City Council - Regular Meeting

0:00 – 0:30•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay, we're live. Welcome to the Asheville City Council meeting for October 13th, 2026. Could you please take a moment to silence your cell phones? And if you want to sign up to speak under any of the agenda items, you can do so out in the hall. And if you... change your mind and you didn't sign up to speak for something, you can go out at any time and sign up to speak. So with that, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

0:55 – 1:49•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay, I am going to read our chamber decorum statement. Members of the public attending council meetings or addressing the council shall abide by the following rules. Everyone shall follow the instructions of the mayor or any other presiding officer or official and shall refrain from impeding or interrupting the conduct of business. This shall include but not be limited to clapping, yelling, or other audio expressions of approval or disapproval of comments made during the meeting. Persons addressing the council are expected to observe the decorum of the chamber, to be respectful of the council

1:52 – 2:28•EMEsther E. Manheimer

So, Council, we have two proclamations. The first is Domestic Violence Prevention and Awareness Month. And Councilmember Maggie Ullman is going to present this proclamation. And we have both Kaitlyn, I think, or Kaitlyn, I don't know, Doyle, and April Burgess-Johnson here for this. And anyone else you have with you, please feel free to bring forward. Yes, you can. Yes, that's the proclamation microphone.

2:45 – 5:01•MUMaggie Ullman

Whereas domestic violence is a serious crime that violates an individual's security and humanity due to the systemic use of emotional, psychological, physical, sexual, and economic control. And whereas an average of 24 people per minute experience rape, physical violence, and or stalking by an intimate partner in their country. More than 12 million people over the course of a single year. And whereas the problems of domestic violence are not confined to any specific groups of people, but can happen to anyone regardless of racial or ethnic identity, sexual orientation, education level, socioeco

9:16 – 9:27•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay, we have one more proclamation tonight, and that is National Diabetes Awareness Month. And we have Joanne and Jeremy Rinker here. And if you have anybody else with you, please feel free to come forward.

9:57 – 11:37•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Whereas diabetes is a chronic disease affecting more than 38 million Americans, including hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians, and remains a leading cause of heart disease, kidney disease, vision loss, nerve damage, and other serious health complications, And whereas early detection, access to quality healthcare, diabetes self-management education, healthy nutrition, physical activity, and advances in diabetes technology can significantly improve health outcomes and quality of life for individuals with diabetes. And whereas National Diabetes Awareness Month provides an opportunity to in

13:15 – 14:00•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay, next we have the consent agenda and we have a request to pull off items D and E for a separate vote. Do I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda without items D and E? Second. Okay. Yes, we do not have anyone signed up to speak under the consent agenda, so all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. That was a unanimous vote to adopt the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to adopt items D and E so we can have a conversation about items D and E? So moved. Second. All right. I have a motion to second. Okay. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Bo, to make a few comments about items D and E and why we're considering these separately. Okay.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Thanks, colleagues, and Manager Wesley. I pulled items D and E because I think we have a responsibility to question spending, explain our decisions, and also protect the financial stability of the city. These two landscape maintenance contracts total $166,388 for the first year. If all four additional renewal options are exercised, that would be almost $1 million. I think that we have some just basic questions that need answering, especially for a department that is already fully funded and we added money to. So parks and recreation budget is around $13.8 million. And in

18:30•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Well, we already have a motion, but just say what you prefer.

So I would prefer if we can make a friendly amendment to the contract and approve it for one year for the 73,000.

Right. And without and take away the option of renewing for the up to a million.

18:58 – 19:12•KRKim Roney

So I have a question before we go that direction. Because it says it's for Wilma, Dykeman, Greenway, Jean Webb Park, Eight River Arts Place. Is there any reason why we can't delay this and get the questions answered so we can have an informed decision?

19:37 – 20:29•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Well, so what these, we were talking about this earlier, these two contracts are on here for one, they're one-year contracts with an opportunity to be renewed without further council action for four more years after that. So what I understand Councilman Hess is saying is let's just authorize a year, no more than that. And I think when talking to the manager, and I haven't had a chance to talk to you, Brad, We put out an RFP for these for this type of contract, so under this scenario, we can't change it because the respondents responded with what we asked them for. I see. It's up to the manager

So then without that option, because of the RFP, why don't we do Council Member Roney's

20:38 – 21:35•STSage Turner

suggestion and let's get the information and then let's make a decision after that it's maybe possible that staff has the information tonight we haven't given them a chance to respond and we have a follow-up document in our email we may have the information tonight is what i said that staff haven't been given a chance to respond i did follow up with the city manager about this just with general questions and i kind of understood that You know, these are contracts that are four or five year periods with an automatic renewal in them each year. Usually for like price increases and things, but, an

Has the same vendor had the contract since 2011?

Thank you, Manager Wesley. I was just caught off guard because there was no information in the staff report. That's a lot of money when we're coming up on another budget season. Again, we're cutting community hours and Weaver Park doesn't have what they need.

24:47•STSage Turner

Okay, did we round that out for a supportive motion in the end? Or are we delaying?

24:52 – 25:13•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Well, and with, I would, with A, the request for a deep dive on how the Parks and Rec projects are funded and not funded. And then B, with the request that the manager inform us before making a decision about whether to renew this next year. And I'm assuming that will come up during the budget conversation.

25:13 – 25:24•STSage Turner

Well, and we're going to enter a strategic planning session year-long. So I'll be sure to bring up things like overall parks planning and, you know, what are we outsourcing and why, maybe. Okay. Okay.

25:25 – 25:54•MUMaggie Ullman

And I would expand that to think about the budget, not just parks. Where do contractors play an appropriate role? What staff capacity is there? My hunch is that staff are maxed out. So I want to understand that better and see that. I don't want to make budget decisions on a hunch. Just having more visibility into that would be really great. And I know you look forward to that, too. I know that you have a lot of vision for our budget process to evolve. So I'm excited for us to really roll up our sleeves on all this.

25:57 – 26:40•EMEsther E. Manheimer

All right, so we have a motion and a second and two requests for the adoption of items D and E. All those in favor, please raise your hand. All those opposed, please raise your hand. Did you get all that, Maggie? Okay, that was a six to one vote to approve items D and E on the consent agenda. We have one presentation and report tonight, and that is a stormwater asset inventory and assessment project, which I'm really excited to hear about because I've been seeing markings all over the city marking our stormwater infrastructure. So I assume that was why, not just some random graffiti artist tha

34:12 – 34:28•MUMaggie Ullman

Can I ask a question there? Does that then imply flooding or are there other risks that we want to be managing for with stormwater? What else could it be just to give examples outside of the technical?

34:36•MUMaggie Ullman

So sinkholes and flooding, I'm trying to understand what the public would understand the risk.

34:42•STSage Turner

Erosion into the river. I mean, we've got general.

34:52•STSage Turner

All right. So can we go back to that one, the colorful slide, just one second?

35:06•STSage Turner

And this is across 2,600 touch points that we're going to map? I'm a little concerned they're all going to come back in red.

39:32 – 39:58•STSage Turner

This is very exciting. Thank you. Thank you for being here to share all that. Sure. This is like one of the last frontiers. Like, what are we ever going to do about stormwater? And I'm really excited. Thank you just for being here to explain. I'm kind of curious the touch points that will come back. Like, will we get to see all that? I saw kind of the we may reprioritize CIP. I assume that all part of the next year's process. OK. Awesome. Thank you. And you did a great job. Thank you for being here.

40:00 – 40:46•KRKim Roney

Very good debut. I do have a question. Thank you for your presentation. Welcome to this work. I know there have been some concerns from businesses and residents when there are new capital projects going in and it seems that there are therefore new stormwater problems. What is the avenue that someone should use to report it? For example, there was some new residential development in North Asheville. near the lake, and the new development meant that the storm water issues in the back of the businesses facing the main corridor are now flooding. And so what is their recourse? Who do they call? I m

41:31 – 42:12•KRKim Roney

So is the best path still to use the Asheville app? And then it goes to your office? Yes. Because the second example I have is we had that rain this past weekend, and it was a lot all at once. But we had also done a lot of sidewalk and new infrastructure work with NCDOT on the Haywood Road corridor. And the new information we gained was that at the top of the hill at State Street, you would think that that water would move down State Street, and it pulled up on Haywood Road, which seemed new with the new infrastructure. So one would hope that new infrastructure would mean it works more efficiently, and it seemed to work less efficiently. So onc

42:39•STSage Turner

One quick follow up to what you just said. Is there a method to contact the DOT for a similar thing? I have some neighbors experiencing some similar down Haywood Road and the source point is the road.

43:06 – 43:51•MUMaggie Ullman

I had a question back to the presentation. Thank you. So the phased approach seems very practical, and it also seems like if I'm understanding it, we don't... This is the opportunity to really inventory everything and start... standardizing our ability to do long-range planning, financial planning, so that we can have better maintenance and reduce our risk. So I think that's just so welcome and very exciting. Given it's a phased approach and we're starting in Nasty Branch and it's a very technical assessment with a high price tag, is it reasonable to expect this would be a long-range process t

43:53•MUMaggie Ullman

Yeah, right, like this might be we do watersheds every 10 years and we're doing one every year type of cycling thing for such a big inventory.

44:10 – 45:13•MUMaggie Ullman

Yeah. Yeah. That seems very reasonable. I have lots of curiosities as we get into this first phase of like what impacts that will have on capital prioritization. Right. Um, but that's, that's like the roll up our sleeves as we get along. So I'm very excited. I think that, um, we all, uh, have a very intimate understanding of the risks of stormwater and the likelihood of higher volume of stormwater. And I think being an environmentalist, my whole life stormwater is like one of the more unsexy environmental issues out there. And so I just find it really. Exciting for us to be taking a leadership

45:22•MUMaggie Ullman

It's a whole new strong water division. That's great. Thanks for your leadership.

45:27 – 46:06•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay, we're good. Thank you very much. Does that conclude the manager's report? It does. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we have two public hearings tonight. First public hearing is to conditionally rezone 9999 Tride Street and 990 West Chapel Road from RS8 Residential Single Family High Density District to RS8 Residential Single Family High Density District Conditional Zone. And Sam Starbaum is going to present this item. And the next one. Boy, geez, you're double duty.

Yeah, very exciting. Well, I move to approve.

53:11 – 53:25•KRKim Roney

Oh, no, you don't be doing the motion yet. We've got to do the public hearing. Before that, I'll ask my evergreen question that I ask for every conditional zoning, even though I think I know the answer. Is there a plan for renewable energy or anything that would hinder its future installation?

53:31 – 54:02•STSage Turner

Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Just a couple of technical questions I'd like your opinion on. so the um reduced lot size caught my attention because it's something we've been hearing about from feedback and community so that would be like a 0.86 lot size 0.086 as compared to like 0.086 0.086 currently it's a 0.1 but we've been talking about that so i think that's just an interesting thing to highlight um i'm wondering if the sidewalks are five or ten feet is ten feet just the multifamily is five feet standard for this

54:32 – 55:08•STSage Turner

because these are just things i'm seeing over time repeat um i guess my other question is for the applicant oh no i have one more i'm sorry could you put up the site plan again so uh one back the actual map oh sorry not site plan i meant to say map oh that's yes okay so in that top right corner it looks like almost access point again what do we generally what is staff's kind of vision or thought process or goals around connectivity versus like a cul-de-sac is there any value to that connectivity are we not worried about it

55:33•STSage Turner

I just noticed it and wondered. Yeah. Okay.

55:54•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I appreciate the humor. Will you go to the site plan? You may have said this and I missed it. So the little squiggle...

56:04•STSage Turner

I mean the, Oh, that's a walking path, right?

56:17•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Are you talking about that little leg that sticks down to the road?

56:20•STSage Turner

Um, I was like, yes, that's why. Yeah. Cause it's okay. I was just curious what kind of staffs, if we ever recommended around that.

56:27•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I would assume the way I've seen these properties divided up, somebody divided it up a jillion years ago and thought, we might need this access point, so they left it there.

56:39•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Well, you said metric ton of it right away.

56:44•STSage Turner

And then my last question will be for the applicant who I see and they're not going to come out. I'll just say it so it can be part of the group. I'm just wondering if the homeownership plan includes accepting vouchers.

56:58•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Thank you. Do we want to hear from the applicant now about that? Please.

57:06•STSage Turner

Welcome. Thank you for bringing a great project.

58:26•STSage Turner

I think Andy's about to address it. I'm just really hoping. I mention it because, I mean, we worked in AHEC for a long time together and there's this gap where we have voucher holders that can't get into mortgages.

59:57•STSage Turner

Do you ever talk about community solar in your little neighborhood pockets?

1:00:33•MUMaggie Ullman

And there's not really a clear regulatory path for that in North Carolina. Duke has fought that for years and years and years.

1:01:57 – 1:02:13•STSage Turner

That's so great. Thank you. It's so true. We talk so much about multifamily. I want us to be talking about this all the time. I'm happy to make a motion. Do we need a motion to go ahead? No, we don't. We're ready to hear from the public commenters. Thank you. Go ahead. I don't need to.

1:02:14•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay. We have a couple of people signed up to speak under public comment first. If I can find my public comment tab.

1:02:30•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay. I think we have two people. Yes. And the first is Ms. Norma Baines.

1:03:31•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Thank you. Next we have Ms. Sophie Dixon. Thank you.

1:04:22 – 1:05:23•SSSheneika Smith

Mayor, I make a motion to approve the repeal and replacement of conditional zoning ordinance number 46112. 2017 with a new conditional zoning request for the property located at 99999 Tri Street and 990 West Chapel Road for residential single family high density RS8 and residential single family high density conditional zone to residential single family high density conditional zone and find that the request is reasonable, is in the public interest, is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan, and meets the development needs of the community, and that the request, number one, prioritizes

1:05:23•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I did. That was so strange, I thought. The Vice Mayor seconded it.

1:05:33 – 1:06:09•EMEsther E. Manheimer

All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. That's a unanimous vote for that item. Thank you very much. Okay, we have Sam Starvon back again because we're going to have a public hearing to consider an amendment to the conditional zonings of various parcels at 264 and 274 Inka Heritage Parkway and 1455 Sand Hill Road for the purposes of amending the site plan and project conditions. Sam, take it away.

1:15:49•STSage Turner

This has got to be the silliest components.

1:15:53•MUMaggie Ullman

A sandwich board and a vinyl coming soon sign. It's a good example of things that we need to iron out in the UDO that make it really complicated to get the things we want for an affordable community.

1:16:03•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Well, and the sandwich board's like in front of the store, right? Once you get into the property.

1:16:11 – 1:16:23•STSage Turner

And you have to get a permit to have one, and it has to be constructed a certain way and have a chain. There's all these things that we just make it so hard. But having to have a Costco have it in there, technical modifications, is just wild.

1:16:23•EMEsther E. Manheimer

They're probably used to it, though, because I assume there's sandwich boards at other Costcos. Yeah.

1:16:32 – 1:16:43•KRKim Roney

If they're in Tennessee, it's not as big a deal. I have a question that I'm hearing from the community. I'm excited about this project, but if we can go back to the modifications.

1:18:12 – 1:18:25•KRKim Roney

So the question I had also includes Brad. The 15% to 13% tree canopy issue, how many trees are we talking about? And folks are asking, why can't you plant them in a brown field? And there's a reason.

1:20:32•KRKim Roney

Thank you for that level of detail. I expect we'll hear more of the public comment.

1:20:40•EMEsther E. Manheimer

OK, are we ready for public hearing? Oh, does the applicant want to speak to us?

1:30:02•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Does that conclude the presentation from this? We will head into the public hearing.

1:30:07•STSage Turner

Can I ask one question? It's the burning question. When would it open? When would it open? What's the goal? Very good question.

1:30:33•STSage Turner

Spring of 28 is our goal right now. Absolutely. Thank you.

1:30:39 – 1:30:52•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay, we have a few people signed up to speak under this item. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please watch the lights on the lectern. Green means go, orange means you're getting ready to stop, and red means stop. And the first person signed up to speak is Karen McNeil.

1:33:13•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Thank you Thank you Next is Sharon Summerall

1:37:16•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Thank you. The last person signed up to speak under public comment is Kelly Eisenhower.

1:40:54 – 1:41:34•KRKim Roney

So I know that there are significant concerns with the road and the site and the trees. And we just saw in the presentation there was going to be What was effectively an Amazon distribution warehouse in 2021, which I voted against, it was going to be a lot of traffic too. And so I am curious, what does it look like? What do we want in that location? When I voted against the Amazon and when I think about what it looks like to essentially potentially block a data center here, I want a Costco here. But we do have to work on the roads and we are working on them. So the concerns are valid.

1:41:36 – 1:41:59•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I'm also... No, no, no. So, ma'am, that's not how the city council. Well, first of all, this is being streamed, so no one can hear you unless you're talking into a mic other than the people in this room. So we allow for public comment for three minutes per person, and we'll hear your concerns. And now we're done with the public comment. I'm going to close the public hearing. Council, I'm sorry, go ahead.

1:41:59 – 1:42:27•KRKim Roney

Go ahead, please. It's fine. I'll just go ahead and move to approve the conditional zoning request for the property located at 264 Inka Heritage Parkway, 274 Inka Heritage Parkway, 1455 Sandhill Road, and find that the request is reasonable, is in the public interest, is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan, and meets the development needs of the community, and that the request, one, encourages responsible growth, two, increases development along transit corridors, and three, promotes placemaking by preserving historic structure. Second.

1:42:27•EMEsther E. Manheimer

All right. We have a motion and a second.

1:42:39•STSage Turner

Including the sandwich boards. It included the sandwich boards. And was it the banner too?

1:42:48•STSage Turner

So a friendly amendment. Thank you. I think we just need to, yes, the motion includes the sandwich boards.

1:42:55•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I have one more before we just. Well, and I wanted to comment on the.

1:43:00 – 1:46:57•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Yes, Bo has approved the sandwich boards in a second. Thank you. The applicant is required to have a traffic study done, and there are requirements from the Department of Transportation regarding improvements that are exterior to the project, so along Sand Hill and Smoky Park. So this project doesn't just go in without any changes to the exterior transportation structure. My husband teaches at Inka High School. He sits at the Inka red light most of his life. So I'm deeply familiar with this area and potentially missing baseball games and everything else. So that's actually one of the major iss

1:46:58 – 1:47:41•STSage Turner

Thank you, Mayor. I know you worked very hard on it. I appreciate your efforts. Question for Brad real quick before we vote. There was mention of precedent on the tree canopy. I haven't been able to look through every detail of all of these exhibits, so I'm not sure of the exact language. Does this language, when we allow the 13%, reference the adjacent parcel at all? I'm just thinking down the road. The part that's in the county? Right. I'm just thinking down the road, because if we were to face precedent, I would love to be able to say yes and yes. because of this adjacent parcel. And I know

1:49:08•STSage Turner

All right, that's a unanimous vote. Thank you very much. Good luck with TRC.

1:49:14 – 1:49:40•EMEsther E. Manheimer

All right, we have one item of unfinished business, and this is a resolution approving the substantial amendment to the Home American Rescue Plan allocation plan. We already had the public hearing as required on September 22nd, so we will not be taking any additional comment tonight. Council, unless there are any questions, I think we just need a motion on this one.

1:49:40•STSage Turner

Sure, I'm happy to follow up. It's actually a very simple motion, and I move to approve the proposed substantial amendment to the home allocation plan.

1:49:48 – 1:50:03•EMEsther E. Manheimer

All right, we have a motion and a second. Mayor, I have a friendly amendment. Oh, what? Okay, hold on. Who's the staff on this? I don't even know if we have staff here. James is here. You want to tell us a little bit about what this is?

Well, it's what I talked about last time. So I talked to Brad about it earlier today. So basically, I moved to amend the original motion. to also direct the city manager to review and strengthen oversight of home ARP funds distributed to nonprofit partners. The report shall identify anonymized recipient information, the amounts awarded, the expenditures for direct assistance, what they paid for staffing, administration, how many households were served, and the outcomes.

1:50:41•STSage Turner

Oh, gosh. There's a few things that come naturally. You look ready.

So the difference is that I want us to get the report publicly. not you guys just get the report and we never see it or the public doesn't see where their tax dollars are going. So that's great, but I think the public wants to see that when we're spending a million dollars on homelessness or mental health or whatever it is, that that's going directly to those services and resources for the most vulnerable people on the street. That's the difference. Is that?

1:51:27•STSage Turner

A lot of that stuff is built into it. So it sounds like if staff are okay with it, I'm happy to support the amendment.

1:51:48 – 1:52:00•STSage Turner

And I think the big point I heard, though, is that because we deal with this at our consortium, but then we bring it back for approval and just kind of stamp it as a council, but we don't actually review it at length. And maybe this time we do.

1:52:00•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Maybe it can be the subject of a manager's report distilled down into a presentation format. That's exactly what I'm thinking.

1:52:07•STSage Turner

That's super helpful. I accept the friendly amendment. Do you second? Okay. Okay.

1:52:15 – 1:52:53•EMEsther E. Manheimer

We have a motion to approve this item, including the reporting described by Councilman S. I think we're okay. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. We have next, under new business, Emily Ball is here to present a resolution. This is very exciting. Resolution authorizing the city manager to accept funding from Destination Home for the Right at Home Initiative in the amount of $6 million and approval of an associated budget amendment. Emily Ball, whose title is?

1:55:12•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Everyone don't get too excited because Salvation Army is not saved, but it is going to be operating. The building will be operating.

1:55:19•STSage Turner

That's enormous news. Well, it just gets us through Code Purple. But it's been an emergency I've been worried about. Thank you.

1:55:27•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Although we're short on Code Purple beds for this winter, we still need to identify additional funds to be able to expand the program.

1:56:14•SSSheneika Smith

And how many beds can we anticipate that safe shelter can take?

Is it, does it end April 1st or May 1st? April 30th. April 30th. Okay. And then even if we have zoned that safe shelter area zoning for a shelter, does it still have the temporary use restrictions?

Or did we just, oh, we probably authorized a specific number of beds with that.

1:57:08•STSage Turner

It's non-congregate. I think it's 19 or something.

If you could repeat your question so I can make sure I'm answering correctly. Well, Council Member Roney asked, you know, about the capacity or actually Council Member Smith about the capacity of safe shelter. And I guess there was a limit based on the temporary use restriction. But we had actually changed that zoning so that that could be a permanent shelter. So even with that, are they still under the requirements of the temporary use, or could they, in other words, expand from 20 to 40 beds?

1:57:57•STSage Turner

So I want to make sure I heard correctly, though. So we do have enough Code Purple beds. However, to execute it, we may need more funding.

Are we giving money right now to Sunrise Community? I don't think they're one of our partners now. Okay, they're just maybe operational partner.

Right. But you're working with them just like collaboratively, you know, just as an operational partner?

2:01:34 – 2:01:51•STSage Turner

I have one question. Right early in the beginning you said something that caught my ear and I didn't want to interrupt you. You said, and I don't know if it was you or the funding initiative was changing a perspective, but a transition to treatment first instead of housing first. Can you repeat what you said?

2:02:01 – 2:02:14•STSage Turner

Meaning, so in housing first, it's just, I mean, literally like it sounds. It doesn't matter the state you're in will get you housed. But now there's a movement from HUD that we're now going to have to adhere to that is you can get into housing after you've sought treatment?

Sometimes folks will get into, like we'll be able to get them housing for example, but they may still be struggling with their bipolar or schizophrenia and so we'll put them in housing and because they're not fully stable on their medications, then all of a sudden they relapse on substances or they're letting people in and then all of a sudden now they're kicked out and people are squatting in that house and then it creates an issue for the landlord. I think the idea is if we can get folks stabilized, wrap around services, and then get people in housing, what we found is that it makes them muc

2:03:21•STSage Turner

I understand all that. These are great things that we've been taught for a number of years. I'm just a little taken back by everything we've been taught.

2:03:31 – 2:03:47•STSage Turner

And are we adopting these policies? Because these are, I mean, that's an important question. And those were from homelessness advocates. I'm saying how is this going to trickle throughout our organization? You rarely come before us. You're such a wealth of knowledge. I'm curious about your...

2:04:43•STSage Turner

Is there any concern that it could be prohibitive to people getting housed?

Well, the issue is that we don't have the mental health or substance use actually treatment infrastructure here.

2:05:04•STSage Turner

To supplement this requirement, yeah. Exactly, and so that's it. It's a little alarming.

2:05:09 – 2:05:21•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I mean, we're here to follow along and learn, but thank you for... Well, Emily's also having to watch HUD training videos on the merits of being married, so I'm not surprised to hear that HUD is moving in this direction.

2:05:26•STSage Turner

Apparently, the dual income is what they're promoting, if you can swing it. Thank you for answering.

2:05:34•EMEsther E. Manheimer

It's just, yes, a news flash. We are having some changes on a federal level.

Now, this is a horrible one, because again, Which, the marriage one or the... Well, I mean, because homelessness folks have been saying housing first. Social workers and mental health and psych folks have been saying, well, whoa, whoa, yes, let's do wraparound services. Let's get them stable because it makes them more successful. Now, if you're just homeless and you don't have any psych or substance use issues, then yes, housing first all the way. So it's not all bad. The issue is, and this is what I don't want, is that if someone doesn't, one treatment, for example, that it doesn't keep them

2:06:46 – 2:07:15•SSSheneika Smith

Can you come back with a deep dive about what the shift means? Because I was in a conversation with a community-based organization who follows the Housing First model. And they talk specifically about a financial impact from the shift. And to your point, everybody's not prepared for treatment or an alternative. So what does that mean to our homeless strategy if this shift is not popular?

2:07:52•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I do have good news. She does have some.

2:14:58 – 2:15:53•KRKim Roney

I do have a question. I was talking with the family that applied for the Health and Human Services General Assistance Program. I know that we moved the funding from essentially a homeowner grant to this program, and it's designed for one-time financial hardships. And what I'm hearing is folks are like, by the time I get to the hardship, I need the money quickly. And it's not maybe working as designed to help with eviction prevention. In the past, we have partnered with other agencies because they have more infrastructure set up to move dollars. And the hope was they would move quickly. I think

2:16:04 – 2:16:42•KRKim Roney

It is, but it is a program that we fund for emergency, for evictions, for... It can be for rent. It can be for utilities. It's up to $500 per household. It's at gap.buncommancy.gov. I know we need to have a bigger conversation, but it's not the first time that we've... put funds into something like eviction protection, and then the funds got stuck. And we heard from the community that we weren't moving quickly enough for it to function as designed. So maybe it's a follow-up question. I just know that if we're running point on it instead of partnering out, then we'll have even more responsibili

2:17:33•KRKim Roney

I move to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager.

I think I remember actually at the presentation they were saying within 24 hours sometimes they could get assistance, you know, after applying.

2:17:57•EMEsther E. Manheimer

And so just to be clear, there are partners. We're not literally writing the check, right?

2:18:08•KRKim Roney

The city's role is to project management administer funds. So we're going to administer funds to these groups.

2:18:14•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Right. But we won't actually directly to the recipients.

Okay, and then Council Member Smith, I was thinking about what you were saying about kind of the switch up and like taking funds from some of our local, so maybe just kind of throwing an idea out there, maybe that's where we focus our funding and support. You know, if it's gonna be taken away at the federal level, maybe we can help support the city level. Just throwing that out there.

2:18:44 – 2:19:23•STSage Turner

Can I circle back to something Councilman Roney was saying about the trouble we had deploying assistance through partnership? Did we add any language about should they encounter deployment deficiencies? We can recall anything like that because it is in there now. Is it different, or was it always that way? Because we ran into this, and I don't suspect that we'll have any problem with these organizations. I do see one name on there that was problematic getting things out the door, because they were short-staffed, which impacted people's daily lives, and some for months, right? Or perhaps tossed

2:19:49 – 2:20:07•STSage Turner

And I guess that was a hard conversation for us last time as a thing. It was hard to call on our neighboring partners who we trust with this work and say, it's not enough, it's not fast enough. So I just want to layer in some additional concern there. I hope that it goes better this time.

2:20:33•STSage Turner

Just as an aside, too, since I see HMIS on there, we don't have full compatibility across all partners with HMIS, do we? We still have some committee partners that don't.

2:21:09 – 2:21:41•STSage Turner

That is a long time coming. We talked about that for like 10 years. Okay, that is wonderful. That's why I brought it up. I also know that there are a couple media in the room and I'm hoping that they, when they speak to their articles, talk about HMIS a little bit. I've seen a lot of misinformation in the community recently around databases, tracking information, individual, how are we processing people, is there an entry program? And I was just astounded, I know we're up here and we talk about it a lot, but I was astounded at the lack of awareness. So those of you over here that are, if you c

I'm so happy to see ABCCM as a partner. Yes, that's amazing. They are a huge asset. Disappointed to not see Eblen on here. They have been a great city partner as well. But I move to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to accept funding from Destination Home for the Right at Home initiative in the amount of $6 million in approval of an associated budget amendment.

2:22:13•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Thank you. OK. We have a motion and a second. Any other questions for Emily? Just anything else?

2:22:22 – 2:22:39•STSage Turner

I would love follow-up. I heard Councilwoman Smith speak to that earlier. I'd love to hear more about how Treatment First is going to roll out in this new shift. Emily, we want you at every meeting. I know. Even though you have to drive all the way on to... I mean, no. She knows. I'm glad you know, too. She's wonderful.

2:22:39 – 2:23:13•MUMaggie Ullman

I'm also curious about that I hear, like, whispers of key partners of ours losing resources. So if the COC has recently had some type of... landscape update or just some bullets on like part of the part of the really important thing of the CoC is we're doing this in partnership in community and it's not just one agency but I know there's ripples impacting and so me under us all understanding who's getting impacted the most what resources are waning that type of

2:24:25•MUMaggie Ullman

Thank you. I know there's some community leaders who work on this in the audience. Thank you for being here. Thanks for enduring this and continuing to do the good work.

2:24:34 – 2:24:58•EMEsther E. Manheimer

All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. We have now reached the end of our agenda where we have general public comment. We have a couple people signed up to speak. Again, you'll have three minutes to speak. Watch the lights on the lectern. The first person signed up to speak is Doug Curtis, and the presentation has been loaded. Thank you.

2:28:07 – 2:28:30•MUMaggie Ullman

Thank you. Could we get a follow-up on what this, I remember seeing that there's a solution coming. Could we understand what it is and the timeline that's taking us between now and then? Thank you. I was just asking our staff for, no, I was just asking our staff for that information so that we can get updated on that. Thank you. Sorry.

Mayor, I've actually asked to bring this to public safety.

2:31:43•EMEsther E. Manheimer

So that's one of the subcommittees of council, and they'll discuss it there. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Actually, at Memorial Stadium, there's bears almost every single time I go there, and there is no signage, no... awareness about the bears at all. They recently just put a, you know, like a campaign type style sign, like staked it in the grass and said, let wildlife be wildlife. But I mean, for all the money that we're spending on parks and recreation, I think we could probably get some better bear signs.

2:32:18 – 2:32:29•MUMaggie Ullman

I'll add to this, too, that Buncombe County had the Bear Wise coordinator from, I guess, the state come and present to them, and I'm meeting with her sometime soon, so if anyone wants to sit and do that with me, you're welcome to join me. That'd be awesome.

2:32:30 – 2:33:01•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I have had the pleasure of doing that, and it's very worthwhile. We did it prior to amending our ordinance to... make it more restrictive around feeding bears uh which is which is what we did so um it is almost budget season for staff it's not for us but i'm thinking bears are gonna we can do it we can go trash can discussions there's gonna be all that you know i'm not really sure what but we need to tell people there's bears here it seems like it's pretty well known but i you know appreciate a sign

2:33:01 – 2:33:14•KRKim Roney

But we did have a staff memo in the follow-up documents a few weeks back about where we're at on the updates on the bear carts, and I appreciate that. I understand there's a backlog, but we also cut that budget. So that's on us. And it was never enough.

2:33:14•EMEsther E. Manheimer

It's a little unclear to me at this point if it's a budget issue or a manufacturing issue because—

2:33:19•STSage Turner

A little of both, too, right? Because they're expensive. We require the homeowner to pay something for them. We never have had enough.

2:33:25•EMEsther E. Manheimer

No, they don't pay for the can. They pay an increased monthly fee for that.

2:33:28•STSage Turner

But we've never, to my knowledge, I don't think we've ever had enough for the orders on hand.

2:33:32•MUMaggie Ullman

This will be really cool at Public Safety.

2:33:34•STSage Turner

Yeah, we can't believe it. You're going to talk all about trash cans.

2:33:42•EMEsther E. Manheimer

It's 400 and something folks. Okay, the last speaker tonight is Rachel Cohen.

2:33:47•STSage Turner

I'm sorry, Rachel, I thought we were done. You're just wandering on.

2:33:53•EMEsther E. Manheimer

I think, yeah, the other way. All right, good evening.

2:37:22•EMEsther E. Manheimer

Okay, that concludes our public comment agenda. So with that, we are adjourned.