Meeting Minutes for Special Meeting (12/16/1993)

Special Meeting
Thursday, December 16, 1993 - - 4:30 pm

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Present: Mayor Patricia S. Ticer, Vice Mayor William C. Cleveland, Members of Council Kerry J. Donley, T. Michael Jackson, Redella S. Pepper, Lonnie C. Rich, and David G. Speck.

Absent: None.

Also Present: Mrs. Lawson, City Manager; Mr. Sunderland, City Attorney; Ms. Evans, Assistant City Manager; Ms. Steele, Deputy City Manager; Mr. Brannan, Assistant City Manager; Mr. Pessoa, Assistant City Attorney; Ms. Boyd, Director of Citizen Assistance; Ms. Beidler, Registrar of Voters; Mr. Schott, Director of General Services; and Mr. McMahon, Deputy Director of General Services.

Recorded by: Beverly I. Jett, CMC, City Clerk and Clerk of Council.

OPENING

The meeting was called to order by Mayor Ticer, and the City Clerk called the Roll; all Members of City Council were present, except for Councilman Jackson who arrived at 5:18 p.m.

(It was noted that a Notice of this Special Meeting had been previously served upon each Member of Council, pursuant to a provision of the City Charter, a copy of the Notice certified by each Member of Council being on file in the office of the City Clerk and Clerk of Council.)

New Business Item No. 1: Mayor Ticer recognized David Legg, representative of the Virginia-American Water Company.

Mr. Legg expressed his appreciation to the City Manager. He indicated that during the crisis last week, Alexandria was initially included on the list of those cities that were going to be ordered to boil water erroneously and through quick action on the City Manager's part talking with people in D.C., we were able to avoid that. Of course, it saved this City some trying times as well as his employees and all of the customers. He just wanted to say thank you, Vola, for your effort. We at Virginia-American appreciate it, and the customers of Alexandria appreciate it also.

The City Manager stated that the Environmental Protection Agency did not know who the user customers were of the Dalecarlia plant. They included Alexandria and omitted 100,000 homes in Fairfax County. Fairfax County was there most of the night trying to get notice out since they were not on the early press releases. She expressed her thanks to Bob Mallot, who is the City Administrator in the District. He personally went in because David [Legg] and the Virginia-American Water Company and the City's staff had been calling EPA, and after a number of calls we were still included in the press release three minutes before the press conference. She got Bob Mallot out of a meeting as an emergency and he personally went in and gathered up the press releases and with his fountain pen took Alexandria out. Otherwise, we would have been in all of the press releases and would have had the entire population concerned here in the City.

She stated that there will be a follow-up conference to try to figure out all of the things that went wrong with this water crisis. The City Manager will keep the Council informed.

Mayor Ticer commended the Virginia-American Water to offer their office on Duke Street to those who needed to fill their containers with water. This was certainly generous and cooperative and appreciated. She also commended the Council of Governments for immediate response without prior notice for serving as the communications center. They were there around the clock until the crisis was over. It took an amazing amount of effort and volunteerism. She thanked them all.

ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS

2. (a) Public Hearing, Second Reading and Final Passage of AN ORDINANCE to amend and reordain Chapter 1 (SCHOOL DISTRICT AND ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD) of Title 12 (EDUCATION, SOCIAL SERVICES AND WELFARE) of The Code of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, 1981, as amended, to provide for the election of the Alexandria school board. (#20(b) 12/11/93 -- ord\12-1-1.III)

(b) Public Hearing, Second Reading and Final Passage of AN ORDINANCE to amend and reordain Section 2-2-10 (ESTABLISHMENT OF ELECTION DISTRICTS AND VOTING PLACES) of Chapter 2, Title 2, and to amend and reordain Chapter 1 (SCHOOL DISTRICT AND ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD) of Title 12 (EDUCATION, SOCIAL SERVICES AND WELFARE), all of The Code of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, 1981, as amended, to amend the boundaries of certain voting precincts in the City of Alexandria and to provide for the election of the Alexandria school board. (#20(b) 12/11/93 --ord\12-1-1.VII)

(A copy of a verbatim transcript prepared by a court reporter is on file in the office of the City Clerk and Clerk of Council, marked Exhibit No. 1 of Item No. 2; 12/16/93, and is incorporated herewith as part of this record by reference.

A copy of the City Attorney's memorandum dated December 14, 1993, is on file in the office of the City Clerk and Clerk of Council, marked Exhibit No. 2 of Item No. 2; 12/16/93, and is incorporated herewith as part of this record by reference.

Copies of communications received pertaining to this item are on file in the office of the City Clerk and Clerk of Council, marked collectively as Exhibit No. 3 of Item No. 2; 12/16/93, and are incorporated herewith as part of this record by reference.

A copy of the City Attorney's letter dated December 20, 1993, together with documents submitted to the U. S. Department of Justice, is on file in the office of the City Clerk and Clerk of Council, marked Exhibit No. 4 of Item No. 2; 12/16/93, and is incorporated herewith as part of this record by reference.)

The City Clerk read the docket item.

(The following persons participated in the public hearing on this item:

David Brown, 503 Woodland Terrace, President, North Ridge Citizens Association, stated that their position is that they support plan three, but urged the Council to make public legislatively a minor amendment to plan three, to have three of the board members elected at-large, so that each district would have two district members and there would be three at-large members;

Julie Lineberry, 500 High Street, Chair, Electoral Board, stated that the Board preferred either at-large or the 3-3-3 plan;

John A. Stanton, Sr., 622 1/2 N. Alfred Street, Civic and Social Action Committee, Ebenezer Baptist Church, stated that he would favor the plan of three districts, with one being elected at-large;

Duane D. Anderson, 20 Ancell Street, President, Warwick Village Citizens Association, spoke in support of the 3-3-3 plan;

J. Glenn Hopkins, 400 Madison Street, speaking as a citizen and as an advocate for inclusive democracy in Alexandria, spoke in support of the 3-4-2 plan; a copy of Mr. Hopkins' statement is on file in the office of the City Clerk and Clerk of Council, marked Exhibit No. 6 of this item;

Councilman Speck asked questions of Mr. Hopkins.

A. Melvin Miller, 3928 Colonel Ellis Avenue, representing the Departmental Progressive Club, spoke in support of the 3-4-2 plan;

It was noted that Councilman Jackson arrived at 5:18 p.m., during Mr. Miller's presentation.

(General Discussion. City Council participated in discussion on points raised by Mr. Miller.)

Mel Bergheim, 4905 Maury Lane, spoke in support of Plan III; and

James Moody, 308 Cloverway, spoke in support of at-large elections.

General Discussion. The Members of City Council made summary remarks.)

2. (a) WHEREUPON, upon motion by Vice Mayor Cleveland, seconded by Councilman Donley and carried on a ROLL-CALL vote of 6-to-1, City Council finally passed the substitute ordinance upon its Second Reading. The voting was as follows:

Cleveland "aye" Jackson "no"
Donley "aye" Pepper "aye"
Ticer "aye" Rich "aye"
Speck "aye"

The substitute ordinance finally passed reads as follows:

ORDINANCE NO. 3693

AN ORDINANCE to amend and reordain Chapter 1 (SCHOOL DISTRICT AND ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD) of Title 12 (EDUCATION, SOCIAL SERVICES AND WELFARE) of The Code of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, 1981, as amended, to provide for the election of the Alexandria school board.

THE CITY COUNCIL OF ALEXANDRIA HEREBY ORDAINS:

Section 1. That Chapter 1 of Title 12 of The Code of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, 1981, as amended, be and the same hereby is amended and reordained to read as follows:

Sec. 12-1-1 City as single school division.

The city shall constitute a single school division.

Sec. 12-1-2 Members of school board.

The school board of the city shall consist of nine members to be elected by the qualified voters of the city in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and title 22.4 of the Code of Virginia (1950), as amended.

Sec. 12-1-3 Continuing body.

The school board shall be a continuing body. No measure pending before it shall abate or be discontinued solely because of the expiration of the term of office of, or the removal from office of, one or more members of the board.

Sec. 12-1-4 Election of school board members; date and manner of election.

(a) The election of all nine school board members shall be held on the first Tuesday in May, beginning in May 1994, and on the first Tuesday in May every third year thereafter.

(b) The nine members of the school board shall be elected, in accordance with subsection (c), by the qualified voters residing in the school board election districts. To be eligible to be a candidate for election from a school board election district, an individual must be a resident of the district.

(c) The city shall be divided into three school board election districts, District A, District B and District C. Three school board members shall be elected from and shall represent each such district. The three districts shall be composed of the following precincts (or, as identified in title 2 of this code, "election districts") located within the city, the boundaries of which are described in section 2-2-10.

(i) District A shall be composed of the Lyles Crouch School, City Hall, Annie B. Rose House, Jefferson Houston, Lee Center, George Washington School, Cora Kelly Center and Mt. Vernon School precincts;

(ii) District B shall be composed of the Maury School, George Mason School, Agudas Achim Congregation, Blessed Sacrament Church, Second Presbyterian Church, Minnie Howard School, Temple Beth El, John Tyler Building and Southern Towers precincts; and

(iii) District C shall be composed of the James K. Polk, Patrick Henry School, Landmark Center, Trade Center, William Ramsay School and John Adams School precincts.

Sec. 12-1-5 Term of office.

Each member of the school board shall serve for a term of three years commencing on July 1 following the member's election or until a successor shall have been elected and taken office.

Section 2. That this ordinance shall become effective upon the date and at the time of its final passage; provided, however, that no election of school board members shall take place until this ordinance and the regulations it establishes for the election of school board members shall have been submitted to the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and no objection thereto shall have been interposed within the time allotted by law.

Introduction: 12/11/93
First Reading: 12/11/93
Publication: 12/15/93; 12/16/93
Public Hearing: 12/16/93
Second Reading: 12/16/93
Final Passage: 12/16/93

NOTE:

THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO BE CONSIDERED, upon motion by Councilman Donley, seconded by Councilman Jackson and carried unanimously, at 6:18 p.m., the Special Meeting of December 16, 1993, was adjourned. The voting was as follows:

Donley "aye" Cleveland "aye"
Jackson "aye" Pepper "aye"
Ticer "aye" Rich "aye"
Speck "aye"

APPROVED BY:

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PATRICIA S. TICER MAYOR
ATTEST:

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Beverly I. Jett, CMC, City Clerk

This docket is subject to change.

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Full-text copies of ordinances, resolutions, and agenda items are available in the Office of the City Clerk and Clerk of the Council.

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