City Council

Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -1– ______________________________________________________________________________ The regular meeting of the Petersburg City Council was held on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, at the Union Train Station. Mayor Parham called the meeting to order at 6:30p.m. 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Council Member Charles H. Cuthbert, Jr. Council Member Annette Smith-Lee Council Member Treska Wilson-Smith Council Member W. Howard Myers Council Member Darrin Hill Vice Mayor John A. Hart, Sr. Mayor Samuel Parham Absent: None Present from City Administration: City Manager Aretha R. Ferrell-Benavides City Attorney Anthony C. Williams Clerk of Council Nykesha D. Jackson 2. PRAYER: Mayor Parham stated, “At this time Bishop Jeffrey Reaves, Pastor of Good Shepherd Baptist Church will lead us in prayer.” Pastor Reaves led the council meeting in prayer. Mayor Parham stated, “At this time council members I would like to amend our agenda because we have the girl scouts here and we have a closed session. I would like to get the girl scouts now and then we will lead to our closed session. At this time, we have a proclamation of recognition for the ‘Girl Scout Week.’” Mayor Parham read the proclamation out loud and presented the girl scouts with a proclamation. Girl Scout Troop Leader thanked City Council and the City for the proclamation. 3. CLOSED SESSION: City Attorney Anthony C. Williams stated that City Council will now move to go into closed session for one purpose pursuant to Section 2.2-3711.A (7) of the Code of Virginia, 1950 as amended, council will be in closed session for the purpose of receiving legal advice and status update from the City Attorney and legal consultation regarding the subject of specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by the City Attorney and matters of actual or probable litigation specifically including but not limited to matters requiring legal advice by the City Attorney and under Section 1 for the purpose of discussion pertaining to the evaluation and performance of specific public officers of the City of Petersburg, specifically to include but not limited to the evaluation of the performance of specific public officers of the City of Petersburg Council Member Hill moved that the City Council go into closed session for the purposes noted by the City Attorney. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. There was no discussion on the motion, which was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham City Council entered closed session at 6:36 p.m. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -2– ______________________________________________________________________________ CERTIFICATION: Mr. Williams stated that City Council now moves to come out of closed session and certify that only public business matters lawfully exempted from an open meeting requirement pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and only such business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed or considered in the closed meeting. Council Member Myers made a motion to return City Council into open session and certify the purposes of the closed session. The motion was seconded by Council Member Cuthbert. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham 19-R-16 A RESOLUTION CERTIFYING, AS REQUIRED BY THE CODE OF VIRGINIA, SECTION 2.2- 3712, THAT TO THE BEST OF EACH MEMBER’S KNOWLEDGE, ONLY PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS LAWFULLY EXEMPTED FROM OPEN MEETING REQUIREMENTS OF VIRGINIA LAW WERE DISCUSSED IN THE CLOSED SESSION, AND ONLY SUCH PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS AS WERE IDENTIFIED IN THE MOTION CONVENING THE CLOSED SESSION WERE HEARD, DISCUSSED, OR CONSIDERED. City Council returned to open session at 7:49pm. Mayor Parham stated, “At this time I would entertain a motion for the appointment of a FOIA Officer and adoption of FOIA Policy to tonight’s council agenda.” Council Member Hill made a motion to the appointment of a FOIA Officer and adoption of FOIA Policy to tonight’s council agenda. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham Mayor Parham stated, “At this time I would entertain a motion to appoint the FOIA Officer for the City of Petersburg and adopt the FOIA Policy presented this evening and authorize the City Manager to adopt appropriate administrative directives in consultation with the City Attorney to facilitate the City’s compliance with the law with respect to such matters.” Council Member Myers made a motion to appoint the FOIA Officer for the City of Petersburg and adopt the FOIA Policy presented this evening and authorize the City Manager to adopt appropriate administrative directives in consultation with the City Attorney to facilitate the City’s compliance with the law with respect to such matters. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham 4. MOMENT OF SILENCE: Mayor Parham led council and the audience in a moment of silence. 5. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Parham led council and the audience in the pledge of allegiance. 6. DETERMINATION OF THE PRESENCE OF A QUORUM: All City Council Members were present. 7. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS/PRESENTATION OF CEREMONIAL PROCLAMATIONS: Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -3– ______________________________________________________________________________ a. Proclamation for Girl Scout Week *Moved to right after the prayer. Mayor Parham stated, “Good evening again everyone. For tonight’s ‘Positive Petersburg Story’ I’d like to take the time to recognize our Petersburg Social Services Team! March is National Professional Social Work Month and gives us an opportunity to spotlight social workers around the nation and educate the public about the invaluable contributions of the profession. Every day, social workers work to empower and elevate millions of people, including some of the most vulnerable in our society. Petersburg Social Services has experienced an amazing transformation recently and we are continuously proud of the strides they have made in providing great services to our community. Please join me in celebrating our Petersburg Social Services team with a grand round of applause.” 8. COMMUNICATIONS/SPECIAL REPORTS: a. City Manager Report – Aretha R. Ferrell-Benavides, City Manager Mrs. Benavides stated, “Good evening Mayor and Council. You have a copy of my report which is pretty extensive. We tried to do a little bit better job in making sure that we provide an update on every department on what is occurring. So, I won’t go through everything listed but I do want to highlight a couple of events that are coming up soon. One is the Chamber of Commerce dinner. We are hoping we get a good participation from council on that. You will also note that we have a new member on our team who is here today. And that is what I would like to spend my time doing. Introducing to the public, Ms. Patrice Elliott. Will you please come forward? I am excited that we have Ms. Elliott on board. She is our new Director of Finance. She joins us with a wealth of experience. She is a CPA who comes to us from most recently from the State Government. She has worked for several state agencies. She is a graduate of the great Howard University in Washington DC and we are so pleased to have her on board. And you will see more of her soon.” Ms. Elliott thanked everyone for the opportunity to work with the City of Petersburg. Mrs. Benavides stated, “I would like to highlight that you will receive from staff a schedule. We are in full pledge budget season. We are scheduled to present the 2019-20 Budget to council the first week in April. And in that light, we will be contacting you regarding a series of discussion factors to talk about the budget and what’s included in the budget regarding the revenue and other items along the way. So, you will hear more from us on that. I am going to leave my time for some conversations because we have a number of presentations scheduled for today. One to include our discussion of our public information and what has been going on so if there are any questions I am here for questions listed on my report. We will place this report online for everyone to view.” b. City Assessor Report – Brian Gordineer, City Assessor Mr. Gordineer gave a PowerPoint presentation on the City Assessor’s Office. c. Presentation on Grove Avenue Traffic Calming Assessment BACKGROUND: Grove Avenue has experienced several speed related incidents and the City Council requested an assessment to be conducted in the amount of $10,500 this assessment was to identify the cause of increased speeds on Grove Avenue and possible ways to rectify the issues. The recommended option would entail installing double yellow centerline and white pavement marking lines to delineate the parking on the westbound side of the street. The City currently has a contract with Jen-Spy for pavement marking; therefore, this option can be implemented as early as April weather permitting. The assessment also recommends that one year following the above implementation that the City follow-up with a speed study and crash history review to determine if the amount of speed related incidents has been reduced and the desired results achieved. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -4– ______________________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDATION: Recommend City Council approve the implementation of Option 1 as per the assessment at an estimated cost of $7,000. Mr. Lyons gave a brief overview of the assessment. He stated that they are recommending Option 1. Thomas Ruff, Timmons Group Project Manager, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the information from the assessment. There was discussion among City Council and staff. Marie Millard, Dorothy Holmes and Mark Pehanich gave comments on the speeding and traffic as residents of Grove Avenue. Council Member Cuthbert made a motion to postpone consideration of the issue until the meeting on April 2, 2019. The motion was seconded 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 d. Update on Street re-naming process Mr. Lyons stated that an email was sent out regarding the details of all work that has been done. He stated that Janelle Sinclair will give an update on the information that was compiled. Janelle Sinclair gave an update on information compiled for the street naming process. Council Member Myers made a motion to table until further discussion with constituents. The motion was seconded Council Member Hill. There was further discussion among staff and City Council Members. Council Member Myers stated that he would like to rescind his motion. e. Presentation on City Marketing and Tourism Efforts Ms. Osoba gave a briefing on the City Marketing and Media within the City of Petersburg. She stated that Leslie Strickler and Clay Hamner will give a presentation as well. There was discussion among City Council and staff. Martha Burton, Tourism Director of Petersburg Area Regional Tourism (PART), gave a presentation and handouts to City Council Members on updated information from PART. She stated that they were just awarded a grant from statewide to participate in the celebration of 50th Birthday of Virginia is for Lover’s. She stated that the region will be celebrating 50 days of love during April 20th until June 8th at the event at Battersea. 9. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA (to include minutes of previous meeting/s) a. Minutes: Special City Council Meeting: February 26, 2019 b. Supplemental Appropriation for Petersburg Public Schools - $3,988,483 – 1st Reading c. Request for a public hearing for Utility Rate Increase (April 2, 2019) d. Request for a public hearing to amend an approved Rezoning Ordinance 10-Ord-101, which permits the Planned Unit Development (PUD) dated December 14, 2010, by changing condition 3 (a): to say Multifamily, delete market rate rental apartments. 3(b): to say General commercial and delete Retail Type including restaurant services. Delete 3(c) which says office type uses, provided proposed square footage. 3(d) now becomes 3(c). Delete 12 (a-f). The property addresses are 214 Brown Street, T.P. 022-20-0001, 501 Farmer Street, T.P. 023-36-0004, 220 Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -5– ______________________________________________________________________________ Perry Street, T.P. 023-32-0001, 304 Brown Street, T.P. 023-34-0002 and 023-32-0800 100-120 Perry Street. (April 2, 2019) Ms. Jackson stated that “Item D” has been stricken from the agenda. Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the consent agenda. The motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Hart. There was discussion on the motion. 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 an ordinance authorizing the City Manager to offer for sale the list of vacant City- owned real estate properties listed as: 1544 Halifax Street, 2401 County Drive, 801 E. Bank Street, 44 East Bank Street, 138 W. Bank Street, 101 W. Washington Street, 106 Halifax Street, 140 Halifax Street, 116-22 Halifax Street, 155 Halifax Street, 14 Franklin Street, 123 Halifax Street, 147 Halifax Street, 127 Halifax Street, 137 S. Market Street, 121 Halifax Street, 119 Halifax Street, 116 South Avenue, 114 South Avenue, 112 South Avenue, 153 Halifax Street, 110 South Avenue, 151 Halifax Street, 421 N. Market Street, 1701 Dock Street, 527 E. Bank Street, 1210 Byrd Street, 2071 Midway Avenue, 240 River Street, 409 N. Old Church Street, 3645 Halifax Road, 627 N. South Street (Rear), 800 Magazine Road, 39 River Street (Rear), 873 Bollingbrook Street, 501 Piamingo Alley, 2233 Halifax Road, 101 North Boulevard, 2761 Boydton Plank Road, 1600 Shirley Avenue, 1553 Brandon Avenue, 1017 S. Sycamore Street, 448 Forest Lane, 1900 Squirrel Level Road, 110 Richland Road, 2056 Overbrook Road, 150 Sapony Street, 1237 Halifax Street, 105 North Carolina Avenue, 300 St. John Street, 52 North Carolina Avenue, 246 St. Luke Street, 931 Clarke Street, 500 St. John Street, 149 Rolfe Street, 803 Augusta Avenue, 1611 Hare Street, 980 S. Sycamore Street, 535 St. Mark Street, 201 Virginia Avenue, 152 St. Mark Street, 1127 Hawk Street, 813 St. James Street, 101 Witten Street, 1118 Chestnut Street, 802 Rosemont Street, 839-41 S. Jones Street, 829 S. Jones Street, 357 University Boulevard, 915 W. High Street, 1203 West Washington Street, 650 Lawrence Street, 115 Jolley Alley, 522 Hinton Street, 341 Graham Road, 612 Pegram Street, 1205 Farmer Street, 709 Ann Street, 735 Harrison Street, 425 S. West Street, 437-37A Harrison Street, 116 N. Jefferson Street, 715 S. West Street, 449 Harding Street, 118 S. West Street, 716 Harding Street, 129 Blank Alley, 412 St. Andrew Street, 724 Harding Street, 1111 Halifax Street, 742 Mount Airy Street, 1115 Halifax Street, 811 Halifax Street, 1011 McKenzie Street, 33 Crater Road Street, 627 Harding Street, 742 Blick Street, 1114 W. Wythe Street, 516 Hinton Street, 417 S. Jefferson Street, 804 S. Jones Street, 135 Kentucky Avenue, 230 Kentucky Avenue (Rear), 421 S. Jefferson Street, 809 S. Jones Street, 351-53 University Boulevard, 436 Byrne Street, 1157 W. Washington Street, 1004 Farmer Street, 115 N. Burch Street, 852 Rome Street, 716 E. Wythe Street, 921 Priam Street, 1206 Hinton Street, 857 E. Bank Street, 105 N. Burch Street, 10 North Foley Street, 1230 W. High Street, 201 Graham Road, 135 Franklin Street, 919 W. Wythe Street, 731 S. West Street, 725 Sterling Street, 204 Kentucky Avenue, 137 Franklin Street, 202 Kentucky Avenue, 1119 W. Hight Street, 539 W. Washington Street, 110 Spruce Street, 1150 Rome Street, 741 Blick Street, 751 S. Jones Street, 323 S. West Street, 808 S. Jones Street, 1200 Baylors Lane, 215 S. Jones Street, 107- 09 S. West Street, 201 Terrace Avenue, 120 N. Jefferson Street, 28 Centre Hill Court, 723-25 Harding Street, 131 South Chappell Street, 1420 Ferndale Avenue, 615 Harding Street, 120 Spruce Street, 340 Mistletoe Street, 244 New Street, 469 Byrne Street, 333 University Boulevard, 1162 Hinton Street, 710 Wesley Street, 109 N. Burch Street, 708 Federal Street, 206 S. Jones Street, 347 University Boulevard, 9 Ross Court, 851 E. Bank Street, 1411 Farmer Street, 806 E. Washington Street, 126 Kentucky Avenue, 706 Wesley Street, 12 Ross Court, 4 Ross Court, 734 E. Washington Street, 704 Wesley Street, 715 E. Wythe Street, 113 N. Burch Street, 706 Independence Avenue, 519 W. Washington Street (Rear), 127 S. Dunlop Street, 746 Mount Airy Street, 505 High Street, 30 Centre Hill Court and 205 Maple Lane. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -6– ______________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND: The City has an inventory of several hundred real estate properties, acquired through purchases, gifts and other means of acquisition. Previously the City has authorized the sale of several properties within the inventory of vacant City-owned properties. This is a request for authorization to sell additional properties within the City’s inventory. RECOMMENDATION: City Council adopt a resolution authorizing the process for the disposition of City owned properties. Reginald Tabor, Economic Development Manager, gave a briefing on the request for authorization to sell properties listed. Ms. Jackson opened the floor for public comments. Barb Rudolph, 1675 Mt. Vernon Street, stated, “I do not have an opinion about these properties because this is the first time that I have seen the list. When the City sent out its notice via email about the agenda being published last week I opened it up and looked at the agenda and there were two pages. It was only page one and page three. In other words, it went from number nine to the public information period. I contacted the Clerk of Council about it and she indicated that it was being fixed. But as I look through the online agenda and I looked at all three versions of the online agenda and all three did not have this page. I realized that it may have been published in the Progress-Index, but it was supposed to be public information. It is not out there unless someone has updated by 5:00pm today. The other thing I would say is that when people are able to see it, that they would be organized by street. This makes me wonder why it is done this way.” Richard Stewart, 129 Rolfe Street, stated, “I am here to speak about the property on Pocahontas. Pocahontas is supposed to be on the historical registry. And I wonder about properties on 150 Sapony Street and 101 Witten Street and 149 Rolfe Street. The 149 Rolfe Street has my interest because right now the American Legion is over there redoing the shore lines. They are doing provisions and planting trees. I was going to buy that land from Mr. Canada, but he said that was going to be the gateway to the Appomattox. They are developing that land. How can you sell land with all this money that the American Legion put in developing the river and putting property over there? That is my concern so please take a good look at the land in Pocahontas before you sell it and make sure it is in the historical protection of Pocahontas. Because right now they are looking at the underground railroad. They look at the Lincoln. There is a lot of history there and we are going to try and highlight during the anniversary. I have so many people calling from all over the United States. Be cool in disposing of that land. Thank you.” Willie Noise, 1508 Circle Drive, stated, “I was looking at this list also and one thing I was looking at was Harding Street. And it is at the bottom of the list then it is in the middle of the list then it is at the top. And I think as the lady said that this should be arranged so we can look at it and find out how the streets are coordinated. It is one thing that I know is a loophole and criminal activity everywhere. I would like that the people who purchase these properties to check to see how they are related whether it is a company, corporation or whatever. Is it a pattern in how they are purchasing these properties to gain dominant control? And if we don’t have something to monitor this then people will take advantage of the loophole and we are going to lose stuff. Is there again in place that you can give priority to relatives or other family members versus somebody outside coming to get this property because kids and whatever circumstances is going on and parents have been holding on to property for so long. And then when the kids get a hold to it the insurance man gets a hold of it.” Ron Flock, 1708 Pender Avenue, stated, “I have to also agree with agree with everybody. But that is not my issue, but it definitely needs to be revised. But I don’t ever recall seeing that list anywhere in the consent agenda. So, I don’t know why we are considering this list as a whole when we never had a request to consider this list to begin with. I think you all need to table this and run it through the consent agenda the proper way. Thank you.” Brandon Martin, 1546 Berkeley Avenue, stated, “I will not repeat what these other folks have said. I will highlight two items that I finally caught onto. 915 West High, the City bought that at a tax sale in 2004. The deed was recorded in 2005. January 2008 the judge set the tax sale aside and said resale the property. There Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -7– ______________________________________________________________________________ were multiple issues on how it was conducted. By 2012, nothing had been done. The suits had been discontinued and nothing happened. The City does not have title to this property and you cannot sell it. I brought this to the attention to the City Attorney and administration and nothing has been done. And then at the bottom next to the last entry, 30 Centre Hill Court. This is the lawn in front of Centre Hill on Fort Henry Street. You have got to kidding me.” Michael Edwards, 409 Grove Avenue, stated, “I have a couple of questions. You have a lot of properties here and this is a prime example that the City does not need to be in the real estate business. With the properties that are before us, the fiproperrst question I have is, will a real estate firm be hired to market the property? I remember under Mr. Johnson he hired a firm. Second, the retainer is to be administered to the firm if we hire one. Will the cost be brought before City Council? I certainly hope that this is all the properties that the City owns. How much more do we own? Is the addresses that we are looking at a conjunction of personal properties? I have looked over this list find times and I do not see Roper on the list. That building has sat since David Canada, Brian Moore and council stated that they had to have it. And lastly when we market these properties, and I have to say that I agree with Mr. Cuthbert that we need to vet these people that buy these properties. Far too long we sell properties and they sit and sit. So, they are not enormous questions that you cannot answer. So, hopefully Mr. Tabor can come back, or the City Manager can answer some of these tonight. And hopefully when all of these are sold we will have an enormous back account.” Seeing no further hands, Ms. Jackson closed public comments. There was discussion among City Council and staff. Council Member Myers made a motion to approve with the removal of 14 Franklin Street and 30 Centre Hill Court. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. There was discussion among council and staff. Council Member Wilson-Smith made a substitute motion to table action. The motion was seconded by Council Member Cuthbert. The motion was not approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee; Voting No: Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham The original motion goes back on floor made by Council Member Myers. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Smith-Lee, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham; Voting No: Cuthbert and Wilson-Smith 19-R-17 A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PROCESS FOR DISPOSITION OF REAL PROPERTY OWNED BY THE CITY OF PETERSBURG. 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. Brandon Martin, 1546 Berkeley Avenue, stated, “I am going to pick up where I left off several meetings ago when we were cut short on the time. I will pick back up dealing with the City utility’s tax shown on the water bill. My bill since 2014 basically has been doubled the utility tax that the code allows. There has been a few exceptions. I have gotten no explanations from anybody. Just to let you know citizens look at your water bill because I don’t trust any of them. Next, in regard to a recent response on a question that I have brought up in January about the missing chandler from the Circuit Court of the Old Hustings Courthouse. I asked what happened to it because the TV News 6 did a story back in May asking about it. And I understood that when a reporter went to City Hall to get some answers no one would talk to him. So, I asked, and the response was Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -8– ______________________________________________________________________________ that the only record that the City could find from the 1970s. It was in the courthouse and Judge Pollard said take it out because the ceiling is beginning to come down. The engineering department has probably got the inspections of the building going back to that time. It was stored over in the Petersburg Hotel in the lobby room upfront. You could see it through the windows on Tabb Street. It was still there when I retired in 2010. Sometime shortly thereafter, there was a proposal to sell the hotel, City Hall, City Hall Annex and Voter Registration Building in exchange for moving City Hall and build elsewhere. So, the cleanout process of the hotel began. I suspect that the chandler disappeared at that time. You all need to look into it because that things was worth some money and it is surplus property and it is supposed to be recorded. I also asked about the lamps that used to be on the Martin Luther Kind Bridge which was actually the 1924 Bridge. There were four of them up there but there were others stored out at in the garage. They were still there the last time that I was there. Where did they go? There is also a lot of iron fencing out there. Where did all of that go? Those questions have not yet been answered and I have searched the minutes of council. Now on to new stuff. You all make the policies and see that the administration carries it out. You are all in the dark ages with dealing with the leaves. Vacuum them up. Yes, you need to vacuum them up so that they don’t end up in the sewer. There needs to be a rethink on this whole process. The leaves used to go up to Virginia State but that has not happened in a long time. With the personal property tax relief, take a look at your car tax bill. That is a joke. Basically, the couple of last years, I have paid more than the total tax paid then what the original tax was before the tax relief was applied. Something is wrong, and it has been going on since 2014. That is enough for tonight. Thank you.” Marcus Squires, 1701 Monticello Street, stated, “I am up here tonight to talk to you guys about potentially looking at leasing your power privilege rights or your hydro lights on the Appomattox River. I know originally when the dam was taken out it was to allow the fish to come up through the river. But there are new technologies developed to allow fish to swim around. Hydro plants receive millions of dollars each year. I say lease because as we progress in the future renewable energy sources may become more valuable. So, that is something to look forward to. Thank you.” Barb Rudolph, 1675 Mt. Vernon Street, stated, “I promised some of you at the meeting yesterday that I wasn’t going to stop talking about open government and I have not changed my mind since then. I thought the meeting from yesterday that I am referring to is the work session that was about the water rates. Which I thought was a very valuable meeting. It was worth attending and I am glad that I was able to be there. I did however hear some discussion about how great daytime meetings and lunch meetings are and how we should have more of them and that we should do a lot of our work there because the nighttime meetings run too late and take up too much time. I understand that was discussed for the convenience of the staff, perhaps with the convenience of City Council Members. But the fact is to still remind you all again that you all work for the citizens and having meetings at times that are inconvenient for citizens is not a hallmark of open government. It is not conducive to maximum participation. I am just bringing this up because if these meetings on Tuesday night that are regularly scheduled where citizens can come to end up just being where resolutions are brought up or one of you makes a motion and you all vote on it then citizen participants really don’t know how you reach those decisions. There is a value in having even if citizens are not necessarily part of every bit of this we still need to know what you are doing and why. I think that is how the City may have gotten in trouble in the past. A lot of things were done outside of the public eye. I hope that you all would take the opportunity to look into that. There was also mention of one -on- one briefings with council members. I understand that this is necessary but at some point, the practice is antithetical to open government. I recognize that it allows the administration to tell part of information to each of you without a formal meeting and going through all the public notice and those things. Again, it leads to the perception that perhaps somethings are being discussed that should be public. I will just make another suggestion. At this meeting tonight, we spent well over 30 minutes talking about a single issue on streets. That is well is good and I know it was good for people that live on Grove Avenue but that and the closed sessions are the kinds of things that are taking up a lot of time. We can’t talk about water rates at a nighttime meeting we have to talk about one street in the City. If it was might street which also is busy I would say the same thing. It does not rise to the importance of the things that go on here that we need to have brought out in the public. Thank you very much.” Willie Noise, 1508 Circle Drive, stated, “I have been thinking and thinking on how to approach you all with this subject of drugs. I am looking at the paper and I am glad what the police are doing in Petersburg to Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 -9– ______________________________________________________________________________ support that. Canada just legalized recreational marijuana and it is coming to Virginia real fast out of all the states that are legalizing it. There are all kinds of support boards. I have not heard anything. We are going to have to decide and what I want you all to think about is it reaching Petersburg. Petersburg, if we adopt that we need to have our own pharmacy that deals with it dispersing and all of the process and proceeds that come from it should be directed to the education system. They took the lotto and put it in the managing of the City where they can reach in there and grab and grab. That was our key right there. If it was all devoted to the school system, we would be straight. But we did not do that. We got another chance and that is for the marijuana, medical or whatever they want to camouflage it as. It is directed at the vets because they are going to be the ones that will be getting those prescriptions and anyone else that can get on it. The other thing is that I am glad that you all made the decision about the liquor store. We only need three in Petersburg and that is where they are now. On Washington Street, Crater Road and No. 1. And do not forget Fort Lee for the vets. Please give this some consideration because we run Petersburg. That is all of us and we are not just going to flow with the easiness of it. We have to think further than we can see. And that’s where you find the problem. The problem is where you didn’t look. That is the most important thing that I have to say tonight. It is that the drugs are coming. And if we have to we can give that job to the police department, narcotics. And let them deal with it and take the money and give it to the school system. Thank you.” Ron Flock, 1708 Pender Avenue, stated, “There was a woman up here speaking on marketing the City. She made mention of grants on behalf of her company. It did not appear to me that I have ever heard of the City granting its name to this application. I just wanted to run that by you really quick. FOIA, today is day five of my FOIA request for who is our FOIA person and what is the process? Tomorrow is 30 days for my first FOIA request. I still have not gotten a single response. The problem I have with that is that I know the fact that there are other people here that turned in FOIA request and gotten a response within the allotted time. So that tells me one thing. All I am asking for is who is on a committee and minutes. They were never done and that is what this tells me and that is why I cannot have them. They are not there to provide to me and that means that these meetings were run against the Code of Virginia. That is illegal. I have said it before and I will say it again. If you don’t do it right, then it is illegal. I am not up there, and I am not a member, but I know what the laws are because I take the time to read them. And I expect you to follow them. It is not that difficult. You have an attorney who is supposed to advise you if you have a question and you have people who have been here for a long time who has been through this process and they know how to do this. I have been on the committee for the City and I know how important it is to keep all of those minutes. So, please just put forth the effort to do it the right way. I do not want to come up here to accuse you of doing something stupid or illegal. I want to come up here and say great job. I want to say that, but I am not given the opportunity. Give me the opportunity, please.” 12. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FOR/FROM THE MAYOR OR COUNCIL MEMBERS: Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Members of Council I am going to pass down a motion that I would like you to take a look at. This is just for your information. I am going to ask the clerk to put it on the agenda for our April 2nd meeting. But it deals with encouraging the staff to get our collection rate up to 92%. I am handing this out now for only FYI. But for the sake of the public I would like to read this into the record. ‘I move that Council hereby declares that it is the policy of this Council not to consider, after 2019, any increases in fees or rates for water and sewer services for customers within the City until Council has received written certification from the City Manager that the City’s collection rate for bills rendered for such services has reached at least 92 percent for three consecutive months.’ And the reason for this is to try to be equitable and not make the faithful citizens who are paying their bills support those who are not paying their bills but drinking and using our water. I have timed this for after 2019 so as to not to disrupt plans in the short term for obtaining the revenue that we need to maintain our infrastructure but by this motion I am asking council to put city staff on notice that we are serious that we want this 92% figure reached. It is the norm for the industry and there is no reason why we can’t reach it as well. So, I will be sending this to the Clerk of Council and asking her to put in our agenda for Aril 2nd meeting for a vote at that time. Thank you.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “Thank you all for attending the meeting tonight. First thing is I sent an email to code compliance requesting a report. At our last meeting we talked about the new parking deck to go up. We talked about one of the buildings having floors falling in or something of that nature. So, I Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 - 10 – ______________________________________________________________________________ asked for a dated report as to when the last time the building was actually looked at. What was the condition of the building? And I did ask for it to be dated and for pictures of anything else that code compliance could give us. I also know that Mr. Cuthbert asked for similar reports. As far as I know I have not gotten anything, and Mr. Cuthbert has not gotten anything, and he had a timeline on his. I am asking for reports from code compliance for all of the old buildings in our City. I want to know what the conditions of our buildings are as opposed to waiting until someone wants to do something and then we are told that the floors have caved in or something has happened. I would like to know the conditions of the buildings in our City prior to something happening. We tore down the Nash Building, but I saw no prior reports. We tore down the Rialto Building with no prior reports. So, I am just wondering where are we with our old buildings and what are they looking like and when was the last time code compliance went in and looked at them and what is the status? Is that feasible?” Mrs. Benavides stated, “I am not sure. One of the things that we have to verify and there are two components. There is fire inspection and then there is code. Fire inspection deals with commercial buildings and code, I will let Mr. Lyons explain. I know that we have had these discussions and I know that we are concerned about which buildings are in jeopardy but I also have to discuss and know what my limitations are with going into buildings that are not City owned or City controlled. So, I don’t know the answer to that, but I will ask him to speak to that.” Mr. Lyons stated, “Staff and I have been working to figure out how to address your issue. As the City Manager just eluded to the issue that you are asking is not just a clear-cut piece. Some of those are private owned. Secondly, you probably have some buildings that you don’t want to send anybody in. Thirdly, because they are engineering companies similar to when you talk about the two buildings that we took down, staff did not unilaterally do that without some engineering individuals going in and do an assessment of those. With that assessment comes a cost. In addition to that unless they specifically close the scope on one or two there is such a large amount of these kinds of buildings within our City that I am not quite sure that we have the man or woman power to do it. Secondly, it is outside the scope of our staff ability to go in and determine the building other than the fact that one of the clarity that we had on the other building with you was that when I came here we were reading the fact that the building official had the authority that once he deemed a building to be inhabitable that he had the authority for that building to be down. What we have clarified is that this is not exactly the case. And so, as you go back to the Nash Building, though there were conversations about that and opportunities afforded to the historic preservation people and others to take a look at that and other engineers who were considered to be hired by them on how to save the building. So, in all fairness to the staff I met with the staff this week and struggle is to try and figure out exactly what you want. The other part of that the companies that may have done these studies in the past may have some of the information. And the last piece that I offer to you is that some of our overall filing systems and things that we take for granted are archaic at best. There are buildings where we are endeavor of using City resources and try to safe those buildings. Some of our documentation though is damaged. So, we are working to try and address that now. If you have something specific and we will work with staff and I will endeavor to do that.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “First of all, I don’t want anybody in any danger either and I don’t want the City spending extra money to do this. But, someone came to us and stood behind that podium and they said to us about the damage done to us in that building. In my opinion, in order to say that to me somebody had to have some type of documentation showing and stating that those buildings were damaged. That the second floor was missing and that the roof was caved in. Something, and all I am asking you for or anybody else is whenever someone comes, and we have to take down such and such building I think that it is only befitting to have something that says that we went in this building in 2010 and this is what we saw then, and we haven’t been back. So, naturally it is worst. Or we went in this building in 2017, is there documentation and five windows were missing then and we found six dead rats or something. But to come to me and say the building is crumbling but it looks good on the outside, we should have some type of verification.” Mr. Lyons stated, “These are specifically about the buildings across from the transit and those reports are there and separate apart from the report. We did our effort as staff to go out and take care of the individuals and to figure out that they were even able to say that. There is a termite infestation on the second floor. It was clear from the engineer company and the company that rehabs buildings that we offered to give the building to that there was nothing that they can do. Even if they put all of their dollars and resources it Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 - 11 – ______________________________________________________________________________ made no sense. So, what you are asking for very specifically is a report. We have brought it to you before, but I will get with out building official to get that information to you again being that I know that you are focused very specific on that building.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “That is all that my focus was on. It wasn’t about anybody being in danger and it wasn’t about what other reports you got, and it was not questioned on everything that you just mentioned. I simply asked for a report about the buildings. Thank you.” Mr. Lyons stated, “Whatever we have we will make it available to you.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Mr. Lyons did I here you say that the two buildings behind the Petersburg Area Transit Center had been offered for free to people?” Mr. Lyons stated, “No, sir. I was asking the question if she was talking about the building that were taking down across the street.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “They had been offered for free?” Mr. Lyons stated, “We put it out there to sale or do what we were endeavored to do to save those buildings.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “But you said that you offered them for free.” Mr. Lyons stated, “If an opportunity came back and said that if we were to come to you we would not give it away without coming to you. If we presented you with a proposal, this is something that you could help us save. If there is any receivable way to save those buildings, and if that meant similar to the properties that we have today that we are talking about on the list, if we can find other people to do what is considered as adaptive reuse. Adaptative reuse is taking those buildings that you know them to be and, in the sense, that they are in and being able to take those and make them structural sound and being able to put them to use and thirdly being able to put them back on the tax role. Those are one of the options that we would consider long before we took those buildings done.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “But didn’t you tell this council that that building had been offered for free.” Mr. Lyons stated, “I told you along with the other members of council that we endeavored to do everything we possibly could to save those buildings.” Mayor Parham stated, “At this time we are going to cut this conversation and get back to point of order. We are cutting into Council Member Wilson-Smith’s time right now. And we are going so far off into a totally different discussion of old business.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “I agree Mr. Mayor, but Mr. Lyons told us that the building had been offered for free and I found that hard to believe and when I asked whether he really said that he backed off. I want straight information from that podium Mr. Lyons. I don’t want you to tell me one thing.” Mrs. Benavides stated, “I will speak for our staff. I am the City Manager. What we did in trying to save the building is looked at vendors who had the capability so that if there was a possibility to save the building that if we could bring this back to council to save that building as a transfer of property we would do that. We did not find one during that timeframe. So, what he is saying that we offered it for free is that we looked at other proposals to see if there were companies that were willing to come in to preserve the building. But, we did not make an offer to anybody and we actually asked for proposals and if it was a transfer we would have brought it back to council. That was during that process. Thank you, M. Lyons.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “The last thing I had was a concern. I asked Leslie about the Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 - 12 – ______________________________________________________________________________ hiring of her firm. And I did so because we already have a PR person. She said that they were hired by the City Manager and the Mayor. And once again, it looks like we have an issue.” Mayor Parham stated, “Council Member Wilson-Smith I did not hire anyone. I did have a discussion with the City Manager with them in the room. All the hiring goes through the City Manager. I did not hire them.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “That’s what I thought too. So, when she said that, and she said that I did not say it. She said it and I am sure you heard it.” Mayor Parham stated, “She stated that she spoke with both me and the City Manager. She did not say that I hired her.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “Thank you. I will play it back and I have nothing else.” Council Member Smith-Lee stated, “Good evening. I truly want to thank everyone that attended the joint ward meeting with Ward 6 & 7. Thank you, Mr. Hart. We had a productive meeting. We had quite a few citizens to come. We did have Senator Dance to come by and some other people to come and speak. But, I really appreciate you all for coming out with all your concerns. We just got some work to do. We beat our own selves up. We truly do. We just beat ourselves up constantly. I hear no positiveness of nothing. That’s all I have.” Council Member Myers stated, “I do not have the words for the foolishness.” Council Member Hill stated, “To the staff, I really appreciate the hard work that you put in. And I want you all to figure out what is a council ask and a direction from council. There is a difference between me asking you to do something and the council directing you to do something. I am just speaking strictly to the staff. For it is a difference between Madam City Manager, City Attorney or Madam Clerk then me personally asking you to do something then from the council giving you direction to do something. So, you all have to find a way to negotiate those variables. Although we represent our wards, anything that is done that is going to cost us money or anything that is going to cost certain struggle with staff that is over and beyond you will have to determine that I need direction from the council of something of major concern through the City Manager. And I will just put that out there. I am not talking to the council I am talking to the City Manager and the appointees from us. Because sometimes I know we all want our individual thing, but you have seven people that want seven things from their wards and that’s fine. But when you get direction from a vote from the council to do something that is one thing. But when you get Darrin Hill coming to your office that is another thing and asking can you get this for me you may be able to do it and maybe you can’t. And it is okay to say no. In the steam of things, we work as a body. And another thing, there was a meeting on yesterday and I made the comment and I saw that it was on Facebook that I am trying to have meetings during the daytime. So, if you are going to quote me, please quote me correctly. I said it was nice for us to have it during the daytime when everyone was fresh, and we were able to dialogue because the meeting does run late in the evening. I have no problems with being here late. I am more concerned about the citizens and the staff. That is what I am more concerned about. I will not let a few individuals run the whole City when I have been elected by over 6,500 to run the ward. The seven of us was put up here elected. You want to run get the petitioners and go door to door like we did. We sit in people houses everyday on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This is the time that I go talk to my constituents and others. So, I am not trying to have meetings or going back to having meetings during the day, but we do know that this City works all day 24/7. So, just to try to limit us to 6:30pm because certain individuals can’t get here at that time. We have to do what is best for all and that includes the staff. That is the reason why I made mention of a meeting on a Sunday and bringing staff out. That is not something unless it is an emergency, or you are one of the staff that have to be on 24 hour call. That is something different. We are getting into the time of the year with our leaf and potholes. I want to thank the staff for the blitz that we are doing. It seems like it is going well. All the citizens have to do is call in if you see anything and we will take care of it. We are at the point of time that we are going to start cutting grass as well. And this is almost the first time that we need to start cutting right now. I saw on Crater Road that we started but I am wondering if we have the resources to start especially on Crater Road going towards Blandford Cemetery and putting some weed and feed to kill some of that stuff so that greenery can look a lot better. If we can look at that. Of course, we are big on the coming into the City. I know VDOT tends to take care of that, but I did see our staff on Exit 52 cleaning it Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 - 13 – ______________________________________________________________________________ up. So, I want to thank the staff for that as well. And I just really want to thank our staff for all the hard work that they do. I want to welcome our new person today, Ms. Elliott. Welcome to the team. Thank you, Madam Clerk.” Vice Mayor Hart stated, “Good evening everyone. I just want to thank you all for coming out and being a part. Also, thank Annette Smith-Lee for the joint meeting. I thank that it was very helpful for the both of us and that they can see more than one council person speaking at a time to answer questions that may or may not get answered here during this session. Staff, again thank you for all that you do. I know that sometimes I can call for certain things but there is one thing that we know that is for certain here. There is a lot of issues that needs presence in the City of Petersburg. So, Chief Miller I want to thank you and your staff for all that you do. Even when the citizens or council members call you and say can you increase patrol here you get it done. So, thank you for that. Outside of that I have no other items. Thank you.” Mayor Parham stated, “Good evening everyone again. I just want to let everyone know that we will be having on Monday a joint meeting with the Petersburg School Board at Petersburg High School starting at 6:00pm. All are welcome to attend and followed by the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Dinner on next Tuesday. I hope that everyone on council is able to make it. We are coming into budget time and I want people to know that we are still operating in crisis mode here and we do not have time for a lot of this internal fighting amongst council members and internal fighting between council and staff. Everybody is here to move the City forward. And we have to stay focus in making the necessary decisions in order to get this City out of financial turmoil. Because we are not no where near where we are supposed to be. We have got to stay focused and dive down into these numbers and sacrifice the time to get it done. I know that I sent out for an invite for the finance workshop and I know that it is set for 6:30pm. We do it for the public because the public needs to be in on that but, yet we still have the same council members fighting against moving times up that can’t meet on certain dates. But this City Council business has to be done. We have got to move the City forward and can’t keep dwelling on having a meeting here and there. You were elected to represent this City and you are represented to be there to make the necessary decisions. So, please do not short change the City. And I hope that every one of you all can participate and do the right thing that is necessary. And thank you again for our staff and our citizens, because they choose to be here with us. I have been here when nobody wanted to come here before. So, we have to be appreciative of our staff and also mindful of their job and the things that they have to do. Because no one is going to dive into mental breakdown on financial overload here because we have a very heavy load here to carry in the City of Petersburg. I have no other items.” 13. ITEMS REMOVED FROM CONSENT AGENDA: No items for this portion of the agenda. 14. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: a. Water Rate Study Presentation Update Mr. Rogers stated, “Mayor and Council, I thought that we had a good and productive meeting workshop on yesterday on water rates. I did not invite the consultants tonight to go through what we went through yesterday and last week. But, what I do want to say that with the public hearing being set for April 2nd, I am advised by our clerk that she needs to publish proposed water rates in the public announcement for that public hearing. And we have not yet approved those water rates. So, the only thing that we can publish with your concurrence is the recommendation of the rate study for discussion only and make it very clear in the announcement that council has authorized the publication of the rates recommended in the rate study. And that is all that you are authorizing and that will give us an opportunity to have the public meetings in the wards. We talked about getting feedback from the public and then we would come back with a recommendation to you to consider for action at the first reading and for second reading. So, Mr. Mayor a motion to authorize us to do that would be appropriate.” Council Member Wilson-Smith, “Can you reiterate?” Mr. Rogers stated, “Its authorization for us to publish the recommendation of the rate study. And if you Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 - 14 – ______________________________________________________________________________ recall the recommendation of the rate study was option one, which was 12.2% for the 2020, 2021 and 2022.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “So, what you are asking for is for the publication to publish each one of recommendations?” Mr. Rogers stated, “No each one of the recommendations but what we would do is that the format required is to apply the rate increase to one of the rate categories so that citizens can what the impact would be for them. For instance, they will be able to see what the 12.2% would mean for the residents on their capacity charge and their water rates. And we will do it on a monthly basis by meter size so that they can see that. But that would clearly be understood of authorization only for publication purposes and when we come back we will come back with a recommendation based on input from the residents. We will talk about the various options that we that are on the table and we will tell you what we get back from citizens whether their reactions to the options that are out there. The main thing is trying to cover the revenue that is required to finance the water system based on whether it is 80% or 90% or 92% of what that rate would be.” Council Member Myers stated, “What are you asking us to post? The options? If that is the case.” Mrs. Benavides stated, “So, I will ask our clerk because she gave the advice of publishing our water rates. You have done that before. What do you have to publish for a public hearing?” Ms. Jackson stated, “Just like you stated you have to publish for each amount. If you are increasing it you have to publish the increased amount on there. It would have to be meter size and all. It has to be on one page of all the numbers that are put out there for all to see.” Mr. Rogers stated, “Usually when we are at this point council has already acted before going to a public hearing. This is a case when council has not officially voted on an option and we are trying to in order to keep the scheduling moving forward to meet the public hearing requirements and provide information to the citizens so that they are informed of what is on the agenda.” Vice Mayor Hart made a motion to appoint the City staff to provide the water rate option that they recommended. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. The motion was not approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham 15. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: No items for this portion of the agenda. 16. NEW BUSINESS: a. Proposed amendments to the Rules of Council BACKGROUND: See attached. RECOMMENDATION: Approve amendments to the Rules of Council Council Member Myers made a motion to table action on the Rules of Council until April 16, 2019 meeting. The motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Hart. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham b. Discussion on evaluations of City Council appointees BACKGROUND: At present, Council has no process for evaluating Council employees RECOMMENDATION: N/A Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 - 15 – ______________________________________________________________________________ Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Let me get the ball rolling on this. I truly hope that this will be a discussion. This is not an area of the law in which I am familiar, that is the need to evaluate employees. But, I have learned from serving on City Council and through some of the contentious issues that has been presented to us that it is important that we be business like in evaluating our council employees. I know it’s hard to make time on the agenda. We all have so many issues presented to us and so I am wondering if the way to approach this is to establish or pick a certain date like the first day in October. And at that time our standard operating procedure would be that at the first meeting in October we evaluate council employees. I don’t even know how frequent we need to do this. Whether we need to do this once a year or twice a year. I invite conversation from other members of council.” Mayor Parham stated, “Council Member Cuthbert the contracts say once a year.” Council Member Cuthbert asked, “When was the last time we did that?” Mayor Parham stated, “December.” Council Member Cuthbert asked, “For which employee? I remember starting on the City Manager evaluation and not finishing. Did we finish the City Manager evaluation? Mayor Parham stated, “It has not concluded.” Council Member Cuthbert asked, “When do we plan on concluding that?” Mayor Parham stated, “At this time, I think that we need to give it to the clerk to set a timeframe and hold it to the calendar.” Council Member Hill asked, “Can we address this with the Rules of Council, so we can maybe have a solid time in like every October. I would like to do it after the budget season.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “I think that is a good idea. I think we should table this until the second meeting in April. Is that what you are suggesting Council Member Hill.” Mrs. Benavides stated, “In consulting with the City Attorney, this is a topic that we should be having in a closed session. This is not a public topic.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “It has been on the agenda and someone should have said that it was not appropriate on the agenda. In any event I apologize if that is so. As I said to begin with this is a new concept to me.” Mrs. Benavides stated, “Council Member what I am saying is that in scheduling it, what you would do is schedule it as a closed session discussion for you. As far as you agreeing to do it that is okay but when you start to go into details. So, what should happen is that you still need to schedule it as your appointees agree with that.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Okay. I would like to schedule this for closed session discussion at our April 2nd meeting, please.” Council Member Cuthbert made a motion to schedule for closed session discussion at the April 2nd meeting. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Smith-Lee, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Hart and Parham 17. REPORTS/REPONSES TO PREVIOUSE PUBLIC INFORMATION PERIOD: Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: March 19, 2019 - 16 – ______________________________________________________________________________ Kemi Osoba, Public Relations Officer, read comments and responses from previous public information at the March 5, 2019, regular council meeting. 1. What is the status of the landfill and landfill operations under CFS? The administrative process considering whether the Director should revoke the solid waste permit and the litigation are both on-going. A formal notice of the proceeding and the securing of a Supreme Court Hearing officer as required in that process has occurred. The timing of the process moving forward will be set with the Supreme Court Hearing Officer. Questions about the status of either of these matters, should be directed to Justin Williams at justin.williams@deq.virginia.gov Specific concerns about the facility, should be directed to Jason Miller, Pidemont Regional Office Land Protection Manager at Jason.Miller@deq.virginia.gov or 804-527-5028. 2. What is the status of the Microtel? The City is are awaiting the signed purchase agreement from the purchaser/developer. 18. CITY MANAGER’S AGENDA *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 19. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM CLERK: *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 20. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY: *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 21. ADJOURNMENT: City Council adjourned at 11:04 p.m. _________________________ Clerk of City Council APPROVED: _________________________ Mayor