Carries. All right. That concludes our city council closed session meeting. The
meeting is adjourned. Next, we roll on to our 5:00 regular scheduled city council meeting.
good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us. And at this time is hill, would you please
call the roll? Yes. Council member cuthbert here. Council member. Jones here. Council
member. Myers here. Council member. Westbrook. Present. Council member. Smith. Lee present. Vice mayor. Hill here. Mayor. Here. So you have a quorum. Next, vice mayor hill
will lead us in our opening prayer. Let us pray. Eternal god, our father, once again, we
come before you. First of all, before we ask for you for anything, we would like to
thank you for everything. Lord, we ask that blessings upon this meeting in a special way,
heavenly father, that you would give us wisdom on how heavenly father to help lead our city to
higher heights. Heavenly father, we thank you for all the progress that we've made thus
far. We ask that blessing upon all of our citizens. Heavenly father, we ask that you will
protect us and keep us. Lord, be with our first responders, our firefighters, our ems, our
police officers. Lord, we ask a special blessing upon our citizens, those who are afraid.
heavenly father, situations that are going on all around us. Heavenly father that we have no
control over. Lord, we ask that you will be with us. Guide and protect us. Lord, we ask a
special blessing upon this council. Heavenly father, as we lead these thou your people,
heavenly father, to higher heights and deeper depths in you, where special blessing
upon our city manager as he helped to get plans together. Heavenly father, to take us to
that next level. Be with all staff and all those employees. Heavenly father, be with us
during this upcoming snow time. Heavenly father, where we may be experiencing some weather.
if we don't have to leave our heavenly father, let us have everything we need in our homes.
keep us and guide us. Forgive us of our sins. It's in your darling son jesus name. We pray
and we thank you. Amen, amen. Next is item three, the pledge of allegiance. Can everyone
stand and join us in the pledge? Pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america
and to the republic for which it stands? One nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Excuse. Item four determination of the presence of a quorum. We do
have a quorum. Next is proclamations, recognitions, presentations of ceremonial
proclamations. We have none for this evening. Item six responses to previous public
information is posted under council communicates. Item seven approval of the consent
agenda to include minutes of previous meetings. January 6th, 2026 city council closed
session minutes. January 6th, 2026 city council work session minutes. Councilman. Myers so
moved. Alright. Councilman westbrook second. All right. Miss hill, would you please
call the roll council member cuthbert? Aye. Council member. Jones. Aye. Council member.
myers. Council member. Westbrook. Aye. Council member. Smith. Aye. Vice mayor. Hill.
aye. Mayor I. Motion carries. Next is item eight. Presentations. We have item a
presentation of the 2025 annual comprehensive financial report. Mr. David foley. Robinson,
farmer and cox. The one sheet. A one sheeter. Good evening. Hold up. I think your mic is
not on. Garrett is on there. Do a test. Is that better? Yeah. Okay. All right. Good evening.
thank you all for having me here again. My name is david foley. I'm a partner with
robinson farmer cox associates and was the partner in charge of the city's fy 25 audit. And
we have issued a draft of the city's annual comprehensive financial report. And here to
present the results of that to you all. Before I get into the report itself, just a brief
overview of the audit that we do for the city. Really, there's three main pieces to
the audit that we do when we're doing the audit of the financial statements. One is,
you know, we audit the city's financial statements to make sure that those financial
statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
the other two pieces of the audit, we do in accordance with government auditing standards,
one of which is in addition to just look, auditing the financial statement numbers
themselves, we we review and gain an understanding of the city's internal controls that
it has over its financial reporting. We review these for the purposes of designing our
audit procedures. And then in certain cases, we'll we'll test these controls to see if
they're operating as they should. And then the third is the federal compliance piece.
anytime a locality expends over 750 in federal grant funds, you have a single audit just
included with the financial statement audit. So as part of the audit, omb provides a
compliance supplement with a list of various compliance requirements that the city has
to comply with when it's expanded its federal grant programs. So, again, as part of
that audit, we go through that checklist and make sure that the city is complying with
those federal requirements. So as such, included in the annual comprehensive financial report,
there's three different reports from us that communicate the results of the audit. The first
report from us is towards the front of the report. It's on numbered page ten. And this is
our independent auditor's report. And in this report where we state we did perform
an audit on the city's financial statements and is also where we issue our opinion
on the financial statements and our opinions included in the second paragraph of this report.
and we have issued an unmodified opinion on the city's financial statements,
which is the cleanest opinion and auditor can give on the set of financial statements.
basically, an unmodified opinion means that the city's financial statements have been
prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The other two
reports from us are on the back of the report. But before I get to those, I would just like to
highlight a few items in the financial statements that are towards the front of the the
report. So on page 24, exhibit three is a balance sheet for the city's governmental funds.
and the balance sheet reports assets, liabilities and fund balance for the various
governmental funds that the city has. So there's various columns for those different
funds. The first column is the general fund, which is the city's main operating fund. So
at the end of the fiscal year, the city had in the general fund 79.5 million in assets,
compared to about 15 million in liabilities and deferred inflows. And then towards the
bottom of the statement is the fund balance at the end of the fiscal year. So, as we can see,
total total fund balance for the city's general fund was 65.4 million. And then that
fund balance is then further broken down between non non spendable restricted committed
and then unassigned. So the city's unassigned fund balance at the end of the fiscal year
was 59.4 million, which was an increase of about 8.5 million during the fiscal year. The
other financial statement I'd like to highlight is the next page over on page 25. This is
exhibit four. This is a statement of revenues, expenditures and changes in fund balance for the city's governmental funds. Again, this this statement shows the
revenues, expenditures and changes in fund balance. Again, for the various governmental
funds. The city has again multiple columns on this statement. The first column
again is the general fund. So total total revenues for the city's general fund was 106.6
million, compared to total expenditures of 95.4, and then had transfers out to other
funds of 2.5 million. So we can see down towards the bottom the net change in fund balance was
8.6 million for the city's general fund. Those are the financial statements I'd like
to point out. And then just to go over the other two reports from us, again, those are in
the back of the report. So the first report is from us back there is on page 156. And this
is our report over the city's internal control over financial reporting. In this report, we
saw significant improvement from last year on the city's internal control over financial
reporting. And the prior year, we had 11 findings that were reported as material weaknesses.
a lot of those findings have been corrected during the fiscal year. So this year we
were down to only having four findings for material weaknesses in the city's
internal control. So the city and one fiscal year went from 11 fundings down to four. And
the details of those findings are a few pages back in in the report. These findings mostly
dealt with reconciliation of subsidiary ledgers on a monthly basis to the general ledger
regarding utility. Fees and also property taxes. And then there was a an additional
finding related to reconciling cash in the treasurer's accountability fund. Back to
the cash that are reported in the funds. And then the the fourth finding was related to
as part of the audit, we had to propose material audit adjustments to the city's
financial report. But again, there were the details of those findings are in the back. And
again, significant improvement this year from the city, going from 11 findings down to four.
and then the third and final report from us is over two pages over on page 158. This is
our report over the city's compliance with its major federal grant programs. This
report was cleaned. No significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in this
city's compliance with its major federal grant programs. And again, no items of
noncompliance were noted as part of the audit. So this this report was clean, but that's
all I have. But be happy to answer any questions you may have. Okay. Thank you for the
presentation, mr. Foley. That's good news. I want to thank the finance team for for getting
those findings down. It was huge to reduce those to under half of what we had. So now we
can work on the last four. I think one of the big ones I guess I'll go to the city
manager is what can we do to fix the listing of water and sewer customer deposits? And
the other one was in utility billing reconciliation. Do we have a plan on how to fix that?
so first, like you, mr. Mayor, I'd like to thank our finance team, our commissioner, revenue
and our treasurer for all the hard work we we set out with an ambitious goal to getting rid
of all 11 for the in the one year, getting seven of the 11 done down to four I think was a
pretty good, good task. I know the finance director, our mr. Klaus glaster, has already
begun working on plans to address these four. So next year when we when we have mr.
foley standing here next year, hopefully we will have no findings. And we're working right now with not only just within finance, but with our treasurer and our commissioner
revenue to address any of those, those pieces that we need to do. So we're working on we're
already working on a plan for, for the upcoming year to address those items. And hopefully, like I said, with the 26 audit, hopefully we will see zero findings. So but I do
want to thank them for all their hard work. Okay. Thank you, councilman cooper. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Mr. City manager, would you present council and the public with the
plan to address these four findings? Once that plan is put together? Yes, sir. We can
certainly present that to council. Times would be needed to to put that plan together. I
think if you gave us to to have it, we could come back in march, say, at your work session in
march and present. That would be great. And if I may, mr. Foley, welcome. Thank you.
thank you for being with us. And thank you for helping us. I'm always curious as to which
direction our past due accounts receivable are going in and what is the size of them. I
know our largest revenue stream is real estate tax revenue, and I don't know if it's in the $35
million range, something like that. What is the current amount of past due real estate
taxes, and how does that compare to this point in time? A year ago, I know they're down.
total property taxes receivable were down this year compared to the previous year. Total
property taxes outstanding was 11.3 million. Now that includes real estate and personal
property. What page can I find that on, or can the public find that on page page 24, page 24,
exhibit three. Those are the taxes receivable, which is 11.3 million. So if I ma
cuthbert, in anticipation of this question, because you ask it every year, we've already
I've already asked mr. Glasner and company to try to break down that number for you, and
we can bring that back. Maybe we bring that back for you at the march meeting. When we
present the plan, we also present that breakdown of the the taxes. That would be great
and I'd appreciate it. And I know the public will appreciate it as well, because the public
wants to stay informed as to whether the city is really doing his job in collecting
taxes on the audit, because the more taxes we collect, then the less we have to ask the people
to pay. And if it's if it's utility taxes, then we won't have to jack up the utility
bills as much as if we can get a handle on the past due utility bills. And so it goes.
the same is true with real estate taxes. The same is true with the the hated car tax. You
know, if we can get that hated car tax down, we can collect more of it. Then maybe we can
reduce the hated car tax. I'd love to see it. I know everybody on council would love
to see that happen, but there is no free lunch up here. And we got to balance the budget.
and so that's the other tent pulling at us. But certainly a major tension is getting those
past few counts down. So if, if you could bring us that information, mr. City manager
at our march work session and let us know what the plan is to bring those past due taxes down
even further, what they are currently, what they were 12 months ago, that would be
really helpful information. Let us see whether we're moving in the right direction, whether
there's anything more we can do to accelerate the pace in the right direction. Because
ultimately we want to supply services to the public at the least cost to the public. Thank
you very much. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for
your presentation, mr. Foley. And again, thank our staff for for getting our ordered in on
time this year. So it's definitely is moving in the right direction. All right.
thank you all. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Next move on to item eight b which is
potential refunding opportunity with davenport. Mr. Rose good evening. Good evening, mr.
mayor. I've got some hard copies in case anyone needs that. So. All right. All right.
well happy new year to you all. Happy new year. Good to be here. I will be brief. We've got some
potentially good information. Great to share. Thank you. All right. All. Good again. So
mayor members of council david rose from davenport. And again it's it's part of the reason
we're here tonight is because of what I just listened to, what you just received, which
was an excellent report as it relates to your 2025 audit. And that's important. I was also
here the the days and times in which the audits were on the late side. And your city
manager said, we're going to get those up to date on time. And indeed, he's delivered that.
so all of this allows me to come tonight and talk to you about an opportunity that's
simply about saving some money. Think of it this way. It's you're fortunate to have a
mortgage. An interest rate on your mortgage is, say, 6%. We're talking about trying to
get it to 5%. We're not talking about extending any of the payments. We're just simply
trying to change one interest rate for a lower interest rate. And what we're asking tonight
is your ability to let us move forward. No formal action will be taken tonight, but rather
we'd like to see some guidance from the council about moving forward and putting some things
together. And then I'll show you a schedule a little bit later. The last bullet point
here is this you have strong credit ratings. Part of the reason you have those strong
credit ratings is you have an excellent unassigned fund balance, which is that rainy
day fund that when I first started working with you, was that a -$7 million? And as you
just saw right now, that is to use the to use david's comment is now at almost 50, almost $60
million. Very, very impressive. I want to add, by the way, for all the citizens that think if
that money is sitting there, this is an important point, that money is earning interest,
and that interest is basically helping to keep your tax rate down. That money is going right
back into your general fund and is being able to be used. So it is not by any means sitting
idly. And on top of that, that money is part and a very strong reason why your credit ratings
have moved up consistently over the last 7 or 8 years. So with all of that, this is the
potential refunding opportunity. It's about $5.5 million of debt outstanding, and interest rates
range from 3% to 5%. The important thing is that it is all now callable. That means we
can exchange that without a penalty. And so the reasons we can do that have to do with
federal tax law. I'm delighted that my good friend and your bond counsel, dan siegel, is
behind me. He's going to be here tonight for asking you to approve deq loan. Unrelated to
this, but the point here is that we are now in a mode where we can again call this in and
see if we can exchange it for lower interest rates. So we're going to recommend with your
blessing what we call a dual track process. We're going to look at applying to the
virginia resource authority. They have a spring pool. That means that they do a borrowing
roughly 2 or 3 times a year. But we're also going to look directly to banks. And that's a
direct bank loan. There was a time when no banks would lend to us. As you know, the last
time we put this out, we had nine different banking institutions offering to help
us. So we think we're going to get some very good responses. At the same time, we're going
to compare that to what could potentially be a pool program. And if it meets criteria. And
I'll talk about that in a minute, then we're going to recommend moving forward. If it
doesn't meet the criteria, the city council is not going to be at risk for any dollars
financially. This is really just something that I enjoy giving presentations on because
there's only upside for us. There is no downside. So just to give you a sense of the
market, this roughly 5.4 million of bonds has an average interest rate of 4.3%. We would
look to right now all in changing that from 4.3 down to a fixed rate, all in of 3.7.
that's a little over $300,000 of net savings. And the important thing here is it has
got what we call a present value savings percent of close to 5%. Industry standards say
that anything above 3% is considered a best practices refunding approach. And so
again, if we do that, we get those results. We'll recommend moving forward. If it's under
that 3%, we will recommend holding off and living for another day. If you would. No
harm, no foul doing that. But again, that's where we are. If interest rates go up 25 basis
points, we get to about that 3%. If they get better by 25 basis points, we get better by almost
two percentage points. It's a very, very sensitive refunding. But we will importantly have
some known results from the banks fixed rate results from the banks. If we don't like it
again, we won't recommend moving forward. And if we decide to look at this vre
approach, we'll tell them they have to be a certain minimum. So again, I know it sounds a
little confusing, but I do think it's important that we only move forward if the
marketplace gives us what we want. We meaning the city. So last page, the schedule. Here I
am tonight on the 20th, asking you to consider this again, not a formal action, but informally.
if you feel good about it, we'll put out a request to banks as early as tomorrow.
we've already worked with with mr. Siegel and his firm to make sure it meets all the legal
parameters. We would also put an application in to vre due on february 6th. Get those
responses back from the banks. On or about february 10th. You have a meeting on the 17th of
february, either myself or roland koch, who you know well would be here giving you those
results. And again, if indeed we move forward, we would then look for some actions. But
there's no public hearing required because we're not issuing any new debt. We're
simply replacing existing debt from a higher interest rate to a lower interest rate. If we
decide to pass on the banks, we can then move forward. The banks. We see this bond sale by
vre happening at the end of april. So it's a ways off. And if that meets our parameters,
we would close with vre on or about may 12th. So with that happy to answer any questions.
I don't know if the city manager wants to answer add anything to that, but that's
really all I have tonight. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for the presentation. Mr. Rhodes.
quick question here. We're trying to move down from the 4.3, and I see we have here a
3.7. Do you think there's any way we can get that down to like a 3.5. Well again it's
going to be up to the the marketplace. I will tell you today was not a good day. So we
were going the other way today. But hopefully we'll see what happens in the course of the
next few weeks. But it's competitively done. So when you ask 3.5 it's the overall
marketplace. It's different banks bidding against each other. So we don't control that.
obviously we're your advisor so we don't bid on this at all. We review the bids and we'll give
you the recommendation of what's best. Perfect. All right. Mr. Altman, I think one, we
want to thank mr. Rose and davenport for bringing this opportunity to us to always
enjoy an opportunity to save a little bit of money. If council is of a mind, we'd appreciate
if you would allow us to at least move forward and explore this opportunity to see if it
is something that would come to fruition, will allow us to save some funding. Every penny
counts and every penny helps. So we from an administrative perspective, we would like to
move forward. If council has any questions for mr. Rose, I'd be happy to answer them and
we'd hope you would support the request. All right, vice mayor. Mr. Mayor, if I'm in order, I'd
like to make a motion that we authorize davenport, along with the city manager, to enter into
the dual track process and report back to the city at the earliest convenience time when
they have any information. Okay, councilwoman smith lee, a second. We have a motion and a
second, any discussion on the motion? Seeing none. Miss hill, please call the roll. Council
member. Cuthbert. Aye. Council member. Jones. Aye. Council member. Myers. Council member.
westbrook. Aye. Council member. Smith. Lee. I. Vice mayor. Hill. Aye. Mayor. Aye. Motion carries.
all right. Thank you so much, miss rose. Looking forward to seeing where those numbers lead
us in the next couple of weeks. We'll see it again. And one more thing. Let's assume that
if rates go against us, meaning they go above us again, we always have that ability to
come back. We're not going to lose that opportunity. I think that's important. So again,
it's in play and let's hope it it moves in the right direction. I've had instances working with
with mr. Siegel where it moves against us. And then by the end of the year it's come the other
way. And as long as we have your authorization, we're able to move quickly. So we appreciate that. All right. Thank you so much, mr. Rose. Mr. Siegel, always good seeing
you. Thank you so much for all you do to to assist us in moving the financial needle
here in petersburg the last ten, ten years. So we've made some leaps and bounds. And I thank
you all for for your outstanding service to the city of petersburg. Okay. Next is
item nine, official public hearings item a, a public hearing for consideration of an
amendment to the fy 26 petersburg city public schools budget. Good evening. Gary.
budget manager. This item is a request from schools to carry forward some encumbrances that
went unspent at the end of last fiscal year. So they are requesting to amend their
budget and carry forward those encumbrances from the previous fiscal year in the amount of
$2,977,123.61. Okay. Okay. This is the public hearing. So I'm gonna open up the floor first
for the public hearing. Then I have discussion from members of council at this floor. The
floor is open now for anyone who wants to open up and comment on the public hearing
for consideration of an amendment to the fy 26 petersburg city public schools
budget. Miss rudolph, good evening. Good evening. Thank you mayor. Good evening. Barb
rudolph, 1675 mount vernon street. Question about this. I believe that the money, the
carry forward money is supposed to be earmarked for capital projects in the schools. I
didn't know if that was still in effect or if that had been wiped out with the field house
deal dealing that went on anyway. It's obviously it's important to appropriate this
money for the schools, but I just wondered if it how it related to that process that
was passed by you several years ago. Thank you, thank you. All right. Seeing no hands, this
public hearing is now closed. Do you want to address that, mr. Williams? I believe the
resolution that miss. That that she was our speaker was referring to was rescinded a
year or two back, maybe a year ago. But there has been some discussion amongst council, as
I recall, of requiring the city to report on the nine categories that they're going
to use expenditures for as a requirement for carryover. Council hasn't made a
definitive decision on requiring that yet, but I was hoping that someone from the
school board or the schools would be here to provide that information to council, but I
don't think they are. Okay. Next, we have discussion from members of city council.
councilman jones. Thank you, mr. Mayor, and thank everybody for being here. Is there
anybody here from the school system? You say $2 million, 2.92.92.9 that they want to
carry over? Yes. It was appropriated last year. It went unspent. And they're asking to
carry it over to this. Is that the 2 million that we voted to give them last year? That's
just the 2 million that they didn't spend. Yeah. So the total budget, right. It was
committed for whatever purpose and for whatever reason, it went unspent by the end of the
year. Well, marlo, can I jump in real quick? Make sure you say 2.90 closer to three than
it is to 22. 9 million. Thank you for that. I'm having difficulties. When people say
we're not providing for our school system, it's clearly that we are. Now, if you give
me $2.9 million, I guarantee you I'll spend it quick so I can ask for more. Now. School
system. If you're watching and I know you are, I told you over and over to spend this money.
our kids deserve the best. You don't need to be pitching anything. There's a lot of
capital improvements like miss rudolph said, that need to be worked on your locker rooms.
number one, technology. Number two, if you don't start spending this money, we're
going to figure out a way to make you spend it on our watch, how we want to spend it. But
you got the opportunity to spend this money. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the school system. Who's watching? I'm tired of y'all not spending money that the
citizens are paying you. It's not our money. It's the citizens money. And $2.9
million. You can't find anything in your city, in your school system to fix. All of
the schools are raggedy. Every last one of them. So my message to this school says I'm all for
letting them take it for it. But I want to make sure that this money is being spent on
infrastructure of the school systems, on the buildings, on every school should get a
portion of this $2.9 million. As robert lee, I know it's not called robert e lee right now,
but all of the schools, you know, we get ready to build a new school and we got $2.9
million. I don't want to take it from the kids, everybody. I want them to have it. But
somebody's got to get the spending. Thank you. Okay. All right, mr. Altman, so my
comment would be in response to councilor jones's question and question and comment. Probably
the only way that you'll be able to assure that they're spending it on infrastructure would be to ask them to come and present a list of how they're going to spend the
money. Traditionally, funding at the end of the year under state statute is supposed to be
returned to the city, and then we can do with it what we want. We can put it to our fund
balance, or we could re-appropriate it. Schools have the ability to come and request them to be carried forward, or reappropriated what you could do tonight, you've conducted
your public hearing. You could table the matter and ask the schools to provide a list of
what they're going to use the funds for, and then come to the february meeting and present
that to council. All right, councilman jones, mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to
table this until we can get the school system to let us know what they're going to spend
this money on. And I really want to know why they haven't spent it. All right, councilman
cooper, I second the motion. We have a motion. And second, any discussion on the motion
discussion? Not on the motion, but just on a question. Do we still have our categorical
funding in place or. I know we took that out some time ago. Yes, sir. Okay. That's
something that we probably need to put back in place after we get past this right here.
categorical funding that we know we do not. You're correct, mr. Vice mayor. We do not
budget categorically. Okay. So that's something we need to look at. Moving forward is a
good, I guess, a good problem to have if you if it's not like we $2.9 million short. But I'm
in favor of the motion. Okay. All right, miss hill. Could you please call the roll council
member cuthbert here. Council member. Excuse me. Council member. Jones, with the
deadline on getting back with us by the next work session. The next session, I would just
say the next council, the second meeting in february. So you can take action the 17th
with miss clark, if you can add that to it with with that deadline so we can get it going.
council member. Myers. Council member. Westbrook. Council member. Smith. Vice mayor I
mayor I motion next is item 9ba public hearing for consideration of an amendment
to the fy 26 grants fund. Mr. Cozier okay. So this item we have a few grants that we have.
next page please. We have a few grants that we have coming into the city. All these grants are
fully funded and there is no match required. Item b please. Public hearing. All right. You
got it. Okay. Waiting for the changeover. Yeah. Could you hit page 26 9b9b. So the public
hearing would be to amend the, the grants fund by $989,643. Yes, that is correct. It is
several grants. So we have two grants for the petersburg bureau of police from the
virginia department of criminal justice services. We have a grant from the virginia
department of social services for the petersburg department of social services. There is
also another one for petersburg fire, rescue and emergency services from the virginia
department of fire programs, and then a donation for blandford church and museum. So
totaling across all of them is, like you said, $989,643. Yeah, there we go. All right. So I'll
open the floor now for the public hearing for consideration of the amendment to the fy 26 grants fund. Saying no hands. This public hearing is now closed. Next,
councilman jones. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Quick question. Are these grants federal grants? No.
they look to all be state grants, a grant from the virginia department of criminal
justice, virginia department of social services, virginia fire programs, and a donation was
received $50,000 for blanford church museum. Yeah, they're all state agencies. I thought
you said something about the police, too. Yeah. So this is from the virginia department of criminal justice services. So, yeah. State agency. It was all state. That's all I got. Thank
you. Okay. Vice mayor hill, I move that we receive the grants. Councilwoman smith second. All
right, that is a motion to approve the fy 26 grants fund is here. Would you please call
the roll council member cuthbert? Aye. Council member. Jones. Aye. Council member.
myers. Council member. Westbrook. Aye. Council member. Smith. Lee. Vice mayor. Hill.
aye. Mayor a motion. Next is item nine. C a public hearing for consideration of a
resolution authorizing the attention of the petersburg city council to authorize the
issuance of, not to exceed $21,462,462. Principal amount of general obligation water and
sewer revenue bonds for the purpose of financing improvements to the city's
public sewer system. Facilities virginia resources authority clean water revolving loan fund.
mr. Mayor, members of council, we have mr. Siegel and mr. Rose here this evening. This vre
loan was something that we kind of included in our conversations as part when we
went forward with the loan and the rate increases for water and sewer. The loan is for the
21.4 or $21.5 million at. Correct me if I'm wrong, gentlemen, a half a percent interest. Well, the total is 1%. It's a half percent. And then they add various fees. So it
it's a it's a big number. It's 1% but it's 1% interest loan. It's a great deal which we will
use these these funds to further our improvements to the poor creek watershed. Water
wastewater waste water, water improvements along fort creek okay. All right. That's pretty
much self-explanatory. Anything you want to add, mr. Siegel? Just that you have the
resolution before you. It's been commented by by virginia resources authority council. It
provides for the total amount of the 21,000,462, 462, but 20 of the 20,000,004, 4400 is the
loan at the 1%. But in addition, you get a what they call a principal forgiveness loan,
which is pretty much a grant of over $1 million, 1,022,000. So altogether that total is 21.
but the the actual borrowing amount is the 20 million. And it's a general obligation bond
and a revenue bond. So it's got both. But I'll be glad to answer questions. And I know
that you've got the public hearing. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next I'll open
up the floor for the public hearing for any comments on the approval of the resolution.
funding from the virginia water facilities revolving fund. Seeing no hands. This public
hearing is now closed. Next. Councilman cooper, I move that we adopt the ordinance as
proposed. All right, vice mayor hill, second, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
seeing none. Miss hill, could you please call the roll? Council member cuthbert? Aye.
council member. Jones. Aye. Council member. Myers. Aye. Council member. Westbrook. Aye.
council member. Smith. Aye. Vice mayor. Hill. Aye. Mayor. Para. Aye. That motion carries.
all right. Next item d has been stricken from tonight's agenda. It will be going back to the
eda for further consideration. Next we move on to item e, which is a public hearing for
consideration of an ordinance to authorize the execution of a deed of easement at 3101
johnson road. Mr. Altman. Mr. Mayor, members of council this evening we have for your
consideration the request to authorize me to execute an easement agreement for 3101
johnson road. This is the easement that's necessary from dominion power to provide to
get power to the sports training facility that's under construction on johnson road.
without the easement, we won't be able to deliver power, permanent power. So this
evening, we would request that authorization, approval of authorization to allow me to
execute the easement for 3101 johnson road. Any questions? I'd be happy to answer them.
thank you so much. Next, this is the public hearing for consideration of an ordinance
to authorize the execution of the deed of easement for power at 3101 johnson road, okay.
seeing no hands, this public hearing is now closed. Vice mayor hill, I move that we
approve the ordinance authorizing the execution of the deed at 3101 johnson road.
councilwoman smith lee, second with a motion a second. Miss hill, could you please call the
roll council member? Cuthbert? Aye. Council member. Jones. Aye. Council member. Myers. Council
member. Westbrook. Aye. Council member. Lee. Aye. Vice mayor. Hill. Aye. Mayor a motion
carries. Next is item ten. Public information period a public information period,
limited in time to 30 minutes, shall be a part of an order of business. At each regular
council meeting. Each speaker shall be a resident or business owner of the city, and shall be
limited to three minutes. No speaker will be permitted to speak on any item scheduled for
consideration on the regular docket of the meeting at which the speakers to speak. The order of speakers is limited by the 30 minute time period, shall be determined as follows
a first in chronological order of the notice. Persons who have notified the clerk no later
than 12:00 noon of the day of the meeting. B second, in chronological order of their
sign up. Persons who have signed a sign up sheet placed by the clerk in the rear of the
meeting room prior to the meeting, removed from the consent agenda. All right.
we'll start off with mr. Ajani sekou. Good evening. Good evening. Ajani sekou, 27 south
sycamore street. First of good stuff. February 13th. I'd like to invite each and every last
one of you to the opening of the gateway arts center at 27 south sycamore street. We have
10,000ft■s. We're about to launh a brand new arts center here for the city of petersburg. So
I hope to see all of you there. We have a ribbon cutting ceremony. It's being sent your
way. And now this may take a little bit longer than two minutes. Okay. See, I didn't
descend into hell like dante, but I did show up to a city council meeting. This is
petersburg. Seven wards, seven seats, seven circles. But the same cycle. The first circle is
pride. It sits at the dais of microphones, polished, titles memorized. Mr. Mayor, mr. Vice
mayor, everybody is important except for the people at the public comments. With three
minutes and shaking voices, pride looks like leadership that talks at a city instead of
with a city. Second circle is greed. Economic development authorities, rfps that people
like me don't seem to hear about. Tax incentives for outside investors, while black
businesses and owners get told start smaller or take it somewhere else. Greed got a
spreadsheet with no conscience. The third cycle is gluttony. Committees, subcommittees, tax
forces, strategic plans stacked like plates. Everybody eating off the process. But ain't
nobody feeding the people. Wards three and four. It's all about old town. While the rest
of us get scraps. What happened to the sycamore grove program? Four cycle and sloth. This is
where progress goes to take a nap. Next quarter under review. Still gathering data. Some
streets been flooding like this for decades. Go take a look at old town right now. Peabody is
falling apart. But see, urgency only shows up during election time or when the casino tell
you to get your situation together. The fourth cycle is wrath. Now listen, this anger,
it ain't come from nowhere. This has happened when citizens beg long enough, when black men
stand up and blocks get stand up for their blocks and get labeled as disruptive or angry.
when frustration gets criminalized. But negligence gets reelected. Rafted, and
stored in the streets. It started in the silence of your back rooms. Thank you, mr. Sulu.
envy. Now I'm going to reclaim my time. Y'all was an hour and a half late, so I need another
couple minutes. Mr. Suku, I told you, you at your time, lady. And right now. Right now,
you disturbing a public meeting. Mr. Suku, you have three minutes. Those are the rules.
say less, say less. Well, I say this. Remember this. Y'all work for the people, not the
position. Thank you. Next up is miss claudette stewart. As we say, we have a we have a lot of
speakers tonight and everyone has to respect the process. Thank you.
are we ready? Yeah. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Council
members I'm claudette stewart. My address is 1151 wilcox street, apartment two six. Ward,
I'm patty hearst. My address is 1733 south sycamore street, ward four. We are proud alumnus
of peabody high school, which is the first and oldest black public high school in the
nation. The peabody high school is not just a building. It represents over 100 years of
people experiencing faith, love and hope, using education to rise above segregation and
produce leaders of integrity and a vision for the city, and also for their lives abroad.
and of course, it affects their affected various fields of influence, just to name a few.
we have our first black mayor, petersburg was herman's leroy. Jermaine fauntleroy was also
the first superintendent of public schools. We have rosalyn dance. She was our petersburg
city mayor. She served as member of the house of delegates, as well as the
virginia state senator. And of course, we have our actor, kenneth lee afemo omilami, who
played in several movies and so many others that three minutes won't won't mention won't give
us time to mention. But I will mention a couple more ron bolton. Y'all like nfl. He came
out of peabody. He served with the cleveland browns and the england patriots. We have roger
lee gregory out of law. He served as a us circuit court of appeals of the fourth district.
and of course we have in our armed services monica winfield. He was the army brigade general.
and of course, he worked at the pentagon. And that's just to name a few. Okay. Okay. Now.
our faith is that you will save, renew, restore and preserve the complex through custodial
ownership of the peabody academic learning and development center,
incorporated. Powell, dc, for our children, our citizens and the region. Now, I can imagine
how you felt when richmond was denied or the referendum stopped and the casino came
back down the pike. Always the joy that you got when you knew that that opportunity and what
was attached to it could set petersburg back up on the map and the things that you could
do for the people, your communities, and just the things that you had in mind and
in your heart that you could do for us. That's how we feel now about the building and the
complex. If given back to us, the things we could do for our citizens, our children and the
future to come. And of course, we are out of time. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.
appreciate it. Next, miss patty hurts. Oh I'm okay, patty hearst okay, okay. So you were
given. We thought we were going to do three minutes together instead of several. Okay, I didn't know. Would you would you have patty hearst time? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
sure. As this new administration is trying to erase history throughout our
nation, I pray that we will have the courage to do what is right so that we can restore
the peabody high school complex. And, of course, the historic site for our city of the social
and cultural transformation, for everyone who lives here and for people who will visit us.
so we are praying that you guys will do that. I know that you may not understand about the
history. You weren't around when there were colored fountains and we couldn't sit
in the library. We had to go downstairs, call it bathrooms and things like that. But we
rose above that. And even in the transition and the forced integration, we were able to
move smoothly. That because of how we were taught in school about strength and faith and
overcoming situations. So the school represents more than the building. It represents people,
your parents, those who who labored during those seasons, those who made the city of
petersburg become prosperous through the work that they did. So when you look at the
building, you are looking at people, you're looking at lives, you're looking at what was done
to create and have the city the way it is so that you can be where you are. The first black
mayor was, was, was jermaine von roy. So you get to see you get to sit where you are
because of what was done. And it will be phenomenal. If we had that historic site restored,
especially with the city getting ready to rise. Every major city that you go into or
every city that you go, that's that's productive. There are historic sites that remind
people of what got them there. It takes strength. It takes faith to bring back peabody
high school. It is not a casino where people your hands, our hands are out and people are
giving it. It's going to take the guts of you on the inside, a heart to see that building
restored. So it's a historic site that people will see. It was there over 100 years.
that's a lot of history for petersburg. And we have come forth. We are integrated and we
have come forth as a people to make the city great again. So I hope that you guys can, can,
can see that. I know you don't understand it. You came up in another generation. So I don't
know the the logistics of it. I know it's a lot of money, but it's going to take faith to do
it. It's not going to be something happened to us. We're going to have to do that. So so
that's what we really want into that building. What was there from the very beginning when we
started with the alumni association in dc. Helping children, helping citizens,
helping adults, and helping the community give us our purpose back. Thank you. Thank you so
much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Next is nita amador hernandez.
and you guess that doesn't move down. Good evening. Council. My name is ninfa amador hernandez,
and I am the daughter of two immigrant homeowners and taxpayers at agusta avenue,
right past westview and birdville neighborhoods. I wish I could give you my full
address tonight, but I do not feel comfortable doing so as an immigrant and as a latina
during this time. And that is why I'm here today as a graduate of maggie walker
governor's school, a political science major, and a public policy professional, I took the
time to be here because I cannot stay home not knowing what the city council or what
the local government here in petersburg is doing to protect our immigrant homeowners and
business leaders and community as a whole, from the rogue federal attacks of a
paramilitary force that is ice. And as I think we all know, and we all saw what happened last
week just a block from here, this has has exasperated even more the need for me to know
what we can count on you to do during these times. Right now, we are seeing immigrant
families being abused cruelly by a system that is fueled by hate through racially motivated
and a quota based immigration system of deportations. Not anything logical like we've
seen before, and we don't have to look too far. Like I said, outside of our own city limits,
to see what is going on here, what is going on here in our own city. We may see the cases
of renee goode and in minnesota and other cases across the country. But after the
kidnaping of my very own bonus father, a man that has worked tirelessly with my mother to
raise my family here in petersburg, he was kidnaped in minnesota as he was going to a
job site, because he is a class a contractor and an individual who works in the construction
area. He was kidnaped by unmarked and unmarked vehicles, by masked individuals, without
any reason, without any warrant and without any cause. He is now no longer on us soil
without attorneys being able to reach him over the past 12 days with us, without us knowing
where he might be. And this story is not unique. I'm sure that there are many other
stories of families like my own here in our very own city that are witnessing this and this
personal pain. And my commitment to my community is why I am here to ask this body,
what have you done to investigate the kidnaping of the individuals right over at
union street and washington street, in front of the transit station? And to ask you if ice
shows up to any of our businesses, to any of our homes here in petersburg, what are
you doing to protect individuals, to know their rights, to ensure that without
proper judicial warrants, ice has no place in our city limits? What are you saying to the
immigrant community here? To ensure that you are looking out for our best interest? And what
resources are you committing as council members to use to share information on how we can all
be protected? Because an increase in law enforcement presence in our communities is
no good for anyone, and particularly increase of these rogue paramilitary forces is a
danger to everyone, regardless of their immigration status. And in particular, it's a big
threat to our black and latino communities here in petersburg. Let me leave you with this, and
I urge that you give me the couple seconds left. We just celebrated martin luther king
day, and this is a quote that I came across like a month ago, and it has stuck with me. The
ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but
where they stand in moments of challenge and controversy. And I ask you that question, where
will you stand with our communities right now? Thank you. Thank you. Next, doctor
kenneth lewis. Good evening to all. Good evening. For the public record, I'm doctor
kenneth lewis, 503 mistletoe street, petersburg, ward five, represented by mr. Myers. I
speak to you for two reasons. This time that I have one is. Yes. I publicly state that I've
always had hesitation about the casino. I trust that it will be more than the billy graham
revival tent that it looks like right now, and also, it concerns me greatly that
television advertisements are on. You've seen them live casino las vegas style slot
machines come down interstate 95 to exit 48 and experience the joy of that. But it doesn't
say petersburg. It says interstate 95, exit 48. And I just find that a bit peculiar
that we go through this of the petersburg casino. But when it is advertised on television, it
doesn't say petersburg. That's number one. Number two, of course, is peabody high school
campus. I just don't understand why you don't understand what I understand, I just don't the
building is conveniently falling apart. But guess what? Before washington street high
school, petersburg high school became the governor's school. That building had fallen into
such decay that the pigeons wouldn't even go there to poop anymore. And you can see that
that's the beauty of history, that you know what happened? That building was in such
morbid decay. The only thing that should have happened to it was it should have been torn
down. But somebody took an interest in it and said, let us save the old petersburg high
school and turn it back into a worthwhile building called the governor's school. The fox
elementary school that was in richmond, virginia, that was burnt down by all by by all
reason, that building should have just been bulldozed, what was left of it. But somebody
cared enough about it and said, let us rebuild it. And now when you see that fox elementary
school building in richmond, virginia, it looks as in pristine shape as it was when
it was first constructed. Even better, why do you not care about the oldest public black
high school in the united states of america? Right here in the city of petersburg? When
you go even now, when you go on the the facebook in that very base, raspy voice gives
historic commentary. It says that paul laurence dunbar, madam smith lee is the oldest
public black high school in the united states of america. It is not the school that is called
paul laurence dunbar high school in washington, d.c. Was conceived of in november of
1870, and the peabody building, well, not the peabody building, but the peabody concept was up
and running in january of 1870. So unless there are alternative facts to calendar, january
precedes november. Thank you. Thank you. Next, dylan tucker. All right, next up, miss bob
rudolph. Good evening. Council barbara rudolph, 1675 mount vernon street. I heard some
very interesting comments tonight. I hope you're taking them to heart. But the young
lady who spoke about ice, I guess what I've got to say is a little related to that, which
is, I think, is to be careful about the federal gifts that are coming to petersburg. I
mean, we recently heard a lot about an initiative called make petersburg healthy again, which
is federal, federally funded, and brought a deputy secretary of hhs down here. And governor
youngkin soon. Now, former governor youngkin, sorry, former governor youngkin.
here's the deal. I know people who the the few people who are supporting the president. They
don't like hearing this, but he only got like 13% of the votes cast in petersburg during the
last presidential election. So he's not very popular figure. And associating these programs
with these federal basically maha meaning make america healthy again, which is an
offshoot of maga, the infamous maga, which to some of us is really kind of a dirty word.
quite a few of us, I'd say. So when you attach the the current federal administration to issue
to programs that are going to be launched in petersburg to help people with, with their
health and with the environment, you're you're depressing participation because a lot of
these programs, they're like public health outreach, and it relies on people being open to
talking with outreach workers. My what I've heard is that federal workers are coming to
do some of this. I'm just I just think you're you are in in your zeal to get, you know, to
get photo ops with the governor and, and get in the paper and have all this talked about.
you're you're doing you're making moves that are not that are in the long, long term, not
in the best interest of petersburg. And so when this and you see this, we've got now
we've got this initiative which is basically labeled with with a name from the trump
administration. And now we're going to get we have ice being seen here, heightened police
activity, all kinds of things. The we've got our former delegate. She's busy putting
out statements about all the horrible things that are going on in the general assembly over
the past week. Now that there's a democratic dominated house of delegates. So it's all part of
the same package, is that we're being primed to be I don't want to say we're going to be the
next minneapolis saint paul. I sure hope we're not. But I think, I think we're I think
petersburg's going to be a demonstration not exactly of the same kind that governor
youngkin wanted to do, but more like what governor youngkin's chief in washington wants to do.
thank you. Next, leela thompson. Let me put my glasses on so I can see. Okay. Hello. My name
is leela thompson. I live at 623 gilliam street, ward five, and my mother owns and operates
cindy's gift shop in downtown petersburg at 235 north sycamore street in ward four.
I'll be honest, I was here today to talk about something different. I was here to
discuss the I am power development. Mr. Rainier, I believe, was here and I would
have loved to talk to him and ask him questions about such a big development. That's going
to be potentially a really big part of old town in a really key piece of real estate. I
would love to see the city go about this in a different way. I would love to see requests
for proposals for this project. I'd really love to see. An experienced developer with
years of experience and an extensive development portfolio. I'd love to see what they
propose for this project, and I'd love feedback from the public collaboration with council on such a big project in old town. But I'm part of the public comment is I have a
question about bank street for the city manager. I have a question about when
construction will begin on the repairs. I know that there's a line item. I'm not familiar
with how all of this stuff works. I'm kind of new, but I know there's a cff grant for
bank street. I believe that expires on june 30th of this year for $4.6 million for bank
street. And I'm wondering if that has to do with the construction and the repair of
bank street. And do you have a timeline on when construction will start? Because I think
it's a really critical road for old town. I think no development in old town should
happen of such a big scale of the I am power without attention to our infrastructure,
so I'd love to know when that will start. So that's my question. Okay, okay. Thank you,
thank you. Next, dolly holmes. Hello, I'm dolly holmes. I live at 244 grove avenue in ward
four. I've been in petersburg over 20 years and I have seen many. Groups come in and give
petersburg advice. And I was somewhat involved with 1 in 2007 called the rudat, where
architects, landscape architects, urban designers and economic development
professionals came and met with people for four days and came up with recommendations. They
presented a document to the city, and I'm going to read a little bit from it. This is
because of the I am power proposal. I know it was tabled, but I think we need to be
thinking about this. Okay, this is from the rudat and it's from that neighborhood that we're
talking about, the pedestrian scale and orientation against the quirky character of this
subdistrict creates an eclectic environment that is highly conducive to arts and
entertainment, audiences and activities that should be cherished and preserved. Infill
development should be compatible in scale and character. With this
environment. No building in this or any other districts should block regional views to
lady justice on the courthouse tower. The vista of lady justice from coquette alley at
east old street should be preserved as a way of visually connecting the downtown's
public spaces and landmarks. Design standards. It is very important that all stakeholders
work to achieve signature architecture that adheres to these general guidelines, and I
think it's really interesting that so many groups have come in to petersburg with
recommendations, and I've not seen any evidence that any of it was ever followed. There was
another one about five years ago. I remember having meetings in this very room about it. And
instead of that, we're accepting or, you know, entertaining proposals from
people off the street that that would absolutely blow these recommendations out of the
water. And it's not stuff we asked for. So I think it's really important for us to
actually look at the good advice that we've gotten over the years. And by the way, if
anybody needs a copy of the rudat, I can share it with council and with and I can send
it to charlie cuthbert and he can share it. That's all I have. Thank you, thank you. Next is
nikki harris, duncan road. Next is kevin newby.
my name is kevin. My name is kevin newby. I'm from 444 18 clinton street.
I actually apologized for signing the list. I thought it was just a signing my first
time. I just wanted to listen. But I am actually enjoying this being. Excuse me, I do find a
lot of interesting things from petersburg. I'm originally from the hampton roads area. I've
been out here for about five years now, but I hear a lot of people and I hear a lot of
their comments. They are passionate about their city, they do care about their city, you know, and I think a lot of people, especially you guys, need to get on board, you know,
pay attention to what they're really saying because they are making some good comments. They really do care. And I drive around the city, you know, and I'm from small town surry
county. I lived in newport news, but I do see a lot of, you know, desperate buildings. But I also
do see a lot of construction going on as well. I do see a lot of houses being built. And
to be honest, even when I first came here and I saw the houses being rebuilt, but I saw new
houses being built, what's the point of building new houses to take away the, the, the beauty
that you could use versus the old houses that could be rebuilt, you know, that's
already cheaper in the first place. You know, that's already good wood. That's already a lot
of stuff that wouldn't waste money, time, and even just basic, probably would be
cheaper than these new houses that are out here. It almost these new houses probably look
like redlining. And I forgot the name of the word, but it's something. But you, you pricing
the people out of the neighborhoods. And that would be another thing. You know, people around here already seen. I looked up just when I first got here. I looked up the
median income for petersburg. I'm 100% permanent and total military veteran, and I get
social security and just that money alone. I'm higher than the median average income in
petersburg. I don't even have to work. And I'm already making more money than people in
petersburg working, you know, luckily, hopefully when, you know,panberger passes
$15 an hour makes a lot more difference. And I have worked in petersburg. I've worked for
trans services, team standard motor products, a couple other companies as well around here,
and I've made decent money, but I always here at work, people having to work two jobs, you
know, always having to do extra to make more money. So there's a lot that's in the community.
there's a lot of potential in the community. But at the same time, you need to listen to the
people. The people are your source. People are your power. You know, they vote for you to
because they trust you, not because they just checking off a ballot box, you know, so
really care about your people and everything else. But thank you for your time. Okay? Thank you. Next is theresa brown. Good evening mayor. Good evening. My name is theresa
brown. My address is 923 oakmont drive, petersburg, virginia, and I am in ward
three right down. That good? Yes. 923 oakmont drive. Correct? Correct, correct. And the
reason I'm standing here today is. The rainwater that we pay for. We. Ma'am, speaking to the
mike. Please. Can you hear me now? Yeah, yeah. Do I need to stand back a little bit? Go
close. Okay. My time is still going, so I'm gonna keep talking, okay? It's the
rainwater. Okay. We were told years ago that that rainwater that we pay for would help our
communities. But year after year, the water gets higher and higher, and all you need is a
swimsuit. Because that's how deep the water is. And those trenches that you all dug for
us were of no avail. It didn't do any good. All it did was cause us to have to use our
lawnmowers a little differently, because all it was was a hole in the ground and the water is
still there. And like I said, it's getting higher and higher. So we in not just our community,
which is battlefield park, but I'm pretty sure all over we're having a problem, but we just
want to know, what are you doing about that? That's all I have. Thank you. Next is pam
newton. Can you hear me? Oh, you can hopefully. Pam newton, 203 north jefferson street. I
just moved here in march. And I had a whole laundry list of things I wanted to say, but I'm
going to stick with two key points. I notice a lot of discontent with the citizens of
this city. Seems like there's a lot of disregard from council members on actually getting
input from their council members, and if there is input given, there are promises made
that fall to the wayside. Wayside are not following through with. I did a little
research. And this is the first city I've lived in where you don't actually have a mayor
that you vote for, which for me is really unusual. So I saw there have been several
attempts by your constituents to change this, and I know that this is a model, apparently,
that some cities in virginia follow, but I would imagine that that would be if that was
that, if that particular city was being managed well by that council. So I'm not trying to
judge anyone up on the stage. But as a newcomer, I'm only been here since march and I'm
seeing some serious discontent. I am reading some horrible comments and seeing horrible
history of the fact that things are promised and nothing ever happens, and things that that
the citizens don't want to happen are what happens. Like, I was going to go off about
this I am power thing, but I don't have to because it's been tabled. Don't nova richmond
petersburg. Sorry, I just left richmond because richmond got no. But if you don't know what
being nova means, it means tearing down old, old structures and building these
horrible, heartless, cold condominiums that will probably stand for like 20 or 30 years
and then crumble. And that's to another point. Someone was mentioning we shouldn't be
building all this new housing units, renovate what we have here, build on what we have
here. You do not find architecture like we have here currently that you guys are
neglecting these old bones are the things that last. Not this new. Pardon my language. That
goes up. I have no filter. Charlie already knows this. Can't do that. Anyways, there
was also a petition that was submitted by a woman of the name, and I don't think that
she's here and I wish that she had shown up. Barbara, barbara, barbara hooser, barbara hoosier.
she submitted a petition with, I believe, 100 names on there wanting to bring to the council
the fact that we want an elected mayor in place. We want to change the system. Right now,
we have no safeguards. You're all up there electing each other back and forth to be
mayor. What input do we have? It's time to change the system. We are paying attention to
what's going on in the government in dc. Don't think that we are not watching what
you are doing. Thank you, thank you. Next is javon de garner. Good evening. Good evening
javon. I initially thought it was a sign in sheet. I'm a teacher at petersburg high
school. I was born in petersburg. I'm not currently a citizen, but I am moving back.
if I'm allowed to speak, I will speak as a teacher. But mr. City attorney, is that a. The
rules require residency or a business owner in the city. Okay, okay. All right. At this
time, you can state the state, the name and address of your school, you you work at. Okay.
javon guerrier, I work at petersburg high school, 3101 johnson road, petersburg,
virginia. Okay. I think one thing that was brought up was the capital infrastructure and
council member jones, I do appreciate your input on that. I would also ask that when that
does come up, if teachers and students are allowed to also have an input in the capital
infrastructure, I have a classroom with none of the sockets in the floor work, so it's very hard to charge computers. I teach computer information systems. I also
teach design, multimedia and web tech. So typically I have to take like three extension
cords and like just plug one into the other, one into the other one into the other. So
that does interrupt learning. There's also certain things I noticed as a teacher that as a
student I would say like, okay, I can hide in this corner or I can do this over here. Bathroom
issues, things like that. It's it's not good. So if students and teachers can also have an
input, I think that will allow when those infrastructure designs go in, it actually
improves learning as well. Another thing that was brought up was peabody high school as a
native of petersburg, at one point we moved. My family moved to henrico. I lived a whole
life, got in trouble. All those things, got my life together. I became a data and ai engineer.
I worked in silicon valley for the last three years. I saw what was happening in the
industry over there, and I worked. I worked with apple, bank of america, pepsico, and I
know what's coming with the ai revolution is already here. And I said, I need my people and my
community to know how to use this. And it's the only reason I've come back to to petersburg.
and a huge inspiration for me was peabody high school, knowing that I come from a
community that does have the first black high school in the country, the oldest black
neighborhood in the country, the first black church in the country. I also wanted to carry
that legacy forward. And I also think for other students and kids growing up in petersburg
to actually know that history, it will allow them to take more agency and have more pride in
who they are. When I share this information with students in class, they do tend to engage
more because they actually feel like they're a part of something important versus a city that's just falling apart. So that's all. Next is chris marcella. Next is adele scott.
okay. Bernie gannaway. Go wash your hands. Good evening, council members. Good evening.
my name is burnell gannaway, 652 old wagoner road, hale. Black and gold, peabody.
because I'm originally from petersburg. A lot of you, I don't think some of you are
even not even thought of. Some of you weren't even born here. But I'm originally from
petersburg and was a part of peabody until my dad says. Time to go to petersburg and get
some studies, so I so I acted up at peabody and with my friends. I ended up getting my
work done in petersburg high. I. But since that time I graduated from petersburg high. Also,
what happened when I graduated from there? I had no contact, but I still have more contact
with the peabody, which I didn't graduate from then at petersburg. So I'm looking at
the same arrow. You forgetting about the peabody that I was a part of? And to engrave the
petersburg with all of the things I had to get a ticket for $100, for a ticket for
passing through on washington street, where, you know, at peabody, I don't get a ticket.
okay. But before I go there, you know, I want to think about this, though. One of my main
thing was to. I want to make sure before my time run out, there's still I'm going to work
for. I'm waiting on my light. We've had for ten years. We'll make sure I get my light.
please get my get my wife. We don't need a grant. We don't need a discussion. We don't
need to be voted out and voted in. Well, this is the fourth time or fifth time I need my
light. We do need the drainage like the gentleman was talking about. We do need some
infrastructure. We got to get that done. Like I said, the last meeting, the job is not
complete until it's done. Don't get yourself a pat on the back. The casino is here. It's here.
I see two streets, street sweepers on wagon road. I haven't seen that in years. Two
street sweepers. Now we want to sweep the streets. Our infrastructure cannot continue.
you got people that that have been here live in your building. These put together houses for
tax breaks for taxes, good taxes because you got new people coming in with these
fabricated houses, with some of the old infrastructure of the old gutters or the old piping.
we need grant for that of things been done years ago. We don't need grants for that
anymore. It's time people ought to cheer you, peabody. That's left. Some of them have moved
away. We don't need all of them to move away. We got a few left like myself. It's time for us
to look. Don't get no more grandstanding. Some of you going to have your thin skin.
don't be thin skinned. Just come up with the facts. You were not here, I was here. How
many people was in this room? I can tell you. None of you was on the picket line like I was.
how many people forget about carl winfield? You forgot about carl winfield. Carl winfield
was a part of peabody high school. Also, winfield was the one that implemented us to be
on the picket line when we were hanging out the window. And we had to still hold our signs.
thank you, mr. Gannaway. That concludes our public comment. Next, we'll go on to public, to
the business of reports from the mayor or the members of city council. We'll start off with councilman cuthbert. Thank you, mr. Mayor. I want to pat the code enforcement effort of
the city on the head. Give them a gold star because they're doing a superb job. Led and
inspired by mr. Ken miller. Mr. Van voorhees, would you to illustrate my point, mr. Van
voorhees, would you put up, please? Yes. This is 521 south sycamore street. Before you see
the tag on the front door there. A couple of years ago, I took this photograph march 31st of
2023, and thanks to code enforcement, and I believe thanks to the city's efforts to
collect past due taxes, this house was moved, was transferred into the title to
it was transferred to a new owner. And mr. Van voorhees, would you please put the next
photograph up there? This is what the new owner did to the house. Same house, 521 south
sycamore street. This is a real tribute to mr. Miller's efforts and code enforcement efforts,
the city manager's efforts and city council keeping the faith. If anyone wants to keep up with
efforts of a volunteer group that meets on the second monday of every month, please get in
touch with the city clerk and ask her for the zoom link and she'll be glad to share it with
you. Everybody is welcome to participate, observe, applaud, comment at that second monday
at these second monday meetings, they've been very helpful in serving as a catalyst to
progress. Just like what you see before you on the screen. And so there are lots of people
to thank. There are a lot of people that deserve that, that credit. Let me go to the next
photograph. This is a photograph of a dumpster behind matson lofts. Now, I took that
photograph yesterday. That's certainly not the way we want downtown to look. Sent this
photograph to mr. Ken miller, and this afternoon he sent me a photograph of the same view,
but everything was cleaned up. And again, I'm indebted. We are all indebted to mr. Ken miller
for inspiring the efforts by our city employees to get the job done. So again, mr. Miller,
another exhibit of that shows why your efforts are so important to petersburg and
gives us some idea of the challenges you face and the miracles that you accomplish.
let me go to the topic of categorical funding for our public our public schools. I do
hope that we follow up on the vice mayor's comment about that when it comes, when we are a
little bit later into the budget season, and we that we deeply consider seriously
consider this idea of categorical funding, certainly the status quo is is not
acceptable. And perhaps categorical funding would help move that needle in the right
direction. My sense is that there are other things that can be done, and I hope that
council will entertain that discussion. Last point I held a ward four meeting on january
the 8th. The a lot of people attended. The primary topic was the future of old town and lots
of good comments. And I'm sorry the city manager's family had an illness and he couldn't be
there, but mr. Miller was there and took good notes, and I hope that we'll be able to
incorporate some of the good ideas that were raised at that ward four meeting by the public,
and use those ideas to direct the progress in old town, specifically, what we do with
the massive chevrolet property. It's certainly doing no one any good sitting there looking like
a wasteland. I'm delighted to see that we do have some more parking across from the dixie
on that property, but there's a lot more that the city can do, and everything that the city
does there breathes further vitality into old town. Thank you very much, mr. Mayor. Thank
you. Next we have councilman jones. Thank you, mr. Mayor, and thank you for everybody
that's here today. Under the sound of my hoarse voice, what I'm about to say to all of you,
black and white, don't take it personal, don't have no thick skin like the young man said.
but I gotta keep it real. Some of you just moved here and got the nerve to come and tell us.
the citizens on what we're not doing. Let me tell you what hasn't been done in this city
50 years ago. 60 years ago, no leadership ever said in front of anybody in this city and
took care of the issues of infrastructure, education, poverty, nobody. See the reason
why you're bringing it up now? Because we are paying attention to it. And we do listen to our
constituents. Right now. Today there's more getting done. Today, 2026, than when brown
and williamson was here. Then titmus optical was here. And any of those factories, sewer,
luggage and everybody knows nobody with all of that money they was making in this city,
you stayed poor as white people, you stayed poor as black people. And the leadership didn't give
a damn. That leadership didn't give a damn. And we take a beat down because of what somebody
else didn't do for you. Ladies and gentlemen, right around your city again, look at your
city again. There's more happening this year since I've been on council than ever
happened in this damn city. So you can't come up here and say what's not being done because
we're moving forward. And I promised all of you, all of you, that I will hold anybody
accountable. I even said I hold us accountable if I have to do it. Damn it, y'all know I will.
and let me tell you something. Miss mama. Need some more time. I'm going to need some more
time now. I spoke on us plenty of times as being a self-sufficient city. It's not
too late. I don't want us depending on, like miss rudolph said, federal dollars, state
dollars, anybody? Dollars. Y'all got to start doing for yourself. You got to. Let me
tell you something, people. You got to be your own leaders. If something happened to this
whole governing body, what are you going to do? You got to be able to lead yourself. I hear
people say, y'all not building decent houses and y'all not y'all neglecting is what she
said. I ain't building nothing. I don't hold the hammer. These are developers out there that's
building. These are people that's moving in and they're fixing up what has been
neglected. Trust me, it's been neglected, a lot of it. But like, he disappeared. But our
code compliance is moving forward. We're tagging things. We're knocking things down.
listen, y'all, I mean, I gotta say, this money, we want streets built, we want
infrastructure done. We want all of this stuff done, y'all. We want taxes reduced, but it's
going to cost money. It's going to cost y'all money. And we got to be careful how we spend it.
that's why I was hot about the school system not spending money that they have. It's your
money. We don't spend money like it's ours. We look at every dime spent. This is your
money and your money. Money ain't got a black face on it. It do got white face, but it
painted green. But it's still y'all money. It's still y'all money. Now let me say something.
I've learned more about peabody. Out of peabody than I did when I went to peabody. Peabody is a
great school, was a great school. Peabody is the oldest in the nation. Can't refute
that. Peabody, let me read something real quick. Hail to thee. May I have some more time,
mr. Mayor? At this time, garrett, I'm going to defer. Can you just give councilman
jones my five minutes right now? I'm gonna defer my five minutes. Thank you, sir, and two of
councilman westbrook. Seven minutes for councilman jones. We're deferring. Yes. Thank you.
any peabody people in here right now? Raise your hand. Tell me if you remember this.
hail to thee, our alma mater. Peabody. So true. Lord, your sons and your daughters sing.
thy praise is true. For that honor and thy glory we will never, we will ever stand. Hail
to thee, our alma mater. Best in the land. Y'all remember that? You don't remember it?
yeah. They didn't teach it to us neither. Now, let me tell you something. Peabody. I love
this school. I love know, I love what came out of the school. Named after george
peabody, philanthropist george peabody, known for his great academics and legendary
educators. 1954 brown versus board of education. Many schools closed down because
they didn't want to integrate. Something happened and there was a merger and integration,
and it wasn't even voluntary. We was forced to do it here in petersburg. Now, all of this
greatness come out of peabody. Somebody stopped fighting after you got what you wanted. I
gotta tell it like it is, because when I went to peabody, it's a shame that nobody taught
me about the greatness in that school. I feel cheated to this day, I feel cheated. Nobody
told me about the great people that come out of there. Nobody told me how great I could be.
if you told me that I wouldn't have been a father at 13. I would have been looking towards
the greatness that I walked the hallways with nobody. So we have a responsibility, people.
being in leadership is not a sideline sport. The people hire a coach, the coach hired the
players and they play. They go for a touchdown. I've been in peabody. I had to survive. I
think the mayor went to peabody. You had to survive. It wasn't as great as it was when y'all
went there. We had to survive. And to hear this greatness that's coming out of peabody,
you damn right I'm off that it looked like that. We gotta do something about it. But we have
to have an agenda. We have to have money. Where's the money going to come from? I don't
mind doing it. If y'all say, use our money, marlowe, to fix it up. I direct the city
manager right now to use your money to fix it up, but it's coming from out of your pockets,
y'all. Seriously, we have to understand. I don't like people that have been like that, but
let me ask all of you something. When the body dies. Do his memory move on? You just
celebrated martin luther king. He's not here no more. His body is gone, but his dream is to
here. That don't mean you stop being great, does it, peabody? That don't mean we stop being
great. We keep moving forward. Petersburg. Don't y'all get it twisted? There's outside
influences that want us to stay segregated. They want us to stay split up. This is a
melting pot of all kind of people. To the young lady about ice, I don't like what I'm
seeing in our communities. Let me understand. Let you understand something. There are
things happening on the outside that you guys are afraid of happening on the inside. It
ain't happening yet. And I want to tell you, ice in our city does not mean war in our city.
there's legal aid and other places where you can get help and assistance on knowing your
rights. We don't need to take up arms, at least not yet. I don't think we ever had to do
it, but we had to protect each other and give this young lady the where is she at? She need
help. You need to see social services, legal aid. Get all the help you can get. You can
see me after this. You can see the police chief. We got things that we're not doing in our
community. We are going to protect you. And again, if you see something, say something. I
heard somebody say we got seven seats and seven wards. But people, you forgot about the
30,000 people here. It ain't just these seven season seven wards. People want to change
the system. I gotta ask you what you. You know, listen, if you're going to change the
system, it got to be fair for both sides. I don't want to go back to no civil rights
movement. I don't want to go back to no segregation. I don't want to go back to none of that
stuff. If you can't bring it together and tell it and tell it all, then don't even tell it
at all. Don't tell it. Period. We are petersburg, and y'all need to understand that we are
petersburg, black, white, mexican. I don't care where y'all at. Cockroach. Anybody?
we. Petersburg. There's our roaches. I'm not going to let nobody come in and take over
our city. You guys got to do the same thing, man. We got. Listen, when y'all come up to
this podium, bring us some suggestions. All I took was a beat down today, but nobody
said nothing about anything good happening in this city. It's a lot of good going on
here. We got people with brother. What? Raise your hand. What? You got the plant thing
going on? The community garden cleanup. Say that again. Cleanup in pocahontas. We got a
lot of good things going on. And y'all, it's black and white people doing. Don't let the
outside forces tear us apart. We all one piece of fabric, y'all. And I can't have it. I
won't have it. Now. If there's something I'm doing wrong, email me. Don't be like the
lady online. Say I, you took my number down and we ain't talking no more. Email me. Come
see me here. Catch me at the store. Catch me anywhere but talk to us. We don't go out
here and ignore it. If you think we doing this for money, $400 is not enough for
answering phone calls everywhere I go in the store. I think it took me two hours in
the store to get out of there for $400. We don't do it for the money. We do it for the
love. We do love you, petersburg. I didn't run for city council for no doggone
position. Somebody say position. I'm not over doing it for a position. I want to be the
voice to make things better for all of you. Because nobody in the last 50 years has done this.
what we're doing right now, collectively. So I'm asking you guys to do this for me, please.
we need an agenda, not a city council agenda. A petersburg agenda. Agenda on what you want,
how you want it. There's ways to go about it. You want a sub council. We can do that. We
want to put together a group to talk about things, to get it on our plate up here. We can do
that. If you got ideas, email the clerk. It'll get to us. That's my time. Thank y'all so
much. Alright. Thank you, councilman jones. Next we'll go to councilman westbrook with
his three is three representative said about no showers man. Yeah he needs you
want you want two two more. Just 11i gotta tell you about that school system. I'm
surprised at that. But when I, when men and men went into the petersburg high school, we
witnessed something really bad. There were no showers. There were no locker rooms. And we
combined. And we told them, do what you gotta do to get some locker rooms out there for them
kids and get some showers for the kids. Do you know what one school board representative said? And I hope he watching. He said they ain't been taking no showers. Yeah, yeah. So this
is what we're fighting against. But if you ride past petersburg high school now, you're going
to see some showers out there and some trailers out there with brand new locker rooms and
brand new showers in there for all of the kids to be able to enjoy, to take showers in
school, in p.e. After sports. So all these years they've been going to sporting events and
going home funky. This is contributing to the unhealthiness of our city. So
the principal, the superintendent, the mayor, myself, the rest of council, you go past high school, you'll see it. But we gotta stop doing that job for him. We got to. So
I just want to let y'all know this is what we're doing. We're fighting from all angles, but
we're going to get there. We're going to get there. Nobody came back for the little boy. There
was a daddy at 13 years old to tell him about peabody. Tell y'all start talking about here.
that's how we. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you, councilman westbrook. One
minute. I only need two. I'm gonna keep it straight. I gave up my minutes. So thank you
everybody. Happy start to the calendar year 2026. Imma go fast. Thank you for all that
passion. We all play a role model is the passionate one. I always love to hear him talk
and talk the real truth. But with that I would like to say my condolences to mister
marquis mason, the recreation department director who lost his mom. I shot him out because
he definitely leaves a great marquis allen. I'm sorry, marquis allen. Excuse me? He
leaves a great black history celebration in petersburg. And I know that, all things
considered. You know, we need to get that information. So maybe his staff, miss bland,
mister massenburg, everybody can step up so that we can have a great celebration in
petersburg next month for black history month. Marquis allen, please take your time. My
condolences go out to you. And I'm sure everybody else here under the sound of my voice will do the same. We had a great ward six and seven meeting. I know miss councilman
annette smith lee had to leave, but we did have a great ward six and seven meeting. For the
sake of time, I cut it down. Just say keep coming out. When we do have city council
meetings, I listen, I know they listen. We write down your concerns when you come to our
ward meetings. Or as councilman jones say, you stop us in stores, you stop us everywhere
and talk. We are listening. We are doing what we can to make those things happen. Because as
leaders, we should be able to explain as and see and tell you what we're doing. But listen to
what how we can do things better. And then we have to act with clarity on behalf of with
behalf of the leadership, which starts with the city manager department. Please understand the style of government that we have and that we are council and government working together.
this is not richmond with a strong mayor system. Be careful what you ask for. If that
strong mayor system comes and you have a a tyrant, then what would you want to go back this.
because this is what that council 40 years ago said that they wanted, they wanted the
ward system. So be careful. Be careful what you ask for. I'm a quickly go because time. If you
have been paying attention. Snow is coming this weekend. Mr. City manager warming system
warming stations. I'm a pass over to you. So yes, snow is coming this weekend. We know
it's going to come in. Models are showing we could get double digit double digit inches of
snow. We're working and we haven't had we've begun the conversation of developing a
warming center. We'll have more information as we have further discussions this week as we
prepare for the snow, but we'll let the citizens know if we have one available and where
and what times it will be open. And I just hope that as a city we can be proactive. I always
say, if you know this area, you can start the time again. I'll stay true. Whenever they cannot
predict this early of how many inches we get, we usually get slammed. Whatever they say. Right now we're getting 6 to 8in. We get 2 or 3 right now. They still can't say we can't
predict. So there's a good chance some models are saying up to a foot of snow, please
prepare yourselves and please look out for your neighbors and know when those warming stations are open. Hopefully the homeless and everybody else can go and get help they need
so that we don't have any incidents coming with this snowstorm coming saturday into sunday. Again, for the sake of time, we do listen. So speeding we I know when I got on council
as well as other people, we've been hearing about speeding. Thanks to mr. Miller for getting some of the rumble strips in seventh ward. They started in downtown. They've
gotten seventh ward by pleasants lane, so those are hopefully stopping. But that
crossing double lines and speeding for no reason will you learn to drive? I don't know,
but that's crazy. And my last business time is that there will be another ward meeting in
march. And please continue to go petersburg. We create hope up here. I do understand that
the community needs action, but as marlow said, we got to work together for that action. We
are policy makers. We cannot truly affect things on a daily day basis, but we are doing
what we feel is best for petersburg, for the future and look around. It's a great day
in petersburg. Okay. All right. Councilman w howard myers. Anything? I'm going to keep it
brief, mr. Mayor. You know. I sit back here and I think about 15 years sitting up here on
this dais dais, and I listen to what is going on for the last 15 years, 2015, what we have
reproduced here in the city of petersburg. And there's not much that I can add to what has
already been stated, because everybody that has something negative to say has left the
room. And they've never been a part of the 15 years that we have been here, growing this
city. And I have to say, you keep coming up here talking about I got to elect a mayor.
who do you know? Who are you going to elect any different than what you already have up
here? And I'm not saying that to say that you should elect anyone here, but I am just
saying what is wrong with the mayor that's sitting here now that we have to now change the
rules to elect a new mayor? I was proud to be mayor when I was mayor. I was proud of him
as my vice mayor. I'm proud of everybody here. Darren. Who else was on our team when we
were here? When we started this journey? We were in ruin. And you all were about to be in
what? Chesterfield. We stopped it. We fixed it, but we don't hear anybody telling us what a
good job we have done. All we hear is about the negativity, and it is not about anyone
sitting in this room. Because some of you all have been here through this journey with us, especially you, miss barb rudolph. Don't sit there and hold your head down. We love
you. Yes we do, but to sit here now, where we have achieved so much, I mean, it's really
unbelievable where we have come from in 15 years, for 40 years. And I'm going to get on one
subject and I always say I never, ever wear what I do on my sleeve and I don't. We tore
down 200 houses in ward five and replaced them, not because the houses were. Oh, they're
old and they're the best built. No, the bucket touched them. They hit the ground because the
termites had tore them up so bad they just fell to the ground and we replaced them. We
filled all of those toothaches in that ward. So we have surpassed all of the
dilapidated houses, delinquent taxes, all of those things that have. Now we are at a measure
where we're not $25 million in the hole, but we are 79 million to the plus in less than ten
years. So when all of those folks come up here before us, they just moved here,
especially the woman at 203 north jefferson street. Let me be very clear. I used to own
that house. I renovated it. It's a beautiful house, trust me. So why complain? You have a
beautiful house. There are other people here who are on a who do not have the income to
live in a house that you're living in, and affordable housing is important for
everyone. And we've done that. And so why they want to attack you, mr. Mayor, I don't
understand why you need do we need to get you elected? Oh, my god, my time is up. Oh,
election. Oh, I swear to god, before I got on this mic, I said it's election time.
everybody wants to run for office. Yes, I could care less if I get voted back in office.
I'm being really honest with you. I'm not going to lie to you. Never will. I said it the
last time and imma say it again. I do it because I love the city. I moved here from richmond 22
years ago. Everybody has been good to me, everybody and I cannot complain. So thank you,
thank you. Yes, tomorrow night, 5:00 am I correct 4:00. Sorry. Food distribution come down
market street. Turn down river street and get you a grocery basket of food. So come on down.
thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, vice mayor hill. Yes. Good evening everyone. I think
everything has been said that probably need to be said. All I would ask is because it's
election time, y'all. And for our new citizens and people like that every time during
this time of year, I don't care what election it is, that's what happens. We're just we're
used to this. And then once the election is over, what things start dying down and what have
you. But this right here reminds me of the train station, the way it was back in the day.
and we can't go back to that, y'all. If you if you run your citizens and people got
something to say and y'all think it's going to be contagious, maybe ask them to
pull your council person aside and really have a conversation with us. You know, we had ward
meetings and things of that nature. We put out a lot of information. A lot of times we
just had a soft opening of the casino today. Some of you are, weren't there, but, you know,
we went to check it out. It's beautiful. We're not hanging our head on that because we
know we're more than just a casino. But we were doing things before the casino even
came here. We were turning the corner before then. As you all know, we got infrastructure
going on all throughout our city. You know, create a road everywhere. We're fixing pipes
and and everything. We know we have an old city, and we know we have certain things. When
you fix something up the street, then another thing will go, go bad down the street from there.
so that's just that's just the nature of having a historic city. I say this, I think the
last time all of us, probably except for councilman myers and councilman cutler, all of us
went to peabody. Everybody up here went to peabody. So when you put the peabody thing out,
like the way you do, you're preaching to the choir. I went there two years. Most of our
council members went there two years. You know, you went there three. Yeah. So, you know, I'm
just saying. And I spoke to a developer, a local developer today about peabody today. So
it is on our radar. We do want to do something with the building. It has to be
something that makes sense to all of us. That same group did have peabody. They had peabody.
we we turned it over to them. They had it. The peabody alumni, they had peabody. But then we
had to take it back because it couldn't keep it up. So don't get it twisted. You know, it
ain't like they ain't never had it. So, you know, but we're not I don't want to throw darts at
anybody because that's not my style. We're all one. Petersburg. And I thank
everybody for their passion and what have you. But it is an election season and everybody
just trying to do throw dirt on top of it. When my two years come up or whatever, they'll be
doing the same thing. And it's because we've been here long enough and we know. And so and
I do want us to know this when we have new people coming to the city and new people that's
coming to work for the city, they're looking at y'all. They're not always looking at
us. They're looking at how the residents react. Do I really want to come here? You know, do
I really want to come to a city council meeting every day, whereas contagious or something
like that? So, I mean, I we can do better and we're better than this petersburg. And I know I'm
preaching to the choir because everybody they say what they said and then they left and
what have you. And I, you know, all of us growing up in here, that's what I can see. And
nobody needs a lecture and all that. But this right here is it's too much, y'all. It's too
much. I'm born and raised in this city. Like somebody said, I raised my children in this
city, got married in this city, church in this city, all that. So, you know, and that's not
taking nothing away from anybody who. Came here from somewhere else. We're glad that
you're here. We really are. It ain't no them and us, but we're glad that you're here. But
let's speak life and not death, because life and death lies in the power of the tongue. Be
careful what you speak, because it will come to pass. You are planting seeds when you speak,
negativity when you speak bad. We've been speaking good, and everybody else can see everything we're doing in the state and the region. They see everything we're doing, meaning
we, meaning you all and us because we're not doing it by ourselves. But it seemed like
some of our own people can't see it. Every street you go down, you see a new house or a
renovation or construction coming up. You see the streets being cleaned and everything. I
know he said something about working the road, but that used to be my area. The street
sweeper has been on wagner road before. We take care of that. It's been paved a couple of
times on one side and the other side on wagner before the casino was there. So everybody
have a blessed day and be safe this weekend. I hear some other stuff to say, but you know,
y'all, y'all just don't know that this right here this is a rough one today. Thank you, mr.
mayor. Okay. Thank you, vice mayor hill. At this time, I donated most of my my look,
donated my time to councilman jones for his comments tonight. So at this time, I just want to
thank everybody for coming out and just want to make some recognitions. First of all, we
have our treasurer in the back, paul mullen, who just got elected chair of the petersburg
democrat committee. So congratulations to paul. Also have have an outstanding
gentleman joining the petersburg team. I want to welcome mr. Jeff stokes here,
who's going to be coming on as deputy city manager here in petersburg, who has an
extensive, extensive history, multiple years of experience. And we're looking forward to to
him adding and definitely jumping in to this, our economic development front to
expand a lot of the development that's going on throughout the city and also use some of his
operational experience that that he's had for many years. So, jeff, we welcome you and
happy to have you on and looking forward to to a many great things. He's he's
somebody that I know and know personally. I've seen what he's done in prince george with
bringing lego down there multiple the loves down on fort 60, the wendy's, the hardee's I
I've seen him bring all of those those those developments and even built a new school
down there in prince george. So, jeff, we're happy to have you aboard and looking forward to
working with you. Sorry you came in on a day like today, though. I'm apologize for all
of us. That's not a way to welcome a new deputy city manager. But thank you, mr.
mayor. All right. Thank you. Next, we move on to item 12. Items removed from the consent
agenda. No items tonight. Next is finance and budget report from the department of finance,
mr. Gary cozier, with the monthly update. Excuse me. Hello. Good evening. Gary
cozier, budget manager. So very quick report. Just a couple of slides before you here today.
monthly budget to actuals as the end of december. So these budget actuals will cover the
first half of the fiscal year. So 50% of the year completed spend overall under our under
our general fund we are at 45% of spend. So that is under the 50% spend. So tracking really
good there. Here are our other departments basically all under 50% except from dogwood. But
dogwood is a little bit different because dogwood operates off of its own revenues. So that's still okay. And I believe that that's all. So overall we're tracking
really good. There's no overspending or anything like that going on. And as you heard
earlier, our fund balance is increasing. So pretty pretty pretty well thank you. Okay.
all right, councilman cooper thank you, mr. Mayor. Was it at this meeting that. Funds that
were used for operating budget for the. Expansion and also all capital. The administration was
going to get back to us. And I thought it was you, and I thought it was today. But I may
be wrong on both scores. Fortunately, I wasn't here at the last meeting, but we will
have that for you at the next at the next work session. That'd be great. The question
is, what the operating budget of petersburg area transit for a minute. What percent of that
operating budget is funded by the citizens of petersburg? The city of petersburg has, excuse
me, a 4% local match. There is a 68% share from the federal government, a 28% share from
the state and 4% for the city of petersburg. Now that's our operating budget, I believe.
correct? Yes. Now we really have two budgets that are it's the same for capital. It's the
same breakdown. I thought I remembered in the fall that we talked about borrowing millions
of dollars for new rolling stock. Yeah. So that's on a case by case basis. I mean, if
there was a grant specifically being went after for rolling stock, it wouldn't fall under
that same reimbursement schedule. Well, how much of the I guess the three budgets then
there's an operating budget and a, a capital budget. And this rolling stock budget is is that
what I'm hearing? No, it wouldn't have a budget necessarily. But I mean, like
if they were applying for a grant, the grant that they're applying for will have its own
terms requiring what the match would be for the locality. Well, let's see, mr. City manager,
would you look into this further and let us know at the next meeting? I thought that we
were taking on some long term debt in order to buy more rolling stone. So we will we
will have a higher I believe, if I remember correctly, we'll have higher than a 4% match on
the rolling stock that's under a different grant, not the the formula formulaic of federal,
state and local. When we're dealing in that terms, it's a 4% match. Other grants have us
having having having a higher match because there may not be federal or state money involved.
but we can we can get those numbers and bring them back to you. Well, that's great because
I, I wish I could be specific in my recollection, I can't, but I thought it was a pretty,
you know, a significant number. Not I mean, I think if I remember correctly, we're it's
about $1 million of a match on the rolling stock that we would in getting the the order that
we were looking at when we had that discussion back, summertime, maybe it was it was
about $1 million local match in order to place the order for the busses and move forward. At
that time, council authorized us to move forward, and we're going to budget that match as
part of the upcoming budget year. But it'll be specific, grant specific, but we'll bring
that number back for you. That'd be great if you could bring that to us at our work
session in february. That'd be super. Yes, sir. Thank you. And thank you, mr. Crosier. Thank
you, mr. Mayor. Okay. Thank you. All right, mr. Kocher, any other items? No, no. All right.
thank you so much for the presentation. All right. Next we have item 14, unfinished
business resolution authorizing the city manager to amend the development agreement between the city of petersburg and new development, llc for the properties at 851 east bank
street, 1420 ferndale avenue, 1162 hinton street, 417 south jefferson street, 921 primm
street, 1150 rome street. 201 terrace avenue, petersburg, virginia 238032 extract. The
reverted date, mr. Moore. Yes. Good evening, mr. Mayor. Vice mayor, members of council, mr.
william zimmer is here to ask for reverter clause be taken out of his particular
properties. He is here now and will give you a brief presentation. And after that
presentation, if you'll kindly open the public hearing. Excuse me. There's no public hearing on this one. I'm sorry. Good evening. Council, I'm william zimmer with new development. So
we're here because the reverter clause in the original development agreement has
caused a barrier to financing for us. So we're requesting that the revised development
agreement that was proposed be approved. And so essentially, you know, what the revisions do
is allow our lender to finance the construction of the project. And with that in place, these
lots can move forward as homes, tax revenue and neighborhood improvement. This revised
agreement keeps the city's protections in these protections govern our
obligations as a developer. So still 12 month build period. No sale before a home is completed.
obviously, city inspections, certifications, all that good stuff. So we appreciate your
consideration and I'm happy to answer any questions. Okay. Yes, mr. Williams, and just to
clarify, between the two statements that were made by mr. Moore and the developer, as
I read the proposed revised development agreement, they're not actually asking you to
remove the reverter clause. They're actually asking to allow the lenders to have
priority over the city's reverter clause, which is a little less drastic in the
package that's highlighted where those changes occur. I did put a couple of comments in
red that I would suggest adding to that to soften it a bit in terms of the city's exposure,
but I think he's accurately described what they're requesting. Yeah, I mean, it's
basically subordinating, you know, it's putting the lender in first position on the lots.
yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. Thank you, mr. Jones. Councilman jones thank you, mr.
mayor. Teaching moment right now. Okay. Sometimes I don't follow. And if I don't follow,
I know there's some people out there watching that don't follow. Absolutely. So help me
understand, as a developer, because there may be somebody out there that want to develop
some of these properties like you doing. Sure. You said. The reverter clause is keeping you
from financing. I want to know the mindset of when you chose these properties to purchase.
was the mindset I get the properties didn't get financing or was it already got financed?
let me get it. Let me go on and do it. What was the mindset? And because don't just tell me
that, but tell the public because we want to redo this clause. But I want to get my
head wrapped around the fact that when we sell these properties, are we selling it
to people that got the money up front to go on and fix them? Or we sell them to people with
hopes of getting financing from somebody else. Therefore, if you don't get your financing,
it'll sit there anyway, like it did before. Let me help teach the public, please. Sure. So,
you know, we have the money to actually purchase the properties, but we're talking
about, you know, a couple million dollars in development costs that we we don't have,
you know, just laying around. So most banks require a first position lien when they lend,
especially for construction. So, you know, we went to several different lenders. We landed on
the one that we typically use. All of them said basically the same thing though. So I mean,
it's different if you're buying maybe one property and you're putting say, you know, you're
buying it for the assessed value, let's just call it 5000. So you're looking for funding
for a total. Yeah, for a total not just each individual one that's separate. So for a total
okay. Yeah. It's for the total seven. Yeah I mean we're going to do it in or. Yeah two phases.
so we'll build four and then three within one year. One last question. When you get your
financing looking at these properties as they're in different wards right. Which
ones have priority on you working on first. Is it going by the condition of the
property or. Well they're so they're all it's all raw land. So we're really going off of
three of them will be single story and four will be two story. So I believe we're
starting with the three single story and then one. Two story. Are you already working on the
bank street? One on the corner? No, sir. That's all I got, mr. Mayor. Thank you. Okay. Thank
you, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. All right, vice mayor hill, I'm sorry we don't
have to open up for public comment. Yeah. So basically, they let the citizens know.
bacally, when we do, we have a reverter clause. If they don't do what they say they do,
then we can revert, take it back. But the bank said in order for them to get finance
that they have to be the next one up and then we come. So with that being said, I'd like
to move that we approve the authorization of the city manager to amend the
development agreement between the city of petersburg, new wave development llc and the
properties of 851 east bank street, 1420 ferndale avenue. 11 662 hinton street, 417 south
jefferson street, 921 prime street, 1150 rome street. 201 terrace avenue, petersburg,
virginia 23803 that is my motion, right. Councilman myers second motion a second at this
time is here. Could you please call the roll council member cuthbert? I'm voting no. I
think it's a bad precedent. Yes. Council member jones, I, council member. Myers. Council
member. Westbrook. Aye. Council member. Smith. Vice mayor. Hill. Aye. Mayor I that motion
carries. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Guys. Next is item 15. New business. No items tonight.
next is the city manager's report and special reports, mr. Altman, one. I want to urge all
of our citizens to keep an eye on the weather. As we talked earlier, it could be very
significant this weekend. So please keep an eye on the weather. And if you need to
start getting prepared for that, it will occur over the weekend. So I urge everyone to begin
their preparations now. We will be having a call tomorrow morning at nine to begin our
preparations, and I know we've already started those discussions internally with within departments. On a personal note, I want to thank all the members of council.
some of you may not know at the last meeting I wasn't here and well, you may know because you
saw mr. Miller was here. We had a family medical emergency at 11:00, which prevented me from
coming. But I have to say, I really do appreciate all members of council support,
thoughts, prayers and your willingness to provide me the flexibility to kind of balance
family home life during that period. The good news is, after being on a waiting list for
several years, my mother in law had a kidney replacement, so and it's doing very well. But.
and thank you. But I have to say, most people don't know, but when you work with a group
of people who support you and the comments that I get back or hey, we're family, that is not
common everywhere that you work. And I do want to thank all of you publicly for the support
you provided. I really do appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Councilman jones, your
the question. Yes, sir. Mr. City manager. With this weather coming up, I want to make a
statement on our public safety. Individuals and departments are already out there working the
streets, doing their jobs. I seen so many out today. Just professional, doing their jobs.
I mentioned that the last council meeting about public works, being the first
responder, considered a first responder department. Because without them, a lot of our jobs
and their jobs would be hard to do. Without them, our citizens would not be able to get from a
to b without them. We have so much more infrastructure issues. I've seen these people working
in the mud, ladies and gentlemen, they were in the mud, in the hole feeling for the
leak and actually patched it. Now this is some military grade stuff that my eyes have
witnessed. And I'm saying this because I want you to consider strongly. At least a 3% raise
for that group, because we gave all of our first responders raises. These people, we they
come here just like the police had the issue. The fire department had issue. We give them raises, they train, we train them, and they leave and go somewhere else. But now they
got a home. Police got a home. We're not letting y'all go. Fire got a home. We're not
letting y'all go. But we're losing public works people or getting ready to, from what I
hear. Please save em now, people. This y'all money. It ain't black dollars, ain't
white dollars, it's green dollars. It's your dollars. They help us get around this
city. Somebody told me today about a pothole across from the post office. You know, please
consider that public works department. I mean, outstanding operating heavy equipment. And
we lost one in brooklyn manor for a whole day, almost. And they didn't go home until the
water was, was restored. So I think we need to definitely look into it. That's that's my
statement for that. So as a a grandson of a director of public works, the stepson of a
deputy director of public works, I can assure you that our public works people are first
responders. If they are not there. Now, if you go down sycamore across from comeback
burger, there may be a hole in the ground right now because we have a water line leak. Once
again, this is deja vu all over again for me. But same thing about the same place. In 20
1718 we had a leak there, so they are there and they are going to be there in the bitter
cold of tonight working through those. And they are absolutely first responders. And I think
the steps that council has taken thus far, helping reduce costs for insurance and the pay
class comp study that we implemented, we we need to continue moving forward. But I
think those are helping us. But absolutely, we will consider I appreciate that, and I'm glad
that you said exactly what you said, man, because I want to make a motion not for a raise
because I know that's going to that's going to come because I asked for it. But I want to
make a motion that in the future, starting today, that we consider our public works as
first responders officially. So when we give raises to first responders, they're included in
those raises. So I want to make a motion, mr. Mayor, that we consider our first our public
works and streets as first responders. Now that now that, ladies and gentlemen, they're
not first responders on the level of fire and police, they ain't going to run a no
building or chase no bullets or bad guys, but they will fix your streets so they can drive
down and catch them. They. Marlo, can I interject with you? Yes. So do you think about it
2:00 in the morning and it's zero degrees outside and they're down in the hole. They
are down in the hole. And that's the. Those are the things you need to. Yes, sir. Point out. Okay. Yes, sir. Not just your streets. Well, they are digging down in the street.
alright. I did mention that. How they feeling for the whole. What the hell are you. Right.
exactly right. So I just want to make that motion that we include them in the future as
first responders, not the level of police and fire, but they offer as responders for the
city. I make that motion. All right. Vice mayor hill, second motion a second. Miss hill, can
you please call the roll council member? Cuthbert, I think we need to think about
the consequences of what we're talking about. Everybody appreciates public works,
including me. But the consequence of the water running down the street, I mean,
this idea is come before us about two minutes ago. Is this in order? I mean, can we take
can we just make motions out of thin air and, and vote on them? As a city councilman, he can do
whatever he wants to do, just like you, councilman. This is. Yes. This was just a title
change to first responders. Is is is to be included in the realm of a second tier of first
responders because of the essential actions that public works perform. And next, I'm
gonna defer to mr. Tony williams. I suggest you consider it a directive to the
city manager to bring back necessary documentation to implement what councilman jones
is indicating, because I think that requiring some clarity. I think you're right. You can
certainly identify them as first responder. But I think there's some things you want to
put in place to make sure that you're covering your bases. Because the state code has some
specific language that pertains to benefits that first responders have, that others do
not have. You know, they have the police officer's bill of rights, the firefighters bill of rights, and things like that. So I think we can call them that as a city and we can give
them certain benefits. But I think the manager should bring you maybe an ordinance
amendment to that effect. Perfect. Councilman, are you okay with them bringing it back? Yes, I think that's a good idea. I think that's a business like way to proceed. Wonderful.
thank you. Councilman jones, are you okay with the. I'm not okay with it because the state
code says what the state code says. So if it don't say anything about this level of
first responders, then it don't say nothing about it. So if the police get raises, I mean, get
benefits and and things of that nature, of course, public works won't get it. I mean, they
understand that. We understand that. But the thing is, locally, as a city, they are all first
responders all the way around. Right? You know, so all I'm asking is for to put them in
that category for the future when we consider giving first responders raises, there's a
tier. You got fire, you got police, and you got public works and streets division.
without them, it'll be so difficult for any of these guys to do their job. Right. And
councilman jones, and can we have the city manager just bring all that back out so we
can have it in front of us for the public, just, you know, so we can build it into this, this
current budget that we're building for 2627, mr. Altman. And it may be in speaking with
reference to what the city attorney is talking about, it may be just a designation.
that's a policy statement that we consider dpw as a first responder, but not necessarily
under the definition of what's in the state code that has brings all this additional and
another community. When we did raises, we did consider dpw as a first responder. So we kind
of made sure that they were taken care of at the same level that we did police and fire.
and then we had all the administration. So we'll take that and we'll bring something
back for your consideration. All right. So first of all, I'm okay with what our legal
counsel is saying and I'm okay with bringing it back. But I just don't want y'all don't
understand. If you haven't worked out in zero degree weather, getting wet where
everybody else is at home sleeping. If you haven't fought fire in 20 degrees below 20
degrees below zero with icicles coming off your helmets where everybody sleep. If you haven't
been on the beach. Wearing a badge. When your life is at stake. Every every moment
you're out there on the street. You don't know who your enemies are. Where everybody's at home
asleep. But these people are in the grit. Keeping our city operational. Seriously. So I'm
okay with bringing it back. Councilman jones, always remember, you can suspend the
rules of council. Say that one more time. I'm still learning, y'all. You can suspend the
rules of council and make your motion. He. He made the motion. Councilman jones, if I may, mr.
mayor, vice mayor, sometimes, you know, we we we we make decisions. And I know we like
to carry things back and study and and stuff like that. All he is he asking for a title. You
can bring back the all the stuff. What's going to go with the title then? So how about we
vote on the motion to make them first responders? And then with the provisions you put within?
I mean, we're always talking about, you know, it's not good business to do this, not good
business to do that. But we've done some things and I won't go there. But if you want to make
this and you got a motion on the floor, you want to make them first responders
considered as first responders. I don't mind us taking a motion now and then. Then the city
manager can come back with, what does that mean? Are you asking for is a title right now?
so, mr. Mayor, if I'm in order, can you call the vote? My motion stands and my second
stand. All right. Miss, can you please call the roll council member jones I council member
westbrook. Council member. Myers. Vice mayor I mayor I. I will go back to councilman
cuthbert. Yes. No, we've been okay. All right. That's all we need. That's all we need. Wait
a minute. No. We've been given good advice by the city attorney and the city manager,
and I vote no for those. But the city attorney and city manager, they don't. We, the
policy makers and the city manager. He will. He will put the right language in. And the
city manager, I mean, the city attorney will make sure the language is there. We are voted
in by the people to make these decisions. I'm not going to have a city manager and the
city attorney telling me what to do right this next business. And reports from the clerk,
miss hill, any items citizens, y'all can y'all can tell me what to do. Nothing to report
tonight, sir. Okay. Next business reports from the city attorney, mr. Williams. No
report, mr. Mayor. All right, next is item 19. Adjournment. All in favor? Aye,