City Council Agendas & Minutes

City of Hampton, VA 22 Lincoln Street Meeting Minutes Hampton, VA 23669 www.hampton.gov City Council Randall A. Gilliland Joseph H. Spencer, II Ross A. Kearney, II George E. Wallace Angela Lee Leary Paige V. Washington, Jr. Molly Joseph Ward, Mayor Staff: Mary Bunting, City Manager Cynthia Hudson, City Attorney Katherine K. Glass, Clerk of Council Brenda J. Vaccarelli, Deputy Clerk Wednesday, May 12, 2010 1:01 PM Council Chambers, 8th Floor, City Hall CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Molly Joseph Ward presided Present: Randall A. Gilliland, Ross A. Kearney, II, Angela Lee Leary, Joseph H. Spencer, II, George E. Wallace, Paige V. Washington, Jr. MAYOR’S COMMENTS Mayor Ward welcomed everyone, particularly the newly elected members of Council, Mr. Donnie Tuck, Mr. Will Moffett and Mr. Chris Stuart. Agenda 1. 10-0212 Budget Work Session PRESENTED by Mary Bunting, City Manager, Chris Snead, Budget Director, and Jimmy Gray, Acting Assistant City Manager. Ms. Mary Bunting, City Manager, stated Council is scheduled to adopt the FY2011 budget and its related ordinances during the evening Council meeting. She noted that at the May 5, 2010 meeting, Council adopted those ordinances on first reading without modification, not because they didn’t intend to make modifications because staff was given guidance regarding some modifications. The City Manager stated they wanted to provide the public the full opportunity at the two public hearings to make impressions on Council. Also, staff has been gathering the changes that Council would like to make as well as some changes staff believes they need to make as a result of changes that have occurred between the introduction of the budget and tonight. She explained that typically they reserve the afternoon meeting to go over that and to ensure that Council is in agreement, or at least a majority of Council is in agreement, with the various changes to be made, so the proper language for the motion can be prepared. The City Manager said Ms. Chris Snead, Budget Director, will provide Council with Council’s proposed changes and the changes included from staff’s perspective and how they should go City of Hampton, VA Page 1 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes about rebalancing the budget to accomplish that. The City Manager noted that she had two other things to discuss with Council. One item she wants Council to be aware of relates to specific changes the Community Services Board (CSB) is planning to make with their budget that will impact the City’s customers. She explained the decisions were made late last week. She further explained that some of those impacted customers may decide to attend the Council meeting to appeal to Council. She stated she also wants to clarify some comments last week with regard to the Phoebus Improvement League (PIL) Funding. The City Manager said, since much concern has been expressed and it has been a high priority for her and Council, she wanted to acknowledge the status of impacted employees as it relates to the budget. She stated the manager’s Recommended Budget did downsize in some areas which impact staff, while maintaining that any employee that wanted to remain in our employ would be placed, possibly in other departments, but would be placed. The City Manager said our work force is exceptional, and downsizing is no reflection on their performance, but rather the fact that we did try to reflect in our budget opportunities for efficiency, workload consolidation, and needs versus wants. She stated there has been progress. Although the budget has not yet been fully adopted, Human Resources did start posting some of the positions that have been vacant for a while due to our hiring freeze as well as some of the positions that will be vacant through the retirement incentive that Council authorized. She stated over 60 people indicated they are going to accept retirement packages that we offered leaving those positions available to be filled by other impacted individuals. She stated, of the 55 full time employees impacted, several do not wish to be placed for personal reasons such as relocation, engagements, military deployments, and retirement. She also noted that some employees will not be impacted and will remain in their department due to the retirement of employees within their department. She stated that due to this progress, instead of having 55 people needing to be placed, there are now only 29. The City Manager stated 46 positions have been posted, and some will be posted each week in order for the process to be managed in a smooth fashion. The first group of positions was posted Friday, April 30, 2010, and closed Monday, May 10, 2010. She stated interviews were being scheduled and another set of positions was posted Friday, May 7, 2010, and Monday, May 10, 2010. The City Manager said she wanted to clarify publicly that we have a group of part time, retired employees, called When Actually Employed (WAE), many of which are known very well. She stated some of these employees were hired back after they retired because of the commitment they have made to the community and the success they’ve had with customer service, and Council and staff have received inquiries about some of them. She stated the City can not continue to employee retired employees in a substantially similar job to that held prior to retirement according to Virginia Retirement System (VRS) regulations. She stated if the affected employees agree, they may be placed in other City departments that are substantially different. She stated some employees have verbalized that if they will not be allowed to do what they were previously doing, they do not want to stay. She reiterated for public understanding that Council may have received emails asking that a favorite person be saved, but the City has to abide by VRS regulations. The City Manager asked Ms. Snead, budget director, to come up and review the proposed changes to the budget, both those proposed by Council and management. City of Hampton, VA Page 2 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes She noted that some of the management changes resulted from continued conversations in reference to consolidations. For instance, in the Channel 47 and 46 mergers, we found that we had not gotten the number exactly right, so as a result of that there were staff changes. She also stated that while not seen on the adjustments, there was some conversation about the proposal that management staff has a reduction in pay by two percent and there was a fair amount of sentiment expressed by Council. Council either wanted to participate in the similar reduction, or perhaps not pass that reduction on to the management staff, or that might be something to reserve for the future. The department heads and City Manager volunteered to take a two percent pay reduction and there was some sentiment on the part of Council that that was a gracious gesture but that it might not be warranted in this situation. She stated the commitment to take a two percent pay reduction was made after Ms. Snead had already taken the budget to print, so you won’t necessarily see that money added or subtracted. In accordance with some of the sentiment reflected from Council, the City Manager suggested not moving forward with department heads taking a two percent pay reduction this year as it may be required next year. Ms. Chris Snead made the following presentation. Councilman Paige Washington addressed the City Manager stating there has been some concern or conversation relative to the Channel 47 personnel and how they are going to be impacted by the School Board personnel. He asked the City Manager to highlight what is going on there, before the budget is discussed. The City Manager stated that specific personnel would be discussed in closed session, but she would comment on the global level and how it is going to work. She stated there is a commitment between the City and the schools that Dr. Linda Shifflette, School Superintendent, the City Manager, Diane Foster, Special Assistant to the City Manager, and Anne Stephens-Cherry, Executive Director of Public Relations and Marketing, will do the interviews for the selection of the cable station manager which will be open to both existing City and existing school personnel only. She stated the four interviewers will make a decision as to who to hire. She explained, once that decision is made, that person will be involved in the hiring of the other positions that will need to be added. She said that process has not been completed yet because both the City and the schools needed to approve the merger as a part of their budget process. She said that is scheduled to be done this evening, and there is a contract that was sent to Council that codifies the process, but after the budget is adopted, the schools having already adopted theirs. Once the cable station manager is hired, and the other positions posted, there would be enough posted positions to accommodate the existing school and City personnel should they want to be in that new operation. She said all of the employees will be School Board personnel, not City personnel, because it will be one consolidated unit. She stated there is one person who is in City employ who will be retiring, so one person does not need to be placed. There is only going to be one cable station manager, two engineers, videographers, and part time positions. Councilman Washington responded that the reason he asked the question was because he had been receiving feedback relative to the Hampton City Schools (HCS) indicating that those School personnel would be getting the prioritized positions and City employees would not, and he wanted to get a clarification on that and was glad that all involved understood. City of Hampton, VA Page 3 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes The City Manager explained that they will work with employees who don’t choose to be in the situation for whatever reason, if they prefer to remain in the City employ versus the merged department. She further explained that this has been made clear to all of those employees impacted, but these positions have been added to the new operation and the City will be giving the schools the money. The only position that is being taken away is that there is no need for two cable station managers. Councilman Washington responded that he was satisfied with that and that he wanted the public to be aware that there is no favoritism being practiced on either side of this as far as the employees are concerned relative to Channel 47. The City Manager explained that is the reason why she and Dr. Shifflette are personally involved in the selection. Ms. Snead provided Council with a schedule that shows the amendments as of May 12th. Mayor Ward stated that her documents show May 2nd. Ms. Snead verified that is correct and she simply forgot to change it for the presentation. She stated that there are two different funds that will be impacted by the amendments: the general fund, which is the general operating budget fund, and the storm water management fund. She explained it was broken down into two sections: Revenue adjustments, those adjustments that would affect the revenue side, and those adjustments that would affect the appropriation which is the expenditure side of the budget, as well as those adjustments that were suggested by Council and staff. Ms. Snead continued explaining that the first adjustments deal with the revenue adjustments and the Council adjustments. Based on conversations with Council last week, there seems to be a majority of Council who want to reduce the personal property tax on boats back to the .00001 instead of the thirty cents, so this reflects the revenues that were in the budget that would be reduced based on that as well the personal property tax on RV’s which is also included. She explained, if this was agreed upon, this would cause a loss of approximately $214,000 of revenues. She added that it was suggested that the revenues that we would receive for the billboards would become a part of the general fund. Historically that revenue has been a part of the Economic Development fund because it was revenues generated. Councilman Kearney stated he didn’t recall that billboard revenue was historically given to the Economic Development fund. He explained further that he understands why the money couldn’t be put into Special Events, or into Parks and Recreation for activities or something instead of going into another fund not under the direct control of the City Council. The City Manager stated that there are existing Council adopted ordinances which call for all revenue from sales or leases of publicly owned facilities to go into the Economic Development fund and the Council does appropriate the Economic Development fund budget. Councilman Kearney stated billboards haven’t been included before. City of Hampton, VA Page 4 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes The City Manager recommended not going into a lot of detail. She explained that is something they expected to see in our projected revenue, but because it would relate to this existing policy of all sales or lease revenue of City buildings or properties going into the Economic Development fund, that was the historical reference that was being made. However, the Council can direct it to go into the general fund, and that’s what this proposal would suggest and effectuate. Councilman Kearney stated that he was concerned about that money being lost. He expressed that he would like to see the money used for activities within our community, whether to the children’s festival or the beach music, for example. He said it really doesn’t matter where the money goes as long as it goes to activities in the community. The City Manager stated assuming Council approves amendments tonight after going through all of these motions, this money would become a revenue item in the general fund and as expenditure changes occur, it will be clear that there is money for special events that this would be supporting. Councilman Kearney requested the City Manager to draw it to his attention when that is about to occur. The City manager indicated she would do so. Councilman Kearney requested to speak on the boat tax issue. He stated that he left last week under the impression that the City probably still had the boat tax and that he was unaware that a vote or survey had been taken. The City Manager explained that three of the people present last week expressed a desire to make sure we maintain the policy of no boat tax. Two people did not express an opinion and two people were absent leaving us to believe that it was going to be a four to three vote one way or the other, so it was determined Council needed a proposal that would effectuate that if indeed that’s where Council wanted to go. Mayor Ward stated that she was one of the individuals that had not expressed an opinion thus far. Councilman Kearney stated he hadn’t recalled expressing his opinion either. Mayor Ward questioned if the boat tax was to be eliminated, where was the difference in the amount of money going to be made in the budget? Councilman Kearney agreed that Mayor Ward’s question was logical, but he was concerned that the public would think Council had already made a decision since he does not remember casting a vote. He stated he was flexible to go either way depending on the issues. Mayor Ward reiterated her concern about where the money would be made up in the budget if the boat tax was to be eliminated. Mayor Ward stated there were three people that indicated how they felt about it during the afternoon session and again her primary question was if we did do it, where is the money going to come from? City of Hampton, VA Page 5 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes The City Manager agreed that Councilman Kearney’s point was a good point and she stated nothing has been finalized yet, and that Council as individuals had expressed some concerns and some of them weighed in and concurred that the City Manager should look into it. She stated that some Councilmembers were not able to participate in the afternoon conversation last week, so she had put together things that were expressed, so that the remaining Councilmembers could see how things could be rebalanced. She stated that the intent for today was for Council to give the final indication, so the motions could be made. She reiterated for the public’s benefit, no firm decisions have been made about any of these issues. Ms. Snead explained that this is just a proposal to put forth to Council. She stated the next group deals with staff adjustments and these revenues result from the final State budget being approved, the compensation board has issued their budget, and they have come back with revenue adjustments, and these are the additional revenues that can be added to our budget based on the State approved budget. She explained that there are various revenues: The Sheriff’s Department $183,000, Commissioner of the Revenue, about $6,700, Commonwealth Attorney $56,000, Treasurer $5,800, and the Clerk of Court $22,000. She said if in fact, this proposal is accepted, the budget would be increased by approximately $120,219 on the revenue side. Councilman Kearney asked where the money came from. Ms. Snead replied that she was just speaking about the revenue side, and that she would explain the expenditure side. She further explained that the revenue came mainly from State revenue that was received from the State Compensation Board that was greater than what had been built into our budget as well as the revenues from the potential billboard advertising. Councilman Wallace commented that the matter of fact is even if the boat tax is taken out, which is $188,000, and with the increased revenues from the state, now there is $120,000 on the plus side on the revenue side. Ms. Snead responded that was correct. Councilman Wallace commented that even after the boat tax is taken out, there is still $120,000 to play with and Ms. Sneed will show us how she played with it. Ms. Snead said she would explain what was done. She explained that the next group has to deal with the expenditure side, and these adjustments are adjustments that Council suggested at the last meeting that they would like to see put back into the budget. She added that in non-departmental, there is the Hampton Holidays Parade broadcast which is $20,000; Youth Planners, two youth planners are being put in, initially there were four, but with the two, they will work longer hours. The City Manager stated that there were actually three before. Two in Planning and one in Neighborhood Services and the Planning Director recommended that he could make do with two with some reduced hours. Ms. Snead confirmed that this in at reduced hours, plus the FICA that goes along with that. She stated that at the evening meeting, there were several comments and suggestions that the Youth Program Manager that works with the Youth Commission be City of Hampton, VA Page 6 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes put back, realizing that the position works with the teen center. What is indicated here is half of that salary. She stated Ms. Cindy Carlson, Coalition for Youth Director, went back and looked at the budget of the Coalition for Youth and what was remaining and she was able to come up with some additional funding so the full salary didn’t have to put back. We put back only a portion of it, along with the benefits. In addition to that, there were two positions in the Police Department that we added back as well. We had thought that these positions would be vacated, but they are not. And you all have told us you did not want to have us eliminate any sworn positions and so we put these back in and the benefits along with that, and these are the Council adjustments. The City Manager stated that she wanted to make sure the point was made that Council also suggested some money be put back for the Youth Commission Grant Program. When we looked at the end of the year savings for the Coalition for Youth which would roll forward into the next fiscal year and that there was adequate funding available to maintain the grant program at a reduced level. Ms. Snead said she thought it was $23,000. The City Manager stated that the end of the year saving funds would be made available to the Youth Commission to continue the grant program while simultaneously pursuing the suggestion Council made last week of trying to do a fund raising effort where the youth would be taught how to solicit corporate donations doing dollar for dollar matching of their grant program. She added that there are funds in the end of year savings available to continue that program next year. Councilman Wallace asked if this meant that 100% of those savings would be given as opposed to 65%. Ms. Snead explained that this is the 100% rollover and that year to year roll over is permitted, while currently in the Coalition budget, there is that amount of money, so it would roll over 100%. Councilwoman Leary asked Mrs. Snead if that was all of the money that they had to roll over. Ms. Snead answered that was all of the roll over money. Councilwoman Leary asked if any of the money was from previous years. Ms. Snead replied that is previous year’s savings that is rolling over. The City Manager clarified that once a department earns the money and it’s been given back to that department, the department is allowed to keep 100% from their prior year funds that have been saved. She explained that any new money earned in a given year is subject to the 65%, so that is where the difference between the 65 and the 100 per cent roll over that Councilman Wallace and Councilwoman Leary are referring to. So, the money that they already have on hand, the $23,000, is subject to the 100% rollover. If there was any money left at the end of this year, it would be subject to the 65%. Ms. Snead stated that the next set of adjustments is related to staff. She stated after reviewing budget cuts and discussing with departments and looking at reorganizations City of Hampton, VA Page 7 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes where positions were being placed, it was determined that there were many adjustments that needed to be made. Ms. Snead explained there are several areas affected. She stated the first one was in the Drainage Maintenance Department. The Entomology Service Manager position had been eliminated. That position had been vacated for some time, but without the realization that there was a WAE position against the full time position, therefore the full time position was eliminated. She explained further that someone who had gone in as a WAE retired, and since we can no longer put in WAE’s, the position was eliminated which created a need to restore the full time position back which will be an entry level along with the benefits. She said the second area was in relation to the Channel 47 contract. She explained that originally, it was thought that only one engineer was needed, but after the contract was reviewed, it was determined that we needed two engineers due to the amount of taping and broadcasting that needed to be done, therefore a little more needed to be added to that contract to cover that cost. Ms. Snead stated the City Manager had briefly spoken about Recreation and Special Events. Last week, in was noted that special events are not going to be contracted out as planned since there are some of the same resources in house capable of doing this. She stated $22,700 is needed to take care of Special Events such as the International Children’s Festival, the dancing event at the beach, the movies, and those types of small events. She further explained that the plan is to return money to the Virginia Air and Space Museum so that they can continue to do the downtown events. In summary, Ms. Snead said the $22,700 is for special events, and $175,000 is for the Virginia Air and Space Center special events funded by removing the money from the Recreation department. Councilman Kearney questioned if any money would be taken away from Parks and Recreation when the $175,000 is transferred. Ms. Snead responded no, and explained that the original plan was to contract it out, and it was in Parks and Recreation to issue a contract. Councilman Kearney asked if they were a holding agency. Ms. Snead replied yes. Councilman Washington questioned if the $175,000 was the total amount proposed to be taken out or if a portion of it is for the Virginia Air and Space Center. Ms. Snead answered that last year, they got $200,000, and this year $175,000. Councilman Washington questioned if the $175,000 was targeted to be reduced altogether to zero. Ms. Snead stated, yes and that last year there was $436,000 for Special Events between the Virginia Air and Space Center and what the City was doing, and as part of the Manager’s budget proposal, that was cut in half, proposing that instead of giving the Virginia Air and Space $200,000, that $230,000 plus would be bid out. She stated that the Parks Department Manager expressed that since that department still had some of the same people through the RIF process, that they should be capable of doing their own special events. She further explained that it wouldn’t make sense to contract out so it was determined that it was better to let the Virginia Air and Space Museum do the downtown events especially since it has been very successful and people have seemed to like the fact that they have managed that program well. City of Hampton, VA Page 8 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Ms. Snead said in the Community Development area, two WAE positions were eliminated, but it was determined that they still needed a permanent full time position, therefore a Land Development Associate position was added. She also stated that when the position was transferred, it was determined that a position was missed in the consolidation from Public Works Engineering into the Community Development Department. She explained $63,435 represents the entry level of the Land Development Associate in the transfer. Councilman Washington stated he noticed the adjusted revenue coming in for the Sheriff is $183,000, a reduction of $115,000. Ms. Snead stated that she would be reviewing that portion and Mr. Washington agreed to wait until she reached that portion of her presentation. Ms. Snead stated she had already touched base on the special events transfer to Virginia and Air Space Center of $175,000, so she would move forward and discuss Police. She stated that since Council had mandated that nothing be changed in reference to sworn positions, once the sworn positions were added back, the Chief was asked to give something back, possibly two clerical positions, therefore the Police budget was reduced by $67,000 which is the equivalent of two clerical positions. The City Manager noted that there have been multiple retirements from the Police Department as a result of the retirement incentive resulting in these positions soon to be vacated which is why the clerical positions were looked into since they do not impact either the direct service on the street nor do they impact employees who are already in that department. Ms. Snead stated she would discuss the Sheriff’s Department. She explained while the Sheriff’s Department does show an increase in revenue, based on what was estimated they would get in revenues from the State, the estimate was low, but even so, on the expenditure side, the State is eliminating nine positions from the Sheriff’s budget. She further explained that this represents the elimination of four positions which the Sheriff has agreed to. She stated that after speaking with the Sheriff, he understood, but would be hurt by the elimination of nine positions, but he could work with the elimination of four positions representing the $115,000. She said the Sheriff added that with everything that was going on he was going to ask for additional positions, so taking away all of the positions that the State cut, he asked to keep five of them. Ms. Snead stated when she mentioned earlier about the transfer of the position from Public Works Engineering to Land Development Service of Community Development that is the $38,435 that’s part of the $63,435. She explained the $63,435 going into Community Development was the Land Development Associate and the transferred position. She further explained that the $38,435 is the transfer position. She stated that there wasn’t enough to make this work, but there was $900,000 that we had set aside as we had done this year to reserve for State budget cuts, meaning there will be less money, more or less $824,000. She stated with all of the changes, there is a net change to appropriations of $120,219 which will result in a balanced budget. The City Manager noted that there is one minor adjustment to the Storm Water budget, but thought it would be better to get Council’s reaction to the general fund budget first and then move to the Storm Water budget. City of Hampton, VA Page 9 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Mayor Ward asked if anyone had questions for Ms. Snead. Councilman Washington asked what if the boat tax and RV tax remained the same. Ms. Snead responded that she would have to go to contingency and pull money that is on reserve for State budget cuts, or the cut would have to come from some other place. The City Manager clarified Mr. Washington’s question stating she thought he was asking if we did cut it, there would be $200,000 that could be used on the expense side so that contingency would not have to be cut for mid year reserves. Councilman Washington stated that is exactly what he was asking, and Ms. Snead said that was correct. Mayor Ward stated this was confusing in reference to eliminate versus not eliminate since it is eliminated now. Ms. Snead stated the Mayor was correct and that would give more revenue. Mayor Ward asked if anyone had further questions. Councilwoman Leary stated she had an observation. She stated she had given Council a work sheet showing the cost per capita for the region that was printed in the Daily Press. She stated that she received an email from the Commissioner of the Revenue wanting to set up a meeting to explain things to her. Instead, she said she would like for the constitutional officers to come before Council after the budget maybe in July or August and explain why this cost per capita is so high, rather than her meeting with an individual. She expressed in her opinion that it would be better if the individual explained to those citizens that don’t understand this increase and may have the same issue with it that she does. Mayor Ward agreed and added that the chart itself is deceiving, because there are a lot of factors that go into it, for instance, seniority, there are some constitutional officers that have been around for a long time, which is one of the reasons their salaries are higher than other cities. She added that there is the fact that our constitutional officers often do more work than required by State code, and they get compensated on a different level. She explained the chart can appear one way when actually the facts are there, and it can be a different fabric altogether. She said it can be looked into. The City Manager stated she has data already put together that would share some of these factors, for instance, the State gives a different starting salary based upon the population of the City, even though the workloads may actually be very similar. She added that she would be glad if Council does want the constitutional officers to come, but it would also be prudent for staff to provide the Council, the new Councilmembers, and the community the history about that program because that program hasn’t been really at the constitutional officers’ setting. She explained further that the City has set the salaries, not the constitutional officers, so it would be incumbent upon staff to give the staff background on that item. She said she would be happy to do so. Councilwoman Leary agreed and said she thought it was important as well. Mayor Ward stated she wanted to bring up the matter of the travel budget for City Council. She said Mr. Wallace has said several times that if senior staff was going to take a 2% cut, that Council should too. She stated there have been some cuts to the City of Hampton, VA Page 10 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Council budget, including travel, and her understanding was that the budget for travel is $7,000 for the entire Council. Ms. Snead confirmed that was correct. Mayor Ward suggested council agree to divide up the $7,000 to $1,000 per person. She stated she spoke to the City Manager about being allowed to save it from year to year at 100% versus the 65% rate, in the event somebody wanted to go to a convention or an event they would be allowed to save for it. She added, the money could always be yielded to another member of Council or the Councilmember could agree not to take any of it, but that would be a fair way to divide it up. She stated this is a much smaller budget than in previous years, and she didn’t want it turned into a first come, first serve situation. Mayor Ward asked Council if everyone was in agreement to proceed that way. Councilman Kearney questioned if one Councilmember could give their money to another. Mayor Ward confirmed, yes, one Councilmember may give their money to another member of Council. Councilwoman Leary stated she was concerned about losing funding for The National League of Cities and the Virginia Municipal League because those are two major events that are strictly for elected officials. She stated that a lot of networking is done at those events and we get a lot in return. Mayor Ward reiterated that all that is allowed now in the Council travel budget is $7,000. She added every other department and department head has had to cut back severely on travel and those departments have many important things that they attend in the country such as educational seminars and things to get certified and things that are important to them in terms of national conferences. She stated these departments have all had to cut back, so Council will have to do the same thing. Councilwoman Leary asked if this means $7,000 total will be cut, meaning $7,000 is not being taken out, but $7,000 is just being left in. Mayor Ward confirmed that was correct and none of this was coming directly from her, but rather the City Manager’s recommended budget which provides for $7,000 for council travel. The City Manager stated the travel budget was cut effectively in half, meaning roughly $7,000 was taken out leaving $7,000 in the budget for Council travel. Vice Mayor Spencer asked how much money has been spent each year on Council travel against the allotted amount that was in the budget. He asked if Council has been using it all to begin with. The City Manager stated that money spent varies from year to year. She explained in some years, it’s all been used, in other years it hasn’t. She further explained that right now there aren’t any procedures for how we do travel, and that it is left up to each individual Council person. She stated that the idea of having a set amount reserved for each Council person makes sense because that travel can be budgeted and money is carried over 100% from year to year. She added a Council person might decide to go to a big conference every two years, or they may decide to go to a local conference every year, they can make those decisions, but right now the way the travel budget has worked, it has been first come, first serve and when the money is exhausted, the City of Hampton, VA Page 11 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Manager steps up to the plate and tries to find money in other budgets to cover what additional travel may be needed. She added by reducing the budget in half, which was done because we were trying to make cuts in all departmental budgets, it makes travel even tighter and having some policy either suggested by the Mayor or Council would make some sense to avoid getting in a situation where the Council ends up over- spending its budget. Vice Mayor Spencer stated the reason he asked the question was because he wasn’t sure if Council had been using all of the money or not. He added, in times of austerity and budget cuts, it is critically important that employees go where networking takes place and be brought up to date on changes within their respective field. He stated in his opinion that it’s important that Council has a set amount, and $7,000 divides pretty easily. He stated if Councilmembers want to bank it for a year or two, do so, or if one member offers another to attend an event using their part of the funds, it makes sense. He further stated that it sets the example, and that Council needs to cut back just like Council is requiring everybody else to. He stated he believes Councilmembers are leaders within the City of Hampton, and this appears to be taking place in many cities and counties and nationally as well. He stated he supports $1,000 per person allowing the Councilmember to have discretion if they want to bank or transfer the money. Mayor Ward commented that the subject came up and needed to be discussed immediately because there is a newly elected officials conference at VML that she recommends the newly elected members of Council attend because it is very informative and helpful and an opportunity for new Councilmembers to meet people, and find out how things work in other jurisdictions and about Virginia Law and how it impacts us. She added now that there is only $7,000 to work with, there wouldn’t be much left for the rest of the year. The City Manager asked if Council was comfortable with these changes so the motions could be prepared, or if it was necessary to go through each item. She stated a motion needed to be prepared between the afternoon and evening meetings. Councilman Gilliland stated that he is concerned about and had asked for information about staffing in the Economic Development Department specifically on the job creation side. He stated he received the information from staff and the City Manager has proposed splitting a Real Estate Land Development master plan implementation separating that from the Business Development or Job Creation side. He stated his concern is that the job creation side of economic development is as fully developed, staffed and funded as it needs to be to implement a truly high tech economic development strategy. He stated that he has mentioned before that 90 plus percent of all jobs are created by small and existing businesses year in and year out, and this is reliable data that has occurred for generations across the planet, most specifically in the US. He stated even politicians are guilty of liking big companies such as Gateway and Mercedes; however, the reality is those companies create fewer jobs than the collective existing small businesses in our community. He explained that small companies generate 13 times more patents than large companies, therefore the Economic Development Department needs to reflect that in its organizational chart, funding, staffing and in its strategic plan. He stated that in his opinion, it does not. He stated business development is simple as long as a certain number of contacts are made in order to create enough interest in warm leads to close a certain number of deals, providing a certain number of quotes, in order to close a certain number of sales. He City of Hampton, VA Page 12 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes stated he does not know a magic ratio for an Economic Development Department, but those metrics exist for all kinds of industry sectors. He added that the City doesn’t have enough staff to interact personally with the small and existing businesses in the community to become remotely characterized as a business friendly city. He stressed that this problem is in need of being fixed and it has been for a very long time. He explained all of the companies and businesses in the City of Hampton could be reviewed creating a matrix ranking those businesses in whatever particular business sectors or clusters, considering how many people they employ, wages, percentage of those that live in our community, and they would get ranked from A to D with A being the highest rank. Those A ranked companies would receive a monthly visit from someone in Economic Development asking questions such as how may we help you grow, do you need anything, what hassles do you have with the City? Economic Development could offer explain programs with the State, and offer to help these companies fill out the paperwork. He further explained that if the City did that for three or four years, businesses would stay in Hampton, and would grow in Hampton because the City would be assisting them in solving problems they have that may be restricting their growth. He said in his opinion, people would flock and may even leave other communities to locate in Hampton if they knew that kind of support was here, but it isn’t. He stated this is not just a problem in the City of Hampton, but he has not seen any Economic Development Department doing a good job of this. He stated this problem is easy and fixable if the resources are put toward resolving the problem. Councilwoman Leary concurred with many of Councilman Gilliland’s statements. She stated what he spoke on generated some other questions. She explained she has been waiting approximately five months for a comprehensive list of consultants that the City has been using. She stated her concern was why the City has been paying consultants and paying staff making six figures that should be capable of doing what consultants do. She stated that the public asks her this question frequently. Councilwoman Leary stated that she had another concern. She mentioned that after returning from her first national convention, she saved the City approximately one million dollars by instituting some new technology the City did not have. She also mentioned that at the second convention she attended, she did the same thing with spectrometry, but now spectrometry is being cut by $84,000. She stated she hasn’t asked about it because when the new members of Council came on, she wanted to take a more strategic look at the entire budget and how money is being spent. She gave an example that several members of Council had been to Las Vegas where the peninsula town centers and the malls are invested in and discussed. She stated, in her opinion, Las Vegas is too expensive for Council to be doing business there. She stated that she believes Economic Development takes five or six people there two or three times a year, without seeing results in reference to what is needed for small businesses and young entrepreneurs. She further stated that this makes her wonder about how money is being spent. She stated she would like to get through this process, so will object to anything today, but is pleased to see new Councilmember faces that may help with these challenging issues. Councilman Wallace responded to Councilwoman Leary’s comments stating that the comments that were made, glittering generalities, no specificity, no definitiveness in terms of what has been done and what has been generated. He said he seriously questions someone’s ability to go to a conference and bring back an estimated million dollars in that particular context. He stated there may have been a possibility that staff City of Hampton, VA Page 13 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes was not aware of or already working in that particular process. He stated attending a conference is like beauty in terms of what you get out of it and how you define it in that particular context and that he has been around as long as anybody and been to as many conferences as anybody. He explained that there are people out there hustling and selling things, thus it’s not an end all to be all in that particular process in terms of attending a conference and bringing back information. He confirmed that staff brings information back. He said travel is rationalized by saying we bring back so much value to the community, but it is also again in the context of being looked at in the eye of the beholder in terms of what you do and how you define it and quantify it. He commented, as far as Vegas is concerned, it is easy to victimize attendants at a high end venue that’s very extremely popular and people get victimized by it all the time. He gave an example of a manager being victimized by virtually the fact that the International City Management Conference was held in Montreal. He continued, Montreal was part of the International City Conference group, and they, like our city for conventions, bring them to their community to do that. He explained that simply because the location happens to be across the border, then it gets glamorized in the context that “oh they went to Canada”. He stated it was a national conference and that is where your professional people go in order to try to enhance and embellish and bring back new ideas and concepts to their communities. He explained Las Vegas is the venue for two must attend very important conferences, the retail industry, and the technology industry. He further explained that the conferences are there year after year because there are very few places in the country that can accommodate those numbers of attendees. He said places such as Vegas, Chicago, New York, and Orlando are venues that can accommodate those numbers of people, and it is important to keep those things in mind when considering how money gets divided before a definitive conclusion is drawn about how good it is or how bad conferences and their venues are. Councilman Kearney concurred with Councilman Wallace’s points, and stated that was the reason he went to Las Vegas as a new Mayor, resulting in Morris Stein and that group deciding to come to Hampton to build the town center which opened four years after all of the planning and discussion. Councilman Wallace stated he and Mr. Kearney attended that particular conference together and met Morris Stein in that particular environment. Councilman Kearney stated that during that conference, he was flabbergasted at how large the buildings were, but it resulted in the fact that staff had led us in the right direction and the City was doing the right thing and in turn the investments occurred. He added sometimes it may appear that the right thing is not being done, and the job can be overwhelming, but the end result led in the right direction. Councilman Kearney brought to everyone’s attention an article in the business section of the May 12, 2010, Daily Press about Massachusetts versus Virginia. He explained the article referred to the Boston area and how Boston has a higher tax rate, crime rate, union wages, the congestion and the highways, all detrimental to businesses wanting to come in. He gave the example of the big dig that took about twenty years resulting in high land prices yet in competition with Virginia which has many similarities in population break down, Massachusetts is winning hands down at attracting new businesses. He said the article compared the school systems and it was education that made the difference. He said Councilman Gilliland probably remembers when Council pushed years ago for the new schools. He explained per the article that even though the matrix City of Hampton, VA Page 14 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes is the same, the results of the students with regards to section and race were almost identical with that we have in our urban areas and they used old schools but still had a better graduation rate, higher national test scores by all students which in turn gave them a greater work force. He stated that this is nothing new and has been discussed for many years and will be until our schools are improved, resulting in people wanting to live here, shop here and business locate here. He stated he believes it is all connected, and isn’t just one little thing here and one little thing there. He added although there was criticism for building new schools, that is the reason it was done and the work force center was opened in Magruder Boulevard area. He concluded that he was proud that the City Manager wanted job growth under Economic Development and he looked forward to working with her over the next two years to help achieve that. He said our City should not hang our heads claiming to have done the wrong thing, but realize that things could have been done better and that the City is moving in the right direction. Mayor Ward stated that she didn’t mean to suggest that there is not value in travel and networking, because she knows that there is. She said she was simply letting everybody know what the budget situation was and it came to light because of the VML conference that was coming up and that Council will be expected to tighten belts like the other departments. Councilwoman Leary requested to explain something since according to one of her peers she had not given any specificity. She said one of the things she wanted to put into context was what she mentioned about going to meetings can net something that’s invaluable, has a price to it, and I remember something that Vice Mayor Spencer said. She spoke of them going to the Virginia Municipal League, and there was a Council meeting two days before where we were confronted with having to purchase several properties because one of the pump stations was not working adequately, therefore the City needed to spend a couple million dollars to buy these properties because the City had created some type of eminent domain situation where people could not live in their properties because of the stench coming from this pump station. She explained that during the conference, she spoke to some of the engineers and was advised on several alternative remedies to try, before spending a lot of money. She further explained that Vice Mayor Spencer spoke to the group of engineers and listened to their remedies and told Councilwoman Leary that she may have saved the City a couple of million dollars. She stated this is an example of how networking is important and things can be learned from other professionals and peers while at the same time, cutting expenses staff wise by sending one person to conventions, let them take copious notes, and returning and sharing important information learned with their peers. The City Manager stated that this was a good time to inform everyone that this year Hampton will be hosting VML, so we will have the opportunity to do the things that were just discussed locally and we take great pride in being able to host all the cities in our community during our 400th year. She stated that the public would probably like to know that we will have those opportunities without having to travel. Councilman Wallace said he hopes other cities have travel budgets. Mayor Ward asked if anyone had any other business, regional or new business. The City Manager announced that there are still a few more budget items to go over. City of Hampton, VA Page 15 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Ms. Snead stated the last item to discuss is the Storm Water Management fund. She said in the current budget, we have about $390,000 for the repair of the government ditch, being the ditch portion that runs from the James River to the Hampton Newport News City line and Hampton and Newport News must join together to repair that ditch. She explained that Newport News did the estimate and, it was determined that an additional $58,000 was needed, therefore an appropriation from retained earnings of $58,000 and with the money going into storm water drainage capital outlay to cover our cost of that ditch repair. Councilman Washington asked if the ditch in question was the New Market Creek coming from the Newport News line into the City of Hampton. The City Manager asked Assistant City Manager James Peterson to address this issue. Mr. Peterson stated he wasn’t sure about the ditch Councilman Washington was referring to but the Government (Newmarket) Outfall ditch is one of the big drainage ditches that take water and drainage from the City of Hampton through Newport News to the James River, to that basin. He stated he has a map that can show you exactly how it runs. Councilman Washington asked if that is the tributary that takes the water to the James River. Mr. Peterson replied, right. Councilman Washington asked if that was part of the New Market Creek area also. Mr. Peterson asked if the one Councilman Washington was referring to is the one that runs from Mercury Blvd. down through to the New Market Creek area and back through the area where Aberdeen is. Councilman Washington replied yes. Mr. Peterson replied he didn’t think that was the Government (Newmarket) Outfall ditch. The City Manager stated she felt it was important for Assistant City Manager James Gray to speak on our human services issues about the cuts that the CSB announced this week. She said representatives from the CSB appeared at both public budget hearings thanking Council for the funding provided, but noting that the State budget cuts were going to require them to make some significant cuts and they have now finalized those and are beginning to share them and in fact they had a meeting today with the ARC group about one of the changes they are proposing which is the elimination of the voucher program for some of the families who need day services for their children. She stated that in response to that conversation, we have been told by Mr. Chuck Hall, Executive Director at the CSB, the first question that came from ARC was will the City step up and make up the cut. She stated she expects that Council may begin to get inquires from either the consumers directly or the agencies that are serving them about us making up the budget cut for the CSB. She further stated this is the reason she wanted Mr. Gray to explain it but more importantly, she also wanted to remind the public that the City has been an extremely good partner financially and otherwise with the CSB. She explained that although there is a $75,000 cut this year to the CSB, it’s really not a cut and that back in 1989, the Council gave funds to the CSB specifically for prevention funding to go to Alternatives. This year Mr. Hall advised us that because he knew he was going to have to make some cuts as a result of the State funding cuts to direct services, he didn’t feel that they could be the ones to provide the prevention funding, and in recognition of the fact that Council had given specific funding for prevention services, we then informed Mr. Hall that we would need to take that money back. If he didn’t feel comfortable providing it we would be glad to provide that directly unless Council decided City of Hampton, VA Page 16 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes that they didn’t want to continue prevention services, but that money had been reserved specifically for alternatives and prevention services, so if you take that out, we actually maintained funding to the CSB and further, in recognition of the fact that we knew that they had State budget cuts and the fact that we had a clientele that we felt was being underserved, we worked out an arrangement with Mr. Hall, Wanda Rodgers, Director of Social Services, Jimmy Gray and myself where we are able to send The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) clients who are in need of support services from the CSB to the CSB. The CSB will be able to charge Medicaid, thus they will both meet the needs of the clients and generate some additional revenue for the CSB. So effectively once that program is up and running full speed, the City is effectuating more revenue coming to the CSB. She stated that she wanted it known for the record that the City is doing its part. What the CSB has to deal with are the cuts from the State which we’ve all felt at the school level, at the City level, and that both Councils appoint members to the CSB to make those decisions on your behalf. She emphasized that these have been painful decisions, and everything that we’ve gone through and that the schools have gone through have been terribly painful, but we’re not in the position to make up these cuts, these cuts are in excess of several hundred thousand dollars and I wanted you to be aware of that when people start to come to you and ask you will the City make up what the CSB cut. Mr. Gray is available to give you more CSB specifics. Councilman Kearney stated he had questions about different agencies located under tab 15. He said they outlined what the agency did, for example, Insight, but it shows that most of the monies that we give to these groups actually go through the CSB, not all, but many of them do. The City Manager confirmed that Mr. Kearney was correct in that all of them go through human services. Councilman Kearney asked for example, does the CSB get the money or does it go to the agency, Insight for example. The City Manager responded that Insight is one that we actually were funding out of outside agencies not through human services or the CSB, but a good example would be the Denbigh house. She stated they came and thanked Council for funding to allow them to deal with post traumatic stress and brain disorders cases resulting from war injuries and other accidents. She explained that goes to the CSB and the CSB in turn gives the money to the Denbigh House, but the CSB doesn’t really have the flexibility to divert those funds to some other purpose. She explained this is a similar situation to the alternative situation described before where money was going to the CSB for prevention services, the CSB was then taking that and giving it to alternatives directly. She stated other agencies that are funded with governmental support such as the Food Bank, Transitions, Peninsula Agency on Aging and HELP, agencies that do services that if they went away we would otherwise have to do ourselves, they go through Human Services, the Social Services Department because they are basically partners with Social Services. Councilman Kearney asked if the money goes to Social Services and they distribute it. The City Manager answered that they oversee the contract which gives the assurance that the money is being leveraged. Mr. Gray stated that the City Manager summed it up very well mentioning that the CSB had informed us that they were reducing their funding for their voucher program. Mr. Gray gave background on the voucher program explaining that State general grant funds are used to provide vouchers to clients in Hampton and Newport News who have intellectual and physical disabilities for day programming at agencies like the ARC, City of Hampton, VA Page 17 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Peninsula, Eggleston Services and those voucher programs are for up to $30 per day for a maximum of $7,200 annually and 78 people between Hampton and Newport News received those vouchers and for those programs, 38 of those actually live or are citizens of Hampton or family members of citizens of Hampton. He said CSB is reducing funding for that program nearly $510,000, probably the most significant reduction having some impact on services that are received for individuals with those types of disabilities. He stated per the Director Human Services, while they do receive this funding through the voucher program, funding is also available through Medicaid, and staff is prepared to process applications for Medicaid as soon as those individuals are notified that they will no longer receive the vouchers. He added that the turn around time for processing their applications is about seven days. He explained that some people may choose to pay for the services out of pocket once the voucher program is eliminated, but again Medicaid services or Medicaid funding is also available for the same services they are currently receiving. Councilman Wallace wanted clarification and asked if the City Manager mentioned $89,000. He also asked how much and if it was used as a voucher program for these individuals. The City Manager stated that in 1989, the Council provided funding for alternatives. She said $100,000 was provided for alternatives and the prevention funding. She further explained that these are two separate issues and that she was trying to explain the cut provided to the CSB this year because some people have talked about the fact that the City has not previously cut the CSB. She explained that the reason for the cut was because previously in 1989, $100,000 was given to the CSB to directly fund prevention services. Councilman Wallace asked for clarification if this was a one time gift. The City Manager replied that it was permanent, and the money has been used for alternatives every year since. Councilman Wallace again asked for clarification if this was a one time gift. The City Manager replied no and explained that we increased that contribution to the CSB by $100,000 annually. She said we did not add $100,000 every year, but we increased the base and never took it away for that $100,000 and every year since that time, the CSB has funded them at or in excess of that amount of money. She further explained that this year because they knew that the State general funds were going to require them to make reductions in areas such as the voucher program, they didn’t feel that they could cut these important services and maintain prevention services. She said under those circumstances, the City had to provide those prevention services directly unless Council gave specific direction to cease prevention services. She stated Council had been sent a memo relative to that effect and a letter was submitted to the CSB board about that issue. She explained that it really isn’t a cut because they are not funding alternatives any longer, but they are also not getting the money that we gave them for alternatives anymore. She said the voucher program is separate and distinct as Mr. Gray mentioned, that has been funded with State general fund dollars and since the State general funds were reduced, that is one of the areas that the CSB board has elected to reduce. City of Hampton, VA Page 18 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Councilman Wallace asked for clarification that these individuals will still receive the service, but through Medicaid. The City Manager stated, yes, if those individuals are willing, but there are some families that for whatever personal reason have not felt comfortable receiving Medicaid. She also noted that there’s also a waiting list for the revenue so there may be some transition time where they are not able to get that revenue. Councilman Wallace asked if Medicaid does not have the capacity, revenue wise, to service all of these individuals, what alternative would those individuals that would not be serviced have other than out of pocket. The City Manager confirmed that those individuals would have to do that out of pocket. Mr. Gray added that the only two alternatives are to either pay out of pocket or apply through Medicaid. He stated that the disabilities that they are receiving services for do qualify for Medicaid funding but they will have to make an application through the Human Services Department to apply for that funding. Councilman Wallace asked if the domino affect of that is that it also impacts ARC. The City Manager replied ARC of Peninsula is currently the preferred provider of many of these clients who have vouchers, not the only ones but they receive many of those clients. Councilwoman Leary asked how many people received vouchers, how many applied and whether or not anyone was turned away. Mr. Gray replied 78 total between Hampton and Newport News, 38 Hampton clientele who received vouchers. He stated that none were turned away and that currently, the voucher program is still in place. They are eliminating the voucher program beginning July 1, in the FY2011 budget, so those individuals are currently receiving services through the ARC and Eggleston Services through the voucher program. He added that once that voucher program is eliminated, those individuals would either have to pay out of pocket, or apply for Medicaid. He reiterated that funding is available through Medicaid and they do qualify to receive the same level of service through Medicaid. He stated, as the City Manager mentioned, some individuals choose or the voucher program has been the preferred method of funding therefore some individuals would prefer not to go to Medicaid, and if they have the capacity to pay out of pocket, then they will have to do so, otherwise they will have to make an application to Medicaid. The City Manager explained that the voucher program has been closed to new membership for many years going back to a change at Sarah Bonwell Hudgins many years ago. She added the people impacted by that change were given vouchers by the CSB and those have been maintained since that time, but once that change was made, the program was closed, so they have not been receiving new individuals into that voucher program for the last several years. She added this means no one is really being turned away, but they will lose voucher support and will have to go one of the two routes. Councilman Washington asked if the state cut the Medicaid funds for this particular program to CSB. City of Hampton, VA Page 19 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Mr. Gray stated that the State cut the funds typically geared to programs that are offered through CSB. Councilman Washington asked if there is any guarantee that those individuals now receiving vouchers who qualify with Medicaid through application will receive coverage. Mr. Gray explained that there are two different programs. One, there is a voucher program under Medicaid which provides services for those individuals who require some type of residential care such as through a group home, there is a waiting list for that particular program. The services provided through the ARC and Eggleston are vocational programs offered through a day service program and that is the program these vouchers are geared toward. He further explained if an application is made for a voucher, there could be some lag time between the time the vouchers are reduced and the time that the Medicaid funding is approved but all of the individuals currently qualify for Medicaid. He added that because of the disabilities that they do have, they do qualify for Medicaid, they just have to make an application for it. He said if any of the individuals who are currently receiving any funding through CSB for group homes or residential care, the voucher program is offered through Medicare for those services and there is a waiting list for that. He confirmed that the 78 individuals mentioned are individuals that are receiving services through day programs such as the ARC and Eggleston. The City Manager stated she was asked to clarify the conversation last week about the Phoebus Improvement League funding especially because of the articles that ran in the paper after our meeting suggesting that perhaps there had been improper use of the funds and the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) investigation. She explained in terms of funding for the Phoebus community, through any of these organizations whether it’s the Phoebus Improvement League or the Phoebus Merchants Association, or the Civic Association, there are no City general fund dollars available for any of those entities in our budget. She said we have long funded the betterment of the Phoebus community through Community Development Block Grant funds which are Federal funds and there are certain requirements to qualify for these funds of which all of the entities in Phoebus, only one currently qualifies. She explained you must be a 501 C3 organization, further, you must meet specific goals as articulated by the Federal grant program which the Phoebus Improvement League has done. To qualify for funds, in addition to that, an application must be filed and must be verified against the requirements of the program. The application process for these funds was advertised in the Daily Press on December 15th of 2009. She stated that she would make available to Council in the Friday packet a copy of that ad. In addition to placing the ad in the Daily Press, Ms. Angelique Shenk, Senior neighborhood Development Specialist indicated to her that a copy of the ad was sent to all the neighborhood organizations in the Neighborhood Office database including the Phoebus Improvement League, The Merchants Association of Phoebus, and the Phoebus Civic Association. She stated that the due date for the applications, remembering that they were advertised in the Daily Press on December 15th, was January 29th, of 2009, and on January 27th, because we had not received an application from one of the organizations that had come to Council and solicited funding, Ms. Shenk called that group and left a message to see if any assistance was required. She received and email response, again which I will provide to council in the Friday package that stated “Though there are many areas the Merchants of Phoebus could provide assistance and generate positive changes, this grant does not appear to address our focal areas.” Accordingly, as this organization did not complete an City of Hampton, VA Page 20 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes application, we were unable to provide CDBG funding for it. She reiterated, we do not have general fund dollars already available to any of these and with the fiscal situation we face, we were not able to provide funding to any new organization period, out of the general fund. We did however think that funding for Phoebus was critical, and as the Phoebus Improvement League is the only organization currently eligible, we did provide funding for it, as I said last week with the intent to write some tighter contract language to ensure that folks better understood when meetings were occurring and those kinds of things which we think are absolutely important for any organization receiving City funds. There have been allegations filed with both the city and HUD, that PIL use of funds is inappropriate. The City and HUD have reviewed these allegations. Additional reviews have been made as part of past routine HUD audits which they do of all localities who receive HUD funds. None of these reviews has confirmed any inappropriate use of the City CDBG allocation funds. She stated since we were not able to provide CDBG funds to any other organization that works in the betterment of the Phoebus community we did make the commitment to the Merchants Association as we have with the Phoebus Civic Association that City staff would work with any entity that had the betterment of the Phoebus community or the larger City in mind, to the extent that our City departmental operating budget would support it. She explained that since she provided that communication specifically to the Merchants Association, the president of that group has contacted her and asked for assistance in one particular area which she was able to meet, specifically with regard to waiving extra duty officer expenses for an event for which the organization had never been charged in the past and we were able to work that out. She concluded we will continue to work in partnership with that group or any other group that wants to promote the betterment of our community. Councilman Wallace asked the City Manager to mention the fact that we do have other Economic Development funds that are available for all of those entities. The City Manager confirmed yes, other Economic Development funds are available and she thanked Councilman Wallace for bringing that to her attention. She stated that roughly a year and half or so ago, the Council did adopt a program for tenant inducement funds and specifically included that for downtown and Phoebus and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). IDA administers that program for us, we do have criteria for applications, and there is a grant review process that the IDA uses. She said she spoke with William H. Benson, Jr., Chairman of the IDA earlier this week and he confirmed that they do have applications that they are beginning to review for the use of the tenant inducement funds. She explained that they do have certain standards that they think must be met in their fiduciary role and they are taking their time in reviewing those applications, and again as Mr. Wallace mentioned, a lot of people think it is just for downtown. She stated downtown was an important target area to be sure, but Phoebus was also included in that effort. Councilwoman Leary said that was always her understanding also. She stated when she had the opportunity, she introduced the Merchants Association of Phoebus to the Chair of the IDA, so she knows that they are working on something even now. She questioned, when did we have access to the CDBG money and when did the City of Hampton know they were going to be receiving CDBG money. The City Manager stated that we receive funds every year, but we don’t necessarily know how much we are going to get because just as the State makes budget cuts, so does the Federal Government. She stated she doesn’t know exactly when we received City of Hampton, VA Page 21 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes that notification, but she would be sure to get that from Ms. Shenk and provide it to you, but our process every year is to place an ad in the paper in the December time frame for receipt of applications at the end of January and then after we receive those applications, make the budget recommendations in concert with the Manager’s recommended budget. She reiterated that off the top of her head, she was not certain as to what date we actually got the notification from HUD as to the exact allocation. Councilwoman Leary stated since they work on October, that’s usually when they approve their budget. She stated that she thought it was probably around October, but would like a specific date. She added, she received a communiqué from the Merchants Association, something she specifically asked for was something to show how much money they had spent. She added for example, how much money had The Merchants Association of Phoebus spent in the last three or four years for events in the Phoebus area for which they have not been reimbursed. She stated she will provide Council with that report. She said she has also requested a time line on things because it’s very hard for her also. She said she appreciated names not being mentioned because that was very important to her, and in another meeting, names were mentioned. She stated she didn’t want to give the appearance or perception that she was dismissing any citizen and what they do for our City, so she appreciated it not going that far. The City Manager stated she looked forward to receiving the information requested by Councilwoman Leary and that it will certainly be entertained. She stated she feels it is very appropriate for our City departments to work in support of agencies that want to put on events to the extent that we have budgetary funds to do so. She noted that there are many individual merchants and or collection of merchants throughout the City that do choose to put on events that the City does not support. She explained that they do those to market their own businesses and/or their own business districts and so just because they have done that, does not necessarily meet the approach that we would use in terms of staff analysis for funding. She stated she has extended herself to any group that’s asked for support with the City to find ways that we can leverage our joint assets in order to improve our community. Councilman Wallace stated that the interest was that somebody has not been reimbursed, and his concern was have promises been made to reimburse somebody from something that we have not done. The City Manager replied, no. Councilwoman Leary stated she didn’t think that was implied and if it was it was not intentional. She explained she asked to see something in writing that can give her as a member of Council an idea of what has been generated by the businesses in Phoebus, and she has that. Mayor Ward asked if anyone else had anything else regional or new business. She stated Council would go into closed session and that the newly elected members of Council were invited to join them in the Lawson Conference room. City of Hampton, VA Page 22 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes Regional Issues New Business Closed Meeting 2. 10-0182 Closed session as provided in Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711.A.1, .3 and .7 APPROVED Motion made by: Councilmember Paige V. Washington, Jr. Seconded by: Councilmember Randall A. Gilliland Ayes: 7 - Randall A. Gilliland, Ross A. Kearney, II, Angela Lee Leary, Joseph H. Spencer, II, George E. Wallace, Paige V. Washington, Jr., Molly Joseph Ward Nays: 0 . 10-0214 to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters regarding the budget process and animal control and requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel NO ACTION REQUIRED . 10-0213 to discuss specific personnel decisions and changes proposed in the budget process and to discuss a personnel matter involving a council member. NO ACTION REQUIRED . 10-0219 to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters pertaining to the grant of a cable franchise, and requiring the advice of counsel NO ACTION REQUIRED . 10-0225 to discuss the disposition of publicly held property in the Buckroe area where the discussion in an open session could would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the city NO ACTION REQUIRED . 10-0141 to consider an appointment to the Hampton-Newport News Community Criminal Justice Board NO ACTION REQUIRED . 10-0185 to consider an appointment to the Board of Review of Real Estate Assessments NO ACTION REQUIRED City of Hampton, VA Page 23 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes . 10-0215 to consider appointments to the Federal Area Development Authority NO ACTION REQUIRED Certification 3. 10-0183 Resolution Certifying Closed Session WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, has convened a closed session on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote made in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act; and WHEREAS, Section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia Law; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, hereby certifies that, to the best of each member’s knowledge, (i) only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed session to which this certification resolution applies, and (ii) only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the city council of the city of Hampton, Virginia. ADOPTED Motion made by: Councilmember George E. Wallace Seconded by: Councilmember Angela Lee Leary Ayes: 7 - Randall A. Gilliland, Ross A. Kearney, II, Angela Lee Leary, Joseph H. Spencer, II, George E. Wallace, Paige V. Washington, Jr., Molly Joseph Ward Nays: 0 Adjournment _____________________ Molly Joseph Ward Mayor __________________________ Katherine K. Glass, CMC Clerk of Council Date approved by Council ______________________ City of Hampton, VA Page 24 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010 City Council Meeting Minutes City of Hampton, VA Page 25 of 25 Printed on 8/24/2010