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238 Several of these projects have been controversial, but this Council has demonstrated its willingness to make difficult decisions when we judge them to be in the best interest of the city. City residents justifiably celebrate these accomplishments. But they are not parochial. They view their city as the commercial and cultural center of the region, but realize that Charlottesville draws great strength fi'om, and cannot exist independent of, a thriving Albemarle Count)'. They recognize that we all live in a region of wondrous beauty blessed with clean air and clean water, and that the protection of the natural environment and rural character of Albemarle is just as important to the viability of Charlottesville as the economic vitality of Charlottesville is to the County of Albemarle. Citizens from throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States view Charlottesville and Albemarle as one community. Though the city celebrates yesterday's story and picture in the New York Times magazine and Money. magazine's recent ranking of Charlottesville as the 15th Best Place to Live in the nation, the 5t;~ Best Small Place to Live, and Number 1 in Virginia, we recognize that the attractiveness of the county is one reason why Charlottesville enjoys such a great national reputation. We are interdependent communities, and any failure to support each other creates peril for us all. Deapite the multitude of differences present in our mutual jurisdictions, Charlottesville and Albemarle have maintained a higher level of cooperation than most places in l/~rginia. That is because the leadership of our jurisdictions have anticipatedj:uture problems, and addressed those problems before they became crises. Thirteen years ago, our region witnessed this vision in action in the passage of the unprecedented revenue sharing agreement. By that agreement, the city relinquished its right to annex county land in exchange for a sharing of revenue resulting from economic growth in our jurisdictions. Toda% our citizens look for us to exercise similar leadership, and challenge us to fulfill the promise of the revetme sharing agreement, by embracing its spitW of (and I quote from the agreemenO "a future filled with more cooperative measures, perhaps ultimately resulting in the combination of the two jurisdictions into one." As we alt know, the revenue sharing agreement also required that a committee be com, ened to "study the desirability ofcombining the gove~wments of the two jurisdictions, or some of the services presently provided by them." Although none of the present councilors or supervisors were involved in the subsequent discussions that occurred, I think we wouM all agree that the talks in the mid-1980's did not go as far as many had hoped More recently, the "Blue Ribbon" Commission on Efficient Government, a group of city and county business and civic leaders, called on Charlottesville and Albemarle to renew serious discussions on additional ways to cooperate and consolidate services. Make no mistake about it fi:we are here this evening because a citizens group is gathering signatures on a petition that could force Charlottesville reversion to town status and thereby bring about a partial consolidation of city and county governments. Although we may not agree with their analysis of the present condition of the city, these citizens have raised critical issues that require clear answers ~f the region is to continue its history of prosperity. The City Council tonight did not come to debate the pros and cons of reversion; we seek instead to explore with you now fi: in good faith fi: other options that may accomplish mutual goals. It is our hope that our governing bodies will ident~f); city and community problems and their sources, and explore a variety of options for jointly solving them. At the very least, we need to discuss the following 3 problems: (1) The city has shouldered a greater burden in housing, educating and servicing the region's poor, thereby exerting greater demands upon the fiscal resources of the city, bringing more difficult challenges in education, creating pockets of poverty, and causing concern about the tong-term financial viability of the city.