We’re LIVE! at Danville City Hall for tonight’s city council meeting. This article is complete, so enjoy the most detailed coverage that you’ll find anywhere. Let’s get to work!
Dolores Reynolds, Harold Garrison and Sheila Baynes, HELLO!
What? Two meetings in a row for Duke Energy’s Davis Montgomery? You can never have enough Davis Montgomery. Meanwhile, Keith Walden has a smile on his face for some reason. Heh.
We’re underway. Larry Campbell is not here tonight, so everything will pass with a 8-0 vote. Buddy Rawley gives the prayer and leads the Pledge of Allegiance. Register & Bee Publisher Steve Kaylor accepts the proclamation for the Boys & Girls Club.
Register & Bee Publisher Steve Kaylor represents the Boys & Girls club for their proclamation. Note Denice Thibodeau being sure to get a photo of the Big Boss.
Steve Kaylor explains the Boys & Girls Club’s mission.
Davis Montgomery listens to the Same Old Stuff from Gary Miller while Lee Vogler attempts to hail a taxi. Alonzo Jones is amused.
Duke Energy’s Davis Montgomery tells council about the latest happenings in the Coal Ash World. Unsurprisingly, Gary Miller says it’s been X number of months and Duke Energy still hasn’t paid out Danville’s Cash Jackpot (which will never happen). Lee Vogler gets a case of the Badass and talks tough that it’s past time for Duke Energy to do something. Montgomery smiles and handles those two like a windshield handles bugs. See you in two weeks, Davis!
School Board Chairman Ed Polhamus explains the timeline of the capital improvement requests that they made.
School Board Chairman Ed Polhamus talks about the school board’s capital request program. Interestingly, Polhamus met with Mayor Sherman Saunders and Vice Mayor Gary Miller in the mayor’s office about 45 minutes before this meeting. Hmmm.
We start with the consent agenda which conveniently includes the $1,500,000 authorization to repay the Tobacco Commission for Job Busts. No discussion, no comment. Convenient. Fooey.
Keith Walden is about to get approval for his Stewart St. housing development. Finally. He’s doing all the speaking again tonight. He’s smart.
Shelby Clark maintains her opposition to the project. She says that the marketability of her house will be diminished because she’ll have an apartment building against her backyard. Fooey. We have to have lets of separate votes on this issue because there are different parcels of land involved. They all pass 8-0.
Gary Miller says that there might be a need for a traffic light at the West Main St. one day. That panics former opponent Melanie Vaughan. Planning director Ken Gillie points out that Gary Miller pulled his prediction out of his ass. Not really, but that would been funny. As a traffic planner, Gary Miller is a great cardiologist.
Around the horn time. Nothing remarkable is said. Let’s move to the work session.
Police Capt. Barry Creasy presents a request to allow police officers to enroll in the Virginia Retirement System.
Danville police officers and firefighters don’t participate in the Social Security system thanks to a vote taken back in the 1950’s when it wasn’t mandatory. They could change that and opt-in with a majority vote but they never have done that.
HR director Sara Weller explains the differences between the Danville retirement system and the state’s. She says that the police proposal to join the Virginia Retirement System isn’t practical because all of the city’s employees would have to join it.
After a smoke break five minute recess, we start the budget workshop part of the work session. They recap the city attorney’s budget quickly, the grill Sara Weller about a new annual $75000 software request for personnel and benefits administration. Weller stands by her request, so we’ll see if that stays in the budget. We move to economic development and that’s enough for council to go into closed session. I’ve already fallen asleep once (literally), so we’re done here.
We’ve got more coming up on SouthsideCentral!
What is with some councilmen raising ther hand so they could read ordinances aloud? One was constantly raising hand to be picked to read. Made me feel like I was in school. Ha Ha. It was amusing. Glad the discussion regarding Stewart Street project has appeared to have worked well.
Sheila, it’s called Robert’s rules of order and it’s how every council meeting is conducted. I was glad you were able to attend tonight. I believe it’s the first meeting you’ve attended that I can recall, so it was nice to see a new face.
All this worry about traffic lights is pointless. I have been in Danville many years and I have seen traffic lights come and go. The engineers seem to have a grasp of the situation and will no doubt take care of any needs that arise. I bet these people don’t even remember (or didn’t live here) when there was a traffic light at West Main Street and Canterbury. Does anyone miss it?
What was discussed in work session that applied to the police officers? Saw several there
Public safety employees do not participate in Social Security like we do because of a decision made back before I was born. They’re asking to join the Virginia Retirement System, but the HR director said later that wasn’t practical.
Lee we both know your memory is better than that, you know I have attended others. As someone who has chaired organizations I am certainly aware of Roberts Rules of Order. Sorry I hurt your feelings. My comment was to bring humor to the dull parts of the process. I could not help but be amused while sitting and watching, it reminded me of my school days when those who loved to read were always raising their hand to read aloud in class. Those who loved to read and thought they read well aloud were always eagerly raising their hand to read. Last night, you happened to be the really eager one. Finally others joined in. Don’t know why they set back and let you do most of the reading before they decided they needed to step up. I believe that if you and I traded places last night and you were sitting where I was as a spectator you would have seen the humor of it too. I believe that it is likely that when you were in school, you used to like to volunteer to read aloud in class as I did. I am sure you will see me at future meetings as well. And, people can watch council on TV in their homes. Also, I know that many people do not attend or watch council on TV but that does not mean that they do not read or hear reports on council activities nor does it mean they do not care. Attendance is not required to be interested.
Regarding the work session last night Gracie, it was stated that a vote would have to be taken to participate in the VRS system (all employees will vote not just Public Safety) and that it is believed that the majority would not support switching because it would hurt them. It was also was pointed out that Public Safety employees opted in the 1950’s not to pay into Social Security (they could people that money and use as they wanted to). There is a process in place in which they (Public Safety employees) can change that-voting to do so. The presentation by City staff last night was very informative. We will be hearing more about the retirement issue for Public Safety employees.
Thanks for the info.