Thursday, May 21, 2009

Venture Richmond, City Jail & more discussed at Finance Committee



Council Vice President Ellen Robertson began the meeting on time at 4 pm [the only meeting out of four this week that began on time] and opened with the Citizen Comment Period. I was the only citizen to speak and I spoke on a topic which I spoken to the Council on many times before. I implored the Council to hold their meetings at 6 pm to encourage citizen attendance at committee meetings and I also told the Council that I had to take time off work to attend their afternoon meetings and that caused an economic hardship for me.

The entire meeting lasted an hour and a half and was attended by Finance Committee members Ellen Robertson [Chair, 6th District], Bruce Tyler [1st District], and Charles Samuels [2nd District] as well as Council President Kathy Graziano.

The most interesting item on the Agenda were Ord. 2009-97, a downtown work plan and $2.7 million budget managed by Venture Richmond to operate the Clean and Safe Program, maintenance and landscaping along the Canal Walk, and marketing downtown Richmond. Their budget is composed of a $700,00 contribution from the City of Richmond (25% of their budget), interest, a fund balance from last year, Riverfront "other revenue" and over $1.7 million from a special assessment charged to properties that lie within the Special Assessment District. Management services account for $222,000 or 8% of the budget.

Another interesting paper is Resolution 2009-R64, which is required by the Commonwealth of Virginia in order for the City to be reimbursed up to 25% for money we have spent during the City's planning for a new jail.

Other papers considered at the meeting included Ord. 2009-99 which transfers $400,000 to the City Registrar's office to pay off bills associated with last November's election and Ord. 2009-98 which accepts $448,000 from the Commonwealth of Virginia to be applied to the Richmond City Health District's new clinic build out and enhanced health-related programming.

Council's Legislative Services staff also presented a Quarterly Financial Report.

Watch the entire meeting unedited below. Hour and a half long.

1 comment:

  1. I hope citizens are paying to attention to the amount of money spent on Venture Richmond's Clean and Safe Program. While downtown is important, there are other neighborhoods in Richmond that deserve to be clean and safe.

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