City Council

Minutes from the Petersburg Special Called City Council meeting held on September 27, 2021 -1– ______________________________________________________________________________ The Special Called City Council Meeting of the Petersburg City Council was held on Monday, September 27, 2021, on live stream. Mayor Parham called the Special Called City Council Meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. Mayor Parham stated, “I would like to state for the record that on March 14, 2020, the City Manager in her capacity as the Emergency Manager made a local declaration of emergency with regard to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This declaration of local emergency was ratified by City Council on March 31, 2020, and remains in effect. It was the hope of council that the new meeting location would be completed by this meeting which will facilitate proper safety measures like social distancing for all participants and attendees. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen delays the project has not been completed. Accordingly, this meeting is being held electronically in accordance with 2.2-3708.2 of the Code of Virginia.” 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Council Member Charles H. Cuthbert, Jr. Council Member Treska Wilson-Smith Council Member W. Howard Myers Vice Mayor Annette Smith-Lee Mayor Samuel Parham Absent: Council Member John A. Hart, Sr Council Member Darrin Hill (was unmuted at 6:17pm) Present from City Administration: City Manager Stuart Turille City Attorney Anthony Williams Clerk of Council Nykesha D. Jackson 2. DISCUSSION AND/OR CONSIDERATION: a. Discussion and consideration of ARPA Funds. Mr. Turille and Mrs. Innis gave a briefing with a PowerPoint presentation. Key points:  The City of Petersburg was awarded $20.9 million dollars in ARPA funds. This will be disbursed in two installments of $10,480,920.  The city received over 106 applications totaling $50 million dollars.  The first allocation of funds will be in the amount of $10,480,920.  Decisions need to be made based on urgency. There is a resolution requesting $9,780,920 currently. And there will be $700,000 remaining from the first installment.  Committee made an adjustment to the funds that were allocated at $20,000. The amount was increased to $520,000. And then it was given the title of “Community Recovery Needs.”  There was a request for $269,000 for the Library Foundation. It is for the payment of two invoices for the construction of the learning center. Previously the city did contribute $250,000 from the general fund and $50,000 from the CDBG funds.  The next increase was the Hazardous Duty Organizational Pay. It is pay for the first responders. This is for someone that is in direct risk and associated with the public all the time. It is increased to $975,000.  The next request of Emergency Services Life Saving Equipment in the amount of $262,848. It is for the upgrades to the defibrillator and breathing apparatus. The current equipment is no longer FDA approved. *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg Special Called City Council meeting held on September 27, 2021 -2– ______________________________________________________________________________  The next request is combined for police and fire. It is in the amount of $324,685. It is for the replacement of the radios which is over 15 years old.  The next request is for the Farmer Street Rehab of the public safety facility. It is in the amount of $1,271,352. The public safety departments will be relocated here from the Admas Street location.  The EDA Revolving Loan Fund is in the amount of $2,250,000, Southside Depot Restoration in the amount of $1,364,035, Downtown Master Plan in the amount of $100,000, Storm Drainage Infrastructure Projects in the amount of $2,104,000. Mayor Parham stated, “Thank you all for the presentation. For adopting the resolution, I want to do each one individually to add to the resolution and whatever does not make the cut we will go with an amended resolution.” Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Southside Depot Restoration project in the amount of $1,364,035. The motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Smith-Lee. There was no discussion on the motion, which was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hill and Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Storm Drainage Project in the amount of $2,104,000. The motion was seconded by Council Member Wilson-Smith. There was discussion on the motion, which was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson- Smith, Myers, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hill and Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Farmer Street Building Rehab project in the amount of $1,271,352. The motion was seconded by Council Member Wilson-Smith. There was discussion on the motion, which was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hill and Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Wilcox Lake Dam project in the amount of $90,000. The motion was seconded by Council Member Wilson-Smith. There was discussion on the motion, which was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson- Smith, Myers, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hill and Hart Council Member Wilson-Smith made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Downtown Master Plan project in the amount of $100,000. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. There was discussion on the motion, which was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hill and Hart Mayor Parham stated, “Councilman Hill said that he is in under his iPhone. I think that he is the guy with his hand raised. Can you let him in?” Mr. VanVoorhees stated, “I have more than one that is why I was hesitant to do that. He used to come in under iPad, but I will do that.” Mayor Parham stated, “Yes. He has a 919 number. He just texted me.” Council Member Hill stated, “Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I have been listening to the entire meeting. I want to answer any affirmative to all the requests that were made. Of course, I was on, but I could not get in because something is going on with my Wi-Fi here at the house. So, I am on my iPhone right now. But I would like for the record to show that I answered ‘Aye’ to all of what has been said so far. Thank you.” *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg Special Called City Council meeting held on September 27, 2021 -3– ______________________________________________________________________________ Mayor Parham stated, “Okay. Thank you.” Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the EDA Revolving Loan project in the amount of $2,250,000. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Abstain: Cuthbert; Absent: Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Public Safety Police Radios project in the amount of $98,551. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Public Safety EMS/Fire Life-Saving Equipment project in the amount of $262,848. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Public Safety EMS/Fire Radios project in the amount of $226,134. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Hazardous Duty Organizational Pay project in the amount of $226,134. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. There was discussion on the motion. Council Member Cuthbert made a substitute motion to table action on the request of funding for the Hazardous Duty Organization Pay until the next City Council meeting. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson- Smith, Myers, Hill, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request of funding for the Community Recovery Needs - Reserve project in the amount of $520,000. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Smith- Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hart Council Member Hill made a motion to approve the request of funding for Parks and Recreation Rehabilitation project in the amount of $250,000. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. There was discussion on the motion. Council Member Wilson-Smith made a substitute motion to add an additional $250,000 to the Parks and Recreation Rehabilitation project to now be $500,000 with taking the amount from the remaining $700,000. The motion seconded by Council Member Hill. There was discussion on the motion. The motion was not approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Wilson-Smith, Hill, and Smith-Lee; Voting No: Cuthbert, Myers, and Parham; Absent: Hart The original motion goes back on the floor with the study. Council Member Hill made a motion to approve the request of funding for Parks and Recreation Rehabilitation project in the amount of $250,000. The motion was seconded by Council Member Myers. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, and *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg Special Called City Council meeting held on September 27, 2021 -4– ______________________________________________________________________________ Parham; Voting No: Smith-Lee; Absent: Hart Council Member Myers made a motion to approve the request with a study of funding for Library Foundation project in the amount of $269,000. The motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Smith-Lee. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, Smith- Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hart Mayor Parham stated, “Now, I entertain a motion to add those items approved by council to the resolution for approval for the ARPA funding.” Council Member Myers made a motion to add the items approved by council to the resolution for approval for the ARPA funding.” The motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Smith-Lee. There was discussion on the motion. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Smith-Lee, and Parham; Absent: Hill and Hart 21-R-83 A RESOLUTION TO APPROVE PROJECTS TO BE FUNDED BY THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT MONIES. Mr. Turille stated, “Mayor, I would like to state for the record that the resolution now totals $8,805,920.” Council Member Cuthbert stated, “I feel like pouring everybody a drank especially the mayor. Maybe he gets two drinks for putting up with this zoom meeting stuff that I think none of us have enjoyed. We have all struggled. But I thank the mayor, city manager and city staff for leading us through it and Ms. Jackson. And I look forward greatly as I know we all do to meeting in public as a group at the Petersburg Public Library starting, I believe October 5th. So, let’s hope that is a true milestone that we have reached today. And that we don’t find ourselves meeting by zooming on October 5th. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Ms. Jackson and all who have made this possible.” Council Member Hill stated, “Mr. Mayor, I was on but for some reason I could not say anything. I do not want you all to think that I just jumped off.” Mayor Parham stated, “Let’s see if we can work on a plan as well. We have this tremendous eyesore, which is a hotel at Exit 52, The Ramanda Inn. If we can look at anything that we can do. Because the public is sick and tired of looking at that in that condition. So, if we can explore any type of ways that we can achieve that situation in the main corridor to present us with recommendations.” There was discussion on the schools getting ARPA funding among City Council and staff. Mr. Turille stated, “I want to let everyone know the process. Starting tomorrow, I and staff will continue to review these projects and make recommendations for the remaining money in the first tranche and for the second installment included. I am listening to all your request. So, as we build forward to successive meetings, we will then present to you another resolution for how to spend the remaining money and go through a similar conversation very transparently on how to spend all the money. That is the process going forward. I am not sure if staff can review all the remaining projects by the 5th but we it will definitely be on the meeting for the 21st. We will try for the 5th, but I am not sure we can review all the remaining ones and rescope them based on the decisions today by ten days. But that is the plan.” Mrs. Innis stated, “We will also have to bring it back before council to actually have the funds appropriated as well.” Mr. Turille stated, “Yes. In the future, once we do these resolutions, we will then need to do a budget *Audio available upon request. Minutes from the Petersburg Special Called City Council meeting held on September 27, 2021 -5– ______________________________________________________________________________ ordinance amendment. I wanted to hold off on that until we decided exactly how to spend all the money through resolution.” b. Consideration of a motion to instruct the City Manager to reallocate $50,000 from the Economic Development budget to non-departmental for the payment of professional services. Vice Mayor Smith-Lee made a motion to instruct the City Manager to reallocate $50,000 from the Economic Development budget to non-departmental for the payment of professional services. The motion was seconded by Council Member Hill. There was discussion on the motion. Council Member Hill made a substitute motion to remove the item until further research and study. The motion was seconded by Council Member Wilson-Smith. The motion was approved on roll call vote. On roll call vote, voting yes: Cuthbert, Wilson-Smith, Myers, Hill, and Parham; Absent: Hart and Smith-Lee 3. ADJOURNMENT: City Council adjourned at 5:07 p.m. _________________________ Clerk of City Council APPROVED: _________________________ Mayor *Audio available upon request.