Charlotte City Council starts at 5 p.m. Follow along: http://charlottenc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=669

City Council is moving into public forum — a number of speakers are signed up to speak on police reform, CMPD's budget and upward mobility.

Former Mayor Jennifer Roberts urges #CLTCC to embrace restorative justice for Black residents, with a focus on Brooklyn.

"Many of you know the history of urban renewal in Charlotte in the '60s when Brooklyn Village was demolished. African Americans were robbed."

Mayor Vi Lyles says City Council has a closed session toward the end of tonight's meeting.

Switching gears to the city manager's report, starting with a COVID-19 update.

Fire Chief Reginald Johnson said 36 congregate living settings have active COVID-19 outbreaks in Mecklenburg.

The county had listed 33 as of last Wednesday.

Chief Robert Graham, deputy director of Emergency Management, says the Board of Elections has been added to the county's coronavirus policy group.

@BraxtonWinston asks about planning with the RNC and mass gatherings.

City Manager Marcus Jones says the discussion may be better suited for closed session. He says a public briefing on the RNC was planned for Aug. 10.

Winston on the RNC: "Since we are the only physical location, even though the speeches are not being planned for here, I'd imagine this is the only place to protest and things like that."

He's asking the city to "face the reality" of the RNC and the ongoing pandemic.

Switching gears to the City Council's ethics policy.

Background reading from @anniema15 and @fred_ckelly: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article244461977.html

City attorney Patrick Baker says he tries to steer elected officials through "ethical landmines."

Baker says he provided a review of the CARES money incident to council members. Baker says it's not his role to investigate council members — he'd seek an independent investigator.

Baker tells #CLTCC: "I think you should assume there will be an investigation of the subject matter coming forward. I believe that very soon a valid complaint will be in front of my desk."

Baker says at issue are "elected officials contracting with with the city or becoming involved with city contracts."

Baker says he spoke with #CLTCC member Tariq Bokhari to determine if there was a proposed contract with Carolina Fintech and the city. There wasn't, Baker says.

Baker said Bokhari's company would not derive income directly from the city's workforce development program.

Baker has reiterated conversations so far constituted a review, not an investigation.

Baker is parsing through language in the council's ethics policy.

"Not only can council members not have a direct benefit and directly contract with the city, they couldn't use a third-party intermediary to be a part of a particular city contract," he says in an interpretation.

Bakers says Charlotte's CARES money will go thru a third-party payroll manager, which goes directly to program participants.

"That appears to be where the money stops," Baker says. Bokhari or Carolina Fintech would not be directly compensated.

Baker says Bokhari could unilaterally choose to recuse himself from a vote on the CARES money.

City Council could also choose through a majority vote to excuse Bokhari from a vote on CARES funding, Baker says.

City Manager Marcus Jones: "It wasn't anything odd for Mr. Bokhari, who has a level of experience in fintech, to bounce ideas off the ED (economic development) team."

Assistant City Manager Tracy Dodson is on hand to discuss the council's task force process.

Dodson said "nothing" has moved forward with the initiative in about 30 days.

Jones says certain initiatives were paused, pending council involvement.

. @Watlington4CLT on the ethics policy: "I think we should be more prescriptive. If you're involved in any way in city business, you need to go speak to the city attorney."

She says there's room for interpretation in the policy's current language.

Baker: "I am taking a narrow view of what 'indirect' means...You are in the business of selling something that is going to get to the city through a third party is prohibited. That is where I have stopped on what indirect means."

This "indirect" provision come from a city policy — not from the state, Baker has reiterated.

Baker says the bottomline is whether Charlotte is effectivity contracting with or buying from a council member.

. @DimpleAjmera: "I just want to make this very clear that this is not personal."

She says this is a matter of public trust and stewardship of public dollars.

Jones: "I asked Council member Bokhari to work with the ED department to come up with a plan."

Jones tells @DimpleAjmera he did not ask Bokhari to "partner" with the city.

Dodson: "In early June, late May when Council kind of blessed the 'survive' initiative, we still had to build out all these initiatives."

Dodson says the economic development team was "transparent" with other recovery initiatives.

Ajmera said there were disclosure failures made by Bokhari and city staff.

Baker says he needs to be involved as soon as possible in possible ethics issues.

Ajmera asked Baker how he decided there was no conflict of interest.

Baker: "If a council member tells me they don't have a property interest in a matter that is being rezoned, then I'm going to take them at their word." Bokhari understood the "seriousness" of the matter.

Ajmera says there is still a transparency issue.

"There is clearly lack of transparency here. What I continue to hear is you don't have the whole picture of this transaction," Ajmera says.

Baker tells Ajmera: "I'm going to take you at your word for it. Again, I don't do investigations of my bosses."

Jones tells Ajmera: "The questions you raise are very, very good questions."

He says the task force had vetted some of those concerns earlier this month.

Ajmera asked why citizen concerns didn't warrant a complaint.

Baker: "This is a hyper-technical issue. That's why I'm giving you a forecast that you should expect a formal complaint coming shortly." Citizen emails weren't filed properly with the city clerk's office yet.

Ajmera tells the city manager: "We need to do more work here, more due diligence here."

On Dodson asking Bokhari for input on workforce development, Jones makes an analogy of possibly seeking expertise from @EdDriggsD7: "It wasn't inconsistent with what I do if we were doing a financial transaction and I talked to Council member Driggs."

Ajmera says she's talking about a partnership, not leveraging expertise.

Ajmera tells the city manager she's disappointed with how the situation was handled.

Driggs says City Council has a problem: "I don't believe that we could responsibly pass this tonight. I think we would all look bad in the midst of the questions that are being asked here."

He says Bokhari's involvement required "very public clarification upfront."

Driggs: "I think this whole thing need smore work. I think the work needs to be conducted under a bright light in public."

Driggs says he's also disappointed that this wasn't recognized as something that could be controversial earlier.

Council member Renee Johnson says the initiative's idea was "brilliant." But she says it was "never disclosed" that Bokhari would be a "provider" in the program.

Johnson directly asks Bokhari if he has more than 10% ownership in Carolina Fintech.

Bokhari: "I do not...It's a nonprofit organization."

Johnson says Baker would have put City Council in an "awkward position" if the city attorney had made conclusions without incorporating complete information.

Johnson: "I just find this a unique, extraordinary model, just having been around nonprofits for a while. Is there any other history where the city has gone through such extremes to pay participants, instead of relying on the vendor?"

Dodson says she's not aware of any such history, but she points out the city has never been through a pandemic like this before.

Johnson tells the city attorney she's concerned about the closed view he's taken with this issue.

Johnson says this matter with Carolina Fintech is "definitely an indirect benefit."

She says other organizations needed the opportunity to participate to achieve upward mobility.

Dodson: "We were not trying to do something that was unethical."

Dodson says that in her heart of hearts, this program was was in the best interest of the community.

Jones also says he doesn't think this program was unethical.

"I think we lost something there, with this desire to move very quickly," Jones says of CARES money and other city funds/criteria for disbursement.

Johnson pivots her questioning to Baker, asking if this was unethical or improper.

Baker: "I wouldn't use the word unethical, given the fact that we're having this conversation right now...I think everyone involved with this would do things differently."

Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt says there's historically a process, staff and culture issue of City Council members getting their questions answered.

Eiselt: "At its core, it's a good program, but the process was very flawed." The program should be sent back to committee, she says.

Eiselt says Council needs a full discussion on ethics policies and possible conflicts with officials.

@Jamesworks4CLT says task force members raised concerns in April about working with Carolina Fintech. Some said it "didn't look good."

. @Larken asks about other organizations that can accomplish some of the same job training goals beyond Carolina Fintech. Dodson says there are multiple providers.

Egleston says he wished more of this discussion had happened earlier in task force meetings.

Egleston says he hopes city staff has a plan B to help 90 people access job training amid the pandemic.

Egleston: "It's clear that a majority of this Council is not going to allow Carolina Fintech Hub" to partner with the city.

Bokhari: "We already have a cohort for 2020 running right now with 50 people in it." That's paid for by Carolina Fintech, he says.

The hub wouldn't have sufficient funds till Feb/March to launch another cohort, Bokhari says. And it would only serve about another 50-60 people.

But from a COVID-19 relief perspective, Bokhari says of a public-private partnership: "We wanted to help as many people as we could now. That required us to think differently on how it could be designed."

Bokhari says if the cohort is done through only a private partnership, participants wouldn't receive educational stipends.

. @MattNewtonfor5 tells Dodson: "We want to make sure those items are brought to our attention and no assumptions are made if we already know of a colleague's involvement in any organization."

Winston: "I will say the only surprise for me over these past couple of weeks was this is even a discussion among Council. I was paying attention to those task force meetings that were happening."

This is a question of governance, he says.

Mayor Lyles: "The consistency that we have to have with each other and our roles and responsibilities as Council members is absolutely important."

She says Council could be sending a message to the community that officials are not working together.

Lyles: "We are going to have to figure out how to speak with each and for each other."

The mayor says she's been fielding individual calls from council members on this. The blame can't solely be placed on coronavirus, she says.

Bokhari says the program was designed to ensure there was no conflict of interest.

"It was just the right thing to step up and try to help the needs of our workforce," he says of the Carolina Fintech's cohort.

Bokhari emphasizing economic mobility: "The stipends the city would be providing these participants is of critical importance."

"I really regret that this is happened. It's taken attention from what's most important," he says of the 90 people who may miss out on this program.