Independent and thorough news, video, and opinion from Silver Persinger with especial focus on Richmond, Virginia City Council, Free Speech, Free Press, and Open Government.
Showing posts with label Venture Richmond. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Venture Richmond. Show all posts
Above. During the Citizen Comment Period five citizens complained about the Storm Water Assessment Fee. The people who complain the loudest are churches and businesses. The bigger the roof and parking lot, the bigger the bill and complaint. Speakers for the citizen comment period included: Ronald E. Mabry with Veterans First a group that works to house homeless veterans asked Council to give his group an old school building at Laburnum & Brook Road, Rev. Matthew Brown from Branch's Baptist Church on Storm Water Fee, Rev. Bryan Roberts from Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ on Storm Water Fee, Samuel Seward on Budget Concerns, School Board and marijuana, Nick Eubank (Owner, Eubank Truck, Inc.) on Storm Water Fee, Amelia Lightner yielded her time to Rev. Ralph Hodge from Second Baptist Church, Charles S. Gilbert from the Acca Temple on the Storm Water Fee, Willie Earl Bradley (Owner, Bradley Development) on Section 3 HUD program.
Above, the Richmond City Council May 26, 2009 meeting included an opening prayer delivered by John Westbrook [of Morning Star Baptist Church and Councilwoman Ellen Robertson's legislative assistant], the pledge of allegiance, roll call [all members were present], the fire evacuation plan, the appointments of Neville C. Johnson and Anita Randolph as members to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Oversight Board, and amendments to the agenda.
Theodora Parham commented on poor service of GRTC Care Vans and drug dealing neighbors. [0:30]
Ted Moody urged funding Recreation Workers for city youths. [4:15]
Keery Keenan and Todd Schall-Vess urged City Council's support for Friends of Dogwood Dell Arts Program. [6:45] Allender Griffin opined the Echo Harbor development and baseball in Shockoe Bottom. [10:50]
Pamela Bohannon requested financial assistance to send her daughter on a trip to Japan to take part in the People to People Student Ambassadors Program. [14:40]
Jackie Kothe questioned the Council regarding legality of panhandling at the I-95 South Exit onto Cary Street. [18:00]
The Donald Hatcher Incident
Above, Council regular Donald Hatcher expressed his views on the 26 separate ordinances that constitute the City of Richmond's budget. However, after 3 minutes had expired, he wasn't done talking and challenged the limitation.
What followed was a tense standoff between President Graziano, Mr. Hatcher, an officer from the Richmond Police Department and Councilman Marty Jewell stepping in with a motion to allow Mr. Hatcher additional time to speak. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Reva Trammell. The vote was 3 [Jewell, Trammell, Tyler] to 5 [Graziano, Robertson, Hilbert, Samuels, Conner] with one abstention [Betty Squire].
Up until last year, citizens had the right to comment up to 3 minutes per ordinance or resolution. In an effort to curtail citizen participation (including my own), Council amended their Rules of Procedure [on Feb. 11, 2008, with Resolution 2008-R18-27, See page 11; Ms. Trammell and Mr. Jewell were the only Council members to vote against the change] and enacted an even more rigid standard where citizens are given only 3 minutes to comment on the Consent Agenda [which is commonly made up of 10 - 40 separate items] and papers that are called together [ie. bundling papers to limit opportunities for citizen comments]. Under the old rules, a citizen could spend his entire allotted 10 minutes speaking to the Consent Agenda alone.
My Comments
As usual, I hadn't planned to speak so much but found I had much to say. I spoke in opposition yet one more time to the use of inmate labor as currently proposed in the Community Development Block Grant [CDBG] Budget [Ord. 2009-50] under a line item entitled "Environmental Code Enforcement" managed by the Dept. of Community Development, the Richmond Sheriff's Office, private contractors HDL Services LLC and F.U.N. Construction and budgeted at $260,000.
I also spoke in opposition to continued support for Venture Richmond [Ord. 2009-97], a group that markets the city and operates the "Clean & Safe" program, operates the canal boats, and maintains the Canal Walk and Brown's Island, and is funded by a $1.7 million special assessment fee on properties located in the downtown and river front special services districts, in addition to a $700,000 contribution from the city; in opposition to the way the budget was prepared with almost no input from the public; in opposition to 8 papers that were being expedited in order to expend Council District Funds before those funds reverted to the General Fund.
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.
