City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD FOUR CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. JASON N. GRAHAM, WARD ONE HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., WARD TWO HON. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, PH.D., WARD THREE Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Special Council Work Session December 11, 2020 Budget and Financial The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, December 11, 2020, beginning at 8:30 p.m. using electronic communication through GoToMeeting pursuant to and in compliance with the City Council Ordinance 20-05, an ordinance to address Continuity of City Government during the pendency of a pandemic disaster. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor Charlie L. Frye, Jr. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Jason N. Graham, Matthew J. Kelly and William C. Withers, Jr. Also Present. City Manager Timothy J. Baroody, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Assistant City Manager Doug Fawcett, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Human Resources Director Lesley Moore, Fire Chief Mike Jones, Equity and Economic Advancement Officer Angela Freeman and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Organizational Update. Human Resources Director Moore presented a PowerPoint presentation and she discussed the general fund full-time employees per 1,000 population, number of employees eligible for retirement, eligible senior level/key versus eligible other, aging workforce, years of service, public safety – separations from employment, public safety – current situation and moving forward and developing workforce of the future. See Attachment IX for more information. Councilor Graham asked what knowledge management efforts were underway to pass on the institutional knowledge and Ms. Moore said they were asking employees to write down information that needed to be passed on to new employees. She would also like to look at coaching or mentoring components to give the opportunity to train those who would like to fill the role of the person leaving. Ms. Moore noted that some positions were hard to fill because of competition with the public/private sector, an example would be IT positions. 1  Councilor Kelly asked about the turnover rate and whether it was in line with other localities and Ms. Moore stated that it was in line with other localities. She said that the younger generation like change and don’t stay around long. Councilor Kelly also asked about being a small organization and the impact it has on employees being promoted. Ms. Moore said it has an impact and giving people the opportunity to have a career ladder was something she would be working on. Councilor Kelly said the City must find more imaginative ways to keep its employees and he noted the current mood of law enforcement and how it would affect the hiring of officers. Chief Layton added that is has had an impact and the national narrative that has vilified the police has had a negative effect. He said the last hire there were 50 applicants and this round there were only 10 applicants. Chief Jones agreed that having a smaller department does affect the upward mobility. He said the City must also be able to pay employees for what they know and they are currently looking at career development because they prefer to promote from within the department. Councilor Devine stated that she would like to see expanded recruitment so that high school students are aware of what options are out there. Mayor Greenlaw agreed she said in all the discussion about workforce education public service was never mentioned. Ms. Moore said she could begin to mention this when she speaks at University of Mary Washington (UMW) and the Germanna Community College (GCC) programs. Police Department Organizational Update. Chief Layton presented a PowerPoint presentation and he spoke about the challenges the department has faced in 2020, moving forward and staffing study. See Attachment X for more information. Chief noted there were police reforms that were coming out and they hoped they would help police to respond less, such as in mental health calls. He said there would be better partnerships with Social Services on those calls. Councilor Withers noted that the City would need to find a way to pay its officers competitively so that they would stay. Mayor Greenlaw said she heard two things very clear from officers and they were health insurance and the amount hours they are sitting at a mental health call. Councilor Kelly asked about the hiring process and the training schedule. Chief Layton said they get a few certified officers but others go through a two month hiring process, once they are hired they have two weeks of training at the Police Department, then 18 weeks of training at the academy, two more weeks of in house training, then they have field training for 4-5 months. It takes about 10 months of training at $3,000-4,000 per applicant. Councilor Duffy empathized with the challenges HR has with hiring effective people. He also agreed that the City would have to compensate the staff with neighboring jurisdictions. He 2 added that the good thing with hiring leadership position from outside it would bring fresh eyes on things, new ideas and talents. He said he was hoping the City could partner with UMW and GCC to move some of the high school grades along and make students aware of the non-college career options. He was supportive of the Explores Program with the Police Department. He also said he would like to know what the police reform would look like because mental health resources were already under manned. He was hopeful that there could be continued focus on racial equity within the City. Vice-Mayor Frye spoke about how midnight madness helped to bridge the gap between kids and officers. He would like to eventually discuss community police officers once the department is fully staffed. He also stated that he would like to get more offices living in the city. As far as city staff he said there was a lack of diversity in all the City Departments. He suggested the City explore workforce credentials grant at GCC to get the entry level positions trained through this grant, an example would be a custodian getting trained and eventually moving up in positions. Councilor Frye said this was a way the City could invest in its employees by using this training. Fire Department Infrastructure Issues. Chief Jones presented a PowerPoint presentation and he discussed Fire Station I Issues, What can be done to improve the station, Examples of modern fire stations, fire station II, Apparatus room, and what can be done to improve the station. See Attachment VIII for more information. Chief Jones discussed that challenges of fire station I and he noted that it was originally designed to hold no more than 6-8 people and it currently holds anywhere from 12 up to 15 firefighters. They hired Manitou to help do a Feasibility Study and they would ultimately like to keep the station downtown but would like to determine how to do that in its current location. Fire Station II has had structural issue since day one and they are currently out of space. It was designed to house 4 people but currently houses 6 or more during operations. He stated that the apparatus room does not hold all of its equipment and some has been stored off-site. Chief Jones said they will also have Manitou look at the management of coverage. He said the Fire Department was at a point where both stations would need major work if they were going to stay in them. He added that compensation would need to be discussed as well as benefits packages. Mr. Baroody said it was clear to him and the City needed to build a new fire station and he was committed to putting it in the five year CIP plan and it was envisioned that it would be a superstation of 24,000-30,000 square feet. 3  Chief Jones reported that they were down four people and they were in the process of interviews. All four were pre-certified and they must have some sort of EMS –Fire training. There must be three on a fire truck and two on the ambulance. He said they were lean on support staff and they are in need of a full-time person in administration and a training officer. They were providing leadership training by giving institutional knowledge. He said they were in need of a full- time EMS officer on daytime. Chief Jones said a lot of the daytime calls were non-emergency such as lift assist which ties up a two-person ambulance or a three-person fire truck. He said his employees were looking for pay parity as well as other public safety positions. Councilor Kelly asked what would be done between now and building a new station and he asked about 24-7 Advanced Life Support. Chief Jones said there was not a whole lot that could be done right now because they would not want to invest too much if a new building was going to be built. Mr. Baroody noted that they want to wait for the study to be completed to give answers on what should be done. He asked the Council to give them 90 days or so. The plan was to look at the future of Fire Station I and building of a superstation on Cowan Boulevard. Chief Jones reported that there were two ALS units and they were doing well and it has cut down on mutual aid calls. He said they could use a third unit but there was no place to store it right now. He said the consultants would be evaluating if Cowan Boulevard was the best place for a superstation. Councilor Graham asked that the quality of life of the residents on Cowan Boulevard be considered if the station is placed on Cowan Boulevard. Racial Equity Update. Ms. Angela Freeman presented a Racial Equity update and the update can be seen in Attachment XI. Mayor Greenlaw stated that the work that had been done was exciting and she thanked the community for their participation. Vice-Mayor Frye was also excited for the work done and he said this process had opened the door for those who have never been heard. He thanked the City Council for their work and he was looking forward to what is to come. Councilor Graham said he loved this action plan going forward and he wanted to know how the City planned to reach those who feel marginalized. Ms. Freeman said the work that was going forward was the start and they would need a full robust engagement strategy with stakeholders that have not been heard from and she would need tools in place for those who have diverse abilities to participate. She said the City would need to scan the community and figure out who it had not heard from and try to understand why it had not heard from them. Ms. Freeman said she was 4 impressed with some of the feedback but she was also surprised that some of those who she thought would give feedback chose not to and she believes they want to be sure they can trust what the City is saying before participating. Councilor Kelly discussed the community outreach part and he was concerned with the breakdown of the people who responded. He was concern that the demographics of the 20 somethings was small but the older ones were well represented. He was concerned with their lack of participation and he said they need to understand that there are other opinions out there and there was a process to getting things done. He would like the City to go out and get the information from them. Mayor Greenlaw noted they do not know how government work and one thing the City needs to do is fully explain how it works and how they can be a part of it. They need to understand they are part of the system and the system is not against them. Ms. Freeman stated that the topics around engagement were tough and complex and it is difficult to look at engagement at a moment in time. She said they can look at effective strategies to try and engage people as well as go to schools and provide broader exposure. She said there was great opportunity in the future to use one of the City’s Core Values, Agile Innovation. Dr. Duffy thanked the Community, Vice-Mayor Frye and Ms. Freeman for their work and he was thrilled that the City was making progress on this. He values the comments made and he said there were reasons residents were not fully trusting. He said this needed to be a plan that works for everyone. Councilor Withers wanted to publicly thank Vice-Mayor Frye for his leadership in these efforts. Mayor Greenlaw said this was a big job ahead of the Council and she credited the entire Council for their willingness to reach out to the citizens. She said the City had a good beginning and it would be an ongoing effort and embedded consciously in order to improve equity in our society. Ms. Freeman stated that as a black woman with young black boys she was proud as a staff member for the work the Council was doing and being leaders in this region. She said she never envisioned that these conversations would be taken place in our region. She said the conversations would not be easy but the dialogues would impact lives for not only citizens but community’s and neighborhoods across the City. She said this work was being seen across the state. Mayor Greenlaw recognized the City Manager and all of his staff for buying in to this plan. Council Discussion. Councilor Devine thanked the city staff for the opportunity to talk and she said she feels the Council has made some strides in understanding the directions the 5 City needed to go in. She expressed how proud the Council and how it gets to where it needs to be. She also said she would like to see a help wanted ad on the front page of the City’s website so that people can know what volunteer opportunities there are in the City. She would like to see the schools shift to solar and then municipal buildings to do the same. She said diversity in the community and workforce would take work but she knows the City would get there. Councilor Withers said he fully agree with Councilor Devine and he thanked the staff for all they do and he said he appreciated the conversations. Vice-Mayor Frye said this was a great re-cap of the 2020 work of City Council and moving forward into 2021. Mayor Greenlaw stated that this was a wonderful opportunity to look at where the City is and as a result of discussions affirmed priorities, values and seeing them working within the organization and the City should be proud. She also was proud of how the Council deliberated and the processed the staff take the Council through. Mr. Baroody added this was a collaborative work and he thanked the staff for the many hours and commitment. He said there was a lot to be proud of and this was a City of unlimited potential. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the session officially adjourned at 12:37 p.m. ______________________ Tonya B. Lacey, MMC Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 6