CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A mistake on an agenda item involving the authorization of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA) to issue tax-exempt bonds for Phase 3 of the Kindlewood rebuild has necessitated a special meeting of the council on Monday.

This past Monday night, Council was charged with considering authorizing CRHA to issue up to $4.3 million in tax exempt revenue bonds to fund 85 affordable housing units in the next phase of the large, four-phase Kindlewood project.

“It has been brought to our attention that the dollar figure that is posted in this agenda item needs to be updated,” Deputy City Attorney for Operations James Freas told Council. “So, what we ask for this evening is, we remove this item from your agenda and then we will bring it back at a future meeting and repost it with the correct dollar figure.”

The CRHA bonds are to be issued to the Piedmont Housing Alliance, whose Executive Director Sunshine Mathon told Council the figure should be $7 million.

“The reason this was going to be a partnership with the CRHA is it was going to allow for a local housing authority to use that bond capacity,” Mathon said. “It wouldn’t affect the city’s bond capacity, but act as a pass-through from the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development to do our 4% bonds on Phase 3.

“The goal of using that tool is to avoid having to post bonds through Virginia Housing as an alternative strategy.”

He said this is more of financing certainty for the project, but there’s an April 30 application deadline.

Mathon said short of this procedure, they’d have to seek fund from a Governor’s bond fund which while carries a good amount of certainty, is not as certain as the CRHA method.

“I don’t know everything that happened, but this is a pretty much unacceptable position to be in, I would personally say,” Councilor Michael Payne said. “I know it’s really, really annoying, but maximizing certainty is always ideal especially in projects with this much complexity and interlocking funding sources.”

“And impact,” Councilor Natalie Oschrin added.

City Attorney John Maddux advised three days’ notice needs to be issued prior to a special meeting and Mayor Juandiego Wade agreed Monday night to set a meeting before April 30.

Oschrin told WINA Morning News on Tuesday that meeting will occur Monday.

In action Council was able to take, they moved forward to unanimously approve at its May 4 meeting moving $1.8 million in CIP Contingency funds that were set aside but not spent for the Charlottesville High School roof replacement and City Hall water leak repairs toward the Pollack’s Branch and Meadow Creek Trail construction projects that currently cost overruns.

“Too many of our projects are out-of-whack budgetwise and there are multiple contributing factors,” said City Manager Sam Sanders.

Council Monday night also authorized $4.405 million of a more than $20 million CIP Contingency to be newly appropriate toward a number of one-off costs the city is incurring.

Sanders told Council and the public that while this contingency is for capital projects, “It is meant to help us close gaps, address spontaneous priorities, and fill holes that are created in critical areas that are not captured in an annual budgeting process.”

Sanders explained $1.5 million of the money will be used toward human resource management, primarily toward the installation and implementation of SAP Success Factor “human capital management software”.

It’s a cloud-based suite designed to streamline aspects HR consulting services, core HR and payroll, talent management, employee experience management, and HR analytics and workforce planning.

Sanders also proposed allocating $1.095 million to pedestrian infrastructure at Emmet Street and Angus Road where a pedestrian was struck and killed last year.

A million of that would go toward a new bus stop, signal improvements, and a crosswalk.

Sanders said there’s already a bus stop on the northbound side of Emmet, and the plan is to add one on the southbound side.

Finally, $95,000 is allocated for improved lighting at what Sanders called a dark area of the road.

Sanders requested $800,000 be allocated for emergency management that includes meridian barriers, much of what will be used at the Tom Tom Festival this week.

He said these barriers are used for street closings and take the place of a city employee and a truck that has been at many intersections in past large events.

Other uses are an emergency pet shelter, and Charlottesville Fire Department drone replacements, hazmat equipment, and dress uniforms.

The City Manager requested $400,000 be allocated for additional snow removal operations, namely acquisition of an additional loader attachment. and an additional blower attachment.

He said there’s more that’s needed, but these are what they know they need at this time.

Sanders requested $310,000 for strategic planning and performance management and capacity.

Some of the aspects included “culture setting for organizational excellence”, a financial department “cultural assessment”, a procurement assessment, housing program financial advisory services, and a property maintenance fund.

Finally, Sanders requested $300,000 to offset overtime for fire department personnel.

“We had a structure imbalance in how we were managing for this item which is why we’re in need for this offset, Sanders said.

“I believe we have corrected that for going forward, the goal would be we wouldn’t have to continually ask for this offset which this time is, again, a one-time request.”

The $4.405 million was revised down from the agenda item set at $4.555 million.

Council also agreed to place these allocations on its May 4 consent agenda for final passage.