1. Calling the Roll. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Euille, and the City Clerk called the roll; all the members of City Council were present. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 2. Moment of Silence and Pledge of Allegiance. City Council observed a moment of silence and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ NEW BUSINESS ITEM NO. 1: Mayor Euille announced that Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald had today submitted his resignation from the City Council and he noted that the process for the election of a new member of Council would be discussed under Oral Reports later in the meeting with the City Attorney and Registrar of Voters. 3. Reading and Acting Upon the Minutes of the Following Meeting of City Council: (a) The Regular Meeting Minutes of April 24, 2007. City Council approved the regular meeting minutes of April 24, 2007. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ RECOGNITION OF YOUTH BY MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL 4. Presentation by the All City Chorus. Council heard a presentation by the All City Chorus. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 5. Recognition of the 9th Graders from Minnie Howard Ninth Grade Center For Their Artwork on the Third Floor of City Hall. The Mayor noted the reception held earlier in the evening for the students. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ PROCLAMATIONS 6. Presentation of a Proclamation Recognizing City Stars of the Month Juliette Milushev, Melissa Johnson, John Thomas, Allyson Coleman, Lanetta Farris and Maggie Lyons from the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse. City Council endorsed the proclamation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 7. Presentation of a Proclamation Declaring May as Safe Graduation Month. City Council endorsed the proclamation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 8. Presentation of a Proclamation Declaring the Month of May as Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. City Council endorsed the proclamation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 9. Presentation of a Proclamation Declaring May 20-26, 2007, as Emergency Medical Services Week. City Council endorsed the proclamation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 10. Presentation of a Proclamation Declaring May 14-18, 2007, as Technology Achievement Week. City Council endorsed the proclamation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER CONSENT CALENDAR (11-20) (Resignations and Uncontested Appointments) 11. Receipt of the Following Resignations From Members of Boards, Commissions and Committees: (a) Alexandria Citizen Corps Council Francis Hoang 12. Uncontested Appointments to Boards, Commissions and Committees: (a) Alexandria-Caen Exchange Committee 1 Citizen Member (b) Alexandria Archaeological Commission 1 Member From the Friends of Alexandria Archaeology (c) Alexandria Emergency Medical Services Council 1 Representative of the Emergency Nurses Association From Inova Alexandria Hospital (d) Alexandria Urban Design Advisory Committee 1 Representative of the Old Town North Business Community (e) Alexandria Youth Policy Commission 1 Citizen 18 Years of Age or Younger (Reports and Recommendations of the City Manager) 13. Consideration of Authorization of a Grant Application to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Bus and Bus Facilities Discretionary Program. 14. Consideration of the One Year Action Plan for Housing and Community Development for FY 2008 (Ordinances for Introduction) REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER (continued) CONSENT CALENDAR (continued) 15. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Extend Indefinitely the Provision Allowing the Purchase of City Decals for Motor Vehicles Kept in Alexandria, in Advance of the Payment of the Personal Property Tax on Such Vehicles. 16. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Impose Additional Administrative Fees on Delinquent Personal Property Tax Accounts. 17. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Change the Name of the Alexandria Caen Exchange Committee. 18. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Expand the Membership of the Arts Commission. 19. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Amend the Zoning Ordinance to Permit the BZA to Approve By Special Exception Certain Open Porches in Front Yards. 20. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Approve an Encroachment For a Marquee at 1101 Queen Street. END OF CONSENT CALENDAR City Council approved the Consent Calendar, with the exception of docket item #13, which was considered under separate motion. The City Manager's recommendations were as follows: 11. City Council accepted the following resignation with regret: (a) Francis Hoang, Alexandria Citizen Corps Council. 12. City Council made the following appointments: (a) reappointed Elizabeth Knisley as the one citizen member to the Alexandria-Caen Exchange Committee; (b) appointed Dave Cavanaugh as the one representative from the Friends of Alexandria Archaeology to the Alexandria Archaeological Commission; (c) waived the residency requirement and reappointed Diane Dickerson as the one representative of the Emergency Nurses Association from Inova Alexandria Hospital to the Alexandria Emergency Medical Services Council; (d) waived the residency requirement and appointed Elizabeth Lardner as the one representative of the Old Town North Business Community to the Alexandria Urban Design Advisory Committee; and (e) reappointed Deborah Sackey as the one citizen 18 years of age or younger to the Alexandria Youth Policy Commission. 13. City Council authorized the City Manager to: 1. submit a grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration for Section 5309 funding in the amount of $4 million, to be matched by City funding in the amount of $1 million, for implementation of the Crystal City/Potomac Yard Transit Corridor; and 2. If this application is approved, execute all necessary documents and agreements that may be required to receive this funding under this grant program. (separate motion) 14. City Council: 1. approved the attached one-year action plan for Housing and Community Development for FY 2008, which includes the City's application for Federal Fiscal Year 2007 funding for $1,280,565 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) monies and $818,941 in Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME) monies; and 2. authorized the City Manager to execute all necessary documents. 15. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing for May 12, 2007. 16. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing for May 12, 2007. 17. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing for May 12, 2007. 18. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing for May 12, 2007. 19. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing for May 12, 2007. 20. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing for May 12, 2007. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ CONTESTED APPOINTMENTS 21. Alexandria Citizen Corps Council 3 Citizen Members City Council appointed Stefan Cline and reappointed Marc DeCourcey and Michael Wenk as the three citizen members to the Alexandria Citizen Corps Council. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 22. Alexandria Commission for Women 4 Citizen Members City Council reappointed Diane Crawford-Batt, Charniele Herring, Susan Kellom and Susan Ross-O'Brien as the four citizen members to the Alexandria Commission for Women. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 23. Alexandria Commission on Information Technology 1 Citizen-at-Large City Council appointed Steven Cooper as the one citizen at large to the Alexandria Commission on Information Technology. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER FOR DISCUSSION 24. Presentation of the Results of the Development Asset Survey of Alexandria Youth. City Council: 1. Received the presentation by the Youth Policy Commission and staff on the results of the Development Assets Survey; and 2. Received the Development Assets Summary Report. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 25. Presentation by Potomac Yard, LLC of the Deed to the Land for the New Potomac Yard Fire Station. City Council was presented with the deed to the land for the new Potomac Yard Fire Station. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES None ORAL REPORTS BY MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL (a) Mayor Euille said the appointed committee dealing with the election process, reviewing and studying whether the elections needs to be changed, will conduct a public hearing on June 2 in Council Chambers. (b) Mayor Euille said the proposed smoking ban ordinance, originally scheduled for Saturday, May 12, has been deferred for at least a month. (c) Councilman Smedberg said he and Councilman Lovain were at the NVTC meeting last week, and it had a briefing from the new Metro General Manager, which was very interesting and the General Manager was straightforward and forthcoming in answering their questions. The bus barn in north Old Town did come up and there was quite a bit of discussion about that and is something they want to move forward on and would like to see resolved. (d) Councilman Smedberg said he and Councilwoman Pepper are on the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and at the last meeting, there was a briefing by Tom Biesiadny, with Fairfax County, on the NVTA transportation bill and how the jurisdictions are coming together and forming work groups. He said it was good to see that Alexandria is engaged in that process. Mayor Euille said he wasn't able to make the NVTC meeting last week, but he had the opportunity to speak with General Manager Catoe on Friday morning and there was also a larger concern that the timing of the bus barn and closing of it and moving it to another site, but the funding issue was discussed. That will be before the Metro Operations Committee this Thursday morning, and assurance was given to him that it was an internal staff discussion and there is no recommendation coming from the General Manager of WMATA to move funds from the Virginia side of the ledger to support the southeast bus barn for the District government. He said he and the City Manager have had on-going meetings with the WMATA folks over the past weeks and months and while they think they are getting close to a site, they learn there is a problem with the proposed site. He said they are just as eager and anxious as they have been over the past five years to get the site closed down and redevelopment and the bus barn relocated elsewhere. Metro is committed to looking at every option available, including consolidating the Royal Street bus barn with the West Ox Road facility, if need be. (e) Councilman Krupicka said he is a member of the Council of Governments Task Force that is looking into regional green building policies and it had its first meeting last week. He said City staff is doing an excellent job of participating and most of the work that's been going on has been happening at the staff level and Alexandria City staff has been an active participant in that. He said that sometime this fall, they will bring to the COG Board a series of recommendations relating to the creation of a regional green building approach and policy that the whole region can follow so the development community has some consistency across the region from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and also so that the jurisdictions are taking advantage of any economies of scale or other things that may be available by working together and following the practices in a consistent way. Councilman Krupicka said that Jay Fisette, as chair of COG, had appointed him to the task force and said he would share updates as they come up. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ ORAL PRESENTATIONS BY MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL (a) Mayor Euille said he mentioned earlier in the meeting Vice Mayor Macdonald's resignation from City Council, and they are all saddened that for personal reasons he has chosen to resign, but they do wish him the best. He said he has asked the Registrar of Voters, Tom Parkins, as well as the City Attorney, to provide the next steps and process for filling the vacancy and the timing of the date for a special election. Voter Registrar Parkins said the plan is to pass a resolution in two weeks, notify the Circuit Court that they need a special election, and 40-60 days after that, the election has to occur. He said when the Court schedules the election, they usually consult with the Electoral Board, and their position is that the election should occur as late in that 40-60 days as possible, and they want to maximize the period for absentee voting. He said they will recommend that the election be held July 17, which gives the parties time to nominate, independent candidates time to file and absentee voting to occur. City Attorney Pessoa said the bottom line is the Charter requires that the vacancy be filled by special election, there are timeframes within which that has to occur, so they are looking at the end of June/beginning of July for the election date. The candidates have to be lined up and ready to go 30 days before the election. The more time to line up the candidates and get campaigns underway, to prepare for the election and to give notice of the upcoming election, the better public policy they have. Mr. Pessoa said that on May 22, Council will bring the resolution for Council adoption, certifying the vacancy and requesting whatever date Council and the Electoral Board decide to request, and then the next day, he will file that with the Court and that will trigger the running of the period within which the election has to occur. The Charter also provides for the election of a vice mayor and the selection of a vice mayor would also occur that evening. (b) Mayor Euille acknowledged the death of former Mayor Frank Mann, who was an astute politician and businessman. Mayor Euille said Frank served two terms on Council from 1952 to 1958, three terms as Mayor from 1961 to 1967 and 1976 to 1979, and three terms as a delegate in the Virginia General Assembly from 1970 to 1975. He noted the many accomplishments of Mr. Mann during his tenure on City Council. Mayor Euille extended deepest condolences to his wife and family and said he will be missed. He said he has already spoken to the City Manager and staff about looking at opportunities, both short and long-term, for some things they can do to memorialize Frank with some naming opportunities. (c) In response to a request from Mayor Euille, Director of Citizen Assistance Rose Boyd gave an overview of her recent trip to and stay on the USS Alexandria, a nuclear submarine, a hunter/killer attack submarine, whose primary mission is intelligence. It was a four member delegation that went that included Tom Kerr, a member of the USS Alexandria Liaison Committee, Janet Barnett, Deputy Director in the Department of Recreation, and John Arundel, publisher of the Alexandria Times. (d) Councilwoman Pepper noted that this last Friday and Saturday, they had the Alexandria Historic Preservation Conference and Town Meeting and it was outstanding with 170 participants and the program and speakers were excellent. She said a representative from Arlington County had an Arlington Historic Preservation Master Plan, which the City should get a copy of, and they did a survey of all the buildings in the county, 1,000 a year, and then ranked the buildings according to those that were essential to understanding the county and those that were important, notable and minor but interesting and had some value to them. (e) Councilwoman Pepper noted another passing last week of Charles Nelson, Jr., who had been active in the Departmental Progressive Club and was a native Alexandrian. (f) Councilman Smedberg said he noticed some of the bricks on the pier by the Chart House are missing and in need of repair. Also, he had comments from neighbors that were concerned about the size of the buses that are coming into the City and seem to be getting larger and have difficulty turning. At some point, the issue should be addressed. Mayor Euille noted there was a walking tour by the collaborative committee last week along the entire waterfront just to survey what is right and wrong and inventory things that needed to be done. (g) Councilman Smedberg said he noticed on Sunday after the child network event, in addition to the bricks and sidewalk, that commercial vehicles are parking in the Zero block of King Street, particularly the parrot guys that park a large trailer vehicle and leave it there for an extended period of time. Council Action:________________________________________________________ ORAL REPORT FROM THE CITY MANAGER None. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS 26. Consideration of a Resolution Concerning the Retention of Affordable Housing at Hunting Towers (Deferred from the April 24, 2007, City Council Meeting.) (#24, 4/24/07) [ROLL-CALL VOTE] City Council adopted a resolution, as amended, concerning the retention of affordable housing at Hunting Towers and requested staff to forward it to the elected and appointed officials cited in the resolution. (RES. NO. 2227) Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 27. Consideration of a Resolution for the Virginia Railway Express Master Agreement Amendment. [ROLL-CALL VOTE] City Council adopted a resolution concerning the Virginia Railway Express Master Agreement Amendment. (RES. NO. 2228) Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 28. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First and Second Reading of an Ordinance to Adopt Supplement Number 42 to the City of Alexandria Zoning Ordinance. [ROLL-CALL VOTE] City Council passed the ordinance to adopt Supplement Number 42 to the City of Alexandria Zoning Ordinance. (ORD. NO. 4478) Council Action:_________________________________________________________ OTHER 29. Consideration of City Council Schedule. City Council adopted the City Council Schedule, with the following notations: 1. Scheduled a work session with the Economic Sustainability Work Group at 5:30 p.m. before Council's Tuesday, June 12 legislative meeting; and 2. Received the draft calendar for November-December 2007 for planning purposes which includes: the annual tree lighting ceremony on Friday, November 23 at 7:00 p.m. on Market Square and the Scottish Christmas Walk Parade on Saturday, December 1, at 10:30 a.m., and scheduled a work session at 5:30 before Council's May 22 legislative meeting on the Commonwealth Avenue Study. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ EXECUTIVE SESSION 30. Consideration of Convening An Executive Session Closed to the Public to Discuss Threatened or Pending Litigation. The executive session was not held. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ * * * * * * The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. * * * * * * Note: The action docket is a summary of Council's meeting deliberations prepared largely for staff follow-up. Formal minutes of the meeting, when approved by Council, become the official record of the meeting and of Council decisions made at the meeting.