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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/24/2023 - City Council - Minutes - RegularCity Council Meeting MINUTES Monday, July 24, 2023, 6:30 PM Work Session is cancelled for July 24, 2023 Regular Session 6:30 P.M. Council Chambers, City Hall, 114 North Broad Street, Salem, Virginia 24153 WORK SESSION AMENDED AGENDA WORK SESSION IS CANCELLED REGULAR SESSION 1. Call to Order A regular meeting of the Council of the City of Salem, Virginia, was called to order at 6:30 p.m., there being present the following members to wit: Renée Ferris Turk, Mayor; James W. Wallace, III, Vice-Mayor; Councilmembers: Byron Randolph Foley, William D. Jones (absent), and H. Hunter Holliday; with Renée Ferris Turk, Mayor, presiding together with James E. Taliaferro, II, City Manager; Rob Light, Assistant City Manager and Clerk of Council; Rosemarie B. Jordan, Director of Finance; Chuck Van Allman, Director of Community Development; Mike Stevens, Director of Communications; and Jim Guynn, City Attorney. 2. Pledge of Allegiance Mayor Turk stated that Council needed to consider an amendment to this evening's agenda to add Item 6D. This item is for Council to consider approval of hiring The Berkley Group to head the City Manager search. She noted that there are specifics that may need to be ironed out with the contract itself. Renée Turk motioned to add Item 6D to the agenda to consider awarding contract for an executive search firm for the City Manager position to The Berkley Group. H Hunter Holliday seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, Holliday, Turk, Wallace Absent: Jones 3. Bid Openings, Awards, Recognitions There were none. 4. Consent Agenda A. Citizen Comments Comments from the public, limited to five minutes, on matters not already having a public hearing component at the same meeting. John Breen, 142 Bogey Lane, was the only citizen to address Council this evening. He expressed concerns relating to Salem's City Code. He listed specific sections of the Code and requested that Legal Counsel review these Charter and Code sections and by October 1, 2023, provide a written public legal opinion to Council, which determines, if the word "shall" within these sections means something must be done or if another meaning is correct. He requested that this opinion identify any suggested changes for these Code sections. Mr. Breen also requested that, through the City Manager, not later than November 1, 2023, the Director of Community Development create the Index which Section 106-522.3 mandates; require that both Section 106-508 and Section 18-41 be strictly followed and enforced effective immediately; compile a list of non-conforming Salem properties; and provide to Council detailed draft ordinances which define and provide incentives to address blight, adopt the Virginia Building Maintenance Code, prevent parking in front yards, and establish storage container regulations. One further request from Mr. Breen was that by November 1, 2023, Council appoint a committee with a 12-month task to review Salem's Code and Charter and to render recommendations for changes and amendments to Council as they may arise. B. Minutes Consider acceptance of the July 10, 2023, Work Session and Regular Meeting minutes. The minutes were approved as written. C. Financial Reports Consider acceptance of the Statement of Revenues and Expenditures for the twelve months ending June 2023. Vice-Mayor Wallace requested an explanation from the City Manager addressing why there were some large differences in the actual vs. budget for certain Enterprise Fund accounts. Mr. Taliaferro asked for clarification of specifically what Mr. Wallace was referring to. Mr. Wallace responded that the Water Fund and the Electric Fund seemed to be off significantly from the budget for the year. He noted that these figures are subject to final audit; however, it appeared that the Electric Fund lost almost $900,000 and the Water Fund lost $400,000 that was not forecast when the budget was formulated. Mr. Taliaferro asked Ms. Jordan to respond. Ms. Jordan explained that at this point all June 30 statements were subject to the final audit as noted on the financial reports. None of the audit year- end adjustments have been made yet to these statements. Anything that is considered a fixed asset has not yet been reclassified and that remains to be done as well as any other accruals that need to be done. There remain a number of adjustments that will be made to these statements before they are considered final for audit purposes. At this point, these reports are preliminary first-pass reports. Ms. Jordan noted that there will be many adjustments made to these numbers before they are finalized at the end of the audit period. The financial reports were received. 5. Old Business There was no old business this evening. 6. New Business A. Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Hold public hearing and consider ordinance on first reading for the request of Brittany M. Haddox, contract purchaser, and Juilliard Enterprises, LLC, property owner, for rezoning the property of 1201-1203 Texas Street (Tax Map # 149 - 1 - 1.1) from HBD, Highway Business District with conditions to HBD, Highway Business District without conditions. (Advertised in the July 13 and 20 issues of the Salem Times-Register.) (Recommend approval; see page 2 of Planning Commission minutes.) STAFF REPORT Mayor Turk opened the public hearing. Jason Fountain, representing Julliard Enterprises, and Brittany Haddox, buyer of the property, appeared before Council. He stated that they were there to follow up on the Planning Commission's recommendation and to make themselves available as the buyer and seller to answer any questions or concerns that Council may have. Mayor Turk noted that she understood that Ms. Haddox would be opening a law office that would specialize in labor disputes and asked to verify this information. Ms. Haddox responded that this was accurate. She elaborated that the property had two buildings on it. In one, she plans to operate a law practice and the other one would have a tenant of some other professional office nature. Mayor Turk closed the public hearing. Mr. Foley asked if anyone remembered why this property was so restricted. Mr. Taliaferro noted that originally when it was rezoned, it was very narrow in order to restrict the uses as HBD includes a range of uses. There was concern at that time since it was relatively new that they did not want to see a wide range of uses there. However, over time this has restricted them. Randy Foley motioned to adopt ordinance on first reading for the request of Brittany M. Haddox, contract purchaser, and Juilliard Enterprises, LLC, property owner, for rezoning the property of 1201-1203 Texas Street (Tax Map # 149 - 1 - 1.1) from HBD, Highway Business District with conditions to HBD, Highway Business District without conditions. H Hunter Holliday seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, Holliday, Turk, Wallace Absent: Jones B. Abstract of Votes Receive the Abstract of Votes cast at the Democratic Party Primary Election held on June 20, 2023. The Abstract of Votes was accepted by Council. C. Boards and Commissions Consider appointments to various boards and commissions. Randy Foley motioned to reappoint Vicki Daulton for a four-year term ending July 26, 2027, to the Planning Commission and NPDES Citizens' Committee. Renée Turk seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, Holliday, Turk, Wallace Absent: Jones D. Executive Search Firm Contract Consider awarding contract for an executive search firm for the City Manager position. - SUPPLEMENTAL ITEM Mayor Turk remarked that this was the item that was approved to be added by amendment at the beginning of the meeting. She noted that this item was for Council to consider the hiring of The Berkley Group in the search for a City Manager. She shared that Council had been provided with information and that there were specific details that Council would need to look at together and fine tune. They have the proposal from the Berkley Group to work with at this point. Vice-Mayor Wallace asked Mr. Guynn if it would be feasible to approve the base contract this evening and then include in a letter that add-on items could be discussed at a later date. Mr. Guynn responded that it was feasible to set this up as a term contract. He used examples of two search contracts that he was currently working with Berkley on for other localities that were essentially the same contract. Mr. Guynn said that it was certainly feasible to do Master contract and then do add-ons later as appropriate for what the particular job assignment was. Mr. Foley stated that he had many questions, but he did not know that they necessarily needed to all be answered prior to signing a contract. He noted that he had not been asked a single question by any of the other members of Council about this process and that he was frustrated by this. He felt that he was in the dark as to what had been discussed, what the parameters were, what people were looking for, and what the process was. He noted that as the only member of Council that had been through this process in the past four years that he had an understanding of the process and that he was unhappy with the way things were going thus far and the fact that he felt that he was in the dark. He was not sure how much needed to be discussed prior to signing the contract and how much could be discussed after the contract was signed. He also noted that he felt he had good insight into this process as he had gone through it previously and that he was frustrated that he had not been asked any questions. Mayor Turk asked Mr. Foley if they had done a search the previous time. Mr. Foley responded affirmatively. He noted that a Request for Proposals (RFP) had also been put out. He commented that he was impressed with The Berkley Group in the limited exposure that he had with them during the Comp and Class Study. He realized that this would most likely be a different group of people that the City would be working with. Mr. Foley asked if there would be any public input to the process, when would salary range be discussed, and the question of whether there should be multiple Assistant City Managers versus one for which some discussion had been held. It was his feeling that some of these questions should be answered before hiring the City Manager position and knowing what that position is going to be. Mayor Turk responded that this is why The Berkley Group will be interviewing to find out from every member of Council exactly what they are looking for and where we need to go. Before Council can interact with them, Council has to approve them as the group that they are going to work with. She noted that there had been no discussion of what anyone on Council would like to see or salary. At this point the discussion was just on acquiring this group that is very good and very well known for doing this type of search to work with the City of Salem. Mr. Wallace noted that, having read the proposal that they had received from Mr. Taliaferro, he felt that a lot of these concerns will be addressed once the process starts based on the information included in The Berkley Group engagement letter. Included were the steps that would be followed in the process of interacting with Council to determine the scope and the type of person that Council would like to hire. He felt that as the process moves along, all of the details would evolve. Mr. Foley stated that he wished to be transparent and that he felt this was a "ready, fire, aim" drill right now. Mayor Turk responded that she was sorry that he felt that way. James Wallace motioned to execute contract with The Berkley Group for the search for the new City Manager. H Hunter Holliday seconded the motion. Ayes: Holliday, Turk, Wallace Nays: Foley Absent: Jones 7. Closed Session A. Closed Session Hold a closed session in accordance with Section 2.2-3711 A(5) of the 1950 Code of Virginia, as amended, for: Discussion concerning a prospective business or industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business' or industry's interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community. Jim Wallace motioned that in accordance with Section 2.2-3711 A(5) of the 1950 Code of Virginia, as amended, Council hereby convenes to closed session at 6:49 p.m. for the purpose of discussing the following specific matter: Discussion concerning a prospective business or industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business' or industry's interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community. H. Hunter Holliday seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, Holliday, Turk, Wallace Absent: Jones Mayor Turk noted that no action would be taken this evening. James Wallace motioned to reconvene at 8:15 p.m. in accordance with Section 2.2- 3712 D. of the Code of Virginia, 1950 as amended to date, Council certifies that in closed session only items lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and only such items identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered by the Council. Randy Foley seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, Holliday, Turk, Wallace Absent: Jones 8. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:16 p.m.