Council approves Monroe Park lease during rowdy meeting
City Council approved the proposed lease plan for Monroe Park, voted to spend $50,000 to pay a third party consulting firm to analyze Revitalize RVA, and expelled an activist.
Chris Dorsey, a frequent commentor at council meetings, was expelled early from Monday’s meeting for being “out of order,” according to Council President Charles Samuels (2nd District). Dorsey, who was videotaping an interaction with a staff member, was forcibly removed from the room by police. Council proceeded with the night’s agenda without much delay.
Councilwoman Reva Trammell (8th District) spoke out against Dorsey’s removal. “That should not have happened,” Trammell said, assuring the Council audience that a discussion on the matter would take place.
The meeting was disrupted again when a protestor spoke out of turn.
Derek Jones, who was speaking in opposition to the Monroe Park plan, had his microphone turned off because Samuels said his speech was not pertinent to the papers in front of Council. Jones continued to speak above protests from Samuels while audience members repeatedly made loud comments in protest of the limited public comment on the Monroe Park debate.
Samuels called the meeting into recess, and he and some other members left the meeting. Members Cynthia Newbille (7th District), Reva Trammell (8th District), Parker Agelasto (5th District), John Baliles (1st District), Michelle Mosby (9th District) and Council Vice President Ellen Robertson (6th District) stayed during the recess.
After less than five minutes, Samuels returned and called the meeting back to order. He threatened to continue to postpone the meeting, and to keep postponing it, until people spoke only on the papers in front of them.
Later, Mosby called the audience disrespectful because of the frequent interruptions during the night’s meeting.
“Everybody comes up here and acts like the people on this council have no feelings,” Mosby said.
In addition to the Monroe Park lease item, the council also passed an expedited resolution introduced by Agelasto in an attempt to appease some members of the public who opposed the deal.
Agelasto: “[This resolution] will put into a separate agreement provisions where council will have provisions to review the policy prior to that agreement taking effect.”
Later, protestors spoke against Agelasto’s resolution as a way to speak against the entire Monroe Park plan.
“Even with the motion, I feel that privatization in this instance is probably a bad thing,” said member of the public, Jonathan Arthur.
Although it did not vote on the budget, the council also listened to public comment on the budget papers, including opposition by police and firefighters on the suspension of the Career Development Program and the Educational Incentive Program, and pleas to increase the City school budget.
The council also voted to reduce the number council meetings to a once-monthly schedule on a trial basis, beginning in June.
Baliles said the reduction in formal meetings would be a way to save money and increase productivity.
“I don’t think it will decrease interaction with the public, I think it will make us more efficient,” Baliles said. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it would be better for the citizens and the government.”
Council staff estimated $200,000 would be saved if the council decided to go to a once a month meeting schedule, Baliles said
“I’d much rather see an ordinance doubling your pay than cutting down the interaction that people have,” said audience member Caroline Cox.
Council also approved the week of April 20 to April 26 as administrative professional week, and proclaimed May 12, 2014 as Richmond Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.
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Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
I think you my have mis-quoted Caroline Cox, or maybe the quote you chose mis-construes what she was saying. As I recall she actually advocated raising council pay and thanked them for their work while advocating for increased citizen input.
@John Moser, you’re right! We’ve updated the quote.
The police assaulting someone was very upsetting to watch, and it seemed like Dorsey should have been allowed to record from the press section. He was not causing a problem until that Staff person came up and started saying who knows what to him. The way Charles Samuels ignored the whole issue was really messed up and dehumanizing. Even if we disagree with folks it seems like we should at least pause to make sure they are ok when being forcibly dragged away. Like maybe the person in charge of the meeting should have stopped to check in on the situation. Instead they pretended not to see it, which is super problematic.
Other goings on at the meeting included this statement, in addition to be calling Charles Samuels a Dingo.: http://mokarnage.com/2014/04/14/from-redskins-to-monroe-we-shall-not-be-moved/
Charles Samuels had previously stated he was not going to allow public comment on the Monroe Park issue. This is why people interrupted or spoke off topic. It turned out that because of Parker’s expedited amendments, people were able to sort of speak on the lease, but not directly. Samuels later implied that there would be public comment on the lease, and then took that back again. I called him a dingo because he tried to chastise my mentioning Monroe Park at all during my pre-signed up for public comment section, and I was already finished anyways, so he was being kinda a dingo/dingus.
Anyways, if you are sick of all this privatization, neoliberal, cronyism – check out the protest this Sunday April 20 at Allen and Monument at the Robert E. Lee statue from 1-5 against Venture Richmond (sponsoring the Easter parade), privatizing Monroe Park (protest is across the street from 1643 monument where Alice Massie lives), the construction of a baseball stadium in shockoe bottom and public expenditure on it. Since it is Easter, I’ll be asking, What Would Jesus Do?
Others in the line of nearly 20 speakers asked the Council not to approve a property tax exemption for Venture Richmond’s Tredegar Green property, a long-delayed issue that has now been rolled into the budget process.
City Council should not approve this tax exemption for Venture Richmond for the following reasons:
The City Council has a moratorium on granting tax exemptions by designation. Venture Richmond submitted this application in 2012, and Venture Richmond failed to meet the deadline of April 8, 2013, as established by City Ordinance 2013-19, for introducing an ordinance exempting property from taxation by designation.
State code requires that City Council consider whether the executive salary of the organization is reasonable when considering an organization’s application for tax exemption. Venture Richmond Director Jack Berry receives a salary of over $240,000 annually. If Venture Richmond can afford to pay its Director $240,000 are we to believe that it cannot afford to pay $43,836 in real estate tax?
State code also requires that City Council consider whether the non-profit applying for tax exemption engages in substantial lobbying for legislation. According to Venture Richmond, it has spent at least $32,000 lobbying for the Mayor’s Shockoe Stadium proposal. The Mayor is President of Venture Richmond, and Venture Richmond has been engaged in substantial lobbying for the Mayor’s legislation.
Richmond’s Tax Exemption by Designation Committee recommended AGAINST a real estate tax exemption for Venture Richmond, and the committee sessions generally focused on the amount of executive salaries, revenue sources and any duplication of city services being performed by each applicant. The other organizations that applied but did not receive exemptions were VMFA parking lots, Science Museum of Virginia properties, Family Lifeline properties, CHAT Property, Hands Up Ministries properties and Richmond Urban Senior Housing property.
On its application for real estate tax exemption for its amphitheater property, Venture Richmond stated that the property was in compliance with zoning codes. Yet the amphitheater above the canal is not zoned for an amphitheater. Venture Richmond also stated that it does not compete with other organizations in the marketplace, a contention that is disputed by private promoters. Venture Richmond also stated that it does not provide or deny services based on ability to pay, a contention that would be disputed by those not affording a ticket to Venture Richmond paid events.
According to a video-taped presentation given by Venture Richmond Director Jack Berry to the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association, the intention of Venture Richmond is to rent out the amphitheater with no limitation on the number of events annually, and to serve alcoholic beverages on the property. Rental property generating income for the non-profit is generally not considered a charitable purpose for tax exemption.
I will be very interested to see how other local media covers this issue. Joined corporate and political power in Venture Richmond’s board that runs roughshod over citizen concerns is a real problem, whether the issue is the Tredegar Green amphitheater plan or the Shockoe stadium proposal or Monroe Park.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Do you say anything else Scott?