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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2020_tcmin01281 January 28, 2020 – Leesburg Town Council Meeting (Note: This is a transcript prepared by a Town contractor based on the video of the meeting. It may not be entirely accurate. For greater accuracy, we encourage you to review the video of the meeting that is on the Town’s Web site – www.leesburgva.gov or refer to the approved Council meeting minutes. Council meeting videos are retained for three calendar years after a meeting per Library of Virginia Records Retention guidelines.) Mayor Kelly Burk: I would like to call to order tonight's Town Council meeting of January 28th, 2020. I will be giving the invocation and followed by the salute to the flag by Vice Mayor Martinez. I would ask everybody to take a moment to join me in a moment of silence. [silence] Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez, will you lead us in the pledge? Vice Mayor Marty Martinez: Will you stand up and join me-- Everybody: I 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. Mayor Burk: All right. Let the minutes reflect that everyone is here with the exception of Council Member Dunn. We have work session minutes, January 13th, 2020. Do I have a motion? Council Member Neil Steinberg: So moved. Mayor Burk: Move by Council Member Steinberg. Second? Council Member Ron Campbell: Second. Mayor Burk: Seconded by Council Member Campbell. All in favor? Council Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That is six, zero, one. Vice Mayor Martinez: Abstain. Mayor Burk: Okay. That's five, zero, one, one. Regular session meeting of January 14th, 2020, moved by Vice Mayor Martinez. Second? Council Member Steinberg: Second. Mayor Burk: Seconded by Council Member Steinberg. All in favor? Council Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That's five, zero, one. I'm sorry? Oh six, zero, right. You're right. Thank you. Adopting the minute agenda. Council Member Steinberg: Madam Mayor. Mayor Burk: Can I have a motion first? 2 Vice Mayor Martinez: So moved. Yes. Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez, seconded by Council Member Steinberg. Council Member Steinberg: I'd like to offer a motion that under Item 13, we simply move those items A, B, C, and D over to the consent agenda. Mayor Burk: Does anyone have an objection? Council Member Campbell: Yes. Mayor Burk: Which one? Council Member Campbell: All of them. Mayor Burk: All right, so that doesn't go on. Go ahead. We have a motion adopting the minutes by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Council Member Steinberg. All in favor? Council Member Steinberg: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That's six, zero, one. We have two presentations tonight. Well, three. We have a recognition of Loudoun County High School Girls' Volleyball. I want to read it, but they are not here tonight. I will be taking it over to the school later in the week. This is recognizing the Loudoun County High School Girls' Volleyball team for winning the Virginia Class 4 State Championship, whereas Loudoun County High School Girls' Volleyball team claim their eighth consecutive Virginia Class 4 State Championship in Richmond, Virginia on Friday, November 22nd, 2019, whereas the team has dominated with the three- set sweep winning the first and third set, 24, 25, 14. In the second set, 25, 12, and whereas this victory is the team's 12th overall State title in the past 13 years, and whereas we welcome the team's head coach, John Senchak, to receive the proclamation on behalf of the Loudoun County High School Girls' Volleyball team. Therefore, the Mayor and the Town Council of Leesburg, Virginia do hereby congratulate the Loudoun County High School Volleyball team for their hard work and dedication by winning the 2019 Virginia Class 4 State Championship, proclaimed on the 28th day of January 2020. I will be taking that over to the school later in the week. Our second proclamation is for More Than Peach Project. This is in recognition of the More Than Peach Project, whereas the Leesburg Town Council would like to recognize Belen Woodard, an eight-year-old, fourth-grade student that created the More Than Peach Project, whereas More Than Peach Project came about after Belen had asked all school year for the skin-colored crayon and was assumed by her peers that skin color meant peach, and whereas Belen happened to be the only African American in her class and wanted to do more to make sure that her fellow students realized people come in more than one color, and whereas Belen wanted to educate her fellow students and to ensure that no student in school felt left out, and whereas the More Than Peach Project is now sponsored by the local nonprofit in the 501(c)(3) Loudoun Diversity Council, and whereas Crayola recently supported the project by sending items from its multicultural line which Belen will donate to the kids at Evergreen Mill Elementary, whereas the mission of More Than Peach Project is to welcome the authenticity of all students and to support the creativity of students at home and school and to advance enrichment opportunities. 3 Therefore, the Mayor and the Council of the Town of Leesburg in Virginia hereby congratulate Belen Woodard for creating the More Than Peach Project and wish her continued success in her future as a student role model, proclaimed this 28th day of January 2020. We will be going down to give this proclamation to Belen in just a few minutes. Our third proclamation is supporting the Leesburg Jewish community, whereas Leesburg acclaims and celebrates our Jewish community, and whereas the Leesburg Town Council recognizes the numerous contributions of Jewish Americans to the Leesburg and Loudoun County, and whereas Rabbi Abacca, a great Jewish scholar, declared that the central principle of the Torah is, "To love thy neighbor as thyself," whereas Jewish Americans have repeatedly demonstrated their dedication to this commandment, helping the downtrodden and pursuing justice, sanctified in the name of God and embodying the best of America, and whereas the US Jewish community is experiencing near historic levels of antisemitism, including the doubling of antisemitic assaults and the single deadliest attack against the Jewish community in the American history in 2018, whereas the attacks on the Jewish community continue in 2019 and those attacks are a great concern to the Jewish community all over the world, and whereas the attacks caused many in the Jewish community to despair and fear for their safety, and whereas we welcome Rabbi David Greenspoon to accept the proclamation on behalf of the Leesburg Jewish community. Therefore, the Leesburg Town Council denounces any and all antisemitic attacks and wishes to assure the Leesburg Jewish community that we recognize and value their contributions and appreciate all people within our community, proclaimed this 28th day of January 2020. If you all would come down and join me as I give these out. Thank you. Let's start with you. [chuckles] All right. We are going to start our first proclamation. It is for Rabbi David Greenspoon in supporting the Jewish community. We want to thank you very much for being here. Why don't you come over [laughs] and join us? [laughs] Rabbi David Greenspoon: Thank you. Mayor Burk: Yes, that's great. Right here is fine. We as a collective body have been very concerned about the things that are going on in the community, in other communities. We want to make sure that they don't start happening here. We wanted to make sure that you could convey the message to your community that we appreciate everyone in Leesburg. We appreciate the fact that we do have the diversity and the different religions, different people and different cultures. That's very important to us here. We're honored to be able to give you this proclamation today. I know you probably have a few words that you would like to say. Rabbi Greenspoon: Thank you. Mayor Burk: Yes. [laughs] Rabbi Greenspoon: They're brief. They're brief because they're written down. I'm grateful to the Council and especially Mayor Burk, whose outreach and concern and sympathy for solidarity with the Jewish community in Leesburg during the violence spate of antisemitic attacks over the Hanukkah celebrations. It's noteworthy that this week, we've commemorated the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps Auschwitz- Birkenau. This week is also then International Holocaust Remembrance. As a member of the Jewish community, as a human being, I can tell you that the hate unleashed by antisemitism might start by targeting Jews. Ultimately, it is absolutely indiscriminate in the victims it claims. There is, unfortunately, no single source for this most ancient hatred. It is found on the political left and as well as the right, in prestigious academies of higher learning, and in the most revered of our various sacred spaces. It is 4 found in the neighborhoods of all types. In the matter of its provenance, the response to this hatred must be absolute and unequivocal in its rejection. The 40 Muslim leaders who made a sacred and solemn visit to Auschwitz this week have expressed in the form of our truth. The other 50 world leaders who came to Jerusalem this week for the International Holocaust Remembrances have also affirmed this truth. A Jewish, Muslim, and Christian delegation who met with the Pope this week have affirmed this truth. Now, the Town Council in the Town of Leesburg affirms this truth as well. I'm deeply grateful and thank you for this proclamation and the opportunity to accept. [applause] Mayor Burk: Now, we have-- Is this still on? Okay. Belen, would you like to join us? [laughs] We are very excited that you're here today. This is fabulous. [chuckles] We would like you to explain what is the Peach Project so people can understand it and what you've done because you're so young and to be so aware of what's going on and to find solutions is truly impressive. We are very excited that you're here to share this with us. Would you talk about it? Bellen Woodard: My name is Bellen Woodard. When I was in third grade, I had a friend. One day, they yelled if anyone had a skin color crayon. I knew what they were referring to, which was the peach crayon as it was just our name for it. That day, I went home to my mom and I told her. I asked her, "Do you know what my friends are referring to when they are saying the skin color crayon?" She answered, "No." I told her, "Well, it was the peach crayon." My mom said, "Well, our skin color is brown, so how about you give that to them next time?" Instead, I said, "No. Next time, I'm going to ask them which one they want because it could be a lot of colors." More Than Peach is about letting kids be kids and give them the best options. We just were collecting crayons and colored pencils from the multicultural line from Crayola. We're getting 180 donations, I think, for 180 kids. [applause] Mayor Burk: Fabulous. I've been saying your first name wrong. How do you say it? Bellen: Bellen. Mayor: Bellen? I'm saying Belen. I'm sorry. Bellen. [laughs] We want to congratulate you and give you this proclamation. I have a feeling that you'll probably be back for others because I got a feeling there's more going on there. [laughs] Thank you very much for coming. [applause] Mayor Burk: Besides her mom and dad, her principal from the school came and joined her today. Thank you all very much for being here. That's it. [silence] Mayor Burk: All right. We have two presentations tonight. We have the Visit Loudoun Annual Presentation. Beth Erickson is here from Visit Loudoun to tell us what's going on in regard to tourism. 5 Beth Erickson: Good evening, Town Council. If I may say, Rabbi Greenspoon [inaudible 00:15:38] thank you very much. And Bellen, you are amazing. You gonna be a rockstar. I'm so proud of you. That was awesome. Awesome. [applause] Beth Erickson: It is absolutely my pleasure to be with you again to give you a six-month update. We are coming before the Town Council twice. This is our six-month update and I have so much good news to share. I'm always trying to figure out how to use this, so I will-- I think I got it. Hang on. All right. The key items that we are working on or that I'll be going over with you is to give you an update on the direct sales performance from the Visit Loudoun team. We're going to talk a little bit about some joint bid submissions. This was our first year that we have worked very closely with the Town Council and Economic Development staff on going after some significant pieces of business. I want to talk to you a little bit about that. I want to share with you some fantastic Leesburg media wins because that's always a lovely thing to see. We're going to give you a few other updates and then I'm going to give you a brief update on the report card of what we've been doing through our MOA. Direct sales results this year have been a fantastic story to share with you. We have seen a 6% increase over prior year, so a little over $1.1 million in direct revenue to our hotels. I want to make sure that I specify that this is incremental sales. The hotels themselves do their own sales and outreach. This is the business that Visit Loudoun has touched with our fingerprints on it. Our sales team has sold over 10,000 room nights, which is an increase of over 4% over the previous year. I'm very proud of their work. We've seen occupancy grow in Leesburg by 6.2% year-over-year. You'll notice that the average daily rate has increased about 1%. Again, our average daily rate over the last several years has been growing steadily. These are all good strong indicators. The occupancy is exactly what we want to see. From these activities alone, looking at our average daily rate. For the year, we are estimating that we generated close to $90,000 in incremental TOT for the Town. Bids with Leesburg. Again, as I've mentioned, these were some of our very first. I've got a little mixed bag to share with you. One of which is we've been working very closely with Ion as a part of both a new important part of our product. Also, as outlined in our MOA, we are really working very hard and it's my job to give you an update on how we are supporting them. MYHockey has been a program that we have moved into Ion. They are seeing multiple tournaments that are multi-day tournaments. That's been a great input. We also went after our very first two US skating bids. The Mayor has supplied letters of endorsement for us as we went after them. Synchronized skating and one of the figure skating events. We were not successful in those bids. The fact is for a brand new product and for a brand new facility coming online, we were really thrilled by both the way that the presentation came together. I want to always make sure that I say that Russ and his team are a huge part of that, making sure that we put our best foot forward. I know great things are going to come as we continue to go up to bat and swing. I couldn't figure out a really good figure skating analogy. One of our best wins that I am most excited about, and I know that you know, that we have worked together to bring the Virginia Municipal League to the Town of Leesburg. The very first time in its history that it is coming to a town. In my opinion, it is very fitting that it is coming to the largest town in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We cannot be more proud 6 of that. We're going to be working very closely with staff as we develop some really fantastic programming and wait to see that incredible economic development impact that we know that is coming. More importantly, it's a great place and a great opportunity for us to showcase Leesburg to the rest of the Commonwealth. Under some key media wins, I did bring copies of the Southern Living-- Oh, we are moving and I'm not quite sure what's going on here. Hang on. There we go. I did bring for you a copy for everybody of the Southern Living that we have. I don't know how many of you saw that. The Southern Living Christmas edition is the top edition of Southern Living's publications. We actually started working on this a year ago. We worked very closely with Russ and Melanie and the business community to make sure that they knew that the Southern Living photographers were coming in. We worked on having them visit our businesses. Fantastic results, print on only as 2.8 million readers. Online, an additional 1.8 million. I estimated that ad value pretty close to $270,000. I will say what I love through the power of Facebook was when I saw that Martha Stewart retweeted the story. As she said to her 1.5 million readers-- We keep moving forward. My apologies. "A trip to this Northern Virginia town needs to be on your holiday to-do list. (through Southern Living)." Again, a link directly to the Leesburg article. Martha Stewart, I know, has been here in the past and that was a great shout-out directly from somebody that has a very rabid and passionate following. Other media wins I just wanted to bring to your attention, tell you a little bit about some of the other markets that we go after. Smart Meetings is a really important way for us to make sure that we are utilizing all that Leesburg has to offer. You'll notice as we talk about, you'll see some of the areas that I've called out. These are some of the businesses that we talked about everything from team-building exercises to restaurants to visit when you're here, to places to get a great drink in Leesburg for team-building. You'll see some of those identified. Another one that we're very pleased about was a student tour group magazine that we worked with, specifically with the Marshall House, to talk again about really important and engaging fun ways to have kids get interested in history. We continue to work very closely with Tom and his team at the Marshall House. These were, again, a couple of examples. Delaware Today, "Four Weekend Getaways Within Four Hours." The images that you'll see in addition with the copy is, of course, The Wine Kitchen and Lightfoot Restaurant. We were able to bring in and ring in the New Year with a special segment that came up very quickly during the holidays. It was their Fox 5's focus on the New Year. We did a full day or a full morning of programming, had four segments at Chefscape. Really fantastic. It was a way for us to focus on some of that other additional product that we find at the Villages and around, but we were able to really highlight all of those businesses and experiences. A couple of other quick updates. Economic Development engagement. As we've mentioned, we work very closely with Economic Development on many, many levels. We've run some specific reports for them. As we look at it again, that occupancy of some of our hotels. We know that some new hotel developments are going to come online. We work very closely with the Economic Development offices to make sure that any developer who's interested has the information they need and the best story for us to tell to help bring that business here to Leesburg. We are on track with our deliverables. 7 Last year, when I presented before you, we had developed a report card where we went through line item by line item of everything that's just within the MOA. Halfway through, we are spot-on in exceeding in some of them, so we're in great shape. We've been working closely with the Commission on Public Arts. We started meeting with them back in October to take a look at a prioritized list on how to help support the arts here in Leesburg. I know that they're working and we'll be coming back before you with a logo. Once that is developed, we are ready to go. We're very pleased to be working with them to bring the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Art Mobile here to Leesburg. We're continuing to move forward on that. As a part of our strategic plan, we are launching our Certified Tourism Ambassador Program, where we're going to be able to work with Leesburg businesses on training both from a customer service standpoint, but also to help direct visitors throughout Leesburg and throughout the entire County. Because we know that the longer that anybody stays within a destination, the more money they spend. More importantly, anybody that's directing that person to the visitor needs to have experienced these assets themselves. The Certified Tourism Ambassador Program is a great one. We're really excited about that. I will be back before you in November to give you a full market report of what's happening within the entirety of Leesburg from an economic development and tourism perspective. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Mayor Burk: Thank you. I appreciate the information. Is there anybody who has any pressing questions at this point? Mr. Campbell. Council Member Campbell: Yes. Thank you, Beth. I always appreciate the report not just because it's good, but I think because it's complete. Your staff, always a pleasure to work with. Like anything else, it's more that we can do. I'm not talking about you. [chuckles] I'm not talking about deficits or complaints or criticism, but opportunities. You don't have to answer just now. At some point, what can we do to help better improve the results as a Town Council, as a Town as we work with businesses. Sometimes even a list of suggestions from you and your staff, I think, would be welcomed to help make these results even better because they don't happen by themselves. Beth Erickson: Of course. I will say that you're spot-on in that respect and we have wonderful support from the Town Council. When we've been going after bids, the Mayor has been right there. The staff, we have a really fantastic working relationship with the Town. I do think that that's coming out with those results. As we look forward on that, over the course of the next few months before the November presentation, I'd be happy to think about some of those opportunities. Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate you being here. Beth Erickson: My pleasure. Mayor Burk: Next one is the Commission on Public Arts. Mr. Lorrig, you're going to be the presenter tonight. Jeremiah Lorrig: Thank you. Before I really get started, I want to take a quick moment to thank you all for your service to our Town. I love living in Leesburg and I love seeing so committed public service sitting in front of me today. You all give of yourself, I know, in countless ways and I'm really grateful for that. I hope that my presentation will be a brief, relaxing experience where you can see a little bit of the way that culture can have an impact on people and maybe give you some ideas for the future. 8 My name is Jeremiah Lorrig. I always forget to introduce myself, so I just handwrite it into my notes. I live here in Town and I'm pleased to be here. I think I've met all of you over the years at various times. I was remembering. I think the first time I met you, Mayor, was in 2008 at a church something that I was at. You were there and I went and introduced myself to you. Now, you're Mayor. Mayor Burk: That's true. [chuckles] Jeremiah Lorrig: A lot changes [chuckles] in 12 years. 12 years? Whatever. All right. I'm pleased to serve on the Public Arts Commission. I've been there for almost three years. We've been working on this project that we wanted to run by you as an idea for expanding opportunity for art in Leesburg. Let me go ahead and go to the first slide. This is my goal. Our goal is to encourage public art in the Town of Leesburg, to attract more visitors to Leesburg, which goes in line with the previous presentation, increase local business traffic, increase local traditions, and grow positive social media posts about Leesburg. That's what this is all about. To do this, we asked the Town Council to review and reform policies to allow private murals to enable the community to express the culture of the Town through private art. This has been successfully implemented in various historic districts and towns to the betterment of both commercial and cultural interests. What I want to do is ask the question, "What do murals do? What can they do?" What I did, you could see here on the slides, I've picked murals that are culturally relevant to Leesburg in some way. To give you an idea of what could be, none of these are in-- Actually, one of them is in Leesburg, but most of them aren't in Leesburg itself. I think they could show the kind of direction that private murals in Leesburg could do. One is a sign of community. You can see this one is from Richmond. This is a mural from Richmond that hearkens to the history of the town, right? This one here, I couldn't find the source for where this particular mural was. We know that we have a culture that revolves around the agrarian part of our community. So the horse country. That's something that's very real in this area of the country. Murals allow community to express their sense of place in culture while also attracting others to visit and remember where they have been. A lot of people can come to Leesburg, but it would be really cool to have them take a selfie in front of a mural and remember where they've been, right? Make it a positive experience. Here's another one. This one is from Conway, South Carolina. It highlights their town's connection to the railroad. That's another thing and we have a W&OD railroad that was going right through this area. This is something that our Town could express a little more of. Here's another one from Manning, South Carolina. It shows an agrarian scene, but it also has a little bit of a twist. You see the modern construction worker looking back into the history, showing what's behind the wall. There's ways that we can connect the old and the new together. This is highlighting local culture in history. We have some examples from around us. This one is a new mural from Purcellville and you can see there is a welcome to town. It's something that they recently unveiled. It got some news coverage and it's now a piece of Purcellville. A policy that the Public Arts Commission has been working on draws heavily from the policy that was put together by the Purcellville government to allow private murals. If this is something you guys want to move forward on, we will be happy to share that research and those notes with you. 9 Here's something from Leesburg, the one I mentioned in Leesburg. This is from Chefscape. This is really interesting because it's a mural that is becoming a fixture in Leesburg, right? It's a place that features a mural by a local chalk artist. It’s become a place where people will take selfies and engagement photos. It's ingrained itself already in the short time as a place to be and a place to visit. We think that we can capitalize on that by expanding that. Here's something from Cumberland, Maryland. It highlights the historic town. It takes what would otherwise be a concrete building, just slate concrete, and turns it into a scene that shows the historic street of the town, making it a much more engaging and pleasant view. Here's another one from Richmond highlighting music. It's a trumpet with birds. Very friendly to the eye, right? All of these, I really liked how they fit into their local community. I think that that's something that we could navigate the process to make sure we came up with a final policy that does that. Here's something from just down the street in One Loudoun. People love it. It's the balloon mural. People will go and find ways to pose with this mural and become a part of the art themselves. It brings people there. It's a fun thing. It takes a photo op. It's something that we think could attract visitors and business to our Town. This is one of my favorites. It's so cute. This particular one, you can find on Pinterest everywhere. Everybody likes bringing their cute little daughters especially, but you'll see lots of people come and pose in front of this. In fact, Taylor Swift did an album with this as the cover, I think. I don't listen to Taylor Swift, so I honestly don't know, but I Googled it and that's what it said. [laughter] Mayor Burk: We don't need to confess. [laughs] Jeremiah Lorrig: Yes. I wish I understood music more or listen to more music. This is something that when I-- Actually, the day I was putting together this PowerPoint, one of my students posted this picture of herself in front of a mural in her town. It's a donut store that just wanted to put something up on their wall and this is what they did. It's just very simple, but I loved it because it just highlighted several things. She posted this on Instagram. This is literally the screenshot I took from my Instagram where it's her. This is highlighting her community. You can see, it has the name of the restaurant up there, Mama Crockett's Cider Donuts. You can see her comment there, "I love this season and I love this city." It's an opportunity for real people to engage. This is just, like I said, one of my students. She posted it online and a hundred people like it. People are seeing it because she wanted to take a photo there. I think that's the kind of earned presence that art can bring to our town. It can be shared on Facebook, Instagram, all these different things here. This is the close here and here's the end. This is our proposal. In conclusion, we're asking the Town Council to direct the Town staff to explore the revision of policies that allow private murals in the Town of Leesburg. Revised policies and guidelines can continue to make Leesburg a destination for tourists to explore our Town while giving muralists the opportunity to display the culture of Leesburg. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those, but this is the idea. We'd like you to consider it. Mayor Burk: All right. Thank you very much. Jeremiah Lorrig: Thank you. 10 Mayor Burk: I love some of the murals you picked out there. Does anybody have any questions at this point? Mr. Steinberg? Council Member Steinberg: No questions, but thank you for your presentation, Jeremiah. I think a COPA is one of my favorite commissions and certainly one of our important ones. Jeremiah Lorrig: Keeping busy. Council Member Steinberg: Very busy. I see this as a plus for the Town. As we work through the process of maybe making this happen, then hopefully, COPA is working on developing an inventory of potential canvases that might be suitable for this kind of public art. Thanks for your time. Jeremiah Lorrig: Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Our next item is the Regional Commission reports. Does anybody have any reports from Regional Commissions at this point? I have two. The Town Association of Northern Virginia Mayors met on, I think, January 16th in Herndon. We heard from the Fairfax County Economic Development Director on a new association that's being created in the Northern Virginia jurisdiction in response to Amazon moving to Northern Virginia. Our EDC director politely, much more politely than I did, pointed out that there was no outreach or attention to the towns. They have a large logo and a marketing campaign with all the counties and all the cities in the jurisdictions, but none of the towns. That was discussed at length. They will come back to the group, hopefully, to change their advertising and logos to include all of the towns within that jurisdiction. This is a huge opportunity for the towns to be able to outreach as people are coming with and for Amazon. The second was the COLT, which is the Coalition of Loudoun Towns, held the reception for the Board of Supervisors on January 22nd at Side Bar. It was an opportunity to get to know the Supervisors. It was very informal. It was a lovely event and we are very proud that so many of the Supervisors came and felt it was very much worthwhile. Since I'm the only one that had the report, that takes us then to our petitioners. The first petitioner is Mr. Joe Newcomer. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't open it. You can go to the mic. I just have to say a few things. Sorry. You can go. [laughs] I got ahead of myself here. We can get over here. Okay. We're going to do it from this-- Where's my agenda? It's not in here. Eileen Boeing: In the very front. Mayor Burk: In the very front. Okay. One of the first orders of business is to hear from the public. All members of the public are welcome to address the Council on any item, matter or issue. If you wish to speak, we ask that you sign up at the podium. We also ask that you would identify yourself. If comfortable doing so, give your address for the tape's record. We are asking any public speaker will state your name and spell it for closed captioning. That’s been a little iffy. We haven't been doing it all the time. If you could state your name and spell it, that would be very helpful for closed captioning. In the interest of fairness, we ask that you to observe the five-minute time limit. The green light in front of you will turn yellow at the end of four minutes, indicating that you have one minute remaining. At that time, we would appreciate your summing up and you'll be on the floor when the bell indicates your time has expired. Under the rules of orders adopted by this Council, the five-minute time limit applies to all. The first name is Joe. 11 Joe Newcomer: Good evening. It's Joe Newcomer, N-E-W-C-O-M-E-R. I'm from Vermillion Drive there in Potomac Station. First, let me say I've been little out of sorts for a while. I'm doing some house maintenance and recovering from hip surgery. I really haven't had time to talk to anyone on the dais. This is, I think, feedback from myself, my neighbors, friends that we have dinner with, go to a winery or brewery. This is a conglomeration of multiple people's observations. I think we'll start this off with, "If you don't have anything to say nice about someone, don't say anything at all." I don't know. You guys were a family and families fight. I get it. I got three younger sisters. Sometimes we get along, sometimes we don't, but you keep your dirty laundry in the house. You don't write it in a letter. You don't send it to the newspaper. If you have problems, you work it out internally. What at least some perception of some of my friends are is that there's dysfunction, there's infighting, and it's unbecoming of Town Council. I'll close this with, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Please don't act like children. Grow up. Fix your problems and keep it in house. Have a good evening. Mayor Burk: Thank you. And I was right. [laughs] The next speaker is Mr. Al Van Huyck and Julie Boathouse. Bolthouse. Sorry. Julie, there you are. Al Van Huyck: Thank you. I'm Al Van Huyck, V-A-N, H-U-Y-C-K. I was nervous about spelling it. I haven't spelled it a long time. Mayor Burk: [laughs] Al Van Huyck: I'm from Round Hill. I have a 50-year residency here that I've been shopping in Leesburg and participating in County/Leesburg relationships. I'm going to really start off a little bit from where Joe just left off because I've been reading in the paper too about the debating and this question about the sewer. I'm here to suggest to you, it's the wrong question being discussed at the wrong time. Regardless of the outcome, and I'm not here to judge that, it contributes little to the decision before the County and the Town. Namely, is the project good for Loudoun County and good for Leesburg? The pending project is not supported by the Loudoun 2019 Plan we were involved in as a stakeholder. It's clear that it's not part of the Rural Policy Area Policies to be preserved. There should be no further conversion in the Rural Policy Area land to more dense residential uses. Now, the County has already indicated that. As you know, they have court cases going on that are going to come up in May. Therefore, the Town's decision on the sewer service regardless of your final position should not be taken at this time as it would suggest that the Town is favoring one side or the other in the County court case. The major issue will be the impact on Leesburg of this project. You need to study that question because if the project is actually built as presently contemplated, it could adversely affect the traffic pattern and volume on Childrens Center Road and Catoctin Circle. It could affect the future of the Monroe Tech site as to what is appropriate. It could affect the quality of life for the neighborhood. It could actually negatively affect Rust Sanctuary, which is a very valuable asset that we all have worked so hard to protect in the County. It could also modify the experience of the W&OD Trail, which runs on the edge of the site. Loudoun and Leesburg have reached the level of development which requires future development to be carefully considered as to the total impact on the Town and the County and the quality of life and the preservation of historic environmental and recreational assets 12 that make this place unique. The pursuit of any development that produces just taxes and fees but undermines the very qualities which makes Leesburg and the County special and sought after needs to be avoided. I'm not here to take a position. I'm here just to emphasize what Joe just said. It's important now particularly when you have so many other big issues that you're negotiating with the County that you come together as a team. I urge the Town Council to abandon this sewer line debate until the County court cases have been resolved and the potential impact of the Graydon Manor project can be fully assessed by your Town Planning Department. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Thank you, Mr. Van Huyck. Julie Bolthouse followed by Teresa Minchew. Julie Bolthouse: Good evening, Council Members. I am Julie Bolthouse. I'm a resident of Leesburg. I live at 410 Madison Court. I'm also the Fauquier representative for Piedmont Environmental Council. I want to bring two issues to your attention. The first one is a regional issue. I sent you an email about it earlier today and I want to thank Neil for responding. I very much appreciate that. The fill dirt issue. This is fill dirt that is being dumped in rural areas. The reason I'm bringing it to your attention, no, no one's dumping dirt in Leesburg. Mayor Burk: Some. Julie Bolthouse: Some of it, not a lot of it. Some of it might be coming from Leesburg. The problem is we don't know where a lot of it is coming from. Some of it is coming from VDOT. We follow trucks to see that it's actually coming from VDOT. What these bills do is they recognize that there is a regional issue with disposal of fill dirt and that we need to form a workgroup with everybody there. It includes the development industry. It includes all the State agencies, everybody at the table and, of course, environmental nonprofits and affected localities. I hope that Leesburg can support it because it is very important to have some urban localities at the table in saying, "Hey, we want to, in the name of collaboration and teamwork, recognize that some of our surrounding rural areas are getting impacted by this." With that, I want to bring up a second issue. Graydon Manor. Recently, the issue of Graydon Manor has been making headlines in our local newspapers drawing my attention as a resident of Town. It is my understanding that the County has stated that the co-housing aspect is not a correct use of the Rural Policy Area where the property sits, nor is it in the Joint Land Management Area. It is not a part of the Leesburg Comprehensive Plan. This is important because a Comprehensive Plan for the County and for the Town is the guiding vision for zoning and development. They are created through a public process where citizens are given guidance and encouraged to provide input and staff do an analysis of the infrastructure and financial implications of different options and a final plan is adopted through a public process, which includes public hearings. This is not a site that has been considered for additional development through that process or infrastructure expansion. To me, just reading the newspaper, it sounds like the Town is being bullied into putting the interests of a single property owner over the public interest. I am also opposed to the Council making a unilateral decision that will eliminate the value of any public input process regarding the appropriateness of this development at this site and the impacts to surrounding neighborhoods. If you've already decided to expand the lines and accept more sewage for this site, then you've already approved the development without a single public hearing. Thank you. 13 Mayor Burk: Thank you, Julie Bolthouse. Teresa Minchew followed by Gem Bingol. Teresa Minchew: Well, good evening, Madam Mayor, members of Town Council. My name is Teresa Minchew and that's T-E-R-E-S-A, M-I-N-C-H-E-W. I live at 330 West Market Street. I've been honored to serve the town as a commissioner for the past 23 years, either as a member of the Planning Commission or the Board of Architectural Review, but I'm here before you tonight as a 28-year resident of a 300 block of West Market Street. You know it's important because the number of times you've seen me come before you in 23 years on my own is probably less than one handful. As you do know but others may not, Town staff has been diligently and responsibly working on improvement plans for the 300 block of West Market Street for several years. The impetus for the project was the need to find a fix for the ill-designed stairway and steep grade alongside the sidewalk in that area. I wanted to recap the scope of the project because I want you to consider the specifics of the project, not the general idea of it, and consider whether it should continue in its current form or if some time should be taken to really take a look at whether it should go on the way it's currently structured. The current scope of the project includes lowering the sidewalk at Ayr and Market down to the existing road grade, thereby eliminating the stairs and the associated steep incline down to the road, widening the sidewalk of the entire block to be five feet wide, which necessitates raising the street in the middle of the block, literally raising the street to create enough space for the extra foot-wide sidewalk, building the widen sidewalk in brick with a concrete border as mandated for the H1 overlay by previous Town Council, building a retaining wall on the property at the northeast corner of Ayr and West Market to accommodate the great change created by dropping the road as well as adding a railing on top of the new retaining wall. By the way, the extent of these walls and the railings is really unclear because the Town staff has not yet been to the BAR to seek approval for any visual alterations to the block in general or this area in particular. Adding curb and gutter on the north side of the entire block, adding a four-foot-wide paved shoulder on the south side of the street getting approximately a third of the way down the block approximately in front of 320 West Market. Where this paved shoulder will end is unclear, though the implication is that it will end up the historic parting of the ways at the western corner where Market meets Loudoun. Rebuilding and extending retaining wall at the Morven Park Road end of the block as it has been determined that the current location of that driveway entrance should be moved away from the corner in the interest of safety. Again, we don't know how big that wall will be or what it will be. They haven't been to the BAR yet. Replacing and adding trees and other landscaping to replace those that might be damaged or removed and possibly to mitigate the impact of some alterations. Finally and most recently, replacing the aging water main beneath the street. I think there are several parts of this well-meaning project that bear revisiting. For instance, do we really need a four-foot-wide shoulder paved or not when it will only be on a small portion of this block? There's no shoulder on West Market Street to the west where sidewalk improvements have already been completed. Does having a five-foot-wide rather than a four-foot-wide sidewalk on this stretch of this street justify the breathtaking cost and extensive disruption which will be required to literally raise the street? If we're going to go to the trouble to do all this for accessibility reasons, should the sidewalk be built in brick with all its known issues for the elderly and others? A big concern for many people is, what are the well-known and widely accepted consequences of visually widening a road that already has a serious problem with speeders who hit the accelerator on their way out of town and fail to decelerate on their way in? 14 Just one more example, but I think the one that you all might want to pay the most attention to, shouldn't we be addressing the terrible blind spot for pedestrians and cars at the Ayr Street end of the block? Once the new water main is in, any changes to that end of the road won't happen for a generation. I hear all around Town that everybody supports this project because they think, "Fix that staircase," which should be fixed. Everybody thinks you're fixing that blind spot in the road. That is not happening. That is not part of the project. Please know I'm not against well thought out improvements undertaken following a holistic analysis. This project has some of that, but it raises so many questions that I urge you to hit the pause button on it before it goes out to bid, which I understand will be by the end of this week. Anyway, thank you for listening and thank you for all you do. I understand the scope of what you do and very glad it's not me. I have copies of these remarks should you want them. Mayor Burk: Thank you, Ms. Minchew. Gem Bingol. Gem Bingol: Good evening, Mayor Burk and Town Council Members. My name is Gem Bingol. Gem, G-E-M, B-I-N-G-O-L. I live at 1508 Shields Terrace in Leesburg. I represent the Piedmont Environmental Council in Loudoun County. I spoke with you back in the fall and I wanted to come back again to the point that there's a lot in the papers regarding the Graydon Manor parcel and issues around it. I wanted to focus on the planning-related concerns associated with the topic that ends up taking front and center instead, which is the sewer line. From our perspective, land use planning is where the focus should be and I wanted to share that with you. I sent around the maps because I think that one of the early things that is very helpful is looking at the maps, looking at the context. The first map on top is the larger picture of the town and the zoning surrounding it as well as the parcel on the west side of the town. Closer up, you'll see the Rust Sanctuary conserved parcel next to the Graydon Manor parcel, the Town and then the County outside of it. The parcel is 131 acres and it sits in the AR1 rural planning area at maximum residential capacity. According to the way that the County has interpreted the Zoning Ordinance throughout the history of the current plan is that it would accommodate 26 houses clustered with at least one rural economy lot of a minimum of 15 acres, 26 houses. This land is not in the JLMA. It's not in a designated growth area of the Town. Any attempts that I read to equate utility expansion here with the utility expansion and plans in the JLMA is a false equivalency. There are two different planning areas, two different goals, et cetera. Those are the specific zoning regulations for the parcel, but there is no application to review. Talk of 250 tiny houses, which are inconsistent with the Loudoun Comp Plan, a winery and a brewery. Without a specific application though, there's no way to analyze accurately any potential impacts, whether it's sewer, traffic, noise or anything else. Any decisions around these issues aren't grounded in the facts of the matter on the table, or not on the table really. Even more particularly because you are there to represent and take care of the perspective of the residents of the Town of Leesburg, you really can't judge that either without something specifically in hand. I am echoing what you heard from others, that the timing is wrong to be talking about issues that relate to Graydon Manor when the court case hasn't been heard, no decision has been made on the zoning and what is appropriate, and there's no application on the table. Also, we have a lot to worry about in Leesburg already without thinking about outside the Town. I heard today, I do not know if this is accurate but the source was pretty reliable, that we have 4,000 units in the pipeline for the Town of Leesburg. If that's anywhere close, that's a lot, and you have a lot on your plate, so I appreciate your consideration. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Thank you. Gem Bingol was our last speaker, is there anybody that didn't sign up that would like to have the opportunity to speak at this point? All right. Then I will close 15 the public hearing and try to find my agenda in all these papers. There it is. I closed the Petitioners section already. I did that, yes. All right. We have two things down on the consent agenda. The supplemental appropriation of the Jingle Jam concert proceeds to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, approving a supplemental appropriation in the fiscal year 2020. General fund operating budget of $2,820 of the Jingle Jam concert proceeds to be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and appointment to the Planning Commission from Mr. Thiel, appointing Nicholas Clemente to the Planning Commission. Vice Mayor Martinez: So moved. Mayor Burk: So moved by Mr. Martinez. Second? Seconded by Council Member Thiel. All in favor? Council Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That's seven-zero. All right. We have a resolution. The first one is the Domestic Abuse Response Team Federal grant opportunity. Approving a supplemental appropriation of $120,275 and the addition of a dedicated domestic violence protective position pursuant to the Federal grant awarded by the Office of Violence Against Women. Do I have a motion? Vice Mayor Martinez: So moved. Mayor Burk: So moved by Mr. Martinez. Second? Seconded by Council Member Steinberg. Is there any presentation on this one? Town Manager Kaj Dentler: If Council has questions, yes. Mayor Burk: All right. Does anybody have any questions on this? Mr. Dunn? Council Member Tom Dunn: Just real quick. Do we expect the grant to pay for this position on an annual basis or is it something that it may be here today, not available next year? Chief Greg Brown: First of all good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Town staff. The answer to that is yes, it's going to be paid for the next three years, it’s typical with a Federal grant. There's a portion of money that will be given towards the actual grant. Then in 2023, Fiscal Year 2023, should the Council choose to do so or Town choose to do so, they can fund that position from that point forward. Council Member Dunn: I didn't hear the very last part. Greg Brown: In 2023, fiscal year 2023, should Council choose to continue to fund the position, desire to continue to fund the domestic violence protective position, it'll be our responsibility from that point. Federal grant actually covers it for the next three years. Council Member Dunn: Is the annual amount the $120K, or is that the total? Greg Brown: No, the annual amount is actually, in paperwork it's $80,275 per year for the first year, and then goes up to $90,000 for Fiscal Year 2021 through 2022. Council Member Dunn: That's the total cost for that position? Greg Brown: No, they'll need to be an appropriation of roughly about $40,000 for us to actually continue to fund a position through the actual grant timeline. 16 Council Member Dunn: Of the three years? Greg Brown: Yes. Council Member Dunn: Okay. All right, great. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez? Vice Mayor Martinez: Campbell was before me. Mayor Burk: Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: Yes, Chief, actually Council Member Dunn's questions were some of mine, but my concern is and the reason why I didn't want this on the consent agenda, because this is an important issue to talk about and not to look at lightly. I also think it's bigger than a three-year issue. I appreciate the Federal funds but it also allows us to make a commitment of $40,000 a year because the grant doesn't cover it all, and it's also a position that shouldn't go away. Two things I'm wondering, and maybe Mr. Town Manager, you can help me with this. One, I do believe that it should be a permanent position. One is, maybe it's related to the grant why we wouldn't see this again in a long-term position in a budget request. Then the strategy for funding the $40,000 with parking ticket fines also troubles me, that we should expect that parking tickets will pay for an important part of a growing Town in terms of a community response. Issues of domestic violence and sexual assault are certainly not to be only if we can afford it. I want to know how we can give a greater value and support to a position that would be embedded three years and then have to go away. It doesn't make sense to me that we would do that. How do we plan on looking at this position and this valuable part of any Police Department on a long-term basis? Kaj Dentler: If Council approves the grant request, the staff will budget accordingly for that, and then three years Council will have to make a decision to pay the full funding cost of the position. What we will do to prepare for that is to provide the revenue sources that would pay for that position, wherever that source will be. We will prepare to fund it, Council will have to make that decision officially in three years. First, you're not committing beyond three years, and in the third year, you'll make that decision if you want to continue the funding, unless you decide to take action differently. Council Member Campbell: Well, again, my question is about we need to make a commitment, how do we do that? I'm not sure how the parking ticket revenue, even funded for the next three years, is a firm enough base, so is there another solution or opportunity? Again, irregardless of how consistent the parking ticket fines may be, that's not a source we should be looking at for a number of reasons. The public may think we're only going to hand out more parking tickets so we can make a number, versus the legitimacy of how we fund an important position. I'm just asking for not in the future or future solution, but is there a commitment we need to make now at least on a funding source basis differently. Kaj Dentler: If Council wants a different funding source, we'll find that, so you don't have to decide that tonight. We'll take care of that. You can identify that you wish your directing staff to find a different funding source, we'll ensure that that happens, so you don't have to-- Mayor Burk: Is there a motion needed for that or are you going on? Kaj Dentler: Let me check the resolution of how it's written. 17 Council Member Campbell: Well, let me finish my question to the Chief then. Chief, is this an important-- not grant, but is this an important part of any Police Department, these domestic violence positions and the interactions with victims and support for victim services? I mean that's why we applied for the grant. Greg Brown: Absolutely. Council Member Campbell: Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. Are you finished at this point? We'll come back to you with the answer. Mr. Martinez? Vice Mayor Martinez: I have to agree with Council Member Campbell, I think this is something that as we're growing larger and larger, these incidents are happening more and we need some specialized resources to handle this. Definitely if that was a decision you make in the next three years, to add this to your budget, I wouldn't have a problem saying where we are with that. I think it would be a good asset, or at least at the end of the third year you let us know that this is going to be continuing. My question is, under which department or Captain is this going to be going under? Who's going to be handling this position? Greg Brown: The way we are organized right now is that duties of domestic violence, our response to domestic violence is actually spread amongst all the detectives and what we call general assignment. My former agency, we had an individual that was actually assigned and they handled everything. I think now they have either two or three, so we're kind of behind the eight ball when it comes to that personalized approach to making sure that victims understand the resources that they have, understand that there are multiple sources of resources out there for them. We have been doing it, but we've just been doing it in a piecemeal fashion and we're just trying to increase our effectiveness and efficiency. Vice Mayor Martinez: I assume some of the things you're going to be looking to do is liaison with the different domestic violence groups that are in the Town and in the County? Police Chief: We already are a part of DART and have been since 2004. The only thing that we're doing here is taking advantage of the grant and expanding our interaction with them. Vice Mayor Martinez: Okay. That's what I'm looking forward to seeing done and I want to thank you for-- Police Chief: We're already a partner with them. Vice Mayor Martinez: Great. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Ms. Fox. Council Member Suzanne Fox: Thanks. I have a couple of questions, you answered one, you said that domestic abuse investigation presently is spread among all detectives. Do you have any help from the Sheriff's department on that at all? Greg Brown: Again, if you look at the paperwork here, we actually do take what we call a coordinated community response approach. We actually approach domestic violence from a- - how can I say this, from a victim's standpoint, so we work closely with the Sheriff's office, closely with Juvenile Domestic Relations Court, closely with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office as well as mental health, family services. So we take a collective collaborative approach to making sure that we address the issue through awareness, through 18 investigation, through victim services. To answer your question, we work very closely with all of our partners under DART. Council Member Fox: Okay. Refresh my memory, I know that there were several positions asked for from last year's budget, is this one of those that you were seeking? Greg Brown: No, this was actually something that we got thrown into the loop for at the end of 2019, and just saw it as an excellent opportunity to increase the level of services that we could provide to address this important issue. Council Member Fox: This new position, it looks like there's a team aspect to this, is this the beginning of a team you're trying to build? Greg Brown: No, this team has been here in the County since 2004, which Leesburg has been a part of since the inception. Council Member Fox: Okay. Thanks. Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Thiel, did you have a question? Council Member Thiel: All my questions have been asked and answered. I just want to take this time to thank you and support you in your efforts to better the Town, all ages, all ethnic backgrounds, I just want to applaud you and your department for the great work that you've done and continue to do, so thank you. Mayor Burk: Thank you very much. We have a motion by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Council Member Steinberg. All in favor of the Domestic Abuse Response Team Federal grant opportunity, say aye. Council Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That's seven-zero. All right. The next one is the appropriation of the Fiscal Year 2020 for contributions to the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company and the Loudoun County Volunteer Rescue Squad. This is the appropriation of the Fiscal Year 2020 for the contributions to the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company and Loudoun County Volunteer Rescue Squad. I repeated myself. Is there any presentation on this one? Do I have-- Vice Mayor Martinez: Motion to move. Mayor Burk: Motioned by Mr. Martinez. Seconded by whom? Raising your hand doesn't do it for me, you need to say it. Council Member Dunn. Is there any discussion in this one? Council Member Campbell: Yes. Mayor Burk: Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: Again, we have a situation. I just want to be clear on the financial facts, and we committed that we'd have a three year phasing out, we committed we'd take the money from the unassigned fund balance, and now we didn't have enough money at the end of the unassigned fund balance. Are we hoping that we have enough at the end of this fiscal year, and if we don't, what's our contingencies? I just, again, want to be clear what I read in the staff report and if it's actually true the way I'm reading it. 19 Jason Cournoyer: Yes, you read that correctly. The FY19 did not have sufficient unassigned fund balance to cover this. That was the intention of Council with the adoption of the 2020 budget. We've identified debt service reserve, there's adequate balance in the debt service reserve in order to make this payment for 2020, and again, if there is sufficient fund balance at the year-end of 2020, our intent is to reimburse the debt service reserve, and then reserve the remaining amount for the next year's payment, the final year of the phase- out. It's the same intention, we're using debt service reserve as necessarily a bridge until year-end of 2020, with the full intention to reimburse the debt service reserve. Council Member Campbell: Then the financial problem with the Fire Rescue Squad goes away. The intention is to fully fund the debt reserve back or we'd be missing money from the debt reserve? Jason Cournoyer: If there's adequate at year-end, we will reimburse the debt service reserve, but otherwise, correct, we're asking Council to approve the appropriation of debt service reserve with the hopes that we reimburse it at year-end 2020. Council Member Campbell: This is a related question, what will that mean to our debt service reserve if we can't pay ourselves? Are we less than AAA-rated? Jason Cournoyer: No. Council Member Campbell: I just want to know the full implications. Jason Cournoyer: Absolutely. The debt service reserve was put in place, I want to say, 2014. We've only utilized it once since its establishment, it was last year, in order to meet fiscal policy requirements. We haven't drawn it down so we're a little bit ahead of the curve here. The debt service reserve with the current CIP is more than sufficient to handle the additional debt service for the general obligation bonds programmed in the CIP. We would not have recommended this as a source if there were any long-term implications of the current CIP, or onward, with the debt service associated with it. Council Member Campbell: Thank you. I thought so but I wanted to make sure we're not doing these risky financial balancing acts. I know we weren't, but it's my obligation to ask these questions just to make sure we're doing our fiduciary responsibilities of understanding all the balances, because at the end of the day, it either comes back in the budget, what we have and what we don't have, what we're trying to fund or what we're trying to look at financing. I'm making sure we make these connections now, because none of these decisions are in a vacuum. They all have a consequence somewhere down the road if we don't make our money, which is why I don't like depending on parking tickets. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Council Member Fox? Council Member Fox: Could you please remind me, Jason, this is a three-year process, we're in the second year of the three years, correct? Jason Cournoyer: Yes, ma'am. Council Member Fox: If I remember correctly from some of the budget talks that we had, we had a $500,000 commitment, 133 or so each year for the Fire and Rescue. I was under the assumption we're talking about the Fire and Rescue disbursement here and that's not what I'm reading. Where are we getting the numbers besides the one-third of the second year of the three-year commitment? 20 Jason Cournoyer: It is a decrease of one-third. The $500,000 represents the total contribution that we were going to reserve. It was going to be dispersed decreasing one-third every year. This year represents essentially two-thirds of the contribution. Next year, the final payment will be the final third, and then year three, there's no longer a contribution annually. Council Member Fox: We didn't do anything last year? Jason Cournoyer: We gave them their full contribution in FY19. Council Member Fox: Not a third? Jason Cournoyer: No, the full is 499 and change. Council Member Fox: Okay, all right. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Anyone on this side, Mr. Dunn? Council Member Dunn: Thank you. Kind of a side question to this. I haven't heard back anything about the contract with the Fire and Rescue, are we still working on that? Kaj Dentler: We've been talking with them. We don't have a solution that they've agreed to at this point, so we're continuing the conversations. Council Member Dunn: Okay. Do we have a deadline for that? Kaj Dentler: No sir, a lot is in their court. Council Member Dunn: Okay. I think that, one, our reserve as we've set it, it's kind of high. I know we had it lower in the past and I'm concerned though about dipping into it, but I'm mainly concerned about us having to do this juggling act and I don't think we're going to be done with it between now and the end of the budget cycle with other things, because when Council made the decision last year to live on last year's money but spent-- or live on last year's projections for bringing on staff, new staff in January, then we had to try and figure out ways of being able to fund them, and in the coming budget, now we're going to have to fund them for a whole year. This is causing me concern because unless we are going to be able to find the money somewhere, then I'm looking at potential tax increases because we brought in too many people, and I'm seeing the results happening here and I can only point to overextending ourselves at this halfway point. Does some of that have an impact on this? Jason Cournoyer: The debt service reserve, the requested use of debt service reserve, if there's nothing in unassigned fund balance, there's sufficient debt service reserve for out to 10 years of the debt service programmed in the CIP. We feel comfortable that this use of debt servers reserve with the current CIP is prudent. Additions to CIP are going to have an impact to that obviously in the out years. Council Member Dunn: What I'm getting at, I guess, I probably wasn't clear, which is often. We're having to go into this fund because of the undesignated fund balance which is being used up to help pay for additional staff that we have recently brought in. Jason Cournoyer: We did not utilize in on any unassigned fund balance for those staffing. Council Member Dunn: That's just coming through general taxes? Jason Cournoyer: Yes, sir. 21 Council Member Dunn: Okay, do you see us being able to maintain that then for the coming balance? Jason Cournoyer: The proposed budget has the full year funding for those positions. Council Member Dunn: Okay, home values are obviously going up and other revenues that-- Jason Cournoyer: Yes, sir. Council Member Dunn: Okay, well, that's good news. All right, thank you. Mayor Burk: All right, I have a motion by Mr. Martinez, a second by Council Member Dunn. All in favor of the appropriation of Fiscal Year 2020 for the contributions to the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company and the Loudoun County Volunteer Rescue Squad, say aye. Council Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? It's seven-zero. All right, thank you. Next one is Black History Month Proclamation. I move to approve the Black History Month Proclamation to be presented at the February 11th, 2020 Town Council meeting. Is there a second? Vice Mayor Martinez: Second. Mayor Burk: Seconded by Council Member Martinez. Any discussion on this? All in favor indicate by saying aye. Council Members: Aye. Council Member Dunn: Abstain. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That's six-zero-one. Revitalization area designation in the Joint Land Management Area, do I have a motion? Vice Mayor Martinez: So moved. Mayor Burk: So moved by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Council Member Steinberg. Any discussion on this one? Council Member Dunn: Yes. Mayor Burk: Mr. Dunn? Council Member Dunn: Again, from our discussion last night, I find it very hard to support this because it's easing-- We've heard folks tonight concerned about us providing additional service to an existing customer on a potential. I think it's a fair shot that they'll even get-- They're rezoning at Graydon Manor, but the concern about bringing in additional development outside our borders, yet we're now making it easy for a developer to bring in additional development outside our border because it's meeting an ideological desire to provide low-income housing that is going to possibly impact other housing that already exists. I just think it's a little hypocritical to have folks who want to fight against a possible development but then are leading the way to make it easier for many more houses coming in just across the street from Wegmans, so I won't be able to support this. Thank you. 22 Mayor Burk: All right, I do have a question in regard to this reading. I should have done this before we moved it, but what are we recommending at this point? Does that have to be in the motion? What specifically we are recommending to be covered in the--? Keith Markel: It's in the final paragraph of the resolution. Therefore, it's that you all are recommending for only the area of Tuscarora Crossing be included in the revitalization area. Mayor Burk: Okay, does that have to be even part of the motion. Keith Markel: I believe so. Do you want to have a motion? It's in the resolution so you can motion just quickly through it. Mayor Burk: Okay, all right. Thank you. All right, any other comments, Mr. Steinberg? Council Member Steinberg: Thank you. This is just for the record to clarify primarily for the public that may not understand some of the fine points of these, that the Town and the County have worked for years in the JLMA and it's understood the Town will supply if they choose utilities in the JLMA. This particular project is absolutely not in the JLMA. It's an area where the County has decided they are not inclined to encourage the intense residential development that's being suggested, and the Town is under no obligation, therefore, to help foster or attempt to move this project forward. There's a big distinction between the JLMA and this particular property, which is in the County's RPA. Thanks. Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: I'm just a little confused on the last statement because this is in the JLMA as they want it to apply. It says right here under whereas, has shown interest in designating the entire Joint Land Management Area as a revitalization area. Either I don't know how to read or it doesn't say what I think it does. Again, I'm talking about particularly this resolution and revitalization. I'm not talking to any other topic, any other points, any other issue, just to the motion that's in front of us. Again, to clear up the confusion, what we talked about last night was that we didn't agree that the entire JLMA should be designated as a revitalization area, and only this particular piece of property in Tuscarora Creek. Either I'm confused about what Council Member Steinberg talked about or I'm confused about what areas he's talking about, but for the public, in this motion, this is only this topic in the JLMA, no other issues. Mayor Burk: That's correct. All right. Is there anyone else at this point? All right. All in favor of designating the change to the revitalization area designation in the joint land management area, please indicate by saying aye. Council Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? Okay, so we have Council Member Campbell, Council Member Martinez, Council Member Steinberg and Mayor Burk in favor. Opposed was Council Member Fox, Council Member Dunn and Council Member Thiel. Is that correct? I got everybody. All right, so that does pass. All right, that takes us to our public hearing. I call to order this January 28th, 2020, public hearing at Leesburg Town Council. Unless there's an objection, I will dispense with the reading of this advertisement. If you wish to speak, we ask that you sign up at the sheet in the hallway. If you did not get a chance to sign up, we'll give you the opportunity to speak. 23 Also, please identify yourself and give your address for the tape to record. In the interest of fairness, we also ask that you observe the five minute time limit. The green light in front of you will turn yellow at the end of four minutes, indicating that you have one minute remaining. At that time, we would appreciate your summing up and leaving the floor when the bell indicates your time has expired. Also, I would like to reiterate, please say your name and spell your name for the record, for closed captioning purposes. Under the rules adopted by this Council, the five-minute time limit applies to all. However, rather than numerous citizens present remarks on behalf of the group, the Council will allow a spokesperson for the group a few minutes. In that instance, we would ask any speaker, when they sign up, to indicate their status as a spokesperson, the group they represent and their request for additional time. Our procedure for the public hearing is as follows. First there will be a brief presentation by staff. Second, the members of the public that have signed up to speak, will be called and given five minutes to make their comments. The public hearing item on the agenda tonight is Edwards Ferry Sidewalk and Bus Shelter Capital Improvement Project. All right, so you're speaking to it. Hello. Keith Wilson: Good evening Madam Mayor and Members of Council. The Edwards Ferry Road Sidewalk and Bus Shelter Capital Improvement Project consists of construction of a missing link of sidewalk along the north side of Edwards Ferry Road, between Heritage Way and the Loudoun County Shenandoah Building, and the construction of two bus shelters on the north and south side on two of our highest routed use of stops in the area. I have a few photos and project sketches showing the location of the sidewalk and proposed bus shelters. This was the existing section where the bus shelter or the bus stop is located along the north side of Edwards Ferry Road, being an area of missing sidewalk link. A sidewalk has to be constructed between Heritage Way and the Shenandoah Building, along with a bus shelter in this area. This is just a brief sketch of the plan showing the construction of the site plans for the sidewalk and location of the bus shelter. This is a photo of the existing bus stop located along the south side of Edwards Ferry Road, being located near the front of some existing condominium units, and a closer photograph showing the location of the terrain and this bus stop location. The proposed location of the bus shelter being approximately 200 feet west of the existing bus stop, is in a location of Condominium Unit Owners Association, common element area, open space area located between an existing parking lot and the Heritage Square sign, and this shows a view of the street looking towards the area of the existing bus stop. A brief highlight of the construction site plan showing the location of the proposed bus stop shelter between the parking area and the Heritage Square sign running parallel to Edwards Ferry Road. A little bit closer up of the stop showing the area of the existing utility strip between the curb and the existing sidewalk, will be six foot lead walk going to that area, and a retaining wall is required not greater than two feet along the back of the bus shelter. All of the land rights for the project have been acquired for the project except for the bus stop on the south side of Edwards Ferry Road. This location map shows the location of the two bus stops and shelter locations. All of the land rights needed for the sidewalk extension and bus shelter on the north side of Edwards Ferry Road has been acquired, and the land rights for the bus shelter on the south side is needed from the Heritage Square Condominium Association. A permanent bus shelter easement and temporary construction easement is needed within this open space area of the common element area of the Condominium Association. The property is owned by the Heritage Square Condominium, which was developed in multiple phases, this being phase 14 of the condominium unit. The property is managed by the 24 American Management of Virginia. They're located here in Leesburg. The condominium unit owners are represented by an elected board of Condominium Unit Owners Association. A bona fide offer was made to the board at their meeting on May the 9th. Several emails, conversations and a site visit with a representative from American Management was held on September the 12th, to look at alternate sites that the bus shelter could be located along the property, looking at areas that did not want to locate the bus stop, the shelter in front of any of the condominium units, and it was insufficient space to locate the shelter along the parking areas. In email, we were informed by the property management company for the Condominium Association that the Association board no longer wanted to pursue getting a bus stop in this area. A modified offer has been made to the landowners, an area of 262 square feet is needed for the bus shelter, and 218 square feet was needed for temporary construction easement to construct the site. If anybody has any questions? Mayor Burk: All right. Thank you for that. Is there anyone who does have questions at this point? Mr. Dunn? Council Member Dunn: Thank you. Just to make sure I'm clear on this, you have everything you need to construct the sidewalk and bus shelter on the north side? Keith Wilson: Yes, sir. Council Member Dunn: You don't have an agreement on the south side bus stop? Keith Wilson: To construct that shelter, yes. Council Member Dunn: Were there sidewalk improvements needed with the bus stop going--? Keith Wilson: No sidewalk improvements are needed on the south side except for a six foot lead walk, there's a small 18 inch utility strip, grass utility strip that's between the curb and the sidewalk. That will be paved over and concreted, which that's within the existing right of way. The easements that are needed are on the HOA property-- I said HOA, but the condominium unit on the property. Council Member Dunn: Okay. I didn't see in here, but I'll just take another quick look. When you say a bus stop, are you talking about a sheltered stop? Keith Wilson: A shelter that's similar in construction to the shelter that's near the Shenandoah Building and the Walmart shopping center, or up at the cul-de-sac at the end of Fort Evans Road, similar type construction. Council Member Dunn: There'll be a shelter on the other side? Keith Wilson: Shelters on both sides for the convenience of the public to be able to get out of the inclement weather or the sun. Council Member Dunn: How many bus stops do we have in Town? Keith Wilson: I do not have that information. Council Member Dunn: Does anybody on staff have it? 25 Keith Wilson: I've talked to Public Works, Calvin Grow, they had that number, but I'm not aware of the number of stops that we have. Council Member Dunn: We don't know the number of stops. Do you know how many shelters we have? Keith Wilson: I think we have seven existing shelters. A couple along South King Street, at the end of Fort Evans near Walmart, Harrison Drive. They're scattered throughout the Town. Council Member Dunn: Keith is usually the answer man. [laughs] Do you know, Keith, how many? Because I think you gave the report on this last time. Keith Markel: [crosstalk] Yes, it's in that range. It's not many. I would say no more than 12, I think, in total. Council Member Dunn: Total stops? Keith Markel: [crosstalk] No, that's just sheltered. Council Member Dunn: Well, I'm asking stops, how many bus stops? Keith Markel: A total number of stops. Oh gosh. Keith Wilson: Sixty-something. Keith Markel: Yes, sixty, seventy stops. Council Member Dunn: Sixty? Okay. All right. Keith Markel: All with varying degrees of view. These two stops were picked up because they are high demand stops, two of the busiest stops in the system. Council Member Dunn: Okay. Great. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: Yes, thank you. I do know the numbers because it's been a target issue of mine for many years, even before I was elected. My first speech before Council was about bus shelters, with a good friend of this community, now deceased, Ann Robinson. I've gone on ride alongs with the Deputy Mayor, Town staff, and others to look at locations. I probably have been more impatient, that we've been talking and looking at, and ridership, and the safety for our citizens as well as just a human concern. An inclement weather, which could be either heat, cold, or rain, that with over 60 bus stops and only 13 bus shelters, that we could do better. My question is, again, getting to this point, in cases where the Town-- This might be a legal question as well. Others have found a reason that it's in the public interest-- and these are two of our highest-rated bus stops. It's not for a community to decide they don't want something when they may not be the ones living in those condos to actually use it. We've done things like take eminent domain processes to get what we need for our citizens. I don't know if this is one of those opportunities. I'm asking you, is this one of those opportunities? Again, we looked at ridership, we looked at the demand based on County numbers which we could verify, not verify, half verify. We rode around and anybody who's gone to those areas on Edward Ferry knows that there is a human need for shelters. What would allow us and what would we have to prove to get into a legal issue with this condo association? 26 Keith Wilson: This is the purpose of this public hearing tonight to fulfill the statutory requirement to have a public hearing before the filing of a certificate of take. A quick take acquiring the interest giving us the ability to construct the bus shelter on the property, and then settle with the landowner by continuing negotiations or by court action. We're, upon Council's authorization, in the ability to file a certificate of take with the court, acquiring the land rights necessary to build this shelter. Council Member Campbell: Thank you. I just, again, didn't see that in the staff report. I know it's a possible solution for us, so thank you for that clarification. Mayor Burk: Ms. Fox? Council Member Fox: You just answered my question. Thank you. Was there opposition from the HOA to this? Keith Wilson: I met with the HOA board a couple of times. The last time was in November. The board members, I can't speak for them, but what they told me, there were some members of the board that were for the project, and some board members that were opposed to the project, so there was no unanimous consent that the board members came up with. Council Member Fox: There needs to be unanimous, is that their rule? Keith Wilson: So the HOA board has to sign the legal documents conveying those rights to us, they have to have, at a board meeting, granting the president or other authorized member of the board, the authority to sign the easement documents. The board has not come to a consensus on the granting of the easements to the Town. Council Member Fox: That was my exact question. One other quick question, across the street behind the Shenandoah Building, who owns that spot of land where we're going to build the other? Keith Wilson: Exeter II HOA. Council Member Fox: Exeter II. We haven't had any issues there? Keith Wilson: No, they were able to negotiate with us and there was a small easement needed from Loudoun County, which they granted us to tie in to their existing parking lot. Council Member Fox: All right. Thanks. Mayor Burk: Any additional questions? Thank you. I think this is something that's been going on for a while and we're anxious to have it finally come to a conclusion. We do have one speaker, Mariella Torrico, and she's going to speak in Spanish and Officer Fuentes is going to translate for her. Officer Fuentes: I'll try my best. Mayor Burk: Pardon me? Officer Fuentes: I'll try my best. Mayor Burk: Oh, you'll try your best. Hola. Mariela Torrico: [Spanish language) 27 Officer Fuentes: My name is Mariela Torrico. She is a member of the condominiums in Heritage Square, and she's a representative of her community. She's saying that she doesn't want the construction for the bus stop, and the reason why, my community. The location where you guys want to do the stop for the bus stop is the face of the community, is the main entrance to their community. We have the area as a green area for the community. We are not in agreement with the construction in this location. In actuality, we have a director in the board who has been there for 10 years. They are very considerate to be a community of Leesburg. We have a lot of problems. Internal. The community has been-- they want to eliminate the drug activity in the area. Another motive is the issues with the garbage in that area. Isn't going to clean the area. That's going to cost more money. Another problem is the passage through the grass that people walk through is going to be destroyed. In 2019, the community had $15,000 for maintenance of trees. We believe that with the excuse of the bus will parade many more-- strange people will be walking through our community. Another problem is the garbage, the community would have to invest more money for their cleaning of the place. In 2019, the community spent over $80,000 on a tree cut, five times more than its budget. We also increased lighting. All this was done to make the police vision better and control the strange people walking through our community. We also pay for the patrols that the police do. This year we're going to build the parks and we hate the strange people to be in our neighborhood around our children. My community gave up-- and there we go to-- have our-- Mariela Torrico: We have our-- Officer Fuentes: School bus stop. Mariela: Yes. I have near this, I have the-- [Spanish language] Officer Fuentes: Right next to the bus stop where you want to do the construction, there's already school buses for their school. She would like a part to be constructed. They don't want strange people to be around our children. The other motive is the school bus is going to be next to the new school bus shelter you're trying to build. The last meeting that you guys had with the representative, they explained to the representative that the community is going through something internal. We told them to wait till May because there's going to be a new election. That there's going to be a new Democratic member. That this community doesn't feel represented like they should be represented. Doesn't feel represented like they should be represented. The member that's been there has been there for 10 years. Actually doesn't want to leave. We are the community that pays the most. The most for maintenance. We pay a $190 monthly. The community returns more than millions of dollars. We are the poorest part of Leesburg. We fear the money is not being administrated correctly. Because the parking is bad. We don't have parks for the kids. We pay for second-hand security. We have invested $80,000 in cutting trees just so the police has a better vision just to patrol the community. For all these to please not construct in this area. The community has already-- already has the space because the community has a space for the bus stop. Mayor Burk: Thank you. Thank you very much, gracias for coming up. Officer Fuentes: She said, "Thank you for listening." Mayor Burk: Thank you. Gracias. Great. Does anybody have any additional questions they want to ask of staff at this point, Mr. Steinberg? 28 Council Member Steinberg: Well, I have questions, I'm not exactly sure to whom I want to direct the questions. There's a lot of information there and I don't know that staff will have the answers. I don't even know if the Police Department has the answers. I'll ask a question. For example, when we hear a reference to drug activity, how does that relate to a bus stop? Why does this bus stop attract drug activity as opposed to anywhere else that would be far less visible? She mentioned drug activities. I recognized that drug activity. I'm wondering why this bus stop or shelter area, which is a fairly visible area, would be a magnet that would attract drug activity. Officer Fuentes: She's saying that the bus stop is going to be a deterrent for the police to see what's going on as far as drug activity. The bus stop is going to be like a deterrent. Council Member Steinberg: Okay. Then I would ask staff a question. The bus shelters tend to be clear. Keith Wilson: The bus shelter will be similar in construction to the ones in the area that do have plexiglass or see-through panels. Council Member Steinberg: Officer Fuentas, then in your experience in this area is this necessary experience-- Yes. come back. Officer Fuentes: I know that the bus shelter that we have in the Shenandoah area, it is see- through. We do have people that are homeless and usually ride the bus normally go to that bus stop there do hang around the area. I can see what she's saying. Maybe the location and maybe they're going to be doing the same thing since it's still in that Shenandoah area. I do see what she's saying as far as being like a little hangout but that's something that we need to, as police officers, need to patrol and keep a better close eye in that area. Council Member Steinberg: Okay. Then back to staff. These two shelters, bus shelters, there's one across the street or will be. Then, who are the riders that take advantage of these two locations in general? Do we have an idea? Keith Wilson: Typically, the riders are generated from this neighborhood from the condominiums unit owners as condominiums. Council Member Steinberg: Okay. When we talk about strangers in the area you maintain and I confess, I've yet to ride the Town bus system, maybe it's something I need to do. Who are the strangers that-- People get on the bus and ride and get on and off in various areas? Officer Fuentes: I'm going to answer the question as a Police Officer. Basically, from what I see, we have a c-type building there, Shenandoah area. We have a lot of motel people that do stay at the shelters and staying at the shelters, they get on a bus and just ride, ride all day. Where they end up at is usually Shenandoah building. When the day is done, they try to get on that bus to make sure that they're at the shelter before the end of the day because that's how they get in. You do have people in that area hanging around the bus shelters. Council Member Steinberg: Do we experience an unusually large number of issues in this particular area? Officer Fuentes: The people that I see waiting at these bus stops, I personally know them because people do call about them. I talk to them. Council Member Steinberg: Then finally, I don't know if this is a question you can answer but when we start-- I'm trying to understand what's going on internally here, are you dissatisfied with your HOA organization? There's dissension? 29 Officer Fuentes: She's not satisfied with the director in her HOA. Council Member Steinberg: Okay. Well, since the Town has not been able to adequately or successfully negotiate with the current organization but it seems like you're suggesting your organization isn't in favor of this anyway. I'm trying to stand how a new election then moves this. Does this just cement resistance to the whole thing? How has this changed the conversation in any way? Officer Fuentes: The 2nd of May they have a new election within their HOA. Which ones are going to be-- elected as new members. It's going to be the people of the community. She's saying that she doesn't know how it's going to turn out for the lady, I guess the director now. She's been there for 10 years. They're trying to get the votes to basically get her out and they're waiting to see. That's why they're trying to ask for it to be extended to the 2nd of May. Council Member Steinberg: The one thing I am trying to understand is, regardless of how that election turns out the community being represented here by Maria seems to be against the shelter. Regardless of how this election goes, does that change the communities? Officer Fuentes: She feels that once they're able to have this election, that they can have a discussion as a community on maybe where they would like the bus shelters to go in the area. She forgot her question. Council Member Steinberg: Final question for staff then. Is there a huge downside if this project is delayed for a few months so that the community feels that they have been allowed to offer the input that they feel is required to the town before a final decision is made one way or the other? What happens? Keith Wilson: We're ready to go to construction once we acquire to bid the project out. The land rights have been acquired for the construction on the opposite side of the total package it would just leave out this particular site. Council Member Steinberg: Okay. Still potentially, one way it could either be, we could change it somehow or move forward once we are able to communicate with the community, yes? Keith Wilson: We met with the property management company to look at alternate sites along there in close proximity to the existing bus stop. This was the only identifiable site for an area of approximately 750 feet to the west going back towards Plaza drive. Putting a bus shelter close to the existing bus stop would require the construction of an approximately, eight foot retaining wall with a handrail along that. So, from the existing bus stop to the west, it would be located in front of condominium units. We did not feel that it was appropriate to locate this stop in front of anybody's home. Just to the west of that, then there was a slight area- Council Member Steinberg: Really quick, I'm not offering any suggestions one way or another, I'm just looking for avenues of communication between the Town and the community at this stage. Thanks. Mayor Burk: Mr. Thiel? Council Member Thiel: You mentioned that there's going to be eight foot retaining walls for the non proposed one. What is the retaining walls for the currently proposed area? Keith Wilson: Less than two feet. 30 Council Member Thiel: Less than two feet. How wide and deep will this retaining wall be, the surface area? Keith Wilson: The retaining wall, the bus shelter itself is approximately 11.5 by seven feet. The retaining wall will be on the outside of that so alone Edwards Ferry Road it will be approximately 15 feet in length going back for a distance of approximately 12 feet. Council Member Thiel: So15 feet by 12 feet. How tall- Keith Wilson: Less than two feet. The existing easements itself would be on the perimeter of the bus shelter easement. The bus shelter easement contains 262 square feet and it’s approximately 19.5 feet along the length of Edwards Ferry Road, going back for a distance of 13.5 feet. Council Member Thiel: Is there any opposition to move the other side across the street, move that forward and potentially put a hold on this side? Keith Wilson: That would be the Capital Projects Manager. Terry Yates: Good evening. My name is Terry Yates, I'm the Capital Projects Manager. Could you repeat your question again, please? Council Member Thiel: Yes. We're talking about two different sites, one across the street from the current site we're talking about. Is it possible that we move forward with that site currently, and then put a hold on this site till there is a meeting with the HOA and potentially all the residents in that area? Terry Yates: There is one issue we need to address. This goes back to Councilman Steinberg's question about any consequences. Unfortunately, the question's moved on before I could get up here. The bus shelter is partially funded by CDGB money that we've already had to get an extension on one time from Loudoun County and I'm not sure that we could get a second extension. Council Member Thiel: When is the date of that extension no longer valid? Terry Yates: I believe it is in the summer sometime. I don't have an exact date but I can provide that. Council Member Thiel: We do have some time, do we know how long the project is approximately going to take to finish these two. Two months? Terry Yates: About two months and two days. Council Member Thiel: My last question is, did the land owner or developer of this particular piece of property suggest that specific location after your meeting with them? Keith Wilson: This property was developed a number of years ago in phases and no, there was never a recommendation for a specific location for a bus shelter site. Council Member Thiel: Thank you very much. My last question is Officer Fuentes, what is the specific pinpoints of the dislike for that specific bus stop? Officer Fuentes: It was going to be right in front of the community, the apartments. All the trash is going to be left behind. They're going to have to pick it up and spend money on it. Some people that live in the neighborhood are going to be crossing through the community 31 to get to the bus stop. A couple of years ago, they used to have bars that separated The Fields and Hancock. People in the community destroyed those bars. That was a lot of money for the community as well. The other issue is that we're going to have a park next to the bus stop. Council Member Thiel: Park? Ok, thank you. I appreciate it. Mayor Burk: I have a couple questions. You're saying that this is located right next to a park, a community park? Officer Fuentes: She says yes. It's in the middle. Mayor Burk: Are you asking the Council not to construct a bus stop at all or a bus shelter at all? Officer Fuentes: She says the community does not want one. Mayor Burk: No, the community does not want a bus shelter? Officer Fuentes: She says, and, there’s also a school bus stop right next to that. Mayor Burk: Right now there is a bus stop located there. Officer Fuentes: She said it’s not there, it’s at the end of the street. Mayor Burk: Right. It's towards the end of the street there. Does the community have an issue with the bus stop remaining where it is? Officer Fuentes: She saying, No, that they don't want a bus stop there for them. Period. There's already a bus stop on there. There’s another bus stop in the back of- Mayor Burk: And it has a shelter. Officer Fuentes: It has a shelter. That’s on Heritage Way there's a bus stop there. The majority of the people that live in the area have cars and they have parking for their cars. For people that use the bus stop are people that live in the apartments or the Fields, there's plenty of space there for them to put the bus stop there. Mayor Burk: Okay, thank you. Mr. Martinez? Vice Mayor Martinez: A couple of questions. I thank you for being here, do we have many bus stops like this shelter in front of any other apartments? I don't remember seeing any bus stops in front of where people live. I've seen them on for example, on South King Street in other places but not in a neighborhood, am I right? Keith Markel: I think we have a few examples, Harrison Street, at the end of Clubhouse in the cul-de-sac in front of those units, there's a shelter. We have a shelter at the end of Old Ford Evans Road near homes and businesses, so it's not unprecedented to have shelters and quite honestly, this is a very busy stop, so we see the value and having a stop close to a population center that's really relying on this public transit, so it's really the convenience factor being close to those who are using it. Vice Mayor Martinez: Did we at least outreach to the community to talk about it? Keith Wilson: Yes, I had a meeting with the unit owner’s association board back. First contact was in May of last year, many communications with the property management 32 company and a representative of the property management company came out and along with the project manager, we walked the area along Edwards Ferry Road to see if there would be a place that it could be relocated that could be constructed or not inconvenienced, not be located in front of some of the condominium unit owners. A lot of the areas between the existing parking lots, there’s not enough land as you can see just to the right on that photo between the side walk in the existing parking. If you're located in those locations, you would potentially lose a couple of parking spaces and parking appears to be at a premium for this neighborhood. Unless going over 750 feet to the West, there's not another opportunity to locate a shelter. Vice Mayor Martinez: The Mayor and I since we've been on Council have been advocating for bus stops and we've been successful in getting a lot of them done. I am not at odds with this bus stop as much until she came forward, a citizen came forward and I've not heard this kind of complaint or concern about different issues so even though I support the bus stops, I would like to hear from more of the people who live there, see what their response is. I would like an opportunity to sit down with you in the future and talk about this and meet with some of some of the residents there. I don't I think until we get a chance to sit down and talk with them and talk about some of the concerns and maybe see if maybe there's some alternatives to do this, I will not vote for it until I can get my concerns taken care of, so I would love to see this being put forward maybe on our next meeting or the meeting after that so we have that opportunity. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: Yes, I really have no questions over our speaker tonight, and thank you for being here. I think all of our obligations are to look at our community for everybody, our care, our concern, our children, where we live, where we play where we work and that was my approach initially and it still will always be. I think we have an obligation and I'm speaking to the staff also that we respond. I have a couple of questions that I heard as complaints but I didn't hear that these citizens don't need a bus stop. I heard other issues that complicate having a bus stop, which is very different, whether it's a location by a park, whether it's space and where we put it, whether it's unwanted human traffic in the sense of people who may not mean good in the neighborhood because of all kinds of maybe, suspicious behavior related to criminal activity. That makes sense to me. I grew up in the Bronx in New York City and we had bus stops with lights. There's a bus shelter right behind Fort Evans at Evans Ridge apartment complex, right by the outlet mall. I look at community needs, I look at placements, I'm hearing some of the problems we're having, but I also heard and I don't believe I heard this right. I hope I didn't, that this community pays for extra police forcing. They may pay for security but not Town police to patrol their neighborhood. Security forces. Officer Fuentes: There's a payment they pay for every month. She has an invoice for that. Council Member Campbell: For paying for Town Police or security, that's what everybody does, right? We're not paying overtime officers, anything like that. Officer Fuentes: She says she doesn't know what is exactly for, whether it's for Police or-- what she knows is for security. 33 Council Member Campbell: That would be something I would ask our staff to look into just to make sure or be clear that we're not, that's not how we serve any neighborhood with Police. Again, my question goes back to, okay, somebody can look at the Town staff just to make sure that we're not also losing funding. We've applied for extensions before these community block grant fundings, what danger again, will we be in, in terms of asking for another extension or doing whatever, but it sounds like we may be in a tight spot of finding an appropriate place. That's a shame only because there is a community need for bus shelters. It's proven by ridership. It's proven by experience. I don't want anyone to think particularly in this community and maybe we do need a different meeting that's not about the HOA and our citizens. We've done that for other communities before. What we've had them right here in Town Hall and we helped communities understand how we want to work together. That may be part of our process. Mayor Burk: Okay. All right. I think you're getting the message that we have a great concern that the community has come forward and said that they really don't want the shelter there. I'm not sure what the solution is in that regard. I don't know where we take it. If we take it to a work session. Kaj Dentler: I think Council may wish to defer assuming that is there time to defer? Is there a grant deadline that we're pushed up against? Keith Markel: I think there is a risk that we could lose the CDBG funding and a have to return that back to the County for this shelter. We will ask them obviously for an extension. Mayor Burk: But you said it wasn't due until this summer, August, June? Keith Markel: It may have to be. We'll have to go back and check because that may be has to be spent by date versus, we have to bid this thing, we have to go out on the street and get a contractor out here and set it up and do that in the construction work. This is already heavily delayed. This is something we thought was going to go much smoother. We thought this would be much more embraced by the community and we had a lot of negotiation time lost in this project. The County has been gracious to allow us to extend to where we have. We will go back and ask them again to make sure we don't run into any issues there, but I just want to caveat, there may be some money that would need to be returned. We could move forward on the other shelter. Again, there's the economy of scale by doing the two shelters concurrently, which would help us out as well. If we break it down into two mobilizations, you could see increase in costs there. Mayor Burk: I guess we have to wait till the next meeting to find out what we can do on this. Council Member Dunn: Madam Mayor? Mayor Burk: Would you let staff answer and then you can ask you questions, right? Keith Wilson: The condemnation process is driven by State code and there are statutory requirements for notifications, public hearings. The statute requires that any landowner be notified between 30 and 45 days of a public hearing. We would need to go through this public hearing process again, the refiling of the public hearing advertisements, reordering of checks. It will delay us two months from being able to provide the statutory requirements for the filing of a certificate if we delay action from tonight. 34 Mayor Burk: Okay, Mr. Dunn. Council Member Dunn: I'd like to make a motion. Mayor Burk: Okay, here's-- We're still asking questions? Council Member Dunn: We are still doing the public hearing? Okay, yes, no. Mayor Burk: Okay, is there any additional at this point? All right, then I will close the public hearing. Mr. Dunn, you had something you wanted to- Council Member Dunn: Yes, I'd like to make a motion to pass resolution 218-33, authorizing an offer to acquire permanent and temporary easements for the Edwards Ferry Road sidewalk and bus shelter on the North side and divide the question for a separate vote on the South side bus shelter. Mayor Burk: Mr. Dunn, Council Member Dunn has made a motion, seconded by Council Member Fox to begin the process on the-- You had a question? Eileen Boeing: Mr. Dunn referenced a previous resolution number on his motion. If you could just omit that from- Council Member Dunn: Is there a new one? Eileen Boeing: No, this would be a new resolution number. There would not be a resolution. What's on the agenda would be the resolution language. Council Member Dunn: Okay, hold on just a second. Let me see if I can find that. Mayor Burk: Authorizing the acquisition. Council Member Dunn: I don't see resolution number on this one. Mayor Burk: There is no resolution number at this point. Council Member Dunn: Okay, she just want me to take off the number. Okay, I'll just restate it then, I make a motion to pass the Edwards Ferry sidewalk and bus shelter capital improvements project with dividing the question of the north side sidewalk and shelter from the south side shelter. Mayor Burk: All right, there is a motion on the table to basically vote on the north side, start the north side project and separate out the south side. Keith Markel: I just want to clarify here. There is no north side condemnation request. This is only for one parcel, the south side of Edwards Ferry Road. The North side has all the land rights necessary to move forward. Council Member Dunn: Your resolution-- Okay, I've got-- It does say shelters though. Keith Markel: There are two shelters as part of the project, only one shelter needs the condemnation approval. Council Member Dunn: We're only voting tonight on the condemnation. 35 Keith Markel: Only on the condemnation. You've already approved the funding and the project as a shelter, two shelter projects. This is only because we were not able to secure the land rights through negotiations with that one property owner. Council Member Dunn: Okay, sorry. I withdraw that motion and make another motion. Mayor Burk: All right. Council Member Dunn: I make a motion to-- Which is confusing because you have the Edwards Ferry sidewalk and bus shelter, but we don't really have a sidewalk issue if that's the case. For the condemnation, is the sidewalk-- Is there any portion of that sidewalk that needs to be- Keith Wilson: [unintelligible 02:20:53] Keith Markel: It's the overall project name is the Bus Shelter and Sidewalk Project, I believe. Mayor Burk: I think our attorney would like to say something. Keith Wilson: This is the overall project but the condemnation request is only for the property that's in relocation- Council Member Dunn: The Southside bus shelter. Keith Wilson: Yes. Council Member Dunn: Okay. Christine Newton: The name of the project needs to be included in the resolution. That's why the specific name of the project includes something that's not part of the condemnation. Council Member Dunn: Okay. All right, well, then I'll try another motion that I make a motion to deny the Edwards Ferry Road Sidewalk and Bus Shelter Capital Improvements Project for the South side bus shelter. Christine Newton: I think the resolution before you is only for the condemnation. It's not for the project as a whole. You may wish to make a motion not to proceed with the condemnation. Council Member Dunn: Why don't we do this? Why don't we just get a motion on the table so we can discuss it? Keith Markel: I have a suggestion once you get a motion. Council Member Dunn: I'm open to suggestions. Mayor Burk: You're moving that the Edwards authorizing the acquisition of permanent temporary easement on the property owned by Heritage Square Condominium for public use by condemnation for the purpose of construction of the Edwards Ferry Road Sidewalk and Bus Shelter project. That's what you're moving. Council Member Dunn: To be denied and did you mention the easement in yours? Mayor Burk: For the condemnation. 36 Council Member Dunn: Condemnation, yes. We'll stick with the condemnation. Is that what you're going to suggest? That's fine. Keith Markel: Well, we have the recommendation, the recommendation to deny the condemnation action. Mayor Burk: Okay, that Mr. Dunn moved that. Is there a second? Ronald Campbell: Just a point of order. The motion as stated is the motion that is, you either vote for it or you vote against it. Mayor Burk: But he can put deny-- He can change it to put deny on it. Is that correct? Ronald Campbell: By voting against the motion that's been presented to us in our package is thereby denied. Mayor Burk: It would be clearer that way most certainly, cleaner, but can he say deny it? Can he put deny-- Can he make the motion to deny it? To change it from the affirmative to the negative? You can make that, but it would be clear just to do the motion and then have everybody vote it down if they wanted to or vote for it. Council Member Dunn: Okay, the problem with that is according to Robert's Rules, if I make a motion to approve-- If I make a positive motion, I should not as a practice, especially as the maker of the motion, vote against my intention. Mayor Burk: Okay, so you want to keep it denied. Council Member Dunn: Let's keep it as denied because I feel that's the action. Mayor Burk: Is there a second? Council Member Thiel: I second. Mayor Burk: Council Member Thiel. All right, we have the motion on the table to authorize the acquisition of permanent and temporary easement on the property owned to deny-- tonight to deny authorization, thank you. To deny authorization of the acquisition of permanent temporary Eastman on the property owned by Heritage Square, a condominium for public use by condemnation for the purpose of construction of the Edwards Ferry Road Sidewalk and the Bus Shelters project. Correct? All right, is there a discussion at this point? Council Member Dunn: Real quick as I didn't mention, I didn't speak at this previous too. I think that the residents made a compelling argument that while we have funds that we would like to spend, sometimes it doesn't always work out that way and I can't see or justify, we must spend the money as justification for going against the will of the residents. Additionally, I am rarely rarely in favor of taking somebody's property. If you can get agreements from the community to put the property in there for that, but when it comes to taking somebody's property, I can't remember a time I've ever voted for that, so I wouldn't support it for that. If the residents feel that there is issue with a shelter in their neighborhood and they can point to examples that they would oppose that it goes with the old saying that some of the most dangerous words spoken are, "Hi, I'm from the government, I'm here to help." If this is not a situation that's going to help, then I would not be in favor of causing a negative situation where we were hoping that we were trying to help. There are definitely needs for bus stops. We're not taking away a bus stop, but we can't put shelters everywhere. 37 If this is an area where a shelter may be of a concern to the citizens, then I cannot see justifying putting it there. There may, by the way, for staff, be an opportunity to look for reallocating these funds to another location. I know it's on the fly. I know it's short turnaround. We may be able to get another extension, but in this situation, I can't see doing it. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Did you have something you wanted to bring? Keith Markel: I was just going to suggest the timing if it was the general will of the Council to move forward with installing a bus shelter along this corridor within this block but we wanted to further vet some of the concerns that were brought up tonight from the community. You could approve potentially the approval for the condemnation proceeding with the caveat that you're directing staff to then go and meet with the community or hold a public input session to try to work through some of those issues before we take any formal action with that condemnation. But since there is that 30-day, 45-day public notice portion, if we do terminate the condemnation and then have to re-advertise, that does set us that much further back. That's only if you all generally wanted to see a shelter be constructed in this area, but there might be a way to finesse that so we could still have the community input and still move forward with acquiring the land rights. Mayor Burk: It's pretty obvious that that area needs is very popular, is a high use area and that it's only fair to provide the shelter somewhere there, but I guess the issue is where the problem. Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: Yes, I'm all in favor of supporting this motion that's on the table, but it's missing one piece, which is what's the follow up action? Denying the condemnation doesn't solve the problem. Some of the problems that have identified have nothing to do with the bus shelter per se, but are community issues that need to be looked at and addressed. What are we really directing staff to do versus just denying the condemnation action? They already have approvals to build the one bus shelter without action is as it needed. To me, I'm not sure that just simply denying the condemnation solves any problem. All it does is say we have a problem, but what's the action? What's the remedy? What are we instructing staff to do? Even if we allow staff to continue, it still doesn't solve the problem that may ultimately end in a non-denial-- A denial of the condemnation anyway. Staff has already directed us that day they don't have an appropriate space. Having found an appropriate space, moving the problem down the road and the assignment of bus stops is not a Town responsibility, it's a County responsibility. Has the County been brought into this to look and see if there are any alternatives to moving a stop that will be in a space that could accommodate a bus shelter in this community. Keith Markel: We have discussed with them this project, they did endorse the project as part of the CDBG funding. They are aware of the need and supported the Town in this effort. We did not expect to relocate the stop away from this block. We have not gone back to them and asked for another location based on the anecdotal demand that we see out there, we feel that this is the area where the stop is best located. Council Member Campbell: Our only reasonable action if we really feel that there are reasonable human concerns, community concerns, let's just stop the condemnation action. Keith Markel: You can revisit it again in the future if you wanted to pursue a stop at some point. 38 Council Member Campbell: Well, that's why I'm asking for an additional action, that it's not enough to say there is a need for a bus shelter in this community. Stopping one action and not starting another. I don't know if it's a separate motion after this motion but I can make certainly fails or succeed, but I'd like to think that we just don't leave this in limbo for a work that we've been doing for a couple of years, for a need that we know does exist, that we have to complete the work with another motion probably to take some action and instruct staff to take some action. I'm in favor of supporting this resolution to deny, but at the same time, without a solution or an action step to instruct staff to take now, not another work session later does not solve the community problem. Mayor Burk: Ms. Fox. Council Member Fox: One question there was reference that there was another stop nearby on Heritage Way at the back. How far is that from the proposed bus stop here? Mayor Burk: It's fairly far away. Keith Markel: It's around the corner. It's closer to the existing stop than where the proposed shelter location is. The proposed shelter is several 100 feet further west along Edwards Ferry Road. The issue was the route. I believe the route-- It's a different route and if you're trying to pick up Safety Ride riders, that route I do not believe is on the safety ride. I didn't bring my map with me, but we do have a route issue. Council Member Fox: You said you looked further west, there was no feasible parcel further west. Could you go further east or no? Is that the same property? Keith Wilson: There's no area to the east. Then you get into the new townhomes that were recently constructed and then you get to the shopping center the Sheetz, McDonald's. There is no possibility of a shelter site. East, going West, you're over 750 feet and you cannot lose the opportunity to gain the passengers of this stop. You're getting into the distance of walkability issue. Council Member Fox: My concern is you said you engaged the community but we're hearing from the community now that it's not wanted, so I'm trying to figure out the disconnect there. Keith Wilson: All I can speak for is during the meetings that I had with the board, and the board was undecided. We had members of the board that was in favor of granting an easement and members of the board that was in opposition. I don't believe that they can come to a consensus being either for or against the project. We tried to meet with the property management, I did meet with the property management company that's overseeing the condominiums to try to look at alternatives, walk the project. We could not through the property management company come up with alternate locations that were within a walkable area of the existing bus stop. Council Member Fox: You mentioned economies of scale. If we did the project separate somehow we separated the projects or we just said okay to one and maybe put off another one till later, like Keith was suggesting, don't start the condemnation. We might be able to do it later on if we can get the support. Keith Wilson: But we would lose the economies of scales and that- [crosstalk] Council Member Fox: Meaning, what's that in dollars? 39 Keith Wilson: Well, that's adding a duplication of cost for a contractor to rebid to bring his crews and equipment there to take the crews away. You have some scaling factors when you buy in bulk. You get typically a lower unit price. Building singly, we lose some of those economies of scale. Council Member Fox: Okay. Thanks. Mayor Burk: Mr. Steinberg. Council Member Steinberg: Thank you. Well, it's amazing what you learn that you don't know, it's as an education. I never imagined that a bus shelter could bring up some of the issues. Back to staff. If we vote to deny this motion, go back to our original one and approve the condemnation, where can we be in order to bring it to a full stop should we choose to after we pass the resolution as it's currently written? What would our position be then? As you're saying that you want us to proceed, you would prefer us to proceed because of public notice that's already been given and so, why undo that? If we proceed on the original path, but if we can be quick enough and we decide, "Okay. We're going to go in a different direction, at least on this one situation. What would have to happen for that? Once we say, "Okay, go ahead." Keith Wilson: Without Council's authorization to file the Certificate of Take, we will not have the authority to acquire the land rights needed for the construction of this particular bus stop. Council Member Steinberg: Understood. If we pass the resolution as it is now, does that give you the authority? Is what I'm asking first. Keith Wilson: The passing of the authority for us to acquire the land rights by the use of eminent domain and condemnation would allow us to proceed forward with construction. Council Member Steinberg: Should we so choose? Keith Wilson: You can yes. Council Member Steinberg: Then the- Keith Wilson: We are required by the public hearing notification and notification to the landowners that this certificate has to be filed by January the 31st. If it is not filed by January the 31st, then we have to go through a new notification in public process. Council Member Steinberg: January 31st of this year? Keith Wilson: Of this year. That follows within the 30 to 45 window of the public hearing notification. Council Member Steinberg: Once we file that, then what? Keith Wilson: Once we file that certificate with the court, then that gives us the ability to go onto the property and construct the project. Council Member Steinberg: Should we so choose? Even if we file and gain that certificate of condemnation, we're not forced to proceed. Keith Wilson: We are not forced to proceed. It gives us the ability to proceed. 40 Council Member Steinberg: All we've done is keep things on schedule should we be able to create lines of communication quickly with this community and see what compromise can be reached. Keith Wilson: If we decide to not choose with the filing of the certificate, we have the ability to invalidate the certificate through fallings of [crosstalk]. Council Member Steinberg: We could keep everything on schedule and see what compromises we can come up with. Is that correct? Keith Wilson: We would keep the filing of the certificate on schedule, we would just be delaying the potential construction. Council Member Steinberg: I would offer that we deny this first motion and go back to our original proposal past that which keeps us on schedule and then we have to work very hard and fast to get the appropriate parties in a room, maybe this one and have a discussion. All due respect, this is a voice in the community, apparently, there are other voices so there's not consensus it seems like we can't wait for the election per se because I'm not even sure that that settles the dissension in the ranks anyway, but I believe the community is owed the right for our conversation so we can come to the best decision possible. That would be my recommendation. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Mr. Thiel, did you have something? Council Member Thiel: That was basically what I was going to say. Mayor Burk: Okay. Yes. Mr. Martinez, you need a mic. Vice Mayor Martinez: I would like to see this moved to a later date as early as next working session or Town Council business meeting because I'd like to go to the site and visit. Even though I know where it's at, and I've been in that community, I'd like to take another look at it from a citizen's perspective and meet some of the residents who live in that area that are being affected and at least hear what they have to say. It's not that I'm not in favor of the bus stop, but I want a better idea of what impact it's going to have. I won't vote for any motion that either denies or approves the condemnation until I get to do that. Mayor Burk: Everyone has had a chance to speak. We have a motion on the table that says to deny, yes. Council Member Dunn: I do get the final comments as a maker. I'll be brief. Mayor Burk: That's not generally how we do this Mr. Dunn, everybody gets their three minutes. Everybody's had three minutes. Go ahead. Be brief please and get this done. Council Member Dunn: When we have a maker of the motion, the maker is allowed to speak first and last on that motion. Mayor Burk: We have not generally done it that way, but that I'm allowing you to do it tonight. Council Member Dunn: I'll point it out in the rules for you so that-- Would you like me to look it up or do you want me to just proceed? Mayor Burk: I would like you to make your comments, so we can proceed forward. 41 Council Member Dunn: Making up rules on the fly is not good. Anyway, I don't know how many citizens have to come in with the concerns that we heard tonight for us to make a decision, one, to not to drag people back out again, to have to redo this over. Two, that our drive to take government action is so strong that the appeals by these citizens is not enough for us to go ahead and just deny this take. Secondly, I don't see where, and I think there might be some idea that if we go forward, we can use this take for some other location, and I don't think that that is correct. I believe that this take is for this location. This property is not a moving target. To send a message to the community that has made an effort to discuss this as you for almost an hour and a half with us to come out and say, "We need you to come out and again, because we don't quite believe that this is as big a concern for you as we think it is, we think ridership is more important than the safety of your kids." I'm not supporting this for the fact that we're taking it, the fact that the citizens have come out and said they don't want it. We're saying, "We say you need it, but they say, we don't." The messages are clear and therefore I would ask Council to consider to deny this motion. If we need to find another place to put a bus shelter, let's do that, but that's a whole another issue. Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. I'm all in favor of the motion to deny authorizing the acquisition of permanent and temporary easement on the property owned by Heritage Square, a condominium for public use by condemnation for the purpose of construction of the Edwards Ferry Road sidewalk and the bus shelter project, please indicate by saying, aye. Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: I'm going to have to ask for a call. Ms. Fox, and Mr. Dunn, and Mr. Campbell. All opposed indicate by saying aye. Vice Mayor Martinez: [inaudible 02:42:14] Mayor Burk: To his motion to deny authorization. Vice Mayor Martinez: Indicate by saying aye? Mayor Burk: Say no. Council Member Steinberg: Nay. Mayor Burk: Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Steinberg. Was that Mr. Thiel and myself. That does not move forward. Mr. Thiel did you have something you wanted to bring forward? Council Member Thiel: Yes, I'd like to make the motion. Come again. Mayor Burk: I'm sorry. I forgot to ask for his abstention. Go ahead, Mr. Thiel. Council Member Thiel: I'd like to make the motion to authorize the condemnation to acquire the remaining land rights necessary for construction of the project with the caveat that Town staff will set up community meetings to help subside some of the issues that were brought up tonight. Mayor Burk: You're authorizing going through that and adding that Town staff will create some community meetings, some being-- Did you just want to leave it at some? Council Member Thiel: Yes, some. 42 Mayor Burk: Some community meetings. Council Member Thiel: There can be big meetings or small meetings if need be. That will give Town staff the direct lane to work with the community to make sure that your needs are being met, for both the bus riders and the community. This relationship is going to be worked back with Town staff and with the community. That's probably the best way moving forward I believe Mayor Burk: All right. Is there second-- Council Member Steinberg. Christine Newton: Excuse me. I'm sorry. Can I clarify? Because the question is going to be for staff, if you are asking them to proceed with those community meetings before filing the certificate of take because that certificate of take has a deadline of the 31st. Otherwise he has a different process. Just to clarify. Council Member Thiel: If town staff would need to meet with the community before or after? I'll take your recommendations on when would be the proper time. Kaj Dentler: I would recommend after. Staff will not have time to make all the . Council Member Thiel: After the- Kaj Dentler: The way I heard your motion, you're directing us to file the take and work with the community before we move forward with construction? Council Member Thiel: Correct. Mayor Burk: Is it my understanding that we're authorizing them to proceed, but we are going to work with the community as this goes through the process. We're going to work with the community to find out if there's some solutions that we can come up with in regard to the- not just the shelter, but even the community itself. Council Member Thiel: Correct. Mayor Burk: Is that clear? Council Member Dunn: No. Christine Newton: I think we would need to know that the motion is to adopt the resolution as written with an additional provision, so that all of the provisions in the resolution because those are very technical, and they're required, so that all of those are included. Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Thiel is making the motion as is to authorize the acquisition of permanent temporary easement on the property owned by Heritage Square, a condominium, a public used by condemnation for the purpose of construction of the Edwards Ferry Road sidewalk and the bus shelter project with the conditions of- Council Member Thiel: Meeting with the community after the filing on the 31st. Mayor Burk: Meeting with the community to do what? Council Member Thiel: Address community issues, community concerns. Mayor Burk: Address community concerns involving the shelter? Council Member Thiel: Yes. 43 Mayor Burk: Is that clear? Is that sufficient? Does that make that clear, Mr. Dunn? Council Member Dunn: It's clear but the objectives are vague. Mayor Burk: We have a motion. Mr. Steinberg, do you accept those changes? We have a motion on the table by Mr. Thiel, seconded by Council Member Steinberg. Anybody having comment at this point before we vote on it, Mr. Campbell. Council Member Campbell: This is the action that I was trying to propose but I think the action has to be more specific. It's not just discuss it with the community. The problem, again, is the location of the bus shelter and its impact on the community. I wish I had a specific bus stop number because I would put that specific bus stop number into the resolution, so you know exactly, not just North side, South side, but this particular location, because that's what that issue. Again, not whether or not a community wants a bus stop the impact of this particular stop in this particular location. I'd actually have to vote against this without being specific because then an instruction back to staff, authorizing them to take would have to make some sense about why we would ask them to rescind that authorization. To me that's why it has to be very specific as what we're asking them to do, what information they come back with. If a reasonable accommodation solution has been found, I think it has to be very specific to be able to say to staff, "On this basis, we are not still not satisfied. Now, let's rescind the take." That would make sense to me. Mayor Burk: Are you suggesting an amendment to the motion? Council Member Campbell: I'm just looking for language clarification that simply says, what are we instructing, what's the purpose of our instruction to staff to problem solve the location, to problem solve the community issues? I think is to problem solve the location so that the impact on location is minimized for the community. That's what I think we're asking staff to do. Council Member Thiel: Is that a friendly amendment to ask staff to- Council Member Campbell: I’d ask you to accept that as a friendly amendment. Council Member Thiel: I would. Mayor Burk: Eileen, did you get that because I didn't get it? Council Member Thiel: Both. Mayor Burk: No, he's separating. He's doing-- Council Member Campbell: We're looking at a location because of its impact on the community, and that's what most of the conversation was about - the impact of this particular location on the community. We find a better location, minimize the impact on a community, we've problem solved. Council Member Thiel: You're asking for Town staff to look at multiple locations for impact. Council Member Campbell: Problem solve. Whatever that means. Now, they've said they've already tried to do some level of problem solving. I don't know, again, how they intend to problem solve in terms of a process. We can't give the staff an authorization that doesn't have a control about how we rescind it. 44 Council Member Thiel: Mr. Markel, was your intention for the motion to be made with the ideas of looking at the location as part of Town staff initiatives? Keith Markel: I was more concerned with mitigating the concerns brought up about the trash, the drugs, the lighting, the sidewalks, those things that we can address, potentially in that area. Location-wise, we feel this is the least impactful location to the property. With the condemnation being filed, it would be site specific for this piece of land. The location isn't in question I think I was recommending was looking at how can we mitigate some of the concerns that were brought up this evening. Then if you felt that those were addressed satisfactorily, then you would give us the direction of a forward with construction. If we still felt that the concerns were not addressed adequately, you could terminate the construction and we'd just go with the one shelter on the north side of the street. Council Member Thiel: I feel like it would be duplication of process a little bit. We can add it. I'll happily suggest, if you want to make a friendly amendment to add multiple locations for site impact analysis for Town staff to do, I'd be totally fine with that. Christine Newton: All right. Except that I don't think that you can add it to the same resolution, this resolution is going to have to be site specific for the condemnation. That may be a separate resolution, but on this one, I don't think you can-- Council Member Thiel: Okay. Thank you. You might have to make a separate motion. Council Member Fox: Hold on one second. I didn't get a chance to speak. Mayor Burk: I know. Just a minute. I just want to clarify what the wording is because Eileen looks as confused as I do. Mayor Burk: With the condition of meeting with the community to address community issues associated with the shelter, is what you originally said? Is that still what you want? Council Member Thiel: Yes. Mayor Burk: It's with conditions meeting with the community to address the community's issues concerning the shelter. Council Member Thiel: Yes, because the condemnation is specific to this geographical location. Mr. Campbell will have to make a separate motion. Mayor Burk: All right, Ms. Fox. Council Member Fox: I heard from staff that we think this is the best location for this. We've heard from the community that this is the worst location for this. I'm trying to reconcile those two, but I'm not sure this resolution does that. I don't think that it addresses this. I have a problem also with taking property from a property owner who doesn't want something on their property. We're sitting here still debating that and that to me is a source of concern. I will vote against this as well. Mayor Burk: Mr. Dunn. Council Member Dunn: Thank you. I think the desires are the same for everyone but what we're getting hung up on is the technicality that this is a take for a particular spot on this planet. 45 While our concerns are global, we're dealing with one little dot, and we're trying to approve this to allow staff to look at another dot. We would have been better if we need to make another resolution to look at another location you could have stuck with the original resolution, deny that take and allow staff to go forward with because if we move this anywhere, you will need another take if it's required because the property owner refuses, correct. This resolution is only for this piece of ground. The goal will be for staff as they go out to the community. I say this kindly, that there will be an effort to sell the community on this location because that's what the direction of this is. If we are to use a different location, then we need to give staff that direction and say, "Forget this take. Go out there. Work with community on the community issues." Then we have a police officer who said, "He's seen these issues." This isn't just people making this stuff up. That while we're trying to help in this situation, we have citizens who said they don't want it at this location. We have a property owner that does not want it at this location. "Wait, wait, wait. We're here to help. Please let us help you. No, I don't need the gift that keeps on giving." It may be that we need to just drop back, pick a different location. If we lose the funds we'll go with the funds some other place. To just push this on, and I think we're sending the wrong mission to staff to go down a path with, "Take this resolution, work on this take, talk to the citizens, try to fix all these other things in the community," and maybe they'll like a bus shelter that they don't have an issue necessarily with the bus stop, they have an issue with the bus shelter at this location. That's the issue. We're going to make them have to work towards that by passing this resolution this way. I think it would have been better, deny the resolution to come back and pass the same resolution you're suggesting we make to get what you're trying to get to. Again, I think we got the same goals. I just think we're forcing this to go a certain direction that is not going to end up with what we want it to be and that is staff is going to be required to work on getting this location sold to the community. I don't think that's what we're trying to get done. Unless we're agreeing that, "No, go out there and make the shelter work at this location." I haven't heard that from Council as being the true directive. I'll be voting against this motion. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez. Vice Mayor Martinez: I wanted some clarification on the acquisition of the property. You say you have to file that by January 31st, but you don't have to move on it until you're ready to have it out to bid. It just gives you the ability to move on it when we finally get all the stuff in place. Keith Wilson: This gives us the ability to construct it at that site. Don't mean we have to be at [crosstalk] Vice Mayor Martinez: How long do you think that's going to take? Keith Wilson: I have been trying to work with the community since May. I have had numerous conversations with the property management company. The board has not just [crosstalk] Vice Mayor Martinez: No. What I mean from today to where you actually start construction and you put out the bids and you've gotten a bid from today to then how much time is that you put it out forbid? Keith Wilson: It will be a minimum of 60 probably more closer to 90 because we would have to advertise it, received the bids, verify the bids or in appropriate form bring them back to Council for the authorization to award the contract. 46 Vice Mayor Martinez: As Council Member Thiel and Steinberg suggested then that from today when we approve this resolution as was dictated we still have opportunities to go to you and say, "Pull that certification, we're not going to condemn the property." Keith Wilson: To not award the construction contract to bid this particular shelter. Vice Mayor Martinez: We have 60 days to work that out. In that 60 days, we as Council Members and staff, we're asking staff to go out and talk to the community. We still have that opportunity. Keith Wilson: Yes. Vice Mayor Martinez: Under those conditions, I think I can support this resolution as long as we know that that's part of the resolution is that we have that ability to stop the bid process and change our mind on what we need to do as long as we're not awarding the bid until we get to-- What I would expect for staff is to make sure we are aware of the timeline and that we have this opportunity to talk with the community. Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. Mr. Steinberg, have you spoken to this on the motion? Council Member Steinberg: I seconded the motion, I wasn't sure that I've actually spoken to the motion as I seconded-- I don't believe this is enough to force anything down the throats of the community. I think this should be the best effort between Council, and staff, and the community to get the best outcome that we possibly can. It may be that in the end, we close the entire project or at least this section of the project down. I don't know. The idea of disrupting the overall public transportation system or putting a little dent in it, it does not sit well with me, but I am also very sympathetic to the community's concerns. I would be willing to sit in a meeting like this with staff. I have no idea if other members of Council would be. I also believe it's incumbent upon the community to have more members in this meeting than just one or two because I don't believe that would be a fair representation of the community either. The more voices we can get into this conversation to go with a good idea of the best job that we can do, I believe is the way to go. I think this allows us to do that. It doesn't etch anything in stone yet, I believe it gives us the options that we're looking for. I'm absolutely in support of this motion. Mayor Burk: All right. All in favor of this authorizing the acquisition of permanent and temporary easement on the property owned by the Heritage Square, a condominium for public use by the condemnation for the purpose of construction of Edwards Ferry Road sidewalk and bus shelter project with the conditions of a staff meeting, staff and- would you say Council staff meeting with the community, and addressing the community's issues associated with the shelter. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Aye. That is Mr. Thiel, Mr. Steinberg, Mr. Martinez, and Ms. Burk. Opposed. Members: Nay. Mayor Burk: Mr. Campbell, Mr. Dunn, and Ms. Fox. All right, that passes. That takes us to Council disclosures and comments. Mr. Steinberg. Council Member Steinberg: I have none. Mayor Burk: Mr. Thiel. 47 Council Member Thiel: I have no disclosures. I have prepared a statement. First I'd like to apologize to our Town Attorney on behalf of three of my colleagues for talking about her employment with the Town and the public forum instead of behind closed doors where it should have been held. Secondly, I would like to say that I am truly disappointed in our Mayor, Vice Mayor because you are supposed to be the ones in charge. You're supposed to act as leadership for Leesburg. You are supposed to promote decorum and lead the Council through debate rather than challenge other Council Members through the newspaper. Also disagreeing with someone comes with mutual respect. For you to attack Councilwoman Fox or other any Council Member in the newspaper rather than debate is unfair and shows no respect. Don't be surprised when that same level of respect is not reciprocated. Moreover, I was never or will never have been persuaded or pressured by any Council Member to vote a certain way. Everyone has always told me to vote my conscience and my convictions and have always done and will continue to do so. It is a shame that three of my colleagues Mayor Burk, Vice Mayor Martinez, and Council Member Steinberg have brought this issue into the public light. Because something didn't go your way, you don't have to kick and scream and talk about it to the paper, instead, handle it behind closed doors where it should be held. The Leesburg Town Council has a new standard and that's to run and scream for the newspaper if something doesn't go your way, and call collusion, this isn't the White House or the Capitol Building. I'm not sure if any of you have ever had management experience, but by the recent activities, it looks like that isn't the case. Let me tell you, you don't broadcast when someone's going to be terminated. You sit down one on one, and talk with the employee and discuss performance. That chance was taken away after you all decided to publicize this issue without consulting any of us, none of your other Council Members. I never talked to Mayor Burk, Vice Mayor Martinez, or Council Member Steinberg about this process or my decision, nor did they attempt to call me and ask about my thoughts or positions, or how I was planning to address the situation. Instead, assumptions were made on my behalf, and I was accused of voting the way whatever prevailing winds would blow. I say shame on you. You know how many times votes haven't gone my way, which we didn't even vote on this yet, so I'm not sure how it's a votable issue, and I was commented as changing my vote when there's never been a vote, but it happens all the time. You know what I don't do? Run to the newspaper, crying about why Council Members didn't vote the same way I did. This is how Council works, majority, unless this is a new rule that I don't know. Lastly, the JLMA has been in closed doors almost the entire time. What do you think of all the companies in the JLMA are thinking when they see us and the way we're treating Graydon Manor who is already a Town client? Debated, if you don't think they're watching, they are watching, every single business in the JLMA is watching, and I wish you all a great night. Mayor Burk: Right. Ms. Fox? Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: I want disclosure on the last Friday, I remember Brian Cullen, Keane Enterprises about the Virginia Village project. I also want to give recognition on a somber moment to the lives that were lost this week in California involving the helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant, his daughter, the five other families, that total nine lives lost. I realized that lives are being lost every day, in our military, as well as in our country through various means, and tragedies. This one, obviously, I think has a particular sincere profound effects on many of our lives, and I just wanted to get pause to say that. 48 I also want to echo some of the comments of Council Member Thiel, but want take a little bit different tact because our Town deserves it. What's at stake for this Town deserves a higher plane and irregardless of anyone thinking about their particular motives for doing whatever they did behind closed doors, we'll look at some of the other issues involved, but to me, it does involve having an overall sense of a moral compass, integrity, ethics. Our citizens demand that we operate with those levels of priorities. Not that there can't be differences of opinion or even challenges to who's one might think has any of those qualities. None of us, I believe, run on those particular qualities, but people wanted to assume not an atmosphere of destruction to our own self-destruction, but wanted to assume that whatever motives we think we had wouldn't bring the destruction of citizens in this Town. To me, that would dictate a certain way to operate, but obviously the current political atmosphere that we live in, the behaviors that we saw evidenced by three Council Members only serves to undermine. Not enhance any sense of confidence, undermine the public trust. It's our job and responsibility not only to keep that trust but in some ways encourage it because running for office is a civic responsibility. It's one that we pledge that we will take ourselves somewhat out of the equation and look at what's best for this Town, not for ourselves or our own political posturing. Boundaries were crossed, that do deserve a public accounting, and I believe that that will happen at a later time. I'm also here to announce, and it's kind of ironic, as I look at my own particular service and all of us look at how we serve or why we serve. Back in November, I decided I wanted to serve better. What I did, I applied to a credential program on public leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School. I start my first class today actually, and it is a series of classes, and then I'll have a capstone program. It'll probably take me about 18 months, but you can imagine what the first class is. It was just released at nine o'clock this morning. [chuckles] Moral Leadership and Personal Practice. I find that this will be extremely good case study as I talk with folks from all over the globe, about how we morally and ethically engage in the public trust of service. This is not the example. This may be one to learn from and some painful lessons, but I hope that for the sake of the Town, what it becomes is instructive and not destructive for the sake of the town. That we find a way to move forward as I expressed to the Town Manager, my goal is accountability and moving forward, and I intend to work hard to make sure both happen. Mayor Burk: Mr. Dunn? Council Member Dunn: Thank you. I was wanting to find out if there is a desire from Council to direct staff to work on a conditional agreement with Graydon Manor, should they need sewer service in the future, that we work out whatever mutual agreement we can with them, and I'd like to have a work session on that issue. Mayor Burk: Are there four heads that want to have a work session on that issue. All right. The four would like a Work session on that issue. Member Dunn: What was that? Mayor Burk: The four would like to have a work session on that issue. Council Member Dunn: All right. Also, I want to state that with the public letter that went out, it was highly inappropriate. Having been the brunt of numerous public attacks that we're not following Council rules. I took the approach to follow our guidelines that are set forth in Robert's Rules. After the false letter that was sent out by Mayor Burk, Vice Mayor Martinez, and Council Member Steinberg, making false statements, I did follow the rules and sent them an offer to try to clear this up between us in a quiet manner, which it was difficult since it was so public to go quiet because that's what Robert's Rules says. 49 Having gotten no response from them on that I did bring forward to Council last night a meeting to discuss what future action might come from that. Anyone that knows me knows that I am not easily swayed. Ms. Fox didn't do that for me in considering the Graydon Manor. For me, Graydon Manor, is and by the way, there's no plot against the Town Attorney nor was there any plot for Graydon Manor. For me, Graydon Manor, simply, a current customer of a service that we provide as a community. It is our goal to sell more of these services either more to current customers or find new customers. Graydon Manor fit that. We are not designing the planning for the Town Leesburg. We are not designing for the planning for the County. That is up to the County. Our job is to provide more opportunities to sell more services that we currently have, and Graydon is a current customer. Should Graydon Manor succeed with the County, I would want to sell them more services. Mr. Steinberg has shown by his actions and a speech that he is not as familiar with the rules of Council. That is a quote. He doesn't know all of our rules. Unfortunately though, Mr. Martinez and Mayor Burk, they do know better and they've been around a long time. Their letter shows that they just were not willing to work within the Council rules. By going to the press, and thus the public, with their letter, their Council titles affixed to the letter, they offered some official stance to the position they took, which I think was improper for that to be discussing. They really blurred the line between their personal statements and their public positions. We'll be discussing that in a closed session tonight. For me, I just see this as yet another political stunt, and it's a shame that a stunt was being used in an effort to- you can't even imagine what the effort is, but to take somebody's employment and plaster that over the newspaper. One of the people from the press who called me, asking questions and I said, "I can't really discuss that to you.” I do have a question for you Mr., Mrs. newspaper person. How would you like it if your employment status was plastered over your newspaper?" This person paused for a second, said, "I wouldn't." I would also say that there seems to be an excessive amount of closed sessions that we tend to go to. When we go into closed sessions, it should be the very last acts that we consider because we should be operating mostly in the light of day. Unfortunately, I think the light of day was put into excess by sending this letter to the paper. By the way, there are no uses issues with Graydon affecting Microsoft either. Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. I would like to thank Bellen Woodard for coming to you today in her efforts to unite everyone. She's quite a dynamic young woman and I'm sure we're going to see more from her. Supporting the Jewish community is important to me is just about every way. The Jewish community has been the object of the worst discrimination in history. As present attacks grow towards them at this time, it's important to know that we stand in solidarity with the community. I want to thank the Village of Leesburg for inviting me to help judge the ice sculpture. It was a bit rainy and cold, but the sculptures were amazing. What they can do with a big block of ice is just phenomenal. It was great fun and I look forward to it every year. Congratulations to Chefscape for their one year anniversary. It was great to see the new ingenious way of thinking about restaurants, and how they've taken it and it's paid off. It's a great addition to the culinary scene in Leesburg, and we're lucky to have them. Thanks to Lift Every Voice for their amazing concert the night before the MLK march. It was as always truly inspiring. Thanks go to Tammy Carter and the Martin Luther King Junior March Committee. Every year, they put together an inspiring event that really makes people remember the importance of Dr. King and his message. That was Matt Myers at the incoming president of the volunteer firefighters. These men and women give so much of their time making Leesburg a safe place to live. We agreed we're going to continue to meet on a quarterly schedule to discuss different issues 50 and ideas. I'm very excited for their commitment. On January 21st, I spoke before the Board of Supervisors as the Mayor, not on behalf of the Council, asking them to postpone their vote on the revitalization design of the JLMA. To their credit, they did agree to do that and last night we created the corporate request. I'm hopeful that this new board is willing to listen to Leesburg, and this is a good example of the first step they took. On January 22nd, I met with Niles at the Sidebar, who owns the Sidebar. We went over the noise ordinance proposal. He had concerns and it helped him to understand better what we are considering and he felt better after I left. I want to welcome Optimum Technologies for opening their aerospace engineering company at Blockchain. Congratulations to Vino Bistro on their one year celebration. Thanks to Delegate Gooditis and Senator Boysko for holding the Town Hall in these Town Hall chambers. It was a very diverse group with people with lots of requests, and our two representative stood tall with grace and patience, and tried to answer as many questions as they could. I learned a few things I didn't know that are being considered at the State level. I want to thank the Leesburg Volunteer Rescue Squad for inviting me to their swearing-in of their new officers. It was a lovely event, and congratulations to all new officers in their accelerated leadership. I recently held an office hours at Blockchain building and some of the businesses there came and talked to me about their struggle to get employees that live in the Hub zone. At their suggestion, they wanted to meet as a group to discuss what everybody in the Hub zone is struggling with. Russell and Melanie jumped on to it to create a Hub Zone group. They had a couple of times and the result is that there's going to be a job fair here in Leesburg, located in the hub zone, looking for Hub zone employees. I'm very excited this will come about in the late spring. I want to thank our Economic Development staff for listening to the businesses and reacting to solutions. As for what's befallen the Council I feel very strongly that when employees do their jobs, they work hard to meet the challenges and they try to stay above the politics. They are credit to the Town and they deserve to be treated with respect and protected from political wrangling. I will always stand up for the employee and I will never back down. At this point, Town Manager, do you have any comments? Council Member Dentler: Only one comment to remind Council, you are hosting the Board of Supervisors on Thursday of this week at six o'clock at Tuskies. It's a social reception only. There is no official agenda. Mayor Burk: All right. Thank you. We have a closed session scheduled, a personnel discussion relating to the annual performance evaluation of the Town Attorney and letter to the editor of the Loudoun Now from some Council Members. Do I have a motion? Council Member Dunn: Mayor, I'd like to divide the question. Mayor Burk: I have to what? I have to read the full motion. I moved to enter closed session pursuant to Virginia code 2.2-371181 and to A-.2 to discuss number one, discuss the Town Attorney's performance salary and employment contract and two, consult with legal counsel retaining by the Town Council regarding legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice to such counsel, specifically questions raised by the letter to the editor to Loudoun Now from some members of Council. I moved it. Is there a second? Council Member Fox. Yes. Christine Newton: We just need to correct them. You said A1 and A2 and I think you meant A1 and A8. Mayor Burk: A1 and A8. That's correct. 51 Christine Newton: Thank you. Mayor Burk: We have a motion by myself seconded by Council Member Fox. Council Member Dunn: Madam Mayor? Mayor Burk: Yes, sir. Council Member Dunn: I'd like to divide the question- Mayor Burk: All right. Council Member Dunn: - to go into closed session for the annual performance review and divide that from the closed session for the letter to the editor. Mayor Burk: We have a motion to divide the question into- move into closed session pursuant Virginia-- I can't do anything until I get to right code. Council Member Dunn: While we're waiting, I would say that in the division of that, I just wanted to have the letter issue discussed in open in part and before we go into closed session with the attorney. Mayor Burk: Are we correct on the? Christine Newton: Mr. Krim is going to advise you on everything to do with the closed session. If you could just repeat for his benefit what we're trying to do with motion that would-- Council Member Dunn: Sure. I had said, we have made a motion and it was seconded to go into closed session for both items. I asked for the division of the question to handle the annual evaluation as one vote, and then the letter to the editor as another vote. My goal was to see if there was a desire from the Council to speak in part to the letter to the editor in open session, and then continue that into closed session as needed. Martin Krim: Madam Mayor, if I might, I understand the intent of that motion. The idea behind having the motion written as I did write it, is that those two subjects overlap. As you did encounter last night difficult to discuss just the issue of the performance evaluation of the Town Attorney without also getting into the issue of the letter to the editor. It can be done, but I just wanted to explain why I wrote it the way I did was because of the overlap between those two issues. It would be helpful to discuss those both in closed session. Obviously, we can discuss that in open session, but I wouldn't recommend that we-- Council Member Dunn: I'll make it easy. I'll just withdraw that. If I have other questions, I'll get with you after words, and especially with the late hour. Martin Krim: Thank you. Kaj Dentler: Madam Mayor if I may just add a-- This may help you, Mr. Dunn. Last night Council directed me to add a work session discussion on the letter to the editor issue. That's on your next work session, February 10, so that may help you with that. Council Member Dunn: All right. Thank you. Mayor Burk: All right. We have a motion to go into closed session. Did we answer your questions? Okay. Go into closed session, it was moved by myself. Seconded by Council Member Fox. All in favor? 52 Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? All right. We will be going into the other room. Council Member Dunn: Can we meet in here? Mayor Burk: No. We will be going into the other room. Council Member Dunn: Can we ask for that [inaudible 03:23:15]? Mayor Burk: And I have to do it twice? In accordance with Section §2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, I move that Council certify to the best of each member’s knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under Virginia Freedom of Information Act and such public business matters for the purpose identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed and considered in the meeting by Council. This is a roll call vote. When do I do the wording? Martin Krim: After that. Mayor Burk: After. Mr. Dunn? Council Member Dunn: Aye. Mayor Burk: Mr. Campbell? Council Member Campbell: Aye. Mayor Burk: Ms. Fox? Council Member Fox: Aye. Mayor Burk: Mr. Martinez? Vice Mayor Martinez: Aye. Mayor Burk: Mr. Thiel? Council Member Thiel: Aye. Mayor Burk: Mr. Stenberg? Council Member Steinberg: Aye. Mayor Burk: And Ms. Burk is aye. I direct the Town Manager to proceed with the discussion with the Town Attorney as discussed in Closed Session. Do I need a second? Second by Mr. Campbell. Oh was that Mr. Dunn? Seconded by Mr. Dunn. All in favor? Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? That passes 7-0. Motion to adjourn? Second. That passes 7-0. Meeting was adjourned at 12:07 a.m.