City Council

Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -1– ______________________________________________________________________________ The regular meeting of the Petersburg City Council was held on Tuesday, March 6, 2018, at the Union Train Station. Mayor Parham called the meeting to order at 7:00p.m. 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Council Member Charles H. Cuthbert, Jr Council Member Darrin Hill Council Member W. Howard Myers Council Member Annette Smith-Lee Council Member Treska Wilson-Smith Vice Mayor John A. Hart, Sr. Mayor Samuel Parham Absent: None Present from City Administration: City Manager Aretha R. Ferrell-Benavides City Attorney Joseph E. Preston Clerk of Council Nykesha D. Jackson, CMC 2. PRAYER: Mayor Parham stated that Reverend Betty Jackson of First Baptist Church will lead the City in prayer. Reverend Jackson led the City Council meeting in prayer. 3. CLOSED SESSION: *There were no closed session items. 4. MOMENT OF SILENCE: a. Clerk of Council, Nykesha D. Jackson, led council and the audience in a moment of silence. 5. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: a. Clerk of Council, Nykesha D. Jackson, led council and the audience in the pledge of allegiance. Mayor Parham stated, “At this time I would like to have tonight’s ‘Positive Petersburg’ message and it comes from the Petersburg Public Library which has launched a City-wide initiative focused on bridging the digital divide in the City. This program comes in two parts. (1) Providing the opportunity for residents to have internet access at home. (2) Providing Wi-Fi connectivity on Petersburg Transit Buses. This makes Petersburg one of the first cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia to provide Wi-Fi access on public transportation. Wi-Fi is currently available on the Walnut Hill and Crater Road routes and will gradually be introduced to remaining routes over time. Petersburg Public Library cardholders can now check out portable Wi-Fi hotspots, called a ‘MiFi,’ for one week at a time. This ‘MiFi’ can bring wireless internet connectivity to the home and on-the-go for residents who check it out from the library. This is a tremendous step forward in bringing all of Petersburg in the 21st Century and increasing internet accessibility to all residents in the City of Petersburg.” 6. DETERMINATION OF THE PRESENCE OF A QUORUM:  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -2– ______________________________________________________________________________ Ms. Jackson stated, “We have a quorum.” 7. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS/PRESENTATION OF CEREMONIAL PROCLAMATIONS: (Each presentation will be limited to 10 minutes.) a. Proclamation for Girl Scout Week BACKGROUND: More than 3.8 million Girl Scout members nationwide will be celebrating 106 years of this American tradition, with nearly 50 million women who grew up participating in Girl Scouting and exemplify the impact of this amazing movement. RECOMMENDATION: Recommend Council present the attached proclamation to the Girl Scouts. Mayor Parham read the proclamation recognizing “Girl Scout’s Week” out loud. Mayor Parham stated, “Mrs. Councilwoman Wilson-Smith will you join me to present.” Presentation on Cervical Cancer and the statics of Cancer in Women BACKGROUND: To provide information to the citizens in Petersburg on women and cancer. RECOMMENDATION: For information only. Mayor Parham stated, “At this time Dr. Daphne Bazile of Southside Regional is not in attendance but Councilwoman Wilson-Smith will be making the presentation.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “There are flyers in the back of the room letting you know that we have a forum coming up in the City. It is next Wednesday, on March 14th. The issue in the City of Petersburg is that a great number of young women are being presented in the emergency room when it is actually too late to help them. So, in an effort to reach out to the ladies this forum will be presented. Please tell everyone that you know. Please grab another young lady and bring her to the event. It is all free. Things have changed a lot in the medical field. Also, if you can remember at one-point Petersburg was deemed the most unhealthiest City in the state. But we are working on that. We are working on fixing it. We cannot do it without your help. It’s woman’s history month. Let’s make some good history. Thank you.” b. Celebrating Women History Makers of Petersburg, VA BACKGROUND: Sixty second vignette highlighting history makers of Petersburg, VA. RECOMMENDATION: Sponsorship to place during the month of March 2018. Please refer to link https:youtu.be/BJykfEWj7AM as a sample of what neighboring City of Hopewell, VA participated in. The representative did not show up for presentation of celebrating women history makers of Petersburg, VA. 8. COMMUNICATIONS/SPECIAL REPORTS: a. Utility Action plan/Utilities History. BACKGROUND: City Council requested a Utility Action Plan and an update on the City’s progress in collecting the Utility Fund’s receivable’s.  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -3– ______________________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDATION: Presentation Purposes Only. Mrs. Benavides stated, “Mayor and Council, what we are going to present to you is actually a two-part presentation. Our CFO, Blake Ranes, will be talking to you about out billing and collection. Council has asked us to report where we are today on billing and collections. Also, our plans and some of the ideas we have towards increasing our collection, which is the goal. And he will take you through this presentation. You should have a copy of the presentation. And then following Mr. Ranes we will move to our utility project and we will introduce that at that time. Mr. Rane.” Mr. Rane went through the PowerPoint presentation and brought out some key points below:  In 2014, new meters were installed throughout most of the City.  In 2015, there were periods of billing that were not billed.  In 2017, they received three reports that outlined actions to be taken and this gave them additional information.  There was an action plan by the Robert Bobb Group and a rate study by CH2M that dated August 2017.  There are two drop boxes at City Hall. (one outside in front of City Hall and one inside City Hall.  Currently as of January 2018, the collection rate is 78%.  The sunset provision from the second increase of 14.3% has been removed.  The City combined functions of the treasurer office and utility billing to make a new department.  An intern director of billing and collections has been hired and there is also additional staff as well. There are four tellers at the window now.  They resumed cut-offs on 90-day accounts in January. There was discussion among City Council and staff. b. Utility Discount Pilot Program for Seniors. BACKGROUND: During an audit in 2017, it was discovered that all residential accounts were charged the same base rate regardless the meter size. This pilot program will reduce the utility cost for qualifying seniors. RECOMMENDATION: Presentation purposes only. Ms. Benavides stated, “Mayor and Council let me introduce this topic. One of the projects that I wanted to talk about is how do we bring relieve to our citizens regarding the water bills. Often council has addressed an interest in seeing what we can do to help our citizens. I have asked Mrs. Sinclair who also works under Mrs. Innis in the Public Works department to come forth with a program that can at least assist our seniors with some of the challenges they have. So, this program is very similar to a program we had when I worked for the City of Chicago. And my request to Mrs. Sinclair was to come up with something we can do to help our citizens as a PILOT. And if this works we can move forward and address it. So, she is coming forth with her presentation along with Mrs. Innis for you today. Thank you, Mrs. Sinclair.” Mrs. Sinclair went through a PowerPoint presentation addressing the points below:  In-depth analysis was requested to determine participants and the cost factor in implementing a senior citizen discount program for utility services.  Veteran numbers make up about 15.3% of the population of the City.  In recent report, February 2018 there were approximately 2,311 utility accounts that consisted of 1 and 1½ inch meter.  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -4– ______________________________________________________________________________  Basic utility bill will start at a minimum of $100.  There are 11,300 residential accounts and approximately 2,311 one and 1½ inch meters  3 options: (1) sewer only with a 50% discount, (2) discount water and sewer by 50%, and (3) take seniors to a ⅝ meter price.  Increases revenue and relief for seniors in regard to their water bill. There was discussion among City Council Members and staff. Mrs. Benavides stated, “So Mayor, if council would like to we need two things I believe. We would still need to do a public hearing at the next council meeting on the rate change or based on what option you decide on. Council Member Myers made a motion to schedule a public hearing for March 20th. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. The motion was approved on roll call. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham c. City Manager’s Report a. Review of FY19 Budget Priorities Mrs. Benavides stated, “Mayor and Council, good afternoon and good evening. As we prepare for the FY18-19 fiscal year and budget presentation I just wanted to give you an overview of where we are and where we are trying to move forward to. One of the recommendations as we start to talk about our City was one mission, one team, and one Petersburg and how we focused on moving together as one team. The purpose of this discussion is to just give you an overview of our current structure which we have doo chne over a number of times, to review the budget calendar for FY18-19, to discuss the City Manager’s identified priorities as well as review the City of Petersburg funding challenges for the year to come. I won’t spend a lot of time on it. We have gone over the organizational chart a number of times during our budget process. I will remind you that we are divided up with two deputy city managers. One for operation and one for community affairs. We have our CFO and administrative services and IT and HR and our public safety which is police and fire. One of the things that I wanted to bring to your attention and we will have more time to discuss this but as we start to look at our budget calendar for the next fiscal year what I am prepared to do is to talk about our priorities. And also, to focus on what are the things that we need to do to communicate to the citizens about our budget. We have scheduled to present the City Manager’s proposed budget to you on the 20th of March. We have our council retreat on the 25th and 26th of March where we will be able to discuss in detail some of the priorities and some of the initiatives that council wants to do. We also in April are looking at having our third council meeting and do a budget workshop to talk about revenue. I want to make sure that a lot of times when we present the budget we give you the whole kit and caboodle at one time and we don’t have enough time to talk about the details and share the details with the citizens and you. And so, our first workshop we will talk about revenue. We have done it for the adjustment but we like to talk about it in looking at the most historically and what will be coming in the future. On the 17th, we will do a budget workshop on our general fund and that will include all avenues on the general fund. On the 24th, we would like to have our schools to do a presentation, special revenue as well as enterprise funds. On the 26th one of the new things that I am proposing and I am not sure if you have done this in the past is that one of the things I did in Chicago is that we did ward based budget meetings. And as you do your ward meeting I thinks that it would be a great caveat that we bring the whole financial team to each ward and that we would present that for the community to talk about what are the things that they want to see and present. And so, what we have is and the dates are not set in stone and that we can move them around. But what I wanted to do was to schedule it and come out in each ward and have the senior staff to come and be at your ward meeting. Moving through the month and that will start on the 26th and continue on through our other council meetings. The goal would be at the end of those ward meetings council would have feedback from their ward so that you can present any other changes that may come from those meetings to the budget for the City Manager. And then by the 31st we will have the response back. Our budget  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -5– ______________________________________________________________________________ first public hearing would be on 5th of June on the budget and then by the 12th we have the final hearing as well as the approval. And our fiscal year ends on June 30th. What we like to do is to make sure that we are communicating as much as possible in providing our residents and council the ample opportunity to understand and take ownership in this budget process.” 9. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA (to include minutes of previous meeting/s) a. Minutes: Regular City Council Meeting – February 20, 2018 b. Schedule a public hearing to approve the Application for Real Property Tax Exemption for a nonprofit organization named Delta Community Service Foundation located at 2951 S. Crater Road. c. Schedule a public hearing to approve the Application for Real Property Tax Exemption for a nonprofit organization named Petersburg Battlefields Foundation, Inc. located at 501 Rives Road. d. Schedule a public hearing to approve the Application for Real Property Tax Exemption for a nonprofit organization named Flaming Sword Church of Deliverance located at 200 S. Sycamore Street. e. Schedule a public hearing to approve the Application for Real Property Tax Exemption for a nonprofit organization named Open Door Ministries Church of God located at 301 E. South Boulevard. Ms. Jackson stated, “The suggested date for the public hearings is March 20, 2018.” Council Member Hill made a motion to accept the Consent Agenda. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. The motion was approved on roll call. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith- Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham 10. OFFICIAL PUBLIC HEARINGS: a. A public hearing to amend the Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Enterprise Fund and Special Fund budgets BACKGROUND: The proposed budget amends Special Revenue Funds, and Enterprise Funds. The Special Revenue Fund amendments include the Community Development Block Grant Funding, Grant Funds, and Street Funds. The Enterprise Funds amendment includes Public Utilities, Stormwater Fund, Golf Course, and Petersburg Area Transit. Below is a list of proposed budget amounts in each fund. Fund Proposed Budget Streets Fund $5,859,254 CDBG Fund $1,213,763 Grants Fund $1,239,822 Stormwater Fund (Changing classification $1,450,035 from Enterprise Fund to Special Revenue Fund Golf Course Fund $1,018,815 Public Utilities Fund $12,765,978 Petersburg Area Transit Fund $4,518,875  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -6– ______________________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDATION: Recommend City Council approve the attached appropriations to approve the amended FY18 Special Fund and Enterprise Fund Budgets. Mrs. Benavides stated, “Mayor and Council this is a presentation on our proposal of budget amendments. Budget amendments that we are talking about today represent our enterprise and special revenue. I like to start by saying that when we publish the enterprise section in the newspaper on the expenditure side we published the special revenue twice in there. We will only do the public hearing I believe today for just the special revenue fund and then the utility fund. We will republish in the paper for the next meeting to present to you two funds. One is the golf course and the other is the transit. We will do the presentation today and then schedule the public hearing for a second day. As we mentioned in our overview of our FY18 budget we noticed that there were a couple of things. We talked about the fact earlier that there was reorganization of structure. Specifically, this is when you see our public works function. We reinstated the 10% raise compensation and we outsourced many of the operations. We talked about the operations but the operation that is impacted by this budget today includes our parks, public works, planning, economic development and transit. I am going to introduce Mr. Rane who will take us through the budget amendment and recommendations. Then after that Mr. Floyd will talk about the specifics within there.” Mr. Rane and Mr. Floyd went through the PowerPoint presentation. There was discussion among staff and council members. Ms. Jackson opened the floor for public comments. Earnestine Saunders, 2009 Country Lane Ct, stated, “This is how I feel as a citizen, we as people in Petersburg and I feel like we are being punished for something that somebody else has done. And then not only that we are being charged for being penalized. We are looking at this from a different angle from you. You sit behind the table and make the rules but we are on the other side where we have to work and pay our bills. One of the things we try to do is to keep the water in the house. But the main issue is that we need our cars to get to work to make the money to pay our bills. And I am not giving up the money for my house for my mortgage and get put out on the street. I’m just going to let you turn it off. Because you know a lot of us know how to survive. By making these accusations and telling us to push it and forcing us to do something. A lot of us are trying to do it but it is out of our context. We cannot do what you ask us to do. And not only that if we don’t pay it then it gets shut down. I’m past 90 days. You do not know our issues. All of us have stories. And mines was very serious and I fell behind and when I was caught up and I was able to pay every other month I was paying $110 every two months and it was six in the household. My children are grown now and it is just me there and I am paying $110 or $116 for one month. I am on a fixed income and I cannot keep up and it bothers me because I cannot pay my bills. When I was paying every two months I split my bill. I was put out of my job. Not because I wanted to but because they put me out on disability because I got injured on the job and got caught up in a machine. I don’t know how you all feel about what I am saying but I am struggling. And like today I went down to pay on my water bill and I was told that it’s not enough you have to come halfway. I cannot give you what you are asking for. I am giving you what I can afford to pay you. If I give you what you are asking for that mean my electric may get turned off or I fall behind in my mortgage and I would be able to catch up. And like you have this PILOT going on, why is it just for senior citizens and why not the disability also. You are leaving people out that still fall in that category. And you are not looking at the whole picture. You are looking at part of it.” Seeing no further hands, Ms. Jackson closed public comments. Council Member Hill made a motion to approve the attached appropriations to approve the amended FY18 Special Fund and Enterprise Fund Budgets except for mass transit and golf course. The motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Hart. The motion was approved on roll call. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -7– ______________________________________________________________________________ 18-ORD-8 AN ORDINANCE, AS AMENDED, SAID ORDINANCE MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING JULY 1, 2017, AND ENDING JUNE 30, 2018, IN THE VDOT/STREETS FUND FOR PETERSBURG FUTURE SERVICES. 18-ORD-9 AN ORDINANCE, AS AMENDED, SAID ORDINANCE MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR COMMENCING JULY 1, 2017, AND ENDING JUNE 30, 2018, IN THE CDBG FUND FOR PETERSBURG FUTURE SERVICES. 11. PUBLIC INFORMATION PERIOD: The Public Information Period is established by the Rules of Council to hear input from City residents or owners of businesses in the City. It will last for a maximum of 30 minutes. Speakers will be called in the order that they have signed up to speak. If there are ten or fewer speakers, each shall speak for a maximum of 3 minutes. If there are more than ten (10) people desiring to speak, the time allotted to each person may be adjusted or the number of speakers limited to meet the time limitation. A speaker may speak on items except those that are listed on tonight’s Council agenda. Any matter brought before the attention of the City Council during the public information period will not be acted upon by the City Council at this meeting. Willie Noise, 1508 Circle Drive, stated, “Tonight I would like to say and start off with these last few meetings you have been getting good vibes. The audience has been kind of quiet, understanding and there haven’t been a whole lot of bickering going on. To me that’s a sign that we are improving. Thanks for the prayer. I want to throw a shout out to Mr. Pritchett, City Manager and Chief of Police. Everybody seems to be falling inline. I like that. The cancellation of the water sale was a good move. And the exemption of some of the senior citizens taxes and stuff. I would like to suggest that we start on an early clean-up. The weather is pretty good. Everybody that is working out there in the boonies is cutting grass and all this stuff and the elements. This is a good time to get out and enjoy themselves and see some of the results of what they doing. Another thing that been on my mind is the river. The improvements and stuff. I’m a fisherman and I like going down to the river. But somebody is not and I guess I can say that those who are non-fishers. You go down there and share reels or something like that and throw the line in. But everybody don’t have that feeling for the river. Those that don’t have it is going to have to have it for the ones that do. We all in this thing together and what you don’t feel somebody else feel. Let’s get with it and share that feeling. You mention one time about the river and the people that were responsible for cleaning up and t some attraction and making it beautiful. They gave a report here but they didn’t allow the public to speak on it. And it was a lot of incorrect material giving out and a lot of promises and what they said they had done with the money that they received or whatever. That was incorrect and I didn’t get a chance to speak on it. I’m monitoring Colonial Heights on their riverside and the river that runs down between it. There looking real good and were falling behind. So, they going to have more people on their side of the river enjoying their recreation then we are having. Looks like were the birth. Let’s keep on keeping on.” Jennet Rooney, 1993 Ridgewood Drive, stated, “I still have not received a water bill. I moved into my home. I was awarded in a divorce. I moved back in on the 8th of December and I still have not received a water bill. As far as the meter sizing form, there is a meter sizing form but it’s for commercial properties. I would like to know why there isn’t one for residential. I looked it up online but I don’t have a copy of it. It does exist and I would just like to know why there isn’t one for residential properties. I have some bills from some friends of mine in other cities. This one is in Hopewell. This is just the water bill and it’s for March and its $22.37. That’s just the water bill. I have another one that’s from Chesterfield and they are billed bi-monthly and this is January-February bill and that one looks like $42.36. I’m just wondering how you justify these high water bills we got based on the meter size. Because these people are not being billed by meter size. They have another flat and I just think that is ridiculous to have these little tiny bills. No one is going to fuss about those. And if you don’t live in Petersburg you are not going to fuss and even with a 5/8 meter that is still $54 for those. One of the reasons why I want to find out about the meter sizing form, is who is responsible for putting the  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -8– ______________________________________________________________________________ meter sizes in and what size. Why do I have a one-inch meter in a residential home and I’m probably paying the biggest water bill in my neighborhood and there is only one of me. And that just doesn’t make any sense at all to me. Somebody needs to give some explanations of what’s going on. And as far as the run off and stormwater, what about collecting it like rain water that runs off. Are you allowed to do that or is that illegal? Where you can use it to water garden or if you have a water purifier in your house take the rain water through a purifier and purify it. Does anybody know anything about that or can you do it? Anyway, thank you.” Cory Harris, 2316 Anderson Street, stated, “The lady who came up and talked about her bills, I want to talk to you for a minute. I understand that your focus is revenue. I get that. As a successful business man, I get that but your overlooking that pain of the people in the City. But it’s not just you. For years I have been pushing to help people just like her and was ignored. There are a lot of people in this City that are hurting just like her. And they are being ignored because we have a council whose angry because they feel we are being too hard on them. We are and we should. The fact is that we need closure and we need someone to listen to us and focus on people just like her and it’s not happening. It’s not about you and it’s not about me. It’s not about black, it’s not about white it’s about Petersburg. We are not focused on the bigger picture. If we help people like her Petersburg will grow. That’s the point. We need to stop with the egos that we are having. And it makes no sense. This woman seemed like she was about to cry. No response from this council. It’s ridiculous and this City is not going to change. I bet my life on it. Because this politic in this City, no one is focused on trying to fix the politics in this City. And that’s what’s destroying this City. Not the people it’s the politics. And the very people who can change the politics in this City are sitting down. If you change the politics in this City Petersburg will grow. But if you continue to make this about you then this City is not going to grow. And if you continue to make it about you then you shouldn’t be sitting in those seats. Thank you.” Richard Stewart, 129 Rolfe Street, stated, “I am here to thank the City of Petersburg especially the City library. Man, last night the film industry brought the picture ‘The Promised Land’ into Pocahontas that was out in Richmond. So many people came in of different race and color to view that. They say that they may show it again in the City. It goes all the back into slavery. It goes all the back into the 20th Century about Pocahontas and the things about the City of Petersburg. You got to see it. A lot of things are getting ready to happy this weekend and I hope the City is ready for it. Virginia State is sponsoring the NAACP Division 2 Tournament that is going on for about three or four days. The last time I believe we had something like this for homecoming. I believe we are going to have a population of people coming to the City. And I just wondered is the City ready for this and the police department and other people. I believe that this place is really going to explode. Let’s get ready for it. But I just don’t understand why nothing on the outside of Petersburg identify this tournament. This is a big-time thing and I hope we take full advantage of it. Thank you.” Linwood Christian, 613 St. Matthew Street, stated, “There are a couple of things I would like to address. I hope we will see some changes coming up. But first and foremost, I would like to say Mr. Myers you started something by coming to Apostle Bonner’s Church. Now it seems quite a few churches what to join the bandwagon. The church my mother attends right here on Shore Street, The Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, where District Elder Melvin Taylor is the pastor. First of all, we would hope that you all would extend an invitation to him to come to City Council one day to do a prayer. As well as he would like you all to have a meeting at the church and the Neighborhood Association would be more than glad to work with you and coordinate that. If more communities start inviting you to come out you have Mr. Myers to blame for that. One of the things that he read in the paper about council selling some type of bond to raise money and that this money would go to the school system. My question is have this been done yet? If not, then when it is going to be done. Because again when we look at it our school system, like most of the school’s system in the state, even though the board is an elected body they have no taxation power. So that means they have no way of raising their own funds and they have to depend on council for the last few years our school system has not seen much of an increase as far as funding to them. So, we hope something can be done. I am telling you we don’t want to get to a point where we may graduate our students but we don’t educate our students. Also, being that since some of the reorganizations come about, Petersburg has lost its babysitter. And what I mean by that is the recreation department. We have lost our babysitter. Those activities we had during the summer  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 -9– ______________________________________________________________________________ that were conducted through recreation. Just like council we the citizens would like to see a plan on what’s going to be done with our young people. It’s good that they’re at the library and that they are having these free breakfast’s but we need something to assure. As a single father, what recreation offer during the summer was a big help for me. Number one because I knew that when my son didn’t do what he was supposed to do he was the only one that had to worry about them calling me. Because I knew recreation was going to take care of it. And let’s face it, how many of us can go to King’s Dominion three times a summer for under $100. Thank you.” Barb Rudolph, 1675 Mt. Vernon Street, stated, “Thanks for adding me Ms. Jackson I will make it worth your while. I will be nice. I was going to be nice anyway. Good evening everybody. There’s been some really interesting presentations and information provided tonight. I want to commend the City Manager and staff for that. You all have asked some good questions as well. But one thing that kind of stood out tonight and at previous meetings. It particularly comes up when we are talking about money and where we are going next year as the organization of City government. We have also had a lot of conversation about customer service. These are really important components about what you all are doing. I wanted to remind you of something that got talked about last fall then seemed to drop off into an oblivion and it has never come up again. Remember we had a forensic audit. You know all the agony that we went through for months and over a year to actually get that audit and get the results presented to the City. There was one part that actually dealt with money loss from the treasurer’s office. I believe that there are questions about that but I won’t stomp on that tonight. But what I really was interested in was the overarching environment that was identified by the auditor’s that they called a culture of corruption in the City. I don’t want to assume that there is rampart corruption throughout the City but they did devote a lot of their report to this and found that there was sort of a systemic approach to doing business among City employees that would be wasteful if not in some cases dishonest and not really caring towards customers. Things like that so when they talk about the organization and the budget and a lot of these things that seem very cut and dry you have to look at this more an equally important aspect, which is what kind of message being sent to the City employees who in turn really represent the City and work with the citizens. I mean you hear every time when we hear from citizens. You hear that’s it’s easy to say that the technology is antiquated and the water meters don’t work. Those types of things. Look for the human element too. I’m just asking all of you to don’t forget about this. Put it out there when you are looking at the way things need to work as you do your planning. I haven’t forgot about it and I do not want to harp on it and make it sound like everything’s negative. There was a reason those findings came out and I hope you will consider that as you look to your future strategies and operations. Thanks.” 12. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FOR/FROM THE MAYOR OR CONCIL MEMBERS: Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Thank you Ms. Jackson. Earlier in the meeting Councilmen Hill mentioned the possibility of a work session concerning utility billing I believe. And I would like to follow up on that and see if that could be added to council’s agenda. I think that would be a good idea. I would like to open that discussion among council and get the thoughts from the rest of council.” Council Member Hill stated, “I was just saying for the overall arching of the water billing that maybe we need to have a special session to see exactly where we go from here. Of course, we voted to not sell our infrastructure which was a good vote but I know that the City Manager maybe putting something together. I just like for us and the City Manager and those people who work in the water department to come together and see what’s the best way we can fix this. Because I understand that we want to give relief to our seniors and it may be others but we have to fix whatever elements we can and then go from there. I am suggesting that if we can devote some time at our workshop to that. I guess we have to get with our clerk to check our schedule because we have a lot going on. But sooner is better than later.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Thank you for those comments. I like to go on and get that on council’s agenda. Yes, we could do it as part of our Retreat but I really like to put a focus on this and the best way to do that would be to have a special meeting with council or a work session to address this. Perhaps  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 - 10 – ______________________________________________________________________________ invite a vendor or two to present ideas to council as to what kind of contractual arrangement me might go into with that particular group. I think that there is at least one group that offers or arranges services to municipalities to help us with our utility billing issues. Council of course would need to define the parameters that would ultimately be fulfilled by this independent contractor. I would like to get that ball rolling and would ask the City Manager and council if we could go on and get a special meeting on council’s books for that purpose. We meet on the first and third Tuesday on a regular basis so our next regular meeting is the 20th and we have the Retreat on the 25th and 26th. I don’t want to overwhelm us with a lot of meeting in the Retreat and it certainly adds to our calendar for March. I wonder about the second Tuesday in April just as a suggestion. It gives us and administration enough time to plan what would be presented at that time, who would be invited, who would make presentations but I would like us not to let this drift as an idea. I would like us to capture it and implement it as a proposal. Mrs. Ferrell-Benavides do you think that we might have a special work session on that second Tuesday in April and would that would that be agreeable with the rest of the members of council.” Mrs. Benavides stated, “It’s whatever council decides to do we will make it happen.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Great. Let me address Councilman Hill and the rest of council.” Council Member Hill stated, “I think what we should try to do before we get to aggressive with it and I know time is of the essence but I believe what I would like to see us do is sit down with administration first. Then identify the areas that are broken that needs working on before we sit down with any vendors or anything like that. So, we can get together with our administration so we can say where we are having our problems at. I know billing is a problem but what areas of billing may be a problem and then we can kind of stream that. Because if we bring an entity in here that manages, we don’t want to just say fix our water when we know that its things that we already do well. Let us get the clerk to send out and see how everyone schedule is and then we can come back and devote some time to our work session of maybe an hour or two to get with our administration first.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “I understand and I think you have a good idea bout identifying first the aspect of our system of management as that it is not working as it should. But we are limited by the Freedom of Information Act and we cannot just go about having meetings. We have to get on the calendar and public notice.” Council Member Hill stated, “This is why I said to get with the clerk and she will put it out. It’s hard to say it right now because all of us have lives and we have to have our calendars in front of us and things of that nature. So, let’s do like we normally do when we do a special work session and we get with the clerk and she gives out some dates and we chime in via email and then she puts the public notice out.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Alright I think that’s a good thing and good approach.” Council Member Myers stated, “We are getting ready to have a retreat. Wouldn’t that give the administration enough time to overview the account issue that we have?” Council Member Hill stated, “I believe so Council Member Myers.” Council Member Myers stated, “Wouldn’t it be pertinent to give them the opportunity to give council an overview rather than create another meeting? And the public is in attendance at the Retreat.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “I think that’s a good idea. Why don’t we start with that approach and see where it leads us? And that’s all that I have to bring before council tonight. Thank you.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “Good evening. Thank you all for attending your ward meeting. I have three announcements. The first one is that we will have a workshop meeting in Ward 1 on March 24th at  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 - 11 – ______________________________________________________________________________ Robert E. Lee School. The City Manager will be there, the Police Chief, Fire Chief and Public Works will be there. The time is 11:00am to 1:00pm. It is a Saturday. The meetings are designed on Saturday for the convenience of the senior citizens who do not like to go out at night to a meeting and for the convenience of persons who are working 9-5pm jobs Monday through Friday. The second announcement I have already stated is that there is a cervical cancer panel discussion on Wednesday, March 14th at Petersburg High School. Please ladies grab a buddy and grab another lady and come on out. It is all free. We are going to sell Girl Scout cookies there as well. And the last announcement is that I am gearing up for my 4th Annual Citizens Academy. It is from April through July, one Sunday of every month. In April we will address the issue of public safety. In May, we will have the Superintendent of Schools there to discuss the conditions of our schools. In June, we will have the City’s finance team present and in July we will have our Senator and Delegate present. There should be flyers in the back room announcing that. It is always held here and it will be from 3pm-5pm or when we get finish. The citizens are allowed to ask any questions and get your answers right away to the questions that you asked. Keep on looking out for all this information so that you can share it with anyone else that you would like to. Thank you. That’s all I have.” Council Member Smith-Lee stated, “Good evening everyone. Thank you all for coming out attending this City Council Meeting. I just want to say that on March 22, 2018, at 6pm at A.P. Hill Elementary School I will have a Ward 6 Meeting and everyone is welcome to attend. Also, Go Trojans!! Thank you, Mr. Stewart, for making that announcement. This is a big treat for this area because this will bring in some businesses because people will be wanting to come and find somewhere to eat. So, Go Trojans! That completes my report.” Council Member Myers stated, “Good evening everyone. There will be a Ward 5 Meeting. Yes, it’s that time again so contact Linwood Christian.” Council Member Hill stated, “Yes good evening everyone. Thank you all for coming out to our City Council Meeting. I want to give a special thanks to our City Manager and her staff for coming in with all the different reports especially the water report in trying to give relieve to our senior citizens. I really appreciate that. I want to especially thank the faith-based community. We have been having meeting under our deputy city manager. She has organized a lot of the faith-based groups. We have been meeting every so often to talk about things in the City and how we can join together and help our City. So, I want to thank Ms. Tyus for that and in bringing us together. And the young man that came out on last Monday. He was incarcerated and turned his life around and he has been helping all over the nation. And some parts of the world where he has helped out City’s with gun violence and things of that nature. He was at the Metropolitan Baptist Church on this past Monday so I want to thank the faith-based community that has been coming out. Also on March 22nd at 6:30pm at the Good Shepherd Baptist Church I will be having a Town Hall Meeting. The City Manager, Fire Chief and Police Chief will be present there so I ask that you come out. I want to challenge our City Council for us to re-advertise us getting a City Assessor. That’s an area that we need. I know the work is being done now but I know we need someone in that area. Also with the high winds that is going on, to the public works there are a lot of tree limbs that are down in the streets. So hopefully we can put up a project to get together and get those up. We had that wind to come through the other day. I rode through some of my ward and it’s just a lot of stuff laying around and it was not on anyone’s property it was just lying in the streets. Can we get an update at your convenience on the sale of any properties whether small or major? We have a lot of properties that are just left on the book. I know we are giving these cuts and some of them are deserving but we will not be able to function as a City if we keep on cutting certain things. So, we have to sell our properties. The businesses are doing well in the City. There is a lot of traffic not only down here but out on South Crater Road and places like that. A lot of people are talking well about our City with the businesses here. So, we are getting revenue back but we do have a lot of properties on the books. I would like to maybe get an update on if we sold any or for us to advertise those properties. Also, Darnetta Tyus had called me today before we came here and one of the playgrounds we have tentatively chose to work on it in my ward will be Berkeley Manor. We will be trying to spruce it up with paint and mulch and trim. This will be on March 24th, which is a Saturday, I believe from 9am- 1pm. So, I will give you all, for those in my ward, we can come out and work in the park that day. So that will be on the 24th from 9am-1pm. That will be all. Thank you, council.”  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 - 12 – ______________________________________________________________________________ Vice Mayor Hart stated, “Thank you everyone. I thank you for coming out. I just want to thank the City workers for coming to the Ward 7 meeting a couple of weeks ago. It was Ms. Kemi and Ms. Johnson, that I really want to thank you. You have been able to provide information to the constituents. I really want to thank you for all the work you do. Thank you.” Mayor Parham stated, “Good evening again everyone. I would like to thank everyone who came out last Thursday on March 1st for the Ward 3 Joint Meeting with school board chairman, Kenneth Pritchett and Dr. Marcus Newsome. Thank you, Mrs. Benavides and staff, for coming out. We had a lot going on that Thursday. We were also competing with Petersburg Area Art League open house. I thank Michael Edwards for all he did. He did a good job of opening up the art league as well as on Saturday we had the Petersburg Cavaliers. Kyle Dixon does an excellent job every year with that team. They came up a little short at the game but it was still a great entertaining time. I want everyone to wish the American Legion Post 2 a Happy 99th Anniversary. Myself and Vice Mayor Hart were honored to be speakers for the 99th Anniversary last Saturday evening. It was a good time of fellowship with our veterans and we like to thank them for their continued support of Petersburg and our Country. And I have no other items.” 13. ITEMS REMOVED FROM CONSENT AGENDA: *No items for this portion of the agenda. 14. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: *No items for this portion of the agenda. 15. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: *No items for this portion of the agenda. 16. NEW BUSINESS: a. Consideration of appointment(s) to the Crater Youth Care Commission. BACKGROUND: The Crater Youth Care Commission was officially formed in 1972 to supervise and operate a Secure Detention Facility and admitted the first residents on September 16, 1975. The Commission consists of the chief administrative official from each jurisdiction. The Crater Youth Care Commission’s Mission is to: Provide services and learning experiences, within a psychologically and physically safe and secure environment, which will encourage youth to achieve life styles that are consistent with their personal needs, value systems, laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the interest of public safety. RECOMMENDATION: Recommend Council appoint Aretha R. Ferrell-Benavides and Timothy Wilkins to the Crater Youth Care Commission Board. Ms. Jackson stated, “You have received an application from Mr. Wilkins as well as tonight a resume.” Council Member Hill made a motion to appoint Aretha R. Ferrell-Benavides and Timothy Wilkins to the Crater Youth Care Commission Board. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. The motion was approved on roll call. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 - 13 – ______________________________________________________________________________ 18-R-16 A RESOLUTION APPOINTING ARETHA R. FERRELL-BENAVIDES AND TIMOTHY WILKINS TO THE CRATER YOUTH CARE COMMISSION BOARD WITH A TERM EXPIRING MARCH 31, 2022. 17. REPORTS/REPONSES TO PREVIOUSE PUBLIC INFORMATION PERIOD: Stephanie Harris, Assistant to the City Manager, read the questions and answers from the previous meeting regarding the public information period on February 20, 2018: 1. How will the City hire a City Assessor if the job is not posted online? Answer: The City Assessor position was posted on Friday, February 23, 2018. 2. Is it true that home builders are supposed to submit a specific form regarding water meter size? Answer: This is incorrect, there is no meter size form for home builders to complete. 3. Does Council have plans to add a safe to the New Treasurer’s Office? Answer: The city is in the process of obtaining quotes to purchase a safe for the Treasurer’s Office. Finance will work with the Treasurer’s Office to identify funding. 4. What provisions will be made to have a daily escort to the New Treasurer’s Office for funding process? Answer: The City will work with law enforcement to ensure the safe transfer of any funds to and from the Treasurer’s Office. 5. Can the City increase their effort to promote the arts in Petersburg? Answer: The City Public Information Officer has started working with the Arts community to support their marketing efforts via social media and will include their events in future materials. 18. CITY MANAGER’S AGENDA: Ms. Jackson asked, “Mrs. Benavides do you have any further items?” Mrs. Benavides stated, “No.” 19. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM CLERK: Ms. Jackson stated, “I have no items.” 20. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY Ms. Jackson stated, “Mr. Preston.” Mr. Preston stated, “No reports.” 21. ADJOURNMENT: Ms. Jackson stated, “This meeting is adjourned.” City Council adjourned at 9:34 p.m.  Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 6, 2018 - 14 – ______________________________________________________________________________ _________________________ Clerk of City Council APPROVED: _________________________ Mayor