OPENING 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:_________________________________________________________ 3. Reading and Acting Upon the Minutes of the Following Meetings of City Council: (a) The Regular Meeting Minutes of December 12, 2006; and (b) The Public Hearing Meeting Minutes of December 16, 2006. City Council approved the regular meeting minutes of December 12, 2006, and the public hearing meeting minutes of December 16, 2006. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ RECOGNITION OF YOUTH BY MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL Mayor Euille recognized the eighth grade ESL civics class students in the audience from Hammond Middle School. PROCLAMATIONS 4. Presentation of a Proclamation Declaring January as Mentoring Awareness Month. City Council endorsed the proclamation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 5. Presentation of a Proclamation Declaring Monday, January 15 as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Alexandria and Setting Aside January 8-15 in Memorial Observance of the Late Dr. King and His Numerous Contributions to the American Way of Life. City Council endorsed the proclamation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER CONSENT CALENDAR (6-10) (Resignations and Uncontested Appointments) 6. Receipt of the Following Resignations From Members of Boards, Commissions and Committees: (a) Alexandria Archaeological Commission Timothy P. Peterson (b) Alexandria Commission for the Arts Ellen Rains Harris (c) Alexandria Industrial Development Authority Roger Machanic 7. Uncontested Appointments to Boards, Commissions and Committees: (a) Alexandria Commission on Employment 1 Citizen-at-Large (b) Alexandria Commission on Information Technology 1 Member Representing the Alexandria City School Board (c) Alexandria Commission on Persons With Disabilities 2 Citizen Members (One of Whom Must Have A Disability) (d) Alexandria Consumer Affairs Commission 1 Citizen Member (e) Alexandria Board of Review of Real Estate Assessments 1 Citizen Member (f) Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners 1 Member From the Alexandria Resident Council (Reports and Recommendations of the City Manager) 8. Receipt of Staff Report on Extension of the Lease for the Warwick Pool and the Landover Park Property and Setting the Report for Public Hearing on Saturday, January 20, 2007. (Ordinances for Introduction) 9. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Conform the City’s Cigarette Tax Regulations to Recent Amendments by the Northern Virginia Cigarette Tax Board. 10. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Increase Certain Parking Ticket Fines. END OF CONSENT CALENDAR City Council approved the consent calendar, with the removal of item #8, which was considered under separate motion. The City Manager's recommendations were as follows: 6. City Council accepted the following resignations with regret: (a) Timothy P. Peterson, Alexandria Archaeological Commission; (b) Ellen Rains Harris, Alexandria Commission for the Arts; and (c) Roger Machanic, Alexandria Industrial Development Authority. 7. City Council made the following appointments: (a) appointed Martin Kormanik as the one citizen at large to the Alexandria Commission on Employment; (b) appointed Scott Newsham as the one member representing the Alexandria City School Board to the Alexandria Commission on Information Technology; (c) appointed James Graham (identified a disability) and reappointed Louise Harrison (identified a disability) as the two citizen members (one of whom must have a disability) to the Alexandria Commission on Persons with Disabilities; (d) reappointed Katherine Phillipp as the one citizen member to the Alexandria Consumer Affairs Commission; (e) reappointed Lin Hiley as the one citizen member to the Alexandria Board of Review of Real Estate Assessments; (f) appointed Dianiacia Brooks as the one member from the Alexandria resident council to the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. 8. City Council: (1) received staff's recommendation to extend the existing lease for a period of 35 years, beginning on August 1, 2007, per the option guaranteed therein; and (2) scheduled a public hearing on Saturday, January 20, 2007. (separate motion) 9. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing, second reading and final passage on Saturday, January 20, 2007. 10. City Council passed the ordinance on first reading and scheduled it for public hearing, second reading and final passage on Saturday, January 20, 2007. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ CONTESTED APPOINTMENTS 11. Alexandria Commission For The Arts 1 Member Who Represents Arts Education or Business Expertise Relative to Arts and Cultural Development, Including Such Perspectives As Marketing, Finance/Funding, Tourism Promotion and Organizational Development City Council appointed Ann Greer as the one member who represents arts education or business expertise relative to arts and cultural development, including such perspectives as marketing, finance/funding, tourism promotion and organization development to the Alexandria Commission for the Arts. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 12. Alexandria Commission on Aging 1 Citizen Member City Council appointed Sabrina Reilly as the one citizen member to the Alexandria Commission on Aging. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 13. Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission 1 Member With Experience in Federal or State Environmental Statutes, Regulations and Procedures ( Preferably An Attorney) City Council reappointed Danielle Fidler as the one member with experience in federal or state environmental statutes, regulations and procedures (preferably an attorney) to the Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 14. Alexandria Sister Cities Committee 3 Citizen Members City Council appointed Scott Allen, Ari Gerstman and Robert Tap as the three citizen members to the Alexandria Sister Cities Committee. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 15. Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners 2 Citizen Members City Council reappointed Leslie Hagan and Kerry-Ann Powell as the two citizen members to the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER FOR DISCUSSION 16. Receipt of Report on the City of Alexandria's Open Space Plan Implementation. City Council received the report on the Open Space Plan implementation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 17. Receipt of Report on the Revised List of Proposed Valuable Open Space Sites in the City of Alexandria and Setting the Report for Public Hearing on Saturday, February 24, 2007. City Council: (1) received the revised list of 2007 Valuable Open Space Sites included within the report; and (2) scheduled a public hearing on February 24, 2007, on these open space recommendations, including the revised list of Valuable Open Space Sites. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 18. Receipt of Report on the Revised List of Proposed Pocket Park Sites in the City of Alexandria and Setting the Report for Public Hearing on Saturday, February 24, 2007. City Council: (1) received the revised list of proposed 2007 Pocket Park Sites included in the report; and (2) scheduled a public hearing on Saturday, February 24, 2007, on staff's pocket park recommendations, including the revised list of pocket park properties. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 19. Receipt of Report on Revised Potential Proposed Voluntary Conservation Easement Sites in the City of Alexandria and Setting the Report for Public Hearing on Saturday, February 24, 2007. City Council: (1) received the revised list of 2007 Voluntary Conservation Easement Sites included within the report; and (2) scheduled a public hearing on Saturday, February 24, 2007, on the revised list. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 20. Receipt of Report on the Recommended Future Committee Structure for the City of Alexandria's Open Space Steering Committee and Setting the Report for Public Hearing on Saturday, February 24, 2007. City Council deferred this item to January 23, 2007. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ 20.1 Consideration of the Addition of City Funding to the Human Services FY 2007 Child Day Care Budget. City Council added $75,000 to the Department of Human Services Child Day Care Fee System budget for the balance of FY 2007; the funds will be allocated from the FY 2007 Council contingent reserve account. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ OTHER 21. Deferred from the December 16, 2006, City Council Meeting: Special Use Permit #2006-0096, 917 Princess Street, Child Care Center. Consideration of a request to operate a child care center within a church; zoned RB/Residential. Applicant: Maria Bustinza. Planning Commission Action: Recommend Approval 5-0 (#3, 12/16/06) City Council deferred action on this item to January 20, 2007, with a request that Planning, Transportation and Environmental Services, and Code Enforcement evaluate the traffic pattern. Council Action:________________________________________________________ REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES None ORAL REPORTS BY MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL (a) Councilman Gaines said the Destination Marketing Association International recently announced that the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association has become one of the first six destination marketing organizations to receive accreditation. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ ORAL PRESENTATIONS BY MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL (a) Mayor Euille said that First Night was successful, despite the rains later in the evening. He said the crowds numbered between 11,000-12,000. (b) Mayor Euille thanked the citizens and staff - police, fire and others - for the coordination, public sympathy and support in honor of Alexandria resident and former President Gerald Ford, when his motorcade came through the City two Saturdays ago. He said they would be appointing a committee to consider ways to memorialize President Ford's long residency and history with Alexandria. (c) Mayor Euille said he presented a proclamation to Rich Leibach, who has completed 20 years of service on the Planning Commission. (d) Councilman Krupicka said its been almost two and a half years since they started the process of creating a Transportation Master Plan, and he would like an update. Mayor Euille said it would come to Council in February. Councilman Krupicka said he would like a written timeline on how it expects to deliver the things. (e) Councilman Krupicka said Harris Teeter has officially said they are not coming to the Braddock Road Metro site, and he can't express enough how disappointed he is to hear that. He said he hoped they could come together as a Council and staff and work with the Economic Development Partnership and the inner city residents and pull in a new tenant. He asked what is being done to do that. City Manager Hartmann said they have had discussions with the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership and have had some discussions on other sites with some of the other grocers in the area. Outreach is underway and the owner of the property has been talked with too, and everyone is collectively working on seeing if they can get another grocer into that site. (f) Councilwoman Pepper said the Center for Alexandria's Children is a child advocacy center, and last Friday, they offered the opportunity for Councilmembers to paint their walls. She said she and the Mayor went and with the help of the artist who designed what was going on the wall, she was able to paint. She said they also received a tour of the place. She said it will be opened at the end of this month and it is for abused children that are treated physically as well as psychologically on the premises. She noted that it is a public/private partnership and it is a collaboration of bringing together a lot of City agencies - the Department of Human Services, the Office of Mental Health, the City Attorney's Office, the Commonwealth's Attorney Office, and the Police Department, as well as non-profit agencies, a community foundation and a capital development foundation, which will be part of what makes it go round in terms of financing and stacking. It will focus on the prevention, treatment and investigation of child abuse and they have parenting classes and will partner with SCAN for that. (g) Councilwoman Pepper said JobLink has moved to the same location on Beauregard Street, only on a different floor. (h) Councilwoman Pepper said that after their last meeting on December 12, Council filed their intent to suspend the nuisance lawsuit against Mirant. The case was to come to court in February and they felt that some of the issues they would be suing them over were either solved or hopefully being addressed and some regulations that would control Mirant were not quite in place. She said they were pleased that one of the things that had happened was that the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board had agreed to be in charge of the operating permit, and that gave them great hope that they would have a little more transparency. Councilwoman Pepper said the attorney's have responded to a special environmental analysis that was given in November and it addressed the Mirant and its environmental impacts. The best response came from Elizabeth Chimento, who gave a scorching response to the analysis. The Department of Energy in November had issued a report indicating that the Mirant plant needed to stay open because there was a state of emergency and they have renewed that for a full year. Every three months it is reissued. The special environmental analysis came out when it was reissued. Councilwoman Pepper said she and Councilman Smedberg co-chair the monitoring committee and they will be meeting the last week of this month. (i) Vice Mayor Macdonald said that at one of their last meetings, he mentioned the new fence that had gone up around the Mirant Power Plant and the Mirant Potomac River Power Plant sent a letter to the Mayor saying that they wanted to have a bunch of murals painted on the fence in honor of George Washington. He said he was hoping City staff would speak to the National Park Service, as they need trees along the fence line more than they need murals. (j) Vice Mayor Macdonald said he understood from Planning that the 1500 block of King Street - DSF Long - has decided not to build condos and now wants to build a hotel, after demolishing a bunch of buildings. He asked for a report on it at some point. He said he was concerned about the number of hotels in the City - as it is great to have hotels, but he thought they needed to be careful that they are hotels that families can afford. (k) Vice Mayor Macdonald said that Arlington has come up with a very progressive anti-global warming strategy. He said he hoped the EPC and City staff will work together to try to craft a similar plan. (l) Vice Mayor Macdonald said they want to start reducing paper. There is paper reduction, and yet they are still producing as much paper. He said there are things they can do to decrease that, by perhaps putting all the consent items only on computer and cutting back on the use of paper where they can. He said they want to move into a paperless era, but they still seem to be producing an enormous amount of paper. He said that is also a nice environmental initiative, and he was sure the City Clerk could come up with some good ideas. (m) Vice Mayor Macdonald said a number of employees, including himself, have received notices saying that their doctors will no longer take their health insurance. He said it is disturbing, because after one picks a doctor, that doctor can then decide that they don't like the health care company, the employee is then left with a difficult situation. He said they need to look at the health insurance plans, the type of plans they have, and protect the employees, including maybe providing stipends in lieu of an actual plan if that were a better way. (n) Councilman Krupicka said picking up on the paperless comment, they have talked about this a few years ago and made a little bit of progress, but they didn't get very far. He said that using tonight as an example, they got the presentation on the open space plan in color on paper and it was being presented on the overheads. He said they didn't really need the paper copy. He said the Clerk has a lot of ideas about how they could reduce the amount of paper they use and maybe find a chance for a demonstration on how it could work. He said they could have everything electronic, for those who are interested. (o) Councilman Smedberg said he was glad Councilwoman Pepper mentioned Mirant, as some of what is happening is alarming and quite disturbing and he was glad to see the response the City had and it was as strong as it was. He said it is amazing that some groups are allowed to get away with what they are getting away with. (p) Councilman Smedberg said on Harris Teeter and the economic development, he agreed 100 percent with Councilman Krupicka that they need to look at different approaches in how they look at economic development and they need to be much more proactive than they have in the past. (q) Councilman Smedberg said that around holiday time, if he was at a local function or party, he was asked how the process was going for hiring a Planning Director, as people are anxious to have that position filled. He asked if there was a job description and a profile of the type person they want. City Manager Hartmann said the job posting for the Planning Director was put on the City's website in November, and it has been advertised nationally since then. He said the executive recruiters have sent out the detailed job brochures to numerous potential candidates and have done their external advertising and have maybe 33 applications. He said those are being screened to get to the top candidates. The same is occurring with the economic development director and Code Enforcement. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ ORAL REPORT FROM THE CITY MANAGER City Manager Hartmann said the first homicide of the year was today at King Street and Washington Street. He said they are going to increase the police presence in the commercial corridors right now. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS 22. Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First and Second Reading of an Ordinance to Adopt Supplement Number 81 to the City Code. [ROLL-CALL VOTE] City Council adopted the ordinance to adopt supplement #81 to the City Code. (ORD. NO. 4471) Council Action:_________________________________________________________ OTHER 23. Consideration of City Council Schedule. City Council: (1) scheduled an Art in City Hall reception in Room 2000 at 5:00 p.m. before Council's Tuesday, April 24 legislative meeting; (2) scheduled an Historic Preservation Conference on Friday, May 4 and Saturday, May 5 (location and times to be determined); (3) scheduled a George Washington Birthday Celebration Committee reception in the Vola Lowson Lobby at 5:00 p.m. before Council's Tuesday, May 8 legislative meeting; and (4) received the revised calendar which includes: the Martin Luther King, Jr. City Employees Program on Friday, January 12, at noon at the Lee Center auditorium, 1108 Jefferson Street; the 9th Annual Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 18 at Market Square; and the 26th Annual Alexandria Red Cross Waterfront Festival on Saturday, June 16 and Sunday, June 17 at Oronoco Bay Park. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ EXECUTIVE SESSION 24. Consideration of Convening An Executive Session Closed to the Public For Discussion of Threatened or Pending Litigation. In lieu of an executive session, Council approved the settlement of the workers compensation claim of Cynthia Wortham and the claim of the automobile accident claim of Danita Austin as outlined in the memorandum from the City Attorney. Council Action:_________________________________________________________ * * * * * * The meeting adjourned at 9:22 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.