City Council

Minutes from the Petersburg City Council Work Session meeting held on September 5, 2023 -1– ______________________________________________________________________________ The work session meeting of the Petersburg City Council was held on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, at the Petersburg Public Library. Mayor Parham called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Council Member Charles H. Cuthbert, Jr. Council Member Marlow Jones Council Member Annette Smith-Lee Council Member W. Howard Myers Council Member Arnold Westbrook, Jr. Vice Mayor Darrin Hill Mayor Samuel Parham Absent: None Present from City Council Administration: Clerk of City Council Nykesha D. Lucas City Manager John March Altman, Jr. City Attorney Anthony C. Williams 2. PRAYER: Mayor Parham stated, “Vice Mayor Hill will lead us in our opening prayer. And let us add a special prayer for the VSU children that we have lost in the last couple of weeks.” Vice Mayor Hill led the council meeting in prayer. 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Parham led the council and the citizens in the pledge of allegiance. 4. DETERMINATION OF THE PRESENCE OF A QUORUM: A quorum is present. 5. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Elie Elis, 523 West Washington Street, stated, “I am here to throw a seed. Like in the bible it is going to hit a hard ground. But I want to toss this out because it can happen. We need an indoor-outdoor swimming complex in Petersburg, or towards Colonial Heights. I think that my experience in New Mexico that the oil companies did this for the Native Americans. It can have an indoor Olympic pool to have swim lessons and have a team. It can have a sliding scale price. If you are on EBT it is free. We need a bus to go there so these kids can come to work. I would like a platform dive because that is becoming really popular. It can be rented out for parties and tourism. A swim team is such a valuable and important sport. Unfortunately, 98% of the American swim team association is Caucasian. We need to offer this opportunity to all the citizens in Petersburg to participate. I guarantee that with our athletic youth that we will have competitive swimmers. I would love to see the Petersburg team compete with RVA. That would be so fun. Kids do get in trouble if they do not have activities. As an artist I am creative, and I am always coming up with different ideas. I try to share them with Mayor Parham. Petersburg is going to be a great city in the next ten years. Have a nice night. Thank you.” Minutes from the Petersburg City Council Work Session meeting held on September 5, 2023 -2– ______________________________________________________________________________ Gary Talley, 2323 Fort Rice Street, stated, “You all saw the paper last Friday, right? This is very concerning. It says that there are over eleven vacancies. Do we have a plan? She just talked about an Olympic pool and that is a good idea. But minus 110 employees that is not going to happen. We need to get full staff. Our water bills are going to be late again. Why? What is the problem here? Do you all agree on what the problem is? What the goal is? Are you all working for the same goal? You discuss that in your closed meetings. Until we all get together, we are not going to get to where we need to be or want to be. Think about this. What is the plan to fill these vacancies?” Dr. Shaun Smith, 214 North Dunlop Street, stated, “I am owner of Genesis Grand Management here in Petersburg. I am also new to the Petersburg area. Right now, I have a project that I would like to bring to the council’s advisement of commercial space for small businesses here in the triangle. I see that the triangle served at one time as the mecca of Black businesses. I also want to assist that with having commercial space for small businesses to grow. At this time, my company is working diligently to bring forth things that you can see on a physical note versus a verbal so that we all can see this. I have a meeting with the mayor this Thursday that I will provide all this information with.” Barbara Rudolph, 1675 Mt. Vernon Street, stated, “Good to see everyone again. For the Petersburg Arts Council, I had a few comments on that. I addressed an email to most of you about that last week. I did not get any acknowledgement that anyone looked at it. But I will repeat my concerns here. In the previous meeting, that you just ended, you voted on a slate of members to be on that Arts Council. In the agenda package you outlined the membership criteria. There were two at-large members and then seven additional members. One representing each ward. That was a total of nine members. That is what is in the current ordinance. But that is not what you voted on. That is not what the people on that list represent. The ones on the list, there are two people that would be at-large that do not live in Petersburg and then there were four people from Ward 5 and one person from Ward 3. So, that left the other wards unrepresented. Which is not consistent with what it says in the current ordinance nor in the agenda packet that you all just voted on. You have something in tonight’s agenda package for the consent agenda to have a public hearing about amending and doing a revised ordinance on the membership of the Petersburg Arts Council. Those criteria would potentially conform to the slate list of members that were voted to approve. But right now, the way I described it to you, you put the cart before the horse. You voted and used something that you have not done yet that is supposed to come up in a public hearing at the next business meeting. I cannot understand why you would not want to do things legally. What is the hurry? Why cannot the ordinance be revised so that the list of criteria for membership can be confirmed.” Mr. Williams stated, “I do not know if Mrs. Rudolph is correct or not but if that is the case and they do not meet the current ordinance criteria then they were not properly appointed and would have to be appointed after the ordinance amendment have been adopted. But what was represented to me when the list was handed out tonight was that the people on that current list meet the criteria that is in the current ordinance. Therefore, they are making appointments of what can be made under this current ordinance and waiting until the amendments are made to adopt and appoint the additional members.” Genevieve Lohr, 19 Guarantee Street, stated, “It is great to be talking to you all. It has been a long time coming. But I am glad to be up here. So, Gary and Barbara did have excellent points. I had a bunch of things that I wanted to talk about, but I also know that I have three minutes. So, we are only going to talk about one thing and then I will come back in two weeks and talk about something else. So, tonight I would like to talk a little bit about the weekly crime report that is published every single week by the police department. Now the reason it is important to talk about this is because I have sat here at so many council meetings, and I try very hard to attend every last one of them. Frequently, I am here with one or more of my kids. And I can tell you sometimes it is very interesting. Sometimes we leave these meetings and there are a lot of examples of what not to do. And sometimes that is not the case. But as you all know, because of these meetings my oldest is pursuing a degree in political science. You have motivated him to do something about it. So, hopefully you enjoy that a little bit. The weekly crime reports are published every week. And I do not believe that all of you Minutes from the Petersburg City Council Work Session meeting held on September 5, 2023 -3– ______________________________________________________________________________ read it. I believe that because of some things that have been said during city council meetings. Some of them are about speeding specifically. We have a whole traffic division that is part of the Petersburg Bureau of Police. And last week, our traffic division issued 110 citations. Which I think is quite a bit. I also know that a bunch of them were issued on High Street I believe. But that should make everyone excited, right. So, it is important that we recognize that. Seriously, you all were talking about speeding one day and issuing citations and you had people from the traffic unit sitting in this very room. They are working their butts off. So, I think acknowledging that is fair. The other thing I wanted to mention from the weekly crime report is the number of calls that 9-1-1 is taking. 9-1-1 last week took 2,791 calls. I cannot imagine answering the phone that many times. That is a lot. It is fair to recognize that at every opportunity. And this is just the beginning of this report. Every single week this is published. I think that it is appropriate for all of you to read and for you to know what these numbers look like every single week. Finally, the last thing about speeding. I know that speeding is a big topic. I have heard more about speeding from the city council than I have about other major issues of poverty and health. It is important for you to remember that the people who are complaining about speeding are capable of doing so. Because they are not worried about how they are feeding their kids, or how they are getting to work in the morning or if they are living in safe housing. Now those things are there for a lot of reasons and I can go into a whole thing, but I am out of time. So, in October we will do that then. Thank you very much.” 6. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA (TO INCLUDE MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING/S): a. Minutes: -July 26, 2023 – Closed Session Minutes -July 26, 2023 – Regular City Council Meeting Minutes b. Consideration of an appropriation ordinance for the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth Grant – 1st Reading c. Consideration of an ordinance for Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth Grant d. Consideration of a public hearing and an ordinance to Amend 21-2 of the City Code – Arts Council Terms of Office. e. Consideration of a public hearing and an ordinance approving a petition to rezone the property located at 2255 Jamestown Road, From A, Agricultural Zoning District to M-1, Light Industrial Zoning District, and 2262 County Drive, from B-2, General Commercial Zoning District to M-1, Light Industrial Zoning District – 1st Reading. f. Consideration of an appropriation ordinance for Virginia Department of Fire Programs – Aid to Locality, carryover of funds from FY23 to FY24 budget in the amount of $21,959.58 – 1st Reading g. Consideration of an appropriation ordinance for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management – Radiological Emergency Preparedness Grant, carryover of funds from FY23 to FY24 Budget in the amount of $3,949.98 – 1st Reading h. Consideration of an appropriation ordinance for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management – Emergency Management Performance Grant carryover of funds from FY23 to FY24 Budget in the amount of $1,717.27 – 1st Reading i. Consideration of an appropriation ordinance for the Virginia Department of Fire Programs – Aid to Locality FY23 funding allocation in the amount of $134,237 – 1st Reading j. Consideration of an appropriation ordinance for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management – Emergency Management Performance Grant in the amount of $52,757.10 – 1st Reading k. Consideration of an appropriation ordinance to accept and appropriate funding from the Virginia Office of EMS – Rescue Squad Assistance Fund (RSAF) in the amount of $52,757.10 – 1st Reading. l. Consideration of an adoption of the City of Petersburg, Virginia 2023 Emergency Operations Plan m. Consideration of a public hearing to consider a property line adjustment with Tabb Street Minutes from the Petersburg City Council Work Session meeting held on September 5, 2023 -4– ______________________________________________________________________________ Development, LLC, and lease back to the City of the property thereby transferred. n. Consideration of a public hearing on September 19, 2023, to increase the Urban Highway Maintenance funding for Street operations in FY24 in the amount of $1,066,269.33. Vice Mayor Hill made a motion to approve the consent agenda. Council Member Smith-Lee seconded the motion. The motion was approved on roll call. On roll call vote, voting yes: Jones, Smith-Lee, Myers, Westbrook, Hill, and Parham; Abstain: Cuthbert 7. SPECIAL REPORTS: a. Presentation and update on the Comprehensive Plan from Naomi Siodmok, Director of Planning and Community Development Key points:  A comprehensive plan is a long-range planning document and decision-making guide for the future of the community.  It is a legally required document by Code of Virginia §15.2-2223.  The Planning Department is currently working with the Berkley Group to update the plan. There have been community meetings for community input. There are work sessions that are held with the Planning Commission every two months.  They have eight focus groups and have had 54 participants attend these groups.  They are looking to have the draft by late September with the Planning Commission. They will come with the City Council and the Planning Commission in November for a combined meeting to discuss this information as well as land use and implementation.  DRAFT Vision Statement: “Petersburg is a thriving, culturally diverse community where all residents enjoy safe and attractive neighborhoods, economic opportunity, quality education, and celebration of rich history.”  They are working on the economic development, housing & neighborhoods, recreation and tourism, and infrastructure chapters in the comprehensive plan.  The next work session is September 26th. There was discussion and comments among the city council members and staff. b. Proclamation designation the month of September 2023 as Sickle Cell Month in the City of Petersburg. Mayor Parham presented the proclamation to Quan Muhammad. He stated that Mr. Muhammad just had a wonderful event for sickle at the library recently. Mr. Muhammad stated that the event is named after a person in Petersburg. He stated that it is stating that they are fighting things every day. He stated that it can be different things and people. He stated that the person was fighting sickle cells, so they focused the event on this disease. He stated that it had no voice, so they brought it out to make sure that people are aware of the disease and everything that is going on with it within the city. He stated that the event was successful and that they look forward to doing these types of events once a month in Petersburg. There were comments from the city council members. c. Presentation of Proclamation proclaiming September 10-16, 2023, as National Assisted Living Week in the City of Petersburg. Mayor Parham read the proclamation out loud and presented it to Laura Crocker with the Petersburg Minutes from the Petersburg City Council Work Session meeting held on September 5, 2023 -5– ______________________________________________________________________________ Home for Ladies. Ms. Crocker stated that they have had so much support from the Fire Department, Emergency Crew, Police Department, and every department in which she has engaged. She stated that they are currently open and there is no mask requirement. She stated that she thanks the city for their support. d. Presentation of VDACS AFID Planning Grant for Mapping Suitability for Urban Agriculture across the City of Petersburg. John Jones, VCU Assistant Professor for Center of Environmental Studies, gave an overview and update. Key points:  He is working on a map to identify ideal locations of urban agriculture in urban spaces.  Urban farms and gardens can often fall due to improper site selection.  Using geospatial mapping can take guesswork out of locating ideal locations for urban agriculture and can set future urban farms up for success.  The framework is called Urban Land Evaluation & Site Assessment.  Variable related to Agricultural & Natural Resources, Equity & Accessibility, and Heat Island Mitigation are used.  uLESA is built together in partnership with each local government and their community partners.  Mapping the areas most suitable for urban agriculture can set urban farms and gardens up for success in the future.  Locating these areas can allow the City of Petersburg to proactively plan their local food system. There was discussion and comments from the city council and Mr. Jones. 8. MONTHLY REPORTS: *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. . 9. FINANCE AND BUDGET REPORT: a. An update on the Financial Report for City of Petersburg Mr. Altman stated, “You have in your packet this evening a preliminary unaudited FY23 Year End General Fund Balance Report for your review. It is an informational item at this point. If you have questions, please get them to us so that we can make sure that we answer them. At this point we are looking at a $3 million dollar transfer to the fund balance for the year. Which is a little less than the previous years, however we did purchase a significant amount of property this year. There will be three million that will go to the fund balance which is still healthy for us as we continue to build that fund balance.” 10. CAPITAL PROJECTS UPDATE: a. Presentation and update on Poor Creek Project. Benjamin Anderson, Project Manager with Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, gave an update. Key points:  Design is progressing. Minutes from the Petersburg City Council Work Session meeting held on September 5, 2023 -6– ______________________________________________________________________________  Sixty percent of complete plans reviewed, and comments returned to the design firms.  100% plans expected this month.  Categorical exclusion and environmental assessment on schedule to be granted prior to advertisement.  Design teams committed to compressed schedule. Out for bid in November 2023, begin construction January and February 2024 and projects complete by fall of 2025.  Schedule meets funding agency requirements (EDA, EPA, DEQ, VDH) There was discussion and comments from the city council and Mr. Anderson. 11. UTILITIES: *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 12. STREETS: *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 13. FACILITIES: Mr. Altman stated, “We just completed the renovation of the General District Court Clerk’s Office. It has been long overdue. And we just completed that last week. Just a thank you to Mr. Byerly and his team for that. If you get a chance, go by, and have a look at it.” Mayor Parham stated, “Thank you Mr. Byerly and the team for keeping us going.” 14. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: *There are no items for this portion of the agenda. 15. CITY MANAGER’S AGENDA: *No items for this portion of the agenda. 16. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM THE CLERK: *No items for this portion of the agenda. 17. BUSINESS OR REPORTS FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY: *No items for this portion of the agenda. 18. ADJOURNMENT: Vice Mayor Hill stated that Ward 2 will be having a meeting on Thursday, September 21st at Good Shepherd Baptist Church at 6pm. He stated that he would like the City Manager, Police Chief, Fire Chief, Department of Recreation, and Economic Development Director to attend the meeting. The City Council adjourned at 6:11 p.m. _________________________ Clerk of City Council Minutes from the Petersburg City Council Work Session meeting held on September 5, 2023 -7– ______________________________________________________________________________ APPROVED: _________________________ Mayor