Council’s priorities for the coming year

With City Council purged of Republican dissent following the May elections, can we expect a year of agreement, decisive action and swift resolution to age-old Charlottesville problems? What’s on this year’s plate for the Democratically united council?
    In general terms, the big three are the environment, “workforce development” and “affordable housing.” That’s C-VILLE’s impression after speaking with councilors David Brown, Kevin Lynch and newcomer Dave Norris about their priorities for the coming year.
    “Being green is one priority people will notice,” says Brown. At their July 17 meeting, the Council discussed joining the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, which commits the City to certain measures to combat emissions that affect global warming. “We’re going to ask for a lot of help from the community to make it a greener place.”
    To build job skills, both Norris and Brown want to expand a pilot program that this year employs 18 high-schoolers part-time for six summer weeks in City government. Lynch hopes that Council can revitalize the historic Jefferson School by moving in Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center (CATEC) or another job-training program. He also would like the City to encourage small business by making more economic staff available.
    Affordable housing is the campaign issue that Norris rode into office, and it remains his top priority. His first goal is to establish an Affordable Housing Investment Fund that would distribute the funds to developers, particularly nonprofits, to build and maintain affordable units for those in the lowest economic tier.
    Councilors say that difficulties might come from State and federal funding issues. Lynch cites the State failures to produce a transportation budget as a potential impediment to public transit expansions and road building. “It used to be, five years ago, there was federal money for job skills training in the summer time,” says Brown. “The tax cuts for the affluent are resulting in less and less money for the services that go to the poor… We have to take up the slack.”