City Council

Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -1– ______________________________________________________________________________ The regular meeting of the Petersburg City Council was held on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, at the Union Train Station. Mayor Parham called the meeting to order at 6:40p.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 Vice Mayor John A. Hart, Sr. Mayor Samuel Parham Absent: Council Member Darrin Hill Present from City Administration: Deputy City Manager Lionel Lyons City Attorney Anthony C. Williams Assistant to the City Manager Tanesha Flowers 2. PRAYER: Mayor Parham stated, “Now at this time Deacon Funk of St. Joseph Catholic Church will led us in our opening prayer.” Deacon Funk led the council meeting in prayer. 3. CLOSED SESSION: No items for this portion of the meeting. 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: A quorum was determined with the presence of all City Council Members except Council Member Darrin Hill. Mayor Parham stated, “And to start off with our Positive Petersburg Story of the night I would like to recognize our own Dogwood Trace Golf Course for their participation in ‘Women’s Golf Day’ today. Women’s Golf Day is an international community dedicated to engaging, empowering and supporting women through golf. Created for women to enjoy golf and learn the skills to last a lifetime. Dogwood Trace has crafted a special fun nature evening for women of all skill levels to enjoy some golf tonight. The event will consist of nine holes and a celebratory hour afterwards. Thank you, Jamie Fagon and Dogwood Trace, for you participation today.” *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -2– ______________________________________________________________________________ 7. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS/PRESENTATION OF CEREMONIAL PROCLAMATIONS: a. Proclamation designating June 13-19, 2019, as Petersburg Safety Week Mayor Parham read the proclamation out loud and presented it to the Risk Manager of the City of Petersburg. 8. COMMUNICATIONS/SPECIAL REPORTS: a. City Assessor Report – Brian Gordineer, AAS, City Assessor Mr. Gordineer gave a PowerPoint presentation on what the City Assessor’s Office has recently done and what they will be doing in the weeks to come. Key Points:  Members of the City Assessor’s Office recently attending the Emerging Leadership Summit.  Today real estate analyst provided training to half a dozen citizens in the City under a new product.  Improvements have been made to the website with the goal of making all work in office paperless.  Four members of staff will be attending next week the Virginia Department of Taxation Advanced Assessor’s School. b. City Manager Report – Lionel Lyons, Deputy City Manager Mr. Lyons stated, “Glad to be here in the absence of Madam City Manager that I hope returns back to work on Monday. I just want to make sure that each one of you know that you do have a printed copy of the budget for next week in front of you. This has been a huge endeavor taking by the finance and budget staff and I am very thankful. And I want to thank Mr. Floyd and Mr. Rogers for their work in getting this document in which I also hope will be on our website very, very soon. I want to hit a couple of quick items. If you look at your weekly reports. Work with me a little bit. I forgot my glasses and I had to borrow Vice Mayor’s Hart glasses. I may not look as cool as him, but I want to remind everybody about the job fair with public works which is June 15th at the library. Secondly, I want you to know that 19 potholes were repaired throughout the City over the past week. In addition, I want to give a big kudos to public works staff for the repair of a six-inch water line over on Hinton Street. These are no small undertakings, but I am glad that the team is being trained and able to do these things inside. In addition, to that if you slide over to the field service has completed and this may read on the quality control. We have cut-offs on accounts. Last week we gave you numbers about cut- offs and accounts that were inaccurate. This report shows that we have cut-off 456 accounts in this process. We had initially said 1,456. We are also working on reviewing the Cooperative Contracts and Purchases for commercial and industrial meters and we will keep you abreast of that. Last, we I also told you that we are endeavoring to deal with roof repairs at Westview Schools. That process is moving forward. From a public safety side, I would like to continue to report the good news. One hundred and twenty-five illegal guns have been removed from Petersburg streets this year. Secondly, CPR training for all three fire shifts have been completed. Community Corrections Pre-trial, Probation and Parole Community Supervision Week is July 21st through July 27th. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that. The police chief went on to let you all know that we had an unfortunate incident on May 31st of a break in over at Petersburg High School. One classroom was destroyed and paint all over the walls both on the inside and outside of the building. As of May 31st, two seniors were arrested and there was about $7,000 worth of damage in recovery that took place in that process. So, I wanted you all to know that. One of the other items that is a follow-up. As many of you are aware we were talking to Mr. Harrison about the Ramada Inn. I am happy to report today that they started the boarding of that *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -3– ______________________________________________________________________________ facility. And secondly Mr. Harrison also called me and wanted me to ensure each and every one of you that the fencing in and around that facility will be in place by the end of next week. I commend him for the outreaching and keeping us up to speed in that process. In addition to that, before you all I have given you four or five different reports. One talked about the meter read updates which I just spoke too. Secondly, at the last meeting we talked about how many turn on and turn offs you all can see in terms of the water billing process. You all have a sheet here before you. I also submitted it electronically to everyone before coming over here. Also, in your package many of you started to ask questions about water bills, leaks and things of that nature. I wanted to make sure that you saw the list of letters that goes out from public works and speaks to people with the high- water usage options and the way to address those issues. So, I wanted to make sure that you had that process before you. Last, but not least a number of questions that were asked last week of me in this role. Specially one or two of them were about social services. There were issues about health insurance which the City Attorney for City Council in which he agreed to follow-up on. And there were a number of other things that we were looking at in terms of dates for you all as it relates to a work session. So, they are all there before you and I wanted to make sure that you have that information. Last but not least on behalf of the City Manager, this week we had an unfortunate incident where one of our public works employees was out doing his job and unfortunately, he ran into a dog that was not friendly. And in that process his hands were impacted severally. I just want to let you all know that I sent you a note on who that employee was. His name is Mr. Steve Harrell. And our hearts go out to him and in the process of all that he was doing. But I wanted to just remind everyone of you that the elements about our job that we all take as being easy as cutting grass. And the dog was on the chain and he was endeavoring to help the dog and because of that it severally impacted his hands. I would ask that you all keep him and his family in prayer as he goes through the healing process.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Mr. Lyons thank you. And thank you for the good news that Mr. Harrison has begun the boarding up process he promised us at our May 7th meeting that he would have it boarded up before the month was out. Also, that he would remove the graffiti before the month was out. The month came and went but at least he has begun the process of boarding up the windows and I suspect that it had something to do with encouraging him to focus on that. Would you find out when he expects to finish boarding the windows. He has a lot of them to board. But as of May 7th, he thought that he could finish it before the month was out. So, I would hope that he could finish before the month of June is out. And if he could also remove the graffiti. I realized that maybe remove is the wrong word but maybe obscured would be a better word. If he could paint over the graffiti. I think that council is concerned about the appearance of the graffiti and whether it is actually taken off of the building or whether it is painted over. I don’t think matters to us. But would you bring these two issues to Mr. Harrison and give us a report back when we meet on June 18th to let us know his position on both of those items please.” Mr. Lyons stated, “Yes, I will definitely follow-up. But a big kudos goes to Mrs. Peters for helping in this process. She customized the letter directly to him stating what was thus the concerns of the council. She has been in contact with him and I was very thankful that he called today. I will endeavor to get what you are asking for by the 18th.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Great, thank you.” There was discussion among City Council and staff. c. FY2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) – Notice of Delay BACKGROUND: On March 8, 2019, HB1866 was incorporated and approved in the Virginia Acts of Assembly – 2019 Session, Chapter 322. An Act to amend and reenact § 15.2-2511 of the Code of Virginia, relating to the annual local audit; notice of delay. *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -4– ______________________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDATION: Recommend City Council approve the posting of the below language to the City of Petersburg’s website under Government>Finance>Financial Reports> Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports:  2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report o The required audit is pending. o The reason for the delay is due to turnover/vacancy of key City personnel o Estimated date of completion is calendar year 2019. Patricia Elliot, Finance Director, gave a briefing of the CAFR- Notice of Delay. There was discussion among City Council and staff. Council Member Wilson-Smith made a motion to approve the posting of the language to the City of Petersburg’s website under Government>Finance>Financial Reports> Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports:  2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report o The required audit is pending. o The reason for the delay is due to turnover/vacancy of key City personnel o Estimated date of completion is calendar year 2019. 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, Hart and Parham; Absent: Hill d. Presentation on Risk Management Program BACKGROUND: This report will provide trending analysis on accidents and claims over the last several years and the efforts that have been made to reduce claims and payouts. RECOMMENDATION: Receive the report. Twain Bridges, Risk Manager, gave a PowerPoint Presentation on the Risk Management Program. There was discussion among City Council and staff. 9. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA (to include minutes of previous meeting/s) a. Request to schedule a public hearing to amend ad re-adopt Section 42-2(B) of the Petersburg Code of Ordinances pertaining to assessment for courthouse construction, renovation or maintenance. (June 18, 2019) b. Request to schedule a public hearing and subsequently considers adoption of an ordinance approving and authorizing the City Manager to execute a Purchase Agreement and proceed with the sale of City-owned property, located at 505 High Street, 857 East Bank Street and 801 South Adams Street, in accordance with applicable legal requirements. (June 18, 2019) c. Request to schedule a public hearing on the expansion of local historic district – historic landmarks in National Register of Historic Buildings. (June 18, 2019) d. Consideration of the adoption of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Holiday Calendar – 1st Reading Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the consent and to schedule the public hearings for June 18, 2019. 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, Hart *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -5– ______________________________________________________________________________ and Parham; Absent: Hill 10. OFFICIAL PUBLIC HEARINGS: *There are no public hearings for this portion of the agenda. 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. Julian Greene, 1625 Blair Road, stated, “Good evening Mr. Mayor and Members of Council. The purpose and the reason that I am here today is to express my feelings and concerns as it relates to the last City Council meeting that was May 28th. I observed in that meeting some feelings and some spoken words that were humiliating, nasty, degrading and really out of context. Because it singles out to me a segment of our population and our citizens. Some are Virginia State University students, and some are individuals of low- income properties. This is 2019 and not 1619 when kidnaped individuals brought to the shore of Jamestown Virginia not on their own. And for us to single out and categorize particularly citizens in the City such as Petersburg with our ethnic population in terms of how they are referred to is bad. I submit Mr. Mayor that a meeting such as that should never happen in this City and it can be handled through the proper Rules of Council and parliamentary procedures in Robert’s Rules of Order. Because that situation, you are elected to represent not only a small segment of the wards in the City but all of the citizens. Never again should we see certain people and certain class of people humiliating such as they were. So, I submit that today that it should never happened again. Thank you.” Marcus Squires, 1701 Monticello Street, stated, “I am here to talk to you today about High Street Methodist Church. I know that we were talking about property on Bank Street here that we had to tear down recently. I do not know if you all been by High Street but the door on the front side is caved in and there are parts of the building that are falling down. And a lot of constituents in your ward Mr. Myers were upset about that last night when I was walking by. Another issue I would like to talk to you all about is with a lot of the City’s parks. We always talk about best practices that are taking place in other cities. A lot of City’s that cannot afford to upgrade or maintain their parks and they are actually leasing out their parks usually for $1 a year to nonprofits and they apply for grants to upgrade the parks and benefit the community. My final comment is to Mayor Parham. Are you ever interested in doing a Sister Cities relationship? And if you are let me know. Thank you very much for your time.” Richard Stewart, 129 Rolfe Street, stated, “I am here today to thank Richard Taylor and his organization for really for designing a very beautiful water way. I thank the City administration for coming to the opening of the park. Also, I am concerned about the walking in front of City Hall. A young man came out the other day and helped me with my flat tire and nearly got hurt. The question I ask is how many pedestrian crossings can be put on the street. Because on Union Street there is one by the church and then there is one on the corner. But you find a majority of people coming from the parking lot cross right in front. Can that be another pedestrian crossing? Because you have a lot of people coming there and a person nearly got hit the other day with the amount of speed. Finally, I hate the representation of the billboards of Petersburg. That you all have not done anything in 30 years. In 30 years, some of you all were still in elementary school. Now, they try to put it all on Rosalyn Dance. Rosalyn Dance was not in office in 30 years. There were other people in office. Some of the people’s in opposition were in the office. I am not going to call any names. But don’t let that *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -6– ______________________________________________________________________________ put you down. I think you all are doing a hell of a job. You are making a lot of improvements in Petersburg. When you look at Petersburg from 1993 when the tornado came through here and you look at it now especially Pocahontas. Pocahontas was the edge of the ghetto. So, what I am saying is there is has been a lot of improvements in Petersburg on Sycamore Street, High Street and etc. You all just keep on doing what you are doing, and I support you 100%. Thank you.” Willie Noise, 1508 Circle Drive, stated, “I would like to say the same thing that Mr. Stewart said that you are doing one hell of a job. That is only to be good. We have got to be excellent. Mr. Greene spoke on stuff that has been on my mind for a while. He saved me a problem by speaking of it in the language. Now, I have 30 years of military training and I was two tours in Vietnam. And most of the stations that I went to I was the only black there in my squad. And if it was one there he was a short timer and he was getting ready to leave. I wasn’t a prejudice type person and I absorbed the lives and learns and likings to get along well with everybody. And since I have been coming to this council meeting I have learned all of you that came on while here. I have 18 things on my list. Neighborhood watch Ward 7 Western Hills. And in front of you, you may have some of my paperwork. Transaction history. Now, if we don’t log stuff down right there then we will never know what is going on. Key location, hot spots on this election thing. I am glad to see that most hot spot highly visible areas of two people both sides are represented. Now, after the key location and whatever and further up into the neighborhood is personal. One cannot just represent just one side. It’s got to represent both sides. Telemarketing. Complete a call sometimes. When these telemarketers call you and ask you some questions and you don’t provide no information you question them because they called you. And pretty soon they are going to hang up on you. Signs. We are going with the big one and personal property one. Railroads tracks. There are plenty of them that are not being used that can be salvaged and money going to the City some way. Youngs Road. The only thing that I am going to say about that tonight is Lieutenant Run. If you don’t get in there and do something about Lieutenant Run that road will be closed down for a long time when you can do half of it at a time. Joe Morrisey on City Council. We are talking about Charlie Cuthbert, council ward 4 medical leave. Reason given sessions. Personal, emotional, respect, attitude and assessments is the same that the Chief have sent the crew through for sensibility. And he has three people that have graduated with flying colors. Excellent example of the course. That is Patrol Officer Smith and I do not have his badge number and Patrol Officer Hall and Deputy Chief Christian. These are three people that impresses me from their attitude and a good prime example of the ethics that we should have. Now by these three we can promote and two people that is Charlie Cuthbert and Councilman Myers. Soon as Charlie finishes his then we will let Joe Morrisey take his place until he gets back. And then after that report we will have some idea of where we stand and that is our goal. We are not there yet. If you are making over a certain amount of money we want to have you donate a one time 10% cut. Where is that on your priority list? I am on number 12. The river. Nothing is being done on this side of the river. Everything is on the north side. Trash trucks are not being cleaned at the end of the shift. When those trash trucks go down on that Thursday you are to smell the street and see where they are coming and going. Honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Housing issue. In house only and the next 90 days we are not going to deal with trying to improve somebody capital. Request more money from Virginia Lottery for Petersburg education. There are a lot of accusations and just look at it. Thank you very much. And thank you for assisting me on my end.” Gary Talley, 2323 Fort Rice Street, stated, “What is really happening? You do not give reports about that. How many business owner’s have visited the City with an invitation from the City in the last 30 days or the last 60 days or the last 90 days. How many of those businesses have decided to open up a business here. If not, then why not? If you look around and I mentioned this at the community meeting I think that if you were going out on a blind date and first time going somewhere and meeting someone new like a business owner would be to a City don’t you want to put your best foot forward. Have you all looked at our City recently? We have some beautiful architecture, but it is being hidden by overgrown areas and grass not being cut. Sidewalks are in disrepair. I noticed the other day and I hadn’t measured it yet but down on Crater Road and Park Avenue there is a curb cut with a fire hydrant in the middle of it. If you look on the other side of the street there is a car lot and the sidewalk in front of it is awful. A person in a wheelchair, crutches or cane could not travel there. *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -7– ______________________________________________________________________________ Downtown and Old Towne is beautiful. Look at the sidewalks as you travel Wythe Street going south. What happened to it? That is part of who we are. And that is what people visiting the City look at. When I did business like that I would come to City Council meetings to see how the City was being run. Most of the time you all do a great job but a couple of times there are times we do not make a good impression on outsiders. And we need to beware of that. If we want people to come here we need to be inviting and welcomed. We need to be as beautiful as we can be and as we used to be. Thank you.” Barb Rudolph, 1675 Mt. Vernon Street, stated, “Good evening. I do notice that the Mayor just left, and I also notice that one of the other speakers went over and had a six-and-a-half-minute comment in a three- minute comment period. I am just pointing these things out. I will not make any editorial comments, but I am noticing it. I think all of you are noticing it as well. The other thing I like to say is that I realize that Ms. Flowers is not real familiar with the process but there is a Rule 3 on the Rules of Council that says that public comment will be heard after the motion of adoption of an ordinance or resolution has been accepted by the Mayor and prior to discussion by council. There was a resolution about the CAFR and the public was not given the opportunity to speak about that. The City Attorney was still here and the Mayor and both of them I thought knew the rules. Again, an observation and may come back and talk about that. However, I do not have an issue with the resolution. What I wanted to say is that last week and I only have three things on my list so hopefully I will be allowed to get through all three of them. Last week the Mayor made a positive Petersburg talk and presentation about the trip to Las Vegas by some members of the City. I want to say that I think going to conferences often offers benefits to the City, so I don’t think that anyone questioning a conference is necessarily questioning that it has value. But a lot has to do with the number of people who are sent from a City that does not have a lot of extra money. And I know that the Mayor mentioned, and it sounded like part of his justification was that staff was sent from Colonial Heights and Prince George County to the Las Vegas conference. So, I thought let me look into that. So, I sent FOIA request to those two localities who by the way answered very promptly and one person from Colonial Heights went and two people from Prince George went. They seemed to be able to conduct their business with fewer than five people or however many people went from Petersburg. I have never been sure. But speaking of FOIA, I found Council Member Cuthbert comments both tonight and last week to be interesting. That there is discussion going on in closed session that at least in his believe should not be exempted to being talked about in the open. And I think that is worth exploring even if it is one councilor concerned about it. And I have the suspicion that several others are as well. I hope that you will be looking into that and if you need to seek advice in someone other than your City Attorney then so be it. The last thing that I am going to say is the City Manager presentation. Mr. Lyon’s gave a presentation on behalf of the City Manager and he did last week as well. And he kept referring to emails that had been sent and paper reports that had been provided. All of these things are part of the meeting. They are all part of the public information just as much as your meeting agenda and packets that get sent out ahead of time. I appreciate that the City has set up a City Council presentation part of the website, but all of these items are being given by the City Manager and they also need to be on their. And I have not seen any of those on there. And it sounded like it was a bit of information presented tonight and the public does need to see that without having to resort to a FOIA request. It should be published after the meeting. Thank you.” Ron Flock, 1708 Pender Avenue, stated, “I would like to wait for the Mayor to come back. He seems to always be gone when Barb and I come up here to have a conversation with you all. It is a matter of convenience either that or his bladder has some type of signal that says time to go here they come. Good evening everybody good to see you. This meeting that you all had tonight before this meeting, I do not know what this is but this is the dumbest of ignorance. You are all going into a closed session to seek legal advice from the City Attorney to get legal advice from the City Attorney for legal advice from the City Attorney. Are you kidding me? Try going to the sixth grade. Thank you. FOIA request and I am still waiting on January and February’s, but I did get this one right away. I appreciate that. Thank you. This is the credit card for January, February, March, April and May and I have June’s coming. And it is seemingly surprising how much this City is spending on credit cards in grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants. I am sure it has got to be somewhere at least $100,000 to $200,000 a year. You work for this City. You support this City. Do you know how many of *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -8– ______________________________________________________________________________ those expenses of restaurants are not in this City that this City actually has? If you go over there and you spend $65 at Kentucky Fried Chicken when you can go over there and spend $65 at Kentucky Fried Chicken and support this City like I do and like they do. Support the City first. At least that way we get part of our own money back in the taxes. I will come back probably at the next meeting with a number of observations and we will discuss that. Thank you.” Linwood Christian, 410 Mistletoe Street, stated, “A few things I would like for you hopefully to give your consideration. First and foremost, I have to say this too although one council member is missing, and I would really like for him to hear this. But when we were talking about the Ramada Inn and I listened to you all go at the man with the Ramada Inn, I want to say this, a lot of times members of council are quick to say what the City does not do in their practice. But understand this one thing, when persons such as myself has been coming to City Council meetings when some of you all were still in high school and elementary, when I say that we have heard it all before, I remember when Mr. Cuthbert’s father was on City Council. When I say we have heard it all before and we are tired of things being done a certain way I have a reason for saying that. Mr. Mayor when we talk about ‘Positive Petersburg Story’s’, I know a lot of times we see things in the paper, let’s not forget our unsung heroes. Because nobody made mention that our City has person’s who have turned their self in behind a shooting that has taken place. And right now, Petersburg is getting a reputation of being the shooting sister of Richmond. And for our police department to close those kinds of cases, if nothing else is positive I do not know what else is. When we talk about ‘Positive Petersburg Story’s’, we need to remember our police department. Because we could have a police department where are citizens are shooting at our police and our police are shooting. We can have a lot of that mess here that are in other places. So, again let’s not forget them. Also, one of the things that was brought up and I stated this to you before Mr. Mayor, but comments that are made. I remember when you all put Mr. Flock out for something he said. I remember when you all hauled me out of here. We, the citizens, just like we are to respect you, when council members that are elected and you make these statements about a particular class of people be prepared for us to fight back. And Mr. City Attorney I do not mean no harm, the last one we had calling in fake bomb threats, if you cannot do your job to stop this then maybe you need to seek other employment. Because we as citizens are tired of us being made to shut up when you all are saying things and we have no right to rebuttal. Thank you.” 12. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FOR/FROM THE MAYOR OR COUNCIL MEMBERS: Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Thank you Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor and council, I want to revisit the violation of the Freedom of Information Act that took place in closed session today. We were given more than 16 minutes of historical facts. I know that because I turned on the timer of my cellphone and watched the seconds click by. At least three minutes had gone by before I realized that it might be helpful to the time what was being said. So, altogether at least 19 minutes of facts were given to us that did not involve confidential information. These were facts that were delivered by a laymen, and no legal advice was being dispensed and I protested at least twice. I am glad to know the facts but that was not the forum in which to deliver them. The public would have also benefited from knowing the facts. A member of council pointed out that it was helpful to know the facts and I am in total agreement but that was not the place to do it. And certainly not under the cover of the umbrella of the claim of confidential information or something about litigation. So, I hope we don’t repeat that mistake again. I want the public to know the facts and I want council to know the facts. I want to know the facts, but we need to do it in open session. Thank you.” Council Member Wilson-Smith stated, “I have no items tonight, thank you.” Council Member Smith-Lee stated, “First of all I would like to thank all of you for coming out. Please be aware of all the phone scanning, scams and letter scams. I had an elderly person who was scammed out of $15,000. Please be aware when you get these calls saying that you won this money. The only kind of money that you are ever going to win is through the lottery. So, don’t get caught up. Also, I want to pray for the victims that were killed in Virginia Beach, the citizens that lost their lives at work. I want to thank Chief Miller for *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 -9– ______________________________________________________________________________ patrolling the area. I had several citizens in Ward 6 say that they see you riding around as well as Mr. Travis Christian. Also, I want to say thank you to Mrs. Innis who has done a lot of good things in Ward 6. A lot of citizens have had issues with brush and grass growing up and mattresses in the front yard. But when I call her she takes care of it. And I just want to say that when we go into closed session and if you don’t understand something you should have the right to ask. That is all that I have to say.” Council Member Myers stated, “Nothing at this time.” Vice Mayor Hart stated, “Good evening everyone and thank you for coming out today. Just a couple of things. I am working with the clerk right to have a second community meeting as to the direction of Petersburg. So, it will be in June. I am just waiting on a date and a location for that. And the other thing is that Mr. Noise, I will be bringing it to the attention as far as Young’s Road and everything else that is within Ward 7. Thank you.” Mayor Parham stated, “I just wanted to thank our City employees. I know we had Steven that had that accident involving the dog. I just want him to know that we appreciate what he does, and we are praying for a speedy recovery. And that is with all of our City employees that go out here and put they lives on the line every day. We thank you for your service and we keep in our prayers at all times as you continue to do great work here in the City of Petersburg.” 13. ITEMS REMOVED FROM CONSENT AGENDA: No items for this portion of the agenda. 14. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: a. Consideration of the Stabilization to Revitalize Initiative. BACKGROUND: The city owns over 200 vacant lots, and 8 lots with improvements. The comprehensive plan and the strategic plan for the city is to get these vacant lots back on the real estate roles of the city and in the hands of citizens. In addition, there are lots of private property decaying our communities because they are not stabilized and have several property maintenance violations. This initiative allows the City to stabilize these properties and placing a tax lien to recover the monies spent; and to abate many of the property maintenance violations. This is a strategy to aid the Property Maintenance staff in achieving compliance, its implementation allows neighborhoods to be restored one house at a time. RECOMMENDATION: Recommend City Council approve the concept and authorize the pilot program which allow one home to be stabilized with the cost not to exceed $50,000. Council Member Cuthbert stated, “Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Two points. We are within 30 days of when this issue came up before. It came up on May 7th and under our rules we cannot reconsider this item for 30 days. And so, I ask that this be rescheduled for our June 18th meeting. I also would like to ask council in the meantime that if any of us have buildings that we feel would be good candidates for the PILOT Project for Stabilize to Revitalize, I ask that members of council submit that list by street address to the City Manager for the June 18th meeting. The criteria for Stabilize to Revitalize are set forth on page 8 of the attachment. So, if you take a look at page 8 you will see where it starts off with Stabilize to Revitalize criteria.” Council Member Cuthbert went through the list of criteria’s for Stabilize to Revitalize Project. Council Member Cuthbert stated, “I would like council to think about these criteria’s and think about *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 - 10 – ______________________________________________________________________________ structures in their ward that they think meet those criteria’s and submit them to the City Manager before the June 18th meeting. And I hope before the June 18th meeting we can reconsider our vote on May 7th and adopt this as a PILOT Project. I think that this is going to help Petersburg. It is a tool in a tool box. The main way to address demolition by neglect is through code enforcement. But there definitely are buildings that are beyond the reach of easy enforcement by code and could benefit from Stabilize by Revitalize. Thank you very much Mr. Mayor.” b. Consideration of an ordinance authorizing the sale of City-owned property located at 627 (Rear) North South Street, 915 West High Street, 901 Halifax Street, 107-109 West Street (South), 437-437A Harrison Street, 804-806 Bolling Street; 411, 520, 524, 525, 530, 516-518 Shore Street, and 725, 729, 735, 745, and 747 Wilson Street. BACKGROUND: The City has received proposals to purchase the following City-owned properties: 009-010005 627 Rear North South St 024-070019 915 West High Street 045-060006 901 Halifax St 024-280037 107-09 West St S 031-060016 437-37A Harrison St 031-400002 804-806 Bolling St 031-250032 411 Shore St 030-260004 520 Shore St 030-260003 524 Shore St 030-160006 525 Shore St 030-260001 530 Shore St 031-400001 516-18 Shore St 031-250041 725 Wilson St 031-250040 729 Wilson St 031-250038 735 Wilson St 031-250034 745 Wilson St 031-250033 747 Wilson St In accordance with applicable legal requirements, A public hearing is required prior to approving and authorizing the sale of City-owned property. RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that the City Council considers adoption of an Ordinance approving and authorizing the City Manager to execute a Purchase Agreement and proceed with the sale of City-owned property in accordance with applicable legal requirements. Mayor Parham stated, “This item is also stricken from the agenda and tabled until we get an opinion on selling these properties.” Mr. Williams stated, “There has been a requested by council members to solicit an Attorney General opinion on this item. The matter should be tabled until that time.” 15. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: No items for this portion of the agenda. 16. NEW BUSINESS: *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council meeting held on: June 4, 2019 - 11 – ______________________________________________________________________________ No items for this portion of the agenda. 17. REPORTS/REPONSES TO PREVIOUSE PUBLIC INFORMATION PERIOD: Kemi Osoba, Public Relations Officer, read comments and responses from previous public information at the May 28, 2019, regular council meeting. 1. Are there any changes to the FOIA process? Answer: FOIA request should still be emailed to foia@petersburg-va.org. There is also a detailed sheet for FOIA that is available on the City’s website and the City Manager Office is currently researching new options of managing the FOIA process. 2. What grants are being applied for to assist in the water billing process? Answer: Currently there are no grants and application status specifically for utility billing. 18. CITY MANAGER’S AGENDA *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 19. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM CLERK: Mayor Parham stated, “I would like to say thank you Ms. Flowers for filling in for our clerk tonight. You did a wonderful job and it is also Ms. Flowers birthday that she is spending with us. On the count of three we have to sing Happy Birthday.” City Council and citizens joined together to sing Happy Birthday. 20. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY: *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 21. ADJOURNMENT: City Council adjourned at 8:25 p.m. _________________________ Clerk of City Council APPROVED: _________________________ Mayor *Audio available upon request.