City Council - workshop

Hello, I am Esther Mannheimer, Mayor of the City of Asheville, and I would like to welcome you to this work session on the 17th of September, 2026. All members of the Council and staff participate virtually. This meeting is intended only for the end of discussions. No formal measures or votes will be taken. In addition, no comment from the public is collected during this meeting. La réunion en directe sera diffusée sur la chaîne YouTube de la Ville, accessible via l'icône YouTube, sur le site web de la Ville ou via le flux en direct. Vous avez également la possibilité d'écouter la réunion en direct par téléphone en composant le 855 925 925 de nuit 801 et en saisissant le code de réunion 10 332. La conseillère municipale Shanika Smith nous rejoindra un peu plus tard. Conseil personnel, lorsque j'appelle votre nom, veuillez dire un rapide bonjour. Vice Mayor Antoinette Mosley.

Hello.

Municipal Councilor Maggie Ullmann.

Hello everyone.

Municipal Councilor Kim Rone. Hello. Municipal Councilor Bohes. Hello. Thank you. And Municipal Councilor Sage Turner.

Hello. I will be in video shortly.

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.

Thank you, Mrs. Mayor. Hello again to the council, staff and community members. I will pass the floor to Jad Dundas, Deputy Municipal Director. He will facilitate the examination of the project of order of the day, the meeting of the Council on September 22, as well as the order of the day of 8 weeks and that of the Public Security Committee. We have no presentation for you all today. So this will be the essence of our meeting?

Yes. Thank you, Director Wesley. Hello Madam Mayor, members of the council, Jay Dondas, municipal director-adjoint. It is a fairly light order of the day for this briefing and for next Tuesday so we will start directly, directly. Once again, the meeting is scheduled for September 22 at 5 p.m. No proclamation is scheduled for this meeting. Moving on to the order of the consensual day, point B is something that the water service has presented to the council several times, but it is the pursuit of their work to conform to the law on the rules concerning lead and copper. It is a matter of accepting a global community development subsidy of 403 ZEWLEL to investigate and replace the services deemed necessary or eligible for replacement. It is an effort that continues and that will continue until the work is finished. Le Point C est une prolongation d'un accord de licence pour une billetterie avec Peak Travel Inc. pour l'équipement de points de vente et d'enregistrement dédié du WNC Nature Center The point D consists in authorizing the municipal director to conclude a contract with the Asheville City Schools Foundation for the Periscolar in Real Life program for 2026-2027. It is a program to which the city has been participating for a number of years. It is important for the youth of our community. Point E is a standard authorization for Maltese drinks and non-fortified wine at the Charmont Festival in the autumn of the annual age of the island. Point F allows the executive to conclude a local agreement with the county for the general assistance program. It is a program with the county where funds are allocated to provide help to owners in the limits of the city of Asheville for, I think it is the legal requirements for help with invoices and other expenses that are eligible for this fund. The point G is the authorization and the acceptance of funds from the DOT, the Department of Transport of North Carolina. It is an annual fund used for the administrative costs associated with the operation of the transport installation, the transport program of a amount of 189 dollars. Once again, it is an annual routine subsidy. The point H is a program to which we have participated in the past and which has been crowned with success, not only thanks to the assistance provided by the interns of this program, but also by making these people who participate in these programs evolve towards other permanent municipal positions.

And we currently have a person who participated a few years ago.

It has progressed within our planning program. But it is essentially an agreement with the Department of Transport, and for a learning program. And we have a very small contribution. I think it's around $ 5,000 a year for the annual expense, due to the fact that we have a member of the staff dedicated to transit to work with our transport teams.

Good program.

And then the point I is a contract for the cleaning of the facilities in general throughout the city.

Does this conclude our agenda for today? Are there any questions? Happy to answer.

Otherwise, we move on to the presentation and report. We have a presenter for a report from the director, and this is the point on the rehabilitation. We will hear Bridget Herring, our director of rehabilitation and resilience, and Jeremy Knighton, our emergency management manager. On the situation two years after the storm, Part of this intervention will aim to demonstrate how our state of preparation has helped us during the storm and also constitutes the model that we continue to use for other events. Then Bridgette will make a report on our long-term plan, elaborated in coordination with the county and the other municipalities of the county. So, presentation of this report. Questions on this report? In the absence of questions, we move on to the public audience. This is a public hearing concerning the substantial amendment of the Home RTA allocation plan. If there are any questions, I will pass the floor to Ben Woodie and probably just let him take care of giving us a brief explanation.

Thank you. Hello Madam Mayor, hello members of the Council. I will do my best to explain this as well as James Felton will do next week. A quick reminder, the city of Asheville is the entity responsible for the regional housing consortium of Asheville. This consortium includes four counties, Buncombe, Madison, Henderson and Transylvania, as well as the municipalities located within these counties. It receives an annual subsidy or a budget credit from the HUD. Then, this entity, the housing consortium, distributes its funds throughout the area of ​​the four counties to support various programs and real estate projects. Following an allocation of the Congress in 2021, the regional housing consortium received a single sum of 4.7 million dollars. These funds must be spent by 2030. To date, none of these funds have been used. This amendment therefore aims to allocate these funds for a use in the area of ​​the four counties. I think that when receiving the initial funds, it was not necessarily affected by a specific objective. This amendment will therefore update the allocation plan for these 4.7 million dollars and it brings some modifications. First, it is time to bring support services that are part of this program. to include temporary housing assistance. It establishes a priority for homeless people, especially those who found themselves on the street for the first time after Hélène, John. Finally, he chooses to use these funds via a coordinated entry system as a reference method to manage the selection of tenants or beneficiaries. This is therefore a fairly technical amendment. This means several things, a few points to keep in mind. While you are examining this, it is that the Council itself, the RHC, voted unanimously to approve the action plan changed in August of this year. The public comment period started on August 31st, so we are actively in the public comment period for this substantial amendment. This period is open until October 2nd, so you will receive an update in some way in the middle or at the heart of this public comment period. Everything you will receive next Tuesday from James is just an update. He will give you more information about this program and the funds. The public comments will be transmitted to you on October 13th. So during your first meeting in October, this is where we will ask the Council to approve the allocation plan to modify Home ARP. So I hope it's clear. If you have any questions, I will try to answer them today. And if I can't, we will make sure that GEMS is ready to provide this update on Tuesday. On this, Jade, I give you the floor unless there are any questions.

I appreciate that you intervened today. So back to you. So this would be the only public audience that we have. No case in force. And a new point in the order of the day. These are nominations to the Council and Commission. I believe, by discussing with Alex, that the only candidacy that we have received concerns the ABC Council and you will therefore be here to deliberate on it during the meeting of the Council.

Yes, Mayor Moselle.

Merci. Et je suppose que cette question s'adresse au maire. Allons-nous, quand allons-nous tenir la prochaine réunion du PFI ? J'ai une idée, puisque nous n'avons qu'un seul conseil à examiner, et je suppose que Kim, vous pourriez intervenir. Cela signifie-t-il, Maggie, que vous allez rouvrir les deux autres aux candidatures supplémentaires ? Nous pourrions très bien devoir revenir pour nous en occuper en octobre. Pouvons-nous simplement traiter ? les trois lors de la prochaine réunion et rouvrir les trois aux candidatures.

Les deux autres, vice-maire, concernent des sièges spécifiques et pour ces deux-là, nous n'avons tout simplement pas reçu de candidature.

D'accord.

Alors, qu'est-ce que cela signifie ?

Au niveau du calendrier, ne pourrions-nous pas faire les trois lors de la prochaine ?

Oui, pouvons-nous simplement faire les trois lors de la prochaine ? Kim, when is it?

Because I have the impression that the mandates for the ABC end in November. November 13th. What is it? Let's do that in October. We also have a recommendation for the presidency and a serious candidate. So it seems logical to regroup everything in October.

Would you like to open them now? Can we all open them and deal with everything in October?

Je suis d'accord. Je suis désolée. Je pensais que la prochaine réunion du PFI n'était pas avant le 10 novembre.

C'est exact, Maggie. Nous n'avions pas assez de sujets ce mois-ci pour tenir une réunion du PFI, donc nous l'avons annulée.

Vous allez y venir, mais la prochaine réunion aura lieu dans deux mois, en novembre.

D'accord. Nous pouvons relancer les appels à candidatures pour le Conseil ABC avec les deux autres et présenter le tout au Conseil le 10 novembre si c'est ce que vous souhaitez. Est-ce un délai suffisant, Kim?

Je pense que oui.

Car les mandats n'expirent qu'à partir du 13. Quelle date avez-vous mentionné, Kim?

Oui, Maggie a dit le 13, mais je pense aussi que si nous ne faisons pas d'entretien pour cela, autant tout ouvrir, clôturer et nommer. En même temps, je ne vois pas pourquoi nous ne le ferions pas. Cela relève de la compétence du vice-maire. Très bien, cela me convient si les autres sont d'accord. Monsieur le maire, cela vous convient-il ?

D'accord.

Faisons comme ça.

Merci.

Parfait, merci. Nous l'ajouterons à ses ordres du jour. Well, that concludes, without informal discussion, there will obviously not be any public comments, but that concludes the review of the agenda of the Council of September 22.

Questions or comments on this subject?

Otherwise, we can move on to the agenda of the next eight weeks. Once again, we have just covered the meeting of September 22. There is no meeting on September 29. The next meeting will take place on October 13th. There are a few points on the agenda at the moment. One of them is a resolution authorizing the housing service to issue obligations.

I think this is a common procedure that you encounter almost every year.

And then there is an agreement with Black Mountain regarding a site for the removal of the leaves for which you should get more details, but I will be ready to tell you about it as soon as the date comes.

We also add to this agenda an update on the inventory and evaluation project of assets linked to rainwater. It is a project led by the division of rainwater that examines our inventory globally and will expand over several years and includes several stages but it really helps us to better understand where we have resources, where we lack them, what is the state of our current inventory and this will then help us to program projects for the future. You will hear more about it during this presentation.

There are two public audiences in the order of the day.

One concerns a conditional zoning, or rather the two concerns a conditional zoning. One concerns Triad and West Chapel Road and the other the 264 and the 274 Inga Heritage Parkway. And then the Home Park program will come back to you for approval. There is no meeting on October 20th and there is only one point for October 20th. Finally, there is no meeting on October 20th. And for October 27th, there is a point in the order of the day simplified. It is a complete examination of speed limits throughout the city, which allows us to align ourselves with certain modifications of state regulations and this is done by our Department of Transport.

We will provide more information as this date approaches. Then, on November 3rd, there is no meeting and on November 10th, we do not have any... ...points in the order of the day.

Questions on eight-week forecasts? Yes, Councilor Van Inken.

Je ne sais pas où placer ceci et j'envoie un email au département du directeur municipal, mais comme nous avons annulé le contrat FLOC, je vois que des villes à travers le pays recouvrent les caméras en attendant qu'elles soient retirées. Cela permet en partie de s'assurer que les caméras ne collectent plus de données, mais aussi de rétablir la confiance du public. My question, and so the next one, do we have a calendar for the withdrawal of the cameras now that the contract is cancelled? And in the meantime, can we cover them? I know that we may not have an answer today, but it could be in the following documents.

We will certainly ensure to include it in the documents.

On this subject, I was just in communication with the mayors about this yesterday and some cities withdraw them themselves. So I don't know the contractual details. Brad, but it's just for your information.

Thank you for that. We will certainly ensure follow-up. There are no more questions about the forecasts for eight weeks.

We can move on to the Council Committee.

As I mentioned earlier, we did not have a lot of content on the provisional day for the PFI this month. We have therefore chosen to cancel this meeting. Then we have a meeting on public security scheduled for September 24, next Thursday from 1 p.m. It is a modified schedule.

As usual, they take place in the morning, but this one will start at 1 p.m.

In the order of the day, we have a report after action on our Councilor O'Connor. So we have a report after action concerning the G20 and PGA events that took place in Nashville last month. And as I mentioned earlier with the recovery report, this will really reflect our state of preparation vis-à-vis the community and our ability to collaborate with external agencies. This shows the planning and efforts that we are making to prepare ourselves, as well as the applicability and evolution of this response in the current circumstances. We will focus on the reduction strategies of armed violence developed with the police department of Acheville, followed by an examination of the data. It was a topic on the agenda of the last public security committee and we were absolutely keen to address it again so that the community knows that this effort is progressing and that we remain mobilized on this issue. The third and last point in the order of the day concerns the crisis of homelessness in the west of Agedil. This has been mentioned. During the meeting of the Council last Tuesday, a comment from the public emphasized that there is a certain threat and a growing sense of insecurity in the area. We have wished, and the Councilor S, President of the Public Security Committee, also asked for the addition of this point. This concerns in particular the efforts made by Safe Shelters in the framework of their street aid program. We will have a team on site including representatives of Safe Shelters, our help service to the homeless as well as the police and firefighters to explain the efforts deployed in the west of Asheville, listen to your comments or concerns and provide information on business actions. Voilà, cela conclut tous les points à l'ordre du jour de la sécurité publique pour la semaine prochaine. Et sur ce, comme mentionné plus tôt, il n'y a aucun autre point ou mise à jour dans cet ordre du jour. Donc, si vous avez des questions ou des commentaires, nous essaierons d'y répondre. Sinon, notre examen est terminé. Je repasse la parole au directeur municipal.

Je souhaite également que le Conseil note que le jeudi 24 septembre, vous devriez avoir une session de travail sur la vision de nos couloirs commerciaux inondés dans vos calendriers. L'objectif est d'obtenir vos priorités politiques avant que le personnel n'élabore le manuel du programme qui doit être finalisé d'ici la fin de l'année, ainsi que le lancement d'un avis de financement. Nous aurons donc une session de travail qui se tiendra à Aris. Nous travaillons avec Maggie pour que cela soit correctement annoncé, mais ce sera bien le jeudi 24. Je crois que cela commence à 9h00, de 9h00 à midi. Alors assurez-vous de bien inscrire à votre calendrier, le public sera informé très prochainement. D'autres réflexions, questions ou commentaires ? Si ce n'est pas le cas ? With 25 minutes in advance, we can give you some time. Take care of yourself.