City Manager’s Report July 2022 1 UPDATES FROM CITY MANAGER MICHAEL ROGERS • Since the last Council Meeting, the City Manager has attended the Airport Authority Board Meeting which approved the Authority’s FY 23 Budget and conducted the Performance evaluation of the Executive Director. The airport is rebounding from huge dip in total monthly passengers from 25% reduction in 2020 and 52% reduction in 2021 up to an 87% increase in 22022 over 2021. Total revenues are up but the Net income is still negative and will be covered by Cares Act funding. • I attended the Board meeting of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, where after much discussion the Board approved the Central Waterline Project. • I also visited the Charlottesville Albemarle Botanical Gardens with members of its of Directors. I am impressed with the progress the Board is making with fund raising and will schedule the Board to make a presentation to the Council in the fall. • I toured all of Charlottesville’s parks with Parks and Recreation Director Dana Kasler. The Parks and Rec master Plan study that is under way will go a long way toward determining the actions needed for better utilization and maintenance of our parks. • The Kickoff meeting was held with our selected collective bargaining consultant was held on July 8. Our target is to submit a Collective Bargaining Ordinance to Council for the August 15 meeting for First reading. • We are in the final stages of selecting an executive recruitment firm for our police Search. The search is projected 90-120 days from the date of contract execution. We will require extensive public engagement as we determine what issues the community would like to see addressed by the next Police Chief. There will a community survey as well as stakeholder focus groups as part of the process as we construct a process that will maintain the confidentiality of candidates until we have screen down to the finalist. There will be more to report on the process as we conclude talks with the final two firms, and one is selected. • We participated in a meeting of neighborhood associations and staff answered a number of questions submitted in advance. Great dialogue. The Questions and answers are attached. • I also met with Friends of Down Cville to discuss a variety of issues affecting merchants and residents of the Downtown Mall. A number of issues of safety, cleanliness and maintenance will be addressed by a Committee of internal staff working together as a Committee for the preservation, safety and maintenance of the Downtown Mall. Once the committee comes forward with its report council will be asked to established a citizen Committee to plan for the 50th Anniversary of the mall in two years. 2 UPDATES FROM DEPUTY CITY MANAGER ASHLEY MARSHALL • Staffing Update  Information Technology: The City is proud to announce the hiring of Mr. Steve Hawkes as Director of Information Technology after the completion of a competitive process. Mr. Hawkes has served as the interim Director for the office but was awarded a promotion after a two-round interview process. The department also is celebrating moving Tyler Henderson, Senior Technical Support Specialist, to regular status and congratulating Mark Simpson, GIS Coordinator, on his 14-year anniversary.  Communications and Public Engagement: The Office is proud to announce the hire of Caroline Rice as its new Public Engagement Coordinator and Mr. Kyle Ervin as its Public Safety Information Officer. Ms. Rice starting on June 21st will work on all public engagement and social media needs outside of public safety, including providing leadership for city events such as Grand Illumination. Mr. Ervin starting on July 12th will provide communications and social media support for the Charlottesville Fire Department, Charlottesville Police Department, as well as Charlottesville’s Sherriff’s office as needed. • 2022 Employee Engagement Survey  The City of Charlottesville has reengaged the University of Virginia Center for Survey Research within the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. The survey was opened to staff on May 11, 2022 and closed on June 6, 2022. The Center for Survey Research is currently working on analyzing and compiling the results of the study but has reported that our employee participation slightly exceeded that of the 2017 administration of the survey. • Racial Equity and Social Justice  The Office of Equity and Inclusion will be hosting a Virtual Groundwater session in August of 2022 led by the Racial Equity Institute. The Groundwater Approach is designed to help people at all levels internalize the reality that we live in a racially structured society, and that is what causes racial inequity. In June 2022, nearly 90 attendees from the City of Charlottesville, City Council, CRHA, JMRL, the Charlottesville-Albemarle PMT, and United Way of Greater Charlottesville participated in the session. Currently, there are 84 staff members signed up to attend the August 2022 session. UPDATES FROM DEPUTY CITY MANAGER SAMUEL SANDERS • Staffing Update  Welcome Aboard Deputy Chief Michael Thomas joined the Charlottesville Fire Department in June to lead Community Risk Reduction.  Jonathan Dean has been named Public Service Manager having previously served as Management Analyst in the department.  Tim Morris has been promoted to Deputy Director of the Utilities Department. This move is designed to establish a key succession planning role currently being considered for all departments. • Charlottesville City Schools  City staff have been working with CCS leadership to advance Safe Routes to Schools measures as alternatives for the ongoing impact of the bus driver shortage and recent moves to expand walking routes; staff are looking at prioritizing key sidewalk projects, adding crossing signage, and supporting safe navigation of busy intersections. • Crescent Halls Bus Stop  Charlottesville Area Transit will not relocate the bus stop at Crescent Halls. The Resident Council 3 was recently advised that the restoration of the bus stop will be a feature of the renovations near completion and residents will be able to access the bus at the front entry to the building. City staff will continue to seek service improvements through JAUNT. CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE UPDATES • Office of the City Manager – Executive Assistant Terry Bentley (she/her)  The City Manager would like to remind the community to please take advantage of the MyCville app for the reporting of any issues identified across the city. This administration of this tool has been assigned to the Office of Community Solutions. OCS staff will ensure the timely assignment and resolution of items by designated staff in the departments. Where there are items unassigned, the OCS team will work to resolve them directly. This is intended to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of this community resource. • Budget and Management – Director Krisy Hammill (she/her)  The Office is working with OpenGov, our budget software vendor, to integrate with SAP, the City’s Financial ERP system. Further, they are updating the features of OpenGov to help improve the budget development process and increase opportunities for more transparency and arability of budget information on the City’s website. This project will be ongoing through Summer 2022. The Office will also present a quarterly financial update at City Council’s June 21, 2022 meeting. • Communications & Public Engagement – Deputy Director David Dillehunt (he/him)  Ms. Olivia Shimp, the Office’s Summer Intern, is working on creating a City photo and video library for media releases. Internally, the office continues to work on providing employee updates and newsletters with the next edition of the Cville360 to be released in July 2022. The Office also assisted with live streaming for the Charlottesville High School’s June 2022 Graduation at Ting Pavilion on June 9th, and the Charlottesville High School String Ensembles’ performance in Los Angeles, California on June 15th. • Community Solutions – Interim Director Alex Ikefuna (he/him)  Staff continue working to organize and consolidate storage of key items such as city leases and city- owned property. The current project is focused on the assembly of all Intergovernmental Agreements for a presentation to Council in August. All of these items will form a new centralized repository of this important information.  Staff recently completed the revision of the new Housing Program Manager role which will be posted as available this month. This is an expanded role to manage the city’s affordable housing programming. • Economic Development – Director Chris Engel (he/him)  The Office of Economic Development recently joined Bread & Roses for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the addition of a new walk-in cooler. Bread & Roses is an outreach ministry of Trinity Episcopal Church that provides access to a commercial commissary kitchen for early-stage food and beverage start-ups. OED’s Building Resilience Among Charlottesville Entrepreneurs or BRACE grant provided funding support for the addition of the cooler. Since its inception in 2015 – Bread & Roses has assisted 20 start-ups with access to a certified commercial kitchen with many of those same start-ups also receiving support from OED. 4 • FOIA – Acting FOIA Officer Teresa Pollack (she/her)  The city is currently working to hire a permanent FOIA Officer with interviews expected later this month and a hiring in August. • Human Rights – Director Todd Niemeier (he/him)  The Office of Human Rights is currently averaging 14 incoming contacts per day and provided 424 incoming and outgoing contacts related to individual service provision during May 2022. Contacts include in-person walk-ins, in-person appointments, phone calls, community visits, and emails. Further, the Office currently has eight (8) open formal complaints that are in various states of an investigation by the Director or mediation by Resolute Mediation and Arbitration. Most often, daily contacts with the office are requests for advocacy focused on needed homeless support services, landlord relations, accessing mental health supports, and navigating the complex network of non- profit and governmental supports in the community. The Office is also working on new/updated marketing material that will be in both print and multimedia forms, including the information being ADA and language accessible. • Downtown Job Center & Home to Hope Program– Lead Roy Fitch Jr. (he/him)  The Downtown Job Center and the Home to Hope program are participating in the community “One Stop Shop” events to support our neighbors and friends who will be returning home from incarceration thanks to the Virginia Earned Sentence Credit Law. The One Stop Shop works to meet needs involving medical and mental health care, substance use counseling, financial literacy and support, career counseling, access to housing, and education and apprenticeship opportunities. The One Stop Shop will be held weekly through July on Wednesdays from 10-1pm at 750 Harris Street (District 9 Probation). Food will be provided as well. • Charlottesville Area Transit – Director Garland Williams (he/him)  Currently working with a consultant to develop a tabletop exercise in support of CAT’s emergency preparedness as required by state and federal authorities.  Ongoing priority is focused on addressing the critical bus driver shortage – reviewing possible changes to compensation structure to ensure competitiveness in the local market. • Charlottesville Fire Department – Chief Hezedean Smith (he/him)  Congratulations Chief Smith on being appointed to a three-year term as Commissioner on the Commission on Professional Credentialing (CPC) from July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2025. • Charlottesville Police Department – Assistant Chief Major LaTroy Durrette (he/him)  Members of the Charlottesville Police Department participated in the Law Enforcement Torch Run for the Special Olympics Virginia on June 9th. The team, lead by Captain Steve Knick, raised nearly $3,700 for a great cause. • Human Resources – Director Mary Ann Hardie (she/her)  The City is continuing to move through the Classification and Compensation study data collection process. Position data will be collected through PDQ documents, and process will be done in three phases. The data provided will assist in Gallagher moving forward in the process. The anticipated completion of this study will be around December 2022/January 2023. Finally, the City is working on completing many hires in multiple departments. Please go to our website to see all openings and encourage eligible applicants to apply: https://www.charlottesville.gov/695/Employment-with-the- City-of-Charlottesvi 5 • Human Services – Director Misty Graves (she/her)  The Department of Human Services Community-Based Services CAYIP program has begun for Summer 2022 for City youth aged 14-21 who applied in the spring and were accepted into the program. The Community Attention Youth Internship Program (CAYIP) works to ensure that its interns engage in career exploration, identify their strengths and build resiliency, and connect to positive adults and to resources in the community. The interns have completed the CAYIP Academy, which was held June 21-24, 2022, where they learned workplace reediness skills, communication and conflict management skills, and banking and budget skills, among others. The teens now will work up to twenty hours a week through the end of July with graduation in July 29, 2022, and they are able to earn a performance-based stipend as well. • Information Technology –Director Steve Hawkes (he/him)  Internally, the department continues to work on the H: Drive migration for city staff and departments. Further, with regards to cybersecurity, the IT team replaced their old authentication server for the City’s wireless network, VPN users, and network devices with a new, more robust one. This is part of IT’s critical infostructure and a necessary update to maintain our cybersecurity defenses. The department also recently completed an engagement with one of its Cybersecurity partners regarding Data Loss Prevention and the meeting culminated in the City’s ability to fix a number of security permissions issues on folders and files. Further, they were also able to identify a number of potential data security issues that will be addressed over the coming months. The team is also working with several departments to enhance current systems, make more data publicly accessible, create a uniform cloud-based email signature, and develop a Social Equity GIS tool Externally, the department has met with the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) to discuss a project to develop a text, email, and phone alerting system for weather, traffic, and emergencies. This work is ongoing, and the community will continue to be updated as it develops. In addition, the Data Analysis Group met on June 15th and was joined by a UVA Civil Engineering professor who provided a presentation that focused on a few UVA-sponsored data-centric projects regarding Smart Cities. • Neighborhood Development Services – Director James Freas (he/him)  NDS established a cooperative agreement with the UVA Office of the Building Official to provide critical capacity for development plan review and inspections.  NDS currently pursuing critical vacancies: City Building Official and two Building Inspectors  NDS is developing a new position description for the role of Transportation Planner, a role to help organize the city’s broader transportation priorities, to include ADA program management  NDS hosted a Community Open House on June 27th at the Ting Pavilion  The event was well-attended and kicks off the comment period for the Zoning Rewrite  NDS is moving around the community for a series of meetings being coordinated with neighborhood association and other community groups  A joint work session with Council and Planning Commission will be held in late September • Parks & Recreation – Director Dana Kasler (he/him)  Parks & Recreation partnered with Wes Bellamy in keeping the community basketball league active. The city, through its sponsorship, provided equipment and supplies to ensure the success of the league since the department does not have capacity to oversee an event of this magnitude.  The city is continuing its investment into Tonsler Park based on recent public input sessions. 6  Newly proposed improvements will go beyond the already $2 million invested since 2015: O Reconfigure Parking within existing asphalt area O Install bleachers for basketball O Add one or two picnic shelters O Improve usability of Rec Center O Potential fitness equipment installations along trail • Public Works – Director Stacey Smalls (he/him)  Administration: Developing new Financial Analyst role to support financial operations coordination with Finance Department and Office of Management and Budget.  Engineering: Interviewing later this month for a new role of Sr. Project Manager to provide direct support to the project managers in their execution of VDOT projects.  Engineering: Currently advertising project manager positions and new administrative assistant role to coordinate at a high level for the division.  Engineering: Traffic Engineering section currently pursuing Assistant Traffic Engineer and Traffic Inspector  Environmental Sustainability: Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC): Contractor CMTA is compiling cost estimates for the various energy conservation measures (ECMs) identified and building out a decision support tool to use in evaluating the project components by building portfolio (e.g., school building, city buildings). Internal sessions to review options scheduled for late July.  Environmental Sustainability: Coordinating with Parks on some LED upgrade/retrofits of Dominion- owned lights at Tonsler (fixtures around the facility as well as in the parking lot) which will be a good pilot for LED streetlight conversion.  Facilities Development: interviewing for Facilities Development Manager later this month; this will return a full-time manager to oversight of the construction projects for the city.  Facilities Maintenance: currently working to define maintenance agreements to support leases of city- owned property in collaboration with Office of Community Solutions staff who maintain agreements for the city.  Fleet: currently evaluating software to support the efficient and effective management of the city fleet.  Public Service: currently working with CRHA to designate multi year lease space in the Avon Yard in support of the ongoing redevelopment of public housing across the city. • Utilities – Director Lauren Hildebrand (she/her)  Utilities staff is currently working to develop a Scope of Work for Decarbonization of the Gas Utility study.  Fiscal Year 2023 Utility Rates have been approved, and new rates went into effect on July 1, 2022. o The Summary of Rates is currently being sent as a Utility Billing insert in the July billing cycle to customers who receive a paper bill. o An electronic version of the Summary of Rates was sent via the Utilities’ E-Newsletter to customers who receive paperless billing. o The Summary of Rates and the Utility Rate Report can be found on the city website at www.charlottesville.gov/utilityrates. • Social Services – Director Sue Moffett (she/her)  The Department of Social Services is accepting applications for Cooling Assistance. Persons who were preapproved do not need to reapply. Further, Ukrainian Humanitarian Parolees may not be eligible for 7 public assistance in Virginia – including cash assistance, SNAP benefits, and Medicaid. On both matters, please contact the Department of Social Services at 434-970-3400 for additional information/ Comuníquese con el Departamento de Servicios Sociales al 434-970-3400 para obtener información adicional. Finally, the Department of Social Services is also participating in the community One Stop Shops to support formerly incarcerated community members who are returning back to the community thanks to the Virginia New Earned Sentence Credit law. The Downtown Job Center and Home to Hope are also participating as city representatives. The One Stop Shops will be held each Wednesday through July from 10-1pm at 750 Harris Street. APPOINTEES AND ELECTED OFFICIAL UPDATES • Finance Office – Director Chris Cullinan (he/him)  The Finance department’s Risk Manager is currently perusing software to support improved efficiency in managing risk operations. The Risk Manager also will continue to monitor the ongoing pandemic, and as of the date of publication the Charlottesville community has been downgraded to a “medium” COVID risk locality. The Procurement Manager is currently working to fill several vacancies within her department – interested applicants should apply via the City’s online job portal. Finally, the department would like to provide an update on utility disconnections for nonpayment (as of June 21) -- Since April 11, the Utility Billing Office has notified 335 accounts of pending disconnection. Of that number, UBO initiated disconnection for 335 accounts. Of the 335 disconnections initiated, 33 remain off. Eighty-Nine percent (89%) of accounts in arrears have made payments/payment arrangements. • Sheriff’s Office – Sheriff James Brown, III (he/him)  Currently maintaining operations without three deputies who are currently in the Academy which is scheduled to be completed in December. • Treasurer’s Office - Treasurer Jason Vandever (he/him)  The Treasurer’s Office successfully completed the first half tax deadline for personal property and real estate taxes due on June 6, 2022. Taxpayers continue to reach out to the office regarding unpaid bills and request payment plans. The Office is still targeting July 2022 for the resumption of passport application services, but a solid date is forthcoming. Additionally, over 4000 annual trash decal renewals have been mailed for the new Annual Trash Decal year commencing July 1, 2022. Residential trash customers can reach out to our office to purchase a new trash decal at 434-970- 3146 or may schedule an in-person appointment virtually at https://www.charlottesville.gov/551/City-Treasurer 8