Okay. clean up that action. Any clarifying questions? So theou
existed for decades and then did the the memorial foundation seek this lease or did we seek this lease? They did. They did. Okay. And did we find anything substantively at issue with theou? No. Well, go ahead.
Yeah. Uh no there was uh again at the night uh on the dis there was uh discussions about the lease uh but there was not anything major um that council did not like or dislike about the lease. It is a theou was there anything wrong with
theou the previous yeah theou was uh not detailed enough um and we wanted something much more detailed and it just made sense um since uh uh this foundation would like to um
have donations and also expand the footprint. Um did we ever up here see theou? Yeah, it was in the last in the packet. Yeah. So, we just missed the the public hearing component that should have accompanied that.
Okay. Okay. Uh, any other clarifying questions? All right. I will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this item? Okay. With no speakers, the public hearing is now closed. Council, is there
any discussion? If not, I would move the resolution approving a lease agreement between the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Foundation and the city of Charlottesville for use of a portion of city property at McIntyre Park. Second Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
And this doesn't go to the consent agenda. We were able to vote on it in a single vote. Correct. Okay. Sorry, I should have asked that before. Council members, I can provide you a little bit more context. The question came to my office after the resolution was passed. Um was this uh an appropriate way to do this? And looking
at anytime that the city conveys an interest in public property. Yeah. Um, it has to have happen on following a public hearing. Since the public hearing didn't happen, that's why we circle back. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Vanderver,
item 14, offer and compromise for taxes due6003 6th Street Southeast. Yes. Uh, good evening, uh, council, members of the public. My name is Jason Vanderver, the treasurer for the city of Charlottesville. Uh I say have the last
official item on the agenda tonight uh which is an offer and compromise for taxes due uh at 16036th Street Southeast. Uh before I jump into the details of what an offer and compromise is and uh why we're bringing this to you, uh I just wanted to point out two
things. one obviously um there there is a sensitive nature to um this application for an offering compromise and we did work with the city attorney's office uh to get a confidentiality waiver signed with the applicant uh who submitted this. So she's aware that you
know by the nature of giving you the information that you need to make a decision that we may need to talk about financial information and that sort of thing. So we're all in the clear to do that tonight. And the other thing that I wanted to point out is that over the past six months, um, we've been working closely with the Legal A Justice Center and their representatives are here
tonight. Uh, Michaela Lieberman is an attorney who works with them. And also wanted to point out that Jacob Fulton, who is a law student at the university, played an integral role in getting this to this point as well. So, uh, with that, I will jump right in and explain
what an offering compromise is and and why, uh, it needs your consent to move forward. So, an offering compromise is a tool that's authorized in the code of Virginia uh to settle taxes that are due to a locality. So, it could be any tax, but in this case, it's a real estate
taxes that occurred on this property from 2021 to 2024 uh when the prior owner own uh owned the property. Uh so, some of the details that that make this situation particularly unique. Um this property was uh purchased uh I think in
1971. I was owned by the by by a couple uh and and the wife um died last year. Um in the final years of her life, she she did qualify for 100% real estate tax relief. Um but due to some pretty extraordinary medical circumstances
uh for several years there towards the end of her life, she was not able to complete an application. Uh if she had completed an application, uh she would have qualified for real estate tax relief. Uh and there wouldn't have been an amount due. So, uh, this tax balance of about $9,500, um, is a balance that really should not
have been owed to the city. Uh, in any case, uh, but unfortunately, um, just that application wasn't filed and and that kind of led us, uh, down the road to where we are today. So, uh, it's definitely unfortunate, but not insurmountable. Um, so we were
approached, um, when the new owner of the property, Miss Chambers, uh, started receiving some of the notices from our office regarding the past due balance. Uh the property at that point had started down the road towards judicial sale uh which is a legal proceeding where uh sometimes um the only
opportunity left to collect collect a tax balance due is to sell a property at auction which we really don't want to do um and do very rarely but uh this property was at that point where we were considering that action. Uh at that point uh the current owner uh who was living in the property, Miss Chambers,
reached out to Legal Aid Justice and they contacted us um to kind of figure out, you know, what was going on and how we might be able to resolve the situation. Um so they um took some steps necessary to to get the will probated and um Miss Chambers was the sole heir
of the property. She's the sister of the deedent. Uh so she inherited the property and was able to do all the steps necessary uh with the assistance of legal aid to get the property transferred into her name and um do that in time to apply for real estate tax
relief in 2025. So Miss Chambers um subsequently qualified for 100% real estate relief in 2025 and it's our belief that she will continue to qualify for that program going forward. Uh the problem is that there is a gap that when she inherited the property, she also
inherited a tax bill of about $9,500 that were was incurred before she owned the property. So, um they proposed um that we consider an offer and compromise, which which is not something that we've ever done before. Um there are other localities around the state
that have done that. We did some research and legal aid did some research as well to see uh what sort of situations might warrant accepting an offer and compromise. Uh and there's sort of two things that we consider. One is that uh if the collection of um a tax
debt is seriously in doubt. Uh which in this case we believe that it is. Um it's my belief that if we pursued collection that it would end up in judicial sale again. Uh where the only recourse would be for the city to sell the property which which we don't want to do. We want to keep it in this family uh that the
property has been in for the last 50 years. So, um the other thing is that um you know the statehood talks about um accepting an offering compromise when uh it's in the best interest of the community and the locality to do so. Um and so that's the one that we would um
our office, you know, really felt like it applied in the situation that um these taxes should should not have been owed. Um unfortunately, there's no u mechanism to go back in time and retroactively apply relief uh to a property. Um you just you just can't do
that. Um, and so this is a way for us to absolve those taxes that were sort of inherited with the property and and in in our belief are unable to be paid at this point and keep the property in the family. So, um, I've accepted the offer as presented to to remove those taxes.
Um, but it requires the consent of the governing body to do so. And so that's why we're here tonight presenting the item for your consideration. So happy to answer any questions if you have any questions. Um, Michaela is here as well if you have questions about their involvement or or their thoughts on the matter. So,
any questions? I just want to make a quick comment which this feels like one of those cases where um instead of someone falling through the gap, the stop gap worked and they were able to get in touch with the right people and have the right um
systems in place to to make what seems like a very reasonable solution possible. So, thank you all for putting in those efforts. Yeah, I agree. Boyd, any questions? No questions at all. Okay so
public hearing? No, not a public hearing. Is there a motion? I would uh move a resolution to offer uh compromise for taxes due at 16036th Street Southeast.
Second. Okay, please cast your votes. There we go. Yeah. To second what was just said. Thank you both for your diligence in in um trying to get this resolved and come up with something that's fair and equitable. Great. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Y Okay, we're now at the final speaking opportunity for members of the public. Individuals may raise their hand to be recognized to speak and each speaker will be given up to three minutes. Is there anyone who wishes to speak?
To care. N okay. Uh with no further business, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Please cast your votes. Is that something we can vote on? You can just listen.
I almost close that window. The next regular city council meeting is Monday, July 21st, 2025. Yep. Meeting be still following Lynchburg at all. Did
you see